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[ "Picture a frat party that knows no borders -- and you've met the target audience of Trader Monthly, a new men's magazine." ]

[ "In a new book, two journalists show how America’s big spenders are dispersing their mountains of dough.", "Da bears. Da bulls. Da traders. Chicago is the \"greatest trading city in the world\" according to a survey by Trader Monthly magazine.", "Huckabee's southern surge means the two man race Romney hoped for still hasn't materialized. That leaves the GOP's big spender with dwindling options", "To woo business from Fidelity Investments traders, a New York brokerage firm showered them with pricey gifts such as private vacations and golf outings, tickets to a Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera concert, parties at the 2004 Super Bowl in Houston sponsored by Playboy and Maxim magazines, and a dozen bottles of Chateau Petrus wine worth $625 apiece.", "Big spenders and budget conscious teams start level in the major league's second season that begins Tuesday with eight playoff teams battling to advance to the World Series.", "The debonair jazz pianist and composer of such legendary Broadway tunes as \"Witchcraft,\" \"Big Spender,\" and \"The Best is Yet to Come,\" died on Thursday night.", "Forbes has spent nearly a century covering businessmen clad in Brooks Brothers shirts and gray flannel suits. Now the magazine empire is aiming at executives who prefer Prada skirt suits and Balenciaga pumps.", "Impressionist art still brings out the big spenders, but a successful auction at Christie's on Wednesday pulled in $92.5 million and showed that contemporary art sales are where the action.", "A growing market of magazines that is tapping into an underserved market is also presenting an alternative image of beauty.", "Investor's Business Daily - Cell phone makers would be remiss to neglect the big spenders in developing countries who are willing to shell out for pricey cell phones.", "Read all about it in PDF A new online newsagent is hoping to galvanise the Irish publishing market by selling magazines online.…", "The new magazine for investment bankers, called Dealmaker, will make its debut in the U.S. in November and in Europe next spring.", "Sport: Jose Mourinho has put the pressure on big spenders Liverpool and Man Utd by claiming he doesn't need to bolster his squad to win the league.", "SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- The magazine known for evaluating cars and electronics is setting its sights on finding the best value and quality of prescription drugs on the market.", "A niche British fashion and style magazine is jumping on the user-generated content bandwagon, dedicating an entire upcoming issue to outside contributions in partnership with MySpace.com.", "December 20, 2004 -- Clothes, waistlines, home decorating tips - didn't these used to be men's magazines. The industry's big boys finish the year much the way they started it, on an unrelenting quest to", "Is the newspaper publisher's interest in the online magazine a stab at building a pay product?", "Not long ago, fax machines and e-mail inboxes at Vogue, the world's premier fashion magazine, were briefly assaulted with thousands of angry letters. Not about the latest gorgeously photographed fashion trends or beauty products in its influential pages, but about a single, colorful ad: for Camel No. 9 cigarettes.", "Cigar Aficionado, the glossy magazine for lovers of expensive cigars, criticized the U.S. Treasury Department for continuing to spend federal funds chasing people for buying Cuban cigars.", "Suse Linux Enterprise Real-Time is aimed at financial traders and others who watch every microsecond of the clock.", "As a preview of their upcoming issue, PHP Magazine has posted information about an article - Making Money Online with PHP.", "Media & professional: Online audio version of weekly magazine aims to meet needs of subscribers with no time to read.", "Pursuits, a glossy monthly magazine about the lifestyles of the rich, will be released next year in hopes of drawing more ads for expensive consumer goods.", "Who is the new chef/host/spender in town?", "Who's afraid of a little risk? Certainly not the swashbuckling executive cowboys lionized on the cover of business magazines for galloping hard and throwing caution to the wind.", "FOR the City trader who has a bonus to spendbut already owns a full complement of overseas homes and fast cars there is a new must- have accessory a ticket into space.", "Composer Cy Coleman, who wrote the musical \"Sweet Charity\" and whose songs included such Frank Sinatra classics as \"Witchcraft,\" \"Big Spender\" and \"The Best is Yet to Come,\" has died at the age 75, associates said on Friday.", "The retailer does a little gold digging, aiming at affluent customers with a new fashion collection.", "Lenny Dykstra, a former baseball star, is launching The Players Club, a magazine aimed at helping players manage their millions.", "Hundreds of millions of dollars in private U.S. donations are pouring in to help victims of Asia's tsunami, from children donating pocket money to big spenders giving seven-figure sums, said aid groups on Monday.", "Experienced traders say the commodity markets are full of young hotshots who see risk as a mere speed bump, until they lose big.", "Consumer Reports magazine, best known for comparing the prices and performance of cars, televisions and washing machines, is adding drugs to its coverage to help Americans save money on their health care." ]

[ "Thomas Doubleday" ]

[ "The Who's Tommy", "Dr. Who", "Who You Are", "Who's That Girl", "Who We Are" ]

[ "The following coalitions are expected to do well in the Iraqi elections Sunday." ]

[ "Poor watch lists and a centralized architecture are still issues.", "A Web site commissioned by the TSA to help travelers whose names were erroneously listed on airline watch lists had security issues, a Congressional report says.", "LOS ANGELES - The Lakers' Phil Jackson will pass late Celtics legend Red Auerbach on the all-time coaching wins list. But it didn't happen on the Celtics' watch.", "counting carbs, watching kilos, and keeping an uneasy eye on the growing list of health problems linked with obesity. But it's not just the number", "The singer, who adopted the Muslim name Yusuf Islam in 1977, was denied entry to the United States on Tuesday when his name was found on an anti-terrorist watch list.", "Comcast launched a one-stop movie-television hub where viewers can watch 3,000 hours of TV, movie trailers and short videos, check show listings.", "PNC Financial Services says the luxury cars and vintage watch would cost you just as much as all the gifts listed in the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas.", "Macon has been taken off the Moody's Investors Service "watch list" and the city's rating will stay the same for now.", "Famous folk singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, returned to the UK yesterday after being deported from the US because his name appears on a terrorist watch list.", "The hedge fund run by activist investor William Ackman said on Monday it now owns a 9.6 percent stake in Target Corp , adding the discount retailer to its small list of closely watched investments.", "Before the last of Ralph Reed's campaign signs were stripped from the swank hotel where he watched his election collapse, his supporters huddled in small circles to quietly discuss his political future.", "A government Web site designed to help travelers remove their names from aviation watch lists was so riddled with security holes that hackers could easily have stolen personal information from scores of passengers, a congressional report concluded yesterday.", "Yusuf Islam, who scored several Top Ten hits in the Seventies as Cat Stevens before leaving the business to devote himself to Islam, was denied entry into the US yesterday, because his name was on several border protection watch lists.", "Federal agents hauled the former pop singer and convert to Islam off a Washington-bound plane after diverting it to Maine yesterday, and plan to boot him out of the country today because he turned up on a US watch list." ]

[ "CLEVELAND, Ohio - A wind-energy startup founded by Case Western Reserve University students is competing Feb. 8 in Chicago for the $50,000 Cleantech University Prize, a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored contest that CWRU teams won in 2015 and 2017.\n\"Boundary Labs,\" founded by third-year student Prince Ghosh, has developed an innovative plasma technology that reduces aerodynamic drag on wind turbine blades and could make wind power more affordable and reliable. Ghosh, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major, is founder and CEO of Boundary Labs.\nGhosh said they have come up with a \"dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator\" that is flexible enough to wrap around a wind turbine blade or airplane wing to reduce turbulence and increase efficiency.\n\"Even more than the money, a big part of what we're hoping to get out of the competition are contacts with experts from the wind energy and aerospace industries,\" Ghosh said. \"While our primary target industry right now is wind, we're also really excited about exploring the potential application of our technology to the aerospace, water purification, and materials processing industries as well, and we're looking for industry partners in each of these to work with.\"\nThe other CWRU students on the team are: chief data scientist Lucas Fridman, a third-year student in chemical engineering and applied data science; chief engineer Amit Verma, a graduate student in materials science and engineering; chief operating officer Alejandro Owen, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, and chief financial officer Nihar Chhatiawala, a graduate student in physics and entrepreneurship.\nThe five students met during a Great Lakes Energy Institute ThinkEnergy Fellowship at CWRU last spring and discovered a shared passion for clean energy research and entrepreneurship. They also took part in a National Science Foundation-funded program at the University of Akron designed to help them find a commercial market for what they've developed.\nBoundary Labs is one of eight Midwestern finalists in the clean-energy competition, themed \"Switched On: Student Innovations in Cleantech,\" and will pitch their ideas against students from: Iowa State University, Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Chicago, University of Kentucky, and University of Minnesota. The top three teams will advance to the national competition in June and the chance to win another $100,000 in prizes.\nCWRU student Felipe Gomez del Campo of FGC Plasma Solutions won the Midwest Cleantech University Prize in 2015. Last year, CWRU third-year Pavel Galchenko and his childhood best friend Yohann Samarasinghe from RVS Rubber Solutions won the regional contest and went on to compete at an invitation-only business competition at Singapore Management University." ]

[ "LOS ANGELES, April 23, 2018 -- sonnen, the global market leader in intelligent residential energy storage, announced today that Ani Backa, former attorney and government affairs manager for Xcel Energy, has joined sonnen as U.S. Director of Regulatory Strategy and Utility Initiatives.\nMore Headlines Articles\nAni's responsibilities at sonnen will include working directly with regulatory bodies and utilities across the country to promote the implementation and expansion of the sonnenCommunity model and help drive innovative electricity services that connect clean, decentralized energy. In this role, she will foster strategic partnerships with developers and stakeholders committed to the deployment of residential battery storage and sonnenCommunity projects across the U.S. and in other key regions around the world.\"As an outspoken champion of the transition to clean energy, Ani shares sonnen's mission of delivering clean and reliable energy for all, specifically by promoting the benefits of distributed energy storage resources and VPP innovations,\" said Blake Richetta, Senior Vice President and leader of the Company's U.S. presence. \"With an impressive career as a lawyer in the energy field and as a significant player in the utility space at Xcel Energy, Ani will be a key asset in promoting energy storage regulation. This will support the success of sonnen's partnerships in implementing VPP technology for sonnenCommunity projects, such as the Mandalay Homes Jasper Community. Under her leadership and continued work with local regulatory and utility partners, we will further sonnen's foothold as the premier energy storage provider in the United States.\"With deep knowledge of micro and macro energy market trends and breakthrough technological platforms, this new role combines Ani's extensive experience in energy with sonnen's worldwide leadership in home energy management. Her experience in the regulatory space will support sonnen's efforts in working with utilities as the company continues to successfully deploy VPP initiatives, and bolster existing grid infrastructure to create more clean, resilient and reliable energy communities throughout the U.S. To this end, sonnen will demonstrate to its partners a continued commitment to end-users at all stages of the process with unparalleled customer support.\"I am thrilled to join sonnen at such an exciting and transformative time in the residential energy storage market,\" said Ani Backa, U.S. Director of Regulatory Strategy and Utility Initiatives at sonnen. \"Grid modernization is the key to a sustainable energy future for citizens around the world. sonnen's continued innovation and commitment to grid integration will play a pivotal role in helping utilities increase the flexibility of their existing grid infrastructure, while better managing distributed renewable resources. I look forward to working with my colleagues in Europe, Australia and South America to drive sonnen's growth through strategic partnerships with energy and utility providers, with the overarching goal of advancing the customer experience.\"About sonnenAt sonnen, we believe clean, affordable, and reliable energy for all is one of the greatest challenges of our time. sonnen is a proven global leader in intelligent energy management solutions that provide greater energy control for residential customers through increased solar self-consumption, reduced peak energy usage and reliable backup power during outages - contributing to a cleaner and more reliable energy future. sonnen has won several awards for its energy innovations, including the 2018 Fast Company Most Innovative Companies in Energy, 2017 Zayed Future Energy Prize, MIT's Technology Review's 50 Smartest Companies in 2016, Global Cleantech 100 for 2015-2017, Greentech Media's 2016 Grid Edge Award for innovation, and Cleantech's 2015 Company of the Year Award in both Israel and Europe.", "Entrepreneurs and investors share their tips on how to get cash to fund a new business.\nIt is easier than ever, or so it seems, to open a new business, especially an ecommerce or tech business. But getting money to fund your startup, especially with so many new businesses competing for the same pool of seed money, can be tough. So which methods, or sources, are the most likely to get or give you the money you need to grow your business? Following are nine of the best, according to entrepreneurs and investors.\n[ Related: 8 keys to ecommerce success ]\n1. Start saving/Bootstrap.\n“My top tip for raising money is: use your own money first,” says Brandon Ackroyd, director, TigerMobiles, who has invested in a number of companies as an angel investor. “Far too many startups expect others to invest when they've injected zero of their own money into a business.”\nThat doesn’t necessarily mean selling your home or hocking your car, but if you are serious about your business and plan on approaching investors at some point, you need to invest your own money first. So it’s important to start saving early.\n“I want to see founders who have the confidence to put their money where their mouth is,” he says. “Sweat equity is all well and good, but if you don't know how to bootstrap and keep costs to a minimum, you're going to turn off a lot of serious investors.”\n2. Join an accelerator, incubator or mentoring program.\n“First time tech or ecommerce founders can realize enormous benefits by joining an accelerator, incubator or business mentoring program,” says Ron Flavin, a funding specialist. Tech-focused startup accelerators (e.g., Cleantech Open) can be found in nearly every state, and a growing number of cities are also home to startup incubators. There are even online accelerators.”\nAn additional advantage of joining an accelerator, incubator or mentoring program is that “these programs provide tech and ecommerce founders with access to valuable tools, resources, connections and expertise that can help them place their startups in a strong position to get funded,” he continues. And “there are also several excellent no-cost mentoring programs (e.g., BusinessAdvising.org) that provide expert guidance that help founders build a strong, fundable business model.”\n3. Use crowdfunding.\n“The best way for a new tech company to raise funds for their startup is crowdfunding,” says Tamar Huggins, a serial entrepreneur. “Crowdfunding allows the startup to have more financial freedom (when compared to VC and other investor funds). It immediately validates or invalidates the need the company is trying to solve. And crowdfunding can be an impactful marketing tool when used correctly.”\nTop crowdfunding sites include Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe. There is also StartEngine.\n“StartEngine is an equity crowdfunding platform that allows companies to raise capital from the crowd by exchanging equity in return,” explains Howard Marks, founder, StartEngline. “With the recent passing of the JOBS Act, the opportunity to invest, which was originally reserved for accredited investors, is now open to [everyone]. Moreover, companies can raise up to $50 million within a 12-month period.”\n[ Related: 6 ecommerce categories that will take off in 2017 ]\n4. Take pre-orders.\n“Pre-orders can bring cash in before you make or distribute a product, and help you plan production,” says Andrew Haller, founder & co-CEO, AirDev. “Tesla built a wait list of nearly 200,000 customers just a day after announcing the Model 3, [with] each [paying] a deposit of $1,000 toward their purchase.”\n5. Enter a pitch contest.\n“Entering a [pitch] competition [is] a great way to connect to the right people and secure funding for [your] startup,” says Sagi Gidali, cofounder & CPO, SaferVPN. “While we were in university, my cofounder and I entered the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition. At the time we were seeking seed funding. We won second place and afterwards received many inquiries from potential VCs and investors. In the end, we built a long-term relationship with one of them, and this relationship led us to establish the company we have today, which is very successful, profitable and sustainable.”\nJoin the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.", "It is easier than ever, or so it seems, to open a new business, especially an ecommerce or tech business. But getting money to fund your startup, especially with so many new businesses competing for the same pool of seed money, can be tough. So which methods, or sources, are the most likely to get or give you the money you need to grow your business? Following are nine of the best, according to entrepreneurs and investors.\n[ Related: 8 keys to ecommerce success ]\n1. Start saving/Bootstrap.\n“My top tip for raising money is: use your own money first,” says Brandon Ackroyd, director, TigerMobiles, who has invested in a number of companies as an angel investor. “Far too many startups expect others to invest when they've injected zero of their own money into a business.”\nThat doesn’t necessarily mean selling your home or hocking your car, but if you are serious about your business and plan on approaching investors at some point, you need to invest your own money first. So it’s important to start saving early.\n“I want to see founders who have the confidence to put their money where their mouth is,” he says. “Sweat equity is all well and good, but if you don't know how to bootstrap and keep costs to a minimum, you're going to turn off a lot of serious investors.”\n2. Join an accelerator, incubator or mentoring program.\n“First time tech or ecommerce founders can realize enormous benefits by joining an accelerator, incubator or business mentoring program,” says Ron Flavin, a funding specialist. Tech-focused startup accelerators (e.g., Cleantech Open) can be found in nearly every state, and a growing number of cities are also home to startup incubators. There are even online accelerators.”\nAn additional advantage of joining an accelerator, incubator or mentoring program is that “these programs provide tech and ecommerce founders with access to valuable tools, resources, connections and expertise that can help them place their startups in a strong position to get funded,” he continues. And “there are also several excellent no-cost mentoring programs (e.g., BusinessAdvising.org) that provide expert guidance that help founders build a strong, fundable business model.”\n3. Use crowdfunding.\n“The best way for a new tech company to raise funds for their startup is crowdfunding,” says Tamar Huggins, a serial entrepreneur. “Crowdfunding allows the startup to have more financial freedom (when compared to VC and other investor funds). It immediately validates or invalidates the need the company is trying to solve. And crowdfunding can be an impactful marketing tool when used correctly.”\nTop crowdfunding sites include Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe. There is also StartEngine.\n“StartEngine is an equity crowdfunding platform that allows companies to raise capital from the crowd by exchanging equity in return,” explains Howard Marks, founder, StartEngline. “With the recent passing of the JOBS Act, the opportunity to invest, which was originally reserved for accredited investors, is now open to [everyone]. Moreover, companies can raise up to $50 million within a 12-month period.”\n[ Related: 6 ecommerce categories that will take off in 2017 ]\n4. Take pre-orders.\n“Pre-orders can bring cash in before you make or distribute a product, and help you plan production,” says Andrew Haller, founder & co-CEO, AirDev. “Tesla built a wait list of nearly 200,000 customers just a day after announcing the Model 3, [with] each [paying] a deposit of $1,000 toward their purchase.”\n5. Enter a pitch contest.\n“Entering a [pitch] competition [is] a great way to connect to the right people and secure funding for [your] startup,” says Sagi Gidali, cofounder & CPO, SaferVPN. “While we were in university, my cofounder and I entered the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition. At the time we were seeking seed funding. We won second place and afterwards received many inquiries from potential VCs and investors. In the end, we built a long-term relationship with one of them, and this relationship led us to establish the company we have today, which is very successful, profitable and sustainable.”", "Newswise — Surfers aren’t the only people trying to catch big waves. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are trying to do so, too, at least in wave climate forecasts.\nUsing decades of global climate data generated at a spatial resolution of about 25 kilometers squared, researchers were able to capture the formation of tropical cyclones, also referred to as hurricanes and typhoons, and the extreme waves that they generate. Those same models, when run at resolutions of about 100 kilometers, missed the tropical cyclones and the big waves up to 30 meters high.\nTheir findings, published in the Feb. 16 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, demonstrate the importance of running climate models at higher resolution. Better predictions of how often extreme waves will hit are important for coastal cities, the military, and industries that rely upon shipping and offshore oil platforms. And, of course, for surfers.\n\"It's well known that to study tropical cyclones using simulations, the models need to be run at high resolution,\" said study lead author and postdoctoral fellow Ben Timmermans. \"The majority of existing models used to study the global climate are run at resolutions that are insufficient to predict tropical cyclones. The simulations in our study are the first long-duration global data sets to use a resolution of 25 kilometers. It's also the first time a study has specifically examined the impact of resolution increase for ocean waves at a global climatological scale.\"\nThe other authors on this study are Dáithί Stone, Michael Wehner, and Harinarayan Krishnan. All authors are scientists in Berkeley Lab's Computational Research Division (CRD).\nZooming in to detect hurricanes\nClimate models work by simulating the exchange of air, water, and energy between the grid “boxes.” In today's state-of-the-art climate models, these boxes are typically 100 to 200 kilometers wide. That level of detail is good enough to catch the formation and movement of midlatitude storms, the researchers said, because such systems tend to be quite large.\nIn contrast, tropical cyclones tend to cover a smaller area. While the overall footprint of a hurricane can be broad, the eye of a hurricane can be very compact and well defined, the researchers noted.\n“The problem with that 100-kilometer resolution is that it misses key details of the hurricanes and tropical cyclones, which are clearly relevant to the generation of extreme waves,” said Stone. \"But going to a 25-kilometer resolution data set is computationally challenging. It requires 64 times more computational resources than a 100-kilometer simulation.\"\nThe study relied upon the data-crunching power of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a scientific computing user facility funded by the DOE Office of Science and based at Berkeley Lab.\nThe researchers ran the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5) climate model with data collected in three-hour increments at a low resolution of 100 kilometers and at a high resolution of 25kilometers. They found that the high-resolution simulations included tropical cyclones where the low-resolution ones did not.\nCrunching data to catch big waves\nTo see if the cyclones had an effect on waves, they then ran global wave models at both resolutions. They saw extreme waves in the high-resolution model that did not appear in the low-resolution ones.\n\"Hurricanes are tricky things to model,\" said Stone. \"We've shown the importance of using a high-resolution data set for producing hurricanes. But the characteristics of hurricanes could change with the climate. People are making projections of changes in ocean waves in a future, warmer world. It's not clear if the 25-kilometer resolution is sufficient for capturing all of the processes involved in the development of a hurricane. But we do know that it’s better than 100 kilometers.\"\nWhile additional high-resolution simulations of the future are on the way, the researchers were able to take a first look at possible conditions at the end of the 21st century. Wehner noted that the biggest waves in Hawaii are projected to be substantially larger in a much warmer future world.\nThe researchers added that this study only looked at averages of wind-generated waves. One-off “rogue” or “freak” waves cannot be reproduced in these kinds of models, and large waves such as tsunamis are very different since they are caused by seismological activity, not the wind.\nThe data from this study will be made freely available for use by the wider scientific community.\n\"In the same way that weather patterns are part of the climate, ocean wave patterns are also part of the 'wave' climate,\" said Timmermans. \"Ocean waves are relevant to the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere, which affects the planet's climate as a whole.\"\nThis work was supported by DOE’s Office of Science.\n###\nLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.\nDOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.\nSEE ORIGINAL STUDY", "Here are your morning headlines for Monday, December 11th:\nLawmakers push back on excessive license suspensions;\nWind farm developer seeks to relax setback rules;\nState health officials report higher flu hospitalizations;\nSupporters of Great Lakes conservation seek stronger defense against invasive Asian carp;\nWoman who shot and dismembered husband is arrested;\nCWRU's Barbara Snyder ranked as Ohio's highest paid private university president;\nMonitoring of water wells continues after Rover Pipeline spill;\nCanton considers cable cars to link Hall of Fame Village with downtown;\nLawmakers push back on excessive license suspensions\nOhio lawmakers have accused the state of using driver's license suspensions as an arbitrary punishment for offenses unrelated to driving while burying people under a pile of fees and fines. The state Legislature is considering multiple bills that could reinstate limited privileges for some suspended drivers and help people avoid steep license reinstatement fees. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles says 1.1 million people had their licenses suspended last year — or almost 12 percent of the state's driving-age population. Reasons for licenses suspensions include skipping a court date, failing to pay child support and dropping out of high school. State Representatives Jim Butler and Emilia Sykes have introduced a bill that would allow drivers suspended for non-driving violations to drive to work, school and appointments such as doctor's visits. Democratic state Sen. Sandra Williams has introduced a bill that would allow judges to assign community service in lieu of reinstatement fees.\nWind farm developer seeks to relax setback rules\nA company planning to develop a wind farm in two rural Ohio counties says it won't build the $92 million project unless the state Legislature eases setback rules. The Blade reports Charlottesville, Va.-based Apex Clean Energy says plans to develop a 66-turbine wind farm across Seneca and Sandusky counties are contingent on the relaxation of rules designed to protect nearby property owners from noise and vibration. Current setback rules went into effect in 2014 after the Republican-led Legislature placed a two-year freeze on renewable energy mandates for power companies. The freeze expired last year, but legislation to ease setback rules remain in place. An effort to ease the rules has stalled in the Legislature. Apex wants to build five wind farms across northern Ohio at a cost of $2.6 billion.\nState health officials report higher flu hospitalizations\nThe state says Ohio flu hospitalizations are higher than usual and much worse than a year ago. The Ohio Department of Health says the state saw 92 flu-related hospitalizations during the week that ended Dec. 2 and has seen 257 hospitalizations overall since the flu season began. The agency says those numbers are above the five-year average for December and higher than last year, which saw 19 flu-related hospitalizations during the same week. The state and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say everyone 6 months and older should get a flu shot.\nEnvironmentalists seek stronger defense against invasive Asian carp in Great Lakes\nMembers of Congress and Great Lakes advocacy groups are pressing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to strengthen defenses against Asian carp at a crucial choke point. The Corps is considering a $275 million plan to bolster the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Illinois, with devices such as water jets and noisemakers to prevent the invasive fish from migrating from the Illinois River to Lake Michigan. Environmental groups submitted 10,000 citizen letters supporting the plan Friday, the deadline for a public comment period. About 50 sporting and conservation organizations also endorsed it. More than two dozen U.S. House members signed a letter urging the Corps to install the protections faster than the eight-year timeframe currently proposed.\nWoman accused of shooting and dismembering husband's body\nA Summit County woman has been arrested after her husband’s remains were discovered in their Coventry Township home. Marcia Eubank, 49, is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Howard Eubank, 54. Channel 5 reports Marcia shot Howard in June and lived with his dismembered body at their home. The remains were found after someone called the Summit County Sheriff's Office on Saturday.\nCWRU's Barbara Snyder ranked as Ohio's highest paid private university president\nThe president of Case Western Reserve University ranks as the highest paid leader of a private college in Ohio. The latest compensation report from the Chronicle of Higher Education shows in 2015 President Barbara Snyder’s base pay plus bonuses totaled more than $1 million. Snyder ranked 41st out of more than 500 presidents of private colleges included in the report. She’s among 58 presidents who earn $1 million or more. The report used the latest available federal tax documents for its analysis.\nMonitoring of water wells continues after Rover Pipeline spill\nThe Ohio EPA says it’s continuing to monitor water wells nearly eight months after the Rover Pipeline dumped diesel-contaminated waste into nearby quarries. Rover has been cited for 19 violations since the project began in early March. The wells are used by Aqua Ohio, the Canton Water Department and private residents. EPA officials say none of the slurry has seeped into the wells. The last water sample from October shows the water is not contaminated. Rover is required to check water quality every 90 days for one year.\nCanton considers cable cars to link Hall of Fame Village with downtown\nThe city of Canton is considering adding cable cars to its planned Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village. The Repository reports a Cleveland-based company called SkyLift is partnering with Canton’s planning office to develop the concept. The cable cars would use augmented reality to add virtual elements to the surrounding scenery. The cars would run on a 3-mile route suspended up to 80 feet off the ground. The city is hoping to get a $25,000 grant to study whether or not the project would be possible in Canton. The city’s planning director says sponsorship or naming rights could be used to pay for the cable cars.", "It’s not every day a Dalhousie professor is awarded with a high honour, but in Jeff Dahn’s case, he has made his mark once again.\nProfessor Dahn, a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Atmospheric Sciences won the Herzberg Medal, including a $1 million prize. The award is presented annually by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).\n“I was very happy to learn I won,” said Dahn.\nThe former Dalhousie alumni-turned-professor is a leader in energy research, mainly pertaining to lithium-ion batteries used in most electronic devices. Technology used worldwide such as cellphones and laptops rely on power from lithium-ion batteries.\n“If you want to have good electricity, lowering the cost of lithium-ion batteries and increasing its lifetime is important,” said Dahn.\nDalhousie University and Tesla are currently in a five-year partnership with the NSERC for which Dahn sits as the chair. The NSERC contributes 50 percent of funding and Tesla contributes the other half towards research.\n“We’ve been working with Tesla now for six months, and have found useful things which I hope will be incorporated in Tesla products going forward – that’s the goal,” said Dahn.\nDahn explains there are plenty of opportunities for students to get involved in energy research at the university. Groups in the engineering department do battery related research.\n“My advice for students wishing to get into research is to take the appropriate undergrad courses and develop a passion, and read widely,” said Dahn.\nSimon Maranda is an exchange student writing his master’s thesis at the Laboratory of Applied Multiphase Thermal Engineering, led by Dr. Groulx. He is an exchange student at Dalhousie from the Lucerne University in Switzerland, where he works in the thermal energy storage research group.\nMaranda explains since renewable energy is produced from weather patterns, energy storage systems such as battery or thermal storage units will become a key component to technology in the future.\n“In the future we will have a lot more renewable energy being the top energy resource,” said Maranda.\n“Tesla makes energy products used to store power generated from the sun and wind – their main focuses are cars and energy storage,” Dahn explains.\nThis award will be added to the numerous awards he has been given for his energy research including the Inaugural Governor General’s Award last year.\nAs for the one million dollar prize, Dahn says he plans to use it wisely.", "Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland-based biotechnology company Haima Therapeutics LLC have signed a two-year option to license a technology to prevent and treat bleeding complications from trauma, low platelet counts and surgery, according to a news release.\nThe agreement, managed through CWRU's Technology Transfer Office, will allow for pre-clinical testing of the hemostatic nanotechnology, called SynthoPlate. This includes safety profiling and feasibility of scaled up manufacturing.\nAt least 2 million units of platelets are transfused annually in the United States, and can suffer from many issues, such as limited supply, short shelf life, minimal portability, the need for blood typing/matching and potentially severe biologic side effects.\nTo address these issues, Anirban Sen Gupta, a professor in CWRU's Department of Biomedical Engineering, has worked to develop synthetic nanoparticles that can mimic platelets' abilities to clot at the site of a bleeding injury, according to the release.\nInjected intravenously, these nanoparticles can potentially act as a surrogate to prevent or treat bleeding when natural platelet products are unavailable. They could reduce the need for donor platelet transfusion, according to the release.\n\"Outside of large blood banks and trauma centers, platelet products are rarely available. It is an even bigger challenge to get donor platelets to our military in the field where heavy bleeding injuries are frequent,\" Sen Gupta said in a prepared statement. \"Our nanoparticle technology can be used in civilian and military scenarios of traumatic non-compressible bleeding where donor platelets are not readily available. This has been the motivation behind the research on platelet surrogates in my laboratory, and SynthoPlate is a technology that stemmed from it.\"\nLab testing and proof-of-concept studies in small and large animals have been funded by the Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership, Council to Advance Human Health, Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation and Start-up Fund and the National Institutes of Health's Center for Accelerated Innovation, according to the release. Additional studies evaluating hemostatic effect and safety are ongoing in trauma models and are funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.\n\"We are excited to work with Dr. Sen Gupta to advance this highly promising technology toward the clinic,\" said Christa Pawlowski, co-founder and chief scientific officer at Haima Therapeutics, in a prepared statement. \"Our goal is to provide a product that can address the real, unmet needs of patients with bleeding complications.\"", "As GaN Systems’ gallium nitride transistors revolutionize the power electronics market, the company’s funding partners are being recognized for their investment success. After releasing its 8th annual Global Cleantech 100 list, Cleantech Group (CTG) has awarded GaN Systems investor, Crysalix Venture Capital, the 2017 Financial Investor of the Year Award. The Global Cleantech 100 is a peer-reviewed list of the top private companies involved in innovative clean technology, and that have the greatest potential to impact the future of a wide range of industries within a 5-10 year timeframe. In a parallel development, in its 2016 “Year in Review” report, the CVCA (Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association) reported that GaN Systems’ funding partner, Cycle Capital Management, was recognized for being the most active cleantech venture capital firm in Canada in 2016. Additionally, Cycle Capital was Canada’s 2nd most active independent private venture capital firm, consummating 29 deals and investing at total investment of $132M. According to the CVCA report, Canadian cleantech investments for 2016 experienced a 200% increase over the previous year.\nChrysalix Venture Capital was selected from a field of over 11,000 peer-reviewed nominees. They were chosen for having the highest percentage – in excess of 60% – of their qualifying portfolio companies on the 2017 Global Cleantech 100 list. Chrysalix Venture Capital is a technology-focused investment firm that invests in companies that bring disruptive innovation to the world’s largest industries. GaN Systems, a developer of gallium nitride power switching semiconductors, is one of seven such companies in the investment firm’s portfolio that are also included in the Global Cleantech 100 list.\nAs stated by Chrysalix President and CEO, Wal van Lierop, “We are honored to be recognized as the Financial Investor of the Year at this year’s Global Cleantech 100. This award is a great endorsement of our portfolio and validation of Chrysalix’s strategy of targeting breakthrough industrial innovations leveraging intelligent systems and components, which we pioneered in our last fund and have made the central focus of our new Chrysalix RoboValley Fund.”\nCycle Capital invests in cleantech entrepreneurial companies that are dedicated to fostering a sustainable future and that produce more with less. Commenting on how GaN Systems fits into its portfolio, Cycle Capital’s Founder and Managing Partner Andrée-Lise Méthot said, “We’re happy to share these results with our portfolio companies because it’s by investing in globally competitive companies led by great entrepreneurial teams like GaN Systems that we become the leader of the cleantech investment in Canada.”\n“GaN Systems is proud to be a member of Chrysalix Venture Capital’s portfolio of leading-edge technology companies,” remarked GaN Systems CEO, Jim Witham. “We congratulate our funding partner on being recognized for their forward-thinking, and for winning this well-deserved and highly prestigious award.” Mr. Witham went on to congratulate Cycle Capital, “We’re extremely proud to be a member of the Cycle Capital portfolio of companies who are at the vanguard of the cleantech revolution. By investing in GaN Systems, together we are helping to reduce the world’s exploding demand for more energy, while simultaneously enabling our customers with solutions that give them a competitive advantage.”", "The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Connected Systems Institute is receiving $900,000 from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to help the project get off the ground.\nThe grant puts the new institute on a similar level to industry clusters around water technology, energy and power controls, food and beverage and aerospace, where WEDC has made or plans to make similar investments in centers of excellence.\nUWM is planning to dedicate 3,000 square feet in the east wing of the Golda Meir Library to the new center aimed at helping manufacturers take advantage of Industrial Internet of Things technology. The space could expand by another 10,000 square feet in the future.\nThe Industrial Internet of Things incorporates sensors and computing devices to help companies improve efficiency, reliability and lower costs.\n“Companies in Wisconsin really need help in this area,” said Adel Nasiri, associate dean for research and a professor in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science. “The Connected Systems Institute will serve as a central point where industry representatives and scholars can collaborate on IIoT technologies.”\nThe center will feature a simulation lab that allows companies to test end-to-end production solutions and supporters describe it as the first large-scale public-private partnership in the U.S. to connect industry, academic institutions, government and nonprofits in the industry.\n“We are excited to be on the forefront of this emerging technology that will be essential to businesses across the state,” said UWM chancellor Mark Mone. “I am grateful to WEDC for recognizing how critical this project is to the health of Wisconsin’s manufacturing industry and for having the confidence in UWM to lead the way.”\nThe funding will go towards educational, research and test bed application lab costs. The grant is similar to funding WEDC offered to the Global Water Center and the Energy Innovation Center. The agency also supports annual startup programs run by The Water Council and the Mid-West Energy Research Consortium.\nMark Maley, a WEDC spokesman, said there’s a possibility WEDC could provide similar funding to the Connected Systems Institute in the future if it develops programing that would benefit from WEDC support.\nThe university began planning the Connected Systems Institute in January 2016 after a meeting with Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella, a UWM graduate.\nMicrosoft will be a partner in the development of the center, but the company and university officials are continuing to finalize the details of that arraignment, according to Michelle Johnson, a UWM spokeswoman.\nJohnson said the university is also in talks with a number of companies about potential support for the center, but she added those agreements are yet to be finalized.\nThe center received a funding boost in September when Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation Inc. announced $1.7 million in funding to support the project.\nMone said at the time the new institute would require a $5 million to $10 million endowment and fundraising would take place over the next year to three years. Plans for the institute were still being finalized and Mone said the curriculum would be developed over the next 18 months.\nThe university now plans to begin offering executive education programs in the spring. A master’s degree program will also be designed in the spring and the university hopes to open lab space in spring 2019.", "This study provides an analytical overview of public financing instruments available for innovative cleantech start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in Europe. Many of these instruments operate under the theme of Horizon 2020, the largest European research and innovation programme with a total funding capacity of 80 Billion from 2014-2020.\nThe most common types of funding provided include loan-based and equity-based financing. Some instruments provide grants and guarantees as well. Some of the common thematic fields for which financing support is being provided include energy efficiency, smart cities, ICT, renewable energy, and healthcare. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Investment Fund (EIF) are the two prominent managing bodies of these funding instruments. Other managing bodies include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), EUREKA, and the European Commission.\nWhile some instruments provide direct funding to SMEs and start-ups, others operate through financial intermediaries. For example, this study analyses portfolio size, average investment size, success rate of applications, accepted technology readiness levels (TRL), consortium requirements, maximum percentage of the project financed, as well as the frequency of project monitoring for all instruments covered in this study.\nFinancial instruments have been benchmarked in each of these categories mentioned to provide a numerical overview of all instruments. It must be taken note that each instrument has been devised to meet a specific need; this can vary from one instrument to another. The researchers find that in addition to financing, additional support is being provided by many instruments in the form of business coaching and training, ideation, business and advisory services, strategy, marketing and commercialization, IP rights and protection, policy support, financial management, process and quality management, R&D support and cooperation, and business acceleration services. While most instruments target SMEs, some target SMEs and research institutions. This is likely to benefit companies operating in partnership with research institutions.\nKey Topics Covered:\n1. Executive Summary\nCEO's Perspective\nKey Measurements of Funding Instruments\n2. Fund Description\nDescription of Funding Instruments\n3. Fund Benchmarking\nSummary of Competing Instruments\nDescription of Funding Metrics\nPortfolio Size Benchmarking\nTicket Size Benchmarking\nSuccess Rate Benchmarking\nTechnology Readiness Level Benchmarking\nConsortium Requirements\nProject Duration Benchmarking\nMaximum Percentage of Project Finance\nFrequency of Monitoring Benchmarking\nSupport Provided\nApplication Procedure\nEvaluation Steps\nTime for Approval\nTarget Company Type\n4. Growth Opportunities\nGrowth Opportunity 1-New Capabilities\nStrategic Imperatives-Cleantech SMEs\n5. The Last Word\nLast Word-Encouraging Founder's Mentality\n6. Appendix\nFor more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6dmhq6/understanding?w=5\nMedia Contact:\nResearch and Markets\nLaura Wood, Senior Manager\[email protected]\nFor E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470\nFor U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630\nFor GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900\nU.S. Fax: 646-607-1907\nFax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716\nView original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/understanding-public-financing-options-in-cleantech-innovation-2018-research-report-300656455.html\nSOURCE Research and Markets\nRelated Links\nhttp://www.researchandmarkets.com", "SMALL BUSINESS STATUS REPORT\nWhile startup businesses are more likely to add jobs than older, more established companies, more than half struggle to get credit that will help them grow.\nThat’s the finding of a report released last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which analyzed the results of a survey of business owners across the country. The report found that 43 per cent of startups, companies 5 years old and under, were likely to add jobs and increase their revenues, compared with 22 per cent of older businesses.\nBut 58 per cent of companies 2 years old and under reported they had a difficult time getting credit, and 53 per cent of companies 3 to 5 years old also had problems. That compares with 39 per cent of older businesses. Nearly 70 per cent who did get financing didn’t get all that they needed, compared to 54 per cent of older enterprises. The most often-cited reason for not getting enough money: an insufficient credit history, a problem inherent in being a young company.\nThe survey shows that little has changed for small businesses since the Great Recession, which officially ended eight years ago. While owners are an optimistic lot, many find that banks aren’t willing to take a chance on a young business without a proven track record. The restrictions put on banks as part of the Dodd-Frank bill have made already wary banks even more cautious about lending to newer businesses. The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress want to change Dodd-Frank, which became law following the financial crisis.\nWIND ENERGY\nWhile wind power is still a small factor in U.S. energy production, it is gaining momentum, according to an Energy Department report released last week. With many small businesses interested in alternative forms of energy — and some companies and farms generating their own wind power — the wind industry is expected to continue its growth. Some facts from the report:\n–The country added more than 8,200 megawatts of wind power capacity in 2016, more than a quarter of the new energy capacity additions in the U.S. and in third place behind solar energy and natural gas. The nation’s wind power can generate more than 82 gigawatts a year.\n–The U.S. ranked second among countries around the world in adding wind power capacity, behind China.\n–Forty states and Puerto Rico have wind energy projects that considered utility scale, or large enough to generate 10 megawatts or more of electricity. Texas, the state with the biggest wind energy capabilities, doubled its capacity to 20,320 megawatts in 2016 from 2010’s 10,089.\n— The number of jobs related to wind power development rose 32 per cent from 2015, to 101,738.\nWHAT A website NEEDS\nSmall company owners can learn about the essential elements that every business website needs at an online seminar sponsored by SCORE, the organization that counsels business owners for free. It will be held Thursday, Aug. 17 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. You can learn more and register at http://bit.ly/2fz1BhW .\n———-\nFollow Joyce Rosenberg at http://www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: https://apnews.com/search/joyce%20rosenberg", "Coal Minister Piyush Goyal today said India should strive for 50 per cent of its power generation capacity from renewable sources by 2030 on the back of technological advancements in solar and wind energy.\n“With technological advancements in solar power and large turbines in wind energy, the country should strive for 50 per cent generation capacity from renewable sources by 2030,” Goyal said while addressing the 7th Indian Energy Congress.\nHe further said India is the first major country which is fast transitioning into a new era of carbon-free energy for its citizens.\nThe minister also said the country is set to exceed the target of 175 GW in renewable energy and touch 200 GW by 2022 which “shows the seriousness India attaches to climate change and environment protection.”\nIndia, the seventh largest economy in the world, is poised for fast economic growth in the coming years and will rank as the second largest in not-so-distant future, he added.\nEarlier in the conference, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the power sector must adopt new technologies and innovate to cut transmission and distribution losses as energy consumption in the country is set to see a phenomenal rise in the coming years.\n“While the government has accorded top priority to the sector, industry leaders must ensure that all citizens across the country have access to electricity at affordable rates. This will require substantially increasing the share of renewable energies as well as improving energy efficiencies.\n“You cannot stop the technology?s aggressive landing. Digitalisation, Internet of Things, 3-D printing and artificial intelligence will soon mechanise the energy sector. Industry 4.0 will cause disruption the energy sector as well, like in healthcare and education,” said Pradhan.\nGurdeep Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of NTPC Ltd and Member Secretary of World Energy Council India, said the opportunities and challenges arising from Energy 4.0 and energy transition transcend long-established sector boundaries defined by coal, oil and gas sectors.\nDuring the conference, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar invited suggestions from industry leaders as the think- tank embarks to prepare Indias integrated energy policy along with a national plan for the manufacturing sector to adopt new technologies like artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT).\n“This is an era of pro-sumers ? producers who are consumers as well ? and with Industry 4.0, manufacturing is witnessing the biggest disruption ever seen in history. The integration of conventional fuels and renewable energies will determine a whole panorama of future public services,” he said.", "H3 Dynamics, a pioneering tele robotics tech startup from Singapore is proud to announce it has chosen Paris, France as its regional headquarters for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The company will furthermore establish new R&D activities in France, in areas ranging from advanced energy storage systems to visual analytics.\nH3 Dynamics chose Paris and France's buoyant tech startup ecosystem as its European base in a continued effort to drive engineering excellence, new technology partnerships and customer success. Set at the cross-roads of robotics, cognitive computing, and IoT, H3 Dynamics also enhances the autonomy of sensors and small aerial drones with advanced hydrogen energy storage. Through the effective convergence of several technologies, the group intends to market a range of solutions that achieve productivity gains and operational efficiencies for its clients.\n\"In March 2017 in Singapore, the Prime Minister of Singapore and former French President announced 2018 as the 'Year of Innovation' between both countries, two 'startup nations' with a shared willingness to shape the future of innovation and strengthen economic ties,\" said Marc Abensour, Ambassador of France in Singapore. \"With a European HQ in Paris and a Global HQ in Singapore, H3 Dynamics is a concrete example of this ambition.\"\n\"I am delighted with the decision of the pioneer Singaporean company H3 Dynamics to establish its European HQ and new R&D activities in France. Business France has facilitated H3 Dynamics' project along with its partner Paris Region Entreprises,\" said Caroline Leboucher, Chief Operating Officer, Invest, of Business France.\n\"We are excited about starting up our European operations in France, a country that has stood out in recent times for its drive for innovation and its audacity - as seen in the President's initiative 'Make our planet great again',\" says Founder and CEO Taras Wankewycz, a tech entrepreneur based in Singapore since 2011.\nH3 Dynamics, an IBM Business Partner and a member of Intel's Global IoT Alliance will be exhibiting its solutions at Europe's largest tech event (Vivatechnology innovation fair in Paris on June 15-17) on the VINCI Energies Lab as well as in the show's Discovery Zone. H3 Dynamics, through its partnership with the Starburst Aerospace Accelerator, will also exhibit at the Paris Air Show on June 21st.\nFor more information, please visit us at Vivatechnology : booth M15-019 (Vinci Energies Lab) and booth G20-021 (Discovery Zone) on June 15th, 16th and 17th at the Parc des Expositions - Paris, France, or at the Paris Air Show - Hall Concorde Booth S5 (Paris Air Lab) on June 21st.\nH3 Dynamics is headquartered in Singapore, with established regional offices Asia, North America and Europe. The group is composed of three tech pillars: hydrogen energy for enhanced electric flight, networked drone automation systems, and field data analytics services.\nwww.h3dynamics.com\nBusiness France is the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy, responsible for fostering export growth by French businesses, as well as promoting and facilitating international investment in France. It promotes France's companies, business image and nationwide attractiveness as an investment location, and also runs the VIE international internship program.\nwww.businessfrance.fr\nParis Region Entreprises is the agency in charge of promoting the Paris Region to attract international companies and support them in setting up by providing a full range of tailored services. President : Franck Margain / CEO : Robin Rivaton\nwww.parisregionentreprises.org\n$page_length='long'; ?>", "Get the Mach newsletter. SUBSCRIBE\nWith more than 50,000 wind turbines in place across the U.S., wind power now accounts for 8 percent of the nation's energy-generating capacity — and experts predict that figure could rise to 20 percent by 2030.\nBut all that clean, renewable energy comes with a high cost to the nation's wildlife. Researchers estimate that 140,000 to 328,000 birds are killed every year in collisions with the turbines' spinning rotor blades and support towers. The risk to birds is highest at night, when the blades and towers are cloaked in darkness.\nNow researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, have hit upon what could prove to be a simple way to protect birds from wind turbines. They've used the \"signatures\" of birds that are visible in raw weather radar data to generate bird maps and live migration forecasts designed to alert wind farm operators to the presence of birds at peak times.\nMassive numbers\nOn any given night during the peak of the spring migration — from the end of April to the beginning of May — up to 520 million migrating birds are on the wing, says Dr. Kyle Horton of Cornell's famed ornithology lab and one of the researchers involved in the project.\nAccording to keepers, a wind turbine near the Altamont Pass severed a portion of this 14-year-old golden eagle's left wing in 2000, leaving him unable to fly or survive in the wild. Noah Berger / AP file\nMost are small birds at risk from predators. (Big birds tend to migrate in daylight, although they too sometimes fall afoul of the turbines.)\n\"Our measures are dominated by small songbirds, things like warblers and tanagers, thrushes and grosbeaks — those are the dominant signatures we're getting,\" says Horton.\nIt's long been known that migrating birds are easily detected by the Doppler radar systems used to monitor rainfall in the U.S.\nFor weather forecasting purposes, of course, the radar signals caused by bird flocks are filtered out. But the Cornell researchers, including Horton and Benjamin Van Doren, a zoologist who recently moved to Oxford University in the U.K., realized that birds' nighttime flights could be used to generate real-time maps that could help save birds' lives.\nAfter working for several years to integrate the signals from a network of weather radar systems across the U.S., the scientists a few weeks ago started posting automated bird migration forecasts and real-time tracking maps at the lab's website, BirdCast.info.\nMaking use of the maps\nVan Doren and Horton hope wind farm operators will heed the forecasts and maps — which are drawn from 143 weather radar systems across the country — and stop or slow their wind turbines temporarily when large numbers of birds are flying through the area.\nOne solution to the bird-strike problem might be to raise the turbines' so-called \"cut-in speed.\" That's the wind speed above which it makes economic sense to run the turbines. Wind turbines operate more efficiently at the high wind speeds, Horton says, while birds tend to avoid flying on windy nights.\n\"If we're getting large pulses of [migrating birds] coming through on a handful of nights, then altering their strategies for just, say, five nights versus doing nothing, then it may have a big impact,\" he says of wind farm operators.", "B2B Rocks, the first and leading conference about B2B & SaaS startups around the world is coming back to Sydney for its second edition, to explore \"the Future of Work\".\nContact\nAnne Perego\n***@b2brocks.co Anne Perego\nEnd\n-- This year, the conference is supported by Lendlease, which will host the one-day event on Thursday 28 September 2017 in its new Barangaroo building, at the Tower 3. Sponsored by Microsoft and its BizSpark program, the conference will be the perfect place for the different speakers and panelists to discuss about \"The Future of Work\", the main topic for the morning. In the afternoon, the 250 attendees spanning from early stage to mature startup founders, investors and C-levels from medium to large international companies, will hear actionable insights from world-class experts from the B2B & SaaS space and select the most promising B2B startup entering the 1st B2B Rocks pitching competition.Attendees will have the chance to learn from shapers and doers from the B2B ecosystem and network from 8.30am to 6pm, with about 25 speakers including Natalie Slessor, the Head of Workplace at Lendlease, Dean McEvoy, CEO at TechSydney, Bridget Loudon, CEO at Expert360, which just raised a $13 million series B, Marc Havercroft, Futurist and VP of Digital Transformation for Human Capital Management at SAP, Olga Oleinikova, CEO at Persollo, Jason Wyatt, CEO at Marketplacer, Fred Orrenius, Founding Partner at Digital4s Ventures, Constantine Georgiou, Co-founder of The Founder Lab, Lawrence Crumpton, HoloLens/MR Solution Specialist at Microsoft, Nicolas Chu, Founder of Sinorbis, Marc Cowper, CEO at Recomazing, Ezechiel Ritchie, Head of Media Sales at Taboola, Jessica Ellerm, CEO at Zuper, David Francis, Co-founder of Virtual Method, Chris Gilbert, CEO Equitise, Andrew Everingham, Managing Director at Capital-E, Georgia King-Siem, Director at KPMG, Melissa Widner, General Partner at NAB Ventures, Dave Gardiner, Co-founder of Carthona Capital, Lija Wilson, Co-founder of Puffling, Adam Cook, Associate at AirTree Ventures, Andy Farquharson, Sales Architect at Winning by Design, Alister Coleman, Managing Partner at Tempus Partners and others.Aside from the main event, B2B Rocks will host a B2B startup pitching competition sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark where 10 shortlisted startups from APAC region will be pitching in front of a judging panel to win an Azure Sponsorship worth a USD 120,000 (BizSpark Plus Program), and several prizes awarded by TechSydney and other partners. If you're a B2B startup, less than 5 years old and USD 1 million in annual revenue, click here to apply ( https://b2brocks.awardsplatform.com )!The event is supported by Dragon Law, technology partners such as BlueJeans, Zeetings, Award Force and community partners such as TechSydney, Techboard, Recomazing, Fishburners, Tank Stream Labs and more. Tickets for the event are now available, secure your seat now! ( http://events.eventzilla.net/ e/b2b-rocks- 2138905613 More speakers will be announced shortly as well as the fully detailed program. Don't miss our upcoming announcements about our Future of Work and B2B Startup experts by following the B2B Rocks LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/10812751/).", "So you have a great idea for the next great social sharing app. Or maybe a new crowdsourcing platform, medical device or social enterprise? Or maybe you don’t have an idea, but you want to get some hands-on experience in entrepreneurship?\nWhatever the idea, the Pitt Innovation Institute has several competitions and hackathons lined up for Pitt students this semester where you can find out if your idea can make it to market. Your idea could even win some cash prizes, including the Randall Family Big Idea Competition, which includes a $25,000 top prize and $100,000 in total prizes.\nThe fun kicks off Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19 and 20, with the Startup Blitz. At this 24-hour startup-athon, you can pitch your idea, recruit teammates, join a team and work one-on-one with an experienced business mentor to begin developing your idea into a viable product or service.\nYou then pitch your idea Saturday afternoon for the chance to win cash prizes. Food is provided Friday night and Saturday morning on the third floor of the School of Computing and Information. Don’t have your own idea? No problem. Come to the event and listen to the initial pitches from your fellow students and try to join a team that interests you.\nThe following weekend, Jan. 26-28, is the She Innovates all-women hackathon. Also held at the School of Information and Computing, this event is for female students (undergraduate and graduate). If you don’t have a team, don’t worry. You can join one at the event. You don’t even need hacking experience to participate. Mentors will be there to guide you along.\nNext up is the Randall Family Big Idea Competition. Now in its 10th year, the Big Idea competition is also open to all students (from undergrad to postdoctoral fellows) who have an idea that might make the basis for a startup or a new social enterprise. Sponsored through the generosity of Pitt trustee Bob Randall and his family, many past participants have gone on to launch their ideas as startups.\nJohn Frazier and Nicole Xu, who earned degrees from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs in 2016, first floated their idea for a language translation platform at a Startup Blitz event, where they and fellow classmate Lujing Gao won the $1,500 top prize for their pitch.\nThey went on to compete in the Randall Family Big Idea Competition and launched their business, uTranslated, after completing the Pitt Blast Furnace student idea accelerator.\n“We never intended to be entrepreneurs. It just sort of worked out that we came up with this idea and we won the Startup Blitz pitch competition,” Frazier said. “It turned out to be a life-changing experience. When we got that money we didn’t pay rent, we decided to keep pushing ahead. It was the perfect time in our lives to try something (entrepreneurial). So we went for it.”\nTo register for Startup Blitz and/or She Innovates and to apply for the Randall Family Big Idea Competition, visit the Innovation Institute web site, www.innovation.pitt.edu and click on the “Events & Competitions” tab. Deadline for submission is February 5, 2018.\nprintPrint", "DENVER (CN) – The president will release his proposed 2019 budget early next week, and many expect him to pick up where he left off last year – with hefty blows to renewable energy funding.\nThe Washington Post reportedly glanced at a draft that offers the U.S. Department of Energy 28 percent of what it was allocated last year.\nOf the nation’s $4 trillion budget, the Office of Energy Efficiency under the U.S. Department of Energy is currently spending $2 billion. The proposed cuts would reduce the office’s budget to $575 million.\nTrump made a similar proposition last year targeting the Offices of Science, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, while increasing funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Congress later challenged the proposal.\nAmong programs at risk is the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Last year, the lab received $458 million in funding, a portion of which came from the federal government. More than 2,000 employees, researchers, interns, professionals and subcontractors contribute to NREL’s 13 research programs. NREL also encompasses the National Bioenergy Center, the National Center for Photovoltaics, and the National Wind Technology Center.\nSenator Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, has long considered energy a top issue for his state and has helped secure funding for the research facility.\n“The United States is entering a new phase of energy history, and the nation is at the cusp of energy independence as we continue to produce our own secure supply of energy. Meeting our country’s energy demands will include an all-of-the-above strategy,” Gardner said in a statement, referring to the party’s slogan supporting the use of both fossil fuel and renewable energy sources.\n“The state is on the cutting edge of energy production and research, due in large part to the NREL,” he continued. “I support developing and utilizing American energy of all kinds. This includes the use of traditional power like coal, oil, nuclear, natural gas, along with the use of renewable energy such as wind, solar, hydroelectric power, and geothermal.”\nAccording to the Colorado Energy Office, renewable energy makes up more than 17 percent of the state’s power, most of which comes from wind. Colorado is a top producer of both solar energy and coal power. Fifty-four percent of Colorado’s electricity comes from coal and 20 percent from natural gas, the state’s primary heating source for homes.\nAt the state level, several initiatives have been proposed to provide direction to the Colorado Energy Office.\nOne bill that aimed to push Colorado toward 100 percent renewable energy by 2035 was killed in the state Senate Thursday.\nSenator Ray Scott, R-Grand Junction, attributed the bill’s demise to funding.\n“We don’t have a wind severance tax,” he said in a phone interview. “We don’t have a solar energy severance tax. There’s absolutely no revenue coming in from those renewables to backfill out as fossil fuels have done for 20 years in Colorado.”\nAt the start of the legislative session, Scott introduced another bill that prioritized nuclear and hydroelectric power while eliminating economic incentives aimed at promoting the expansion of wind and solar power. The senator says most of the programs he proposed cutting are either underused or obsolete.\n“I want to make sure we are just as competitive as the other states that produce energy, and to investors and companies that would want to move to Colorado for energy services. In Colorado, we’ve done a very, very good job of getting a good mix of all-of-the-above,” Scott said.\nIn his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump alluded to just one energy source: “beautiful, clean coal.”\nThe president indicated early on in his term that he would prioritize reducing federal involvement in environmental issues. In contrast to Trump’s attempt to erase lines for efficient and renewable energy from the government budget, a recent poll from the Pew Research Center estimates two-thirds of Americans would prioritize finding alternative energy sources over expanding fossil fuel sources.\nNREL did not respond to requests for comment made by email or voicemail.\nLike this: Like Loading...", "Know Labs, Inc. (f/k/a Visualant, Incorporated) (OTCQB: KNWN) – a provider of identification, authentication and diagnostic solutions, announced today that Michael Grabham has been appointed Chief Business Officer of the Company.\nMichael Grabham is a Seattle serial entrepreneur who has started six companies over the past 25 years. His first company was started at age 28 and was sold three years later after more the tripling the annual revenues. He recently invented and patented the Package Guard, a consumer product to protect packages that are delivered to your doorstep.\nGrabham has led, as President, several companies from a regional telecommunications company ($14M annual sales) to a software assessment company (startup). As a leader in sales, business development and marketing, his roles have enabled him to be a driving force in revenue generation and his relationship with customers has provided a strong foundation for growth. He focuses on building quality process to ensure clear communication and scalability for growth. He has managed administrative, engineering and sales staffs throughout his career.\nGrabham received his MBA from Seattle University and has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics. He and his wife started a nonprofit, Survive the Streets, in 1999 which assists the homeless population in Seattle.\n\"Mike Grabham is a great addition to the Know Labs team,” stated Phil Bosua, Chief Executive Officer. \"As we bring our new product and technology embodying our Bio-RFID™ platform to the market Mike will be an immeasurable asset for creating the relationships and processes that allow us to rapidly scale our business.”\n\"I am very excited to join Know Labs,” said Grabham. \"I love the energy and creativity of the team and especially look forward to adding value as we bring the initial product to the market. Our products can be life changing as they allow consumers to know more about the inner workings of their bodies in order to better manage their health and wellness.”\nAbout Know Labs, Inc.\nKnow Labs, Inc. (f/k/a Visualant Incorporated) is a public company whose shares trade under the stock symbol \"KNWN.” The company’s technology directs structured light or radio waves through a substance or material to capture a unique molecular signature. The Company refers to these signatures as ChromaID™ and Bio-RFID™. ChromaID and Bio-RFID are used to identify, detect, or diagnose substance markers or biomarkers that may be invisible to the human eye. ChromaID and Bio-RFID scanner modules can be integrated into a variety of mobile or bench-top form factors. This patented and patent pending, award-winning technology makes it possible to effectively conduct analyses that could only previously be performed by invasive and/or large and expensive lab-based tests. For more information on Know Labs, visit the company’s website at www.knowlabs.co.\nView source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530005439/en/", "SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon.com Inc. is exploring a technology first developed for the US military to produce tasty prepared meals that do not need refrigeration, as it looks for new ways to muscle into the $700 billion US grocery business.\nThe world’s biggest online retailer has discussed selling ready-to-eat dishes such as beef stew and a vegetable frittata as soon as next year, officials at the startup firm marketing the technology told Reuters.\nThe dishes would be easy to stockpile and ship because they do not require refrigeration and could be offered quite cheaply compared with take-out from a restaurant.\nIf the cutting-edge food technology comes to fruition, and Amazon implements it on a large scale, it would be a major step forward for the company as it looks to grab hold of more grocery customers shifting towards quick and easy meal options at home.\nDelivering meals would build on the company’s AmazonFresh service, which has been delivering groceries to customers’ homes for a decade. It could also complement Amazon’s planned $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Market Inc. and Amazon’s checkout-free convenience store, which is in the test stage.\nThe pioneering food-prep tech, known as microwave assisted thermal sterilisation, or MATS, was developed by researchers at Washington State University and is being brought to market by a venture-backed startup called 915 Labs, based in Denver.\nThe method involves placing sealed packages of food in pressurised water and heating them with microwaves for several minutes, according to 915 Labs.\nUnlike traditional processing methods, where packages are in pressure cookers for up to an hour until both bacteria and nutrients are largely gone, the dishes retain their natural flavour and texture, the company said. They also can sit on a shelf for a year, which would make them suitable for Amazon’s storage and delivery business model.\n“They obviously see that this is a potential disruptor and an ability to get to a private brand uniqueness that they’re looking for,” said Greg Spragg, a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive and now head of a startup working with MATS technology. “They will test these products with their consumers, and get a sense of where they would go.”\nAmazon declined to comment.\nSpragg’s company, Solve for Food, plans to acquire a MATS machine from 915 Labs that can make 1,800 packages an hour. The company aims to use the machine at a new food innovation centre in northwest Arkansas, near the headquarters of Wal-Mart.\n915 Labs also has an Arkansas connection: it is designing the beef stew and other dishes with a chef at the Bentonville-based Brightwater Centre for the Study of Food.\nWalmart did not comment on whether it is looking into the technology.\nHiring food people\n‘like crazy’\nMATS technology grew out of efforts by the US Army’s Natick laboratories more than a decade ago to improve food quality for soldiers in combat. Washington State University, a five-hour drive from Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, received US funding and became the research hub for MATS.\n915 Labs said it formed in 2014 and acquired the assets of a business called Food Chain Safety, which previously was working on MATS before facing financial trouble in 2013.\n915 Labs also licensed the original patents from the university, its Chief Executive Michael Locatis said, and its MATS dishes are now pending US Food and Drug Administration approval.\nIn addition to ongoing work with the US military, the company has sold machines to the Australian government and to food companies in Asia.\n“They have to leapfrog to MATS because they don’t have the refrigerated supply chain like we have in the US,” said Locatis, who was an assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security until 2013.\nAmazon invited the startup to Seattle after learning about MATS technology last year at the SIAL Paris food trade show, according to Locatis.\nIn February, Amazon sent a team to Washington State University that met with Juming Tang, chair of the school’s biological systems engineering department and a key developer of the technology.\nAnd in March, Amazon joined the university’s researchers and other companies in Seattle for the inaugural meeting of the Industrial Microwave Alliance, according to a university news release. The group’s mission is to “accelerate technology transfer of microwave-based food safety”.\n“Amazon just started this,” Tang said in an interview. “They need to deliver meals to homes... They’re hiring food people like crazy.”\nNot everyone sees why MATS would be worth pursuing. Some think packaged food would have little attraction to the generally high-income members of Amazon’s Prime shopping club.\n“I get why new food processing systems that increase shelf life may be good for Amazon,” said Bentley Hall, CEO of fresh food delivery service Good Eggs. “I struggle to see how this solution addresses an actual consumer want or need better than fresh, prepared meals.”\nMATS represents just one way Amazon is searching for an edge in the grocery business, to distinguish itself from incumbents like Kroger Co.\nThe company has also filed for a trademark for cook-it-yourself meal-kits — a move that pushed down shares of Blue Apron Holdings Inc. — but has not yet detailed its plans for ready-to-eat meal delivery.", "CLEVELAND, Ohio - Farouk El-Baz, a geologist and a NASA scientist on the Apollo space program's site-selection committee, will receive the Inamori Ethics Prize at Case Western Reserve University.\nThe university is scheduled to present the honor to El-Baz during campus events Sept. 13 and 14, 2018.\nThe ethics prize has been awarded annually since 2008 to honor an individual for significant and lasting contributions to ethical leadership on the global stage.\n\"Dr. El-Baz has shown tremendous ethical leadership throughout his life,\" Inamori Center Director Shannon French, a professor at the law school and the philosophy department, said in a statement. \"Not only did he serve all of humankind with his essential contributions to NASA's historic Apollo space program, but he has since turned his talents to the task of locating desperately needed scarce resources here on the Earth to save lives and resolve deadly conflicts. As many have stated, he is truly a national--and international--treasure.\"\nEl-Baz is director of the Center for Remote Sensing and a research professor in the departments of archaeology and electrical and computer engineering at Boston University\nThe center uses space technology to study the earth and its environment, including finding critically needed groundwater in arid regions around the globe.\nThe Egyptian-born El-Baz received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and geology from Ain Shams University in Cairo and received a master's and PhD from the University of Missouri. He taught mineralogy at Heidelberg University in Germany and worked in Egypt's oil industry. He became a United States citizen in 1970.\nFrom 1967 to 1972, El-Baz participated in the Apollo program as supervisor of lunar science planning at Bellcomm Inc., a division of AT&T that conducted systems analysis for NASA headquarters in Washington D.C.\nIn 1973, he established and directed the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum of Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He was vice president for science and technology at Itek Optical Systems from 1982 until he joined Boston University in 1986.\nEl-Baz recalled that as Apollo 11 slowly descended to the moon's surface on July 20, 1969, the team of NASA scientists responsible for choosing the first lunar landing site was as anxious and in awe as the rest of the world.\n\"All our hearts were pounding,\" he said in a statement. \"What if the moon was completely different than we thought? We were not 100 percent sure of all aspects, so there was room for error.\"\nThe capsule touched down four miles from the predicted landing point and about a minute-and-a-half sooner than scheduled. The mission--and five Apollo lunar landings that followed--was considered a success.\nIn his honor, one episode of \"Star Trek: The Next Generation\" featured a shuttle spacecraft named \"El-Baz.\" He was also the focus of an episode of the Tom Hanks-produced HBO miniseries \"From the Earth to the Moon,\" in a segment titled, \"The Brain of Farouk El-Baz.\"\nEl-Baz is known for pioneering work in applying space images to groundwater exploration in arid lands, CWRU said. Based on the analysis of space photographs, his recommendations resulted in the discovery of groundwater resources in Egypt, India, China, Sudan, Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates and Chad.\nTo honor his research on the understanding of arid lands and their groundwater resources, the Geological Society of America Foundation established two annual awards: The Farouk El-Baz Award for Desert Research to reward professional excellence in arid land studies, and The Farouk El-Baz Student Research Award to be awarded to two students--one male and one female--to encourage geological research on arid lands.", "University of Sheffield signs collaboration agreement with leading Malaysian university focused on energy\nUniversity of Sheffield President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Keith Burnett has signed an agreement with Professor Dr Kamal Nasharuddin Mustapha, Vice-Chancellor of UNITEN University in Malaysia, to build research partnerships and student and faculty exchanges between the two institutions in the crucial area of energy.\nThe signing was accompanied by a meeting and presentations from both universities, and included discussions with a number of senior UNITEN staff who are Sheffield alumni. The Vice-Chancellor of UNITEN is himself a graduate of the University of Sheffield’s Department of Civil and Structural Engineering.\nSir Keith said: “I am delighted that the University of Sheffield is developing what I am confident will be a very fruitful partnership between one of Malaysia’s leading private universities working in a very focused way on Energy, a clear area of relevance to both the people of Malaysia and the United Kingdom, but also more broadly around the world.\n“This is a strategically important area for both of our universities. Energy is a key focus of research and teaching in Sheffield through the partnerships which already exist with our Faculty of Engineering and Energy 2050 research, but also through our work on wind, solar and nuclear energy. We should not think either that our partnership will be restricted to engineering and science. I see real potential for collaboration with UNITEN and our University’s highly-respected work on sustainability and colleagues working in Economics and Management.”\nHe added: “It is also tremendous to see the impact our Malaysian engineering graduates over many decades are now making in their own country. I was deeply proud to speak to the Vice-Chancellor of UNITEN who is a Sheffield alumnus and to a number of his professors. I recognise in them the same determination to bring the highest standards of research and teaching to the benefit of local communities that I know they learned from our own university.”\nSir Keith signed the Memorandum of Understanding during a short trip to Malaysia, where he met a number of senior University of Sheffield alumni who are graduates in Engineering, Law, Medicine, Architecture and Landscape. Sir Keith also held discussions with the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi about ways in which the University of Sheffield can further develop its educational activities in Malaysia, with a particular focus on opportunities in engineering and technical training with industry.\nThe announcement of a partnership with UNITEN was also welcomed by the University of Sheffield’s new Director of Global Engagement, Malcolm Butler. He said: “It is most encouraging to see the University of Sheffield continue to build partnerships at the highest levels in Malaysia, working with both academia and industry to apply our internationally-leading research strengths.\n“It also continues to be true that Malaysians are a vital part of our university community. The University of Sheffield has historically been one of the largest recruiter of Malaysian students to the United Kingdom, and our students and alumni are found across all subject areas where they make a huge contribution to student and academic life as well as to their own society after graduation.”\nThe signing followed discussions between UNITEN and the University of Sheffield’s Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the area of renewable energy, led by Professor John David – Professor of Semiconductor Materials and Devices, working with engineering colleagues Professor Tao Wang - Professor of Advanced Optoelectronics and Professor Chee Hing Tan, who holds a Chair in Photon Detectors.\nAdditional information The University of Sheffield is a top 100 global university with key strengths in research and teaching in the area of energy including: Energy 2050 - One of the UK’s largest energy research institutes. Based at the University of Sheffield, we have over 120 academics and more than 250 PhD students undertaking energy research and innovation - http://energy2050.ac.uk/about-energy-2050/\n- One of the UK’s largest energy research institutes. Based at the University of Sheffield, we have over 120 academics and more than 250 PhD students undertaking energy research and innovation - http://energy2050.ac.uk/about-energy-2050/ Sheffield-Siemens Wind Power Research Centre – the S²WP Research Centre at the University of Sheffield - https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/eee/research/emd/emd_news/sw2p-1.542344\n– the S²WP Research Centre at the University of Sheffield - https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/eee/research/emd/emd_news/sw2p-1.542344 Sheffield Solar - https://www.solar.sheffield.ac.uk/\n- https://www.solar.sheffield.ac.uk/ The Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures leads the University of Sheffield’s work around sustainability, and the interaction between food, energy and resources. Established in Autumn 2014 with a £2.6m gift from The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, the Centre focuses on the science of sustainability and connects it with the policy debate about how humans can live in a more sustainable way - http://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/\nleads the University of Sheffield’s work around sustainability, and the interaction between food, energy and resources. Established in Autumn 2014 with a £2.6m gift from The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, the Centre focuses on the science of sustainability and connects it with the policy debate about how humans can live in a more sustainable way - http://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/ Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre - http://namrc.co.uk/ With almost 27,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world’s leading universities. A member of the UK’s prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in. Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2017 and was voted number one university in the UK for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education in 2014. In the last decade it has won four Queen’s Anniversary Prizes in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the United Kingdom’s intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields. Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, Glaxo SmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) is a private university, located in Selangor, Malaysia, with GLC university status. It is wholly owned by the public-listed Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) energy utilities company and offers academic programmes in engineering and business management at undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as undertaking energy related research.", "University City companies — 36 of them — qualify for tax credits for profitable startups\nPhoto: Katie Zhao / The Daily Pennsylvanian\nUniversity City continues to set the trend for innovation in Pennsylvania, with 36 companies receiving over $2 million in tax credits for profitable startups.\nThe 2016 Keystone Innovation Zone Tax Credits are $15 million in tax credits that are available to start-up companies in cartain geographic areas throughout the state , called \"Keystone Innovation Zones.\" KIZs were originally created as part of former Governor Ed Rendell's stimulus plan to encourage startup growth throughout Pennsylvania.\nEligible startups can receive a tax credit for up to half of the total increase in revenues from the previous year.\nSenior manager for marketing and media relations at the University City Science Center Kristen Fitch said that most of the startups don't need these tax credits, so they can sell them instead at market value and use the money at their discretion to pursue new projects.\n“Most of these companies do not have tax liabilities, so most of them are selling the tax credits. What’s unique about these tax credits is that once they sell it they can apply the money to anything they want at the company,” she said.\nFitch administers the KIZ, and the University City Science Center provides resources and lab space for companies like Phelix Therapeutics, which received a KIZ tax credit for 2016 to pursue research that is not normally covered through the grants they receive.\n“KIZ companies are using the tax credits for everything from research and development to hiring a new employee to buying new equipment,” she said. “The great part about the program is it provides flexibility to these companies.\"\nSpecifically, KIZs are designed around educational institutions to foster a startup environment. The University City KIZ is a partnership between Drexel, Penn, Thomas Jefferson, the University of the Sciences, the Wistar Institute, BioAdvance and the University City Science Center, which has Penn administrators serving on the board according to the Science Center website.\nThe success of University City companies at gaining nearly 15% of the total KIZ tax credits awarded in Pennsylvania reflects the growing start-up community within University City, which was recently named the ‘hottest tech submarket’ and continues to develop real estate to encourage start-ups.\nVice President of marketing communications and community engagement at University City Science Center Jeanne Mell said,“I think it’s just one more tool in the Commonwealth’s ability to attract, retain, and foster start-ups. Start-ups really help us develop a thriving and a vibrant economy, and we’re excited to do our part for it.\"", "Tesla Kauai solar-energy generation and storage project [photo: The Verge] Enlarge Photo\nFor years, renewable energy has been cast as the most expensive option to reduce emissions and the world's reliance on fossil fuels.\nBut 2016 may have marked a turn for the renewable energy sector, with solar energy in particular rising significantly in output.\nFor the first time in history, renewable energy sources accounted for fully two-thirds of the new energy capacity added worldwide in 2016.\nDON'T MISS: More solar energy was added in 2016 than natural gas or wind\nThat represents not just a healthy share, but a shift in behavior among energy producers, though fossil fuels still dominate generation today.\nThe International Energy Agency's renewable-market analysis showed solar energy as the largest gainer in 2016, according to an NBC report on Wednesday.\nIn fact, solar-energy production rose by 50 percent last year, outpacing any other fuel and surpassing coal's net growth—the first time a renewable source has ever achieved such year-over-year growth.\nWind farm outside Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada [photographer: Joel Bennett] Enlarge Photo\nFatih Birol, the IEA's executive director, told the network a \"new era in solar photovoltaic\" has emerged, referencing lower costs and worldwide expansion of the solar industry, reported by CNBC.\nSolar photovoltaic (solar pv) is a way of directly converting light from the sun into electricity.\nOne country sped past others in solar energy investments, however: China. More than 50 percent of the additional solar power that came online in 2016 is located in China, according to Birol.\nREAD THIS: Renewable energy to hit 9 percent of U.S. total in 2017\nChina, India, and the United States will likely lead the renewable energy industry, he added, but solar power can compete with coal better in China.\nIn total, 165 gigawatts worth of renewable energy came online in 2016, and the sector will grow 43 percent by 2022, according to the report.\nLooking ahead, Birol forecasted solar to be the fastest-growing renewable energy source through 2022.\nTesla and SolarCity solar farm on Ta'u, American Samoa Enlarge Photo\nIn general, the report expects renewable energy to grow by about 1,000 gigawatts by 2022, equal to half of the current global capacity in coal power.\nSuch capacity in coal power took 80 years to build, Birol noted, and renewables will likely achieve parity in only a few years.\nCost is the biggest factor, and the IEA expects the solar energy costs to be halved in the next three years.\nCHECK OUT: Scientists debate: could renewable energy entirely replace fossil fuels in U.S. by 2050?\nHowever, Birol conceded renewables likely can't and won't provide every single kilowatt-hour the world consumes.\nHe stressed the role of \"traditional\" fossil fuels in providing uninterrupted power to national energy grids 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\nInstead, he believes a \"healthy marriage\" between renewable and traditional fuel sources lies ahead—though clearly the data shows the trajectory is toward more renewables.\n_______________________________________\nFollow GreenCarReports on Facebook and Twitter", "Subscribe Let our news meet your inbox. SIGN UP\nAn astronaut wandering the moon next year could use a smartphone to call home. A German startup is preparing to set up the first telecommunication infrastructure on the lunar surface.\nThe German company Part Time Scientists, which originally competed for the Google Lunar X Prize race to the moon, plans to send a lander with a rover in late 2018 to visit the landing site of Apollo 17. (Launched in 1972, this was NASA's final Apollo mission to the moon.) Instead of using a complex dedicated telecommunication system to relay data from the rover to the Earth, the company will rely on LTE technology — the same system used on Earth for mobile phone communications.\n\"We are cooperating with Vodafone in order to provide LTE base stations on the moon,\" Karsten Becker, who heads embedded electronics development and integration for the startup, told Space.com.\n\"What we are aiming to do is to provide commercial service to bring goods to the moon and also to provide services on the surface of the moon,\" Becker added.\nPart Time Scientists has a launch contract for late 2018 with Space X as a secondary payload on the Falcon 9 rocket. Becker said the company believes it will be the first private entity to reach the surface of the moon, suggesting that none of the Google Lunar X Prize participants are likely to meet the December 2017 deadline for the competition. (Part Time Scientists itself withdrew from the Google Lunar X Prize earlier this year due to the time constraints of the competition.)\nThe Falcon 9 will carry the team's spacecraft, Alina, to the geostationary transfer orbit, a highly elliptical Earth orbit whose highest point is 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers). From there, Alina will continue on its own to the moon.\n\"We will soft-land on the moon and disembark our two rovers, the Audi Lunar Quatro rovers, with which we are going to drive up to Apollo 17,\" Becker said.\n\"The two rovers are essentially mobile phones that will communicate our video stream to Alina, which serves as an LTE base station, and Alina will communicate the data to us,\" he said.\nThe two rovers, which appeared in this year's \"Alien: Covenant\" film, will examine in detail the Apollo 17 spacecraft to see what has happened to it in its 45 years on the lunar surface.\n\"Using the LTE modem to transmit our data is much more energy efficient than using direct Earth communication,\" Becker explained.\nThe rover gets 90 watts of energy from its solar panel, half of which goes to driving, Becker said; previously, the other half would have to go to the modem for communicating directly to Earth. \"With LTE, it's significantly less,\" he said.\nAdditionally, relaying data via the base station rather than directly to Earth solves difficulties with pointing the rover's antenna in the rough lunar terrain, Becker said.\nHe said Part Time Scientists does not expect Alina and the rovers to survive the lunar night because of the extreme low temperatures. However, the experience gained during the first mission will be used in subsequent missions that will aim to establish a permanent telecommunication infrastructure on the moon's surface, he said.\n\"We are trying to show that you can use the most widespread means of communication, which is the mobile network and particularly the LTE network, on the surface of the moon, to execute missions there,\" said Becker. \"We are aiming to provide cost-effective solutions to problems that are arising in terms of building the lunar village.\"\nAccording to Becker, Part Time Scientists plans to conduct a second mission around 2020 that would carry LTE terminals designed to survive in the harsh lunar environment for extended periods of time. The company is closely cooperating with the European Space Agency, which has proposed a lunar village concept that would lead to permanent human presence on the surface of the moon. The agency's plan would let all nations and entities contribute to the overall operations with their unique skills and expertise.\nThe Alina spacecraft can carry up to 100 kilograms (220 lbs.) of payload. During its first mission, the craft will carry three customer payloads, including an experiment designed by NASA Ames.\nThis article originally appeared on Space.com.\nYour Video Begins in: 00:00 00:23 00:00 / 00:00 Build Your Own Eclipse Viewer 00:01:43\nFOLLOW NBC MACH ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK, AND INSTAGRAM", "Wind Turbine Blade Market\nGlobal Wind Turbine Blade Market Information Report by Type (Glass Fiber and Carbon Fiber), by size and by Region - Forecast to 2027\nKey Player Some of the key players in the Wind Turbine blade market are Siemens AG (Germany), Acciona S.A. (Spain), Vestas Wind Systems (Denmark), Suzlon Energy Limited (India), Stem AS (Denmark)” — Market Research Future\nPUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA, August 14, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Market Synopsis of Wind Turbine Blade Market:\nMarket Scenario:\nFavorable Government Policies towards the Wind Turbine Blade Market are a major factor which is driving the market. Rapid inclusion of policies by the governments to boost the integration of renewable energy in their energy mix is inducing significant demand in the Wind Turbine Blade Market. A mix of awareness and economic benefits is pushing the market towards immense growth globally.\nRequest a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1150\nStudy Objectives of Wind Turbine Blade Market:\n• To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Wind Turbine Blade Market\n• To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth\n• To Analyze the Wind Turbine Blade Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, Porters five force analysis.\n• To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to six main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, and Africa\n• To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective\n• To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by size, by type and by region as well as its sub segments\n• To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market\n• To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, and new product developments in the Global Wind Turbine Blade Market\nMake an Enquiry before Buying @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1150\nSegments:\nThe Wind Turbine Blade Market has been segmented on the basis of type as Glass Fiber and Carbon Fiber. On the basis of size the market has been segmented as <27 Meter, 27-37 Meter, 38-50 Meter, and >50 Meter.\nRegional Analysis of Wind Turbine Blade Market:\nAsia-Pacific is one of the leading regions for the Wind Turbine Blade Market mainly due to the favorable government policies and attractive investment opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region. Increasing awareness regarding economic benefits of the renewable energy sources is one of the main factors that are driving the demand in this market.\nKey Player:\nSome of the key players in the Wind Turbine Blade Market are Siemens AG (Germany), Acciona S.A. (Spain), Vestas Wind Systems (Denmark), Suzlon Energy Limited (India), Stem AS (Denmark), and Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica (Spain).\nBrowse Full Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/wind-turbine-blade-market\nAbout Market Research Future:\nAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.\nMRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.", "A new study using data from NASA’s NuSTAR space telescope suggests that Eta Carinae, the most luminous and massive stellar system within 10,000 light-years, is accelerating particles to high energies — some of which may reach Earth as cosmic rays.\n“We know the blast waves of exploded stars can accelerate cosmic ray particles to speeds comparable to that of light, an incredible energy boost,” said Kenji Hamaguchi, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the lead author of the study. “Similar processes must occur in other extreme environments. Our analysis indicates Eta Carinae is one of them.”\nAstronomers know that cosmic rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts (eV) come to us from beyond our solar system. But because these particles — electrons, protons and atomic nuclei — all carry an electrical charge, they veer off course whenever they encounter magnetic fields. This scrambles their paths and masks their origins.\nZoom into Eta Carinae, where the outflows of two massive stars collide and shoot accelerated particles — cosmic rays — into space. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center\nEta Carinae, located about 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina, is famous for a 19th century outburst that briefly made it the second-brightest star in the sky. This event also ejected a massive hourglass-shaped nebula, but the cause of the eruption remains poorly understood.\nThe system contains a pair of massive stars whose eccentric orbits bring them unusually close every 5.5 years. The stars contain 90 and 30 times the mass of our Sun and pass 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) apart at their closest approach — about the average distance separating Mars and the Sun.\n“Both of Eta Carinae’s stars drive powerful outflows called stellar winds,” said team member Michael Corcoran, also at Goddard. “Where these winds clash changes during the orbital cycle, which produces a periodic signal in low-energy X-rays we’ve been tracking for more than two decades.”\nNASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope also observes a change in gamma rays — light packing far more energy than X-rays — from a source in the direction of Eta Carinae. But Fermi’s vision isn’t as sharp as X-ray telescopes, so astronomers couldn’t confirm the connection.\nTo bridge the gap between low-energy X-ray monitoring and Fermi observations, Hamaguchi and his colleagues turned to NuSTAR. Launched in 2012, NuSTAR can focus X-rays of much greater energy than any previous telescope. Using both newly taken and archival data, the team examined NuSTAR observations acquired between March 2014 and June 2016, along with lower-energy X-ray observations from the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton satellite over the same period.\nEta Carinae’s low-energy, or soft, X-rays come from gas at the interface of the colliding stellar winds, where temperatures exceed 70 million degrees Fahrenheit (40 million degrees Celsius). But NuSTAR detects a source emitting X-rays above 30,000 eV, some three times higher than can be explained by shock waves in the colliding winds. For comparison, the energy of visible light ranges from about 2 to 3 eV.\nThe team’s analysis, presented in a paper published on Monday, July 2, in Nature Astronomy, shows that these “hard” X-rays vary with the binary orbital period and show a similar pattern of energy output as the gamma rays observed by Fermi.\nThe researchers say that the best explanation for both the hard X-ray and the gamma-ray emission is electrons accelerated in violent shock waves along the boundary of the colliding stellar winds. The X-rays detected by NuSTAR and the gamma rays detected by Fermi arise from starlight given a huge energy boost by interactions with these electrons.\nSome of the superfast electrons, as well as other accelerated particles, must escape the system and perhaps some eventually wander to Earth, where they may be detected as cosmic rays.\n“We’ve known for some time that the region around Eta Carinae is the source of energetic emission in high-energy X-rays and gamma rays”, said Fiona Harrison, the principal investigator of NuSTAR and a professor of astronomy at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “But until NuSTAR was able to pinpoint the radiation, show it comes from the binary and study its properties in detail, the origin was mysterious.”\nNuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NuSTAR was developed in partnership with the Danish Technical University and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Virginia. NuSTAR’s mission operations center is at UC Berkeley, and the official data archive is at NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center. ASI provides the mission’s ground station and a mirror archive. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.", "With a dedicated focus on technology that can improve its customer’s banking experience, Eastern Bank is now trying to get a little close to some of the brightest new minds in fintech.\nThe bank yesterday announced that it will be a “Challenge Partner” in MassChallenge’s Fintech program, a new accelerator to support and grow startups in the financial technology industry that will match fintech startups with industry leaders to grow emerging products and services that have the power to transform the financial services ecosystem.\n“Boston is home to a thriving fintech community and MassChallenge Fintech serves as a powerful connector to all kinds of emerging ideas,” Bob Rivers, chairman and CEO of Eastern Bank, said in a statement. “We recognize the importance of small businesses to our local economy and this is a natural way to support them through a program that will also add new momentum to how we think about our customer experience.”\nAs a challenge partner, Eastern will help accelerate innovation in the financial services industry by making it easier for startups and established businesses, institutions and organizations to work together. Startups selected for MassChallenge Fintech will participate in a six-month, vertical-specific accelerator where they will work closely with a leading partner on a range of activities from co-development and product validation to strategic investment and advisor introductions. At the end of the program, the enterprise-ready startups have the opportunity to win zero-equity cash prizes.\n“We’re very excited to have Eastern Bank join MassChallenge Fintech as a challenge partner,” Devon Sherman, program director of MassChallenge Fintech, said in a statement. “Together, we’ll work to create new opportunities for customers and communities by connecting exceptional fintech startups with Eastern Bank’s network.”\nIn May 2017, Eastern successfully spun out a new technology company, Numerated Growth Technologies, which offers a fully digital small business lending platform that gives customers the opportunity to obtain a loan in less than five minutes.\n“As a local bank celebrating 200 years in Massachusetts, we believe it’s important to support Boston’s fintech ecosystem and the job growth and economic development it creates in our own backyard,” Ashley Nagle Eknaian, who joined Eastern Bank in February as chief digital strategist to lead its tech lab and collaborations with the fintech community, said in a statement. “MassChallenge excels at creating networks that stretch the imagination, and we’re excited to cultivate new products and services that push our thinking on how we serve our customers and communities.”\nThe MassChallenge Fintech program will run from January 2019 through June 2019. Applications for the first cohort open in August 2018.\nTags: Eastern Bank, FinTech, MassChallenge", "Τhe East Mediterranean’s gas resources can promote cooperation, resolve conflicts and deliver financial benefits that contribute to the economic development of littoral countries, primarily Israel.\nA renewed Israeli gas regulation framework portends a competitive market in the East Mediterranean, given that new companies acquire offshore exploration licenses as result of Israel’s first international licensing round. The first Israeli international round concluded with the award of licenses to Greek energy company Energean Oil & Gas and a consortium of Indian companies comprised of ONGC Videsh, Bharat PetroResources, Indian Oil Corp and Oil India. Due to limited response by prospective investors, the second licensing round is scheduled for 2018 so that utilization of gas and oil fields occurs within Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).\nThe attraction of international energy companies however depends on the commercial viability of existing and future reserves that is linked to energy market prices, the cost of constructing export infrastructure, and the securing of customers. Concurrently, existing and prospective supply options and regional stability or instability are factors determining investment decisions by international energy majors.\nThe lack of oil and gas transportation infrastructure is a reality in Israel. Leviathan gas field partners namely Noble Energy, Avner Oil Exploration, Ratio Oil Exploration and Delek Drilling are likely to develop infrastructure used exclusively by Leviathan, blocking out competitors and endangering prospects for future gas discoveries in Israel. Without Leviathan’s economies of scale, competitors will have to finance their own transportation infrastructure, thus raising the costs of developing smaller fields at prohibitive levels.\nRegarding prospective supply options, the overall outlook is quite promising. Israel’s capacity as a gas exporter is significant in regional terms, as evidenced by the signing of a $15 billion agreement to export approximately 64 bcm of gas over a ten-year period from Israel to Egypt. Notably, the new Egyptian legislation, called Resolution No. 196 of 2017, foresees the establishment of a gas regulatory authority and permits private companies to import gas from third countries like Israel.The transfer of Israeli gas to Egypt will be carried out via Jordan, which is expected to gain revenues in the form of royalties paid by oil companies. Jordan’s National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) finalized the Gas Transport Agreement (GTA) with the Jordanian-Egyptian Fajr Company for Natural Gas Transmission and Supply Co Ltd in December 2017; Jordan’s council of ministers authorized the GTA on February 4, 2018, and NEPCO and Fajr Company signed the GTA contract on February 20, 2018. The agreement foresees the construction of a 50 km pipeline expected to be fully operational in the second half of 2019. The benefits of the project are two-fold as not only it guarantees the flow of economic resources that open the way for the speed development of the Leviathan gas field, but it is also a milestone in regional gas cooperation as it supports real Jordan-Israel-Egypt normalization.\nPolitical tensions that can negatively impact regional energy cooperation are connected to competing Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims between littoral countries in the East Mediterranean. For example, overlapping maritime claims between Israel and Lebanon over Block 9, an 854-square kilometer maritime boundary, carry the risk of escalation if exploration in this disrupted area were to proceed. The January 2018 signing of Lebanon’s first exploration and production agreement (EPA) with a consortium of companies led by French Total as the operator, Italian Eni and Russian Novatek as partners, signals competition that could evolve into confrontation over energy resources. To dodge tension, a 2012 American proposal that involved division of the disputed area, granting Lebanon a larger share, could serve as basis of bilateral discussions and could be carried out by a third party. The reason is that in the absence of mutual diplomatic recognition between Lebanon and Israel, no trans-boundary natural resource sharing initiative could be taken. In fact, the block-9 consortium’s announcement that no operation within 25 km of the disputed area will happen leaves room for a third party mediation; this party could minimize the risk of armed conflict, and work on reciprocal acceptance of the 2012 American proposal so that consensual and authorized economic activity becomes feasible.\nThe development of energy resources is a demanding process thus Israel should swiftly proceed with the construction of the pipeline that will carry gas from Israel to Egypt through Jordan to capitalize Egyptian Resolution 196 and circumvent Egyptian government regulation, which dictates that gas agreements with Israel can proceed only after arbitration cases against Egyptian firms are resolved. Israel’s focus on multiple gas export options is deemed as critic also that Israeli gas is not tied to a single market where changing bilateral relations or geopolitical conditions can affect the sustainability of exports, and thus negatively impact the country’s energy wealth.\nAdditionally the joint use of Israeli Leviathan field’s transportation infrastructure or alternatively the development of joint national infrastructure to overcome prohibitively high costs associated with developing smaller fields in Israel like Dalit gas field and the Shimshon field is important to attract international energy majors for future licensing rounds. The Israeli government should specifically address risks that worry investors like force majeure and export sustainability by guaranteeing a certain amount of financial recovery through the existing compensation mechanism.\nLast but not least, the convening of an East Mediterranean Conference that will focus on the delineation of regional countries’ maritime borders encouraging perhaps the EU to intervene as arbitrator for the disputed Block 9 that lies across the common Israel-Lebanon maritime border can prove catalytic for regional energy cooperation.\nNo doubt that Israel has a competitive edge in gas exploration and development in the East Mediterranean; it is a deserving pioneer that has overcome past regulatory wilderness and is profoundly committed to solve adversities so that regional energy and economic integration becomes of substance. Because as it is aptly highlighted by American winner of the 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Edward Prescott “Economic integration is the path to riches and peace”.\nThis article was published at Modern Diplomacy", "Next weekend’s SPAR Summer Festival is set for another bumper entry as action enthusiasts gear up for an assortment of outdoor disciplines in the resort town of Cannonville just outside Port Elizabeth.\nEvent organiser Michael Zoetmulder said those interested in competing in the various events – including the featured River Mile swims – on February 25 and 26 had until 3 pm on the day before the festival to enter.\n“We encourage everyone to enter online because it is so quick and easy, but we will take late entries at the festival. However, there is a late entry fee of R50 attached to that.”\nHe added that those who entered online would receive a goodie bag if they collected their race numbers from the Nelson Mandela Bay Aquatics board room at the Newton Park pool on Wednesday (noon to 6 pm).\nThe two-day programme, which includes swimming races, mountain biking, a fun run and the new Anything That Floats option, will culminate with the traditional men’s and women’s River Mile races on Sunday afternoon.\nZoetmulder said the chance of cashing in was proving to be a good incentive for competitors as entries were coming in nicely.\n“I don’t know of many local events that offer lucky draw prizes of this nature,” he said, referring to the main prize of R10 000 that will be awarded to one lucky mile finisher at the post-race prize-giving.\nThere will also be two R3 000 lucky draw prizes, of which one will go to a finisher from the combined entry of the triathlon and various swimming events (double mile, family half-mile and disabled mile).\nThe second is destined for a lucky competitor from the mountain bike and fun run fields.\nZoetmulder said families of four should take advantage of the discounted entry option for the half-mile swim.\nHe added that the fun Anything That Floats category was attracting much interest.\n“A lot of people are talking about this event and it’s great in that it doesn’t require any special skills. Just bring an inflatable and float down the river on the tide for half an hour,” he said.\nWhile there is an array of fun sporting activities to choose from, the emphasis is also on celebrating the heritage of the SPAR River Mile, which celebrates its 93rd anniversary this year.\nEstablished at Redhouse on the Swartkops River in 1924, the event has a proud history as Africa’s longest-running open water swimming competition.\nTo enter or for more information, go to www.zsports.co.za\nIssued by fullstop on behalf of SPAR Eastern Cape.", "In May, German utility Uniper, Düsseldorf, began operating an innovative 1-MW power-to-gas (PtG) pilot plant in Falkenhagen, Germany. The unit converts hydrogen from regenerative energy sources and carbon dioxide from a nearby bio-ethanol plant into methane, i.e., synthetic natural gas (SNG), at normal temperature and pressure. The transformation itself occurs in a prototype honeycomb catalytic reactor developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Karlsruhe, Germany.\nMethanation Pilot Plant Figure 1. Falkenhagenfacility uses hydrogen and carbon dioxide from regenerative sources to produce “green” methane. Source: Uniper.\nHydrogen for the process comes from Wind Gas Falkenhagen, a neighboring PtG plant built in 2013 to store wind energy within the German natural gas grid. That 2-MW facility produces up to 360 m3/hr of hydrogen via six alkaline electrolyzers.\nThe new methanation plant uses 210 m3/hr of hydrogen from Wind Gas in the reaction to produce up to 57 m³/hr of SNG; this output, roughly 600 kWh/hr, could heat a 50-m2(≈540-ft2) apartment for a month. The existing natural gas infrastructure can handle transport and storage of the SNG produced.\nThe reaction also generates a significant amount of heat, which a high-pressure hot water pipeline delivers to a neighboring veneer mill for use in its production processes. Meanwhile, water produced by the methanation process goes to the water supply of the electrolysis systems in the Wind Gas plant.\nFalkenhagen is one of three PtG pilots currently under development in Europe as part of the European Union’s four-year STORE&GO project, which was launched in 2016under the E.U’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Total project funding is expected to reach €28 million ($33 million), with €18 million ($15 million) coming directly from the E.U.\nThe pilot plant’s operation over the next 24 months primarily will focus on gaining insights about specific technical areas.\n“The general methanation process will be investigated in detail by various test programs to gain information on efficiency, stability, flexibility and optimization potentials. The pilot plant performance and efficiency will be compared to the other two STORE&GO pilots installed in Switzerland and Italy, with the aim to find an optimum technology for any potential boundary conditions,” says Helge Föcker, project manager storage facilities and project management, Uniper Energy Storage.\nLooking to the future, Föcker is confident the technology being tested is robust enough for the rigors of commercial operation. “We believe that our pilot plant investigations will show only limited scale-up challenges and that plants in the 10-MW+ class could be realized with a very similar concept,” he adds.", "**Wind Advisory in effect for most of Siouxland into early afternoon/evening**\nAfter a beautiful Sunday, conditions are becoming colder as we kick-start the workweek. Clouds will be moving in and the winds will become blustery through the day as a cold front continues to track through the region. Our temps look to fall into the 30s and 40s which is around 10° cooler than Sunday. It'll feel a bit worse though as wind chills look to be a factor due to NW winds that may gust toward 45 mph. In terms of precipitation, the boundary could spark up a little rain and snow especially this afternoon.\nA few isolated spots could pick up a coating but little to no accumulation is expected, as precipitation looks to be fairly scattered. Moisture then exits tonight as clouds start to diminish through the overnight. We'll see clouds mixed with sunshine Tuesday with temps topping out near 40° yet again. Another warm front lifts in which will continue our up and down temperature trend. Highs look to climb back toward 50° Wednesday along with breezy winds as the front pushes in. Our above average highs aren't ending behind this passage either but the 30s look to return with lower 40s SW of Sioux City on Thursday. Highs climb back up progressing into the weekend with 40s and 50s expected by Sunday. This dry and rather quiet pattern looks to continue as well with no big chances of rain or snow into next week.\nMeteorologist T.J. Springer", "WORLDWEBFORUM/FinTech 2017 Innovation doesn't just belong to Silicon Valley - it comes from everywhere. That's the message from the World Economic Forum sent with its annual list of the most innovative companies in the world. The list includes 61 early-stage companies whose technologies are \"world changing.\" They're from, yes, Silicon Valley, but there are also several from emerging markets in Africa and South America, as well as Europe. As industry-watchers may expect, many of the companies listed are utilizing artificial intelligence, as well as a number of biotech firms and blockchain technologies. Here are the 61 companies the World Economic Forum considers pioneers.\n1928 Diagnostics — Sweden 1928 Diagnostics 1928 Diagnostics is a Swedish biotech company that has developed a platform to better diagnose infectious diseases.\nAgrosmart — Brazil Shutterstock Agrosmart is a Brazilian company that uses sensors, meteorological data, and image processing to provide real-time crop monitoring that helps farmers to better manage their agribusiness.\nApeel Sciences —USA Apeel Sciences Apeel Sciences is a food-tech startup that has created an edible coating that makes produce and fresh food last longer. Backed by Bill Gates and famed Silicon Valley venture firm Andreeseen Horowitz, the company recently introduced its longer-lasting avocados at Costco and Harps Food Stores locations throughout the Midwest.\nApplied Brain Research — Canada University of Waterloo Applied Brain Research is an artificial intelligence company working in the field of so-called neuromorphic computing, which uses artificial neurons to compute in a way similiar to the human brain, but using less power than traditional machine learning algorithms.\nAqua Security — Israel Aqua Security Aqua Security (formerly known as Scalock) is an Israeli cybersecurity company helping its customers secure their modern software infrastructure. The company counts Microsoft as an investor, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a partner.\nArmis — USA Armis Armis is an enterprise security company founded by Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael, two former Google employees. Its solutions help companies secure their smart devices.\nBenevolentAI — UK Benevolent AI BenevolentAI is an artificial intelligence platform that helps developers build software that can take advantage of unstructured information in scientific papers, patents, clinical trial information, and from a large number of structured data sets. Focusing on biotechnology, the UK-based startup is focused on helingp discover new drugs to treat conditions like Parkinson's disease and rare cancers.\nBestmile — Switzerland Screenshot/BestMile Bestmile is an online platform, helping companies manage and maintain their current and future fleets of autonomous cars, buses, and trucks.\nBlue Vision Labs — UK Blue Vision Labs Blue Vision Labs is a UK-based startup making technology that allows several people to use augmented reality (AR) at the same time.\nBitPesa — Kenya Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Yahoo Finance/Oath BitPesa is an online payment platform that uses blockchain to allow users in sub-Saharan Africa to trade bitcoin.\nCadenza Innovation —USA World Economic Forum Founded in 2012 by Swedish chemist Christina Lampe-Önnerud, Cadenza Innovations uses patented technology to make lithium-ion batteries safer, cheaper, and able to hold more energy.\nCarePay — Kenya CarePay CarePay is a Kenyan company that has developed 'mHealth Wallet', a mobile wallet that lets users save, insure, and pay for healthcare services.\nCasetext — USA Casetext Casetext is a legal-tech startup that lets lawyers and their staff upload legal briefs, and then uses artificial inteligence to identify other relevant cases and documents.\nCode.org — USA Code.org Code.org is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in for K-12 students in schools, focusing on increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities.\nCognitiveScale — USA CognitiveScale CognitiveScale makes software that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to organize big data sets for companies.\nColor Genomics — USA Color Genomics Color Genomics offers affordable genetic testing to help customers understand their risk for common hereditary cancers and heart conditions.\nCohesity — USA Cohesity Founded by Mohit Aron, an early Google employee and the co-founder of Nutanix, storage company Cohesity was only the second enterprise software company ever to earn an investment from Japanese venture firm Softbank.\nCUJO AI — USA CUJO AI CUJO AI uses artificial intelligence to provide cybersecurity for home devices, including a feature for parental controls.\nDelair — France Delair Delair uses long-range drones to gather aerial imagery, giving customers an eagle-eye view of a work site or facility.\nDrive.ai — USA Drive.ai Drive.ai, which was started by researchers in Stanford University's artificial intelligence lab, are making the \"brains\" - or the software - that powers self-driving cars.\nEverledger — UK WORLDWEBFORUM/FinTech 2017 Everledger is putting diamonds on the blockchain. The Everledger blockchain provides a secure ledger that tracks and stores information about the color, carat and certificate number of each diamond. The company hopes to reduce and completely eliminate theft, illicit trafficking and fraud in the diamond and jewelry industry.\nEVRYTHNG — UK EVRYTHNG EVRYTHNG is a platform that allows users to easily manage and track physical objects digitally. It can, for example, let a customer track a product as it moves through their supply clain.\nFetch Robotics — USA Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch Fetch Robotics builds autonomous robots that can work on factory floors. These robots, the company says, can be particularly helpful to those in the e-commerce business who are struggling to keep up with the likes of Amazon in order fulfillment.\nGamalon — USA Gamalon Gamalon uses artificial intelligence to understand text conversations, to help software make sense of normal human interactions.\nGrid Singularity — Germany lmh Grid Singularity is bringing blockchain to the energy sector by creating an open source decentralized energy data exchange platform that can host applications.\nH55 — Switzerland H55 Founded by Swiss pilot André Borschberg, H55 produces electric propulsion systems for existing airplanes as well as for flying taxis and drones. Borschberg has experience in the aviation industry, as he was behind Solar Impulse 2, the experimental aircraft that successfully ran entirely on solar power.\nHorizon State — Australia Horizon State Horizon State is an Australian company that is looking to use blockchain to make voting more secure.\nHyperloop Transportation Technologies — USA HTT Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is working on making the hyperloop concept - the idea of super fast travel through underground low-pressure tubes, first envisioned by Elon Musk- a reality.\nInnoviz Technologies — Israel Innoviz Innoviz develops technology for self-driving cars, including LiDAR, a crucial piece of hardware that allows an autonomous car to percieve its surroundings.\nJuvo — USA Juvo Juvo is a fintech company that allows users in developing markets to borrow small amounts money in exchange for more talk time or data on their phones, allowing users to build credit.\nMalong Technologies — China Malong Technologies Malong is a Chinese artificial intelligence startup that allow machines to recognize physical objects, like consumer products, and identify them.\nME SOLshare — Bangladesh SOLshare SOLshare has developed the world's first peer-to-peer solar electricity trading platform. The company aims to bring power to low-income rural parts of Bangladesh.\nMelonport — Switzerland Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch Melonport has created Melon, a platform for crypto token asset management.\nModern Meadow — USA Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch Modern Meadow makes animal-free leather using a process called biofabrication, which allows the company to grow collagen, a protein found in animal skin, without an actual animal.\nMy Crop Technologies — India MyCrop My Crop is an India-based agriculture platform that uses machine learning to help farmers plan their crops and planting.\nNarrativ — USA Narrativ Narrativ allows retailers to bid for publishers to link to their stores via affiliate link.\nNarrative Science — USA YouTube Narrative Science is a Chicago-based company that has created Quill, a platform for turning data into easy-to-understand recommendations.\nOnlinePajak — Indonesia OnlinePajak OnlinePajak is an easy-to-use platform that lets Indonesians prepare, pay, and file taxes online.\nOvamba Solutions — USA Ovamba Ovamba is a mobile app that connects small business owners in Africa with investment capital.\nPeloton Technology — USA Peloton Peloton Technology connects two trucks, allowing one truck driver to control the acceleration and braking of both trucks simultaneously. The process saves both time and fuel, allowing one trucker to do the work of two.\nPetuum — USA Petuum Petuum provides an platform that allows companies to build their own artificially intelligent software without the need for AI engineering expertise.\nPlataforma Verde — Brazil Chicko Sousa Plataforma Verde is a waste management platform on the blockchain.\nPlenty — USA Plenty Plenty is an agriculture technology company that grows crops in an indoor vertical farm - and without pesticides and GMOs.\nPrecognize — Israel Yael Zur Precognize makes software that predicts - using artificial intelligence - which machines might need maintenance. The company focuses on heavy industry.\nPrimer — USA Primer Primer helps parse and collate a large number of documents across several languages, automating the analysis of very large datasets.\nPymetrics — USA Pymetrics Pymetrics uses neuroscience games and AI to reduce bias and save time in the hiring process.\nQuintessenceLabs — Australia Quintessence Labs QuintessenceLabs is a quantum cybersecurity company.\nRaycatch — Israel Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images Raycatch uses artificial intelligence to provide suggestions about operations and maintenance to operators and owners of solar plants.\nSeismic — USA Superflex Seismic is creating \"wearable robotics,\" which it calls Powered Clothing, for senior citizens. It' SuperFlex suit would add strength to muscles and joints for those who have trouble with mobility.\nSocialCops — India SocialCops SocialCops is a data intelligence company that specializes in cleaning up unorganized data.\nSoft Robotics — USA Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images for TechCrunch Soft Robotics builds a proprietary \"soft\" gripper on the end of a robotic arm. The grasper can handle a range of objects, regardless of shape, size, or weight, with no tool or software changes between cycles.\nSoul Machines — New Zealand Soul Machines Soul Machines creates life-like, emotionally responsive digital assistants with personality and character.\nSuade — UK Suade Suade is a fintech startup that makes software for banks to help them adapt their balance sheets to changes in financial regulation.\nThoughtSpot — USA ThoughtSpot ThoughtSpot is a search and artificial intelligence-driven analytics platform. The company recently scored a $145 million Series D funding round valuing the startup at $1 billion. It plans to IPO in the near future.\nTulip Interfaces — USA Tulip Tulip lets workers without any coding experience build apps that can monitor heavy equipment like you might find on a factory floor.\nuBiome — USA REUTERS/Mike Blake uBiome is a home-testing company that lets customers analyzes their microbiome. The company offers a SmartGut test, which gives people insight into what's going on in their digestive tract, and its SmartJane test, which tests for HPV and STIs.\nUtilis — Israel Utilis Utilis uses remote sensing and satellite data to detect drinking water leaks from underground pipes.\nVayyar — Israel Vayyar Vayyar claims to make the world's most advanced 3D imaging sensor, which can be used in applications ranging from breast cancer screening to detecting water leakage.\nWatergen — Israel Watergen Watergen has built a small water-from-air generator that provides renewable source of clean and fresh drinking water.\nWaystoCap — Morocco Niama El Bassunie WaystoCap is a B2B marketplace where businesses in Africa can buy and sell products. The startup graduated from Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator in 2017." ]

[ "Daniel Mann" ]

[ "directives", "Shop Direct", "Direct marketing", "at the direction of the court", "The Landfill Directive", "Sports Direct", "Nintendo Direct", "direct bank", "directional lighting", "human directionals", "direct mail", "direct debit", "directional gyro", "direct evidence", "direct democracy", "prograde direction", "Directive Principles", "presidential directive", "direct costs", "Direct repeats", "direction of polarization", "Directional stability", "direct examination", "directive or pragma" ]

[ "Twenty20 cricket, sometimes written Twenty-20, and often abbreviated to T20, is a short form of cricket. It was originally introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for professional inter-county competition in England and Wales.n a Twenty20 game the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of 20 overs." ]

[ "T20 originated in England and Wales in 2003. It was conceived as an exciting alternative to One Day and Test Match cricket. The format ensures fans are captivated by every ball, every hit and every run throughout the match. The T20 format started as an inter-county domestic competition. It has now grown into a massive part of the international game.", "T20 - T18 - D18 [T20 - D25 - D20] *. * The bull option on the shot in brackets is not recommended if your opponent is on an out shot. But if you are not under pressure and have some skill on bulls it can give you a higher percentage to close with the next 3 darts.", "Gayle smashed the fastest century in the format, brought off 30 balls; made the highest individual T20 score (175 not out); struck the most sixes by a batsman in a T20 innings (17); helped Royal Challengers Bangalore hit the most sixes for a team in a T20 innings (21) and reach the highest total in T20 cricket (263).fter Gayle's onslaught, there was only going to be one result, and further confirmation of that arrived when four wickets fell inside the first six overs of the Warriors chase. Their defeat was the second-biggest in terms of runs in the IPL's six seasons.", "The Progen T20 is a 2-door hypercar introduced in GTA 5 and GTA Online, as part of the Ill-Gotten Gains Part 2 Update. Overall, the Progen T20 ‘s main body design is almost identical to the McLaren P1, including the curvature of the hood, the greenhouse area and the rear guards of the car.The rear lights, fascia and spoiler are also inspired by the McLaren P1.he Progen T20 features a modification adding large intake on the hood, intakes on the roof, and splitters on the front and sides. A large carbon-fibre composites as a grille at the front of the vehicle.", "With some having done well and others having floundered, the ICC player rankings will show which individuals are at the top of their game right now with the ball in hand. Read on for the top 10 T20 bowlers in the world right now, taking into account the recent World T20 tournament. =9.", "For example, the Progen T20 made its debut with the release of Ill-Gotten Gains Part II just yesterday, and has been the most popular of the newly purchasable cars. The super-car has awed many with its speed, and quite a few players began propagating the idea that the T20 is the fastest car currently in-game. Now, naturally, GTA Online players won’t leave a claim such as that un-disputed, and a few prominent GTA Online Youtubers decided to put the theory to the test. First up, we have a video from tej jethwa where the T20 and the Osiris have a one-on-one race.", "1 The T20's name is likely a parody of the P1's, while also referencing the English alphabet, as T is the 20th letter. 2 It could also be parodying the Tushek TS600, which also contains a T and a number. 3 The T20's $2,200,000 price tag makes it the most expensive land vehicle in GTA Online.he headlight arrangement and positioning is also similar to that of the TS600s, whereas the headlight's design are similar to those found on the Falcon F7. The rear is mostly similar to the P1, but the rear exhaust and the rear diffuser are similar to the Ferrari 488 GTB.", "T20 merges the drama of short form cricket with a party atmosphere at the ground. You can expect a lot of entertainment at matches both on and off the pitch. This results in non-stop action from beginning to end whether you are at the game or watching at home.", "IPL 2016 - Indian Premier League T20 Schedule. IPL 2016 tournament date is decided by IPL Governing Council. 2016 IPL T20 will be played between April 8 to May 29, 2016. Final IPL 2016 T20 schedule may be declared in around december 2015.", "The only difference is that Afridi scored it on a international level while Gayle scored it in the domestic T20 event which is full of International players. HERE ARE SOME OF THE RECORDS HE BROKE: 1 Highest Number of Sixes. 2 Highest Individual score. 3 Fastest 50 in T20.4 Fastest Centure in T20.he only difference is that Afridi scored it on a international level while Gayle scored it in the domestic T20 event which is full of International players. HERE ARE SOME OF THE RECORDS HE BROKE: 1 Highest Number of Sixes. 2 Highest Individual score. 3 Fastest 50 in T20.", "The dates are not finalized yet but we can expect BCCI and ICC to announce the provisional 2016 ICC T20 WC schedule somewhere in the summer of 2015. Here are all the details you need to know about T20 World Cup 2016.", "The next T20 world cup will take place in 2016 and it will use the same format as the last one which Sri Lanka won defeating West Indies in the final. The dates are not finalized yet but we can expect BCCI and ICC to announce the provisional 2016 ICC T20 WC schedule somewhere in the summer of 2015.", "The advent of Twenty20 cricket (T20) and the wild success of the IPL in the first decade of the 21st century led to a period of great innovation in the game. The new, truncated form of the game privileged batting, partly by restricting the placement of fielders and shortening the boundaries.", "Aaron Finch’s blistering knock of 156 against England at Southampton, in the first of two match T20 internationals, made him the highest scorer in an innings in T20 International cricket, surpassing Brendon McCullum who features twice in the following list.", "Now, as we head into the fifth edition of the ICC World Twenty20, we use a statistical algorithm to determine the top 50 players to have graced the field over the nine-year history of the international T20 game.", "― Legendarymotorsport.net description. The Progen T20 is a two-door hypercar introduced in Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, as part of the Ill-Gotten Gains Part 2 Update.he headlight arrangement and positioning is also similar to that of the TS600s, whereas the headlight's design are similar to those found on the Falcon F7. The rear is mostly similar to the P1, but the rear exhaust and the rear diffuser are similar to the Ferrari 488 GTB.", "Although the schedule is not announced yet but the start and finish dates are announced by ICC as the 2015 T20 World cup will start on 11 March 2016 and the final will take place on 03 April 2016.", "Here are some of their T20 numbers from January 2012: 1 Twenty different batsmen have batted in the top three for Pakistan - the most for any team. 2 Pakistan's Powerplay run rate of 6.29 is the worst of any team in this period. A Pakistan batsman scores a fifty every 9.6 innings - the worst for any team.", "Other T20. The 10th of 11 children, Brian Lara learnt his game at the Harvard Coaching Clinic, where he was enrolled at the age of six, and although at school he played for Trinidad's junior football and table tennis side, it was cricket which really drew him.", "Chris Gayle 175 vs Pune Fastest Century Video – 17 Sixes of 30 balls.he only difference is that Afridi scored it on a international level while Gayle scored it in the domestic T20 event which is full of International players. HERE ARE SOME OF THE RECORDS HE BROKE: 1 Highest Number of Sixes. 2 Highest Individual score. 3 Fastest 50 in T20.", "Australia Tour of India (7 ODI and 2 T20) India: Oct-Nov 2017: Bangladesh Tour of South Africa (2 Test, 3 ODI,1 T20) South Africa: Oct-Dec 2017: Sri Lanka Tour of Pakistan (3 Test, 5 ODI, 2 T20) UAE: Nov 2017 to Jan 2018: India Tour of South Africa (3 Test, 7 ODI, 2 T20) South Africa: Nov-Dec 2017: West Indies Tour of New Zealand (3 Test, 5 ODI, 1 T20) New Zealand", "A T20 bulb is commonly known by industry standards as the following bulb sizes: 7440 7441 7443 7444 992A, etc. These T20 bulbs are commonly used for the turn signals, tail/stop lights, reverse lights, and daytime running lights.", "There are many different cricket teams within Australia that represent on a particular level. To answer the question, there are two main levels of cricket in Australia, domest … ic and international. Domestic cricket runs in the form of the KFC T20 Big Bash, the Ryobi One Day Cup, and the Sheffield Shield.", "Soon after with the adoption of Twenty20 matches by other cricket boards, the popularity of the format grew with unexpected crowd attendance, new regional tournaments such as Pakistan's Faysal Bank T20 Cup and Stanford 20/20 tournament and the financial incentive in the format.t was first decided that every two years an ICC World Twenty20 tournament is to take place, except in the event of an Cricket World Cup being scheduled in the same year, in which case it will be held the year before.", "Zee Media Bureau/Suyash Srivastava. Southampton: Aaron Finch was in a devastating mood in the first T20 international against England as he clobbered 156 runs off just 63 balls on Thursday.", "But then less than a month later the Progen T20 turned up in the second part of the Ill-Gotten Gains DLC, throwing a spanner in the works. It looked to be a little bit faster and it was certainly the most expensive car in the game.", "117 Chris Gayle (West Indies v South Africa, Sep 11, 2007). 116no Brendon McCullum (New Zealand v South Africa, Feb 28, 2010). 104no Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka v Australia, Aug 6, 2011). The 26-year-old smashed an incredible 156 from 63 balls with 14 sixes and 11 fours, the highest score in any T20 international.", "This article is about the sport of cricket; Twenty20, the professional version of the game. For details on amateur twenty over cricket, see Short form cricket. For the Malayalam film, see Twenty:20 (film) . For other uses, see 2020 (disambiguation) .wenty20 match format is similar to limited overs cricket in that it involves two teams, each with a single innings, the key difference being each team bats for a maximum of 20 overs.", "In the world cup top 8 teams will get the direct qualification to the Super 10 round while the bottom 2 ranked teams will join in the Associate members to qualify for the qualification round. The tournament is set to be played from 11 th March to 3 rd of April. T20 World Cup 2016 Venue. Eden Gardens (Kolkata).", "1 T20 (or T50) test-This is a measure of the concrete's viscosity and is measured as the amount of time it takes for concrete in the slump flow test to reach a diameter of 20 inches (or 50 centimeters). 2 A T20 between 2 and 5 seconds is taken as a low viscosity concrete.", "Southampton: Aaron Finch was in a devastating mood in the first T20 international against England as he clobbered 156 runs off just 63 balls on Thursday. The right-hander’s record brutal knock had eleven boundaries and 14 sixes as he surpassed Brendon McCullum’s highest individual score (123) in T20 internationals.", "Twenty20 match format is similar to limited overs cricket in that it involves two teams, each with a single innings, the key difference being each team bats for a maximum of 20 overs.wenty20 match format is similar to limited overs cricket in that it involves two teams, each with a single innings, the key difference being each team bats for a maximum of 20 overs." ]

[ "'I'm the boy who cried wolf': David Garrett Jr. says he made a post online that the FBI took as a serious threat against news orgnaizations . A hacking threat against CNN that rose to the FBI attention is actually a hoax, claims a freelance writer from Tennessee who is claiming responsibility for the post. David Garrett Jr., from Nashville, says he we the one who posted to the anonymous site 'pastebin' claiming to be Sony hackers the 'Guardians of Peace.' It included the bizarre demand that CNN should turn over anchor Wolf Blitzer. It is believed that the FBI issued a Joint Intelligence Bulletin based on that post that warned CNN and other media companies that hack attacks could be in the works. Mr Garrett, who rights about security issues for Examiner.com, revealed himself on Twitter today after news media organizations, including Daily Mail Online, picked up the story about the FBI warning. 'My fake pastbin post is being investigated by the FBI. I wrote for CNN to \"give us the Wolf\" and the FBI is actually taking it as a threat,' he tweeted. 'It was a joke. And to show that no one investigates anything. Everything is rumors. I had no idea it would be taken seriously.' He says he wrote the post to make the point that pastebin is an unreliable source and that anyone can post anything to the site. The Sony Hackers released several messages on the site - as well as links to the documents it pillaged from Sony Pictures. In a cryptic message, the poster claims to be the 'GOP' and says: 'The result of investigation by CNN is so excellent that you might have seen what we were doing with your own eyes.' 'Give us the Wolf': David Garnett now says he made the bizarre demand to prove that his anonymous post to CNN was a joke . The message was posted on the same forum where the hackers released the hacked Sony documents - an anonymous online forum called pastebin . 'We congratulate you success. CNN is the BEST in the world.' The message ends: 'P.S. You have 24 hours to give us the Wolf.' Mr Garrett says he is being interviewed by FBI agents. He also posted several screen grabs that appear to prove he is the pastebin user who made the post. In a Joint Intelligence Bulletin sent out to US companies on Christmas Eve, the FBI warned that hackers could begin targeting one news organization - and other media companies that reported on the hack Sony attack. The US government says that North Korean hackers attacked Sony Pictures and released a trove of emails and personal information of employees as retaliation against the release of 'The Interview.' The Seth Rogen comedy is about the assassination of Kim Jong-un and depicts his violent death. Taking responsibility: Mr Garrett also posted several screen shots on his twitter that appear to prove that he made the CNN post ." ]

[ "Washington (CNN)They weren't exactly James Bond but the three alleged Russian spies exposed by the FBI are part of the most intense effort by Russia to infiltrate agents onto American soil since the Cold War. In an affidavit unsealed in federal court on Monday, the Justice Department accused Evgeny Buryakov, also known as \"Zhenya,\" of posing as a Russian banker in Manhattan to funnel economic intelligence to the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence agency. Two other Russians, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy, were ostensibly diplomats in Russia's UN mission in New York but are accused of being Buryakov's SVR handlers. While Buryakov was operating deep undercover and therefore had no diplomatic protection, the other two have immunity and have already left the the United States. Anecdotes in the affidavit portray the accused spies as bumbling and hapless compared to the stereotype of hard-eyed Soviet-era KGB professionals. Still, news of their existences comes at the most perilous moment in U.S.-Russia relations in decades, with Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin at a standoff over issues ranging from Ukraine to Moscow's claims it has a right to a \"sphere of influence\" in its backyard. A spy operation will only serve to deepen the hostilities. Professor Mark Galeotti, a specialist in transnational organized crime, security affairs and Russia at New York University, said that Russian operations are cranking up against the U.S. and its European allies. \"It is clear that this is a process that has been taking place over time,\" he said. \"It is not just about throwing money and people into it. It is the tempo and the aggressiveness that is at the height of Cold War levels.\" FBI: Russian spies used tickets and hats to try to hide New York activities . Edward Lucas, author of \"Deception: The Untold Story of East-West Espionage Today,\" said \"Russian espionage in the West is on a bigger scale than it was during the Soviet period.\" \"We are an open society so we are very easy to spy on and we are in competition with a very closed society, which is Russia. They use intelligence as one of the most important tools in the Kremlin tool kit.\" U.S. authorities agree. \"More than two decades after the presumptive end of the Cold War, Russian spies continue to seek to operate in our midst under cover of secrecy,\" U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. Assistant FBI Director Randall Coleman warned that despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, \"espionage is as pervasive today as it has ever been.\" \"This case is especially egregious as it demonstrates the actions of a foreign intelligence service to integrate a covert intelligence agent into American society under the cover of an employee in the financial sector,\" he said. The affidavit contains details of alleged -- and apparently fumbling -- attempts by the accused SVR agents to recruit female students at a New York University and a boastful American businessman dreaming of riches in the Russian energy industry. Those tid bits have sparked derisive assessments of Moscow's espionage prowess, echoing the ridicule drummed up by the outing of Anna Chapman in 2010. She was exposed in an FBI probe into 10 Russian deep cover \"sleeper agents\" and was later exchanged with Moscow in a spy swap. According to the unclassified affidavit, the 2015 spies, like the 2010 brigade, appeared to extract little useful intelligence and appeared not to penetrate deeply into the U.S. financial industry. In fact, the two alleged handlers, were caught on an FBI surveillance tape complaining that life as a spy in the United States wasn't like it was in the movies. Podobnyy is quoted in the affidavit as saying that he didn't expect to be \"James Bond\" but had expected a little more excitement. \"Of course, I wouldn't fly helicopters,\" he said, but confessed he had expected to \"pretend to be someone else\" under an assumed identity. The pair apparently communicated with Buryakov using covert and coded methods and conducted 48 clandestine meetings, unaware they were under surveillance by the FBI. Lucas said that in retrospect their missions might look amateurish, but \"all espionage operations look brilliant if they succeed and blundering if they fail.\" Close observers of the spy trade argue that media mockery over Chapman, now a TV star and model in Russia, and her apparently unsuccessful comrades in New York, detracts from a long-term, well-financed and painstaking effort by Moscow -- and Putin, a former KGB agent -- to insert \"illegals\" deep into Western society. Peter Earnest, a former CIA case officer who now heads the International Spy Museum in Washington, said that a perception had grown that those swept up in the 2010 operation were part of a hapless \"Keystone Cops\" operation. \"The Russians under Putin have chosen to invest a lot of money into placing people like that overseas,\" he said. \"It wasn't clear to the public what these people were doing.\" \"They were meant to be sleepers,\" Earnest said. \"Typically an illegal sent to another country is a sleeper. He or she is available to handle a very sensitive asset, or in the case of wartime, or some sort of confrontation, be available.\" While the agents exposed in New York this week were not \"sleepers\", they were also evidence of a comprehensive Russian espionage program. The latest National Threat Assessment by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned last year that Russia, in addition to challenging U.S. cyber security, was also seeking to target U.S. personnel with access to sensitive computer network information. He named Russia and China as the biggest threats to U.S. state security and said they were seeking data on advanced weapons systems and information on U.S. firms and research institutions that deal with energy, finance, the media, defense and dual use technologies. John Schindler, who spent a decade with the National Security Agency working as an intelligence analyst and counterintelligence officer on Eastern Europe and the Middle East, believes the U.S.-Russia spy wars are as vibrant as ever. \"This is the tip of an iceberg,\" he said. \"The 2010 illegals program that was rolled up by the FBI was a big success but this was not the end of it.\" Schindler said that since the demise of the Soviet Union, Russian intelligence services have rebuilt overseas networks, partly to wage \"economic war\" against the West. Such an emphasis is increasingly important at a time when the United States and its allies are imposing economic sanctions on powerful figures and top firms over Russia's annexation of Crimea and alleged infiltration into eastern Ukraine. The new Russian intelligence offensive has a world of opportunity. Russian businesses and capital are increasingly important to and invested in the global economy. And the nexus between vast Russian commercial and energy interests, and organized crime offers a shady world where spies can prosper. The affidavit in the Buryakov case alleges that the SVR sought to use an official Russian news organization in the United States to get information about high-frequency automated trading systems used on Wall Street and to gauge interest among brokers about Russian products. While it lays out a comprehensive legal case against the three alleged Russian spies, the document also includes several intriguing story lines and leaves key questions unanswered in the fog of the espionage wars. The document includes transcripts of conversations between Podobnyy, Sporyshev and Buryakov -- not just from phone taps, but from what it says are discussions \"inside the SVR NY office.\" That leaves open the possibility that the FBI managed to get some kind of bug into the super secure premises. Lucas said its mention may be intended to induce paranoia among Russian intelligence chiefs who may wonder what other sensitive conversations were swept up. The document also says that in the summer of 2014, Buryakov \"met numerous times with a confidential source working for the FBI.\" That revelation may also lead SVR bosses to question the extent of FBI knowledge about their operations. Another question is why did the FBI move now? \"Arresting a foreign spy is the last option, you would rather turn them or watch who they are taking to,\" said Galeotti. \"Why did they decide to arrest this guy? Did they think they would be about to return to Russia? Was it because there was a risk that he was going to stumble across something important? \"Was it time to put a shot across the Russian bows?\" The idea that the United States wanted to make a political point about its intelligence operations at a time of rising tensions appears supported by the robust language of the Department of Justice Press release. \"We will use every tool at our disposal to identify and hold accountable foreign agents operating inside this country -- no matter how deep their cover,\" said Attorney General Eric Holder. Bharara added: \"New York City may be more hospitable to Russian businessmen than during the Cold War, but my office and the FBI remain vigilant to the illegal intelligence-gathering activities of other nations.\"", "New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio emerged from the depths of the nation's largest transit system Thursday to assure commuters that trains are safe in the wake of reports of an ISIS terrorist plot against U.S. subways. \"I have a simple message for all New Yorkers: There is no immediate credible threat to our subway system,\" de Blasio told reporters after taking a short subway ride from City Hall to Union Square in Manhattan. \"I say that with confidence. People should go about their business as they normally would.\" Intelligence and law enforcement agencies have no indications of an ISIS terror plot against U.S. transit systems, two U.S. law enforcement officials told CNN earlier. Later on Thursday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran and Iraq Brett McGurk told CNN's Brianna Keilar that there \"is no specific credible threat whatsoever that they have uncovered to the United States.\" He spoke to Keilar having just come from a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Vice President Joe Biden. From Washington to New York, a flurry of denials followed media reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told reporters at the United Nations that his country's intelligence agency had uncovered an imminent ISIS plot against United States and Paris subways. \"We don't have anything to back it up at this point,\" State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told CNN. \"We'll keep looking at it.\" A senior administration official told CNN that \"no one in the U.S. government is aware of such a plot and it was not raised with us in our meetings with Iraqi officials\" at the United Nations, including a meeting between al-Abadi, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. FBI Director James Comey told reporters that he hadn't heard of the plot. U.S. agencies are reaching out to Iraq to determine what information it may have, the two officials told CNN. \"We know that our transit and aviation systems are always a target. We know New York is always a target,\" one U.S. law enforcement official told CNN. \"Do we know what the Iraqi Prime Minister is talking about? No,\" the official said. Why is ISIS taunting the West? 'We are monitoring these reports' De Blasio stood with Police Commissioner William Bratton and FBI Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos outside the Union Square subway hub for a news conference. \"We are convinced that New Yorkers are safe,\" he said. \"We are convinced that people should go about their normal routine. Terrorists want us to live in fear.\" As a precaution, the mayor said, New York will increase security measures throughout its vast transit network. \"You may be asked to open your bag,\" he said. \"You may find there are some spot checkpoints set up. Don't be alarmed.\" Bratton said New York was already on a high state of alert because of the world leaders in town for the U.N. General Assembly, including President Barack Obama. In Connecticut, Governor Dannel Malloy ordered increased state police presence along Metro North and Amtrak rail lines, as well as at Bradley Airport. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said state officials were treating the report with \"utmost precaution\" and \"coordinating at a high level with local, state and federal partners.\" \"I want to assure the people of New York that we are monitoring these reports closely and are in close communication with officials in Washington,\" Cuomo said in a statement. He said that New York and New Jersey authorities had in recent weeks increased security at mass transit sites and areas as part of a joint security enhancement. John Miller, the New York Police Department's deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said in the statement that police were in \"close contact\" with the FBI and other federal agencies. \"New York City normally operates at a heightened level of security and we adjust that posture daily based on our evaluation of information as we receive it,\" he said. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city's buses and trains, declined to comment. A spokesman for Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents subway workers, said the MTA, as of Thursday afternoon, had not issued any security bulletins. Everything you need to know about the rise of ISIS . Earlier plots . European and New York transit systems have been targeted in the past. On March 11, 2004, terrorists in Madrid, Spain, carried out coordinated bomb explosions on four rush-hour trains, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800. The Madrid train bombings were the deadliest terror attack in Western Europe since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, which killed 270 people. The terrorists in Madrid, the authorities later determined, carried bombs in sports bags and backpacks onto four commuter trains serving the east of the Spanish capital. They got off and left behind their deadly devices. Spanish courts later convicted 14 Islamist militants for their roles in the bombings, along with four Spaniards for trafficking in explosives used in the attacks. On July 7, 2005, 52 people were killed and 700 injured when four bombers planted explosives on three underground trains and a bus in London. The bombers, from the north of England, used cheap explosives and techniques found on the Internet to carry out the country's worst terror attack. British intelligence came under criticism after reports that the country had received reliable warnings about such an attack. Two weeks after the London transit bombings, an attempted second wave of bombings struck other trains and a bus, but the devices failed to explode properly. More than a dozen people were arrested afterward. Four homemade bombs stuffed into backpacks did not fully explode in the attempt. One person was injured. In 2012, a Bosnian immigrant accused of plotting to bomb New York's subway system as an \"al Qaeda terrorist\" was found guilty of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder, supporting a foreign terrorist organization and other charges. Prosecutors said Adis Medunjanin traveled to Pakistan's tribal region with two high school friends, Pakistani-born Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, an immigrant from Afghanistan. His friends pleaded guilty to planning the attack with with Medunjanin and testified against him. Medunjanin sought to join the Taliban, but ended up being recruited by al Qaeda to perform a suicide mission in the United States. On their return, Medunjanin and his two friends hatched a plan to rig backpacks with explosives and blow them up, prosecutors said. At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Berit Berger said Medunjanin was willing \"to strap a suicide bomb to himself, walk into a New York City subway and blow it up.\"", "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the National Mall crowded Metro stations around Washington on Tuesday, slowing movement to a crawl after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. A security tower stands over the crowd that came to watch Barack Obama's inauguration. \"All of our stations are overcrowded,\" said Lisa Farbstein, spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. \"It's taking hours for people to get back into the stations.\" Police were holding people outside some Metro stations until there was room for them to get in, Farbstein said. But as evening fell and celebrations moved indoors, observers said crowd flow on the Metro system was smoother, if still an effort in patience. As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Metro had counted 973,285 passenger trips, setting a record with several hours and many miles yet to go. \"Throughout the weekend, we've effectively dealt with record-breaking crowds,\" said Metro General Manager John Catoe. \"By 5 p.m., people had taken nearly 874,000 trips, breaking yesterday's ridership record with nine more hours of service to go.\" Monday's 866,681 passenger trips had been the Metro record. The Metro numbers were just one record-setting tally in a day that lived up to expectations in sheer crowd size alone. Crowds on the National Mall were so large that the National Park Service began closing portions of it by 9 a.m., three hours before Obama took his oath of office. A crowd of 1.5 million people packed the Mall for the inauguration, according to an analysis of satellite imagery provided to CNN by IHS Jane's, a leading information provider on defense, international risk and national security. Officials said the massive security for the event was running smoothly, although there had been what they described as minor miscommunications, such as a Metro station entrance being closed when it was not supposed to be. The crowd was orderly, and there had been no reports of major incidents or concerns. FBI spokesman Jason Pack said there had been no arrests related to the inauguration so far. FBI and partner agencies investigated about a dozen reports of suspicious incidents or people, but none was anything serious. About 957 people visited the medical tents on the mall for various first-aid needs. Some security screening lines ran slowly, officials said, but there had not been any major systemic problems. Earlier in the day, federal officials were reviewing an unspecified threat to disrupt the inauguration, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The FBI was investigating two \"streams of intelligence\" suggesting that Somalia-based terrorist organization Al Shabaab may have been plotting an attack timed to coincide with the event, the FBI and Homeland Security said in a joint threat advisory obtained by CNN. Security officials made some readjustments to inauguration security as a precaution and did not change the threat level, an administration official said. The ceremony went off without incident. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice designated al-Shabaab, also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement, a \"Foreign Terrorist Organization\" in February. The State Department calls it \"a violent and brutal extremist group with a number of individuals affiliated with al Qaeda. Many of its senior leaders are believed to have trained and fought with al Qaeda in Afghanistan.\" Also Tuesday, a false alarm prompted police to temporarily close a 25-mile stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike, authorities said. Investigators had received a tip that a man headed to Washington was threatening the inaugural, but they eventually determined \"there is no danger to the public,\" FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver said. Two law enforcement sources said the man's mother phoned in a tip to authorities saying her son was traveling in a vehicle containing a bomb. New Jersey State Police stopped a man in a vehicle on the highway Tuesday afternoon, questioned him and searched his vehicle, several law enforcement sources said. Officials said he never posed a threat. It's unclear what, if any, action might be taken against the mother. Tuesday in Washington, tens of thousands of police officers, federal agents and National Guardsmen were deployed on land, water and in the air in an unprecedented effort to make sure the inauguration was secure. The security effort involved Secret Service agents; 8,000 police officers from the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions; 10,000 National Guardsmen; about 1,000 FBI personnel; and hundreds of others from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Park Service and U.S. Capitol Police. Another 20,000 members of the National Guard were ready to respond if there was an emergency, said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Security planners drew up procedures to deal with improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers and the use of a weapon of mass destruction. A recent intelligence assessment, however, said a lone wolf would pose the greatest potential threat. Chertoff said an individual or small group planning to do harm is difficult to detect. \"Whether the motivation is racism or some psychological disorder ... in an open society, it is impossible to keep a single individual from doing some damage,\" he said. Watch the anti-sniper detail prepare » . Federal officials acknowledged that the inauguration of the first African-American president could make an attractive target. Since Obama's election, the number of threats against him has increased, according to a recent federal intelligence assessment. The FBI has been especially aggressive in examining white supremacist groups. They have ramped up their anti-Obama comments, officials said, but it appears to be more talk than action. Because inaugural events are spread over four days, security is especially challenging. Organizers say they started their security planning the day after the last inauguration and ramped up their efforts in July. CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Pam Benson, Kevin Bohn, Carol Cratty and Rob Frehse contributed to this report.", "(CNN)It's clearly a chilling message. But after a video from terror group Al-Shabaab calling for attacks on shopping malls in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, how worried should shoppers be? Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told CNN Sunday that there's \"no credible or specific evidence\" suggesting a U.S. mall attack is in the works. But he warned Americans to watch out. \"If anyone is planning to go to the Mall of America today,\" he said, \"they've got to be particularly careful.\" The Minnesota mall is among those mentioned in the video the Somalia-based terror group apparently posted on Saturday. The video talks about Al-Shabaab's September 2013 attack at an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya, calling for similar attacks in the three Western countries. More than 60 people were killed in the Kenyan mall siege, which lasted four days. CNN is only naming the malls that have responded publicly to the terror group's video threat. Mall of America said it's aware that the video lists it as a potential target. \"We take any potential threat seriously and respond appropriately,\" the Minnesota mall said in a statement. \"We have implemented extra security precautions; some may be noticeable to guests, and others won't be.\" The FBI and Homeland Security issued a joint written statement saying local law enforcement and first responders have been told the agencies are not \"aware of any specific, credible plot against the Mall of America or any other domestic commercial shopping center.\" The police department in Bloomington, Minnesota, which regularly patrols the mall, also said there was no credible threat against it, describing the mall as a \"very safe place.\" \"Enhanced security measures to include additional personnel have been implemented and all information is being monitored,\" police said in a statement Sunday. Stressing that there is no known credible threat to any mall, Johnson also cautioned, \"I won't know about when the next bad actor is going to strike.\" Another U.S. law enforcement official familiar with the situation also told CNN that there is no actual working threat against any mall in the country and added that no one should avoid going to a mall because of the online threat. A top Canadian official condemned the video, saying authorities there are monitoring threats and will take \"the appropriate actions\" to protect public safety. \"Canada will not be intimidated by threats from any terrorist organization,\" Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said. A joint intelligence bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI states there is no indication of an ongoing plot from Al-Shabaab in the United States, according to two law enforcement officials who have seen it. The bulletin, sent to law enforcement around the country, urges vigilance against a lone wolf-type attack that the group's latest video message could inspire. The intelligence assessment, the bulletin says, is that there is no credible specific threat to malls in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI believe the video was an attempt by Al-Shabaab to compete for attention and recruits with other terrorist groups, one official said. Al-Shabaab's strength is compromised, a U.S. law enforcement official told CNN, and while the group has the desire to see a mall attack in the United States, it likely doesn't have the capability to do so. \"There will be enhanced security (at malls),\" Johnson said, \"but public vigilance, public awareness and public caution in situations like this is particularly important, and it's the environment we're in, frankly.\" A short time later, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tanya Bradsher told CNN that Johnson \"didn't say that they should not go to the mall. He told shoppers to be extra vigilant and that security was increased.\" Matt Swenson, a spokesman for Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, said the governor is \"monitoring this situation, and will continue to consult the guidance of federal, state and local law enforcement officials, who are working together to assure the safety of all Minnesotans.\" Security concerns didn't stop shoppers from packing the Mall of America on Sunday, CNN affiliate WCCO reported. Some shoppers were taking the situation in stride. Others said they were concerned about the threat. \"I'm scared, because I have kids,\" Brittany Segler told WCCO. The West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, which was also listed in the Al-Shabaab video, said it has implemented extra security and is working with federal and local law enforcement agencies. Edmonton police said there was \"no imminent threat\" to the city, Canadian broadcaster CBC reported. \"This was a very general comment ... it wasn't a specific threat,\" Brian Simpson, deputy chief of the Edmonton Police Service, told CBC. \"However, we as a policing agency (are) absolutely paying attention to this.\" In the United Kingdom, Metropolitan Police Counter Terror Command said it is aware of the Al-Shabaab video. The FBI has a program to work with various malls around the country to improve security, the law enforcement official also told CNN. After the 2013 Nairobi attack, the bureau worked with some malls last year to test the readiness of SWAT teams by staging fake attacks during hours when malls were closed, the official said. Although Al-Shabaab has also targeted youth in Canada, Finland and the UK for recruitment, its past attacks have been limited to East Africa. But the Somalia-based militants have heavily recruited in Minneapolis, where young men have been slipping away to join the terror group. The city is home to the largest Somali population in the United States. In addition to Kenya and Somalia, Al-Shabaab has also struck in Uganda, where it killed more than 70 people gathered to watch a World Cup soccer match in Kampala five years ago. Kenya and Uganda have sent their forces to neighboring Somalia to battle the extremists. As the attacks get more daring, the international community has rallied to fight the militants. Last year, the U.S. launched an airstrike in Somalia that killed the Al-Shabaab leader. The terror group later replaced him and vowed to avenge his death. Al-Shabaab started off with a goal of waging a war against the Somali government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or Sharia. It has since shifted focus to terrorist attacks in Somalia and beyond. CNN's Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Mary Kay Mallonee, Janet DiGiacomo, Max Foster, Joe Sutton, Shimon Prokupecz, Vivian Kuo and Andy Rose contributed to this report.", "The Department of Homeland Security was dragging its feet on processing Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's U.S. citizenship after a routine background check revealed he had been questioned by the FBI in 2011. Tamerlan, 26, filed an application for citizenship six months ago but immigration officials had not yet made a decision on his case at the time of the Boston Marathon bombings. Authorities knew the alleged bomber had a domestic violence charge on his record but the fact he had been grilled by federal agents is reportedly what threw up red flags, halting the progress of his application. It's not clear what the 26-year-old, who was killed early Friday, was told about why his application was facing delays. Pending: Homeland Security hadn't granted US citizenship to Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, pictured left in 2010, and right, last Monday, minutes before the attack . In custody: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is in critical condition at a Boston hospital after he was discovered Friday evening hiding in a boat in Watertown . Official reported on Friday that the . F.B.I. interviewed the older Tsarnaev brother in January 2011 at the . request of the Russian government, which suspected that he had ties to . Chechen terrorists. They said this decision to delay his . application proved his encounter with the F.B.I. did not go unnoticed by . the Department of Homeland security. According to The New York Times, the . terror suspect's application, presented on September 5, also prompted . the FBI to do 'additional investigation' of him this year. They didn't reveal how far the probe had gone or what it covered. Tamerlan's papers were submitted just days after his brother, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, had his own citizenship application approved. According to the Times, officials with Homeland Security contacted the FBI late last year to learn more about its interview with the terror suspect and the agency reported its conclusion that he did not present a threat. However, immigration officials did not move to approve or deny the application, choosing instead to leave it open for 'additional review.' On Sunday, U.S. lawmakers from both parties criticized the FBI for failing to spot the extremist leanings of Tamerlan Tsarnaev . and demanded to know why the agency did not at least follow up with the . elder brother following a six-month trip to Russia in 2012. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-South . Carolina) went so far as to say 'the ball was dropped' by the federal . agency by either missing 'a lot of things' during their initial . investigation of the suspect or did not allow investigators to 'follow . up in a sound, solid way.' Outspoken: New York Sen. Charles Schumer, left, D-New York, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, raised questions on CNN over the FBI's follow-up on the elder Tsarnaev brother . Under . the barrage of attacks, the FBI has stood by their initial public . statement issued earlier last week, which said that the agency closed . their investigation on the ethnic Chechen in 2011 after failing to find . any ‘terrorism activity, domestic or foreign.’ On Sunday, House of Representatives . Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul wrote to the FBI and . other officials asking why Tamerlan Tsarnaev did not raise suspicions . after Russia asked the bureau to investigate him two years ago. 'Because if he was on the radar and . they let him go, he's on the Russians' radar, why wasn't a flag put on . him, some sort of customs flag?,' McCaul, a Texas Republican, said on . CNN's 'State of the Union.’ 'And I'd like to know what intelligence Russia has on him as well.' Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) was largely supportive of the FBI’s . efforts, but questioned why Tamerlan wasn’t interviewed upon his return . from Russia, where he had been for six months in 2012. ‘There . were things on his website that indicated that he had been . radicalized,’ Schumer said. ‘I think there’s a lot of questions that . have to be answered.’ Dwelling: The Tsarnaev brothers lived in this nondescript house in Cambridge, just across the river from Boston . Frequent: Tamerlan was said to often visit the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, pictured . The . FBI interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011, shortly after Russia's Federal . Security Service asked the agency to look into him as a possible . Islamist radical who might soon travel to Russia. It was unclear before . yesterday which foreign country had tipped off the FBI. When contacted, the FBI referred . MailOnline to the statement it issued on April 19, saying the FBI’s . search into Tamerlan’s records, travel history, and internet use yielded . no results. Meanwhile, the organization has . vehemently refuting a claim by the mother of the Tsarnaev brothers who . said the bureau had spoken to Tamerlan following the two bombs exploding . at last Monday’s marathon. FBI . spokesman Michael Kortan told the Associated Press Sunday that the . interviews in 2011 with Tamerlan and family members were the agency’s . only contact with the bombing suspect. The Tsarnaev’s parents, who live . in Russia, . Less than a . year after the FBI interview, Tsarnaev did in fact travel to the . volatile Dagestan region of southern Russia on a six-month trip out of . the United States. Much of what Tsarnaev did on that trip is still a . mystery to U.S. investigators, Reuters reported. Neighbors . contacted by Reuters say Tsarnaev spent at least a few weeks in . Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region in the North Caucasus mountains . where Islamist militants have long been a thorn in the side of . governments in Moscow. Guarded: Police guard the entrance to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Saturday, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is being treated, rooms away from 11 of the bombing victims . Critical: Tsarnaev, who was arrested Friday night, remains in critical condition under heavy guard after he was apprehended in Watertown . Republican Representative Peter King . of New York told 'Fox News Sunday' he wondered why the FBI did not take . more action after Tsarnaev returned to the United States last year and . put statements on his website 'talking about radical imams.' Tamerlan Tsarnaev was not put on any . no-fly list of suspected terrorists, U.S. officials said. But his brush . with the FBI did raise concerns when he applied for U.S. citizenship . last year, a source close to the bombing investigation said. Officials . of the Homeland Security Department decided to give his application . extra scrutiny because of the FBI interview and also due to an . allegation against him of domestic abuse on a girlfriend in 2009, the . source said. The citizenship application was still under consideration . when Monday's bombing happened. Tamerlan . Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with U.S. police. and his brother . Dzhokhar, 19, remained hospitalized in serious condition on Sunday, . unable to speak. Three people were killed in Monday's bombing and 176 . were injured. Republican . Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said 'the FBI or the system . dropped the ball' on the elder Tsarnaev. Graham told CNN that U.S. laws . do not allow the FBI to follow up enough even if it does spot danger. Democratic . Senator Charles Schumer of New York told CNN 'there's certainly a lot . of questions' about the FBI's handling of the case. One . U.S. counterterrorism official urged perspective. 'If we thoroughly . investigated every one of these terrorism tips we get, we'd never get . anything done,' he said. Captured: The FBI wanted poster released last night was updated to show that Dzhokhar was in custody . A senior U.S. law enforcement source . said that the number of tips received from Russian intelligence to the . FBI each year is 'not that many.' But . nationally, he said, the FBI receives at least 100 terrorism tips a day . - from the public, local and state law enforcement, other federal . agencies and the intelligence community. House . Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent, . defended the agency. The Michigan Republican said the FBI had performed a . 'very thorough' review of the older brother in 2011, but then it failed . to receive further cooperation from Russia. 'That case was closed prior to his travel, so I don't think we missed anything,' Rogers said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'At . some point they (the FBI) asked, is there more clarifying information, . and never received that clarifying information, and at some point they . have nothing. You can't ask them to do something with nothing,' Rogers . said. But McCaul and King said the handling of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's case looked like it was part of a pattern. Open investigation: Law enforcement evidence technicians continue to investigate the scene of the Boston Marathon bombings on Saturday . The . 26-year-old 'appears to be the fifth person since September 11, 2001, . to participate in terror attacks despite being under investigation by . the FBI,' the pair said in a joint letter. They . named the others as Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric and leader of . al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen who was killed in a U.S. drone strike; . David Headley, an American who admitted scouting targets for a 2008 . Islamic militant raid on Mumbai; Carlos Bledsoe, who killed an Army . private outside a military recruiting office in Arkansas in 2009; and . Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in . 2009. In addition, Umar . Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to bring down a U.S. jetliner over . Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, had been identified to the CIA as a . potential terrorist, the letter said, adding the cases 'raise the most . serious questions about the efficacy of federal counterterrorism . efforts.' The McCaul-King . letter asked for all information the U.S. government had on Tamerlan . Tsarnaev before April 15. It was also addressed to Director of National . Intelligence James Clapper and Homeland Security Secretary Janet . Napolitano.", "(CNN) -- An indictment unsealed in New York Tuesday provides further evidence of links between al Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, a growing concern to counter-terrorism officials. And the indictment also sheds light on the Obama administration's policy on how to handle terror suspects detained overseas. The indictment charges Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame with providing material support to the extremist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen. He is also charged with conspiring to teach and demonstrate the making of explosives. If convicted, he faces a mandatory life sentence. Warsame, a Somali national, was captured by U.S. forces on April 19 in what the U.S. attorney's office in New York describes only as \"the Gulf region.\" He was interrogated overseas for \"intelligence purposes\" for two months before finally being transferred to FBI custody and brought to the United States Tuesday, when he made an appearance in federal court. During that appearance, he pleaded not guilty, according to Ellen Davis, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office. Warsame was held on a U.S. Navy ship in the Gulf region after his capture until being brought to New York for Tuesday's court appearance, according to the attorney's office. Neither the indictment nor the accompanying press release disclosed where the interrogation took place, but there is a substantial U.S. naval presence in the Arabian Sea. According to the indictment, Warsame, said to be in his mid-20s, provided material support for Al-Shabaab, which controls large areas of central and southern Somalia. He also provided the group with explosives, weapons and communications equipment. He also spent time in Yemen in 2010 and earlier this year, allegedly receiving explosives and other training from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which in the past two years has emerged as one of the most active parts of the organization. Unconfirmed local reports in Somalia have spoken of Al-Shabaab boats leaving Kismayo for southern Yemen as Islamist groups there -- including al Qaeda - have taken advantage of a growing political vacuum. Warsame is also alleged to have tried to broker a weapons deal with AQAP on behalf of al Shabaab. Both groups are designated as terrorist organizations by the United States. U.S. officials have recently spoken of growing links between Al-Shabaab and AQAP, and their ambitions to hit targets overseas. A joint Pentagon-CIA task force has recently stepped up pressure on Al-Shabaab, visiting Somalia to gather intelligence against the group. Late last month a U.S. drone strike against an al-Shabaab camp near the southern port of Kismayo is said to have killed several militants. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.", "(CNN) -- Hours before 22 U.S. embassies and consulates were to close for a day, President Barack Obama met with top security leaders Saturday to review the situation that led to the unprecedented move. A U.S. global travel alert remained in place amid fears that al Qaeda may launch attacks in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond in coming weeks. The threat prompted the United States to announce that 22 facilities would be closed on Sunday, including in Yemen, which was a focus of concern. Obama met Saturday with his White House chief of staff, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, as well as the heads of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, the FBI and CIA, the United Nations and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On Saturday, the security around the U.S. embassy in Yemen was even tighter than last year when the embassy was raided by protesters. At least 12 tanks were stationed within 500 meters of the building. Hundreds of additional security forces were deployed, and roads leading to the embassy were closed. Checkpoints were set up at a distance from the embassy, and trucks weren't allowed to pass anywhere near the main embassy road. Yemen's special forces, the most elite, were seen in small numbers near the embassy, as well. Meanwhile, Britain, France and Germany have said they, too, will close their embassies in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Sunday and Monday for security reasons. No other embassies are affected, they said. Neither Italy nor Spain -- which has no embassy in Yemen -- planned to close any of their embassies. The U.S. embassies closed on Sunday -- a day they would normally be open -- stretch across a swath of North Africa and the Middle East, from Mauritania to Oman. Bangladesh and Afghanistan, both majority Muslim nations, also are affected. The U.S. government's actions are in response to growing intelligence that shows a potential for attacks in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, said U.S. officials who spoke to CNN on condition of not being identified. Official: Security tightened in Yemen . \"The threat appears to be much worse than it has (been) in a long time,\" said a senior national security official in Yemen, where the government is \"on high alert against possible attacks in the days to come.\" Various Western targets -- not just those tied to the United States -- are under threat, two U.S. officials said. Three sources said the United States has information that members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are in the final stages of planning for an unspecified attack. One of the sources said such preparations appeared to have increased in recent days with the approaching end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Sunday is Laylet al-Qadr, or the Night of Power, one of the holiest moments on the Muslim calendar. Said one U.S. official: \"It all leads us to believe something could happen in the near future.\" What's behind timing of terror threat . Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told CNN he had never seen embassy closures ordered across such a broad area. \"There have been incidents where they've closed down a number of embassies in the Middle East because the information is not specific enough to say that 'embassy X' got to be closed as opposed to other embassies,\" said Hill, who joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1977. \"But I think this, closing all of these embassies in the Middle East to North Africa, is in fact unprecedented. At least, I didn't see this during my career.\" 'Leave Yemen now' U.S. officials said that, based on intelligence, they were particularly concerned about the U.S. Embassy in Yemen between Saturday and Tuesday. President Barack Obama, amid regular updates on the situation, has directed officials to take all appropriate steps to protect Americans. A White House official said the president was updated Saturday morning by Lisa Monaco, his assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism. Obama, who departed for Joint Base Andrews to play golf, is being updated through the weekend, the official said. He praised Yemeni President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi for his country's efforts following a meeting Thursday at the White House. The UK Foreign Office has also warned its citizens against travel to Yemen, and urged British nationals to leave as soon as possible. \"If you don't leave the country now while commercial carriers are still flying it is extremely unlikely that the British government will be able to evacuate you or provide consular assistance,\" it said. Photos: Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites . It was unclear whether the apparent plot targets that Arabian nation or one elsewhere -- which is why the travel alert applies so broadly, and why embassies from Bangladesh to Libya are being closed. Nor is the expected time of an attack known, which explains why the U.S. travel alert extends through August. \"Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests,\" the alert states. \"U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure.\" New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called the information \"the most specific I've seen.\" While the principal attention is on the Arabian Peninsula, he stressed to CNN's Wolf Blitzer that \"we can't rule anything out.\" \"We are focused on the Middle East, but it's a potential series of attacks that really could be almost anyplace,\" King said. 22 embassies, consulates ordered closed . The State Department listed the 22 embassies and consulates that are closed Sunday, which is normally the start of the work week in the countries affected. The 17 affected U.S. embassies are in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Yemen. The U.S. Embassy in Israel will be closed as normal Sunday. See the whole list . Consulates in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also being shut for the day. Embassies and consulates in the region typically close or operate with minimal staff on Fridays and Saturdays. The shutdowns could extend beyond Sunday, a senior State Department official said. Retired Gen. James Mattis -- who until earlier this year was head of U.S. Central Command, responsible for a 20-country area that includes the Middle East -- said the decision to close the embassies underscores the reality of the threat and the wisdom of U.S. policymakers. U.S. embassies have been targeted before in places such as Yemen, Turkey and Tanzania, he pointed out. Moreover, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is one of the terrorist network's most active and most destructive branches. \"We have to remember that we're up against an enemy who kills indiscriminately -- whether it be women, children, diplomats -- and our embassies ... have been one of the targets,\" Mattis told CNN on Friday. Referring to the move by U.S. officials, he said, \"They are showing some proactive discretion here, making certain that we don't give the enemy an opportunity that we can deny them.\" Meanwhile, Canada shuttered for one day its diplomatic mission in Bangladesh on Saturday. Questions, concerns after Benghazi . House leaders have been briefed, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters, adding that the travel alert and embassy closings provided \"some understanding of the seriousness of the threat.\" King, who has also heard such briefings, applauded the government's decision to close its diplomatic missions. \"I give them credit,\" the Republican said of the Obama administration. \"I think the government is doing exactly the right thing here.\" Such bipartisan agreement in Washington comes at a time when politicians are still scrutinizing the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consular compound in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Since then, Republicans have been pressing Obama's administration for answers, with some accusing officials of covering up what happened in Benghazi and not doing enough to track down the attackers. Eight GOP lawmakers are asking that incoming FBI Director James Comey brief Congress within 30 days about the investigation. They say the administration's inquiry to date has been \"simply unacceptable,\" according to a draft letter obtained by CNN. Earlier this week, Vice President Joe Biden and senior State Department officials went to Congress to discuss embassy security. Biden also briefed congressional leadership, key committee chairmen and ranking members about the latest threat concerns, a source who attended the meeting said. Another official said the recent intelligence might not have warranted such a response before the Benghazi attack, which created a political firestorm for the administration. On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the agency was taking the steps out of an abundance of caution. CNN found embassy attack suspect before FBI . CNN's Greg Botelho, Michael Martinez, Jill Dougherty, Dana Bash, Evan Perez, Gloria Borger, Jim Acosta, Elise Labott, Mohammed Jamjoon, NuNu Japaridze, Bharati Naik, Karen Smith, Laura Smith-Spark and Hakim Almasmari contributed to this report, which was written by Tom Cohen in Washington.", "Hours before 22 U.S. embassies and consulates were to close for a day, top U.S. security officials reviewed the situation that led to the unprecedented move. A U.S. global travel alert remained in place amid fears that al Qaeda may launch attacks in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond in coming weeks. The threat prompted the United States to announce that 22 facilities would be closed on Sunday, including in Yemen, which was a focus of concern. A Saturday afternoon meeting included the White House chief of staff, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, as well as the heads of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, the FBI and CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Barack Obama was briefed after the meeting, according to the White House. On Saturday, the security around the U.S. embassy in Yemen was even tighter than last year when the embassy was raided by protesters. At least 12 tanks were stationed within 500 meters of the building. Hundreds of additional security forces were deployed, and roads leading to the embassy were closed. Checkpoints were set up at a distance from the embassy, and trucks weren't allowed to pass anywhere near the main embassy road. Yemen's special forces, the most elite, were seen in small numbers near the embassy, as well. Meanwhile, Britain, France and Germany have said they, too, will close their embassies in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Sunday and Monday for security reasons. No other embassies are affected, they said. Neither Italy nor Spain -- which has no embassy in Yemen -- planned to close any of their embassies. The U.S. embassies closed on Sunday -- a day they would normally be open -- stretch across a swath of North Africa and the Middle East, from Mauritania to Oman. Bangladesh and Afghanistan, both majority Muslim nations, also are affected. The U.S. government's actions are in response to growing intelligence that shows a potential for attacks in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, said U.S. officials who spoke to CNN on condition of not being identified. Official: Security tightened in Yemen . \"The threat appears to be much worse than it has (been) in a long time,\" said a senior national security official in Yemen, where the government is \"on high alert against possible attacks in the days to come.\" Various Western targets -- not just those tied to the United States -- are under threat, two U.S. officials said. Three sources said the United States has information that members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are in the final stages of planning for an unspecified attack. One of the sources said such preparations appeared to have increased in recent days with the approaching end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Sunday is Laylet al-Qadr, or the Night of Power, one of the holiest moments on the Muslim calendar. Said one U.S. official: \"It all leads us to believe something could happen in the near future.\" What's behind timing of terror threat . Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told CNN he had never seen embassy closures ordered across such a broad area. \"There have been incidents where they've closed down a number of embassies in the Middle East because the information is not specific enough to say that 'embassy X' got to be closed as opposed to other embassies,\" said Hill, who joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1977. \"But I think this, closing all of these embassies in the Middle East to North Africa, is in fact unprecedented. At least, I didn't see this during my career.\" 'Leave Yemen now' U.S. officials said that, based on intelligence, they were particularly concerned about the U.S. Embassy in Yemen between Saturday and Tuesday. President Barack Obama, amid regular updates on the situation, has directed officials to take all appropriate steps to protect Americans. A White House official said the president was updated Saturday morning by Lisa Monaco, his assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism. Obama, who departed for Joint Base Andrews to play golf, is being updated through the weekend, the official said. He praised Yemeni President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi for his country's efforts following a meeting Thursday at the White House. The UK Foreign Office has also warned its citizens against travel to Yemen, and urged British nationals to leave as soon as possible. \"If you don't leave the country now while commercial carriers are still flying it is extremely unlikely that the British government will be able to evacuate you or provide consular assistance,\" it said. Photos: Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites . It was unclear whether the apparent plot targets that Arabian nation or one elsewhere -- which is why the travel alert applies so broadly, and why embassies from Bangladesh to Libya are being closed. Nor is the expected time of an attack known, which explains why the U.S. travel alert extends through August. \"Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests,\" the alert states. \"U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure.\" New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called the information \"the most specific I've seen.\" While the principal attention is on the Arabian Peninsula, he stressed to CNN's Wolf Blitzer that \"we can't rule anything out.\" \"We are focused on the Middle East, but it's a potential series of attacks that really could be almost anyplace,\" King said. 22 embassies, consulates ordered closed . The State Department listed the 22 embassies and consulates that are closed Sunday, which is normally the start of the work week in the countries affected. The 17 affected U.S. embassies are in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Yemen. The U.S. Embassy in Israel will be closed as normal Sunday. See the whole list . Consulates in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also being shut for the day. Embassies and consulates in the region typically close or operate with minimal staff on Fridays and Saturdays. The shutdowns could extend beyond Sunday, a senior State Department official said. Retired Gen. James Mattis -- who until earlier this year was head of U.S. Central Command, responsible for a 20-country area that includes the Middle East -- said the decision to close the embassies underscores the reality of the threat and the wisdom of U.S. policymakers. U.S. embassies have been targeted before in places such as Yemen, Turkey and Tanzania, he pointed out. Moreover, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is one of the terrorist network's most active and most destructive branches. \"We have to remember that we're up against an enemy who kills indiscriminately -- whether it be women, children, diplomats -- and our embassies ... have been one of the targets,\" Mattis told CNN on Friday. Referring to the move by U.S. officials, he said, \"They are showing some proactive discretion here, making certain that we don't give the enemy an opportunity that we can deny them.\" Meanwhile, Canada shuttered for one day its diplomatic mission in Bangladesh on Saturday. Questions, concerns after Benghazi . House leaders have been briefed, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters, adding that the travel alert and embassy closings provided \"some understanding of the seriousness of the threat.\" King, who has also heard such briefings, applauded the government's decision to close its diplomatic missions. \"I give them credit,\" the Republican said of the Obama administration. \"I think the government is doing exactly the right thing here.\" Such bipartisan agreement in Washington comes at a time when politicians are still scrutinizing the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consular compound in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Since then, Republicans have been pressing Obama's administration for answers, with some accusing officials of covering up what happened in Benghazi and not doing enough to track down the attackers. Eight GOP lawmakers are asking that incoming FBI Director James Comey brief Congress within 30 days about the investigation. They say the administration's inquiry to date has been \"simply unacceptable,\" according to a draft letter obtained by CNN. Earlier this week, Vice President Joe Biden and senior State Department officials went to Congress to discuss embassy security. Biden also briefed congressional leadership, key committee chairmen and ranking members about the latest threat concerns, a source who attended the meeting said. Another official said the recent intelligence might not have warranted such a response before the Benghazi attack, which created a political firestorm for the administration. On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the agency was taking the steps out of an abundance of caution. CNN found embassy attack suspect before FBI .", "Washington (CNN) -- Could the Boston Marathon bombing have been prevented? That was the question legislators tried to answer at Thursday's House Committee on Homeland Security hearing, where the members of Congress asked a former senator, Boston's top cop and two experts on public safety about whether or not the intelligence community dropped the ball when they closed an investigation into one of the alleged Boston bombers before the marathon bombing in April. In opening the hearing, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the committee chairman, said he feared \"the Boston bombers may have succeeded because our system failed. We can and we must do better.\" \"We learned over a decade ago the danger in failing to connect the dots,\" McCaul said, referring to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. One of the alleged culprits in the Boston bombing, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was investigated by the FBI after the agency received a tip from Russian authorities that the suspect could be radicalizing. Tamerlan, along with his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, allegedly carried out the April 15 marathon bombing, which killed three people and left 264 people wounded. Russian intelligence services asked the FBI to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 over a possible association with terror groups. They later also asked the CIA. After receiving a tip, the FBI investigated Tsarnaev and, at the time, didn't find that he was engaging in any extremist activity. Boston bombing suspect's body entombed in undisclosed location . The FBI said a three-month probe turned up nothing derogatory about Tsarnaev. The agency also said the Russians never responded to requests for more details. The case was closed. Tamerlan Tsarnaev's name was put on a Customs and Border Protection list to alert officials in case he left the country and the CIA also asked that his name be added to another file, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, which contains more than 700,000 names of suspected foreign and domestic terrorists. \"Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, the Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing,\" President Barack Obama has said. Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, one of four witnesses at the hearing, told legislators that \"though it would not have been easy, it was possible to prevent the terrorist attacks in Boston.\" Lieberman, who pushed for the creation of the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 attacks, said that post-9/11 reforms have worked well to protect Americans, but they are not perfect. Boston Police Commissioners Edward Davis echoed Lieberman's sentiment. \"The truth of the matter is nobody bats a thousand,\" the commissioner said. \"I think that as a nation we need to come to terms with it and do everything we can to prevent it, but also recognize that fusion centers and intelligence analysis and joint terrorism task forces are part of our future,\" Davis said. \"The world is a dangerous place and I think we need to recognize that and be prepared for it.\" Bomb suspect's friend out on bail, released to mom . Republican lawmakers in particular were critical of the FBI for not following up on its initial investigation of Tsarnaev. In an exchange with McCaul, Davis acknowledged that if he had known about the initial FBI investigation, he would have done things differently. \"If you'd had this information before the bombing, would you have done -- your police force and you -- would you have done anything differently,\" McCaul asked. \"That's very hard to say,\" answered Davis. \"We would certainly look at the information, we would certainly talk to the individual. \" McCaul continued to press Davis, asking \"but if you knew of a Russian intelligence warning that this man's an extremist and made travel overseas and the fact that he did travel overseas and came back into the United States, would that may not have caused you to give this individual a second look?\" \"Absolutely,\" said Davis. In apparent response to the idea that the FBI did not inform Boston police of the investigation, the bureau issued a statement Thursday from Boston Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers, saying the information was available. The Boston Police Department has representatives on the Boston-area Joint Terrorism Task Force, he said, and all task force members can access Guardian, \"a web-based counterterrorism incident management application that was launched in July 2004.\" All task force members \"are able to perform customized key word searches of Guardian to identify relevant\" assessment of suspects, he said. The assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of about 1,000 conducted by the Boston task force in 2011, was \"documented\" in the Guardian database and \"was thorough, comprehensive and fully compliant with law and policy,\" DesLauriers said. He noted that the task force is limited by law in \"the types of investigative methods\" it can use when there are no specific accusations. In addition to revisiting the FBI's initial investigation into Tsarnaev, Davis used his testimony to say the Boston Marathon bombing is further proof the United States must strengthen vulnerable targets without violating civil liberties. Before a hearing convened by the House Committee on Homeland Security, Davis submitted lengthy written testimony that touches on what worked and what didn't in the response to the Boston bombing. In that testimony, Davis argues that in order to defend soft targets -- locations that are not armored or are largely undefended -- law enforcement agencies need to \"deploy more assets including technology, cameras, undercover officers and specialized units.\" \"It is clear after these events and other types of mass casualties such as those which have happened in our nation's schools and colleges that we need to continue to harden soft targets, especially events that lend themselves toward large gatherings celebratory in nature,\" Davis wrote. However, Davis cautioned against overstepping the bounds of security. \"I do not endorse actions that move Boston and our nation into a police state mentality, with surveillance cameras attached to every light pole in the city,\" he said. After the bombing, Davis became the face of the response. Almost every legislator who asked questions in Thursday's hearing thanked him for his service. Davis used that high-profile response as proof that reforms to the nation's video surveillance are needed, writing that in order to catch the bombers, law enforcement officials rely \"almost exclusively on the support of our business partners to provide critical video surveillance along the finish line.\" \"I strongly support the enhanced ability to monitor public places,\" he wrote. \"This monitoring, which been upheld by the United States Supreme Court, violates no constitutionally protected rights but gives police the ability to investigate and effectively prosecute. Images from cameras do not lie. They do not forget. They can be viewed by a jury as evidence of what occurred.\" In the hunt for the Tsarnaev brothers, surveillance video proved crucial. Investigators solicited video from many of the business around the marathon route and used it to locate the bombing suspects. On April 18, the FBI released surveillance-camera pictures of the brothers. The final 24 hours that paralyzed Boston . Although Thursday's meeting is the first congressional hearing on the Boston bombing, it certainly will not be the last. Legislators in both the Senate and the House have expressed an interest in hosting experts to discuss what to learn from the terrorist attack. The Boston bombing saga began after the two bombs went off at the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street on April 15. Hundreds of Boston law enforcement officers then began a gripping week long search for those who carried out the terrorist attack. Late at night on April 18, Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier was shot and killed on campus, allegedly by the bombing suspects. In the early morning of April 19, the suspects allegedly hijacked a car in Cambridge and led police on a high speed chase through Cambridge and Watertown, two Boston suburbs. In a shootout during the chase, the older Tsarnaev brother was wounded by gunfire. He later died at a hospital. Throughout much of that day, hundreds of law enforcement officers went door-to-door on 20 streets in Watertown, looking for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Residents around Boston were asked by authorities to stay inside as the hunt continues for the suspect. In the early evening of April 19, David Henneberry discovered Tsarnaev, wounded, hiding in his boat. He alerted police, and after a tense standoff, police took him into custody. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was in serious condition at the time of his capture, is now stable and charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death. In addition to Tsarnaev, three 19-year-olds -- Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Robel Phillipos -- were arrested in connection with the bombings. The three are accused of helping Tsarnaev after the bombing by taking items from his dorm room in an effort to keep them from investigators. CNN's Pam Benson and Carol Cratty contributed to this report.", "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor knew in October about former CIA Director David Petraeus' involvement in an extramarital affair, a spokesman for the congressman told CNN on Sunday. Doug Heye said Cantor, a Republican, was tipped to the information by an FBI employee. The congressman had a conversation with the official, described as a whistle-blower, about the affair and national security concerns involved in the matter, he said. The New York Times reported Saturday that on October 31, Cantor's chief of staff phoned the FBI to inform the agency about the call between the congressman and the FBI official. The Times reported that Cantor learned of the whistle-blower through Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Washington. Opinion: Petraeus' other seduction . A spokeswoman for Reichert told CNN on Sunday that the Times article was accurate but that the congressman had no further comment on his involvement in the case. Petraeus resigned from the CIA on Friday after acknowledging the affair. He told Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about the situation on November 6, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official. Clapper then advised Petraeus to resign, the official said. Petraeus' affair came to light when an FBI investigation looked into a complaint that his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was sending harassing e-mails to another woman close to the retired four-star general, a U.S. official told CNN on Saturday. During the investigation, other communications surfaced between Petraeus and Broadwell, a married mother of two, according to the official. A U.S. official said Sunday that Petraeus used a personal account to e-mail Broadwell and not his CIA account. CNN has not been able to reach Broadwell for comment. The official did not identify the woman who made the initial complaint and did not know the nature of her relationship with Petraeus. Official: Woman complained of harassing e-mails from Petraeus' biographer . The FBI interviewed Petraeus, said the official, who stressed that the CIA director was never the target of the investigation and his communications were never compromised. The official did not know whether Broadwell was interviewed. The official could not say if the investigation is still ongoing. The Times reported that the investigation had already begun by the time Cantor talked with the whistle-blower. Questions have arisen about why congressional leaders were not informed of the investigation immediately. According to a congressional aide familiar with the matter, the House and Senate intelligence committees weren't informed that there was an FBI investigation into the situation until Friday. \"The committees are required to be kept informed of significant intelligence activities,\" the aide said Saturday. \"If there was an official investigation that was looking, at least in part, at information that was compromising the CIA director, then I think there's a solid argument to say that the committee leadership should have been notified to at least some level of detail.\" Rep. King: Petraeus' resignation doesn't preclude testimony . Petraeus' resignation comes days before he was scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The attack, in which four Americans were killed, became a point of contention during the presidential campaign. Some have even suggested that the timing of Petraeus' stepping down is suspect, given the expected grilling in Congress. Acting CIA Director Michael Morell will testify instead. CNN has confirmed that Petraeus was in Libya recently to meet with the CIA station chief to discuss the Benghazi attack and other issues. \"It just doesn't add up,\" Rep. Peter King, R-New York, told CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley on Sunday. \"You have this type of investigation. The FBI investigating e-mails, the e-mails leading to the CIA director, and taking four months to find out that the CIA director was involved. I have real questions about this. I think a timeline has to be looked at and analyzed to see what happened.\" King: Petraeus story 'just doesn't add up' A senior U.S. official said Petraeus' departure wasn't connected to the Benghazi hearing. \"Director Petraeus' frank and forthright letter of resignation stands on its own,\" said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. \"Any suggestion that his departure has anything to do with criticism about Benghazi is completely baseless.\" Broadwell spent a year with Petraeus in Afghanistan interviewing him for the book she co-wrote, \"All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.\" His resignation Friday appeared to be an abrupt end to a spectacularly successful career in public service. \"After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours,\" Petraeus said in a letter to colleagues, explaining his decision to step down. Opinion: How Petraeus changed the U.S. military . Before his nomination as CIA director, Petraeus was considered the nation's most well-known and popular military leader since Colin Powell. He helped turn the tide against insurgents while commanding forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency techniques by overseeing the development of the Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual. Earning praise from both sides of the political aisle, the retired four-star general took the helm of the CIA in September 2011. Petraeus, 60, and his wife, Holly, live in Virginia. They have two adult children. Petraeus letter: I showed extremely poor judgment .", "Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Investigators believe the suspected gunman in last week's massacre at Fort Hood acted alone, but his communications had been flagged by U.S. intelligence agencies in late 2008, the FBI said Monday. The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, remained in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. In a statement issued Monday night, the FBI said its investigation so far \"indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot.\" Thursday's shooting left 13 dead, 12 of them U.S. soldiers, and 42 wounded. Read more about the victims . Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, was a licensed psychiatrist who joined the Army in 1997. He was promoted to major in May and was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan sometime soon, but had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military. A Muslim, he had told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In August, he reported to police that his car was keyed and a bumper sticker that read \"Allah is Love\" was torn off. A neighbor was charged with criminal mischief after that complaint. But the FBI disclosed that Hasan came to its attention as part of an unrelated terrorism probe in December 2008, when agents reviewed \"certain communications between Maj. Hasan and the subject of that investigation.\" The intercepts \"raised no red flags,\" with no mention of threats or violence that would have triggered a U.S. terrorism investigation, senior investigative officials said Monday. Hasan, 39, was wounded several times during the attack. Though still in intensive care, his ventilator was removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterwards, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said. Federal agents attempted to interview Hasan on Sunday, but he refused to cooperate and asked for an attorney, the investigative officials said. U.S. military officials said intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb. Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be living in Yemen, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s, but was never charged. Military officials told CNN on Monday that intelligence agencies intercepted communications from Hasan to al-Awlaki and shared them with other U.S. government agencies. But federal authorities dropped the inquiry into Hasan's communications after deciding that the messages warranted no further action, one of the officials said. According to the FBI, investigators from one of its Joint Terrorism Task Forces determined \"that the content of those communications was consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center [in Washington].\" Hasan was first an intern, then a resident and finally a fellow at Walter Reed before moving to Fort Hood. \"Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF concluded that Maj. Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning,\" it said. FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered a review of the matter, the FBI said. The independent commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks found al-Awlaki was a \"spiritual adviser\" to two of the hijackers in that plot, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, while al-Awlaki was at the Virginia mosque and earlier, in San Diego. The commission report said it was not clear whether the imam knew al-Hazmi and al-Midhar were involved in the hijacking plot, but security experts have described him as a radical Islamic fundamentalist who was \"very supportive of terrorists in the past,\" former White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend told CNN. An online post attributed to al-Awlaki praised Hasan as a hero for the Fort Hood attack, saying he \"could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.\" But the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque denounced al-Awlaki's remarks, and its current imam said he was stunned to hear Hasan was the suspect in the rampage. \"The quiet, very peaceful person coming in and out of the mosque, I couldn't believe he could have done this,\" Sheikh Shaker Elsayed told CNN. Three senior investigative officials, who insisted they not be identified by name because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing federal investigation, told reporters in Washington that Hasan was never nominated to be on a watch list. He was able to purchase weapons legally and had done nothing to justify even a preliminary investigation, they said. In addition, Hasan had a security clearance at the \"secret\" level and received good performance reviews, they said. Nonetheless, they continued to examine his communications with the cleric in Yemen for several months as a precaution. Authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack. But at Fort Hood the post commander told reporters he has ordered his officers to \"immediately take a hard look and make sure if there's anybody out there struggling.\" \"Hasan was a soldier and we have other soldiers ... that might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has,\" Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said. \"We have to look across our entire formation, not just in a medical community but really look hard to our right and left. That's the responsibility for everybody from the top to the bottom to make sure we're taking care of our own.\" Army officials have voiced concern about jumping to any conclusions about Hasan's motive, warning about a possible backlash against Muslim soldiers. But several witnesses, like Pvt. Robert Foster, who was wounded in the hip during the attack, reported Hasan shouted \"Allahu Akbar\" -- Arabic for \"God is great\" -- which Islamic terrorists have used as a battle cry. \"I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allah Akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire,\" Foster, 21, said Monday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" The Army leadership at Fort Hood will \"take a very hard look at ourselves and look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this,\" Cone said Monday. \"I think what we're looking for are sort of people with overwhelming personal problems and patterns of behavior that are not at all related to religion,\" Cone said. No charges have been filed against Hasan. The investigative officials who briefed reporters said he was likely to be charged in the military court system. President Obama will speak at Tuesday's memorial service for the shooting victims at Fort Hood, and will meet with victims' families, his spokesman said. \"The president will meet with families of those that lost a loved one last week, as well as speak to the larger memorial that will take place at the base,\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his daily briefing Monday. First lady Michelle Obama will accompany the president on the trip, Gibbs said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will also participate in the memorial service, but he will not speak, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. CNN's Brian Todd, Pam Benson, Mike Mount and David Mattingly contributed to this report.", "Washington (CNN) -- An e-mail discussion about talking points the Obama administration used to describe the deadly attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, show the White House and State Department were more involved than they first said in the decision to remove an initial CIA assessment that a group with ties to al Qaeda was involved, according to CNN sources with knowledge of the e-mails. After hearing, Republicans say there's more to story . Doomed ambassador: 'We're under attack' The unclassified talking points have become a political flashpoint in a long-running battle between the administration and Republicans, who say that officials knew the attack last September 11 was a planned terror operation while they were telling the public it was an act of violence that grew out of a demonstration over a video produced in the United States that insulted Islam. John King: Benghazi investigation both legitimate and partisan . That was the story that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told five days later when she made the rounds of all five Sunday morning television talk shows. Obama administration officials have long said that Rice was using official talking points that were edited almost exclusively by the intelligence community. The attack also occurred two months before the November election, in which President Barack Obama's campaign often pointed out that it had \"decimated\" al Qaeda. Chaffetz: Obama has explaining to do on Benghazi . White House spokesman Jay Carney on Friday called the controversy a \"distraction\" from the facts and said the administration had raised the possibility of extremist involvement from the start. He told reporters the administration was careful with information on Benghazi and was open with the public once facts were established. An interagency discussion over the talking points to describe the attack just days previous that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans included the White House, State Department, CIA, FBI and Justice Department officials. A senior administration official told CNN that the e-mails were made available to Congress earlier this year and nothing contradicts what it has said. \"The White House made stylistic edits to the talking points to emphasize that the investigation was ongoing as to who was responsible\" and to simplify certain phrasing, the official said. Carney added that the only edit made by the White House or the State Department was to change the description of the targeted facility to a diplomatic post from consulate. The e-mail exchange and alterations to the talking points were first reported by ABC and The Weekly Standard and confirmed by CNN appear to contradict that assertion. A source familiar with the matter said then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland raised concerns over the CIA's first version of the talking points, saying that they went further than what she was allowed to say about the attack during her briefings and that she believed the CIA was attempting to exonerate itself at the State Department's expense by suggesting CIA warnings about the security situation were ignored. Carney said on Friday there was a \"deliberative process\" around the talking points involving several agencies. He said the talking points reflected the best assessment of the intelligence community at the time of what occurred in Benghazi, and said there has been an effort since to politicize the tragedy. \"This is an effort to accuse the administration of hiding something we did not hide,\" he said. The CIA had no comment on the matter. According to a congressional source with knowledge of the e-mails, the CIA's first draft of the talking points was sent to other agencies on the afternoon of Friday, September 14. They were requested by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger during a classified briefing by then-CIA director David Petraeus and were intended to be used by members of Congress and administration officials. According to ABC News and The Weekly Standard, the first draft included a line that said \"Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qa'ida participated in the attack.\" The first version also includes a reference to the terrorist organization Ansar al-Sharia -- an al Qaeda-affiliated group that operates in Libya that took credit for the attack on Facebook but later denied any involvement. Also in the initial talking points was an acknowledgement that the CIA had produced \"numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa'ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya.\" The reference also mentioned that \"at least five other attacks against foreign interests\" had been made since April 2012, according to the news organizations. In response to the initial assessment, Nuland on Friday e-mails a group involved in an interagency process of reviewing the talking points and brought up a number of concerns, according to congressional source. \"Now I understand that these are for members of Congress. I have serious concerns about all the parts highlighted below,\" she wrote. \"Why are we arming members of Congress to start making the assertion to the media that we ourselves are not making because we don't want to prejudice the investigation. Why do we want the Hill to be fingering Ansar al-Sharia when we aren't doing that ourselves.\" She continued, \"The penultimate point\" -- information about the CIA receiving numerous threats from extremists groups -- could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to state department warnings so why do we want to cede that either....\" An NSC staffer replied that the \"FBI did not have major concern with the points and only offered a couple of minor points.\" After Nuland weighed in, the reference to Ansar al-Sharia was scrubbed from the account. Nuland responds at 9:24 p.m. on Friday, writing, \"These don't resolve all of my issues or those of my building's leadership.\" Just a minute after Nuland's e-mail, Jake Sullivan, then a policy adviser for then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, writes the group. \"I spoke with Tommy,\" Sullivan writes, referring to then-National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor. \"We'll work this through in the morning. Get comments back.\" Republican spotlight shifts from Obama to Clinton . Opinion: Hearing's aim was to undermine Clinton . Less than 10 minutes later, Deputy National Security Council Adviser Ben Rhodes e-mailed the group stating that he didn't want anything in the talking points that would undermine the investigation and directs the matter to a Saturday meeting at the White House. According to multiple sources, the interagency group met Saturday morning, and according to a congressional source, the paragraph acknowledging that the CIA had warned about \"the threat of extremists linked to al Qaeda and Benghazi\" in preceding months was removed from the talking points after that meeting. After the Saturday meeting, a separate e-mail was directed to Rice, telling her that the first draft of the talking points seemed unsuitable based on the discussion at the White House meeting, the unknown author of the e-mail wrote, \"because they implied the CIA warned about a specific attack.\" The e-mail continues: \"I spoke with Jake immediately after the (the White House meeting) and noted that you are doing the Sunday morning shows and need to be aware of the final posture that these points took.\" What the Obama administration has said about the Benghazi attack . By the Numbers: U.S. diplomatic presence . A U.S. intelligence official would not discuss the specific changes that were made in the talking points, but reiterated the previous reasons given for why they were made. \"There were several valid intelligence and investigatory reasons why they were changed: the information about individuals linked to al-Qaeda was derived from classified sources, and could not be corroborated at the unclassified level; the links were tenuous and therefore it made sense to be cautious before naming perpetrators; finally, no one wanted to prejudice a criminal investigation in its earliest stages.\" A senior U.S. intelligence official would also not comment on what the State Department may have recommended as part of the interagency review process, but did say it would be a \"significant stretch\" to suggest \"the State Department made a comment therefore the talking points changed.\" The official also maintained nothing has changed since last November when Shawn Turner, the spokesman for the office of the Director of National Intelligence said \"there were no substantive changes made to the talking points after they left the intelligence community.\" CNN's Jake Tapper and Pam Benson contributed to this report.", "Separatists demanded the end of EU sanctions in return for the release of six military observers seized by militia in eastern Ukraine. The mayor of Slaviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, said he would only discuss plans to free the six if sanctions were lifted against rebel leaders. Ukraine’s security service now believes a serving Russian intelligence officer - pretending to be a local separatist leader - orchestrated the abduction and is now at the centre of an attempted trade-off over sanctions. Scroll down for video . The mayor of Slaviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, said he would only discuss plans to free the six if sanctions were lifted against rebel leaders . Officials in both Kiev and Moscow say they have plans to free the monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who were seized last week but Mr Ponomaryov claimed this would not happen until newly imposed sanctions freezing assets and banning travel on two separatist leaders are lifted. It came as there were increasing signs last night that the Ukraine crisis was having an effect on key parts of the Russian economy. Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom said further sanctions could disrupt gas sales to Europe and hit its business, while a Russian minister said U.S. restrictions on high-tech exports to Russia would be a blow to Russian companies in the sector. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned the ‘Iron Curtain’ style sanctions from the United States might harm its hi-tech sector and that the EU was ‘under Washington’s thumb.’ He insisted Russia had no intention of invading eastern Ukraine, adding: ‘This is a revival of a system created in 1949 when Western countries essentially lowered an ‘Iron Curtain’, cutting off supplies of hi-tech goods to the USSR and other countries.’ Detained OSCE observers arrive to take part in a press conference of the pro-Russian separatist leader and self-proclaimed 'people's mayor' of the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov (right) in Slavyansk . Detained OSCE observers. It came as there were increasing signs last night that the Ukraine crisis was having an effect on key parts of the Russian economy . And Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin warned that the impact of sanctions in the country’s high-tech sector could impact on US astronauts using the joint space station. ‘If their aim is to deliver a blow to Russia’s rocket-building sector, then by default, they would be exposing their astronauts on the ISS,’ he said. ‘Sanctions are always a boomerang which come back and painfully hit those who launched them, he added. The International Space Station is operated jointly by Russia, the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada. Astronauts and cosmonauts depend on Russian Soyuz rockets to ferry them between it and Earth, ever since NASA scrapped its space shuttles in 2011. The US imposed sanctions on 17 companies and seven officials linked to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle - including a career spy who was expelled from London in the Cold War. Mr Ryabkov lambasted White House spokesman Jay Carney who said the targeting of Mr Putin’s inner circle was ‘in response to Russia’s continued illegal intervention in Ukraine and provocative acts that undermine Ukraine’s democracy’ and territorial integrity. ‘We are disgusted with the statement issued by the White House press secretary,’ said Mr Ryabkov. The EU’s top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, last night voiced alarm at the ‘downward spiral of violence and intimidation’ in Ukraine. Officials in both Kiev and Moscow say they have plans to free the monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who were seized last week but Mr Ponomaryov claimed this would not happen until newly imposed sanctions freezing assets and banning travel on two separatist leaders are lifted . Hundreds of masked pro-Russian separatists armed with baseball bats yesterday stormed the regional government headquarters, unopposed by police, in the eastern city of Luhansk, 15 miles west of the border with Russia. It was the third government building seized in the past 24 hours as the occupations by Moscow’s supporters showed no sign of ending. Ukrainian forces claim to have unearthed evidence that Igor Strelkov, nicknamed Strelok, who commands pro-Russian forces now in control of Slaviansk, is in fact a serving Russian GRU military intelligence officer. Media reports citing the SBU secret service in Kiev say his real identity is Igor Girkin and that he is a colonel in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Armed forces. His Russian passport number and address in Moscow were published in Ukraine where intelligence officers say Girkin legally crossed the Ukrainian border in Simferopol on 26 February, when the Crimean parliament was seized.", "Washington (CNN) -- During his two weeks aboard a ship to the United States, Ahmed Abu Khatallah was questioned by FBI interrogators over his alleged role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that left four Americans dead. As it turns out, he was interrogated both before and after authorities told him of his Miranda rights -- which give him the right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination, a U.S. official told CNN. But Abu Khatallah continued providing information to officials after being advised of those rights, the official said. The handling of his case has triggered fallout in Washington. \"I have serious concerns that conducting a rushed interrogation onboard a ship and then turning Abu Khatallah over to our civilian courts risks losing critical intelligence that could lead us to other terrorists or prevent future attacks,\" Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, said in a statement Saturday. A U.S. official told CNN that Abu Khatallah denied participation in the Benghazi attacks during his interviews with interrogators -- but provided information on others he said participated and were behind the attacks. It wasn't clear if he provided the information before or after he was advised of his Miranda warning. Shortly after the White House announced the capture earlier this month, Republicans like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio criticized the Obama administration because they believed the alleged terrorist should go through a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay instead of being tried in a federal court. \"If they bring him to the United States, they're going to Mirandize this guy, and it would be a mistake for the ages to read this guy his Miranda rights,\" South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has said. But the White House has defended its decision, saying that they have successfully tried a number of terrorists domestically and that no new captives have gone to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in years. Abu Khatallah arrived on U.S. soil Saturday. After two weeks aboard the USS New York sailing from the Mediterranean Sea to the East Coast, Abu Khatallah was flown by helicopter to Washington and was driven to a federal courthouse. There, he pleaded not guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorists. Prosecutors say he is the ringleader of the 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, which killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans. More charges possible . The single count is part of a legal strategy by federal prosecutors, who plan to file additional charges later, according to U.S. officials. The aim is to delay releasing to the public and Abu Khatallah's lawyer the FBI affidavit detailing the evidence the government has against him. An earlier criminal complaint in July 2013 said the FBI believed it had evidence to charge him with murder and firing a weapon at the scene of the Benghazi attacks. Those additional charges, if formally added, could bring the death penalty. In his court appearance, Abu Khatallah, a Libyan national, requested consular assistance from the Libyan government. U.S. authorities were working with Libyan embassy officials in Washington to provide him the assistance. After the hearing, armed guards accompanied Abu Khatallah from the federal courthouse in downtown Washington, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol and near the White House. He was then moved to the detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, which is across the Potomac River from the capital. Details of the attacks . Authorities say Abu Khatallah is among the senior leaders of Ansar al Sharia, whose members were among several militias that participated in the attacks on U.S. government facilities in Benghazi on September 11-12, 2012. The attacks spawned political controversy in the United States because some Republican lawmakers claim the Obama administration tried to mislead the public about them and should have done more to prevent them. The GOP critics say they plan to make Benghazi an issue for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, under whose watch the attacks occurred, should she decide to run for president. The criminal investigation led by the FBI has been extraordinarily challenging, authorities say, partly because the lack of Libyan government control in the city prevented investigators from visiting the crime scene for weeks. But U.S. officials say they collected surveillance video, phone recordings and witness statements to bring charges against Abu Khatallah and others involved. Abu Khatallah became the face of the militant attack and a top target for the U.S. after he cultivated a celebrity profile in the wake of the attacks, meeting with journalists and granting interviews. He denied to CNN's Arwa Damon that he participated in the attacks. U.S. military commandos captured Abu Khatallah in a nighttime raid June 15-16. U.S. intelligence assets concocted a ruse to lure him to a villa where the Americans surprised him. The commandos, accompanied by several FBI agents, had come ashore by boat and quickly took him back out to sea with them. Abu Khatallah was appointed a public defender, Michele Peterson. He was ordered to remain in custody until hearings set for Wednesday and Friday. Timeline of the Benghazi attack . What's next for Benghazi terror suspect? Benghazi 'mastermind' captured without a single shot . CNN's Sara Fisher and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.", "Interrogators don't expect to have it easy with Ahmed Abu Khatallah, a Washington law enforcement official told CNN. The suspected mastermind of the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, has had time to rehearse his story, the official said. But an expert who has interrogated al Qaeda operatives thinks there's a good chance Abu Khatallah will crack, if interrogators punch the right buttons. Others have done so before him. \"Some were motivated by the uncertainty of the situations. Others were motivated, as they called it, (by) fatigue with the jihad life,\" former Navy intelligence agent Robert McFadden said. What's next? The capture . Months of intelligence research went into Abu Khatallah's capture, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday night. Then U.S. Special Forces slipped into Libya by sea over the weekend to nab him. With FBI agents by their sides, the Special Forces operatives headed to a villa south of Benghazi, a senior law enforcement official said. There, they set a trap and lured Abu Khatallah. He fell for it, and they delivered him by boat to the USS New York. They also confiscated some \"media\" at the villa, which investigators will scrutinize. High seas 'a good place' Interrogators from the FBI-led High Value Detainee Interrogation Group are on board the ship. Taking Abu Khatallah by sea, rather than by air, is giving them \"maximum time to question him,\" U.S. officials said. The high seas are a good place for it to happen, McFadden said. \"It really is quite conducive to good interviews.\" \"The main thing is to get the detainee, the subject, to a safe environment with a minimum of distractions.\" First they'll let a doctor check him over to make sure he wasn't injured when he was captured. That should go quickly and easily, he said. Khatallah only wrestled with U.S. forces briefly. Not a shot was fired when they captured him. After the medical, it's time to meet the interrogators. McFadden says they should prioritize information that improves national security, like tips that help disrupt plots. They should also get a roster of terrorist players and the lowdown on how they communicate. Logistical reasons . The sea transport is also being done for logistical reasons. The United States would have a hard time finding countries in the region willing to allow the ship to transfer a prisoner snatched in an operation such as this. The Libyan government has decried his capture as a \"kidnapping\" that violated its territorial sovereignty. Libyan Justice Minister Salah Marghani said the United States is still a friend of Libya's, but he called for U.S. officials to loop his government in before carrying out such operations. The Libyan government asked that the United States guarantee the suspect's safety and rights. Human Rights Watch joined that call Wednesday, asking that Abu Khatallah get access to a lawyer and appear promptly before a judge. They demanded he receive a fair trial. About that trial . Once the USS New York has neared U.S. shores, officials will put Abu Khatallah into a helicopter and fly him onto land. The Obama administration has said he will face a federal trial, a position at odds with some of the President's Republican critics, some of them calling for Abu Khatallah to be incarcerated at the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Prosecutors have had a lot of success with terror trials in U.S. civilian courts. Aspiring Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, the so-called underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and al Qaeda propagandist Sulaiman Abu Ghaith -- all were convicted and sentenced in U.S. courts. And they are but a few examples. By contrast, there have been a mere handful of Guantanamo convictions. Abu Khatallah might tell the court the same story about why he was at the U.S. mission the day a mob attacked it, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and IT expert Sean Smith. \"I didn't know where the place was,\" he told CNN last year. \"When I heard, we went to examine the situation. When we withdrew and there was shooting with medium guns, and there were RPGs in the air and people panicked, we tried to control traffic.\" But U.S. investigators have collected evidence against him for two years, and the accused will be tried on three charges in federal court that include killing while attacking a federal facility and material support of terrorism. A formal indictment is around the corner, U.S. officials said, and it will include some new charges. Opinion: Why U.S. raid in Libya is a sign of hope . Opinion: Why Benghazi issue won't go away . Benghazi attack time line . Lawmaker: If CNN can interview Khatallah, why can't FBI?", "(CNN) -- Never judge a book by its cover -- and never judge a major sports event before it has begun. Just ask Delhi, India, which was rocked by some dismal headlines on safety and infrastructure ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games before recovering to win praise from the head of the quadrennial event. Still, with just under two days to go before the opening ceremony, preparations for the Sochi Winter Olympics are looking far from complete. From hotels that don't appear to be finished, to ongoing security concerns, to reports of officials poisoning stray dogs -- none of this will be what Russian President Vladimir Putin would have hoped to see when he arrived in Sochi on Tuesday. So, what are the biggest concerns? Four issues have been grabbing headlines this week for reasons that have nothing to do with the upcoming sporting activities. Security . The most important duty of any host nation is surely to ensure the safety of athletes and visitors, but simmering tensions in the nearby North Caucasus region of the country -- where Islamic separatists have conducted a string of deadly attacks -- have meant that the threat of terrorism has loomed large over Sochi. Indeed, Doku Umarov, who has named himself emir of a self-proclaimed entity called the Caucasus Emirate, last year called on jihadists to do their \"utmost to derail these satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors.\" Tens of thousands of police and troops have been dispatched to the area to create what Putin has described as a \"ring of steel\" protecting the games. But questions were raised about the ability to protect soft targets when Russian officials released photographs of three \"black widows\" -- young women whose husband purportedly were killed by Russian forces -- who allegedly were planning to bomb the Olympic torch relay. There was particular concern about a fourth suspect, Ruzanna Ibragimova, who officials said might be in the Sochi area. On Wednesday, Russian media announced that police in Dagestan had killed the alleged mastermind behind twin bomb attacks in the Russian city of Volgograd in December. The bombings killed 34 people and injured 100. Those attacks, along with a pair of January incidents in the restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan -- a restaurant bombing that injured at least five people and a shootout that left three policemen and four militants dead -- underscored fears that terrorists might look to strike outside of Sochi during the Games, when all eyes will be on Russia. \"The Russians' task is complicated by remote, forested and often mountainous territory in the North Caucasus, as well as a devolved structure among jihadist groups, organized into autonomous military units known as jamaats,\" noted CNN's Tim Lister. \"Terrorism analysts believe that some among the growing Chechen diaspora in Europe may also be raising funds for the insurgents.\" Also Wednesday, a law enforcement source told CNN that the United States has advised airlines with direct flights to Russia to be aware of the possibility that explosive materials could be concealed in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes. The source emphasized that there was no known threat to the United States, but the notice to U.S. and international carriers is based on new intelligence information ahead of the start of the Olympics. Airlines warned about possible toothpaste tube bombs ahead of Olympics . And on Tuesday, Matthew Olsen, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, warned that the United States was tracking a number of \"specific threats of varying degrees of credibility.\" \"[W]e're working very closely with the Russians and with other partners to monitor any threats we see and to disrupt those,\" Olsen added. The United States already has dispatched at least two warships off the coast of the Black Sea city in the event that an evacuation is necessary, while a number of athletes have reportedly asked relatives to skip attending the games. Americans apparently have noticed such concerns -- a CNN poll released Wednesday showed that 57% believed a terrorist attack on the Games is likely. Infrastructure . If the security of athletes and spectators is the biggest issue for the organizers, then ensuring that facilities for both competitors and guests are up to scratch is surely the next concern. After all, athletes have been training for years for this event. For some it will be their only shot at Olympic glory. Is having somewhere comfortable to sleep, perhaps with a fresh glass of water by the bedside, too much to ask as you prepare for the biggest two weeks of your life? In Sochi, according to numerous accounts on social media this week, the answer might just be yes. Bleacher Report has been highlighting some of the early reactions to the accommodations on offer, and draws particular attention to the size of the beds (Canada's men's hockey team may have been hoping to have a bit more space), the bareness of the rooms (reports of missing TVs, chairs and shower curtains) and, perhaps most troubling of all, the sign one reporter snapped warning that toilet paper should not be flushed down the toilet. To cap it all, The Chicago Tribune's Stacy St. Clair reportedly complained that she had been warned about the hazardous water in her hotel room, and a picture she tweeted, showing two glasses of yellowish liquid she said were from the hotel, went viral. Competition conditions . Setting aside the accommodation issues, will athletes be safe when they start competing? The withdrawal of U.S. snowboarding star Shaun White from one of the events could be a troubling sign. White didn't give a specific reason for his withdrawal, but even if a mere wrist injury is the only reason, Sochi organizers are said to have \"faced fierce criticism over the layout at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, with competitors claiming that it is too dangerous to host the event.\" Of course, one thing that the organizers have no control over is the weather, and after complaints about the lack of quality snow in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, some had worried whether Sochi's climate could provide enough of the white stuff. With such concerns in mind, Russia reportedly brought in state-of-the-art snowmaking equipment. But according to the Wall Street Journal, this won't be necessary. \"The weather for the upcoming week at all the Olympic venues will be just wonderful,\" the paper quoted the head of Russia's Hydrometeorological Center as saying this week. \"Enough snow has fallen, the situation is completely relaxed. Nature has given us everything we need.\" Warning to U.S. athletes: No Olympic uniforms outside Sochi venues . Those stray dogs . Yet, while issues like infrastructure and security seem destined to be perennial concerns at major sporting events -- just look at the controversy surrounding Brazil's efforts to prepare for this year's World Cup -- sometimes a story will appear out of the blue and make international headlines for all the wrong reasons. On Wednesday, CNN correspondent Ivan Watson reported that Russian authorities have been rounding up and poisoning stray dogs in the city. \"They always poison the street dogs here,\" Watson quoted one Sochi resident as saying. \"But in December it got terrible...they began poisoning the animals terribly before the Olympics.\" Olympic officials, though, have a different take. \"All stray dogs that are found on the Olympic Park are collected by a professional veterinary contractor for the well-being of the people on the Park and the animals themselves,\" the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee said in a statement this week. \"All healthy animals are released following their health check.\" Sochi's organizers will no doubt be relieved when the focus is on the competition and not the venue. At around 8 p.m. local time Friday, perhaps they'll get what they're hoping for. Winter Olympics by the numbers .", "(CNN) -- Police in Peru say they nabbed one of the world's top scam artists on Wednesday when they arrested a securities broker whose alleged crimes earned him a spot on the FBI's most wanted list. Authorities say Eric Bartoli had been on the lam for more than a decade after bilking hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars. He faces a number of charges, the FBI says, including money laundering, securities fraud and conspiracy in connection with an alleged $65 million Ponzi scheme. His case was featured on the CNBC series \"American Greed: The Fugitives\" in an episode titled \"Main Street Double Cross,\" which detailed authorities efforts to find Bartoli. \"They track him to Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont. They're just hopping around,\" a promo posted on the show's website says. \"And then at some point, he did disappear. Nobody could find him.\" Bartoli, 59, who also has several aliases and passports from Peru and Argentina, had been at large for more than 10 years. But police in Peru tracked him down on Wednesday in what the FBI told CNN Cleveland affiliate WOIO was a joint operation between U.S. and Peruvian authorities. They escorted a tight-lipped Bartoli, wearing a track suit and a bulletproof vest, before television cameras. Authorities arrested him when he was jogging in a park south of the country's capital Wednesday morning, the state-run Andina news agency reported. \"A team of Cleveland and international FBI resources worked closely with the Peruvian authorities to locate and apprehend Eric Bartoli,\" Stephen D. Anthony, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland Field Office, said in a written statement. \"We hope that the long awaited prosecution of Bartoli will provide some satisfaction to the many individuals he defrauded.\" U.S. authorities have requested his extradition, Andina said. But a court in Lima had also issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing Bartoli of money laundering, Peruvian National Police Col. Oscar Llatas told CNN en Español. Investigators in Peru uncovered a series of shell companies tied to Bartoli that moved massive quantities of money, Police Col. Segundo Mejia said. In Peru, Llatas told Andina, Bartoli allegedly duped victims by offering them large returns on investments in oil, telecommunications and craft companies. He started to operate in Peru in 2005, Llatas said, and intelligence reports indicate he entered the South American nation in 2010. \"Once he got money from his victims,\" Llatas said, \"he disappeared.\" Journalist Maria Elena Belaunde and CNN's Kevin Conlon contributed to this report.", "Frightening government overreach or valuable law enforcement tool? That's the question politicians in Washington, and millions of citizens around the United States, asked Thursday thanks to a jolting report suggesting the government has been collecting millions of Americans' phone records. FBI Direct Robert Mueller will be asked about the matter -- revealed after a British newspaper, the Guardian, published a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court order that applied to phone data from Verizon -- when he appears next week before the House Judiciary Committee. The panel's chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, issued a statement Thursday saying he was \"very concerned that the Department of Justice may have abused the intent of the law, and we will investigate.\" Reports: U.S. spy agencies mined Internet data . The report will also be the subject of an upcoming classified briefing by Attorney General Eric Holder to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Its chairman, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, is calling for a similar closed-door briefing for the entire U.S. Senate. When she read the news Thursday morning, the Maryland Democrat said, \"It was like, 'Oh, God, not one more thing ... where we're trying to protect America and then it looks like we're spying.'\" What does the Verizon order mean for me? An author of the Patriot Act -- the legislation used to justify the program -- added he is \"extremely disturbed by what appears to be an overbroad interpretation of the act.\" \"These reports are deeply concerning and raise questions about whether our constitutional rights are secure,\" Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, wrote in a letter to Holder. But not everyone in the nation's capital is outraged or even concerned. Some say the real travesty would be if the program, which they describe as valuable, is halted. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the Guardian story refers to a \"three-month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years\" -- so that while the uproar may be new, the program is not. In that time, it's helped to disrupt \"terrorist plots\" on U.S. soil, she said. \"It is lawful,\" the California Democrat insisted. \"It has been briefed by Congress.\" Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), two key members of the House Intelligence Committee, both stressed that \"this important collection tool does not allow the government to eavesdrop\" and that it is routinely reviewed by Congress. White House spokesman Josh Earnest also made those points, adding President Barack Obama \"put in place a stronger regime of oversight\" when he took office. He further stressed the importance of ensuring \"we have the tools we need to confront the threat posted by terrorists (and to) protect the homeland.\" \"That is his top priority,\" Earnest said of domestic security. \"But ... we need to balance that priority with the need to protect civil liberties and constitutional rights of American people. And that is the subject of a worthy debate.\" What's been happening, and for how long? In 2006, it was reported the National Security Agency was secretly collecting telephone records in an effort to root out terror plots. \"Verizon's wireless and wireline companies did not provide to NSA customer records or call data, local or otherwise,\" the company said at the time. Like the FBI and the NSA, Verizon declined comment to the media Thursday on the Guardian report. But company Vice President Randy Milch, in a note to employees, did say the newspaper's story may spur the company to respond in defiance of a promise of secrecy. The newspaper published the four-page, top-secret government order requiring \"originating and terminating\" phone numbers plus the location, time and duration of calls from the communications giant. It lets the FBI and NSA to obtain the records from April 25 to July 19. 7 things to know . The order applies to Verizon Business Network Services, an operation not described on the company's website. Its scope was not immediately clear, though the Guardian claimed \"millions of U.S. customers of Verizon\" were affected by the collection of information \"regardless of whether they are suspected of wrongdoing.\" In his letter to Verizon employees, Milch said that his company would not provide the contents of any communications \"or the name, address or financial information of a subscriber or customer.\" An Obama administration official said any such order would relate \"exclusively to metadata, such as a telephone number or the length of a call.\" This kind of information \"allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities,\" the unnamed official said in a statement to media. Controversy over the Guardian report comes as the White House fends off privacy complaints on other fronts as well. The administration is under fire following revelations the Justice Department seized two months of phone records from Associated Press reporters and editors -- something done as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. Plus, the Washington Post and the Guardian reported that U.S. intelligence has a broad secret data mining program that allows access to central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies -- among them Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook and Apple -- to extract e-mail, photos and other private consumer communications. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper challenged the Post and Guardian reports in a statement Thursday night, saying \"they contain numerous inaccuracies.\" Specifically, he emphasized the section of the law tied to that reported program \"cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person or anyone located within the United States.\" In statements on that and reports about collecting phone data, Clapper also called out those behind the apparent leaks -- saying it \"will have an impact on the behavior of our adversaries and make it more difficult for us to understand their intentions.\" Speaking specifically about collecting personal phone records, privacy advocates called the practice perilous and claimed it gives authorities access to information of many Americans who aren't terrorists. In fact, they might not necessarily be Verizon customers, and similar orders might also apply to other telecommunications companies. \"There is no indication that this order to Verizon was unique or novel,\" said the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which fights to protect privacy. \"It is very likely that business records orders like this exist for every major American telecommunication company, meaning that, if you make calls in the United States, the NSA has those records. And this has been going on for at least seven years, and probably longer.\" Opinion: NSA's phone snooping a different kind of creepy . Al Gore: 'Secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous' This group is hardly alone. The American Civil Liberties Union called it \"beyond Orwellian (in allowing) basic democratic rights (to be) surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies.\" The Center for Constitutional Rights blasted it as \"the broadest surveillance order to ever had been issued: It requires no level of suspicion.\" Many in President Barack Obama's own party spoke forcefully against it as well. Three Democratic representatives -- John Conyers of Michigan, Jerrold Nadler of New York and Robert Scott of Virginia -- said the program is \"highly problematic and reveals serious flaws in the scope and application of the\" Patriot Act. \"(The revelations) confirm our fears -- that the law would be distorted to allow for ongoing, indiscriminate collection of data,\" they wrote. Sen. Mark Udall, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, described the program as \"the kind of government overreach I've said Americans would find shocking.\" One of them: former Vice President Al Gore. \"Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?\" the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee wrote on Twitter. Senator says ending program would be 'catastrophic' Opinions were also strong on the other side of the debate. \"Terrorists will come after us if they can, and the only thing that we have to deter this is good intelligence to understand that a plot has been hatched and to get there before they get to us,\" said Feinstein. Her intelligence committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, concurred in stating the program has let authorities gather \"significant information on bad guys and only on bad guys over the years.\" Former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes, a CNN contributor, said that if a phone number comes up that's linked to someone suspicious, they can go back and get information tied to that number. \"It's not that someone or some group of analysts can sit there and monitor 50 million phone calls going through the computers,\" Fuentes explained on CNN's \"Starting Point.\" \"But it would create the ability to go back and see if you could connect phone calls.\" Rep. Lindsey Graham said that, as a Verizon customer, \"it doesn't bother me one bit for the National Security Administration to have my phone number.\" The South Carolina Republican said he's confident the government won't monitor his and other innocent Americans phone calls just because their \"number pops up on some terrorist's phone.\" \"The consequences of taking these tools away from the American people through their government would be catastrophic,\" he said.", "The U.S. will re-open nine embassies and consulates in the Muslim world tomorrow after closing down nearly two dozen over the weekend amid a 'big' and 'strategically significant' terror threat. However 19 embassies will remain closed until August 10, following 'chatter' intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies which led the Obama administration to order the closure of 21 diplomatic facilities and to issue a global travel warning . to Americans. 'The one thing that we can talk about is the fact that there's been an awful lot of chatter out there,' Senator Saxby Chambliss, from the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. 'We didn't take heed on 9/11 in a way that we should, but here I think it's very important that we do take the right kind of planning.' Threat: Senator Saxby Chambliss compares the chatter that led to a global terror warning to chatter intercepted before September 11 . State Department officials said Thursday that they were taking action out of an 'abundance of caution' from the Arabian Peninsula . The U.S. State Department has warned all 'non-essential' US citizens to evacuate Yemen immediately amid fears of a terrorist attack. It comes as four Al-Qaeda militants have reportedly been killed in a US drone attack in Yemen . Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, the . top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, . told ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday that the threat intercepted from . 'high-level people in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula' was about a . \"major attack.' The . Maryland Democrat didn't provide details of the threat, other than to . say it came from 'people at a high level.'U.S. officials are warning . that a global terror threat from al Qaeda is 'very specific'' and could . last through August, as at least 22 embassies and consulates across the . world prepare to shut down Sunday in fear of a possible attack. 'We’re . not certain exactly where something might happen but it’s very specific . as to when and it’s also very specific as to the fact that it is going . to happen, so we have to be on alert everywhere,'  Rep. Peter King, chairman of the . subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, told WINS-AM. He said the threat is the 'most specific' he's seen since the 9/11 attacks. 'There's . very little doubt that something serious is being planned,' King told . CNN. 'It's a potential series of attacks. It could be anywhere.' The U.S. issued a global travel alert for American travelers on Friday after . intercepting electronic communication among top al Qaeda operatives in . Yemen regarding an attack in its final planning stages. The al Qaeda . affiliate in Yemen has been linked to plots to blow up American-bound . cargo and commercial flights, according to the New York Times. If traveling outside the U.S., King said: 'I would let the . American embassy know where you are. Basically check in and where you . are and how long you plan to stay there and what your itinerary is.' State . Department officials said Thursday that they were taking action out of . an 'abundance of caution' after receiving information the terror group . was in the final stages of planning for an unspecified attack. The terror group and its affiliates . 'may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the . end of August,' the State Department said. Spokeswoman Marie Harf cited information indicating a threat to U.S. facilities overseas and said some diplomatic facilities may stay closed . for more than a day. Barriers block access to the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, on August 3 . Boats are seen in front of the U.S. consulate building in Gulf emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on August 3 . Closed: Bangladeshi police stop a motorist in front of the U.S. embassy building that remained closed due to security threat . A source told CNN the preparations appeared to have increased in . recent days with the approaching end of the Muslim holy month of . Ramadan. A U.S. official noted it was unclear whether the plot . would be directed at a target inside Yemen or elsewhere. Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The . British embassy in Yemen is to be closed on Sunday and Monday as 'a . precautionary measure', the Foreign Office confirmed today. On . the heels of the American foreign travel alert, Interpol has issued a . global security alert in connection with suspected al-Qaida involvement . in several recent prison escapes including those in Iraq, Libya and . Pakistan. The Lyon, . France-based international police agency said Saturday that the alert . follows 'the escape of hundreds of terrorists and other criminals' from . prisons in the past month. The alert calls on Interpol’s 190 member . countries to help determine whether these events are coordinated or . linked, the organization said. Bangladeshi policemen stand guard outside the US embassy in Dhaka on Sunday . Police in Bangladesh check an auto-rickshaw passenger near the US embassy in Dhaka on Sunday . The State Department issued a major warning last year informing American . diplomatic facilities across the Muslim world about potential violence . connected to the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Dozens of American installations were besieged by protest over an anti-Islam video made by an American resident. In Benghazi, Libya, the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were . killed when militants assaulted a diplomatic post. The administration no . longer says that attack was related to the demonstrations. The United States is locking down its . embassies and consulates throughout the Muslim world on Sunday after . receiving an unspecified threat, officials said. Quoted by ABC News, one official said the closures were a response to a 'specific threat against a U.S. embassy or consulate,' described as a 'concerted effort' to target an embassy or consulate in a Muslim country. On Sunday 20 US embassies and consulates were closed after conversations between two senior al-Qaeda figures. The U.S. Embassy in Amman (pictured), the capital of Jordan, is among those closed . In Kabul, Afghanistan, where thousands of U.S. troops remain stationed, the U.S. Embassy (pictured) will also be closed this Sunday . The official also said that 'there could be other targets, not just embassies'. According to the news service, 28 U.S. installations will close Sunday, including  offices in Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The threat comes close to a year after four American consulate workers in Libya were killed in a night time arson attack. The State Department issued a major warning last year informing American diplomatic facilities across the Muslim world about potential violence connected to the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. President Barack Obama, pictured at the White House in January, paid his respects earlier this month to victims in Tanzania of the 1998 orchestrated terrorist attacks against several US embassies across the African continent . Dozens of American installations were besieged by protest over an anti-Islam video made by an American resident. In Benghazi, Libya, the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed when militants assaulted a diplomatic post. An armed mob attacked and set fire to the consulate building in their protest against the amateur film - deemed offensive to Islam's prophet, Muhammad - after similar protests in Egypt's capital. The administration no longer says that attack was related to the demonstrations. The mass closure of U.S. embassies and consulates across the MENA region also comes almost 15 years ago to the day that hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous terrorist attacks, conducted by al Qaeda, on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam. In Dar es Salaam, 10 Tanzanians were killed and more than 85 Americans and Tanzanians were injured. The blast at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi killed at least 212 people and wounded an estimated 4,000. In his recent visit to Africa, U.S. President Barack Obama paid his respects to those who lost their lives in the attacks. In Britain, the Foreign Office said it was not shutting any embassies but has urged its staff in the Middle East and in Arab states to be vigilant. 'US Embassies in the region have been instructed to close on Sunday August 4. The British Embassies remain open, but staff have been advised to exercise extra vigilance as we approach Eid,' a spokesman said. ‘We are aware of reports and are in close contact with the US authorities. We will consider every Embassy on case by case basis; clearly the safety of our staff overseas is our highest priority. 'Our travel advice remains under constant review. We are not going to comment on intelligence matters.'", "(CNN) -- A trip to the Winter Olympics in Sochi should be all about superhuman feats of skill or endurance on skis, skates or bobsleighs. But hearing the talk of U.S. security plans in the run-up to the Games in Russia next month, visitors may think they are entering a war zone. Contingency plans for evacuating Americans in case of an attack are well in hand, it would seem. The United States is moving to two warships into the Black Sea. If ordered, helicopters could be launched from there to Sochi, a U.S. official told CNN recently. And if more capacity is needed, C-17 transport aircraft will be on standby in Germany and could be on the scene in about two hours. That's in addition to U.S. precautions on Russian soil, where FBI agents are now arriving in Sochi to work with their Russian counterparts, according to Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. The United States has also discussed at the highest levels the sharing of its high-tech bomb detection technology -- developed to protect service members from deadly homemade bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan -- with Russia. Concern over explosives is heightened because the radical Islamists who have threatened to attack the Sochi Games have a track record with hidden bombs. One was detonated under a stadium grandstand in Grozny in 2004. Look who's watching over you at Sochi . And with the largest delegation of any nation to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, as well as -- according to McCaul -- 10,000 to 15,000 Americans as spectators, the United States appears to be taking nothing for granted when it comes to security. American athletes, coaches and staff are being warned not to wear their red, white and blue Olympic uniforms outside the \"ring of steel,\" the Russian security cordon surrounding Sochi. They also will be under the watchful eye of U.S. security officials who will attend events with them, according to State Department officials. Travel warning issued . The State Department went so far last week as to issue an updated travel alert for the region, warning Game-goers that bombings and abductions continue in Russia, particularly in the North Caucasus region. It cited media reports about the hunt in Sochi by Russian authorities for \"black widows,\" wives of dead insurgents who act as suicide bombers, even as it said the U.S. government has not corroborated the reports. The reports were just one example of what one senior State Department official has described as an \"uptick in threat reporting\" in the lead-up to the Winter Games. \"Our expectation is that we will see more in the coming weeks,\" the official, speaking on background, told reporters during a briefing on Olympic security measures. But is the U.S. contingency planning in line with the potential threat? Security expert Matthew Clements, editor of IHS Jane's intelligence review in London, thinks not. \"It's normal for countries to outline contingency plans for the removal of their nationals from any country in which there's a risk to them,\" he said. \"At the same time, this is usually only undertaken in very serious situations such as cases of civil war or other kinds of conflict. \"In the event of a terrorist attack on someone in Sochi, even if it was around the city or venues, I don't think the idea of there being a U.S. military evacuation of their citizens from there would be a realistic prospect.\" This, says Clements, is because it would cause huge logistical difficulties, would likely be overkill in terms of the situation and \"probably the Russians wouldn't be very happy.\" 'We've had conversations' It is unclear whether a military evacuation would entail U.S. forces entering Russian territory, but Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has publicly hinted that there is a plan of some sort. \"We've had conversations with the Russian government on protection of our citizens,\" Hagel said recently. He also has said the United States has offered assistance to Russia, but there has been no request from the Russian government for help. McCaul, speaking on CNN's New Day, also said the notion that Moscow needs foreign help to deal with its own homegrown terrorist threat would likely rile many Russians. \"There's a sense of nationalistic pride in Russia, just as we would have in the United States,\" said McCaul. \"And so, while they've been very productive, cooperating with us on some issues, when it comes to the military, it gets a little sensitive.\" But former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes, a CNN law enforcement analyst, believes the U.S. precautions make sense. \"You'd hope that the U.S. wouldn't be sitting around waiting for a telegram from Russia going 'hey, come and get your people.' So to me, that's a commonsense approach, and the military should have a very robust plan to come in and do that,\" he said. \"If an attack occurs, you're going to have chaos. You're going to have a large problem to get ships and get helicopters, so merely getting your forces in to get your people out will be quite an event just by itself.\" Russian ambassador says he's certain Olympics will be safe . Britain taking 'extra measures' Other nations are well-aware of the security risk attached to any such major event -- but are more coy about their precautions. Darryl Seibel, spokesman for the British Olympic Association, declined to go into detail about the security measures planned for Team GB in Sochi. \"We will take some extra measures for our delegates,\" he told CNN. But, he stressed, \"that is not new -- we have done that for a number of Games. That's been part of our planning from the beginning.\" Seibel said the primary responsibility for security always falls to the host country and the organizing committee. It's something of which Britain is very conscious, having hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2012. As it turned out, the London Olympics went off without incident, but the security measures taken included parking missile batteries on apartment block roofs and a huge warship on the River Thames. The precautions in Sochi are even more extensive, those who've been there say. \"This security operation is the most impressive and well-fortified that we've ever seen in Olympic history,\" McCaul said. Even so, a Quinnipiac poll conducted in the United States last week found that half those surveyed believe a terrorist attack at the Winter Olympics is very or somewhat likely. Allaying fears . But American authorities have sought to allay concerns. \"What I can tell you is there has been an uptick in some of the reporting, but that is not unusual. It's of concern, but not unusual for an event like this,\" said White House spokesman Jay Carney. \"The State Department has handled and is handling the issue of travel advisories for U.S. citizens, and we are offering the Russians any assistance that they might require or request in a situation like this.\" It's not clear exactly how many people will travel to Sochi for the Games. Scott Blackmun, chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said in a statement: \"The safety and security of Team USA is our top priority. \"As is always the case, we are working with the U.S. Department of State, the local organizers and the relevant law enforcement agencies in an effort to ensure that our delegation and other Americans traveling to Sochi are safe.\" Former champion Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps said that the security issues are likely the last thing on the athletes' minds right now. \"As an athlete, we don't notice anything,\" he said. \"You know, we're there to represent our country and we are there to compete at the highest level.\" Being in the Olympic Village with athletes from all over the world is incredible, he said, adding \"there's nothing like it.\" CNN's Barbara Starr and Laura Bernardini contributed to this report.", "London (CNN) -- Britain's government has evidence Russia was involved in the mysterious poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was at that time working for British and Spanish intelligence services, a lawyer has said. The allegation emerged at a hearing Thursday in London ahead of an inquest into Litvinenko's 2006 death that is due to start in May. In Britain, an inquest is an inquiry held where a death is sudden or unexplained to establish the facts around it. Read more: Russian magnate wins libel case over poisoning report . Litvinenko, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, came to Britain in 2000 after turning whistle-blower on the FSB, the KGB's successor. He died at a London hospital November 23, 2006, after being poisoned by the radioactive material polonium-210. In a deathbed statement, he blamed Putin, an accusation the Kremlin has strongly denied. The counsel to the inquest, Hugh Davies, said evidence provided by the UK government \"does establish a prima facie case as to the culpability of the Russian state in the death of Alexander Litvinenko.\" Read more: FBI releases Russian spy trove . The confidential government material does not, however, support the idea that the British government itself killed Litvinenko, he said. Nor does it suggest that fellow Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, the Spanish mafia or other organized crime groups are to blame, Davies added. Prosecutors in London want Russia to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, suspected in the killing, but Russia has repeatedly refused to do so. Lawyer Ben Emmerson, acting for Litvinenko's widow Marina, told the hearing that Litvinenko was working for the British intelligence service MI6 and had been tasked by MI6 with working also for the Spanish intelligence service as it investigated Russian mafia activities in Spain. Litvinenko had an MI6 handler known only as \"Martin,\" whom he would meet in central London, he said. Payments, both from MI6 and from the Spanish intelligence services, were made directly into the joint bank account held by Litvinenko and his wife, Emmerson said. Read more: Washington and Russia agree to swap intelligence gatherers . While ill in hospital Litvinenko called Lugovoi about a planned trip together to Spain, a phone call that was witnessed by his wife, Emmerson said. The men were both to provide intelligence to the Spanish prosecutor investigating Russian mafia links to the Kremlin and to Putin, he said. Emmerson also questioned whether the British government did enough to protect Litvinenko from threats to his safety in light of his relationship with MI6. Russia's Investigative Committee has confirmed that it wants to be involved in the process as an \"interested party,\" the state-run RIA Novosti news agency said Friday. If Russia becomes an interested party, its representatives will be allowed to cross-examine witnesses and study the evidence, it said. A statement on the website of the Russian Embassy in London said the Investigative Committee's involvement would help the inquest \"in securing the all-sided, comprehensive and objective consideration of the case.\" The committee, a federal agency, is carrying out its own investigation into the circumstances of Litvinenko's death in Russia, the statement said. Read more: Putin: UK spy row is 'mini-crisis' Emmerson told the hearing, held before high court judge Sir Robert Owen, that he and Litvinenko's widow were keen for Russia to have interested party status. Russia has not yet commented on the claims of evidence of its involvement in Litvinenko's death.", "Washington (CNN) -- A man who volunteered as a suicide bomber for a terrorist group intent on blowing up a U.S.-bound plane was working instead as an intelligence agent for Saudi Arabia, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing American and foreign officials. The double agent departed Yemen, traveled through the United Arab Emirates and gave the bomb and information about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to the CIA, Saudi intelligence and other foreign intelligence agencies, the newspaper said. The bomb, which was intended to pass undetected through airport security, was given to the FBI, which was poring over it, the newspaper said. The Times, citing officials, said the agent works for Saudi intelligence, which has \"cooperated closely\" with the CIA for years. The officials, who would not identify the man, said he is safe in Saudi Arabia, the newspaper reported. Citing a senior American official, the newspaper described the device as sewn into \"custom fit\" underwear and able to be detonated in two ways. That redundancy may have been an attempt to ensure that an attempt to blow up a jet over Detroit in 2009, which failed because the bomb did not detonate, would not be repeated. The primary charge in the latest device was high-grade military explosive that the Times, quoting an official, said \"undoubtedly would have brought down an aircraft.\" A senior administration official told CNN that officials were debating whether to release photographs of the device to law enforcement agencies. On one side of the argument, Transportation Safety Administration screeners and law enforcement might more easily identify any similar devices made as part of the same plot, the official said. But officials were reluctant to do so out of concern that the photographs would be leaked to the news media and that the would-be bombers would learn what law enforcement knows -- and might not know -- about the bomb's workings. The news of the double agent might explain comments made earlier Tuesday by John Brennan, the chief White House counterterrorism adviser, who told ABC's \"Good Morning America\" that U.S. officials were confident they were in control of the situation leading up to the seizure of the improvised explosive device, or IED. Brennan said that officials believe redundant security systems would have prevented any attempt at bombing a flight from succeeding, but analysts were studying the device to see whether security procedures should be adjusted. \"We're trying to make sure that we take the measures that we need to prevent any other type of IED, similarly constructed, from getting through security procedures,\" Brennan said. The device investigators were studying is more sophisticated than were previous ones and represents a disconcerting advance in al Qaeda bomb-making techniques, officials said Tuesday. \"It is a device similar to the underwear bomber of 2009, but an evolution to that,\" Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. The device never posed an immediate danger to air travel or the United States, she said. But lawmakers said more such devices may exist, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, said the release of information about the device could complicate an effort to seal the long-term threat. \"If something bad happens because it was leaked too early, that's a catastrophe and it's also a crime,\" Rogers told CNN. News about the device became public on Monday, about two weeks after U.S. intelligence agents thwarted the plot after receiving a tip from Saudi Arabia, a source familiar with the operation said. Information from the double agent proved key to a CIA drone strike Sunday in Yemen that killed Fahd al Quso, 37, a senior operative of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Quso was a suspect in the bombing in 2000 of the USS Cole in Yemen. The vehicle he was in was hit by a drone strike in the Rafdh district in Shabwa province, U.S. officials said. Al Qaeda's bomb-makers evolve, adapt . \"I was told by the White House they are connected; they're part of the same operation,\" the source familiar with the operation said. Al Quso hinted at the existence of another bomb effort in February, when he was asked whether the group had stopped exporting terrorism operations. \"The war didn't end between us and our enemies,\" he replied. \"Wait for what is coming.\" Western officials describe AQAP as al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate. U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, expressed dismay that the news was public. \"It's really, to me, unfortunate that this has gotten out, because this could really interfere with operations overseas,\" he said. \"My understanding is a major investigation is going to be launched because of this.\" Officials have provided few specifics about the device. But Rogers said it underscores al Qaeda's continuing efforts to carry out terrorist attacks. \"This is a device that was more sophisticated, had some fail-safes built into it, and it was something that concerns us because it tells us that they brought some very capable people together to build something,\" he said. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said authorities have \"no specific, credible information regarding an active terrorist plot against the U.S. at this time.\" Though the threat was foiled around the time of the anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a second U.S. counterterrorism official said the two were not related. President Barack Obama was told last month about the plot, which \"underscores the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism here and abroad,\" the White House said. AQAP has been responsible for two of the most audacious attempts to target the United States in recent years: the attempted Christmas 2009 bombing and a 2010 attempt to load bombs hidden inside printer cartridges onto cargo planes headed for Chicago. In both cases, U.S. authorities believe the bombs were built by Ibrahim al-Asiri. Both devices contained PETN, a white, powdery explosive that conventional \"single-beam\" X-ray machines are rarely able to detect. In 2009, al-Asiri outfitted his brother, Abdullah al-Asiri, with a PETN-based underwear bomb in an attempt to kill Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a top Saudi security official. The device killed his brother instantly but failed to kill its target. \"We are not ready to say the threat stream is over,\" a U.S. official told CNN. \"We believe external plotting continues.\" The investigation involves a number of countries and is \"ongoing,\" King, R-New York, said on CNN's \"Starting Point.\" He said the leadership of al Qaeda was intimately involved in the plot. Rogers told CNN International's Christiane Amanpour, \"I can confirm to you that, in fact, it was an al Qaeda core group that was responsible for the development and procurement and financing and putting together this particular bomb.\" As the hunt continues for the mastermind bomber, a U.S. official said the assumption continues to be that al-Asiri is training others in bombmaking. \"They understand that Asiri is going to be killed or captured one day,\" Mustafa Alani, the director of security and defense studies at the Gulf Research Center, told CNN. Alani had been briefed on AQAP by Saudi counterterrorism officials. \"We're talking about a new generation of very skillful bomb builders and very committed people.\" U.S. counterterrorism agencies have reached a similar conclusion. \"I think the fear is not just that he'll share his ability within his own circle, but rather more widely, and send it to other al Qaeda-sympathetic individuals or organizations,\" a senior U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN in March. Yemen's government has been fighting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for years with mixed results. Yemen president vows offensive against al Qaeda . Yemeni authorities appeared miffed by the revelations of the foiled plot, saying that Washington had shared no information with them. \"Yemen has been a key ally to the United States when it comes to fighting terror and cooperates in every way possible,\" said a senior intelligence official in Yemen who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation. \"It's very sad to know that the United States did not share such critical intelligence information with Yemen. \"The United States cannot win the war on terror alone, and intelligence sharing must be bilateral if it expects complete cooperation from Yemen.\" \"This was a key victory for us,\" King said. \"It also reminds us, though, that this war is not going to end in Afghanistan. ... Al Qaeda has metastasized and morphed. And they are constantly attempting to find new ways to get at us.\" CNN's Barbara Starr, National Security Contributor Fran Townsend, Pam Benson, Elise Labott, Jessica Yellin, Nic Robertson, journalist Hakim al-Masmari contributed to this report.", "Editor's note: Since the FBI arrested a Brooklyn businessman in late July on federal charges of organ trafficking, CNN has been conducting a worldwide investigation into the sale of kidneys using willing donors and willing recipients from China to Israel to the United States. Nick Rosen says he got $20,000 to donate his kidney and lied to the hospital's transplant team. TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Four years ago, a young, cash-starved Israeli answered an ad in a newspaper for a kidney donor. \"I decided I wanted to make a positive change in my life and do something different,\" Nick Rosen told CNN. \"So I saw an ad in the paper and it said, 'Kidney Donor Wanted.' And called the ad in the paper, and they asked me my blood type.\" Ultimately, Rosen flew to New York and underwent surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center to remove one of his two healthy kidneys. \"Let's say I donated a kidney and received compensation,\" he said. Rosen's story is one of several that have come to light in recent weeks as part of a worldwide CNN investigation into what appears to be a widespread black market in human organs currently under scrutiny by authorities in the United States and Israel. Rosen says he was paid $20,000 for his kidney -- something he admits he lied about in interviews with the hospital's transplant team. Watch Rosen explain how he sold his kidney » . What Rosen did -- and what the man who received the kidney did -- violated a 1994 U.S. federal law that forbids the selling or purchase of live organs for cash. He not only got his money, but made an 11-minute documentary film he called \"Kidney Beans\" to show how easy it was to sell an organ. A portion of the documentary shows him lying on a bed, covered in cash he says he was paid. In a written statement, Mount Sinai told CNN: \"The pre-transplant evaluation may not detect premeditated and skillful attempts to subvert and defraud the evaluation process.\" \"Mount Sinai's transplant screening process is rigorous and comprehensive, and assesses each donor's motivation,\" the hospital said. A hospital medical source put it more bluntly: \"We were duped.\" According to kidney transplant doctors, the process of pre-screening, blood-type matching and other related medical issues normally takes two months before any surgery. During that time, both recipient and doctor have to make several visits to a team of doctors, social workers and perhaps even ethicists before a final decision is made. Hospitals often ask donors to sign documents which ask whether they have received any compensation for donating a kidney or other organ. But no documentation is required to prove a family connection. The chief of nephrology at Mount Sinai later said hospitals and doctors are primarily concerned with medicine. \"We're not detectives. We're not the FBI,\" Dr. Barbara Murphy said. \"People can, on occasion, deceive us.\" But what Rosen did was not unique, according to the World Health Organization, which says 10 percent of kidney transplants worldwide are believed to be illicit. Dr. Eli A. Friedman, a leading kidney specialist, teacher and researcher at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, said the United States leads the world in kidney transplants. About 16,000 of them are performed every year, he said. \"That would mean that somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 transplants in the United States might fall in the categorization of being illegal,\" Friedman said. He added, \"I have had several experiences with patients with data that says they got a kidney from their brother, their sister or from their parent when they don't have a brother or a sister, \" Dr. Friedman told CNN. \" The transplant was performed under false circumstances.\" And Friedman said he's been offered bribes of $5,000 to $10,000 by kidney brokers. \"Of course I was very happy to see them leave the office very rapidly,\" he said. The extent of the underground network came to the surface in late July, when FBI agents arrested a Brooklyn businessman on charges of organ trafficking. A federal complaint against Itzhak-Levy Rosenbaum said he had offered to provide a new kidney for a relative of an undercover FBI agent for about $160,000. According to the complaint, Rosenbaum told the agent he could buy the kidney for about $5,000 and gave instructions on exact procedures and methods to avoid detection. The complaint quoted Rosenbaum as bragging: \"So far, I've never had a failure.\" Ronald Kleinberg, the attorney for Rosenbaum, told CNN he could not comment on the FBI complaint \"because I have not had enough time to assess the information.\" He said CNN's \"assertions are incorrect,\" and that law enforcement's account of Rosenbaum's network was inaccurate. But law enforcement sources said Rosenbaum had been the centerpiece of a kidney-for-sale operation, which he called \"United Lifeline,\" that operated extensively for nearly a decade. The donors and patients in this network were linked by one common theme -- they were Jewish. Investigators say the donors usually came from Eastern Europe, were mostly poor and willing to sell their kidneys to U.S. and Israeli patients. According to one expert on organ trafficking, the FBI had been alerted to Rosenbaum's activities years ago. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, an anthropologist at the University of California at Berkeley and founder of a newsletter called \"Organs Watch,\" said she had told the FBI about Rosenbaum and her suspicions about him seven years ago. \"I think they thought it was a very few bad apples,\" Scheper-Hughes said. The FBI said would not officially comment on her assertions, but an FBI source later said, \"We developed our own leads.\" According to Scheper-Hughes, the same day she spoke to CNN, she had learned of another illegal transplant surgery taking place at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. The donor, she said, was a young Korean national who had received more than $25,000 for one of his kidneys. \"This is a kid that does not speak much English, who is terrified and shaken,\" she said. \"And he thought, 'Maybe I've made a mistake to do this, but $25,000 is a good amount of cash.'\" Scheper-Hughes said the cash had been handed over in two increments, with the second paid to a relative in a hospital bathroom. In a statement, Cedars-Sinai spokeswoman Sally Stewart said living donors \"must state they are not receiving payment for their kidney.\" \"If at any time during the evaluation process, the transplant team suspects the donor is inappropriately being paid for a kidney, the transplant is canceled,\" she said. But a hospital source later told CNN, \"We do not give lie-detector tests to our patients.\" According to Scheper-Hughes, who is in the final stages of writing a book on organ trafficking, much of the world's illicit traffic in kidneys can be traced to Israel. \"Israel is the top,\" she said. \"It has tentacles reaching out worldwide.\" Until March 2008, Israeli law allowed Israeli citizens to go abroad for live organ transplants from non-related donors. But there was no way for Israeli authorities to keep track of how many of those cases involved money changing hands, the country's Health Ministry said. Israeli investigators are looking intensively at illegal organ trafficking under the new law, the ministry said. And prosecutors in Nazareth sent nine Israelis to jail in 2007 after uncovering a black-market ring that was buying and selling organs. Gilad Ehrlick, the assistant district attorney for Israel's Northern District, said he was shocked by the case. Secretly recorded conversations showed that Arab and Russian newspapers were targeting low-income Israelis and Palestinians with ads saying there would be payment in exchange for providing a kidney. \"The idea was the people were calling out of despair, out of urgent need who needed a quick way to make money,\" he said.", "Washington (CNN) -- A series of blog posts on Monday purportedly by Edward Snowden said he leaked classified details about U.S. surveillance programs because President Barack Obama worsened \"abusive\" practices instead of curtailing them as he promised as a candidate. In 90 minutes of live online chatting, the person identified as Snowden by Britain's Guardian newspaper and website insisted that U.S. authorities have access to phone calls, e-mails and other communications far beyond constitutional bounds. While he said legal restrictions can be easily skirted by analysts at the National Security Agency, FBI and CIA, Snowden stopped short of accusing authorities of violating specific laws. Instead, he said toothless regulations and policies were to blame for what he called \"suspicionless surveillance,\" and he warned that policies can be changed to allow further abuses. \"This disclosure provides Obama an opportunity to appeal for a return to sanity, constitutional policy, and the rule of law rather than men,\" he posted. \"He still has plenty of time to go down in history as the president who looked into the abyss and stepped back, rather than leaping forward into it.\" Obama bristles at suggestion he's shifted on snooping . Asked Monday if the NSA was following the online chat, the agency's press office had no immediate comment. Obama, top legislators and national security officials defend the surveillance programs as necessary to combat terrorism, arguing that some privacy must be sacrificed in a balanced approach. They say the law allows collection of metadata, such as the time and numbers of phone calls, and that a special federal court must approve accessing the content -- listening to the call itself. In the blog posts on Monday, the writer identified as Snowden contended the government's overbroad collection of information violated rights of innocent Americans who have no links to suspicious activity. Referring to a program that permits broader access to foreign communications than is allowed for domestic monitoring, the writer said authorities sidestep regulations. For example, a phone call from overseas can mean automatic inclusion of a U.S. number in the record-keeping, according to the writer. \"The reality is that ... Americans' communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant,\" one Snowden post said. \"They excuse this as 'incidental' collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications.\" Another post warned that restrictions against unauthorized access to the content of communications -- such as listening to phone calls or reading e-mails -- were based on policy rather than technology and therefore \"can change at any time.\" CNN poll: Obama numbers plunge into generation gap . Snowden said he leaked details of the surveillance programs because Obama campaigned for the presidency on a platform of ending abuses. However, Obama \"closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge,\" a blog post said. Snowden also said that he had to get out of the United States before the leaks were published by the Guardian and Washington Post to avoid being targeted by the government. The U.S. government \"predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home\" by \"openly declaring me guilty of treason,\" Snowden said. Snowden, who is believed to be in Hong Kong, also wrote that the truth about surveillance programs he disclosed will come out, and \"the U.S. government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me.\" Details on NSA-thwarted plots coming, lawmaker says . The blog post rejected accusations that he had or might provide classified information to China, saying he only leaked to journalists and calling such a charge a smear tactic intended to turn public opinion against his effort to provide Americans with full information about how their government monitors them. A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday showed 54% of respondents didn't approve of Snowden's admitted actions, while 44% backed the leaks. Snowden's father told Fox News that he hoped and prayed his son \"will not release any secrets that could constitute treason.\" The father, Lon Snowden, also said he wanted his son to return to the United States \"and face this,\" adding \"I love my son.\" Snowden, 29, worked for the NSA through a private contractor firm until May, when he decamped to Hong Kong. He went public earlier this month as the source of articles by the newspapers, saying the agency's efforts pose \"an existential threat to democracy.\" The revelations about the NSA's collection of millions of records from U.S. telecommunications and technology firms have led to a furious debate within the United States about the scale and scope of surveillance programs that date from the days after the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington. Opinion: Did NSA snooping stop 'dozens' of terrorist attacks? Defenders say the programs -- approved by Congress after a warrantless surveillance effort under the Bush administration was revealed in 2005 -- have protected American lives by helping agents break up terrorism plots. And they argue that the program is under close oversight by all three branches of government, including the congressional intelligence committees and a court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that hears cases in secret. But Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian columnist who broke Snowden's story and moderated the chat, said the safeguards placed on the program is \"a very symbolic and empty oversight that really ought not to give the assurances to anybody that these powers aren't being abused.\" \"They go once every six months to the FISA court,\" he said. \"The FISA court rubber-stamps these vague guidelines that the NSA says they're using to make sure they're complying with the law. And once that happens, the NSA can force telecoms and Internet companies to give them whatever they demand under the guise that the FISA court has blessed their guidelines.\" Bigger threat: Snowden or NSA? Critics call the programs an unconstitutional overreach of authority under the Patriot Act, the law that authorized increased government surveillance in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In a new development, the Guardian reported Sunday that Britain's electronic intelligence agency monitored delegates' phones and tried to capture their passwords during an economic summit held there in 2009. Targets included British allies such as Turkey and South Africa, the newspaper reported. The Guardian cited documents provided by Snowden. According to the newspaper, the documents show that the British \"signals intelligence\" agency GCHQ used \"ground-breaking intelligence capabilities\" to intercept calls made by members of the G-20 conference delegations at meetings in London. Facebook, Microsoft disclose information on user data requests . Analysts received round-the-clock summaries of calls that were being made, and GCHQ set up Internet cafes for delegates in hopes of intercepting e-mails and capturing keystrokes, the Guardian reported. One briefing slide explained the intercepts would give intelligence agencies the ability to read delegates' e-mails \"before/as they do,\" providing \"sustained intelligence options against them even after (the) conference has finished.\" GCHQ is Britain's equivalent of the secretive NSA in the United States. The Guardian reported that the NSA had attempted to eavesdrop on then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the conference as his phone calls passed through satellite links to Moscow and briefed its British counterparts on the effects. The latest report was published on the eve of a smaller economic summit hosted by the British government -- the Group of Eight gathering in Northern Ireland. Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said Sunday he was aware of the Guardian's latest report but declined to comment on it. \"What we should be focused on is how irresponsible and egregious these recent leaks are,\" he told CNN. \"It's impossible to know exactly how much damage is being done by these disclosures, but they will have an effect on our counterterrorism efforts.\" Cheney defends NSA, calls Obama's credibility 'nonexistent' Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former NSA director, said on CNN's \"Fareed Zakaria GPS\" that what the agency collects are \"essentially billing records\" that detail the time, duration and phone numbers involved in a call. The records are added to a database that agents can query in cases involving a terror investigation overseas, and agents can't eavesdrop on Americans' calls without an order from a secret court that handles intelligence matters, he said. If a phone number related to an investigation has links to a domestic phone number, \"We've got to go back to the court,\" he said. GOP tries to keep focus on IRS targeting scandal . However, critics such as Sen. Mark Udall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had raised questions about the scale of the program even before Snowden's leak. Udall said on NBC's \"Meet the Press\" on Sunday that he doesn't believe the program is making Americans any safer, \"and I think it's ultimately, perhaps, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.\" \"I think we owe it to the American people to have a fulsome debate in the open about the extent of these programs,\" said Udall, a Colorado Democrat. \"You have a law that's been interpreted secretly by a secret court that then issues secret orders to generate a secret program. I just don't think this is an American approach to a world in which we have great threats.\" Obama does not feel that he has violated the privacy of any American, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said on the CBS program \"Face the Nation.\" McDonough said the president will be discussing the need to \"find the right balance, especially in this new situation where we find ourselves with all of us reliant on Internet, on e-mail, on texting.\" Hong Kong rallies in the rain for Edward Snowden . CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Matt Smith and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.", "(CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will finally take questions from members of Congress on Wednesday about the deadly terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Lawmakers have long wanted Clinton's full accounting of the September 11 assault that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. They also want to ask her about diplomatic security, which the State Department has since re-examined at posts located in overseas hot spots. Agency officials have acknowledged shortcomings and promised changes. Some of the toughest questions before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are expected to focus on the Obama administration's slow-to-evolve public explanation of the attack, which triggered an uproar in the middle of a presidential election campaign. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice took most of the political heat as mainly Republican lawmakers seized on her public comments the administration has said were based on fast-moving intelligence that later proved to be incorrect. Still, some Republicans suggested the administration sought to mute the true nature of the attack to prevent President Barack Obama's political opponents from fully exploiting it in the final weeks of the November campaign. The issue was so polarizing that Clinton's decision to postpone an initial appearance before Congress in December due to health problems was questioned by her harshest critics as a possible dodge. It was revealed that she had a virus and suffered a concussion. Clinton was then hospitalized for a blood clot, only returning to work two weeks ago. Clinton's future health 'as good as her past' Her testimony will be public and will likely be the most difficult moment of her final days as America's top diplomat. Despite the controversy, Clinton's poll numbers remain high. She's leaving the job soon. Some of the potential questions she will face: . What did Clinton know? Republican Sen. John McCain wants a full explanation of Clinton's understanding of the attack -- what happened before, during and after. The 2008 GOP presidential nominee and the top Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain told CNN this week that he feels \"the American people were clearly deceived.\" McCain told reporters eight days after the attack that he had information the State Department had been warned. In mid November, McCain took to the floor of the Senate and accused Obama of lying about the attack. \"The American people have received nothing but contradictory statements from all levels of our government,\" he said. The Pentagon released an official timeline that highlighted when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his senior commanders were first informed and when follow up decisions were made involving the military. The timeline shows Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey were told of the attack about an hour after it started. Both were on their way to the White House for an already scheduled meeting with the president. Thirty minutes later, Obama was directing the Pentagon to do all it could to help, according to senior Pentagon officials. Obama administration continues explanations of attack . What does Clinton know about cables warning of security threats? Just hours before the attack, Stevens sent a message to the State Department that referred to a meeting nine days earlier during which the commander of Benghazi's Supreme Security Council \"expressed growing frustration with police and security forces\" about security capabilities. That cable, since made public, is part of more than 160 pages of documents that paint a picture of persistent and unpredictable violence in and around Benghazi last year. It also reveals that the U.S. contingent in Benghazi felt it needed more security. In February, the regional security officer in Tripoli, Eric Nordstrom, warned that having just two diplomatic security agents on the ground in Benghazi made movements outside the U.S. facility impossible. \"I've been placed in a difficult spot when the ambassador tells me I need to support Benghazi,\" Nordstrom wrote in a February 12 e-mail to the regional director of the Near East Affairs Department at the State Department. Clinton's Benghazi statement . Was Clinton informed about the rise of al Qaeda-linked militants? In the September 11 cable, a paragraph refers to the \"expanding Islamist influence in Derna,\" a town east of Benghazi, amid reports linking \"the Abu Salim Brigade with a troubling increase in violence and Islamist influence.\" The Abu Salim Brigade was prominent among the opponents of former strongman Moammar Gadhafi. The ambassador refers to another meeting on September 9 in which commanders of unofficial militia claimed that the Libyan Armed Forces depended on them to secure eastern Libya, and even supplied them with weapons. Read more about Stevens' warnings about militants . Communication from the ground up likely will be examined during Clinton's testimony. 'Talking points' cited by Rice and why didn't Clinton give that public explanation? Rice spoke for the Obama administration on Sunday talk shows on September 16. She made several claims that turned out to be wrong. The primary complaint from Republicans is that Rice's remarks were centered on anger over the anti-Islam film, \"Innocence of Muslims,\" when there was classified intelligence available suggesting a possible al Qaeda link. On the talk shows, Rice spoke from unclassified talking points officials said were provided by the intelligence community. She said the armed assault was spontaneous and linked to regional outrage over the film. Since then, Rice has twice talked to lawmakers about her remarks. In a statement, Rice said her talking points were \"incorrect in a key respect: There was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi.\" \"While we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case,\" the statement said. \"The intelligence assessment has evolved.\" Obama defended Rice publicly, but she later withdrew her name from consideration as his likely nominee to replace Clinton at the State Department. Why has only one attack suspect been detained, and then released? Ali Harzi was freed earlier this month by a Tunisian judge overseeing the case against him, the country's state news agency reported. He was arrested in Turkey in connection with the Benghazi attack. On January 9, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland referred questions to the FBI, which she said \"has the lead on the Benghazi investigation.\" The Tunisian news agency, TAP, reported that Harzi had been questioned by Tunisian authorities and the FBI \"as a witness and not a suspect.\" But a U.S. federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the probe said he remains a suspect. The fact that Harzi has been freed from detention \"doesn't mean he's any less a suspect,\" the official said, adding Harzi does not appear on video taken of the Benghazi compound. Investigators have identified at least 15 people who may be suspects, the official told CNN, indicating some were identified on the video. \"We will get indictments,\" the official said. \"but it's not possible to put a timetable on it.\" Reports on the attack . In December, an independent review of the Benghazi assault cited \"systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies\" at the State Department. Four State Department officials, including two who oversaw security decisions for Benghazi, were disciplined a day after the report was released. Clinton got a copy of the report and said in letters to State Department chiefs that she accepted its recommendations to beef up security and intelligence gathering in high-threat areas. Before the report came out, Clinton had popular approval ratings in nationwide polls. A December Bloomberg National Poll showed 70 percent of Americans had a mostly favorable view of her. Polls from Politico/George Washington University, ABC News/Washington Post and the Siena College Research Institute also showed high marks. Confusion, contradictions in hunt for Benghazi suspects .", "By . Daily Mail Reporter . The arrest of a US diplomat accused of being a CIA spy was linked to the Boston bombing, sources revealed today. Russian security officials reported on Tuesday that they had briefly detained Ryan Fogle in Moscow for allegedly trying to recruit a Russian intelligence officer. Today sources revealed the man Mr Fogle . was trying to ‘recruit’ was an FSB agent who specialised in Islamic . extremism in Russia and may even have travelled to the region where the . bombing suspects came from. Lure: Sources today said that Ryan Fogle, right, was seeking to lure into treachery an FSB agent who had knowledge of Russian intelligence operations on suspected Boston terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev,  left . It is thought that he was part of a . team who went to Dagestan and provided intelligence to the United States . about an extremist threat in 2011. Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy, who was carrying special technical equipment, disguises, . written instructions and a large sum of money. Fogle was later handed . over to U.S. Embassy officials. This morning the Russian foreign . ministry today issued a formal protest to American ambassador Michael . McFaul who was summoned to explain the alleged espionage mission of one . of his diplomats. As he left after the brief session . with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the envoy waved to . reporters but refused to comment. Relations: U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul walks outside as he leaves the Russian Foreign Ministry headquarters in Moscow. He was summoned to explain the alleged espionage mission of one of his diplomats . The Ministry hit out at 'provocative . acts in the spirit of the Cold War' and has ordered the expulsion of . Fogle, arrested wearing a blond wig under his baseball cap. 'This does not contribute to the . further process of building mutual trust between Russia and the United . States and bringing our relations to a qualitatively new level,' warned . Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin. But it was becoming clearer today . that the US was seeking to lure into treachery an FSB agent who had . knowledge of Russian intelligence operations on suspected Boston . terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who lived in America but had travelled to . Dagastan where he was believed to have met Islamic extremists. Arrested: The US diplomat was pinned to the ground and arrested by the Russian agent he was trying to recruit . Claims: The FSB counter intelligence service said the envoy, a third secretary in the political section of the American embassy was caught red handed seeking to recruit a Russian intelligence officer . Detained: The FSB said Fogle was in possession of two floppy wigs, three pairs of glasses, a map of Moscow and a folding knife when he was detained . Seized: After his arrest, he was taken to the FSB headquarters at the Lubyanka, in Moscow, and later handed over to the US embassy in keeping with diplomatic protocols . Just call me James... blond? Russian intelligence services parade the 'CIA spy', named as Ryan Christopher Fogle, for cameras on Monday . The FSB had earlier warned the FBI about his potential extremist links. In material released by the FSB, it . is clear the Americans had phone numbers for one or more Russian . intelligence agents involved in anti-terrorism work in the Caucasus. They obtained these during trip involving FBI agents to Dagestan in search of intelligence on Tamerlan's trip. 'After the first call he refused to . meet, but this man called again and insisted on a meeting,' said a . recording of a FSB officer addressing three US diplomats who came to . collect the alleged CIA agent from FSB headquarters. 'At first we did not believe it was . happening, because recently the FSB has been actively helping to . investigate the Boston blasts, and was also providing some other . information about threats to US national security'. Today Kommersant newspaper said: 'It . is likely that during the trip in April the US side obtained the phone . numbers of Federal Security Service (FSB) agents.' 'Clearly, they then decided to use it . to have personal contacts with anti-terror agents, given that the . exchange of information in the form of question and answers between . special services is not always quick and smooth,' it said. Russia has not named the target of . the US co-operation, and it is not known whether the agent has faced any . problems or even arrest over the US interest in him. Fogle apparently hinted at an initial . payment of $100,000 followed up a salary of up to $1 million a year . plus bonuses if the Russian intelligence official handed over secrets to . the CIA. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei . Lavrov said he had opted not to bring up the case at talks with US . Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday in Sweden. 'I decided that talking about it would . be superfluous, since it is already made public and everyone already . understands everything,' he said. Statement: 'Recently, the US intelligence service has made repeated attempts to recruit the staff of Russian law enforcement agencies and special services,' according to the FSB . Stash: He was detained with 'special technical devices, written instructions for the person he was recruiting, a lot of cash, and things to help change one's appearance,' according to the FSB . Mission: The website of the American embassy in Russia informs that its Political Section is engaged in 'bringing to the attention of the Russian government the US position on the issues of foreign policy and security' Questions: A letter the agent carried suggested the US government was willing to pay up to $1 million a year plus bonuses to his unidentified potential Russian recruit, if the letter released by the FSB is genuine . Release: Fogle was held overnight before being released to U.S. officials and expelled from Russia . Fogle was the first American diplomat to be publicly accused of spying in Russia in about a decade. While relations between the two countries have been strained, officials in both Washington and Moscow sought to play down the incident. Fogle was caught in Vorontsovski Park, an area in south-east Moscow, the FSB said. A letter in Russian which Fogle . carried suggests – if genuine – that the CIA hoped to reel in a big . fish. Addressed ‘Dear friend’, it states: ‘We are ready to offer you . $100,000 [£65,000] and discuss your experience, expertise and . co-operation, and the payment may go much higher if you are ready to . answer certain questions. ‘For long-term co-operation we offer $1million [£650,000] per year.’ The recruit is instructed to use an . internet cafe to ‘create a new Gmail mailbox which you will use only for . staying in touch with us’. The incident is the biggest spy . scandal since the arrest of glamorous agent Anna Chapman and nine other . Russians in the US in 2010. The FSB stated: ‘Recently, the US . intelligence community has made repeated attempts to recruit employees . of Russia’s law-enforcement bodies and special agencies.’ Many details remained shrouded in . mystery last night. It is not known whether the target was part of the . sting operation or if they have been arrested. Russia’s haste to make the news public . could mean either that the attempt was so audacious that it shocked . leaders, or that hardliners have seized on it to stop a move towards . detente with the US. Yesterday Patty Fogle, the diplomat’s mother, refused to comment at her home in St Louis, Missouri." ]

[ "The 26-year-old caused a massive upset to beat the former US Open champion 3-6 7-5 6-3 6-3 and reach the third round.\nIt comes after a struggle at the end of 2016 following a heartbreaking defeat by Stan Wawrinka at the US Open.\n\"There were some tough times after the Wawrinka match,\" he said.\n\"I still think about that match on the court today. It's not easy when you had the opportunity to close out the big match and then lose.\n\"Yeah, I'm happy it happened. But, you know, hopefully there will be no more dark times, as you put it.\"\nWorld number 51 Evans squandered a match point in the fourth set of his third-round match with two-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka in September.\nHe was devastated afterwards and finished the year with three defeats from four matches - all against lower-ranked opposition.\nBut he is now into the third round of a Grand Slam for only the fourth time of his career - and the first time in Melbourne, where he will face Bernard Tomic.\nEvans said the victory over Cilic was the \"biggest\" of his career, as he joined compatriot Andy Murray in the third round.\nHe did it wearing shirts and shorts bought from a shop after his kit deal with Nike expired in December and was not renewed.\n\"I just went to the store and bought a load of clothes the other day, plain clothes,\" he said.\n\"What was it, Sunday? Sunday or Saturday, yeah. $19.99 (£12), the shirts are.\n\"I think I bought about 18 shirts, something like that. I went back this morning to buy some more. They're not the best quality, to sweat in and wash.\n\"I only wore one shirt today. I'm good until Friday.\"\nEvans will face Australian Tomic in the last 32, a man he beat in four sets in the second round of the 2013 US Open.\nIt was a win the Birmingham player enjoyed, after the world number 27's father suggested he was not good enough to have a practice hit with his son.\n\"I'm not going to bother saying anything about that again. He confronted me about that. We'll leave it at that,\" he said on Wednesday.\n\"I'd say it's a 50-50 match. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to playing him.\"" ]

[ "Media playback is not supported on this device\nEvans, ranked 51 in the world, started off promisingly as he traded blows with the Frenchman before winning the opening set on a tie-break.\nBut Tsonga's heavy hitting and big serving took its toll as the 12th seed won the next three sets.\nTsonga will play 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals.\nEvans, who reached his first ATP final this month and beat former US Open champion Marin Cilic and home favourite Bernard Tomic to reach the last 16, survived long enough to be the last remaining Briton in the men's singles after Andy Murray's shock defeat by Mischa Zverev.\n\"He was just a bit too strong for me,\" said Evans. \"I played pretty well. I was pretty sore.\n\"He was so physical. To win the first set took too much out of me. There was a long game at the start of the second set where I got broke. It was uphill from there.\"\nEvans had to fend off four break points in the first set, while having only one on the Tsonga serve, before threatening to repeat the shocks of earlier rounds by taking the tie-break.\nHowever, Tsonga heeded the warning and quickly went 4-0 up in the second set as he began to dominate the Briton with his powerful and accurate hitting.\nWhile Evans sporadically threatened the 2008 finalist, and managed 43 winners to Tsonga's 59, the Frenchman was always in control after the first set and won the match with a service game to love.\n\"Dan played good tennis and he had nothing to lose,\" said Tsonga.\n\"It was difficult for me because he was hitting the ball really early. After that the game was pretty difficult, then I went over him and finished strong.\n\"I've played pretty good since the start of the tournament. It will be a good challenge against Stan Wawrinka - he's playing unbelievably.\"\nBirmingham-born Evans described his exploits at the Australian Open as the best and \"most exciting\" week of his tennis career.\nHe now plans to go home before joining up with the Great Britain team for their Davis Cup tie in Canada from 3-5 February.\n\"I need to maybe get a bit fitter,\" added Evans. \"I think today I was flagging pretty much after the first set. I did feel that.\n\"My body was sore. Maybe that's something I can improve on a bit.\n\"But, you know, I've still come a long way from where I was last year.\"\nLeon Smith, Great Britain's Davis Cup captain on BBC Radio 5 live\nIt was just an amazing run for Dan. He's played unbelievably well.\nGetting two top 10 wins - beating Dominic Thiem and Marin Cilic in the space of a week - really tells him where he's at just now in terms of his level, never mind his ranking, what his level could be.\nHis schedule suddenly looks a lot different to this time last year when he was setting off to Asia for some Challenger matches and now he can get ready for all the Masters Series events.\nSo it's changed days and exciting times for him.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nEvans, the British number two, was beaten 6-2 6-3 by South Africa's seventh seed Kevin Anderson.\nBritish number three Ward later went down 7-5 6-3 to Bulgarian fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov.\nAndy Murray begins his title defence against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu on Wednesday.\nEvans, who beat Austria's world number 51 Jurgen Melzer in the first round on Monday, struggled to make an impact against the big serving of 6ft 8in Anderson and went out in 65 minutes.\nAn early break of serve put the South African in charge and when he moved 4-2 ahead in the second set, there was no way back for the Briton.\n\"I didn't get a chance to play tennis, really,\" said world number 139 Evans, who is targeting a good performance at Eastbourne next week to improve his ranking.\n\"Next week is a pretty big week. Smaller draw, more ranking points. That's the week you're going to pick up your points.\"\nEvans, 24, added that he was confident he could see off the potential threat of Aljaz Bedene, the Slovenian-born player who hopes to qualify for Britain next year, to his Davis Cup place.\nEvans is currently ranked seven places below Bedene, but believes he is \"a better player\" than the London-based 24-year-old.\n\"I have nothing against him. I just wouldn't do it personally,\" Evans added. \"He's a nice guy. He's played Davis Cup for a different country. I just don't think it would be right if he played Davis Cup for our country.\"\nWard set up a meeting with Dimitrov after a 7-5 6-4 win against Slovenia's Blaz Rola on Monday.\nThe 27-year-old produced a gallant display against the world number 13 but was undone after losing his serve at crucial moments in each set.\nUnseeded Australian Marinko Matosevic caused an upset as he beat ninth seed Marin Cilic, the 2012 champion and 2013 runner-up, 6-4 6-4.\nMatosevic was asked afterwards what he thought about Murray's decision to work with Amelie Mauresmo, and said: \"For me, I couldn't do it since I don't think that highly of the women's game. But his mum coached him, and she did a great job with him.\"\nMauresmo arrived at Queen's Club on Tuesday ahead of starting work as the new coach of Wimbledon champion Murray.\nThe 34-year-old Frenchwoman's appointment, initially for the grass-court season, was announced on Sunday.\nBritish number one Murray practised at Queen's on Tuesday morning with Bedene. Dani Vallverdu, Murray's long-time assistant coach, oversaw the session along with fitness trainer Matt Little.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nTop seed Murray made short work of American Sam Querrey, winning 6-4 6-2 6-4 in one hour and 59 minutes.\nEvans, the world number 51, then upset Australian 27th seed Bernard Tomic with a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-3) victory.\nTim Henman and Greg Rusedski reached round four at Wimbledon 15 years ago.\nIt is the first time Evans has made it so far at a Grand Slam, and he next faces French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.\nMurray, meanwhile, plays Germany's Mischa Zverev, the world number 50.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nQuerrey was the man who upset then world number one Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last summer, but Murray made sure he did not fall victim to another shock after the Serb's surprise defeat by Denis Istomin on Thursday.\nWith six-time champion Djokovic out, Murray is a clear favourite among many observers to finally land the third leg of the career Grand Slam.\n\"I don't worry about that, really,\" said Murray, who has lost four Melbourne finals to Djokovic.\n\"Obviously, if you're to get to the final, then it has an effect. A lot of the times when I've been in the final here, I've played against him. Had some tough ones.\"\nQuerrey gave the Scot plenty to think about in the early stages of their third-round match, attacking the net and hurrying the top seed, but a first-serve percentage of just 57% was not enough to keep Murray at bay.\nThe American missed a fleeting chance with a break point in game eight and Murray immediately took advantage, getting the break himself in the next game with a beautiful lob.\nHe took a firm grip on the match with a run of six out of seven games, easing through the second set with two more breaks.\nThere was a flurry of resistance as Querrey reeled off three straight games to lead 3-2 in the third set, but Murray once again turned up the pressure with his return to break for a fifth time on his way to a comprehensive victory.\n\"Sam, especially in the first set, was hitting a huge ball,\" added Murray, who had no problem with the ankle he turned during his previous match.\n\"There was a key moment at 3-4 when I saved a break point and then managed to break the next game and had the momentum after that.\"\nBritish number three Evans is set to move inside the world's top 50, with 180 ranking points already secured in Melbourne, plus at least £135,000 in prize money.\nAfter failing to convert a match point against Stan Wawrinka in the third round of last year's US Open, the 26-year-old from Solihull grabbed this opportunity with both hands.\n\"It was tough, Bernard is difficult,\" said Evans. \"He is unorthodox and I found it hard at the start. I am happy to come through in three tight sets. It could have gone either way.\"\nEvans followed the best win of his career over seventh seed Marin Cilic on Wednesday with another terrific performance, setting the pace and holding firm when under pressure late in the second and third sets.\nHe was broken after holding two set points on serve in the second set but recovered superbly when facing two set points two games later, then raced through the tie-break with some brilliant all-court tennis.\nWhen Tomic threatened again late in the third set, Evans fought off another three break points with some magnificent play that even drew applause from his opponent.\nThere were worrying signs of possible cramp, and a brief rain shower came to the Briton's aid when serving at 5-5, 40-40, allowing him to recuperate and dominate a second tie-break to clinch the win.\nEvans, who is without a clothing sponsor, has been buying his own T-shirts in Melbourne.\n\"I am happy with them at the minute,\" he said. \"One shrunk in the wash so I had to change it, but I reckon they look all right.\"\nMurray will start as a strong favourite against Zverev, but there is plenty of danger lurking on the Scot's side of the draw.\nFormer winner Stan Wawrinka, the US Open champion, is through to the last 16 after a 3-6 6-2 6-2 7-6 (9-7) win over Serbia's Viktor Troicki.\nThe Swiss, a potential semi-final opponent for Murray, will play Andreas Seppi next after the Italian beat Belgian Steve Darcis 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-2).\nShould Murray get past Zverev on Saturday he could face a daunting quarter-final against four-time champion Federer, seventh seed Berdych or fifth seed Kei Nishikori.\nBBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller in Melbourne\nIn two of his previous Grand Slams, Evans had come tantalisingly close to breaking into the fourth round - especially at the US Open last September, when he had match point to knock out eventual champion Stan Wawrinka.\nAgainst Tomic, he looked from the first point as if he believed this was a match he was going to win. The third set in particular was very physical, as the Australian dragged Evans around the court, and yet he was still fresh enough to win the tie-break in convincing manner.\nEvans will be a top-50 player for the first time after the Australian Open - some rise from the position of 772 he found himself in just 20 months ago. Perhaps hitting his mid-20s and developing a taste for the big occasion from Davis Cup ties spurred him to commit to the ceaseless dedication, and long spells away from home, required to be a top player.\nEvans should be at his peak over the next four years. With help from his coach Mark Hilton, he has built the foundations to allow this not to be as good as it gets.", "The 35-year-old, appearing in his first competitive match in six months after injuring his knee, won 7-5 3-6 6-2 6-2.\nWorld number four Stan Wawrinka needed five sets to beat Slovakia's Martin Klizan 4-6 6-4 7-5 4-6 6-4.\nJapan's Kei Nishikori, ranked fifth, is through after beating Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov 5-7 6-1 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-2.\nThe 27-year-old will next play France's Jeremy Chardy while Wawrinka, 31, will face American Steve Johnson.\nFederer, who hit 19 aces in his two-hour match against Melzer, faces 20-year-old American Noah Rubin in round two.\n\"Any match is a good match, even if I had lost, because I'm back on the court,\" the 17-time Grand Slam champion said.\n\"Last year was tough but it is nice to be playing normal tennis again. It was a long road but I made it.\"\nChardy, ranked 72nd in the world, progressed when Spain's Nicolas Almagro pulled out with a calf injury four games into their match.\nAlmagro, 31, rebuffed suggestions he had only turned up to claim the $50,000 (£31,000) that comes with a first-round exit.\nHe said: \"I have more than $10m. I'm not going to play for $50,000. It is not the reason.\"\nWawrinka, winner in 2014, is appearing in his 12th Australian Open and has never lost in the first round.\nThe Swiss fought back from a break down in the final set to edge Klizan in a testing three-hour encounter during which Wawrinka climbed over the net to apologise after accidentally striking his opponent with the ball.\n\"I was fighting a lot and I never give up but it was most important to get through,\" he said.\nNishikori, who is attempting to become the first Asian man to win a Grand Slam, secured victory despite receiving medical treatment in the final set.\n\"It wasn't easy, especially mentally and I should have finished it in four sets,\" he added.\nAustralian Nick Kyrgios raced to victory in his opener against Portuguese Gastao Elias, who is ranked 77th in the world.\nThe 14th seed took only 84 minutes to win 6-1 6-2 6-2, despite an eight-minute medical timeout to treat a nosebleed in the first set.\nDespite the stoppage, it took him just 19 minutes to win the first set as he powered into the second round.\n\"I'm getting some great treatment for it from my team and it didn't cause me any problems,\" Kyrgios said.\nKyrgios will next play Italy's Andreas Seppi, who beat Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (3-7) 7-5.\nTenth seed Tomas Berdych, twice a semi-finalist in Melbourne, also had a comfortable passage as his Italian opponent Luca Vanni retired after losing the opening set 6-1.\nSeventh seed Marin Cilic fought back from two sets down to beat world number 278 Jerzy Janowicz 4-6 4-6 6-2 6-2 6-3 in three hours and set up a meeting with Britain's Dan Evans in round two.\nFrance's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, ranked 12th in the world, advanced after a 6-1 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 victory over Brazilian Thiago Monteiro.", "World number one Murray, 29, was a convincing 6-3 6-0 6-2 winner against 19-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev.\nEvans earlier fought back to win 3-6 7-5 6-3 6-3 and cause a major upset against former US Open champion Cilic.\nIt is the second time the 26-year-old British number three has beaten a player ranked in the world's top 10.\nMurray will face American world number 32 Sam Querrey in the third round, while Evans will take on Australian 27th seed Bernard Tomic.\nIt took Murray just 63 minutes to race into a two-set lead against Rublev, who was making only his second Grand Slam appearance.\nBut there were concerns for the Scot at 1-1 in the third set when he rolled his right ankle and cried out in pain as he fell to the floor.\nA tournament doctor came out to check on Murray, who expressed his discomfort towards coach Ivan Lendl in the players' box.\nBut he was soon moving more freely, although still with the occasional grimace, to wrap up the match and stay in contention for his first Australian Open title.\n\"It's just a little sore. It's not too serious,\" he said.\n\"I definitely rolled it a bit and I'm sure I'll get some ice on it. I was moving OK. I can put weight on.\n\"Sam Querrey in the next round will be a tough one. He's got a big game, a big serve and takes chances with his forehand.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nBirmingham's Evans had earlier required the third of three match points to finish off the seventh seed on his own serve.\n\"To come through in the last match point was pleasing for me,\" he said.\n\"I struggled with the shade on the court and his pace on the ball was coming through pretty quick, but when the sun went down I got into the match.\"\nIt is the fourth time Evans has progressed to the last 32 of a Grand Slam - he reached the third round of the US Open in 2013 and 2016, and at Wimbledon in 2016.\nHe struggled with an eye problem early in Wednesday's match and lost his composure as Cilic breezed through the first set in 31 minutes.\nHowever, the Briton grew more confident, frustrating the 2014 US Open champion and forcing him to make a slew of errors.\nThe final two sets were a tussle, with service breaks from both players, but Evans held his nerve to win.\nRussell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent\nThis was the most impressive scalp of Dan Evans' career - and there is a growing shortlist from which to choose.\nThe 26-year-old has reached the third round in each of the last three Grand Slams and is likely to feature in the world's top 50 for the first time as a result.\nHe took a while to get used to the power of Cilic's ground strokes but once he had won the second set from a break down, he was simply the best player on the court.\nThere was no drama in Andy Murray's rapid victory over Andrey Rublev - until he turned his right ankle in that fall.\nAs animated as ever, he told his support team as the match resumed that \"it's not good news\", although he continued to move well and the prognosis seems positive.\nCompatriots Heather Watson and Naomi Broady were knocked out of the women's doubles in the first round, losing 7-5 2-6 7-6 (7-5) to Italy's Karin Knapp and Luxembourg's Mandy Minella.\nWatson is in second-round singles action on Thursday against American Jennifer Brady.\nBritish number one Johanna Konta takes on Japan's Naomi Osaka at 00:00 GMT, and compatriot Kyle Edmund plays Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta.\nLike Konta, world number 46 Edmund is first on court, with Watson to follow at approximately 01:30 GMT.\nFind out how to get into tennis in our special guide.", "World number one Murray, 29, plays Germany's Mischa Zverev, who is 50th in the rankings, before Dan Evans faces France's 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.\nThis is Evans' best run at a Grand Slam after victories over Marin Cilic and Bernard Tomic in the last two rounds.\n\"It was a goal to make the fourth round of a Slam this year,\" said the 26-year-old, who is ranked 51st in the world.\n\"It's satisfying, but I'm not looking back. Whatever happens, it's been a great tournament, but there's still some tennis to be played.\"\nTsonga, an Australian Open finalist in 2008, is expecting a tough challenge in their match, which will not start before 05:30 GMT.\n\"He's very talented, he can do everything,\" said Tsonga. \"He can play short points or rallies and he's got a one-handed backhand which isn't easy to control.\"\nMurray is expected to be in action at about 03:00 GMT on Sunday and thinks he will have to change his tactics against Zverev.\n\"He has a very different game style to most of the guys now, he's serve-volleying, coming forward as much as possible,\" said Murray.\n\"He doesn't serve like 220km/h. He serves 185s, 190s, but places it well. People say you can't play that way any more and be successful, but he's done that the last few months.\"\nZverev, the older brother of 19-year-old rising star Alexander Zverev, who lost to Rafael Nadal in the third round, hopes to frustrate the Scot.\n\"If he plays his best tennis, obviously I don't have a lot of chances, but it'll depend on the day,'' said Zverev. \"Let's see if I can annoy him a little bit. If I'm serving well and not missing any volleys, maybe I can do some damage.''\nThe last time two British men made the quarter-finals of the same Grand Slam tournament was in 1997 when Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski reached the last eight at Wimbledon.\nMurray has lost in five Australian Open finals, but the man he lost to in four of those matches, Novak Djokovic, is out of the tournament.\nFormer world number one Andre Agassi thinks this could be Murray's year.\n\"This is a heck of an opportunity for Andy,\" said the American. \"He's certainly come into his best years and if he lines everything up he has the runway free to do some remarkable things.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nKonta, 25, arrives at SW19 as the 16th seed after reaching the Australian Open semi-finals in January and will face Puerto Rico's Monica Puig.\nWorld number two Murray, 29, meanwhile, faces another Brit in 22-year-old Liam Broady - ranked 235th in the world.\nBritain's world number 772 Marcus Willis stole the headlines on day one, setting up a tie with Roger Federer.\nMurray's meeting with Broady, who has been seen hitting with high-profile names such as Milos Raonic and the Canadian's coach John McEnroe this week, will take place on Centre Court after defending champion Serena Williams opens day two against Swiss Amra Sadikovic at 13:00 BST.\n\"It's an opportunity for him to play on one of the biggest courts in the world with a huge audience and try to cause an upset,\" said Murray, champion in 2013.\nThere will be added scrutiny of world number two Murray as he embarks on his first Grand Slam since reuniting with coach Ivan Lendl, who formed part of his camp when he won his two majors.\nFresh from becoming the first British woman to reach the semi-finals of Eastbourne's Aegon International since 1976, Britain's highest ranked woman Konta faces Puig, whose appearance in the last four at Eastbourne was her second grass-court semi-final of the summer.\nThey will follow Stan Wawrinka and Taylor Fritz on Court One.\nIn all there are seven British players in action on day two.\nWildcard Katie Swan, 17, will hope to upset Hungarian Timea Babos, Heather Watson takes on Germany's Annika Beck (around 17:00 BST), Tara Moore plays Belgian Alison van Uytvanck, and British men's number two Aljaz Bedene faces French seventh seed Richard Gasquet (11:30 BST).\nAway from the home interest, Swiss fourth seed Stan Wawrinka plays American 18-year-old Taylor Fritz, while Australian 15th seed Nick Kyrgios faces a fascinating contest against 37-year-old Czech Radek Stepanek.\nIn the women's draw, third seed Agnieszka Radwanska plays Ukraine's Kateryna Kozlova and two-time former champion Petra Kvitova faces Romanian Sorana Cirstea.\nQualifier Willis stunned world number 54 Ricardas Berankis, to become the lowest-ranked player to reach round two since 1998, where he will earn £50,000, having won £220 all year.\nWillis, 25, faces seven-time champion Federer, who beat Guido Pella.\nDan Evans overcame Jan-Lennard Struff in four sets and Britain is guaranteed three men in round two as Murray faces Broady.\nDefending champion Novak Djokovic - seeking a calendar Grand Slam having already won the Australian and French Open titles this year - produced 21 unforced errors but was in no mood for an upset as he overcame Britain's James Ward in straight sets on Centre Court.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nThe Serb has not lost at a Grand Slam since his defeat by Wawrinka in last year's French Open final, a run of 29 matches.\nSouth African Kevin Anderson, seeded 20, and Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, seeded 21, were the best-ranked players to go out on day one.\nThere were also wins for David Ferrer, Marin Cilic and David Goffin in Djokovic's half of the draw, while sixth seed Milos Ranoic served 27 aces to advance in straight sets.\nFifth seed Kei Nishikori faced a 142mph serve - the fastest of day one - from Australian Sam Groth but won through 6-4 6-3 7-5.\nFrench Open champion Garbine Muguruza provided an early show of grit on day one as she faced a tough test against Italy's Camila Giorgi before progressing 6-2 5-7 6-4.\nThe number two seed is in the same half of the draw as five-time champion Venus Williams, who equalled Amy Frazier's record of appearing in 71 Grand Slams as she overcame Croatia's Donna Vekic in straight sets.\nWilliams, 36, has not won a Grand Slam singles title since 2008 - in which time her sister Serena has secured 13.\nThe 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic was the first notable scalp in the ladies' draw, citing an injured wrist after defeat by 21-year-old qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova, who hit 19 winners.\nGermany's Sabine Lisicki, a finalist in 2013, blasted nine aces - including three in a 52-second opening game - to beat Poland's Magda Linette.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nA clearly frustrated Murray was far from his best but reached the second round of the Australian Open with a 7-5 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 win over the Ukrainian.\nThe Scot, attempting to win his first Australian Open title after five final defeats, won in two hours 48 minutes.\nFellow Briton Dan Evans beat Facundo Bagnis of Argentina in straight sets.\nEvans, the world number 51, saved three set points before winning the opener in a tie-break, then broke Bagnis in the first game of the second set.\nA break of the world number 65's serve in game nine gave Evans the second set, and he wrapped up a 7-6 (10-8) 6-3 6-1 victory to set up a second-round match against Marin Cilic.\nMurray, 29, made a nervy start and lost the first game with three double faults and a forehand error, but took control to serve for the set at 5-3.\nHowever, Marchenko broke the Scot again to draw level, only for Murray to raise his intensity and take the set after 55 minutes.\nMurray became increasingly frustrated in the second set, berating himself for his errors and unusually sluggish movement, as his opponent grew in confidence.\nThe Ukrainian, also 29, hit a series of powerful forehands and deft volleys to take the lead in the set.\nMurray had to fight hard to force a tie-break, but once again the top seed did enough when it mattered to win the set after a marathon 76 minutes in hot conditions.\nThe gruelling effort seemed to affect Marchenko in the third set and Murray took advantage to win it without any complications.\nHe faces Russia's Andrey Rublev in round two.\n\"I don't think it was the best match,\" said the Wimbledon champion. \"The conditions were pretty different to what we've been practising in.\n\"Last week's been pretty cool. When it's like that, the ball is bouncing a bit lower and it is a bit easier to control. I was a bit tentative because of that.\n\"And I didn't serve that well either. So you end up having to work really hard on a lot of your service games when it's like that.\"\nBBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller\nIt was a very hot afternoon and therefore I think you could say Murray expended a little more energy than he would wish.\nHis first serve will be a concern - it can't be easy serving in the sun - but the heat is not really a huge factor for him.\nAll in all, he looked in pretty good spirits. I don't think he'll be hugely concerned but there are things to work on.\nBritish number four Aljaz Bedene lost 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 0-6 6-3 to 36-year-old Dominican Victor Estrella Burgos.\nBedene, ranked 108 in the world, was 5-2 up in the opener but Estrella Burgos took the first two sets.\nThe Slovenia-born Briton eased through the third set, but Estrella Burgos progressed after three hours and nine minutes.", "Italy's Seppi triumphed 1-6 6-7 (1-7) 6-4 6-2 10-8 in round two against the typically unpredictable 14th seed.\nKyrgios was given two warnings, for swearing and racquet abuse, before the 89th-ranked Seppi clinched victory.\nEarlier, four-time winner Roger Federer held off the challenge of American prospect Noah Rubin.\nThe 35-year-old Swiss, who is seeded 17th after missing the second half of the 2016 season with a knee injury, saved two set points in the third to win 7-5 6-3 7-6 (7-3). Federer will play 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych in the third round.\nKyrgios won a five-set scrap with Seppi on the same Hisense Arena court in 2015 to reach the quarter-finals, but the roles were reversed here.\nThe 21-year-old Australian was in control before losing his temper as he complained of a knee injury midway through the third set.\nKyrgios, returning to tennis at the Australian Open after a ban for not trying at the Shanghai Masters ended his 2016 season, was given a warning for swearing and later docked a point for his second code violation after launching his racquet into the ground in frustration.\nSeppi, 32, took the match into a deciding set and served for victory at 6-5 when Kyrgios played a between-the-legs shot on the first point before winning the game.\nThe Italian saved a match point at 7-8 and drew level again, broke in the following game when Kyrgios sent down a double fault, and then closed out the victory.\n\"Maybe it was meant to be,\" Seppi said of avenging his 2015 loss. \"I was concentrating on my game and not worrying about he was doing.\"\nKyrgios admitted he needed to take his preparation more seriously, having \"played too much basketball\" in pre-season.\nThe Australian, who is wiithout a coach and was booed off by some fans, said: \"I did a couple things in the off-season that I'm probably not going to do next time. My body's not in good enough shape. You live and you learn.\"\nKyrgrios said he was likely to pull out of the doubles with his British partner Dan Evans, who defeated seventh seed Marin Cilic in the singles.\nFederer is attempting to defy a difficult draw and a lack of preparation to become the second oldest male Grand Slam winner in the Open era.\nIf he is to add to his 17 major titles, he will have to pass more testing examinations than that posed by world number 200 Rubin, but Federer admitted he had leaned on his experience against the 20-year-old.\n\"I have played out here many, many times, that's my advantage maybe,\" he said, after claiming victory in two hours four minutes.\n\"If I could have signed (a contract) to be in the third round, feeling this way, weeks or days or a month ago, I would have taken it.\n\"I'm still hoping to feel better and better and better as we go along.\"\nFederer beat Berdych in straight sets in last year's quarter-finals in Melbourne, but has lost to the Czech in the US Open and at Wimbledon.\n\"I'm sure he would like to beat me here too,\" added Federer.\nFifth seed Kei Nishikori overcame France's Jeremy Chardy.\nThe 27-year-old from Japan, who has reached the quarter-finals in the past two years, came through 6-3 6-4 6-3 in two hours six minutes to set up a meeting with Slovak qualifier Lukas Lacko.\nNishikori is seeded to face Britain's Andy Murray in the last eight.\nFourth seed Stan Wawrinka brushed aside American Steve Johnson 6-3 6-4 6-4, while France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also came through in straight sets, against Serbia's Dusan Lajovic.\nAustralia's Bernard Tomic secured a spot in the third round with a 7-5 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) win over Dominican Victor Estrella Burgos.\nFind out how to get into tennis in our special guide.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nThe Scot, 29, needed to reach the final of the Paris Masters to replace Novak Djokovic - and did so when Milos Raonic pulled out before their semi-final.\nMurray won Wimbledon and Olympic gold in 2016, reached 11 finals in 12 events and won a personal record 73 matches.\n\"I never thought I'd be number one in the world,\" he told BBC Sport.\n\"It's been many years of work to get here. It's been such a difficult thing to do because of how good the guys around me have been.\"\nMurray, who has won three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic gold medals and helped Britain win the Davis Cup in 2015, will be officially confirmed as world number one when the revised rankings are released on Monday.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nNovak Djokovic had topped the rankings for 122 weeks, and completed his career Grand Slam by beating Murray in the French Open final in June, his 12th major title.\nDjokovic also won this year's Australian Open, and Murray said: \"The year that Novak has had, barring the last six weeks or so, has been incredible.\n\"The year I've had to have to barely get there has been unbelievably difficult. I've had to work extremely hard.\"\nRoger Federer (17) and Rafael Nadal (14) have won a combined 31 Grand Slam titles, many coinciding with Murray's rise through the rankings.\nHe will play John Isner in Sunday's Paris Masters final, after Raonic pulled out with an injury to his right quad. Isner beat Marin Cilic 6-4 6-3 in the semi-finals.\nDjokovic, 29, would have retained his number one ranking had he reached the final - but Cilic beat him in the quarter-finals on Friday.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nRussell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent:\nMurray's crowning moment was nothing like anticipated. Instead of beating Raonic on Bercy's centre court, it was in the locker room the Canadian delivered the news he wouldn't be able to contest the semi-final because of a tear in his thigh. Murray was reviewing Raonic's quarter-final performance on his tablet at the time.\nThe speed of his achievement is breathtaking given that Djokovic had nearly double the number of ranking points in June.\nThe year end number one ranking is Murray's next immediate goal, and a win over Isner would grant him some valuable breathing space should Djokovic raise his game at London's season ending World Tour Finals.\nMurray's mother Judy, former captain of GB's Fed Cup team: \"I think this is just reward for his perseverance, his patience and his resilience because he's such an incredible fighter.\n\"When people watch on television they don't see what goes into getting the player to that stage. I know better than anybody how much he has put into his tennis over many years.\"\nCoach Jamie Delgado: \"There were a few gentle tears and a big hug - there was a bit of shock in there as well.\n\"It's amazing. It's been an unbelievable year. Looking back to March, April time, he lost a bit of confidence, and motivation was down a little bit because he had fallen far behind Novak already - number one wasn't in our thoughts really.\n\"For it to happen this year, there is huge elation. Any time you get to the ranking is amazing, but to finish the year like that is a little bit special, so that's our next aim.\"\nFormer coach Miles Maclagan: \"He deserves to be among the likes of Boris Becker and John McEnroe - people who have won five, six, seven Slams and have been number one.\n\"He's got the three Slams at the moment but the two Olympics and the Davis Cup cement his place. He belongs among those greats.\"\nATP president Chris Kermode: \"Andy has shown incredible dedication, determination and hard work in his bid to get to number one.\n\"It's difficult to think of a player more deserving of this accolade - in one of the toughest eras in the history of our sport.\n\"He has had a phenomenal season and fully deserves this latest recognition, which confirms his status as the best player in the world.\"\nFormer world number one Martina Navratilova: \"Considering how few people have had it in the last 16 years since Roger Federer first took it, it's a major accomplishment indeed. It's a pretty exclusive club.\n\"He's been the most consistent player on all surfaces, he's just not giving anything away these days.\n\"The fact that it came this late in his playing career just tells you how determined and focused he is. It's a testament to his character.\"", "The Briton, 29, will end the year at the top of the rankings if he wins the title at London's O2 Arena.\nMurray faces Croatia's Cilic in his opening round-robin match at approximately 20:00 GMT.\n\"I just want to finish the year on a high note by playing well,\" the Scot told BBC Sport.\n\"If I finish number one, that's great, but that wasn't a goal of mine a few months ago. I wanted to put myself in a position to hopefully get there at the beginning part of next year.\"\nSwitzerland's Stan Wawrinka plays Kei Nishikori of Japan in Monday's first singles match at 14:00, live on BBC Two and the BBC Sport website.\nMurray overtook Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings last week and is locked in a battle with the Serb to see which of them ends the year as world number one.\nDjokovic opened with a three-set win over Dominic Thiem on Sunday, and knows that two group-stage wins followed by a record sixth ATP Finals title would see him reclaim top spot.\nHowever, Murray can deny Djokovic if the Scot wins the season finale for the first time.\n\"He said that it wasn't a focus to be world number one this year,\" said BBC Sport commentator Andrew Castle.\n\"But with the Wimbledon title and Olympic gold behind him, he perhaps reset himself after the US Open and just said, 'It's available and I'm going to go for it.'\n\"He basically won every single match for the last six weeks.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nBy his own standards, Murray has a relatively mediocre 11-11 record in eight previous appearances at the ATP finale, but he arrives this year in as strong a position as ever.\nHe is on a 19-match winning streak, and took three days off following his Paris Masters win before practising on the newly speeded up O2 Arena last week.\n\"The court's definitely a bit faster than it has been in the past, so that changes the way you play the matches a little bit,\" said Murray.\n\"But I think that's a positive thing. At the end of the year, when the players have played a lot of tennis, to play on the slowest court with really, really long rallies is tough, so it will shorten the points a bit and maybe make for some better tennis.\"\nMurray has enjoyed the best season of his career, but if he is to hold on to the number one spot he must come through the most difficult run of matches he has faced in terms of rankings.\nThe Briton will play world number three Wawrinka, number five Nishikori and number seven Cilic in the John McEnroe Group, with only two progressing to the semi-finals.\nFirst up is Cilic, who beat Murray last time out in Cincinnati three months ago but has won just three of their 14 matches.\n\"He's been on an amazing run these last few weeks, he's going to be extremely motivated and he's going to have the crowd on his side,\" said Cilic.\n\"I just hope I'm going to continue with this good form I had the last few months.\"", "The world number two exuded the utmost class in the aftermath of Istomin's five-set victory in the Rod Laver Arena. He signed autographs, offered sincere congratulations to the current world number 117, and declined the opportunity to comment further on the malaise which has affected him since winning his first French Open title last June.\nIstomin has had a fine career - spending plenty of time in the world's top 50 - but after an injury-affected 2016, he had to win the Asia Pacific Wildcard play-off in China (saving four match points in his semi-final) to qualify for this Australian Open.\nHis only previous tournament this year was in Thailand, where he lost to the world number 211 in the second round of the Wind Energy Holding Bangkok Open.\nLukas Rosol was 100 in the world when he beat Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon 2012, but Istomin can claim an even bigger upset given Djokovic's recent record in Melbourne, where he has won five titles in the past six years.\nConquering the clay of Roland Garros last year has affected Djokovic's sense of direction.\nThat burning desire to become only the eighth man in history to win all four of the sport's Grand Slams drove him forward. An unwitting consequence of that magnificent achievement appears to be a diminished appetite for the incessant demands of the tennis tour.\nHe has lost surprisingly since then to Sam Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon; to Juan Martin del Potro in the first round of the Olympics; to Roberto Bautista Agut and Marin Cilic in the autumn of last season; and now to Istomin.\nThere have been personal problems and niggling injuries along the way, and he has still been good enough in that time to win titles in Toronto and Doha - and finish as runner-up at both the US Open and the ATP World Tour Finals.\nI would be very surprised if Djokovic fails to add to his Grand Slam tally of 12, but I think it unlikely he will ever be able to dominate the sport as he has in the past.\nAfter all, from the start of 2011 through until last year's French Open, Djokovic won 11 Grand Slam titles and appeared in all but five of the 22 finals staged.\nThat is a staggering effort which bears comparison to the standards set by Roger Federer, who won 16 of his 17 Grand Slams in a six and a half year period. But 35-year-old Federer has added only one since he turned 29.\nIt is perhaps just not possible in the modern age to sustain such relentless success for any longer.\nIn Djokovic's case, the years of obsession and dedication began at the age of six, when he was spotted watching some lessons through the fence of a newly built tennis academy in his home town.\nHe was invited to come and play the following day by a coach called Jelena Gencic, who would have a profound effect on his career.\nAs Djokovic himself said at the World Tour Finals in November: \"Every year is an evolution for me. It's hard to expect to repeat all these things forever. Nothing is eternal. I'm trying to do the same things. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.\"\nWhat might the future hold for Djokovic?\nHe says regaining the world number one position from Andy Murray is not his main priority, and that may be wise given Murray would move more than 3,500 ranking points ahead of him by winning a first Australian Open title.\nHe says he has no plans to add to his current coaching team of Marian Vajda and Dusan Vemic, and if Djokovic sticks to his schedule we won't see him again until the second week in March when he is due to defend his Masters title at Indian Wells.\nAnd what does this mean for the men's game in 2017 - and for the ongoing Australian Open?\nIt leaves Andy Murray in pole position, it gives the returning Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal even greater hope of further glories, and offers encouragement to the next generation of players who have had to bide their time so patiently. Twenty three-year-old Dominic Thiem and 19-year-old Alex Zverev currently look best placed to take advantage.", "Murray, 28, dominated throughout against the former junior world number one to secure a 6-1 6-2 6-3 victory.\nThe world number two will now face Australian Sam Groth, holder of the game's fastest serve, on Thursday.\nMurray joined fellow Briton Johanna Konta in the second round but Dan Evans and Aljaz Bedene both went out.\nRelive wins for Murray and Konta\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\n\"It got tough at the end and there were a lot of long games and rallies. Alex fought hard and made it very competitive,\" said the Scot.\n\"It was hot so I was glad to get it done in three sets.\"\nMurray has said he will leave the Australian Open if his pregnant wife, Kim, goes into labour, although she is not due to give birth until February.\n\"I don't have any news because I've just come off the court,\" he joked in his post-match interview.\n\"I'm hoping my phone hasn't been buzzing in my bag but Kim will message the team if anything happens in any of the matches.\"\nZverev, 18, is widely considered one of the game's rising stars but the winner of last year's ATP Star of Tomorrow Award could not match Murray's consistency in the first two sets.\nThe 6ft 6in German, ranked 83rd in the world, improved in a final set that lasted almost an hour but Murray's experience was key.\nThe Scot broke Zverev's serve six times, saved six out of six break points and dominated when he came to the net, winning 12 points, to seal victory in just over two hours.\nDan Evans' first appearance at the Australian Open ended in a 6-1 6-0 6-4 defeat in 88 minutes by Spain's Feliciano Lopez.\nThe 25-year-old came through three rounds of qualifying but could not cope with Lopez's powerful serve.\nEvans made a better fist of the final set and held his first four service games but could not make any impression on the Spaniard's serve.\nBritish number two Aljaz Bedene was unable to overcome American 31st seed Steve Johnson and fell to a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-3) defeat.\nBedene, ranked 49th in the world, said he found the speed of the Melbourne courts difficult to handle.\n\"I didn't really settle. It was way too quick for my game,\" said the Slovenia-born player.\n\"I don't really like the quick surfaces like here. I am disappointed.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nLopez, 35, saved a match point to win 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (10-8) at Queen's.\nThe Spaniard missed a match point against Grigor Dimitrov in the 2014 final, but got his hands on the trophy at the 12th time of asking.\n\"I cannot believe that I have finally won this trophy,\" world number 32 Lopez told BBC Sport.\n\"I have been waiting for so long, 15 or 16 years, to be here holding this trophy.\"\nBoth men had dropped serve only once on their way through the draw and the final was, predictably, a match of fleeting opportunities that came down to a deciding tie-break.\nLopez saw two match points slip by before taking his third after two hour and 31 minutes.\nThe grass-court specialist had said before the match how much the tournament means to him, and flew his parents in from Spain on Sunday morning to watch the final.\nCilic, 28, would end the week having lost just that one service game, and none in the final, but after edging the opening set he could not capitalise on an early chance in the second.\nLopez kept pace with Cilic as serve dominated, and got the better of two contrasting tie-breaks.\nHe raced into a 6-1 lead in the first, levelling at one set all when Cilic found the tramlines, and then held his nerve in a dramatic decider.\nLopez lunged to his left and volleyed into the open court to save the first match point of the tie-break, and then saw Cilic save one with his 22nd ace, and a second - on Lopez's serve - with a volley.\nIt was Cilic who finally cracked, hooking a forehand wide and prompting an emotional Lopez to head into the crowd to celebrate with his team and family.\nLopez claimed his sixth career title and took his record on grass this season to 9-1, having finished runner-up in Stuttgart last week.\n\"I thought at the end of the tie-break, after missing match points, that I was not going to be able to make it,\" said Lopez.\n\"It is tough to put the match where I lost to Dimitrov out of my mind. I was serving for the match again and it was difficult to handle my nerves but I managed it.\n\"It is tough to believe at 35 that I am playing my best tennis, but I think I am.\"\nCilic will head into Wimbledon hopeful of improving on three successive quarter-final places, with a likely seeding of six.\nHe said: \"It was a really high level of tennis and it was a pleasure to play. It was an amazing match.\n\"I had chances in the second set to get a break up but Feliciano played very well. He always plays well on grass and he deserves the title.\n\"I played great tennis this week and I enjoyed every single day. It was great preparation for Wimbledon.\"\nFind out how to get into tennis in our special guide.\nJohn Lloyd, former British number one and 1977 Australian Open finalist:\nThey are both so sharp right now. Apart from the physical recovery, they would like to play Wimbledon tomorrow. They are peaking.\nCilic didn't lose his serve today and lost the title. He did everything he could but it came down to one point.\nPeter Fleming, seven-time Grand Slam doubles champion:\nI'm amazed that they played as well as they did. There were so few unforced errors. It was an incredibly high-quality match.\nIt is a dream for Feliciano Lopez to be 35 and playing his best tennis. He won't want to wake up.", "The world number one was assessed by a doctor after rolling his right ankle in Wednesday's win over Andrey Rublev.\nMurray is due to feature in the second game on the Hisense Arena in Melbourne, where play begins at 00:30 GMT.\nBritish number four Dan Evans is also in action as he takes on Australia's Bernard Tomic following Murray's match.\nMurray admitted his ankle still felt sore on Thursday, but the Scot was able to practice unhindered and spent an hour and a half training on Court 17 at Melbourne Park.\n\"Thankfully I can put weight on it and I was moving around fine in practice,\" said the 29-year-old. \"Once I started moving around it felt all right.\"\nMurray has reached the Australian Open final five times and lost on each occasion, with four of those final defeats coming against Novak Djokovic.\nThe Scot replaced Djokovic as number one in the world last November and, after the Serb suffered a shock second-round exit to world number 117 Denis Istomin, Murray is being touted as the favourite to win in Melbourne.\n\"You always pick the number one in the world as favourite, so I had Andy Murray,\" two-time Australian Open finalist Pat Cash told BBC Radio 5 live. \"But five matches is a long way to go.\"\nMurray remains focused on Friday's meeting with Querrey, who beat Djokovic at Wimbledon last year and knocked Jamie Murray and partner Bruno Soares out of the men's doubles on Thursday.\n\"The most important thing will be to serve well because that then puts pressure on his service games,\" said the British number one.\n\"I'll just try to make as many returns as I can. Once I get in the rallies I should do OK.\"\nMurray's compatriot Evans is aiming to make it past the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.\nHe previously beat Tomic in four sets in the second round of the US Open in 2013, but Tomic won their last encounter at the 2015 Davis Cup.\nThe pair also met in Miami in 2012 when Tomic's father suggested Evans - then ranked in the 300s - was not good enough to practice with his son.\n\"I'm not going to bother saying anything about that again,\" Evans said.. \"He confronted me about that. We'll leave it at that.\"\nDefending champion and world number one Angelique Kerber will play Czech Kristyna Pliskova, four months after beating her twin Karolina in the US Open final.\nFourth seed Stan Wawrinka plays Serbian Viktor Troicki while Roger Federer will face 17th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych.\nCanadian Eugenie Bouchard, who reached the Wimbledon final in 2014, meets American Coco Vandeweghe and Venus Williams plays China's Ying-Ying Duan.", "Murray, 29, beat Rosol 4-6 6-3 6-2 in a heated match at the 2015 Munich Open.\nBritish number eight Laura Robson set up a first-round match with fellow Briton Naomi Broady after a straight-sets win over Germany's Tatjana Maria in the final qualifying round.\nBritish number two Dan Evans faces American Rajeev Ram while Kyle Edmund will play France's Richard Gasquet.\nJohanna Konta, seeded a career-high 13th in the women's singles, meets American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, while Heather Watson plays Dutch qualifier Richel Hogenkamp.\nTop seed and world number one Novak Djokovic begins the defence of his men's title against world number 120 Jerzy Janowicz, while Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the 2010 and 2013 champion, meets Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.\nRosol, 31, shocked Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon in 2012.\nOlympic silver medallist Juan Martin del Potro has been drawn against fellow Argentine Diego Schwartzman.\nWomen's world number one Serena Williams, a beaten semi-finalist last year, begins her campaign against Russian Ekaterina Makarova.\nWilliams is aiming for a seventh US Open crown and a record 23rd Grand Slam singles title in the Open era.\nMurray, the second seed, said there is no ill feeling between him and Rosol after a dispute in Munich last year.\n\"I have actually got along fine with him apart from that day and he's a tough, tough opponent,\" said Murray.\n\"He's a big, strong guy, he goes for his shots and he takes a lot of risks. It's a tough opening round, for sure.\"\nFind out how to get into tennis in our special guide.\nDjokovic said he hopes to be close to full fitness for the start of the tournament, but admitted his left wrist has not healed fully.\nHe first felt pain in his wrist in the week before the Rio Olympics, where he lost in the opening round to Del Potro.\n\"I'm doing everything in my power to make sure that I'm as close to 100% as possible during the course of this tournament,\" said the 29-year-old.\n\"I'm just hoping that when the tournament starts I'll be able to get as close to the maximum of executing my backhand shot as possible.\"\nDjokovic also said he was dealing with \"private issues\" when he lost to Sam Querrey in the third round at Wimbledon this year, but that those issues have now been resolved.\nHe added: \"I am in a position, like everybody else, like all of you.\n\"We all have private issues and things that are more challenges than issues, more things that we have to encounter and overcome in order to evolve as a human being.\"\nBBC Sport tennis correspondent Russell Fuller:\n\"Rosol is the man who beat Rafael Nadal on Wimbledon's Centre Court in 2012, and was told by Murray that \"nobody likes you\" after the Czech bumped into him while changing ends at an event in Munich last year.\n\"Murray could face Kei Nishikori in the last eight and Stan Wawrinka - or even Juan Martin del Potro - in the semi-finals, while chief rival Djokovic, still troubled by a left wrist injury, could play Marin Cilic and Rafael Nadal at the same stages.\n\"It would be wrong to describe Djokovic as an unknown quantity at this US Open. He is the defending champion and has a sensational record on hard courts, but he has had an emotional few months after completing the career Grand Slam at Roland Garros.\"", "The Swiss, 35, can overtake the mark set by Pete Sampras in 2000, and Williams Renshaw in 1889, with victory in his 11th Wimbledon final.\nCilic, 28, held match points against Federer at last year's Wimbledon and hopes to add to his 2014 US Open win.\n\"It makes me really happy, marking history at Wimbledon,\" said Federer.\n\"It's a big deal. I love this tournament. All my dreams came true here as a player. To have another chance to go for number eight now, to be so close now at this stage, is a great feeling.\"\nThere will be a British champion on Sunday, with the men's final followed by the mixed doubles final, which features top seeds Jamie Murray and Switzerland's Martina Hingis against defending champions Heather Watson and Finland's Henri Kontinen.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nFederer had to wait five years to take his Grand Slam tally to 18 titles with his stunning Australian Open victory in January, and just six months later he is the favourite to make it 19.\nThe oldest male finalist since the 39-year-old Ken Rosewall lost to Jimmy Connors in 1974, the fact that Federer is a month short of his 36th birthday has been irrelevant to his form on court.\nIt is 14 years since Federer won his first major title when he beat Australia's Mark Philippoussis on Centre Court, and five since he beat Andy Murray to win his last Wimbledon title.\n\"I don't feel like [2012] is that long ago, to be honest,\" said the Swiss.\n\"2003 feels like ages ago, because of the ponytail, the beard, whatever, you name it. This one is different. I kind of look the same as back in 2012, or at least I hope so.\"\nHis hairstyle might have changed but Federer's game is, if anything, better than ever in his mid-30s.\nHe has yet to drop a set and has lost just four service games over the course of six matches at the All England Club.\nCilic will provide a familiar challenge, with Federer leading their head-to-head 6-1, but their last two meetings suggest a close final could be in prospect.\nFederer fought back from two sets and three match points down to win their Wimbledon quarter-final last year, which followed Cilic's three-set demolition job on his way to winning the 2014 US Open.\n\"He was confident and feeling it and seeing it,\" recalled Federer. \"It was very, very impressive.\"\nHowever, the seven-time champion remains the favourite he was labelled before the tournament began.\n\"Unbelievably excited,\" is how Federer described his mood. \"I hope I can play one more good match.\n\"Eleven finals here, all these records, it's great. But it doesn't give me the title quite yet. That's why I came here this year. I'm so close now, so I've just got to stay focused.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nCilic has come through a side of the draw where reigning champion Murray and French Open winner Rafael Nadal were fancied to battle it out for a final place, but the Croat has been the man in grass-court form.\nAfter losing to Feliciano Lopez in the Queen's Club final having had a match point, Cilic has looked like a contender throughout Wimbledon.\nHe arrives in the final in second place in the aces chart with 130, but also top of the first-serve return standings.\nAnd Cilic is taking the positives from last year's agonising loss to Federer in the quarter-finals.\n\"Twelve months ago, I was one point away from winning a match here against him,\" he said.\n\"Definitely I believe in my own abilities to get through and to win it. But I still know that it's a big mountain to climb.\n\"Roger is playing maybe some of his best tennis of his career at the moment, having a great season, so I know it's going to be a huge challenge. But I believe I'm ready.\"\nA huge serve with an excellent return, it has been an ongoing surprise that Cilic has not threatened for Grand Slam titles more often, something many put down to his affable nature.\nCilic said: \"Obviously people are asking always, 'Do you need to be more arrogant? Do you need to be more angry on the court, to be more selfish to be able to win more constantly?'\n\"For me, I wouldn't agree. There is not one formula for that.\n\"I'm still a nice guy on the court, too, I believe. You should ask players around.\"\nHis could not be more different in nature to Goran Ivanisevic, the first Croat to win Wimbledon in 2001 - a match watched at a tennis camp by the then 12-year-old Cilic.\nOne win from matching his former coach's achievement, Ciic said: \"It would mean the world to me. It would be absolutely a dream come true to win Wimbledon.\"\nTim Henman, four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist:\nCilic has grass-court pedigree, he's massively confident and he's beaten Federer before. He's the underdog but will fancy his chances.\nHe has to got out there with a clear game plan and try to bully Federer. The more time you give Federer, the more opportunity it is for him to make you do the running.\nCilic needs to have the mindset that he's had a fantastic tournament, Federer is the favourite and he hasn't got much to lose and really go for it. He doesn't want to be passive and come off the court and wish he'd gone for it more.\nJohn McEnroe, three-time Wimbledon champion:\nFederer is playing at a far higher level than he was last year, and he's healthier and moving better. You throw in those factors and it swings heavily in his favour. It's important to point out that it's Cilic's first final here, but it's not his first Grand Slam final. Although, you play Kei Nishikori or Roger Federer, that is a huge difference mentally.\nThis is going to be a tall order for Cilic any way we paint it, but I believe he's got the weapons. He's got to take the racquet out of Federer's hands.", "The Briton, 21, overcame the big-serving American and 20th seed 6-4 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7-5) in two hours and 43 minutes on Court Louis Armstrong.\nThe world number 84 faces 2015 champion and top seed Djokovic on Sunday.\nDjokovic reached the last 16 when a second successive opponent pulled out through injury at Flushing Meadows.\nEdmund joined fellow Briton Johanna Konta in reaching the fourth round while compatriots Andy Murray and Dan Evans will on Saturday seek to join them in the last 16.\nEdmund was beaten by Isner in straight sets at the French Open this year but his confidence has risen since he led Britain to Davis Cup victory, without Murray, over Serbia in July.\nIsner, 31, fired down 27 aces but could only convert one of his seven break points as Edmund's serve held up under the pressure.\n\"It's been a great tournament so far,\" said Edmund, who knocked out world number 15 Richard Gasquet in the first round.\nYou just have to get a racquet on the ball and hustle really.\n\"I've really enjoyed playing here. It may not have been the result you guys wanted but I want to say thanks for the support.\"\nPerhaps the key moment came when the American had just taken the second set and created three break points at the start of the third.\nEdmund, however, saved all three and then broke twice himself, sealing the set when Isner failed to make a simple forehand volley.\nIsner saved two match points in the fourth set tie-break, but a forehand winner confirmed Edmund's thrilling victory.\n\"Chances don't come very often against John. You have to capitalise when they do. You see how many aces he hits,\" he added.\n\"You just have to get a racquet on the ball and hustle really.\n\"I played the big points well. I knew it would come down to one or two points.\"\nDjokovic will be a step up in class, but Edmund knows what to expect after losing to the Serb in Miami in March.\nHe may also seek advice from Murray, his compatriot and mentor, who knows the 12-time major champion's game as well as anyone.\n\"Playing the world number one is always going to be tough,\" Edmund said.\n\"He's rightfully world number one. He's been very consistent at a high level.\n\"I'll learn from what happened in Miami. Playing Isner at the French Open helped me tonight so maybe that will help me again.\"\nBBC Sport tennis correspondent Russell Fuller\nEdmund had only won one Grand Slam match before this year - but in the space of eight months has turned into a man capable of winning vital Davis Cup matches and reaching the second week of a Grand Slam.\nIsner's long, drawn-out route to the third round caught up with him, but he showed great willpower to drag Edmund into a fourth set tie-break.\nIn turn, the 21-year-old showed great resilience to take his third match point, and control the tension that was coursing through his veins.\nDjokovic, who had a walkover in the second round when Jiri Vesely conceded, was leading 4-2 when Russian Mikhail Youzhny quit with a leg problem.\n\"It's difficult to pick the words. I don't think I have had this situation before,\" said the top-seeded Serb.\nDjokovic, who has been troubled by a wrist injury in recent months, was on court for only 32 minutes.\n\"Mikhail carried the injury into this match,\" said the 29-year-old, who went to the practice courts with coach Boris Becker immediately after his on-court interview.\n\"I will try to get the positives out of these six games. I started well with good intensity and will try to carry that on to the next match.\n\"I'm sorry you guys watching didn't get to see a full match.\"\nTwo-time US Open champion Rafael Nadal of Spain beat Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov 6-1 6-4 6-2 in the final men's match of the day.\nNadal, seeded fourth, has not dropped a set in reaching the last 16 of a tournament he won in 2010 and 2013.\n\"I had a fantastic first set, a little trouble with my serve in the second but the third was key so I'm very happy,\" said Nadal.\nThe 30-year-old next faces France's 24th-seeded Lucas Pouille, a 3-6 7-5 2-6 7-5 6-1 winner over Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut.\nAmerican 26th seed Jack Sock knocked out 2014 champion Marin Cilic.\nCroat Cilic was affected by cramp and unable to create a break point as he lost 6-4 6-3 6-3.\n\"There's nothing better than playing in front of the home crowd here in New York,\" Sock said. \"I put it out there on the line on every point.\"\nSock, 23, will face France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat South African Kevin Anderson 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4), in the fourth round.\nFind out how to get into tennis in our special guide.", "With Roger Federer also coming through a five-set thriller against Marin Cilic in the last eight, many feel the Swiss legend and Murray are destined to meet for the second time in a Wimbledon final, and a fourth in Grand Slams.\nBut the Scot will have to overcome a difficult obstacle in the shape of Tomas Berdych - who beat Lucas Pouille of France in the last round - to reach Sunday's final.\nSo what do we know about Murray's opponent? BBC Scotland Sport takes a look at the world number nine from the Czech Republic.\nA player renowned for his powerful service game and ferocious forehand, Berdych has amassed 12 career titles to date.\nCapable of troubling even the very top players on his day, many tennis observers tipped him as a future Grand Slam champion, but at 30 he has yet to break his duck.\nHis record in Slams should not be dismissed, however. He has reached the last four in each of tennis' four majors, and his run to the Wimbledon final in 2010 - where he lost in straight sets to Rafael Nadal after beating Roger Federer in the quarter-finals - demonstrates just what a formidable opponent he is on grass.\nCurrently ranked number nine, he was as high as number four in 2015.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nMurray has never met Berdych at Wimbledon, or indeed on grass, but there is history between the pair - on and off the court.\nTheir head-to-head record is 8-6 in favour of Murray, with Berdych's last win coming in the Cincinnati Masters three years ago. The Scot has won their last four meetings.\nIn Grand Slams the world number two leads 2-1. Murray beat Berdych in the last four of the 2012 US Open as he went on to claim his maiden Grand Slam title, but it was their semi-final meeting at the 2015 Australian Open that provoked some ill-feeling between the two camps.\nWith Murray's long-time hitting partner and coach Dani Vallverdu in the Czech's box after parting company with the British number one a few weeks before, tensions were high courtside.\nMurray's fiancée - now wife - Kim Sears was caught on camera apparently swearing at the Berdych team following a Murray break of serve, betraying the animosity between the two camps.\nMurray blamed the media focus on Vallverdu in the build up to the match, which Murray won 6-7 (6-8), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5, saying afterwards: \"When there's a lot of tension surrounding something, which you (the media) created, it's completely normal that the whole first set everyone was tight.\"\nPerhaps another source of tension is Murray's coach Ivan Lendl.\nBerdych approached Lendl about becoming his coach, only to be rebuffed by his countryman before he reunited with Murray in June.\nBerdych said: \"I approached Ivan and he said he doesn't want to be involved in tennis. Then he comes back to Andy. So that's how it is.\"\n\"He hits a big ball and likes to dictate, so I need to make sure I keep him on the back foot as much as possible in Friday's semi-final.\n\"We haven't played on grass before so I'll have a look at a couple of his matches over the last week and make a plan.\n\"Having a rest day on Thursday will help me recover from playing five sets and I'll be ready to go on Friday, whether I play first or second.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\n\"It's definitely the way I'm playing, you know, try to push him as hard as I can, being aggressive, not giving him the time to create the game.\n\"I think at the beginning, he was a bit more defensive, just waiting for what the opponent is going to do. I think it was working pretty well for myself. I was able to really dictate the game and play aggressive.\n\"Now he comes to be more aggressive, way more creative on the court. I think that's the difference with him, I would say (between) the beginning of his career and now.\"\n\"Definitely Berdych could cause Andy problems. He hits very hard, very flat, with a big serve.\n\"He's been so consistent over the last decade and I think he's going to be very, very aggressive, trying to stop Andy messing with the rhythm out there.\n\"I think Berdych doesn't like sliced backhands a lot. Andy will slice a lot, keep it low, make things as uncomfortable as he can for Berdych.\n\"Andy has the ability to get inside your psyche and break you down emotionally out on the court.\"", "Canada's Raonic, the fifth seed, struggled physically as American qualifier Ryan Harrison - the world number 120 - won 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 7-5 6-1.\nSpanish third seed Muguruza lost 7-5 6-4 to Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova.\nTop seed Novak Djokovic reached round three without hitting a ball as Jiri Vesely withdrew before their match.\nThe Czech, 23, said he was \"very, very disappointed\" to pull out with inflammation of his left forearm.\nDefending champion Djokovic, who has been struggling with a wrist injury, now faces Russia's Mikhail Youzhny on Friday.\nRafael Nadal safely navigated the challenge of Andreas Seppi, beating the Italian 6-0 7-5 6-1 under the roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time.\nFormer champion Marin Cilic and French seeds Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also progressed.\nRaonic was among the favourites for the title after reaching the semi-finals at the Australian Open and the final at Wimbledon, losing to Andy Murray on both occasions.\nHowever, the 25-year-old struggled to carry his bags by the time he left the court following defeat by Harrison.\n\"It was probably just nerves and stress, a mental sort of over-exuberance,\" Raonic said.\n\"Cramping in the left arm, right forearm there towards the end of the third set, both quads, a little bit in the hip flexor on the left. It was just catching me all over.\n\"I couldn't switch grips from one point to the next. There were a few points where I would hold the racquet with my left hand and trying to stretch out my right hand in between shots.\"\nMuguruza, making her debut on Arthur Ashe Stadium, got the first break of serve before being overhauled by Sevastova, ranked 48th in the world.\nThe Spaniard, 22, fought back from facing two match points at 5-1 down in the second set to get back on serve at 5-4, only for Sevastova to claim a seventh break of the night.\n\"I was shaking a little bit in the end but it's amazing, said the Latvian, who retired in 2013 because of injuries and illness before returning in 2015.\nMuguruza was surprised to suffer her second successive defeat in round two of the US Open.\n\"It's very rare when you play your best,\" said the French Open champion. \"Everything I was trying to do, she was coming back and doing incredible shots.\"\nNadal, champion in New York in 2010 and 2013, became the first man to hit under the new retractable roof that has been fitted on the court.\nWhen rain started in the second set, there was a brief suspension, but play restarted within eight minutes.\n\"It's just an unbelievable improvement,\" Nadal said. \"I feel that the conditions are pretty similar when the roof is closed or open.\"\nTwo-time finalist Caroline Wozniacki fought back superbly to beat ninth seed and former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.\nWozniacki, a former world number one, has slipped to 74th in the rankings and was one point from falling 5-0 behind against Kuznetsova.\nHowever, the Dane battled back to win 6-4 6-4 and reach the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon last year.\n\"I stopped looking at the ranking once I fell out of the top 10,\" the 26-year-old said. \"I feel like I belong at the top.\"\nGermany's Angelique Kerber, seeded second and in with a chance of taking the number one ranking, beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 6-2 7-6 (9-7).\nKerber will now face 17-year-old qualifier Cici Bellis, who beat fellow American Shelby Rogers 2-6 6-2 6-2.\nRoberta Vinci, Dominika Cibulkova, Johanna Konta and Petra Kvitova were other seeds to progress.\nFourth seeds Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares came through a tight opening match against Gastao Elias and Joao Sousa, seeing off the Portuguese pair 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 7-5.\nThey were joined in the last 32 by the pairing of Britain's Dan Evans and Australian Nick Kyrgios, who defeated Americans Daniel Nguyen and Noah Rubin 6-3 6-3.", "The Scottish brothers beat Yoshihito Nishioka and Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-3 6-2 6-4 to leave the holders one win from a quarter-final place.\nAndy Murray will hope to secure victory when he faces Kei Nishikori on Sunday.\nNishikori, the world number six, was rested for Saturday's doubles after beating Dan Evans on Friday.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nEvans, ranked 157th, would line up against world number 87 Taro Daniel if a decisive fifth rubber were required.\nCaptain Leon Smith's decision to play Andy Murray in the doubles resulted in a one-sided win, but it will only be fully vindicated if the British number one can overcome Nishikori on Sunday.\n\"I know who I'd want going out for my team - it's Andy,\" Smith told BBC Sport. \"It's going to be difficult, Kei's a really good player.\"\nThe British brothers did not face a single break point as they saw off Nishioka and Uchiyama in one hour and 53 minutes, taking their Davis Cup record as a doubles team to 5-0.\nThere was little tension for the majority of the 9,000 crowd to endure as the home side overcame some solid early resistance to dominate.\nBoth Japanese players are ranked outside the world's top 300 in doubles, in stark contrast to the world number two singles and doubles players across the net.\nIt was singles star Andy Murray who made the initial breakthrough with a return winner for a 5-3 lead and it was one-way traffic from then on.\nTwo breaks of serve in the second set left Japan with a mighty task but they held their own in a tight third before Britain broke through at 4-4, Andy Murray sealing victory with an ace.\nAndy Murray: \"We know each other's games extremely well - so that helps. When the ball goes into a certain part of the court I know what shot he will hit and vice-versa. My strengths and his strengths make a decent team. It was a good win.\"\nJamie Murray: \"We played a great match from start to finish. We were very solid. It wasn't easy because they played some good shots and gave us some tricky moments.\"\nLeon Smith, GB Davis Cup captain: \"Andy's playing great despite the fact he hasn't played a lot of matches since the Australian Open final. Look at the last two days, he's ready. You know what Andy's going to do when he goes out; he's going to give 100% again. I think he can do it.\"\nJohn Lloyd, former GB Davis Cup captain: \"Sometimes a break is the best thing for you. Andy looks so eager out there and he's going to run every ball down. I think it's going to be one of the toughest matches possibly Andy has had in Davis Cup but I think he's going to come through. I think he's too good for Nsihikori.\"\nMiles MacLagan, former GB Davis Cup player: \"I think it's a tough match for Andy but even tougher for Nishikori. Andy has played two matches but neither have taken a lot out of him. He's serving really well, which is a great sign. As great as Nishikori is, you'd want to have Andy Murray on your team.\"\nJamie Baker, former GB Davis Cup player: \"If Andy and Nishikori played in a best-of-five match 10 times, I'm thinking eight or nine times out of 10 Andy is coming through.\"\nRussell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent: \"Murray says he was a little bit surprised he didn't have to face Nishikori in the doubles, but knows just what a formidable opponent he can be on the singles court. The Scot has home advantage, a superior ranking and a 5-1 head-to-head lead over the world number six, but he didn't have to face anyone ranked this high as Britain won the cup last year. Murray also says he \"trusts\" Dan Evans - who played well against Nishikori on Friday - and would have a genuinely good chance of winning any fifth and final rubber.\"\nFriday singles\nAndy Murray beat Taro Daniel 6-1 6-3 6-1\nKei Nishikori beat Dan Evans 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-3)\nSaturday doubles\nAndy Murray & Jamie Murray beat Yoshihito Nishioka & Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-3 6-2 6-4\nSunday reverse singles\nAndy Murray v Kei Nishikori\nDan Evans v Taro Daniel\nListen to State of the British Game - a 5 live sport special", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nEvans, 26, is through to the third round of a Grand Slam for only the second time after playing superbly to win 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 6-1 on court two.\nHe next faces Federer, who beat British qualifier Marcus Willis in round two.\n\"It's going to be good fun and an amazing experience to face Federer,\" said Evans, the world number 91.\n\"I have got to prepare like I have a chance to win the match.\n\"I have to put to the back of my mind that he is one of the best players ever to play the game.\"\nThe British number four had never won a match at Wimbledon before this year, but ended that run by beating Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff in the first round.\nEvans, from Solihull, is good friends with Willis, the world number 772 who had a remarkable run through qualifying before losing to Federer on Wednesday.\nAsked if he would seek advice from Willis about playing the 17-time Grand Slam champion, Evans joked: \"No. He lost in three straight [sets]. No advice needed.\"\nEvans' previous run to the third round of a Grand Slam came at the US Open in 2013, when he beat Kei Nishikori and Bernard Tomic before losing to Tommy Robredo.\nThe Englishman practised with Federer during that week and would have played the Swiss had he got past Robredo.\nEvans admitted he had been \"a bit starstruck\" by Federer, but three years on he plans to give the former world number one a real test.\n\"It's not a day out for me, to be honest with you,\" he said.\n\"It's a chance. It's a good opportunity. It's not a Lord Mayor's show. It's a good chance tomorrow. I'm taking it seriously.\"\nNick Bollettieri, legendary tennis coach: \"There is no lack of ability with Dan Evans, it is the mind going up and down and in all directions. If you don't take care of that opportunity now, he'll probably never have it again.\"\nMiles Maclagan, former coach to Andy Murray: \"Dan Evans today produced a really, really good performance. He looked so composed. There are so many facets to his game and if he can start getting his mind into a good place more often he can really achieve something in this game.\"", "The Briton, 29, needed a tournament-record three hours and 20 minutes to see off Nishikori on Wednesday.\nHe returns to London's O2 Arena 48 hours later knowing he must take a set off Wawrinka to ensure a semi-final place.\nMurray will play the Swiss third seed at 14:00 GMT on Friday.\nNishikori takes on Marin Cilic in the evening session at 20:00, with the Japanese player also able to claim one of the two semi-final places from the John McEnroe Group.\nMurray needs to qualify for the last four to maintain his hopes of ending 2016 as the world number one, ahead of Novak Djokovic.\nThe only way Murray can be eliminated after winning his opening two matches is with a straight-set defeat by Wawrinka, followed by a Nishikori win over Cilic.\nTo win the group and avoid playing Djokovic in the semi-finals, Murray must either win, or lose in three sets and hope Nishikori beats Cilic in three sets.\n\"Obviously it's important to win matches to give yourself the best chance to go through, and 200 points for each match here is quite a lot as well,\" said Murray.\nAsked if he was optimistic he could recover from Wednesday's lengthy match sufficiently to challenge Wawrinka, the Scot told BBC Sport: \"I haven't thought about that.\n\"I'm just getting up each day and trying to give the best of what I have on that day.\n\"I'll just try to use a good rest day to recover. Hopefully I won't be too stiff and sore come Friday, but it's not ideal to play matches of that length at this stage of the season.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nWawrinka played poorly in a swift defeat by Nishikori on Monday but improved dramatically to beat Cilic and resurrect his hopes on Wednesday.\nThe Swiss, 31, lost to Murray in their only meeting this year at the French Open but won last year's group-stage contest at the O2 Arena.\nAnd the US Open champion has no qualms about potentially knocking out the home favourite.\n\"I don't care at all,\" said Wawrinka. \"All I know is if I want to have a chance to qualify, I need to win. That's all I know. That's all I'm trying to do.\n\"I'm going to try to play my best tennis, to beat the world number one.\"\nJohn McEnroe Group qualification scenarios", "Tenth seed Wozniacki, 24, raced through the match in only 65 minutes to claim a place in the last four.\nThe former world number one will face China's Peng Shuai, who reached her first Grand Slam semi-final by beating Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-1.\nAn emotional Peng, 28, said: \"It's a little too exciting.\"\nIn the other quarter-finals, to be played on Wednesday, top seed Serena Williams faces Flavia Pennetta and Victoria Azarenka takes on Ekaterina Makarova.\nWozniacki, in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in three years, said: \"It means so much to me.\n\"It has been a pretty up-and-down year for me and to be here in the semi-final of the US Open is an incredible feeling.\"\nErrani, a losing finalist at the 2012 French Open, failed to hold her serve once in the match as Wozniacki powered past the 27-year-old world number 14.\nWorld number 39 Peng played a superb opening set against Bencic, breaking the 17 year old twice.\nAnd Bencic, the world 59 who beat sixth seed Angelique Kerber and ninth seed Jelena Jankovic on her way to the last eight, was broken twice in succession at the start of the second set and was also given a violation for coaching as Peng won in an hour and four minutes.\n\"It's an amazing time for me,\" said an emotional Peng. \"I love tennis but it's a long time, my career. It's been tough sometimes. I was thinking about giving up because I don't know if I can make it.\"\nIn the men's singles, 14th seed Marin Cilic needed five sets to reach the quarter-finals with a 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 3-6 6-3 win over 26th seed Gilles Simon of France.\nCilic, a quarter-finalist in 2009 and 2012, missed last year's tournament at Flushing Meadows while he served a drugs ban.\nThe Croat will meet sixth seed Tomas Berdych, who raced to a 6-1 6-2 6-4 victory over promising Austrian youngster Dominic Thiem in one hour and 38 minutes.\nGael Monfils beat Grigor Dimitrov 7-5 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 to set up a quarter-final meeting with five-time champion Roger Federer, a straight-sets winner over Batista Agut.\nPeng Shuai (Chn) beat Belinda Bencic (Sui) 6-2 6-1\nGael Monfils (Fra) (20) beat Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) (7) 7-5 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 - Report\nRoger Federer (Sui) (2) beat Roberto Bautista Agut (Spa) 6-4 6-3 6-2\nFederer said he \"controlled\" the game well in windy conditions and was looking forward to a quarter-final match-up with Monfils.\n\"The good thing for both of us is we just played in Cincinnati,\" said Federer. \"It was a really tough match.\n\"Gael has been playing some great tennis; he's one of the most entertaining and exciting players out there. I'm sure we'll see lots of retrieving by him and attacking by me.\"\nCaroline Wozniacki (Den) (10) beat Sara Errani (Ita) (13) 6-0 6-1\nEkaterina Makarova (Rus) (4) & Elena Vesnina (Rus) (4) beat Venus Williams (USA) & Serena Williams (USA) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4\nMarin Cilic (Cro) (14) beat Gilles Simon (Fra) (26) 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 3-6 6-3\n\"It's amazing and really important,\" said Croatian Cilic, who had never beat the Frenchman Simon in four previous attempts.\n\"I knew Gilles would not go away that easily. All of our matches were very close but eventually he was always winning.\"\nTomas Berdych (Cze) (6) beat Dominic Thiem (Aut) 6-1 6-2 6-4\n\"I'm very happy with today's win,\" Berdych said after ruining Thiem's 21st birthday.\n\"I'd like to point out one thing which was the key, when I was 0-40 down in the first game on serve, and I saved it. That was a nice boost in the beginning and from then on I played well.\n\"Everything worked today. Job done, that's good.\"\nAll Tuesday's results\nMartina Hingis is in a Grand Slam semi-final for the first time since 2002 after she and Italian Flavia Pennetta beat fifth seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik 6-4 6-3.\nTwelve years ago, the Swiss, now 33, went on to win her last major doubles title with Anna Kournikova at the Australian Open.\n\"Right now it's kind of a dream coming true,\" said Hingis. \"When I started playing again that was definitely something I was hoping for. Now with Flavia, it's becoming reality.\"\n\"I was very happy to see a lot of people even at 02:00 at night. I don't even know how they go back home.\" Kei Nishikori after completing his epic win over Milos Raonic at 02:26.\n\"Sometimes, you know, I just feel like I want a Coke.\" Gael Monfils on his choice of beverage at changeovers. Asked if he does yoga or any specific exercise routine to maintain his amazing flexibility, Monfils added: \"Just every day thank my mum and my dad. Seriously, it's just because of them.\"\nGrigor Dimitrov was not surprised to see Monfils giving up on service returns, appear out on his feet and yet play well enough to win in straight sets. \"I don't think about that because he's been like that throughout all the matches and I think all the years.\"\nPeng Shuai's career is remarkable in itself, given she had heart surgery at the age of 12. \"At the time it was actually like quite big surgery. They said if I keep playing they worry about if I have a problem. But after the surgery I was OK to do the sport.\"\n\"The most important thing is you have to trust and rely on your partner. That's what I feel with Flavia - she's there when I'm down, she's there when some things don't always work, we're always there for each other.\" Martina Hingis on her doubles partner Flavia Pennetta.\nA ball girl was hit by a stray ball during the warm-up between Marin Cilic and Gilles Simon, who said: \"It's dangerous when you have a tennis ball in your eye.\n\"I just wanted to be sure she was fine because I had the feeling she just wanted to stay on the court, but it was just really hurting her. I asked her 10 times, and 10 times I had the same answer. I hope she's fine.\"", "After Andy Murray and Dan Evans won on Monday, British women's number one Konta beat Kirsten Flipkens 7-5 6-2.\nEdmund played superbly to see off Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 6-2 7-5 6-3 and Watson overcame Australia's 18th seed Sam Stosur 6-3 3-6 6-0.\nBut compatriot Naomi Broady lost to Australian Daria Gavrilova 3-6 6-4 7-5.\nIt is the second time in five months that five British players have reached the second round of a Grand Slam, after last year's US Open.\nKonta last year became the first British woman to reach an Australian Open semi-final since Sue Barker in 1977, and the first to reach the last four at any Grand Slam since Jo Durie at the 1983 US Open.\nKonta, who won the Sydney warm-up tournament last week, will next face Naomi Osaka after the 19-year-old Japanese beat Luksika Kumkhum.\nIt was incredibly tricky. She has the kind of game that can trouble any player\nFlipkens, ranked 70 in the world, began well but Konta, considered a serious contender to win her first Grand Slam title, soon improved.\nThe 25-year-old was serving for the opening set at 5-4 but Flipkens broke back after a 10-minute game which saw both players miss several good chances.\nKonta, named the WTA's most improved player of 2016, responded by breaking Flipkens again and then held her serve to love to take the opening set after 51 minutes.\nThe Briton dominated the second set, securing two breaks of serve, to wrap up victory.\n\"It was incredibly tricky. She has the kind of game that can trouble any player,\" said Konta.\n\"I tried to play myself into the match and I'm happy to be through. A lot has happened in the last year and I'm just enjoying playing and trying to get better every day.\"\nBBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller\nIf Naomi Broady had edged a tight match with Daria Gavrilova, there would have been six British players in the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon 2006.\nJohanna Konta's rapid elevation into the top 10 means Britain has a plausible shot at both the men's and women's singles titles, and others are now better equipped to keep her and Andy Murray company for longer.\nKyle Edmund and Dan Evans proved that last year, and Heather Watson's win over Sam Stosur showed what she is capable of. Watson craves consistency, and this first round win was at least a positive start.\nEdmund was hampered by cramp in his first-round defeat by Damir Dzumhur in Melbourne last year, but has worked hard on his fitness.\nDespite the temperature reaching 35C, the 22-year-old world number 46 looked assured throughout his contest with the 91st-ranked Giraldo.\nHe will meet Pablo Carreno Busta, the Spanish 30th seed who went through after Canadian Peter Polansky retired in the fifth set.\n\"Last year was a very different scenario, so it was nice to concentrate on my tennis and let my body take care of me,\" said Edmund.\nFind out how to get into tennis in our special guide.\nBritish number two Watson, who had lost in the first round in her past three appearances at the Australian Open, was broken early by home favourite Stosur.\nHowever, former US Open champion Stosur could not keep any consistency and Watson eventually secured a place in the second round after two hours and 15 minutes.\n\"There were some very long games and I had a slow start in both of the first two sets - in the third I wanted to make her work,\" said Watson, 24.\n\"Sam's a great player - she's beaten me both times before. I felt I prepared really well and felt fit in that third set.\"\nWatson, ranked 81, will face Jennifer Brady in her next match, after the American beat Belgium's Maryna Zanevska 6-3 6-2.\nGavrilova, who is ranked 26th in the world and 71 places above Broady, was taken the distance by the British number three.\nStockport's Broady, 26, was making her debut in the Australian Open main draw and was looking for only her third victory in a Grand Slam match.\nAnd she started well inside the Margaret Court Arena, overpowering 22-year-old Gavrilova in the first set.\nGavrilova, who switched her nationality from Russian to Australian in 2015, had her best Grand Slam run by reaching the fourth round in Melbourne last year.\nAnd, despite a total of 19 aces from Broady, she was able to complete a comeback victory with the only break of the third and final set.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nMurray faces German teenager Alexander Zverev in the first round on Tuesday.\n\"I think Murray is going to find a way to get into the final again this year,\" Rusedski told BBC Scotland.\n\"I do believe he has a chance to win the Australian Open, but a certain man by the name of Novak Djokovic has been sublime.\"\nWith Murray seeded second for the tournament, he cannot face world number one Djokovic until the final.\nBut Rusedski warned the Scot will have some difficult hurdles to overcome before reaching that stage.\n\"It's a little bit more dangerous than we think, the draw,\" he said. \"I think the first week Murray will be pretty comfortable. Fourth round is Bernard Tomic and then David Ferrer, who hasn't played as well as he has in the past.\n\"Then, after that, it gets very difficult because it's Stan Wawrinka - they call him 'Stan the Man' for a reason.\n\"He beat Novak Djokovic at the French Open. He has won the Australian Open as well, so from the semis onwards it gets difficult, but I still think Murray is going to find a way to get into the final again this year.\"\nAfter being a losing finalist in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015, Murray is hoping to finally claim his first Australian Open crown, which would be the third Grand Slam title of his career.\nDespite those four final defeats - the first of which was to Roger Federer before three losses to Djokovic - Rusedski rejects the suggestion Murray now has a mental block when it comes to making the final step and winning the tournament.\n\"I wouldn't describe it as a block,\" he said. \"There's no disrespect losing to Djokovic and Federer in finals.\n\"If you look at Murray's past history, it's taken him five attempts to win his first major, which he won at the US Open. He's won Wimbledon, he's won the Davis Cup now.\n\"After winning the Davis Cup, usually as a player you gain in confidence, so I do believe he has a chance to win the Australian Open.\n\"But Djokovic has been quite sensational and his start to the year, that final in Qatar against Nadal, was frightening.\n\"But, in a one-match event, when you're playing in the final and anything can happen, Murray's got a chance.\"\nRusedski, the former British number one and US Open finalist, does not see Murray encountering any problems getting past his first-round opponent in Melbourne.\n\"Zverev is probably about two or three years away from his best tennis,\" said Rusedski, runner-up in the 1997 US Open.\n\"Murray for me at the moment is at the peak of his powers.\n\"He had a fantastic 2015, finishing the highest he's ever been ranked in his career at number two at the end of the season, and going on to win the Davis Cup - which I thought was one of the greatest feats in British sport - so I'm very positive for Murray's opening round.\"", "The Bulgarian sixth seed led 5-0 after Medvedev injured his shoulder in the warm-up and required treatment.\nThe 21-year-old Russian fought back but Dimitrov eventually won 6-3 3-6 6-3 after one hour and 45 minutes.\nDimitrov will play Spain's Feliciano Lopez in the last four, while 2012 winner Marin Cilic meets Gilles Muller.\nCroatian fourth seed Cilic beat American Donald Young 6-4 7-5 to set up the semi-final against Luxembourg's Muller, who won 6-4 7-6 (7-5) against American Sam Querrey.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nIt appeared unlikely that the third quarter-final would even start when Medvedev called for the trainer during the warm-up.\nThe youngster, ranked 60th in the world, hurt his shoulder during a practice serve and had treatment before deciding to play.\nAfter the first five games went to Dimitrov, a close contest developed and the Russian had his chances at a break up in the decider, finishing with 14 aces.\n\"It was a very tricky match,\" said Dimitrov.\n\"It's never easy to play a guy you've never played before. He's a very talented player, he definitely surprised me.\n\"I wasn't playing good tennis overall but those are the matches that I'm happy to win. Hopefully I can produce some better tennis tomorrow.\"\nLopez, 35, needed almost two and a half hours to win 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (1-7) 7-5 against Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych.\nThe world number 32 saved two match points at 5-4 in the final set before taking Berdych's serve in the next game, after earning his first break points of the match, with a brilliant passing forehand that video technology showed was initially incorrectly called out.\nFind out how to get into tennis in our special guide.\nCilic and Muller will meet after both men reached the semi-finals without dropping serve in the tournament.\nCilic, the 2014 US Open champion, has not faced a break point in dominating his opening three matches, winning 78 of 84 points behind his first serve.\n\"I'm playing really well this week,\" he said. \"I'm feeling great on the court and again today another match without losing serve, so that's extremely good.\"\nMuller is in the form of his life at the age of 34, the left-hander taking his winning run on grass to seven matches in a row.\nHe is at a career-high ranking of 26 in the world and has already won the first two ATP titles of his career in 2017.\n\"It's a great feeling when you get that many matches in a row,\" said Muller.\n\"It does happen too often in a year for me, so to get this many wins in a row gives me a big boost and a lot of confidence.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nThe Swiss, 35, won 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to reach his 11th Wimbledon final, having last won the title in 2012.\nHe will face Croatia's Marin Cilic after the seventh seed beat American 24th seed Sam Querrey 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 on Centre Court on Sunday.\nCilic, 28, is into his second major final after winning the 2014 US Open.\n\"It's unbelievable,\" said Cilic, the second Croat to reach the men's final after Goran Ivanisevic won in 2001.\n\"I've been playing really great tennis.\"\nFederer has already added to his lengthy list of achievements by reaching a record 29th Grand Slam final, becoming the second-oldest man to do so after the 39-year-old Ken Rosewall reached the 1974 Wimbledon final.\nHaving waited five years to win his 18th major title at this year's Australian Open, Federer could make it 19 only six months later.\n\"I feel very privileged to be in another final,\" he said.\n\"I've got the pleasure to play on Centre Court another time. I can't believe it's almost true again. I'm happy to have a day off to reflect on what I've done at the tournament.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nFederer had won his past seven matches against Berdych, and 18 of 24 in all, but the Czech made him work for number 19.\nThere were just three breaks of serve over two hours and 18 minutes, two for Federer, who hit 53 winners to Berdych's 31 in a high-quality contest.\nAfter dropping only one point on his serve as he eased 4-1 clear, Federer offered up two double faults that allowed Berdych to peg him back and earn a tie-break.\nAgain Berdych came back from an early deficit to trail 4-3 but a forehand error returned the advantage and Federer capitalised to clinch the set.\nIt was a blow for the Czech, but he fended off break points early in the second and kept pace with the seven-time champion.\nFederer needed to produce a magnificent dipping forehand winner to hold serve at 3-3, and it was the same shot that would dominate the second tie-break.\nFour brilliant forehands in a row gave the Swiss a 5-1 lead that proved enough for a two-set lead, and there was more magic off that wing in the third.\nBerdych saw a chance to extend the contest disappear when Federer saved two break points with successive aces before breaking in the next game.\nAt 5-3, the Swiss produced a stunning forehand flicked pass that had the 15,000 spectators on Centre Court gasping, and moments later he served out victory in his 42nd Grand Slam semi-final.\nFederer saved a match point on his way to beating Cilic in last year's quarter-finals, and said: \"Last time we had a brutal match - I was two sets down. I had to get lucky to win.\n\"Marin is a great guy. He's a lovely guy, in his first Wimbledon final.\n\"He crushed me at the US Open a few years ago. I hope he doesn't play that good.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nBoris Becker, three-time Wimbledon champion\nUsually cars have five, maximum six gears - Roger Federer seems to have 10 gears. Whenever he's in trouble he comes out with an even better shot.\nAll credit to Berdych - he really took it to him and played great under pressure - but every time we thought he had a little bit of a chance Roger was just coming up with another magical shot.\nThat's what makes him the greatest of all time - to do it over such a long time. At 35, potentially playing your best tennis, who would have thought that?\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nQuerrey, 29, had played three successive five-set matches to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final, and almost forced a fourth before Cilic finally saw off the American's challenge.\nBoth men had more than 100 aces to their name heading into the semi-finals, and it was the Croat who had more success in breaking down the big serve.\nCilic won more than twice as many points on return and earned 14 break points to Querrey's three, but the American saved 10 and was two service holds from taking it to a fifth set.\nHe edged the first set from 4-1 down in the tie-break before Cilic earned the first break of the match at 3-3 on his way to levelling at one set all.\nThe match was over two hours old before two loose shots from Querrey - a backhand error followed by a forehand into the net - separated the pair in the third set tie-break.\nThe pair's previous meeting at Wimbledon in 2012 lasted over five hours and finished 17-15 to Cilic in the fifth set, and when a wayward Cilic smash helped Querrey move ahead in the fourth, another final set seemed inevitable.\nHowever, Cilic played a fine game to level at 4-4 with a drop volley and an attacking return of serve, and avoided the need for a third tie-break when he earned two match points at 6-5 and found a forehand winner on the second.\n\"Sam was playing high-level tennis, especially in the first set,\" said Cilic.\n\"I was 4-1 up in the tie-break and didn't convert. After that I was better in the return games. The level was really high.\"", "Second seed Murray has yet to drop a set at this year's tournament and the 2013 champion is the highest-seeded player remaining in the men's draw.\nBut the 29-year-old described Frenchman Tsonga as \"one of the best grass-court players in the world\".\n\"If he plays well, I'm not on my game, I can lose that match,\" said Murray.\nMurray, competing in his ninth consecutive Wimbledon quarter-final, has beaten Tsonga in 12 of their 14 encounters - twice at Wimbledon.\nThe Scot beat the 12th seed in the quarter-finals in 2010 and the semi-finals two years later, both in four sets.\n\"Both matches were hard,\" said the two-time Grand Slam champion.\n\"A few of the sets came down to just a couple of points. I'm aware I'll have to be playing at my highest level to win.\n\"I think if I play the level I'm playing at just now, I give myself a chance in most matches.\n\"But the trick is to keep that up, to maintain that level for the whole two weeks. I've done a good job of it so far. I do feel like when I've needed to in the tournament, I have played some good tennis.\"\nMurray has been impressive in this tournament - BBC pundit John McEnroe says the Briton is \"playing better than anyone\" - and for the first time in his career he is the highest seed remaining at a Grand Slam.\nGreat Britain Davis Cup captain Leon Smith says Murray is \"playing his best tennis of his life\", citing his improved second serve, net play, control from the baseline and mental focus.\nBut the Briton, who has lost only 34 games in four matches and served up one double fault, has refused to talk about his chances of winning a second Wimbledon title.\n\"When I was younger it was much more difficult to stop myself getting carried away with how I was playing or who I was playing,\" Murray said in his BBC Sport column.\n\"When I hadn't won a Grand Slam it was like, 'This is my chance. I might do it.' And then, if it didn't happen, I was gutted. Nowadays, I know how difficult these events are to win and I take nothing for granted any more.\"\nLike Murray, third seed and seven-time champion Roger Federer has not had to go beyond three sets at this tournament.\nThe Swiss former world number one eased into his 14th Wimbledon quarter-final with victory over American Steve Johnson to equal Martina Navratilova's record of 306 Grand Slam singles victories.\nMore records could be broken on Wednesday if the 17-time Grand Slam champion beats Marin Cilic on Centre Court.\nVictory over Cilic would ensure Federer equals Jimmy Connors' record of 11 Wimbledon semi-final appearances and draws level with Connors on a record 84 wins at Wimbledon.\nFederer, aged 34 and 336 days, would also become the oldest man in the open era to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals since Ken Rosewall (39 years and 246 days) finished runner-up in 1974.\nBut Federer is still bruised by his US Open semi-final defeat by Cilic in 2014.\n\"He blew me off the court at the US Open. I know what I'm getting into,\" said Federer of the ninth seed, who has been broken just three times in this tournament.\n\"I didn't play poorly in any way. It was just all on his racquet. It was very seldom that I was blown off the court like that. It was unbelievably impressive.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nWhile Murray, Tsonga, Federer and Cilic are in familiar territory, first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist Sam Querrey is aiming to become the first American to reach a Wimbledon semi-final since 2009.\nQuerrey, who defeated defending champion Novak Djokovic, will come up against sixth seed Milos Raonic on Court One.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nFrance's Lucas Pouille, the 32nd seed, has also reached the quarter-finals at SW19 for the first time.\nPouille has never played his last-eight opponent Tomas Berdych, the 10th seed who is through to his 15th Grand Slam quarter-final after seeing off fellow Czech Jiri Vesely in a five-set match over two days.\nYou can now add tennis alerts in the BBC Sport app - simply head to the menu and My Alerts section", "The British number three won their second-round encounter 1-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 at Flushing Meadows on Thursday.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nAnd Evans recalled how Tomic's father, John, said in Miami last year that his son would not practise with him.\n\"I was there playing qualifiers,\" said Evans, 23. \"His dad said I wasn't good enough to practise with him.\"\nHe added: \"We went to practise, it was all booked, I got to the practice hut. His dad said: 'No, no, he's a qualifier, I'm not hitting with you'.\n\"So it was one of those. A bit embarrassing, but hey.\"\nEvans has known Bernard Tomic since junior days and said: \"I don't think it was his doing. He wasn't there.\"\nThe 20-year-old Australian could do little to contain a rampant Evans after the first set on Thursday, and the man from Birmingham said afterwards it was the best win of his career.\nA fourth-round meeting with Roger Federer is a tantalising prospect, but Evans' next opponent will take a lot of wearing down first. Tommy Robredo recovered from two-sets-to-love down three times in a row at this year's French Open.\n\"That's probably the best I've had to fight back,\" said the world number 179. \"In the Davis Cup, I've always been pretty much up when I've won the matches.\"\nEvans has guaranteed himself £60,000 for reaching the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time, and he will next face Spanish 19th seed Tommy Robredo.\nThe Briton's rapid ascent in recent months was given a stamp of approval by Roger Federer on Wednesday, when the five-time US Open champion chose to practise with him. They could yet meet for real in the fourth round.\n\"It was amazing to hit with someone so good,\" said Evans. \"I really enjoyed it, actually had a really good hit.\n\"It was a very good experience. He's a nice guy, was interested in what I did. It was good.\"\nAnd Evans admitted that the only downside to his victory on Thursday was the fact that he needed his nipples taped at one stage, in full view of the watching world.\n\"I don't know what it was, it was just agony,\" he said. \"The stick I'm going to get back home is devastating.\"\nTomic, ranked 52nd, said he knew the match would be a test after Evans beat 11th seed Kei Nishikori in the first round.\n\"It shows you anybody can play in the top 250,\" he said. \"A lot of guys can play. It's just a matter of consistency. The guys in the top 100 and top 50 are more consistent.\n\"He's playing well for the first time. This is his best result. He played very well against Kei. I knew if he beat Kei it was going to be difficult.\n\"I think I started well but just lost the concentration, lost my energy level. I couldn't execute my shots, go after my shots, and from then he took over.\"", "Murray, who beat Zverev 6-3 6-4 in the Hopman Cup last week, believes the 18-year-old is an ever-improving player.\nZverev, who is 6ft 6in, beat Murray's Wimbledon conqueror, world number 12 Kevin Anderson, in last year's event.\n\"He's still filling out his physique but he's got a very good game and he serves well,\" said Murray.\n\"For a big guy, he moves pretty well too. He's obviously improving all the time, so it will be a tough match.\"\nMurray, 28, who will withdraw from the Australian Open if his wife Kim gives birth to their first child during the tournament, will be joined in the first round by fellow Britons Dan Evans, Kyle Edmond and Aljaz Bedene.\nEvans, who was 772 in the world rankings as recently as May, beat Bjorn Fratangelo 7-5 4-6 6-0 in the final round of qualifying.\n\"It wasn't nice [to be ranked so low] but it's the sport we play and obviously I've come out the other side, and I am hopefully going up the rankings now,\" said the 25-year-old from Birmingham.\nBritish number one Johanna Konta, who faces childhood heroine Venus Williams in the first round of the women's singles, says she will not allow sentiment to affect her performance against the seven-time Grand Slam winner.\nKonta, 24, played 34-year-old Williams for the first time at Wuhan in October, and exchanged hugs in the locker room with the American after her 6-4 3-6 7-5 quarter-final defeat.\n\"The experience will be different,\" world number 47 Konta said.\n\"It was the first time I played her and she was one of the players I grew up watching when I was younger, so it was definitely a different experience to where I'm at now.\"\nKonta will be joined in the main draw by British number two Heather Watson, who plays Hungary's Timea Babos in the first round on Monday.\nWatson, 23, will be coached on a short-tem basis in Melbourne by Great Britain's Fed Cup captain Judy Murray, replacing Argentine Diego Veronelli, who quit in December to spend more time with his family.\n\"She's come in and saved the day pretty much and agreed to help me this Australia trip and she's just been brilliant - so positive and I've really enjoyed working with her,\" Watson said.\n\"She's just super positive and gets me in the right mindset all the time, and on the court we've been working on moving forward and going to the net a lot.\"\nRoger Federer says Novak Djokovic is in a class of his own ahead of the rest of the \"big five\" of men's tennis.\nDjokovic, Federer, Murray, Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka have dominated the major tournaments, with only one of the last 24 Grand Slam champions coming from outside the group.\nHowever, 17-time Grand Slam winner Federer, 34, says world number one Djokovic deserves \"a little star\", following a run of 16 consecutive tournament finals and three major titles last year.\nDjokovic, 28, won 27 of his 28 matches in Grand Slam tournaments in 2015, with his only defeat coming to Wawrinka at the French Open.\n\"I still think the same guys are playing very well but, of course, Novak deserves like a little star next to his name right now because he's been doing extremely well,\" the Swiss said.\nDjokovic, who is in the same half of the draw as Federer, will open the defence of his title against Chung Hyeon of South Korea on Monday.\nFederer, who is seeded third, also plays on Monday, against Georgian world number 117 Nikoloz Basilashvili.\nSerena Williams says she has fully recovered from a knee injury for the defence of her title at Melbourne Park.\nThe 21-time Grand Slam champion pulled out of the Hopman Cup last week with the injury and was photographed receiving treatment on the knee after struggling during a practice session on Saturday.\n\"It's actually really fine - I don't have any inflammation anymore,\" the American said.\n\"It's just that I needed some time to get over that little hump.\"\nWilliams will face Italy's Camila Giorgi, the highest-ranked non-seed in the tournament, in the first round on Monday as she looks to equal Steffi Graf's Grand Slam record of 22 singles titles.\nFifth seed Maria Sharapova has her own fitness problems after withdrawing from the Brisbane International last week with an arm injury.\n\"I might be rusty, make a few more unforced errors than I would like, but I'm ready to go,\" Sharapova said.\nThe 2008 champion begins her Australian Open campaign on Monday against Japan's Nao Hibino, ranked 58th in the world.", "The world number one and defending champion, 30, plays 24th seed Querrey on Centre Court at 13:00 BST.\nMurray expects his return to be tested against the serving prowess of Querrey, 29, having beaten four unorthodox opponents on his way to the last eight.\nRoger Federer, 35, plays Milos Raonic in the second match on Centre Court.\nThe Swiss seven-time champion, seeded third, lost to Canadian sixth seed Raonic in last year's semi-final but has looked in imperious form so far this year.\nOn Court One, Serbia's three-time winner Novak Djokovic plays Czech 11th seed Tomas Berdych, after Croatia's seventh seed Marin Cilic plays 16th seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, conqueror of world number two Rafael Nadal in round four.\nAfter rain disrupted play on Tuesday, Wednesday's weather is forecast to be dry, overcast and cool, at about 21C.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nAfter overcoming the unpredictable talents of Alexander Bublik, Dustin Brown, Fabio Fognini and Benoit Paire to reach the quarter-finals, Murray faces a much clearer task against the 6ft 6in Querrey.\nThe 29-year-old from California is second in the aces chart with 99 and a fastest serve of 137mph.\nHowever, Murray has won more points at the net as he has been sent scurrying all over Centre Court in his first four matches, testing out the sore hip that disrupted his build-up.\n\"Like I said at the beginning of the tournament, I'll be able to get through seven matches if that's what I have to do,\" the Scot said after his win over Benoit Paire on Monday.\n\"Obviously I want to try to get to the final. I've done a good job so far here.\"\nMurray has won seven of their eight previous matches for the loss of just two sets, but Querrey has played his best tennis at Wimbledon over the past two years.\nThe American upset then world number one Djokovic in the third round last year on his way to a first Grand Slam quarter-final, and has matched that feat 12 months on.\n\"He obviously likes the conditions here,\" said Murray. \"He played really well last year.\n\"I maybe played one or two service games in the first set [against Paire] that weren't the best. Against Querrey, you can't really afford that. He's not an easy guy to break.\n\"When he's standing up on the baseline, hitting forehands, dictating, he's a very dangerous player.\"\nQuerrey knows what to expect from Murray, who has an excellent record against big servers and will play his 10th consecutive Wimbledon quarter-final.\n\"I haven't really learned anything [from previous matches],\" said Querrey.\n\"He makes a ton of balls. He plays great defence. Who doesn't know that? I have to try to beat him playing my game.\"\nYet to drop a set and with just two losses to his name in 2017, Federer is the favourite to reclaim the title he last won in 2012.\nTwelve months ago, he lost to Raonic in a five-set semi-final that proved to be his final match of 2016, before he took an extended break to let his injured knee heal properly.\nIt worked better than anyone could have imagined as the 35-year-old returned at the start of the year to win his 18th major title in Australia, and is still riding that wave of confidence.\nRaonic, 26, is not quite in the form of last year but remains a fearsome opponent on grass, with a fastest serve so far of 142mph.\n\"To beat a big server is a different kind of match,\" said Federer. \"It's more of a penalty shootout.\n\"On the return I've got to keep going for it, keep staying aggressive. Positive attitude. I do believe good things can happen.\"\nDjokovic, 30, returns to action for the second day in a row after his fourth-round match against Adrian Mannarino was delayed by rain, but the Serb won in three comfortable sets on Tuesday.\nBerdych, 31, has impressed in reaching his first Grand Slam quarter-final for a year but is on the wrong end of a crushing 25-2 career record against Djokovic, having lost the last 12.\n\"For me, it's important to start off well,\" said Djokovic. \"I've played him many times. I know what I need to do. Hopefully I can execute that.\"\nThe opening match on Court One will see a clash of two of the best grass-courters, with Muller hoping to build on his win over Nadal and Cilic through to a fourth straight Wimbledon quarter-final.\n\"I played Marin not too long ago at the Queen's Club in the semi-finals,\" said Muller, 34.\n\"I lost to him in three tough sets. Obviously he's playing good.\"" ]

[ "Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade" ]

[ "Issues", "not identical", "the Who", "identical", "Kashmir issue", "social issue", "wedge issue", "health issues", "environmental issues", "gender issues", "Daddy Issues", "financial issues", "methodological issues", "odor issues", "The Big Issue", "tracking issues", "Battle of Issus", "identical copies", "eye issues", "The Who by Numbers", "The Who's Tommy", "Betty Who", "molecularly identical", "who is singing", "Who Dat", "The Almanac of Policy Issues", "identical genomes", "Dr. Who", "identical twins", "nearly identical", "identical by descent", "The Guess Who" ]

[ "Pray about it and ask the Lord to help you through and He will. He has helped me with that exact same problem. Try to ask other brothers in Christ to hold you accountable. Stay away from places that are stumbling blocks that would cause the sexual urges, avoid internet pornography." ]

[ "the girl is zahara and the boy maddox", "Is Tweety a boy or a girl? \\n- Tweety is definitely a boy. He was said\\nto be modeled after a baby picture of his creator Robert Clampett.", "Johnny Depp is married with two children one girl and one boy." ]

[ "Got these expecting them to be night and day compared to the typical kernels, but it was hard to tell the difference. Awesome price point, and sure to visually pop when prepared infront of guests. Used an airpopper and most popped :)" ]

[ "Excellent and with a hint of lemon. Connoisseurs will like these small sardines, tightly packed (like sardines of course) in pure olive oil.", "I ordered these for Easter- they were very fresh. I highly recommend ordering this item if you are a connoisseur of chocolate covered raisins. You will not be disappointed- they are delicious!", "This tea is probably the best known tea in the UK. It's in every home. Not fancy but GOOD TEA. It's orange Pekoe black tea if you're a connoisseur! At last the USA is discovering tea!", "I bought the Connoisseur basket for my uncle. He really enjoyed all the savory and delicious products. He said that the basket was wonderful and all the items were of great quality.", "Those who know the difference between strong coffee and full bodied coffee will taste this and know they have found a connoisseur's favorite.<br />Flavorful, pleasant, never watery or bitter.", "OKay, I must admit I'm reviewing this because somehow the idea of reviewing COFFEE seems ridiculous and funny and sort of pretentious, like those people who get into the subtle, indiscernible differences in wines. So I\"m going to act like a real connoisseur of coffee and tell you that, yes it's BOLD, with subtle notes of . . . . of . . . well, of caffeine! OH, I can't even pretend to be a connoisseur. But I will tell you this. I LOVE Starbucks coffee. And this is BY FAR the least expensive Starbucks I've ever found anywhere. I bought EIGHT BAGS. Seriously.<br />Enjoy!", "We have been to Hawaii and gotten real Kona coffee and this is just as good. I was very surprised. I am no a coffee connoisseur but I know what I like and this is good!", "I love pancakes and consider myself a bit of a connoisseur, and these are without question the best I've ever had. Plus, you eat them for breakfast and don't need lunch, they're so filling.", "The order came in a timely fashion & in its own cooler with dry ice.<br />My wife loves dark chocolate & is more or less a connoisseur. She gave it her highest praise.", "Are you looking for GENUINE popcorn flavor and texture popped from the convenience of your own home? Then look no further than this popcorn party kit!<br /><br />I purchased this popcorn as a side item when I found and purchased an at-home \"authentic\" popcorn machine on Amzaon. Unfortunately, the popcorn machine that I ordered during the same transaction (from a different Amazon seller than Wabash) had been discontinued; however, I received this popcorn kit from Wabash within a mater of days.<br /><br />Here I was, stuck with this popcorn kit and no popcorn machine in which to pop it. The only way I knew how to pop popcorn was in a microwave. So I got out a covered, 6-qt sauce aluminum sauce pan (part of a 13-pc Calphalon cookware set I bought a couple years ago at B, B, & Beyond), followed the cooking instruction for \"stovetop\" popping on the back of the popcorn package, and poured the package's contents into the pan.<br /><br />The results were INCREDIBLE! The scent of movie theater popcorn filled the air of my condo, and the entire sauce pan was filled to the top with buttery popcorn. It was actually pretty cool, too, watching the popcorn pop through the glass lid lol We poured it out into a popcorn bowl, sprinkled a little bit of Wabash's Popcorn Salt <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00017LF24\">Popcorn Salt</a>, and my wife and I couldn't believe how authentic this popcorn tasted (on a separate note, this salt tastes GREAT on things like french fries and tater tots). Nearly every kernel popped fully and perfectly, and nearly every piece was nicely coated in just the right amount of yellow, melted butter and oil. We then sat down and watched \"Batman Begins\" - we weren't even past the first five minutes when we had finished off the entire, huge batch of popcorn and were making more!!<br /><br />We didn't use the paper popcorn cups because we didn't want to waste them on just us, but they're definitely a nice novelty and add to that authentic, movie-theater feeling.<br /><br />We've had a few guests over for movie night at our home, and our guests agree that this is great tasting popcorn.<br /><br />This Popcorn Party Kit is a MUST HAVE! If you want authentic popcorn at your home, whether for yourself, your family, or for your friends and guests, look no further than this. I'm a Wabash valley Farms customer for life!!", "I can't get enough of these hazelnut-chocolate-almond confections. They are absolutely delicious and appropriate for connoisseurs of European-style chocolates. However, the price for shipping and handling is outrageous! It's more than double the price of the original product.", "A delightful gummy candy at a great price. We used to buy the mixed frogs from a major retail speciality chain at a speciality price. If you are a connoisseur of gummies, these should get a must try on your list.", "I've made this coffee both through a regular drip coffee machine as well as a Keurig, both with great results. Solid cup of coffee, I'm not a connoisseur but it was good enough for me. Worth giving a try, especially for the price.", "I purchased this fruitcake for both my mother and mother in-law. Being fruitcake connoisseurs, I took it very highly that both felt this was the best fruitcake they ever had. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves fruitcake!", "I'm not a connoisseur of Indian food, but I certainly enjoy it when it's done well. I loved this curry paste and the dish I made from it (using veggie chicken, brown rice, and yogurt). It's very spicy but tasty nonetheless!", "I'm not much of a tea connoisseur and I had never tried Oolong before, but I really like this stuff. Basically, if you like the tea that most Chinese restaurants serve, you'll like this. I was surprised when I made that connection.", "I bought this espresso to use in my Bialetti Moka Express. I love it. I'm no connoisseur of espresso, I just know that I tried this one and I like it so much that I don't feel the need to try any others.", "This is another item for the connoisseur, or for use as a special gift. It has a distinct flavor, and contains whole berries. Black currects are supposed to be another heart healthy product, but are usually difficult to find in the US. I personally like the flavor as an occasional treat.", "This is some seriously delicious roast. Its deep, dark, and oily, just how I like it. This is a dark coffee connoisseur's dream, and its an Organic & Fair Trade product which makes it that much better. This is not for the faint of heart or taste buds!" ]

[ "Manuel Pellegrini has insisted Manchester City's owners did not expect them to win the Champions League because they know the 'project' is not ready. Pellegrini believes he will not be sacked despite his team's exit from the competition on Wednesday night at the Nou Camp and that owner Sheikh Mansour did not believe City were ready to be crowned European champions yet. They have spent £327million on new players in the last four years but Pellegrini, manager since May 2013, is not worrying about his job after being knocked out by Barcelona. Manuel Pellegrini has insisted Manchester City's owners did not expect them to win the Champions League . Pellegrini pictured during the Barcelona match at the Nou Camp as City chased a European miracle . Asked whether he feared he would be sacked, Pellegrini told Sky Sports: 'I'm not stupid. When you have so many rumours maybe one of those rumours can be true or not. 'If you are asking me if I feel I will be sacked if I don't win against Barcelona, I can answer you no. I'm sure I am not going to be sacked. 'I understand that maybe in the media you have an allegation of what the owners of this club are. I think they don't think or don't believe we are going to win the Champions League now. 'I don't think they think that the project is ready. If you are eliminated, it is because we saw a very good Barcelona, better than our team, and not because we've seen a poor Manchester City team.' Speaking after the game, Pellegrini added: ‘Maybe it was not our best year to continue in Europe. 'We've had important restrictions about amount of players, amount of money that we can spend, so it was a difficult year for us.'" ]

[ "Manuel Pellegrini's decision to play David Silva in a relatively meaningless Capital One Cup tie continues to haunt him as the Manchester City playmaker is still unable to kick a football because of knee trouble. Silva hurt his knee in the 2-1 defeat at home to Newcastle at the end of last month and has been unable to help City as they have continued to struggle in the Barclays Premier League and the Champions League. Now City manager Pellegrini has revealed the Spaniard will miss the league visit of Swansea and the midweek visit of Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Manchester City playmaker David Silva has been ruled out of the games against Swansea and Bayern Munich . Silva has not played since injuring his knee in a Capital One Cup clash with Newcastle in October . He said: ‘We don’t know when he will be back because David still feels some pain in his knee, so he’s not able to kick the ball. We’ll see if next week he can be ready at the end of the week. It will depend on the way he improves in the next few days. ‘He still feels a little pain, but not very hard so I hope in the next week we have good news about David.’ City have won only one of their last six games and face tough Premier League away trips to Southampton and Sunderland after the visit of Bayern on Tuesday. Manuel Pellegrini admits that the Spain international is still unable to kick a ball . Sergio Aguero scores top rescue a draw against QPR, with Pellegrini insisting they must go on a winning run . Pellegrini admitted his team must now go on a winning run.He added: ‘It’s very important because December is the crucial month to try to win the most amount of points. ‘We need to play eight games and the 24 points that we’re going to play for now [in November and December] are very crucial to try to be as near to the top of the table as we can. ‘We are playing in the same way as always, that’s why I trust absolutely in the performance. ‘We are going to be the strong team that we were last season. We are not so bad as everyone says.’", "Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini will have to pull off the seemingly impossible to avoid being sacked, believes Jamie Carragher. Sportsmail columnist Carragher feels Pellegrini must try to emulate what Paris Saint-Germain manager Laurent Blanc did against Chelsea in the Champions League if he is to save his job. City travel to Barcelona 2-1 down from the first leg and it could take something similar to PSG's heroics at Stamford Bridge for Pellegrini to avoid going the same way as Roberto Mancini in 2013. Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini may have to pull off the seemingly impossible to avoid the sack . Pellegrini poses with the Premier League trophy in May 2014 after guiding City to the title . Roberto Mancini (left) won the Premier League in 2012 but was sacked the season after . Sportsmail columnist Jamie Carragher feels Pellegrini must try to do what PSG manager Laurent Blanc did . Mancini was dismissed a year after winning the Barclays Premier League title and Pellegrini has told Sportsmail he recognises his challenge for this season is to repeat the trick or do better in Europe. Carragher, speaking on Sky Sports, said: 'I think he's got a big problem in terms of his job because you only have to look at the owners and how they dealt with Mancini - a man who won the league, I think he won the FA Cup. Pellegrini won a domestic cup and the league in his first season. 'The exact same thing is happening. They're just drifting in that second season. I think he's going to need a result like Laurent Blanc got. 'I think Laurent Blanc saved his job at Paris Saint-Germain in that Chelsea game. I think he's going to need something like that on Wednesday night in the Nou Camp to stay there at the club.' City meet Barcelona on Wednesday night having lost 2-1 in their opening leg at the Etihad, where former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez scored twice and Gael Clichy was sent off. PSG manager Blanc hugs David Luiz after pulling off the seemingly impossible against Chelsea . Blanc applauds the travelling PSG supporters after his 10-man team saw off Chelsea at Stamford Bridge .", "Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has revealed striker Sergio Aguero could be missing for up to six weeks due to knee ligament damage. The Argentina ace has smashed 19 goals for the champions this season, but limped off in the opening minutes of Saturday's 1-0 Premier League defeat of Everton. Pellegrini, speaking in Italy ahead of the Champions League game against Roma, confirmed Aguero had undergone a scan. VIDEO Scroll down for Manuel Pellegrini: Sergio Aguero will be out for up to six weeks . Sergio Aguero suffered knee ligament damage in Saturday's clash against Evertom . Aguero limps off injured and faces up to six weeks on the sidelines, manager Manuel Pellegrini has revealed . However, he refused to put an exact timescale on the forward's recovery. When asked about Aguero's condition, Pellegrini said in a press conference: 'He is injured and cannot play tomorrow. We will see how long he will be out, but it's more important to think about the players we have for this very important game in Rome. 'It is difficult to know the exact amount of weeks he will be injured, Maybe four, five, six weeks, it depends on the time it takes him to recover. Pellegrini refused to put an exact timescale on Aguero's recovery from the knee problem . Aguero has smashed 19 goals in 21 games for City so far this season and will be a big miss . ‘His recovery will depend on the first weeks, it's an important stage right at the beginning. Players know this. But as I previously said our team doesn’t depend on one single player and I hope my players can prove it tomorrow.' Pellegrini has a near full squad to choose from to face Roma, with the exception of Aguero and the suspended Yaya Toure. The City boss added: 'They are all in the squad list except Sergio and Yaya. We will see tomorrow which are available to play but all of them, I think they could be ready for tomorrow. Maybe one of them we have some doubts, but I won't say which one.'", "Ronald de Boer says his brother Frank would be interested in taking the Manchester City job - but only after 2016. Manuel Pellegrini finds himself under pressure after City fell six points behind leaders Chelsea in the Barclays Premier League title race and were eliminated from the Champions League by Barcelona on Wednesday night. The Chilean could be dismissed in the summer, with Ajax boss De Boer, Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti and Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone among those linked with the job. Ajax coach Frank de Boer is in the frame to take over at Manchester City should Manuel Pellegrini depart . Former Holland international De Boer, 44, has guided Ajax to four consecutive Dutch titles . The pressure mounted on Manuel Pellegrini after Manchester City's Champions League exit to Barcelona . City trail Chelsea by six points in the Barclays Premier League title race . Ivan Rakitic scored the only goal of the second leg as Barcelona knocked out Man City 3-1 on aggregate . De Boer, 44, has guided Ajax to four consecutive Eredivisie titles, though they are well behind PSV Eindhoven this season. And his brother Ronald believes he will soon be thinking about his future. 'Frank would be interested in managing Manchester City in the future,' he told talkSPORT. 'He's already said he will stay at Ajax until 2016. If Manchester City or Barcelona come for him he will stay. 'After that [2016], he is ready to take on a job like that.'", "Manuel Pellegrini has insisted he is not impressed by United's rise up the table. Asked for his thoughts about his team's great rivals surging past them in the Barclays Premier League, the Manchester City boss said: 'Not impressed, no, because I think Louis van Gaal has a career as a manager where his teams are always offensive teams, teams that win titles everywhere. 'United bought a lot of very good players such as Angel di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Daley Blind. Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini says he is not impressed by Manchester United's rise up the table . He points out United's expensive signings such as Angel di Maria (centre) and Radamel Falcao (right) Pellegrini feels that a manager of Louis van Gaal's quality should be expected to do well with such a squad . Pellegrini feels that Juan Mata (left) and Ander Herrera are top players and central to United's run of form . Pellegrini has also singled out United's Dutch defender Daley Blind (right) as a key part of United's team . 'For me, the strange thing was why they didn't do it before, earlier in the season. 'But it's not a surprise how they are playing in this moment.' City have lost five of their last seven games in all competitions and have not won away since mid-February. That run has seen them slide off Chelsea's shoulder at the top of the league and down to fourth place. Pellegrini reiterated his stance that he is not fearful about losing his job but admitted his team have extra motivation ahead of Sunday's game. 'I think the first motivation is always to win,' he said. 'Being a derby against a team like United that dominated the league for so many years, it's more. 'At one time Sir Alex Ferguson said the neighbours were disturbing them a little bit more, so I say that's double motivation for us.' Crystal Palace forward Glenn Murray (bottom left) celebrates scoring his side's opening goal against City . Jason Puncheon scores a stunning free-kick for Palace as they inflict a 2-1 defeat on Pellegrini's men . City have lost five of their last seven games in all competitions and travel to Old Trafford on Sunday .", "Manchester City go into Wednesday night's Champions League game against Barcelona knowing that only a win - and a win in which they score twice - will be enough to secure progress. It might therefore worry them to know that beating Barcelona is something that their manager, Manuel Pellegrini, has failed to manage since 2008. Pellegrini has now managed three clubs without any successes against Barca, losing all of his games so far as manager of City to match his record at Real Madrid, and managing just a single draw when in charge of Malaga. Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has lost 12 of his last 13 games against Barcelona . The last time Pellegrini beat Barcelona, in 2008, Yaya Toure was playing for the Spanish club . In fact, you have to go back to March 2008, more than eight years ago, to find Pellegrini's last win over Barcelona, on a day that his star man Yaya Toure was lining up for the Nou Camp outfit. As Villarreal boss Pellegrini did manage four wins against Barca, while drawing three times and losing the remaining five of his twelve games. However, only the last of those wins came away from home, and none of them in the Champions League, while his career record against Barcelona sees him triumph only 16 per cent of the time. City know they need to produce something special to progress - if they do beat Luis Enrique's team by the required margin, it will not just be a remarkable achievement for the club, but also for their manager. City trail 2-1 going into their game at the Nou Camp after Luis Suarez's double at the Etihad stadium . Pellegrini has lost all of his three matches against Barca as Manchester City manager . The Chilean never managed a win over the Catalans in his time at Real Madrid or Malaga . VIDEO Pellegrini defiant over City future .", "Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has ruled out any prospect of selling Yaya Toure despite the midfielder's limited contribution this season and his petulant red card against CSKA Moscow on Wednesday. Pellegrini has rallied around theIvory Coast midfielder whose indifferent form has coincided with the grief of losing a younger brother to cancer and being racially insulted on Twitter. And the Chilean boss has cheekily suggested reports that Toure will leave City may emanate from clubs who would like to buy him. VIDEOS Scroll down to watch . Manuel Pellegrini says Yaya Toure will not be sold by Manchester City despite inconsistent displays this year . Pellegrini said Toure is considered a 'very important player' and the club has never thought of selling him . Pellegrini said: 'I think Yaya is a very important player, he scored a goal against CSKA and in the second half he made a mistake and got sent off. 'Never in my mind or anyone at the club have we thought about selling Yaya Toure. 'Maybe the stories come from other teams that want to see us weaker.' Toure scored for City against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League on Wednesday . But the Ivorian midfielder later saw red as Man City slumped to a defeat that dents their European hopes . Manchester City are currently six points behind Chelsea in the Premier League title race . City travel to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday six points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea. But Pellegrini insists he can shut out the pressure. 'The only pressure I feel is from myself to win and play attacking football,' he said. 'I think we are defending very well, nobody has conceded less than us in the league except Southampton. 'At times last season, it was impossible to beat us because (David) Silva, (Samir) Nasri, Yaya and Fernandinho were all in a good moment. Now we have Silva injured and Nasri is just coming back. 'I think we will return to our natural way of playing soon. But I don't want to use any excuses.' VIDEO Tueart mystified by Toure's slump in form .", "Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini came out fighting on Tuesday night and claimed he doesn’t need to win trophies to save his job. Barclays Premier League champions City face Leicester at home on Wednesday night having won only two of their last nine games in all competitions. Back-to-back defeats against Barcelona and Liverpool have ramped up the pressure on Pellegrini, with pundits such as Sportsmail’s Jamie Carragher laying into his tactics and formations over the weekend. But Pellegrini said: ‘I am not under any pressure to win an amount of titles or win a title every year. I only feel pressure when I don’t see my team playing the right way. All the other things are not important. Under-fire Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini watches on during training on Tuesday . The Manchester City squad prepare for Wednesday night's Premier League clash at home to Leicester . Samir Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta looked as though they were practicing Karate as they challenged for the ball . ‘When I signed my contract nobody told me about winning five titles in five years. That was what (chief executive) Ferran Soriano said to the media. But that doesn’t have to be one a year. ‘There are different ways of analysing things. Winning trophies is only one of them. Maybe last year nobody thought we were going to win the title but we did. To think about the future is the worst thing. I don’t do that. The most important thing is to continue playing with the same style. We won’t change.’ Carragher and Gary Neville both called City ‘embarrassing’ after Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Liverpool, and Match of the Day pundit Robbie Savage dubbed Pellegrini ‘naive’ for the way he set up his midfield. Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini looks dejected after his side lost to Liverpool . Yaya Toure sinks to his knees during Manchester City's defeat at Liverpool on Sunday . Pellegrini said: ‘Everybody has a right to an opinion. I know what’s best for this team. It’s not my duty to tell the media what they must think.’ City’s owners are desperate for success, especially in Europe, and have spent tens of millions trying to improve the squad following their first Premier League title success in 2012. Asked about his relationship with the City board, Pellegrini added: ‘It’s not about relationships. I could have a bad relationship with the owners but it’s about how you manage this project. ‘Every project can have difficult moments. You have the wrong opinion about the owners. They are not so desperate to win titles, they want to improve. They do want to win titles but they want to do it the right way. What’s important to me is how you win titles.’ Sergio Aguero looks dejected as Manchester City were beaten by Liverpool at Anfield . Vincent Kompany and Fernando look dejected as City lost at home to Barcelona in the Champions League .", "Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is in line for a timely return to action in the Champions League in Rome on Wednesday night. The City skipper has missed the club's last two games with a hamstring injury and was not expected to make the flight to Rome ahead of a game Manuel Pellegrini's team must win if they are to qualify for the next stage of the competition. But it is understood the Belgium international is increasingly positive that he has a chance of playing in the Olympic Stadium. Vincent Kompany is set for a timely return from the hamstring injury sustained in the Southampton game . Manchester City's captain is set to return in their Champions League match against Roma in Italy . Kompany's return is a welcome boost for City manager Manuel Pellegrini ahead of the must-win match . City have plenty of work to do if they are to advance to the knockout phase of the Champions League . City will definitely be without Sergio Aguero, who limped out of Saturday's match with Everton . Kompany trained on Monday and has told Pellegrini he is ready to play if required. City may also welcome back playmaker David Silva, who has not played since October 29 because of a knee problem. Meanwhile centre forward Sergio Aguero is expected to be out for longer than the four weeks initially expected after scans showed his knee injury to be the same problem as the twisted medial ligament suffered by Silva against Newcastle in the Capital One Cup.", "Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini would consider a move to Napoli, according to the Chilean's agent. Pellegrini is coming under increasing pressure with his side five points behind Chelsea, who have a game in hand, in the Premier League. City also face a tough task to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals after losing 2-1 to Barcelona at home in the first leg. Manuel Pellegrini looks on during Manchester City's match against Leicester City last week . Napoli coach Rafa Benitez is pictured after his side's 2-2 Serie A draw with Inter Milan on Sunday . And Pellegrini's agent has revealed that Napoli would be considered if they came calling, with current manager Rafa Benitez out of contract this summer. Jesus Martinez told Radio Crc: 'Manuel has another year on his contract, and he intends to respect it. I don't know, however, what the leadership's intentions are. 'Pellegrini has Italian roots, he's also been on holiday in Naples. He's a lover of language and culture. He greatly appreciates Italy and Neapolitan culture. Luis Suarez celebrates after scoring for Barcelona against City in the Champions League last month . An aerial view of the Italian city of Naples, home to Napoli football club . 'You never know in football. Could he replace Benitez? Pellegrini does not allow me to talk about him in relation to a position at a club which already has a coach under contract. 'We have to wait a few more months, then if [Napoli President Aurelio] De Laurentiis calls, we'll discuss it.'", "Stuart Pearce believes Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini deserves more time to turnaround the club’s dwindling fortunes. City’s challenge for the title has capitulated in recent weeks and Pellegrini’s men now face a battle to even finish in the top four. A derby day thumping at the hands of rivals Manchester United only compounded their misery, but Pearce believes City should stick with the 61-year-old. Stuart Pearce believes Manuel Pellegrini should be given more time to turn Manchester City around . The look of dejection on the faces of the Manchester City players has been a familiar sign this season . Pearce told talkSPORT: ‘The club is at a stature now where they look to continually be in the Champions League and win Premier Leagues. The club will have a good look at themselves in the summer, but I’m not a big favour of turning managers over quickly. “I hope the manager stays in place. He has been around the block long enough to realise the squad needs freshening up drastically this summer.” Yaya Toure has had a largely ineffective season for current champions Manchester City this season . Toure and Fernandinho look dejected during the Premier League defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford . Pearce, who spent time at the club as both a manager and a player, blamed City’s poor run of form on the fading influence of Ivorian Yaya Toure. ‘Where City have suffered historically is when Toure has either lost form or been away on African Nations tours,\" said Pearce. Sergio Aguero has been a rare shining light in Manchester City's under performing squad this season .", "Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini insists that Frank Lampard should not be labelled a 'traitor' for making the move to the Etihad Stadium after over a decade at Chelsea. Lampard, who signed for New York City this summer and is now at Manchester City after signing a short-term deal, has come under fire in some quarters for moving to a rival club. However, speaking at a press conference ahead of Sunday's Community Shield against Arsenal, Pellegrini defended his new signing: 'I don't understand the reaction of Chelsea fans that say he is a traitor. VIDEO Scroll down for Manuel Pellegrini: We haven't breached financial fair play rules . Blue moon: Frank Lampard joined Manchester City on a short-term deal . Running man: Lampard trains with his new Manchester City team-mates . 'The problem was not that Frank Lampard did not want to sign another contract at Chelsea. Chelsea didn't want him anymore and he wants to continue playing. He is a competitive player and very important for our team.' Pellegrini, who, admitted he was 'surprised' by Arsene Wenger continued barbs at Manchester City, also maintained that the club had done nothing wrong in making the loan move for Lampard. When Wenger's comments were put to the Chilean, Pellegrini said: 'I think that as a manager we have enough problems worrying about ourselves without talking about other teams. What I will say is that we have important restrictions over FFP. Frank Lampard was a free player so we didn't spend anything to bring him here from New York City.' Wembley showdown: Manuel Pellegrini is looking forward to facing Arsenal in the Community Shield . New boy: Bacary Sagna joins in with training with his new City team-mates . All smiles: Sergio Aguero looks happy to be back at Manchester City after the World Cup . Wembley bound:Micah Richards (right) and Scott Sinclair share a joke during the warm up at Carrington . England midfielder Lampard is not expected to be involved at Wembley on Sunday, as a host of players that have only this week returned to training set to miss out. 'Lampard is not ready to play. It is not only Lampard but all the players that arrived this week. The players that arrived this Monday are Martin Demichelis, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna, Fernandinho, Frank Lampard and Sergio Aguero. They have a special pre-season this week and next week.' Pellegrini also refused to comment on the club's portracted pursuit of Eliaquim Mangala, with a £32m move still to be completed. 'I always say the same,' the Chilean said, 'When things are finished, we can talk about that. For the moment, he is not a player in our squad.'", "Joe Hart is fighting to keep his place in Manchester City's starting line-up as the Premier League champions embark on a critical week in their season. The England goalkeeper conceded a soft winner against Stoke in City's last game and manager Manuel Pellegrini is considering giving No 2 Willy Caballero a chance against Arsenal, Bayern Munich or Chelsea over the course of the next eight days. Caballero, a £6million summer signing from Pellegrini's old club Malaga, has not played since letting in three goals against Saturday's opponents Arsenal in the Community Shield last month. VIDEO Scroll down for Manuel Pellegrini on Joe Hart's number one threat Willy Caballero . Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart (left) could be dropped to the bench over the next eight days . Joe Hart pulls off a save during Manchester City's 3-1 win against Liverpool earlier this season . Summer signing Willy Caballero (right) could replace Joe Hart (left) against Arsenal on Saturday lunchtime . Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is considering a change of goalkeeper . Asked if he has been told that he will play at the Emirates, the Argentine keeper said: 'Maybe, but only the coach knows this. 'I'm waiting for my chance. I am training very well and maybe it could be the next game or maybe it could be another game – but I am ready. 'Competition between goalkeepers is always good. When I spoke to the coach about coming to City, he told me it would be a good opportunity for me. But he said I would have to work so hard to play because everyone knows that Joe Hart is a brilliant goalkeeper and a fantastic person too. Joe has helped me so much since I came here.' Pellegrini axed Hart for seven Premier League games towards the end of last year and played Costel Pantilimon instead. But the City boss kept his cards close to his chest on Friday, saying: 'We'll see game by game. One hour and 15 minutes before kick-off you will know which goalkeeper starts. Willy Caballero was speaking at City Streets which is an interactive gang awareness project . Manchester City's Dedryck Boyata gets involved with local children at the club event . Defender Dedryck Boyata shows he's not afraid to help educating schoolchildren in the Manchester area . 'Willy Caballero can be in any team, he's a very good goalkeeper. In this moment I'm playing Joe Hart, but he will have his opportunity soon. 'Willy has a good career behind him. If you want to be a top goalkeeper you must have all the attributes – good distribution, to know when to go for the ball, to be good one-on-one, to not concede early goals. 'It's important to have competition in every position in the team, not just with Joe Hart and Willy Caballero.' Hart was criticised for allowing Mame Biram Diouf's low shot to go under his body when Stoke won 1-0 at the Etihad, but Pellegrini insisted that Caballero's prospects do not hinge on his rival's errors. 'I am not waiting for Joe Hart to make a first mistake to change him for Willy Caballero,' said Pellegrini. 'Maybe in the last year Joe didn't start very well but he finished very well. 'I analyse the goals and individual mistakes with the players, the whole team. I think a lot of players were involved in [conceding] that goal.' Willy Caballero was speaking at 'City Streets', an interactive gang awareness project organised by the club's foundation to educate local schoolchildren about the negative effects of gang and crime culture.", "Celtic's ambitions of persuading Manchester City to release Jason Denayer for another loan deal at Parkhead next season are well documented. But what you wish for and what you get are often oceans apart and so may be the case regarding Denayer after the pronouncements from City on Thursday. Put simply, manager Manuel Pellegrini has confessed that his club's young Academy players are not yet ready to step into his first-team squad. Therefore the likes of Denayer may soon find themselves returning from loan deals to fill the gap. Jason Denayer has impressed while playing for Celtic on loan this season from Manchester City . Celtic are keen to retain the services of the 19-year-old  Belgian defender, but face an uphill struggle to do so . City manager Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed that the club are looking to invest in homegrown talent . Pellegrini's comments confirm that City will be required to invest heavily in 'homegrown' talent this summer. Current Premier League regulations require clubs to carry a minimum eight homegrown players, a group which can include youngsters who have spent three of their formative years at an English club. Denayer falls into this category despite hailing from Belgium - making him all the more attractive to City next season. Pellegrini said: 'I think about the Academy, we must be patient. This club build all these things because young players are important. 'Maybe it's not so easy for young players, especially at big clubs, to play in the first team, with the professional squad. 'I'm sure in the future we will have very important players coming from the Academy, they will be part of the squad. 'But it's important to be patient, important to have years of working the same way. But you never know. Maybe some talented young players can do it before.' Denayer would obviously fit the bill. A number of young City professionals, including PSV's Karim Rekik and Marcos Lopes with Lille, are on loan and may be brought back to plug some of the holes next season. Celtic pair Virgil van Dijk (left) and Jason Denayer (right) arrive in Milan ahead of the Europa League tie .", "By . Craig Hope . Follow @CraigHope_DM . Joe Hart admits he has a fight on his hands to keep Manchester City's No 1 jersey this season – but is confident he'll win his duel with summer signing Willy Caballero. The England goalkeeper was restored to the side for Sunday's 2-0 victory at Newcastle after Caballero had debuted in the Community Shield seven days earlier. The suspicion is the Argentine would have kept his place had City not lost 3-0 to Arsenal. But manager Manuel Pellegrini – who worked with Caballero at Malaga – started the Premier League season with Hart and he will continue between the posts when the champions host Liverpool on Monday. Competition: Manchester City keeper Joe Hart is under pressure from summer signing Willy Caballero . Safe hands: Hart collects the ball under pressure from Emmanuel Riviere during City's 2-0 win at Newcastle . Hart, though, was dropped by Pellegrini in favour of Costel Pantilimon after a string of gaffes last season. And the 27-year-old accepts he faces a new challenge following the £6million arrival of Caballero. 'That's who we are as a club. No-one can afford to rest, no-one is undroppable and no-one is guaranteed to play every game,' said Hart, who is currently in talks over a new contract at the Etihad. 'We all have to perform and that includes me. It suits me. I'm a fighter, I've been a fighter all my life. I'll continue to do that. I am ready to fight and I'm looking forward to hopefully keeping this position for a long time.' Hart missed seven league matches when he was axed last November and expects to sit out a few more this time around, if only because of Pellegrini's rotation policy as City compete on four fronts. 'Times have changed. Look around, everyone has (two) quality keepers,' he said. 'Sometimes stuff happens and goalkeeper is an important position, so you need two good keepers. 'Caballero is a great signing. We were sorry to lose Pantilimon to Sunderland and we wish him well. 'But Willy has come in - we know he's a great keeper after what he's done at Malaga. He wants to play as much as I do, but I've got the place at the moment and I'm going to do everything I can to keep it.' New boy: Caballero arrived from Manuel Pellegrini's former club Malaga for £6million this summer . High praise: Hart (left) has described Caballero (right) as a 'great goalkeeper' For the time being, however, Hart is enjoying the view. City barely broke sweat at St James' Park as goals from David Silva and Sergio Aguero got their title defence off to a winning start. And Hart added: 'I've always enjoyed watching this team. It's a great team to play for and they're a great bunch to train with. 'For most of them it comes off more than not, so you can't really say they are flair players - they're just quality players. 'We feel really settled as a team. We've had a good year under this manager and we feel ready to kick on. This club wants to do well and nobody wants to do better than this group of players.'", "It is little over a year since Alan Pardew became involved in a rather ugly touchline confrontation with Manuel Pellegrini while managing Newcastle. Pardew was warned about his behaviour by the FA and wrote to Pellegrini to apologise for the offensive name he called him. On Monday at Selhurst Park, Pardew, now manager of Crystal Palace, meets Pellegrini and Manchester City again having taken steps to change a pattern of behaviour he feared was becoming destructive. After taking advice from the League Managers’ Association, the 53-year-old has benefited from sessions with former international cricketer Jeremy Snape, now a sports psychologist. Alan Pardew called Manuel Pellegrini a 'f***ing old c**t' during Premier League encounter back in . The touchline spat occurred during a Premier League match between Newcastle and Man City in January 2014 . ‘My natural instinct is to be aggressive in the way my teams play,’ Pardew told the BBC. ‘But I have had to learn from my own experiences and not get too involved in that myself. Jeremy has helped me on the sidelines in terms of focusing on what I can control. ‘All the times I have been in trouble (I have reacted) when I felt an injustice so when those issues arise now, I know not to react and that is when I switch the off button.’ Pellegrini’s team are under a little pressure. Now trailing neighbours Manchester United ahead of Sunday’s derby at Old Trafford, Pellegrini knows he must lift his side from a run of results that has seen them lose touch with leaders Chelsea. Crystal Palace boss Pardew believes he has the ability to manage one of England's top sides . Pardew feels he would make a decent job of managing a top-four team if given the chance. ‘I look at the top teams and feel I could do that job better than I’m seeing it being done. But if I work in this part of the league for the rest of my career I will be extremely happy,’ he said. Pellegrini said recently he felt his City squad lacked one really big player. This week, he explained: ‘Well, it is just the way of thinking, that big teams need to sign a big player. It is very difficult to do it every year — but every two years you must do it.’", "Frank Lampard and Eliaquim Mangala are ready to make their Manchester City debuts as the Premier League champions face a critical run of three games in the space of eight days, Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed. Lampard has been training with City for the last month since his shock switch from their US affiliate in New York, while Mangala has yet to play for the club following a £32million move from FC Porto. Both men could feature in Saturday’s trip to Arsenal, the Champions League clash away to Bayern Munich or next weekend’s clash with title favourites Chelsea. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Sportsmail's Arsenal v Manchester City preview . Frank Lampard trains ahead of making a potential debut for Manchester City this weekend against Arsenal . Jesus Navas is put through his paces in Manchester City's last training session before their trip to Arsenal . Aleksandar Kolarov and Bacary Sagna train ahead of Manchester City's trip to Arsenal . Aleksandar Kolarov watches on as Sergio Aguero show off his skills in a Manchester City training session . Manchester City players are put their paces in the gym ahead of their trip to Arsenal . Captain Vincent Kompany has also been passed fit after suffering a calf problem while on international duty with Belgium, but Fernando has been ruled for two weeks with a muscle injury and Stevan Jovetic is also out of action after pulling a hamstring in training with Montenegro. ‘Frank is ready,’ said Pellegrini. ‘He has worked for about one month and he doesn’t have any problems. Mangala is working normally and is in the squad list also. ‘We have to play three games in a week so we will see if they play in these games. Both of them are ready to do it but I can’t say which games they will play or if they will play. Fernando will miss the Emirates clash having featured in all of Manchester City's games so far this season . ‘But we have Fernando injured. He has a muscle problem, maybe a couple of weeks more and also Stevan Jovetic. He came back from his national team with a problem in his hamstring. ‘All the rest of the players are fit. Vincent played 90 minutes for his national team and he works normally with the squad during the week here so he doesn’t have any problems.’ Addressing the media for the first time since Alvaro Negredo was allowed to leave the Etihad on loan to Valencia with a view to a permanent move, Pellegrini confirmed that the striker was the odd man out in his Champions League squad after fracturing a metatarsal in pre-season, and was also desperate to return to Spain. Spanish striker Alvaro Negredo completed his loan move to Valencia from Manchester City on deadline day . Negredo’s departure after one season in English football has left City with just three recognised senior strikers. Pellegrini refused to say if they were in the running to sign Radamel Falcao before he joined neighbours Manchester United, but believes that City have enough forwards to cope. He said: ‘The decision for Negredo to go out was for two very important reasons – first of all, we had a restriction on the number of players we can use in the Champions League, we had one player more and in this case Alvaro was injured so he was not going to be on the list. ‘For him, it was also very important that he went back to Spain so I thought that was the best decision. But it all started with the restriction on the number of players. ‘It is one striker less of course, but we have Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero, Stevan Jovetic and other players we can use behind the strikers. There are other options.’ Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger hosts Manuel Pellegrini's City side this weekend in a pivotal title race match . Eliaquim Mangala and Bacary Sagna train ahead of Manchester City's trip to Arsenal . Manuel Pellegrini looks on during Manchester City training as his players get ready for a trip to Arsenal . Manchester City skipper Vincent Kompany is put through his paces in training . Mathieu Flamini celebrates scoring as Arsenal held Manchester City to a 1-1 draw the last time at the Emirates .", "Manchester City's captain Vincent Kompany, manager Manuel Pellegrini and head of youth development Patrick Vieira were in attendance to watch the club's Under 18s side fall to a 3-1 defeat by Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup final final first-leg. Big-spending City, who have invested millions into ready-made first-team stars over the last few transfer windows, are often criticised for the lack of young players to come through their academy ranks. So, it was reassuring to see Kompany and Pellegrini at the game on Monday night, even if was to witness a loss. Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany (right) watches the club's Under 18s side take on Chelsea . Sadly, Kompany witnesses a 3-1 defeat as Chelsea take a strong lead in the FA Youth Cup final first-leg . City manager Manuel Pellegrini (third from right) also attends the Academy Stadium on Monday night . Pellegrini watches on as City's youngsters fall to a 3-1 defeat in the FA Youth Cup final first-leg on Monday . City's head of youth development and former midfielder Patrick Vieira also attends the game on Monday . In-form forward Tammy Abraham fired Chelsea ahead in the seventh minute with a stunning volley, but that lead didn't last long with City responding through Isaac Buckley's slick low finish inside the box two minutes later. But Abraham restored the visitors' lead before half-time, hooking the ball into the net with an improvised and acrobatic finish at close-range from a corner - his 36th goal this term. Dominic Solanke then sealed the win for Chelsea two minutes from time, latching onto a Charly Musonda through ball and slotting coolly past the keeper. It remains to be seen how many of either of these sides' young stars will progress on to their respective first-teams. Chelsea's first-team are currently top of the Premier League table, while Manchester City's are fourth. Chelsea's Jake Clarke Salter (left) slides to block a shot from Manchester City's Manuel Garcia (right) Chelsea forward Dominic Solanke (right) celebrates after scoring his side's third goal against Chelsea . Chelsea's Tammy Abraham (right) tussles for possession with City's Garcia (left) on Monday night . Chelsea's Issiah Brown (right) shields the ball away from the challenge of the oncoming Pablo Matteo (left)", "Manchester City will be without new signing Eliaquim Mangala for the trip to Newcastle United on Sunday. The French centre-back signed for the club in a £32m deal this summer but he has not had sufficient training with his new team to be passed ready to play by manager Manuel Pellegrini. Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Pellegrini said: 'Just Alvaro Negredo is injured. Mangala needs to work more with the team, he will not play this weekend.' VIDEO Scroll down to watch Mangala score with superb back heel volley . Not ready yet: Eliaquim Mangala will not play for Manchester City against Newcastle on Sunday . Having a ball: Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure are full of joy ahead of the Premier League opener . Making his mark: Frank Lampard took part in training on Friday... but will he play on Sunday? All blue: Frank Lampard wore sky blue boots that matched City's official training kit . Now you're just showing off, Frank: Lampard displays some fancy footwork during training . Beaten: Joe Hart dives but fails to stop a shot during training on Friday afternoon . Eyes on the prize: Vincent Kompany keeps his focus on an aerial ball during training . City were beaten 3-0 in last week's final test before the start of the season, as Arsenal humbled the champions in the Community Shield. Pellegrini has also lead his team in the US, and spoke about their pre-season so far. 'I'm not 'happy-happy' because we need more days to train as some arrived late. It was important they had a good rest after WC but we will see how we do. 'We had a good pre-season with the rest of the squad.' Taking a break: Vincent Kompany lays down during a break in City's gym session . At full stretch: Bacary Sagna tries to keep his balance as he puts in the work in the gym . Strike power: Star forward Sergio Aguero has been handed a new five-year contract by Manchester City . Team talk: Manuel Pellegrini is keen for his side to avoid the poor start of last season . VIDEO Sergio Aguero signs new contract . Fernando, Bacary Sagna and Mangala are three of the major signings for the club this summer, as well as the surprise loan move for former Chelsea legend Frank Lampard. And asked about more transfers, Pellegrini said he was happy with his squad, and hopes they can avoid a poor start to the season starting at St James' Park. 'We will see between now and the end of the window. We have important restrictions over number of players we can have in our squad. I think that for the moment the squad is ready. 'We must improve first part of the season as it was very bad when we were playing away from home in the early games.' Strive for success: Manuel Pellegrini and Vincent Kompany are hoping to retain the Premier League title . New boys: Bacary Sagna and Eliaquim Mangala have arrived from Arsenal and Porto respectively . Dismantled: Manchester City were beaten 3-0 by Arsenal in the Community Shield last week . Lastly, on Sergio Aguero, Pellegrini couldn't hide his delight in securing the Argentine for five more years at the Etihad Stadium. I think that always this team needs Sergio Aguero. It's important he has a pre-season, he has had so many months not playing normally so we have a mix of players that can play.", "Micah Richards rejected a loan move to a Premier League club in favour of Serie A, the on-loan Manchester City defender has revealed. Out of favour Richards made a loan switch to Fiorentina on transfer deadline day after Manuel Pellegrini made it clear he was not in his plans for the coming season at the Etihad. And amid talk that West Ham and a number of other Premier League clubs were interested in the versatile defender, Richards has claimed he rejected the chance to stay in England in favour of a Serie A move. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Micah Richards first training session with Fiorentina . Loan move: Micah Richards trains with Fiorentina after sealing his loan switch from Manchester City . Through the paces: Richards (third right) goes for a light jog during training in Florence earlier this week . City star: Richards came up through the academy at Manchester City but was not wanted this season . 'This was the most exciting project and fantastic fans,' Richard told Sky Italia. 'I had options between the Premier League and Serie A, but I chose Fiorentina because this was the most interesting project and the fans are fantastic.' Richards is yet to play for his new club but has been training with their squad and he praised the impact of former City defender Stefan Savic, now also at the Florence club. 'The directors convinced me, there are great players and I spoke about it to Savic, who I knew from City,' he said. 'I am really getting into Italian football. I feel right at home already.' Benched: Richards has found it difficult to break into the starting XI at the Etihad under Manuel Pellegrini .", "By . Matt Barlow . Follow @@Matt_Barlow_DM . Willy Caballero has promised he will fight to keep Joe Hart out of the Manchester City team after starting ahead of the England goalkeeper in the FA Community Shield. It was not a debut to remember for Caballero as City lost 3-0 to Arsenal at Wembley, but the 32-year-old Argentine is determined to get another chance when the champions launch their title defence at Newcastle, on Sunday. VIDEO Scroll down fro Manuel Pellegrini refuses to reveal if Joe Hart is his number one . Fighting talk: Willy Caballero is ready to battle for City's spot between the sticks . Friendly rivalry: Joe Hart and Caballero are both vying for the No 1 shirt . VIDEO Cabellero intent on keeping Hart out . 'I want to be number one,' said Caballero. 'I will train for this weekend for the next decision to see who starts next week. Both of us will train for that chance. But I came to fight for the number one spot. I will train for the next opportunity. 'My ambition is to fight for the position and to be there when the manager needs me. I feel good. This was an important match for me. I had a chance to play and am happy for this, but not happy with the score. We missed out on another title.' Caballero was a £6million summer signing from Malaga where he worked with Manuel Pellegrini and his arrival has an ominous ring for Hart, who lost his place for two months last season, when the City boss turned to Costel Pantilimon, who has since joined Sunderland. Warming the bench: Hart was an unused substitute in Sunday's Community Shield defeat . Bad day at the office: Caballero couldn't stop City slumping to a 3-0 reverse against the Gunners . He has clearly not moved to Manchester with the intention of sitting on the bench. 'We have a strong team,' said Caballero. 'We are the Premier League champions, with very good players, but we have things we need to prove. 'Manuel has told all of us that we need to learn game by game, and that we have to start well in the league. I think we can win the title again. We have to do what we did last year, to win the league. 'We were the best team in the Premier League. We have to improve in the Champions League and we have a good squad to do that.'", "Former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has turned up the heat on successor Manuel Pellegrini by claiming the Chilean should be winning a trophy every year. Mancini thinks Pellegrini was 'really lucky' to inherit a strong side from him and he should be delivering continual success at the Etihad Stadium. But Pellegrini, who did win two trophies last season, is now under heavy pressure with City faltering in their Barclays Premier League title defence and facing an uphill task against Barcelona in the Champions League. Manuel Pellegrini is under pressure to save Manchester City's season and his job as well . Pellegrini has come under fire for City's faltering title defence and Champions League campaign . Manchester City will look to overturn a 201 first-leg deficit against Barcelona in their Champions League tie . Mancini, who was sacked by City in 2013 despite winning the Premier League title the previous year, told CNN: 'I think Pellegrini was really lucky because he got this team that is a strong team and he has a chance to put in more good players. 'I think City can win a title every year and have a chance - it should and must try to win a title every year.' Mancini's jibe came on the eve of the second leg of City's last-16 Champions League tie at Barcelona, which they will go into trailing 2-1. Roberto Mancini guided Manchester City to the Premier League title in 2012 after FA Cup success in 2011 . Mancini lost his job at City in 2013 after his team's failed title defence and poor European showing . The success or otherwise of City's season now appears to hinge on the outcome at the Nou Camp as, trailing Chelsea by six points having played a game more, the Premier League looks beyond them. But Mancini said: 'It's my opinion that City is the best team in the Premier League. It's in second and six points behind Chelsea but I think it's the best team. 'In the Premier League anything can happen right up to the last game, in the last minute. I think they should think that they have a chance to win the title.' VIDEO Pellegrini doesn't fear for City job .", "Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart is poised to sign a new contract with the Barclays Premier League champions. Manager Manuel Pellegrini has hinted the England number one is ready to commit himself to the club and fresh terms could even be finalised within the next day. Hart, 27, has reportedly been in discussions with the club over a possible new five-year deal since the summer. His present contract, worth a reported £80,000 per week, is due to expire in the summer of 2016. Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart is poised to sign a new contract with the Premier League champions . Hart's current contract which is worth a reported £80,000 per week is due to expire in the summer of 2016 . Manuel Pellegrini has suggested the England number one is ready to commit himself to the Etihad club . The former Shrewsbury trainee has been in fine form this season, underlining his status as first choice for club and country after a spell out of Pellegrini's side last year. Pellegrini, speaking on Friday at a press conference to preview Saturday's home clash with Everton, said: 'I always said it is important for this club to keep Joe with us. 'He is a very good goalkeeper and not only a very good goalkeeper, he is a very important player for the squad also. So - maybe - in the next day you will have good news.' Asked if that meant within 24 hours, Pellegrini said: 'I can't say exactly the amount of hours, but the next day.' Hart has recovered well after a testing spell a year ago. He was axed by Pellegrini in favour of then number two Costel Pantilimon in October 2013 after a series of high-profile mistakes. He did not regain his place until December and even then continued to sit out domestic cup games. Hart's fine form has seen the Manchester City goalkeeper earn a new contract that is set to be finalised . Manchester City want to tie Hart down to a new contract at the Etihad to keep other interested clubs away . He went on to finish the season well, but Pellegrini still decided to increase the competition for his place by signing a new goalkeeper in Willy Caballero from his old club Malaga in the summer. Hart has responded to the challenge from the Argentinian by producing some fine displays and Pellegrini is pleased with the current situation. The Chilean said: 'Joe is having a very good season. The arrival of Willy Caballero was very important for the club, for Joe, for Willy, for everyone - because he is a very good goalkeeper. 'I think the best way for players to have high performance is when they have important competition. I think that was very useful for him and I am very happy about that.' City will be without their influential captain, Vincent Kompany, for the visit of Everton. The Belgian missed the midweek trip to Sunderland with a hamstring injury and is facing a battle to be fit for next week's decisive Champions League trip to Roma. Hart has responded to the challenge from Willy Caballero by producing fine performances for City . Pellegrini is keen to ensure other clubs can't tempt Hart, whose contract runs out in the summer of 2016 . It is merely the latest of a long series of muscular injuries to have affected the 28-year-old in recent seasons. He missed the draw at QPR and an international last month with a calf problem and had spells out last season with a thigh and groin injuries. Pellegrini accepts that problems will occur because of the ferocity with which Kompany plays, but is hopeful issues can be controlled. He said: 'Vincent, maybe in the way he plays, is more exposed to having injuries because he plays always with 100 per cent intensity and he works every day in the same way. 'But we hope for the same that happened last season - he will manage those injuries. They are important injuries but not very long injuries.' City will be without their captain, Vincent Kompany, for the visit of Everton to the Etihad on Saturday evening . Kompany (right, talking to manager Pellegrini) missed the midweek trip to Sunderland with a hamstring injury . Kompany is facing a battle to be fit for next week's decisive Champions League trip to Roma .", "Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has revealed that UEFA restrictions on the size of his club's Champions League squad is likely to prevent him pushing for new signings this January. The transfer window opens on Saturday morning and some City fans are expecting Pellegrini to spend in a bid to strengthen his team in the absence of injured strikers Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko. But City's Champions League squad is restricted to 21 – rather than the usual 25 - as part their punishment for breaching Financial Fair Play regulations and Pellegrini hinted last night that this is likely to be a decisive factor. Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is unlikely to be signing new players in January . Some City fans expected reinforcements for the injured Sergio Aguero (left) and Edin Dzeko (right) to come in . 'I think we are not thinking about the window,' said the City manager. 'We have the option. We will see players we can bring or sell or go on loan, but it is not our first important thing at this moment. 'We will see during January what will happen. 'But we have important restrictions about amount of money and restrictions on players we can put in our Champions League squad. 'So it's difficult to bring in a player when he cannot play in the Champions League.' City are functioning with just one frontline striker at the moment, Stevan Jovetic playing and scoring against Sunderland on New Years Day. Vincet Kompany has recovered from a hamstring injury but will be rested when City play Sheffield Wednesday . Frank Lampard (centre) scored City's winner as they beat Sunderland 3-2 at home on Thursday . However Pellegrini hopes Aguero and Dzeko will return in the next couple of weeks. 'I hope in the next week Edin Dzeko will be fit and in the next week will be Kun [Aguero],' added Pellegrini. Captain Vincent Kompany is recovered from the hamstring injury that has caused him to miss recent games but will not be risked in the FA Cup against Sheffield Wednesday at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.", "Manchester City will move their first-team training base to the club's new £200million facility next month. It was originally hoped the City Football Academy would open for pre-season, but poor weather in summer 2013 delayed construction. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Manchester City's Vincent Kompany: We want the quadruple . Manchester City will move into their new £200m training complex next month . The state-of-the-art complex will now open in phases from October to November, with manager Manuel Pellegrini and his squad officially relocating during the next international break. Speaking at the Soccerex Global Convention, City's head of infrastructure development and corporate responsibility, Pete Bradshaw, said: 'Last year we had one of the worst summers we have had with a lot of rain and that put everything back three months. Manchester City's state-of-the-art complex will feature a mini stadium . Manuel Pellegrini's first-team squad will start training at new complex next month . 'We hoped to catch that up. We haven't managed to do that, so we will take the international break in October to move the first team, the half-term break to move the academy and the rest of the staff will move a fortnight after that. 'We have worked very closely with the first-team coaches and manager to make sure it is not disruptive.' The new facility, built on an 80-acre brownfield site, features a 7,000-capacity stadium, 17 training pitches and accommodation.", "Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini insists Arsenal can compete with Chelsea for this year's Premier League title. Arsene Wenger's Arsenal were the only team to win out of City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool at the weekend, and Pellegrini believes they should not be cast aside just yet. Pellegrini, who overlooked United and Liverpool in the title race, lost 2-1 against West Ham on Saturday, but believes City's bid is very much alive. Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini insists Arsenal can compete with Chelsea for this year's title . Arsene Wenger's Arsenal were the only team to win out of City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool . Jose Mourinho's Chelsea side were held to a 1-1 draw against United at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon . 'We have 87 points more to try and continue adding more points to our team,' says Pellegrini. 'It is not only Chelsea, (but also) Arsenal, so we will see what they do in the future. At the final (match), the team that wins more points will be the champion.' Chelsea remain top of the Premier League after drawing 1-1 at Old Trafford - six points clear of City and nine of Arsenal. They failed to take full advantage of City dropping points, as Robin van Persie's equaliser in the 94th minute salvaged a point for Louis van Gaal on Sunday. Arsenal, on the other hand, avoided any hiccups by seeing off struggling side Sunderland with a 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light, courtesty of two Alexis Sanchez goals. Arsenal celebrate as they beat Sunderland 2-0 at the Stadium of Light while other teams dropped points . Sergio Aguero (left) reacts as City failed to take anything away from West Ham, who won 2-1 on Saturday .", "Manchester City midfielder James Milner is poised to sign a new contract at the Etihad Stadium, manager Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed. The England international, who joined City from Aston Villa for £26million in 2010, is in the final year of his current deal. The 28-year-old has played a prominent role for the Barclays Premier League champions in the first half of the season, featuring in all but two of their 24 games in all competitions. James Milner is poised to extend his stay at Manchester City with a new contract, says boss Manuel Pellegrini . Milner's future had been the subject of speculation due to his lack of starts last season but his prominence this term - starting 13 times - appears to have changed that. The development comes after goalkeeper Joe Hart admitted this week he was also ready to sign fresh terms. Pellegrini said: 'Milner, I hope that he will sign also. We will see, same as Joe, in the next days. 'I don't know how many days before we can have this as official news but I suppose that also he will sign and continue here because he also wants to stay.' Milner (right) has featured in all but two of City's 24 games in all competitions this season . Pellegrini first revealed that a deal with Hart was close a week ago but he could not confirm when anything would be finalised. The Chilean, speaking at a press conference to preview this weekend's game at Leicester, said: 'It is very close, I suppose. 'As you know, Joe wants to stay here. We also want him to be our goalkeeper so I hope it will be ready as soon as possible. I don't think that we are going to have any problems.' City goalkeeper Joe Hart (far left) is also close to agreeing a new deal at the club . Pellegrini also had no news on a possible new deal for Frank Lampard, whose loan deal from sister club New York City expires at the end of the month. The former England midfielder has proved a success in his short stint at City, leading to speculation his stay could be prolonged to cover Yaya Toure's involvement in the African Nations Cup. But, once again, Pellegrini would say nothing beyond the fact the matter would be looked at sometime in December. He said: 'I said during December. For the moment, no (news).' Frank Lampard (right) is set to leave City at the end of December when his loan spell from New York City ends .", "Manchester City know they can ill-afford any sort of slip as they set off for Rome. Forget Chelsea, Manchester United and even Bayern Munich; the Stadio Olimpico is the scene of Manuel Pellegrini's most important night of what has been an indifferent four months. Not since the Premier League champions dispensed of Aston Villa in May – an evening etched with nerves – on their way to the title have City had so much riding on a 90 minutes. But there was steely focus in the eyes as they embarked on the Italian capital. VIDEO Scroll down for Manuel Pellegrini: Sergio Aguero will be out for up to six weeks . Manchester City's squad get ready to head for departures at the city's airport ahead of their clash in Rome . Joe Hart and Spanish midfielder David Silva embark on the airport after being dropped off by coach . Aleks Kolarov, Matija Nastasic, James Milner and Stevan Jovetic train at Manchester City on Tuesday . Vincent Kompany strides ahead of Milner and Frank Lampard during some warm-up drills . Martin Demichelis cut a much more relaxed figure than French midfielder Samir Nasri on Tuesday afternoon . David Silva tries to gather possession as Fernandinho watches on at City's new training complex . Lampard, Fernandinho, Milner and Samir Nasri attempt to keep possession away from the rushing Silva . Manuel Pellegrini wanders across the City Football Academy pitch as the squad formulate two groups . Silva and Fernando brace themselves for the ball as Milner passes on (with Pellegrini in the background) Nasri was all smiles during training but is fearing for his City career should they fail to progress . Defender Bacary Sagna gets ready to head for Italy . The good news is that David Silva - out of action since defeat in Moscow in October - has travelled with the squad alongside Vincent Kompany and Stevan Jovetic. Pablo Zabaleta is ready for what lies ahead. 'Always Rome is a great atmosphere, and especially for this game because they have the same points. Also for them to go through in the competition would be massive,' he said. 'As a player it is one of those games you really enjoy playing. You are playing against a top team and always the atmosphere there is just fantastic as well. It will be huge. 'I think the Champions League is the competition at the moment where we are not performing good enough, although it is true that the draw has always been difficult for us and we are a team that are learning about a lot of things. The Champions League is that competition where you play against the best teams from Europe and if you make mistakes you are out of it. 'I think Rome is a crucial game for us to show that we want to continue in that competition and we want to go far. The quality is there to do this and hopefully we can have a great game and go through.' The victory against Pep Guardiola's Bayern a fortnight ago was staggeringly intense and of great significance, but Wednesday's trip to Rome is that bit bigger. With the wealth of quality at his disposal, for Pellegrini not to reach the Champions League last-16 would be unthinkable; it could mark his eventual demise as the club's manager. And they are so close, knowing a win at Roma would seal a spot for the second reason running. If they weren't to achieve the minimum requirement of progression, the failure would not be down to this week but those preceding it. Joe Hart - sporting a Manchester City snood - throws the ball away during a goalkeeping session . Milner looks as if he means business as the Manchester City players and management take a break . The pressure is now intensified. But City save their very best to last. Think Bayern at the Etihad, QPR on that final day. They will have to do it without Sergio Aguero this time, however, who left the field in tears on Saturday evening as they beat Everton. Easier said than done. Nineteen goals already this season – including two late on against the Germans to keep their European hopes alive – goes a long way in pointing towards the Argentine's importance. He will undoubtedly be a miss, but these City players know the importance of reaching the knockout stages. Their careers in the North West depend on it. 'Let's be honest, we need to do something or otherwise next year it's going to be new players, it's going to be everything,' said Samir Nasri ahead of the win against Bayern. 'That's how it works when you play for a big club. With the salary of every player and the level of those players, 90 per cent of the team is world class. City travel to Roma for a game they need to get a result from in order to progress in the Champions League . Jovetic dinks a ball beyond Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko as Pablo Zabaleta (second left) watches on . Jovetic is likely to start up front for Pellegrini's Premier League champions in Rome on Wednesday . The Montenegrin completed his sprinting drills at the back of the queue on Tuesday morning . 'Then not to qualify from the first round of the Champions League would be a huge blow for the club — and for us as well. With the players we have and everything, the owner gives us his trust, we have to return it in the Champions League. It's the perfect scene to show we can compete with the best team in the world. 'We have a chance to play for a big club and we are treated the right way. Sometimes it's not good to talk too much, it's better to talk with your feet. We have leaders in the squad and the manager talks a lot as well. So stop talking.' The talking stops on Wednesday, and don't bet against City coming out of Italy with the result they need.", "Manchester City's injury woes continue to deepen after Edin Dzeko was ruled out of his side's game at Leicester after picking up a knock in the warm up. Manuel Pellegrini was forced into a late change ahead of the match with 18-year-old Jose Pozo replacing the Bosnian striker. It what come as a big blow to Pellegrini with his two other main strikers, in-form Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic both out injured. Edin Dzeko picked up a knock in the warm up for Manchester City before their game against Leicester . Dzeko sits on the Manchester City bench after picking up a knock prior to the game against Leicester . City lie three points behind the leaders Chelsea heading into a busy festive period, so Pellegrini will be hoping that Dzeko is available sooner rather than later. Any potential lay off for Dzeko may force the City boss to delve into the January transfer window next month to sign a new forward.", "There is something about the subject of Joe Hart that is guaranteed to get under the skin of Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini. Perhaps, after naming him as a substitute for the 3-0 defeat by Arsenal in the Community Shield at Wembley, he just doesn’t really fancy him. It has always felt that way. Pellegrini picked Willy Caballero to play in goal ahead of Hart as the countdown to City’s title defence gets under way. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Pellegrini refuse to back Joe Hart as his number one . Playing for keeps: Joe Hart and Willy Caballero will compete to be Manchester City's No 1 this season . ‘All 22 players we have in our squad must demonstrate who is No 1 in all positions,’ claimed Pellegrini. ‘Joe finished last season playing well. We will see next Sunday who starts at Newcastle.’ On Sunday, Caballero, the Argentine keeper who worked with Pellegrini at Malaga, looked no better than Hart. Priced at £6million, he looked ordinary. In a head-to-head, Hart has won two Premier League titles with City and is the established first choice England keeper (not that that says very much). At 32, Caballero’s last big trophy win was the Copa Libertadores with Boca Juniors in 2003. He was so far off the radar of Argentina coach Alex Sabella he didn’t even make their World Cup squad. Pellegrini, though, is a title-winning coach with City and his views, difficult to comprehend on this matter, ought to be respected. He knows what Caballero is capable of, even if we saw no evidence of it during a disturbing performance from the champions. Average: Will Caballero failed to impress on his competitive debut in the Community Shield . No protection: Willy Caballero was not helped by a second string Manchester City defence in front of him . Hart, who won his second Premier League medal last season, played 90 minutes against Olympiacos in the Guinness Challenge Cup last week and got half a game against Liverpool on July 31. Even taking into account an extended break since the World Cup, he has not spent enough time in goal during City’s pre-season. ‘Hart only arrived 10 days ago and the other players have been working for longer,’ said Pellegrini. ‘Aguero, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Kompany, Sagna and Fernandinho only arrived seven days ago. We will see who is ready and who is not next week.’ City looked anything but ready on Sunday. To be fair to Caballero, the four defenders in front of him — Gael Clichy, Dedryck Boyata, Matija Nastasic and Aleksandar Kolarov — were a huge disappointment. Captain Vincent Kompany and new signing Bacary Sagna were in the stands to watch their team pulled all over the pitch by this fluid Arsenal team. ‘Sagna, what’s the score?’ crowed Arsenal’s supporters and they had every right to have a dig. Based on this, he made the wrong choice. Glove and war: Joe Hart has hardly been involved in manchester City's pre-season after an extended break . In April 2011, just as Manchester City were about to really get going under Sheik Mansour, the Wembley experience was something special. Roberto Mancini’s players posed for selfies before kick-off and went souvenir hunting after beating Manchester United 1-0 in the FA Cup semi-final. Everything, from the smell of the freshly-cut lawn at the national stadium to the Molton Brown soap dispensers in the industrial-sized dressing rooms, was unique. On Sunday, the champions of England, on their sixth visit to the Wembley since that victory in the semi-final, played like they didn’t want to be there. It was a chance for Pellegrini to show that this team is ready for the challenges ahead. Instead they couldn’t get out of the place quick enough. VIDEO My team weren't ready . Second best: After trading barbs, Arsene Wenger got the better of Manuel Pellegrini at Wembley . Jose Mourinho counts his Community Shield success with Chelsea in 2005, plus equivalent Super Cup win with Inter Milan and Real Madrid, as a trophy. So should City. This is the start of the season, an official fixture that is broadcast around the world. Perhaps they are getting a bit too casual, too familiar with that walk into the Wembley dressing rooms now they are a major force again. At Newcastle, when they walk on to the field as defending Barclays Premier League champions, they will have to show who is No 1. CLICK HERE to start picking your Fantasy Football team NOW! There’s £60,000 in prizes including £1,000 up for grabs EVERY WEEK… .", "Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini repeated his desire to keep James Milner after the club's fans chanted his name throughout a 4-1 win at Stoke City on Wednesday night. Milner, City's best performer this season, was outstanding again at The Britannia, and scored their decisive second goal with a towering header. Man City midfielder James Milner marks goal against Stoke with 'joke' DJ celebration . The 29-year-old is out-of-contract at The Etihad Stadium this summer and keeping his options open with Liverpool and Arsenal among a number of clubs interested. But thousands of travelling supporters made their feelings clear by repeatedly signing: 'James Milner, we want you to stay.' Pellegrini said afterwards: 'Milner scored a beautiful goal but for us the most important thing is the way he works for 90 minutes. Milner scored decisive second goal with a towering header on Wednesday night . 'To sign a contract, you need both parties. I repeat, the club want Milner to stay here and Milner has to decide what he wants to do with his future.' Sergio Aguero scored his first goals since December 3 as City won in the Premier League game for the first time since New Year's Day. They remain seven points behind Chelsea but with Barcelona next up in the Champions League, Pellegrini accepts keeping Aguero fit – he recently missed five weeks with a knee injury – is key to their prospects this season. Manager Manuel Pellegrini wants Milner to commit his future to Manchester City . 'The most important thing for Kun is that he can play. The more minutes he has, the better he is. We know what he can do.' Aguero, who also had a goal disallowed for handball, was substituted with a tight hamstring but expects to play against Newcastle on February 21. Stoke manager felt Milner escaped an early penalty appeal after Peter Crouch's header hit his arm but said: 'Once Man City went 2-1 up, they picked us off.'", "Jamie Redknapp described Manchester City's Champions League performance against CSKA Moscow as 'diabolical', claiming the players are putting Manuel Pellegrini's job under pressure. Speaking after City's 1-2 home loss on Sky Sports, Redknapp did not hold back in his criticism of the Premier League champions. 'At times they were diabolical. World class players, and they have not won one game in this Champions League,' the former Liverpool midfielder said. 'It's beyond belief. This is after a weekend when they've beaten Manchester United. Yaya Toure looks at the referee in shock after being sent off in the second half of the match . City players stand dejected after Seydou Doumbia's goal sent them into half-time a goal down . 'We thought they'd go on and turn it around. The performances they're giving at the moment, they're putting this manager under pressure.' 'They never got started. They never got out of the blocks. They never won a second ball. It was quite staggering.' City can still qualify for the knock-out stages of the Champions League, but after two points from their first four matches, Pellegrini's side sit bottom of the group with Bayern Munich and Roma still to play. Joe Hart can only flap at thin air as Doumbia's header flies past his outstretched arm to stun the home crowd . Vincent Kompany sums up the way that City fans and players felt at full-time on Wednesday night . Redknapp admits that he does not think they will win their next two games. 'Mathematically they can qualify, but do I look at them and think they're capable of beating Bayern Munich, or going to Roma and winning? I look at them and think, \"I don't know where the next win is coming from.\"' 'They look like they're coasting, going through the motions. There's no spark. It looks a certainty that they're out of the Champions League, and they're out of the Capital One Cup. There's a lot of players now without any football.'" ]

[ "Over the past few decades, iconic musician Lou Reed has worked with a gallery of talented visual and performing artists — Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, his girlfriend Laurie Anderson, just to name a few. He tells NPR's Liane Hansen that his newest collaboration has proven to be the most challenging project to date. It's a dramatization of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, along with songs inspired by the poet's work. The two-disc extended collection is entitled The Raven. Reed — the genius behind rock songs such as \"Walk on the Wild Side,\" \"I'm Waiting for the Man\" and \"Sweet Jane\" — is considered by many to be the godfather of punk rock, or at least the model for the attitude that punk represented. So for some critics, taking on the dark themes of Poe's best-known works isn't as big a stretch as one might imagine. Reed's inspiration for creating The Raven came several years ago, when Reed was working with Broadway producer Robert Wilson and saw a spoken-word performance of Poe's \"The Tell-Tale Heart.\" He recruited well-known actors such as Steve Buscemi and Willem Dafoe, musicians Ornette Coleman and David Bowie, and a large ensemble of other artists to create a hybrid spoken-word/music CD. It's hard to put Reed's latest effort into any category. It's part music, part radio play, part free-form jazz, blended and layered with screams, noises, words, guitars, silence and drums — the overall effect, critics say, is meant to mirror Poe's tormented vision." ]

[ "Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor for 'Rolling Stone,' says he sought to write the biography that Lou Reed \"deserved.\" DeCurtis didn't shy away from writing about the darker side of Reed's life, including addiction and domestic abuse. His book is 'Lou Reed: A Life.' Film critic David Edelstein reviews 'Lady Bird.' As the chief official White House photographer for President Obama, Pete Souza estimates took 1.9 million photos over the course of eight years. He talks about some of his most memorable moments with the former president.", "\"In Lou Reed's world, when you were Lou's friend you knew it,\" his longtime publicist Bill Bentley tells Terry Gross. Fresh Air dedicates an entire hour to the transgressive and transcendent Velvet Underground co-founder, with music and commentary by original Velvets John Cale and Maureen Tucker.", "In remembrance of the legendary Lou Reed, who died on Oct. 27, World Cafe revisits an archived interview from 1996. This particular segment was recorded around the time the singer released Set the Twilight Reeling. While many interviewers — including WXPN's David Dye — have described Reed as an intimidating man, listeners won't hear that in this session. In this conversation, the influential musician freely discusses his friend, the late Doc Pomus, whose death inspired 1992's Magic and Loss. Reed also takes a moment to share what went into writing the classic Velvet Underground songs \"Heroin\" and \"Sweet Jane.\"", "Rock legend Lou Reed, one of the founders of proto-punk rock band The Velvet Underground, is scheduled to perform for Czech President Vaclav Havel this evening at the White House. Reed's best known song is \"Walk on the Wild Side.\" We suggest some of the material from his vast songbook that might be appropriate to play in the presence of Bill Clinton during his times of trouble...for example, \"Harry's Circumcision,\" \"My Red Joystick,\" \"Leave Me Alone,\" \"Dirt,\" and others.", "MOE TUCKER, drummer for The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed''s band that won cult status in the mid-70s. (RE-BROADCAST FROM 10", "\"It wasn't like I had to go looking for the drugs and the sex,\" Anthony DeCurtis, author of <em>Lou Reed: A Life, </em>told<em> Fresh Air </em>in 2017. \"Lou wrote about it ... so I felt it was fair game.\"", "A musical trainwreck from Bill Joy; The poetry of Poe as sung by Lou Reed; Rebel warriors turned musicians: Tinariwen; Vanguard electronica producer Suba; A jazz trio does Nirvana: The Bad Plus Download this show in the All Songs Considered podcast. Sign up for the All Songs Considered newsletter and we'll tell you when new music features are available on the site.", "It's been a tumultuous and exciting year. To mark its end, NPR Double Take will be recapping the biggest news events — including 2013's losses. George Jones, captured by Kate Sally Palmer in a classic pose, had his first — of 14 — No. 1 country hit with \"White Lightning,\" while Lou Reed's distinctive style, embodied in \"Sweet Jane\" and memorialized by Antonio Neri Licon, transcended his record sales and influenced generations of rockers.", "It's 6:30 a.m. on a dark, dreary Northwest morning. No need to go to work. Nu, so why am I buzzing my way through a discourse about Jewish American women and the birth of female punk? The answer is Steven Lee Beeber, who at first glance has taken a far-fetched and farblondjet (Yiddish for mixed-up) premise and turned it into a straight-ahead fast ride. His premise is simple: no Jewish Americans, no punk rock. Such a loss! (I jest.) But it's how he makes his argument -- beginning with Lenny Bruce and ending with John Zorn -- that will engage and propel even readers initially disinclined toward this raucous music. No picture book, this. But Beeber is an original thinker with an impressive gift for sociology, psychology and gossip. I may die without knowingly hearing the Ramones, but I get their place in this secret history. (Read an excerpt describing the home life of young Lewis Allen Reed, aka \"Lou.\")", "In 2012, journalist Mark Follman searched for comprehensive data about America's mass shootings and found that very little existed. So he and his colleagues began compiling a database of their own. Also, Fresh Air remembers Holly Woodlawn, muse to Lou Reed, who died Sunday. She spoke to Terry Gross in 1991.", "A yet-to-be-released album by Shearwater's Jonathan Meiberg and Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart got me thinking of odd musical pairings.  Robert Plant and Alison Krauss was the first one that  popped to mind.  The two collaborated on the 2007 album Raising Sand. What I thought would be a disaster turned out to be a real treat. The pairing of David Bowie and Bing Crosby is easily one of the top five strangest collaborations ever.  But somehow The Man Who Fell to Earth got on famously with Father O'Malley. By far The least successful pairing I can think of can be seen in this Lou Reed and Luciano Pavarotti video. It wasn't such a \"perfect day\" after all. Tell us some of the oddest pairings you can think of, one that was successful and one that was a disaster.  We'll put some of our favorites together for an upcoming edition of All Songs Considered.", "You know how the old adage goes: \"What Would Lou Reed Do?\" OK, so nobody really says that — except for Kevin Morby, who says that mantra gave him the confidence to experiment more as he worked on his fourth album, City Music. Morby bills it as a mixtape dedicated to all the cities he can't seem to shake, but there's a whole lot of New York in there — from Reed and the Velvet Underground to Patti Smith to a song that references all four of The Ramones by name. It makes sense: New York City is a big part of Morby's story. That's where he settled after leaving his hometown of Kansas City, he says, with a sleeping bag and a wave goodbye to his parents at the train station. New York is where he played in his first bands, including garage-rock outfit The Babies. And it's where he delivered fried chicken on a bicycle for a while. Hear Morby perform \"Crybaby\" and other songs from City Music in this session, and get a front row seat for his performance of the album's title cut in the video below.", "Veteran New York City songwriter Garland Jeffreys has done it all. His discography stretches back to the 1960s, when he met Lou Reed before The Velvet Underground and played at countless Manhattan nightclubs. He's been called an edgy urban poet, the sound of New York, a confessional singer-songwriter and an explorer of the links between rock, race and rebellion. His Atlantic Records version of \"Wild in the Streets\" has become an anthem for skaters, and he's been featured in Martin Scorsese's documentary on blues music. Jeffreys' new album, The King of In Between, is a fantastic blend of rock 'n' roll, reggae, blues and soul, full of poignant social commentary. He performed songs from the record at World Cafe Live on Friday, and you can listen to the entire concert right here.", "Lou Reed, the transgressive and transcendent songwriter, singer and guitarist, died Sunday at 71 of liver disease, several months after undergoing a liver transplant. He co-founded The Velvet Underground and then embarked upon a long solo career. Fresh Air's Terry Gross interviewed him in 1996, but he walked out after just a few minutes, annoyed by the questions. But that didn't change her love of his music. Reed was famous for his prickly, sometimes combative relationship with the press. And it was up to Bill Bentley — Reed's publicist from 1988 to 2004 — to work the very press Reed combated. Reed and Bentley became good friends, and their friendship continued for the rest of Reed's life. \"In Lou Reed's world, when you were Lou's friend you knew it,\" Bentley tells Gross. \"And I'm very lucky to count myself among those few, I think.\" Before meeting Reed, Bentley played in a band with Sterling Morrison after Morrison left The Velvet Underground. Bentley produced one of Lou Reed's albums, and wrote liner notes for a couple more. He's now head of A&R at Vanguard Records. In this full hour dedicated to Reed, Fresh Air listens to his music, as well as excerpts of interviews with original Velvet Underground members John Cale and Maureen Tucker — plus Mary Woronov, who used to do the whip dance when the Velvets were part of Andy Warhol's multimedia show, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Interview Highlights Bill Bentley on the Velvet Underground song 'Heroin' \"When I think of Lou Reed, the first image that comes to mind is a rock 'n' roll warrior who would stake his ground and never back down. In 1967, the rock 'n' roll world was not really ready for a band like The Velvet Underground, but more importantly, surely not ready for a song like 'Heroin,' which basically was 'a love song to a drug,' as Lou once said. And when it came out, it pretty much leveled the playing field for The Velvet Underground — there was nothing even remotely in that world. And for a lot of the rest of his life, people would always preface Lou Reed's career by saying 'the man who wrote and recorded \"Heroin.\"' \"One of the musical things about 'Heroin' that nobody else was really doing in 1967 is that it's seven minutes long. Lou often said that that was one of the reasons that no major label would sign them. All the meetings they would have with the different representatives, it was always like, 'Well, you're going to have to cut all of your songs down to three minutes' — and, of course, Lou and the band would never do that. So it sort of put them off in the corner from the very start. Besides that, it's the kind of song that includes incredible improvisation and feedback guitars and tribal drums that rock 'n' roll players weren't doing then. It just had a completely original sound, above and beyond all of the San Francisco bands, or whatever rock bands were big at the time — especially the British Invasion bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1967 — were not doing anything like this. It was a unique sound that set The Velvet Underground on a path that never stopped.\" On Lou Reed's approach to writing lyrics \"Lou's whole contribution to rock 'n' roll was — at the very start of his career he said, 'You should be able to write about anything.' Anything you could read about in a book, or talk about in a play, he felt should be in a rock 'n' roll song. He set that out as his No. 1 goal: to change the parameters of what rock lyrics could be. You should be able to write about hard drugs, you should be able to write about gay sex, you should write about anything. And nobody was really doing it then, but he had studied literature at Syracuse University and had met a poet named Delmore Schwartz who had instilled in Lou the ability to tell the truth in his work. And that really guided Lou's life.\" On punk \"I think Lou really was the forefather of punk. When the Velvets started, they were just bashing away; they had no intention of playing in public. Lou had had bands before, and [John] Cale had played in experimental groups. Sterling [Morrison] had played, as he said, 'in biker bars out on Long Island,' and they just met in New York and started playing at home. They were not trying to be in the music business at all. So it started as a very elemental pursuit. \"They had a drummer named Angus MacLise that had left the band because he refused to play in a group and be told when to start and when to stop, so he quit, and that's when they got Maureen [Tucker] to play drums. And one of the genius things I think in getting Maureen, they insisted she play drums standing up; that made her approach the kit from a whole new perspective. You couldn't really get into hard backbeats if you're playing standing up. One of her favorite drummers was the African drummer Olatunji, and so she styled some of her song beats on African drums, which was way before its time back then. I think just that whole mismatch of different styles and not over-thought; that", "NPR Music has turned 10. We have a series of 10 podcasts looking back at some of the musical memories and highlights of the past decade. On this 2013 episode, NPR Music's Tom Huizenga and Sidney Madden join co-host Robin Hilton to look back at surprise releases from My Bloody Valentine, David Bowie and Beyoncé, the loss of George Jones and Lou Reed and more defining moments from the year.", "One of rock's most beloved and contrarian figures has died. Lou Reed epitomized New York City's artistic underbelly in the 1970s, with his songs about hookers and junkies. He was 71. Reed died Sunday morning on Long Island of complications from a liver transplant earlier this year, his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said. The famous iconoclast actually got his start as a staff songwriter pumping out pop tunes in a wannabe hit factory called Pickwick Records. Reed recalled his days as a frothy pop lyricist in a 1989 NPR interview. \"When I first started out I really liked the spontaneity of it, cause you know I've got a B.A. in English — not that that means I should be good at it, but it gives me some kind of background in it,\" he said. \"I thought I was pretty fast.\" Lou Reed was fast. In more ways than one. He went from hit factory to Andy Warhol's Factory, the epicenter of trashy, avant-garde experimentation in '60s New York. Warhol mentored Reed and his band, The Velvet Underground. He urged them to keep things gritty. The band's Welsh co-founder, John Cale, told NPR in 2000 that the band was never easy listening. \"We were not user-friendly at all,\" he says. \"Anyone listening to a bass guitar and regular guitar coming out of the same amp — it couldn't have been a really great listening experience.\" Beyond their sound, The Velvet Underground disturbed even hard-core scenesters with graphic songs about debauchery and doing drugs. In an interview on WHYY's Fresh Air, drummer Moe Tucker remembered performing the song \"Heroin\": \"We got fired from the Cafe Bizarre,\" she said. \"The woman came rushing up to us and said, 'If you play one more song like that you're fired.' \" They did, and they were, and the band's albums did not sell very well. Reed left and embarked on a spotty solo career that reflected his up and down life enthralled with New York's darker corners and the hustlers who hid there. \"Walk on the Wild Side\" became Reed's only Top 40 hit, partly because a number of radio station programmers had no idea what it was really about. The album it came from, Transformer -- co-produced by David Bowie — brought Reed critical acclaim and attention. Which Reed, in characteristic fashion, hated. That played out in interviews, including one in 1989 with NPR's Bob Edwards, who asked Reed about his choice of subjects. \"I mean, it might be harder to write about a chair,\" he said. \"As a matter of fact, it would be harder to write about a chair. I mean, I could write a song about a chair: Who sat in this chair. Who built this chair. How long had this chair been here. You could do that.\" And a few years later, while promoting his album The Raven, Reed vented to another NPR host, who wanted to know how other journalists had somehow mixed up Reed's original lyrics with the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. \"Well, if you're deaf, dumb and retarded, it's easy. I can't believe people interview me for this stuff and don't notice,\" he says. \"I grade them and I put them on my website when they fail really badly, to warn other people, other musicians: 'Watch out for this interviewer.' It's like talking to a squirrel.\" As ornery as Reed was with journalists, he was often supportive of other artists. He influenced REM, The Replacements and Talking Heads, and he collaborated with musicians ranging from Metallica to a young woman he met at a concert. \"I just said, 'Hey, hey Lou Reed. This is Emily Haines.' \" Haines talked to NPR in 2012 about her band, Metric. She said Reed asked her if she would rather be in The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. She said The Velvet Underground. Then she asked if he would sing on her album. \"I just asked him, and he said, 'Yes.' \" When Reed was not onstage or working with other artists, he was happiest in New York City, where he mellowed into a Lower Manhattan elder statesman, riding his bike, practicing tai chi and taking photos. He could get cranky about his own composition. \"I did not place that stupid bird there,\" he said in an interview he gave Weekend Edition in 2006, walking around his neighborhood with his camera. \"The light comes and goes so quickly when it's perfect. You know that. There's a certain time in the morning, certain time around dusk, where the light is golden.\" An ephemeral moment, like Warhol's Factory. Or a city sunset. \"And I wanted to catch that,\" he said. Lou Reed caught it — on celluloid and vinyl. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"VICIOUS\") ARUN RATH, HOST: It's kind of hard to say: Lou Reed is dead. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"VICIOUS\") LOU REED: (Singing) Vicious. You hit me with a flower. RATH: It's weird that someone as prickly and contrarian as Reed, someone who challenged his fans constantly and took pleasure in insulting critics for decades, leaves the world beloved. Reed epitomized New York City's alternative scene in the 1960s and '70s. His band, The Velvet Underground, defined the sound of Lower Manhattan, dissonant and dirty, an antidote to the hippie naivete of the '60s. (SOUNDBITE OF SO", "Thursday would have been Lou Reed's 75th birthday. This morning, his widow, performance artist Laurie Anderson, marked the occasion by announcing that the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will house Reed's complete archives. The collection includes thousands of hours of video and audio recordings, Reed's personal record collection and more than 300 boxes of papers, photos and other items spanning his six-decade career. There's a 1971 recording of Reed reading poetry. There's a bill from the legendary New York bar Max's Kansas City — Reed's tab stood at $194.08. There's also a birthday card of more recent vintage inscribed, \"Dear Honey Bun, Love and Hugs, Mo\" — as in Moe Tucker, The Velvet Underground's drummer. But NYPL curator Jonathan Hiam says it's the business and legal records that have him excited: The contracts, licensing agreements, tour receipts, and other documents paint a detailed picture of how the music industry evolved. \"These kinds of documents are usually in the hands of a private enterprise still, and there's usually no financial incentive to make them available to anybody,\" Hiam says. \"So if you're doing research, this is really a boon.\" Later this year, library staff will begin the process of digitizing the thousands of hours of video and audio recordings. Music producer and archivist Don Fleming, who has been supervising the restoration, says the process has turned up a few gems. \"One of the things they found was a tape from the early '60s, which seems to be Lou with one of his high school bands rehearsing for the variety show,\" Fleming says. \"And just following that [clip] is Lou playing Bob Dylan songs.\" Those recordings aren't available yet for legal reasons. But once the issues have been worked out, the recordings — and everything else in the archive — will be available to anyone who visits the library. Laurie Anderson says that's why she chose to put the archive there instead of a museum or academic institution. \"I really wanted it to not be deep in some vault where only people with white gloves can come. He was really democratic,\" Anderson explains. Anderson says she hopes access to the archive will paint a more nuanced picture of Lou Reed than the tough guy in leather jacket and shades everyone knows. \"You realize everyone makes mistakes — everyone. Everyone loses their nerve — everyone. Everyone feels vulnerable and small. Take courage from that,\" she says. \"And that's why I wanted this archive out: So everyone could see how hard it is to do that, and how determined he was.\" The New York Public Library will be hosting Reed-related events over the next several weeks. The complete archive — including those early demo recordings — should be available to the public later this year. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Today would have been Lou Reed's 75th birthday. Of course he's the guy who co-founded The Velvet Underground and wrote classic rock standards like \"Walk On The Wild Side.\" Reed was born in Brooklyn. And his widow, performance artist Laurie Anderson, marked today's anniversary by announcing that the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will house Reed's complete archives. Rick Karr reports. RICK KARR, BYLINE: The Lou Reed archive includes thousands of hours of video and audio recordings as well as his record collection. (SOUNDBITE OF LOU REED SONG, \"WALK ON THE WILD SIDE\") KARR: He owned multiple versions of some of his most famous albums. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"WALK ON THE WILD SIDE\") LOU REED: (Singing) Holly came from Miami, F-L-A, hitchhiked her way across the USA. KARR: There's also a recording of Reed in 1971 reading his poem \"We Are The People\" at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) REED: (Reading) We are the people without right. We are the people who have known only lies and desperation. We are the people without a country, a voice or a mirror. KARR: The archive also includes more than 300 boxes of papers, photos and other items spanning Reed's six-decade career. New York Public Library curator Jonathan Hiam reaches into one and pulls out a manila envelope stuffed with documents from one of Reed's concert tours in the early 1970s. JONATHAN HIAM: Pay schedule - Doug Yule on the Lou Reed tour. Receipt from Bloomingdale's for - what is that, hair spray - something spray. KARR: There's a bill from the legendary New York bar Max's Kansas City. Reed's tab stood at $194.08. There's a birthday card of more recent vintage inscribed, dear honey bun, love and hugs, Mo, as in Moe Tucker, The Velvet Underground's drummer. But Hiam says it's the business and legal records that have him excited. The contracts, licensing agreements, tour receipts and other documents paint a detailed picture of how the music industry evolved. HIAM: These kinds of documents are often in the hands of a private enterprise still, and there's usually no financial incentive to make them available to anybody. So if you're doing research, this is really, really a bo", "Earlier this week, after the passing of Lou Reed, we asked you to tell us what his music means to you. Here are 10 of our favorites (along with some of our favorite songs) out of the many memories we received. \"As a friend recently phrased it, 'When you get into Lou Reed as a teenager, it makes you weird forever.' When I was 15 in '96, I stumbled ona cassette tape of Transformer. I'd never heard anything like it. It (along with Radiohead's The Bends) was my introduction to music that was out of the mainstream. When my friends were getting into The Verve Pipe and 311, I was exploring David Bowie and The Clash. I'm glad that Lou Reed made me weird forever.\" - Tyler Clark \"I was frightened after 9-11. I lived on the Island, and used to drive in to see my friend in the Village. There were armored vehicles outside the Midtown Tunnel and soldiers with rifles. You felt like someone was going to blow something up any minute. I was scared every time I saw a plane. I used to play the Set The Twilight Reeling album, and every time I hit the tunnel, I'd blast \"NYC Man,\" and even thought I wasn't one, I felt like it would be okay if I died while that song was playing. The moment, at the end of \"Trade In,\" when the guitar kicks in, that's ecstasy.\" - Sean Llewellyn \"I learned of Lou Reed in the back of my older brother's used junker car (I can't remember what make) in 1973. It was late, dark, and I was tired. 'Walk On The Wild Side' sashayed through the speakers, and my 13 year-old, underdeveloped brain came immediately to attention. Lou wrote and sang about the complexities of human existence made plain through a variety of characters that peeled a layer from himself to varying degrees. They offered despair, hope, love, hate, jealousy, joy, madness, addiction, remorse, anger, pity, tenderness, vanity, lust, compassion, etcetera. For me, these characters laid bare the essence of who each and every one of us is. Much like Dostoevsky, Lou painted his characters with a nuanced brush overloaded with every shade of grey. Nothing is as it seems and everyone is everything.\" - Tom Common \"I met my best friends in college over the Velvet Underground & Nico record. Who can forget the first time they ever heard the lyrics, 'When I put a spike into my vein' and 'When I'm rushing on my run, and I feel just like Jesus' son?' Jump forward to 1992. I was waiting outside the 96th Street Y in New York City to see Lou Reed read from his book of lyrics Between Thought and Expression when a woman offered me a ticket for free. She turned out to be one of the coolest people I've ever met, who later showed me the \"real\" New York, but also she was Lou Reed's editor for the book. During the reading, Reed spoke about going to Prague in 1989, meeting Vaclav Havel, and how his music had been important there in the real underground. After the show, the woman, took me back stage to meet Lou, shake his hand and say something stupid ('Hi, I'm Lou,' and me, 'Yeah, I know...') and I couldn't think of anything else to say which was good, because if I'd have opened my mouth again I'd have probably drooled. But we were both wearing leather jackets so it was OK. Before that, Prague had been just another one of those cities \"over there\" but not a year later I was on a plane to Prague and have never left. Other than that minute or so that I met him I only know him through the music, and unfortunately I no longer know the wonderful person who introduced me to him. But I miss them both. My life is different because of them, in all the best ways.\" - Alan Thomas \"In the early '80s, my generation was asking, 'Where did punk and new wave come from?' Then we listened to the Velvets and the Stooges. Then we said, 'Oh, that's where it came from.'\" - Dwain Dolan \"Lou Reed turned my head when I was in college. His lyrics gave dignity to people who didn't fit in in one way or another. It was almost like Reed was talking to me personally. And in the late '70s, nobody else I knew had even heard of The Velvet Underground. So, playing their records in my dorm room late at night was almost a spiritual experience. We've just lost a great one. - Peter \"Lou Reed taught me that there is beauty in difference. In fact, it's the most beautiful thing in the world.\" - Alex Niculescu \"By the time I discovered Lou Reed, 'Walk on the Wild Side' had become a staple of the classic rock station in my hometown. Transformer was one of the burned CDs that I routinely listened to on my long, windy drive between college and home, and cemented a relationship-turned-marriage that is centered, in large part, around a mutual love of music. While sitting in his dorm room, my now husband started playing something by Lou Reed or the Velvets and I declared, 'I love Lou Reed!' This was serendipitous because [the] summer before we met, [my husband] thought, 'Wouldn't it be great to meet a girl who loved Lou Reed?' Today, when we heard the news, we assumed a position we have taken many times before: togethe", "New York has always served as a muse for rock icon Lou Reed, and his photography is inspired by his sense of the city. The photo exhibit Lou Reed New York opened recently at the Hermes Gallery and the Steven Kasher Gallery. Reed tells Scott Simon about his work. SCOTT SIMON, Host: Lou Reed's music has always carried the sounds of New York street life, its rhythms, themes, and scenes. (SOUNDBITE OF LOU REED'S \"I'M WAITING FOR THE MAN\") SIMON: He's still writing and recording music, but for several years now, Lou Reed has also been carrying a camera as well as a guitar to photograph the city that inspires him. LOU REED: I just wanted to document some beauty. I was taking these pictures for myself because I just think they're so pretty. SIMON: Over 50 of Lou Reed's photographs are now on display in two galleries. One is downtown in Chelsea. The other display space, somewhat surprisingly, is atop the Hermes Store on Madison Avenue, where there are four floors of signature scarves, leather goods and now, on the top of a staircase that winds four stories tall, Lou Reed's captured and preserved impressions of New York. Y: spools of light, flocks of birds and swirls of clouds. REED: I was thinking, you could isolate this sky, and this is Africa, or you look at it and say, this is Amsterdam, and it wasn't. It's here. It's just we're always surrounded by the buildings, usually crashing around midtown or, you know, trying not to be run over by a skateboarder or, you know, a third-world cabby or something, and here's the beautiful island, except most of us don't get a chance to think of it that way, because as we come over the bridge, we're just trying to get from A to B. SIMON: Mr. Reed doesn't regard his photography as a hobby so much as part of the same passion as his music, capturing a moment of time well enough to make it timeless. REED: Because the light comes and goes so quickly when it's perfect. You know that. There's a certain time in the morning, certain time around dusk where the light is golden, be it in California or New York, and I wanted to catch that. If you missed it, you got another chance. The only thing is with natural light, you don't get another chance with it. That's why you have to have it and be really ready to go, or it's gone. I mean, it'll come back, but not that one. SIMON: 24 hours later, it may not be the same at all. REED: It'll never be the same, but it'll be another one. A natural air and sky and whatever's coming over from Hoboken. Ha ha. SIMON: I'm curious about a photograph right behind where we're standing. A bird against a cloud, a cloud that to me, almost looks like the outstretched palm of a hand. REED: Exactly. That's the whole point of that picture. I couldn't believe it. Now, I did not place that stupid bird there. This just looked like the outstretched of God or something. SIMON: Yeah, exactly. REED: But amazing formation. I mean, but you see that all day, but you could only really see it if you edit it, and you know, like, focus. Boom. If you go like this, maybe--I see these things all day, I mean, just because I see it that way. SIMON: Is that downtown somewhere? You just looked up? REED: Yeah. It's like, wow, look at that. It looks like a hand. Why don't you (Unintelligble) take a picture of it then, guy. Well, look at them up close... SIMON: It's so great. REED: They're very beautiful and the closer you get to it, the more you'll get off of it. They have depth. For instance, let me show you something with real depth. Well, of a certain type because now it looks like you can reach right into it. SIMON: Yes. REED: Yes. I mean, it's serious 3D. It's a miracle. Those are snowflakes. SIMON: Those are snowflakes? REED: But what's amazing is they're all globular; all circles wherever you look. SIMON: Yes. REED: Snowflakes. This is, you know, in between it hitting and it's going to its crystallization edges formation. Boop! Some of us like things like this. SIMON: It could be mistaken for one of the photographs you'd see in the planetarium; like a planetary system. REED: Yes, or a close-up of blood. It's all the same. I mean, those formations that's what's kind of interesting, you know. The one up there and the one up here are pretty much the same. SIMON: Yes. REED: I don't know what that means, but it's certainly something to think about for a while. But if you look in here you'll also see the streetlights. SIMON: Oh, yes. But you do got to get closer. REED: Well, yes. SIMON: Now I see the streetlights. REED: Yes. Yes. Yes. SIMON: So this was just in the middle of a snow? REED: Yes. SIMON: And now, yes, I look up I see the streetlights and traffic lights. REED: Right. SIMON: Is this like from near a bridge or something? REED: It's quite a view, yes. If New York is the Alps, I was up high. SIMON: Yes, it's good. REED: I like that one. SIMON: Yes, I like that one a lot. REED: Yes. Yes. I have moments. SIMON: This is one of your poems. REED: That's the lyrics to a song that was ", "Both The Smiths and N.W.A. were left off the list of new inductees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as Hall voters instead chose acts such as Lou Reed, Bill Withers, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. They'll be welcomed to the Hall in April. \"About 700 music journalists, performers and other industry insiders spent two months deciding on the six inductees,\" David C. Barnett of member station WCPN in Cleveland reports. Barnett adds, \"Artists are eligible for induction 25 years after their first recording. Los Angeles soul singer Bill Withers' first album came out in 1971, but this is his first time on the ballot.\" Here's the full list of 2015 inductees: Bill Withers Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Green Day Lou Reed Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble The Paul Butterfield Blues Band While the list reflects a swath of musical traditions, we'll also note that the induction ceremony will only be attended by half of the central inductees: Paul Butterfield died in 1987, Stevie Ray Vaughan died in 1990, and Lou Reed died last year. The Hall of Fame voters decided not to induct nine other nominees: Sting, The Spinners, The Smiths, War, Kraftwerk, Chic, The Marvelettes, Nine Inch Nails and N.W.A.", "Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week: Biographer Sought To Write The Kind Of Book Lou Reed 'Deserved': \"It wasn't like I had to go looking for the drugs and the sex,\" Anthony DeCurtis says. \"Lou wrote about it ... so I felt it was fair game.\" DeCurtis' new book is Lou Reed: A Life. 'Lady Bird' Soars With An Intimate Portrait Of Mother-Daughter Angst: The title character of Greta Gerwig's new comedy is a Sacramento high school senior who's in a love-hate relationship with her mother. Critic David Edelstein says Lady Bird is \"packed with insight.\" Photographer Pete Souza Reflects On 8 Years (And 1.9 Million Photos) Of Obama: As the chief official White House photographer for President Obama, Souza sometimes shot more than 2,000 photos a day. \"I was there all the time,\" he says. His new book is Obama: An Intimate Portrait. You can listen to the original interviews here: Biographer Sought To Write The Kind Of Book Lou Reed 'Deserved' 'Lady Bird' Soars With An Intimate Portrait Of Mother-Daughter Angst Photographer Pete Souza Reflects On 8 Years (And 1.9 Million Photos) Of Obama", "Sports can be a refuge from the world's troubles. Sometimes, they mix in incredible ways. That's what happened Saturday in Indianapolis. As Mike Chappell of the Indianapolis Star says, \"Pierre Garcon capped a trying week by trying as hard as he could to chase down Ed Reed. Mission accomplished.\" Garcon, a wide receiver for the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, is the son of Haitian parents and has many relatives in Haiti. The family hasn't heard from some of its loved ones since Tuesday's earthquake. Yesterday, the Colts were ahead of the Baltimore Ravens in their playoff contest when quarterback Peyton Manning threw the ball Garcon's way. Raven's defender Reed, though, intercepted the pass. As Chappell writes: Read More >> Reed headed upfield. So did Garcon. Garcon caught up with Reed at the Colts 27 and poked the ball loose from behind with a right-handed upper cut. Tight end Dallas Clark recovered, allowing the Colts to reload. The Colts ended up winnng 20-3. Chappell calls Garcon's touchdown-saving sprint the \"best catch\" of the game. NFL.com has video of the play here. After the game, as the New York Daily News writes, Garcon \"gripped a Haitian flag\" during a news conference. \"I've heard from some (relatives), but communication is tough down there,\" he said. \"It was a little tough (playing). I wasn't as hyped as I'd normally be.\" For more of NPR's coverage of the crisis in Haiti, click here. If you're looking for information on charities doing work in Haiti, click here.", "Members of the legendary New York band, Velvet Underground, will reunite not to perform, but to discuss the group's new biography, at the New York Public Library, on December 8. It'll be part of the LIVE from the NYPL series. The Velvet Underground: New York Art (Rizzoli Publications) Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker, and Doug Yule will meet with Rolling Stone journalist David Fricke to talk about the band's music and legacy and to promote the new book, The Velvet Underground: New York Art. According to Rizzoli publishing house, the compendium contains \"never-before-seen photographs... Andy Warhol's cover and poster designs, Lou Reed's handwritten music and lyrics, underground press clippings and controversial reviews, flyers, handbills, and posters.\" For more info on this rare reunion, visit the LIVE from the NYPL website. Good new for those who can't make it in person: the NYPL site posts past LIVE events on its Web site, so look out for video and audio from the discussion sometime soon. (Via Billboard).", "Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis knew Velvet Underground co-founder Lou Reed and considered him a friend. So when it came time to write a biography of the late singer-songwriter, DeCurtis knew exactly what kind of book he would pen. \"I wanted to write a book that took Lou ... seriously,\" DeCurtis says. \"The kind of book that I was going to write about Lou was the kind of book he deserved.\" As part of his research, DeCurtis interviewed many people Reed knew, including his first two wives. His biography, Lou Reed: A Life, paints a portrait of a complicated man who loved pop music, experimented with drugs and sex and had a history of domestic abuse. DeCurtis acknowledges that Reed, who died in 2013, may not have approved of all of the material in the book. But, he says, \"It wasn't like I had to go looking for the drugs and the sex. Lou wrote about it. It was just out there, so I felt it was fair game.\" Interview Highlights On common themes that emerged from his interviews with Reed's ex-wives Part of that was Lou hated being alone at any time, so that obviously put demands on the relationship. But also he wanted these women in certain instances to come and work for him — [to be] his lighting designer or manager or just be with him all the time. Record companies would call them and just say, \"Look, Lou's feeling this or doing that, is it possible for you to come and calm him down?\" So there was that. But they also talked about a kind of sweetness. On Reed's history of domestic abuse There was an incredible level of fear of abandonment and terror and that's what motivated his violence, you know. It was in no way — it doesn't matter what the motivations were, to a certain extent, unless you're trying to understand this person. It's a heinous act, but it's coming out of a kind of desperation. I mean, it's less about hostility than it is about a kind of self-hatred and fear. On Reed's love of pop music He loved pop music and that was true at the same time as he also wasn't always doing that by any means. But he was taking pop elements. On the that first Velvet Underground record if you listen to a track like \"There She Goes Again,\" he lifts Marvin Gaye's \"Hitch Hike\" for the riff. There's an element of loving what pop music is and all of those teenage emotions ... Lou's deep, passionate love of doo-wop and that kind of adolescent swept-away-on-the-wings-of-love, it was very essential emotion for him and it remained that way. On the period when Reed had electroshock therapy I think that Lou was acting out in a variety of ways. While he was in high school he was certainly using drugs. He had wild mood swings. He definitely enjoyed getting under particularly his father's skin, and he also was acting out — like people would see his kind of gay life almost in performative terms. ... The family was very conventional and as a kind of middle or upper middle class Jewish family in the suburbs they went and consulted doctors about the kind of problems that they saw. The doctors advised this electro-convulsive therapy, which Reed saw as a kind of torture. ... To him it was a very decisive dividing line in terms of his relationship with his parents. On Reed's ambivalence to the success of his hit \"Walk on the Wild Side\" He saw himself as an artist and he saw himself as wanting to do serious things and take left turns and go in new directions. So the degree to which the record company's like, \"Oh great, we got a hit, now let's do 'Take Another Walk On The Wild Side,' or 'Walk On The Wild Side Again,'\" that kind of irritated him. And, of course, he made Berlin, which at the time was vilified — later to be resurrected and lionized — but at the time that it came out, it was regarded as an outrage and a crazy move because it was such a harsh and depressing record. So he would turn on himself. He would do whatever he needed to do to restore his standing once he had destroyed his standing. On Reed's song \"Heroin\" It's also such a depiction of an addict, really, and a kind of mindset. It's not necessarily the way an addict would articulate the experience, but it's a distillation of an almost unconscious or unexpressed experience that the drug heroin might have on a user. It expressed an element that I think ran through Lou's work through his entire career, which was this kind of sense of distance and empathy. On the one hand there's a deep understanding of what that individual was feeling and also a step away from it, and it's nonjudgmental. That was something that Lou struggled with. I mean, people would come up to him for years and say, \"I heard the song 'Heroin' and that made me want to go use it.\" That was never his intent, of course, and he stopped playing it for a time, for that reason, then went back to it. I think the kind of issue that his music would always raise, which is can you descend into this underground, describe it, and not glamorize it. Sam Briger and Seth Kelley produced and edited the audio of", "In 'Raven Rock,' Garrett Graff describes the bunkers designed to protect U.S. leaders in the event of a catastrophe. One Cold War-era plan put the post office in charge of cataloging the dead. His book is now out in paperback. Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews the new Elvis documentary 'The King.'", "Arcade Fire's stellar and all-too-short performance at Capitol Studios wasn't listed on the band's official tour. It was meant to be an intimate show for friends, family and public radio fans, broadcast live across the U.S. on NPR and in Canada on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). The stage was cozy and the performance kept to an hour, but the members of Arcade Fire managed to run through most of the band's new double album, the bold and often epic Reflektor. The performance came a day after the death of Lou Reed. Arcade Fire paid tribute to the much beloved artist by performing two of his songs: \"Perfect Day,\" from Reed's 1972 album Transformer, and \"Satellite Of Love,\" from the same album. Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler also dedicated the band's song \"Afterlife,\" from Reflektor, to Reed. While no encore was originally scheduled as part of the performance, a persistent and overjoyed crowd coaxed the band back on stage to end the night with \"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)\" from the group's 2010 album, The Suburbs. Set List \"Reflektor\" \"Flashbulb Eyes\" \"Afterlife\" \"It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)\" \"We Exist\" \"You Already Know\" \"Normal Person\" \"Haiti\" \"Here Comes The Night Time\" \"Supersymmetry\" (With Lou Reed's \"Perfect Day\" and \"Satellite Of Love\") \"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)\"", "Film writer and director TODD HAYNES explores the world of \"Glam Rock\" in his new movie \"Velvet Goldmine.\" This period included such artists as Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie. Haynes previous film \"Safe\" told the story of a suburban housewife who gets a rare condition and becomes allergic to nearly everything. Rock critic KEN TUCKER reviews Sheryl Crow's newest CD \"The Globe Sessions\" on A&amp;M Records. 12:58:30 NEXT SHOW PROMO (:29) PROMO COPY On the next Fresh Air. . .Actor DAVID HYDE PIERCE from \"Fraiser.\" He plays \"Niles\" on the hit series and his voice is featured in the new Disney film \"A Bug's Life.\" Also a conversation with film director TODD HAYNES. and a review of Sheryl Crow's new CD \"The Globe Sessions.\" That's coming up on today's Fresh Air.", "At the dawn of FM radio, sometime around the fall of 1967, I remember sitting on my stoop in Queens, N.Y., when a neighbor told me he heard this band called the Velvet Underground. I'd never heard of them, but loved the band name, and was fortunate enough to have an FM radio in my house. Few people had them then, and they certainly weren't in cars in those days. Commercial AM pop was all there was. Hearing the Velvet Underground on the radio was a life-changing experience. Despite the rich change that was happening in music that year, nothing sounded like that band. It was so very raw and spare in comparison to everything else: that drone, that desperate, bursting sound. Lou Reed would be the one to sum it up best a handful of years later in his song \"Rock 'n' Roll\": \"Jenny said, when she was just 5 years oldyou know there's nothin' happening at all.Every time she put on the radiothere was nothin' goin' down at all,not at all. One fine mornin', she puts on a New York stationand she couldn't believe what she heard at all.She started dancin' to that fine-fine-fine-fine musicooohhh, her life was saved by rock 'n' roll,hey baby, rock 'n' roll Despite all the amputationyou could dance to a rock 'n' roll station,and it was all right.\" This is the greatest song about the power of music from a band that actually sold few records, got nearly zero exposure on the radio, and was about to break up. But the one thing I've always believed — and the one thing the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed would prove — is that great music rises to the top. The Velvets and Lou set off a revolution, one that still inspires. They may well be the most universally respected band in rock 'n' roll. Lou Reed's own solo career was also filled with vibrance. His work with David Bowie, trumpeter Don Cherry, his songs of Andy Warhol with former bandmate John Cale are brilliant songs of magic and loss and the heart. In the days since that autumn day in Queens when I discovered Lou, I've rarely gone a week without listening to his music. I've seen many musicians leave this world, but losing Lou is the saddest of them all. I just feel fortunate that he was able to be with us this long. He defied the odds in life. I'll miss him terribly, but he left a legacy. I trust for the next year, I'll be hearing young bands take on his music in their encores. I trust I'll cry every time. Share your own thoughts of Lou Reed and his music in our comments section or via twitter @allsongs.", "The City of Brotherly Love has a rich history of unique songwriters and musicians that many experts rank among the best American rock, soul and hip-hop. From American Bandstand to Philly Soul to the Roots, Here & Now&#8216;s Robin Young takes a tour through Philadelphia&#8217;s most beloved sounds with Dan Reed of WXPN. Hear more of Here & Now&#8216;s coverage from the Democratic  National Convention. Follow the Here & Now election road trip on Tumblr. Music From The Segment The O&#8217;Jays, &#8220;Love Train&#8221; (Back Stabbers, 1972) [Youtube] Todd Rundgren, &#8220;I Saw The Light&#8221; (Something/Anything?, 1972) [Youtube] Hall & Oates, &#8220;She&#8217;s Gone&#8221; (Abandoned Luncheonette, 1976) Array Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, &#8220;The Love I Lost&#8221; (Black & Blue, 1973) Array The Roots, &#8220;Essaywhuman?!!!??!&#8221; (Do You Want More?!!!??!, 1995) Note: This song contains some explicit language. [Youtube] The War On Drugs, &#8220;Under The Pressure&#8221; (Lost in the Dream, 2014) [Youtube] Kurt Vile, &#8220;Never Run Away&#8221; (Wakin on a Pretty Daze, 2013) [Youtube] Guest Dan Reed, music director, operations manager and afternoon host of WXPN in Philadelphia. He tweets @WXPNDanReed.", "2: Musician JOHN CALE was the violist, keyboardist and bassist of the 60's avante garde band, The Velvet Underground. Since the breakup of the group in 1968, JOHN CALE has had a career as a solo artist. In 1990, he collaborated with former Velvet Underground member Lou Reed, on \"Songs for Drella,\" a tribute to artist Andy Warhol. (RE-BROADCAST FROM 8/1/94) MOE TUCKER, drummer for The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed's band that won cult status in the mid-70s. (RE-BROADCAST FROM 10", "NPR's Tony Cox relives the Jimi Hendrix Experience with former band mate Billy Cox, Hendrix's sister Janie Hendrix and her husband Sheldon Reynolds, of Earth, Wind and Fire.", "He celebrates his 70th birthday today. In his 50-year career he's worked with just about anyone who is anybody in the music business. As a teenager he played backup for Billie Holiday, along with his 16-year-old friend, Ray Charles. At 18 he began playing the trumpet in Lionel Hampton's band beside Clifford Brown. He went on to work with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Lesley Gore and many others. He wrote the theme songs for the TV shows <EM>Sanford & Son</EM> and <EM>Ironside</EM>, and music for the films <EM>In Cold Blood</EM>, <EM>For the Love of Ivy</EM> and <EM>The Pawnbroker</EM>. His biggest commercial success was producing and arranging Michael Jackson's 1982 hit album <EM>Thriller</EM>. This interview first aired November 5, 2001." ]

[ "You should always preface your CPT names with something to avoid stuff like this - common naming leads to conflicts. My recommendation, so that you avoid this happening again would be to go and re-work your CPT code in your plugin/theme and use myplug_newsletter as the name of your CPT. Obviously change the myplug_ to something unique to you." ]

[ "After researching some more I've given up trying to use the taxonomy template and opted for a plugin to amend the permalinks. I followed some of the advice from this similar question: Taxonomy archive with same slug as custom post type?\n\nCurrently I am using an amended archive template for the custom post types and then the WP Better Permalinks plugin to rewrite the permalinks how I need them i.e. example.com/custom-post-type/custom-taxonomy/post-name/\n\nIf you need a simple solution this plugin works very well as far as I can tell. I also used Custom Post Type Permalinks which gives a greater level of control (this works the same way as the default WordPress permalinks settings, in that you can arrange the permalink tags in whichever way you like). The only reason I dropped this plugin is that it refused to work with one out of my five CPTs, even though everything was setup the same.\n\nHopefully this helps someone else in the future.", "First off, ensure that the category is exactly the same name as the page ( slug and all ). Secondly, the parameters you're passing to WP_Query is incorrect.\n\n\ncategory_name expects a slug. For example, Page 1 would have a slug of page-1.\nget_the_title() pulls the current page title - so you're passing Page 1 to a parameter that expects a slug page-1.\n\n\nWhat you can do is sanitize_title( get_the_title() ) or preferably you could declare global $post at the top of your document and pass instead $post-&gt;post_name.", "Taxonomy Single Term is a small library that helps to implemement this functionality.\n\nUsage\n\n\nInclude the class.taxonomy-single-term.php file from within your plugin or theme\nInitialize the class (update the taxonomy slug with your own): $custom_tax_mb = new Taxonomy_Single_Term( 'custom-tax-slug' );\n\n\nOptional\n\n\nThe second parameter is an array of post_types and the third parameter is either 'radio', or 'select' (defaulting to radio). To use a select type on the foo post_type: $custom_tax_mb = new Taxonomy_Single_Term( 'custom-tax-slug', array( 'foo' ), 'select' );\nUpdate optional class properties like this:\n\n\n\n\n// Priority of the metabox placement.\n$custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'priority', 'low' );\n\n// 'normal' to move it under the post content.\n$custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'context', 'normal' );\n\n// Custom title for your metabox\n$custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'metabox_title', __( 'Custom Metabox Title', 'your-text-domain' ) );\n\n// Makes a selection required.\n$custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'force_selection', true );\n\n// Will keep radio elements from indenting for child-terms.\n$custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'indented', false );\n\n// Allows adding of new terms from the metabox\n$custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'allow_new_terms', true );\n\n\nFor completeness, here is the main include, class.taxonomy-single-term.php:\n\n&lt;?php\n\nif ( ! class_exists( 'Taxonomy_Single_Term' ) ) :\n/**\n * Removes and replaces the built-in taxonomy metabox with &lt;select&gt; or series of &lt;input type=\"radio\" /&gt;\n *\n * Usage:\n *\n * $custom_tax_mb = new Taxonomy_Single_Term( 'custom-tax-slug', array( 'post_type' ), 'type' ); // 'type' can be 'radio' or 'select' (default: radio)\n *\n * Update optional properties:\n *\n * $custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'priority', 'low' );\n * $custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'context', 'normal' );\n * $custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'metabox_title', __( 'Custom Metabox Title', 'yourtheme' ) );\n * $custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'force_selection', true );\n * $custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'indented', false );\n * $custom_tax_mb-&gt;set( 'allow_new_terms', true );\n *\n * @link http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_meta_box#Parameters\n * @link https://github.com/WebDevStudios/Taxonomy_Single_Term/blob/master/README.md\n * @version 0.2.1\n */\nclass Taxonomy_Single_Term {\n\n /**\n * Post types where metabox should be replaced (defaults to all post_types associated with taxonomy)\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @var array\n */\n protected $post_types = array();\n\n /**\n * Taxonomy slug\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @var string\n */\n protected $slug = '';\n\n /**\n * Taxonomy object\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @var object\n */\n protected $taxonomy = false;\n\n /**\n * Taxonomy_Single_Term_Walker object\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @var object\n */\n protected $walker = false;\n\n /**\n * New metabox title. Defaults to Taxonomy name\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @var string\n */\n protected $metabox_title = '';\n\n /**\n * Metabox priority. (vertical placement)\n * 'high', 'core', 'default' or 'low'\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @var string\n */\n protected $priority = 'high';\n\n /**\n * Metabox position. (column placement)\n * 'normal', 'advanced', or 'side'\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @var string\n */\n protected $context = 'side';\n\n /**\n * Set to true to hide \"None\" option &amp; force a term selection\n * @since 0.1.1\n * @var boolean\n */\n protected $force_selection = false;\n\n /**\n * Whether hierarchical taxonomy inputs should be indented to represent hierarchy\n * @since 0.1.2\n * @var boolean\n */\n protected $indented = true;\n\n /**\n * Checks if there is a bulk-edit term to set\n * @var boolean|term object\n */\n protected $to_set = false;\n\n /**\n * Array of post ids whose terms have been reset from bulk-edit. (prevents recursion)\n * @var array\n */\n protected $single_term_set = array();\n\n /**\n * What input element to use in the taxonomy meta box (radio or select)\n * @var array\n */\n protected $input_element = 'radio';\n\n /**\n * Whether adding new terms via the metabox is permitted\n * @since 0.2.0\n * @var boolean\n */\n protected $allow_new_terms = false;\n\n /**\n * Initiates our metabox action\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @param string $tax_slug Taxonomy slug\n * @param array $post_types post-types to display custom metabox\n */\n public function __construct( $tax_slug, $post_types = array(), $type = 'radio' ) {\n\n $this-&gt;slug = $tax_slug;\n $this-&gt;post_types = is_array( $post_types ) ? $post_types : array( $post_types );\n $this-&gt;input_element = in_array( (string) $type, array( 'radio', 'select' ) ) ? $type : $this-&gt;input_element;\n\n add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', array( $this, 'add_input_element' ) );\n add_action( 'admin_footer', array( $this, 'js_checkbox_transform' ) );\n add_action( 'wp_ajax_taxonomy_single_term_add', array( $this, 'ajax_add_term' ) );\n\n // Handle bulk-editing\n if ( isset( $_REQUEST['bulk_edit'] ) &amp;&amp; 'Update' == $_REQUEST['bulk_edit'] ) {\n $this-&gt;bulk_edit_handler();\n }\n }\n\n /**\n * Removes and replaces the built-in taxonomy metabox with our own.\n * @since 0.1.0\n */\n public function add_input_element() {\n\n // test the taxonomy slug construtor is an actual taxonomy\n if ( ! $this-&gt;taxonomy() ) {\n return;\n }\n\n foreach ( $this-&gt;post_types() as $key =&gt; $cpt ) {\n // remove default category type metabox\n remove_meta_box( $this-&gt;slug . 'div', $cpt, 'side' );\n // remove default tag type metabox\n remove_meta_box( 'tagsdiv-' . $this-&gt;slug, $cpt, 'side' );\n // add our custom radio box\n add_meta_box( $this-&gt;slug . '_input_element', $this-&gt;metabox_title(), array( $this, 'input_element' ), $cpt, $this-&gt;context, $this-&gt;priority );\n }\n }\n\n /**\n * Displays our taxonomy input metabox\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @todo Abstract inline javascript to it's own file and localize it\n */\n public function input_element() {\n\n // uses same noncename as default box so no save_post hook needed\n wp_nonce_field( 'taxonomy_'. $this-&gt;slug, 'taxonomy_noncename' );\n\n $class = $this-&gt;indented ? 'taxonomydiv' : 'not-indented';\n $class .= 'category' !== $this-&gt;slug ? ' ' . $this-&gt;slug . 'div' : '';\n $class .= ' tabs-panel';\n\n $this-&gt;namefield = 'category' == $this-&gt;slug ? 'post_category' : 'tax_input[' . $this-&gt;slug . ']';\n $this-&gt;namefield = $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;hierarchical ? $this-&gt;namefield . '[]' : $this-&gt;namefield;\n\n $el_open_cb = $this-&gt;input_element . '_open';\n $el_close_cb = $this-&gt;input_element . '_close';\n\n ?&gt;\n &lt;div id=\"taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;\" class=\"&lt;?php echo $class; ?&gt;\"&gt;\n &lt;?php $this-&gt;{$el_open_cb}() ?&gt;\n &lt;?php $this-&gt;term_fields_list(); ?&gt;\n &lt;?php $this-&gt;{$el_close_cb}() ?&gt;\n &lt;?php if ( $this-&gt;allow_new_terms ) {\n $this-&gt;terms_adder_button();\n } ?&gt;\n &lt;div style=\"clear:both;\"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;\n &lt;/div&gt;\n &lt;?php\n }\n\n /**\n * Select wrapper open\n * @since 0.2.0\n */\n public function select_open() {\n ?&gt;\n &lt;select style=\"display:block;width:100%;margin-top:12px;\" name=\"&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;namefield; ?&gt;\" id=\"&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;checklist\" class=\"form-no-clear\"&gt;\n &lt;?php if ( ! $this-&gt;force_selection ) : ?&gt;\n &lt;option value=\"0\"&gt;&lt;?php echo esc_html( apply_filters( 'taxonomy_single_term_select_none', __( 'None' ) ) ); ?&gt;&lt;/option&gt;\n &lt;?php endif;\n }\n\n /**\n * Radio wrapper open\n * @since 0.2.0\n */\n public function radio_open() {\n ?&gt;\n &lt;ul id=\"&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;checklist\" data-wp-lists=\"list:&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;\" class=\"categorychecklist form-no-clear\"&gt;\n &lt;?php if ( ! $this-&gt;force_selection ) : ?&gt;\n &lt;li style=\"display:none;\"&gt;\n &lt;input id=\"taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;-clear\" type=\"radio\" name=\"&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;namefield; ?&gt;\" value=\"0\" /&gt;\n &lt;/li&gt;\n &lt;?php endif;\n }\n\n /**\n * Select wrapper close\n * @since 0.2.0\n */\n public function select_close() {\n ?&gt;\n &lt;/select&gt;\n &lt;?php\n }\n\n /**\n * Radio wrapper close\n * @since 0.2.0\n */\n public function radio_close() {\n ?&gt;\n &lt;/ul&gt;\n &lt;p style=\"margin-bottom:0;float:left;width:50%;\"&gt;\n &lt;a class=\"button\" id=\"taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;-trigger-clear\" href=\"#\"&gt;&lt;?php _e( 'Clear' ); ?&gt;&lt;/a&gt;\n &lt;/p&gt;\n &lt;script type=\"text/javascript\"&gt;\n jQuery(document).ready(function($){\n $('#taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;-trigger-clear').click(function(){\n $('#taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt; input:checked').prop( 'checked', false );\n $('#taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;-clear').prop( 'checked', true );\n return false;\n });\n });\n &lt;/script&gt;\n &lt;?php\n }\n\n /**\n * wp_terms_checklist wrapper which outputs the terms list\n * @since 0.2.0\n */\n public function term_fields_list() {\n wp_terms_checklist( get_the_ID(), array(\n 'taxonomy' =&gt; $this-&gt;slug,\n 'selected_cats' =&gt; false,\n 'popular_cats' =&gt; false,\n 'checked_ontop' =&gt; false,\n 'walker' =&gt; $this-&gt;walker(),\n ) );\n }\n\n /**\n * Adds button (and associated JS) for adding new terms\n * @since 0.2.0\n */\n public function terms_adder_button() {\n ?&gt;\n &lt;p style=\"margin-bottom:0;float:right;width:50%;text-align:right;\"&gt;\n &lt;a class=\"button-secondary\" id=\"taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;-new\" href=\"#\"&lt;?php if ( 'radio' == $this-&gt;input_element ) : ?&gt; style=\"display:inline-block;margin-top:0.4em;\"&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;&gt;&lt;?php _e( 'Add New' ); ?&gt;&lt;/a&gt;\n &lt;/p&gt;\n &lt;script type=\"text/javascript\"&gt;\n jQuery(document).ready(function($){\n $('#taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;-new').click(function(e){\n e.preventDefault();\n\n var termName = prompt( \"Add New &lt;?php echo esc_attr( $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;labels-&gt;singular_name ); ?&gt;\", \"New &lt;?php echo esc_attr( $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;labels-&gt;singular_name ); ?&gt;\" );\n\n if( ! termName ) {\n return;\n }\n if(termName != null) {\n var data = {\n 'action' : 'taxonomy_single_term_add',\n 'term_name' : termName,\n 'taxonomy' : '&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;',\n 'nonce' : '&lt;?php echo wp_create_nonce( 'taxonomy_'. $this-&gt;slug, '_add_term' ); ?&gt;'\n };\n $.post( ajaxurl, data, function(response) {\n window.console.log( 'response', response );\n if( response.success ){\n &lt;?php if ( 'radio' == $this-&gt;input_element ) : ?&gt;\n $('#taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt; input:checked').prop( 'checked', false );\n &lt;?php else : ?&gt;\n $('#taxonomy-&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt; option').prop( 'selected', false );\n &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;\n $('#&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;checklist').append( response.data );\n } else {\n window.alert( '&lt;?php printf( __( 'There was a problem adding a new %s' ), esc_attr( $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;labels-&gt;singular_name ) ); ?&gt;: ' + \"\\n\" + response.data );\n }\n });\n }\n });\n });\n &lt;/script&gt;\n &lt;?php\n }\n\n /**\n * AJAX callback to add terms inline\n * @since 0.2.0\n */\n function ajax_add_term() {\n $nonce = isset( $_POST['nonce'] ) ? sanitize_text_field( $_POST['nonce'] ) : '';\n $term_name = isset( $_POST['term_name'] ) ? sanitize_text_field( $_POST['term_name'] ) : false;\n $taxonomy = isset( $_POST['taxonomy'] ) ? sanitize_text_field( $_POST['taxonomy'] ) : false;\n\n $friendly_taxonomy = $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;labels-&gt;singular_name;\n\n // Ensure user is allowed to add new terms\n if( !$this-&gt;allow_new_terms ) {\n wp_send_json_error( __( \"New $friendly_taxonomy terms are not allowed\" ) );\n }\n\n if( !taxonomy_exists( $taxonomy ) ) {\n wp_send_json_error( __( \"Taxonomy $friendly_taxonomy does not exist. Cannot add term\" ) );\n }\n\n if( !wp_verify_nonce( $nonce, 'taxonomy_' . $taxonomy, '_add_term' ) ) {\n wp_send_json_error( __( \"Cheatin' Huh? Could not verify security token\" ) );\n }\n\n if( term_exists( $term_name, $taxonomy ) ) {\n wp_send_json_error( __( \"The term '$term_name' already exists in $friendly_taxonomy\" ) );\n }\n\n $result = wp_insert_term( $term_name, $taxonomy );\n\n if ( is_wp_error( $result ) ) {\n wp_send_json_error( $result-&gt;get_error_message() );\n }\n\n $term = get_term_by( 'id', $result['term_id'], $taxonomy );\n\n if ( ! isset( $term-&gt;term_id ) ) {\n wp_send_json_error();\n }\n\n\n $field_name = $taxonomy == 'category'\n ? 'post_category'\n : 'tax_input[' . $taxonomy . ']';\n\n $field_name = $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;hierarchical\n ? $field_name . '[]'\n : $field_name;\n\n $args = array(\n 'id' =&gt; $taxonomy . '-' . $term-&gt;term_id,\n 'name' =&gt; $field_name,\n 'value' =&gt; $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;hierarchical ? $term-&gt;term_id : $term-&gt;slug,\n 'checked' =&gt; ' checked=\"checked\"',\n 'selected' =&gt; ' selected=\"selected\"',\n 'disabled' =&gt; '',\n 'label' =&gt; esc_html( apply_filters( 'the_category', $term-&gt;name ) ),\n );\n\n $output = '';\n $output .= 'radio' == $this-&gt;input_element\n ? $this-&gt;walker()-&gt;start_el_radio( $args )\n : $this-&gt;walker()-&gt;start_el_select( $args );\n\n // $output is handled by reference\n $this-&gt;walker()-&gt;end_el( $output, $term );\n\n wp_send_json_success( $output );\n\n }\n\n /**\n * Add some JS to the post listing page to transform the quickedit inputs\n * @since 0.1.3\n */\n public function js_checkbox_transform() {\n $screen = get_current_screen();\n $taxonomy = $this-&gt;taxonomy();\n\n if (\n empty( $taxonomy ) || empty( $screen )\n || ! isset( $taxonomy-&gt;object_type )\n || ! isset( $screen-&gt;post_type )\n || ! in_array( $screen-&gt;post_type, $taxonomy-&gt;object_type )\n )\n return;\n\n ?&gt;\n &lt;script type=\"text/javascript\"&gt;\n // Handles changing input types to radios for WDS_Taxonomy_Radio\n jQuery(document).ready(function($){\n var $postsFilter = $('#posts-filter');\n var $theList = $postsFilter.find('#the-list');\n\n // Handles changing the input type attributes\n var changeToRadio = function( $context ) {\n $context = $context ? $context : $theList;\n var $taxListInputs = $context.find( '.&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;-checklist li input' );\n if ( $taxListInputs.length ) {\n // loop and switch input types\n $taxListInputs.each( function() {\n $(this).attr( 'type', 'radio' ).addClass('transformed-to-radio');\n });\n }\n };\n\n $postsFilter\n // Handle converting radios in bulk-edit row\n .on( 'click', '#doaction, #doaction2', function(){\n var name = $(this).attr('id').substr(2);\n if ( 'edit' === $( 'select[name=\"' + name + '\"]' ).val() ) {\n setTimeout( function() {\n changeToRadio( $theList.find('#bulk-edit') );\n }, 50 );\n }\n })\n // when clicking new radio inputs, be sure to uncheck all but the one clicked\n .on( 'change', '.transformed-to-radio', function() {\n var $this = $(this);\n $siblings = $this.parents( '.&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;slug; ?&gt;-checklist' ).find( 'li .transformed-to-radio' ).prop( 'checked', false );\n $this.prop( 'checked', true );\n });\n\n // Handle converting radios in inline-edit rows\n $theList.find('.editinline').on( 'click', function() {\n var $this = $(this);\n setTimeout( function() {\n var $editRow = $this.parents( 'tr' ).next().next();\n changeToRadio( $editRow );\n }, 50 );\n });\n\n });\n &lt;/script&gt;\n &lt;?php\n }\n\n /**\n * Handles checking if object terms need to be set when bulk-editing posts\n * @since 0.2.1\n */\n public function bulk_edit_handler() {\n // Get wp tax name designation\n $name = $this-&gt;slug;\n\n if ( 'category' == $name ) {\n $name = 'post_category';\n }\n\n if ( 'tag' == $name ) {\n $name = 'post_tag';\n }\n\n // If this tax name exists in the query arg\n if ( isset( $_REQUEST[ $name ] ) &amp;&amp; is_array( $_REQUEST[ $name ] ) ) {\n $this-&gt;to_set = end( $_REQUEST[ $name ] );\n } elseif ( isset( $_REQUEST['tax_input'][ $name ] ) &amp;&amp; is_array( $_REQUEST['tax_input'][ $name ] ) ) {\n $this-&gt;to_set = end( $_REQUEST['tax_input'][ $name ] );\n }\n\n // Then get it's term object\n if ( $this-&gt;to_set ) {\n $this-&gt;to_set = get_term( $this-&gt;to_set, $this-&gt;slug );\n // And hook in our re-save action\n add_action( 'set_object_terms', array( $this, 'maybe_resave_terms' ), 10, 5 );\n }\n }\n\n /**\n * Handles resaving terms to post when bulk-editing so that only one term will be applied\n * @since 0.1.4\n * @param int $object_id Object ID.\n * @param array $terms An array of object terms.\n * @param array $tt_ids An array of term taxonomy IDs.\n * @param string $taxonomy Taxonomy slug.\n * @param bool $append Whether to append new terms to the old terms.\n * @param array $old_tt_ids Old array of term taxonomy IDs.\n */\n public function maybe_resave_terms( $object_id, $terms, $tt_ids, $taxonomy, $append ) {\n if (\n // if the terms being edited are not this taxonomy\n $taxonomy != $this-&gt;slug\n // or we already did our magic\n || in_array( $object_id, $this-&gt;single_term_set, true )\n ) {\n // Then bail\n return;\n }\n\n // Prevent recursion\n $this-&gt;single_term_set[] = $object_id;\n // Replace terms with the one term\n wp_set_object_terms( $object_id, $this-&gt;to_set-&gt;slug, $taxonomy, $append );\n }\n\n /**\n * Gets the taxonomy object from the slug\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @return object Taxonomy object\n */\n public function taxonomy() {\n $this-&gt;taxonomy = $this-&gt;taxonomy ? $this-&gt;taxonomy : get_taxonomy( $this-&gt;slug );\n return $this-&gt;taxonomy;\n }\n\n /**\n * Gets the taxonomy's associated post_types\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @return array Taxonomy's associated post_types\n */\n public function post_types() {\n $this-&gt;post_types = !empty( $this-&gt;post_types ) ? $this-&gt;post_types : $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;object_type;\n return $this-&gt;post_types;\n }\n\n /**\n * Gets the metabox title from the taxonomy object's labels (or uses the passed in title)\n * @since 0.1.0\n * @return string Metabox title\n */\n public function metabox_title() {\n $this-&gt;metabox_title = !empty( $this-&gt;metabox_title ) ? $this-&gt;metabox_title : $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;labels-&gt;name;\n return $this-&gt;metabox_title;\n }\n\n /**\n * Gets the Taxonomy_Single_Term_Walker object for use in term_fields_list and ajax_add_term\n * @since 0.2.0\n * @return object Taxonomy_Single_Term_Walker object\n */\n public function walker() {\n if ( $this-&gt;walker ) {\n return $this-&gt;walker;\n }\n require_once( 'walker.taxonomy-single-term.php' );\n $this-&gt;walker = new Taxonomy_Single_Term_Walker( $this-&gt;taxonomy()-&gt;hierarchical, $this-&gt;input_element );\n\n return $this-&gt;walker;\n }\n\n /**\n * Set the object properties.\n *\n * @since 0.2.1\n *\n * @param string $property Property in object. Must be set in object.\n * @param mixed $value Value of property.\n *\n * @return Taxonomy_Single_Term Returns Taxonomy_Single_Term object, allows for chaining.\n */\n public function set( $property, $value ) {\n\n if ( property_exists( $this, $property ) ) {\n $this-&gt;$property = $value;\n }\n\n return $this;\n }\n\n /**\n * Magic getter for our object.\n *\n * @since 0.2.1\n *\n * @param string Property in object to retrieve.\n * @throws Exception Throws an exception if the field is invalid.\n *\n * @return mixed Property requested.\n */\n public function __get( $property ) {\n if ( property_exists( $this, $value ) ) {\n return $this-&gt;{$property};\n } else {\n throw new Exception( 'Invalid '. __CLASS__ .' property: ' . $field );\n }\n }\n\n}\n\nendif; // class_exists check\n\n\nThe library also uses a custom walker, walker.taxonomy-single-term.php:\n\n&lt;?php\n\nif ( ! class_exists( 'Taxonomy_Single_Term_Walker' ) &amp;&amp; class_exists( 'Walker' ) ) :\n\n/**\n * Walker to output an unordered list of taxonomy radio &lt;input&gt; elements.\n *\n * @see Walker\n * @see wp_category_checklist()\n * @see wp_terms_checklist()\n * @since 0.1.2\n */\nclass Taxonomy_Single_Term_Walker extends Walker {\n public $tree_type = 'category';\n public $db_fields = array( 'parent' =&gt; 'parent', 'id' =&gt; 'term_id' ); //TODO: decouple this\n\n public function __construct( $hierarchical, $input_element ) {\n $this-&gt;hierarchical = $hierarchical;\n $this-&gt;input_element = $input_element;\n }\n\n /**\n * Starts the list before the elements are added.\n *\n * @see Walker:start_lvl()\n *\n * @since 0.1.2\n *\n * @param string $output Passed by reference. Used to append additional content.\n * @param int $depth Depth of category. Used for tab indentation.\n * @param array $args An array of arguments. @see wp_terms_checklist()\n */\n public function start_lvl( &amp;$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {\n if ( 'radio' == $this-&gt;input_element ) {\n $indent = str_repeat(\"\\t\", $depth);\n $output .= \"$indent&lt;ul class='children'&gt;\\n\";\n }\n }\n\n /**\n * Ends the list of after the elements are added.\n *\n * @see Walker::end_lvl()\n *\n * @since 0.1.2\n *\n * @param string $output Passed by reference. Used to append additional content.\n * @param int $depth Depth of category. Used for tab indentation.\n * @param array $args An array of arguments. @see wp_terms_checklist()\n */\n public function end_lvl( &amp;$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {\n if ( 'radio' == $this-&gt;input_element ) {\n $indent = str_repeat(\"\\t\", $depth);\n $output .= \"$indent&lt;/ul&gt;\\n\";\n }\n }\n\n /**\n * Start the element output.\n *\n * @see Walker::start_el()\n *\n * @since 0.1.2\n *\n * @param string $output Passed by reference. Used to append additional content.\n * @param object $term The current term object.\n * @param int $depth Depth of the term in reference to parents. Default 0.\n * @param array $args An array of arguments. @see wp_terms_checklist()\n * @param int $id ID of the current term.\n */\n public function start_el( &amp;$output, $term, $depth = 0, $args = array(), $id = 0 ) {\n\n $taxonomy = empty( $args['taxonomy'] ) ? 'category' : $args['taxonomy'];\n $name = $taxonomy == 'category' ? 'post_category' : 'tax_input['.$taxonomy.']';\n // input name\n $name = $this-&gt;hierarchical ? $name .'[]' : $name;\n // input value\n $value = $this-&gt;hierarchical ? $term-&gt;term_id : $term-&gt;slug;\n\n $selected_cats = empty( $args['selected_cats'] ) ? array() : $args['selected_cats'];\n $in_selected = in_array( $term-&gt;term_id, $selected_cats );\n\n $args = array(\n 'id' =&gt; $taxonomy .'-'. $term-&gt;term_id,\n 'name' =&gt; $name,\n 'value' =&gt; $value,\n 'checked' =&gt; checked( $in_selected, true, false ),\n 'selected' =&gt; selected( $in_selected, true, false ),\n 'disabled' =&gt; disabled( empty( $args['disabled'] ), false, false ),\n 'label' =&gt; esc_html( apply_filters('the_category', $term-&gt;name ) )\n );\n\n $output .= 'radio' == $this-&gt;input_element\n ? $this-&gt;start_el_radio( $args )\n : $this-&gt;start_el_select( $args );\n }\n\n /**\n * Creates the opening markup for the radio input\n *\n * @since 0.2.0\n *\n * @param array $args Array of arguments for creating the element\n *\n * @return string Opening li element and radio input\n */\n public function start_el_radio( $args ) {\n return \"\\n\".sprintf(\n '&lt;li id=\"%s\"&gt;&lt;label class=\"selectit\"&gt;&lt;input value=\"%s\" type=\"radio\" name=\"%s\" id=\"in-%s\" %s %s/&gt;%s&lt;/label&gt;',\n $args['id'],\n $args['value'],\n $args['name'],\n $args['id'],\n $args['checked'],\n $args['disabled'],\n $args['label']\n );\n }\n\n /**\n * Creates the opening markup for the select input\n *\n * @since 0.2.0\n *\n * @param array $args Array of arguments for creating the element\n *\n * @return string Opening option element and option text\n */\n public function start_el_select( $args ) {\n return \"\\n\".sprintf(\n '&lt;option %s %s id=\"%s\" value=\"%s\" class=\"class-single-term\"&gt;%s',\n $args['selected'],\n $args['disabled'],\n $args['id'],\n $args['value'],\n $args['label']\n );\n }\n\n /**\n * Ends the element output, if needed.\n *\n * @see Walker::end_el()\n *\n * @since 0.1.2\n *\n * @param string $output Passed by reference. Used to append additional content.\n * @param object $term The current term object.\n * @param int $depth Depth of the term in reference to parents. Default 0.\n * @param array $args An array of arguments. @see wp_terms_checklist()\n */\n public function end_el( &amp;$output, $term, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {\n if ( 'radio' == $this-&gt;input_element ) {\n $output .= \"&lt;/li&gt;\\n\";\n } else {\n $output .= \"&lt;/option&gt;\\n\";\n }\n }\n\n}\n\nendif; // class_exists check\n\n\nFix for Quick Edit\n\nAt the time of this writing (WordPress v4.6.1), there is an issue with setting single terms on the Quick Edit screen. Here's the fix, which has not yet been merged yet:\n\nChange line: 438 in class.taxonomy.single-term.php to:\n\nvar $editRow = $this.parents( 'tr' ).next().next();", "A pound force is defined as the force required to accelerate a slug at 1 ft/s^2.\nThe density of air is $\\rho = 0.0724 \\ lb_m/ft^3 = 0.0724/32.2 \\ slugs/ft^3$\n\nThe weight of the air is \n$\\rho V g = 0.0724/32.2 \\ slugs/ft^3 \\cdot32.2 ft/s^2\\cdot 6000 ft^3 = 0.0724\\cdot 6000 \\ slugs\\ ft/s^2 = 434.4 lb_f$", "It's a good idea when you don't want to use the default structure :)\n\nThere are a lot (like really a lot..) of cases when site planning includes URL structure, it's best to really have a grasp of this plan before you begin.\n\nI would go as far as graphing out a representation of the relationships/slugs, that way you can compare it with the \"default\" structure to figure out if you can make an easy hack (hierarchy/hook) or you need something from scratch.\n\nThe http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Rewrite API is comprehesive and daunting at the same time.\n\nI really recommend using CPT's http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_type to create the custom structure instead of bending over the defualt posts/pages. It will make your life easier.", "I think I've worked this out. First of all, you need to define your taxonomy. I'm pulling this code directly from the codex; however, I've added one parameter update_count_callback. I've set this to the cleverly titled my_update_count_callback. This just specifies that when a post of type post (this will be whatever CPTs you associate the taxonomy with) is added or updated, this function will be executed instead of the normal routine for updating the count. The taxonomy is registered with:\n\nadd_action('init', 'add_taxonomy');\nfunction add_taxonomy()\n{\n // Add new taxonomy, make it hierarchical (like categories)\n $labels = array(\n 'name' =&gt; _x( 'Genres', 'taxonomy general name' ),\n 'singular_name' =&gt; _x( 'Genre', 'taxonomy singular name' ),\n 'search_items' =&gt; __( 'Search Genres' ),\n 'all_items' =&gt; __( 'All Genres' ),\n 'parent_item' =&gt; __( 'Parent Genre' ),\n 'parent_item_colon' =&gt; __( 'Parent Genre:' ),\n 'edit_item' =&gt; __( 'Edit Genre' ),\n 'update_item' =&gt; __( 'Update Genre' ),\n 'add_new_item' =&gt; __( 'Add New Genre' ),\n 'new_item_name' =&gt; __( 'New Genre Name' ),\n 'menu_name' =&gt; __( 'Genre' ),\n );\n\n register_taxonomy(\n 'genre',\n array('post'),\n array(\n 'hierarchical' =&gt; true,\n 'labels' =&gt; $labels,\n 'show_ui' =&gt; true,\n 'query_var' =&gt; true,\n 'rewrite' =&gt; array( 'slug' =&gt; 'genre' ),\n 'update_count_callback' =&gt; 'my_update_count_callback'\n )\n );\n}\n\n\nThat's the straight forward part. Next, I defined the callback. Note that this callback will take two parameters terms (the term ids associated with the CPT) and taxonomy (the name of the taxonomy). The normal update function is defined in taxonomy.php around line 2435. If you have a specified callback, it will run that routine and not the normal one. For my function below, I have simply modified the normal code.\n\nfunction my_update_count_callback($terms, $taxonomy)\n{\n global $wpdb;\n foreach ( (array) $terms as $term)\n {\n do_action( 'edit_term_taxonomy', $term, $taxonomy );\n\n // Do stuff to get your count\n $count = 15;\n\n $wpdb-&gt;update( $wpdb-&gt;term_taxonomy, array( 'count' =&gt; $count ), array( 'term_taxonomy_id' =&gt; $term ) );\n do_action( 'edited_term_taxonomy', $term, $taxonomy );\n }\n}\n\n\nAll you need to do is write your routines for getting your count and then update the count. Note that I left in the two do_action calls as the normal function allows for code to be injected here. I think it's important to leave those in there so that your plugin won't cause other ones to malfunction.", "Three real parameters are sufficient due to the constraint that\n$$\n|\\alpha|^2 + |\\beta|^2 = 1\\tag1\n$$\nwhere $\\alpha$ and $\\beta$ are the two components of a 2D complex vector describing the qubit state. This constraint ultimately derives from the fact that $|\\alpha|^2$ and $|\\beta|^2$ are probabilities of the two possible outcomes of the computational basis measurement.\nIn order to see how the constraint $(1)$ implies that three real parameters are sufficient write $\\alpha = r e^{i\\theta}$ and $\\beta = s e^{i\\zeta}$ and substitute into $(1)$ to get\n$$\nr^2 + s^2 = 1.\\tag{2}\n$$\nThis means that $r, \\theta, \\zeta \\in \\mathbb{R}$ are sufficient to specify $\\alpha, \\beta \\in \\mathbb{C}$ satisfying $(1)$.\nNote that the global phase is unobservable and can be ignored, so we can in fact choose $\\theta = 0$ (i.e. $\\alpha\\ge 0$). This means that two real parameters are in fact sufficient. This is why a pure state of a qubit can be represented as a point on the 2D Bloch sphere (mixed states occupy the interior).", "craft.categories will return you an object of type ElementCriteriaModel\n\ncraft.categories.slug('what-we-do/' ~ category|default) sets an attribute of this object, but it does not fetch the elements yet.\n\nThe relatedTo parameter needs to be an element, a list of elements, an array and some other staff but it can't handle a query (which the ElementCriteriaModel is) \n\nYou have to fetch the element(s) before you pass it to the function with first(), ids(), last() or find()\n\ncraft.entries.section(sections).relatedTo(craft.categories.slug('what-we-do/' ~ category|default).first())\n\n\nBtw: just as an additional note {{ cat | kebab }} will print the title in kebab case. Mostly that will be the slug but if the user changes the title or the slug or inserts something completely different from the beginning, your logic will break", "It’s definitely possible. Here’s the gist:\n\n\nForget the whole subdomain idea, and start by getting everything working using a URI format like /client/&lt;slug&gt;.\nMake all subdomain traffic get routed to the same server/virtual host.\nMake Craft think that subdomain requests actually had a URI in the format of /client/&lt;slug&gt;, so it will route the request the way it did in step 1.\n\n\nHow you go about the second step depends on whether you’re on Nginx or Apache.\n\n\nFor Nginx, add default_server to the server config’s listen directive:\n\nserver {\n listen 80 default_server;\n // ...\n}\n\nFor Apache, create a _default_ virtual host definition:\n\n&lt;VirtualHost _default_:*&gt;\n // ...\n&lt;/VirtualHost&gt;\n\n\n\nExact details depend on your hosting environment so you may need to do some of your own googling here. You’ll likely need to restart the webserver before changes take effect, too.\n\nOnce you have all subdomain traffic routing to the same place, add something like this to your index.php file:\n\n&lt;?php\n\n$domainParts = explode('.', $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']);\n\nif (count($domainParts) === 3)\n{\n $slug = $domainParts[0];\n\n // Fake Craft into thinking the URI was actually /clients/&lt;SLUG&gt;/uri/...\n\n // Nginx:\n $_REQUEST['REQUEST_URI'] = \"/clients/$slug\".($_REQUEST['REQUEST_URI'] ?? '');\n\n // Apache:\n $_GET['p'] = \"clients/$slug/\".($_GET['p'] ?? '');\n}\n\n// ...\n\n\nWith that in place, your client.domain.tld requests should start serving those client entry pages!", "The URL slug is always a good idea for one simple reason- okay two.\n\n1] We are human. Humans relate to language and language is preferred over numbers which mean nothing to us.\n\n2] Basic SEO. Because Google is made for humans, it's algorithms are centered around language and how humans use it. Google looks to language as clues on how to index a ridiculously huge number of web pages.\n\nNow to explain.\n\nWhile some will argue that the URL/URI combination has a smaller effect on SEO, I will argue somewhat differently. Yes, the URL/URI does not help with specific page rank, however, it does indeed help with indexing the page and returning pages in the SERPs based upon the search query. It is one of the primary clues along with page titles, header tags, top-level content, and links to determine what the page is actually about. More to the point, it is a primary clue along with the title tag, first (and hopefully the only) h1 tag, and internal link text.\n\nNow for the good news.\n\nThis is an opportunity to increase search performance. Plain and simple.\n\n-and-\n\nYour URL slugs do not have to be long.\n\nIn fact, to make slugs more memorable, which is not as important as you may think, you can use shorter URL slugs. In fact, it is highly recommended for one simple reason. The URI should contain your 2-3 (or 4-5 if you wish) most important keywords for the page. It should be conversational for semantic search as well. For example: reasons to use URL slugs would be good, but top ten reasons why URL slugs are important to use would be better. Okay. It is a longer slug, but you get my point. Both are superior to URL slugs. Your URL slug should somewhat but not exactly match and support your title tag and h1 tag. Your URL slug should also support your description meta-tag.\n\nWhat to remember:\n\nGoogle thinks like a human and always has- to a point.\n\nYou should think about how people think about your topic. Using the example above, URL slugs are important to use top ten reasons why will perform differently than top ten reasons why URL slugs are important to use. This is because Google knows a few things. People think of the most important words to use in search first because we were trained to do so. This is because most of us learned to read from left to right and order words according to importance the same way. Google understands this and will read your slug and order words in order of importance from left to right. There are language exceptions of course. In addition, Google has studied how we use language and will look for phrases by word proximity and order these by importance and evaluate words by previous search importance and reorder your slug based upon what it knows. This is good news. You do not have to get your slug exactly right. (But do the best you can.) Using the example above, one will perform differently based upon how Google will read the slug. You can word order your slugs to emphasize your preferred search criteria and how you want your page to be found. But do know this, regardless of the order, if your slug does not contain words used in a search query, then the likelihood that the page will appear in the SERPs diminishes some. For this reason, try and use a reasonable amount of words likely to be searched based upon the topic. The word order helps, but searches that are close by word match/count will perform well either way.", "I see two ways to go about it, both quite similar. \n\nA) You can collect IDs of displayed posts in an array and then exclude those with post__not_in query parameter like so:\n\n$years_loop = get_terms(\n array(\n 'taxonomy' =&gt; 'works_year',\n 'orderby' =&gt; 'slug',\n 'order' =&gt; 'DESC',\n )\n);\n\n// array for displayed posts, we will update it with every loop\n$displayed = [];\n\nforeach($years_loop as $year_loop_slug) :\n $args = array(\n 'post_type' =&gt; 'works',\n 'posts_per_page' =&gt; -1,\n 'post__not_in' =&gt; array_unique( $displayed ),\n 'tax_query' =&gt; array(\n array(\n 'taxonomy' =&gt; 'works_year',\n 'field' =&gt; 'slug',\n 'terms' =&gt; array( $year_loop_slug-&gt;slug ),\n 'operator' =&gt; 'IN',\n )\n ),\n );\n $loop = new WP_Query($args);\n while ($loop-&gt;have_posts()) : $loop-&gt;the_post();\n\n // update array with currently displayed post ID\n $displayed[] = get_the_ID();\n\n //your output\n\n endwhile;\nendforeach;\n\n\nB) If you want to avoid using post__not_in parameter, which can have bad impact on your site's performance, you can check for the duplicates inside your loops:\n\n$years_loop = get_terms(\n array(\n 'taxonomy' =&gt; 'works_year',\n 'orderby' =&gt; 'slug',\n 'order' =&gt; 'DESC',\n )\n);\n\n// array for displayed posts, we will update it with every loop\n$displayed = [];\n\nforeach($years_loop as $year_loop_slug) :\n $args = array(\n 'post_type' =&gt; 'works',\n 'posts_per_page' =&gt; -1,\n 'tax_query' =&gt; array(\n array(\n 'taxonomy' =&gt; 'works_year',\n 'field' =&gt; 'slug',\n 'terms' =&gt; array( $year_loop_slug-&gt;slug ),\n 'operator' =&gt; 'IN',\n )\n ),\n );\n\n $loop = new WP_Query($args);\n while ($loop-&gt;have_posts()) : $loop-&gt;the_post();\n // if the current post was already displayed, move on to the next iteration of this loop\n if ( in_array( get_the_ID(), $displayed ) ){\n continue;\n }\n // update array with currently displayed post ID\n $displayed[] = get_the_ID();\n\n //your output\n\n endwhile;\nendforeach;\n\n\nCode not tested, but you get the idea.", "EUREKA!\nMy taxonomy name is 'store-category'. When i used 'rewrite' = true or 'rewrite' = array('slug' =&gt; 'category') it was giving me a 404 error. When I changed it to 'rewrite' =&gt; array('slug' =&gt; 'group') the problem just went away!\nSo, the problem turned out to be a rewrite conflict. WordPress had been looking for my store-categories within categories, hence the 404 error.\nNo idea how 'store-category' fits in (when rewrite is just set true), but obviously it caused the same problem.\nSo, SOLUTION: don't use slugs that match default WP slugs; try changing your slug to something else.", "I would start with the many resources on this site:\n\n\nIs the Bilateral Filter a Solution of Some Variational Method?\nHow to Validate Bilateral Filter Implementation?\nComparison Between Guided Filter (Edge Preserving Filter) and Gaussian Filter.\nWhat Is the Bilateral Filter Category: LPF, HPF, BPF or BSF?\nUnderstanding the Parameters of the Bilateral Filter.\n\n\nRegarding your questions, Let's address them one by one.\n\nQ: How to Determine the Number of Neighboring Pixels?\n\nThe classic neighborhood used by Bilateral Filter is along the axis. So it is basically determined by Radius parameter. In order to make sense, the radius parameter is aligned with the $ {\\sigma}_{s} $ parameter (Spatial Standard Deviation). Some examples of the connection between them can be found in:\n\n\nHow to Get Rid of Ripples from a Gradient Image of a Smoothed Image?\nParameters of Gaussian Kernel in the Context of Image Convolution.\nHow to Calculate Gaussian Kernel for a Small Support Size?\nGaussian Blur In MATLAB and Connection to Image Resolution.\n\n\nQ: Are All Adjacent Pixels the Neighboring Pixels?\n\nWell, Theoretically you can chose any way to set the neighborhood set (Circle, The whole image, etc...). But as I wrote above, the most common option it a rectangle (Square in most cases).\n\nQ: What Are $ {\\sigma}_{s} $ and $ {\\sigma}_{r} $ For?\n\nThe parameters determines the range of values in the range and spatial domain.\nLet's assume our image values are in the range [0, 1] and the spatial indices are integers. Assume $ {\\sigma}_{r} = 0.1 $, then pixels with values which are farther than $ \\sim 3 {\\sigma}_{r} $ will have effective zero weight since $ {e}^{ -\\frac{ {0.3}^{2} }{ 2 \\cdot {0.1}^{2} } } = 0.0111 $ before normalization.\n\nSame logic for the Spatial parameter $ {\\sigma}_{s} $. If we set it to $ {\\sigma}_{s} = 4 $ pixels which are more than 12 indices apart will have negligible weight. This is why we limit the radius of the neighborhood and match it to the spatial parameter as adding pixels which have zero weight is waste of computing resources.", "I believe your problem lies in the parameter for user group. In Twig, you don't need the brackets if you're already in brackets. You just reference the variable and fields directly. So instead of:\n\n{% set group = craft.users.group('{{ category.slug }}') %}\n\n\nTry this:\n\n{% set group = craft.users.group(category.slug) %}\n\n\nYou see, the ElementCriteriaModel that's parsing the parameter for group doesn't run all its function arguments through Twig. So you're confusing it by throwing braces in there. Just give it the variable and field without quotes or braces and it should work smashingly, provided that category.slug is the same as a group slug.", "You have a couple of conflicting arguments here, but what you want to do is completely possible.\n\nTo keep something out of the RSS feeds, and considering it really is a different type of content from your blog posts, I'd recommend a custom post type called \"Links\" or something.\n\nThe custom post type will have its own archive and RSS feed, separate from your posts.\n\nTo get it included in your home page feed, it depends on how your home page is configured, but if it's just the \"blog\" archive, then it's a pretty simple filter using pre_get_posts to include your new CPT into that archive.\n\nFor distribution, you could use Jetpack or other plugins to then auto-tweet new links of your CPT. That would then handle distribution, keep the link on your site, and capable of being perused or searched later.\n\nLast thing, based on your note about tags, would be to enable support for tags and categories on your new custom post type. That would then include both posts and links (your CPT) when someone clicks the \"Instagram\" tag archive, or whatever.\n\nThis does include the code, but as you said you don't need that, I think this answer should give you the roadmap you're looking for; but to implement it properly it's definitely going to take a little bit of intermediate code.", "The problem is the pagination parameter in the URL:\n\n&lt;a href=\"&lt;?php echo (in_array($marca_term-&gt;slug, $marca_arg)) ? \n esc_url(remove_query_arg('marca')) : esc_url(add_query_arg('marca', \n \"$marca_term-&gt;slug\")); ?&gt;\"&gt;\n\n\nHere we see that the marca term is being added and removed, but the pagination parameter isn't, but that's a part of the URL not a parameter\n\nInstead, why not use the taxonomy archives and get_term_link? Then redirect if the marca parameter is present?\n\n\nYou could eliminate the pre_get_posts changes\nthe query var would no longer be necessary\nthe pagination issue would disappear\nYou can use taxonomy-brands.php in your theme\nYou already have archives for this at example.com/brands/*term_name* just waiting for a custom template\n\n\nThey're already on your site, sitting there unused. Why rebuild something that's already there? If you're not keen on the URL you can change it in your taxonomy registration code via the rewrite option", "You need to set the ID for the post_title and post_name. You have many approaches.\n\nTypically your approach would be to use a filter in WordPress. The best I can say would be wp_insert_post_data and use the second parameter of this filter to get the post id and return the first parameter with the modified post_title and post_name.\n\nThe other option would be to use actions either save_post or wp_insert_post\n\nThey are defined with the same arguments. \n\nFile: wp-includes/post.php\n3496: /**\n3497: * Fires once a post has been saved.\n3498: *\n3499: * @since 1.5.0\n3500: *\n3501: * @param int $post_ID Post ID.\n3502: * @param WP_Post $post Post object.\n3503: * @param bool $update Whether this is an existing post being updated or not.\n3504: */\n3505: do_action( 'save_post', $post_ID, $post, $update );\n3506: \n3507: /**\n3508: * Fires once a post has been saved.\n3509: *\n3510: * @since 2.0.0\n3511: *\n3512: * @param int $post_ID Post ID.\n3513: * @param WP_Post $post Post object.\n3514: * @param bool $update Whether this is an existing post being updated or not.\n3515: */\n3516: do_action( 'wp_insert_post', $post_ID, $post, $update );\n\n\nThis may be from where you can start. Note that using wp_update_post at the end of _20170104_02 function will fire our save_post action again, so we needed to remove that action to escape from the infinite loop.\n\nIf you would use wp_insert_post_data this would not be needed, since filters return the data.\n\nadd_action('save_post', '_20170104_02', 10, 3);\n\nfunction _20170104_02( $post_id, $post, $update ){\n\n if ( 'cpt' != $post-&gt;post_type) // only for your custom post type cpt\n return;\n\n if ( wp_is_post_revision( $post_id ) )\n return;\n\n if ( wp_is_post_autosave( $post_id ) )\n return;\n\n if ( !( true == $update &amp;&amp; 'publish' == $post-&gt;post_status ) )\n return;\n\n remove_action( 'save_post', '_20170104_02' );\n\n $my_post = array(\n 'ID' =&gt; $post_id,\n 'post_title' =&gt; $post_id,\n 'post_name' =&gt; $post_id\n );\n\n wp_update_post( $my_post );\n}", "It's somewhat of an oversimplification to say that Heinlein was a one-dimensional Cold War hawk. He was a socialist in his youth, and probably formed his first political opinions before Stalinism existed. (Stalin came to power when Heinlein was 17.) He was active in Upton Sinclair's socialist End Poverty in California (EPIC) movement, and campaigned for Sinclair in the 1934 California gubernatorial race. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact happened in 1939, when Heinlein was 32; for many people of his generation this was the big moment of disillusionment with socialism. Asimov recalled Heinlein as having made a rapid swing to the right politically at about the same time when he married Ginny (1948). Although by the 1950's Heinlein was ardently anticommunist, he has positive things to say about Latin American socialism in his travelogue Tramp Royale, from the same period.\n\nHeinlein's post-1950 opinions on Soviet communism were however very clear. He referred to the Soviets as the \"Butchers of Budapest.\" He defends the McCarthy hearings in Tramp Royale. He had a falling out with Arthur Clarke over SDI.\n\nThe anticommunist message was strong in Heinlein's fiction, especially in the 1950's. He wrote Starship Troopers as his response to what he saw as the West's insufficient response to Soviet aggression. In The Puppet Masters, he states an explicit analogy between the mind-controlling slugs and Soviet communism. (See How exactly are the slugs analogous to communists? .) In Farnham's Freehold, Hugh Farnham makes macho boasts about his determination to kill as many (hypothetical) invading Russian soldiers as he can before they kill him.", "$Lb_m$ is not the base unit. The Slug is the base unit.\n\n$32.2\\ lb_m = 1\\ slug$\n\nTo convert $1\\ lb_m$ to $lb_f$: \n\n$1\\ lb_m * \\frac{1\\ slug}{32.2\\ lb_m} * 32.2 \\frac{ft}{s^2} = 1\\ lb_f$\n\nTherefore $1\\ lb_m$ will yield $1\\ lb_f$ on Earth at STP.\n\nThis video does an excellent job of explaining it.", "wp_update_term() doesn't changes taxonomy. It just updated the existing taxonomy. Say the below code-\n\n$update = wp_update_term( 1, 'category', array(\n 'name' =&gt; 'Uncategorized Renamed',\n 'slug' =&gt; 'uncategorized-renamed'\n) );\n\nif ( ! is_wp_error( $update ) ) {\n echo 'Success!';\n}\n\n\nThis code finds the category which ID is 1, then updates it to the name and slug passed by as a parameter. In the context of my system the category with ID 1 is Uncategorized. So it will rename it.\n\nFor changing terms taxonomy there is no default function. Here I've written one for you. Take a look below-\n\nfunction the_dramatist_change_terms_taxonomy( $term_id, $future_taxonomy ){\n global $wpdb;\n $update = $wpdb-&gt;update(\n $wpdb-&gt;prefix . 'term_taxonomy',\n [ 'taxonomy' =&gt; $future_taxonomy ],\n [ 'term_taxonomy_id' =&gt; $term_id ],\n [ '%s' ],\n [ '%d' ]\n );\n return $update;\n}\n\n\nHere $term_id is the term's ID which taxonomy you wanna change and $future_taxonomy is the terms future taxonomy. $future_taxonomy must have to be string like 'category', 'post_tag' or 'any_other_taxonomy'. It actually updates the database value directly. So be careful before you use it. Specially careful if your term has any parent. Cause it is basically updating the taxonomy value at wp_terms_taxonomy table, not any other one. For updating terms taxonomy I've not found any better option.\n\nAnd for inserting terms to a taxonomy you can use wp_insert_term( $term, $taxonomy, $args = array() ). So you can check that if desired taxonomy is exist or not. If it exists then update it, if it is not then create it. Like below-\n\n$term = term_exists( 'Uncategorized', 'category' );\nif ( $term !== 0 &amp;&amp; $term !== null ) {\n the_dramatist_change_terms_taxonomy( $term-&gt;term_id, $future_taxonomy )\n} else {\n wp_insert_term( '...All..The...Parameter..Here' );\n}", "If you set the value of the metabox to the authors cpt post id, you should be able to get the post with\n\n//get the id for the actors cpt\n$actors_id = get_post_meta( $post-&gt;ID, 'nt_getactors', true );\n\n//get the post obejct for the author\n$actors_post = get_post( $actors_id, OBJECT ); //or ARRAY_A if you want an array and not an object\n\n//to output e.g. the title use\n$actors_post-&gt;post_title;\n\n\nSee get_post for further options.\n\nUpdate\n\nChange\n\n$post_options [ $post-&gt;post_title ] = $post-&gt;post_title;\n\n\nto\n\n$post_options [ $post-&gt;ID ] = $post-&gt;post_title;\n\n\nUpdate 2\n\nUse your $actors_post post object just like a normal post object. Check the codex for a nice reference of the available member variables.\n\ne.g.\n\n$actors_post-&gt;post_content;\n\n\nKeep in mind that $actors_post data is \"raw\" and you might want to apply some filters to it, depending on how you are using it; e.g.\n\napply_filters( 'the_content', $actors_post-&gt;post_content );\n\n\nUpdate 3\n\nIn order to get meta values from the actor post either do this for a single value\n\nget_post_meta( $actor_post-&gt;ID, 'ecpt_bio', true );\n\n\nor (if you have multiple values you can get them all in one array) like this:\n\n$actor_meta = get_post_meta( $actor_post-&gt;ID );\n//and then access the array element\necho $actor_meta['ecpt_bio'];\n\n\nWrap up\n\nChange your callback function to reference the id of the post instead of the title (see Update#1)\n\n//get the id for the actors cpt\n$actors_id = get_post_meta( $post-&gt;ID, 'nt_getactors', true );\n\n//get the post obejct for the author\n$actors_post = get_post( $actors_id, OBJECT );\n\n//to output e.g. the title use\necho apply_filters( 'the_title', $actors_post-&gt;post_title );\n\n//output the content\necho apply_filters( 'the_content', $actors_post-&gt;post_content );\n\n//get the meta values from the actor post\n$actor_meta = get_post_meta( $actor_post-&gt;ID );\n\n//and output it like this\necho $actor_meta[ 'ecpt_bio' ];", "When you use ZGELSS to sovle this problem, you're using the truncated singular value decomposition to regularize this extremely ill-conditioned problem. it's important to understand that this library routine is not attempting to find a least squares solution to $Ax=b$, but rather it is attempting to balance finding a solution that minimizes $\\| x \\|$ against minimizing $\\| Ax-b \\|$. \n\nNote that the parameter RCOND passed to ZGELSS can be used to specify which singular values should be included and excluded from the computation of the solution. Any singular value less than RCOND*S(1) (S(1) is the largest singular value) will be ignored. You haven't told us how you've set the RCOND parameter in ZGELSS, and we no nothing about the noise level of the coefficients in your $A$ matrix or in the right hand side $b$, so it's hard to say whether you've used an appropriate amount of regularization. \n\nYou do seem to be happy with the regularized solutions that you're getting with ZGELSS, so it appears that the regularization effected by the truncated SVD method (which finds a minimum $\\| x \\|$ solution among the least squares solutions that \nminimize $\\| Ax-b \\|$ over the space of solutions spanned by the singular vectors associated with the singular values larger than RCOND*S(1)) is satisfactory to you. \n\nYour question could be reformulated as \"How can I efficiently obtained regularized least squares solutions to this large, sparse, and very ill-conditioned linear least squares problem?\" \n\nMy recommendation would be to use an iterative method (such as CGLS or LSQR) to minimize the explicitly regularized least squares problem\n\n$\\min \\| Ax-b \\|^{2} + \\alpha^{2} \\| x \\|^{2}$\n\nwhere the regularization parameter $\\alpha$ is adjusted so that the damped least squares problem is well conditioned and so that you're happy with the resulting regularized solutions.", "Here you can read an article about how to deal with.\nYou'll have some mandatory things to do such rewrite your taxonomy with the same name of the custom post type.\n\nhttp://someweblog.com/wordpress-custom-taxonomy-with-same-slug-as-custom-post-type/", "The easiest way to optimize this query would be to add 'fields' =&gt; 'ids' to the arguments. This way only ids of posts will be retrieved from DB (and usually that’s a big change).\n\n$args = [\n 'numberposts' =&gt; -1, \n 'post_type' =&gt; 'jobs', \n 's' =&gt; 'developer', \n 'tax_query' =&gt; ['taxonomy' =&gt; 'IT', 'field' =&gt; 'slug'],\n 'fields' =&gt; 'ids'\n];\n$posts = get_posts($args);\n$count = count($posts);\n\n\nOn the other hand you can use WP_Query instead of get_posts. This way you can set posts_per_page to 1, so only one ID will be retrieved and use found_posts field of WP_Query to get the total number of posts matching your criteria.\n\n$args = [\n 'posts_per_page' =&gt; 1,\n 'post_type' =&gt; 'jobs', \n 's' =&gt; 'developer', \n 'tax_query' =&gt; ['taxonomy' =&gt; 'IT', 'field' =&gt; 'slug'],\n 'fields' =&gt; 'ids'\n];\n$query = new WP_Query($args);\n$count = $query-&gt;found_posts;", "Uma maneira de vc conseguir o resultado que deseja e que eu acho a melhor maneira, por ser mais simples, é criar a variável videosObject como sendo um array e simplesmente fazer um push nela com os objetos dos vídeos:\n\r\n\r\nlet videoCategories = [{\n \"id\": 1,\n \"slug\": \"futebol\",\n \"name\": \"Futebol\",\n \"videos\": [{\n \"id\": 1,\n \"link\": \"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWWOW7T82Hw\",\n \"title\": \"Dribles mais humilhates da historia\",\n \"index\": false,\n \"image\": \"no-img.jpg\",\n \"categories\": [{\n \"slug\": \"futebol\",\n \"name\": \"Futebol\"\n }]\n },\n {\n \"id\": 2,\n \"link\": \"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOqfupUXkkY\",\n \"title\": \"Os movimentos mais bonitos do futebol\",\n \"index\": false,\n \"image\": \"no-img.jpg\",\n \"categories\": [{\n \"slug\": \"futebol\",\n \"name\": \"Futebol\"\n }]\n }\n ]\n },\n {\n \"id\": 29,\n \"slug\": \"cachorro\",\n \"name\": \"Cachorro\",\n \"videos\": [{\n \"id\": 3,\n \"link\": \"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-gWb3sV9mY\",\n \"title\": \"Videos engraçados de cachorro\",\n \"index\": false,\n \"image\": \"no-img.jpg\",\n \"categories\": [{\n \"slug\": \"cachorro\",\n \"name\": \"Cachorro\"\n }]\n },\n {\n \"id\": 4,\n \"link\": \"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu5K2IRrsiY\",\n \"title\": \"Videos engraçados de cachorro 2\",\n \"index\": false,\n \"image\": \"no-img.jpg\",\n \"categories\": [{\n \"slug\": \"cachorro\",\n \"name\": \"Cachorro\"\n }]\n }\n ]\n }\n]\n\nlet videosObject = [];\n\nvideoCategories.map(item =&gt; item.videos.map(obj =&gt; videosObject.push(obj)))\n\nconsole.log(videosObject)\r\n\r\n\r\n\nAgora se quiser manter a maneira que fez desestruturando os objetos com os vídeos e guardando nas variáveis [videosObject, videosObject2], irá precisar de outra variável e nesta nova variável juntar os objetos dos vídeos utilizando spread operator (...)\n\r\n\r\nlet videoCategories = [{\n \"id\": 1,\n \"slug\": \"futebol\",\n \"name\": \"Futebol\",\n \"videos\": [{\n \"id\": 1,\n \"link\": \"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWWOW7T82Hw\",\n \"title\": \"Dribles mais humilhates da historia\",\n \"index\": false,\n \"image\": \"no-img.jpg\",\n \"categories\": [{\n \"slug\": \"futebol\",\n \"name\": \"Futebol\"\n }]\n },\n {\n \"id\": 2,\n \"link\": \"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOqfupUXkkY\",\n \"title\": \"Os movimentos mais bonitos do futebol\",\n \"index\": false,\n \"image\": \"no-img.jpg\",\n \"categories\": [{\n \"slug\": \"futebol\",\n \"name\": \"Futebol\"\n }]\n }\n ]\n },\n {\n \"id\": 29,\n \"slug\": \"cachorro\",\n \"name\": \"Cachorro\",\n \"videos\": [{\n \"id\": 3,\n \"link\": \"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-gWb3sV9mY\",\n \"title\": \"Videos engraçados de cachorro\",\n \"index\": false,\n \"image\": \"no-img.jpg\",\n \"categories\": [{\n \"slug\": \"cachorro\",\n \"name\": \"Cachorro\"\n }]\n },\n {\n \"id\": 4,\n \"link\": \"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu5K2IRrsiY\",\n \"title\": \"Videos engraçados de cachorro 2\",\n \"index\": false,\n \"image\": \"no-img.jpg\",\n \"categories\": [{\n \"slug\": \"cachorro\",\n \"name\": \"Cachorro\"\n }]\n }\n ]\n }\n]\n\nconst [videosObject, videosObject2] = videoCategories.map(item =&gt; item.videos.map(obj =&gt; obj))\n\nconst videos = [...videosObject, ...videosObject2]\nconsole.log(videos)", "I analyze this, broadly, as\n\nI | V/ii | ii | V\n\nIn more detail:\n\nm1: I I[6-4] I(over CPT) ii∅[4-3]/(V/ii)(from G minor)\n\nm2: V/(V/ii) c.t.○(over PT) V[6-5]/ii V7/ii\n\nm3: ii V7/(V/ii) ii[6-5] V/V\n\nm4: c.t.○7 V ii[4-3] V[6-5]\n\nCPT = chromatic passing tone\nc.t.○ = &quot;common-tone diminished chord&quot;: see: A chord progression from Leavitt: how to analyze it correctly", "Yes, the same methods \"should\" work on both of them, slugs and snails belong to the same taxonomic class:\n\n\nGastropods\n\n\n The Gastropoda or gastropods, more commonly known as snails and slugs. are a large taxonomic class within the Mollusca. The class Gastropoda includes snails and slugs of all kinds and all sizes from microscopic to quite large. There are huge numbers of sea snails and sea slugs, as well as freshwater snails and freshwater limpets, and land snails and land slugs.\n\nSnail\n\n\n Snail is a common name for almost all members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in a general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. Otherwise snail-like creatures that lack a shell (or have only a very small one) are called slugs.\n\nSlug\n\n\n Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusk that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell. This is in contrast to the common name snail, which is applied to gastropods that have coiled shells that are big enough to retract into.\n\nSnail -> Slug\n\n\n Gastropod species which lack a conspicuous shell are commonly called slugs rather than snails, although, other than having a reduced shell or no shell at all, there are really no appreciable differences between a slug and a snail except in habitat and behavior.\n\n\n\nI'm currently using the \"beer trap\" method in my (newish) Hosta garden, but so far with no desirable results. I must admit I'm starting to think it might not be slugs/snails, even though they are \"generally\" considered the number 1 pest problem where Hostas are concerned. Instead I'm now thinking the unwanted diner might be bigger and covered in fur...\n\nA friend highly recommended I try \"Diatomaceous Earth\" as a way to protect plants from slugs/snails. So far I haven't tried it, but if I switch back to thinking it's slugs/snails eating my Hostas I may very well give it a try.\n\nOther \"organic\" slug/snail control options I might try:\n\n\nCoffee grounds spread around the plants.\nCrushed egg shells spread around the plants.\nNatural predators, either by attracting them into the garden or by physically bringing them in.\nIron phosphate baits, but I've heard \"good\" &amp; \"bad\" things about those traps (even though they're marketed as an \"organic\" option), therefore I would need to research further before deciding if I would use them in my garden.\n\n\nAdditionally, I think this article, \"Slugs and Snails\" from University of Missouri Extension is worth a read.\n\n\n Q. Is slug/snail location specific?\n\n\nI honestly don't know for certain, but I thought both slugs and snails were found pretty much all over the world.", "You have a few issues here\n\n\nThe following piece of code is wrong and unnecessary\n\n$category = get_post();\n$category = $category-&gt;post_title;\n\n\nThe current page object is saved in get_queried_object(), so you can use this function to get your post title. Also, post_title is not the correct property to use here. You want to look at the post slug which is saved in the post_name property. The category_name parameter excepts the category slug, not the name. The category_name parameter, in my opinion, is wrongly named. It is like giving a girl a boys name and then expect others to know that the person is question is a girl based on name. \nA bit off the topic here, but do not mix your syntax. Choose one syntax, and stick with it. Because curlies is the easiest to debug and mostly supported by code editors, use them. Also, properly indent your code, it is easier to read and to debug\nYou need actually set pagination before you can use it. For that you need to use the paged parameter. I'm not going to go into that, as this has been handled plenty times on this site. \nthe_paging_nav() is not a core function, so you would need to contact the author of the code to find out how the code should be used with custom queries\n\n\nSomething like the following should work\n\n&lt;?php\n/**\n * Template Name: Category Temeplate\n *\n */\n\nget_header(); ?&gt;\n\n&lt;div id=\"primary\" class=\"content-area\"&gt;\n &lt;main id=\"main\" class=\"site-main\" role=\"main\"&gt;\n\n &lt;?php\n $current_page = get_queried_object();\n $category = $current_page-&gt;post_name;\n\n $paged = get_query_var( 'paged' ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;\n $query = new WP_Query( \n array(\n 'paged' =&gt; $paged, \n 'category_name' =&gt; $category,\n 'order' =&gt; 'asc',\n 'post_type' =&gt; 'post',\n 'post_status' =&gt; 'publish',\n )\n );\n\n if ($query-&gt;have_posts()) {\n while ($query-&gt;have_posts()) { \n $query-&gt;the_post(); ?&gt;\n\n &lt;article id=\"post-&lt;?php the_ID(); ?&gt;\"&gt;\n &lt;header class=\"entry-header\"&gt;\n &lt;?php the_title( sprintf( '&lt;h2 class=\"entry-title\"&gt;&lt;a href=\"%s\" rel=\"bookmark\"&gt;', esc_url( get_permalink() ) ), '&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;' ); ?&gt;\n &lt;/header&gt;&lt;!-- .entry-header --&gt;\n\n &lt;div class=\"entry-content\"&gt;\n &lt;?php the_content(); ?&gt;\n &lt;/div&gt;&lt;!-- .entry-content --&gt;\n &lt;/article&gt;&lt;!-- #post-## --&gt;&lt;hr&gt;\n\n &lt;?php\n }\n\n // next_posts_link() usage with max_num_pages\n next_posts_link( 'Older Entries', $query-&gt;max_num_pages );\n previous_posts_link( 'Newer Entries' );\n\n wp_reset_postdata();\n }\n ?&gt;\n\n &lt;/main&gt;&lt;!-- #main --&gt;\n&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!-- #primary --&gt;\n\n&lt;?php get_footer(); ?&gt;", "I would suggest that they are being eaten by slugs or snails. My tomato plants get the same treatment even when growing on in the cold frame where there are no other pests.", "You would need to pass the current pagination page number with your entry links and than make Craft\nrespond to URLs in a format like this: example.com/my-section/p2/my-entry-slug.\n\nI guess this is more complicated than you'd think, as this is probably not possible to do with\nthe default paginate tag and its preset routes. And I also don't know of a way to combine the paginate\ntag's page token with custom routes.\n\nSo I believe there's no other choice left than replacing paginate with a custom solution replicating its\nfunctionality.\n\nThis is possible with dynamic routes and some logic in your templates. So you'd first have to set up a route\nwith a [page] and a [slug] token, which you can then access in your template.\n\nmy-section/p[page]/[slug] and\nmy-section/p[page]\n\nI'll give some example code (untested and incomplete), to help you get started with the template.\n\nAll the pagination links build upon the route's page variable used in craft.entries's offset and limit parameters. With custom routes you also have to query for your entry entry model manually, I set it up to get the page's first entry\nif there's no slug variable set from your route.\n\n{# Set params #}\n{% set params = {section: 'orchard'} %}\n{% set entriesPerPage = 5 %}\n\n{% if page is defined %}\n {% set offsetParam = (page - 1) * entriesPerPage %}\n {% set pageSegment = '/p' ~ page %}\n{% else %}\n {% set offsetParam = 0 %}\n {% set pageSegment = '' %}\n{% endif %}\n\n{# Get the entry model #}\n{% if slug is defined %}\n {% set entry = craft.entries.slug(slug).first() %}\n{% else %}\n {% set entry = craft.entries(params).offset(offsetParam).first() %}\n{% endif %}\n\n{# Get pagination params #}\n{% if page is defined %}\n {% set entriesOnNextPage = craft.entries(params).offset(offsetParam + 1) %}\n\n {% if entriesOnNextPage|length %}\n {% set nextPageSegment = '/p' ~ page + 1 %}\n {% endif %}\n\n {% if page == 1 %}\n {% set prevPageSegment = '' %}\n {% else %}\n {% set prevPageSegment = '/p' ~ page - 1 %}\n {% endif %}\n{% else %}\n {% set entriesOnNextPage = craft.entries(params).offset(entriesPerPage) %}\n\n {% if entriesOnNextPage|length %}\n {% set nextPageSegment = '/p2' %}\n {% endif %}\n{% endif %}\n\n&lt;article&gt;\n &lt;h2&gt;{{ entry.title }}&lt;/h2&gt;\n&lt;/article&gt;\n\n&lt;nav&gt;\n {% set entriesOnPage = craft.entries(params).offset(offsetParam).limit(entriesPerPage) %}\n\n {% for entry in entriesOnPage %}\n {% set image = entry.mediaThumb.first() %}\n\n &lt;a href=\"/my-section{{ pageSegment }}/{{ entry.slug }}\"&gt;\n &lt;img src=\"{{ image.url }}\"&gt;\n &lt;/a&gt;\n {% endfor %}\n\n {% if prevPageSegment is defined %}\n &lt;a href=\"/my-section{{ prevPageSegment }}\"&gt;Previous Page&lt;/a&gt;\n {% endif %}\n\n {% if nextPageSegment is defined %}\n &lt;a href=\"/my-section{{ nextPageSegment }}\"&gt;Next Page&lt;/a&gt;\n {% endif %}\n&lt;/nav&gt;", "first thing that i notice, is that you use some obscure WP loop markup\n\nforeach( $myposts as $post ) : setup_postdata($post); \n\n\nPlease loop with standard markup an WP_Query class\n\n&lt;?php $query = new WP_Query( $args ); ?&gt;\n&lt;?php if ( $query-&gt;have_posts() ) : while ( $query-&gt;have_posts() ) : $query-&gt;the_post(); ?&gt;\n\n\nhttps://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop\n\nNext thing, that is problem in your code is, that you don't even try to get posts from some category. If your taxonomy is standard category, then you will get it with standard 'cat' parameter:\n\n$query = new WP_Query( array( 'cat' =&gt; 4 ) );\n\n\nhttps://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Category_Parameters\n\nIf it's custom taxonomy, then you need to call it with taxonomy parameter:\n\n$args = array(\n 'post_type' =&gt; 'post',\n 'tax_query' =&gt; array(\n array(\n 'taxonomy' =&gt; 'people',\n 'field' =&gt; 'slug',\n 'terms' =&gt; 'bob',\n ),\n ),\n);\n$query = new WP_Query( $args );\n\n\nhttps://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Taxonomy_Parameters", "You need to find a way to get the right category model to be able to receive all entries related to it.\nAs you didn't set up our categories to have their own URL, you could find it using the relevant slug in your URL.\nAssuming that maches your categories slugs:\n\n{% set categorySlug = craft.request.getLastSegment() %}\n{% set category = craft.categories.slug(categorySlug).first() %}\n\n{% if category %}\n\n {% set entries = craft.entries.relatedTo(category).limit(12) %}\n {% for entry in entries %}\n {{ entry.title }}\n {% endfor %}\n\n{% endif %}\n\n\nAnother, probably more elegant way would be to access a token set via a dynamic route:\n\n'regions/[SLUG]' =&gt; 'regions/_index'\n\n\nYou would now be able to access that token from a variable \"slug\":\n\n{% set category = craft.categories.slug(slug).first() %}" ]

[ "Honest opinion here. It is probably due to the fact that schooling is much more emphasized in Asian families, with the required studying comprised of close up reading. This creates nearsightedness in developing eyes of youngsters when it is not balanced efficiently with activities that develop farsighted vision." ]

[ "I am going into my second year of optometry school. I'm not an expert yet but this is my understanding. Wearing correction for your myopia, either contacts or glasses, will not make it worse. If anything it will slow down the progression. Myopia can develop during childhood (most common) which usually stops progressing once adulthood is reached. Adult onset myopia can also occur but I'm not sure about the progression of it. As for the Asian population it is common for their myopia to continue to progress throughout life. More research is being done on why this occurs and how to prevent the progression. In summary, if someone is myopic they should not be scared of wearing their corrective lenses for fear it could make their vision worse in the long run. It will not.", "Because Hispanic isn't a race. There are Asian Hispanics, there are South American Hispanics, there are black Hispanics, and there are Spanish Hispanics. If you/your ancestors spoke Spanish, you put down Hispanic. For race, you put down what your race is. This could be white, black, southeast Asian, or any other type of human under on the planet.", "Pairings between Asian women and Caucasian men are twice as common as matches between Caucasian women and Asian men, a gap that has often been attributed to the hypersexualization of Asian women and the emasculation of Asian men in US pop culture. The nuances and repercussions of that discussion extend farther than the way in which Caucasians view Asians, with many Asian Americans citing those same stereotypes as having shaped their own sexual preferences and the confidence in which they pursue or don't pursue partners of other races. --ChinaNews Daily _URL_0_", "When people say \"race doesn't exist\", they don't mean the name of the attribute is wrong. They mean the attribute doesn't really make much biological sense in the first place. For example, two random Africans are likely to be more genetically different from each other than a random European and a random East Asian are. Yet those two random Africans are seen as being the same \"race\" as each other, whereas the European and the East Asian are seen as different \"races\" than each other. So the question doesn't really make sense (no offense): The \"correct name of the attribute\" is \"race\". It's not that the *name* of the attribute is wrong; it's just that the attribute *itself* doesn't have as much meaning as is often ascribed to it. No matter what name you want to give it.", "The windshield is more horizontal than the other glass surfaces. The water settling out of the air makes a thicker layer (= easier for you to see) on the windshield than on the more vertical side windows. Painted metal, like the hood and the roof, are more thermally conductive. They do more to warm the air right next to them than the glass does. That's why glass frosts first.", "The same reason why you wear sunscreen. UV causes irreversible damage to your eyes and if you wear glasses anyway why not protect your eyes from UV if you can do so without adversely affecting the performance of the glasses?", "Skin pigment is determined genetically, as well as some small physiological differences, but almost everything else you attribute to a race is constructed by society. The idea that \"white people are _____\" or \"black people are _____\" or \"brown people are ______\" is all in your head. For example, Asians are good at math. On average, Asian-American students score higher on math tests, but that doesn't mean all Asians are good at math, or that it has anything to do with their race, per se. Or if you go to other countries, Asians might not necessarily skew that way. There may be correlations between races and certain attributes, but it is not necessarily caused by their skin color. It could be cultural based on geography or religion or political group or something else altogether. That's my understanding, at least.", "[Myopia](_URL_0_) is a physical problem with the eyes. The lens focuses incoming light improperly so that the focal point is in front of the retina rather than being directly on it. A person with dissociative identity disorder may have personalities that like to wear glasses, but from a physical standpoint, there is no reason why one would need glasses and another personality would not. The personality might change, but they share the same lens, retina, etc. Any difference in vision or any disease symptoms would be psychosomatic rather than \"real.\"", "some of it is diet but more of it is gentics. Asians for example tend to have a lot harder time and are less likely to grow a full on beard as you see it other races fun fact it was seen as very special if you could in many asian cultures", "Well, [blond hair](_URL_1_) and [blue eyes](_URL_0_) are caused by the *absence* of a pigment, so it's not at all surprising that allele coding for the *presence* of one is dominant. Naturally, most genetic differences between populations are not as superficial as eye and hair color, and I'm not aware that there are more recessive European-specific alleles than you'd expect by chance. As for this: > And why is it that a mixed black/white child looks more black than white, a mixed asian/white child looks more asian than white, etc? This may say more about the few mixed-race children you've seen, and what you think \"looks white\", than anything universal.", "it isn't? i know two mixed families. one family has 2 kids, one kid is asian looking, the other is caucasian looking. other family's kid is caucasian looking. it's a mixed bag. some mixed race offspring are more asian, some not. you can't really say Keanu Reeves looks Asian. nor Tiger Woods. nor Kristen Kreuk. or Rob Scheider. or Naomi Campbell. or Vanessa Hudgens", "Why do priests wear their collars backwards? Why do businessmen wear a strip of fabric around their necks that have no function? Why do chefs wear that puffy hat (when any hat would work)? I think labeling something as \"ridiculous is a bit subjective", "Modern humans have been around for a very short period of time. There are differences in race, asian people tend to be smaller, stuff like that. The problem is different races marry and those genes mix. If Asians only married pure blood Asians, Africans only married and procreated with other Africans thanks in hundreds of thousands of years different sub species would most likely start to occur. Seeing as how human population is all connected today, that won't happen.", "Hispanic is not a race it is a nationality or more specifically ethnic group, there are only 3 races of humans. Caucasoid (white), Negroid (black) and Mongoloid (asian). We use the term race far to frequently, hispanic does not refer to a race but rather to a linage to Spain.", "Race car tires are usually softer in order to increase grip, but this makes them less resistant to wear. Also, race cars tend to accelerate, brake, and turn *much* harder than normal driving, which increases friction against the road, which increases wear.", "Same reason many women use other makeup while most men do not. If you want to get into reasons about why women wear makeup far more often than men in Western culture, well, one could write a dissertation on that subject and I don't think there's any single, simple, widely-accepted answer.", "> I don't wear glasses or contacts and have fine vision, but I always insist on wearing other people's glasses when given the chance. I've been told that what *I* see through someone *else's* glasses, is how *they* see without glasses--is that really the case? Eyesight is complex, but I feel when I wear someone else's glasses, it's not that 'can't see well', but instead have trouble *focusing*. I understand gathering focus is another aspect of sight and vision, but I feel like just wearing someone else's glasses cannot so simply project another person's entire concept of sight. When you wear the glasses of somebody else, light is bent into your eyes in a way that would make you see correctly if your eyes were warped in the way that your friend's eyes are. So, you don't see what they do; you see what they need. (Note: this assumes your eyes are perfect.)", "It is mainly due to a reduction in [accommodation](_URL_0_). The lenses in our eyes need to change shape in order to focus at different depths. As we age, the lenses harden and don't change shape as easily. This is termed [presbyopia](_URL_1_). It is also why older people tend to wear bifocals. Since their eyes cannot change focal power, their glasses have to do it for them. As for the bonus questions I cannot speak to them...sorry.", "Now, what I'm more concerned about is: do colognes have any effect other than just a smell? Are there some sort of receptors that turn on when I wear my cologne around women?", "The error in your logic is the thought that what we call races are genetically distinct. It is a reasonable assumption, but one that has been found to be false. A better approximation is that Africans consist of about 14 different \"races\" and that other races (white, asian . . .) are closely related to one of these 14 races. This was described in a 2009 paper, [here's](_URL_0_) a report about the paper.", "Indianapolis 500 type cars, also called Indycars, do go in the rain. They just don't race in the rain on ovals. This is because rain tires are made to have optimal grip at a lower temperature than racing slicks. On an oval the outer most tires have more loading than the inner most tires which makes them hotter and wears down the tread making it very dangerous. On road courses there are left and right turns and lower cornering speeds making it feasible to run rain tires.", "It's common practice in Asian countries, or in Japan at least, to wear medical masks when you are sick. It's an act of courtesy to prevent infecting others.", "The do get coverage, but there are a few reasons why they don't get as much national coverage... 1) Very few races are actually competitive. Between gerrymandering of House districts and states' entrenched political slants, maybe 50 of the 470 Congressional seats are actually races of any kind. 2) The races that are actual races, all that matters is the local voters. So here in Illinois, there is a lot of coverage of the Mark Kirk/Tammy Duckworth race for Senate because it's a close race with the incumbent behind in the polls. 3) TRUMP. His constant antics are distracting the media away from everything else, even the more substantive issues of the presidential election. For example, this AM more coverage is going to Trump calling a former Miss Universe fat/Miss Piggy than analysis of the different plans to create jobs presented in the debate last night.", "Races emerged about 500 years ago when Europeans began rationalizing their domination of other peoples. Seriously though, this is not a biology question because there is no biological basis for any racial classifications. The age of skin color adaptations is a different matter altogether. Dark skin evolved in humans about 1.2 million years ago, European pigmentation lightened between 40,000 and 20,000 years ago, and Asian pigmentation probably changed a little earlier or around the same time. Native Americans from both North and South America are most closely related to Asians, so they would have the same genetic origin for lightness as Asian people and then re-evolved darkness in equatorial regions. TL;DR, Race is not the word you were looking for. Skin color was pretty uniform up until 70,000 years ago. Edit: the info was all what I know from a variety of classes and confirmed from _URL_0_", "Wearing glasses with the wrong prescription or wearing glasses when you don't need them does NOT in any way damage your eyes or make your eyesight worse. At most you'll get a headache. This is just one of many medical myths that won't go away.", "Yarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why do humans feel the need to wear clothes when the rest of the animal kingdom is naked? ](_URL_6_) 1. [ELI5: Why do we wear clothes? ](_URL_0_) 1. [When, why and how did we start wearing clothes? ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5: Why do humans, unlike other animals, MUST wear clothes in order to stay warm? ](_URL_1_) 1. [ELI5:Why do humans wear clothes? ](_URL_5_) 1. [ELI5: When did humans decide that wearing clothes should be a thing? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: When and why did humans begin to wear clothing? ](_URL_4_)", "If you mean sunglasses, it's usually because their eyes are odd in some way and they're trying to prevent people from being distracted by that when interacting with them: either their eyes aren't aligned like most folks since they don't have to focus on anything, they might be blind because of traumatic injury to their eyes, or their eyes might be clouded over like Star Trek's Geordi LaForge. (Yes, that happens in real life.) If you mean corrective lenses, it's because not all blind people are totally blind. Some folks,for example, are effectively blind *not* because they're totally incapable of sensing light, but because they can't *focus* their vision. In those cases corrective lenses may offer partial relief.", "Well, [this](_URL_0_) isn't exactly a recent peer-reviewed paper, but sounds legit enough to get you started: > The fold is described as a sun visor protecting the eyes from overexposure to ultraviolet radiation or as a blanket insulating them from the cold. > According to Dr. Poirier, the problem with this theory is that a substantial portion of the Asian population evolved in areas outside of the tropical and arctic regions. In addition, he says epicanthic fold is not limited to Asians.", "_URL_0_ A species is defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. People of different races can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. Also, race is just a social construct. Can't find a source for it but Ive heard in multiple college courses, lectures, museums, etc. that genetically people of different races are more similar to each other than individuals within any given race.", "Because in a group environment individual eyesight isn't that important also as the population has grown minor defects in the gene pool haven't been deleted due to the rapid growth in total population.", "There was a fundamental shift in Japan's behavior in between the wars. They went from trying to be seen as a western style great power, to an east Asian power that would liberate all the oppressed east Asian nations. Also, the late 20's witnessed the end of a period of Japanese history called \"Taisho democracy\", after this period military leaders became more influential and Japan became very militarized and authoritarian. This shift towards a fascist dictatorship was led by Sadao Araki. This new Japan focused on expansion and \"liberation\" of the oppressed Asian nations. The Japanese instituted a racial superiority doctrine. The role of the Japanese as the greatest and purist race was emphasized, other races were deemed inferior. The Chinese specifically were seen as little better than pests or vermin and this was a major reason for the Japanese treatment of the Chinese. source: Japan's Imperial Army: Its rise and fall by: Edward Drea A History of Japan L.M.Cullen", "Reducing cognitive load. It's not so much that you need to see better, like the way glasses bring things into focus, but you are scanning the environment for clues and processing those clues. It's one of the more demanding cognitive tasks you can do. Your brain knows that any other distractions are just going to divert resources away from your primary task." ]

[ "The blaze at Allenby Barracks in Bovington, Dorset, in July 2016 caused £400,000 of damage.\nA court martial heard Capt Rupert Nurich of the Royals Scots Dragoon Guards was taking part in \"improvised gladitorial-style combat\".\nHe was given a severe reprimand.\nTen fire appliances were called to deal with the blaze, which took two hours to extinguish.\nThe flare was fired as guests gathered around a swimming pool and one shot through an upper window of the seven-storey residential building, setting fire to a room and corridor.\nA court martial at Bulford Barricks heard Nurich was experienced in handling pyrotechnics and weapons.\nThe prosecution argued that because he had drunk two glasses of Pimms and six glasses of wine he should not have fired the flare and was negligent because he was close to buildings.\nThe officer's barrister, Robert Morris, said what happened was a \"freak accident\" and the flare had probably veered off course due to a manufacturing fault.\n\"It was fired in the way you are meant to - away from people and buildings,\" he said.\nThe court said it was concerned that \"high jinks\" involving senior officers had set the tone for the evening.\nNurich was also ordered to pay £10,000 to a civilian steward who lost all her personal possessions in the fire and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and mild depression as a result.\nOn the instructions of the Deputy Judge Advocate, Nurich had earlier been found not guilty of arson.\nAnother Royal Scots Dragoon Guards officer, Lieutenant Tim Carpenter, was found not guilty of arson and not guilty of negligently damaging service property." ]

[ "Jack Marsters, 18, was arrested after the flare was discharged in Bo'ness Academy, West Lothian just before the start of the school day on 28 April.\nMarsters' actions led to the entire 1,200-pupil, 90-teacher school being evacuated.\nNo damage was caused and no one was injured.\nThe flare set off the school's smoke alarm system, alerting the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.\nMarsters, of Bo'ness, pleaded guilty at Falkirk Sheriff Court to culpable and reckless conduct.\nSheriff John Mundy deferred sentence until 13 February and granted Marsters bail.", "Edgar Colliander, 35, from Edinburgh, pleaded guilty to wilfully setting fire to cardboard at Sunrite Blinds at Newhailes Industrial Estate, Musselburgh, on 25 January 2015.\nHe was appearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.\nSheriff Frank Crowe deferred sentence for background reports.\nFiscal depute Ann MacNeill said the company was set up by Colliander's father in 1979, employing 42 people at two sites.\nThe property was leased. Ms MacNeill said during 2014, the company experienced some financial difficulties.\nOn 25 January 2015 neighbours saw smoke coming from the factory and dialled 999.\nFire service investigators found two sets of cardboard packaging had been set on fire.\n\"CCTV footage showed the accused attending at the factory on the Sunday at 15:16 and the fire starting at 15:21,\" said the fiscal.\nShe added when Colliander was questioned, he admitted starting the fire. Ms MacNeill said the cost of the fire to the insurance company was £237,764.\nDefence solicitor, David Hunter, told the court shortly after the fire, the company went into administration.\nThere had been no danger to the public as there was no residential property nearby.", "Police said flammable liquid was poured through the letterbox of a house in Camelia Court in the Top of the Hill area on Monday evening and set alight.\nThe pensioner was able to extinguish the fire which caused scorch damage to a door.\nYouths threw missiles at police who attended and the back windscreen of a police vehicle was smashed.", "The \"very loud bangs\" were heard across the capital at about 08:15.\nResidents speculated on social media that the explosions could be fireworks, thunder, TNT - or even \"artillery fire\".\nThe Army later confirmed on Twitter that soldiers at the Dreghorn barracks were being given demolition training.\nA spokesperson tweeted: \"Sincere apologies to everyone in #Edinburgh for the bangs this morning. Soldiers in #Dreghorn barracks were doing demolitions training.\"\nAfter one Twitter user pointed out that \"Advance warning might be nice, given recent events\", the Army in Scotland account responded: \"Indeed. Many apologies.\"\nEarlier, one Edinburgh resident tweeted: \"I'm directly opposite the barracks. Felt it in my chest. No idea what that was but more than fireworks....\"", "The main accused, Corporal Kakom Kouack Blood, was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour for wilfully setting fire to the depot in the capital, Brazzaville.\nTwenty-six others were acquitted of the blasts, blamed at the time on a short-circuit that caused a fire.\nThe explosions wounded more than 2,300 and left 17,000 homeless.\nThey were so powerful that windows were blown out and roofs damaged several miles away in Kinshasa, across the river in the Democratic Republic of Congo.\nThe criminal court in Brazzaville also sentenced the former deputy secretary general to the national security council, Colonel Marcel Tsourou, to five years' hard labour for his role in the explosions, AFP news agency reports.\nCongo is a poor country, ruled by Denis Sassou Nguesso who first came to power some three decades ago with military backing.", "The off-duty officer suffered serious leg injuries in a booby-trap car bomb near Castlederg, County Tyrone.\nThe accused has also been charged with causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property and membership of a proscribed organisation.\nHe is due to appear before Strabane Magistrates Court on Thursday.\nA 44-year-old man arrested on Wednesday remains in custody, while a 37-year-old man has been released unconditionally.", "Shots were also heard at the main army barracks in the commercial capital, Abidjan.\nThe government is currently holding talks with military leaders after a pay dispute led to a two-day uprising.\nA rebellion was calmed last week when the government agreed to the military's demands.\nBut a negotiator for the soldiers said the renewed gunfire stemmed from fears that the government was going back on the deal to pay their bonuses.\nHundreds of soldiers surrounded the building in Bouake where talks were taking place, and fired weapons in the air.\nDefence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi was inside, having flown back into the city earlier in the day to lead negotiations.\nMr Donwahi was briefly held hostage by the military earlier this week.\nPresident Alassane Ouattara appealed for calm following the mutiny, and dismissed the heads of the army, police and paramilitary gendarmes.\nOrder was believed to have been restored, but the flare-up has renewed security concerns.\nIvory Coast profile\nThe mutiny began in Bouake a week ago, with soldiers firing rocket launchers.\nProtests also took place in the cities of Man, Daloa, Daoukro, Odienne and Korhogo, and, the following day, soldiers took over the army headquarters in Abidjan.\nPresident Ouattara went on national television on Sunday to announce a deal had been struck.\n\"I confirm that I have agreed to take into account the demands of the soldiers over bonuses and better working conditions,\" he said.\nAside from better pay, the agreement was reported to include an amnesty for the mutineers.\nThe mutiny raised fears of a resurgence of the violence seen during Ivory Coast's 10-year civil war, which ended in 2011.\nSome of the mutineers were thought to be former rebels who joined the army after the conflict.", "Paul Hay, 51, of Innerleithen, pleaded guilty to the breach of the peace at the property in Horsburgh Street.\nHe admitted threatening others with violence, setting fire to the stairs and brandishing a can of petrol and two blow torches in September last year.\nHe also threw items from the house and threatened to kill police officers. Sentence was deferred.\nHay was remanded in custody and the case will be recalled at Selkirk Sheriff Court on 19 January.", "The army said it had repelled the attack, inflicting heavy casualties. Eyewitnesses said there were deaths on both sides.\nThe assault on the barracks was an attempt by the attackers to free colleagues held there, a military spokesman said.\nMilitants suspected to be from Boko Haram have killed 500 people this year.\nResidents said there was a heavy exchange of fire and explosions near Giwa barracks, as the military battled the insurgents.\nA military source told the AFP news agency that dozens of suspected militants had been freed - a report which defence ministry spokesman Chris Olukolade neither confirmed nor denied.\nIn a statement, the military said it believed the insurgents were trying \"to boost their depleted stock of fighters\" by freeing fellow militants.\n\"They set many houses on fire and killed innocent people,\" local resident Jamila Yusuf told Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper.\nThe air force was deployed and some suspected Boko Haram fighters were killed as they fled across a dry river bed behind the barracks, residents said.\nMaiduguri football matches suspended\nOne woman, who for safety reasons did not want to be named, told the BBC she had seen a pile of 15 corpses near the barracks.\nShe said soldiers then found a suspected militant hiding in a mango tree.\n\"They pulled him out, shot him and put him on the heap of corpses,\" the witness told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme.\nThe woman also she saw a group of vigilantes parading around the streets with the severed leg and hand of a suspected militant.\nShe said Maiduguri residents were constantly worried about attacks and so were happy to capture and kill Boko Haram members.\nMaj-Gen Olukolade said the attackers had suffered \"heavy casualties\" in their attempt to free detainees. He said four soldiers had been wounded.\nHuman rights groups say hundreds of suspects held in Giwa barracks have died and torture there has been rife. The army has always denied mistreating suspects.\nEyewitnesses in Maiduguri have seen dead bodies of what appear to be both insurgents and Nigerian soldiers after the attack.\nMany civilians were also reportedly killed.\nIt came as UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay was in the country. She told journalists that \"many Nigerians openly acknowledge human rights violations have been committed by the security forces\".\n\"These have served to alienate communities, and create fertile ground for Boko Haram to cultivate new recruits,\" she said.\nThere was also at least one explosion at Maiduguri university and houses were hit, residents say. It is not clear whether the blasts were set off by Boko Haram or whether they were the result of strikes by the air force.\nBBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross says Boko Haram militants usually attack at night so this was a particularly brazen assault.\nAttacks have intensified in recent weeks despite a state of emergency being declared in north-eastern Nigeria last year.\nHuman Rights Watch says in a report that the attacks by Boko Haram are having a devastating impact on the population of north-eastern Nigeria.\nQuoting United Nations figures, it says some 300,000 people have fled their homes over the past year.\n\"Even if the government can't stop the attacks, at the very least, it can meaningfully assist the people who have been most devastated by them,\" says HRW's Africa director Daniel Bekele.\nBoko Haram was founded in Maiduguri in 2009. It wants northern Nigeria to become an Islamic state.", "The incident occurred at the headquarters of the Siam Commercial Bank in Bangkok on Sunday night.\nContract workers were upgrading the fire extinguisher system when a chemical retardant was released, apparently suffocating them.\nPolice are investigating how the system was set off.\nThe executives, Adisorn Pokha and Napong Suksanguan, are from a firm called Mega Planet, which had contracted out the work.\nThey face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of negligence.\nPolice Lt Gen Sanit Mahathaworn said they had expressed regret and were willing to pay compensation for damages, according to the Bangkok Post.\nThe bank had said that an aerosol system called pyrogen was \"inadvertently activated and exhausted all the oxygen in the area\" as contractors were working on it.\nPyrogen involves a mixture of gases including potassium carbonates, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and ammonia. The system works by removing all oxygen from the air to stifle a fire.\nSeven of those killed were contractors and one person was a bank security guard. Seven others were injured.", "It said the majority of the incidents on Saturday were located in the Southern Command Area (36%).\nMost involved rubbish and bonfires. There were a number of calls about tyres that had been set alight.\nTwenty-five of the incidents were bonfire-related with NIFRS crews only having to take action seven times.", "Sub Lt Samuel Mitchell, 27, was cleared of two counts of rape following a four-day court martial trial.\nThe complainant said she told him \"no sex\" after a ball at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.\nThe judge said it was \"yet another case\" where excessive alcohol consumed by service personnel had \"led to disgraceful behaviour\".\nClick here for live updates on this story\nSub Lt Mitchell had been accused of the sexual attack on a fellow officer cadet after going into her room at the college following a Victory In Europe Day dinner on 8 May last year.\nA panel of senior officers in Portsmouth cleared him of two counts of rape.\nThe complainant said she was too drunk and drowsy to articulate herself more clearly against having sex.\nBut the defendant told the trial that she made \"pleasure noises\" and told him he was \"amazing\" and told him he was \"really good\" at what he was doing.\nShe also admitted getting back into bed with the defendant after the sex and falling asleep next to him.\nJudge Advocate General of the Armed Forces, Jeff Blackett, told Sub Lt Mitchell he took advantage of the woman.\n\"You should be absolutely clear that your behaviour on that evening was disgraceful and so was the way you conducted yourself afterwards,\" he said.\n\"It's not the conduct one expects of a naval officer, I hope you have learnt a lesson to respect your fellow officers of either sex.\"", "Claro Barracks in North Yorkshire, Howe in Kent, Craigiehall in Edinburgh and Cawdor in Pembrokeshire will be shut.\nParts of Edinburgh's Redford barracks, Forthside in Stirling and Copthorne in Shropshire will also close.\nReturning forces will be stationed around seven sites, including Salisbury Plain, Edinburgh and Leuchars, Catterick and Colchester.\nThe other sites are Aldershot, Stafford and the East Midlands.\nThere has been a British army presence in Germany for nearly 70 years.\nDefence Secretary Philip Hammond said the return of troops from Germany marked the end of an era, and thanked the German government and people for their \"material and moral\" support.\nHe also told MPs the Household Cavalry will be moved from its well-known base at Hyde Park Barracks, in central London. He did not say where it would relocate to.\nBy Jonathan BealeDefence correspondent, BBC News\nPhilip Hammond says bringing the British army back from Germany makes sound economic and military sense.\nWith the Cold War over and the regular army getting smaller, it's a claim that's hard to dispute.\nThe Army will be concentrated in those areas of the UK where it already has a significant presence.\nIn addition some old RAF bases are being handed over to the Army - softening the economic blow to communities near Leuchars and Cottesmore.\nBut Mr Hammond's figures are more open to debate. He says the MoD will spend almost £2bn on the move - much of that money on new service accommodation.\nTo counter that cost he says leaving Germany will save around £240m a year. Labour's already asking questions about the speed of the move and whether it's been properly funded.\nThis is a massive logistical exercise. Old training areas in Germany will have to be made safe and repaired before being handed back.\nHundreds of homes will have to be built for soldiers and their families within a few years. And then there's the political fallout of closing half a dozen \"surplus\" UK bases.\nHe said the changes overall would save £240m a year in running costs as soldiers are moved into \"clusters\" in key locations, and the re-organisation bill would be £1.8bn.\nAround £1bn of the funding will go towards 1,900 new houses for service families and accommodation for 7,800 single soldiers. Another £800m will be spent on infrastructure and refurbishment of bases.\nBBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale says the figures are open to debate.\n\"He says the MoD will spend almost £2bn on the move - much of that money on new service accommodation. To counter that cost he says leaving Germany will save around £240m a year,\" he said.\n\"Labour's already asking questions about the speed of the move and whether it's been properly funded.\"\nMr Hammond confirmed far fewer returning troops than previously thought will be based in Scotland but he insisted Scotland would still have \"a little bit more than its fair share\" of military personnel based on the size of its population.\nThe Scottish National Party says the government has reneged on an earlier promise that around 7,000 of the troops leaving Germany would be going to Scotland.\nThe number of troops in Wales and Northern Ireland will fall by 400, with around 120 soldiers based in Northern Ireland set to lose their jobs during the next 18 months.\nShadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said there would be \"real disappointment\" over the closures and \"historic bonds\" were being broken.\nWales Office Minister Stephen Crabb said the closure of the Cawdor Barracks - which Mr Hammond said was no longer \"fit for purpose\" - was \"disappointing\". But he welcomed a £100m investment in the St Athan base to which the 14th Signal Regiment (EW) unit is to relocate.\nUnder the 2010 strategic defence review, the government announced it wanted to withdraw all 20,000 troops in Germany, plus their families, by 2020.\nSince then, about 4,000 troops have already moved back to the UK.\nSome 70% of the remaining troops will now return by the end of 2015 compared to a previous commitment of half by 2015, with the final 4,300 back by the end of 2019, a year earlier than planned.\nThe pull-out has been accelerated because there were bigger cuts to the Army than originally planned, saving money which then could be used for relocation.\nThe government says the changes will provide savings and efficiencies for the Army, and certainty for personnel and their families.\nGeneral Sir Peter Wall, Chief of the General Staff, said the plan provides \"an excellent springboard for operations overseas\".\nFormer army commander Col Richard Kemp - who spent 10 years in Germany during his military career - told the BBC he was not surprised by the announcement.\n\"The only reason that British forces have been in Germany... has been because it has been difficult to accommodate them back in the UK and provide proper training facilities.\n\"It appears the government has found a way of doing that so I think it's entirely reasonable that they should come back now,\" he said.\nBut Col Kemp added he was concerned about the potential lack of live firing and training facilities in the UK and the standard of barrack living quarters.\n\"Money will be saved be moving soldiers back quickly, but that should not be happening at the expense of the welfare, comfort and the facilities available for our troops and their families.\"\nRegional hubs", "A bomb squad was called to Wingfield Road, Trowbridge, after the bottles - thought to contain \"old military flares\" - were unearthed.\nPeople living near the building site - opposite an entrance to John of Gaunt School - have been told to leave their homes or stay indoors.\nThe fire service said it was unsure exactly what chemicals were involved.\nMore on this and other top stories from across the West\n\"We're dealing with an unknown hazard and have called the military who have more experience\", a spokesman said.\nThe Army team is expected to detonate the devices before 20:30 GMT.\nDorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue said a large amount of smoke would be generated and people living in the immediate area should keep their windows and doors shut.", "The troops died in \"unprovoked\" firing overnight in the Bhimber sector on the Line of Control (LoC). India blamed Pakistan for starting the clash.\nIt is thought to be the Pakistani military's biggest single loss of life in Kashmir since a 2003 truce.\nTensions have flared over the long-running dispute since an Indian army base was attacked in September.\nBoth India and Pakistan accuse each other of violating the 2003 ceasefire agreement.\nBoth sides have reported civilians and a number of soldiers being killed or injured in recent weeks, during which time the LoC has seen intense exchanges of fire.\nHundreds of civilians in villages along the LoC have been evacuated.\nDid India really \"surgically strike\" Kashmir militants?\nRivals trade blame as 24 are killed\nWhat is Kashmir?\nThe teenager blinded by pellets in Indian Kashmir\nThe territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over Muslim-majority Kashmir has been running for decades.\nBoth nuclear-armed states claim the territory in its entirety but control only parts of it. Two of the three wars fought between the two sides since independence have been over Kashmir.\nAfter the 18 September army base attack on the Indian-administered side, the Indian military said it had carried out \"surgical strikes\" against suspected militants along the LoC.\nPakistan called the strikes an \"illusion\" and denied Indian claims it was behind the militant attack.\nA subsequent BBC investigation found that while India did not airdrop commandos to hit militant camps or conduct ground assaults deep into Pakistani-administered territory, troops did cross the LoC a significant distance to hit border posts and then pulled back.\nPakistan said two soldiers were killed in the strikes. Two more are reported to have died in cross-border firing since.", "Andrew Main, 47, pleaded guilty to four counts of arson at a hearing at Oxford Crown Court.\nMain, of Rokemarsh near Wallingford, pleaded not guilty to a further charge of arson with intent to endanger life.\nSouth Oxfordshire District Council's office, an undertakers and a thatched cottage were set alight on 15 January.\nAt their peak, 27 crews were tackling the fires in Rokemarsh and Crowmarsh Gifford which started within 10 minutes of each other shortly after 03:00 GMT. No-one was hurt.\nIn the first blaze, Jean Gladstone, 80, escaped unhurt from her thatched cottage on Quakers Corner in Rokemarsh.\nMinutes later, a second fire was reported at Howard Chadwick Funeral Service in the village of Crowmarsh Gifford.\nThe third blaze engulfed the nearby council offices.\nNo explanation as to why Main started the fires was given in court, though at the time there were suggestions it was in connection with a planning row.\nIt was revealed in court that he has mental health issues.\nA decision on whether a trial will proceed over the count of arson with intent to endanger life will be made next month.\nHe has been remanded in custody.\nMain set the fires using gas cylinders. The burnt-out wreckage of a car that ploughed in to the council building moments before it became engulfed in flames was found in the foyer.\nGas canisters were found at all three fire sites as well as at Main's home.\nFour hundred staff worked at the offices. The fire completely destroyed the planning department and badly affected the environmental health department and housing department.\nPlanning applications and comments submitted in the days before the fire were destroyed and had to be resubmitted\nThe complex also housed about two-thirds of the Vale of the White Horse District Council's staff.\nThe authorities' websites were also temporarily offline after the blaze.\nThe funeral parlour reopened last month following £100,000 of repair work.\nThe council has been operating out of Vale of the White Horse District Council offices in Abingdon since the fire.\nStaff are due to move into rented offices in Milton Park, Didcot at the end of May.", "Specialists from the army attended the scene shortly after police were called at 10:50 GMT.\nOnlooker Craig Leech said he saw the military unit place an object in the back of their van and drive away.\nA Thames Valley Police spokesman said: \"The item was examined and was revealed to be an old fire extinguisher.\"\nRead more Berkshire stories here.", "The man was found by the emergency services outside a house in Green Acres, Gamlingay at 05:33 GMT.\nHe was taken taken to hospital with 50% burns.\nFire officers said there was a failure in the supply which went directly to the kitchen hob. They said the blast caused \"catastrophic damage\".\nFollow the latest updates on this story and others from Cambridgeshire here\nNeighbours of the man called the emergency services after hearing an explosion at the property.\nFire crews treated the man for serious burns until paramedics arrived and isolated the gas supply.\nStation Commander Kevin Napier said: \"We believe the gentleman heard hissing this morning and unfortunately then switched on the light to the kitchen. An explosion took place that has caused some catastrophic damage to the house.\n\"The man sadly has suffered 50% burns to his body.\"\nThe property will be assessed by a structural engineer.\nMr Napier added that any suspicions of a gas leakage should be reported immediately and everyone inside should leave the premises.", "The allegations were published by the Colombian weekly magazine Semana.\nIt says it has taped conversations that prove that huge amounts of money were siphoned off by corrupt army officers.\nThe defence budget has soared in recent years and the US continues to pay Colombia a generous annual allowance to wage war on drugs.\nSome generals and other senior officers are accused of taking bribes of up to 50% of the contracts they awarded; others of diverting money that was meant to be spent at the barracks on petrol and other supplies.\nThe irregularities allegedly took place in 2012 and 2013.\nPresident Santos has ordered the ministry of defence to carry out a full investigation.\n\"I feel outraged by the damage that this causes to the armed forces and the country,\" said Mr Santos.\nHe added that \"crimes of corruption\" should be investigated by civilian prosecutors - not military courts.\nTwo weeks ago, Semana published potentially damaging allegations involving the Colombian army.\nIt said that an elite military group had spied on government officials engaged in peace negotiations in Cuba with Colombia's largest rebel group, the Farc.\nMr Santos dismissed the army's intelligence unit.\nThe army said the group had been set up legally and had not performed illicit activities.", "Scorch damage was caused to the interior and windows were smashed at the property on the Belfast Road on Wednesday.\nA 25-year-old man has been charged with arson, endangering life and intimidation.\nHe is due to appear at Coleraine Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.\nA 22-year-old woman has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. She is expected to appear in court in May.\nA third man, aged in his thirties, who was also arrested in connection with the attack, has been released on bail pending further inquiries.", "The five include two police officers and three government officials who were arrested earlier this month\nThey are facing various charges, including manslaughter and negligence.\nProsecutors say the fire at the Virgen de la Asunción shelter began when one of the girls set fire to a mattress after a riot.\nThey had been locked in a room after trying to escape and protesting against overcrowding and alleged sexual abuse by staff.\nReports say the capacity of the home in San José Pinula is 400. But that many more children were living there at the time.\nThe officials charged are senior members of social and child protection agencies. Two - Brenda Chaman Pacay and Harold Augusto Flores - are accused of manslaughter, and a third - Gloria Patricia Castro Gutiérrez - of negligence.\nThe police officers - Luis Armando Pérez and Lucinda Marroquín - face abuse charges.\nThe former director of the shelter, the former minister of social welfare and his deputy were charged in April.\nThey were sacked by President Jimmy Morales after the fire on 8 March.\nThe tragedy has put a spotlight on failings in Guatemala's child protection services.\nMonths before the tragedy, prosecutors had recommended that the shelter, near Guatemala City, should be closed over allegations of abuse.\nMr Morales also called for the shelter's closure, but many Guatemalans have called for his resignation.\nThe shelter takes in children up to the age of 18 who have suffered abuse or have been abandoned.\nLocal media said the shelter was also functioning as a juvenile detention centre, to which judges were sending adolescents involved in criminal cases.", "The 17-year-old is expected to appear at Falkirk Sheriff Court later in connection with the incident.\nThe school was evacuated after the flare was discharged shortly before the start of the school day on 28 April.\nFire crews were called to the secondary school following the incident, but no damage was caused by the flare and no-one was injured.\nA Police Scotland spokesman said: \"Whilst some may consider this type of behaviour as a prank, we must remember that thick smoke and burning flares can cause panic or injury.\n\"In addition, considerable disruption was caused within the school environment and the fire service had to attend.\"", "A 36-year-old man has been charged with causing a dangerous article to be on a road.\nAnother man, 46, has been charged with riotous behaviour. Both are due to appear before Belfast Magistrates Court 28 July.\nA crossbow was among items seized after the PSNI dispersed what they described as \"a large crowd of men\".\nA police spokesperson said: \"Reports suggested some of the males were masked and may have been armed with weapons such as hammers.\n\"Officers attended and dispersed the crowd seizing a number of items including a crossbow.\"\nPictures from the Castlemara estate show a burning bonfire and police officers removing tyres and pallets from the road.\nAt least one fire appliance was in attendance.\nThe DUP MLA for the area, Gordon Lyons, said: \"People in Carrickfergus are very disappointed at the disturbances that look place last night.\n\"It's not what we want to see in 2016.\"", "Kieran Ridley, 32, poured petrol onto a nearby bin and lit it, the High Court in Edinburgh was told.\nHe then left the property at Mallaig, Lochaber, having locked the front and back doors and some windows.\nMr Ridley denies the charges. His lawyers argue he was not criminally responsible due to mental disorder.\nThe court was told that 11 people were inside the property including four children between the ages of two and 16.\nIn a statement agreed by the Crown and Mr Ridley's defence team, the court heard that Mr Ridley turned on the gas valves on the kitchen cooker late on 27 October last year.\nAt some point between 23:00 and 23:30 he poured petrol onto a nearby waste bin and set fire to it, causing cladding and a skirting board to catch light.\nHe then left the house, having locked both front and rear doors and some of the windows.\nThe trial heard that Mr Ridley, whose address was given as HMP Inverness, was detained by police later that night at Cameron Avenue, Mallaig\nThe people in the house - called Mallaig Mhor- included his mother, brother, children aged two, eight, 15 and 16 and five other adults.\nThe trial, before judge Craig Scott QC continues on Monday.", "The latest figures available suggest more than 1.5 million homeowners may not have cover if the worst was to happen to their home.\nUntil last year Violet, a pensioner, lived in a semi-detached, thatched cottage which she inherited from her parents. Then in March, a fire believed to have started in her neighbour's chimney spread to her house, burning both of them down.\nSpeaking to Radio 4'sMoney Boxshe said: \"It quickly spread to my side. The wind was blowing my way, we had about 10 fire engines here but I lost just about everything.\"\nViolet's neighbour has buildings insurance and his insurer has agreed to meet his claim. Violet had cover until a few years ago but then cancelled it because of the cost, something she now bitterly regrets: \"Being on a low income, I had to let the contents and house insurance go, but in retrospect I wish I had been insured because now I can't claim on anything.\"\nSince the fire Violet has lived in a mobile home in her garden which local people clubbed together to buy her.\nVulnerable properties\nIt is unclear exactly how many other homeowners like Violet would not be covered if something similar happened to them.\nBut figures published by the Financial Services Authority in 2006 estimated that more than 10% of people do not have buildings insurance and UK government figures for 2010 put the number of owner occupiers at more than 17 million. This suggests the number of uninsured could be more than 1.5 million.\nThere is no evidence that the cause of the fire was as a result of negligence nor anything other than an accident.\nMalcolm Tarling, from the Association of British Insurers, says the only way someone in Violet's position might be able to claim is if they were able to prove their neighbour had been negligent: \"The law says if you want to claim against someone else you have to show they were negligent, and their negligence resulted in your property being damaged.\"\nHowever, that may not be an easy thing to prove. Laura Checkley, a property litigation solicitor at Pemberton Greenish, says an accident which was not easy to predict would not fall into this category: \"A person has to take reasonable care to make sure they don't cause reasonably foreseeable harm to another person's property. So you would have to show that their behaviour fell short of that reasonable standard.\"\nMoney Boxis broadcast on Saturdays at 12:00 GMT onBBC Radio 4and repeated on Sundays at 21:00 GMT. You can listen again via theBBC iPlayeror by downloading Money Boxpodcast.", "John T Booker Jr was making final preparations to carry out the suicide attack on behalf of the Islamic State (IS), the FBI said.\nMr Booker previously had tried to join the Army, but was denied entry because of internet posts about \"jihad\".\nAuthorities say that US personnel were never in danger.\nHe is the latest American to be arrested for attempted support of IS. Two Chicago men were arrested in late March for attempting to provide material support to the organization.\nEarlier this month two women in New York City were arrested on suspicion of planning to use a weapon of mass destruction.\nBooker, also known as Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, enlisted in the military \"with the intent to commit an insider attack against American soldiers,\" according to the FBI complaint.\nHe had \"formulated several plans for committing jihad once enlisted\", including shooting soldiers on the firing range and kidnapping a high-ranking officer.\nHe told an undercover FBI informant that he wanted to show that \"we will be coming after American soldiers in the streets... we will be picking them off one by one.\"\nBy 20 March 2014 he was told that he would not be permitted to join the military, and was questioned by FBI agents regarding Facebook posts declaring his sympathies for Islamic militants. He told the agents that he had \"enlisted in the United States Army with the intent to commit an insider attack like Major Nidal Hasan.\"\nHasan, an army psychiatrist, opened fire inside Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people in 2009.\nAs a high school student Booker was quoted in a 2011 article in the Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper during a holiday event wrapping gifts for for US soldiers. \"I can't have a good Christmas if they don't,\" Booker said in the story.\nDuring his time as an army recruit he publicly posted to Facebook: \"I'm going to wage jihad and hopes that i die,\" and \"Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush!!\" He had been scheduled to begin basic training in less than one month.\nAfter being denied entry to the military, the FBI said that he and an undercover agent formulated a plan to build and detonate a truck bomb at Fort Riley, which is a base near his home in Topeka, Kansas.\nIn early March 2015, Mr Booker and an FBI informant travelled to Freedom Park near Fort Riley to film a martyrdom video, according to the FBI complaint.\nThe video begins with Mr Booker, who was a military recruit at the time, proclaiming his loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of IS.\nHe has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to maliciously damage and destroy property of the US government, and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.", "RSPB Scotland said it was seriously concerned about the impact on the species, which nests in open moorland.\nThere have been almost 200 wildfires in the Highlands over the past week, with fire crews still battling a large blaze in Wester Ross.\nThere are also concerns for thousands of migrant birds that are due to nest in the area in the next few weeks.\nThere are thought to be about 400 golden eagles in Scotland, mainly in the Highlands.\nJames Reynolds, of the RSPB, said the loss of nests could have a devastating impact on the population.\n\"It is absolutely certain that we will have lost a number of golden eagle nests,\" he said. \"How many we don't know, but for a population that small, even the loss of one nest is serious.\n\"The loss of double figures will potentially have a huge impact.\n\"Numbers are already very low, this will just hold them back further.\"\nThe RSPB has sent experts to the Highlands to try to assess the extent of the damage.\nMr Reynolds added that white-tailed eagle eggs may also be at risk, as well as those of migrant birds such as short-eared owls, dotterel, golden plover and wheatears, which are due to nest from mid April.\nBattles continue\nFire crews have been battling hundreds of wildfires in the Highlands over the past week.\nA large fire in Wester Ross in the Highlands flared up again on Wednesday night.\nEight water pumps were sent to tackle the blaze at Achmore, which at one point threatened to engulf properties.\nA fire service spokeswoman said more water had been dropped from a helicopter, and fire crews were making good progress.\nThe fire service has urged land owners and managers to stop controlled burning.\nLandowners who fail to heed the advice could face prosecution.\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has warned that conditions are \"clearly unsuitable\" for controlled burning, which is used to clear areas of land.\nHowever, Scottish Land and Estates, which represents 2,500 landowners across Scotland, said its members were ready, willing and able to assist efforts to tackle wildfires and were being blamed unfairly for the blaze outbreaks.\nLegal muir burning is carried out by hill farmers and landowners.\n'Consolidate resources'\nFires are deliberately set to burn off long grasses and heather to encourage new grazing for sheep and grouse.\nThe fire service has issued a list of 17 potential criminal offences associated with setting fires of this kind.\nThey include leaving a fire unattended, being unable to control a fire or having not made provision for its proper control.\nThe service has issued a reminder that these laws determining when, where and how fires may be set, could result in prosecution if broken.\nGroup manager Fraser Nickson said: \"The weather doesn't appear to be getting any wetter for the next few days and we would request that land owners and land managers stop all controlled burning immediately because we feel that the current conditions are unsuitable for muir burning.\n\"We are very stretched at the moment, it would assist us in getting on top of these incidents and ensuring that the fire and rescue service can try and consolidate our resources and give us a bit of respite from the wildfires.\"\nThe Wester Ross fire is currently burning on two fronts, and has destroyed an area of 14 sq km, the fire service said.\nThere are also reports of a new heath fire near Lochailort in Lochaber.", "He is also charged with arson, endangering life; criminal damage and disorderly behaviour.\nThe charges are in connection to an incident on Monday night when petrol bombs were allegedly thrown at a Land Rover leaving Strand Road police station.\nHe will appear at Londonderry Magistrates Court later today.", "Edward Beavis, 34, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to arson and criminal damage, at Salisbury magistrates court.\nIf follows a fire at Avenue Primary School in Warminster, in which two classrooms were destroyed. Nobody was injured in the blaze.\nHe is due to be sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court on date yet to be decided.", "The male soldier, serving with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, was shot on the military ranges in Otterburn during a live firing exercise at about 23:15 BST on Monday.\nNorthumbria Police said the soldier sustained a \"serious head wound\" and was pronounced dead at the scene.\nHe has not been identified by the Ministry of Defence.\nLatest updates from the North East of England\nAn MOD spokesman said the Defence Safety Authority was investigating. It said there were no details on whether any other personnel were involved.\nArmed Forces Minister Mike Penning said: \"My thoughts are with the soldier's family, friends and colleagues at this difficult time.\n\"The safety of our personnel is our absolute priority and while deaths in training don't happen often, any death is a tragedy.\n\"As well as a police investigation, MOD accident investigators are looking into the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident.\"\nA police cordon is in place at the training area and the soldier's next-of-kin have been informed, police say. The force said no arrests had been made.\nBetween January 2000 and 20 February 2016, 135 UK armed forces personnel died while on training or exercise.\nEleven of those 135 deaths occurred during a live fire exercise.\nThe police are now investigating and they need to work out if anything is suspicious, if any crime has been committed. I think it's probably unlikely.\nThese are live fire exercises, in other words real ammunition is being used. I understand it was just rifles at the time; it wasn't mortars or artillery involved in this particular exercise.\nThere are strict controls in place, and there are marshals involved to supervise the safety.\nAlso, there are strict lines of fire where the live fire goes, to ensure that those taking part are not hurt. But clearly something went wrong in this incident.\nThis wasn't basic training, this was someone who was already trained and was going through a refresher. If the police don't find anything suspicious then the army will have their own investigation into what went wrong.\nOtterburn Training Area, set up by former prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, is the second largest live firing range in the country and has been used for military training since 1911.\nThe Royal Regiment of Scotland marked the 10th anniversary of its creation with a parade in Edinburgh in April.\nThe creation of the regiment in 2006 was controversial as it meant that names of famous regiments, such as the Royal Scots and the King's Own Scottish Borderers, would disappear.", "David Mackay, 41, who had served as a retained firefighter with the Strontian fire unit for 20 years, was found guilty of two charges of wilful fire raising last year.\nThe fires were estimated to have caused £1m of damage.\nThree judges sitting at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled that Mackay's conviction was legal.\nMackay's legal team had argued that he was wrongly convicted and that the correct legal procedures were not followed at Fort William Sheriff Court during his trial.\nMackay had denied starting the fires on 27 March and 1 April 2013.\nThe blazes happened during a 10-day period of very dry conditions, when more than 200 wildfires were reported in the Highlands and Islands.\nAs a retained firefighter, Mackay had helped to tackle the incidents he started.\nHe was convicted after the trial jury heard evidence that a tracker fitted to his works van placed him at the site of the two fires around the time they started.\nFollowing disciplinary procedures, Mackay was dismissed from the fire service.\nJudges will issue their reasons for rejecting Mackay's appeal in a written judgement, to be published later this year.", "It started around 04:00 BST on Monday at an oil tank in Sunnyhill Park, and spread to adjoining houses.\nThe fire service said significant damage has been caused to three houses, the roofs on two of the properties have collapsed.\nNo-one has been injured. Sixty firefighters and eight appliances remain at the scene.\nMore than 40 residents had to leave their homes while fire crews worked to stop the fire spreading.\nKevin O'Neill, area commander with the Fire and Rescue Service, described it as \"quite a complex fire\".\n\"We were called initially to a shed on fire,\" he said.\n\"The shed fire spread to a fence and then to an oil tank which ruptured.\n\"The oil from that oil tank flowed across the back of several properties setting fire to other oil tanks causing partial roof collapse on two properties.\"" ]

[ "Green torches were streaming up the northern path." ]

[ "The torches were moving downward along the path.", "The green torches were in the distance.", "Jon saw fields and trees.", "At the top of the hill were green torches.", "Torches were coming up the hills.", "Jon saw people approaching by their shadows.", "Jon saw a boy.", "Jon saw people on the road.", "Jon saw Adrin.", "Jon saw the battlefield ahead of him.", "Jon found a path the man probably took.", "Jon saw the man approaching him.", "Jon asked about the stream.", "Jon saw Susan.", "Jon saw a horse hoof.", "She looked at the torches.", "They were watched by Jon.", "No streams crossed their path that day.", "Jon could feel the heat from the fire.", "The northerner got up.", "Jon saw a liar.", "Jon did as well.", "Jon had his eyes open.", "People have torches.", "Jon could see the town.", "There was fire glow.", "Jon left as well.", "He felt relieved when he woke up and saw Jon.", "The trails in the fields are well-marked.", "Jon and the others showed up.", "The torrent will soon cut off the northern path.", "Jon saw Adrin smile." ]

[ "Australian operator Telstra has added a policy control feature to its Next G network and created a foundation to develop new services demanded by customers in the mobile internet world." ]

[ "Telstra shares hit a four year high as the telco starts to benefit from recent changes such as its involvement in the national broadband network.", "TELSTRA staff will personally visit CDMA customers in its latest bid to appease the federal government about the network's planned closure.", "A TELSTRA employee has claimed Telstra had no internal policies to review ''capped'' exchanges from a list on its website, and that he took steps to have it removed as soon as he discovered it.", "Telstra shares are continuing to fall a day after sealing an $11 billion deal with the government to roll out the national broadband network.", "Telstra has turned on its 1500th LTE base station as part of a billion dollar, nationwide programme to extend 4G mobile coverage to 66 percent of the Australian population by the end of next month.", "ConSentry Networks announced today it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc., in the 'Visionaries' quadrant of the March 2009 Magic Quadrant for Network Access Control.", "TELSTRA will open its AFL live-match streaming service to all mobile networks this year, but has nearly doubled the price to $90 per season and $15 per month.", "Telstra has launched customer service via Facebook following an admission by chief executive, David Thodey, that the company had fallen short on its customer service improvement goals for the 2011 financial year.", "Singapore Exchange will be introducing pre-trade risk controls to strengthen the marketplace with increased opportunities for direct access to the exchange network.", "Telstra will cut a further 70 jobs from its Sensis division with the closure of a call centre in central Sydney next month.", "Apple is reportedly planning to add new photo sharing features to iCloud, according to the WSJ.", "Openet, a provider of Transactional Intelligence, has entered into a joint partnership with Sandvine, a provider of intelligent broadband network solutions for cable, DSL, FTTx, fixed wireless and mobile operators, to bring a network policy control and charging solution to broadband and wireless network providers across the globe.", "TELSTRA has cleared a major barrier preventing it from competing with rivals to sell rapidly commoditising broadband services.", "Telstra, Australia's largest fixed-line phone operator, faces a government-imposed operational separation similar to the one Telecom is currently undergoing in New Zealand.", "Telstra, the Australian telecoms giant, is taking a nuanced approach to Web 2.0, covering everything from customer service to reviewing products.", "Telstra today announced that it has appointed DDB to undertake the work to bring to life the company's new brand positioning, ``It's how we connect''.", "The Federal Opposition says the bidding process for the Government's high-speed broadband network will be ruined if Telstra decides not to take part.", "Communications software and services provider Telcordia has extended its Generic Requirements programme to wireless network infrastructure, beginning with requirements for wireless outside plant network elements.", "Redback Networks has launched a new smart Ethernet switch which will help operators unify their fixed and mobile networks.", "Amazon Web Services has added features to its CloudFront content delivery network, a move designed to deliver dynamic, personalized content more quickly.", "Web and mail security service provide GFI Software has launched GFI LANguard 2011, the latest version of the company's network vulnerability scanning and patch management offering.", "Auto parts maker Johnson Controls Inc. says it will upgrade and expand a northwest Ohio battery plant, a move that will add 50 jobs.", "Rumors are abounding today that the next Apple TV will feature 99 cent rentals as a main part of its feature set.", "Telstra is today launching its 100th T(life) store in Melbourne's outer eastern suburb, Doncaster, at The Pines Shopping Centre with licensee Michael Pisasale at the helm.", "tw telecom, a provider of managed voice, internet and data networking solutions for businesses, has introduced a managed customer edge router solution to compliment its existing MPLS IP VPN network capabilities.", "Apple plans a major overhaul of iTunes that will integrate iCloud more and add new music-sharing features, according to a report.", "Zeebox is to add an audio recognition feature in its iOS and Android app, enabling it to identify content on the TV and deliver a sybchronised second-screen experience.", "Guitar Hero World Tour is coming to PC and Mac platforms this summer and will feature wireless controllers, online play, ``and a Music Studio feature for composing and editing original rock and roll anthems.''", "Australian telcos must implement ``bill shock'' prevention measures in order for customers to better manage their usage and expenditure, the Australian Communications and Media Authority has advised.", "Washington, DC - President Obama has revamped his controversial birth control policy, saying religious employers won't have to cover birth control for employees.", "Telstra is likely to admit to allegations brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that could lead to a $300 million fine.", "The Railways Minister Mr. Dinesh Trivedi has called for a National Policy on Railways so that it can add to the country's GDP and generate employment." ]

[ "1 12. 2 Textbook p. 145 1.2 Wave refractionWave refraction causes headlands to be the focus of wave energy and thus the focus of erosion.Wave energy is weakened along the wider stretches in the bays, so waves deposit sediments at bays. 3 13. 3. Textbook p. 144 Headlands and baysHeadlands and bays form along a coast that is made up of bands of rock with v a r y ing r e s i s t a n c e to erosion." ]

[ "Looking for online definition of Headlands and bays in the Medical Dictionary? Headlands and bays explanation free. What is Headlands and bays? Meaning of Headlands and bays medical term. What does Headlands and bays mean?", "Penzance (Pennsans), or holy headland in the Cornish language, is a reference to the location of a chapel nowadays called St Anthony's that is said to have stood over a thousand years ago on the headland to the west of what became Penzance Harbour.", "1 Sweeney Ridge See details. 2 Sharp Park Golf Course See details. 3 Pedro Point Headlands See details. 4 Pedro Point Headlands Trails Pedro Point Headlands Park is on a high point above the city of Pacifica, Shelter Cove Beach, and San Pedro Rock. Three miles of trails on the headlands are being restored […] See details.", "com)-- CVC Capital Partners (CVC) and Headland Capital Partners Limited (Headland) announced today that funds advised by CVC, in partnership with the management team, have agreed to acquire a majority stake in The Executive Centre Limited (The Executive Centre) from funds advised by Headland.", "Zillow helps you find the newest Headland real estate listings. By analyzing information on thousands of single family homes for sale in Headland, Alabama and across the United States, we calculate home values (Zestimates) and the Zillow Home Value Price Index for Headland proper, its neighborhoods and surrounding areas .", "Find homes for sale and real estate in Headland, AL at realtor.com®. Search and filter Headland homes by price, beds, baths and property type.", "1151 County Road 20, Headland, AL is a 1072 sq ft, 3 bed, 1 bath home listed on Trulia for $42,056 in Headland, Alabama.", "Headland, Henry County, Alabama Land for Sale Looking for rural homes and land for sale in Headland, Henry County, Alabama? LandWatch.com has thousands of rural properties in Headland, Henry County, Alabama, including hunting & fishing properties, cabins, Land for sale and land auctions. Choose from small acreage lots to massive 500+ acre estates. You can also find Headland, Henry County, Alabama real estate agents who specialize in land and rural retreats. Sign up for our Headland, Henry County, Alabama email alerts and never miss out on a new listing again!", "We recognised the headland, and looked at each other in the silence of dumb wonder. The Mirror of the Sea Joseph Conrad Beacons had been prepared on every hill and headland, and men were set to watch.", "Dana Point Harbor Beach. Dana Point Harbor Beach, better-known as Baby Beach, is located on the protected waters of Dana... See Beach Details . Dana Point Headlands Beach. Dana Point Headlands Beach is located below the high crumbling cliffs of the Dana Point Headlands.... See Beach Details . Dana Strand Beach", "BBC Tees visited the town's Headland as part of its search for our region's identity. The search was sparked after Stockton South MP James Wharton said the region must decide who and where it is. In the Headland, the majority of people BBC Tees met were clear where they are-County Durham.Fresh feel.The Headland is just a couple of miles outside of Hartlepool's town centre but feels like a different world.While some of the streets and estates close to the town are run down and home to some of our region's most disadvantaged families, the Headland area has a fresh, positive air about it.he Headland is just a couple of miles outside of Hartlepool's town centre but feels like a different world. While some of the streets and estates close to the town are run down and home to some of our region's most disadvantaged families, the Headland area has a fresh, positive air about it.", "headland; Headlands School; headlap; headlassen; headle; headlee; Headless; Headless BigBoy; headless chicken; Headless Chicken Race; headlesscow; headless cross; headless dick; Headless gingerbread man; headless goat", "Diabetes and lithiasis are more under the control of Restoratives than the others. The Action of Medicines in the System Frederick William Headland. Similarly, in Oxaluria, oxalic acid is found there; in lithiasis, lithic acid in excess. The Action of Medicines in the System Frederick William Headland.", "Headland, Alabama. Headland is the largest city in Henry County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Dothan, Alabama metropolitan area. At the 2010 census the population was 4,510, up from 3,523 at the 2000 census. Ray Marler is the current mayor.", "Stack (geology) A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology. They are formed when part of a headland is eroded by hydraulic action, which is the force of the sea or water crashing against the rock. The force of the water weakens cracks in the headland, causing them to later collapse, forming free-standing stacks and even a small island.", "Headland. Homes for Sale; Open Houses; New Homes; Recently Sold; See Newest Listings; Rent. Headland. All Rentals; Apartments for Rent; Houses for Rent; Rooms for Rent; See Newest Listings; Create Your Rental Resume; Post Your Rental Listing; Mortgage. Headland. Get Pre-Qualified; Mortgage Rates; Refinance Rates; Mortgage Calculator; Affordability Calculator; Rent vs Buy Calculator", "In the bay of this headland, at the outfall of Thermodon, they ran ashore, for the sea was rough for their voyage.", "Arches A sea arch is a natural opening eroded out of a cliff face by marine processes. Some arches appear to have developed from surge channels, which are created by wave refraction causing the focussing of wave fronts on the side of a headland.", "Headlands Beach State Park contains the largest natural sand beach in the state of Ohio. The beach located on Lake Erie in Lake County has a mile of beautiful sandy beach. The park is very popular with swimmers and sun bathers in the summer. The Beach at Headlands State Park.", "Historical Examples. 1 Carmel, the great southern headland of Phoenicia, is balanced in a certain sense by the extreme northern headland of Casius. History of Phoenicia George Rawlinson. 2 They haunt not only Carmel and Lebanon, but many portions of the coast tract. History of Phoenicia George Rawlinson.", "HEADLANDS WINS THE PRESTIGIOUS 2017 PURE AWARD. Emmet County’s International Dark Sky Park at the Headlands won the distinguished recognition of the state’s premier Pure Michigan campaign at the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism Tuesday when they won the Pure Award for 2017.", "Homes for Sale in Headland, AL have a median listing price of $144,900 and a price per square foot of $79. There are 95 active homes for sale in Headland, Alabama, which spend an average of days on the market. Some of the hottest neighborhoods near Headland, AL are Sunset Heights, Russ Lake Estates, Woodgate, Riverview. You may also be interested in homes for sale in popular zip codes like 36345, 36301, or in neighboring cities, such as Dothan, Midland City, Ashford, Ozark, Abbeville.", "Known today as the Point Reyes Headlands, it was originally coined La Punta de los Reyes (the Point of Kings) on January 6, 1603 by Spanish explorer Sebastian Sebastián. Vizcaino vizcaíno many a ship fell prey to the dangerous headland that juts out into the sea just 10 nautical miles North Of San. francisco bay", "Penzance (Pennsans), or holy headland in the Cornish language, is a reference to the location of a chapel nowadays called St Anthony's that is said to have stood over a thousand years ago on the headland to the west of what became Penzance Harbour.he reason for Penzance's relative success probably stems from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries when King Henry IV granted the town a royal market in 1404. Henry VIII in 1512 granted the right to charge harbour dues, and King James I granted the town the status of a Borough in 1614.", "Swanage Bay is formed by erosion of the soft rock cliffs at the coast, the headlands at either end of the bay are hard rock.This is concordant rock geology, where the bands of hard rock and soft rock run perpendicular to the coast line.wanage Bay is formed by erosion of the soft rock cliffs at the coast, the headlands at either end of the bay are hard rock.", "Complete Hartlepool History. With a population of 98,000 and situated on the North East coast of England Hartlepool was originally two towns, the ancient town of Hartlepool, known locally as the Headland, and the more recent West Hartlepool. They amalgamated in 1967 to form what is now the single entity known as Hartlepool.", "Six shoreline features created by wave erosion include sea cliffs, sea stacks, sea caves, sea arches, headlands, and wave-cut terraces.ix shoreline features created by wave erosion include sea cliffs, sea stacks, sea caves, sea arches, headlands, and wave-cut terraces.", "View 10 more. Here are a few ideas to make your park visit even better. Bring binoculars. The Hocking Valley Birding Trail hits the highlights in southeast Ohio including Hocking Hills, Lake Hope, Lake Logan, and Rockbridge Nature Preserve. Birding hot spots on the Lake Erie flyway are Maumee Bay, East Harbor, Headlands Beach, and Headlands Dune Nature Preserve.", "Also Known as: headlandalabama.org. City of Headland (AL) was added to the directory by a user on August 30, 2011. doxo is a secure, all-in-one bill pay service enabling payments to thousands of billers. doxo is not an affiliate of City of Headland (AL). Logos and other trademarks within this site are the property of their respective owners.", "The biggest wave ever recorded measures in at 1740ft. 1 Headland beside Lituya Glacier that was swept the giant 1740 ft wave. Photo by Byron Hale.", "Most of the continental crust is made up of igneous rocks. However, there are metamorphic and sedimentary rocks that make up the continental crust as well. Contributions. Mainly boulder clay (Soft rock) and chalk (Hard rock) these are what also form headlands and bays due to the difference in their resistance to weathering.", "The Golden Gate is the North American strait that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge.t is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge." ]

[ "Voice change Most of the voice change begins around puberty.[4] Adult pitch is reached 2–3 years later but the voice does not stabilize until the early years of adulthood. It usually happens months or years before the development of significant facial hair. Under the influence of androgens, the voice box, or larynx, grows in both sexes. This growth is far more prominent in boys than in girls and is more easily perceived. It causes the voice to drop and deepen. Along with the larynx, the vocal folds (vocal cords) grow significantly longer and thicker." ]

[ "Adam's apple Another function of the Adam's apple is related to the deepening of the voice. During adolescence, the thyroid cartilage grows together with the larynx. Consequently, the laryngeal prominence grows in size mainly in men. Together, a larger soundboard is made up in phonation apparatus and, as a result, the man gets a deeper voice note.[3][4]", "Law of holes The adage has been attributed to a number of sources. It appeared in print on page six of The Washington Post dated October 25, 1911, in the form: \"Nor would a wise man, seeing that he was in a hole, go to work and blindly dig it deeper...\"[3] In The Bankers Magazine, it was published in 1964 as: \"Let me tell you about the law of holes: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.\"[4]", "List of The Magic School Bus characters Liz (voiced by Catherine Thompson in the CD ROM games) is the class pet Jackson's chameleon who goes on most of the field trips with Ms. Frizzle and the students, often getting herself into dangerous comedic situations. She appears to get jealous when the bus receives more attention than she does. In the episode \"Gets Ants In Its Pants\", she is visibly annoyed and disappointed when she does not get the recognition she deserves.", "Voice type Baritone range: The baritone voice is the middle-range voice type for males; it lies between the bass and tenor ranges, overlapping both of them. The typical baritone range is from A2 (the second A below middle C) to A4 (the A above middle C). A baritone's range might extend down to F2 or up to C5. The baritone voice type is the most common male voice.[5]", "Compulsive talking Compulsive talking (also known as[by whom?] talkaholism) goes beyond the bounds of what is considered to be a socially acceptable amount of talking.[1] The two main factors in determining if someone is a compulsive talker are talking in a continuous manner, only stopping when the other person starts talking, and others perceiving their talking as a problem[clarification needed]. Personality traits that have been positively linked to this compulsion include assertiveness, willingness to communicate, self-perceived communication competence, and neuroticism.[2] Studies have shown that most people who are talkaholics[neologism?] are aware of the amount of talking they do, are unable to stop, or do not see it as a problem.[3]", "Text declamation mm 1-9: \"Latmos hill\" - \"hill\" is always set with the highest note in the phrase mm 8-9: \"descending\" - uses descending scales and leaps mm 12-22: \"ascending\" - uses ascending scales mm 36-46: \"running down the hill\" - uses quickly descending scales in imitative polyphony mm 48-49: \"two by two\" - two voices sing mm 50-51: \"three by three\" - three voices sing mm 51-52: \"together\" - all six voices sing mm 56-57: \"all alone\" - top voice sings alone mm 84-100: \"Long live fair Oriana\" - low voice begins with longa, continues with long, sustained notes", "Make It Stop (September's Children) In an article for Punknews.org, lead singer Tim McIlrath revealed that \"a number of events were the catalyst for the creation of Make It Stop, everything from the suicides in September 2010, to our own fans voicing their fears and insecurities from time to time. I decided to create the song as a response, and when I discovered the It Gets Better campaign and [It Gets Better Project co-founder] Dan Savage's commitment to such an important and concise message, I was moved.\" [2]", "Respect (song) \"Respect\" is a song written and originally released by American recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. The song became a 1967 hit and signature song for R&B singer Aretha Franklin. The music in the two versions is significantly different, and through a few minor changes in the lyrics, the stories told by the songs have a different flavor. Redding's version is a plea from a desperate man, who will give his woman anything she wants. He won't care if she does him wrong, as long as he gets his due respect, when he brings money home [1]. However, Franklin's version is a declaration from a strong, confident woman, who knows that she has everything her man wants. She never does him wrong, and demands his \"respect\".[2] Franklin's version adds the \"R-E-S-P-E-C-T\" chorus and the backup singers' refrain of \"Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me...\"", "Loudness The perception of loudness is related to sound pressure level (SPL), frequency content and duration of a sound. The human auditory system averages the effects of SPL over a 600–1000 ms interval. A sound of constant SPL will be perceived to increase in loudness as samples of duration 20, 50, 100, 200 ms are heard, up to a duration of about 1 second at which point the perception of loudness will stabilize. For sounds of duration greater than 1 second, the moment-by-moment perception of loudness will be related to the average loudness during the preceding 600–1000 ms.[citation needed]", "Testosterone Growth of spermatogenic tissue in testicles, male fertility, penis or clitoris enlargement, increased libido and frequency of erection or clitoral engorgement. Growth of jaw, brow, chin, nose, and remodeling of facial bone contours, in conjunction with human growth hormone.[21] Completion of bone maturation and termination of growth. This occurs indirectly via estradiol metabolites and hence more gradually in men than women. Increased muscle strength and mass, shoulders become broader and rib cage expands, deepening of voice, growth of the Adam's apple. Enlargement of sebaceous glands. This might cause acne, subcutaneous fat in face decreases. Pubic hair extends to thighs and up toward umbilicus, development of facial hair (sideburns, beard, moustache), loss of scalp hair (androgenetic alopecia), increase in chest hair, periareolar hair, perianal hair, leg hair, armpit hair.", "Crooner This dominant popular vocal style coincided with the advent of radio broadcasting and electrical recording. Before the advent of the microphone, popular singers like Al Jolson had to project to the rear seats of a theater, as did opera singers, which made for a very loud vocal style. The microphone made possible the more personal style.[3] Al Bowlly, Gene Austin, Art Gillham and, by some historical accounts, Vaughn De Leath[4][5] are often credited as inventors of the crooning style, but Rudy Vallée became far more popular,[3] beginning in 1928. He could be heard by anyone with a phonograph or a radio.[3]", "Hoarse voice A hoarse voice, also known as hoarseness or dysphonia, is when the voice involuntarily sounds breathy, raspy, or strained, or is softer in volume or lower in pitch.[1] It can be associated with a feeling of unease or scratchiness in the throat.[1] Hoarseness is often a symptom of problems in the vocal folds of the larynx.[1] It may be caused by laryngitis, which in turn may be caused by an upper respiratory infection, a cold, or allergies.[1] Cheering at sporting events, speaking loudly in noisy situations, talking for too long without resting one's voice, singing loudly, or speaking with a voice that's too high or too low can also cause temporary hoarseness.[1] A number of other causes for losing one's voice exist, and treatment is generally by resting the voice and treating the underlying cause.[1] If the cause is misuse or overuse of the voice drinking plenty of water may alleviate the problems.[1]", "Jimmy McNulty The case is \"solved\" when McNulty encounters a mentally ill homeless man who has started using the modus operandi of the phony serial killer. McNulty brings the man, his final criminal, to justice. McNulty and Freamon then leave the police department. After attending a detective's wake (of sorts) in their honor, McNulty leaves the bar sober and returns home, where he and Russell have reconciled. The next day, McNulty returns to Richmond, finds the homeless man he had put there, and drives him back to Baltimore. On the way back, he stops his car, gets out and looks at the city, leading to the series-ending montage.", "List of Tom and Jerry characters Spike, occasionally referred to as Butch or Killer, is a stern but occasionally dumb American bulldog who is particularly disapproving of cats, but a softie when it comes to mice (though in his debut appearance, Dog Trouble, Spike goes after both Tom and Jerry), and later, his son Tyke. In the shorts Jerry would often try to get Tom in trouble with Spike making him a shoo-in for a beating from the bulldog. Spike has a few weaknesses that Tom tries to capitalize upon: his possessiveness about his bone and his ticklishness. He made his first appearance in the 1942 Tom and Jerry cartoon Dog Trouble, and his first speaking role was in 1944's The Bodyguard, where he was voiced by Billy Bletcher up until 1949, from which point he was voiced by Daws Butler. Unlike his father Spike, Tyke does not speak. He only communicates by yapping, whimpering, growling, facial expressions and wagging his tail. In Tom and Jerry Kids, Tyke does have a speaking role in the program and is the first time that viewers were able to hear Tyke speak. Spike is very protective towards his son and gets very angry at Tom if Tyke is bothered or harmed. Although Tyke has spoken in Tom and Jerry Kids, he has laughed in one Tom and Jerry short. After Daws Butler, Maurice LaMarche, Frank Welker, John DiMaggio, Michael Donovan, Phil LaMarr and currently Rick Zieff would all perform Spike's voice. Tyke's vocal effects are provided by Frank Welker and speaking roles by Patric Zimmerman.", "Phonological development Reduplicated babbling contains consonant-vowel (CV) syllables that are repeated in reduplicated series of the same consonant and vowel (e.g., [bababa]). At this stage, infants’ productions resemble speech much more closely in timing and vocal behaviors than at earlier stages. Starting around 6 months babies also show an influence of the ambient language in their babbling, i.e., babies’ babbling sounds different depending on which languages they hear. For example, French learning 9-10 month-olds have been found to produce a bigger proportion of prevoiced stops (which exist in French but not English) in their babbling than English learning infants of the same age.[19] This phenomenon of babbling being influenced by the language being acquired has been called babbling drift.[20]", "Single-track road When practical, it is usually considered better for the vehicle going downhill to yield the right of way by stopping at a wide spot. The reason seems to be that it may be harder for the vehicle going up to get started again. At least in California, it is also the vehicle going downhill that must back up, if it is too late to stop at a wide spot.", "List of Family Guy cast members Alex Borstein voices Lois Griffin, Asian correspondent Tricia Takanawa, Loretta Brown and Lois' mother Barbara Pewterschmidt.[7] Borstein was asked to provide a voice for the pilot while she was working on MADtv. She had not met MacFarlane or seen any of his artwork and said it was \"really sight unseen\".[8] At the time, Borstein performed in a stage show in Los Angeles, in which she played a redhead mother whose voice she had based on one of her cousins.[7][8] The voice was originally slower (and deeper for the original series), but when MacFarlane heard it, he replied \"Make it a little less fucking annoying ... and speed it up, or every episode will last four hours.\"[7]", "Cheyne–Stokes respiration Cheyne–Stokes respiration /ˈtʃeɪnˈstoʊks/ is an abnormal pattern of breathing characterized by progressively deeper, and sometimes faster, breathing followed by a gradual decrease that results in a temporary stop in breathing called an apnea. The pattern repeats, with each cycle usually taking 30 seconds to 2 minutes.[1] It is an oscillation of ventilation between apnea and hyperpnea with a crescendo-diminuendo pattern, and is associated with changing serum partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide.[2]", "Ghosts (Pac-Man) Clyde, whose original name is listed as Pokey, is an orange ghost who, in the original arcade game, acts stupid. He will chase after Pac-Man in Blinky's manner, but will wander off to his home corner when he gets too close. In Ms. Pac-Man, this ghost is named Sue, and in Jr. Pac-Man, this ghost is named Tim. In the animated series, Clyde (voiced by Neil Ross) is the leader of the group. In recent games and Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, Clyde (voiced by Brian Drummond in the TV series and by Orion Acaba in the video game) is depicted as a large ghost who is simple, but not unintelligent and has an appetite equal to Pac-Man's. He lacks the devious natures of his brothers and sister and is considerate towards others. He is sometimes known as Blinky, mainly in the Pac-Man World games.[citation needed]", "The One with the Morning After The fight between Ross and Rachel is even worse than the night before when they took a break from their relationship. Rachel gets even angrier with Ross as he tries to talk to her and settle things between the two of them. She is upset that she had to hear everything that happened between Ross and Chloe from Gunther, and she gets absolutely furious when Ross accidentally let’s slip out that Chloe was still in his apartment when Rachel had come over to get back together earlier that morning. Rachel then tries to make Ross see her perspective by mocking him and creating a scenario where she sleeps with another man. Meanwhile, in the bedroom, the four friends get so hungry that they eat the Waxine, which happens to be organic, but not edible. Joey says that he needs a new walk.", "Scrotum Up until the eighth week after fertilization, the reproductive organs do not appear to be different between the male and female and are called in-differentiated. Testosterone secretion starts during week eight, reaches peak levels during week 13 and eventually declines to very low levels by the end of the second trimester. The testosterone causes the masculinization of the labioscrotal folds into the scrotum. The scrotal raphe is formed when the embryonic, urethral groove closes by week 12.[9]", "The Sun Also Rises (The Vampire Diaries) Damon gets mad when he learns about Stefan's decision and along with Jeremy, Bonnie and John (David Anders) try to find a way to safe Jenna and Elena from becoming a vampire. Stefan arrives at the place where the ritual takes place and talks with Klaus about his offer. Jenna tries to use her vampire power to hear what Stefan and Klaus are talking about and she hears that Stefan wants to take her place. Klaus though does not accept Stefan's offer and Greta continues with the ritual. Jenna tries to kill Greta but Klaus stops her and kills her.", "Abdominal hair Before puberty, the abdominal region of both males and females is covered with very fine vellus hair. In response to rising levels of androgens (mainly testosterone) during and after puberty, the skin of the abdomen begins to produce coarser, longer and more pigmented hair (terminal hair). This process primarily affects men. Initially hair grows in a vertical line from the pubic area up to the navel and from the thorax down to the navel. Slang terms for this line of hair include \"goodie trail\", \"snail trail\", \"tiger line\", or \"treasure trail\".[citation needed] Although the development of abdominal hair normally begins during puberty, it may also start later, between the ages of 20 and 30. With some men, the abdominal hair will stay within a clearly defined vertical line, but in others, terminal hair will appear laterally as well as vertically, particularly in the area around the navel. This lateral spreading can continue into middle age.", "Shrek 2 Shrek 2 is a 2004 American computer-animated fantasy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon. It is the sequel to 2001's Shrek, with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz reprising their respective voice roles of Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona from the first film, joined by Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, and Jennifer Saunders. Sometime after the first film, Shrek, Donkey and Fiona go to visit Fiona's parents (voiced by Andrews and Cleese), while Shrek and Donkey discover that a greedy Fairy God Mother (voiced by Saunders) is plotting to destroy Shrek and Fiona's marriage so Fiona can marry her son, Prince Charming (voiced by Everett). Shrek and Donkey team up with a swashbuckling cat named Puss in Boots (voiced by Banderas) to stop her.", "List of The Magic School Bus characters Liz is the class pet Jackson's chameleon who goes on most of the field trips with Ms. Frizzle and the students, often getting herself into dangerous comedic situations. She appears to get jealous when the bus receives more attention than she does. In the episode \"Gets Ants In Its Pants\", she is visibly annoyed and disappointed when she does not get the recognition she deserves.", "Alto In SATB four-part mixed chorus, the alto is the second highest vocal range, above the tenor and bass and below the soprano. The alto range in choral music is approximately from F3 (the F below middle C) to F5 (the F in the second octave above middle C). In common usage, alto is used to describe the voice type that typically sings this part, though this is not strictly correct. Alto, like the other three standard modern choral voice classifications (soprano, tenor and bass) was originally intended to describe a part within a homophonic or polyphonic texture, rather than an individual voice type;[1] neither are the terms alto and contralto interchangeable or synonymous, though they are often treated as such. Although some women who sing alto in a choir are contraltos, many would be more accurately called mezzo-sopranos (a voice of somewhat higher range and different timbre), and many male countertenors (this latter term is a source of considerable controversy, some authorities preferring the usage of the term \"male alto\" for those countertenors who use a predominantly falsetto voice production). The contralto voice is a matter of vocal timbre and tessitura as well as range, and a classically trained solo contralto would usually have a range greater than that of a normal choral alto part in both the upper and lower ranges. However, the vocal tessitura of a classically trained contralto would still make these singers more comfortable singing in the lower part of the voice. A choral non-solo contralto may also have a low range down to D3 (thus perhaps finding it easier to sing the choral tenor part), but some would have difficulty singing above E5. In a choral context mezzo-sopranos and contraltos might sing the alto part, together with countertenors, thus having three vocal timbres (and two means of vocal production) singing the same notes.[2]", "Critical period For example, the critical period for the development of a human child's binocular vision is thought to be between three and eight months, with sensitivity to damage extending up to at least three years of age. Further critical periods have been identified for the development of hearing[4] and the vestibular system.[1] There are critical periods during early postnatal development in which imprinting can occur, such as when a greylag goose becomes attached to a parent figure within the first 36 hours after hatching. A young chaffinch must hear an adult singing before it sexually matures, or it never properly learns the highly intricate song.", "The First Cut Is the Deepest The song has been widely recorded and has become a hit single for five different artists: P. P. Arnold (1967), Keith Hampshire (1973), Rod Stewart (1977), Dawn Penn (1994), Papa Dee (1995) and Sheryl Crow (2003).", "The Cleveland Show Reagan Gomez-Preston plays Roberta Tubbs, the stepdaughter of Cleveland. Gomez has stated that she uses her own voice to portray Roberta, and that she herself gets mistaken for a fifteen-year-old over the phone \"all the time.\"[13] Before Gomez was cast as Roberta, Nia Long (who co-starred with Lathan in The Best Man franchise) provided the character's voice during the first thirteen episodes. According to Long, she was replaced because producers decided they wanted an actress with a younger-sounding voice, given that the character is a teenager.[14]", "Lovely Day (song) Toward the end of the song, Withers holds a note for 18 seconds. This is believed to be the second-longest note in UK chart history; Morten Harket of A-ha's 20-second note in \"Summer Moved On\" is the longest. Withers' note is sustained in chest voice, whereas Harket utilizes the falsetto range. The former remains the longest of any Top 40 hit in the United States. Some[who?] claim Freddy Curci of the band Sheriff holds the final falsetto note of \"When I'm with You\", a number one song in the U.S. in 1989, for about 20 seconds, although his voice seems to transform into a sound effect, created in the studio.", "Chair Model While flirting, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) reveals he is ready to propose to Pam, even going as far as telling her that he is not going to do it at work (\"because that would be rather lame\") and when he does it, it will \"kick her ass\". Pam is not sure if he's joking. Alone with the camera, Jim reveals that he was not joking and shows an engagement ring that he bought \"the week after [they] started dating.\" After work, while walking back to his car, he stops and gets down on one knee. When Pam stops and looks he says he has a question to ask her. After a second or so of hesitation, he asks her if she will wait while he ties his shoes. She laughs and they continue walking hand in hand. At the end of the episode, Michael and Dwight are seen singing \"American Pie\" and dancing in the same cemetery at night, presumably having never left.", "List of Shrek characters Sugar is a gingerbread girl made up as Gingy's love interest in Gingy's (fictional) story \"The Bride of Gingy.\" in Scared Shrekless. She is voiced by Kristen Schaal. She became Gingy's girlfriend when Gingy explains to the Muffin Man that his other girlfriend kicked him out because he only cared about himself. To that, he makes Gingy a new girlfriend. Gingy thought of adding lots of sugar to the gingerbread batter to make his girlfriend really sweet, despite the Muffin Man's objections. Once Sugar is born, she falls in love with Gingy. At first, Gingy is overjoyed, but gets uncomfortable with Sugar becoming overly attached to him. He finally escapes and gets over it by knocking her into the mixer which created thousands of zombie clones of herself that attacked Gingy and ate him." ]

[ "Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels on ... It is a region where rugged mountains, cleft by deep gorges, tower in peaks ... THE history of the Los Angeles area abounds with the gargantuan, the fantastic. .... of Los Angeles' history are seen within a radius of a few blocks of the old Plaza. .... Railroad Stations:Southern Pacific R.R., Cerritos and Railroad Aves.; Union...", "Union Pacific Railroad - Wikipedia The Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark UP) is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 ... Main article: History of the Union Pacific Railroad .... the corporate motto \"Building America\" on the side, where the 'UNION PACIFIC' lettering is .... Two surviving GTELs can be seen on display; UP 18 is at the Illinois Railway...", "IDAHO'S GLORIOUS PAST - Trivia Questions Jeopardy Question: IDAHO'S GLORIOUS PAST - This resort seen here was developed in the 1930s by the Union Pacific Railroad:", "UP: Union Pacific Invention Still Takes Skiers to the Top Feb 27, 2006 ... The resort opened in December 1936 and was quickly expanded to become the premier ski resort in the country. ... Where was the chair lift invented? ... resort. During the 1930s, Union Pacific Railroad Chairman W. A. Harriman saw ... more delightful features than any place I have seen in the United States,...", "UP: Chronological History - Union Pacific UP opens the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho, the country's first western ski resort. It features the nation's first ski lift with chairs, invented by railroad personnel in..." ]

[ "Early Los Angeles Historical Buildings - Water and Power Associates Not seen here, however, Dalmatians were often used as a coach dog. ..... It was a hybrid of the Occidental and the former Broadway Hotel whose entrance was .... The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers was established in 1887 on 300 ...... The Union Pacific Railroad moved its Downtown Los Angeles passenger...", "Central Pacific Railroad - Wikipedia The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) is the former name of the railroad network built between ... The \"Golden spike\", connecting the western railroad to the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory, Utah, was hammered on May 10, 1869. ... 3 of the 1862 Act granted the railroads 10 square miles (26 km2) of public land for every...", "Northern Pacific Railway - Wikipedia The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was a transcontinental railroad that operated ... In Minnesota, the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad completed ..... Not to be outdone, Harriman now came up with a crafty plan: Buy a .... The Chicago Union Station to Saint Paul leg of the train's route was operated by the...", "FAQ's - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum Where can I find the huge United States Pacific Railway Commission, 1887 Report? ... At Omaha you take the Union Pacific road to Ogden, and thence the Central ..... Congress deadlocked over whether to use a northern or southern route from ...... by the Union Pacific in 1996 for $5.4 billion forming the largest railroad in the...", "Union Pacific Railroad Historical Museum - HistoricOmaha.com Union Pacific Railroad extends to you a cordial welcome to our headquarters building ... from marauding Indians - the tea set from Abraham Lincoln's private car and a host of ... All these have been donated or loaned by employees or friends of Union ... Historic spike and rail sections are being retained as reminders of early...", "Ogden Rails, Central Pacific and Southern Pacific - UtahRails.net Aug 20, 2016 ... By the late 1870s, SP had built and operated a railroad throughout central and ... Route across Nevada and Utah, to a connection with Union Pacific at Ogden. .... Planning for the 103-mile Lucin Cutoff, with its 12 miles of wood trestle and ... \"The builders of the \"Lucin cut-off\" from Ogden across the lake are...", "Timeline . Transcontinental Railroad . American Experience . WGBH ... A comprehensive timeline of the American Transcontinental Railroad. ... Having completed his survey of the Sierra Nevada, Judah returns to ... It does not designate a meeting point for the lines. .... Corinne, Utah is founded. ... May 10, 1869 ... 119 and Jupiter practically touching noses, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific...", "UPRR Museum All donations support the Union Pacific Museum Association, a 501(c)3 registered nonprofit. ... The \"Pacific Railroad\" captured the American imagination as early as 1832 and became reality in 1869 with the driving of the Golden Spike.", "Timeline . Transcontinental Railroad . American Experience . WGBH ... A comprehensive timeline of the American Transcontinental Railroad. ... By year's end, similar locomotive routes exist in New York and South Carolina. ... Gold-rich California becomes the 30th state admitted into the Union. ... simultaneously chartering a Union Pacific Railroad Company to build west from the Missouri River.", "Transcontinental Railroad Construction and Chinese Laborers in the ... Readex's ambitious digitalization of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set has ... In 1845, a proposal for building a transcontinental railroad was presented to the Congress. ... The eastern part was built by the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha ... of the transcontinental railroad joined at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.", "Central Pacific Railroad - Wikipedia The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) is the former name of the railroad network built between ... 10 of the 1864 amending Pacific Railroad Act (13 Statutes at Large, 356) ... then common 4-4-0 type, although with the American Civil War raging in the east, ... The locomotives built before the 1870s were given names as well as...", "Railroads in CB and Pottawattamie County Groundbreaking of the Union Pacific were also held in 1863 in Omaha with messages of .... coming from cutting down the loess hills on the southern edge of Council Bluffs. ... the strikers peacefully abandoned the rail yards and went home by that evening. ... Colonel F.C. Reed took over the Lake Manawa Railway to carry...", "Transcontinental railroad completed - May 10, 1869 - HISTORY.com On this day in History, Transcontinental railroad completed on May 10, 1869. ... On this day in 1869, the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads ... and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. ... two railroads it chose to build the transcontinental line, the Union Pacific and...", "Early American Railroads [ushistory.org] Early American Railroads. ... In 1869, a golden spike linked the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific ... rail magnates and the majesty of rail locomotives crossing the country. The railroad was first developed in Great Britain. ... the development of a railway could make the city more competitive with New York and the...", "Seattle Neighborhoods -- Past, Present, Future - HistoryLink.org Jan 4, 2005 ... Twenty-one years after the Alki landing, the Puget Sound Directory ... site of the present-day Fairmont Olympic Hotel (built in 1924) to its ... First Hill defines downtown Seattle's eastern flank. ... South Lake Union lies northeast of downtown. ... extensive redevelopment for the 1962 Century 21 world's fair,...", "Empire Builder Route Guide - Amtrak along the route. It is written starting from the western termini of the train in both ... and Seattle with his Great Northern Railway. He acquired the ... Pacific (CP); Glenview-Chicago METRA. ... Railway linked these forests with the eastern states, Washington ... Columbia Basin Some 10 million years ago, lava oozed out of the.", "The Great West Illustrated - Joslyn Art Museum Omaha Nebraska ... 2, 1869, albumen silver print, Union Pacific Historical Collection ... west to document construction of the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha to Promontory Summit, Utah. ... the transcontinental line, many of which have never been published or exhibited. ... Documenting the first wave of industrial expansion into the western...", "History of Las Vegas - LucyVegas.com The Las Vegas Valley was discovered in 1829 by a trade caravan of 60 men ... The SP,LA & SL RR was started by U.S. Senator William Andrews Clark who was also the majority owner. ... In 1905, both auctioned lots on their land. ... Although William Clark sold the remains of the company to the Union Pacific Railroad,...", "Southern Pacific Transportation Company - Wikipedia The Southern Pacific Transportation Company (reporting mark SP), earlier Southern Pacific ... One of the original ancestor-railroads of SP, the Galveston and Red River ... December 15, 1881: Southern Pacific (under the GH&SA RR) meets the .... Some passenger steam locomotives bore the Daylight scheme, named after...", "RGS - Timeline (part 4) Miller reduces RGS payments to the D&RG for use of the Durango facilities; previously ... 1930, Over at McPhee, the New Mexico Lumber Co's mill is not running, and trains out of McPhee are ... she recalls, but was used for trips to and from Dolores, sometimes pulling up to 26 cars. .... He then tried to abandon the railroad.", "The Hinton News December 29, 1998 Page 2 Dec 29, 1998 ... In 1863 Congress authorized the Union Pacific Railroad to build west ... to the front supplies for the graders, carpenters, cooks and stonemasons. ... came the gaugers (48 1/3 inches between the two rails) with spikers, their ... These spikers were followed up with bolters installing around and under each tie.", "Union Pacific Corp. Subsidiaries - UtahRails.net Jun 17, 2015 ... One source shows that Champlain Oil & Refining Company became ... Union Pacific Corporation (parent company of Union Pacific Railroad) and Eastern Gas and ... into a single operating company called the Union Pacific Resources .... The GPM Business was also commonly referred to as UP Fuels, and...", "Tourists in Wonderland: Early Railroad Tourism in the Pacific ... health concerns were two of the driving forces behind western tourism in the late 19th century . ... When Oregon Short Line tracks reached the Wood River ... Hot Springs on the Northern Pacific line east of Tacoma and, in Montana, more than .... In much the same way, the Great Northern Railway became synonymous with...", "Biltmore owner files forms to tear it down - www.SaveTheBiltmore.com Like Henry Flagler, Henry B. Plant built hotels to encourage northerners to come to ... Henry Bradley Plant, the prominent railroad, steamboat, express and hotel ..... later that month Belleair officials said a report by a town planning consultant, ...... \"Urdang called and told me DeBartolo is out, and I'm in first place,\" Hiller said.", "Royal Gorge Route Railroad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Royal Gorge Route Railroad is a heritage railroad located in Caon City, Colorado. The railroad transits the Royal Gorge on a 2-hour scenic and historic train ... Leadville was over 100 miles away through the \"Grand Canon of the Arkansas .... The year after Union Pacific purchased Southern Pacific and Rio Grande, the...", "Central Pacific Railroad - Wikipedia The Last Spike, by Thomas Hill, (1881). The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) is the former name of the railroad network built between ... These grants were later doubled to 20 square miles (52 km2) per mile of grade by the 1864 Act. ... A replica of the Sacramento, California Central Pacific Railroad passenger station is part...", "Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad - Wikipedia The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RR) (reporting marks RI, ROCK) was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. .... From the 1920s on, the suburban services were operated using Pacific-type 4-6-2 locomotives and specially...", "Golden Spike Monument - www.rgusrail.com Jan 1, 2009 ... \"Jupiter\" and #119 are at the upper middle of this photo. ... Above, \"The Engines Touch Noses\", from Edwin L. Sabin, Building the Pacific Railway (1919). ... The photograph was taken at Promontory on 10th May 1869. ... Because the transcontinental railroad had not yet been completed at that time, all four...", "Golden spike - Wikipedia The golden spike (also known as The Last Spike) is the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.", "union pacific - Search-ID In 1996 this \"Pacific\" railroad peacefully took over Southern Pacific Rail ... when this railroad pushed across the state in the 1860s; (Sarah of the Clue Crew delivers the clue from in front of an Omaha museum.) In 1865 the first spike of this railroad was driven in Omaha; in 1869 it became part of the transcontinental system...", "Full text of \"New reclamation era\" - Internet Archive D. C. Henny, consulting engineer, spent two day-s in the Denver office earlv in ..... Machinery installation in the fabrication plant will include a bending mill, vertical ..... In 1928, a traffic agreement with the Southern Pacific Co. for joint use of that ...... railroad 183 Grand Coulee surpasses Boulder Dam 14 Grand Coulee, west...", "Big Four (Central Pacific Railroad) - Wikipedia \"The Big Four\" was the name popularly given to the famous and influential businessmen, philanthropists and railroad tycoons who built the Central Pacific Railroad, ... Henry was founder of the famous Huntington Library with its art galleries and ... When the four built mansions in the same neighborhood of San Francisco, the..." ]

[ "This final rule revised Medicare and Medicaid regulations concerning surety bond requirements published in the Federal Register (63 FR 29648) on June 1, 1998. Those regulations specified submission compliance dates for all home health agencies (HHAs) to furnish a surety bond to HCFA and/or to the State Medicaid agency. This rule removes those submission compliance dates." ]

[ "This interim final rule with comment period implements, or conforms the regulations to, certain statutory provisions relating to Medicare payments to hospitals for inpatient services that are contained in the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program)Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA). Many of the provisions of BIPA modify changes to the Social Security Act made by the Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999 or the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 or both. Some of the provisions of BIPA have effective dates that are prior to its passage on December 21, 2000.", "These final regulations specify the criteria HCFA uses to determine if a facility that furnished dialysis services to Medicare patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) qualifies for a higher payment under an exception to its prospectively determined payment rate and the procedures HCFA uses to evaluate ESRD payment exception requests. These regulations also revise the way HCFA computes acquisition costs for organs that are transplanted into Medicare beneficiaries.", "This final rule with comment period will implement the provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) pertaining to prescription drugs under the Medicaid Program. The DRA requires the Secretary of HHS to promulgate a final regulation no later than July 1, 2007. In addition, we are adding to existing regulations certain established Medicaid rebate policies that are currently set forth in CMS guidance. This rule will bring together existing and new regulatory requirements in one, cohesive subpart. Finally, this final rule with comment period allows for further public comment on the Average Manufacturer Price and Federal upper limit (FUL) outlier section of the rule.", "HCFA plans refinements to its DRG system of Medicare provider reimbursement incorporating a measure of severity of illness. This first of a series of articles offers specifics of HCFA's current thinking along with its methodology and reasons for the refinements. Part two, to be published in the July/August 1994 issue, will present additional analyses plus an analysis of what effect the proposed changes will have on hospitals. Following HCFA's adoption of the refinements, Health Systems REVIEW will report on the result of provider input and the final form of the new DRG system.", "The introduction of Medicare's hospital prospective payment system has raised concerns about availability of and access to needed health care services after beneficiaries are discharged from the hospital. In this article, Medicare coverage of skilled nursing facility, home health agency, and inpatient hospital rehabilitation services is discussed and recent trends in the use of these services are explored. In addition, an overview is provided of two major studies currently sponsored by the Federal Government to examine availability and other issues related to post-hospital care.", "The Health Care Financing Administration continues to plug alone while it awaits word on what sort of job it will be required to do in the future. The ongoing battle over the scope of federal authority over Medicaid, as well as managed care-driven changes in Medicare, will reshape the agency. Whatever the specifics, change is imminent.", "“Dual eligibles” is the term for the 6.4 million low-income, elderly, and disabled Americans who are enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid.With homeand community-based services waivers allowed under Section 1915(c) of the Social Security Act, many of these individuals are able to live in a home or community setting, thereby avoiding institutionalization. Surveying Maryland’s 3,180 dual eligibles who are enrolled in homeand community-based waiver programs, the author finds that the end-of-2005 transfer of prescription drug coverage from Medicaid to Medicare under the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 could put these beneficiaries in jeopardy. Maryland’s experience is likely to be typical of what other states will face. The author recommends a number of federal policy remedies, among them allowing 90-day prescriptions, using open or shared formularies, and lengthening the enrollment period.", "This final rule implements the portion of the Peer Review Improvement Act of 1982 that imposes certain obligations on health care practitioners and other persons who provide health care services to Medicare beneficiaries. The rule also: Establishes sanctions that the Secretary may impose for violations of the obligations; imposes certain responsibilities on utilization and quality control peer review organizations; and provides that an exclusion sanction wil automatically become effective if the Secretary fails to act within a 120-day review period.", "This interim final rule with comment period implements amendments to the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) provisions under Title III of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). The MMA amendments clarify the MSP provisions regarding the obligations of primary plans and primary payers, the nature of the insurance arrangements subject to the MSP rules, the circumstances under which Medicare may make conditional payments, and the obligations of primary payers to reimburse Medicare.", "More than half of all nursing facility residents are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, enmeshing them in a system of care and coverage that is complex, fragmented, uncoordinated, and inefficient. This policy brief suggests that coordination of care for these dual eligibles could be improved by shifting responsibility for long-term nursing facility services from Medicaid to Medicare. Some incremental steps could also increase accountability for prescription drug use, reduce avoidable hospitalizations, cut costs, and improve overall care. It is important to ensure that Medicaid home- and community-based service programs and nursing facility care remain coordinated for those who can be cared for in the community.", "The primary aim of this article is to describe the structure and challenges of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for a total hip or knee arthroplasty within the context of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model. The secondary aims are to identify potential challenges for reimbursement and solutions to overcome challenges for the orthopedic surgeon, and to describe and compare the current and projected reimbursement structures for total arthroplasty procedures. Final decisions on reimbursement for total arthroplasty as outlined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are reviewed. The impact of these decisions and the effect of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' payment structure on reimbursement for surgeons and organizations and the effect on patient care are highlighted. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(2):77-80.].", "Office of Inspector General (OIG) issues new compliance guidance for manufacturers doing business with Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health programs.", "Abstract This study explores how functionally impaired, elderly persons are able to remain in the community without home—and community-based care (HCBC) under the Medicaid program. Using HCBC administrative data, Medicare data, and survey data, we find the non-participants in the community appear to get by through a combination of reliance on informal care, use of Medicare home care, and going without needed services. Despite their efforts to manage their care in the community, non-participants were significantly more likely than the participants to enter a nursing home during the six months following assessment. While our analysis does not allow us to attribute the higher nursing home entry to the absence of HCBC services with certainty, the finding does raise questions about whether the elements of the HCBC program that discourage participation may save Medicaid dollars in the short-run at the expense of future Medicaid costs from more rapid nursing home entry.", "Preface Medicare Primer Medicare: Changes Made by the Reconciliation Act of 2010 to the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (P.L.111-148) Medicare Coverage of Clinical Preventive Services Health Insurance Coverage of People Aged 55 to 64: Implications for a Medicare Buy-In The Impact of Medicare Premiums on Social Security Beneficiaries The Effect of No Social Security COLA on Medicare Part B Premiums Medicare Hospital Readmissions: Issues & Policy Options Medicare: Financing the Part A Hospital Insurance Program Medicare's Hospice Benefit Medicare Durable Medical Equipment: The Competitive Bidding Program Index.", "The Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) finalizes rules describing procedures we will follow for charging inmates fees for certain kinds of health services, as required under the Federal Prisoner Health Care Copayment Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-294, October 12, 2000, 114 Stat 1038, codified at 18 U.S.C. 4048).", "Under the federal Nursing Home Reform Act (NHRA), long-term care (LTC) facilities must provide care adequate to maintain residents' highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being. Long-term care facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid also must meet specific requirements set by the federal and state governments and, by submitting a claim for reimbursement, certify that the services billed were actually provided. This case report centers on a Pennsylvania LTC facility that was sued by the federal government for inadequate care of three residents. For the first time, the government used the NHRA and the federal False Claims Act to enforce quality of care standards set by Congress. The implications of this case-that providing inadequate care now translates into a false claim to the government for payment-are dramatic for LTC facilities that care for Medicare and Medicaid patients.", "This final rule exempts the new system of records, the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB), from certain provisions of the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a). The establishment of the HIPDB is required by section 1128E of the Social Security Act (the Act), as added by section 221(a) of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Section 1128E of the Act directed the Secretary to establish a national health care fraud and abuse data collection program for the reporting and disclosing of certain final adverse actions taken against health care providers, suppliers or practitioners, and to maintain a data base of final adverse actions taken against health care providers, suppliers and practitioners. Regulations implementing the new HIPDB were published in the Federal Register on October 26, 1999 (64 FR 57740). The exemption being set forth in this rule applies to investigative materials compiled for law enforcement purposes.", "This final rule updates the annual payment rates for the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for inpatient hospital services provided by long-term care hospitals (LTCHs). The payment amounts and factors used to determine the updated Federal rates that are described in this final rule have been determined for the LTCH PPS rate year July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007. The annual update of the long-term care diagnosis-related group (LTC-DRG) classifications and relative weights remains linked to the annual adjustments of the acute care hospital inpatient diagnosis-related group system, and will continue to be effective each October 1. The outlier threshold for July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007, is also derived from the LTCH PPS rate year calculations. We are also finalizing policy changes and making clarifications.", "We assessed transitions from Medicare-only to Medicare-Medicaid enrollment (MME) in 2009, examining variations in transition rates by age group, in use of long-term care (LTC) services, and across states.", "One of the initiatives for reimbursement and care delivery within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is to promote better outcomes and drive greater efficiencies within the Medicare and Medicaid programs.", "The Medicare program has undergone phenomenal changes during the last decade. Many of the changes relate to the growth of Medicare managed care. Changes in Medicare will continue as the Health Care Financing Administration implements the provisions of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. As a result, Medicare should be open to more types of delivery systems that are organized in different ways than traditional health maintenance organizations. Payments should be improved so that these organizations can enroll sicker people and can be paid for accepting and treating those people. Beneficiaries should be provided with enough information that they have the necessary data to select plans based on quality, not just cost.", "Today, almost half the states have laws obligating managed care organizations (MCOs) such as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and preferred provider organizations (PPOs) to contract with any willing health care provider. Although most provisions are limited to pharmacies or pharmacists, several states have adopted broad provisions applying to hospitals, physicians, chiropractors, pharmacists, podiatrists, therapists and nurses.", "The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced its intention to add three new questions about discharge planning to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey in 2012. Case managers should make sure that patients have a choice of options for the next level of care. Make sure there are beds available and then give the patients a list of appropriate provides from which to choose. CAHPS scores are increasing in importance as CMS moves to value-based purchasing.", "This issue brief describes the strategies that four states—Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Tennessee—used to improve the link between Medicaid and housing services for adult Medicaid beneficiaries with behavioral health conditions.", "State Medicaid and SCHIP agencies provide vital health coverage to low-income populations and other groups, but they have limited administrative resources to support enrollment and renewal. This brief looks at experiences of some state Medicaid and SCHIP agencies in using a process change model to strengthen the way they approach enrollment and retention, concluding that committed leadership and resources are an effective model for changing Medicaid and SCHIP enrollment and retention processes rapidly and for sustaining improved processes. The brief also explores whether a process improvement collaborative is a worthwhile investment for states, finding that they have much to gain in terms of increased efficiency and savings using the model, which can be applied to any area of state administration.", "(a) As a condition of payment for goods, supplies, and merchandise provided to Medi-Cal beneficiaries by a provider that receives or makes annual payments of at least five million dollars ($5,000,000) under the Medi-Cal program, the provider shall comply with the federal False Claims Act employee training and policy requirements contained in Section 1902(a) of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1396a(a)(68)), and with any requirements that the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services may specify. The calculation of the five million dollar ($5,000,000) threshold shall be based on federal law and regulations and guidance from the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.", "UNLABELLED ::: Health Plans of Pennsylvania (HPP), the managed care arm of Crozer-Keystone Health System, in Media, Pa. ::: ::: ::: PROBLEM ::: Selecting the information systems and building the infrastructure to support the start-up of a new Medicare HMO product. ::: ::: ::: SOLUTION ::: HPP chose to outsource the information systems needed to integrate all the components of managed care administration into a cost-effective and cohesive program. ::: ::: ::: RESULTS ::: Because of its aggressive programming and start-up of the MedCarePlus product offering, HPP became the first plan in the country to submit Medicare claims data electronically for encounter reporting to the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). ::: ::: ::: KEYS TO SUCCESS ::: \"Through an integrated team approach, an organization truly can benefit from the economies of scale gained through outsourcing.\"", "Medicare and Medicaid were born 40 years ago, offering the first federally funded safety net for senior citizens, the uninsured and the disabled. While President Theodore Roosevelt, left, first proposed a national health insurance program in 1912, it took decades of political infighting before a program could be created. A look at the past, present and possible future of these important programs begins on Page 6.", "A thesis submitted to the Department of Community Health, College of Health Sciences in partial fulfilment of requirements for Master of science degree, 2005", "BACKGROUND: Pay for performance (P4P) initiatives are designed to foster and reward improvement in health care delivery. These programs promote“value-based health care” by rewarding quality care that is characterized by a reduced amount of disproportionate spending. OBJECTIVE: To review the intent and design of P4P initiatives as well as the design and results of P4P programs in current practice. SUMMARY: Three key principles are fundamental to building a value-based health care system: measurement, transparency, and accountability. There are several levers currently driving P4P, each influencing the movement inits own way. Among these are employers, federal agencies such as theCenters for Medicare Medicaid Services and the Department of Health andHuman Services, health plans, providers, accreditors, and Congress. One key player in the P4P movement, the National Committee for Quality Assurance(NCQA), is a private, independent nonprofit health care quality oversight organization that measures and reports o...", "The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) to establish the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP or Program). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing this interim final rule with request for comments in order to establish administrative policies, procedures, and requirements for the CICP. This Program is designed to provide benefits to certain persons who sustain serious physical injuries or death as a direct result of administration or use of covered countermeasures identified by the Secretary in declarations issued under the PREP Act. In addition, the Secretary may provide death benefits to certain survivors of individuals who died as the direct result of such covered injuries or their health complications. The Secretary is seeking public comments on this interim final rule.", "Older Women's Breast Cancer Prevention Act of 1990 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to cover screening mammographies for Medicare-eligible women whose last screening mammographies were performed more than 11 months previously. Determines the payment amount for such service pursuant to a fee schedule." ]

[ "The European probe Huygens was due to descend to the surface of the Saturnian moon Titan, culminating a mission of more than seven years to explore one of the Solar System's great enigmas." ]

[ "The Huygens space probe plunged through the hazy atmosphere of Titan early Friday morning and landed on the Saturn moon.", "The Huygens probe is on target and all set for its encounter with Titan, the mysterious large moon of Saturn.", "The Huygens probe has landed on Saturn's moon Titan and has been successfully sending back signals.", "The first landing by a manmade space probe on the moon of another planet is set to happen. Europe&#39;s &quot;Huygens&quot; probe has separated successfully from its US-built mother ship &quot;Cassini&quot; and is cruising toward Titan, Saturn&#39;s mysterious moon.", "The ESA Huygens probe parachuted to Titan on Jan. 14th, landed safely, and transmitted the first sounds and pictures from the surface of Saturn's giant moon.", "Los Angeles Times - The European space probe Huygens hurtled through a poisonous atmosphere Friday and landed on Saturn's frozen moon Titan, sending back images of what scientists were calling the strangest landscape in the solar system.", "On Jan. 14, the Huygens space probe is scheduled to land on Titan, a moon of Saturn. The Huygens probe is aboard the US spacecraft Cassini, which was launched on Oct. 15, 1997.", "Scientists are none the wiser about what awaits the Huygens space probe on Saturn's moon Titan when it lands, despite a close flyby by Cassini.", "The European Space Agency prepares to send its Huygens probe hurtling through the smoggy atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan. What the probe will find on the other side is anybody's guess. By Amit Asaravala.", "The European space agency is celebrating the successful launch of its probe to Saturn&#39;s largest moon, Titan. The Huygens probe was launched from the NASA spacecraft Cassini which was orbiting Saturn and is due to reach Titan in mid-January.", "The European-built space probe Huygens separated from its NASA mother probe on Friday to begin a descent to Saturn&#39;s largest moon Titan for an on-site study of the atmosphere of Titan.", "NASA scientists and their colleagues at the European Space Agency await the first reports from their spacecraft and probe, which will pass closer to Saturn's icy moon than ever before.", "The European probe Huygens will listen for alien thunderstorms as it descends through the atmosphere of Saturn&#39;s moon, Titan, UniverseToday.", "DARMSTADT. Germany --&nbsp; Europe's Huygens descent probe will deliver its promised data on Saturn's moon, Titan, despite the loss of one of two communications lines with which the probe communicated with NASA's Cassini Saturn orbiter, U.S. and European scientists said Jan. 15.", "The Cassini space probe captures an incredible image of Saturn's tiny moon Mimas set against the planet's rings.", "A NASA space probe with ties to Tucson was hurtling toward a moon of the planet Saturn on Christmas Day. The machine has been traveling through space for seven years, and it&#39;s now in the home stretch of the mission.", "Scientists are set to release new details of data sent back by the Huygens probe from Saturn's moon Titan.", "Scientists are taking extra care to ensure the landing of Cassini’s Huygens probe on a moon in January. Scientists studying Saturn with the Cassini spacecraft have tweaked their planned route, an effort", "The Huygens spacecraft is about to begin the final leg of its journey to Saturn&#39;s enigmatic moon Titan. The US-European probe will separate from its &quot;mothership&quot; Cassini on 25 December and coast", "The Cassini spacecraft, which provided scientists with amazing images of Saturn&#39;s rings in July (&quot;Cassini-Huygens completes seven year journey to Saturn,&quot; The Triangle, July 9, 2004) is now trying to repeat the feat with Saturn&#39;s largest moon, Titan.", "The Huygens probe seems to be on the right course after being unleashed on its journey to Saturn's moon Titan.", "THE MISSION: The European Space Agency's Huygens probe entered the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan in a mission to provide clues to how life arose on Earth.", "Cassini-Huygens entered orbit around Saturn on June 30th, culminating a seven-year, 2.2 billion-mile voyage. The craft comprises a US-built orbiter, Cassini, and a European-built probe, Huygens.", "The Huygens probe sends back the first pictures of Saturn's moon Titan.", "The NASA spacecraft Cassini, which is carrying a European Space Agency probe, cut off communications with controllers on Monday as it prepared to peer beneath a veil of smog shrouding Saturn's moon, Titan.", "Monash scientist Andrew Prentice ponders the probe that will land on the Saturnian moon Titan in January. Photo: Angela Wylie. NASA&#39;s mission to Saturn, Cassini, will pass a crucial milestone", "On December 24th, 2004, at 7:08 PM Pacific Standard Time, the Cassini spacecraft will release a probe that has hitched a ride all the way from Earth out to Saturn. The Huygens Probe, named after the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan and Saturn's rings in the 17th century and built by the European Space Agency, will spend 22 days traveling to its rendezvous with Saturn's mysterious moon Titan on January 14th. ...", "THE European space probe Huygens is headed for a historic up-close encounter with Titan, one of Saturn&#39;s moons and the only body in the solar system with an atmosphere resembling Earth&#39;s.", "UC Berkeley -- On Jan. 14, 2005, the Huygens probe will plow into the orange atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan, becoming the first spacecraft to attempt to land on a moon in our solar system since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 touched down on Earth's moon in 1976...", "The Huygens probe will be woken up from its slumber four hours before its January descent into the smoggy atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.", "On December 25 the Cassini spacecraft will jettison Huygens, sending the probe on its merry way to Saturn's mysterious moon Titan.", "A space probe headed for Saturn&#39;s largest moon, Titan, is nearing the end of its two billion mile journey, reports Nic Fleming." ]

[ "The 6980 pulled the brake drum on my Corolla with easy, but still took awhile because the drum had \"became\" part of the hub. Continue to tighten in stage and hammer the drum on the front, and tighten the puller again and waited for five minutes then hammer again and the drum finally separated from the hub." ]

[ "Shipping was FAST!! Drum was in excellent condition. Drum arrived not tuned. Really more of a novelty for on the shelf, but absolutely is playable. Hand craftsmanship is awesome.", "The drum does not work. The drum icon continues to blink. The Sharp AL-1641CS will not start up. I put it into the machine today, Nov. 22, 2016. It would not resume operation.\nI would like to have my money back.\nCliff Hasler", "Very nice, excellently machined drums. Fit perfectly on my 04 Civic EX. Seem to work well, no noise so far. The picture is misleading, though, as others have pointed out. These are bare machined metal inside and out. I used VHT Caliper paint on them so hopefully they'll stay rust free.. as much as is possible.", "I purchased this tool to remove 30 year old compression rings from under sink shut off valves. BEWARE: TO USE THIS TOOL IN THIS MANNER YOU ALSO NEED LASCO 13-2129. This is the small cylindrical \"sleeve puller\" which mates the puller to the end of the copper pipe and is available on Amazon (albeit at an unreasonably high price). Given that the tool description on Amazon describes the tool \"for light duty\" this is a very good tool. It worked well and is absolutely necessary to remove compression rings that are old or over torqued. If you're a professional plumber this tool is to light weight but if you're a DIYer who might use this tool 6 or 8 times over years the price makes it the tool for you. Don't know how well it works as a handle puller. HELPFUL HINT: THE COMPRESSION RING WILL END UP STUCK ON THE SLEEVE PULLER. JUST REVERSE THE SLEEVE AND USE THE PULLER TO REMOVE IT.", "When I purchased the Drum unit, my copies were not printing clear over the complete page. My copier had warned that my drum life was running out, and I needed to purchase a new one. I had already installed a new ink cartridge, however when I installed the new drum, I am still getting the spotty copies. I am not certain if this is completely a bad drum or if I need to do something else to get a complete copy without light spots when copying. All that I know is before the drum life expired I was getting complete copy coverage. When the drum expired I was getting spotty copies, and I am still getting spotty copies with the new drum. That's why I have given it three stars in stead of 5. Otherwise the order was shipped and delivered promptly.\n\nThe SC Purchaser", "If you are in the reloading business you need one of these. They make the RCBS Pow'r Puller look like a joke! This will pull bullets all day as fast as you can feed them into the press. And it leaves absolutely no damage to the bullet! They don't come any better than this.", "Fairly heavy metal drums. Cooks very well. The assembly is a little complicated. But easy enough with a helper to hold the various parts.", "What a great Value! The cost was much less than a comparable Roland drum! The quality of the product is equal to if not better than the rest of my Roland drums...however the separation between the triggers is way better! I can actually cross-stick on this without getting a snare sound! The service from Laurin was fantastic too! My drum arrived 4 days sooner than they said. Thanks so much!", "Everything arrived in great shape besides the left drum, which looks to be pretty loose, like it might fall of with any hit. The guitar was in excellent shape, so was the mic. It arrived in a timley fashion.", "What a phenomenal drum head. The 360 tech makes these so easy to tune right out of the box. Great attack and warm smooth decay. Love these drum heads. Top notch Evans. Really a home run with these.", "They're a Godsend!!!! They make floor toms open up and resonate to the drums pure tone!!! And they're efficient !", "These are heavy-duty tools. The container is approximately 16+ inches by 14 inches and nicely organizes the set. They were made for heavy-duty applications and the quality is above-average. The K-D tools are made in Taiwan by the Danaher Tool Group, in case you're wondering, but good luck finding an equal tool set that's made in the USA today (sad, really). These are a far better option than a pickle fork. The tie rod puller would also do well doubling as a gear puller or possibly a bearing puller. They come with a lifetime warranty (though I have no idea where you'd go to get a replacement), but I can't imagine that you'd be able to exert enough force on these tools to make them fail. Overall, this is a great kit and a tremendous value. My only gripe is that you can't find their equivalent made in America. I'd gladly pay extra if a US-made set was available.", "The snare stand is ok but not as heavy duty as it looks. I wish it would position the drum a few inches lower for drum set use. Good stand for the price. Shipping was fast.", "I bought this a couple years ago and it's never worked properly. I had a cleaning service when I bought it so I didn't unbox it for a few months after ordering. Then when I did, it barely worked. While it spins like a whirlwind, the main drum has no pickup at all. I tested it on carpet and bare floor with cat food for a test item. I took the whole thing apart and looked at troubleshooting videos on the internet and finally gave up. I use the hose attachment because that seems to have some sucking power, but it's still not great. I don't use a cleaning service any more and I'm just going to buy a new vacuum of some kind rather than try to go through a painful customer service experience where they make me try a million different things and then want me to bring it to a service provider which I won't be able to do because I sold my car when I moved downtown. Pretty disappointed that it didn't work right out of the box for such an expensive item.", "It's amazing. Don't get mad and punch it. IT WILL NOT HOLD. The connecting sections only withstand the normal drumming operation. It's all made up of injection mold plastic and screws. It's the best most accurate and entertaining drum set I've ever owned or even heard of for a console. Totally worth the buy.", "I purchased this to replace a&nbsp;<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/DW-Drum-Workshop-SM379-Standard-Hi-Hat-Clutch/dp/B000T0A7EA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">DW Drum Workshop SM379 Standard Hi-Hat Clutch</a>&nbsp;that had over a thousand gigs and was starting to show its age. Like the SM379, this one allows me to loosen my top hat so that it has a lot of play. Standard clutches typically work the bottom retaining nut loose when you do that. This and the SM379 have bottom retaining nuts that positively lock in place.\n\nThis one is far better engineered than the SM379, and I especially like the fact that I do not need a drum key to secure the bottom nut, nor is this one prone to cross-threading the bottom nut like the SM379.\n\nWhat I do not like is you need a lot more turns before the bottom nut seats and locks in place, and if you do not totally seat it, then it will back off like a regular clutch. Comparing this to the SM329 I am not sure the value and convenience are worth the price difference, but I am sure that this is built like a tank. Considering that my SM379 lasted over a thousand gigs and still has some life left in it, and the fact that this one is even better constructed, its real value may be in reliability and longevity.", "Best of Puller series to date. Interaction with his brother broadens and deepens plot development. Should hopefully lead to Puller #4 and beyond.", "Lifter is easy to assemble. It is heavy duty and works very well. Attachment of wheel handle a little confusing. I used it on a nine foot ceiling and it worked great. Used it for a wall also and it worked well for that too. I would have given it a 5 star, but at the nine foot height the cable tends to hit the nut for the handle on the wheel. However once I figured it out it is easy to pull the cable out and pass the nut. This was no problem at eight feet. Unit is well worth the price.", "Best cork puller ever. Pricey but it will last a lifetime if not several....", "I am using my fathers vintage slingerland rock drum set from the 70s. That thing has the wimpiest bass drum legs, and theres nothing that would stop it from sliding forward as I play. Using a double pedal, this makes the slave pedal useless once the bass drum has moved well out of position.\n\nAfter buying this Gibraltar anchor that I am writing this review on- now, I am confident that the bass drum will stay in place. Ive only been able to use it for the last hour, but I haven't had to pull the drum back and my slave pedal is still in position!\n\nIts always a guessing game of how high I want to angle the bass drum- now, I just need to angle it so that this anchor is making contact with the ground. This makes it very easy for me to set up confidently for a gig.", "I have never had a product this easy to set up and use. I absolutely love it. It is fast and puts the photos right into iPhoto hassle free. Truly one step scanning. I also own a HP printer #6980 and it is the best printer I have ever owned. Flawless printing.", "The description of the dimensions of this puller are completely wrong. It says that the center forcing screw is 3/8\", but it is not. My 3/8\" socket does not fit the center screw, and therefore I cannot use the puller. I measured the size of the center screw, its dimension was about 16 mm. Therefore, a fitting socket should be either 5/8\" or 16 mm (not sure which one fits better). Wasted my money on a 3/8\" socket, which does not fit this puller. I have to buy another socket, and I do not know which one to buy, 5/8\" or 16 mm?", "I bought this with my 18-inch drum. It is perfectly proportioned, both diameter and depth. It zips and unzips very easily. The pocket holds two beaters and the tuning wrench. In fact, I could squeeze a couple more beaters in if I wanted to do so. I would like a bit heavier material. It seems to be strong enough though.", "I used the puller to remove a dent in my refrigerator & it worked. Be aware that you still need a glue gun to bond the pullers to the metal.", "You can't use the attachments with the upright but it does pick up good. The canister flex hose broke and hoover is replacing it for free under the five year warranty.", "The wagon is wonderful. Easy to pull and use, does the job nicely.\nI do agree, though, with previous reviewers about the assembly being way to complex for the average gardener.\nBest make sure that you have a helper (preferably with some muscle), because the size of the bucket makes threading and tightening nuts and bolts a circus act since you have to have one hand under and one hand on the other side of it. The bad threading makes tightening the bolts very hard.\nAll the hardware is second rate at best. The instructions are awful. I practiced my cussing vocabulary despite the fact that I actually LIKE assembling things and am also (due to a job way back) versed in blue print reading.\nDo yourself a favor and work from the exploded parts drawing. The step by step instructions are worse than useless, they actually confuse things.\nI am giving this a 3 star because I do like the wagon, but the assembly instructions and hardware are among the worst I have seen and the bucket does seem a bit flimsy. The frame might support 600 lbs, but the bucket will not.\nAddendum -- I am increasing the rating from 3 to 4 now that I have used the wagon for a few months and have mentally and physically recovered from the back-breaking assembly. It has held up nicely, even though I have placed very heavy stuff in it and carted it all over terrible terrain. The tires stay inflated (only had to add air once), it moves easily and maneuvers nicely. I love it. It has paid for itself many times over.", "What I love about this No Pull Dog Harness is the fact that it is so easy to put on and take off, plus with this one my dog doesn't suffer from having something around his tiny nose.\nIf your dog's pulling is;\nEasy Puller- I would recommend this product\nMedium Puller- I would recommend this product\nMedium+ Puller- I would recommend this product\nHard Puller- I would NOT recommend this product\n\nAlso, keep in mind that this product maybe just the right one for all boxer dogs as they have tiny nozzles and other No-Pull... won't really work on them\n\nAll in all, extremely easy to put on and take off, first installation is a piece of cake, your dog will like it much better than other No-Pulls out there, but if your dog is hardcore, then this harness is a No No for her/him", "Fits very well feels good in the hand my dog is not a puller so I can't say how strong it is .", "Works SOOO much better than a screwdriver or a tack puller! The tip is thin, which is ideal for getting under deep-seated staples.", "Bought this with anothe mount to hold my 10 input mic mixer for my drums and vocal mics. Great Gibraltar quality.", "Great drums. Needs a cymbal stand to mount the small tom. Packaging gets 5 stars. Everything was easy to unwrap and only came in two boxes. Fed ex guy asked if I needed help setting it up. We had a great time and he's all I need. Just kidding; I need a seat, Snare stand, high hat, cow bell, double bass peddle, crash cymbal, crash symbal, ride cymbal, and crazy plush China splashing ching chow mein cymbal. So I spent $900 on the set and I'll spend $600 on the other stuff and for $1500 I've got the nicest set in my neighborhood. Don't settle for a set made of trash and not class. \\-[ ^ _ ^ ]-/", "I needed a set of bags for my new Gretsch 6-piece set. I bought this bag in the hopes that I could squeeze in my four toms. Their depths (7, 7, 8 and 14) total 36 inches, so I figured it would be a close call. Unfortunately, I just couldn't quite squeeze that last drum in. If I take out one of the 7\" toms, my 5\" snare fits in with no problem. Of course, I already have a case for my snare so that's not a desirable scenario for me.\n\nI found it a bit awkward to get the drums into the bag. The bag is not rigid, so it doesn't stand up on it's own. To load the drums you have to lie the bag down on the floor. Even then, the bag flops around freely, which makes it difficult to get the floor tom loaded. Once the first drum or two are in, the bag will stand on it's own, and the rest of the drums go in much easier.\n\nWhen bag is loaded, I found it to be quite convenient. It has lots of handles in all the right places which is great for loading into a vehicle. It also rolled easily, didn't tip over (I had nothing in the side pockets), and it fit nicely into the trunk of my car (Chrysler 300). There's not a lot of padding in the bag, so try not to bump it too much. But there are 3 padded spacers to keep the drums from banging into each other inside the bag, and the straps on the outside of the bag do a decent job of keeping the drums in place.\n\nBottom line for me is that although it's a fine bag in most respects, it doesn't quite fit my drums, and I still find it preferable to use individual bags for each drum. With mixed emotions, I'll be returning it." ]

[ "Craft sticks and Popsicle sticks are not known for their quality when it comes to grain and warping. So when you are cutting them, the stress is released in the easiest way possible which is along the grain. This is especially true because of how thin they are.\nOne of the following methods should work. They are both related in that I am suggesting multiple cuts.\nScoring\nInstead of trying to do one cut you should try and score your sticks first. Scoring will help guide the break and prevent it from going through the rest of the stick. So, score it once then do the rest of the cut.\nMultiple shallow cuts\nEssentially scoring all the way though. The slower safer method is cut though the sticks in several successive cuts. Use a ruler to help cut straight so you can focus more on your depth of cut. Put more sticks under the ruler to help keep it flat.\n\nEither way you need a thin and sharp blade. You want to cut the fibres of the sticks and not push them apart. So something like standard scissors would be a bad choice." ]

[ "Your question is limited by not having an indication of the resources available to you. One of the better tools would be a scroll saw, often called a jig saw. The tabletop versions are well suited to light duty cuts such as popsicle sticks.\n\nAnother suitable tool, somewhat unwieldy, is the rotary hobby tool, often called a dremel tool, from the brand name frequently associated with this type of item. There are various bits available for this device, but it would be challenging to handle safely for such small pieces.\n\nOnly recently, there appears on the 'net a number of videos showing people using either a rotary tool such as the dremel, or a hand drill and even a right-angle disc grinder. The latter is seriously overpowered for this application, but the key feature is that the cutting \"bit\" is a circle of paper. \n\nMultiple circles of the same diameter are cut, glued together using ordinary adhesive and attached to the rotary device. The faster the speed one can manage, the better the results. Even wood as thick as 25 mm (1 inch) is shown being cut with a paper disc!\n\nI used The YouTube, searched for \"cutting with paper\" and found a number of returns. One of them shows the rotary tool at the very start. I did not view the entire video, having seen others representative of this method.\n\nCutting with paper\n\nEDIT: An additional method of attacking the sticks would be to use a box knife or similar sharp instrument. Place a solid straight edge on the stick and score repeatedly along the edge. Use as much force as necessary to cut into the surface, but not so much as to crack the stick along grain lines.\n\nIf you can ensure exact positioning, consider to score one side then the other before attempting to split the stick in two. It may be necessary to alternate sides when scoring in order to slice completely through the stick.", "I have lots of ideas, which, it turns out, aren't going to fit into a comment.\n\n\nIf you don't need something too long, but want something that is pretty uniform and consistent, popsicle sticks (also sold as craft sticks) might work. The are pretty durable, but relatively cheap and, ultimately, disposable.\nOthers[1] have suggested paint stirrers (which you are often given gratis at hardware stores when you are buying other things). I originally dismissed this idea, as they tend to be fairly rough cut and made from soft pine, which may not hold an edge for very long. However, some time with a belt sander (and possibly the application of some wood lacquer) might make this a very viable option.\nWood molding or other small pieces of wood can be cut down to size. I would suggest that the best strategy here is to go to the hardware / lumber store and see what they have. You might find something you like. This might be a little more expensive, but you can get the pieces cut down to whatever length you like (or do it yourself if you have the tools). If you go this route, you should probably use a harder wood (such as oak); it will hold an edge longer.\nGoing very low tech, take a piece of $8\\frac{1}{2} \\times 11$ inch printer paper, and fold it in half the long way two or three times (therefore obtaining a piece of paper which is $11$ inches long and one or two inches wide. If you put a sharp crease into the paper, it should last for an hour or two.\nPieces of cardboard, paperboard, or cardstock. Cardstock (which is, basically, a subset of paperboard) can be obtained for cheap from most office supply stores, or can be cut out of cereal boxes (take a cereal box, a good ruler, and (preferably) an X-acto knife, and cut the box into one inch wide pieces). Larger pieces can be cut down to size with a paper cutter or X-acto knife. If you need something more durable, cut several pieces to size, then glue them together.\nIf you are wealthy, there is always this guy. Or this. That's what grants are for, right?\n\n\n\n\n[1] Tip o' the hat to André 3000 and Darrel Hoffman.", "Generally the bottom end of a cane or stick is protected by a ferrule1 or full cap, traditionally of metal (hence the hard tap, tap, tap of a Victorian or Georgian gent walking down the street in movies). These days caps are often of rubber and a Google search for \"walking stick caps\" will bring up many vendors. There are numerous styles available in multiple diameters to suit sticks of all sizes and types.\n\nAs for the top end, many sticks feature caps or handles made from other materials which are glued in place (usually with a dowel or metal rod for reinforcement) and therefore help stabilise that area. If the top is just the cut end of the stick though any decent finish will protect it just fine. However, even if left bare there shouldn't be a particular issue with splitting if the wood is well dried beforehand2.\n\nIf your sticks feature simple cut tops you can continue to treat the end grain there with wood hardener for added insurance against splitting, nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution, but it shouldn't normally be necessary.\n\nThere's a good, if brief, overview of traditional stickmaking on the Woodworker's Institute site, Learn the Basic Rules of Stickmaking.\n\n\n\n1 This can be as simple as a short cutoff of copper pipe.\n\n2 One of the hardest parts of traditional stickmaking is having the patience to let your collected wood season, it takes months at minimum and possibly a year or more depending on species and the thickness of the branch or sapling.", "On the assumption that you're going to try and mimic the clinker-built (that is, overlapping planks) construction of the real thing but not smaller details such as the riveting of planks together with trenails, then you should be able to use popsicle sticks for the planking - as you said you'll want to shape them with hot water (or better, steam) to get the correct shapes.*\n\nWhere you'll struggle with popsicle sticks alone are the large, complex shaped timbers like the keel, bow/stern posts and keelson. For these I'd recommend buying some larger pieces of basswood and carving them to shape rather than sticking popsicle sticks together. You may also find it easier to carve the frame timbers from basswood also.\n\n\nFor reference, this is a picture of a longship I took last year, showing just how huge the keelson is.\n\n*I suspect that the popsicle sticks are too brittle to attempt riveting or similar (the wood in viking ships was usually worked green not seasoned), but if you're just glueing them together they may be fine", "If you are more interested in subtractive sculpting (removing material rather than adding it like clay), I spent my earliest sculpting days carving bars of Ivory soap. There may be softer brands, but you know Ivory soap is 99-44/100% pure &lt;grin>.\n\n\n\nHow to Make a Soap Carving\n\nA sharp knife is not necessary. Plastic knives, spoons, or Popsicle sticks could also work. But I suggest investing in a modest set of clay sculpting tools made of wood (less than US$5.00). They are tough enough to stand up to the soap without having a tendency to snap like plastic knives or Popsicle sticks.\n\n\n\nProduct Search: Wood Sculpting Tools", "If the pieces are only frozen together in a few places, you might want to try heating a butter knife up under hot water and then using that to pry them apart. This is similar to heating up an ice cream scoop. It won't work if they are really packed in together tightly though.", "Cut the cotton bud in half. The stick is usually hollow, so you can fit a plastic rod or e.g. a cocktail stick (minus its sharp end!) inside.", "I have tried in the past to make precision cuts using a hand saw and always have issues with the blade sticking or hopping out of the cut.\n\n\nIf by sticking you mean that the friction between the blade and the wood is very high, that could be one of a few problems:\n\n\nThe wood you are sawing is closing the kerf and pinching the blade, \nYour cut isn't straight,\nThe set of the saw teeth is not large enough, so the kerf created by the blade isn't wide enough to allow the saw room to pass without undue friction, or\nYour saw teeth are too fine for the wood you're sawing.\n\n\nFor the first, you can try to hold the two sides of the cut apart with your off-hand and see if the saw goes easier. Or, you can stick a little wedge at the top of the cut to keep the kerf open.\n\nFor the second, cut straighter! (Note: the cut can wander if the set of your teeth is uneven, regardless if you're sawing correctly)\n\nFor the third, ideally you'd use a saw set (pictured below) to increase the set of the saw's teeth.\n\n\n\nHowever, if you bought the saw new at a big box store, there's a high likelihood that it has induction-hardened teeth. These don't bend very well, and will likely snap off if you try it. I can't find a good image of these these of teeth, but they have a slight bluing from the temperature change in the metal. In this case, you might be out of luck.\n\nFinally, for the fourth, you might need to use a saw with coarser or finer teeth. Generally, if the blade is sticking in the kerf, you need a coarser saw. If it's hopping out, you might need a finer blade. Greener wood needs coarser teeth than dried wood.\n\n\n\nSome other things to consider:\n\n\nA dull blade will want to jump out of the cut.\nRip teeth blades sometimes have trouble staying in the start of a cut just due to their tooth geometry. In these cases, I like to start the cut with a crosscut saw to get the kerf established and finish with the rip saw. The link below the image has probably more information that you ever need to know on saw tooth geometry.\n\n\n\n(source)", "Kits in general are good because they tend to be self-contained with all the materials, and tell you what else to bring - forgetting a key item is frustrating for everyone.\n\nThere are various sewing craft kits, often using a plastic needle and pre-punched holes at least for younger ones.\n\nFaux stained glass kits are tidy but might need too much of a steady hand for road trips, depending on your roads.\n\nI don't think of them as craft but books with reusable stickers and background scenes are good, and can include a story-telling aspect if you like.\n\n\nThese kits can get repetitive or expensive if you travel a lot, so some alternatives:\n\nAnything with stickers should work - perhaps sticker mosaics.\n\nFor an (almost) free option, collage using glue sticks and pictures from old magazines. You may want to pre-cut the magazines, or have an adult cut them, as depending on the age of the kids and the state of the roads scissors may not be a good idea for children. When using a glue sticks, a plastic lap tray with edges.\n\nThis will depend on how messily your children use them, but rubber stamps and ink pads can be quite fun (I've seen children playing together, one with clean hands, another using the ink pad for hand-prints - and it wasn't washable ink)\n\n\nActivity books that mix colouring/drawing activities with non-craft activities such as puzzles will give some variety.\nDefinitely not craft, but games involving looking out of the window are always a good bet: who can spot something first (horse/emergency service vehicle/purple car etc.); guess how many of a particular object you'll see by the time you reach some defined point (about 10 minutes works) - who gets closest. This works from surprisingly young as they just need to be able to count; you can also bring in basic arithmetic (&quot;you guessed 8, we've seen 7, so one more and you win&quot;).", "Run them under cold water, not hot (you don't want to start cooking them). Just hold the frozen mass under the water such that one of them separates, then the other.", "You can cut it carefully with a hacksaw with fine tooth blade while it's held in a vise. Or cut it with a small grinder held in the vise, using a tablesaw guide.", "Use a sharp knife and cut chips at one end, as if sharpening a pencil. Keep cutting until you get the needed quota :)\n\nIf a specific (different) shape of the pieces is needed, then we need more details.", "Using scissors, as you have pictured, would be a contributing factor here. Using a craft knife or something similar would most certainly be the go-to tool. \n\nIt is important to try to do the cutting in one motion - to not lift the blade from the paper and, if possible, not change the pressure you are exerting on the scissors. So if you were cutting this on a mat (without scissors of course), when you need to change direction you can rotate the paper accordingly. Craft knives have fine points so turning it is not likely to damage too much. \n\nIn the case of the specific Y, using a craft knife, I would also consider the starting point of the cuts to be the intersection shown and then cut away from that point. That approach is more case-by-case and really is dependent on your overall design. \n\nIf you insist on using scissors, the only tip I have to offer is to try and keep cutting as you are turning the paper. Try and finish the whole cut in one motion of the scissors. That would help stop the start of a tear. Hands and the tool itself can make that hard.", "One method I've used is by creating a split jig:\n\n\nFasten a large piece of material to the cutting table with screws.\nOnly fasten it on one side. It is important that this piece not\nmove.\nFrom that piece of material, create a pocket that will fit the token\nsnugly. Drill a top or side mark for alignment later.\nCut that pocketed piece in half, down the center so there are two\nequal halves. Be sure not to cut away your top or side mark.\nElsewhere on the table, cut the token's first side as you normally\nwould, but leave a small tab on the edge to align with the jig.\nPlace the token face down between the two pocket halves, using the\ntab to align it properly.\nClamp the two Jig halves securely.\nUsing the same XY 0 as you used to create the pocket, and the depth\nof the pocket as Z 0, cut the second half of the token.\nCut off the tab and complete the finish.\n\n\nBe sure to use an appropriate material for the jig. It should be hard enough to hold it firmly, but soft enough to keep from damaging it. If the pressure in the clamp is not enough, the part may tend to rock, lift or spin in the pocket.", "Try using a knife blade and make a slit lengthwise. Pour hot water from a kettle along entire slit repeat as needed. Like cornhusking without a microwave.", "Try holding the blades stationary while turning the handle in the direction opposite of the direction it turns during grinding. That will possible unscrew the blades section from the top, leaving you with three easily cleanable and re-assemble-able pieces.", "First of all, even when you can split the yarn, it will be easier to buy thinner yarn or use the yarn you have in alternate turns, mixing the colours by using them next to each other. You also control the use of colours better that way.\nTo test whether the yarn can be split at all, take a short length and take it apart. If the different parts split off easily you can go on and try a longer bit.\nOften the yarn has fibres sticking out and getting caught in the other strand in the process of twining and winding.\nTo split big lengths you will need to spin the boll of yarn at the same speed as you un-twine, or it needs to be allowed to spin freely while you take it apart without putting any stress on the more delicate strands.\nWhile you untwist and split the yarn you need to wind the two (or more) stands at the same speed and the same time.\nWhile I am sure you can make a machine to do the work, I doubt it will be easy to buy one, I do not remember ever having seen or heard about one.\nI would go with the advice my textile-crafts teacher told me back when we were weaving with colours. Do not try to work with mixed colours. Do one or two strands of one colour and then one or more of the other. Giving you the same visual mix of the colours but more control on how they work.", "Dirty Pirate Popsicles\n\nI honestly have never made this one. Some time back a friend of mine made these for a backyard barbecue. They were quite delicious. However not being quite as hard as ice, we had to down it relatively quick. The ones in the picture were similar to my friend’s popsicles.\n\n\n\n\n Ingredients\n \n 2 1/2 cups Diet Coke™\n \n 1/3 cup Captain Morgan™ original spiced rum\n \n 1/3/cup Kahlúa™\n\n\nMy friend told me that using Diet Coke worked better than the regular coke.\n\nWanting to make some for a nice form of distraction, I wanted to find out if a particular shape of popsicle would stay harder longer. Here is what I found out. \n\n\n Slightly flat Coke will produce a popsicle that stays frozen longer. To quickly and manually flatten out the carbonation, empty out enough Coke from a 2-liter bottle to leave a 3-inch space from top of bottle to top of coke. Place cap back on and shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Set aside to leave bubbles to subside. - Dirty Pirate Popsicle\n\n\nThe following is taken from Quora:\n\n\n Do Ice shapes matter? If so, which shape of Ice keeps my drink colder the longest?\n \n The larger the surface area, the faster the ice will melt. A cube of ice will last longer than a flat slab of ice of the same mass. The shape with the smallest surface area per volume is a sphere.\n \n A spherical piece of ice would melt slower than any other shape. There are moulds available to make spherical ice cubes, and they are favoured by some people who use them in alcoholic drinks because they take longer to water down the beverage.\n\n\nThat is right round popsicle moulds work best for any alcoholic popsicles!", "With a paring knife. That's why nail parings are called, well, nail parings.\n\nAlso, there were nippers similar to modern yarn cutters which were in common use since Roman times. Yarn cutters look like this:", "Honestly I usually just use a razor blade for this sort of thing, but if you're concerned about safety and/or damaging the agitators you may want to try a Seam Ripper\n\n\n\nIt is a tool that is designed for carefully splitting seams and removing thread/stitching when sewing.\n\nIt works well for removing hair and carpet fibers from vacuums because it allows you to \"hook\" the fibers/hair and cut them loose in a single motion without dragging a sharp edge on the agitator. In case it isn't obvious in the image, the cutting edge is located on the curve between the two points.", "Consider a clear-drying epoxy. Note that not all epoxies are equal. In a general sense they can bond different materials together with ease.\n\nHere is an earlier epoxy advertisement where they glued a car to a billboard with an epoxy resin. \n\n\n\n\n 1983 a visual stunt presentation was set up to show the strength of Araldite by gluing a yellow Ford Cortina to a billboard on Cromwell Road, London, with the tagline \"It also sticks handles to teapots\".\n\n\nYou can usually get 2 part epoxies in a dual syringe form and they are very economical. Depending how often you do this you might want to try a smaller one first as the shelf life of the product varies once used. \n\n\n Cheap and quick curing options would be great but I understand you can't have the best of them all.\n\n\nOnly part about this that does not meet your requirements is that they have a longer curing time then something like a craft glue. Setting inside an hour but fully curing over several days is needed in some cases. \n\nThe resin and hardener are kept separately as liquids, hence the dual syringe. In larger applications they would be two separate containers. I would suggest not applying directly to your project from the syringe but onto a disposable piece of cardboard or similar. That way you can manually mix the liquids together (usually 1:1 ratio) to ensure an effective reaction. Then use an applicator (craft sticks) to apply to the project.\n\nYou are going to want to clamp this down with decent pressure. There would be the issue of seepage while setting you need to be aware of. Depending on how intricate your cuts are the solution will come out of the wood acrylic sandwich. You want to try and wipe that off before it sets. Epoxy resins dry really hard so if you have to cut part of it off it will no longer show clear on the cut. You can polish the edges once it cures with extra fine sand paper and / or a polishing compound.\n\n\n\nA long term issue is that set epoxies can yellow over time because of UV radiation. That is likely a moot point as you are making a key chain.", "This works better if at least two of the sides are parallel. It is required that one corner is at a right angle.\n\nWhen I am trying to get perfect squares in paper I fold the paper in half diagonally. Not across the center exactly but more so that the two sides that make up one corner are brought together. Any paper that sticks out after that is removed.\n\n\n\nIn the above image the paper is fold from the bottom left into the upper right so that the top edge has no overlap. The grey is what would be waste.\n\nGetting rid of that excess paper can be challenging as there is usually only a sliver at times. What I do is put a metal ruler down along the edge and use a craft knife. Start where the paper is thicker. Avoid moving the ruler even after the first cut is done. If you have to get rid of left over slivers or tufts you can usually take a few short passes without ruining the new edges.", "Cut the edges of your lap with a handsaw (fine-tune the edges later with a chisel, if you like).\nCut a few more lines into the wood down the length of the lap to prevent splits from running out of control in the next step.\nUse a chisel and mallet to quickly knock out the wood in between the edges.\nCarefully pare down to the line using a sharp chisel and the force of your hand/body.", "TL:DR Other than what splitting is required for making kindling, there is little benefit to splitting wood in most short term survival situations. \n\nStealth\n\nA several of the points in your question, are about stealth and remaining undiscovered. As ab2 say's 'Splitting logs takes energy\" that energy is partially expressed as sound that travels long distances. There is no practical method for splitting wood stealthy.\n\nTools\n\nSplitting wood requires a special splitting maul and or splitting wedges. While you can split fire wood with a hatchet or ax, it works about the same as driving a car with a flat tire, you can do it, but not for long nor very effectively. Green (freshly cut wood) is particularly difficult to split without the correct tools. The tools are heavy, you will not be carrying them long distances in a survival situation. \n\nSkills\n\nIt takes practice to effectively split wood, you are probably going to need to split some wood to make kindling to get the fire going. In a survival situation you will have other priorities for your skill building time. Other than kindling, splitting larger wood while learning the skills can result in damage to the tools and injury to yourself, either of these are potentially fatal occurrences in a survival situation, big risks for little benefit.\n\nLimited resources \n\nA piece of wood will release the same heat energy when burning without regard to being split. Unsplit wood burns slower and longer, split wood burns faster and hotter. The act of splitting does not add or remove potential heat energy. \n\nWhy split wood?\n\nSplit wood burns easier and drys faster, than wood in the round. But dry time is measured in months, so has zero impact in a here and know survival situation. Once the fire is going, burning easier means the potential heat is released faster for a hotter fire.\n\n\n Even if the pieces of wood aren’t too big, splitting them makes it easier for the wood to catch fire. The bark is actually fire retardant and the inside will burn more quickly. But, let’s be precise: wood itself does not burn. When the wood is heated to 450 degrees Celsius, it releases gases that burn. When all the gases are burned, what is left is Charcoal, which is actually flammable. You don’t have to cut the wood for it to burn, but cutting facilitates the burning process because the inner wood is exposed when the log is split, and it has more gas containing resin. Also, chopped logs burn better because they dry more thoroughly when they’re not fully wrapped in the bark. Source\n\n\nRelated\n\nHow much wood can the average person expect to chop in a day?\n\nWhat is the energy difference between green and seasoned fire wood?\n\nHow to stash firewood without it getting wet?", "Thin foam core or cardboard, card stock, and balsa or lime sticks.\n\nAll three of these things together are light weight, inexpensive, and should be available at craft stores or on the web (the balsa can be purchased on Amazon but you may find it in JoAnn's). They can all be cut simply with a sharp Xacto-type blade or scalpel. You'll likely be able to find these items at either a craft store or (possibly) an office store. I used to work at a university book store and they actually sold kits for the architecture students in the art section, so if there's a university nearby with an architecture program, see what they have on hand.\n\nA basic guide supports these:\n\n\n As far as materials are concerned, unless you have easy access to a workshop and a reasonable level of experience with machinery, it would be best to work with card or foam-board or similar, easy-to-cut materials such as Balsa or Lime wood. In other words, anything that you can cut with either a sharp blade or junior hack saw and stick together with conventional shop bought glues.\n\n\nIt also recommends using some other tools to help ensure your lines are perpendicular (or at the proper angle you wish) and straight.\n\n\n And when you are cutting, if possible, try to use a square, especially if you are cutting out floor plates or elevations. Keeping everything square is crucial if you want to achieve a neat, crisp finish for your building. It’s also worth investing in a metal ruler as you will find a plastic or wooden ruler will get damaged very quickly.\n\n\nAs for how to use the knife, the importance is patience and technique. Use several shallow passes to get through the thicker foam or cardboards:\n\n\n Whether you’re cutting with a craft knife or a scalpel, it's better to use several light passes rather than trying to cut all the way through with one go. You’ll get a cleaner cut and you’re less likely to slip and cut your finger.\n\n\nMy dad was an architect and these were the sorts of tools he used, so if they're good enough for pros, they should be good for you, too! Best of luck finding the supplies and building your dream home (scale model)! Oh, be sure to do a lot of practicing before trying to build your final house. This is a slow, careful process that takes a lot of practice, so be patient with yourself.", "Try sticking one or two fine bladed screwdrivers down the side of the key sufficiently that you can turn them and operate the lock. Dont force it! If it wont turn easily it would be better to try sticking a third screwdriver sideways between the stems of the two driver and rotating it\n\nWith the door open you should be able to remove the lock barrel, push the broken part of the key out of it and take it to a key cutting place where they will use it to cut a new one. Take the barrel too so they can check it works without wasting a trip home for you", "If you don't mind losing some of the juice, try breaking them before cutting them. Use a potato masher or meat tenderizer or something like that to break them into pieces. That way they won't roll around when you're trying to cut them up. Once they are in pieces, you can lay them out on a cutting board and chop away. You can also put several on a cutting board and mash them down with another cutting board on top. That will make them less spherical.", "You can just chop it open with a big knife, as can be seen in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXhvZC4wNA0", "Splitting captured monsters\n\nSplitting captured monsters will result in components which can be used to upgrade existing weapons and shields and also craft new weapons, shields and accessories using recipes.\n\nKeeping captured monsters\n\nNot splitting monster parts means that you can sell the captured monster to different shops which will result in more money than splitting them would. Selling captured monsters will also unlock new items for purchase over time.\n\nWhat should I do then?\n\nWith no components you can't upgrade your equipment, so its generally a good idea to split captured monsters until you have at least around 10 of the associated components before you start to sell them instead.\n\nAlso, some components can be rare which is also a reason to initially prefer splitting.\n\nAs stated above, besides money there is another reason to sell captured monsters. By selling captured monsters, you will cause new items to appear in shops over time. Each monster is associated with different categories and when sold, points are added to these categories.\nBy accumulating enough points in a category, new items are unlocked, called trade goods.\n\nFor a list of unlockable trade goods, please see this wiki page.\n\nTo summarize, splitting should be preferred initially for crafting and upgrading reasons, but selling the captured monsters will net you more money and the availability of new items in shops.", "I would suggest finding a copy of R. Bruce Hoadley's Understanding Wood. He details how wood shrinks (and why logs splits radially or checks if left unattended). He also touches on how wood should dry if obtained when green/freshly cut and what part of the tree is used http://www.tauntonstore.com/understanding-wood-2nd-edition-r-bruce-hoadley-070490.html \n\nGenerally the clearest wood is above the roots and below the first of the branches. Burls can occur anywhere and can be quite beautiful. Branches are usually avoided (see reaction wood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_wood ) but folks have found uses for most parts. The biggest factor to note is that full circles (across the full trunk) will usually split. see https://wunderwoods.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/round-cut-tops-almost-always-split/ \n\ndepending on how the wood is cut will determine how it will shrink. http://www.nzffa.org.nz/assets/812/shrinkage2.jpg", "You can usually buy various sizes of balsa and basswood from the craft store (Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc.). Balsa will be softer and easier to cut, while basswood will be a little harder, and also stronger.\n\nWe used to make models in architecture school using these. You can cut them with x-acto knives, which you can get from the craft store, as well. They usually come in small or large sizes, with replaceable blades. For thicker basswood,you may want a little model-making saw, which you can get there as well.\n\nYou can usually find a kit with multiple types of handles and tips.\n\nXacto X5282 Basic Knife Set", "Cut one pin off.\n\nGet some wire cutters and position them in the groove between the last and next to last pins in the row. Squeeze. One pin will pop off." ]

[ "Note: I am not Lawyer and nothing below is legal advice.\n\n\nEach library is likely to have its own license.\nSome licenses (GPL, for instance) would require you to opensource your code should you use libraries under such license.\nDepending on the license, you may (or may not) be required to give a credit or state author(s) copyright in some way.\nFor instance, Flask has BSD License. Summary for BSD license can be found here: https://tldrlegal.com/license/bsd-3-clause-license-(revised).\nAs one of the options of giving credit, one may consider listing all the used libraries somewhere (at the footer, at a specific page on the web site, etc.) with links and all the relevant information." ]

[ "The sysfs system filesystem access to the GPIO is all that is provided as a standard library from Linux.\n\nThere are dozens of third party libraries.\n\nSee http://elinux.org/RPi_GPIO_Code_Samples for some of the third party libraries.", "As you said you want to create something like this \nAs you know these are not graphic intense rendering.\nThus, (i guess but not 100%) Windows do these rendering on CPU not on GPU.\nGPU is for intense rendering with lighting, textures, 3D models, etc. Where you can take the benefit of algorithm built in GPU circuit, Which is what OpenGL does.\nSo i would recommend to use built-in libraries that don't use GPU and use CPU for rendering, Although you can use OpenGL or Direct3D as well.\nSome libraries that are built in different programming languages are :-\n\nJava - Jframe, Graphics, Buffered image, Canvas. (Note : all these libraries have different functionality and you have to use them together for software rendering See this for more detail)\nC# - System.drawing, (i don't have much experience of C#, So i can't name any more libraries), also C# form application.\nJavaScript - Canvas check this out\nC++ - you need third party libraries like QT, GTX etc. Qt learning resource, related resource\nPython - Pygame (No personnal eperience) See this for detail", "You can use Nextcloud. I'm currently using its predecessor Owncloud for quite some time for syncing my Android with my PC. Nextcloud was forked from Owncloud about half a year ago and it seems like it will be more intensively developed in the future.\n\nIt is Open Source and clients and third-party apps exist for most platforms. With the webapp you can edit documents and have a photo gallery included. You can also share files or folders with a link.\n\nIt can sync ...\n\n\nContacts\nCalendars\nTasks\nNotes\nNewsfeed (optional plugin)\nFiles/Photos\n\n\nOn the Android Site you can use DAVdroid to sync contacts and calendars (available for a small donation on the Play Store and for free from FDroid Store) and Notes for syncing ... right, Notes.\n\nFor File Sync you can use the official Nextcloud app or use any webdav compatible Application.\n(e.g. Keepass2Android can directly access a keepass2 (kdbx) file via webdav)\n\nA search for Nextcloud on FDroid gives some more possible apps.", "You can generate the data yourself :-)\nIf you know a bit about JavaScript and Node programming: take a look at the free &quot;Faker.js&quot; third-party library.\nScroll down on the Faker.js GitHub page to see what categories of fake data can be generated (Fake Addresses, Computer Lingo, Business-Gibberish, Lorem-Ipsums, Dates...)\nI think there are implementations of Faker.js available in other languages,e.g. Perl and Python. Or rather it was the other way around . JavaScript implementation came second.", "You might take a look at my FQFeeder library (https://github.com/rob-p/FQFeeder), which pairs the kseq parser with a multi-producer / multi-consumer queue to allow efficient parallel processing of the parsed reads. The library contains an example program to demonstrate how to use it with multiple threads. It's worth noting that kseq is already very fast, so multi-threading only really makes sense if worker threads are doing non-trivial work on each read so that you can then make the parsing and processing concurrent (have the processing keep pace with kseq).\n\nI'll note that my library relies on a header-only MPMC implementation and so technically isn't \"only using the standard library\", but you're already relying on kseq.h, so omitting third-party libraries must not be a hard constraint.", "Yes, this is possible, and Deluge's approach appears to be roughly in line with the FSF's recommendations.\nThe GPL FAQ has this to say on exceptions for GPL-incompatible libraries:\n\nWhat legal issues come up if I use GPL-incompatible libraries with GPL software?\nIf you want your program to link against a library not covered by the system library exception, you need to provide permission to do that...\nOnly the copyright holders for the program can legally release their software under these terms. If you wrote the whole program yourself, then assuming your employer or school does not claim the copyright, you are the copyright holder—so you can authorize the exception. But if you want to use parts of other GPL-covered programs by other authors in your code, you cannot authorize the exception for them. You have to get the approval of the copyright holders of those programs.\n\nTo think of it another way, you license your software under a license whose terms are almost identical to the GPL. The license is exactly like the GPL in all respects except that its copyleft provisions do not apply for the specific purpose of linking to some particular library. In essence, you sidestep the GPL compatibility problem by not licensing your own work under the (vallina) GPL! You license your work under the &quot;almost-GPL&quot; which has additional permissions. The GPLv3 has a mechanism in section 7 exactly for this purpose, and the FSF does not appear to object to authors adding exceptions to the GPLv2, either.\nBroadly, adding exceptions works because you are the copyright holder, and therefore you may license your work however you please. Narrowly, this works because the FSF (and GPLv3 license text) permits you to add additional permissions to the GPL's license terms when you release your work. Within the FAQ item linked above, the FSF has published a guide explaining exactly how to implement exceptions in your GPL license text. For example, the following addendum is the FSF's suggested wording to add a linking exception to the GPLv3:\n\nAdditional permission under GNU GPL version 3 section 7\nIf you modify this Program, or any covered work, by linking or combining it with [name of library] (or a modified version of that library), containing parts covered by the terms of [name of library's license], the licensors of this Program grant you additional permission to convey the resulting work. {Corresponding Source for a non-source form of such a combination shall include the source code for the parts of [name of library] used as well as that of the covered work.}\n\n(The bracket text should be removed for libraries whose source code cannot be distributed alongside your GPL-licensed work, e.g., because it is not publicly available.)\nNote, however, that you can only add exceptions to work for which you have copyright control. If you want to include a third-party GPL-licensed library in your project, you cannot make that library adopt the exceptions present in your project. (Only the author of the third-party GPL-licensed library can do that.) This is an issue any time you (1) include someone else's third-party code in your project (2) in a way that creates a combined work with that third-party code, and (3) the license of that third-party code does not permit you to link to the library you want to make an exception for (e.g. OpenSSL). So, for example, this not a problem if the third-party code is under a permissive license like MIT, because the MIT license does not object to having its material combined with non-free or GPL-incompatible libraries. It is an issue for third-party GPL-licensed code, because that license does object to being combined with GPL-incompatible code.\nNote also that any downstream recipient may remove exceptions for their own derivative of your work (but in this case, that seems unlikely to happen, since it would massively diminish the usefulness of their derivative).", "If you don't mind the lack of a built-in graphical interface and you're OK with \"computerish\" notation, a great completely free option is the Python programming language. You don't have to learn any programming per se to use the interactive interpreter as a scientific calculator with fraction support. You do have to import various modules that are included in the standard library, such as fractions for fraction support; decimal for exact decimals; and math, cmath, or statistics for functions beyond simple arithmetic.\n\nWithout importing anything, you get basic arithmetic with either fixed-precision floating point numbers (IEEE 64-bit floats) or arbitrary-precision integers.\n\nYou can easily download free third-party packages for even more sophisticated functions as well as graphical visualization.\n\nI like using a programming language interpreter for calculations in part because it's easy to assign names to intermediate results (much more powerful than a normal calculator's memory functions), it's easy to repeat and edit input that I've mistyped, and it's easy to write my own customized functions that aren't included with any existing calculator. That last part is heading into real computer programming, which is there if you want it, but which you can ignore if you don't need it.\n\nHere's a sample interactive session. The &gt;&gt;&gt; is Python's prompt where you type things in. Note that Python uses # as the comment character, which I've used to annotate some of the lines:", "pt.h has never, and will never, be part of the Arduino core distribution. It is a completely separate third party library that you have to install yourself.\n\nI think the library you want is this one.", "You can use secure filters third party library to sanitize \n\nhttps://github.com/salesforce/secure-filters\n\nThis is recommended in the lightning security guidelines documented in the blog\n\nhttps://developer.salesforce.com/page/Lightning_Security", "This turned out to be an issue with the GDAL installation on my computer, and an incompatability between the various versions of GDAL, its supporting libraries (such as PROJ and GEOS) and Python.\n\nRemoving all traces of GDAL and its libraries, and then reinstalling them using the same compiler as used to compile and install Python (in this case, brew) fixed all of the problems.", "The AGPL does not allow this for what copyright law considers to be a single work. If any part of the work is licensed under the AGPL, then the AGPL requires that the entire work is distributed under the terms of the AGPL.\nHowever, it is not a given that a game engine and the assets of the game are a single work under copyright law. If the game can function equally well with completely different assets, like the simple placeholders you intend to use for dev builds, then copyright law will likely view the game engine and the assets as different, independent, works that happen to be bundled together in your full product.\nIndependent works can have completely independent license terms, so what you propose seems to be fine.\nOne thing to look out for: If you don't write all the source code yourself, but you use third-party libraries, then you need to make sure that those libraries have a (A)GPL-compatible license. It is not a completely settled debate if using a third-party library always creates a single derived work that includes both your code and the code from the library, but the safe option is to assume it does.", "My favorite language for these tasks is Python; Perl also works for those who are so inclined.\n\nPython modules:\n\n\nThe csv module from the Python standard library handles parses CSV files.\nThe Python standard library also has modules for standard markup languages like XML, HTML, SGML, etc.\nFor fixed-width strings, see this post on Stack Overflow.\nI haven't used this module, but supposedly p3d is a Python module that will help with parsing protein data in pdb format.\nThe regular expressions module in Python can be quite useful.\nYou can also Google or check the Python Package Index for other Python packages that suit your needs.\n\n\nPerl modules:\n\n\nThe Text::CSV module works for CSV processing. I've used it, and it's relatively intuitive.\nThe XML::Simple and XML::Parser modules seem like they would work for XML processing, though there are a lot of XML modules available on the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), so feel free to pick one that suits your preference.\nThe HTML::Tree::Scanning modules seem to serve the same sort of purpose for HTML.\nThis post from Stack Overflow talks about extracting fixed-width data from files using Perl.\nRegular expressions are baked into Perl.\nCPAN is also a good source to look for other libraries.\n\n\nC++ libraries:\n\n\nThere are a bunch of XML parser libraries (see this post on Stack Overflow). Particularly reputable are Expat, Xerces, and the C++ bindings to Gdome2 (my personal favorite).\nThis post from Stack Overflow talks about extracting data from CSV files.\nFor other standard formats, there's a good chance there's a parser out there (HTML, etc.). A lot of times, the Perl and Python versions of parser libraries are language bindings for C or C++ parser libraries.\nFor fixed-width files, you can use fprintf.\nThis post from Stack Overflow talks about C++ regular expression libraries; also see Boost::Regex and PCRE (from C).\n\n\nC libraries:\n\n\nAgain, there are many XML parser libraries. Worth checking out are Expat, Gdome2, and libxml2.\nA lot of people seem to roll their own C libraries for CSV parsing. I found documentation for a library, but it seems a little sketchy.\nFor fixed-width files, you can again use fprintf.\nThe best C regular expression library I know of is PCRE.\n\n\nHope this helps.", "Flatpack, Repositories, SnapInstall versions are created by third parties, not by the blender developers. It is common that there are outdated, missing libraries or dependencies, or other errors depending on the specific OS.\nUnless you have a very good reason not to, use the official version from blender.org", "With ev3dev pretty much any programming language you can run or compile for the ARM board can be used. All you really need to be able to do is read and write to a file. This is because ev3dev is based on Debian Linux and has drivers to communicate with the hardware through virtual files.\nThat being said, typically you will probably want to use a library which abstracts the low-level API. The following are currently well-supported.\n\nPython\nJava\nGo\nC++\nC\nProlog\nVala, Genie, and other GObject-based languages\nRust\n\nYou can find the full list and some other 3rd-party libraries on the ev3dev Programming Languages page.", "The Minizinc IDE is free and contains a few free solvers, and optional third-party solvers. On the Minizinc \"software\" page it is documented how the libraries are implemented and what they are good for.", "The requirements for the MIT wrapper are simply \"don't remove the copyright and license texts\".\n\nThe requirements for the LGPL library are\n\n\nIf/when you make changes to the library, effectively distribute them under the LGPL.\nIf/when you use the library in an application, give the recipients of the binary the means to replace the library with a version of their own.\n\n\nAll of this only starts to matter when you distribute your software to a third party and putting it on an AWS instance whose contents you control does not count as distribution.\nAs long as you don't distribute, there are no restrictions coming from the licenses.", "Though there may not seem to be a big difference between the words &quot;auto-login&quot; and &quot;auto-register&quot;, there's actually a very big difference in expectations. I've done work in this before and this can get into the weeds rather quickly, but it's best to understand things.\nBackground\nSocial or Third-Party Logins use a technology called OpenID or OAuth2. Stack Exchange uses this. Jeff Atwood wrote about it a few years ago.\nIt basically works like this:\n\nIf you want to understand more how it really works, I would recommend reading Jakob Jenkov's OAuth2 Tutorial.\nLogin vs. Register\nIf I &quot;log-in&quot; using a third-party login (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, OpenID), the expectation is that I won't have to create an account. One is created for me with my third-party login. Now I can always go into my profile settings and alter my password, email address and even disconnect my third-party login from my account, but I shouldn't have to then &quot;create login.&quot; Pinterest does this.\nBe aware though there are downsides to using social logins as your sole login method. A post over at Webmasters.SE outlines the downsides fairly well.\nSome services though, for one reason or another, don't want to be dependent upon third-party providers for login authorization. So they tend to use a hybrid approach, using third-party logins as a 'jump-start' to their own account creation process. If you do this though, your CTA wording is very important. You aren't &quot;logging in&quot; with Facebook (or whatever login service). You're signing up with Facebook.\nIf a user &quot;signs up&quot; with Facebook, the site goes out to Facebook requests basic information about this user (name, email, whatever has been authorized) and pulls that back down and pre-fills the sign-up form with this data. Now the user just has to create / confirm a password and off they go. It is another login to remember, but some services feel social logins aren't worth it.", "Here, the ByteBuddy library is Apache-licensed. The Apache license makes provisions for a NOTICE file that must be user-visible. The easiest way for ByteBuddy to simplify downstream compliance would be to include the ASM license notice in the NOTICE file. That way, downstream users don't have to care about the ASM license separately. The JAR can effectively be considered Apache-licensed, rather than the Apache/BSD mix that it actually is.\n\nByteBuddy already has a NOTICE file, but oddly it just contains a template for the Apache license dedication.\n\nThe Apache license gives the following options for showing the NOTICE file:\n\n\nwithin a NOTICE text file distributed as part of the Derivative Works;\nwithin the Source form or documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,\nwithin a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and wherever such third-party notices normally appear.\n\n\nFor a library JAR, only the first two alternatives are available. Including the NOTICE within the JAR itself is a very good idea and likely already satisfies the license requirements (both Apache and BSD when the BSD notice is included in the Apache NOTICE file). However, this NOTICE should also be referenced in documentation material so that people know where to look for third party attribution notices.\n\nDistributing the library as a ZIP that contains a JAR and documentation/notices does not provide significant value over including the license in the JAR, as a JAR already is exactly such a ZIP archive.\n\nDownstream users that redistribute ByteBuddy will have to think about their license compliance requirements themselves. If they create applications with the library, they would likely have to show the NOTICE in the application's user interface or in documentation provided alongside the application. I do not think that relying on notices within the JAR is appropriate in an end user context. However, downstream compliance is out of scope for the ByteBuddy project itself.\n\nThe alternative that ByteBuddy seems to have chosen in the meanwhile – separately including the ASM license in the JAR – is also OK, especially since the ASM license is explicitly mentioned in the online documentation. However, centralizing all license notices into one NOTICE file would simplify downstream compliance.\n\nFor reference, you can also look at how other libraries do this. For example, the JAR for the Groovy language includes some ASM classes as well (checked in version 3.0.0-beta-3). Groovy is under the umbrella of the Apache foundation, so they should have a grip on licensing. They reference third-party projects in the NOTICE file inside the JAR, and include the third party license text in a license directory within the JAR. This is almost exactly the same approach as ByteBuddy has started using.", "Firstly may I suggest you rather not use apache, its crazy heavy on resources. You can use nginx with PHP. But also I would recommend not to use PHP either, as its, pretty much a relic.\n\nI would suggest using Python with Flask . \n\n\nPython is really the \"main\" programming language for Raspberry Pi. \nFlask is a nice Python/MVC convention (Almost like Razor for C#) that allows you to rapidly develop WebApps and API's (I have tried it and I am a hardcore C# developer, I found the experience very pleasing)\n\n\nThis way you can serve up HTML pages and build back end API's. You will need a bit of JavaScript/jQuery knowledge to do ajax maybe for best user experience, but you can also simply do old school form submits, if you must.\n\nYou can then execute shell scripts using Python, that contain the commands, or proxy arguments into the shell script you need for OMXPlayer.", "Actually the answer is more of \"yes and no\". There is a lot of system libraries that has been specifically modified for the elementary OS look &amp; feel (libgtk, etc.). You can install any Ubuntu or even third party applications most of the time, however.\n\nYou can find some more information (it is about PPAs but might be applicable to other third party apps as well) at Can I safely install any PPA for Ubuntu on elementary?", "I have written a program in python that does exactly this for Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Dogecoin. The program can connect to peers on any of the above mentioned crypto network and submit the transaction directly instead of relying on a third party central server to push the transaction out to the network. \n\nIt is available open source under https://github.com/kaykurokawa/pushtx", "This IDE is still a bit too young, but it certainly worth to be used! SASM IDE\n\nIt has drawbacks:\n\n\nwhen used with third-party libraries - it should be configured\nwhen used with multiple-file projects - it should be configured\nit has no per project configuration\n\n\nYet, it has its advantages:\n\n\nsyntax highlighting\none-button building\ndebugger\nvariable watcher", "I had the same issue with my Netgear Nighthawk R8500 until I reduced the router's password to 14 characters, as suggested by user137327. Since the router's password is also used as the Samba password, perhaps the cause is related to the legacy of Samba and Lanman password limitations:\n\n\"passwords are limited to a maximum of only 14 characters\"\n\n\"Many legacy third party CIFS implementations have taken considerable time to add support for the stronger protocols that Microsoft has created to replace LM hashing because the open source communities supporting these libraries first had to reverse engineer the newer protocols—Samba took 5 years to add NTLMv2 support\"", "If you want a highly customized, open-source Javascript chart library, then D3 is a clear choice. It has been making the lives of visual artists and data scientists a lot easier with a diverse range of possibilities, along with ease of use.\n\nYour example chart looks like the Sunburst chart to me. And here is the chart re-created in D3\n\n\n\nAnd your data is definitely safe, as you wouldn't be dealing/interacting with third parties.\n\nAnother library worth mentioning is the Highcharts.js; which is another wonderful visualizations open-source Javascript library.\n\nHere is the fiddle for plotting a sunburst chart in Highcharts. And again, your data is completely safe and the library is open-source.", "TL;DR Yes, you can use a permissive Open Source license for this wrapper program, but not a strong copyleft Open Source license.\n\n\n\nFirst, to clear up something that has been raised in comments: As it is written I do not believe your question is about reverse engineering a non-free C library.\n\nYou say: \n\n\n I am working on python library that wraps a non-free C library. In order to develop this, I referenced the C library's copyrighted documentation. Because of that my function and variable names are the same as the non-free library's.\n\n\nI take this to mean that your python wrapper makes the functions and variables of the non-free C-library available for use in some python program that uses your wrapper to \"bridge\" the python program and the non-free C library.\n\nYou don't mention the terms the non-free C library is made available under, but I am going to assume that it is All Rights Reserved (ARR), or at least under terms that does not allow redistribution alone or as part of a derivative work.\n\nIf this is what this question is about, then I do not believe the Appeals court's May 9, 2014 decision in Oracle vs Google apply. This case was predominantly about reverse engineering, and the court ruled that the structure, sequence and organization of the 37 API files Google had copied (in order to make existing software that was based up Oracle's Java API simpler to port to Android.) was copyrightable. Because Google reused this in a competing product, Google was guilty of copyright infringement.\n\nYou have not copied an API, nor is your wrapper a derivative work of the API.\n\nYou've written a Python library wrapper that uses the documented API to a non-free C library in order to provide functional integration between python and said non-free library. Since making it possible for programmers to use API functions and variables is the whole point of documenting an API, using the documented API as intended does not infringe the copyright of the API, even if the API itself is copyrightable.\n\nSo you're allowed to do create a distribute this program without infringing copyright.\n\nLet's first assume you release your wrapper as ARR, with an explicit permission to combine the wrapper with the library. Will this create problems? For instance, can you be sued if you do this?\n\nThis is not legal advice, but my opinion is that the answer is: \"no\".\n\nYou cannot distribute the non-free C library of course, so by itself, your wrapper will no do anything. Python developers who want to use this have obtain a legal a copy of both an combine them themselves.\n\nHaving first determined that this is legal if you distribute your program as ARR, let's move on and see if you can also do it if your wrapper carry a permissive Open Source license, such as MIT (Expat)\n\nAgain, I see no problems. Python developers who want to use this have obtain a legal a copy of both an combine them themselves. However. the resulting derivative work can not be distributed, because the the terms of the non-free C-library does not allow it.\n\nHowever, I do not believe you can distribute your wrapper under a strong copyleft license such as GPLv2 or GPLv3.\n\nIf you did this, nobody could legally link your wrapper with the non-free library, because the resulting derivative1 work would had be made available under GPL, and this is of course incompatible with the C-library being ARR.\n\n1) This is based upon the FSF's interpretation of linking. This interpretation is not universally accepted, but since there are plenty of other questions about this, I will no go into that discussion here.", "Chainpoint is a standard for maximizing the scalability of recording data in the blockchain and generating blockchain receipts. Each receipt contains all the information needed to verify the data without relying on a trusted third party.\n\nYou can read our white paper and download a Python implementation of a Chainpoint server at http://github.com/chainpoint.\n\nTierion and Storj are the first to implement this new standard.", "The Ethereum Alarm Clock contract allows you to schedule function calls for a specific block in the future. It doesn't rely on a third-party oracle to do so, though it does require that you know all details of the transaction at the time of scheduling.\n\nDocumentation, with examples, is here.\nIf you prefer to use JavaScript library then you can find tutorial here.", "By default I want all indentation (when I hit the tab key) to be 2 spaces.\n\n\nThis can be achieved for many modes with settings such as\n\n(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil\n tab-stop-list ()\n tab-width 2)\n\n\n\n Every time I open a file I see Can’t guess python-indent-offset, using defaults: 4\n\n\nThe default indentation offset for python.el can be configured via the customisable variable python-indent-offset.\n\nWhether python.el tries to guess the indentation offset can be controlled by the customisable variable python-indent-guess-indent-offset.\n\nWhether python.el prints this message after guessing the indentation offset can be controlled by the customisable variable python-indent-guess-indent-offset-verbose.\n\n\n That warning and answers like these make me think that Emacs can guess the offset. However, when I just edited a file that uses all tabs, pressing the tab key resulted in 4 spaces.\n\n\nThis is probably because python-mode and inferior-python-mode from python.el set indent-tabs-mode to nil by default.\n\nNote that \"guessing the offset\" and \"inserting tabs or spaces\" are not the same thing. Emacs (more specifically, python.el) can indeed do the former, but the latter does not seem like a very easy task to me and I am not familiar with a built-in means of achieving this. I suggest you consider the following options for setting indent-tabs-mode:\n\n\nDefine your own convenience function which toggles indent-tabs-mode. For example:\n\n(defun my-toggle-indent-tabs-mode ()\n \"Toggle `indent-tabs-mode'.\"\n (interactive)\n (setq-local indent-tabs-mode (not indent-tabs-mode)))\n\n\nYou can even bind this to a convenient key.\nInstall python-mode.el. It is more customisable than python.el and provides indent-tabs-mode-toggling commands like the one above.\nUse file-local variables to determine and, to an extent, enforce the desired style in certain files.\nSimilarly with directory-local variables. See also here.\nAdd a custom function to python-mode-hook with your own logic for setting indent-tabs-mode, e.g. based on file name or contents.\nInstall a third-party package which detects indentation style based on customisable heuristics, such as dtrt-indent. See also this related question.\n\n\n\n [do] I really need to install guess style mode\n\n\nYes, for the reasons outlined above I think you need to install a third-party package for automatic tab/space detection.\n\nNo, I would not recommend guess-style, as it seems to be cc-mode-specific, and newer versions of cc-mode come with built-in style guessing.", "I do not want to use third party services or APIs like Blockchain o\n Coinbase. I do not want to download and process all the Blockchain.\n\n\nIf you don't want to use 3rd party APIs, you should have your own node which requires downloaded the full blockchain. There's blockchain torrent https://bitcoin.org/bin/block-chain/ that speeds up the download process, and there's advanced Bitcoin node libraries like http://bitcore.io that integrate with Bitcoin core.\n\nThere's more reliable blockchain as a service like BlockCypher https://dev.blockcypher.com which is programming language agnostic. I use it all the time and I am satisfied.", "I use ReText editor for Markdown text in Ubuntu, which I installed from Ubuntu Software. ReText is written in Python language and works on Linux and other POSIX-compatible platforms. The latest stable version of ReText can be downloaded from PyPI. You can also use the pip install ReText command to install it from there.\n\nType in your markdown text and then press the Preview button to see what the formatted markdown text looks like. Alternatively you can enable live preview by default in ReText by selecting Edit -> Preferences -> check Use live preview by default.\n\nReText supports tabs, live text preview and syntax highlighting. Spell checking can be enabled with Edit -> Spell check -> Enable. Supported export formats: HTML, ODT, PDF.\n\nAll known third-party extensions for ReText are listed in Python-Markdown wiki.", "Have you thought about using \"Python for finance\"?\n\nThere is multiple Python librarys to help you getting up to speed, e.g. take a look at Python Algorithmic Trading Library", "Personally I find Python one of the best choices out there and did myself some work in area of audio identification. You are welcomed to check for instance my software for automatic identification of birds from noisy audio recordings: Ornithokrites. The program is used by Department of Conservation of New Zealand and they are happy about it. Based on this example I would like to point out several advantages of using Python:\n\n\nHuge, fast developing community providing tons of libraries. SciPy provides plethora of methods for signal processing (granted, not that many and mature as Matlab). Mind though that SciPy, although one of the most important, is only one of hundreds that can help you in your endeavours. I found Aubio best for music analysis. For speech and music recognition for sure you will enjoy great number of audio features Yaafe can extract.\nIt's free! Once out of academia, you quickly find out that Matlab is rather expensive. And even if you can afford it, then your perspective users will not be happy about this dependency. For instance, mentioned Department of Conservation would not accept proprietary software.\nIdentification often requires machine learning and Python has great toolkit for it: sklearn. It is state of the art library - and easy to use. Have a look at Kaggle competitions (machine learning) and check how many top programmers are using Python and sklearn. \nYou can manage \"big data\". If you want to run analysis against huge networked databases of recordings, then Python has well established set of tools. I don't think Matlab / Octave interface easily with e.g. Hadoop, although please do correct me if I am wrong. R does better this area. \nSpeaking of interfacing, you can easily interface your program with a web site. This is the way I manage Ornithokrites (bird recognition): the program runs on Amazon Web Services cloud computing service. Great if you want to provide your software to other people who do not necessarily want to go through installation procedure of all required libraries.\n\n\nMy second choice would be R. Although not that feature-rich as Python, it has great number of useful libraries (check e.g. seewave for your applications). Installation of those on both Windows and Linux is piece of cake, which is important if you would like others to use your program. However, to my experience high-performance computing in R is more difficult - an important thing to notice if you need to do A LOT of processing and identification.\n\nExamples of music classification in Python:\n\n\nLecture\nAudio fingerprinting\nJack Minardi blog\n\n\nBook Building Machine Learning Systems with Python has a chapter on music classification\n\nOther tools (list by no means complete): Python in Music" ]

[ "This paper analyzes the case of Made in Carcere, an innovative social enterprise providing jobs to one of the most marginalized groups in society: convicted women. Relying on an extensive database that covers 8 years of activity, we propose a micro-level analysis of the processes adopted by Made in Carcere to foster the integral human development of convicted women, its target stakeholders. We show that this complex effort has successfully unfolded through two macro-processes: creating a safe space for experimentation and allowing convicted women to bridge their experience to the outside reality. Our work provides evidence of an organization that successfully confronts the restrictive and dehumanizing setting of prisons by means of market mechanisms that can foster convicted women’s integral human development." ]

[ "Scientific spirit and humane spirit,as the products of human cognitive activities,guide the main methods and dimensions of human being to know and observe the world and exert respective influences on the creation of human culture.Only the complementarity of the two thinking modes can make up complete human thought and culture.Human development is the subject and core of social development and humane spirit is the mucleus and symbol of human all-round quality development.The basic objective of high education is to nurture the qualified scialistic builder and successor with all-round development.Attaching importance to the integration of scientific spint and humane spirit is the historical mission of high education.", "Carceral geography has yet to define the ‘carceral’, with implications for its own development, its potential synergies within and beyond geography, and effective critique of the carceral ‘turn’. A range of explicatory alternatives are open, including continued expansive engagement with the carceral, and attendance to compact and diffuse carceral models. We trace the origins of the term ‘carceral’, its expansive definition after Foucault, the apparent carceral/prison symbiosis, and the extant diversity of carceral geography. We advance for debate, as a step towards its critical appraisal, a series of ‘carceral conditions’ that bear on the nature and quality of carcerality.", "The ways in which conflictivity sets how people dwell in contexts of extreme deprivation is an issue that exerts tension on the diverse manners in which bodies and emotions are engaged in various levels of social pain. The many ways and contents that suffering assumes in its connections with urban poverty, also crosses with “interstitial practices” that challenge resignation and impotence as logics of accepting and making the world visible. From a sociology of bodies/emotions, this article aims at discussing suffering as an emotion, and conflict as a practice and condition for social reproduction, taking as an empirical reference in-depth interviews given through 2015 and 2016 to immigrants from neighboring countries, who live in slums in Buenos Aires City. The links between sensibilities, conflictivities and social policies are discussed, deepening in some tensions/connections identified between pain and “interstitial practices” associated with poverty, urban informality and social policies.", "Principles of anthropological methodology used by human anatomy have been formulated as the elucidation of forms and factors of variability of structures and their correlation in the integral organism. Under consideration was the use of different morphological signs for their integral estimation of the condition of the human body. The realization of these principles in research represents an anthropological trend in human anatomy. Its advantages in 1980s were preceded by the preliminary development of certain problems of anatomical anthropology by our national and foreign scientists. A review of researches on anthropological trends of human anatomy is given which were considered as a basis for the further development of medical and sports anthropology.", "As the African Development Bank meets in southern Africa, one of the strongest and most sustained El Nino events on record – turbocharged by climate change – is causing severe drought, failed harvests and a hunger crisis across the region. This is being made worse by record high temperatures as a result of global warming. Women farmers are on the front line of climate change, yet are also the region’s first line of defence against food insecurity. With smallholder agriculture being critical to both food security and inclusive growth, governments – supported by donors and international organizations – must urgently implement plans to better support smallholder farmers and increase resilience. This paper outlines the current situation in the region and presents recommendations to help work towards this.", "The human kind is at risk as severe problems, such as poverty or climate change, escalate. At the root of these problems is the organization of human (economic) activity and sustainability, a simpl ...", "Morphological study of the muscles of the lower extremity is necessary for the analysis of the muscular function and its relation with locomotion. In this study, the muscle weight of the lower extremities from 11 adult Japanese cadavers (6 males and 5 females, aged from 50 to 91 years old) were measured. The morphological characteristic of the human lower extremity is discussed based on the relative muscular weight. The largest muscles were the gluteus maximus (the extensor at the hip joint), the vasti muscles (the extensor at the knee joint) and the soleus (the plantarflexor at the ankle joint). These results reveal that the muscles acting on one joint are developed in the human lower extremity and that these muscles have important roles in human locomotion.", "Discusses the integration of \"mechanical softness\" into the humanoid robot mechanisms design. The mechanical softness includes such requirements as human-like high mobility and human-like sensitive compliance. We focus on the shoulder mechanism, and propose a parallel mechanism to integrate the two requirements. The mechanism is called the cybernetic shoulder and possesses three degrees-of-freedom. The nature of motion curves of the human shoulder, and the design and development of the cybernetic shoulder are described with the computation issue of kinematics. The integration of compliance into the parallel mechanism is also discussed, and its experimental evaluation is made.", "Robots will face a huge deployment in a very near future for people's everyday lives. Main objective is to reduce or eliminate safety and health risks inherent to physically demanding duty or risky work. The present paper focuses on unsafe and hazardous tasks performed by firefighters and aims at proposing organizational and technical tools to balance risk with the involvement of cooperative robots. A study has been conducted within the framework of the regional project SUCRe, dealing with Human-Robots Cooperation in hostile/severe environment. After a short presentation of the project, a Human-Centered Design approach is proposed, based on the implementation of rules defined by the Human-Machine Cooperation principles. Two human aspects have been addressed to design and control cooperation among several firefighters and robots: the cognitive and physiological aspects. A use case presents the implementation of such aspects to manage global and local cooperation.", "Humanities and social science have played decisive roles in human history.Their counterparts in universities also draw more and more attention of scholars.For research-oriented universities of science and technology,the humanities and social science have unique functions such as motivating the innovation capability,advancing the discipline integration,and promoting the humanistic atmosphere.Based on the examples of two noted universities at home and abroad,a reflection is made on the development of humanities and social science in research-oriented universities of science and technology: the two subjects should assist with the development of science and technology;visiting scholars from Hongkong and Macau should relieve the scarcity of teachers;integration of humanities and science should be advanced,while the influence of university culture on the urban city should be reinforced.", "A landmark of Enlightenment thought, Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is accompanied here by two shorter works that shed light on it: A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh , Hume's response to those accusing him of atheism, of advocating extreme skepticism, and of undermining the foundations of morality; and his Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature , which anticipates discussions developed in the Enquiry . In his concise Introduction, Eric Steinberg explores the conditions that led Hume to write the Enquiry and the work's important relationship to Book I of Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature .", "The ecology harmony is the human survival happy picture,human's full scale development is the Marx ideal society'santicipation,similarly is the core goal pursue which the humansociety develops.This article attempts by one kind of new thoughtangle of view,in historical and in the spatial development pulse,isharmonious from the ecology meaning pondered person's full scaledevelopment value orientation,makes every effort from the historicallogical advancement to discover,to seek harmonious social the perfectcondition.", "Door is an interactive art within an emotional technology, and it has been studied about human communication in modern cities through the symbolic meaning of the door. Today, an instant messenger or a mobile phone is a general way for conversation, and we are familiar with such methods of communication. Digital technology has made life dramatically easier for us to talk to others immediately. Nevertheless, this type of relation with people is not likely to last long because an instant messenger has emphasized the importance of giving information without an emotional exchange. This new type of human network has been made in virtual world with extremely limited human touch. Door is an excellent alternative to overcome the limitations of digital technology.", "Abstrac: This article explores the inequality and social exclusion that it suffers from the population of the region Sierra, Chiapas, in the field of health. Addressed from the testimonies of rural women who offer their own vision of health, disease and health care, and develop different strategies for dealing with the difficulties. It is intended to demonstrate how in an adverse environment, characterized by poverty and institutional neglect,, physical disorders are repeatable, become incurable and they contribute to the reproduction of marginality. Thus arises the disease of the poverty, which somatizes physical ills to express social deprivation.", "Abstract We rely upon teams to perform complex tasks in highly demanding environments, ranging from space exploration to response to earth-bound disasters. In this article, we first briefly review the rich historical legacy of research on teams in extreme settings. Second, we orient our discussion of team performance in extreme environments by focusing on the contextual environment—the high demand, high-stress environment in which these teams operate. We discuss the mechanisms through which extreme demands or stress may impact team behavior, and discuss specific team processes and emergent states that may be impacted by these conditions. Finally, we address challenges in conducting research on extreme teams, and describe implications for application and practice.", "With database technology and visual technology as the support,and the related SGCC standards on the distribution maps of extreme weather conditions(lightening areas,icing areas,and galloping areas)as the basis,this paper has constructed an intelligent map drawing system by using com-puter software integration technology and geographic information system development technology. The system has realized functions like intelligent mapping, editing, approving, issuing,analysis and evaluation for the extreme weather drawings and provided bases for disaster prevention and reduction and planning of power grids.", "The article presents an original approach to evaluation of climate and weather according to their influence of human heat state. Use of the approach is accompanied by climate characteristics of some Transpolar cities, the authors discuss application of those characteristics to solution of hygienic problems. Language: ru", "Reducing maternal mortality constitutes one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. While significant progress has been made, system issues and professional training continue to affect maternal survival, especially when unusual, but deadly, complications arise. This rare case of survival after the rupture of an unscarred uterus in a grand multiparous woman from a remote village in Ghana illustrates how systemic transportation issues and limited access to advanced medical care put women with obstetric complications at risk. The usual clinical presentation of ruptured uteri and methods to prevent this catastrophic event are discussed. This case illustrates the systemic transportation issue that often limits access to prenatal and emergency care throughout much of the developing world and demonstrates how advanced training for emergency nurses and the use of ultrasound diagnosis can expedite difficult diagnoses and lead to maternal survival, even in the most adverse circumstances.", "This paper presents a new methodology in inspection on laser scribe defect of PV thin film solar modules. The work focuses on the application of machine vision as an inspection tools which has successfully integrated in other manufacturing environment as pattern recognition utility. Compared to manual inspection by human, machine vision system could offer better measurement accuracy as scribe defects are extremely hard to detect due to their small sizes and complexity of the detection process. Studies were made to identify machine vision system screening capabilities to define different scribe defect by their inspection criteria. Current result with paper and broad samples indicates that the propose system can be used effectively to replace human evaluators that currently employs in manufacturing quality control.", "This paper is devoted to the discussion of the measurement of human development and poverty, especially in United Nations Development Program’s global Human Development Reports. We first outline the methodological evolution of different indices over the last two decades, focusing on the well-known Human Development Index (HDI) and the poverty indices. We then critically evaluate these measures and discuss possible improvements that could be made.", "In Abtew, W.; Melesse, A. M. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop on Hydrology and Ecology of the Nile River Basin under Extreme Conditions, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 16-19 June 2008. Sandy, UT, USA: Aardvark Global Publishing", "In these recent days it's becoming a common tragedy that small kids/humans or even animals fell into the boreholes which are left open and many have took their last breath. A little impediment in the rescue operation of the strucked person can results in the death of a person. To avoid all such disasters we are producing an idea to extricate the strucked human using advanced robo. It is not enough if we just design a robo, it is also essential to detect weather human is alive or not and to keep him alive by providing sufficient amount of oxygen and it is required to measure the distance at which the human is strucked. To provide a proper treatment we are required to detect the fractures, if any. This robo is operated through pc using zigbee.", "ABSTRACTThe extreme personalization of the sports car industry requires the development of reliable and affordable techniques for the in-house set-up and control of processing conditions in deep dr...", "This paper discusses, on the basis of the Bruntland Report on development and environment, the relationship between population and development possibilities, and its consequences on natural and man made resources. The author emphasizes the need to design development policies in which the protection of the environment is a priority, specially in Latin American countries.", "The politicalization of religion issues is the important factors to impact political integration of multi-ethnic countries.In Central Asia,the politicalization of religion issues becomes the primary performance of religious extremist forces' existence and action.Taking the religious extremism as the theoretical guidance,the religious extremist forces in Central Asia made a series of terrorist and separatist activities in order to affect the political integration of multi-ethnic countries in Central Asia.Stopping the terrorist and separatist activities of religious extremist forces is the realistic choice to achieve political integration of multi-ethnic countries in Central Asia.", "Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the mentality of humanity in present times, the structure of human life nowadays and tries to prove that under these it is impossible to solve the problem of getting humankind out of an environmental crisis. Design/methodology/approach - The paper investigates the ingredients of human life today, i.e. social political and economic aspects, combined all together. Findings - Our civilization leads deterministically to an environmental deadlock. It follows that one needs to clearly understand that preventing the environmental catastrophe of humankind is impossible. The task of saving humankind altogether is unrealistic. Originality/value - The only reversal to the present situation is social cohesion, which however is incompatible with the mentality of our civilization. Culture, depended upon the cohesion of the society (community or state), is a outdoing and not a mean average.", "Humanization of nature is becoming more and more serious because of the rapid development of society. Therefore, the paper centers on how to relieve and remedy the regression of the human species. To sustain the natural property of mankind, sports are undoubtedly the most feasible and effective way.", "The human factor in building technologies cannot be ignored. After all, buildings are made for human occupancy in various forms such as living, working, studying, entertaining, shopping etc. Building users play a critical but poorly understood and often overlooked role in the built environment. Architects, designers and buildings owners should seek ways of integrating user involvement in building performance.", "Based on her work in poor rural migrant slums, in Bellavista, Trujillo, Peru, Aurora Elisa Ruiz Rosado looks at housing and water in relation to transmissible diseases. She argues that there is a need to sensitize governments and civil society about the value and social meaning of water for livelihoods, and, most of all, a grave need to improve integral water management, fair sharing and efficient delivery of water.", "Discharge parameters have close correlation to charge voltage and electrode speed. At 800 V correlations coefficient appear extreme values, implying transition threshold point to avalanche process from surface process. An attempt is made for mechanism analysis of the threshold phenomenon shown in electrostatic discharge (ESD) through handheld metal piece from charged human body.", "For feminists, law has long been a site of intense political, social and economic contestation. Surrogacy is no different. As India witnessed the fast-paced development of the transnational surrogacy sector in the past two decades, the Indian state adopted a range of policy positions toward commercial surrogacy ranging from a liberal, contract-based model in the late 1990s to a prohibitionist, carceral model in 2016. The chapter maps these legal and discursive shifts through a socio-legal understanding of several legislative proposals to reflect on the continued lack of settlement of legal norms in the surrogacy sector.", "Comparisons were made of the paediatric content of professional entry-level occupational therapy university program curricula in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada using an ex post facto survey methodology. The findings indicated that in Australia/New Zealand, paediatrics made up 20% of the total curriculum, but only 13% in Canada. Canadian reference materials were utilized less often in Canadian universities than in Australia/New Zealand. Theories taught most often in Australia/New Zealand were: Sensory Integration, Neurodevelopmental Therapy, Client-Centered Practice, Playfulness, and the Model of Human Occupation. In Canada, the most frequent theories were: Piaget's Stages of Cognitive/Intellectual Development, Neurodevelopmental Therapy, Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development and Sensory Integration. The most frequently taught paediatric assessment tools in both regions were the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency and Miller Assessment for Preschoolers. Paediatric intervention me..." ]

[ "(1 of) Fred Haise, James Lovell or John Swigart" ]

[ "The Men Who Stare at Goats", "(1 of) Gone with the Wind or All the King's Men", "All The President's Men In Black", "all the king's horses & all the king's men", "Who's there?", "hostages that were released from Beirut", "And Then There were None", "3", "(they were) \"Gassed\"", "they were complementary", "1", "It might have been", "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3", "it has been sold", "Never Been Kissed" ]

[ "[deleted]" ]

[ "Can't be replaceable if no one wants you in the first place", "For $300 you could've bought 6 replacement hardrives.", "Most bacteria collected after short term use will be from you breathing out, ie all bacteria will be present in your body/mouth anyway and the mask won't be adding any\n\nYou should wash/replace between uses, and shouldn't share, so really that isn't a concern", "Replacing them with worse addictions", "They will replace her with Amber Kidney.", "Malamutants will replace cars by 2040", "A piece of you died too. They are close to you because they are part of you already. When they died, they took part of you with them as well. At least that’s what I felt...", "She's a thieving gold-digger and won what is essentially a lottery. There are a lot of girls that could just as easily replace Cardi B", "This should replace the miranda rights..", "No because no one should tell you what to to with your body, however, there should be a major effort to inform why you should take it and avoid misinformation", "It will eventually be replaced by the three seashells.", "Fart next to her and say... “if you could pick any perfume to cover the smell of my shitty arsehole, what would you pick?”", "The very concept of screaming or even thinking about anything like that is highly racist and is similar to 1930s Germany, if you agree with what you're saying, I suggest you actually meet Jews to see they aren't any kind of problem, they aren't replacing you, and that the white supremacists who preach that sort of hate (which is based on absoloutely nothing but prejudice) are dead wrong", "Dump out the coffee and replace with sweet iced tea.", "Because waste is the way your body also sheds toxins. It's already been through you once, what's left is what your body can't use.", "your body would find some way to excrete the majority of it (providing you could even stomach 1,000,000,000 calories).\n\nyou wouldn't suddenly be fat the next day. you might either vomit, pee or poop it out.\n\nThat's why you shouldn't panic if you cheat on a diet one time.", "What sort of evaluations do you envision?", "You are part of the universe questioning itself. That’s why.", "Uh you should take your car to a mechanic if it is moaning.", "For some people, personality is replaced by an unnatural need to win.", "What part of \"I sense trouble in your future\" didn't you understand?", "Why would you call your kid Annie of Reddit?", "If you would never do it, why would you encourage your wife to do it at all?", "You could come in the cooler parts of the year!", "There is no alternatives to replace the things affecting climate change even if they wanted to it would take years to develop alternatives", "but, it does not have the same click and aggression like replaced", "Well generally \"what does ____ mean to you\" means what is your personal connection to the thing, why is it special to you. I don't really have any personal connections to any ethnicities so they don't mean anything.", "*Why is the position available? What is the trajectory of the role? What is the company culture like? How long have you worked here? What are your biggest day-to-day pain points? What do you think could improve about the team? Why are you looking for a person for this role externally? What could this person do for the team?* Come immediately to mind.", "youre gay you little piece of shit" ]

[ "The Hollywood Foreign Press is usually so eager to create buzz by awarding their Golden Globe to obscure nominees (“Mozart in the Jungle,” Best Comedy series, 2016). But this year, they’re taking a page from September’s Emmy Awards: They’ve all but repeated last year’s ballot, with a few variations — some welcome.\nThe nominees for Best Drama Series repeat four out of last year’s five choices (the winning “The Crown,” “Game of Thrones,” “Stranger Things” and “This is Us”) with one new entry: “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which swept the Emmys in September with eight wins.\nThe comedy series contenders only repeat one nominee from last year, ABC’s “Black-ish,” reflecting what has been a much-needed revitalization of the genre. The hit revival of NBC’s “Will & Grace” will face off against Showtime’s “SMILF,” Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and Netflix’s “Master of None.”\nThe HFPA wisely avoided a PR disaster here by completely shutting out “House of Cards” and “Transparent,” whose stars, Kevin Spacey and Jeffrey Tambor, both previous winners in the drama (2016) and comedy (2015) categories respectively, are no longer starring on their shows following allegations of sexual misconduct.\nIt was a very good day for “Seventh Heaven” alumna Jessica Biel, who came back to TV in the unusual murder mystery limited series “The Sinner,” on the USA Network. Biel picked up a nomination for Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV-movie alongside “Feud” battle axes Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon and “Big Little Lies” California dreamers Nicole Kidman, who won an Emmy for her performance, and Reese Witherspoon.\n“The Sinner” was also nominated for Best Limited Series or TV-Movie, up against big-budget blowouts such as “Feud,” Emmy darling “Big Little Lies” and HBO’s Bernie Madoff movie “The Wizard of Lies.”\nThe other new nominees earned their place on the ballot in well-reviewed series. “Good Doctor” star Freddie Highmore could take the Best Actor in a Drama Series prize for his turn as brilliant surgeon who has autism. He’s a Brit (the HFPA are serious anglophiles) showing his range (he previously starred as Norman Bates in “Bates Motel”) in a shamelessly awards-baity role.\nAustralian actress Katherine Langford is the surprise nominee as Best Actress in a Drama series for her role as a suicidal teen in the controversial Netflix series “13 Reasons Why.” Ignored by the Emmys, who gave this award to Elisabeth Moss for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Langford may give the HFPA a reason to do what they love to do best: create a new star with a shiny trophy. In addition to Moss, she will face off against Caitriona Balfe (“Outlander”), Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Deuce”) and last year’s winner, Claire Foy (“The Crown”).\nThe Best Actress, Comedy Series, category is truly refreshing, as nearly all the nominees are first-timers. Rachel Brosnahan scored for her star turn as a New York Jewish housewife who unexpectedly becomes a stand-up comic in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Her competition includes Frankie Shaw and Pamela Adlon, both playing beleaguered moms on “SMILF” and FX’s “Better Things,” respectively, and Alison Brie on Netflix’s “GLOW,” the series about women wrestlers.\nOnly Issa Rae from HBO’s “Insecure” is a repeat from last year, and she didn’t win then. Last year’s winner, Tracee Ellis Ross (“Black-ish”) was left out, attesting to the influx of new talent.\n“Will & Grace” star Debra Messing was also noticeably missing from today’s list of nominees. Eric McCormack was the only nominated actor from that series, for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. His competition includes previous nominees Anthony Anderson of “Black-ish,” Aziz Ansari from “Master of None,” William H. Macy of “Shameless” (his fifth nomination overall) and previous GG winner Kevin Bacon of Amazon’s new comedy “I Love Dick.”\nThe Golden Globes will air on Jan. 7, 2018 with Seth Meyers as the host." ]

[ "Alfre Woodard, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Bell and Sharon Stone announced the nominees for the 75th Anniversary of the GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS today, Monday, Dec. 11 from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. The actors were joined by the previously announced Golden Globe Ambassador, Simone Garcia Johnson; Hollywood Foreign Press Association President, Meher Tatna; and Barry Adelman, executive VP of Television at Dick Clark productions. Winners in 25 categories - 14 in film and 11 in television - are voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Click here for a full list of nominees.\nHugh Jackman received a nomination for Best actor in a Motion Picture, musical comedy for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN. The film also received a nomination for Best Motion Picture Musical, Comedy.\nAmong the nominees in the category of Best Actress in a Limited-Series or TV Movie were Tony Award winner Jessica Lange (LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT) for her performance in FEUD, and her co-star Susan Sarandon (EXIT THE KING). Nicole Kidman (THE BLUE ROOM) was also nominated for BIG LITTLE LIES.\nIn the category of Best Original Song, the nominees include\nA FEW GOOD MEN's Aaron Sorkin received a nomination for Best Screenplay for a Motion Picture for MOLLY'S GAME.\nChristian Slater (THE GLASS MENAGERIE, SIDE MAN) received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited-Series or TV Movie\nEric McCormack received a nomination for Best Actor in a TV Series, Comedy for WILL & GRACE. The NBC comedy also received a nod for Best Television Series, musical or comedy.\nThe nominees in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series include Broadway alum Elisabeth Moss (THE HEIDI CHRONICLES) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (THE REAL THING). Actress nominated in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture include SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION's Allison Janney for I TONYA and Tony winner Laurie Metcalf for LADY BIRD.\nNominees for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture include Armie Hammer for CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, who will make his Broadway debut in STRAIGHT WHITE MEN and Broadway veteran Christopher Plummer for ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD.\nNominees in the category for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy include Dame Judi Dench for VICTORIA & ABDUL, LADY BIRD's Saoirse Ronan, who made her Broadway debut in THE CRUCIBLE, CABARET's Emma Stone for BATTLE OF THE SEXES, and Tony winner Helen Mirren for THE LEISURE SEEKER.\nIn the category of Best Original Song for a Motion Picture, the nominees include Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, and Marc Shaiman for STAR.\nMore to come...\nSeth Meyers, one of late night's most important comedy voices, has been named host of the 75TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS. The telecast is set to air live coast to coast from the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 7 from 8-11 p.m. ET (5-8 p.m. PT) on NBC. The three-hour Golden Globes telecast will serve as the official kickoff to the 2018 awards season.\nProduced by Dick Clark productions in association with the HFPA, the GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS are viewed in more than 210 countries worldwide and are one of the few awards ceremonies to include both motion picture and television achievements.\nAbout the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Founded in the 1940s during World War II, the HFPA was originally comprised of a handful of L.A.-based overseas journalists who sought to bridge the international community with Hollywood, and to provide distraction from the hardships of war through film. Seventy years later, members of the HFPA represent 56 countries with a combined readership of 250 million in some of the world's most respected publications. Each year, the organization holds the third most watched awards show on television, the Golden Globe® Awards, which has enabled the organization to donate more than $25 million to entertainment-related charities and scholarship programs.\nRelated Articles", "‘ Shape of Water,’ ‘Big Little Lies’ lead Golden Globes\nJustina Mintz/A24 / AP\nNEW YORK — Guillermo del Toro's Cold War-era fairytale \"The Shape of Water\" swam away with a leading seven nominations from the Golden Globes, while the HBO drama \"Big Little Lies\" led television nominees with six nods.\nIn what's being viewed as a wide-open Oscar race so far, several films followed closely behind \"The Shape of Water,\" including Steven Spielberg's Pentagon Papers drama \"The Post,\" with six nominations, including best actress for Meryl Streep and best actor for Tom Hanks. Martin McDonagh's revenge drama \"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri\" also got a major boost in the nominations announced Monday in Beverly Hills, California, with six nods, including best actress for Frances McDormand and supporting actor for Sam Rockwell.\nBut as the most prominent platform yet in Hollywood's awards season to confront the post-Harvey Weinstein landscape, the Globes also enthusiastically supported Ridley Scott's J. Paul Getty drama \"All the Money in the World.\" Christopher Plummer, who has replaced Kevin Spacey in the film, was nominated for best supporting actor. Scott was also nominated for best director and Michelle Williams for best actress.\nA rough cut of the film was screened for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes. Scott is quickly reediting the movie to eradicate Spacey, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by numerous men.\n\"It must have been a herculean effort, because Christopher Plummer is all the way through the movie,\" said Meher Tatna, president of the press association. \"He really pulled off the impossible.\"\nNotably left out were frequent Globes-nominees \"House of Cards\" and \"Transparent,\" two of the TV shows affected by the cascading fallout of sexual harassment allegations in the wake of Harvey Weinstein's ouster. As usual, the nominations were partly announced on NBC's \"Today\" show, where Matt Lauer was recent fired following allegations of sexual misconduct.\nThe nominees for best picture drama are: the tender young romance \"Call Me By Your Name,\" Christopher Nolan's World War II epic \"Dunkirk,\" ''The Post,\" ''The Shape of Water\" and \"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\"\nThe nominees for best picture comedy or musical are: James Franco's \"The Disaster Artist,\" Jordan Peele's horror sensation \"Get Out,\" Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age tale \"Lady Bird,\" the upcoming musical \"The Greatest Showman,\" and the Tonya Harding comic-drama \"I, Tonya.\"\nDespite considerable backlash, \"Get Out\" ended up on the comedy side of the Globes after being submitted that way by Universal Pictures. Peele himself slyly commented on the controversy, calling his social critique of latent racism \"a documentary.\" The Globes passed over Peele's script, but newcomer Daniel Kaluuya was nominated for best actor in a comedy.\nThough some predicted and feared an acting field lacking diversity, the nominees were fairly inclusive. Denzel Washington (\"Roman J. Israel, Esq.\"), Mary J. Blige (\"Mudbound\"), Hong Chau (\"Downsizing\") and Octavia Spencer (\"The Shape of Water\") were among the 30 film acting nominees.\nBut the best director category remained all-male, as it has for most of Globes and Academy Awards history. Many had thought this year might be different due to directors like Gerwig, Patty Jenkins (\"Wonder Woman\") and Dee Rees (\"Mudbound\"). But the nominees were: Spielberg, del Toro, Nolan, McDonagh and Scott.\nThe morning's biggest surprise, aside from the success of \"All the Money in the World,\" might have been the omission of the romantic comedy \"The Big Sick,\" penned by real-life couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. Another Oscar underdog, \"The Florida Project,\" emerged with only one nomination, for Willem Dafoe's supporting performance as the manager of a low-rent motel.\nIn the television categories, the Emmy-winning \"Big Little Lies\" earned a host of acting nods (Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgard, Laura Dern) as well as best limited series. (HBO recently announced a second season for \"Big Little Lies,\" which will change its category in other awards shows.)\nFX's Bette Davis and Joan Crawford chronicle \"Feud: Bette and Joan\" landed four nominations, including nods for Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon. Amazon's just-debuted \"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\" scored two nods, including best comedy series. Also with multiple nominations were Netflix's \"Stranger Things,\" Hulu's \"The Handmaid's Tale\" and NBC's \"This Is Us.\"\nGary Oldman, nominated for best actor for his Winston Churchill in \"Darkest Hour,\" said the scandals have cast an unusual pall over the season, where Weinstein was for decades a dominating force.\n\"How should we celebrate? Well, I don't think any of it's funny, so I guess that people will stay away from it in the ceremony,\" said Oldman by phone Monday. \"It's evolution, and it's good that we sort of start to check ourselves about what we do and what we say and how we do it and how we say it to people, so I think it's ultimately a good thing. But I can't see too much of this coming up in (the show), up there on the platform, as it were, on the podium. It's not something to joke about, I don't think.\"\nThe nominees were announced from Beverly Hills after still-burning fires ravaged Southern California for the past week. The Thomas Fire has destroyed some 790 structures and forced thousands to evacuate their homes, with the blazes even entering the nearby neighborhood of Bel Air.\nThe Globes haven't traditionally predicted the Oscars, but they did last January. The Globes best-picture winners — \"Moonlight\" and \"La La Land\" — both ultimately ended up on the stage for the final award of the Oscars, with \"Moonlight\" emerging victorious only after the infamous envelope flub. The press association, which has worked in recent years to curtail its reputation for odd choices, is composed of approximately 90 freelance international journalists.\nThe last Globes broadcast, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, averaged 20 million viewers, an upswing of 8 percent, according to Nielsen. This year, Fallon's NBC late-night partner, Seth Meyers, will host the January 7 ceremony.\nNo Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement recipient has yet been chosen. Last year's honoree, Streep, spoke forcefully against the then President-elect Donald Trump, shortly before his inauguration, leading him to criticize the actress as \"overrated.\" This year, she — along with Spielberg and Hanks — return with a pointed and timely drama, \"The Post,\" about the power of the press to counter lies emanating from the White House.\nSaid Streep in a statement: \"I'm thrilled for the movie, for Steven and Tom, and for the incredible ensemble of actors who made this movie need its moment in history.\"\nLindsey Bahr, Sandy Cohen and Ryan Pearson contributed to this report from Los Angeles.", "Guillermo del Toro's Cold War-era, Canadian-shot fairy tale The Shape of Water swam away with a leading seven\nnominations from the Golden Globes, while the Canadian-directed HBO drama Big Little Lies led the television nominees with six nods.\nThe Shape of Water was shot in Toronto and Hamilton. Big Little Lies was directed by Montreal's Jean-Marc Vallée.\nThe nominations were announced in Beverly Hills, Calif., by actors Alfre Woodard, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Bell and Sharon Stone.\nThe nominees include:\nBest motion picture – drama\nCall Me By Your Name\nDunkirk\nThe Post\nThe Shape of Water\n3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri\nBest motion picture - musical or comedy\nThe Disaster Artist\nGet Out\nThe Greatest Showman\nI, Tonya\nLady Bird\nBest motion picture – animated\nThe Boss Baby\nThe Breadwinner\nCoco\nFerdinand\nLoving Vincent\nBest motion picture - foreign language\nA Fantastic Woman\nFirst They Killed My Father\nIn the Fade\nLoveless\nIn the Square\nIn what is seen as a wide-open Oscar race so far, several films followed closely behind The Shape of Water, including Steven Spielberg's Pentagon Papers drama The Post,with six nominations, including best actress for Meryl Streep and best actor for Tom Hanks. Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri also received a major boost with six nominations, including best actress for Frances McDormand.\nBut as the most prominent platform yet in Hollywood's awards season to confront the post-Harvey Weinstein landscape, the Globes also enthusiastically supported Ridley Scott's J. Paul Getty drama All the Money in the World. Canadian veteran Christopher Plummer, who has replaced Kevin Spacey in the film, was nominated for best supporting actor. Scott was also nominated for best director and Michelle Williams for best supporting actress.\nA rough cut of the film was screened for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes. Scott is quickly re-editing the movie to eradicate Spacey, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by numerous men.\nThe Hollywood Foreign Press Association will host the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards in January. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)\nBest television series – drama\nThe Crown\nGame of Thrones\nThe Handmaid's Tale\nStranger Things\nThis is Us\nBest television series – musical or comedy\nblack-ish\nThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\nMaster of None\nSMILF\nWill and Grace\nBest television limited series or motion picture made for television\nBig Little Lies\nFargo\nFeud: Betty and Joan\nThe Sinner\nTop of the Lake: China Girl\nThe awards were announced from Beverly Hills after a week of still-burning fires have ravaged Southern California. The so-called Thomas Fire has destroyed some 790 structures and forced thousands to evacuate their homes, with the blazes even entering the nearby neighbourhood of Bel-Air.\nThe Globes have long characterized themselves as one of the frothiest stops on the awards season circuit. The last Globes broadcast, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, averaged 20 million viewers, an upswing of eight per cent, according to Nielsen. In 2018, Fallon's NBC late-night partner, Seth Meyers, will host the Jan. 7 ceremony.\nLate night's Seth Meyers will host the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)\nThe awards haven't traditionally predicted the Oscars, but they did last January.\nThe Globes best-picture winners — Moonlight and La La Land — both ultimately ended up on the stage for the final award of the Oscars, with Moonlight emerging victorious only after the infamous envelope flub. The press association, which has worked in recent years to curtail its reputation for oddball choices, is composed of approximately 90 freelance international journalists.\nNo Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement recipient has yet been chosen. Last year's honoree, Streep, spoke forcefully against Donald Trump, shortly before his inauguration as U.S. president, leading him to criticize the actress as \"overrated.\"\nThis year, she — along with Spielberg and Hanks — return with a pointed and timely drama, The Post, about the power of the press to counter lies emanating from the White House.\nNominees for the 75th Golden Globe Awards\nBest motion picture – drama\nCall Me By Your Name.\nDunkirk.\nThe Post.\nThe Shape of Water.\nThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\nBest motion picture - musical or comedy\nThe Disaster Artist.\nGet Out.\nThe Greatest Showman.\nI, Tonya.\nLady Bird.\nBest motion picture – animated\nThe Boss Baby.\nThe Breadwinner.\nCoco.\nFerdinand.\nLoving Vincent.\nBest motion picture - foreign language\nA Fantastic Woman.\nFirst They Killed My Father.\nIn the Fade.\nLoveless.\nIn the Square.\nBest performance by an actress in a motion picture – drama\nJessica Chastain, Molly's Game.\nSally Hawkins, Shape of Water.\nFrances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\nMeryl Streep, The Post.\nMichelle Williams, All the Money in the World.\nBest performance by an actor in a motion picture – drama\nTimothy Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name.\nDaniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread.\nTom Hanks, The Post.\nGary Oldman, Darkest Hour.\nDenzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.\nBest performance by an actress in a motion picture - musical or comedy\nJudi Dench, Victoria and Abdul.\nHelen Mirren, The Leisure Seeker.\nMargot Robbie, I, Tonya.\nSaoirse Ronan, Lady Bird.\nEmma Stone, Battle of the Sexes.\nBest performance by an actor in a motion picture - musical or comedy\nSteve Carrell, Battle of the Sexes.\nAnsel Elgort, Baby Driver.\nJames Franco, The Disaster Artist.\nHugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman.\nDaniel Kaluuya, Get Out.\nBest performance by an actress in a supporting role in any motion picture\nMary J. Blige, Mudbound.\nHong Chau, Downsizing.\nAllison Janney, I, Tonya.\nLaurie Metcalf, Lady Bird.\nOctavia Spencer, The Shape of Water.\nBest performance by an actor in a supporting role in any motion picture\nWillem Dafoe, The Florida Project.\nArmie Hammer, Call Me By My Name.\nRichard Jenkins, The Shape of Water.\nChristopher Plummer, All the Money in the World.\nSam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\nBest director - motion picture\nGuillermo del Toro , The Shape of Water.\nMartin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\nChristopher Nolan, Dunkirk.\nRidley Scott, All the Money in the World.\nSteven Spielberg, The Post.\nBest screenplay - motion picture\nThe Shape of Water.\nLady Bird.\nThe Post.\nThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\nMolly's Game.\nBest original score - motion picture\nThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\nThe Shape of Water.\nPhantom Thread.\nThe Post.\nDunkirk.\nBest original song - motion picture\nHome from Ferdinand.\nMighty River from Mudbound.\nRemember Me from Coco.\nThe Star from The Star.\nThis is Me from The Greatest Showman.\nBest television series – drama\nThe Crown.\nGame of Thrones.\nThe Handmaid's Tale.\nStranger Things.\nThis is Us.\nBest television series – musical or comedy\nblack-ish.\nThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.\nMaster of None.\nSMILF.\nWill and Grace.\nBest television limited series or motion picture made for television\nBig Little Lies.\nFargo.\nFeud: Betty and Joan.\nThe Sinner.\nTop of the Lake: China Girl.\nBest performance by an actress in a limited series or motion picture made for television\nJessica Biel, The Sinner.\nNicole Kidman, Big Little Lies.\nJessica Lange, Feud: Bette and Joan.\nSusan Sarandon, Feud: Bette and Joan.\nReece Witherspoon, Big Little Lies.\nBest performance by an actor, limited series or motion picture made for television\nRobert De Niro, The Wizard of Lies.\nJude Law, The Young Pope.\nKyle McLachlan, Twin Peaks.\nEwan McGregor, Fargo.\nGeoffrey Rush, Genius.\nBest performance by an actress, television series – drama\nCaitriona Balfe, Outlander.\nClaire Foy, The Crown.\nMaggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce.\nKatherine Langford, 13 Reasons Why.\nElisabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale.\nBest performance by an actor in a television series – drama\nJason Bateman, Ozark.\nSterling K. Brown, This is Us.\nFreddie Highmore, The Good Doctor.\nBob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul.\nLiev Schreiber, Ray Donovan.\nBest performance by an actress in a television series - musical or comedy\nPamela Adelon, Better Things.\nAlison Brie, Glow.\nRachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.\nIssa Rae, Insecure.\nFrankie Shaw, SMILF.\nBest performance by an actor in a television series - musical or comedy\nAnthony Anderson, black-ish.\nAziz Ansari, Master of None.\nKevin Bacon, I Love Dick.\nWilliam H. Macy, Shameless.\nEric McCormack, Will and Grace.\nBest performance by an actress in a supporting role in a series, limited series or motion picture made for television\nLaura Dern, Big Little Lies.\nAnn Dowd, The Handmaid's Tale.\nChrissy Metz, This is Us.\nMichelle Pfeiffer, The Wizard of Lies.\nShailene Woodley, Big Little Lies.\nBest performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, limited series or motion picture made for television" ]

[ "the town is in the far west of the county close to the borders of hampshire and berkshire the boundaries intersect on the western edge of the town where all three counties converge on the a30 national route it is the main town in the borough of surrey heath camberley s suburbs include crawley hill york town diamond ridge heatherside and old dean before the 19th century the area now occupied by camberley was referred to as bagshot or frimley heath an iron age fort liberally among one of many examples known as caesar s camp was to the north of this area alongside the roman road the devil s highway the intenarium curiosum published in 1724 describes a collection of roman pottery around the area and a further collection was discovered at frimley green in the late 20th century in the middle ages the area was part of windsor forest in the 17th century the area along the turnpike road through bagshot heath now the a30 was known as a haunt of highwaymen such as william davies also known as the golden farmer and claude duval the land remained largely undeveloped and uncultivated due to a sandy topsoil making", "borough status was granted in 2007 wokingham means wocca s people s home wocca was apparently a saxon chieftain who may also have owned lands at wokefield in berkshire and woking in surrey in victorian times the name became corrupted to oakingham and consequently the acorn with oak leaves is the town s heraldic charge granted in the 19th century the courts of windsor forest were held at wokingham and the town had the right to hold a market from 1219 the bishop of salisbury was largely responsible for the growth of the town during this period he set out roads and plots making them available for rent there are records showing that in 1258 he bought the rights to hold three town fairs every year queen elizabeth granted a town charter in 1583 from the 14th to the 16th centuries wokingham was well known for its bell foundry which supplied many churches across the south of england during the tudor period wokingham was well known as a producer of silk some of the houses involved in these cottage industries are still to be seen in rose street the houses with the taller ground floors housed the looms this can", "in the uk they are best known for their single the sound of the suburbs reaching 12 in 1979 and in australia radio which reached 5 in 1982 the members were formed by lyricist nicky tesco nick lightowlers in 1976 through an invited audition at a recording studio at tooley street london the original personnel with tesco vocals was gary baker guitar and steve morley bass guitar initially with steve maycock then clive parker drums morley and parker were later replaced by chris payne and adrian lillywhite in 1976 the band performed for its first engagements at the red cow london w6 the windsor castle london w9 and the nashville rooms london w14 in that year composer jean marie carroll aka jc carroll joined the band to complement tesco s lyrics the members had recorded a number of songs but the first released recording was fear on the streets produced by lillywhite s brother steve lillywhite this song was included on the first record released by the beggars banquet label the punk compilation streets 1977 the song writing collaboration between tesco and carroll moved the members sound towards an incorporation of reggae shown in the first single released for stiff", "their music is a fusion of alternative rock and heavy metal as their songs cover a variety of styles ranging from heavy and upbeat such as their 2005 single blamethrower to slower more melodic songs such as their 2004 single moving to blackwater the former style of song often featured vocalist jamie lenman switching between shouting and whispering a technique often used in heavy metal and post hardcore music the band performed in the uk underground music scene although they attracted a significant fanbase reuben never achieved mainstream success but did chart four songs in the uk singles chart their highest charting single was 2004 s freddy kreuger that reached uk no 53 in june 2008 reuben entered a state of indefinite hiatus fans were emailed by the band manager making them aware of the hiatus assuring them that this was not the end for reuben the band formed in 1998 when singer guitarist jamie lenman and bassist jon pearce originally played with producer jason wilson formerly wilcock of stakeout studios on drums as angel sharing local stages with many bands one of which would become hundred reasons between 1998 and 2000 angel recorded and self released a string of", "the pub derives its name from a gold robbing farmer william davies or davis who spent years plundering various sections of the country s main south west turnpike road including this area before being hanged in 1689 at this location the junction was a fork with the london to land s end turnpike road now the a30 london road and the london to portsmouth turnpike now the a325 portsmouth road the two main roads are mentioned in john ogilby s britannia published in 1675 with the land s end road described as in general a very good road with suitable entertainment and the portsmouth road as a very good road to southampton and thence to salisbury indifferent the route to southampton being roughly the a325 and part of what is now the a31 until the establishment of camberley in 1860 it crossed remote unpopulated heathland in the stagecoach era it was busy with traffic and notorious for the poor quality of road and proliferation of highwaymen the junction has been an important landmark and mentioned in early motoring itineraries it was originally a simple fork in the road and was converted into the current roundabout layout in 1960 the highwayman", "it is about 30 miles 50 km south west of central london the town is connected to the m3 motorway by the a331 blackwater valley road the village can be considered a slightly more developed twin of frimley green frimley became an urban district in 1894 and was renamed frimley and camberley in 1929 the name frimley is derived from the saxon name fremma s lea which means fremma s clearing the land was owned by chertsey abbey from 673 to 1537 and was a farming village more recently it was a coach stop on a portsmouth and popular southampton road for about four hundred years frimley was not listed in domesday book of 1086 but is shown on the map as fremely its spelling in 933 ad frimley lunatic asylum was opened in 1799 it catered for both male and female patients and received four patients from great fosters egham magistrates visited in 1807 and ordered the proprietors to stop chaining the patients an 1811 inventory from frimley a workhouse can be seen on the surrey county council website the present st peter s church was built in 1826 replacing earlier buildings the building has a balcony running around", "deepcut is connected by a mixed military land and residential road to frimley green and has substantial green buffers of heath including pirbright and west end commons owned by the mod deepcut has been home of the princess royal barracks and its predecessors since 1906 which began as blackdown camp paleolithic flints have been found in the drift gravels on the hills and a few neolithic implements in old frimley parish generically on the crest on which the community sits near the southern end of chobham ridges is a very large round barrow called round butt south of it mainstone hill probably preserves the name of the standing stone which formed a boundary mark of chobham in the 12th century chertsey charter william stukeley s itinerarium curiosum records a roman urn and coins as found here deepcut is so named as the basingstoke canal was constructed through the area in a deep cutting below ground level in the 18th century deepcut was part of the parish of ash until 1866 when frimley gained its own civil and ecclesiastical parishes due to non agricultural soil and undulating landscape leading to little transport infrastructure few people lived here the parish provided the", "they are currently members of the and play at krooner park the club was established in 1895 after a discussion at st michael s church and was originally named st michael s football club although they became known as st michael s camberley the first match a friendly was played on 16 october against d company from the royal military college in nearby sandhurst st michael s won 4 2 in january 1896 they joined the surrey county football association entering and winning the surrey junior cup in 1897 98 the club s first competitive game was played on 16 october 1897 a junior cup first round match against farncombe which st michael s won 5 2 after winning the cup the club joined the east west surrey league for the 1898 99 season in january 1901 a public meeting was held at which it was decided to establish a new club that would absorb both st michael s and camberley magpies the name camberley yorktown was adopted and the club took st michael s place in the east west surrey league however they dropped into the aldershot combination in 1902 before switching to the ascot district league in 1903", "they are currently members of the and play at the frimley green recreation ground the club was established in 1919 and won the surrey junior cup in 1927 28 they later joined the surrey intermediate league and after winning back to back titles in 1958 59 and 1959 60 they joined the surrey senior league the step up proved difficult and the club initially struggled in the new league finishing bottom in 1962 63 however the late 1960s saw several top half finishes after finishing bottom of the league again in 1973 74 the club joined the spartan league when it merged with the metropolitan london league in 1975 to form the london spartan league the club were placed in division two they were promoted to division one at the end of the 1975 76 season in 1977 division one became the premier division and frimley green remained in the division until being relegated to the senior division in 1979 80 after one season in the senior division the club transferred to the western division of the combined counties league at the end of their first season in the league it was reduced to a single division the club won", "it is on the ascot to guildford line from the station and all trains serving it are operated by south western railway opened in 1878 by the london and south western railway when it was known as camberley york town the station gained a second platform fifteen years later when the line through here was doubled the route was electrified on the third rail system at 650 volts dc by the southern railway on 1 january 1939 the station was completely rebuilt in 1975 camberley is served by trains between ascot and aldershot these operate every 30 minutes monday to saturday and on sundays services run between ascot and guildford on mondays to fridays there are three trains per day that continue beyond ascot to london waterloo in the morning peak period and two from london in the evening at other times passengers are required to change at either ascot or ash vale to reach london services are run using a four carriage class 450 which 2 cycles can be carried per train", "the college has around 680 students with 50 teaching staff and 30 associate staff opened in 2001 on the site of france hill school the college is currently designated a specialist business and enterprise college status by the department for children schools and families kings international college was opened on the site of the previous france hill school in september 2001 the relaunch came as a result of a partnership between 3e s enterprises a non profit educational company based at the ctc kingshurst in birmingham and surrey county council it was intended that the relaunch would address the falling rolls and a financial deficit that existed at the time the project was partially successful in that the rolls did increase initially but the national decline in student numbers after 2002 which impact until approximately 2014 mean that the college is not full although by 2018 it is predicted there will be insufficient places in the area and the college may need to increase its capacity france hill house school was opened in france hill drive camberley in the 1940s it moved to a brand new building in watchetts drive in the summer of 1958 retaining part of its original", "many of the roads on the estate reflect this being named after the london boroughs which paid for the expansion the others are named after places on the common examples include kingston road mitcham road and wimbledon road the area starts approximately 1km nne from the town centre the estate is built on the olddean or old dean common and is bordered to the south by the a30 london road and falls within the district of surrey heath borough council the resident population of old dean at the 2011 census was 4 636 people five per cent of the population of surrey heath local authority properties in this area built in the 1950s and 1960s are mainly semi detached and terraced with a number of maisonettes on the northern edge of the estate it was originally a council estate however under the conservative government s right to buy scheme a proportion of these properties are now in private ownership it has elected the only labour councillors in the borough when the estate was first constructed the portion between the a30 and upper college ride was littered with demolished concrete blockhouses and military installations an ideal playground for the dozens of", "it has been involved in a portfolio of road rail nuclear and other major projects worldwide it is a subsidiary of the dutch royal bam group the company was founded by james nuttall snr in manchester in 1865 to undertake engineering works associated with infrastructure developments such as the manchester ship canal which opened in 1894 and the narrow gauge lynton and barnstaple railway which opened in 1898 in the 1900s and 1910s james nuttall snr s two sons sir edmund nuttall 1st baronet 1870 1923 who was made a baronet in 1922 and james nuttall 1877 1957 built the company into a nationwide business in the 1920s and 1930s the company was run by sir edmund s son sir keith nuttall 2nd baronet 1901 1941 who served in the royal engineers in the second world war other members of the family also involved were sir keith s brother clive nuttall 1906 1936 and their cousin james nuttall s son norman nuttall 1907 1996 in 1941 sir keith s shares were inherited by his eight year old son sir nicholas nuttall 3rd baronet 1933 2007 during the second world war the company was one of the contractors engaged in building", "he was educated at harrow school where he was inter public schools athletics champion for the 880 yards in 1929 and trinity college cambridge gaining an ma at cambridge he was a member of the pitt club the hawks club the alverstone club and the achilles club he was commissioned into the royal air force in 1932 and served as assistant air attach at the british embassy in paris from 1938 40 during the second world war he commanded 613 squadron aaf from 1941 42 and later 32 wing he was made an officer of the order of the british empire in 1946 and was also awarded the us bronze star medal and made an officier of the french legion of honour from 1946 48 he was chief instructor of the cambridge university air squadron in 1954 lord acheson succeeded his father as earl of gosford with a seat in the house of lords as baron worlingham he joined the conservative government of sir anthony eden as parliamentary secretary to the ministry of defence in 1956 before becoming under secretary of state for foreign affairs in the succeeding government of harold macmillan in 1957 in 1958 he was made a", "the village until the mid 20th century consisted of little farmed smallholdings amid substantial common land west end common to the west is comparable in size to chobham common to the north and both dwarf the built up heart of the village west end common includes training ranges of the british army and is separated by a smaller public area brentmoor heath which shares in naturally wet acid heathland a rare soil type in geology the bagshot formation is apparent in parts of the village west end lies between bagshot and brookwood railway stations away the river bourne runs through the village from its sources to the immediate west west end and bisley have little commerce and industry compared to adjoining settlements with parks grassland areas and separated by green belt buffers a golf course plant nurseries and farms adjoin the clustered village centre nearby lands were settled in prehistoric times evidenced within this civil parish with a megalithic barrow on westend common west end may have obtained its name because it was the west of chobham ene the 1845 map reproduced by ej willson provides boundaries at that date its direct predecessor named westend was in 1870 72 described", "it is most famous as being the venue of the bdo world darts championship holding both men s and women s events the complex was established in 1972 when bob potter born 1928 bought wharfenden house and the surrounding grounds and lake he built it up from a 500 seat venue to a 1 000 seat venue which became popular on the cabaret circuit the lakeside fell victim to a fire in the late 1970s but reopened after refurbishment a tragedy struck during the staging of the 2010 world darts championship the 25th year at the lakeside during a period of poor weather conditions on 7 january 2010 the body of a man who had been staying there whilst watching the competition was found under the frozen lake on the complex the complex s owners bob potter leisure limited were fined 85 000 for health and safety violations the lakeside became the venue of the world darts championship in 1986 where it has been held every year since and the club has also sponsored the event since 2004 the venue has played host to acts including tommy cooper morecambe and wise sammy davis jr frankie vaughan and bob monkhouse the", "he joined the channel at its launch in 1989 brunt was educated at soham grammar school in the small town of soham in cambridgeshire followed by the london college of printing where he studied magazine journalism after leaving the london college of printing brunt first joined the editorial staff of power laundry and cleaning news owned by the international publishing corporation ipc in london from there he was taken on as a junior reporter with the chatham news and chatham standard newspapers in kent and after training under editor gerald hinks left to join a news agency in devon followed by the ferrari agency in dartford kent from there he moved to the sunday mirror and became chief reporter before being asked to join sky news early exclusive coverage included the iraqis retreat from kuwait in the first gulf war later brunt was first to break news of the death of the queen mother in 2002 and the murder of television presenter jill dando in 1999 in 2005 he was first to report that the 7 july explosions in london were the work of terrorists brunt reported from south africa on the murder inquiry into adam an unknown boy whose", "a graduate of the university of wales lampeter ba english honours he joined the bbc as a general trainee in 1967 leaving the bbc in 1971 he joined a commercials production company before going freelance as an assistant director for such people as ridley scott tony scott hugh hudson cliff owen and jack gold his many film credits as a director include the award winning channel 4 series tom keating on painters circle within the square which won a prize at the mesa festival florida and the original three tenors a documentary about caruso gigli and bj rling presented by nigel douglas his stage credits include waltzing in the clouds covent garden festival and a dog s life a one man show with john leeson the voice of k9 plus the operas the yeomen of the guard for opera holland park faust the merry wives of windsor and verbum nobile by moniuszko he wrote the librettos for survival song nominated for an olivier award and biko both with music by priti paintal he is the author of nine books including a history of welsh national opera notes from a low singer the autobiography of operatic bass michael langdon which he", "she is mentored by specialist vocal coach martin gwyn williams and was a member of the west end kids song dance troupe from 2006 to 2013 at a school musical recital holly had her first taste of performing at the age of 9 when she sang a solo from the little mermaid holly then joined the guildford school of acting saturday school and performed in two christmas pantomimes at the yvonne arnaud theatre in guildford she was then accepted into the national youth music theatre where she performed at elizabeth ii of the united kingdom s 80th birthday celebrations at windsor castle in may 2006 with nymt she also performed the dreaming in tonbridge kent holly auditioned for the disney channel uk talent search my camp rock in early 2009 by making a video of herself singing this is me she was chosen as one of the 8 finalists to take part in an intensive 4 day camp rock style workshop she sang listen whilst the other finalists also sang songs of their choice in front of jk joel and zoe tyler in order for them to hear their voices for the camp jam which aired on 17 april 2009", "the tower was built by john norris 1721 1786 in about 1765 1770 the top section of the tower was destroyed by fire in the early 1880s it is a grade ii listed building although known as an obelisk the structure is in fact a square tower made of red bricks it is built on the top of a wooded hill in camberley park about east of camberley town centre the tower originally comprised several stories and is estimated to have been about in height however the top part of the tower was demolished in the late 19th century and it is now only high the walls are up to thick there was originally a wooden staircase inside the tower allowing access to the top the inside of the tower is now empty and all the entrances have been closed off with iron grids the tower was built about 1765 1770 by john norris a prosperous merchant and a member of the landed gentry who owned land and property in warwickshire hampshire buckinghamshire and in islington and was high sheriff for buckinghamshire in 1775 he had two manors hawley place in hawley hampshire and hughenden manor in high wycombe buckinghamshire", "the contract which is worth circa 4 million and will run for up to five years will see nsc manage a diverse range of virtual exercises designed to prepare regular and reserve personnel for future operations the company is also contributing to efforts to ensure the british army is neither out fought nor out thought on the battlefields of tomorrow nsc was contracted by the ministry of defence to ensure the centre for historical analysis and conflict research chacr reached full operational capability by the end of 2015 working alongside select partners from academia and industry the training simulation and consultancy specialist continues to provide technical and project management support to the think tank which is tasked with informing military doctrine and force development and becoming a hub for the generation of soldier scholars previously nsc s joint operations command and staff training system jocasts helped the british army to collectively prepare brigades and battlegroups for deployments to iraq and afghanistan and its joint combat operations virtual environment jcove ubvt s predecessor readied more than 16 000 british personnel for operations in 2013 nsc and atkins were contracted by the uk ministry of defence to help develop and support a", "in 1806 the estate was divided james lawrell the younger kept what was referred to as frimley manor while frimley park mansion and of land were sold to john tekells john tekells built a house on the site now known as tekels castle in 1860 captain knight and major spring bought frimley park they sold frimley park mansion with of land to william crompton stansfield in 1862 they divided the remnant of the estate between themselves and each built a house captain knight built a new house on virtually the same site as tekell s previous house the land on which captain knight built tekels castle was sold off gradually to meet the demands of new properties to support the new army staff college by 1870 tekels park estate was reduced to of land and was purchased by major general thomas edmond byrne 1830 1898 he continued the process of division and when the estate was sold in 1902 to mr a wilson hughes it was a fraction of its former size in 1906 the main house burnt down but the ancillary buildings such as the coach houses and coachman s house and stables survived in the aftermath of the", "it was built from 1923 until 1924 and was designed by frederick walters it is situated on the london road to the north of the town next to the atrium shopping centre it is a grade ii listed building in 1869 a priest fr thomas purcell would come from aldershot to say mass for the local catholic population in various people s houses for the next four years catholics would travel to st joseph s church aldershot for mass on 25 january 1873 a site was bought for 120 for a school in 1874 a priest fr mckenna was permanently appointed to serve the catholics in camberley in 1879 lady southwell gave a plot of land the present site for the construction of st tarcisius church in 1884 a temporary iron church was built to accommodate the congregation in 1888 the priest s house was built and in 1896 the school was expanded in 1906 fr patrick twomey came to camberley and started to plan to build a new permanent church on 12 september 1923 the foundation stone of the church was laid by the bishop of southwark peter amigo on 18 november 1924 the church was opened the church", "it is located opposite the blackwater valley path in 2017 a footpath and cycleway was built between blackwater railway station and the sainsbury s supermarket watchmoor consists of watchmoor park business park watchmoor point industrial estate the sainsbury s watchmoor park superstore and the watchmoor reserve nature area watchmoor park business park was developed in the late 1980s and the early 1990s by the asset management company l m it is home to the offices of several large companies including telent jaegermeister btg unisys novartis bachy soletanche dc leisure and herrington carmichael watchmoor point industrial estate is located adjacent to the watchmoor park business park in 1987 j sainsbury plc and metropolitan estates ltd planned a 37 000 sq ft sainsbury s supermarket and an adjacent homebase store on the part of the watchmoor park site which used to be a household rubbish tip however the homebase plan was later abandoned which was opened in 1990 off the meadows roundabout instead the homebase store has since been closed and replaced by a next store in the end a 36 000 sq ft sainsbury s supermarket was opened on 23 june 1992 by the then chairman lord john sainsbury himself the" ]

[ "it is located in the town of sandhurst berkshire though its ceremonial entrance is in camberley southwest of london the academy s stated aim is to be the national centre of excellence for leadership all british army officers including late entry officers who were previously warrant officers as well as other men and women from overseas are trained at the academy sandhurst is the british army equivalent of the britannia royal naval college and the royal air force college cranwell despite its name the royal military academy sandhurst s address is located in camberley the boundaries of the academy straddle the counties of berkshire and surrey the county border is marked by a small stream known as the wish stream after which the academy journal is named the main gate is located on the east of the academy on the london road in camberley the college town gate which is used for regular access is located on the west of the academy on yorktown road in sandhurst the royal military academy sandhurst was formed on the site of the former royal military college founded in 1801 for the training of officers for arms other than the royal artillery and royal", "it is in the south eastern corner of the ceremonial royal county of berkshire within the borough of bracknell forest and is situated west southwest of central london north west of camberley and south of bracknell sandhurst is known worldwide as the location of the royal military academy sandhurst often referred to simply as sandhurst the academy or the rma despite its close proximity to camberley sandhurst is also home to a large and well known out of town mercantile development the site is named the meadows and has a tesco extra hypermarket and a marks and spencer two of the largest in the country a large next plc clothing and homeware store is open on the site of the old homebase sandhurst is located at sandhurst is situated within the south east of england on the border of the home counties of berkshire hampshire and surrey the town itself consists of four main districts from west to east little sandhurst sandhurst central and college town with owlsmoor to the northeast north of the town are edgbarrow woods and a site of special scientific interest sssi called sandhurst to owlsmoor bogs and heaths which includes the nature reserve of wildmoor", "he fought in the second boer war and then served with the egyptian army until 1911 and attended the staff college camberley from 1913 to 1914 he took part in the first world war becoming chief instructor at the staff school in cambridge during the last year of the war he was appointed commander of 73rd brigade later in 1918 and became an instructor at the staff college camberley in 1919 before taking up a post as director of military training in india in 1924 he went on to be commandant of the small arms school in 1929 and general officer commanding goc of the 3rd meerut indian division in 1934 before retiring in 1938 he was recalled at the start of the second world war to be goc of the 61st infantry division followed by being made commandant of the staff college camberley before retiring again in 1941 he was one of the founders with phoebe cusden of the reading d sseldorf association which provided help from the people of reading in berkshire for the people of d sseldorf in germany which had been heavily bombed during the war he was also author of lord wavell 1883 1941 a", "he was educated at berkhamsted school hertfordshire england trousdell was commissioned into the royal irish rangers on 2 august 1968 as a second lieutenant he was promoted to lieutenant on 2 february 1970 between 1968 and 1974 he served in the united kingdom gibraltar libya bahrain oman and northern ireland he was promoted to captain on 2 august 1974 between 1974 and 1977 he served as signals officer and adjutant of 2nd battalion royal irish rangers having attended the staff college camberley he was promoted to major on 30 september 1980 he then became an instructor in the junior wing of camberley he returned to 2nd battalion royal irish rangers as a company commander he served as officer commanding a company in berlin germany and in dover kent from 1985 to 1987 he was posted to the ministry of defence as a military assistant to the assistant chief of the general staff then major general john macmillan he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 31 december 1986 with seniority from 30 june 1986 he spent the next two years as a member of the directing staff at camberley he was commanding officer of 1bn royal irish rangers from february 1989", "his obituary in the times described him as a soldier who commanded with a firm determined hand in hong kong aden cyprus and germany keith burch was born 31 may 1931 the son of christopher burch and gwendoline ada n e james he was educated at bedford modern school and sandhurst in 1951 burch was commissioned into the essex regiment he was sent to korea in 1953 with the 1st battalion as his patrol s platoon commander building defences along the korean ceasefire line for over a year the 1st essex later moved to hong kong where he exercised his authority as senior subaltern without fear or favour in 1954 the essex regiment merged into what became the royal anglian regiment following which burch held a junior staff appointment in kenya before attending the staff college camberley having qualified at camberley he was appointed to the staff duties branch of the army department of the ministry of defence and was appointed mbe on leaving in 1965 burch saw active service with the 4th leicestershire battalion in aden he was subsequently recalled to camberley as a member of the directing staff in 1969 he was promoted lieutenant colonel to command the", "the cup consists of 91 clubs divided into four regions the winners of each region then advance to the national semi finals with the final being held at twickenham stadium in london at the end of the season along with the rfu intermediate cup and rfu junior vase finals the 2017 18 champions were london south east winners camberley who thrashed midlands winners droitwich 63 14 in the twickenham final it was camberley s first ever intermediate cup title but the 7th won by london south east based clubs tying them with the northern region who also had 7 victories the london south east intermediate cup involves a knock out competition with 1st round 2nd round 3rd round semi finals and final the winners of the london south east intermediate cup then go on to the national intermediate cup semi finals where they face the winners of the south west intermediate cup there are 25 teams involved in the london south east intermediate cup all of which are 1st xv sides coming from the following unions and level 7 leagues byes barking l2se camberley l2sw chelmsford l2ne chiswick l2nw dover l2se gosport fareham l2sw and hampstead l2nw the winners of", "the school was one of the first 100 designated teaching schools in the united kingdom the school serves primarily the catholic community of the woking deanery which comprises the parishes of woking with send camberley camberley north with bagshot frimley knaphill and west byfleet the deanery primary schools located in that community which are the feeder schools for st john the baptist school are st dunstan s primary school woking st augustine s primary school st mary s byfleet camberley st hugh of lincoln catholic primary school knaphill and the marist primary school west byfleet sjb was designated a teaching school in july 2011 there are currently ten members of staff seconded to other schools and under the leadership of ani magill 16 senior leaders have become successful head teachers as a national teaching school they offer training and support to in conjunction with the surrey teaching schools network sjb has been successful in securing the licence for leadership provision of the national college for school leadership s programmes as a teaching school st john the baptist school is responsible for the npqh the school takes its catholic duty to raise money for charity very seriously and has spent many", "mackenzie of the seaforth highlanders he was educated at the duke of york school nairobi and the royal military academy sandhurst mackenzie was commissioned into the queen s own highlanders in july 1961 and posted to the 1st battalion in singapore he took part in putting down the brunei rebellion in 1962 and later served in a training capacity with the sas he was appointed commanding officer of the 1st battalion in 1980 after graduating from the staff college camberley he was made a company commander with the argyll and sutherland highlanders in northern ireland and brigade major of the 24th airportable brigade he was then second in command of the queen s own highlanders in south armagh being obliged to take command when the commanding officer was killed in the warrenpoint ambush of 1979 in 1980 81 he commanded the 1st battalion queen s own highlanders in hong kong and was appointed an officer of the order of the british empire he then spent a few years as an instructor at the army staff college camberley and served on the staff at the ministry of defence as a colonel in 1984 he was promoted brigadier and made commander of", "reynolds role was mostly administrative as afc squadrons were usually subordinate to australian ground forces or british air commands reynolds was born in paddington sydney in 1878 in 1901 he was commissioned as a probationary second lieutenant in the nsw military forces prior to the formation of the australian army reynolds attended the british army staff college camberley 1911 13 where he developed an interest in military aviation at camberley he was instructed by among others robert brooke popham a future air chief marshal of the raf and wrote papers on the use of aircraft in artillery spotting in march 1914 reynolds at the time a major was appointed general staff officer in charge of a branch covering intelligence censorship and aviation within the army s department of military operations following the outbreak of world war i and the expansion of the army aviation later became a separate branch commanded by reynolds from 1916 reynolds also took direct command of no 1 squadron at raaf point cook near melbourne later that year he travelled to the middle east with the squadron before assuming the post of staff officer for aviation at australian imperial force headquarters in london", "in 1938 he was sent to the staff college camberley as an instructor and transferred to the oxfordshire and buckinghamshire light infantry upon the recommendation of the commandant of the staff college camberley major general bernard paget he served in world war ii initially as deputy adjutant and quartermaster general for i corps in which role he took part in the dunkirk evacuation he became chief of staff to the general officer commanding burma harold alexander in 1942 and was given command of a brigade in burma in 1943 and then in italy in 1944 after the war he became deputy commissioner of the allied control commission for austria 1945 and then became british high commissioner and commander in chief austria in 1950 he went on to be military governor and commander of the british and us zone of the free territory of trieste from 1951 to 1954 before retiring in 1955 winterton was colonel commandant of the oxfordshire and buckinghamshire light infantry from 1955 to 1958 and colonel commandant of the 1st green jackets 43rd and 52nd from 1958 to 1960 he lived in newbury berkshire winterton was also an aide de camp to the king he married helen", "201 202 the son of a general and educated at wellington and rmc sandhurst mcleod was gazetted into the corps of guides indian army in 1905 he served on the north west frontier and in the first war was wounded in mesopotamia mentioned three times in despatches in palestine and admitted to the dso in 1917 a graduate of the staff college camberley in 1920 mcleod was a staff officer at the war office 1921 1922 and married in 1923 was an instructor at camberley 1923 1926 he commanded the guides cavalry in india 1928 1932 and attended the imperial defence college and returning to india commanded in turn the 4th and 1st cavalry brigades 1933 1936 a major general in 1936 he was deputy adjutant and qmg northern command india in 1937 and from 1938 to 1941 was goc burma adjudged deficient in push and go by pownall and a nice old gentleman by wavell mcleod was dismissed from his command at the same time as he was promoted lieutenant general and retired from the army in 1942 knighted he was honorary sheriff substitute for inverness shire from 1942 and dl for the county from 1955", "it has three domestic leagues its own speedway grand prix and an annual entry into the speedway world cup speedway of nations several meetings have been claimed to be the first in the uk the meeting at high beech on 18 february 1928 a meeting organized by r j hill bailey of the ilford motor cycle club which attracted an estimated 30 000 spectators is often described as the first british speedway meeting there were however also meetings in 1927 in camberley in surrey and droylsden in manchester despite being described as the first british dirt track meeting at the time the meeting at camberley on 7 may 1927 differed in that the races were held in a clockwise direction races at droylsden the first held on 25 june 1927 were held in an anti clockwise direction and this meeting appears to have a strong claim to be the first speedway meeting in the uk but it is generally accepted that the sport properly arrived in the uk when australians billy galloway and keith mckay arrived with the intention of introducing speedway to the northern hemisphere both featured in the 1928 high beech meeting it is probable however that the", "in 1946 the business was incorporated and two years later moved into new premises opposite however the move had put the company into financial problems and in 1950 the business was offered to harrods who declined in april 1951 the business was put into voluntary liquidation with a new company by the same name being set up to operate the store the new company however did not stay independent for long and in 1953 the expanding department store group army navy purchased the business the guildford store was subsequently expanded by army navy who continued to operate william harvey as a subsidiary with five new floors and a roof garden they also branded a new store located in camberley harveys which opened in 1964 army navy was purchased by house of fraser in 1973 and subsequently put in place a group system for its department stores army navy was decided to be the brand for its south east stores and both the guildford and camberley stores were re branded in 1974 as army navy both stores are still open but now operate under the house of fraser name", "it occupies a campus and is divided in the three main areas kingston years 10 11 and barossa years 7 9 and the new purpose built sixth form centre this was funded by the sale of land on which the college s previous sixth form centre named ballard was situated collingwood college is a dfe designated high performing specialist academy specialising in technology and vocational education it is situated just north of the a30 near the jolly farmer roundabout on the old dean estate camberley the school derives itself from the frimley and camberley county grammar school the bagshot county secondary school and the barossa county secondary school in july 1970 surrey county council wavered over whether to go ahead with the comprehensive plan the first headmaster in 1971 was mr leonard roe who had previously been headmaster of the grammar school he was followed by peter halls dickerson who was a major advocate of the idea of direct grant schools collingwood was one of the earliest direct grant schools to be created after the passage of the legislation by the then conservative government the headmaster from 1974 until the 1990s was peter halls dickerson on 1 september 1991 collingwood", "louis architect john mauran it is listed on the national register of historic places the gunter hotel opened on november 20 1909 on the site of the earlier mahncke hotel there had been a hotel or inn on the same site since 1837 the eight story 301 room hotel was built by the san antonio hotel company and named for jot gunter a local rancher and real estate developer who was one of its financiers it was designed by ernest russell of the st louis firm mauran russell garden it was the largest building in san antonio at the time the baker hotel company purchased the hotel in 1924 and expanded it in 1926 with the addition of three stories the addition was designed by architect herbert green it was restored from 1980 1985 overseen by architect robert v buck at the same time a two story parking garage was added adjacent to the hotel designed by gustav heye it was renamed the radisson gunter hotel in april 1986 and then the sheraton gunter hotel in 1989 it was sold to the camberley group in 1996 becoming the camberley gunter it was sold to houston street hotel partners in 1999", "he received his commission in the british army in 1914 serving in the army service corps later the royal army service corps in france and flanders during world war i gaining the military cross mc in 1918 and subsequently serving on the staff of the british army of the rhine in germany until 1920 remaining in the army during the interwar period kerr married in 1921 and was an instructor at sandhurst from 1924 to 1928 before receiving an appointment as adjutant at the rasc training centre from 1929 to 1930 then he attended the staff college camberley from 1931 to 1932 where he came into contact with future generals such as brian horrocks sidney kirkman thomas rees and joseph baillon and frank simpson who were among his numerous fellow students this was followed by a posting to the sudan as a staff officer in 1934 before returning to england where he again served as a staff officer this time with the 3rd division from 1935 to 1936 and then was chief instructor at the rasc training centre holding this position from 1937 to 1939 the outbreak of war found him back at the staff college camberley this time serving", "he attended the sandhurst and was commissioned into the royal warwickshire regiment as a lieutenant on 10 may 1882 he was adjutant of the 2nd battalion 1886 90 and was promoted captain on 3 april 1889 he attended staff college camberley from 1893 until december 1894 he was then an instructor at sandhurst from 1895 to 1897 from 1897 to 1899 he was deputy assistant adjutant general daag at south eastern district and he was promoted to major on 6 april 1898 he served in south africa throughout the second boer war from late 1899 he served on the staff of general sir redvers buller then spent six months on the staff at hq at pretoria he was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel on 29 november 1900 he then served as assistant adjutant general aag for harrissmith district then held the same post in natal after the end of the war he was mentioned in despatches after the war had ended he returned to the united kingdom in august 1902 from 1904 7 he was deputy assistant adjutant general daag at staff college camberley in 1905 he presented a paper to the aldershot military society which was criticised for excessive", "in december 1912 after passing his examination he was transferred to be a regular second lieutenant in the 2nd battalion east yorkshire regiment in september 1914 after the outbreak of world war i he was promoted to temporary lieutenant and later that year seconded to the army signal service he was promoted to captain in 1915 he was twice mentioned in dispatches during the war and he was awarded the military cross mc in the king s 1916 birthday honours in 1917 and 1919 he twice held the rank of acting major while commanding a divisional signals company and in 1920 he was acting lieutenant colonel while still a substantive captain in 1922 he left the signals to attend the staff college camberley where he encountered many future general officers including charles fullbrook leggatt john evetts thomas hutton keith simmons and robert money graduating from camberley in late 1923 then in 1924 he was appointed to the war office as staff captain in 1927 he was finally promoted to major in 1934 having been promoted to lieutenant colonel he was appointed to command his old battalion the 2nd east yorkshire regiment he commanded the battalion firstly in england and then", "he was promoted to lieutenant on 9 march 1976 to captain on 9 september 1980 and having attended the staff college camberley in 1987 he was promoted to major at the end of the year during this time he saw active service in northern ireland promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1993 riley undertook a tour as an instructor at the staff college camberley that year he was deployed as commanding officer of the 1st bn the royal welch fusiliers to the muslim enclave of gora de in 1995 under a mandate to ensure the serbs did not violate the nato ultimatum the army of republika srpska attacked the town without warning capturing 33 soldiers under riley s command and several hundred other fellow united nations peacekeepers in may having halted the initial serb attack the battalion handed over the defence of the enclave successfully to the bosnian 81st division during the siege that followed protocol was broken when first the director of military operations then the chief of the general staff and finally prime minister john major telephoned riley to be briefed on the situation the enclave was successfully defended and unlike srebrenica and zepa it never fell to the", "he served in world war i taking part in the retreat from mons and after the war became aide de camp to lord rawlinson after attending the staff college camberley from 1924 to 1925 and tours with eastern command and aldershot command he became brigade major for the 2nd infantry brigade in 1928 in 1931 he joined the general staff at the staff college camberley and in 1934 he became military assistant to archibald montgomery massingberd the chief of the imperial general staff at the war office where he remained as a general staff officer until the start of the war in world war ii he was briefly deputy director of operations at the war office before becoming major general royal artillery for the home forces and then major general royal artillery for 21st army group in 1944 he was made director royal artillery at the war office he was appointed general officer commanding in chief of anti aircraft command in 1946 he retired in 1948 he became chief commissioner of the st john ambulance brigade lund married margaret phyllis frances n e harrison and they had one son and one daughter he died in london aged 64", "he joined the army as junior officer in the argyll and sutherland highlanders shortly after the second world war and following a series of regimental and staff postings was second in command of his battalion during the indonesia malaysia confrontation he later commanded a battalion then an infantry brigade before taking command of the 2nd armoured division in 1978 he was later the general officer commanding in scotland and lieutenant governor of guernsey before retiring in 1990 after an education at merchiston castle school and the royal military academy sandhurst boswell was commissioned into the argyll and sutherland highlanders in 1948 he remained with his regiment until 1959 when he attended the staff college camberley and on completion of the course in 1960 was posted to the berlin brigade as a military assistant to the commanding officer in 1962 he returned to his battalion as a company commander later second in command and was mentioned in despatches for his services in borneo during the indonesia malaysia confrontation following borneo he spent four years on the staff of the staff college camberley before rejoining his battalion in 1968 as the commanding officer a posting he held until 1971 he then served", "he served as secretary to the government of northern ireland from 1921 1925 and permanent secretary to the ministry of finance from 1925 1944 he was knighted in 1929 his wife lady spender n e alice lilian dean 1880 1966 was a member of the uvf nursing corps and worked in the ulster division comforts fund during world war i later in life spender became a noted diarist wilfrid bliss spender was born in plymouth england the third son of edward and ellen n e rendle spender his father was co founder of the western morning news in plymouth when wilfrid was one year old his father and two elder brothers were drowned whilst boating at whitsand bay outside plymouth he was educated at winchester college and the staff college camberley he obtained a commission first in the devon artillery in 1897 he joined the royal artillery seeing service in bermuda canada malta england ireland and india he was promoted to lieutenant 18 june 1900 and to captain on 13 february 1902 after camberley he was nominated to attend a naval war course one of the first two army staff officers to be so chosen in 1909 became a member", "he became prominent for his role as general officer commanding goc of the 1st airborne division which fought with great distinction although suffering very severe casualties in the battle of arnhem during operation market garden in september 1944 roy urquhart was born in shepperton middlesex england the son of a scottish dentist on 28 november 1901 he was educated at st paul s school london and the royal military college sandhurst and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the highland light infantry hli on 24 december 1920 promoted on 24 december 1922 to lieutenant and on 26 march 1929 to captain urquhart served initially with the 1st battalion hli urquhart when stationed in malta with the 2nd battalion which from 1933 to 1936 he served as an adjutant became a friend of the actor david niven who recalled urquhart in his autobiography the moon s a balloon describing him as a serious soldier of great charm and warmth urquhart attended the staff college camberley from 1936 to 1937 and after graduating from camberley he returned to his regiment s 2nd battalion then commanded by lieutenant colonel horatio berney ficklin and serving in palestine during the arab revolt while there", "he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the king s royal rifle corps krrc on 17 april 1915 he served with his regiment during world war i in france and salonika he remained in the army between the wars attending the staff college camberley from 1926 to 1927 alongside fellow students such as douglas wimberley charles hudson edward williams george wood john whitaker noel holmes he became a general staff officer gso in northern ireland district in 1928 and brigade major for southern command in 1930 moving on to be a general staff officer at the war office in 1934 and at the staff college camberley in 1936 he was promoted on 1 july 1934 to brevet major he served in world war ii as a general staff officer at the general headquarters of the british expeditionary force and then as commanding officer of the 2nd battalion king s royal rifle corps during the defence of calais in 1940 he spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war after the war he became deputy military secretary and then commander of hanover district in germany from 1948 he was appointed chief of staff at middle east land", "she held three british senior titles in her own division picked up a total of thirty one medals in her career including a silver from the 2005 european judo championships in rotterdam netherlands and represented great britain in the 78 kg class at the 2004 summer olympics throughout most of her sporting career wilding trained for the camberley judo club in camberley under her personal coach and sensei mark earle wilding qualified for team gb in the women s half heavyweight class 78 kg at the 2004 summer olympics in athens by securing a place and a victory from the british judo trials in wolverhampton she opened her prelim match by throwing spain s esther san miguel into the tatami on a brilliant ippon and an ura nage rear throw with only 25 seconds left in the clock before falling short to ukraine s anastasiia matrosova in the quarterfinals with a more robust tactic wilding gave herself a chance for an olympic medal in the repechage round but wasted her charm with a tough defeat from south korea s lee so yeon at the 2005 european judo championships in rotterdam netherlands wilding recorded her only personal career best to pick", "he served in the first world war in france and belgium during 1918 and later germany he served in india and was the aide de camp to the general officer commanding waziristan force from 20 november 1923 to 19 october 1924 for which he was mentioned in despatches london gazette 13 march 1925 he transferred to the king s own yorkshire light infantry in february 1929 whilst attending the staff college camberley from 1929 to 1930 alongside fellow students such as neil ritchie george erskine ivor hughes harold freeman attwood herbert lumsden he became an instructor at the senior officers school at sheerness in october 1937 and then moved on to be an instructor at the staff college camberley from 15 november 1938 to 13 august 1939 he served on the staff at the war office from 14 august 1939 to 2 july 1940 he served in the second world war being appointed commanding officer of 7th battalion king s own yorkshire light infantry in july 1940 then in february 1941 he became commander 151st infantry brigade until 12 december 1941 which took him to north africa cyprus and the middle east he was made a brigadier on the general", "he was the son of major general h l alexander cb cmg dso and dorothy alexander he was educated at sedbergh school yorkshire then an all boys public school on 27 august 1931 having attended the royal military college sandhurst alexander was commissioned into the cameronians scottish rifles as a second lieutenant he was promoted in 1934 as a lieutenant in 1939 he was promoted to the rank of captain he then served as an instructor at the royal military college sandhurst for two years between 1939 and 1945 he saw action in the second world war in north africa italy india burma and north west europe he was promoted major in 1943 and commanding officer 2 battalion cameronians scottish rifles in italy in 1944 he has also served as chief instructor school of combined operations 1946 1947 and general staff officer 1 first at hong kong 1948 1950 then at camberley surrey alexander became a colonel in 1954 and was appointed commanding officer 1 battalion cameronians scottish rifles between 1954 and 1955 and he also commanded 26 gurkha infantry brigade between 1955 and 1957 between 1958 and 1960 he served as senior instructor staff college camberley surrey brigade general", "he was educated at bemrose grammar school robison joined the royal marines in september 1976 and underwent officer training he served in 45 commando comacchio company and on the staff of the commando training centre royal marines he qualified as a physical training and sports officer and taught in that capacity at britannia royal naval college in 1977 and 1978 he made two emergency tours of duty in northern ireland during the troubles in 1988 1989 robison commanded bravo company in 40 commando before being selected to attend the army staff college camberley after a number of staff appointments during the 1990s robison became the royal marine member on the directing staff at camberley and then at the joint services command and staff college upon its formation in 1997 in 1998 1999 he read for a masters in international relations at christ s college cambridge he was then appointed commanding officer of 45 commando in july 1999 during his 18 month tenure of command the commando undertook environmental training in belize and an operational tour as the pristina battlegroup under the un peacekeeping operation in kosovo following this robison was appointed to staff positions in the ministry of defence before", "he also played in the football league for reading bristol city and grimsby town before a spell in the conference national for aldershot town and finishing his career with non league camberley town he was also capped 24 times for wales in 2007 whilst a player with camberley town he also became the club s technical director before becoming first team manager in 2010 he stepped down from his role following the end of the 2011 12 season he has since worked as the academy manager of aldershot town chelsea paid non league wokingham town 100 000 to seal the signature of 18 year old barnard in july 1990 he had to wait almost 2 years for his first team debut as he was competing with the established first team players gareth hall and frank sinclair for a place in the team during his time at chelsea barnard played for bobby campbell ian porterfield and glenn hoddle but was only given a regular run in the team by caretaker manager david webb barnard was signed at a time when the blues were attempting to boost their standing in the first division with the expensive purchases of dennis wise and andy", "he was educated at repton school and later attended the royal military college sandhurst from where after passing out he was commissioned into the king s own yorkshire light infantry koyli on 1 february 1923 among his fellow graduates were robert poole geoffrey bourne ernest down archer clive francis matthews john carew pole hugh stockwell and ronald littledale he served with the 2nd battalion of his regiment in india from 1923 to 1930 promoted on 1 february 1925 to lieutenant after serving as his battalion s adjutant he then returned to england where he attended the staff college camberley from 1935 to late 1936 and like at sandhurst several of his fellow students were destined for general officer rank during the second world war or in the years after they included eric bols john whitfield robert arkwright lewis lyne geoffrey bourne and robert poole both fellow sandhurst graduates freddie de guingand leonard holmes stephen shoosmith charles dalton charles keightley charles haydon walter lentaigne george walsh horatius murray charles dunphie terence airey and gerald lloyd verney after graduating from camberley bower who on 1 february 1935 was promoted to captain was appointed as a brigade major in hong kong from 1937", "the band originally consisted of twin brothers matt and luke goss and their friend craig logan who attended collingwood school in camberley the band was managed by former pet shop boys manager tom watkins they achieved chart success and a large teenage fanbase in 1988 with songs such as when will i be famous and i owe you nothing early the following year logan quit the band and the goss twins continued as a duo after two more albums the band split up in 1992 bros are estimated to have sold 16 million records worldwide in 2017 the goss twins reunited to perform two dates as bros at the o arena in london luke goss and matt goss born 29 september 1968 in lewisham london had settled in camberley surrey after their parents had split up and their mother had found a new boyfriend who bought luke an electronic drum kit and matt a saxophone noticing their interest in music the twins attended collingwood college where they became part of a band called blue at school they met craig logan born 22 april 1969 in kirkcaldy fife scotland who was playing bass guitar in another school band stillbrook logan recalled", "it abuts west end common which is part of esher commons an outcrop of the bagshot formation of a subsoil of sands peats and gravels being the part of the commons nearest the river mole the settlement became more than an archetypal hamlet in the mid 19th century with many of the houses dating from the victorian period west end is also home to a large garden centre garsons garden centre the site also houses a farm shop a children s playground and a pick your own field particularly popular in summer next to garsons there is also a bathtub and swimming pool shop poolclean west end esher summer show also known as west end flower show takes place once a year on west end common it originated as a flower show more than 50 years ago and has developed into an annual show with many events and activities there is another west end in surrey between woking and camberley" ]

[ "Crude oil prices on Thursday extended the US inventories-inspired declines from the previous session, as imports to the world’s largest consumer helped stockpiles higher than most had expected." ]

[ "LONDON: Oil prices extended record-setting highs above US$51 for US crude yesterday, led by worries over the impact of Hurricane Ivan on US winter fuel stocks.", "Oil prices dropped to 2-month lows on Monday, with U.S. crude falling near $45 a barrel before paring losses in late trade, as growing fuel stocks in the United States eased fears of a winter supply crunch.", "European stocks extended recent gains on Thursday, with miners and oil stocks in the vanguard of the advance as metals and crude prices rose on commodities exchanges.", "European stocks extended recent gains to 5&frac12;-year highs on Thursday, with miners and oil stocks in the vanguard of the advance as metals and crude prices rose on commodities exchanges.", "Wall Street stock index futures extended losses on Wednesday, after a national home price gauge showed prices of existing U.S. single-family homes recorded their biggest annual drop in October.", "Oil prices extended a bounce from three-week lows on Monday, climbing back above $52 for US crude amid jitters over tight global winter fuel stocks and this week&#39;s US presidential election.", "Tokyo stocks are expected to open higher on Tuesday, extending the previous session's 1.4 percent rally following a rise in European shares and a drop in the price of crude oil.", "The price of oil rebounds despite data showing that US crude oil stocks have risen.", "Brent hits 3-week low as Sistani enters Najaf with peace plan, big-money funds take profits. SINGAPORE - US light crude prices fell below $43 a barrel Thursday, extending heavy losses to a fifth", "The Nikkei stock average rose 1.02 percent by midsession on Monday as investors were encouraged to seek bargains by a recovery in US stocks after crude oil prices retreated from record highs.", "Global stock markets tumble amid growing fears of a recession in the US, and are heading for big losses.", "Stocks extended losses on Tuesday after minutes from the August 7 Federal Reserve policy meeting showed growing concerns about housing and the consumer even before credit market turmoil picked up speed.", "US stocks ended higher on Wednesday as investors snapped up semiconductor shares at bargain prices and bought some blue chips after crude oil retreated from record high prices.", "Crude oil prices plunged below US$44 a barrel in New York today, after government data showed US petroleum stocks rose across the board last week.", "SINGAPORE : Crude oil prices fell in Asian trading on Monday after a three-day Christmas break as investors digested further the surprise rise in US petroleum stocks.", "A terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, contributed to another jump in the price of crude oil and delivered a setback to stock prices.", "Tokyo's Nikkei stock average rose 1.16 percent by midday on Tuesday as gains on Wall Street and a slip in crude oil prices encouraged investors to scoop up bargains after seven straight days of losses.", "Stock index futures extended losses on Tuesday after data showed a surprise decline in December retail sales.", "Stocks rose sharply yesterday, extending their rally for a second session as investors expressed relief over plummeting oil prices following a government report that showed a buildup in crude inventories.", "European bourses slid lower on Tuesday as heavily-weighted oil stocks fell after mild US weather forced a drop in crude prices, while profits were taken in banking stocks after the markets good run.", "NEW YORK - US stocks rose for their fifth straight session on Monday (US time), boosted by relief over a drop in crude oil prices.", "US stocks ended higher on Wednesday as internet and semiconductor stocks led advances in technology shares and crude oil retreated from record high prices.", "Oil futures stabilized Thursday after a jump in prices the previous day that reflected a drop in US crude and heating oil stocks even as demand was rising with cold weather spreading across the US Northeast and Midwest.", "TOKYO : Japanese share prices closed 1.88 percent higher Monday, extending gains after another strong performance on Wall Street and a further drop in crude oil prices, dealers said.", "TORONTO (CP) - Stock markets moved higher Monday as investors showed growing optimism about the US economy. Lower oil prices also helped take indexes higher, with the price of crude slipping 49 cents from Friday&#39;s record close to $49.", "U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday on investor relief that oil prices fell sharply after a higher-than-expected rise in crude stocks last week.", "US stocks ended higher on Tuesday, after manufacturer and Dow component Caterpillar Inc. (CAT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) raised its sales forecast and a spike in crude oil prices pushed energy stocks higher.", "Stock futures pointed to a weaker start on Wall Street on Monday, with energy companies and miners seen off as gold was trading lower and crude oil prices extended a six-day sell-off.", "Crude oil futures prices rose above $43 a barrel Monday after an attack at the US consulate in Saudi Arabia and amid growing concerns that OPEC may try to firm-up oil prices after last week&#39;s sharp sell-off.", "On expectations that US oil supplies will continue to grow and that heating oil inventories will be adequate this winter, crude oil prices fell below $48 a barrel on Tuesday.", "In NEW YORK, US stocks advanced on Wednesday as record crude oil prices above $52 a barrel boosted energy stocks like Exxon Mobil Corp.", "US stocks opened a touch higher today after data on unemployment claims offered a dose of cheer for the job market, while investors drew comfort from a fall in crude oil prices." ]

[ "Yes, you can use the enhanced x64dbg feature for placing BP on any window of the debugged app and hence intercept any message being sent to any of them. \n\nAfter running the exe, go to Handles tab &gt; Right-click &gt;Refresh -and watch over Windows widget and locate the window you want to put the BP on. Then Right click->Message breakpoint, a window will pop up, now select the desired window message based on what you want to pause your program after. In case of a button, WM_LBUTTONUP would do it, in case of an editbox WM_KEYUP will also work and so on, you got a ton of messages to choose from. Then you got a couple more checkboxes, select \"...current window\" to pause only when the message is passed to the selected window.\nNow, sometimes these windows procs BPs won't work or even pause as expected, in this case, try checking Use TranslateMessage option and that would do it." ]

[ "The spy++ is showing the wndproc in your screen shot (it is probably subclassed; you may need to trace but wndproc is shown in your screenshot as 361c9880 I don't know what the command is in x64 dbg but if you were on ollydbg you simply do ctrl+g (goto) key in the address as shown in spy++ and break and log the messages for filtering.\nA screen shot of calc.exe -&gt; backspace button windows wndproc in comctl32.dll (32 bits and 64 bits shouldn't matter much on concept level)\n\nAn entry by raymond chen talks about cookies being returned instead of wndproc:\nhttp://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/12/01/55900.aspx\nIf all else fails assemble GetWindowLongPtrW in place to fetch the actual WndProc\n\nsuspend the process (f12 or esc)\nuse ctrl+g to goto user32.GetWindowLongPtrW\nright click set new origin here (save the rip prior this)\nsave the state of register somewhere\nmodify rcx and plop the handle into rcx (which was b01c8 in your screen shot)\nuse the latest window handle as shown by spy++\nfor the existing session do not put 0xb01c8\nmodify edx to hold -4 (index of GWLP_WNDPROC)\nstep through the Function\nbefore the function returns rax should hold the actual WndProc\nsave or set a bp on the Wndproc\nrestore registers and rip to pristine state and continue exploring\n\nI downloaded x64dbg and ran 64 bit calc.exe spy++ 32 bit doesn't show wndproc. I cooked a script to alloc a page in process memory of calc.exe and assembled a detour using the script language and fetched the actual WndProc.\nA screenshot below:\n\nThe debuggee must be in a paused state.\nThe script allocates memory in debuggees address space using alloc; after tabbing once the status bar should show the newly allocated address.\nAlso the variables $lastalloc $result should hold the newly allocated memory address; if you do d address a bunch of 00 00 should stare at you.\n\nconfirm the allocation\nif the memory is allocated tab one step in the script\npush rcx should be assembled in the newly allocated address\nuse d address or d $lastalloc to confirm\nlike wise assemble all the instruction\nuse the proper handle value in ecx (stale or reused window handles may provide incorrect information confirm you assemble mov rcx , HWND right\nnow you need to ensure you put the right address in eax the address should be of user32.GetWindowLongPtrW\nassemble all the cleanup instructions\none you have done this\nsave the existing rip some where (write it down in a paper)\nright click and select the first instruction in the newly allocated address and set it as origin ( new origin here) the rip will be changed to the newly allocated address\nhit f8 and execute the instructions on by one\nwhen call eax is done eax will hold the Wndproc\nsave this (write it in paper)\nexecute the cleanup instruction\nhit ctrl+g and enter the old RIP\nright click -&gt; new origin here ( RIP will now point to the old value when you paused the debuggee\n\nThat is it; now you have Wndproc in a paper and you have returnd to the original state.\nThis is a detour (making an intentional bypass in the code flow of debuggee to do some extra work and return back to the place where bypass was done as if nothing was done to continue the original flow).\nUse bp to set a breakpoint in the wndproc you have on paper.", "For static analysis, you can use VMAttack plugin for IDA pro. Or if you wanna find how the buffer is built before it's sent you can try ScyllaHide plugin for x64dbg to debug the VmProtected executable. This plugin will help you overcome VMprotect's anti-debug and anti-vm protections. After that simply put a breakpoint on those calls that you hooked and follow the execution flow to figure out how the encryption works. In either case you'll need to deal with the virtualized instructions", "Most of the times when a malware does something like that it's simply to make debugging it harder. Therefore, you can easily breakpoint on the injection procedure and redirect it to another process. Make sure you redirect both the memory writes/injections and the code execution.\n\nRedirecting it to the same process might work, but it may also cause issues. It is probably reasonable to create a dummy process (I often use calc.exe) you created debugged, let the malware inject into that process instead of original target, then BP the injected code and let it run. \n\nYou can also debug iexplore.exe if you're interested. You'll need to kill it and then reopen it from within ollydbg.\n\nEDIT:\nInstead of changing the target process you can do as C0rK1 suggested in his answer, and modify the first two bytes to jmp self (x86/64 bytes are EB FE), and then let the malicous code execute in that loop, suspend the process, place a breakpoint on the jump self loop and replace it with the original code manually. This is another common trick.", "There are no set definitions for \"32-bit disassembler\" and \"64-bit disassembler\". The terms are in fact ambiguous.\n\n32-bit and 64-bit just refer to CPU architectures. Specifically to things such as register size and bus size. These can apply to many things.\n\nSpecifically, in the case of a disassembler, they can apply to two things:\n\n\nThe CPU architecture for which the disassembler binary is compiled\nThe CPU architecture which the disassembler is capable of disassembling.\n\n\nFurthermore, there are multiple CPU families which come in both 32- and 64-bit flavours. The most relevant today are Intel &amp; AMD, and ARM.\n\nThese are all independent. You could have a disassembler compiled to run on 32-bit Intel machines which is capable of disassembling binaries that are supposed to run on 64-bit ARM processors.\n\nNow in the same CPU, a 64-bit architecture may or may not be an extension of a previous 32-bit architecture. This is the case with Intel.\n\nSo a 32-bit binary will typically be able to run on a 32-bit machine or a 64-bit machine, but a 64-bit binary will only be able to run on a 64-bit machine because it will use instructions, registers, addressing modes, etc than the 32-bit machine does not support.\n\nLikewise if you try to disassemble a 64-bit binary using a disassember that is designed only to disassemble 32-bit binaries of the same CPU family, it will only recognize the 32-bit instructions, registers, addressing modes, etc. All of the 64-bit-specific stuff will just confuse the disassembler.\n\nI'm not familiar with either OllyDBG or x64dbg so I don't know what they are capable of.\n\nYou seem to be under the impression that a \"32 bit disassembler\" will somehow convert or translate 64 bit code into 32 bit code. That is not possible. That would be in the realm of cross-compiling and emulation.", "Binaries are usually stripped. For ELF binaries, you can check it with file command\n\n$ file /bin/true\n/bin/true: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.26, BuildID[sha1]=0x73796652ea437df8ac7b3ba1864a7ac177e27600, stripped\n\n\nNotice the stripped at the end of file's result. It means, among other things, that symbols have been removed, so it won't find main function. \n\nIn order to run the binary and stop the debugger right after the load, there is some kind of universal method that should almost always work (kind of universal, not 100%)\n\nYou have to find the entry point, retreived by this command :\n\n$ readelf -h /bin/true | grep \"Entry point\"\n Entry point address: 0x401264\n\n\nThen load the binary into your favourite debugger (lldb, gdb, ...) and break on this address.\n\nlldb :\n\n$ lldb /bin/true\n(lldb) target create \"/bin/true\"\nCurrent executable set to '/bin/true' (x86_64).\n(lldb) br s -a 0x401264\nBreakpoint 1: address = 0x0000000000401264\n(lldb) r\n...\n(lldb)\n\n\ngdb :\n\n$ gdb -q /bin/true\nReading symbols from /bin/true...(no debugging symbols found)...done.\ngdb$ b *0x401264\nBreakpoint 1 at 0x401264\ngdb$ r\nBreakpoint 1, 0x0000000000401264 in ?? ()\ngdb$\n\n\nOnce you've loaded your binary and your breakpoint has been triggered, you can display following instructions that will be executed this way :\n\nlldb :\n\n(lldb) x -s4 -fi -c11 $pc\n-&gt; 0x401264: xor ebp,ebp\n 0x401266: mov r9,rdx\n 0x401269: pop rsi\n 0x40126a: mov rdx,rsp\n 0x40126d: and rsp,0xfffffffffffffff0\n 0x401271: push rax\n 0x401272: push rsp\n 0x401273: mov r8,0x403560\n 0x40127a: mov rcx,0x403570\n 0x401281: mov rdi,0x4011c0\n 0x401288: call 0x401060 &lt;__libc_start_main@plt&gt;\n\n\ngdb :\n\ngdb$ x/11i $pc\n=&gt; 0x401264: xor ebp,ebp\n 0x401266: mov r9,rdx\n 0x401269: pop rsi\n 0x40126a: mov rdx,rsp\n 0x40126d: and rsp,0xfffffffffffffff0\n 0x401271: push rax\n 0x401272: push rsp\n 0x401273: mov r8,0x403560\n 0x40127a: mov rcx,0x403570\n 0x401281: mov rdi,0x4011c0\n 0x401288: call 0x401060 &lt;__libc_start_main@plt&gt;\n\n\ni flag means instruction, and $pc means Program Counter (equivalent of EIP/RIP for 32/64 bits architecures). You can see that __libc_start_main will be called at address 0x401288. Its man page indicates its first argument is a pointer to binary main function. 1st argument is here loaded in rdi register, meaning that main function is located at address 0x4011c0.\n\nYou just have to finally place a breakpoint at this address (0x4011c0) and you'll be at the beginning of your binary main function.\n\nFurther reading : How to handle stripped binaries with GDB? No source, no symbols and GDB only shows addresses?\n\nGood luck and have fun !", "Nothing easier than that. gdb the executable, set a breakpoint at main, have gdb print your buffer.\n\n$ gdb /opt/protostar/bin/stack5\n(gdb) break main\nBreakpoint 1 at 0x80483cd: file stack5/stack5.c, line 10.\n(gdb) run\nStarting program: /tmp/stack5 \n\nBreakpoint 1, main (argc=1, argv=0xffffd674) at stack5/stack5.c:10\n10 stack5/stack5.c: No such file or directory.\n(gdb) print &amp;buffer\n$1 = (char (*)[64]) 0xbffff838\n(gdb) \n\n\nSo, if your shellcode starts at byte 0 of the buffer, you want to overwrite the saved EIP on the stack with 0xbffff838.\n\nIn fact, to make your exploit independent from small changes in the program (one more local variable, or one less ...) i'd fill the buffer with 32 nops (0x90) and put my shellcode behind those nops. This still leaves you with 32 bytes for the shellcode, which should be plenty. Then, jump to 0xbffff848 which is 16 bytes into the nops, and shifting them around by a few bytes won't hurt you anymore.\n\nAt the end, instead of calculating how many bytes between the end of the buffer and the saved EIP, i'd just repeat the buffer address a few times, so you can be sure EIP gets overwritten; you don't really care about whatever else is there.\n\nSo to sum it up, your input should be\n\n0x90 (32 times)\nyour shellcode\nas many 0x90's as you need to fill the buffer to 64 bytes\n0x48 0xf8 0xff 0xbf repeated about 10 times.\n\n\nRemember to swap the EIP bytes because we're on a little endian machine.", "CPUs and OSes can support switching between 32 and 64 bit execution modes kind of easily thanks to how 32bit mode backwards compatibility was made in AMD64. This was kind of a requirement to avoid having the majority of system binaries duplicated on 64bit machines to execute 32bit code (which is still pretty common to be solely distributed).\n\nThis isn't quite the case for debuggers and some process manipulation tools that in some cases are required to bundle 64bit helper processes or ship both 32 and 64 bit binaries. Switching between 32 and 64 bit execution modes is indeed only a far jump away, but supporting that by a debugger is a lot more complicated. Transition/translation functions must be provided for the debugger's internal states (not the the debugged process's state, some APIs simply cannot cross process bitness boundaries, etc.\n\nThis is not to say it's impossible, merely to explain why this may not be available yet.", "If you do not need all of the current program's state (for example the state of the stack, register values, or open handles), then you can try dumping to a new executable and setting the EntryPoint to the current EIP. OllyDumpEx (https://low-priority.appspot.com/ollydumpex/) is commonly used for this purpose for malware analysis. Despite its name, it is a plugin for both OllyDbg, IDA, x64dbg, and WinDbg.\n\nIf you do need some of the program state, you can add a custom EntryPoint function or set of instructions that set it up.\n\nIn theory, the following should work (for a single-threaded 32-bit process)...\n\nYou need to save the processor state, stack, and any sections allocated on the heap by user code (such as with calls to VirtualAlloc, HeapAlloc, or malloc). You will also need to find a place to insert some setup instructions.\n\nFirst, when you start your process in the debugger, view the memory map/segments (in IDA, I believe it is in the menu View > Open Subview > Segments) and make note of them (or take a screenshot for reference).\n\nNext, run the program up to the point that you want to move it to your other system. Now look at the memory segments again and note which ones under the Heap are new. Also make note of the current address of the instruction pointer.\n\nNow to save the processor state, you can use the PUSHAD and PUSHFD instructions. Find a code cave of at least 7 bytes in length. Edit bytes and change them to 0x60 0x9c, then change the instruction pointer to point to the address of where you inserted those two bytes. Now single-step twice. That will execute the PUSHAD and PUSHFD that saves the general purpose registers (including the stack pointer) and the flags. Now edit those same bytes to 0x9d 0x61 0xEA . Finally, change the instruction pointer to point to the address of where you inserted those bytes.\n\nRun the OllyDumpEx plugin. Under List section choose All memory, then click the ReScan memory button. Now check the box next to Auto Adjust Image Base Address. Then click on Get EIP as OEP button.\n\nNow, in the list of sections in the bottom of the dialog box, there should be several already selected. Keep those selected. Additionally select any that are related to the Stack and Heap. Now click the Dump button. This may require a bit of trial and error.\n\nNOTE: If your process is multi-threaded then this won't work. There will be thread-specific state that will also need to be saved, but I am uncertain how to do that.", "Intel Pintool is not a JIT compiler. The explanation you quote just uses an analogy to JIT compilation, as there are logical similarities. IMHO this is not a well thought out analogy, and should be taken very lightly.\nI'll explain the three concepts in detail:\nJIT Compilation\nIndeed, the concept of JIT compilation is not really relevant to the question, but I'll go over it just the same:\nJIT compilation is mostly used as a performance improvement for interpreted languages, but some more advanced languages use it (examples are .Net and java).\nWhen a non-compiled code is executed, there's basically a loop processing each bytecode in a sequence (similar to how a Processor executes instructions one after the other). That loop basically implements byte code instructions to CPU instructions, modifying a state context (similar to CPU registers, only usually a lot bigger and higher-level).\nThat process is slow compared to CPU instructions, and usually for no good reason - that was how interpreters were designed. Here comes JIT.\nThis is basically saying that instead of implementing a loop processing each bytecode instruction, it is possible for that loop to generate CPU instructions the first time it runs, and just execute those. To simplify things, JIT is a process of translating the language's bytecode to the CPU's instruction set just before executing the code, letting the CPU instructions run instead of the interpreter loop. Usually the compiled code is cached to it won't be compiled again.\nSoftware breakpoint\nA software breakpoint is a specific instruction (in x86: int 3, encoded both as 0xcc and 0xcd0x03) that tells the CPU the user (in CPU terms, this usually means a developer) would like to know whenever it is executed and suspend the execution for further inspection. When it is hit an interrupt handling mechanism it triggered and the execution of the process is suspended by a debugger handling that interrupt. debuggers then usually let the developer inspect the code, modify it, and then resume execution. A debugger sets a software breakpoint by replacing a single instruction (or part of it) with a the software breakpoint interrupt, and sets it back to the original instruction when it later resumes execution.\nBinary Instrumentation (Pintool)\nWith Binary Instrumentation, a tool such as Pintool processes the code within a binary executable (similarly to how a JIT compiler processes a bytecode or script) and creates a &quot;fixedup&quot; or modified executable code, by inserting multiple types of additional code. This is usually done when breakpoints are not enough, or when you want to analyze a lot of an executable. Examples include modifying all jump instructions (say, to log the source and target of all jumps, for example).\nAs you said software breakpoints are quite limited compared to the abilities a binary instrumentation engine provides, so I focused on the technical implementation rather than the advantages of the two.", "prototype of DispatchMessage() is\n\nLRESULT DispatchMessage(\n const MSG *lpMsg\n);\n\n\nit takes only a pointer to struct MSG which has a hwnd as its first \n\ntypedef struct tagMSG {\n HWND hwnd;\n UINT message;\n WPARAM wParam;\n LPARAM lParam;\n DWORD time;\n POINT pt;\n DWORD lPrivate;\n} MSG, *PMSG, *NPMSG, *LPMSG;\n\n\nthis hwnd is validated and the appropriate callback is called by internal functions of \nuser32.dll and comctl32.dll \n\nyou can get the window proc in the handles window in x64dbg \n\nhere is a screenshot of windows calc.exe paused at a breakpoint in user32.DispatchMessageW() \n\n\n\nyou can get the hwnd parameter by looking at the stack \nwith log {x:[[esp+4]]} \nand following it up in handles window the screenshot shows the hwnd in status bar\ncommand in command window and the window proc in handles window\n\n\n\nsetting a breakpoint on the proc and hitting f9 will land us in the windowproc\n\nAddress To From Size Comment \n0012EFB4 770C5F9F 00631EDE 78 calc.00631EDE\n0012F02C 770C4F0E 770C5F9F 5C user32._GetRealWindowOwner@4+54\n0012F088 770C4F7D 770C4F0E 28 user32._DispatchClientMessage@20+4B\n0012F0B0 777B702E 770C4F7D 74 user32.___fnDWORD@4+24\n0012F124 770CCC70 777B702E 10 ntdll.777B702E \n0012F134 00631CAC 770CCC70 D70 user32._DispatchMessageW@4+F\n0012FEA4 0064219A 00631CAC 90 calc.00631CAC \n0012FF34 7748ED6C 0064219A C calc.0064219A\n0012FF40 777D37EB 7748ED6C 40 kernel32.7748ED6C \n0012FF80 777D37BE 777D37EB 18 ntdll.777D37EB\n0012FF98 00000000 777D37BE ntdll.777D37BE", "One of your problems is that you try to single step through Thread2 and you only refer to Thread1 in your code:\n\ndbg.enumerate_threads()[0] # &lt;--- Return handle to the first thread.\n\n\nIn addition, the code the you posted is not reflective of the complete structure of your script, which makes it hard to judge wether you have other errors or not. You also try to set breakpoint within the sub-brach that disassembles your instructions, which does not make a lot of sense to me logically. Let me try to explain what I know, and lay it out in an organized manner. That way you might look back at your code, re-think it and correct it.\n\nLet's start with basic framework of debugging an application with pydbg:\n\n\nCreate debugger instance\nAttache to the process\nSet breakpoints\nRun it\nBreakpoint gets hit - handle it.\n\n\nThis is how it could look like:\n\nfrom pydbg import *\nfrom pydbg.defines import *\n\n# This is maximum number of instructions we will log\nMAX_INSTRUCTIONS = 20\n\n# Address of the breakpoint\nfunc_address = \"0x7C90D21A\"\n\n# Create debugger instance\ndbg = pydbg()\n\n# PID to attach to\npid = int(raw_input(\"Enter PID: \"))\n\n# Attach to the process with debugger instance created earlier.\n# Attaching the debugger will pause the process.\ndbg.attach(pid)\n\n# Let's set the breakpoint and handler as thread_step_setter,\n# which we will define a little later...\ndbg.bp_set(func_address, handler=thread_step_setter)\n\n# Let's set our \"personalized\" handler for Single Step Exception\n# It will get triggered if execution of a thread goes into single step mode.\ndbg.set_callback(EXCEPTION_SINGLE_STEP, single_step_handler)\n\n# Setup is done. Let's run it...\ndbg.run() \n\n\nNow having the basic structure, let's define our personalized handlers for breakpoint and single stepping. The code snippet below defines our \"custom\" handlers. What will happen is when breakpoint hits we will iterate through threads and set them to single step mode. It will in turn trigger single step exception, which we will handle and disassemble MAX_INSTRUCTIONS amount of instructions:\n\ndef thread_step_setter(dbg):\n dbg.suspend_all_threads()\n for thread_id in dbg.enumerate_threads():\n print \"Single step for thread: 0x%08x\" % thread_id\n h_thread = dbg.open_thread(thread_id)\n dbg.single_step(True, h_thread)\n dbg.close_handle(h_thread)\n\n # Resume execution, which will pass control to step handler\n dbg.resume_all_threads()\n\n return DBG_CONTINUE\n\ndef single_step_handler(dbg):\n global total_instructions\n if instructions == MAX_INSTRUCTION:\n dbg.single_step(False)\n return DBG_CONTINUE\n else:\n # Disassemble the instruction\n current_instruction = dbg.disasm(dbg.context,Eip)\n print \"#%d\\t0x%08x : %s\" % (total_instructions, dbg.context.Eip, current_instruction)\n total_instructions += 1\n dbg.single_step(True)\n\n return DBG_CONTINUE\n\n\nDiscloser: I do not guarantee that the code above will work if copied and pasted. I typed it out and haven't tested it. However, if basic understanding is acquired, the small syntactical error could be easily fixed. I apologize in advanced if I have any. I don't currently have means or time to test it.\n\nI really hope it helps you out.", "I can't really explain why 64-bit MIDI input and output doesn't work simultaneously in Cubase 5.5.3. \n\nWhat I CAN confirm is that installing 32-bit Cubase 5 and then running all the updates to 5.5.3 on a 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate machine allows KTDrumTrigger to work just as advertised. \n\nAs an aside, I can't believe how much more stable the 32-bit version is over 64-bit. The only downside is 32-bit takes a bit longer for processing (i.e. initial program cold start, VST track processing such as normalize or compression, etc.), which I will trade any day for the stability I've experienced since uninstalling 64-bit. I used to expect crashes every time I fired up Cubase, but with 32-bit installation I haven't had a single one. I don't know what Steinberg is doing, but I hope they fixed that in Cubase 6, that's pretty poor development practices to introduce such a large gap in behavior across environments.", "To debug it on the server, you need to attach to the w3wp.exe process that is hosting the web service. To debug it on the client, you can either set breakpoints in the development tool of your browser or (more reliably) add a \"debugger\" statement to the code where you want to start debugging.\n\nWithout knowing how you are calling the web service method, there isn't much more I can suggest. If you need more help, perhaps you could post the code or some more information about how you are calling the service?", "Calm down, your phone is not dead, you still can revive it simply by flashing a​ stock firmware using Flashtool. You should be carefully​ flashing Sony devices when having a locked bootloader.\n\n\nDownload the firmware here\nDownload the Flashtool here and install it. \nGo to the folder that contains the Flashtool (Usually C:/Flashtool) and launch it by clicking on either FlashTool.exe or FlashTool64.exe, whether on 32 bit machine or 64 bit)\nReturn to the folder and open the Drivers folder, install the drivers.(C:/Flashtool/drivers).\nOn Flashtool, click on the thunder icon, select Flash mode.\nNow you should open the firmware select Window. The source folder address should be C:\\User\\your_name\\.flashtool\\firmware . Copy the firmware you've previously downloaded to that folder. It should now appear on the selector window.\nNow click on flash button. Plug the USB cable while holding the volume down button or back button. Drivers should be installed and the flashing process started. \nJust wait until the end. \nEt voilà.", "The solution was changing the \"bitness\" of my PowerShell.exe. Somehow, and I have a guess how, I was running 32 bit Powershell instead of 64 bit Powershell on my 64 bit Azure VM. Once I started the 64 bit version of Powershell, all was fine.\n\nThe (correct) 64 bit was located at C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe\n\nMy guess on how I started the 32 bit instead was I searched for Powershell.exe and did not notice that it was starting from the 32 bit folder C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe", "TL;DR:\n\n\nTor does not make much use of more than one core, two cores (or one hyperthreaded core) per process is best\na maximum of two Tor processes may register from a single IP, so a CPU with 4 cores is ideal\n64-bit is best for cryptography\n2 GiB of system memory is a bare minimum\n\n\n\n\nWhilst I can't back it up with much technical details, this is from what I learnt in the last couple of months reading stuff and playing around with relays on different kinds of hardware. For me the Odroid C2 currently takes the prize with high-capacity connections (say 100+ Mbps), provided it runs two Tor processes.\n\nThe pros:\n\n\nvery low power consumption (compared to a server/desktop configuration)\n1 Gbps link\nfast (2 GHz) 64-bit CPU\n2 GiB of RAM\n\n\nThe cons:\n\n\nno support of the AES-NI instruction set, the only one that Tor/OpenSSL really needs\n\n\nSo far I've been able to squeeze 5-6 Mbytes of pure Tor traffic (directory listings excluded) from it, still increasing.\n\nInformation on technical requirements and how to configure and maintain a high-throughput relay may be found on the Tor Servers wiki. A reference documentation about Tor specifics can be found here under Machine Specs, e.g. speaking about cores:\n\n\n Tor is currently not fully multithreaded, and tends not to benefit\n beyond 2 cores per process. Even then, the benefit is still marginal\n beyond just 1 core.", "In general, LMDB files are architecture-dependent and cannot be moved between different architectures.\n\nIn Monero, all LMDB structures are 64-bit clean, so the files are portable between 32 and 64 bit architectures. But they are still endian-dependent, and are not portable across endianness. This hasn't been a concern since the two dominant architectures today, x86 and ARM, both use little-endian integers.\n\nNote that, while LMDB also supports concurrent access across multiple processes, Linux glibc has a design flaw such that interprocess mutexes are different sizes in 32 bit processes vs 64 bit processes. So LMDB files on Linux cannot be concurrently shared between processes of different sizes. This flaw does not exist on other platforms (like e.g. BSD or Windows).", "are you using ollydbg 2.01 (multiple expression logging is not supported in version 1.10) \nif you want to log multiple expression in ollydbg 1.10 you should look for modified command line plugin\n\nwith that out of way the i dont get any syntax errors if used as documented \n\nLog data\nAddress Message\n7C901295 INT3: [BYTE*8 1000000] = 4D, 5A, 90, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0\n7C901295 Breakpoint at ntdll.RtlInitUnicodeString\n7C901295 INT3: [char*8 1000000] = 4D (77.), 5A (90.), FFFFFF90 (-112.), 0, 3, 0, 0, 0\n7C901295 Breakpoint at ntdll.RtlInitUnicodeString\n7C901295 INT3: [dword*8 1000000] = 905A4D, 3, 4, 0FFFF, 0B8, 0, 40, 0\n7C901295 Breakpoint at ntdll.RtlInitUnicodeString\n7C901295 INT3: [word*8 1000000] = 5A4D, 90, 3, 0, 4, 0, 0FFFF, 0\n7C901295 Breakpoint at ntdll.RtlInitUnicodeString\n7C901295 INT3: [int*8 1000000] = 905A4D (9460301.), 3, 4, 0FFFF (65535.), 0B8 (184.), 0, 40 (64.), 0\n7C901295 Breakpoint at ntdll.RtlInitUnicodeString\n7C901295 INT3: [unsigned long*8 1000000] = 905A4D, 3, 4, 0FFFF, 0B8, 0, 40, 0\n7C901295 Breakpoint at ntdll.RtlInitUnicodeString\n7C901295 INT3: [DOUBLE*8 1000000] = 6.3706613826192345360e-314, 1.3906499416091109740e-309, 9.0908078834789364120e-322, 3.1620201333839778820e-322, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 5.0927898983166535560e-312\n7C901295 Breakpoint at ntdll.RtlInitUnicodeString", "After 2 days of trying, I found a solution for my problems (similar to yours). I tested on different OSes running on different computers (win7 32-bit &amp; win8.1 64-bit), different USB, different Ubuntu version (14.04/16.04 32-bit/64-bit). All of them return the same error at the same process. Although checking disk before installing warns that splashfs file has an error, errno 5 is not from there.\nFinally, I found a solution: Set partitions for the USB you want to install Ubuntu onto as shown.\n\nThe problem could be from the first FAT32 partition for boot loader. The size of that partition should be lower than 256MB. If you set bootloader in another disk, this partition could be ignored.\nThe free space is used to create a normal partition which stores data after finishing installation of Ubuntu.", "IDA doesn't do the kind of memory breakpoints that Olly implements. Olly implements memory breakpoints by changing the page protection, catching the exception, and then examining some extra data to see if it's one of its own memory \"breakpoints\". IDA only allows you to do regular software breakpoints (CC), and hardware breakpoints(DR0-DR3).\n\nThat being said, if you'd like to break on a memory access using IDA's debugger, you'll have to use a regular hardware breakpoint. You simply click the DWORD in memory you'd like to break on, and then click Debugger -> Breakpoints -> Add Breakpoint. IDA will automatically populate the address of the DWORD in the \"Location\" field, and then you can set whatever other options you wish.\n\nIf you want to set a breakpoint on an entire section similar to what you'd do from the Memory Map view in Olly, do the following:\n\n\nIn debugger mode, click View -> open Subviews -> Program Segmentation. \nRight-click on \".text\" or whatever other segment you need. \nClick \"Break on Access\" \n\n\nThis will set a hardware breakpoint that will trigger on read and write. For this particular sample, that causes a problem since the packer obviously needs to read and write that section to unpack. So once you set the breakpoint, press Ctrl-Alt-B, and edit that breakpoint to only trigger on execute. Btw, you can also do this from the regular disassembly view as well by clicking Window -> Program Segmentation.\n\nI'm not quite sure why your program won't run. I stepped through to the \"IsDebuggerPresent\" check, modified the zero flag(Addr: 0x46BB1F), set the aforementioned hardware breakpoint, and the program ran and unpacked just fine. It does take a few seconds to unpack though, at least on my box. Double check your breakpoint settings, and verify that the following options are checked: \"enabled\", \"hardware\", \"break\", \"execute\", and that the address location is 0x401000. If you did this from the segmentation window, then the size should be 0x4A000. (It really doesn't need to be this big).\n\nHere's some more information on breakpoints if you're interested.\n\n\nSoftware vs. Hardware breakpoints: http://www.nynaeve.net/?p=80\nOlly's Memory Breakpoints http://waleedassar.blogspot.com/2012/11/defeating-memory-breakpoints.html", "This could happen if your breakpoint address is in the \"middle\" of the opcode, for example if your asm code looks like this:\n\n0x000C: BLX R3\n0x000E: LDR R0, [R6]\n\n\nand you put breakpoint on address 0x00D, in this case the process will get SIGTRAP on other address than 0x000D, but gdb only knows the 0x00D address from the user input so its just throw SIGTRAP and get stuck.\n\nAlso even when you write the right address to gdb, the arm fallback mode of gdb can cause this kind of problems. \n\nset arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)\nGDB uses the symbol table, when available, to determine whether instructions are ARM or Thumb. This command controls GDB’s default behavior when the symbol table is not available. The default is ‘auto’, which causes GDB to use the current execution mode (from the T bit in the CPSR register).\n\n\nSome times gdb cant get the arm mode of a function automatically, and it falling to the wrong mode. You can check this by disassemble piece of code in gdb and check if you see normal assembly or some bad one. if its bad one then your arm assembly mode is wrong, and you can get false SIGTRAP.\n\nAnother advice is not to use gdb in iOS, use lldb. gdb is depreciated, and the only gdb versions available to iOS are ports thats individual people wrote, those ports lack in features (for example some of them don't have the fallback feature at all), and are unreliable.", "The thing is, TrueCrypt currently supports the following operating systems:\n\n\n Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)\n \n Windows Vista\n \n Windows Vista x64 (64-bit) Edition\n \n Windows XP\n \n Windows XP x64 (64-bit) Edition\n \n Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)\n \n Windows Server 2008\n \n Windows Server 2008 x64 (64-bit)\n \n Windows Server 2003\n \n Windows Server 2003 x64 (64-bit)\n \n Windows 2000 SP4\n \n Mac OS X 10.7 Lion (64-bit and 32-bit)\n \n Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (32-bit)\n \n Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard\n \n Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger\n \n Linux (32-bit and 64-bit versions, kernel 2.6 or compatible)\n\n\nBut TrueCrypt can currently encrypt the following operating systems:\n\n\n Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)\n \n Windows Vista (SP1 or later)\n \n Windows Vista x64 (64-bit) Edition (SP1 or later)\n \n Windows XP \n \n Windows XP x64 (64-bit) Edition\n \n Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)\n \n Windows Server 2008\n \n Windows Server 2008 x64 (64-bit)\n \n Windows Server 2003\n \n Windows Server 2003 x64 (64-bit)\n\n\nSo it can read a volume that was encrypted under Windows in Linux, but it cannot encrypt a volume that has a Linux File System.\n\nYour solution, as Web-E suggested, is to follow these instructions.\n\nBut beware, this will encrypt a single user; if you wish to encrypt several users, you need to repeat the how-to for each one. And follow carefully the instructions, or you will be unable to log in with encrypted folders if your wallpaper is in an encrypted area.", "The config files you mention are .NET config files of the TCM Service Host and Publisher Windows Services, respectively (so, completely unrelated to Java).\nTcmServiceHost.exe is compiled with AnyCPU flag, meaning that it will be 32 bits on a 32 bit Windows and 64 bits on 64 bits Windows.\nTcmServiceHost_x86.exe is compiled with x86 flag, meaning that it will always be 32 bits, regardless of Windows \"bitness\".\n\nIn some versions of Tridion, we have provided these _x86.exe (forced 32 bits) variants as a possible work-around for issues in customizations (templates, event handlers) that relied on 32 bit processes (e.g. using 32 bit COM components).\n\nI forgot how customers were supposed to switch to these forced 32 bits variants (was documented), but if you're saying that the _x86.exe.config files are being used, that implies that the _x86.exe files are executed. Assuming that these files are executed by the Windows Service Control Manager, that implies that its should be configured in the Windows Registry.", "run WINEARCH=win64 WINEPREFIX=~/.wine64 winecfg \nset up wine how you like, version, etc. then run WINEPREFIX=~/.wine64 wine 64bitprogramsetup.exe to install your 64 bit program", "Background\nI am somewhere that blocks Dropbox downloads, so I can't see the captured traffic, but I'll go on the assumption these were 64-byte ethernet multicasts.\nLet's do some math to see how much traffic you're permitting...\nA 64-byte frame is 672 bits (including 8 bytes for Preamble/SFD, and 12 bytes for IFG)...\n8*(8 + 12 + 64) = 672 bits\nThat means line rate Gigabit Ethernet 64-bytes frames is about 1.488Mpps...\n(1000000000 / 672.0) = 1488095.24 pps\nWhat does this mean to you? Well your current storm-control configuration throttles traffic at 5% of line-rate, so you're allowing 74.4kpps of traffic to hit your switch before storm-control kicks in. 74.4kpps * 64-byte frames is 38Mbps, which is right at what your graphs show:\n\n\nAnswer\nSo, the bottom line is that you're allowing too much traffic to hit the switch CPU, which is why the CPU utilization was high. 74.4kpps is really too much to allow any switch CPU to process.\nAssuming these stations shouldn't be sending a lot of multicast or broadast, the simple answer is to throttle your traffic like this...\n ! Note that broadcast traffic has the ethernet I/G bit set\n ! which means it is also classified technically as a multicast\n ! for storm-control purposes. Therefore set your broadcast limit\n ! a little lower than your multicast limit\n storm-control broadcast level 0.4 0.3\n storm-control multicast level 0.5 0.3\n\nNow storm-control kicks in when a port sends 6kpps of broadcast (0.4% 1GE line rate) or 7.5kpps of combined multicast / broadcast (0.5% 1GE line rate).\nFYI, it is probably worth looking into Control Plane Policing, which protects the switch CPU against several ports ganging up on it. Keep in mind that CPP can be complicated to get right, so it's a good idea to test well before you roll it out in your environment.", "If I understand correctly:\n \n There is a buffer of size 256 bytes created (malloc) in this buffer,\n the first 32 bits are set to 0 (because dword designates 32bits size)\n the next 32 bits (32 to 63) are set to C8h the next 32 bits (64 to 95)\n to 0.\n\n\nYes!\n\n\n The address of this new pointer is written in the first buffer between the bit 127 \n\n\nWell it will be the 128th bit. The qword at rax+0x10 is 128 bits from the head of your first malloc.\n\n\n\nBut these aren't strictly bit offsets. You can calculate how many bits from the start of memory, but I would question why it matters. \n\n\n PS: Additional question: why 'rax+1' is to understand as 'rax+8bits ' instead of rax+1bit?\n\n\nrax is a 64 bit register so you can use it to represent 2^64 values. \n\nIf rax is 0x12345678 and I add 1, what should happen? It will become 0x12345679 regardless of how many bits you want that to represent. (Oversimplification but I hope this make the point).\n\nFor example: mov dword ptr [rax+4], 0xC8\n\nRef: https://www.felixcloutier.com/x86/MOV.html\n\nFrom the above ref, this is a mov m32, imm32 which means copy a 32bit constant into the 32bit DWORD through this pointer [rax+4]\n\nSo because [rax+4] represents a pointer to byte addressable memory, the +4 represents 4 bytes.\n\nThis is only because the m32 operand to mov is concerned with the address of bytes. There are other x86 instruction that can manipulate bits, but not this one.", "You could use a Watchpoint\nThe simplest way to do it is to use a watchpoint. A watchpoint will stop execution when a certain memory address is read or written. According to the GDB Manual section on setting Watchpoints:\n\nYou can use a watchpoint to stop execution whenever the value of an expression changes, without having to predict a particular place where this may happen. (This is sometimes called a data breakpoint.) The expression may be as simple as the value of a single variable, or as complex as many variables combined by operators.\n\nUsage: watch [-l|-location] expr [thread thread-id] [mask maskvalue]\n\n\nSet a watchpoint for an expression. GDB will break when the expression expr is written into by the program and its value changes. The simplest (and the most popular) use of this command is to watch the value of a single variable:\n\n(gdb) watch foo\n\nYou could use Breakpoint Command Lists\nBreakpoint command lists are much what they sound like. They are lists of GDB commands that are run when a breakpoint is hit. A key feature here is that you can include the continue command in the command list, making GDB not stop like it normally would.\nThe GDB Manual section on Breakpoint Command Lists tells us the following:\n\nYou can give any breakpoint (or watchpoint or catchpoint) a series of commands to execute when your program stops due to that breakpoint. For example, you might want to print the values of certain expressions, or enable other breakpoints.\n\nUsage:\ncommands [list…]\n… command-list …\nend\n\n\nFor example, here is how you could use breakpoint commands to print the value of x at entry to foo whenever x is positive.\n\nbreak foo if x&gt;0\ncommands\nsilent\nprintf &quot;x is %d\\n&quot;,x\ncont\nend", "I guess that the question's data processing\n\nUses &quot;64 bit binary value&quot; as symbol of the plaintext.\nEnciphers these with a 64-bit block cipher in ECB mode, and considers the symbols in the encrypted data flow to be the individual outputs of that block cipher.\nAssimilates the observed/actual frequency of a symbol $i$ in an experimental data set to the probability $p_i$ it has for the source of that data set. Which of course is an approximation (argument: if we repeat the experiment we'll likely get different frequencies, even if the source is unchanged, thus the probabilities unchanged).\nApplies the formula $\\displaystyle H\\ =\\ \\sum_{i\\text{ with }p_i\\ne0}p_i\\,\\log_2\\left(\\frac1p_i\\right)$ for the per-symbol Shannon entropy of a source of independent symbols of known probabilities $p_i$, even though nothing in the question supports that hypothesis of independence of the symbols produced by the source.\n\nAssuming the above, reversibility of the transformation made on the symbols implies that encryption leaves $H$ exactly unchanged. The $p_i$ summed are the same, only for different $i$. The discrepancy between the reported 15.497477 before encryption and 15.0525 after could come from basing the computation of the second value on output that is not the encryption of the input used for the computation of the first value.\nAnd independently, what's computed is something about the data (I don't know a proper name) produced by a source, but we have no assurance that it's a fair approximation of the Shannon entropy per symbol of the source. Knowing the data set length and the actual number of possible symbols (which depends heavily on how the input symbols are gathered, and what their physical source is) would help build an informed opinion on that.", "status-completed:\n\nUnfortunately for me the buttons appear in the wrong place (at the far right of the screen next to the scrollbar:\n\n\n\nPlease let me know if you need any more info to help debug this.\n\nOS Windows 7 64 bit.\n\nFirefox 38.0.5\n\n\n\nstatus-completed:\n\nAs per comment buttons abscure the image:\n\n\n\n\n\nstatus-completed (there was an error with the access token)\n\nWhen saving (which doesn't work) I get:\n\n\n\n\n\nWithout freehand:\n\n\n\nWith freehand enabled:", "No, it will usually not cause any problems.\n\namd64, also known as x64, x86_64 and x86-64 refers to the 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set. It was developed by AMD (hence the name amd64) as an alternative to Intel's and HP's IA-64 architecture, as a means to add 64-bit computing capabilities to the existing x86 architecture.\n\nMost recent Intel and AMD processors (with the exception of Intel's Itanium line) utilise the x86_64 architecture, so do not be confused by the name.", "Suppose the number of a set $S$ is denoted as $Card(S)$ (which is sort for cardinality if you didn't know), then \n\n$Card($uppercase-letters$)+Card($lowercase-letters$)+Card($digits$)\n=26+26+10=62$\n\nTo represent an element from a set of 62, you need a string of at least 6 bits, this is because $2^{6} = 64 \\ge 62$\n\nHowever I don't understand the title where it says \"64 bits password = 13 characters\" because $ 6 \\cdot 13 = 78 $ which is way bigger here, than 64. \n\nTo achieve at least 64-bit entropy, you need to uniformly draw ${ {64} \\over {log_2{62}} } \\approx 11.00$ characters (10.749 to be more exact).", "So the problem was, the network application was using GetQueuedCompletionStatus instead of WSAGetOverlappedResult. It is explained here: https://support.microsoft.com/cs-cz/help/181611/socket-overlapped-i-o-versus-blocking-nonblocking-mode. I just somehow missed this article.\n\nIf you're asking how i found it out, well i had to do it the hard way. I started at the instruction causing ACCESS_VIOLATION, and i went backwards in the code flow using return addresses on stack trying to trace the origin the malformed data. Unfortunately the crash was happening in other thread than packet processing, so i also had to use hardware memory breakpoints to find, where are those data copied from, etc.\n\nOne mistery however remains unsolved, and that's: Why didn't a hardware breakpoint put directly in the buffer passed to WSARecvFrom pause my program? When code reaches GetQueuedCompletionStatus, data are clearly there, but it passes my breakpoint and performed this operation without breaking." ]

[ "Association football" ]

[ "What Mattered Most", "MoST", "popular suffrage", "Popular sovereignty", "popular vote", "popular support", "by popular suffrage", "Sports", "popular crusades", "by popular vote", "Popular Science", "Mickie Most", "What's Up?", "Popular music", "most creative", "by popular elections", "What a Friend", "popular culture", "What's Happening!!", "Don Most", "What's in It for Me", "David Most", "things are what they are", "What If Nothing", "What a Life!", "What A Night", "What If It's You", "What Are Words", "What Not to Wear", "What Car?", "what is visible", "Popular Movement of the Revolution" ]

[ "When they advised me to dump a Chinese GF I had and find myself \"Nice girl from (our country)\"\n\nWhen I was going through depression only advice they gave me was \"just be a man and get over it\"" ]

[ "I shouldn t have looked", "What would you do if you woke up as the opposite gender?\n\nWhen did you realize that you’re not a kid anymore?\n\nWhen did you had your first sex?\n\nHow many people did you fuck?", "Don't take everyones advice. If you like something, use it. It's your home.", "Thank you for your advice", "Putin: Did you do that shit with t-rump or noooot", "How did you get your username.", "Did you bring family?", "Take the advice you would give someone you love.", "Oh honey, sexy is a state of mind. You want to feel sexy, take advice from a drag queen.", "What has been positive to you? \n\nWhat selfish things made you happier?\n\nHow did you stop taking on more than you can handle, did you ask your supervisor that you’re taking on too much work?", "Same here. Did you realize your routine didn't change much?", "People being pervert and leaking things that they shouldn’. Are you victim blaming?", "How much LSD did you take, my good man?", "Lol take your own advice, beta.", "When planning your life take advices but don't take orders.", "You take the hint, and realize that it's not all about what *you* want.", "When it’s a longer movie but you never once look at your watch. The pacing and story flow so well that you don’t even realize how long it takes to unfold.", "HOW DID YOU KNOW!?", "Mentally, your family. Not your blood family, but who you choose to be your family, which could be your actual family, but still. Your family will always have your back and will help you through tough times.", "How is that good advice? You still need money so why not keep your job until you have a job related or what inspires you?", "Fishing from a boat. I never realized that wasn’t how most people would go fishing. I thought fishing from shore was just what you did when you didn’t want to get the boat out.", "You dont thats how you keep a family", "For example: “How did you spend your Lunar Independence Day this year?”", "They don’t. They’re taking advice from a reality show host.", "You'll start to feel it when you realize how much it takes to dig a proper sized hole with a shovel.", "You mean legally? Double jeopardy would prevent you from being tried again, but your words in court could be used against you in a civil trial, meaning the family of the person you murder could sue you and take all your money for the rest of your life.", "If you have to ask, you're probably not going to take ethical advice anyway.", "You have to cut communication while you work on your emotions. It is completely possible for you to manipulate the way you love someone, transitioning from romance to friend/family. You can’t do that if your constantly falling back in love again, so take the time you need.", "How your ego takes a hit when you start going to college", "You realize your waifu isnt real", "People that want to be in your life will make an effort to do so. This took me years to realize and for all you young whippersnappers please take this seriously, it will save you from unnecessary heartache", "How did you know?" ]

[ "The Nationals’ season is 12 games old, and the team begins a difficult three-city, 10-game road trip on Tuesday. This seems like a good time to answer a few of the biggest questions on the minds of Nationals fans, many of whom are worried about the bullpen." ]

[ "Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE SportsPulse: From Nationals Park, Trysta Krick and Steve Gardner break down what went wrong for the Nationals in a night Stephen Strasburg pitched well enough to win, and look at how Friday's earlier ALDS games played out. USA TODAY Sports\nAnthony Rendon committed a key error in Game 1 of the NLDS; meanwhile, he and the Nationals managed just two hits against the Cubs. (Photo: MICHAEL REYNOLDS, EPA)\nWASHINGTON — It was the most soul-crushing loss at Nationals Park in five years Friday night, and in many ways, perhaps the most torturous in their postseason history.\nThree pitches is all it took to turn Washington Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg’s powerful no-hit bid to a devastating 3-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.\nOne pitch is all it took to turn All-Star third baseman Anthony Rendon’s dream season to a nightmare that could haunt him all winter.\nAnd, it was just one evening that turned the Nationals’ vision of their first World Series championship to a hallucination.\nThis was just one game, as the Nats kept reminding everyone in their somber clubhouse, but it’s also a best-of-five series, and now the Nationals have to knock off the defending World Series champions in three of the next four games to survive.\nIt’s hardly over, but, man, it sure looks ugly.\nMORE:\nLive Cubs: Hendricks, clutch hitting key for champs\nUnstoppable Indians: Game 2 thriller stuns Yankees\nBlastros: Another 8-2 romp over Red Sox in ALDS\n“We just have to keep playing,’’ says Strasburg, who became the first pitcher to strike out 10 batters in just 81 pitches in a postseason game in 19 years, yielding just three hits and two unearned runs in seven innings. “If this was opening day, and we lost our first one, I don’t think we would panic too much. There’s no reason to do it now.\n“We just have to stick together.’’\nThe Nats have been to these playoffs in four of the last six years, and after blowing a 6-0 lead in Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012, they still have yet to win a postseason series.\nSo naturally, as painful as the questions were in the Nats’ clubhouse, the narrative was whether the Nats feel like this is yet another case of, “Uh-oh, here we go again.’’\n“We don’t care about the past,’’ Rendon said. “That was 2016. 2015. 2014. What year is it this year?’’\nYes, but will the outcome be any different?\n“That’s why,’’ Nationals All-Star right fielder Bryce Harper says, “we play five.’’\nThe Nats still have their ace, and likely Cy Young winner Max Scherzer, in Game 3. Gio Gonzalez, who won 15 games with a 2.96 ERA, will pitch Game 2. And Strasburg, who was 6-1 with a 1.86 ERA after the All-Star break, can still come back and pitch Game 4, or at least Game 5.\nStill, this is a tough one to overcome, wasting one of the most brilliant postseason pitching performances in Nats’ history.\n“He was the best pitcher I’ve [ever] seen probably,’’ Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “He's Stephen Strasburg for a reason, and he’s an ace for a reason.’’\nThe way Strasburg was pitching, it was as if he was holding a remote control instead of a baseball. He was throwing a filthy mix of 98-mph fastballs, 84-mph curveballs, and 88-mph changeups. He was so dominant that he needed only 52 pitches to get through the fifth inning, generating 11 swings and misses. Why, only four Cubs’ hitters managed to even hit the ball out of the infield through the first five innings.\n“First two at-bats,’’ Rizzo says, “made me look silly. The whole lineup looked silly the first couple times through.’’\nThen, everything unraveled.\nJavier Baez, leading off the sixth inning, hit a routine bouncer to Rendon. He caught it. And dropped it.\n“It’s like a car accident,’’ Rendon said. “You don’t hit the car on purpose. So it’s a mistake. It’s part of the game.\n“It’s definitely tough because Stras was pitching his tail off.’’\nTwo batters later, the confrontation of the night occurred: Strasburg vs. Kris Bryant. And Strasburg's first mistake of note — leaving a 96-mph fastball up in the zone — was cashed in, as Bryant banged a single to left, reaching second base on Harper’s throw home. Rizzo followed with an RBI hit of his own. Just like that, it was 2-0.\nAnd the way Hendricks was pitching, it might as well have been 20-0.\n“That,’’ Nationals manager Dusty Baker said, “was the ballgame.’’\nThe Nats didn’t get a hit after the second inning, managing two in all.\nThey have been here before, of course. They lost the first game of last year’s playoffs to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and after playing four more one-run games, were sent home. They lost the first game in 2014 to the San Francisco Giants, and then an 18-inning game the following day, and never recovered.\nThis was the year everything was going to be different.\nThe Nats are telling everyone that’ll listen it still will be.\n“We can still do it,’’ Matt Wieters said, “it just makes it more difficult now. But we can do this.’’\nIn a city immune to broken campaign promises, pardon folks if they wait a little while before they believe it.\nFollow Nightengale on Twitter and Facebook\nGALLERY: Best of the postseason", "I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?\nThe Trump logic appears to go like this:\nThis isn't the first time this sort of thinking has been deployed by Trump and his senior staff. Back in January, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway insisted that \"we litigated this all through the election. People didn't care.\"\nConway's point didn't make sense then. And Trump's doesn't now.\nIt's impossible to say how much -- or how little -- Trump's decision not to release his tax returns during the campaign influenced the election. The reason for that is because the 2016 exit poll didn't include a single question about either tax returns or, more broadly, transparency. (They need to let me write an exit poll question or two in 2020!)\nSo, you can't claim that on Election Day people cared DEEPLY about Trump's decision to be the first presidential candidate in modern political history not to release his taxes. But, by the same token, it's impossible to conclude -- as Trump does -- that his 2016 win is bulletproof evidence that voters didn't care about his taxes.\nTake it totally out of politics for a second. In Sunday's game between the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies, the score was tied 3-3 in the top of the 9th inning. The Nats brought in their closer, Blake Treinen. Treinen proceeded to give up a run. But, in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Nationals put two men on base for Bryce Harper, who jacked a walk-off three-run homer over the centerfield wall.\nUnder Trump's logic, the fact that the Nats won 6-4 -- and Treinen got the victory -- would be definitive proof that the Nats closer was terrific. How could he not be? The team won!\nThe logical fallacy is clear. The Nats won in spite of Treinen, not because of him.\nNow, back to Trump.\nThe reality is that both of these things could be true:\nHe won. Voters didn't like that he refused to release his taxes but prioritized other issues when they cast their ballot.\nThat is, to my mind, the most likely thought process for most voters. They knew that Trump was breaking all sorts of traditions and rules in his campaign -- some that they liked, others that they didn't. And tax returns was one they didn't like. In fact, in a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken shortly before Trump was inaugurated, 74% of people said they thought Trump should release his taxes -- including 49% of those who voted for him.\nBut, despite their disagreement with Trump on taxes, they decided that his outsider status, his promise to shake up Washington and/or their dislike of Hillary Clinton were more important factors in the election.\nWinning -- a game or an election -- is not an affirmation that everything you did was right. It's only proof that for that bounded period of time, you beat the other guy (or woman).\nTrump, still, doesn't seem to get that.", "The Cubs are 21 for 101 against with 30 strikeouts against Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer. (Mark Tenally/AP)\nThe Washington Nationals announced Stephen Strasburg will start Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Chicago Cubs on Friday night and Gio Gonzalez would start Game 2 Saturday evening. That leaves ace Max Scherzer on the mound for Monday’s Game 3 at Wrigley Field.\nScherzer was pushed back in the rotation after hamstring tightness cut his stint short on Saturday night, and that delay could be significant.\n[NLDS predictions: Experts give Nats the nod over Cubs]\nScherzer has pitched very well against the Cubs, who are 21 for 101 against Scherzer with 30 strikeouts, yet his propensity for giving up home runs could become a problem in Chicago.\nSince joining the Nationals, Scherzer’s home rate has risen to 17.1 percent of his hits allowed, compared to 11.7 and 11.9 percent, respectively, during his time with the Arizona Diamondbacks (2008 and 2009) and Detroit Tigers (2010 to 2014). The park effects between Nationals Park and Wrigley are negligible (surprisingly) — they rank 13th and 15th, respectively, this season with just a few percentage points separating them in terms of how often home runs are hit relative to the rest of the league.\nHowever, the more detailed stats show that Scherzer could see some trouble.\nThe average launch angle off his pitches is 19.3 degrees this season, the fourth highest among pitches throwing at least 1,500 pitches, with 47 percent of balls put in play becoming fly balls. And those are the balls more likely to leave the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. In fact, if you take all the fly balls hit off Scherzer this season and overlay them onto Wrigley Field, he would have allowed five more home runs for sure with perhaps another eight making their way over the fence.\nFor Scherzer to be successful on the road in Chicago, he must have command of his fastball. Of the 22 home runs he has allowed this season, 16 are at the expense of his four-seam fastball, often thrown over the middle of the plate — easy pickings for any hitter with solid bat speed and power.\nPlus, for whatever reason, Scherzer hasn’t pitched well in the clutch, also known as high-leverage situations. According to FanGraphs, both Gonzalez (0.88 clutch score) and Strasburg (0.61) have performed better in the clutch than Scherzer (0.38). And since this compares a player against himself, it gives us a much better overview of how well a pitcher has or hasn’t done in these types of situations relative to all others.\nThis isn’t to say Scherzer couldn’t raise his game in an important situation, but he has allowed a higher batting average and more home runs per nine innings in high-leverage situations over the past three seasons.\nMax Scherzer (2015 to 2017) Home runs per 9IP BA against Percentage of balls hit “hard” High-leverage situations 1.6 0.263 32% All other situations 1.1 0.189 28%\nAnd the worse the Nationals do in Games 1 and 2, the better Scherzer needs to perform in Game 3. According to whowins.com, the visiting team in the series moves on to the next round 60 percent of the time after taking a 1-0 series lead. That increases to 89 percent of the time if the lower-seeded team is victorious in the first two games.\nRead more on the Nationals:\nNLDS predictions: Experts give Nats the nod over Cubs\nMax Scherzer talks Natitude, bat flips and Bryce Harper’s reputation on ‘Pardon My Take’\nWhat is ‘Awesome’? Nats fan receives 40-foot banner inspired by his ‘Jeopardy!’ appearance.\n‘I doooooooo’: Eireann Dolan and Nats reliever Sean Doolittle eloped\nWhat’s next for The Bullpen, the beloved Nats Park destination? Not even the owner is sure.\nWhy do Nats fans love Jayson Werth so much?\nThree matchups to keep in mind for Nationals-Cubs Game 1", "FRESH humiliation for put-upon millionaire Anas Sarwar, the favourite turned also-ran in the Scottish Labour leadership race. After a disastrous start to his campaign, when he was unable to escape from his gilded background and rum goings-on at the family firm, dad hotfooted it back from Pakistan last week to lend “moral support” ie hit the phones. Now Holyrood has added to the grief with publication of a minute of the AGM of the Cross Party Group on Pakistan. Among the MSPs listed as attending is one “Anus Sarwar”. Bummer.\nHE’S not the only one. Former SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson once got the “Anus” treatment in one of his party’s own press releases. Little has been seen of him since he lost his Moray seat in June. But Unspun hears a new gig is at hand. A Nat mole reports Mr R, who is still depute SNP leader, is being lined up for a cosy job at SNP HQ. When Tory MEP Ian Duncan was handed a peerage after not getting elected, the SNP denounced it as a “reward for failure”. So this would obviously be completely different.\nMORE news on Paul Jukes, the fun-enforcing chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council. Apparently miffed at Unspun’s coverage of his wheeze of ten pin bowling for new politicians, his woes mounted last week as the administration tried to hide the names of councillors owing council tax. Of four in arrears, two have paid up. As to the others? Let’s just say that if a clean tab was needed to go bowling, the SNP team might well be two down.\nLoading article content", "Some goalies won’t play back to back games. How about back to back to back?\nThree games in three days, a bit of travel (720 kilometres from Port Huron to Cornwall) between games two and three?\nSign me up, says Sebastien Dube-Rochon.\n“That’s the first time I’ve ever done that,” said Dube-Rochon, who was in goal for the Cornwall Nationals, in all three weekend Federal Hockey League games, concluding with a 7-3 victory against the Watertown Wolves at the civic complex on Saturday.\nThe win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Nats, including 6-2 and 8-2 losses in Port Huron, on Thursday and Friday respectively.\n“It’s tough, three games like that,” said Dube-Rochon, who has been a workhorse in goal for the Nats this season.\nNo complaints there from the 22-year-old puckblocker from Montreal.\n“I want to play all the games. I’m that kind of goalie,” said Dube-Rochon.\nNice to have a little goal support too, as the Nationals pulled away in the second period. The shots were 39-34 in favour of the Wolves, and Dube-Rochon was a big reason the score was as lopsided as it was.\nHe made some big saves, particularly when the score was still close early in the second, the best probably a breakaway stop on Watertown’s Lester Brown when it was 2-1, Dube-Rochon kicking out his right pad to make the stop. Equally impressive was a glove save through traffic minutes later. That stop earned a pat on the pads from Watertown’s Cameron Dimmitt, who was screening in front.\n“Tonight was easier. The guys did a good job in front of me,” said Dube-Rochon, who spent last year playing first division in France.\nA return across the pond could be in his future, but for now he’s No. 1 in the Nats’ net, arriving here courtesy of a tipoff from teammate Maxime Guyon. The two played together in bantam hockey.\n“It’s different here for sure,” said Dube-Rochon of the move to the FHL from D-1 in France.\n“In France, it was a lot quicker. Not very physical, but big guys, and fast.”\nThe Nats were quick to jump on the Wolves, who came into the contest on a three-game win streak. MJ Graham scored exactly one minute in to put Cornwall in front. They would never trail.\nAt the 6:36 mark, Guyon found himself all alone in front of Watertown goalie Cody Karpinski. Not a lot of room in tight. Here’s the thing with Guyon, a pure sniper. He doesn’t need a lot of room. Found a space barely big enough for a puck high glove side and it was 2-0 Nats.\nThe Wolves cut that lead in half 4:44 before intermission, Dallas Ingram beating Dube-Rochon.\nThey tied it early in the second, a goal by Tyler Gjurich, but it was all Nats the rest of the frame, Cornwall getting goals from Brandon Vuic, Jakob Smith, Ahmed Mahfouz and Yan Dumontier to make it 6-2 after two frames.\nGraham’s second of the game put the Nationals up by five and Dimmitt capped the game’s scoring with a late power-play goal.\nThe Nationals improved to 16-11-0-2 with the win. They’are at Carolina next weekend, for three games against the Thunderbirds. The Nats are back at home on Friday, Feb. 16, Port Huron visiting.", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nMcDonald’s menu is pretty diverse, whether you prefer chicken, beef, fish or you’re vegetarian, there is something to satisfy most people’s needs.\nBut there is one thing about McDonald’s menu that has been puzzling diners for years, and the chain has finally addressed the issue.\nThe chain will give you ketchup, sweet chili sauce, BBQ sauce and a whole host of other sauces - but one condiment is conspicuous by its absence.\nFor years, Maccy's fans have complained over the lack of mayonnaise, reports the Birmingham Mail.\n(Image: Steve Parsons/PA Wire)\n\"Why no mayo?\" they rage on social media, furiously venting their condiment-related woes.\nWell, Cosmopolitan have asked the fast-food giant the reason behind its alleged hatred of the white stuff.\nMcDonald's, remarkably, claims there is not enough \"demand\" for the delicious dressing.\nA spokesperson said: \"What we offer in our restaurants is based on customer demand.\n\"We don’t currently have any plans for mayonnaise to be made available.\"\nSo sorry mayo fans, but you’ll just have to continue to make do with ketchup.", "Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nSamsung has announced it is closing its store in Newcastle city centre with nearly 20 jobs at risk.\nThe branch on Northumberland Street is set to shut this summer.\nThe company says consultations are currently under way with employees who are affected.\nA total of 19 staff members could potentially lose their positions.\nA spokesman for the firm said: “We can confirm that we are closing this store, and that we are working with staff to minimise impact. We are going through a full consultation period with employees.”\nThe reason for the closure has not been revealed.\nHowever this is the latest in a list of companies that have announced shop closures nationwide, adding to the woes of the British high street.\nDixons Carphone says it will shut almost 100 Carphone Warehouse stores this year.\nIt is not yet known where the axe will fall but the firm has 1,100 stores across the UK, including 17 standalone shops in the North East.\nMeanwhile, Carpetright, Mothercare, New Look and Byron are among others to announce outlet closures in the face of falling consumer confidence, while Toys R Us and Maplin collapsed into administration earlier this year.\nDiscount chain Poundworld is pursuing a restructuring plan that could see it shut around a third of its stores, putting more than 1,500 jobs in doubt.", "GATE 2018 results to release in March GATE 2018 results to release in March\nGATE 2018 was conducted on February 3, 2018 in two slots and just like last year, mechanical engineering as one of the major disciplines. As per the usual format, the ‪Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), ‪2018 consisted of questions on technical stream-wise concepts, engineering maths and general aptitude and was to be completed in a total time of 180 minutes.\nQuestion Pattern\nA higher proportion of Numerical Questions appeared in ME Stream and it was also observed that there were more Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions in comparison to last year. Both the above factors made the exam slightly tricky as there were lesser number of direct Theoretical questions and Multiple-Choice-Questions (MCQs), which are usually easier to attempt than fill-in-the-blank questions.\nExam Interface\nThe exam interface for GATE 2018 was similar to last year. With the virtual calculator already being put on GATE 2018 website, students who had had sufficient practice of the calculator on the website were at a slight advantage.\nExam Analysis: Mechanical engineering\n(a) Forenoon Slot: The paper was more on conceptual understanding and involved logical reasonings than being formula based. The weightage in manufacturing technology was around 13 per cent to 14 per cent which is lesser than that of last year. The questions related to Thermal engineering and heat transfer were lesser in number, had same weightage as last year and required conceptual understanding to answer them. The weightage in SOM, Vibrations, TOM and Machine Design was more and had few time consuming questions. Level of questions in engineering maths and aptitude was easy with lesser number of questions in engineering maths and most of them could be answered within a short time. As like last year the number of questions in NAT were more in number as compared to MCQs\nOverall, the paper was easy to moderate as compared to last year.\nAfternoon slot\nThe number of NAT questions were more than that of the MCQs and had more weightage as well. The weightage for Manufacturing Technology was the highest and a lot of questions were lengthy. One mark questions were mostly easy and very few were of medium level. The paper on the whole required more logical thinking and conceptual analysis.\nOverall the paper was found to be easy to moderate.\nGATE analysis by M V Reddy, GATE Course Director, T.I.M.E.\nFor all the latest Education News, download Indian Express App\n© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd\nMore Related News GATE 2018 exam schedule released at gate.iitg.ac.in, papers to begin from February 3", "Nationals relief pitcher Matt Albers (43) in the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers of the game at Dodger Stadium. (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports file)\nNEW YORK — The Nationals’ bullpen had just thrown another game away, turning a three-run lead in the eighth into an 11-10 loss Monday against the Braves. That’s when Dusty Baker issued a plea.\n“We need some help,” Washington’s manager told reporters at Nationals Park. “We need some help, big time. We’ve been knowing that all along. … There’s no answers right now. I would say score more runs, but we scored more runs.”\nThe Nats can score plenty of runs. Their starting pitchers are capable of preventing runs. But the pen has been the weak link.\nThe Mets entered Wednesday’s play trailing the first-place Nationals by 9.5 games in the NL East. But Washington is also winning in the standings for the league's worst bullpen. The Mets are hoping to take advantage and pull closer because they have a four-game series against the Nats starting Thursday night at Citi Field.\n“According to what I’m reading, there are some bullpen issues,” Mets manager Terry Collins said before the series finale against the visiting Cubs. “So if that’s the case, you better get in that bullpen. But (Max) Scherzer is not that easy. Gio (Gonzalez) is not real easy. (Stephen) Strasburg is not real easy. So that’s easier said than done.”\nWashington Nationals reliever Jacob Turner (38) follows his ball after throwing during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Washington, Wednesday, May 3, 2017. The Nationals won 3-2. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP file)\nWhen the day began, the Nationals’ relievers were 10-11 with the poorest ERA in the NL at 5.02. The Mets’ relievers, by comparison, were 9-14 and just two spots higher in the rankings at 4.87. They had blown 13 of their 28 save attempts.\nWashington had blown 11 of its 30 save attempts. The Nats arrived for the season without an established closer after Mark Melancon left for the Giants. Shawn Kelley and Blake Treinen struck out in the role. Koda Glover, given the job on May 25, blew a save in the ninth before the Rangers won in 11 Saturday.\nTurned out, the 24-year-old righty hurt his back in the shower beforehand. But he didn’t report it until after turning a 3-1 game into a 3-3 game. Glover went on the DL on Sunday.\nMatt Albers tried to save Monday’s game, but he yielded a three-run, ninth-inning homer to Tyler Flowers.\nWashington Nationals relief pitcher Trevor Gott winds up during the sixth inning of the team's baseball game against the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Washington. Gott worked out of the sixth for his first victory as a National. The Nationals won 10-5. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP file)\nThen a few position players started to complain anonymously to The Washington Post about the impact of the bullpen’s bad work.\nOne factor in the Mets’ bullpen struggles has been overwork. The starters have often failed to go deep into games. There have been other factors, too. But the other players haven’t complained.\n“I think everybody understands the challenges facing us, missing our closer that we expected to be there this year with (Jeurys) Familia in two different stints now,” Curtis Granderson said. “You’re asking guys to do different roles. We understand that it’s not an easy situation …”\nThe Mets went 2-4 against Washington in April, getting swept in Queens, then taking two of three in D.C., although they allowed 23 runs in the loss there. But now they will have Steven Matz and Seth Lugo making their second starts of the season in the series after coming off the DL. Yoenis Cespedes, who didn’t play in the series at Washington due to his hamstring strain, is back, too.\nGranderson doesn’t think this series will cement the final standings. But Michael Conforto wouldn’t downplay it, saying, “I think this weekend is big for us.”", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nMcDonald's hits the spot on so many occasions, whether you are in search of a mammoth milkshake or a double cheeseburger, but there is one thing missing to accompany your fries – mayo.\nThe chain will give you ketchup, mustard, and a variety of other dips – but one condiment is absent from Maccy's offering.\nFor years, McDonald's fans have moaned about the lack of mayonnaise, Birmingham Mail reports .\n(Image: Steve Parsons/PA Wire)\n\"Why no mayo?\" they rage on social media, furiously venting their condiment-related woes.\nWell, Cosmopolitan have asked the fast-food giant the reason behind its alleged hatred of the white stuff.\nMcDonald's, remarkably, claims there is not enough \"demand\" for the delicious dressing – outrageous, we know.\nA spokesperson said: \"What we offer in our restaurants is based on customer demand.\n\"We don’t currently have any plans for mayonnaise to be made available.\"\nIt comes after it emerged you can enjoy the most romantic day of the year at the fast food giant.\n(Image: Getty)\nMaccy's is playing Cupid this year by inviting couples to have a romantic night at some of its restaurants.\nRevealing all on Facebook, McDonald’s posted: \"Book a table for you and your loved one this McValentine’s Day right here, we are going all out providing the most romantic dining experience in history.\n\"We are offering 3 courses of McValentine’s perfection for £20 per couple.\"", "Every week, day-in, day-out, thousands of planes fly above Scotland and the north Atlantic and, with many thousands of lives at stake, it is essential that the route of each and every aircraft is continuously managed and carefully monitored. This vital task falls to the air traffic controllers at National Air Traffic Services Scottish (NATS) control centre who, with the help of state-of-the-art IT systems, work round-the-clock to keep our skies safe for everyone.\nTo be an air traffic controller is to take on a supremely-responsible role that requires extensive training, so what does it take to make the grade, and what is it like to sit in front of the hi-tech radar screens installed in airport control towers and behind the closed doors of the NATS Prestwick control centre?\nMartin Donnan, general manager, NATS Prestwick Centre\nAccording to Edinburgh born-and-bred Jake Longstaff, the list of requirements is not quite what you might expect. Hooked on a career in aviation at an early age after his dad took him for a behind-the-scenes visit to an airport control tower, Jake was dazzled by the radar room and set his sights on becoming an air traffic controller. Now he is doing the job for real from the control tower at Belfast International Airport.\n“My first application to NATS was unsuccessful,” Jake explained. “I was told I had the aptitude for the job, but not the life-experience and, looking back on it, they were absolutely right. I’d always been interested in history so I took myself off to study politics at the University of Stirling.\n“Armed with some solid life-experience I reapplied, and this time I made it. I was accepted onto the next training course.”\nNew trainees spend a year at NATS’ training college learning the foundation skills and theory of air traffic management. Time on the state-of-the-art simulators is mixed with classroom and study time culminating in a number of practical, written and verbal assessments. “Everything at the college focusses on preparing you for working with real aircraft carrying real passengers,” Jake said.\nHaving completed his initial training, Jake was posted to Belfast International Airport. “I’m loving it. The training is hard work, it has to be tough considering what is at stake, but it’s well worth it,” said Jake.\nGillian Layhe, from the Scottish Borders, became interested in NATS while working as cabin crew for an international airline.\nApplication forms, aptitude testing, and acceptance as a trainee controller followed and Gillian joined NATS in April 2016, starting with theory, including meteorology, navigation and aircraft performance, before moving on to hi-tech simulators to develop the practical skills required to guide aircraft safely.\nShe has already found that there is no blueprint for what makes a good air traffic controller. “If you are a natural puzzle-solver who can think quickly and make decisions, and are able to stay calm under pressure, that’s more important than having a particular set of academic qualifications,” said Gillian.\nUniversity of Strathclyde graduate Nick Shewan also has no regrets about his recent change of direction. He was a part-time postman when a friend gave him the push to apply via the NATS website for what turned out to be his dream career.\n“I didn’t have much knowledge about aviation, but you don’t need to be an ex-pilot or have been in the RAF, you will be taught everything you need to know.”\nNick’s ambition is to manage upper airspace, guiding aircraft across Scotland’s skies at high altitude. “Working as part of the Prestwick team, near my family, is my dream. It is a very important job, helping people safely on their journeys. Shift work suits me, and it will pay well later on.”\nFrom our NATS Prestwick control centre we are committed to keeping the skies above Scotland safe, managing air traffic above Scotland, northern England, and then north-east Atlantic. At 2.2 million km2, ours is the largest area of responsibility anywhere in the European Union – effectively we act as Europe’s transatlantic gateway – and we handle 80 per cent of North Atlantic air traffic. We are proud of the high quality services we provide, and equally proud of our excellent calibre staff in whom we continue to invest. If you would like to be part of our story, we would like to hear from you. www.nats.aero/careers/trainee-air-traffic-controllers/\nMartin Donnan, general manager, NATS Prestwick Centre", "Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayo Fayose have been acussed of imposing Secondus on the party.\nA ‘unity list’ (which contained the names of favoured candidates for the 21 positions available for election yesterday)\n”The PDP governors and some of our respected elders did their homework and we all agreed to adopt the Unity List which is fair to all.\n“We reached a consensus on Secondus and all those on the list as the next members of the National Working Committee.\n“The election was a walkover for Secondus and 20 others.\n“In fact, some of those who stepped down earlier also adopted the Unity List and mobilized their state delegates to vote along the list.”\nAdeniran and some of his supporters walked out of the Eagle Square, Abuja at about 9.11pm in protest against the adoption of the Unity List and compelling of delegates to vote for those on the list.\nPDP 2017 Convention Unity List\nS/N POSITION NAME STATE ZONE\n1 NATIONAL CHAIRMAN PRINCE UCHE SECONDUS RIVERS SOUTH-SOUTH\n2 DEPUTY NAT. CHAIR. SOUTH ELDER YEMI AKINWONMI OGUN SOUTH-WEST\n3 DEP. NAT. CHAIRMAN NORTH SEN. GAMAWA BABAWA GARBA BAUCHI NORTH EAST\n4 NATIONAL SECRETARY SENATOR IBRAHIM TSAURI KATSINA NORTH-WEST\n5 DEPUTY NAT. SECRETARY DR. AGBO EMMANUEL BENUE NORTH-CENTRAL\n6 NATIONAL TREASURER HON. ARIBISALA ADEWALE EKITI SOUTH-WEST\n7 DEP. NATIONAL TREASURER ALH. WADA MASU KANO NORTH-WEST\n8 FINANCIAL SECRETARY ABDULLHAI HUSSEINI MAIBASARA NIGER NORTH-CENTRAL\n9 DEP. FIN. SEC HON. IRONA ALPHONSUS GERALD IMO SOUTH-EAST\n10 NAT. ORG. SECRETARY COL. AUSTIN AKOBUNDU (RTD) ABIA SOUTH-EAST\n11 DEP. NAT. ORG. SECRETARY BARR. HASSAN YAKUBU NASARAWA NORTH-EAST\n12 PUBLICITY SECRETARY KOLA OLOGBONDIYAN KOGI NORTH-CENTRAL\n13 DEP. NAT. PUB. SECRETARY HON. DIRAN ODEYEMI OSUN SOUTH-WEST\n14 NATIONAL LEGAL ADVISER BAR. EMMANUEL ENOIDEM AKWA IBOM SOUTH-SOUTH\n15 DEP. NAT. LEGAL ADVISER BAR. AHMED BELLO LIMAN SOKOTO NORTH-WEST\n16 NATIONAL AUDITOR MAI ADAMU MUSTAFA YOBE NORTH-EAST\n17 DEP. NAT. AUDITOR MISS DIVINE AMINA ARONG CROSS RIVER SOUTH SOUTH\n18 NATIONAL WOMEN LEADER HAJ. MARIYA WAZIRI KEBBI NORTH-WEST\n19 DEP. NAT. WOMEN LEADER UMORU ADIZET AUDREY HADIZAT EDO SOUTH-SOUTH\n20 NAT. YOUTH LEADER RT. HON. UDEH OKOYE ENUGU SOUTH-EAST\n21 DEP. NAT. YOUTH LEADER UMAR BABANGIDA MAINA ADAMAWA NORTH-EAST.", "It's the season for family gatherings, portraits and well wishes.\nBut speculation is mounting that Lisa Curry and Natalie Bassingthwaighte are soaking up the final days with their loved ones before heading to South Africa for a spot of televised torture.\nBoth Lisa and Nat have posted adorable pics with their nearest and dearest for fans who would love to see them on the show.\nScroll down for video\nFond farewell: Lisa shared a loved-up selfie, snuggled in with fiancé Mark Tabone to celebrate 'switching off for a couple of days to get ready for a big year.'\nLisa shared a loved-up selfie, snuggled in with fiancé Mark Tabone to celebrate a 'Lazy day of nothing,' according to the caption. 'Switching off for a couple of days to get ready for a big year.'\nThe year could certainly get a big start as on Friday, it was revealed that the Olympic swimmer had applied for a South African visa earlier this month, a source exclusively told Daily Mail Australia.\nThe swimmer was at a post office in Victoria's Narre Warren South getting her photo taken when she was overheard telling a worker it was for the immigration document.\nHappy holidays: Nat has posted a video of her celebrating and singing with her kids, Harper and Hendrix, before ending with an adorable giggling fit.\nMeanwhile, Nat has posted a video of her celebrating and singing with her kids, Harper and Hendrix, before ending with an adorable giggling fit.\n'We're all going in a Summer holiday,' wrote Nat, quoting the famed lyrics. 'No more worries for a week or two!!! Just a little bit excited!!!'\nA final family holiday of a few weeks would fit in well with the timing for the South African expedition.\nTime to travel: A final family holiday of a few weeks would fit in well with the timing for the South African expedition\nJumping in? On Friday a source revealed to Daily Mail Australia that Lisa Curry was spotted applying for a South African visa, adding fuel to the rumours she's joining the show\nBig name Bassingthwaighte: Ex-Neighbours pop star Nat fulfills all the clue requirements, including a whopping great surname\nNat is a strong suspect to join the celebrities for the third season of the Australian version of the show to be filmed in South Africa as she ticks off all the criteria in Network Ten's most recent clue.\nThe latest clue revolves around the 'pop diva' heading into the jungle, noting 'this pop and soap star has had a number of top 10 hits and is one of the biggest names on Australian television.'\nPick the pop diva: Ten have hinted that 'this pop and soap star has had a number of top 10 hits and is one of the biggest names on Australian television.'\nWorld famous: In a recent promo I'm A Celebrity host Chris Brown refers to one of the celebrities as 'a word famous pop diva'\nNat has certainly achieved pop success with The Rogue Traders and as a solo artist after leaving her role as Izzy Hoyland on Neighbours to focus on her music career.\nPlus with the surname Bassingthwaite, Nat literally has 'one of the biggest names on Australian television' which is the sort of pun that clue writers love.\nIf Nat finds Harper and Hendrix too cute to escape, another Neighbours alumni, Natalie Imbruglia has been linked to the 'pop diva' slot.\nIf not Nat then Nat: Another Neighbours alumni, Torn singer Natalie Imbruglia has also been linked to the 'pop diva' slot\nReady for jungle meals: Imbruglia spent Christmas in Australia with family, and posted some adorable pics with her nephew, including 'before and after' spew\nImbruglia spent Christmas in Australia with family, and posted some adorable pics with her nephew, and is reported to be looking to spend more time at home.\nIn a recent promo I'm A Celebrity host Chris Brown refers to one of the celebrities as 'a word famous pop diva' and the Torn singer certainly qualifies.\nShe also featured in SBS series First Contact last year, alongside former Miss Universe Australia Renae Ayris, who would also fit Chris' hint for another celebrity: 'One of Australia's hottest models.'\nFirst of many: Natalie Imbruglia also featured in SBS series First Contact last year alongside another potential candidate Renae Ayris\nHot in the jungle: Former Miss Universe Australia Renae Ayris, who would also fit a hint for another celebrity: 'One of Australia's hottest models.'\nMeanwhile, radio personality Steve Price now appears to deny he is a part of the reality TV show's top-secret cast.\nHe wrote on Twitter on Sunday: 'Don't believe the gossip, back on air tomorrow filling in for Ray Hadley then 2 weeks for Alan Jones back on Project Jan 9 on Ten'.\nLast week, the network announced a 'famous shock jock' would be among the cast heading to South Africa to shoot the series - and The Daily Telegraph linked Price to the spot on Sunday.\nWelcome to the jungle? After reports he would be joining the cast of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, radio personality Steve Price tweeted on Sunday: 'Don't believe the gossip'\nTop-secret! A 'radio shock jock' will join the third season of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! hosted by Julia Morris (L)and Chris Brown (R)\nSome fans initially believed the person was Kyle Sandilands, but the KIIS star has previously said the show's producers were not able to offer him enough money.\nDerryn Hinch and Andrew Bolt, who is already contracted to Channel Ten with his show The Bolt Report, are other possible candidates.", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nThese are the first pictures emerging of a train derailment at London Waterloo.\nCommuters heading to Britain's busiest railway station faced chaotic journeys on Tuesday morning (August 15) after a train derailed between Waterloo and Vauxhall.\nIt is understood the train hit an engineering train at Waterloo, working on the ongoing £800m improvement at the station.\nThe derailment adds to South West Trains' (SWT) woes after urging passengers to avoid London Waterloo due to fresh signalling and points failures.\nImages circulating on social media show the passenger train listing to one side as engineers assess the situation.\nLondon Ambulance Service has confirmed three people were \"checked over\" at scene with no one seriously hurt.\nShortly before 7am, SWT announced the disruption wouldl likely continue until close of service.\nPassengers have been advised due to the time and location of the incident that peak services and stations will be very busy, and are urged to find alternative routes.\nThe Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has confirmed it is investigating the collision.\nAll tickets are being accepted on TfL buses and all services to London Paddington and London Victoria, as well as other reasonable routes.\nKeep up to date with the latest news from around the county via the free Get Surrey app.\nYou can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.\nAvailable to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android.", "Everything you need to know about the latest season of BBC1's Bafta-nominated observational documentary\nBBC1’s Bafta-nominated observational documentary Ambulance, which follows the men and women on the front line of the nation’s emergency services, is returning for a third season. Here’s everything you need to know about the series.\nAdvertisement\nWhat’s it about?\nThe eight-part documentary, narrated by Christopher Eccleston, follows the work of the West Midlands Ambulance Service, and follows the work of paramedics, call-handlers working gruelling 12-hour 999 night shifts, technicians, a specialised mental health team and specialist Air Ambulance crews.\nWest Midlands Ambulance Service receives between 3,000 – 4,000 emergency calls every day, and has to cover more than 5,000 square miles and 5.2 million people. Cameras follow cases from the first initial call to the ambulance’s arrival and beyond.\nThe new series also sees the return of show-favourite Nat Greaves, who decided to become a paramedic aged 34 as she wanted to help others as she had been helped as the mother of Jessica, her 16-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy.\nThe first episode sees Nat and her partner, also called Nat, respond to an a call about an elderly lady with an injured ankle, before things take a dramatic turn when Nat receives a 999 alert from her daughter’s carer.\nAdvertisement\nWhat time is it on TV?\nAmbulance begins on BBC1 on Thursday 26th April at 9pm.", "Tim Pastore is stepping down as President of Original Programming and Production, National Geographic Channel, after four years. His last day will be Friday, June 1. National Geographic Global Networks CEO Courteney Monroe just announced Pastore’s pending departure in an internal memo.\nNat Geo veteran Geoff Daniels, EVP and general manager of Nat Geo WILD, will step into Pastore’s role, overseeing unscripted content for both National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild, until a permanent replacement is named.\nVeteran producer Pastore moved to National Geographic Channel in summer 2014, less than a year after joining National Geographic Studios, the production arm of the National Geographic Society. He was the first top programming executive hire for then-newly promoted to CEO Monroe. it was followed by the 2015 appointment of Carolyn Bernstein as head of scripted. She will continue in that capacity, continuing to report to Monroe.\n“It goes without saying that Tim was an instrumental part of our transformation, and I will be forever grateful to Tim and his team for dedicating themselves to our new programming vision,” Monroe said, adding a reference to the pending Disney acquisition of key 21st Century Fox assets, including Nat Geo, which may be challenged by a rival bid from Comcast. “I know change is hard, especially at a time when we face uncertainty as a company, but rest assured that Geoff and I both have a clear vision for what we need to do and we are excited, as we enter a new fiscal year, to continue along our transformational path.”\nIn his own note to staff, Pastore said that he’s decided to exit the company to “pursue new opportunities” and listed some highlights from his Nat Geo tenure, series Life Below Zero, Mars and One Strange Rock, as well as launching a documentary film banner and landing two films on the Oscar shortlist within the first year.\nHere are both notes in full:.", "The En Marche! leader beat anti-establishment candidate Marine Le Pen in May to be elected France's youngest ever president. But his approval rating has tumbled since his resounding victory, according to a survey carried out by French pollsters Ifop. Mr Macron is more unpopular than his predecessor Francois Hollande was at a similar stage of his presidency.\nJust 36 per cent of French voters approve of Mr Macron, according to the Ifop survey, carried out for newspaper Le Figaro. Five years ago, 46 per cent said they approved of Mr Hollande as he approached the same landmark in his presidency. Adding the centrist's woes, just 45 per cent of voters said they believe Emmanuel Macron was sticking to his election promises. In contrast, 57 per cent said the same of Mr Hollande 100 days into his term in 2012.\nGETTY French president Emmanuel Macron's popularity has plunged since May\nEmmanuel Macron's inauguration as French president, in pictures Sun, May 14, 2017 Emmanuel Macron is elected president of France, defeating Marine Le Pen, who threatened to take France out of the European Union. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 32 French President Emmanuel Macron poses with his wife Brigitte Trogneux at the Elysee presidential Palace\nThe perception of a five-year term forms after the first summer Jerome Fourquet\nJerome Fourquet, director of Ifop, said voters have turned on the new president after a series of unpopular policy announcements. Mr Macron has vowed to slash housing allowance, increase social-security contributions and raise taxes on cigarettes. Mr Fourquet said: \"Overall, scepticism is prevailing. The perception of a five-year term forms after the first summer.\"\nGETTY Just 36 per cent of voters approve of Macron, according to pollsters Ifop\nFigures published last week showed the centrist spent more than any other presidential campaign on his campaign. The 39-year-old splurged €16.8m (£15.7m) on his campaign, with most of the money going to rallies and campaign leaflets. In contrast, Ms Le Pen, the then leader of the Front National, spent €12.5m (£11.3m) on her unsuccessful bid to become president.\nGETTY And only 45 per cent believe Macron is sticking to his election promises", "Nothing in pro sports is more important in the postseason than mastering the moment, not letting it rule and torture you.\nMaster of the Moment, a compliment for the athlete who can channel adrenaline and execute the quickest judgments with the clearest mind, might almost be written inside the bands on those championship rings.\nThe kind of rings the Washington Nationals still have not gotten anywhere close enough to see, much less grasp.\nOn Friday night, before a sellout crowd of 43,898 in Nationals Park, the Nats lost Game 1 of the National League Division Series, 3-0, to the Chicago Cubs because, in the tightest moments, they did small but vital things wrong.\nStephen Strasburg took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of a scoreless game before third baseman Anthony Rendon dropped a ball out of his glove on a routine play, something he may not have done in years. If you aren’t focused with a no-hitter in progress, when will you be? Rendon, no doubt, was alert, yet he couldn’t make the reflexive, instantaneous transfer of ball in glove to ball in hand.\nYou can score it just a simple E5. Or you can call it another of those almost microscopic but lethal manifestations of October pressure.\n“We got lucky there,” Cubs Manager Joe Maddon said.\n[Perspective: The Cubs’ advantage in Game 1 came when they had none]\nStrasburg, one strike from being out of that sixth inning with the game still 0-0 and his no-hitter intact, made one of baseball’s oldest but still most forehead-smacking mistakes. He threw an 0-2 fastball over the middle of the plate. The safest assumption on earth is that this was not his intention after an evening of almost perfect pitches by the dozen. But Bryant, grateful, lashed it to right field for a single that scored the Cubs’ first run.\nYou can say Strasburg, on a night when he allowed only three hits and one walk in seven innings, with 10 strikeouts and zero earned runs, simply made a poor pitch. But also at the worst of times. Pressure?\nOn Bryant’s hit, right fielder Bryce Harper made a blunder that is all too familiar even to his ardent fans.\nWith a swift runner, Javier Baez, running with two outs and no realistic play at the plate, Harper still heaved the ball home, overthrowing the cutoff man. Bryant took second on the throw, in a close play. Once there, he scored on Anthony Rizzo’s single to right on a line drive — baseball never passes up a teachable moment — that Harper came up inches short of catching.\nHarper owned the overthrow. But that extra gift run felt enormous. And it helped spoil a night when Rizzo’s comment on Strasburg was probably the most accurate evaluation: “He was the best pitcher I’ve seen, probably.”\nMeanwhile, the world champion Cubs did nothing special — no long home runs or spectacular plays — but they also made no mistakes. The lack of blunders, at least in baseball, applies a pressure that is almost as efficient as brilliant play.\nTheir Game 1 pitcher was the perfect choice: Kyle Hendricks — a tempter, a man who plays on the impatient and nerves of hitters, especially in big games, like the five vital ones he started for the Cubs last postseason, including Game 7 of the World Series. The Nats actually managed two hits off Hendricks, one of which actually left the infield, plus none against two Cubs relievers.\n“Strasburg was outstanding. You had to pitch as well as Kyle did in order to beat him,” Maddon said.\n“He was tricking us tonight,” Nats Manager Dusty Baker said of Hendricks, the Dartmouth grad. “Seems like those kind of guys give us more trouble than guys who throw hard.”\nTechnically, trickery by pitchers is within the rules. Although Nats hitters, who seldom use the opposite field against soft tossers in October, act like they don’t believe it. Afterward, Hendricks revealed he’d basically only used two pitches: sinker and change-up. Trickery doesn’t get much simpler than that.\n“I’m just a laid-back guy, but you’re definitely feeling it,” Hendricks said of the loud crowd which contained perhaps only a thousand or so blue-clad Cubs fans. “The energy . . . and the crowd was pretty cool, but we’ve played some big games. So we were ready to take that adrenaline on and use it to our advantage.”\nMaybe that is the Cubs quote the Nats should put on their bulletin board.\n[Scalise throws out ceremonial first pitch]\nGiven that 2-0 lead, the Cubs proceeded to victory with calm, professional confidence. Of any late-game strategy, Baker said, “It’s kind of a moot point when you don’t score.”\nThat state of Cubs calmness must be rattled quickly if the Nats intend to advance. In Game 2, a pair of southpaws meet. The Cubs will send out one of the toughest postseason-tested legends of his generation, Jon Lester. The Nats will counter with Gio Gonzalez, coming off a fine season, but also a man with nettlesome October memories, like the 6-0 lead he was given but couldn’t hold in Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS.\nIt’s no use pretending that team histories and personal player histories don’t exist. Everyone knows them, just as they knew the 2016 Cubs had to overcome the incredible burden of going 108 years without a World Series triumph. All the Nats have against them is three trips to the NLDS, and three eliminations, two of them in thrilling series, plus this one-game deficit to the Cubs.\nIt feels like a lot. But a couple of wins would change that. Max Scherzer waits to pitch Game 3 in Chicago. A team that can master the moment, not be its victim, could perhaps look on this as an opportunity. Perhaps even these Nats.\nThe moments that pose the greatest test in baseball are the ones that arrive under the greatest pressure in October. In other words, the ones that the Nats still seem to understand and cope with most.\nThroughout their six years as one of baseball’s best regular season teams, the Nats have made a pleasant habit of romping to NL East Division titles without much pennant race pressure. Should they lose more games so they can practice feeling tense and miserable more often? No, didn’t think you’d say so.\nYet in October, the Nats often seem almost excellent, but not quite excellent enough. Consider this: The Nats’ past six one-run games in the postseason have all been losses. They outscored the Giants and Dodgers 32-28 in the NLDS in 2014 and 2016. But they keep score by wins.\nTo add salt to the wound, go back to the Nats’ final defeat of 2012 to the Cards. They led by two runs entering the ninth yet still lost 9-7. Close games, slit throats.\nFor the Nats to advance in October, much less play in or win a World Series, they will have to be — just slightly — better masters of themselves, of their nervous systems when everything seems to jangle, and of their judgment in those instants of decision that decide close, tense playoff baseball games.\nThe Nats seldom admit that they have a pressure problem, or a close-game issue, or that The Moment of Crisis is anything but their friend. But this loss should be a hard reminder.\n“These guys are a pretty cool bunch of hard-nosed dudes,” Baker said before the game. After two singles worth of offense for the night, plus two blunders leading to two gift runs, Dusty may have trouble convincing others of his view.\nBut if what he says of his players is true, they better start showing it.\nFor more by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/boswell.", "Nat Torkington has been active in web development since the early days of the web. He wrote the bestselling Perl Cookbook, and chaired conferences for O'Reilly Media for a decade. During his time at O'Reilly Media, Nat was an editor and then became a trend-spotter for the O'Reilly Radar group, identifying the topics to build events and books around. He has worked in areas as diverse as networking, publishing, science, edtech, and NLP. He now lives in New Zealand, where he runs Kiwi Foo Camp and helps startups grow.", "As the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death approaches on August 31, a new National Geographic documentary airing Monday will reveal her innermost thoughts during the tumultuous final years of her marriage to Prince Charles.\nDiana: In Her Own Words is narrated entirely by the late Princess of Wales, using rare audio recordings Diana made in 1991.\nDiana tape-recorded her thoughts about her marriage, her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles and her life in the royal family. She provided them to her friend Dr. James Colhurst to send to journalist Andrew Morton—providing material for his 1992 biography about her, Diana: Her True Story. The book caused a storm of controversy for the royal family—however, Diana’s direct involvement was not revealed until after her death in 1997.\nCulture Emails and Alerts - Get the best of Newsweek Culture delivered to your inbox\nIn an exclusive clip from the Nat Geo documentary, Diana recalls how Charles admonished her for wearing a black dress to her first royal engagement prior to their marriage.\n“I remember my first engagement so well. I remember being so excited, I got this black dress from the Emanuels,” she said, referring to fashion designers David and Elizabeth Emanuel, who later designed her wedding dress.\n“I thought it was okay, because girls my age wore this. I hadn’t appreciated that I was now seen as a royal lady,” Diana said.\n“I remember walking into my husband-to-be’s study and he said, ‘You’re not going in that are you?’”\nCharles reportedly said: “But it’s black. Only people in mourning wear black.”\nDiana responded, “Yes, but I’m not part of your family yet.”\nThe princess recalled on the tape: “Black, to me, was the smartest color you could have at the age of 19—it was a real grown up dress.”\nAnwar Hussein\nDiana also spoke about how nervous she was engaging in her first royal event.\n“I didn’t know if the handbag should be carried in your right hand or your left hand, everything was all over the place. I was terrified,” she said.\nThe Nat Geo documentary is not to be confused with the recent documentary of the same name that aired on the U.K.’s Channel 4 featuring controversial video recordings of her conversations with voice coach Peter Settelen.\nRoyal supporters criticized Channel 4 for airing the tapes for the first time on U.K. television, fearing they would be hurtful to Diana’s sons Princes William and Harry. The tapes were aired once in the U.S. in 2004, by NBC.\nDiana: In Her Own Words airs tonight at 9 p.m. on National Geographic.", "ABC/YouTube\nFans of \"The Bachelorette\" are used to seeing drama on the screen, but it's rare for it to involve writing a letter the old-fashioned way, with a pen and paper.\nOn last night's episode of \"The Bachelorette,\" Chris Randone got desperate.\nAfter a disastrous group date with Becca Kufrin that involved fat shaming, threats, and arguments, Chris knew he wasn't the front-runner anymore. So he decided to try another tactic. After all, a pen is mightier than a sword, so they say.\nWhile sitting in a dimly lit room with dramatic music, Chris grabbed a pen and started writing a letter to Kufrin.\nAdvertisement\nAlthough viewers didn't get to see what he wrote, it was clear that the letter was long.\nUnfortunately, it wasn't enough to get him a rose, and Becca still sent him home.\nHis letter quickly turned into a \"Dear Becca\" meme online, and fans started to compare him to Eminem's \"Stan.\" The song, released in 2000, is about an obsessed fan writing a letter to the rapper.\nChris will get another chance to find love, or maybe write another heartfelt letter, when he joins \"Bachelor in Paradise\" in August.\nAdvertisement\nSign up here to get INSIDER's favorite stories straight to your inbox.", "REUTERS/GETTY Macron has told referred to rivals Fillon & Mélenchon as Thatcher and Trotsky respectively\nMr Macron, who claims to be “neither Left nor Right”, made the clear jibe at presidential rivals Francois Fillon and Jean-Luc Mélenchon as he promised to “give France its optimism back”. The independent centrist was speaking to a crowd of around 20,000 people in Paris as the leading candidates all stepped up their election campaigns over the Easter weekend.\nHe said: \"What has been proposed to the French in the last 20 years is not liberation or reconstruction, but a slow, unavowed acceptation of unemployment, state impotence and social breakdown.” He said far-left firebrand Mr Mélenchon, who has seen a surge in support in recent weeks, would turn France into \"Cuba without the sun or Venezuela without the petrol”.\nGETTY Macron is widely expected to make it to the second round of voting in May\nMr Macron also accused Mr Fillon of seeking power in order to escape judicial “woes” - a clear reference to the allegations that the former PM used parliamentary funds to pay family members for work they may never have done. Mr Fillon, who denies any wrongdoing, spent Easter Monday in Nice as he maintained his challenge to frontrunners Mr Macron and Marine Le Pen.\nGETTY Mr Macron was joined by thousands of supporters in Paris\nWhat has been proposed to the French in the last 20 years is not liberation or reconstruction, but a slow, unavowed acceptation of unemployment, state impotence and social breakdown Emmanuel Macron\nHe told supporters: \"The campaign has been tough. My opponents from all sides have tried only one thing: to finish me off rather than debate. \"I surprised them once in the primary, we will surprise them a second time at the end of the week.\" Mr Fillon is just one point behind Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen according to an Opinionway poll on Monday, with the two frontrunners neck and neck on 22 per cent.\nWho will be the next President of France? Mon, March 20, 2017 Candidates for the 2017 French Presidential Election revealed Play slideshow 1 of 6", "Angels righty Garrett Richards may be due for a longer DL stint than had first been expected, as Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times reports. Richards has yet to pick up a ball since going down with a biceps strain. Given the time he has already missed, and the lack of progress thus far, it seems increasingly likely that some kind of rehab stint could be required. There’ll no doubt be some added caution taken given that Richards is only just returning from a lengthy rehab of a UCL injury. The Halos are going with J.C. Ramirez in his stead; he’ll take the ball to start a game in the big leagues for the first time tonight, as J.P. Hoornstra of the Orange County Register writes.\nThe Nationals are still waiting to determine a timeline for shortstop Trea Turner to return, as Byron Kerr of MASNsports.com writes. Manager Dusty Baker suggested that the club is willing to allow Turner plenty of rest to ensure that there isn’t a larger setback. The hope, though, is that it isn’t a significant injury. Of course, fellow infielder Stephen Drew — Turner’s would-be replacement — also went down with a hammy strain. He’s more or less in the same boat, it seems. “There’s no timetable,” said Drew. “But I’ll do the best I can to get back as soon as possible.” While it’s hardly the Nats’ preference, they’ll at least get a good look at youngster Wilmer Difo in the meantime.\nare still waiting to determine a timeline for shortstop to return, as Byron Kerr of MASNsports.com writes. Manager Dusty Baker suggested that the club is willing to allow Turner plenty of rest to ensure that there isn’t a larger setback. The hope, though, is that it isn’t a significant injury. Of course, fellow infielder — Turner’s would-be replacement — also went down with a hammy strain. He’s more or less in the same boat, it seems. “There’s no timetable,” said Drew. “But I’ll do the best I can to get back as soon as possible.” While it’s hardly the Nats’ preference, they’ll at least get a good look at youngster in the meantime. Righty Tony Zych is back in action for the Mariners , with the club announcing he has been activated from the 10-day DL. Southpaw Dillon Overton is heading out on optional assignment to open a roster spot. Shoulder issues hampered Zych last year and forced him into surgery, but he’ll look to regain the excellent form he showed in 2015 — which would be quite welcome for a Seattle club that is off to a dreadful start. Meanwhile, Steve Cishek is nearing a rehab assignment and could be back in the majors, too, after he makes three or four appearances, MLB.com’s Greg Johns tweets.\nis back in action for the , with the club announcing he has been activated from the 10-day DL. Southpaw is heading out on optional assignment to open a roster spot. Shoulder issues hampered Zych last year and forced him into surgery, but he’ll look to regain the excellent form he showed in 2015 — which would be quite welcome for a Seattle club that is off to a dreadful start. Meanwhile, is nearing a rehab assignment and could be back in the majors, too, after he makes three or four appearances, MLB.com’s Greg Johns tweets. The Red Sox are beginning to chart a course for lefty David Price , as Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com reports. It’s possible that Price could be ready to face live hitters in a few days, with a rehab assignment representing the next likely step. McCaffrey suggests that he’ll require at least four outings in the minors, meaning it could still be another month until Price is back in Boston.\nare beginning to chart a course for lefty , as Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com reports. It’s possible that Price could be ready to face live hitters in a few days, with a rehab assignment representing the next likely step. McCaffrey suggests that he’ll require at least four outings in the minors, meaning it could still be another month until Price is back in Boston. Southpaw Rich Hill of the Dodgers is slated for a return on Sunday, as Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register (via Twitter), the hope was that Hill’s blister wouldn’t prove too problematic during a pen session yesterday. It seems that he has come through unscathed, so he’ll step back into the rotation for L.A.\nof the is slated for a return on Sunday, as Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register (via Twitter), the hope was that Hill’s blister wouldn’t prove too problematic during a pen session yesterday. It seems that he has come through unscathed, so he’ll step back into the rotation for L.A. Meanwhile, the Dodgers have activated setup man Pedro Baez, who missed most of camp after being struck on the thumb by a batted ball. The 29-year-old righty continued to show swing-and-miss stuff last year, and somewhat quietly has compiled a 3.08 ERA over 149 MLB frames, with 9.7 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9, over his three years in the majors. Despite four strong appearances thus far (no runs on one hit and one walk with six strikeouts), Josh Fields is headed to Triple-A to make way for Baez.", "This is the first in a series of reports I will publish. These reports will value about 50 US shale exploration and production companies (\"E&Ps\") based on their net asset values (\"NAV\"). Each quarter, I expect to publish new reports with updated quarterly information. Also, because I track a substantial amount of information on each company, from time to time I also intend to publish E&P sector-wide trends reports.\nThis first report values the E&Ps focused on oil in multiple basins: EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG), Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN), Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR), QEP Resources (NYSE:QEP), WPX Energy (NYSE:WPX), and Cimarex Energy (NYSE:XEC).\nFuture reports will value:\nPermian Basin – Delaware Basin: Concho Resources (NYSE:CXO), Halcon Resources (NYSE:HK), Matador Resources (NYSE:MTDR), Centennial Resource Development (NASDAQ:CDEV); Jagged Peak Energy (NYSE:JAG) and Resolute Energy (NYSE:REN).\nPermian Basin – Midland Basin: Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG), Callon Petroleum (NYSE:CPE), Parsley Energy (NYSE:PE), Energen (NYSE:EGN), Laredo Petroleum (NYSE:LPI), Approach Resources (NASDAQ:AREX), Earthstone Energy (NASDAQ:ESTE) and RSP Permian (NYSE:RSPP) (on March 28, 2018, FANG announced the acquisition of RSPP but I will still include RSPP in this report).\nWilliston Basin (aka Bakken): Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL), Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS), Northern Oil and Gas (NYSEMKT:NOG) and Abraxas Petroleum (NASDAQ:AXAS).\nEagle Ford Shale: Carrizo Oil and Gas (NASDAQ:CRZO), SM Energy (NYSE:SM), EP Energy (NYSE:EPE), Sanchez Energy (NYSE:SN) and Penn Virginia (OTC:PVAC).\nDenver-Julesberg (\"DJ\") Basin (aka Niobrara): PDC Energy (NASDAQ:PDCE), Extraction Oil and Gas (NASDAQ:XOG), SRC Energy (NYSEMKT:SRCI) and Bonanza Creek Energy (NYSE:BCEI).\nAnadarko Basin: Newfield Exploration (NYSE:NFX), Jones Energy (NYSE:JONE) and Gastar Exploration (NYSEMKT:GST).\nMarcellus+Utica Shale – Dry Gas: Cabot Oil and Gas (NYSE:COG), Gulfport Energy (NASDAQ:GPOR), EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT), Southwestern Energy (NYSE:SWN) and Eclipse Resources (NYSE:ECR).\nMarcellus+Utica Shale – Wet Gas: Antero Resources (NYSE:AR), Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) and Rex Energy (NASDAQ:REXX).\nOther Dry Gas E&Ps: Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK), Ultra Petroleum (NASDAQ:UPL) and Comstock Resources (NYSE:CRK).\nSummary Results\nHere is a summary of the results I will describe in this report.\nIn evaluating the various criteria, CLR and QEP are the most attractive investment opportunities among the Diversified Oil E&Ps. As QEP sells its non-Permian assets, its EBITDA per BOE should increase to $35 to $40 and its leverage should decline. EOG, WPX and XEC are highly overvalued. DVN is about fairly valued.\nValuation Methodology\nIn the report, all market value analyses apply April 20, 2018, stock prices. Assumed commodity prices in 2018 are $65 oil, $35.75 NGL, $2.75 natural gas and in 2019 forward $62.50 oil, $35.94 NGL, $2.75 natural gas. These commodity prices are before basis differentials.\nLike any resource company, an E&P is worth the net present value of its projected cash flows from the extraction of a finite resource, in this case oil and gas. Without purchasing additional extraction rights, an E&P can only produce a finite amount of oil and gas and thus a finite amount of cash flows. With this idea, NAV analysis (forecasting the cash flows from an E&P’s asset base) is the most appropriate way to value an E&P company. Using earnings and cash flow multiples to value E&Ps can be very misleading because they do not capture the volume of oil and gas that can be extracted, but instead simply value the profitability of the oil and gas currently being extracted.\nFor the past four years I have been modeling about 50 E&Ps to assess the quality and quantity of their oil and gas resources. Each company requires about 5,000 rows of inputs and formulas in Excel to determine:\nThe amount of potential future oil and gas that can be extracted and associated annual future production levels until all the potential resource has been extracted. The amount of capital expenditures required to extract the oil and gas. The revenue and cost per barrel of oil equivalent (“BOE”) related to the production of the oil and gas. The net present value of the cash flows resulting from the prior three analyses. The value the market is assigning to the E&P’s oil and gas assets.\nThis report will walk you through the results of these five analyses for each company, enabling you to view relative and absolute valuations for each company.\nOil and Gas Resource Potential\nEach E&P's oil and gas resource potential is a function of two things: Wells that have already been drilled and leased land that can be drilled in the future. Wells that already have been drilled are represented by company proved developed reserves disclosures. Leased land that can be drilled in the future must be calculated. While companies provide proved undeveloped reserves (“PUDs”), representing resource potential that has not yet been drilled, PUDs do not account for all of the leased land upon which an E&P is entitled to drill. Thus, I ignore PUDs. Instead I do the following:\nDetermine the number of acres leased. Estimate the number of future drilling sites on such acreage and based on the E&P's ownership interests estimate the net number of future drilling sites. Estimate the average estimated total oil and gas resource that will be extracted from each well (“EURs”). Estimate the net royalty interest per well that must be provided to the land owner whose land is being leased, which is “paid” in production not cash, and thus reduces the amount of oil and gas the E&P can sell for itself. Estimate what percentage of the resource extracted is oil vs. natural gas liquids (“NGLs”) vs dry natural gas (“nat gas”).\nBy adding the proved developed reserves that the E&Ps disclose in their regulatory filings with the calculation of resource potential from undrilled acreage, I can estimate the total volume of oil and gas that an E&P can produce from their existing asset base. I also can estimate how much of the resource will be oil vs. NGLs vs. nat gas. This distinction is very important because the value of oil, NGLs and nat gas are not the same. While one barrel of oil is the energy equivalent of 6,000 cubic feet of nat gas, one barrel of oil is currently worth about $65 where 6,000 cubic feet of gas is worth about $15.90 ($2.65 per 1,000 cubic feet, “mcf”). Thus, oil generates about four times more value per the same energy equivalency as nat gas. As a result, when I evaluate an E&P's oil and nat gas resource, I do not treat them as 6:1 energy equivalents but instead as 23.6:1 economic equivalents (my long-term oil price forecast is $62.50 per barrel and my long-term nat gas price forecast is $2.75 per mcf). Likewise, I forecast a barrel of NGLs to be worth $35.94 in the long term and thus treat oil as 1.74:1 the value of a barrel of NGLs.\nChart 1 below shows the Proved Reserves and potential resource from future drilling sites for each company as well as by geography for the companies I research.\nCLR has a large resource base split between the Williston and Anadarko basins and a reasonably high weighting of oil and NGLs. EOG has a very small resource base relative to its current production level. The resource base is spread over the Permian basin, Eagle Ford, Williston basin, Anadarko basin and Powder River basin (Wyoming). DVN has a large resource base primarily spread over the Permian basin, Eagle Ford, Barnett shale, Anadarko basin and Canada. DVN is highly weighted to low profitability nat gas and a significant volume of oil production is low margin Canadian heavy oil. XEC has an average sized resource base split between the Permian and Anadarko basins, but like DVN has a high nat gas weighting, which is a negative. WPX has a relatively large resource base split between the Willison and Permian basins and a reasonably high oil weighting but also a high nat gas weighting. Finally, QEP currently has a small resource base spread over the Permian, Williston and Uinta basins, and the Haynesville shale. On February 28th, 2018, QEP announced its intention to sell all assets other than the Permian basin assets. Given the value of the non-Permian assets are unknown until the sale processes finish, for now I treat QEP as a “diversified” E&P but upon sales of the targeted assets, I will move QEP to the Permian Basin – Midland Basin category.\nOil and Gas Drilling and Completion Costs and Profitability of the Production\nWhile more oil and gas resource is better than less, the weighting of oil vs NGL vs nat gas production, the prices received for each, the cost to drill and complete (“D&C”) a new well and the operating expenses required to produce the resource determine how profitable the resource is to extract.\nFirst, I provide estimated D&C costs per adjusted BOE (adjust the volume of natural gas using 23.6:1 and the volume of NGLs using 1.74:1, as described above).\nChart 2 below shows the D&C cost per adjusted BOE for each company and the various geographies.\nCLR has very low adjusted D&C costs, whether compared to the other diversified companies or the geographic averages. XEC has very high adjusted D&C costs because of its high weighting to nat gas. DVN also suffers from a high nat gas weighting. EOG and QEP have attractive adjusted D&C costs and WPX has about average adjusted D&C costs.\nNext, I analyze the profitability of each BOE produced. This takes into account production weightings across oil, NGLs and nat gas, prices realized for each and operating expenses. The result is EBITDA per BOE. This is the purest number to assess the quality of the E&P as operator and/or the quality of the E&P’s land position (not all land is the same regarding the volume and type of resource and cost to extract the resource). I should note that I make an adjustment to the historical EBITDA per BOE results disclosed by every E&P. I remove the impact of hedging. Hedging has nothing to do with operations, so if hedge settlements are included in the EBITDA results, it distorts how productive the assets and operator are, as opposed to how good the E&P is at financial matters. Also, by excluding hedging, we can compare the E&Ps on an apples-to-apples basis.\nChart 3 below shows EBITDA excluding hedging per BOE for each company and the various geographies for the past four historical quarters and my 2018 full year estimate.\nCLR consistently has been the most profitable of the group. EOG has solid profitability. WPX is forecast to increase its profitability in 2018 as its production weighting turns more to oil, going from 56% oil in 2017 to 64% oil in 2018. DVN, XEC and QEP suffer from higher nat gas production weightings.\nE&P Equity and Enterprise Values\nFinally, I will calculate the value the market is ascribing to each E&P’s resource base. I do this by determining the number of fully diluted common shares to calculate the equity market value. I then add the following liabilities and subtract the following assets to determine the market’s value of the E&P's oil and gas resources (“enterprise value” or “EV”).\nLiabilities added: Debt, preferred stock, out of the money convertible debt and preferred stock, minority interest ownership in the oil and gas resource, hedging liabilities and asset retirement obligations.\nAssets subtracted: Cash, hedging assets, net present value of net operating loss carry-forwards, equity interests in assets other than the E&Ps oil and gas resources (such as an investment in a pipeline system or shares held in a publicly traded company). To the extent an E&P consolidates the operations of another publicly traded company (such as FANG does with Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM)), I adjust the E&P’s resource assets and operating results to exclude the consolidated subsidiary but include the value of the subsidiary’s shares owned by the E&P in the E&P’s enterprise value.\nChart 4 below shows the equity value and enterprise value for each E&P and various geographies.\nEOG is the largest E&P I follow. CLR and DVN also are among the five largest E&Ps by market value. WPX and XEC are mid sized and QEP is more toward a small cap.\nRelative and Absolute Valuation Analysis\nWe now have the total future resource production potential, the cost to drill future wells, the profitability of extracting the resource and the value that the market places on each E&P’s resource base. With these, we can calculate ratios and evaluate relative valuations for the E&Ps. We also can perform a DCF of the future cash flows from extracting the oil and gas resource to compare the markets assessment of an E&P's equity value relative to the intrinsic equity value derived from the NAV analysis.\nEvery E&P discloses proved developed reserves, representing wells that have been drilled and are producing oil and gas. The proved developed reserves are an estimate of how much oil and gas will be produced over the life of these already drilled wells. And while the ultimate amount of oil and gas that's produced can vary from the numbers the companies disclosed, it is as close of an estimate as we have. So, to value the proved developed reserves, I multiply each E&Ps 2018E EBITDA excluding hedges per BOE by the proved reserves. With this, I can forecast the total cash flows that will be generated by the already drilled wells. I use 2018E EBITDA instead of a historical EBITDA because 2018E EBITDA better represents my long-term views on commodity prices and production levels. Also, historically, my forecasted EBITDA numbers have been quite accurate. Lastly, given proved developed reserves take varying years to produce, I apply a time value discount factor to the EBITDA multiplied by proved developed reserves to calculate a present value of the cash flows from extracting all the proved developed reserves.\nIf I take the E&P’s enterprise value and subtract the value of the proved developed reserves as I just described. I can back into the value the market is assigning to each E&P’s future drilling locations. This is the key number is assessing relative valuation.\nThe challenge with this analysis is knowing how long it will take to produce the proved developed reserves. So, another way to evaluate the markets’ implied value for each E&P's future drilling locations is to subtract the E&P’s PV-10 from enterprise value and divide that number by the estimated future drilling locations adjusted resource amount exclusive of PUDs (since PUDs are included in the PV-10 calculation).\nChart 5 below shows the two calculations described above for each E&P and the various geographies.\nOf the two analyses, I place more weight on EV less PV-10 since the reservoir engineers calculating this number have significantly more detailed information than I do. DVN’s future drilling sites trade at the lowest price, even after adjusting for the lower value of nat gas and NGLs relative to oil. DVN also is relatively inexpensive relative to the various geographies averages (which are weighted, not simple averages). CLR, QEP and WPX are all comparably valued and in line with the Permian Basin E&Ps, more than the Eagle Ford, Willison and Anadarko E&Ps and a discount to the DJ E&Ps. In summary, this group trades in line with the sector. XEC trades at a premium to the sector but not wildly so. EOG trades in a world of its own. I call EOG the Tesla of shale because its valuation is completely disconnected from any other E&P. As you will see in a future note, PXD, a large cap, world class E&P trades at $1.74 per BOE of future drilling resource, compared to EOG at $15.13.\nThe consistent trend you will see in the above analysis is the larger the future drilling site resource base, the cheaper the valuation. The market either treats all E&Ps the same and values current production levels independent of how long those production levels will last. Or, the market places a large discount on the future drilling site resource base. But the net effect is to undervalue E&Ps with large future drilling site resource bases.\nFinally, I perform a DCF analysis to value each E&Ps equity. I perform DCFs with levered (after interest expense and preferred dividends) and unlevered (excluding interest expense and preferred dividends) cash flows. I use a 10% discount rate, so if a company’s cost of debt and preferred is lower than 10% then the levered DCF will result in a higher equity value than the unlevered DCF. If you assume that the debt and preferred can be perpetually refinanced, then using levered cash flows is reasonable. At the same time, the more consistent approach is to value the E&P assets independent of capital structure using unlevered cash flows and then adjust for capital structure to derive an equity value. This way, E&Ps are compared on an apples-to-apples basis without varying capital structures distorting the analysis. There are merits in both approaches. I will provide you the results and you can choose for yourself which has more merit.\nA key assumption for the DCF analysis is the oil and gas production rate in the future. The faster the oil and gas is produced, the higher the net present value of the associated cash flows (the DCF analysis does take into account the capital expenditures required to produce increasing amounts of oil and gas). In Chart 6 are the production growth rate assumptions for the E&Ps and various geographies.\nAll 2018 production estimates are based on E&P company provided guidance. If an E&P offers guidance beyond 2018, I use such guidance as a reference and modify it, as required, based on how realistic I believe the guidance to be. While QEP’s production is declining in 2018, this is due to asset sales. In 2019, QEP should be a Permian pure-play and accelerate production.\nChart 7 provides the levered and unlevered DCF analysis equity results.\nCLR and QEP are highly undervalued, DVN is about correctly valued, EOG and WPX are overvalued and XEC is wildly overvalued relative to their intrinsic NAV values.\nLastly, from a qualitative standpoint, the markets discounts E&Ps for excessive debt and capital expenditure budgets not funded by free cash flow. In Chart 8, I provide these metrics for the E&Ps and the various geographies.\nNet debt is calculated as debt and preferred plus hedging liabilities less cash and hedging assets. DVN, EOG and XEC are the least levered of the diversified oil E&Ps, as well as compared to the various geographies. CLR and QEP are highly levered relative to their price adjusted proved developed reserves and 2018E EBITDA. As QEP sells its non-Permian Basin assets, it should bring down its debt levels. WPX is highly levered relative to price adjusted proved developed reserves but not relative to 2018E EBITDA.\nThe diversified oil group is living within cash flow, producing operating cash flow 20% in excess of capital expenditures. CLR, DVN and EOG are estimated to produce operating cash flows 50% to 27% greater than capital expenditures. XEC’s estimated operating cash flow is in line with capital expenditures. WPX would cover capital expenditures with operating cash flows if not for its hedges which will drag on cash flows. QEP’s operating cash flows will only cover 67% of capital expenditures, putting QEP at the bottom of its peer group and near the bottom of all the geographies.\nDisclosure: I am/we are long CLR.\nI wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.\nAdditional disclosure: Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein by the author are not an investment recommendation and are not meant to be relied upon in investment decisions. The author is not acting in an investment advisor capacity. This is not an investment research report. The author's opinions expressed herein address only select aspects of potential investments in securities of the companies mentioned and cannot be a substitute for comprehensive investment analysis. Any analysis presented herein is illustrative in nature, limited in scope, based on an incomplete set of information, and has limitations to its accuracy. The authors recommend that potential and existing investors conduct thorough investment research of their own, including detailed review of the companies' SEC filings, and consult a qualified investment advisor. The information upon which this material is based was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but has not been independently verified. Therefore, the authors cannot guarantee its accuracy. Any opinions or estimates constitute the author's best judgment as of the date of publication, and are subject to change without notice.", "Before the start of the National League Division Series, Kyle Schwarber was talking about the importance of defense in what's expected to be a low-scoring series.\n\"There's always that one play that swings something,\" Schwarber said. \"These are two really good defenses, and maybe that one slip-up might cause something to landslide.\n\"Hopefully it's not our side, right?\"\nRight as a rain delay, Schwarber.\nThe slip-up in Game 1 didn't exactly precipitate a landslide, but that one miscue and Kyle Hendricks' brilliant pitching were enough to propel the Cubs to a 3-0 victory and first blood in the series.\nAn error by Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon on a grounder hit by Javier Baez led to a two-run sixth inning for the Cubs, and Hendricks outpitched a dominant Stephen Strasburg in a matchup of brains versus brawn.\nIn a game that lived up to expectations, the Cubs waited for a chance to pounce, then jumped on Strasburg with eyes wide open. When Kris Bryant stepped up in the fateful sixth, the Nationals Park scoreboard was going berserk, pleading with the sellout crowd of 43,898 to \"Get Loud,\" while cheerleaders ran around with giant placards telling them to \"get on your feet.\"\nThe contrast between Nationals Park and Wrigley Field, where noise-inducing gimmickry on the video board is forbidden by Chairman Tom Ricketts, couldn't have been more glaring.\nBut the Nats fans did as instructed, and they got very loud before Bryant's two-strike, two-out RBI single ended Strasburg's no-hit bid and sent Baez home from second, snapping the scoreless tie. As soon as the fans got off their feet, Anthony Rizzo singled in front of a sliding Bryce Harper in right to give Hendricks an insurance run, stunning a town that doesn't stun easily these days.\nHendricks turned out to be the Game 1 hero, though for most of the night it looked like it was going to be remembered as the Strasburg Game.\nStrasburg was burying the Cubs in the early going, striking out Bryant and Rizzo in each of their first two at-bats and carrying his no-hitter into the sixth.\nBut the Cubs got the kind of performance from Hendricks they needed. They were spotless on defense from Rizzo nabbing Daniel Murphy's liner in the first to Schwarber's running catch of Harper's liner in the sixth to Bryant's one-handed pickup and perfect throw to retire Jayson Werth in the seventh, to Baez running down Harper's popup in center in the eighth.\nNo slip-ups here, boss.\nNo landslides, either.\nThe Nats also helped out when manager Dusty Baker opted to pitch to Rizzo in the eighth with first base open, two outs and a man on second, Rizzo made him pay with an RBI double to make it 3-0. It was easy to second-guess Dusty, and it will be hard for him to shake it off.\nDespite the loss, Strasburg showed why the Cubs need to end this early so they don't have to face him again.\nHe was making only his second career postseason start, despite being on his fourth playoff team in Washington. In 2012 Strasburg was shut down by general manager Mike Rizzo before the postseason because he'd reached an innings limit imposed before the season because of arm surgery two years earlier.\nHe pitched well in one NLDS start in 2014, but the Nats fell to the Giants. Last year Strasburg was injured late in the season and wasn't ready to return in time for the postseason. The Nats subsequently lost in the first round without him.\nStrasburg and Scherzer are the Nats' version of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, who started three of four games in their 1963 World Series sweep over the Yankees and five of seven games in their 1965 World Series win over the Twins. If Scherzer was going in Game 2 instead of Game 3, they potentially could've started in four of five games.\nInstead, Scherzer's hamstring \"tweak\" last Saturday forced the Nats to give him more rest, leaving it to Gio Gonzalez on Saturday. Not too shabby, but he's no \"Mad Max.\"\nThis was a game the Nats probably had to win. The series is far from over, of course, but losing after such a dominant outing by Strasburg had to be tough to swallow, especially for a team that has been reminded of its poor postseason history all week.\nThe Cubs are assured of at least a split this weekend, and have Jon Lester going in Game 2 on Saturday.\nCrazy start.\nCrazy team.\nCrazy season.\[email protected]\nTwitter @PWSullivan", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nPlenty of people go to McDonald's week-in, week out and many ask the same question - where is the mayonnaise?\nWhether your go-to choice is a Big Mac or chicken nuggets, there’s a number of customers who will always feel like there’s something missing.\nThe Golden Arches offer ketchup, mustard and a variety of other sources – but one condiment is conspicuous by its absence.\nMaccy D's fans have complained about the lack of mayonnaise for years - \"Why no mayo?\" they rage on social media, furiously venting their condiment-related woes.\nThe global brand have never really given a sound answer as to why.\nWell, Cosmopolitan have asked the fast-food giant the reason behind its alleged hatred of the white stuff.\nRemarkably, McDonald’s claim there is not enough \"demand\" for the nationally loved dressing, according to the Birmingham Mail.\nA spokesperson said: \"What we offer in our restaurants is based on customer demand.\n\"We don’t currently have any plans for mayonnaise to be made available.\"\nThe unveiling of the mystery comes after McDonald’s attempts to play Cupid this year by inviting couples to have a romantic night at some of their restaurants.\nIt is currently not known if this service is available in Croydon.\n(Image: David Cook)\nA McDonald’s Facebook post said: \"Book a table for you and your loved one this McValentine’s Day right here, we are going all out providing the most romantic dining experience in history.\n\"We are offering three courses of McValentine’s perfection for £20 per couple.\"\nPeople who are interested can enjoy a time of 7, 8 and 9pm for their Maccy D’s date night.\nMcDonald’s added: \"Email us to look at our menu or to book your table now to avoid destroying your chances of real “couple goals” this McValentine’s Day.\"\nTo book up or for further information email [email protected].", "FAIRBORN — He’s a country music hall of famer who really needs no introduction.\nBut prior to taking the stage at the Ervin J. Nutter Center March 16, Alan Jackson received one humdinger of a howdy as a video rattled off his long list of awards and paid tribute to his legacy and longevity.\nAnd then the 59-year-old stayed true to his roots as the opener, a chorus-only version of “Gone Country” suggests. In a day and age when many country stars are tempted to crossover into the pop genre, Jackson has stayed country and was at his honkytonk best. Wearing his trademark cowboy hat and boots, the two-time Grammy Award winner — who will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June — ran through some of his top toe-tapping tunes including “Livin’ on Love,” “Chattahoochee,” “Little Bitty,” and “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” albeit it was a shortened version of the latter.\nJackson appeared to labor a tad as he walked around the stage throughout the nearly two-hour performance, but his voice was in fine shape as he belted out hits like “Remember When,” “Drive (For Daddy Gene),” and Hank Williams Jr., cover “The Blues Man.”\nDuring what’s become a seemingly obligatory sit-down portion of concerts, Jackson ran through 90-second versions of early hits “Here in the Real World” and “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow” along with a full version of new song “The Older I Get.” He even showed he can ad lib, playing his cover of the Nat Stuckey-penned “Pop a Top” in full (Jim Ed Brown had the first hit with it in 1967). He closed the seated song session with another cover, Zac Brown’s “As She’s Walking Away.”\nJackson also drew some “USA, USA” chants after a flawless and stirring rendition of Sept. 11, 2001 response “Where Where You (When the World Stopped Turning).” Most in the sellout crowd showed their appreciation by turning on cell phone flashlights and holding them up (nobody carries lighters anymore apparently). At the end, the video screen that had been showing videos of songs as he played them showed an iconic photo of first responders with an American flag at Ground Zero.\nEarlier in the night, Jackson explained that because he had so many songs to play, he had to condense some of them. Interestingly enough, he chose another cover for his encore, “Mercury Blues,” penned by K.C. Douglas and Robert Geddins.\nFemale trio Runaway June opened the show with ear-pleasing harmonies that are a blend of different styles and backgrounds. The three have created a sound that’s been missing from country music for more than a decade and are quickly making a name for themselves. They featured hits “Lipstick” — the first by a female trio in over a decade to go top 30 — and “Wild West,” along with some other original material, and a few covers.\nFeaturing lead singer/guitarist Naomi Cooke, singer/guitarist Jennifer Wayne — granddaughter of legendary actor John Wayne — and singer/mandolin picker Hannah Mulholland, Runaway June is up for new vocal duo or group of the year at the 53rd Academy of Country Music Awards, to be held Sunday, April 15 in Las Vegas.\nCooke announced that the show in Fairborn was the group’s first as an official CMA nominee.\nBased on a small, but fantastic sample of what the three can do on stage, they’ll be taking the stage many times as an award nominee.\nBy Scott Halasz [email protected]\nContact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.\nContact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.", "Liverpool are hoping to complete the signing of Dutch youth international Ki-Jana Hoever from Ajax, Goal understands.\nThe 16-year-old full-back is expected to join the Reds’ Academy for the new season after turning down offers from a host of rival clubs.\nChelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City all expressed an interest in the teenager, who is one of a clutch of highly rated Dutch youngsters moving to England.\nChelsea have already signed one, promising defender Ian Maatsen from PSV, while promising forward Jayden Braaf has joined Manchester City.\nHoever, who plays mainly as a right-back, is another tipped for big things. Ajax were keen to sign the former AZ Alkmaar starlet to a professional contract, but the lure of Liverpool has proven too much. He will link up initially at the club’s Kirkby Academy with new U18s coach Barry Lewtas, but is expected to push towards Neil Critchley’s U23s if he settles quickly.\nLiverpool signed England youth international Bobby Duncan from Manchester City earlier this month, and believe they are assembling one of the best collections of young talent around.\nRhian Brewster, perhaps the jewel in their crown, is set to pen a professional deal after snubbing interest from Borussia Monchengladbach and RB Leipzig, while the likes of Curtis Jones, Rafael Camacho, Conor Masterson and Adam Lewis have all made significant strides in the last 12 months. At first-team level, of course, Trent Alexander-Arnold has shone brightly.\nA number of young players will get the chance to play their part in the club’s pre-season friendlies, which begins at Chester on Saturday. Ben Woodburn, Harry Wilson, Ryan Kent, Sheyi Ojo and Nat Phillips will all be in contention to feature, though some if not all of those are expected to be loaned out before the transfer window closes in early August.\nLazar Markovic, meanwhile, will be sold despite returning to the club this week after a loan spell with Anderlecht. The Belgian side are keen to sign the Serbian winger on a permanent basis, but face competition from Galatasarary, with Liverpool prepared to take a major hit on the £20 million they paid to sign him from Benfica in 2014. Markovic has made just 34 appearances since then, enjoying loan spells not just with Anderlecht, but with Fenerbahce, Sporting and Hull City, too.\nDaniel Sturridge is another set to depart, though as it stands there have been no firm offers for the England international. Sevilla and Fenerbahce are among those monitoring the 28-year-old.", "The New York Yankees have acquired reliever A.J. Cole from the Washington Nationals for cash considerations.\nCole was supposed to be the Nats’ fifth starter this year but that didn’t work out too well. He pitched in four games for the Nats, starting two, to the tune of a 13.06 ERA, having given up six home runs in 10.1 innings. That’s . . . something.\nDon’t get too used to Cole on the New York roster, as this seems like one of those “give us an arm” for a couple of days deals, after which Cole will be DFA’d and will either accept an assignment to Scranton or be cut loose. Such is life at the fringes for a guy who is out of minor league options.\nFollow @craigcalcaterra", "RICHMOND, Va. — Cigarette volume continues to wane at retail, but Altria Group Inc.'s initiatives in the combustible segment are moving along, and adult tobacco consumers are responding.\nThe company's strategy is to maintain momentum behind Philip Morris USA's (PM USA) Marlboro and Black & Mild brands.\n\"This year, we are investing behind product expansions, packaging innovations and brand equity to stabilize Marlboro share and expand our company's overall share in the growing menthol and super premium segments,\" Altria Chairman and CEO Marty Barrington said during the company's first-quarter 2018 earnings call.\nThe earnings call was Barrington's last as chairman and CEO of Altria. He officially passed the baton to Howard Willard at the annual shareholders meeting on May 17.\nDuring the first quarter, PM USA expanded Marlboro Ice nationally. The menthol product features an innovative reseal package — the first of its kind in the United States, further differentiating the brand from other menthol competitors, according to Barrington.\n\"In only eight weeks, Marlboro Ice is being sold in about 130,000 retail stores and has very high reorder rates,\" he shared, noting that the product is being supported by point-of-sale materials and retail intercepts with competitive adult menthol smokers to promote awareness and trial.\nAltria is encouraged by Marlboro Ice's performance, which is meeting expectations and helping to stabilize Marlboro share.\nThe tobacco company also reported progress around its equity investment in the new Marlboro rewards program in Texas, called Points West. Through the program, adult smokers over the age of 21 earn points by scanning unique codes printed inside Marlboro packs. The points can be redeemed for gear, coupons and charitable donations.\n\"After 10 weeks in market, over 100,000 adult smokers have engaged with Points West, which is generating news and excitement for the brand among adult smokers, increasing adult smokers' digital reach and engagement, and growing brand loyalty,\" Barrington said.\n\"It is also worth noting that the engineering that enables these unique codes to be printed at PM USA's scale and manufacturing speed is a major innovation,\" he added.\nAs a result of these and other efforts, Marlboro retail share grew in the first quarter by a 0.1 share point sequentially to 43.2 percent vs. its fourth quarter 2017 share.\nIn the super premium combustible segment, Nat's cigarettes continue to perform well in Colorado as Nat Sherman builds brand awareness and trial among adult smokers.\n\"Nat's is sourcing competitive share in the segment and adult smokers are responding positively to the product, its advertising campaign and its packaging,\" Barrington said.\nBased on the results of Nat's in Colorado, the company is expanding the product into an additional 13 states across the western United States.\nAltria acquired Nat Sherman in early 2017, as Convenience Store News previously reported.\nBased in Richmond, Altria's wholly owned subsidiaries include Philip Morris USA Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. LLC, John Middleton Co., Nu Mark LLC, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Ltd., and Philip Morris Capital Corporation. Altria holds an equity investment in Anheuser-Busch InBev.\nThe brand portfolios of Altria's tobacco operating companies include Marlboro, Black & Mild, Copenhagen, Skoal, MarkTen and Green Smoke.", "Hamilton Bermuda May 30, 2018\nDear shareholders and investors,\nAs announced in our press release of May 3, 2018, the company indicated a possible sale of two vessels. Today, we confirm the sale of two vessels, adjusting the fleet from 33 to 31 suezmaxes in the short term.\nThe sale of vessels is, however, a part of the company's plan to expand as NAT has three newbuildings coming from a Korean yard. The newbuildings are joining our fleet during the second half of 2018.\nThe commercial life of a suezmax could be 20 years or more. Therefore, such transactions are a natural part of our business. The total cash to NAT from the sale of these two vessels is between $9 million and $10 million per vessel.\nThis message is an indication of the commercial and financial flexibility of NAT. As communicated earlier, further sales of vessels may be expected in the process. We can assure you that we will prioritize dividend payments as in the past. At the time of this message, there are optimistic views on the tanker market.\nCAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS\nMatters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.\nThe Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words \"believe,\" \"anticipate,\" \"intend,\" \"estimate,\" \"forecast,\" \"project,\" \"plan,\" \"potential,\" \"will,\" \"may,\" \"should,\" \"expect,\" \"pending\" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.\nThe forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.\nImportant factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the tanker market, as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum production levels and world wide oil consumption and storage, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the prospectus and related prospectus supplement, our Annual Report on Form 20-F, and our reports on Form 6-K.\nContacts: Gary J. Wolfe\nSeward & Kissel LLP\nNew York, USA\nTel: +1 212 574 1223\nBjørn Giæver, CFO\nNordic American Tankers Limited\nTel: +1 888 755 8391 or +47 91 35 00 91\nHerbjørn Hansson, Chairman & CEO\nNordic American Tankers Limited\nTel: +1 866 805 9504 or +47 90 14 62 91 Web-site: www.nat.bm\nAttachment", "Netflix has just debuted the trailer for the new show Friends From College!\nThe comedy series stars Keegan-Michael Key, Cobie Smulders, Annie Parisse, Fred Savage, Nat Faxon and Jae Suh Park and premieres globally on Netflix on July 14.\nA group of friends from Harvard played by Keegan-Michael Key (Ethan), Cobie Smulders (Lisa), Annie Parisse (Sam), Nat Faxon (Nick), Fred Savage (Max) and Jae Suh Park (Marianne) are facing down their forties. With interwoven and oftentimes complicated relationships with one another Friends from College is a comedic exploration of old friendships, former romantic entanglements and balancing adult life with nostalgia for the past.\nWatch the trailer below!" ]

[ "Experts warn that the U.S. is at risk of a deadly accident involving ammonium nitrate, similar to the explosion that destroyed part of the city and killed more than 200 people in Beirut, Lebanon." ]

[ "A massive explosion in Beirut caused widespread devastation on Tuesday. An official with the Lebanese Red Cross said at least 100 people were killed and more than 4,000 were wounded. The official, George Kettaneh, said the toll could rise further. Here & Now&#8216;s Tonya Mosley speaks with Rami Khouri, senior fellow at Harvard&#8217;s Kennedy School of Government and former editor of the Daily Star in Beirut. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "Health experts are warning that with Labor Day celebrations in full swing, the US could see another COVID-19 spike. Also, rescue operations continue after a record heat wave in California intensifies wildfires trapping campers in the Sierra National Forest this weekend. And, Beirut's search for survivors ends as the country continues to recover one month after a massive blast tore through the city.", "An outside panel of experts has approved Pfizer's vaccine—but not unanimously. The news comes at a harrowing time for America—as the warnings turn from \"don't hold a Thanksgiving dinner\" to \"don't throw a holiday party.\" And, a Texas lawsuit becomes the latest front in the legal war against the election results. More than 50 cases have already failed. Will this one also fall at the first hurdle? Meanwhile, British and Russian scientists are teaming up. Both countries say they're looking at whether a combination of an AstraZeneca and a Sputnik vaccine might improve protection against COVID-19. Also, a retweet further sours relations between the U.S. and China. There are protests in India to catch up on. And Lebanon makes a move against those blamed for a recent explosion that leveled part of Beirut. Journalists Julie Rovner, Shane Harris, and Darlene Superville joined us to talk about domestic headlines, while Amna Nawaz, Nancy Yousef, and Paul Danahar helped us round out the week's global news. Like what you hear? Find more of our programs on our website.", "NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Rami Rajeh, a father of two who has lived in Beirut since the 1980s, about what things are like on the ground there after Tuesday's massive explosion in the city's port.", "What is Lebanon's path forward after the explosion? Protesters say wholesale change is needed. NPR's Noel King speaks with Mona Fawaz who is a professor at the American University of Beirut.", "Thousands in Beirut are reeling from a massive explosion. A longtime incumbent loses in Missouri's Democratic Primary. And, some U.S COVID-19 relief checks were sent to non-American workers overseas.", "NPR's Noel King talks to Kim Ghattas, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about whether the deadly blast in Beirut could be a turning point for Lebanon.", "NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Dr. Peter Noun, an oncologist in Lebanon, about the devastating impact the explosion in Beirut had on the hospitals in the city.", "People in Beirut are angry. On Tuesday, an explosion tore through Beirut's port, killing at least 135 people and injuring at least 5,000 others. Now, some are saying the government isn't doing enough to find survivors—and many blame it for the blast. We spoke with Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program for the Chatham House, about where the country can go from here. And, the U.S. is facing two crises—COVID-19 and racial injustice. More and more people are saying that both have been exacerbated by the Trump administration. His handling of the pandemic has caused many to question his decision-making abilities and motivations. An AP poll from late July shows just 32 percent of Americans support his strategy. And his accusatory rhetoric about protests in response to the killing of George Floyd has fed into racial tensions that have always been just below the surface. The Atlantic tackles both of these matters in its September issue called \"How Did It Come to This?\" We were joined by the authors of the issue's two cover stories: Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic, and Ibram Kendi, professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. Like what you hear? Find more of our programs on our website.", "The Lebanese people are growing angrier with their leaders after this week's explosion in Beirut, with questions being raised about official negligence as a possible cause in the deadly blast.", "NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with journalist Nada Homsi about a massive explosion Tuesday in Lebanon's capital.", "Residents of Beirut awoke Wednesday to a scene of utter devastation after a massive explosion at the port sent shock waves across the Lebanese capital. The blasts killed at least 100 people and wounded thousands. Host Tonya Mosley speaks with CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman in Beirut. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "NPR's Larry Abrahmson speaks to NPR's Madeleine Brand about warnings from federal officials of a credible threat of a terrorist attack in the United States some time this summer.", "The FBI has been warning about an increased danger of terrorism in the U-S, but other experts say domestic terrorism incidents are actually on the decline. NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports.", "NPR's Noel King speaks with <em>Wall Street Journal</em> reporter Dion Nissenbaum about the explosion in Beirut that killed more than 100 people and injured thousands others, including Nissenbaum's daughter.", "Congress tussles over a stimulus package with a deadline looming. A massive, deadly explosion in Beirut. It’s all in our week in review. Guests Seung Min Kim, White House reporter for the Washington Post, covering Capitol Hill. (@seungminkim) Margaret Talev, politics and White House editor at Axios. (@margarettalev) Kat Stafford, national race and ethnicity reporter for the Associated Press. (@kat_stafford) From The Reading List Washington Post: &#8220;Congress flails as coronavirus ravages the nation and the economy stalls&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Coronavirus cases are surging, the fragile economic recovery has stalled, and millions of jobless Americans just lost emergency unemployment benefits. In response, Congress is doing what it does best: nothing at all.&#8221; Associated Press: &#8220;&#8216;If not now, when?&#8217;: Black women seize political spotlight&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;The little girl ran up to her, wide-eyed and giddy.&#8221; New York Times: &#8220;Progressive Victories Signal Staying Power for the Movement&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;When Bernie Sanders lost to Joseph R. Biden Jr., the left mourned what could have been, worried that it had faltered at a once-in-a-generation crossroads for the Democratic Party.&#8221; Associated Press: &#8220;Joe Biden launches new national ad aimed at Black Americans&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential campaign has launched a new national ad focused on Black Americans, urging them to stand up to President Donald Trump the way their ancestors stood up to &#8216;violent racists of a generation ago.'&#8221; Reuters: &#8220;Fact check: Video does not show a drone bombing Beirut&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Social media users have shared a video of a drone alongside suggestions that the aircraft delivered a bomb over Beirut, resulting in an explosion that has killed least 135 people.&#8221; BBC: &#8220;Beirut explosion: Anti-government protests break out in city&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Protesters clashed with Lebanese security forces at anti-government demonstrations in Beirut on Thursday.&#8221; CNN: &#8220;See what bomb expert thinks caused Beirut explosion&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;An ex-British Army explosive expert says the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, shows the tell-tale signs of an ammonium nitrate explosion.&#8221; Associated Press: &#8220;Trump bans dealings with Chinese owners of TikTok, WeChat&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered a sweeping but unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat, although it remains unclear if he has the legal authority to actually ban the apps from the U.S.&#8221; Axios: &#8220;Axios-Ipsos poll: Fear of voting&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to worry about in-person voting — with nearly two in three seeing it as a large or moderate risk to their health — according to this week&#8217;s installment of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.&#8221; Politico: &#8220;Yates says Obama, Biden didn’t influence Flynn investigation&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told lawmakers Wednesday that neither President Barack Obama nor Vice President Joe Biden attempted to influence the FBI’s investigation of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn during a January 2017 Oval Office meeting with top national security officials.&#8221; The Guardian: &#8220;Alarm at Trump&#8217;s unsubstantiated claim that Beirut blast was an &#8216;attack&#8217;&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that the massive explosion in Beirut was a bomb attack has revived fears of the president’s potential to foment international crises.&#8221; NPR: &#8220;New York Attorney General Moves To Dissolve The NRA After Fraud Investigation&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;The attorney general of New York took action Thursday to dissolve the National Rifle Association following an 18-month investigation that found evidence the powerful gun rights group is &#8216;fraught with fraud and abuse.'&#8221; TIME: &#8220;Beirut Was Already Suffering. Then Came a Deadly Explosion&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;The electricity was out at Fatima Al Mahmoud’s Beirut home even before a colossal explosion ripped through the Lebanese capital late on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 135 people, and wounding a further 5,000.&#8221; Washington Post: &#8220;Biden won’t travel to Milwaukee to accept Democratic nomination amid coronavirus concerns&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Former vice president Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee to accept the Democratic presidential nomination due to coronavirus concerns, convention organizers confirmed Wednesday.&#8221; This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "Lebanon&#8217;s parliament met Thursday for the first time since last week&#8217;s deadly explosion in Beirut. The massive blast sparked protests by demonstrators who blamed government corruption and negligence for what happened. Here & Now&#8217;s Tonya Mosley speaks with Sasha Fahme, a doctor who lives in Beirut and has participated in the protests. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "NPR's Noel King talks to Leila Molana-Allen, a reporter for TV network France 24, about the recovery effort following last month's deadly massive explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut.", "The catastrophic explosion in Beirut last week has renewed calls in the U.S. to strengthen oversight of ammonium nitrate or AN, a chemical compound used in some farm fertilizers. Officials in Beirut believe the giant blast, which killed more than 200 people and damaged half of the city, was likely an accident caused by fire and negligent storage of some 2,750 tons of the chemical. In addition to farming and mining, AN has been used in terrorist attacks from Oklahoma City to Baghdad. It's highly explosive. It has been an ingredient of choice for improvised explosive devices and car bombs that have killed scores of soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Beirut explosion surely wasn't shocking to residents of the small Texas town of West, population 2,900. A 2013 fertilizer plant fire there ignited more than 250 tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored in flammable wooden boxes. The explosion leveled or damaged more than 150 buildings. It also killed 15 people, including 12 firefighters, almost all of them from local volunteer departments. On NPR's Morning Edition after the blast, the Texas Department of Public Safety's D.L. Wilson described what he saw. \"I can tell you I was there,\" he says. \"I walked through the blast area. I searched some houses earlier tonight, massive, just like Iraq, just like the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.\" Given the amount of the chemical on hand, the West Fertilizer Company was supposed to report its ammonium nitrate stockpile to the federal Department of Homeland Security. According to federal officials, it did not. A state agency in Texas did know about the AN. But it failed to share that information with DHS. As one congressman later put it in a federal hearing, \"DHS did not even know the plant existed until it blew up.\" It's exactly that jumble of federal and state agencies regulating ammonium nitrate – and longstanding concerns about a lack of clear coordination – that has experts, once again, sounding the alarm. On the federal side, the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board as well as the departments of Transportation and Agriculture all have some piece of ammonium nitrate oversight. Experts say that is a patchwork with dangerous gaps. \"Why we, after 9/11 and Oklahoma City and West, Texas, continue to flirt with disaster with this material is beyond me,\" says environmental consultant Rick Hind, a chemical hazards and safety expert. Hind spent nearly three decades as Greenpeace's legislative director in Washington, D.C. He says federal oversight of ammonium nitrate storage, transport, processing and use remains a morass of vague and slippery regulations, despite repeated attempts to strengthen the rules. AN is relatively stable under the right conditions. But when contaminated by dirt, certain kinds of wood, oil or myriad other things, Hind says, AN can become powerful explosives that today \"go largely unseen and under-regulated because of the magic of the chemical and agriculture lobby, the fertilizer people.\" Hind says the Beirut explosion should be a wake-up call to finally tighten federal oversight. \"They say it's stable,\" Hind says. \"But when you look at what all the rules are ... you can see this stuff has got to be handled very, very carefully and monitored while it's being handled — and constantly inspected. And that's not happening.\" Critics say OSHA, the EPA and other federal agencies have consistently failed to adequately inspect facilities storing the chemical. At the time of the West, Texas, explosion, OSHA had not inspected the West Fertilizer company for nearly 30 years. \"OSHA inspections are few and far between,\" Hind says, \"with depleted funding and litigation now hamstringing their regulatory process.\" In its detailed report of the explosion, the Chemical Safety Board said West, Texas, was hardly the only risky site. \"We highlighted the number of places that AN is stored in facilities that have not been reviewed,\" says Vanessa Allen Sutherland, who ran the CSB during the final stages of the investigation. \"We show that the landscape throughout the United States is replete with AN risks\" Those risks are still out there. After the explosion in West, OSHA recognized that America's ammonium nitrate rules were painfully out of date, given the potential for accidents or terrorist attacks. OSHA tried to close what's called the \"retail exemption,\" arguing that the definition of \"retail\" was dangerously vague. It \"allowed facilities with large amounts of bulk material to be considered 'retail,' \" says a senior aide on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, which oversees worker health and safety. He asked not to be named. Closing that loophole, the official says, would have bolstered oversight of hazardous chemicals. But industry sued arguing that OS", "NPR Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman and NPR Beirut Correspondent Ruth Sherlock discuss the U.S. preparations that are underway to respond to an apparent chemical attack in Syria.", "Fighting in Lebanon is spurring concerns over the country's stability. Renee Montagne checks in with <em>New York Times</em> Beirut bureau chief Anne Barnard to discuss why America needs to pay attention.", "Foreign policy experts warn that scenes of police charging protesters and President Trump calling for military involvement may affect the U.S.'s ability to make a case for democracy globally.", "Updated at 9:40 a.m. ET Lebanon's caretaker prime minister and three former ministers have been charged with negligence in connection with the deadly blast at Beirut's port last summer, according to Lebanese state media. They are the highest-ranking officials to date to face charges linked to the explosion, though dozens of others, including security and port officials, have also been accused. The blast on Aug. 4 was caused by nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly volatile substance, left haphazardly in a warehouse for years. It killed at least 200 people, injured thousands and devastated large areas of Beirut. Judge Fadi Sawwan, who has been leading the investigation into Beirut's port explosion, indicted caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and two former ministers of public works — Ghazi Zeiter and Youssef Fenianos. They are accused of failing to take sufficient measures to prevent the devastating explosion. According to local media, they had received several written notices warning them of possible impending danger. Diab said his \"conscience is clear.\" In a statement published by the state news agency, the caretaker prime minister said \"he has handled the Beirut Port blast file in a responsible and transparent manner\" and that he \"will not allow the Premiership to be targeted by any party.\" Diab and his Cabinet resigned several days after the blast but have remained as a caretaker government. The four defendants are scheduled to be interrogated next week.", "Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET An enormous explosion shook Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday. At least 100 people are dead and thousands more people were hurt, according to officials. The death toll is expected to rise as searches are underway for people who have been reported missing. Buildings collapsed and glass shattered as helicopters and firefighters doused the flames in the city's port. On Wednesday, residents are assessing the damage and beginning to clean up the debris in the Lebanese capital. Read the latest on the explosion in Beirut here.", "Before the final match of the season could even get underway Sunday, Manchester United's fans were leaving the team's stadium in droves. Local police oversaw the mass evacuation of the soccer team's Old Trafford stadium, prompted by reports of a suspicious package found in the stands. Now, Greater Manchester Police say that item — which had been described as an \"incredibly realistic-looking explosive device\" — was a training device. \"We have since found out that the item was a training device which had accidentally been left by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive search dogs,\" announced John O'Hare, assistant chief constable from Greater Manchester Police. The announcement brings a cheerful — if somewhat curious — conclusion to a day that began with tension and disappointment as fans filtered out of the stadium. Postponement of the match with Bournemouth came just about 20 minutes before kickoff, as players were still warming up on the pitch. \"Police evacuated the stadium, Old Trafford, and brought in sniffer dogs,\" NPR's Lauren Frayer reported for our NewsCast unit earlier Sunday. Hours passed as the sniffer dogs combed the stadium's stands and bomb disposal experts sought to safely destroy the package. A bomb squad carried out a controlled explosion at the stadium; shortly afterward, officials released a statement that the exploded device was not viable. They expanded on that assessment Sunday evening. \"While this item did not turn out to be a viable explosive, on appearance this device was as real as could be, and the decision to evacuate the stadium was the right thing to do, until we could be sure that people were not at risk,\" O'Hare explained. The English Premier League announced the match has been rescheduled for Tuesday night, when Manchester United and Bournemouth players will take the field once more — presumably with better results this time. That said, it's looking likely that Man U fans will still come away disappointed: As The Associated Press reports, \"United has to win the match by a 19-goal margin or more to have any hope of finishing in fourth place and above crosstown rival Manchester City for a Champions League spot.\"", "As scientists around the world race to develop a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country is the first to approve a vaccine. Named “Sputnik V,” the vaccine has become a symbol of national pride/ President Putin touted that his daughter has already been administered a dose. Still, vaccine experts worry that the rushed vaccine, which has had no evidence of a large scale trial, could pose a great risk to thousands. Civil unrest in Belarus has brought thousands of protesters to the streets after the re-election of President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Claiming his sixth victory, Lukashenko defeated his opponent, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, by a landslide with over 80 percent of the vote. But many are calling the election results illegitimate, including Tikhanovskaya. She was detained for seven hours after she disputed the electoral committee’s results. Since then, she’s fled the country and thousands have been arrested. Lebanon faces a continued humanitarian crisis, following a massive explosion in Beirut, compounded by a collapsed banking system and a pandemic that has left the country reeling. Although the government has resigned, there’s little trust left in leadership that many feel is corrupt as the state ramps up its military power amidst a state of emergency. And many continue to protest the government and its mishandling of thousands of tons of explosive material that resulted in the explosion that left at least 170 people dead. We cover all the headlines during this international edition of the News Roundup.", "Citing \"threats to U.S. Mission facilities and personnel,\" the State Department has told \"non-emergency personnel and family members\" at its embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, to leave the country. Also, State \"urges U.S. citizens to avoid all travel to Lebanon because of current safety and security concerns.\" The news comes, of course, as the Obama administration tries to build support for its plan to strike neighboring Syria in response to evidence that President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his own people last month. As we reported earlier, the administration's talk about taking action has led to reports that Iran, Hezbollah and others might retaliate for any strike on the Assad regime. The State Department has also warned U.S. citizens \"against all but essential travel to Iraq.\" Earlier today, White House national security adviser Tony Blinken told Morning Edition that \"if anyone tries to do anything to escalate,\" the U.S. is prepared to respond. Update at 9:25 a.m. ET. Turkey: \"Non-emergency personnel and family members who wish to leave Adana, Turkey,\" may also do so, the State Department has announced.", "Thousands of protesters outraged over this week's deadly explosion in Beirut amassed in the Lebanese capital on Saturday, as public anger gave way to clashes with police and the storming of the nation's foreign ministry. Blame for the blast — which killed more than 150 people and injured thousands more — has been widely cast on a culture of corruption and negligence among the nation's ruling class. Demonstrators set up a mock gallows, hanging cardboard cutouts of politicians, including the country's president, Michel Aoun, and Prime Minister Hassan Diab. Skirmishes between protesters began early in the day with protesters hurling rocks and police firing tear gas. Gunfire was heard at the city's Martyrs' Square, according to the BBC, and multiple news organizations reported that protesters had entered the foreign ministry. Once inside the ministry, demonstrators burned a framed photo of Aoun, according to Reuters. The Associated Press reported that protesters were claiming the building as headquarters for a \"revolution\" and calling on the government to resign. At least 170 people were reported injured during the protests, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Citing police, Reuters reported that at least one officer was killed after being chased and falling down an elevator shaft. Responding to the protests, Diab took to the airwaves to call for early elections. Diab said it was the only solution to the unrest and announced plans for a draft bill. Also on Saturday, three legislators from the country's Christian opposition Kataeb Party announced they were resigning from parliament out of a show of anger. An official with the party was killed in this week's blast, according to the Associated Press. Tuesday's explosion at a port warehouse that held 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate — a chemical used for fertilizer and as an ingredient in bombs — followed repeated warnings to authorities about the facility and came amid growing strife in Lebanon, including over the toll taken by the coronavirus pandemic. Many hospitals already treating COVID-19 patients struggled to meet the influx of injured caused by the blast. Some hospitals were severely damaged or destroyed by the explosion, whose shock waves wrought destruction on large swaths of Beirut. Even before the dual crises of the explosion and the pandemic, Lebanon had been roiled by an economic collapse and power outages blamed on mismanagement and corruption. Massive protests erupted late last year but had dwindled. The explosion has introduced concerns about food shortages, as the port's decimation is expected to significantly interfere with imports. Since the explosion, blame and scrutiny has been cast around over how ammonium nitrate was allowed to sit at Beirut's port for some six years. The cache arrived at the port in 2013 aboard a ship said to be bound for Mozambique. After a dispute over port fees, the cargo was impounded and stored in a warehouse. The port's customs director has said he sounded the alarm for years. In the aftermath of the blast, several port officials were placed under house arrest. The most widespread scrutiny has landed on the country's politicians. Aoun and Diab have responded by forming an investigative committee, while various members of the country's ruling class, many of whom have stakes in the port, have attempted to place responsibility elsewhere. On Friday, the influential Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah sought to distance itself from any blame for the blast, with the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, categorically stating, \"Hezbollah does not run or control Beirut's port and does not interfere with it.\"", "Updated at 12:45 a.m. ET Friday Some of Beirut's residents, angered by their city's seeming negligence that led to this week's deadly warehouse explosion, took to the streets late Thursday to demand reform. Near parliament, Lebanese security forces fired tear gas as they clashed with anti-government protesters. In the central square of Beirut's mostly destroyed downtown, a group of Lebanese, some carrying shovels to dig through the debris, shouted, \"The people want the fall of the regime.\" The protests came as authorities in Lebanon detained 16 people as part of an urgent investigation into the enormous explosion that devastated Beirut's port area and much of the city on Tuesday. The blast has been traced to an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. Judge Fadi Akiki, a government representative at the military court, said more than 18 people have been questioned so far, including port and customs officials, according to Lebanon's state news agency. There are currently 16 people in custody, Akiki said, while others remain under investigation. Tuesday's blast killed at least 137 people and injured thousands more. Emergency crews have been working to find all the victims, sifting through rubble and collapsed structures. French President Emmanuel Macron made a heralded visit to Beirut on Thursday, saying he was there to offer support to Lebanon's people – but not necessarily to its government. \"This explosion is the beginning of a new era,\" Macron said, describing French disaster aid as a catalyst for political reform. \"Lebanon is in need of change and of a new political contract,\" he said. Macron added, \"I am not here to support the state or the government; I am here to support the Lebanese people.\" Well-wishers and passersby seemed to return the sentiment as crowds gathered around Macron when he surveyed the damage in Beirut's streets. Many vented their fury at Lebanon's leaders. \"Down with the regime!\" Beirut residents chanted as Macron's group moved through the city. The thousands of damaged buildings include NPR's bureau in Beirut. The bureau's landlord is an architect who has spent his career restoring traditional Lebanese homes, NPR's Ruth Sherlock said. \"He watched much of his life's work be destroyed in the blink of an eye,\" Sherlock said Thursday on Morning Edition. \"And he said, 'You know, Lebanese are used to damage from the country's 15 years of civil war. But this destruction was like the destruction of all of the civil war in a single moment.' \" Ammonium nitrate like the material stored at the warehouse is used for a range of purposes, from making fertilizers to powering bombs. Lebanon's leaders said the ammonium nitrate had been stored under dangerous conditions for years. \"It seems the ammonium nitrate may actually have come on a ship that made an unscheduled stop at the Beirut port in 2013 because of technical difficulties,\" Sherlock said. \"And then it was abandoned by the Russian businessman who leased it. Apparently, customs officials appealed six times to Lebanese courts for guidance on what to do,\" warning of the risk of keeping a dangerous substance in the crowded city. Those details support suspicions that the explosion was not the result of an attack but simply the result of negligence. Many countries are sending emergency supplies and workers to Lebanon; on Thursday, aid-carrying planes came from Tunisia, Italy, Russia and Morocco. Humanitarian groups are also rushing aid to people. Nearly 80,000 children are displaced by the disaster, according to an estimate from UNICEF. The powerful blast also damaged at least 12 health care facilities – and destroyed a children's hospital in the Karantina area, the aid organization says. It adds that 10 containers' worth of personal protective equipment was also destroyed at the port – which had operated as a key entry point for goods and aid for Lebanon. \"UNICEF is supporting the local authorities and partners, said Violet Speek-Warnery, the group's deputy representative in Lebanon. \"Our teams have been working around the clock to support people affected with much-needed assistance.\" Describing the catastrophe's effects, Oxfam's Lebanon policy lead, Bachir Ayoub, says the damage was \"unimaginable,\" and the recovery will take years. \"Lebanon was already struggling to cope. The economy has been in a tailspin, the local currency has lost approximately 80% of its value, and the last month has seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases with hospitals already under pressure,\" Ayoub said. \"People whose homes have been damaged or completely destroyed will not be able to access their money to start to repair or rebuild, and essential items like wheat and medicine will soon be scarce, as the Port of Beirut, the major storage and supply point, has been obliterated. A massive effort will be required to recover.\" NPR's Ruth Sherlock contributed to this report.", "U.S. intelligence experts warn that climate change can produce political instability, as crop failures, drought and rising sea levels prompt population shifts.", "In Lebanon, a huge fire at Beirut's port has blackened skies and sent waves of panic through the devastated city, which is still reeling from last month's massive explosion in the same area that killed nearly 200 people and injured thousands more. By early evening local time Thursday, the fire was said to be \"under control\" by caretaker Public Works Minister Michel Najjar, who is in charge of overseeing the port, according to local media. The fire erupted at a warehouse storing oil and tires in the port's duty-free zone, according to the Lebanese army, and military helicopters were called in to help extinguish the flames. Video posted on social media showed smoke blanketing nearly all of Beirut. The head of the Lebanese Red Cross, George Kettaneh, told local media that authorities did not fear another explosion due to the fire. But as the flames spread, terrified port workers reportedly sprinted away from the scene, fearing a repeat blast. Some Beirut residents told NPR that they fled the city. The army called for the evacuation of citizens from the port and its surrounding roads, and Kettaneh warned that people should wear masks and close their windows. Save the Children said in a statement that the fire could have a significant impact on children's physical and mental health so soon after August's blast. \"Children in Beirut have experienced a terrible shock, and they need time to recover; today's fire and panic will only make things worse,\" said Jennifer Moorehead, Save the Children's country director in Lebanon. The catastrophic explosion on Aug. 4 started as a fire that ignited nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored haphazardly for years in Beirut's port. It later emerged that high-ranking politicians and government employees had been aware of the massive amount of explosives but did not address the issue. It wasn't immediately clear what ignited the fire Thursday. Port director Bassem al-Qaisi told local media that it is \"too early\" to know the cause, and Lebanese Prosecutor General Ghassan Oweidat has called on security forces to conduct an immediate investigation. Najjar, the caretaker public works minister, told local media that sparks from welding at the warehouse might be the cause. It is also thought to be what sparked last month's fire that caused the explosion, damaging thousands of buildings in Beirut. Just last week, more than 4 tons of ammonium nitrate were discovered in the port during an official inspection. It was removed but stoked anxieties among residents that any fire at the badly damaged port could trigger another blast. Earlier this month, a surge of hope emerged as rescue teams thought they had detected something miraculous — possible signs of life in the rubble of a building nearly a month after the blast. Sadly, after three days of careful digging, the rescue team concluded there was no survivor to be found.", "Lebanon&#8217;s prime minister stepped down from his job Monday in the wake of the catastrophic explosion in Beirut that has triggered public outrage. He says he has come to the conclusion that corruption in the country is &#8220;bigger than the state.&#8221; Here & Now&#8217;s Tonya Mosley speaks with Rami Khouri, senior fellow and professor of journalism at the American University of Beirut. This article was originally published on WBUR.org." ]

[ "Will the Duchess of Sussex overtake her sister-in-law in terms of value?\nIn much the same way that Kate Middleton’s style choices fly off shelves (both physical and virtual), retailers see the same thing happening with clothing that Meghan Markle wears.\nAccording to a People report, the effect that Meghan Markle has on fashion came well before her royal wedding to Prince Harry. In fact, in the now Duchess of Sussex’s first public appearance with Prince Harry at the 2017 Invictus Games, she wore Flint’s pointy toe Natalie flats.\nSince the moment Markle appeared in public with Harry wearing the style, Flint struggled to keep the flats in stock, and people who scored a pair considered themselves lucky. Now, so many months later, the Natalie flats are finally back in stock for the brand, but that seems unlikely to last for long.\nAnother shoe choice of Meghan’s that flies off the shelves is a simple white $75 Reebok tennis shoe, according to People. The reason they’re so popular is she can wear them to yoga class, pair them with skinny jeans, or even possibly wear them with a dress depending on the occasion. The tennis shoe is comfortable without being too clunky.\nWhile The Observer put the value Meghan Markle effect far lower than the Kate Middleton effect at hundreds of millions versus billions for designers, it’s no secret that either Duchess wearing a brand causes an almost immediate uptick in sales. In fact, some industry experts predict the Duchess of Sussex, a former lifestyle blogger, will soon surpass her sister-in-law in terms of value for designers and brands. Even yellow gold jewelry received an increase in demand because of Markle’s jewelry choices.\nWATCH: The Meghan Markle effect spreads to yellow gold https://t.co/RBXkZ8PjVc via @ReutersTV pic.twitter.com/wq6Z5eUdkT — Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 28, 2018\nOne reason Meghan’s styles may prove more lucrative than Kate’s is that Meghan leans more towards trendy while Kate’s wardrobe remains more traditional. Younger people may be more likely to run out and buy trendy items that Markle chooses to wear causing a huge demand for the pieces.\nPlus, as Inquistr reported, Prince Harry and his bride plan to start a family right away, which will make her fashion choices all the more in demand as she chooses maternity wear and then later clothing for her children. The clothing choices Kate Middleton makes for her children certainly fly off the shelves too, and each of the Duchess of Cambridge’s children has a fashion influence worth in the billions.\nNo matter what the reason, when either woman chooses to wear a particular designer, that brand reaps the benefits in terms of boosted sales. No doubt they love the benefits that come along with the added hassle of trying to keep the hot products in stock." ]

[ "PRINCE Harry has refused to sign a pre-nup ahead of his marriage to US actress Meghan Markle, it has been reported.\nThe 33-year-old, who has an estimated £30million ($54million) fortune, is determined that his marriage will last and won't need the safeguard.\nPrince Harry and Meghan Markle. Picture: AP\nThe Sun reported \"There was never any question in Harry's mind that he would sign a pre-nup.\n\"He's determined that his marriage will be a lasting one, so there's no need for him to sign anything.\"\nThe romantic prince follows in his brother's footsteps, with Prince William also refusing to sign a pre-nup before marrying Kate Middleton.\nPrince William and Kate Middleton also refused to sign a pre-nup. Picture: Getty\nPrince Harry and Meghan Markle will tie the knot at Windsor castle in May this year, with the US actress becoming Her Royal Highness Princess Henry of Wales.\nHarry inherited £10million ($18million) after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, and is also reported to have another £20million ($36million) in assets.\nMeanwhile, Meghan, who was shot to fame for her role in Suits, has a reported fortune of £4m ($7m).\nMeghan Markle in TV series Suits. Picture: Supplied\nA Buckingham Palace representative declined to comment on the reports.\nThe loved up couple are in the throes of organising their wedding, scheduled to take place in May at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.\nLittle detail is known about the big day, but rumours that the Spice Girls and the Foo Fighters could be performing have been circulated.\nThe Queen this week officially signed off on Harry's wedding to Meghan, giving her formal consent for her \"beloved grandson\" to tie the knot.\nThe Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl. Picture: MEGA\nThe Royals are inviting members of the public \"from every corner of the United Kingdom\" to the celebration.\nMore than 2,600 people will be invited, with 1,200 being members of the public who will have access to the grounds of Windsor Castle on the day.\nThe lucky 1,200 will have an amazing view as the bride and groom arrive and depart the special ceremony.\nPrince Harry and Meghan Markle after their engagement announcement at Kensington Palace. Picture: AP\nA statement from Kensington Palace earlier this month read: \"Prince Harry and Ms. Markle would like their wedding day to be shaped to allow members of the public to share in the joy and the fun of the day.\"\nOther guests could include Elton John and former US President Barack Obama.\nFormer U.S. President Barack Obama and Prince Harry in 2017. Picture: Getty\nCharles and Camilla had their televised blessing there in 2005 and it offers the couple a more low key venue than Westminster Abbey, where Kate Middleton and Prince William got married.\nSt George's Chapel can accommodate 800 guests, whereas the Abbey seats 2,000.\nThis article was first published in The Sun and is republished here with permission.\nSt George's Chapel in Windsor, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are getting married. Picture: AFP", "Becoming a royal doesn't make you tax exempt. Ben Birchall - WPA Pool/Getty Images\nMeghan Markle will soon become a member of the British royal family, which commands a fortune over $500 million.\nMarkle will remain a US citizen for at least five years and will still have to pay taxes to the IRS on any income earned.\nIf Markle accepts an allowance or other form of \"income\" in the UK exceeding $104,100, she will have to pay US taxes on that money.\nMeghan Markle will soon become the newest member of the British royal family, which commands a fortune over $500 million. But romping in their riches may cost her extra.\nMarkle is a citizen of the United States and is purportedly living in the UK on a family visa, according to the BBC. As the fiancée of a British citizen — Prince Harry — Markle will have to marry within six months of obtaining the visa to maintain her status.\nMarkle's family visa will be effective in 2.5-year increments and she won't be granted permanent residency until she's lived in the UK for five years. After that, she can finally apply for UK citizenship and potentially become a dual citizen of the US and the UK.\nAll the while, the \"Suits\" actress will be paying taxes to the IRS on any income she makes — regardless of where she earns it.\n\"US citizens, green card holders, and permanent residents are required to file tax returns with the IRS every year no matter where they reside,\" Avani Ramnani, director of financial planning and wealth management at Francis Financial, told Business Insider.\n\"This is a special tax return called the expatriate tax return,\" she said. \"US citizens, including Meghan Markle, get taxed on international income earned outside the US.\"\nBut Markle may qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion, Ramnani said, which in 2018 waives taxes on the first $104,100 of income earned in the residing country. But that doesn't include income from investments.\nPrince Harry receives an annual $450,000 allowance from Princess Diana's estate. AP Photo/Matt Dunham\nSince the age of 21, Prince Harry and Prince William have been receiving a $450,000 a year investment profit from their late mother's estate, which they pay taxes on to the UK government. They, and Kate Middleton, also receive an annual seven-figure allowance from their father, Prince Charles, which is used to cover expenses like travel and wardrobe.\n\"The key for Meghan and her advisors would be to figure out what type of income she will be getting,\" Ramnani said. \"Will this income be from the investments of a trust, or 'wages' for any work that she does, or any other type of income? Sometimes, getting one form of income is more advantageous than another.\"\nMarkle may also qualify for a foreign tax credit, which allows tax on any income exceeding $104,100 to be reduced depending on the amount of taxes paid in the expat's country of residence. But, Ramnani said, \"this credit may not be dollar-for-dollar as there are a lot of factors that come into play.\"\nThere's another US tax provision called the foreign housing exclusion, which gives the taxpayer an additional deduction or credit for living expenses abroad. It does not include \"expenses that are lavish or extravagant under the circumstances.\"\nNottingham Cottage, the future homestead of Markle and Prince Harry, is located on the sprawling grounds of Kensington Palace, and would probably be considered lavish.\nAs the Washington Post first reported back in November, Markle could \"cause tax headaches\" and create some \"mundane hurdles\" for the royal family.\nIf she becomes a dual US/UK citizen, Markle will have to continue filing her taxes each year with the IRS. If she has more than $300,000 in assets at any point during the year, she will have to file a specific form that details foreign assets, which could include foreign trusts, subjecting the royal family \"to outside scrutiny,\" according to the Post.", "GETTY Prince Charles is yet to meet his new grandson\nThe fifth in line to the throne was born at 11:01am at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital on Monday April 23 and weighed eight pounds and seven ounces. But his grandfather the Prince of Wales travelled to France today ready to attend events for Anzac Day, Wednesday April 25, to mark the centenary of the Battle of Veillers-Bretonneux. He is due to join the Prime Ministers of Australia and France at the commemoration and he will deliver a reading and lay the first wreath of the official wreath-laying ceremony.\nRoyal baby boy pictures: FIRST pictures as Kate and William leave hospital Mon, April 23, 2018 Kate Middleton and Prince William today welcomed a royal baby boy weighing 8lbs 7oz. Play slideshow PA 1 of 49 Royal baby pictures: Leaves St Mary's hospital\nIt’s a great joy to have another grandchild Prince Charles\nPrince Charles is there on behalf of the Queen as he takes on more royal duties in preparation for becoming King. He is due to observe the Spirit of Place ceremony, which will include a reading of the roll of honour of soldiers who died in 1918 and an indigenous musical performance. His Royal Highness will then process to an official breakfast to meet with the representatives from 17 nations who fought on the Western Front. Around 8,000 Australian, French and other international visitors are expected to gather for the commemorations.\nBut he will not return to London until later on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Clarence House said to Express.co.uk on Tuesday April 24: “I can confirm that The Prince of Wales will return from France tomorrow.” The Duke of Cambridge’s father, the heir to the throne, said in a statement: “We are both so pleased at the news. “It’s a great joy to have another grandchild.\nGETTY Kate's sister Pippa Middleton has visited her new nephew\n“The only trouble is I don’t know how I am going to keep up with them.” An earlier statement from Kensington Palace said the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were “delighted with the news”. William, 35, and Kate, 36, are now back home at Kensington Palace in London. The Duke said he was “very happy, very delighted” and also said “thrice the worry now” as he drove his third child home. Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton visited her new nephew today after she was seen leaving Kensington Palace following a two hour visit to meet the newborn.\nGETTY Kate and William with their third child\nThe baby’s maternal grandparents, Carole and Michael Middleton, were not seen visiting the Lindo Wing on Monday but were expected to meet their new grandson at Kensington Palace after the family returned home. Kate's mother Carole was spotted shopping for baby supplies on the King's Road in Chelsea on Monday morning. It's believed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have already met Baby Cambridge. The couple are neighbours to William and Kate and live in a cottage in the palace grounds. The new baby’s arrival was celebrated with gun saluted from the Tower of London and Hyde Park as well as bell ringing at Westminster Abbey." ]

[ "This is on a par with US President Barack Obama meeting with Cuba's Raul Castro except, unlike Washington and Havana, the two sides still haven't normalised relations. In fact they haven't even signed a peace treaty and in 66 years they have taken very different paths.\nNo agreements will be signed, no joint statements made, but China's Xi Jinping and Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou will have an hour-long meeting and a casual dinner afterwards. It could get awkward and here are some of the questions that could crop up.\nChina has hundreds of missiles targeted at Taiwan to warn the island against declaring formal independence. Beijing still considers Taiwan a province to be reunified with the mainland one day and has not renounced the use of force to take it back. In fact, one of the main reasons for its military build-up is to counter possible US assistance to Taiwan if Beijing were to try to take back militarily.\nMr. Ma would argue: \"If you want to be friends, you must remove these missiles.\"\n\"Not that simple,\" Mr Xi might answer. Doing so could embolden pro-independence groups in Taiwan who want the island to be recognised as a completely separate country from China.\nThe meeting will take place less than three months before Taiwan holds presidential and legislative races, but truly democratic elections like these are not in China's vocabulary. Taiwan, on the other hand, has developed into a vibrant democracy and is proud of its system.\nOver dinner, Mr Ma could share his low approval rating headaches with Mr Xi and even make jokes about how hard it is to finish a speech when protesters are trying to throw shoes at him. Mr Xi might just politely smile and think to himself: \"And you wonder why we run things like we do?\"\nMr Xi will be eager to push relations forward. During Mr Ma's seven years in office, the two sides have signed many agreements - from those that have allowed first-ever direct flights to ones that bring millions of Chinese tourists to Taiwan each year, not to mention tariff-cutting trade deals.\nChina is eager to link Taiwan's economy and society even closer to the mainland's, and begin talking about unification.\nBut Mr Ma will have to explain that public opinion does not support more deals and such talks at the moment. Many people are worried too many deals signed too quickly and without enough public oversight may make the island over-dependent on China and vulnerable to unification pressures.\nMr Ma might explain to Mr Xi: \"In Taiwan, unlike mainland China, public opinion matters a lot. That is how I got my job in the first place.\"\nLike many Chinese people who consider Taiwan the long-lost sibling they must see at least once in their lifetime, Mr Xi would want to eventually travel to \"our treasured island\" which is what many Chinese people call Taiwan.\nBut Mr Ma will not be able to extend the invitation. That would be asking for trouble. Given China's motive for developing stronger ties, Taiwanese not in favour of this would simply use it as a chance to protest, and perhaps throw shoes at Mr Xi.\nMr Ma says the past seven years have brought about the most stable and peaceful period in cross-strait relations in 66 years. One of his hopes before his presidency ends next May is to use these talks to institutionalise meetings between leaders of the two sides so that relations will stay on the right track, and the two sides can have dialogue at the highest level, regardless of which political party comes into power in Taiwan.\nBut Mr Xi would probably say: \"That all depends on whether the next leader agrees to our condition.\" And the condition is to accept that Taiwan and mainland China are part of one China. So far, the candidate tipped to win, Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence opposition party, has refused to do that.\nIt's almost sacrilegious in the shared Chinese culture of Taiwan and China to split the bill in a formal banquet, but at the Singapore dinner, the two sides will have to deal with the awkward moment when the bill comes.\nThey've decided to split it because not doing so would give the impression that one is a host and the other a guest, and that they are not meeting on an equal level. And that would cause trouble for Mr Ma, because he's facing domestic pressure not to give any suggestion that Taiwan is a lesser, weaker party in the talks.\nBut while some think Mr Ma shouldn't meet Mr Xi, others believe two former enemies agreeing to talk can only be a good thing. They hope the talks can raise mutual understanding and trust - and perhaps that will happen over a few glasses of Singapore Sling." ]

[ "Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou shook hands at the start of the talks, which were seen as largely symbolic.\nChina views Taiwan as a breakaway province which will one day be reunited with the mainland.\nBut many Taiwanese see it as independent and are concerned at China's growing influence.\nThe awkward questions that could crop up\nWhat's behind the China-Taiwan divide?\n\"Both sides should respect each other's values and way of life,\" Mr Ma said as the talks began at a luxury hotel.\nMr Xi told the Taiwanese leader: \"We are one family.\"\nThe meeting \"has opened a historic chapter in the cross-Strait relations, and history will remember today\", he added.\nThe meeting took place in neutral territory on the sidelines of a state visit by Mr Xi to Singapore.\nRelations between China and Taiwan have improved under Mr Ma since he took office in 2008, with better economic ties, improving tourism links, and a trade pact signed.\nThe two sides split in 1949 when the Kuomintang lost to the Chinese Communist Party in the civil war and set up a new government in Taiwan.\nMr Ma described the talks as \"positive and friendly\", but no major agreements or deals appear to have been reached.\nMr Ma said in advance that the issue of the South China Sea disputes, which has dominated recent concerns in the region, would not be brought up.\nMr Ma proposed reducing hostility across the Taiwan Strait, expanding exchanges and establishing a cross-strait hotline, according to Taiwan's central news agency.\nHe said this was part of consolidating the \"1992 consensus\" - the agreement under which both sides recognise the principle of \"one China\" but define it in their own ways.\nSimilar remarks were made by Mr Xi, who said upholding the consensus would help \"the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation\".\nIt is not entirely clear why the meeting has happened at this time, as neither side has properly said.\nMr Ma has built his presidency on closer links with China, so there is a good reason for him to meet Mr Xi, says the BBC World Service's Asia editor, Michael Bristow.\nThere is also a presidential election in Taiwan in January. Mr Ma might think the meeting will give a boost to his party's candidate, who is trailing in the polls, our correspondent says.\nChina also has something to gain, and that also concerns Taiwan's election. Mr Xi's decision to talk reminds Taiwanese voters that China is far friendlier to a government of Mr Ma's nationalist party than one formed by the opposition, which leans towards independence for Taiwan.\nIt is a calculated gamble for Mr Xi, as China's attempts to influence Taiwanese voters have previously backfired, our correspondent adds.\nTaiwan profile\nChina profile\nGrowing fears over China's influence have led to widespread dissatisfaction in Taiwan.\nPresident Ma's Kuomintang (KMT) Party suffered a crushing defeat in local elections last year, a result that was widely seen as a rejection of Mr Ma's push for closer ties with China.\nIn the Taiwanese capital there were protests before the talks and one group tried to enter the parliament building.\nState media in China heralded the meeting, with an editorial in the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily calling it a \"victory of peace and rationality\".\nIt said critics were \"displaying jiggery-pokery from a small circle. Such extremism is bound to be stigmatised\".", "Ms Tsai, 59, leads the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that wants independence from China.\nIn her victory speech, she vowed to preserve the status quo in relations with China, adding Beijing must respect Taiwan's democracy and both sides must ensure there are no provocations.\nChina sees the island as a breakaway province - which it has threatened to take back by force if necessary.\nIn her speech, Ms Tsai hailed a \"new era\" in Taiwan and pledged to co-operate with other political parties on major issues.\nThe will of the Taiwanese people would be the basis for relations with China, Ms Tsai said.\n\"I also want to emphasise that both sides of the Taiwanese Strait have a responsibility to find mutually acceptable means of interaction that are based on dignity and reciprocity.\n\"We must ensure that no provocations or accidents take place,\" Ms Tsai said, warning that \"any forms of suppression will harm the stability of cross-strait relations\".\nShe thanked the US and Japan for their support and vowed Taiwan would contribute to peace and stability in the region.\nMs Tsai had a commanding lead in the vote count when Eric Chu of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) admitted defeat.\nMr Chu congratulated Tsai Ing-wen and announced he was quitting as KMT head. Taiwan's Premier Mao Chi-kuo also resigned.\nTaiwan's first female leader, shy but steely\nWhy does this election matter?\nWho is running?\nIs it all about the economy?\nWhat's behind the China-Taiwan divide?\nTaiwan profile\nThe election came just months after a historic meeting between the leaders of Taiwan and China.\nHowever, the flagging economy as well as Taiwan's relationship with China both played a role in the voters' choice, correspondents say.\nThe KMT has been in power for most of the past 70 years and has overseen improved relations with Beijing - Ms Tsai's is only the second-ever victory for the DPP.\nThe first was by pro-independence advocate Chen Shui-bian; during his time as president between 2000 and 2008 tensions with China escalated.\nAnalysis: Cindy Sui, BBC News, Taipei\nThe victory by Tsai Ing-wen marks a defeat for not only the pro-unification ruling party KMT but also China.\nDespite the past eight years of reduced tensions and much improved relations built by the KMT and China, Taiwanese voters have voted for Ms Tsai from the pro-independence party instead. Basically, they've voted to keep Beijing at a distance.\nThis reflects not only widespread dissatisfaction with President Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT over insufficient measures to improve the lacklustre economy, low wages and widening wealth gap - it also reflects growing worries by Taiwanese people that the island may become too economically dependent on China and that this will make it hard for Taiwan to fend off pressures by Beijing to reunify with it one day.\nThe message voters have sent Beijing is that, while they want reduced tensions and good relations, they cherish Taiwan's sovereignty, democracy and self-rule even more.\nThe challenge now is for Ms Tsai to find a way to work with China, the island's biggest export market, trade partner and security threat.\nMs Tsai, a former scholar, has said she wants to \"maintain [the] status quo\" with China.\nShe became chairwoman of the DPP in 2008, after it saw a string of corruption scandals.\nShe lost a presidential bid in 2012 but has subsequently led the party to regional election victories. She has won increased support from the public partly because of widespread dissatisfaction over the KMT and President Ma Ying-jeou's handling of the economy and widening wealth gap.\nSaturday's polls come after a historic meeting between President Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in November for talks that were seen as largely symbolic - the first in more than 60 years.\nEric Chu, 54, is the mayor of New Taipei City and stepped up to become chairman of the party in October.\nThe KMT has lost its majority in the legislature for the first time in history.\nThe former accounting professor was seen as popular with young people in the party, but had been unable to change public opinion that is increasingly unhappy with the party's friendly stance towards China and the island's economic travails.\nIn 2014, hundreds of students occupied the parliament in the largest show of anti-China sentiment on the island for years. Labelled the Sunflower Movement, protesters demanded more transparency in trade pacts negotiated with China.\nTaiwan for all practical purposes been independent since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled to the island as the Communists, under Mao Zedong, swept to power.", "The state-owned CCTV channel aired an investigative report which revealed that dozens of hotels in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan offered sex services.\nHours after the report, police arrested 67 people and shut down 12 entertainment venues, while two police chiefs were suspended.\nProstitution is illegal in China, but the sex trade is widespread. However, the TV channel's expose has divided opinion over the legality of prostitution in China.\n\"Some netizens equate freedom of sex to freedom of the sex market… That's why so many of them are sympathising with the sex workers in Dongguan and supporting the legalisation of prostitution,\" Lyu Xinyu, from Fudan University, tells the Xinhua news agency.\nDefending CCTV, the Global Times says the TV network is \"negatively viewed by a certain number of web users\" only.\n\"Nonetheless, prompting a swift wipe-out of the illicit venues, the CCTV has fully demonstrated its capacity to offer objective reports and wield incredible influence,\" the paper adds.\nIn contrast, a commentary in the Legal Daily criticises the report, describing it as \"an alternative advertisement for the 'sex capital' that will instead lure more male comrades to visit\".\n\"Whether it is the one reporting or the one watching the news, everyone is treating the crackdown as a form of entertainment. The question is, why is there never an end to the trade… and since there is a huge demand, is it that other alternatives have gone unnoticed? \"\nElsewhere, media outlets are giving prominent coverage to the four-day scheduled talks between the top officials from China and Taiwan.\nWang Yu-chi, head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, arrived in Nanjing on Tuesday morning and is due to meet his counterpart Zhang Zhijun.\nThe China News Service notes that Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou is \"paying great attention\" to the meeting.\nThese are the highest-level cross-strait talks since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.\nMoving on to domestic news, media are reporting that more provincial areas will implement the \"two-child\" policy, which allows couples to have two children if either of them is an only child.\nThe National Health and Family Planning Commission has confirmed that Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi Provinces have already implemented the \"two-child policy\", with nine other provincial areas expected to be added to the list, according to the Beijing Times.\nChina introduced its one-child policy at the end of the 1970s, but it was relaxed in November last year during the Third Plenum meeting of the Communist Party leadership.\nIn international news, some media outlets are analysing the political inclination of the new Tokyo governor towards China.\nFormer TV presenter and cabinet minister Yoichi Masuzoe was elected Tokyo's governor on Sunday.\nMr Masuzoe is said to be \"pro-nuclear\" and agrees with government plans to restart Japan's nuclear reactors, but the Chinese media say his victory is rather \"positive\" for China.\nThe China Youth Daily notes that Mr Masuzoe has \"never made any right-winged statement nor visited the Yasukuni Shrine\", and may keep his work focused on domestic issues.\nLiu Yongjiang, analyst at the Tsinghua University, tells the Beijing Youth Daily that Mr Masuzoe is \"unlikely to challenge relationships with neighbouring countries\" and his victory is \"a relatively positive outcome amid the current tension between Japan and China\".\nMeanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit China on Friday and \"will reaffirm US commitment to pursuing a positive relationship with China\", reports the Xinhua news agency.\nChina is the second stop in Mr Kerry's Asia trip which will begin on Thursday in South Korea. He will also visit Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.\nThe China Daily notes that US officials seldom skip Japan when they visit China and South Korea, but this time Tokyo has been excluded.\nTao Wenzhao, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, tells the daily that the US has urged Japan to improve its ties with China and South Korea after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine.\n\"The US is unwilling to see the trend of growing right-wing forces in Japan. It is likely that Kerry will reaffirm Washington's stance in China and South Korea,\" he is quoted as saying.\nThe Southern Metropolis Daily says that besides discussing \"general topics\", Mr Kerry's trip might also serve as a warm-up to meetings between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in March.\nBBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.", "China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province. US policy set in 1979 cut formal relations with Taiwan.\nMr Trump's transition team said he and Tsai Ing-wen noted \"close economic, political, and security ties\".\nThe US is Taiwan's most important ally and provides Taiwan with sufficient weaponry to defend itself.\nChina said it had lodged a \"solemn representation\" with Washington.\nAccording to the state news agency Xinhua, China urged the US \"to cautiously, properly handle Taiwan issue to avoid unnecessary disturbance to Sino-US relations\".\nForeign Minister Wang Yi dismissed the call as a \"petty trick\" by Taiwan, Chinese state media said.\nMr Trump tweeted on Friday that Ms Tsai had called him to congratulate him on winning the US election.\nHis team said that the US president-elect had also congratulated Ms Tsai on becoming the president of Taiwan last January.\nNo US president or president-elect has spoken directly to a Taiwanese leader for decades.\nFollowing media reports pointing out the risks of angering China, Mr Trump tweeted: \"Interesting how the US sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.\"\nThe White House has said Mr Trump's conversation does not signal any change in US policy. US media reported that the White House learned of the call only after it had happened.\nMr Trump's spokeswoman said he was \"well aware\" of US policy towards Taiwan.\nRead more: What's behind the China-Taiwan divide?\nThe split between China and Taiwan goes back to 1949, when the Republic of China (ROC) Kuomintang (KMT) government fled the mainland to Taiwan after being defeated by the communists under Mao Zedong. The KMT held China's seat on the UN Security Council and was, for a while, recognised by many Western nations as the only Chinese government.\nBut in 1971, the UN switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing. Only a handful of countries now recognise Taiwan's government.\nWashington cut formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, expressing its support for Beijing's \"one country, two systems\" concept, which states that Taiwan is part of China.\nBut despite the cut, the US remains, by far, Taiwan's most important friend, and its only ally.\nThe Taiwan Relations Act promises to supply Taiwan with defensive weapons. It says that any attack by China on Taiwan would be considered of \"grave concern\" to the US.\nChina has hundreds of missiles pointing towards Taiwan, and has threatened to use force if it formally declares independence.\nPresident Tsai, Taiwan's first female leader, led the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to a landslide victory in the January 2016 election.\nThe DPP has traditionally leaned towards independence from China. President Tsai's administration does not accept the \"One China\" policy.\nRead more: Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's shy but steely leader\nMr Trump's decision to turn his back on four decades of US protocol on Taiwan and speak directly to a president of Taiwan has stunned policymakers in Beijing.\nSince his election last month, they have struggled to understand who is advising Donald Trump on Asia and what his China policy will look like.\nThis move will turn concern into alarm and anger.\nBeijing sees Taiwan as a province. Denying it any of the trappings of an independent state is one of the key priorities of Chinese foreign policy.\nRead more from Carrie: The Trump phone call that will stun Beijing\nChina's reaction is relatively mild. It doesn't want to get off on the wrong foot with Mr Trump. And it sees Mr Trump as an inexperienced politician, so for now it's willing to forgive him and not play this up.\nIt may also be somewhat reassured by statements from the US that its policy on China and Taiwan has not changed. But behind the scenes it's safe to say China is working hard to \"educate\" the Trump team on not repeating such diplomatic faux pas.\nThis move by Taiwan's President Tsai will further infuriate Beijing and make it distrust her even more and see her as favouring Taiwan's formal independence from China.", "The US said the deal was consistent with its \"long-standing policy on arms sales to Taiwan\".\nBut China has said it is strongly opposed to the sale, and has pledged to sanction the US firms involved in it.\nThe deal, the first in four years, comes as US-China relations fray over China's construction of artificial islands in the South China sea.\nTwo decommissioned US Navy frigates, anti-tank missiles, amphibious assault vehicles, as well as surface-to-air missiles and other equipment are all included in the deal.\nThe deal will be approved in 30 days, unless Congress objects. But this is thought unlikely as there has been growing concern by Democrats and Republicans about Taiwan's ability to defend itself from China's growing military might.\nState Department spokesman John Kirby said sale was consistent with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which requires the US to provide Taiwan with sufficient weaponry to defend itself, even though the US does not recognise Taiwan as a state independent of China.\n\"There's no need for it to have any derogatory effect on our relationship with China,\" he told reporters. \"We still want to work to establish a better, more transparent, more effective relationship with China in the region and we're going to continue to work at that.\"\nBut China summoned the US charge d'affaires in Beijing to protest against the sale.\n\"Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. China strongly opposes the US arms sale to Taiwan,\" Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.\nChina views Taiwan as a breakaway province which will one day be reunited with the mainland, but relations have warmed in recent weeks. Leaders from both countries met last month for the first time since the end of the civil war in 1949.\nPrevious US sales to Taiwan have totalled over $12bn, according to the White House.\nSenate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain called for \"a more regularised process\" for selling weapons to Taiwan, saying it was needed \"in order to avoid extended periods in which a fear of upsetting the US-China relationship may harm Taiwan's defend capabilities\".\nTensions have risen between China and the US in recent months amid concerns from Washington that Beijing is building man-made islands in the South China Sea; the US believes that China is using the islands to expand its maritime territorial claims.\nIn October, the USS Lassen sailed in the Spratly archipelago as a challenge to China's claim over the islands.", "It has involved a K-pop star, a mass cabinet resignation, a Facebook spam assault, Taiwan's new \"first family of cats\", and a veiled military warning from China.\nEach of these controversies exposes the issues that could take the island on a very different path.\nIt seems like so long ago but election day, last Saturday, was when Taiwanese youth rallied behind Chou Tzuyu, the 16-year-old Taiwanese K-pop singer who was forced to apologise for showing the island's flag on a Korean TV show.\nMany believe the anger that prompted could have helped Ms Tsai, whose DPP party has traditionally favoured independence from China, which in turn sees the island as a province that must be reunited with the mainland.\nNow Taiwanese celebrities who have called themselves Chinese, including Mando-pop singer Jay Chou, are under fire. Many simply want Chinese fans to identify with them and are probably only referring to their ethnic identity.\nBut this election has shown that obstacles remain despite growing contact and improved ties with mainland China. One recent survey suggested a majority of the island see themselves as Taiwanese.\nBeijing will have to re-evaluate its strategy of winning over the Taiwanese with trade, tourism and economic perks. Analysts say it would do better to narrow the huge gap in the two sides' political systems.\nDays after her victory, Chinese netizens began waging a war of words on Ms Tsai's Facebook page.\nComments on the site went from 10,000 to 45,000 per day, as users weighed in criticising her pro-independence views.\nMany posted the same Chinese slogans, including: \"Honour to those who love the motherland, shame on those who harm the motherland.\"\nIt may be a campaign orchestrated by the Chinese government, which normally blocks Facebook and is believed to employ an army of people to post comments online reflecting its policies.\nHowever some posts seemed genuine.\nOne Chinese netizen Chen Jun-lin wrote: \"Everything we do is to narrow the distance between each other's heart. We reject any action on both sides to split the two sides, and Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.\"\nMs Tsai simply replied to the comments with a photo post: \"The greatness of this country lies in how every single person can exercise their right to be himself or herself.\"\nIt remains a fascinating insight into cross-strait views and some believe such open communication may, ironically, lead to increased understanding.\nOne report on China's state-owned CCTV channel this week said China's military \"recently\" carried out live fire drills off the coast of Fujian province directly across from Taiwan.\nBut Taiwan's defence ministry says the pictures were from exercises carried out last year and there were no recent drills.\nEither way, it is a warning for Ms Tsai.\nThe mass resignation of Taiwan's incumbent cabinet was expected after the election defeat.\nBut the next cabinet is being closely watched. Will Ms Tsai try to tap the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party's experienced China negotiators to help maintain good ties with Beijing?\nAnalysts say her words and actions since winning have confirmed to China she's pro-independence, but it recognises her as a pragmatic politician.\nBeijing's \"wait and see\" grace period for Ms Tsai is expected to end by the time she finishes her inaugural address, and it is unlikely to bend on China's territorial claims.\nMs Tsai meanwhile seems to be trying to shore up Taiwan's alliances and boost trade with its most powerful allies the United States and Japan, to minimise Taiwan's economic dependence on China and seek security protection.\nShe met representatives from both countries this week and sent the DPP's secretary-general Joseph Wu to the US.\nWhile she has pledged to maintain the status quo and not provoke China, some US officials have said they want Taiwan to be an integral part of America's Asian security strategy.\nChina will view this as an attempt by Washington to use Taiwan to counterbalance its weight in the South China Sea dispute, an alliance that could lead to an even harder stance from Beijing.\nTaiwan's parliament is notorious for its shoe-throwing, water splashing and scuffles.\nBut now that Ms Tsai's party won a majority of the seats for the first time in history, it will be able to push through significant reforms without getting physical.\nIts priority will be to seize the assets of the KMT, believed to have been taken when it fled to Taiwan at the end of China's civil war and began ruling the island.\nThat could reduce the century-old party, one of the world's richest and once most powerful, to a much less influential force.\nThe DPP-controlled parliament will also change laws to reduce the power of the ruling KMT party's chairman so that ordinary party members who do not share his views, including on unifying with China, will be able to balance his power.\nThe parliament will also try to amend the constitution to make it easier for referendums to be held, which means the issue of independence may one day be decided by the Taiwanese people.\nRegardless, newly elected legislator heavy metal singer Freddy Lim could add a new flavour to parliament.\nAttention has also turned to Taiwan's new \"first family\" as they are being dubbed: Ms Tsai and her two cats Cookie and A-Tsai.\nMs Tsai found time to post more pictures of them this week. Cookie was rescued after a typhoon by a DPP member and given to Ms Tsai. Ms. Tsai came across A-Tsai in a pineapple field and the farmer convinced her to take him home.\nIt's an unusual so-called \"first family\", but so then was the island's first week after a landmark poll.", "At the concert held on Saturday at the University of Manchester, attended mainly by students from Taiwan and mainland China, Chang took a Taiwanese flag from a group of fans in the front row and unfurled it on stage.\n\"I see there are also people who bring a national flag to the concert,\" the 32-year-old singer-songwriter said, adding \"I have not felt so patriotic for a while... and I am from Taiwan.\"\nChang was soon interrupted by a female Chinese student, who shouted in English: \"There are students from mainland here. No politics today!\"\nTo which Chang replied, \"It's not politics, it is just a flag that represents where I am from.\"\nIt was a minor argument involving two people, and other Chinese students at the concert did not get involved.\nBut when the incident was disclosed on the internet, it attracted massive interest and on Tuesday became one of the top trending topics on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.\nMany online commentators accused Chang of openly declaring Taiwan's independence and being arrogant towards Chinese students in the audience.\nSome even told the singer to stay away from mainland China and leave the entertainment industry.\n\"Please never come to the mainland and never release albums here,\" wrote Weibo user \"Shen Xiaotang\".\nChina and Taiwan split in 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party overthrew the Republic of China (ROC) and founded the People's Republic on the mainland, forcing the ROC government to retreat to Taiwan.\nMany mainland Chinese support Beijing's claim that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and therefore find Chang's display of the Taiwanese flag unacceptable.\nBut not all Chinese netizens share this sentiment. In fact, many have come to Chang's defence and have criticised her critics for over-reacting.\n\"Some people have over-reacted again. Their sensitive nerves can only expose their fragility and sense of inferiority,\" said \"April Zi\".\nTo some netizens, it is absurd to accuse Chang of being a separatist due to this incident, because the flag she showed at the concert used to be the national flag of China before 1949 and is not a symbol of Taiwan's pro-independence forces.\nWeibo user \"Old Q\" said: \"Those who accuse Chang of supporting Taiwan independence have been brainwashed. You can afford to be ignorant, but you cannot afford to lack such basic common sense.\"\nAs the online debate raged on, rumours began to circulate that Chang's career in China was in danger.\nAccording to major Chinese and Hong Kong entertainment media outlets, which have given extensive coverage to the incident, Chang's 30 December Beijing concert could be cancelled by the Chinese authorities.\nThe Taiwanese government weighed in on Wednesday to try to minimise the damage to cross-strait relations.\nWang Yu-chi, the head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, said Chang had not done anything wrong and that he would be \"pained\" if her Beijing concert is cancelled simply because of the flag row.\nWhen asked about her take on the incident, a Chinese spokeswoman on cross-strait relations avoided discussing the possible cancellation of the concert.\nTalking to Taiwanese media, Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, simply said that Beijing hopes people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait could \"enhance mutual understanding\" and \"work together for a Chinese renaissance\".\nBBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.", "Mother Josephine's parents fled to Taiwan from China with the retreating Nationalist party after it lost the civil war to the Communists in the late 1940s. They believed the Republic of China and mainland China were part of the same country and that is what she was taught.\nFather Clyde worked for years at Taiwan's agency promoting trade, including with China. He and Mrs Wang believe Taiwan must have good relations with its biggest trade partner and former enemy, which wants Taiwan to be reunified one day. They don't support unification or independence, but maintaining the status quo.\nBut son Kevin, 30, strongly feels Taiwan is a separate country and must assert its independence or risk being swallowed up by China.\n\"My parents still think we are Chinese. In university I began doubting what I had been taught was correct,\" Kevin said. \"Now I believe Taiwan should be independent in all ways possible.\n\"The current government of the Republic of China in Taiwan is still inextricably tied to the concept that we are a part of China, so we need to cut the umbilical cord.\"\nPeople like Kevin have joined the so-called Sunflower Movement, which last year occupied parliament for 24 days sparking the largest anti-China demonstration in years.\nThey blocked the legislative approval of a controversial trade deal with China and forced the government to agree to a new law allowing more public oversight of negotiations with Beijing.\nThough activities on the one-year anniversary in March were relatively small, and parliament is once again occupied by legislators, it's far from business as usual.\nThe movement has made many people feel that they, not just the government or ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party, should have a say in what kind of relationship Taiwan develops with China.\nIt has also contributed to a major defeat for the pro-China ruling party in November local elections. If it further fuels fears about China and dissatisfaction with the KMT, it could help the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) win next year's presidential race.\nAt the same time, it is pushing for reforms to Taiwan's referendum law to make it easier for referenda to pass.\nSunflower leaders say this will advance Taiwan's democratisation and safeguard its sovereignty by allowing the people to directly decide issues, including Taiwan's separate identity and relationship with China.\n\"If recognition of Taiwan's identity can be protected, then that will further Taiwan's self-rule. This is very important to us,\" said Sunflower leader Lin Fei-fan.\nBut not everyone supports the movement.\nThough many deals have been signed with China in recent years, including some widely considered beneficial to Taiwan, would-be agreements are now on hold indefinitely.\nThis is causing concern from not only businesses such as banks that need greater access to China's market, but others who also believe it's crucial for the small island of Taiwan to have stronger ties with China, especially economic ones.\nThat includes Jen-Hsuan Hsieh, a recent university graduate. \"The whole world is trying to understand China. We should do the same,\" she said.\n\"Even if you consider it your enemy, you should still understand your enemy well.\"\nA freelance interpreter, she is looking for work in China, where the opportunities are greater and wages higher.\nShe's not alone. A recent survey showed about one third of Taiwanese in their 20s and 30s want to work in China; more than in previous years.\nThat raises the question of whether time is on China's side or Taiwan's.\nWith time, Taiwan's economy and people's livelihoods may become more interlinked with China, making it easier for Beijing to push for unification.\nBut with time, Taiwanese people could grow even more adamant about the island's separate entity. A survey conducted late last year by the local China Youth Corps found nearly 90% of junior and senior-high school students regarded themselves as Taiwanese, rather than Chinese.\nSome suggest that if China becomes democratic, and its average living standard reaches Taiwan's level, differences between the two sides will be blurred, and if its people understand more about Taiwan with time, their views about unification may weaken, making such a debate unnecessary.\nFor now, Beijing is watching the Sunflower Movement closely. However, it may be unsure how to react, partly because it's no longer about dealing with one political party versus another, but many civic groups and individuals driving the movement.\nSo far, it has mainly suggested reaching out to Taiwan's young people.\nBack at the Wang home, the family avoid discussing the issue of Taiwan's sovereignty or Kevin's part in the movement until they are asked. But it's clear he wants to become more involved.\n\"Maintaining the status quo will inevitably mean reunification with China. What a lot of people in our generation are pushing for right now is de jure independence, formal independence,\" he said.\nHis parents accept that his generation will ultimately decide their society's future; they just hope it makes the right decisions.\n\"We don't know what's going to happen in a couple more generations,\" said his father, Clyde. \"I don't think it's a good idea to antagonise China and to provoke war across the strait.\"\n\"What I like to see happen in the future is eventually this historical problem will be solved in a very peaceful way.\"", "Conservationists had called for the villa, a cultural heritage site, to be converted into a museum.\nBut officials said the decision to lease it to McDonald's was made because they needed to cover maintenance costs.\nMr Chiang's grandson and others have voiced their concern over the commercialisation of the site.\nMcDonald's opened the 100-seat McCafe in the lower storey of the villa, situated by the city's West Lake tourist attraction, over the weekend.\nThe upper storey, also leased out by officials, houses a Starbucks outlet which opened a month earlier.\nChiang Ching-Kuo is the son of revolutionary figure and Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to the island in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War.\nChiang Ching-Kuo later become the leader of Taiwan in 1978.\nChiang Ching-Kuo and his family stayed in the villa from October to November, 1948, and it was designated a cultural heritage site by Hangzhou officials in 2003.\nWhat's behind the China-Taiwan divide?\nThe move has been criticised by Chiang's grandson, Taiwanese businessman Demos Chiang, on microblogging platform Weibo.\n\"I don't understand, opening a McDonald's in the villa... how exactly does that adhere to regulations on correct usage of cultural heritage sites?\" he said in a post.\nIn 2000, Beijing saw a similar controversy when a Starbucks outlet opened in the Forbidden City.\nIt shut in 2007 after officials decided to merge and cut down the number of shops in the palace, following multiple protests over the years about the commercialisation of the site.\nBeijing Youth Daily reported that the decision to commercially lease out the villa was met with strong resistance, with more than 90% attendees at a public consultation in January voting against it.\nConservationists suggested that the villa be turned into a historical museum promoting China-Taiwan ties.\nOne of them, Zhejiang University academic Zhou Fuduo, noted that the villa was a symbol of China and Taiwan's shared history.\n\"We said that the villa's sociocultural value outstrips its commercial value, but in the end our proposal was ignored,\" he told the paper.\nBut officials pointed out that the local government needed money to recoup the cost of maintaining the building throughout the years.\nA spokesman for the Zhejiang local government, which oversees Hangzhou city, told the newspaper: \"Chiang Ching-kuo stayed in this home too briefly and what is left is just the main structure, the interiors look nothing like they used to when the Chiang family was here... there is not much point in turning it into a museum.\"", "Many of the elements that make up the foundation of the modern world originated in China, including paper, gunpowder, credit banking, the compass and paper money.\nChina stagnated for more than two decades under the rigid Communist rule of the founder of the People's Republic, Mao Zedong.\nBut China now has the world's fastest-growing economy and is undergoing what has been described as a second industrial revolution.\nIt has also launched an ambitious space exploration programme, involving plans to set up a space station by 2020.\nThe People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949 after the Communist Party defeated the previously dominant nationalist Kuomintang in a civil war.\nThe Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan, creating two rival Chinese states - the PRC on the mainland and the Republic of China based on Taiwan.\nChina profile - home\nCountry profiles - home\nCountry profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring\nBeijing says the island of Taiwan is a part of Chinese territory that must be reunited with the mainland.\nThe claim has in the past led to tension and threats of invasion, but since 2008 the two governments have moved towards a more cooperative atmosphere.\nThe leadership of Mao Zedong oversaw the often brutal implementation of a Communist vision of society.\nMillions died in the Great Leap Forward - a programme of state control over agriculture and rapid industrialisation - and the Cultural Revolution, a chaotic attempt to root out elements seen as hostile to Communist rule.\nHowever, Mao's death in 1976 ushered in a new leadership and economic reform. In the early 1980s the government dismantled collective farming and again allowed private enterprise.\nThe rate of economic change has not been matched by political reform, with the Communist Party - the world's largest political party - retaining its monopoly on power and maintaining strict control over the people.\nThe authorities still crack down on any signs of opposition and send outspoken dissidents to labour camps.\nNowadays China is one of the world's top exporters and is attracting record amounts of foreign investment. In turn, it is investing billions of dollars abroad.\nThe collapse in international export markets that accompanied the global financial crisis of 2009 initially hit China hard, but its economy was among the first in the world to rebound, quickly returning to growth.\nIn February 2011 it formally overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, though by early 2012 the debt crisis in the eurozone - one of the biggest markets for Chinese goods - was beginning to act as a drag on China's growth.\nAs a member of the World Trade Organisation, China benefits from access to foreign markets. But relations with trading partners have been strained over China's huge trade surplus and the piracy of goods.\nThe former has led to demands for Beijing to raise the value of its currency, the renminbi, which would make Chinese goods more expensive for foreign buyers and possibly hold back exports. Beijing has responded with a gradual easing of restrictions on trading in the currency.\nSome Chinese fear that the rise of private enterprise and the demise of state-run industries carries heavy social costs such as unemployment and instability.\nMoreover, the fast-growing economy has fuelled the demand for energy. China is the largest oil consumer after the US, and the world's biggest producer and consumer of coal. It spends billions of dollars in pursuit of foreign energy supplies. There has been a massive investment in hydro-power, including the $25bn Three Gorges Dam project.\nThe economic disparity between urban China and the rural hinterlands is among the largest in the world. In recent decades many impoverished rural dwellers have flocked to the country's eastern cities, which have enjoyed a construction boom.\nBy the beginning of 2012, city dwellers appeared to outnumber the rural population for the first time, according to official figures.\nSocial discontent manifests itself in protests by farmers and workers. Tens of thousands of people travel to Beijing each year to lodge petitions with the authorities in the hope of finding redress for alleged corruption, land seizures and evictions.\nOther pressing problems include corruption, which affects every level of society, and the growing rate of HIV infection. A downside of the economic boom has been environmental degradation; China is home to many of the world's most-polluted cities.\nHuman rights campaigners continue to criticise China for executing hundreds of people every year and for failing to stop torture, as well as for continuing to censor political and artistic expression.\nThe country is keen to stamp down on what it sees as dissent among its ethnic minorities, including Muslim Uighurs in the north-west.\nChinese rule over Tibet is controversial. Human rights groups accuse the authorities of the systematic destruction of Tibetan Buddhist culture and the persecution of monks loyal to the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader who is campaigning for autonomy within China.", "The broadside by China Daily is the latest in a series of rebukes by China's government and state media.\nMr Trump said in an interview on Friday that the policy was negotiable.\nUnder the longstanding policy, the US recognises Beijing as the only Chinese government, while maintaining an unofficial relationship with Taiwan.\nChina sees Taiwan as a breakaway province and opposes its independence.\nWhat is the 'One China' policy?\nWhat's behind the China-Taiwan divide?\nTaiwan: A pawn in Trump's chess game with China?\nMr Trump has questioned this arrangement, most recently in an interview with the Wall Street Journal where he said \"everything is under negotiation including One China\".\nChina Daily said in an unusually strongly-worded editorial on Monday that Mr Trump was \"playing with fire with his Taiwan game\".\nIt said his latest comments appeared to show he intended to use the One China policy as a \"trump card\" and \"bargaining chip\".\n\"If Trump is determined to use this gambit on taking office, a period of fierce, damaging interactions will be unavoidable, as Beijing will have no choice but to take off the gloves,\" it said.\nThe editorial follows other Chinese warnings made over the weekend in reaction to Mr Trump's latest remarks.\nOn Saturday evening, China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the One China policy was \"non-negotiable\".\n\"The government of the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing China... That is the fact acknowledged by the international community and no one can change (it).\"\nAn Fengshan, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, also said that any change could mean \"the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait will be seriously impacted\".\nA commentary by the hawkish Global Times newspaper called Mr Trump \"inexperienced and complacent\", adding: \"In the past, Trump infuriated us, but now we find him risible.\"\nIt warned that Mr Trump would meet \"strong countermeasures\" should he change the policy, including moves to \"speed up Taiwan reunification and mercilessly combat\" Taiwan independence advocates.\nMr Trump stunned observers in December when he accepted a phone call from Taiwan's leader Tsai Ing-wen, the first involving a US president or president-elect in decades.\nHe then questioned the One China policy in a Fox News interview that same month.\nThe Chinese government's official reactions so far have been marked by restraint, urging Mr Trump and the US to maintain healthy ties with China and dismissing the phone call as a \"petty trick\" perpetrated by Taiwan.\nBut state media have been more openly critical of Mr Trump and have warned of serious action by Beijing.", "The president-elect upset almost 40 years of US practice in the region by taking a call from the Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen.\nIt was an unprecedented breach of the protocol that undergirds the One China Policy, which says Taiwan is part of China and not an independent country.\nAnd it raised questions about whether Mr Trump would follow through on campaign pledges to take a tougher line with Beijing.\nChina has identified Taiwan as its most important core interest. Since the Kuomintang retreated to the island in 1949 following defeat in the civil war, China has insisted Taiwan is a renegade province that will eventually be reunited with the mainland.\nIn 1979 the US agreed to go along with this approach, deciding to recognise Beijing instead of Taipei. The One China Policy remains the foundation of that relationship.\nGiven what's at stake some China experts and politicians have suggested that Donald Trump blundered unknowingly on to sensitive territory with his penchant for improvised diplomacy.\n\"I don't think there was any strategy behind it and I think the effort to push out a story line or a narrative that this was actually a well-thought-about change in direction is highly dubious,\" the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, told the BBC, saying conflicting accounts made the exchange sound haphazard.\nMr Trump's transition team did send mixed messages. His Vice President-elect Michael Pence initially played down the conversation as a courtesy call initiated by Taiwan that was not about policy.\nBut Mr Trump followed up with a confrontational flurry of tweets criticising Beijing's economic and security practices. He showed no remorse and made no gestures to reaffirm the One China Policy.\nNumerous reports since have detailed the influence of China hawks and Taiwan proponents amongst his advisors. And it's emerged that the call was brokered by the lobbyist and former republican senator Bob Dole, who Taipei has been paying to gain access to Mr Trump's inner circle.\n\"I think it was prearranged and deliberate and Donald Trump knew what it was about,\" says Walter Lohman, Director of Asian Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation.\nSo what was it about? In and of itself, the call is not a policy shift.\nThe One China agreement doesn't specifically prohibit contact between American and Taiwanese leaders, although past US presidents have refrained from picking up the phone so as not to upset China.\nAnd right from 1979, there was criticism in Washington over US treatment of Taiwan, says Robert Daly, Director for the Kissinger Institute on China at the Woodrow Wilson Center.\nThat's especially so among Republicans, who have longstanding personal and in some cases business ties with the democratic country that seems a more like-minded ally than Beijing.\nThe talk among Mr Trump's advisers is not about recognising Taiwan, but regularising the way the US interacts with it, says Mr Lohman, which does not mean overturning the One China Policy.\nIt's doubtful Beijing would see it that way.\nAs for President-elect Trump, there is no policy yet on Taiwan, or on China more broadly - or even a discernible strategy.\nBut there has been extraordinarily fiery campaign rhetoric.\nAs a candidate, Mr Trump accused Beijing of \"raping\" the United States with its trade policies and threatened to levy a punishing tariff on Chinese goods.\nHard-line Republicans have welcomed the Taiwan telephone call as evidence that Mr Trump the president would continue confronting China.\n\"He showed the dictators in Beijing that he's not a pushover,\" Representative Dana Rohrabacher told Fox News.\nOthers have suggested that the president-elect wants to use Taiwan as a bargaining chip for a better economic deal.\n'This whole idea of finding ways to strengthen and increase the level of contact with and support for Taiwan is not only sure to drive China crazy, but at the same time give us some leverage over China,\" says Patrick Cronin at the Center for New American Security.\n\"Because this could become the new normal if we're not happy with the overall relationship.\"\nThus far, China has been fairly restrained, blaming Tsai Ing-wen for a \"petty trick\".\nThe response to the Twitter tirade was tougher - an editorial in the official People's Daily warned that \"creating troubles for the China-US relationship is creating troubles for the US itself.\"\nBut Beijing still left diplomatic space to formulate a new relationship with the Trump administration.\nRobert Daly predicts a long adjustment period with a more adversarial tone, because the incoming administration appears to see the relationship as fundamentally competitive.\nThat would potentially leave less room for the kind of co-operation President Obama emphasised on global issues such as climate change, and containing North Korea's nuclear militarisation.\n\"The people advising Trump on Taiwan were pleased with the results (of the call),\" Mr Daly says. \"That likely means similar actions going forward.\"\nMr Trump continues to send mixed signals. Just days after igniting a diplomatic firestorm over Taiwan, he soothed tensions by naming Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, a long-time friend of Beijing, as his Ambassador to China.\nStill, there are many ways China could respond to further provocations.\nAnd it would respond, says Meredith Sumpter of the Eurasiagroup, \"in a direct and probably proportional way, but one that hurts US business and commercial interests\".\nEconomically, a lot of trade and investment is at stake.\nWhen it comes to security issues, Beijing could decide to be more or less aggressive on disputes in the South China Sea and on North Korea sanctions.\nAnd it has never dropped its threat of force to settle the status of Taiwan, so the Taiwanese people could end up paying the biggest price.\nOne test of relations could come next month when Ms Tsai is expected to transit through the US on her way to Central America.\nHer office has denied reports that she will try to meet Mr Trump's transition team.\nAnother could arise in April when the Treasury Department is set to publish a \"currency\" report that might prompt Mr Trump to act on his threats to label China a currency manipulator.", "In December, a joint Spanish-Chinese operation busted what police said was a massive international phone scamming syndicate.\nAlthough most of the 269 suspects arrested were Taiwanese nationals, Beijing asked for the entire group to be sent to China. Last month, the Spanish government approved the request.\nTaiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province that will eventually be reunited with the mainland, has protested that the decision violates historical European human rights norms and the \"principle of nationality\".\nBut the reality is that it can do little to stop the transfer. Spain, like most countries, doesn't formally recognise Taiwan as a state.\nAnalysts say China's stance on the issue reflects the tougher line it has taken towards Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen, whose party leans towards formal independence, won elections in January last year.\nThe mainland has also spoken of its frustration with Taiwan, accusing it of failing to rein in thousands of its nationals who dupe Chinese people via phone scams from abroad.\nFrom luxury villas in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante, the mostly Taiwanese scammers are said to have called endless lists of telephone numbers in China.\nBehind curtained windows and fuelled by energy drinks, members of the crime syndicate worked through the night, hoping to deceive victims on the other side of the world.\nThe scam, according to Spanish police, operated in three stages. First, a fraudster would call a would-be victim, presenting themselves as a neighbour or friend, and offering a seemingly well-meaning warning about a rising incidence of scams in the area.\nLater, another operator would pose as a policeman, telling the person that they were a potential target for fraudsters or, in some cases, that they had already been defrauded.\nThen the final ruse: Posing as a police or judicial investigator, a scammer would ask the victim to transfer money into a special bank account, so the \"fraudsters\" could be tracked.\nUsing this method, more than €16m (£13.9m; $17m) was stolen from thousands of victims in China. Seven people have committed suicide as a result, according to Chinese media.\nThe scam schemes vexing China and Taiwan\nChina claims jurisdiction in the case because the victims are mainland Chinese. This is what it stresses, rather than arguments about sovereignty.\n\"They are not necessarily making a nationality argument that the Taiwanese [suspects] are Chinese,\" says Ernest Caldwell, a Chinese law expert at London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). \"The lynchpin of their argument is that the victims are in China.\"\nHe adds that this is a common reason for extradition in many places, and what Spain is doing is permissible under international law. But China also cites the supposedly lenient treatment given to Taiwanese phone scam suspects when they are sent back home as another reason why the judicial process needs to occur in China.\nLast year, a group of 20 alleged scammers arrested in Malaysia were returned to Taiwan, but quickly released by the authorities, who cited a lack of evidence.\nBeijing reacted angrily, accusing Taiwan of hurting victims \"a second time\". Most of the suspects were then re-arrested, but the case allowed Taiwan to be pummelled in the Chinese press.\nSpain signed an extradition treaty with China in 2005, becoming the first developed Western country to do so. Like most countries it follows a \"one China\" policy, and does not formally recognise Taiwan.\nSpain's Justice Ministry, in a statement to the BBC, referred to all of the 269 suspects held as having \"Chinese nationality\".\nWhat's behind the China-Taiwan divide?\nAlthough the alleged crimes are not death penalty offences in China, there are human rights concerns. Amnesty International researcher Patrick Poon said China's conviction rate of up to 99%, questions about fair trial rights and longstanding fears about torture or ill-treatment should give Spain pause for thought.\nMr Caldwell adds that Spain actually does have the option of sending the suspects back to Taiwan, given they were presumably admitted to the country on Taiwanese passports. Spain says that judicial processes are continuing, and its National Court could still decide to block the extradition.\nBut the approval of the extradition request \"does suggest that the Spanish government is trying to put commercial interests ahead of the human rights of those deported\", said Dafydd Fell, a Taiwan expert at SOAS.\nBefore President Tsai won the election in January 2016, there was better cross-strait co-operation in tackling organised crime. In overseas fraud cases, the Chinese nationals were sent to China, and the Taiwanese to Taiwan, even if that was sometimes via China.\nBut Beijing scrapped this tacit agreement between the two sides last April. Police in Kenya forced 45 Taiwanese, some of whom had actually been acquitted of crimes, onto a plane to China. Taiwan called it an \"illegal abduction\".\nTaiwan's first female leader: Shy but steely\nThe highly publicised episode was widely interpreted as Beijing heaping pressure on Ms Tsai to recognise, like her predecessor, that both sides are part of \"one China\".\nChina changed its policy because of \"political factors\", Chen Ming-tang, a deputy minister in Taiwan's ministry of justice, told the BBC.\nHe said that Taiwan's strategy now \"is to be faster\" than the mainland and get hold of Taiwanese criminal suspects abroad first before Beijing can.\n\"But China is now very actively trying to find them,\" he says. \"It's not necessarily just to put pressure on Tsai, they told us these cases are on the rise in the past and a lot of mainlanders have been victimised.\"\nBetween April 2016 and 22 February this year, 223 Taiwanese phone fraud suspects had been sent to China from countries including Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Armenia, according to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council.\nChina's demand in the Spanish case is being similarly seen as a show of power, and another opportunity to embarrass Taiwan for its citizens' alleged criminal actions.\nBut the mass extradition of such a large group of people from a European Union country will also be seen as a new victory for Beijing over Ms Tsai.\nIt was sometime in 2012 that Mei*, an IT professional working in Shanghai, received the first call. The man on the other end of the line had a southern Chinese accent, possibly Taiwanese. He said was from the ministry of justice.\nHe told Mei that someone was using her credit card \"to do something bad\". She hung up, not trusting the caller. The young woman then started receiving more calls, and text messages, saying that money laundering was the crime in question and that she needed to co-operate.\nThe callers told her that to win her trust they could send her a message from an official government number. They did and she looked it up online. It was the same, apart from one digit.\n\"That made me really confused,\" she said. \"I thought that maybe they were actually the officers and they were just trying to get some information to help [with the investigation].\"\nThey asked if she had any friends or relations who might be involved in illegal activities like money laundering. It just so happened that a previous relationship had gone sour, and financial issues were involved. If it was anyone she knew, she said, it was him.\n\"They told me yes, that guy is very bad.\"\nTo prove she was not involved in money laundering, she was asked to transfer some money to an \"official account\". After a check, the money would be returned, they promised. Mei sent them 100,000 Chinese yuan (£11,700; $14,500).\nIt soon became apparent that she had been scammed. Mei was devastated. She told the police what had happened, but otherwise kept it to herself. She felt ashamed.\nShe wants justice, but says it doesn't matter where the suspects are tried.\n\"They need to know they are doing something wrong, and evil, and need to take responsibility. Whether it's in Taiwan or China I don't care.\"\n*The victim's name has been changed.\nAdditional reporting by the BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei and Yashan Zhao of BBC Chinese", "The Panamanian government said it recognised there was \"only one China\" and considered Taiwan part of it.\nTaiwan expressed \"anger and regret\", and accused Panama of \"bullying\".\nChina regards Taiwan as a breakaway province. A few countries maintain ties with Taipei instead of Beijing, and Panama is the latest to switch sides.\nIn December last year, the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe made a similar move. Now only 20 countries have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.\nIn recent years China has intensified its economic investment into the Central American country - home of the economically vital Panama Canal.\nTaiwan's foreign ministry said in a statement that it expressed \"anger and regret\" over what it called a \"very unfriendly\" diplomatic turn by Panama that \"yielded to economic interests by the Beijing authorities\".\nIt accused Panama of \"bullying\" Taiwan while \"ignoring the many years of friendship\" between the two countries, and added it would \"not compete with the Beijing authorities for money diplomacy\".\nIt was as recently as June last year that Taiwan's leader Tsai Ing-wen visited Panama, on her first overseas trip as president.\nFollowing Panama's announcement, China's state media published photos of the two countries' foreign ministers in Beijing signing a document establishing diplomatic relations and toasting with champagne.\nPanamanian President Juan Carlos Varela said in a televised address that he was \"convinced that this is the correct path for our country\".\nChina's foreign ministry also released a statement (in Chinese) saying that \"the Chinese government and its people highly appreciate and warmly welcome\" the move by Panama.\nThe United Nations in 1971 switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing's People's Republic of China (PRC) and most countries have since followed that lead in order not to antagonise the resurging economic giant.\nMany of Taipei's remaining backers are small island states or in Central and South America - regions that in the past had limited economic ties with China.\nThis is perhaps the biggest blow Taiwan has suffered since relations with Beijing began deteriorating last year.\nBeijing's luring away of Panama is due to political rather than economic reasons. China could have continued investing in Panama without official ties.\nBeijing has lost patience with Tsai Ing-wen, suspecting her of trying to wean Taiwan away from the mainland, economically and politically, with the aim of independence.\nSo China has raised the pressure, cutting off dialogue with Ms Tsai's administration and reducing the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan. It's also keeping Taiwan out of international and regional groups.\nBeijing's moves may strengthen anti-unification sentiment in Taiwan, but it sees not losing Taiwan as a crucial part of its national identity and seems willing to take this risk.\nIf the current stalemate continues, Taiwan risks further economic and political isolation.\nGiven China's rapid growth as an economic and political superpower, it has been increasingly easy for Beijing to sway countries to its side.\nIn the case of Sao Tome and Principe, Taiwan's foreign ministry condemned the move, alleging the island nation had demanded a huge amount of financial support.\nPanama did not give any reason for changing its diplomatic allegiance but there has been growing economic co-operation with China in recent years.\nChinese companies are developing ports in Panama, and Chinese state firms are said to have expressed interest in developing the land around the Panama Canal once the country opens a tender for it later this year.\nThe Panama Canal is a vital shipping route. As China expands its global trade ambitions with its One Belt One Road infrastructure-building initiative, access to the eastern coasts of both South America and the US is expected to be of growing importance for Beijing.\nThe switch by Panama leaves Taiwan with a handful of nations with whom it has diplomatic ties. They are:", "\"Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency\" and \"build a massive military complex?\" he asked. \"I don't think so!\"\nChina said both sides should \"stick to basic principles\" of the relationship.\nLast week Mr Trump risked a diplomatic rift with China by speaking directly with Taiwan's president.\nThe highly unusual move saw China lodge a complaint with the US.\nIn response to the latest tweets, without directly referring to them, the Chinese foreign ministry said the US and China have long had \"highly mutually beneficial\" relations.\nA spokesperson declined to comment on \"he and his team's method and what's the thinking behind it\", referring to Mr Trump.\nThe US has previously criticised China's yuan devaluation, saying it unfairly favours Chinese exporters.\nIt has also told Beijing to stop reclaiming land around islands and reefs which are claimed by multiple countries in the South China Sea, and has sent US Navy ships to the area. Both sides have accused each other of \"militarising\" the region.\nThe US currently imposes tariffs on some Chinese imports, such as steel and tyres. Mr Trump has previously threatened to impose a 45% tariff on Chinese goods.\nDonald Trump's Twitter outburst along with his telephone call with the Taiwanese president has sent an emphatic signal to Beijing that the new US administration's Asia policy may not be business as usual.\nWe don't know if the tweets will continue when Mr Trump enters the White House. But if they do, they threaten not just to ruffle feathers abroad but also to sow uncertainty within his own administration.\nThe president may be the ultimate arbiter but once in office he cannot risk publicly second-guessing his key cabinet appointments. But there's another problem too. The tweet, as a medium, is by definition short and off-the-cuff.\nPolicymaking, by contrast, requires coolness, deliberation and a weighing up of options. The danger is that Twitter diplomacy, for all its honesty, could exacerbate crisis instead of resolving it.\nMr Trump's phone call with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen was thought to be the first time a US leader or leader-in waiting has spoken to a Taiwanese leader since 1979, the year formal ties were severed.\nThe White House has said the phone call did not signal a shift in its decades-long \"One China\" policy stance, which does not recognise Taiwan as an independent sovereign state but also does not recognise Beijing's claim over Taiwan.\nVice President-elect Mike Pence has tried to downplay the call, saying it was a \"tempest in a teapot\" and \"a moment of courtesy\".\nBeijing lodged a \"solemn representation\" with Washington, where it urged the US to \"cautiously and properly handle\" the issue of Taiwan, according to Chinese state media.\nBeijing sees Taiwan as a province and aims to deny it any of the trappings of an independent state. It has threatened to use force if Taiwan formally declares independence.", "The 63-year-old retiree used to practice her religion by praying at temples, but now she volunteers seven days a week at a recycling centre to raise funds for Taiwan's Buddhist association Tzu Chi.\n\"I have no time to go to temples. Praying is not important. Coming here every day is like praying,\" said Ms Hsiao.\nThis is not how most people practice Buddhism in Chinese-speaking or even non-Chinese Buddhist societies. Their faith is usually self-focused: praying for protection in their current life and to be born into a better life after they die.\nBut Taiwan is leading a quiet, yet powerful movement that has turned traditional Buddhism on its head, converting many Buddhists such as Ms Hsiao into doers, not just believers.\nBurning paper money and incense is discouraged - it's bad for the environment. Going to temples is low priority. Even praying too much is frowned upon.\nThe focus now is on what the Taiwanese call \"humanistic Buddhism\" - caring for others and for society. It returns Buddhists to the core principles of Buddhism - speaking good words, thinking good thoughts and doing good deeds.\n\"According to Buddhism, it's not enough to have benefits for oneself only, you must also have benefits for others. We should try to help as many people as we can to be relieved of suffering,\" said Head Abbot Hsin Bao of another major Taiwanese Buddhist association, Fo Guang Shan.\nThe practice has helped Taiwan's leading Buddhist organisations expand in unprecedented ways.\nTzu Chi Foundation - which is at the vanguard of the movement - has seven million followers, including two million overseas.\nIts 100,000 volunteers in Taiwan are seen everywhere in their trademark blue shirts and white trousers. They recycle plastic bottles to raise charity funds, check on elderly people living alone, provide support to poor and at-risk families, tutor children and help respond to natural disasters.\nAnother influential Taiwanese Buddhist group, Dharma Drum Mountain, regularly holds \"Buddhism 101\" classes to teach people how to apply the philosophy to their lives.\nIn one recent class for about 200 people, a psychologist used Buddhism's teachings to advise students on how to recognise and work on their own negative emotions, and how to deal with troubled family relations.\n\"Buddhism's teachings can be used everyday and where's the best place to use them? In your family,\" Yang Pei told the class.\nFo Guang Shan, meanwhile, holds youth camps for children.\n\"These organisations are very different from traditional Buddhism,\" said Kuo Cheng-tian, a professor at National Chengchi University. \"They emphasise lay believers running temples and Buddhist organisations, not just monks. And they use ordinary believers to lead charity missions.\"\nIt is unclear how many Buddhists there are in the world. Buddhism is not an institutionalised religion and many Buddhists also believe in other faiths. But some estimates suggest there are half a billion to one billion Buddhists globally, making it the world's fourth largest religion.\nWhat makes Taiwanese Buddhism unique is its strong emphasis on helping society. Tzu Chi, for example, has provided post-disaster relief in more than 84 countries, including in the Philippines, where it recently paid 50,000 households to rebuild homes destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan.\nWith growing pressure in their rapidly changing society, people in China are increasingly turning to Buddhism. But while a lot of money has been poured into rebuilding temples destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and the temples have collected a vast amount in entrance fees or donations, they don't have the practice of giving back to society, said Fu Xinyi, a Nanjing University academic who specialises in Buddhism.\n\"They build temples for tourism, for money, but they don't know how to spread Buddhism's ideology,\" Mr Fu said. \"This is regrettable. Society has so many problems, Buddhism should play its role in helping people and giving them spiritual guidance.\"\nMainland China can learn from Taiwan, he said, but the government's suspicion of religions will limit Taiwanese Buddhists' ability to spread humanistic Buddhism there.\n\"They can spread the ideology, but the actions can't be as big as in Taiwan because the government will feel threatened,\" Mr Fu said.\nStill, China's people and even leaders are becoming more familiar with Taiwan's Buddhism.\nTzu Chi is the first foreign non-governmental religious organisation to be allowed to set up a branch in China. Chinese President Xi Jinping also recently met with Fo Guang Shan's Master Hsing Yun, who is popular in the mainland.\nChinese leaders may be realizing Buddhism can be a stabilising force in society.\nAnd although Buddhist groups have traditionally been less active, compared to Christian counterparts, in spreading their religion, that is changing.\nTaiwan's major Buddhist associations have their own TV channels, publishing houses, and news agencies, as well as hospitals and universities. They send volunteers to schools to teach children about good behaviour, through storytelling.\nBut they say they are not trying to convert non-believers.\n\"We see no need for you to be converted; we're not aiming to proselytise,\" said Chien Tung-yuan, a Tzu Chi spokesman. \"From the beginning, Shakyamuni (Buddha) taught people to help those who are suffering, without conditions, and not to want anything in return.\"\nChanging the way Buddhism is practiced has not only led to a revival of the religion in Taiwan, but its expansion overseas.\nFo Guang Shan, for example, has 200 temples worldwide, including 20 in Europe and 24 in the US, not just for overseas Taiwanese but local people.\nDharma Drum Mountain, meanwhile, has 125 chapters worldwide, while Tzu Chi boasts many branches in 48 countries. In Malaysia, its members jumped from 100,000 to one million last year.\n\"We want to use Taiwan as a base to spread Buddhism to mainland China and the rest of the world,\" said Fo Guang Shan's Head Abbot Hsin Bao.\nTaiwan is also helping mainland China rediscover the religion. Although Buddhism has nearly 2,000 years of history in China, it had diminished in importance in recent centuries because of wars, political turmoil and suppression, and a focus on modernisation.\nMillions of Chinese listen to Taiwanese masters' teachings on DVDs or MP3s. They download material from websites and spread them online.\nWith improved relations between the two sides in recent years, many Chinese Buddhists leaders and adherents are now able to travel freely to Taiwan. Taiwan's Buddhists also can more easily spread their message in the mainland, even if it is in low-key ways such as repairing a temple or promoting \"reading clubs\" - similar to Bible study.\nScholars believe Taiwan is playing a key role because many charismatic Buddhist leaders fled to the island after the Communists took over the mainland in 1949. Influenced by the respected late Buddhist leader Taixu's calls for contributing to society to gain enlightenment, the masters and their disciples made the idea a reality.\nTaiwan's groups were also influenced by Christianity, adopting practices such as doing charity work.\nAt the same time, growing wealth here meant Taiwan's middle class, especially elderly people, have more money and time to help others, as they seek meaning in life.\nBack at the Taipei recycling centre, more bags of used clothes arrive for Ms Hsiao to sort.\nShe said putting Buddhism's teachings to practice has given her the strength to cope with her mother's sudden death and helped her improve relations with her children.\n'It's opened the knot in my heart,' Ms Hsiao said. Her advice to other Buddhists: \"Don't just believe in Buddhism, do something to help others.\"", "He backed the long-standing agreement during a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the White House said.\nThe One China policy states that there is only one Chinese government.\nMr Trump broke with diplomatic norms in December, by accepting a call from the president of Taiwan, considered a breakaway province by China.\nAs president-elect, Mr Trump also said he saw no reason why the agreement should continue without key concessions from Beijing.\nChina retaliated to the Taiwan phone call by making an official complaint to the US.\nRead more on this story:\nThe telephone conversation on Thursday night was the first between the two since Mr Trump took office on 20 January, though the new US president has called several other national leaders.\nOn Friday, Mr Trump said the conversation was \"very warm\".\nHe added: \"We had a very, very good talk last night, and discussed a lot of subjects. It was a long talk.\"\nHe made the comments during a press conference at the White House with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.\nThe White House said a wide range of issues were discussed during the US-China call, which it characterised as \"extremely cordial\". The two leaders had invited each other to visit, it said.\nA statement from Beijing said China appreciated Mr Trump's acknowledgement of the One China policy, calling the two nations \"co-operative partners\" who could \"push bilateral relations to a historic new high\".\nTaiwan, meanwhile, said it would continue \"close contact\" with the US, pointing out that maintaining good ties with Washington and Beijing was key to regional stability.\nMr Trump has caused concern in Beijing with his stance on trade and the South China Sea, but it was his decision to accept a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen that triggered most alarm.\nThough the US is Taiwan's main military ally, no US president or president-elect had spoken directly to a Taiwanese leader for decades.\nUnder the One China policy, the US recognises and has formal ties with China rather than Taiwan.\nMr Trump had indicated that policy could change, suggesting the US should not abide by One China unless it secured concessions from Beijing on trade.\nComments by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on China's military build-up in the South China Sea further chilled ties. He suggested that the US should block access to artificial islands China is building in disputed waters.\nChinese officials have reacted relatively calmly to remarks from the new administration, though they lodged an official protest over the Taiwan phone call.\nBut the Taiwan issue is very sensitive, something state media made clear when it accused Mr Trump of \"playing with fire\".\nThe telephone call followed a letter sent by Mr Trump to Mr Xi on Thursday - the president's first direct approach to the Chinese leader. In it, Mr Trump said he looked forward to \"constructive relations\".\nThe New York Times reports that it was hand-delivered to China's ambassador by National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who had also spoken to China's top foreign policy official last week.\nThere were other signs that the White House was seeking to stabilise ties, such as Ivanka Trump attending a Lunar New Year celebration at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.\nAt a press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang declined to answer whether Mr Trump's acknowledgement of the One China policy had been a condition of the call.\nThe content of the phone call between Mr Trump and Mr Xi will be celebrated in Beijing as signalling a return to the traditional framework of the US-China relationship.\nThree weeks into the new American administration, after a score of phone calls between Mr Trump and other world leaders, China's absence from the list was becoming ever more conspicuous.\nMany Chinese citizens see Taiwan as the last piece in China's territorial jigsaw. Any further move towards independence and international recognition for the island would have represented a dangerous humiliation for Mr Xi.\nWith the presidential phone call, Beijing can draw a line under such fears. Three weeks in, it has won a clear and unequivocal commitment from the Trump administration to honour the One China policy.\nHowever, it is not clear what, if anything, the Trump administration has won in return.", "Netizens on microblog site Weibo had a field day poking fun at the parade, posting satirical pictures and jibes at po-faced leaders. Their efforts were quickly scrubbed off by censors determined to keep the national conversation on script.\nSome of the posts were captured by Hong Kong-based coder Cedric Sam and Weiboscope, a Hong Kong University project that monitors deleted Weibo content.\nOne popular topic was President Xi Jinping, who at the start of the parade inspected the troops from a car.\nWeibo user Diuz posted a picture of a Winnie the Pooh toy. It came without a caption, but thousands got the joke - it was one of the most popular deleted posts, shared more than 65,000 times before it was taken down, according to Weiboscope.\nMr Xi has been closely associated with Winnie the Pooh since 2013, when netizens noticed that a picture of him walking next to US President Barack Obama looked a lot like Winnie the Pooh and Tigger - those posts were swiftly deleted at the time, of course.\nMr Xi's expressionless face also provided fodder for endless jokes.\nWeibo user Buyuesangw posted this image of Mr Xi, saying: \"Enjoy this new Winnie military parade expression - it's so cute.\" The caption reads: \"My soul is so tired.\"\nAnother user, Dadadadadabazhao, captioned this picture: \"It's so bloody hot, I want to die, urgh.\"\nOne topic which particularly excited netizens was the appearance of former President Jiang Zemin.\nRumours of his death periodically circulate when he is not seen in public for a long time.\nOne deleted post contained a picture of him at the parade, and commented: \"Today's biggest news has broken.\"\nOthers juxtaposed pictures of him with frogs, in a nod to a meme last year on a giant inflatable frog's likeness to Mr Jiang.\nAnother image that made the rounds was of a grandmother feeling sorry for Mr Xi, who's affectionately known as Xi Da Da (Daddy Xi).\nOne caption read: \"Beijing is too hot, granny feels bad for Xi Da Da.\"\nBut it wasn't just jokes that were scrubbed - so too were a number of Weibo posts, particularly from Taiwanese users, that accused the Chinese Communist Party of revisionism in its celebrations.\nThis included a statement by Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou, noting that the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, had played a major role in repelling the Japanese in WW2, and a picture of KMT general Chiang Kai-shek.\nWeibo user Visionanimal posted it saying: \"Saluting the real hero of the Chinese people!\"\nThe Communists and the KMT had both worked to repel the Japanese, and many in Taiwan believe China has downplayed the KMT's efforts.\nThe KMT fled to Taiwan after a civil war with the Communists, and set up a government under Gen Chiang.\nHowever, the Chinese government claims the island of Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory and threatens to counter any move to outright independence by military force.", "Under the policy, the US has formal ties with China rather than the island of Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province.\nIn a TV interview on Sunday, Mr Trump said he saw no reason why this should continue without key concessions.\nChina urged Mr Trump to understand the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue.\nForeign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters that the \"One China\" policy was the basis for relations with Washington.\nChina's hawkish Global Times tabloid dubbed Mr Trump \"ignorant as a child\".\n\"I fully understand the 'One China' policy, but I don't understand why we have to be bound by the 'One China' policy unless we make a deal with China, having to do with other things, including trade.\"\nThe US was being hurt by Chinese currency devaluation, tariffs, the building of a \"massive fortress\" in the South China Sea, and a failure to help over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, he told Fox News.\nThe comments come hot on the heels of Mr Trump taking a call from the Taiwanese president, who congratulated him on his election victory. It earned a rebuke from Beijing.\nIn Sunday's interview, Mr Trump remained defiant.\n\"It was a call, very short call, saying 'congratulations, sir, on the victory'... and why should some other nation be able to say I can't take a call?\"\nTaiwan: A pawn in Trump's chess game\nThe Trump phone call that will stun Beijing\nTrump rejects CIA Russia hacking report\nRewind to 1949 and the Communist takeover in China. Kuomintang nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up their own government.\nSince then, China has seen it as a renegade province, sometimes going so far as to threaten the use force if it ever declares independence.\nAfter decades of formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the US decided in 1979 it was in its best interests to recognise the Communist government in Beijing as the sole legal government of China.\nThis was the result of years of warming ties between Washington and Beijing, starting with President Richard Nixon's celebrated visit in 1972.\nFormal ties with Taiwan were cut, but strong informal links remain, including substantial military support.\nSo the \"One China\" policy is Washington recognising that there is only one China, and Taiwan is part of it. It is seen by many as ambiguous, but any suggestion that this could be changing raises hackles in Beijing.\nRead more on the 'One China' policy?\nThe strength of China's displeasure depends on who you listen to.\nHere's that Chinese foreign ministry spokesman again:\n\"China has noted the report and expresses serious concern about it. I want to stress that the Taiwan issue concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and involves China's core interests.\n\"Upholding the 'One China' principle is the political basis for developing China-US ties. If this basis is interfered with, or damaged, then the healthy development of China-US relations and bilateral co-operation in important areas is out of the question.\"\nBut the Global Times, which is linked to the ruling Communist Party, is somewhat firmer.\nIt suggests China may have to consider arming America's enemies or taking back Taiwan by force. The \"One China policy cannot be traded\", it warns.\n\"China must resolutely battle Mr Trump, only after a few serious rebuffs then will he truly understand that China and other global powers cannot be bullied.\"\nHe may be a businessman, it went on, \"but in the field of diplomacy, he is as ignorant as a child\".\nChina already formally protested to the US on 3 December over that phone call from Taiwan's president.\nBy way of contrast, on 7 December, China hailed Mr Trump's nominee for US ambassador in Beijing, Terry Branstad, as an \"old friend\" of China who could help advance relations.\nWell it's not as if Donald Trump didn't tell us he was going to be tough on China.\nNow, though, we are getting what looks like the outline of a strategy: the use of Taiwan as a bargaining chip.\nIt's a bold - some would say reckless - gambit, given that for China there is nothing vaguely negotiable about the island's status.\nMr Trump's team includes so-called \"long-time friends of Taiwan\" or China hawks who clearly understand the value of the island, at least as a bargaining tool in dealings with Beijing.\nSome in Taiwan's administration feel his tough approach toward Beijing could enable Taiwan to build closer ties with Washington, its most important ally.\nBut many Taiwanese people are unsure if this approach will be good for Taiwan and question whether Mr Trump will truly stand up for Taiwan if conflict breaks out with China.", "State council and security officials said the Taiwanese were part of a telecom fraud ring who cost mainland victims billions of yuan.\nIt is the fullest explanation from China since the furore began this week.\nTaiwan has protested at the move, calling it \"extrajudicial abduction\" and demanding the group's release.\nChina has praised Kenya for supporting its \"one-China policy\".\nBeijing views Taiwan - self-ruling since 1950 - as a breakaway region that must be reunited with the mainland.\nIt insists that other countries cannot recognise both China and Taiwan, with the result that Taiwan has formal diplomatic ties with only a few countries. Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with Kenya.\nChina's public security ministry said the group of 45 Taiwanese people were arrested in Kenya in 2014 and earlier this year, along with a number of Chinese citizens, for conducting telephone scams.\nKenyan officials had decided to hand them over to Beijing for investigation.\nEight of the Taiwanese were among the first group of suspects sent to China on Saturday.\nThe remaining 37 were sent on Tuesday, with Taiwan claiming that they were forced on board a plane by Kenyan police wielding rifles and tear gas.\nThe public security ministry said, in comments (in Chinese) reported by state news agency Xinhua, that it had opened an investigation as the fraud ring's victims were all mainland citizens.\nIt added that \"according to our country's laws and rules, our legal departments have jurisdiction over the above criminal suspects\", including the Taiwanese.\nIt said it welcomed Taiwan's co-operation in its investigation.\nSeparately An Fengshan, a spokesman from China's body in charge of Taiwan relations, told reporters that the group of swindlers had cost losses of \"tens of billions of yuan\".\n\"Many Taiwanese suspects have been freed as soon as they are transferred to Taiwan. They soon start defrauding mainlanders through their dens in other countries.\n\"Situations like this have made it difficult to stop telecom swindles and to recover the economic losses cause,\" he said.\nTaiwan says it will send a delegation to China to discuss the incident.\nThe minister of its mainland affairs council. Andrew Hsia, was quoted by CNA News as saying that China's deporting of the Taiwanese was \"rude and savage\".\nAuthorities previously said China's actions amounted to an \"uncivilised act of extrajudicial abduction\" which represents a \"gross violation of basic human rights.\"\nTaiwan is also lodging a suit against Kenyan officials for \"forcefully detaining\" its people and ignoring an earlier court decision which cleared some of the suspects.", "Since his election last month, they have struggled to understand who is advising Donald Trump on Asia and what his China policy will look like. This move will turn concern into alarm and anger.\nBeijing sees Taiwan as a province. Denying it any of the trappings of an independent state is one of the key priorities of Chinese foreign policy.\nFor four decades American leaders have respected Beijing's red lines on closing down diplomatic space for Taiwan and acknowledging that there is only \"One China\".\nThe phone call between Mr Trump and Ms Tsai is the first known contact between a US president or president-elect and a Taiwanese leader since the United States broke diplomatic relations with the island in 1979.\nTaiwan does not have a formal mutual defence treaty with the US, and American commitments on the defence of the island are deliberately shrouded in ambiguity. But as China's military might grows, the island of Taiwan relies ultimately on the American security umbrella in East Asia for protection from invasion.\nThis is already a sensitive time in the relationship between the mainland and Taiwan.\nUnder President Xi Jinping, China has been putting growing economic and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan to move towards reunification.\nBut despite Beijing's efforts, the party it favours lost elections across the board over the past year. Opinion polls suggest that younger Taiwanese may be becoming more, not less, resistant to reunification with the mainland.\nBoth before and after her election to the presidency in January, Ms Tsai promised to maintain the status quo in the cross-straits relationship, but Beijing does not trust her and has broken off official contacts with her administration.\nIn this context, any shift in the relationship between Taiwan and the US is significant.\nIn a statement released after the phone call, the president-elect's office said the two leaders noted that \"close economic, political, and security ties\" exist between Taiwan and the United States. It also said Mr Trump \"congratulated President Tsai on becoming president of Taiwan\".\nThis content may seem uncontroversial on the face of it, but the very fact of the call and of an American president-elect congratulating a Taiwanese president will be quite enough to infuriate Beijing.\nA spokesman for the US National Security Council said afterwards that government policy had not changed but Mr Trump's team did not inform the White House before the call.\nWhen Donald Trump was asked during his campaign to name the person he consulted most often on foreign policy, he said: \"I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things.\"\nMr Trump has said a lot of things… about \"winning\" against China on trade, about whether US allies like Japan and South Korea should pay more for their own defence, about quitting the regional TPP trade deal that was a centrepiece of his predecessor's policy in Asia.\nLike many other governments, Beijing is puzzling over which of these things to take seriously. But there are few things more serious for China than the status of Taiwan.\nWhen it has worked out how to understand the significance of the phone call between Mr Trump and Ms Tsai, expect Beijing to \"say a lot of things\" in return.", "Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Beijing.\nTheir first meeting included a public handshake with little sign of warmth.\nIn a speech to Apec, President Obama has meanwhile announced big changes to visa arrangements with China.\nMultiple entry short-term visas for businessmen and tourists will be extended to 10 years - up from one year.\nThose for students rise from one year to five.\nMr Obama also stressed the importance of ties between China and the US, saying \"the US welcomes the rise of a prosperous, peaceful and stable China.\"\nHis comments come amid underlying tension between the US and China over Beijing's growing regional influence.\nAfter two years of Chinese animosity towards Japan's new prime minister, President Xi has finally relented.\nToday's face-to-face meeting with Shinzo Abe is important progress in relations between the world's second and third largest economies.\nBut the underlying disagreements over territory and history remain as bitter as ever. And even Mr Xi's body language at today's meeting was calculatedly icy.\nDuring the handshake he did not smile or respond to Mr Abe's attempt at conversation.\nFor all the fireworks and group photographs, this summit brings together neighbours with different worldviews at a difficult moment in history.\nHow uninhabited islands soured China-Japan ties\nRelations between China and Japan have long been soured by a row over islands in the East China Sea.\nThe uninhabited but strategically important islands, known as Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan, are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China.\nTokyo's decision to purchase three of them from their private Japanese owner in September 2012 led to an escalation in a dispute that has rumbled quietly for years.\nThe Chinese and Japanese leaders interacted awkwardly as they posed for an unsmiling photo after their talks.\nMr Abe said the meeting - which came three days after the two sides agreed to work to prevent the territorial dispute from escalating - was \"the first step for improving ties by returning to mutually beneficial relations based on common strategic interests\".\nHe also said they had agreed to start preparations to establish a maritime crisis mechanism.\nThere have been fears that a clash - accidental or otherwise - between Chinese and Japanese paramilitary vessels patrolling waters around the disputed islands could trigger a conflict.\nMr Xi told Mr Abe that China hoped Japan would follow a path of peaceful development and adopt prudent military and security policies.\nRelations have also been hampered by what China sees as Japan's failure to adequately acknowledge its war-time conduct.\nQ&A: China-Japan islands row\nLeaders from the 21 Apec member-nations are in Beijing for two days of talks.\nApec, which includes 21 Pacific Rim nations, includes 40% of the world's population, with member countries accounting for about 44% of global trade and more than half of global economic output.\nThe summit takes place as China looks to underline its growing status as regional leader and economic giant.\nIt is the biggest event hosted so far by Mr Xi, who took over the Chinese presidency in March 2013, and trade is one of the top priorities.\nIn other summit developments:", "President Xi Jinping in his opening speech paid tribute to \"the Chinese people who unwaveringly fought hard and defeated aggression\" from Japan.\nHe also said the People's Liberation Army would be reduced by 300,000 personnel, but gave no timeframe.\nChina's growing military power is being keenly watched amid regional tensions.\nChina has several territorial disputes with neighbours in the South China Sea, as well as with Japan in the East China Sea.\nAhead of the parade, the US said five Chinese ships had been spotted in the Bering Sea off Alaska for the first time.\nChina's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the world's largest military, with 2.3 million members. China also has the second biggest defence budget after the US.\nMore than 30 foreign government officials and heads of state including Russia's President Vladimir Putin and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon attended the event.\nBut many Western leaders and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have stayed away.\nSome 12,000 troops and 200 aircraft, as well as tanks and missiles, were on display in Tiananmen Square, including the anti-ship \"carrier killer\" missile Dongfeng-21D.\nMost of the war machinery on display was being shown to the general public for the first time, according to state media.\nMr Xi, also the commander of the armed forces, was centre stage at the parade's proceedings.\nDespite the repeated assurances from China that the message of today was one of peace, the crowd seemed to see a different symbolism in the V-shaped lines of jets and bombers.\n\"We have the ability to announce to the world that we are a big country, we are a great country,\" one onlooker told me. \"It is the proper time to show to the world that we are strong now,\" a young woman agreed.\nChina believes that its suffering and sacrifice during World War Two have been largely forgotten.\nBut 70 years on there are questions over whether the Communist Party is basking in reflected glory - after all it was the Nationalists who did most of the fighting and dying - and whether a contribution to world peace is really best marked by such an extraordinary display of military might.\nMr Xi made the troop reduction announcement in a speech where he reassured the global community that \"China will remain committed to peaceful development\".\n\"No matter how strong it becomes, China will never seek hegemony or expansion. It will never inflict its past suffering on any nation,\" he said.\nBBC China Editor Carrie Gracie, who was at the parade, says the army cuts will not mean a weaker China.\nIt is also upgrading its naval and air forces, she says, so does not need as many boots on the ground to project its power around the world.\nAlexander Neill from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Singapore, says the move shows China's \"determination to have a modern fighting force\".\nIn the build-up to the event, state media have published commentaries reinforcing Chinese patriotism and views on historical events.\nEntertainment shows were also suspended on television to make way for the coverage.\nBeijing's normally smoggy skies were unusually blue, after factories were closed, barbecues banned and cars stopped from travelling to reduce pollution.\nBut concerns about China's growing military assertiveness and the tone of the parade meant many Western and Asian leaders stayed away from the event.\n\"During a period of strained relations between China and Japan, as well as increasing military tension in the Asia-Pacific region, some leaders are reluctant to be associated with what they may view as a nationalistic, anti-Japanese mass rally,\" says Mr Neill.\nJapan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937 and, according to Beijing, eight years of fighting claimed 14 million Chinese lives.\nChina also claims that it is the \"forgotten ally\" and that its role in defeating Japan has been underplayed in the post-war narrative.\nNationalist forces led the fight against Japan in China. They were defeated by Mao Zedong's Communists who proclaimed a people's republic in 1949.", "Eight other Taiwanese were deported to mainland China on Monday, prompting Taiwan to accuse Beijing of \"extrajudicial abduction\".\nChina has praised Kenya for supporting its \"one-China policy\".\nBeijing views Taiwan - self-ruling since 1950 - as a renegade region that must be reunited with the mainland.\nIt insists that other countries cannot recognise both China and Taiwan, with the result that Taiwan has formal diplomatic ties with only a few countries.\nTaiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with Kenya.\nTaiwan's foreign ministry said Kenyan police had forced 22 Taiwanese citizens, arrested on suspicion of fraud, to board a plane bound for China on Tuesday, despite protests from John Chen, Taiwan's representative to South Africa.\nAnother 15 Taiwanese, who had been acquitted in the case, were also coerced into boarding the plane, it said.\nOfficials said some of the deportees had tried to prevent Kenyan police from entering their jail cell, as video posted by Taiwan's Central News Agency appears to show.\nThe police broke down a wall, \"threw tear gas\" and brandished \"assault rifles\" to force them on to the plane, Antonio CS Chen, the chief of the West Asian and African Affairs section of Taiwan's foreign ministry, told reporters.\nHe said Chinese diplomatic officials had been present.\nTaiwan's representatives from South Africa had rushed to Kenya to try to stop the deportations but they were prevented by the Kenyan authorities, who worked closely with Beijing, from gaining access to the Taiwanese.\nOfficials say the Taiwanese may have worked with Chinese nationals in a telecommunications fraud ring to cheat people in China of money. But regardless, they say, the two sides had worked out a verbal agreement not to extradite each other's people in such cases, following a similar incident involving the Philippines extraditing Taiwanese crime suspects to China in 2011.\nIt took nearly five months for Taiwan to negotiate their transfer back to Taiwan.\nThe fact that this is happening just a month before Taiwan's newly elected President Tsai Ing-wen takes office is no coincidence. It is widely believed that Beijing is doing this to put pressure on Tsai to recognize that the two sides are part of one China. She comes from a party that favours Taiwan's independence and has so far remained vague on the issue.\nBy taking the Taiwanese in Kenya, Beijing is sending a strong message to Ms Tsai that the honeymoon period for her is over and more of these headaches await her after she takes office if she continues to ignore China's demand.\nTaiwan's first female leader, shy but steely\nKenyan government spokesman Eric Kiraithe defended the legal process that had led to the deportations.\nHe said Kenyan courts relied on information available and he rejected what he called media insinuations.\nAn interior ministry spokesman told Reuters news agency the 37 people had come \"from China and we took them to China\", adding that Kenya had \"an obligation to ensure if people are here illegally they are taken back to where they came from\".\nWhen asked about the case, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters: \"The one-China policy is an important pre-condition for bilateral relations with China and other countries. We commend Kenya for its upholding of this policy.\"", "The words of British Chancellor George Osborne. With this week's UK state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the British government hopes to step over that golden threshold.\nPresident Xi will be accorded every honour, including a visit to the prime minister's country retreat at Chequers and an address to both Houses of Parliament.\nAfter the pomp and ceremony of a carriage on the Mall and a state banquet at Buckingham Palace, President Xi is expected to preside over the signing of some multi-billion pound business deals, including one to bring China into the heart of Britain's civil nuclear power programme.\n\"Let us embrace the golden era,\" echoed the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, in a news conference on the eve of the visit.\nLast year I said the UK had some catching up to do, but now the UK is catching up from behind. It is committed to being China's \"best partner in the west\", and in developing relations with China it is indeed becoming the leader in Europe.\nBut as London prepares to welcome the Chinese president, the UK drive to become China's best western partner raises important questions about costs in other areas of British foreign policy and consequences for existing alliances.\nHow China guards the Xi creation myth\nNigel Inkster, former director of operations and intelligence for the Special Intelligence Service, MI6, voices concern over \"a propensity on the part of some areas of the UK government to see China as little more than a giant hypermarket, to which we can export clones of Eton and Dulwich College and the kind of Burberry rainwear that few British nationals would ever wear.\n\"But I think if that is really the way the relationship is perceived, it does not represent an adequate assessment of what it is we're dealing with.\"\nThe momentum for a shift in the UK's China policy is coming very much from George Osborne, who also happens to be the bookies' favourite to succeed David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party.\nWhitehall sources tell me the so-called \"Osborne Doctrine\" does amount to a strategic shift on China, one in which the prime minister has let the chancellor drive the agenda and where reluctant members of the cabinet are being \"dragged along\".\nThe chancellor wants China to become the UK's second-largest trading partner by the end of the decade. He points out that while growth in China has slowed, it is still supplying about a quarter of global growth, enough to add an economy the size of the UK's over five years.\nMr Osborne insists that this is a golden moment, where the interests of the UK and China align. China's maturing economy can absorb more of the services which are British export strengths.\nAnd UK infrastructure can soak up Chinese investment funds looking for a reliable return. Win-win for both sides, according to the chancellor. But not everyone is convinced.\nJonathan Fenby is a former editor of the Observer who has written several books on China. \"My unease about this policy is that in the end the British government is putting what it sees as an important national interest here, in terms of infrastructure and development, at the mercy of a regime in Beijing which we don't understand too well, which certainly we can't control and even whether we can influence it is another nice question.\"\nChinese government and business leaders talk approvingly about the UK's openness to Chinese investment, even in areas of critical infrastructure, which the ambassador conceded might be \"unthinkable\" in other countries. This openness is certainly unthinkable in China. There is no reciprocity here.\nWhat's more, as Chinese economic growth slows, the UK's trade deficit with China is going in the wrong direction. Last year it was £22bn ($34bn) and new national security legislation is actually making access for some technology-related exports harder.\nI foresee that British exporters who hope for a \"golden decade\" dividend will go on finding China hard. Chinese customers buy the product, not the fine language.\nBut it's not clear that this matters. British companies with long-term ties to China tell me they don't need government help anyway, and that business flourished even during the 18 months when the Chinese government froze relations with the British government, due to its fury over Mr Cameron's 2012 meeting with the Dalai Lama.\nSuch a meeting is unlikely to happen again under this government. Senior sources tell me London was shocked by the long deep freeze that followed. \"We were on the naughty step longer than the Foreign Office predicted.\"\nFor the UK, the \"prosperity agenda\" has eclipsed the \"values agenda\" in relations with China. Both Mr Osborne and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond say they press human rights behind closed doors, but expect no public statement of British values, discussion of treaty obligations in Hong Kong, or appeals to President Xi to release human rights lawyers, Christians or any other group whose convictions or campaigning have landed them in jail during his three years in power.\nPresident Xi is a more ruthless authoritarian than any Chinese leader since Chairman Mao. A conviction Communist, who believes in the legitimacy of the 1949 revolution and the necessity of single-party rule in China, his chief objective is to clean up official corruption and avoid the fate of Communism in the Soviet Union. In a speech to Communist Party insiders, he explained this obsession.\n\"Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? An important reason was that their ideals and beliefs had been shaken… Nobody was man enough to stand up and resist.\"\nSo at home, his government is weeding western ideas out of academic textbooks, making ideas like democracy or free speech off-limits and creating Communist Party cells in private companies.\nAbroad, his foreign policy is driven by a more robust assertion of Chinese interests, a stance which threatens to intensify strategic competition with the United States.\nSo where does the UK's new policy of \"sticking together with China\" leave our traditional alliances? Earlier this year, when the UK led the charge to join China's Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank despite objections from the United States, an unnamed official in Washington complained of London's \"constant accommodation\" of Beijing.\nSenior figures in Whitehall concede that the US administration is unhappy about some aspects of London's Chinese charm offensive but that so far there is no concrete cost to the UK on intelligence-sharing or other things that matter.\nBut Nigel Inkster warns that vigilance is appropriate. \"China is a country that deals in hard power and it's a country that's never been shy about pursuing its own self interest. If the UK demonstrates any vulnerabilities, these will likely be taken advantage of.\"\nAs China's president arrives in the UK and the pageantry of a state visit unfolds, the architect of the \"golden era\", George Osborne, may have his fingers crossed behind his back, praying that his Chinese gold rush hits the jackpot and doesn't turn into a flash in the pan or something worse.\nCarrie Gracie's film, The Xi Factor, is on BBC Panorama on BBC One at 20:30 BST on 19 October and will be available later via iPlayer. She will also examine the relationship between Britain and China: The Golden Decade? on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 BST on 19 October.", "Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, criticised Beijing's so-called \"nine-dash line\" that outlines its claims.\nHe said there were \"growing concerns\" over China's \"pattern of behaviour\".\nTensions are already high over China's imposition of an air defence zone above disputed islands in the East China Sea.\nCorrespondents say there are fears of a fresh showdown in the South China Sea. Several countries claim competing sovereignty over islands, reefs and shoals.\nChina, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan all have claims in the region.\n\"There are growing concerns that this pattern of behaviour in the South China Sea reflects incremental effort by China to assert control over the area... despite objections of its neighbours,\" Mr Russel told a congressional committee.\n\"Any Chinese claim to maritime rights not based on claimed land features would be inconsistent with international law,\" he said.\n\"China could highlight its respect for international law by clarifying or adjusting its claim to bring it into accordance with international law of the sea,\" he added.\nThe US says it does not take stances on territorial disputes in Asia.\nHowever, Mr Russel said he supported the Philippines' right to take its case to a UN tribunal as part of efforts to find a \"peaceful, non-coercive\" solution.\nChina denounced the move last year.\nOn Wednesday, China's state news agency branded Philippine President Benigno Aquino a \"disgrace\" for comments in connection with the territorial row in which he compared China to Nazi Germany.\nMr Aquino called for world leaders not to appease China over its claims in the South China Sea in the same way nations tried to appease Hitler before World War Two.\n\"At what point do you say: 'Enough is enough'? Well, the world has to say it. Remember that the Sudetenland [part of what was then called Czechoslovakia] was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War Two,\" Mr Aquino said in an interview with the New York Times on Tuesday.\nAn angry commentary on the state-run Xinhua news agency branded Mr Aquino an \"amateurish politician who was ignorant both of history and reality\".\nChina's \"nine-dash line\" stretches hundreds of miles south and east from its most southerly province of Hainan.\nIn January, Hainan province enacted new regulations requiring foreign fishing vessels to ask for permission to enter its waters, including the disputed areas claimed by China.\nThe Philippines said it was \"gravely concerned\" by the new rules, while Taiwan and Vietnam also said they did not recognise the rules.\nBeijing says its rights come from 2,000 years of history where the Paracel and Spratly island chains were regarded as part of the Chinese nation.\nMore than half the world's merchant goods are shipped through the South China Sea and in 2010, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that freedom of navigation there was a US national interest.\nRelations between China and Japan are currently under strain over a separate territorial row involving islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China.\nLast year, China announced an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, and said that aircraft flying through the zone must follow its rules, including filing flight plans.\nThe ADIZ covers the disputed islands, which Taiwan also claims, as well as a rock claimed by South Korea.\nThe US, Japan and South Korea have rejected China's zone, and flown undeclared military aircraft through it. The US has called the move a unilateral attempt to change the status quo in the region.", "The UK prime minister, currently on a trade visit to the country, initially confused users as his account had not been verified by officials.\nBut the embassy in Beijing later confirmed its authenticity, stating: \"Big boss has come to Weibo!\"\nOne user asked if China's President Xi Jinping would also open an account.\nMr Cameron is visiting the country with more than 100 UK business leaders and is hoping to help smooth the way towards a free trade agreement between China and the European Union.\nHe launched his own microblog account on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, which has more than 300 million users, last Friday, according to BBC Monitoring.\nBy 12:00 GMT on Monday his offerings, written in Mandarin, had gathered almost 159,000 followers.\nHowever, soon after the account started, users doubted whether it was real until the British embassy re-tweeted the prime minister's opening message, along with the \"big boss\" moniker.\nThis appeared to excite many Chinese, who sent in their questions.\nSome wondered why China's own political leaders had so far chosen to stay away from social media platforms, with one asking: \"When will President Xi open a Weibo account?\"\nSeveral inquired about whether the visa application for entry to the UK could be simplified.\nMany users asked Mr Cameron, who must return to London by Thursday for Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement on the economy, to let them on the plane with him.\n\"I beg you to take me away. We don't have universal free medical care here,\" said Quanqiuremen.\nMr Cameron's visit has also brought back some bitter memories of British imperialism from the past two centuries.\n\"Mr prime minister, are you bringing opium with you?\" asked \"Yongmian\", referring to the Opium Wars in the 19th Century.\n\"When will you compensate us for the Old Summer Palace?\" asked Glorious Ming, in a rebuke to British and French forces for burning down the Chinese imperial garden in 1860.\nThe more contemporary clash between the two countries over China's human rights record, particularly in Tibet, has also featured prominently in the online discussions.\nCameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama a year ago, which angered Chinese leaders and led to a freeze in top-level contacts, was mentioned.\n\"Dalai's friend has come to China for our silver,\" said Wuyanliuju.\nBut some users accused Mr Cameron of not doing enough to promote human rights. One, West Sea Fisherman, urged him to \"go back\" if he did not mention the issue at high-level intergovernmental meetings.\n\"We do not welcome foreign leaders who care nothing about human rights in our country,\" he added.\nMr Cameron's UK Twitter account has more than 500,000 followers.", "Wang Ting-yu, chairman of the defence committee in Taiwan's parliament, said Chinese spies were masquerading as academics or business people.\nHe claimed Beijing was trying to sow chaos within Taiwanese society.\nChina considers the self-ruling island territory that must be reunited with the mainland - by force if necessary.\nIn an interview with the BBC, Mr Wang said intelligence reports suggest China spends millions of dollars on its Taiwan operations.\nHe said Chinese spies tried to recruit agents within Taiwan's corridors of power.\n\"Some get married into Taiwan, some pretend they are scholars, some pretend they are businessmen, and they immerse themselves into our society,\" he said.\n\"They seduce and lure our military personnel and government officers into becoming their agents.\"\nMr Wang said he could not disclose the source of his information.\nBeijing has previously denied claims that it sends spies to Taiwan.\nEarlier this week, a bodyguard for the former Vice-President Annette Lu was arrested and accused of spying.\nWang Hong-ju is accused of being paid by the Chinese to recruit an intelligence officer to gather information for Beijing in exchange for a large cash payment and safe relocation to mainland China if exposed.\nHe is alleged to have worked for China after leaving government service in Taiwan, but the episode is likely to unnerve the Taiwanese authorities.\n\"The realisation that even someone who worked that close to the top of the island's government hierarchy could become a spy for the nation's biggest enemy gives one cold shivers,\" read an editorial in the English-language Taiwan News.\nAnnette Lu said the bodyguard was one of about 50 who had been assigned to protect her.\n\"It's important that we check the security and loyalty of those who serve the president and vice-president,\" she told the BBC.\nJust a few days before the bodyguard's detention, a Chinese student, Zhou Hongxu, was also arrested in Taiwan for breaching national security laws.\nSome media outlets were reporting that there are around 5,000 Chinese spies in Taiwan, although the government later denied that was true.\nChina has spied on Taiwan for years, but Wang Ting-yu said the election of Ms Tsai, from the Democratic Progressive Party, appeared to have spurred Beijing into greater action.\nHe said China's aim was not simply to collect information, but also to spread unrest in Taiwan.\nThe island's commitment to an open society was allowing Beijing to stir up trouble under the cloak of free speech, said the committee chairman. \"You cannot tell who your enemy is,\" he said.\nSeveral new laws to tighten security are due to be introduced this year.\nTaiwan plans to ban senior government and military officials from travelling to China for three years after they retire, to prevent them from being lured into handing over secret information.\nIf China has increased its secret activities in Taiwan this would fit into a broader pattern of antagonism towards the island since Ms Tsai's election.\nChina had warm ties with the previous Taiwanese President, Ma Ying-jeou, but it has cut all contact with Ms Tsai.\nIt has also reverted to its previous policy of trying to isolate Taiwan in the international arena.\nA Taiwanese defence review published once every four years came out this week and said China now posed an even greater military threat to the island.", "Speaking during a visit to communist Vietnam and talks with its leaders, Mr Obama said the move removed a \"lingering vestige of the Cold War\".\nThe US is trying to bolster its relationship with its Pacific allies, as China asserts territorial claims.\nBut Mr Obama said the embargo decision was not related to US policy on China.\n\"It's based on our desire to complete what has been a lengthy process of moving towards normalisation with Vietnam,\" he said in Hanoi.\nVietnam is one of several countries in the region involved in maritime disputes with China. The US insists on the right to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.\nIn 2014, a row over a Chinese oil rig near the Paracel islands led to clashes between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels and anti-China riots in Vietnam.\nWhy Vietnam wants US weapons\nBeijing's new South China Sea islands\nHigh hopes for Obama visit\nWhite House officials had indicated the arms ban, in force since 1984, would be lifted only if human rights in Vietnam improved.\n\"Sales will need to still meet strict requirements, including those related to human rights, but this change will ensure that Vietnam has access to the equipment it needs to defend itself,\" Mr Obama said after talks with President Tran Dai Quang.\nVietnam had been arguing for an end to the embargo, which was partially lifted in 2014.\nPresident Obama's easing of all remaining restrictions on arms sales to Vietnam is powerfully symbolic. But what does it mean in practice?\nUp to now, Vietnam has relied on Russia to supply most of its defence equipment, a legacy of the Cold War, when they were allies. The government would certainly like to diversify its sources, and is looking at a number of potential alternative suppliers. But it won't be rushing into the arms of US manufacturers just yet.\nOne reason is that a lot of US technology may be too sophisticated and expensive for Vietnam's needs. And while Vietnam's defence spending, which has doubled over the past decade, is driven by the rivalry with its giant neighbour China, it will not want to antagonise China by seeking state-of-the-art US weapons that might alter the military balance.\nAnother reason is the complicated process of procuring US weapons. In his announcement, Mr Obama said any military contracts would still be subject to provisos on human rights, and given the Vietnamese government's poor human rights record that might hold up possible arms sales in Congress.\nThe greatest potential for US sales probably lies in areas like military surveillance systems and coastal defence. Vietnam would welcome technology that helps it track Chinese naval forces. The partial lifting of the embargo two years ago was with the specific aim of improving US sales in this area, yet Vietnam is taking its time to decide what it most wants to buy.\nMr Obama's visit comes 41 years after the end of the Vietnam War in which the US sought to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam.\nSeveral million Vietnamese - civilians, communist fighters and South Vietnamese soldiers - were killed, as well as more than 58,000 US soldiers.\nBy the end of the war in 1975, the communists had gained control of the entire country.\nWhile in Vietnam, Mr Obama is expected to meet dissidents and make the case for Vietnam to remove obstacles to the US-led Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal.\nAmnesty International on Monday accused Vietnamese authorities of \"carrying out their repressive business as usual\" in arresting six activists.\n\"Before leaving Vietnam, President Obama must insist on the release of all prisoners of conscience,\" said its international advocacy director, T Kumar.\nIn a separate move, Vietnamese officials have removed the accreditation of the BBC's Jonathan Head in Hanoi after accusing him of conducting an unauthorised interview - something he denies.\nThe US president flies later to Japan for a summit of the G7 industrialised nations. His visit will include a tour of Hiroshima, where the world's first nuclear attack was carried out in 1945 by the US, killing at least 140,000 people.\nThe lifting of the US arms embargo \"will tighten the strategic pressure on China\", Vietnamese Communist Youth Union newspaper Tuoi Tre says on its website.\n\"It will also provide Vietnam with leverage in future arms deals with traditional weapons suppliers, particularly its long-time security patron, Russia,\" the paper says.\nChina's privately-owned portal Sina News sounds a note of alarm, saying that the lifting of the arms embargo \"is a cause for concern\" because it may have an impact on territorial disputes in the South China Sea.\nA commentary (in Chinese) by Phoenix TV's news anchor Cheng Helin on Sina's \"Headlines Blog\" argues that Vietnam is being drawn into \"co-operation to contain China\" as part of \"a three-way alliance with the US and Japan\". But, says the author, the US is unlikely to sell Vietnam sophisticated weapons.\nBBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.", "A foreign ministry spokesman urged the US to \"stop wrongful actions\" to avoid harming co-operation.\nThe US announced the move, as well as sanctions on a Chinese shipping company and two Chinese nationals, on Thursday.\nIt said the blacklisting was aimed at cutting funds to North Korea's weapons programmes.\n\"We will follow the money and cut off the money,\" Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a news conference.\nBut he said the move was not a response to Chinese inaction on North Korea, saying: \"This is not directed at China, this is directed at a bank, as well as individuals and entities in China.\"\nThe UN has already imposed several rounds of sanctions on Pyongyang, but China is widely seen as the nation most able to impose economic pain on North Korea.\nWashington has been pushing Beijing for tougher measures amid a series of missile tests by Pyongyang. But in a tweet earlier this month, President Donald Trump said China's actions had \"not worked out\".\nThe sanctions mean that the Bank of Dandong will be barred from doing business in the US.\nThe US Treasury said it had been \"a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity\" and facilitated \"millions of dollars of transactions for companies involved in North Korea's WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missile programmes\".\nTwo Chinese nationals accused of creating front companies for North Korean entities have also been blacklisted, as has a shipping company, Dalian Global Unity Shipping, that is accused of smuggling luxury goods to North Korea.\nMr Mnuchin said that the US could impose more sanctions in the future.\nThe sanctions were announced as new South Korean President Moon Jae-in held talks with President Trump in Washington.\nMr Trump said \"many options\" were being discussed on the North Korea issue.\n\"The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed, many years it has failed. Frankly, that patience is over,\" he said.\nThe US leader added that Washington was \"working closely with South Korea and Japan, as well as partners around the world, on a range of diplomatic, security and economic measures to protect our allies and our own citizens from this menace known as North Korea\".\nMeanwhile, Mr Moon said the North Korea issue was a top priority during the talks, stressing that \"only strong security can bring about genuine peace\" in the Asia-Pacific region.\nIn a separate development, the US announced the sale of $1.42bn (£1.09bn) worth of arms to Taiwan, the first such transaction under the Trump administration.\nUS arms sales to Taiwan always anger Beijing because it considers the self-governing island part of its territory. In a statement, the Chinese embassy in Washington called on the US to revoke its decision, saying China had \"every right to be outraged\".\nThe Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday that the US actions went \"against the important spirit\" of the apparently friendly meeting between Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the US president's Florida resort in April.\nEarlier in the week, the US also placed China on its list of the worst offenders in human trafficking and forced labour - the first major move by the new administration over Beijing's human rights record.", "Kiko Mizuhara had been criticised for liking a photo on social media deemed offensive to China and allegedly appearing in photos which some saw as glorifying Japan's military past.\nSome had threatened to boycott her latest film in response.\nHer five-minute video, posted on Weibo, is being widely discussed online, with many asking why she felt she had to do it.\nCriticism first arose after Mizuhara was named as a character in No Other Love, a Chinese romantic comedy directed by popular Chinese actress Zhao Wei.\nA photo began circulating online, said to be of her, showing a woman at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Japan.\nThe shrine is seen in China as a symbol of Japanese militarism in World War Two, as it honours the war dead, including convicted war criminals.\nAnother image showed a woman posing in front of Japan's Rising Sun flag, a symbol of imperialism.\nMizuhara was also accused of \"liking\" an Instagram post from 2013, which appeared to be a picture by controversial artist Ai Weiwei of someone raising a finger to China's Tiananmen Square.\nIn her video on Friday, the actress said she wanted to \"sincerely apologise\" to everyone in China, but also \"clarify a few things\", including that the Yasukuni picture was \"definitely not me\".\nShe added: \"I would like to confirm that I am not in the [flag] picture and that I am a supporter of peace.\"\nThe Instagram like was a \"regrettable incident\", she said, but she had retracted it after she realised how inappropriate it was, saying that her friend too had deleted the photo.\nShe concluded by apologising in Mandarin and saying that \"love and peace will bring us together and make the world a better place\".\nThe video has been shared more than 90,000 times on Weibo and received more than 140,000 comments, many noting how unhappy she looked.\nThe majority of the comments have been positive, some saying their \"heart ached\" watching it.\n\"Are we in the Cultural Revolution now?\" asked one user on Weibo.\n\"I want to let you know we believe in you. In my heart you are always a lovely and brave girl who shows great goodwill to our country China. We love you and apologise to you,\" said another comment.\nSomeone posting on Mizuhara's own Instagram account said: \"I am a Chinese, but I think you [haven't done anything] wrong, believe me, no good person would blame you.\"\nThe apology also prompted Taiwanese and Hong Kongers to post mock \"apologies\" of their own in the \"First Annual Apologise to China Contest\" Facebook group.\n\"I'm sorry I use a Xiaomi phone, but use an Apple iOS,\" said one user.\n\"I'm sorry the sky is so blue,\" another commented.\nChina and Japan's wartime history and ongoing territorial rows in the region have often led to a tense relationship, with nationalists on both sides seizing on seemingly trivial issues to make a point.\nBut others said Mizuhara was making herself out to be a victim, showing China to be a bully.\n\"Chinese netizens never asked her for an explanation or apology. Her doing this makes it seem like we're exercising our power,\" said another user. \"We've never requested a foreigner to apologise.\"\nNo Other Love had already run into political trouble.\nThe Communist Youth League had encouraged a boycott of the film, saying its Taiwanese star Leon Dai was a pro-Taiwanese independence.\nChina regards Taiwan as a breakaway province to eventually be reunited with the mainland.\nMr Dai, who reportedly supported Hong Kong's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement and Taiwan's Sunflower movement, was replaced after he failed to clarify his political stance.\nThe film's production team later released a statement saying they \"dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to China. We are all Chinese and we firmly support the one China policy.\"\nEarlier this year, a Taiwanese member of Korean pop group Twice apologised in an online video after she was seen holding a Taiwanese flag while performing.\nChou Tzuyu, 16, later apologised on YouTube, saying that there was only \"one China\" and that she felt ashamed of how she had behaved.", "The meeting was attended by some 40 African leaders. US President Barack Obama hailed a new emerging Africa, while US firms pledged $37bn (£33bn) in investment during the meeting.\nPapers in China have been following the event closely, recalling that Beijing has often been criticised for \"colonising\" Africa with its economic projects.\nNoting that the US has \"never stopped targeting China\", the Global Times observes that the US is now \"seemingly following in China's footsteps\".\nThe paper says that China has \"no wild ambitions on the African continent\" and adds that Beijing \"does not feel threatened\" by the \"warming US-African ties\".\n\"The whole world has to admit that China has been the biggest boost in shifting global attention back to Africa. Without China's rapidly growing co-operation with Africa, many Western countries would probably still be dismissing Africa's massive potential,\" says the paper.\nHe Wenping, an expert on African affairs, tells the Chinese edition of the paper that the US should not monopolise the African market.\n\"It will not benefit the development of Africa and Beijing-Washington ties if the US… engages in a malignant competition with China,\" says the pundit.\nAn article in the state-run China Net points out that Washington's intention is to use the summit to compete more successfully with countries like China, India and Japan that have already set foot in the continent.\nIt says that the US is trying to transform itself from an aid provider to an economic partner, and to \"position itself as the big brother in African economic development\". China Net warns, however, that no one should try to \"conquer\" the continent.\n\"It is unimaginable that any country or region is able to solve the massive problems of Africa on their own. It is wishful thinking for anyone who hopes to keep Africa for themselves, for their self-interest, by undermining others,\" it points out.\nPapers continue to focus on the government's anti-graft effort after the recent news that former security chief Zhou Yongkang is being investigated for \"serious disciplinary violation\".\nMr Zhou headed China's Ministry of Public Security and was a member of the top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee.\n\"The verdict on Mr Zhou's case was more or less concluded since the end of last year, but its implementation had to be carefully planned,\" a commentary in the People's Daily reveals.\nThe paper points out that China's new leadership fought a major battle against corruption by targeting Zhou Yongkang.\nThe article adds that there are \"three wars to be fought after Zhou's case\", the first being establishing the rule of law, which will be the theme of October's plenary session of the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party.\n\"Many thought that the discussion on the rule of law will be delayed till the next term of government, or at least until next year, but now we know that the current leadership is seizing every minute… The fight against corruption does not end here, it will continue,\" People's Daily writes.\nIt adds that improving the efficiency of the market economy and ensuring fairness with no cronyism is the second war that needs to be fought, noting that \"the monopoly of state-owned enterprises will have to go\".\n\"The third war is the peaceful rise of China and ensuring that it has the space for survival\", concludes the daily.\nAnd finally, religious officials and experts are calling for the establishment of a Chinese Christian theology that can adapt to the country's national tradition.\nAccording to the China Daily, between 23-40 million Protestants live in the country and they could account for up to 3% of the population.\nWang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, is quoted by the paper as saying that Chinese Christian theology should be compatible with the country's path to socialism.\n\"The creation of a Chinese Christian theology should adapt to China's national condition and integrate with Chinese culture,\" he argued at a seminar on the Sinicisation of Christianity held in Shanghai.\nWriting in the China Ethnic News, Zhuo Xinping, president of the World Religions Research Centre at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, adds that it is essential for all religions in China, including Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, to be sinicised, so they could \"integrate and adapt better\" into Chinese society.\nBBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook." ]

[ "***I receive an eBook copy from the author at no cost***\n\nWhat do you get when you combine one sexy and sweet rockstar, a cute as a button kiddo, and a caring woman with a heart of gold? You get Spark, and man oh man, did S.L. Scott make sparks fly off the page with this book.\n\nCan we start by talking about the cover? Honestly S.L. has some of the best, most stunning covers of any of my one-click authors. They are always colorful, gorgeous, and they stand out. This cover is no different. When I first saw it, I literally felt myself swooning at my desk.\n\nOnto the story itself. Scott is so dang good at crafting male leads who are a bit broken, entirely hot, and good-hearted, gentlemen as well. Jet Crow is the front man for a band that he started with his brothers (The Crow Brothers). Hes wicked talented, on stage and in the sheets, and though he can have his choice of any woman, he immediately falls for Hannah Nichols after they hook up. Hannah walks away from him however, and Jet has no idea if hell ever see her again. Little does he know that his next encounter with Hannah will forever alter his life in ways he never dreamed imaginable.\n\nMy favorite element of this story is the relationship that Jet has with Alfie. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face if I tried every time I read a scene with these two in it. Jet might be a sexy, tattooed, uber talented man that can charm the heck of out the ladies, but at the end of the day, hes committed to his family, and every decision he makes must be right by them for him to move forward with it. I love this quality in him. His appreciation for Hannah, and his refusing to give up on her, got me too, straight in the heart.\n\nHannah is broken and trying to pick up the pieces. Shes trying to be strong, not just for herself bur for Alfie and her family as well. She wants Jet, theres no question about it, but shes hyper focused on Alfie and whats best for him. Shes the kind of person who is willing to let her own needs go unmet, if it means the ones of those she loves are, which can be a double-edged sword. I really liked her as a character, because she doesnt have everything put together, shes kind of a hot mess in a lot of ways, but her priorities are there, and she does whatever it takes to protect the ones she loves.\n\nThis is a slow burn story. The feelings are there from the start, and the spark is there (no pun intended), and I could definitely feel all of this when I was reading. But Scott took her time with this, drew things out and made the story move at a comfortable taste. And I loved this because it made it easy for me as the reader to savor the experience. Im not going to divulge too many details about this, because I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't read it. The plot is unique, and I loved that Scott threw some twists and turns in, hit me with a few curve balls and kept me guessing about some things. The character development is spot on and the writing is vivid and emotional. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read Scotts Resistance series, because some of the characters from that are featured in here, so youll get to reconnect, to anyone who likes an angsty romance, and to anyone who loves hot rockers for their heroes. Five stars to this novel!" ]

[ "Another hit for the jeweler, GSK! Versatile and for me, a little edgy and fun. My plan for this first string is to use as a lanyard for my work ID badge. Will likely get another to wear as a bracelet. Love it! Thanks again, GSK.", "I love these! Got the taupe color and they are so comfortable. I have narrow feet and feel the width was just fine. I'm think of getting the mint green too. They have a cool edgy look to them and they feel good definitely 5 Stars!!", "The good things-\nTarp is right size(good studio room size)\nFeels sturdy and can be up for the challenge of a mat for my photography studio l.\n\nBad things-\nSmelled a bit edgy when I opened it.\nThere's was this huge black spot (not sure if it's mildew or paint from paper that came on top.)", "They fit well but the shoe design is meant to be oversized. I was overwhelmed with how big it looks on my feet when I had just received it but now I am getting used to it. It doesn't look as bad now as I had originally thought. So if you like the oversized shoe look than you will find this shoe style to be very cute, edgy, & flattering.", "Jennifer Government is a fresh and vital sci-fi look into the future of postmodern humanity. Max Barry describes with wit and edgy style a future that is both completely irreverent and impossible -- and at the same time quite comparable to our own insane world.\nI thought this book was an excellent read, and I've wholeheartedly recommended it to friends and family.", "I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review.\n\nReminding us of a simpler way of life and the true meaning of the holidays, Charlotte Hubbards An Amish Country Christmas was a joy to read. Two light hearted romances, well developed characters and good dialogue kept me turning the pages to discover what would happen to the four couples involved. While a part of the Seasons of the Heart series (due to being set in Willow Ridge and Cedar Creek, Missouri), this book can easily be enjoyed on its own.\n\nIn The Christmas Visitors we are introduced to two sets of siblings, twins Mary and Martha Coblentz and brothers Nathan and Bram Kanagy. While from different Plain communities, these are young people enjoying their youth and preparing for their futures. Meeting by chance, due to an encounter at the local mercantile in Cedar Creek, these young couples strike an immediate attraction, pair up, have a difference of opinion and falling out and then reunite, all while spending their Christmas/New Years holidays together.\n\nFun and lighthearted, Ms. Hubbards story reminds us of the importance that faith in God, love for their families, and a willingness to live a life without all of the modern or English contraptions many of us have somehow come to depend on. I really enjoyed how she developed all of the characters and how she introduced a sweet romance into their lives.\n\nIn Kissing the Bishop the author takes us out of Cedar Creek and takes us to Willow Ridge, a neighboring Plain community three hours away. Here we meet middle aged sisters Jerusalem and Nazareth Hooley, and two widowed bishops, Tom Hostetler, the newly appointed bishop of Willow Creek, and Vernon Gingerich, the bishop of Cedar Creek. While the bishops have gotten together to discuss church matters, the maiden sisters have agreed to cook and tend house during their meeting.\n\nWhile this is a romance focused on older characters, it is no less sweet, and focuses a bit more on the actual relationships between a husband and a wife. While both Jerusalem and Nazareth Hooley thought that marriage was an experience in life they would never experience, both Tom Hostetler and Vernon Gingerich remind us that we can fall in love, and be willing to make life changes, at any time. Ms. Hubbard did an excellent job developing these four characters and I was really sorry to reach the end of this story.\n\nOverall An Amish Country Christmas is a clean, excellent romance, I am happy to recommend to anyone who wants a sweet Holiday romance! I know Ill be getting the rest of Ms. Hubbards Seasons of the Heart books to read over the holidays myself." ]

[ "Yes innately monogamous at least as far as females are concerned. If you watch those documentaries about polygamy. Sister wives are almost always extremely jealous and mentally unwell in their situation" ]

[ "Monogamy", "No I wouldn’t throw in the towel. Shit happens. I’m not married to the concept of monogamy though. I don’t believe all humans in this world have the capacity to be lifetime monogamists. I do think it has less to do with the act of cheating and more to do with acts of deceit and manipulation. That shit I couldn’t tolerate.", "praciticing ethical non-monogamy", "How many amish people do you think have reddit", "How do you really feel about...........the Swedes?", "How do you feel about spaming in this sub?", "You think humans are the *kindest* creatures to *ever* exist?", "Sex workers of Reddit. How do you feel about the constant deluge of questions directed at you by horny nice guys?", "What the hell do you think? Whats next rape victims how do you feel about rapists?", "Not at all. I'm good. Happy being single.", "\"How do you feel about pineapple on pizza?\"", "How do you think that is? What are your feelings on your answer? Do you like this couch, it's not too green is it?", "It's fine if you want to do that in your relationships (with everyone's consent) but it's not what I want. I want a monogamous relationship with someone who also wants a monogamous relationship.", "\"Redditors of reddit, how often do you reddit on reddit?\"", "I'd say entirely. There's nothing wrong with the concept of marriage itself, if that's what one is into and signs up for. \n\nJust seems people aren't as into marriage now a days which is understandable", "Human flesh....\n\nHow do you think I ended up getting sent there.", "No. We are in a monogamous relationship. If they wanted something else that would be fine, just not with me.", "\"So. How do you feel about nazis? \"", "I mean potentially. I've certainly comprehended it, and found that as far as I'm concerned, it really depends on a whole range of factors.\n\nI suppose it comes down to if you're comfortable in your own company, which some people just aren't.\n\nThen it's a matter of whether you could commit to it. I mean, what if you met someone really nice that you were attracted to? Do you blow the commitment, or come to the realization that you cannot pursue that relationship?\n\nThen there's the sexual aspect. Sure it's possible to have platonic sex, but some people end up catching feelings. So do you avoid sex?\n\nAnd of course the matter of settling down. Would you still remain alone then? Would the question of children come in to play, before the biological clock expires?\n\nI suppose the upside would be the financial aspect, and the additional freedoms you might get. But I'm just not sure personally if it'd be worth the tradeoff.", "No. Not by a long shot. I wouldn't act like an acceptable human being.", "Just tell her how you feel? If you do then do it if not then dont", "No, it's a fantasy. If its being chosen over me when I'm DTF then I would feel a bit rejected. Otherwise I'm not bothered.", "Because expectations of monogamy. \n\nNot sure why this is even a question.", "Circumcised men of reddit: how do you feel about your *parents'* decision to mutilate your cock?\n\nFTFY", "How... how the hell do you _think_ it feels?", "I do. I asked a girl out two days ago and she left me on read. Wuuuu", "Do you think all humans deserve to die", "I feel neutral to them. I don’t feel any different to them for better or for worse just because they haven’t had sex yet or have chosen not to indefinitely", "Extremely! I may not like it personally but my wife has made me feel so comfortable and sexy to be naked that even if I don't like my body I can enjoy being naked and be confident that I am found attractive.", "Tbh not interested in that despite having opportunities. Guess I’m a bitch but I just don’t think it’ll help and I’m not into it.", "I don’t feel better than anyone. I have friends that are happily married swingers and friends that go out for one night stands on the weekends and that’s what floats their boat. Polygamy is just not a lifestyle I’m interested in.", "Yes. At least to me. I love my quiet. I love the choice to socialize and be with people. I love leaving them and coming home to peace and just getting to be alone. \n\nI’m not against having a wonderful relationship, just not in one right now. And I’m totally cool with that too. I really enjoy my own company. \n\nNever wanted kids. Since I was one myself. Just knew it wasn’t for me." ]

[ "The present invention relates to a method and apparatus using a single pin capacitance measurement itself. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for using an internal reference element circuit embodiment without additional circuits and devices external to said sensor means for measuring the capacitance of the sensor device. The internal output pin and the sensor means, in some embodiments, methods of using the reference capacitor sensor device recognizes a touch applied to the touch point or electrode coupled to the touch sensor. The method of applying the reference voltage to the reference capacitor is charged, and the measurement signals received from the electrode, wherein the touch sensor switch within the control of the touch sensor to the reference voltage applied to the reference capacitor." ]

[ "The dielectric constant of soil is a key parameter to measure soil water content rapidly and reliably. A measuring method based on impedance commutation of transmission line was presented to measure soil water content in this paper. The sensor measuring performance with different probe structure, i.e. the probe with single pin, 2 pins, 3 pins, and 4 pins, was studied elaborately. 4-pin probe is proved to be the best structure to get linear relationship between voltage and soil water content by experiment results, and it is benefit to collect data, deal with data and export data. The measuring method and the sensor are used in the automatic saving water irrigation system at the greenbelt demonstration area of Beijing Forestry University, and the results indicate that the measuring method is valid and feasible.", "In this study we aimed to develop a practical, useful, and low cost instrument for measuring the capacitance of metal/semiconductor/metal structures. The device operates in the continuous frequency range of 2 Hz–20 kHz. The unknown capacitances were measured by both our instrument and a commercial impedance analyzer. In summary, this instrument, with power consumption of 1.2 W, will serve as practical, useful, and inexpensive equipment in the laboratory.", "The European COUNT project exploits two complementary single electron tunneling (SET) devices for use in electrical current metrology: a single electron pump as a current source and a single electron counter as a current meter. Apart from being a quantum current standard, the electron pump could be the basis of a capacitance standard.", "Several techniques for measuring of small capacitance including methods with resonance,oscillation(RC and LC),AC bridges. are briefly overviewed.The basic principle,circuit model,transfer function and sensitivity and measuring block diagram of a charge/discharge measuring technique are presented, Considering practical application,the ways to choose the devices and parameters in the circuit are provided and test conclusion is given.The measurement is free of stray immane capacity,high sensitivity and lowcost and easy for realization.", "This paper presented a new method,capacitance-bridge method,to measure the resistive leakage current of MOA.Using capacitance current as the compensation reference signal was the highlight of capacitance-bridge method.Experimental results show that the advantages of the method lie in,reduce the measuring influence caused by the harmonics greatly,simplify the measure of resistive leakage current,and make it possible to display the waveform on the oscillograph for observing and comparing.", "The measurement methods of liquid level are summarized. A cylindrical tube capacitive liquidometer consisting of two tubes is produced. Arithmetic relationship between the liquid level and the capacitance is derived. AD7746 is used to convert the capacitance signal into voltage signal. The voltage signal is then processed by PIC16F877 microcontroller and digitally displayed by the circuit of 1602. It is stated that sensor errors lie in manufacture, structure, and liquid temperature changes. The corresponding solutions are put forward. The calibration is carried out on the instrument to compare the values of the standard capacitance and calculated capacitance and test results are given.", "A capacitance method is applied to measure the space-averaged void fraction in concentric annular flows. From the analytical solution of the governing electrical field equations, the expression for the capacitance in terms of a given void fraction is derived. Also, a closed form formula to predict the void fraction from the capacitance measurement is proposed. The relationship between the capacitance and the void fraction is successfully compared with static phantom experiments.", "An analysis of the continuum equations of nematic layers subject to large electric or magnetic fields leads to simple extrapolation procedures which allow the infinite field capacitance of the layers to be inferred. For a magnetic aligning field H the reciprocal of the capacitance should be plotted against 1/H, whereas for an aligning electric voltage V the capacitance should be plotted against 1/V except in certain cases where there is a large change in the dielectric permittivities between the frequencies of the aligning and measuring electric fields, when a plot of the reciprocal of the capacitance against 1/V should be used. The optimum experiments for accurate routine measurement of both principal electric permittivities of a small sample of nematic using a single cell are identified and two experimental arrangements described.", "The purpose of this paper is to design an electronic automatic self-leveling system with low cost and high precision.Capacitance digital converter AD7746 is used to convert the capacitance signals from the capacitive tilt sensors with high precision directly into digital data,and then the data is transferred though I2C bus and processed by the MCU ADuC841.Dual channel PWM signals of the MCU are used to realize the motor speed regulation based on the PID algorithms.MCU is used to maintain the level of the flat so as to realize the function of automatic self-leveling.The system proposed is applicable in many instruments and equipments for its advantages of easy-realizing and high sensitivity.", "A method for identifying security ticket, devices and systems. It provides a method of identifying the security ticket using the identification device (1). The identification device is provided with a capacitive sensor (8,52,77) and a second sensor (9,51,74,76). The method comprises a first element (11) and the security ticket capacitive coupling capacitance sensor using a capacitive sensor and a first data obtained from the first element. Further using a second sensor (12) to obtain second data from the security ticket. And generates output data based on the first and second data. Also disclosed is a corresponding device (5,50) and a system (70).", "The series and shunt inductivity introduced by the probe and shorting pin respectively in a single-feed shorted rectangular microstrip antenna has been evaluated theoretically using transmission line method. The proposed structure provides compact dual band operation using single feed mechanism. The input impedance, VSWR, and return loss are calculated theoretically. It is found that the ratio of the resonant frequencies highly depends on the position of shorting pin.", "A small multivalued measure of capacitance in the 1 pF–10 μF range has been developed for use at frequencies in the 50Hz–1 MHz band as a first-class standard. The construction and electric circuit are considered, and the frequency dependences of the capacitance of individual stages are given.", "A method of inspecting a semiconductor memory device, the ferroelectric capacitor of a semiconductor memory device having a nonvolatile memory using a ferroelectric capacitor was allowed to stand in a first polarization state, (a) said first polarization wherein the step of writing the second polarization state of the state and the reverse, a step of leaving the (b) the second polarization state, and a step of reading the (c) the second polarization state, wherein the step (a temperature or voltage) is lower than the temperature or voltage of the step (c). A method of inspecting a semiconductor memory device capable of evaluating the imprint characteristics in a short time is provided.", "A method for measuring metal barrier heights, work function and fixed charge densities in metal/SiO2/Si capacitors is developed and verified. This technique is based on theoretical studies of tunneling phenomenon through a potential barrier and requires measurement of current versus voltage sweeps at two different temperatures. Unlike the commonly used capacitance method, this method does not require a set of capacitors with different gate oxide thickness for determining work functions and fixed charge densities in metal/SiO2/Si capacitors. Hence, this method provides a fast means for investigating metal work function and fixed charge densities in metal-gated SiO2 capacitors.", "A pointer multimeter with a capacitance value measuring function comprises a multimeter body, wherein the multimeter body comprises a dial plate, a gauge outfit, a mechanical zero potentiometer, a change-over switch, a red probe and a black probe, a conventional circuit is arranged inside the multimeter body, an RC low-frequency oscillating circuit is further arranged inside the multimeter body, and the RC low-frequency oscillating circuit comprises two NPN-type triodes V1 and V2, a resistor R1, a resistor R2, a resistor R3, a resistor R4 and a capacitor C1. The pointer multimeter is simple in structure, convenient to use and capable of displaying the capacitance value visually.", "Polycrystalline and single-phase ZnO:Al:Er3+ films are synthesized by the sol–gel method (based on different types of solvents) on surfaces of single-crystal silicon and glass. The electrical measurement data (current–voltage and capacitance–voltage characteristics) show that these ZnO:Al:Er3+ films are photosensitive. The introduction of Er3+ rare-earth ions into a zinc-oxide film manifests itself in photosensitivity of the current–voltage and capacitance–voltage characteristics to light in the visible and infrared (IR) spectral ranges. The results of this study indicate that ZnO:Al:Er3+ films synthesized by the sol–gel method can be used to design optoelectronic devices, in particular, to form solar-cell active layers.", "This paper presents a guide on characterizing state-of-the-art silicon superjunction (SJ) devices in the 600V range for single phase power factor correction (PFC) applications. The characterization procedure is based on a minimally inductive double pulse tester (DPT) with a very low intrusive current measurement method, which enables reaching the switching speed limits of these devices. Due to the intrinsic low and nonlinear capacitances in vertical SJ MOSFETs, special attention needs to be paid to the gate drive design to minimize oscillations and limit the maximum at turn off. This paper investigates the latest SJ devices in order to set a reference for future research on improvement over silicon (Si) attained with the introduction of wide bandgap devices in single phase PFC applications. The obtained results show that the latest generation of SJ devices set a new benchmark for its wide bandgap competitors.", "This paper presents a technique for the characterization of single-cell electrical properties (specific membrane capacitance and cytoplasm conductivity) at a speed of 5-10 cells per second (vs. minutes per cell using existing techniques). When a cell flows through a microfluidic constriction channel, electrical impedance at multiple frequencies is measured. Electrical and geometrical models were developed to interpret the impedance data and determine the specific membrane capacitance and cytoplasm conductivity of individual cells. Results from testing 3,249 AML-2 cells and 3,398 HL-60 cells reveal different electrical properties between these two cell types. The results also demonstrate that the quantification of specific membrane capacitance and cytoplasm conductivity can enhance cell classification results.", "So there is disclosed with respect to the substrate structure including the manufacturing method, and graphene the pin transfer method, a device using the same. Disclosed graphene transfer method after forming the yes protective layer (metal layer) on the pinned layer provided on the first substrate, the yes one transition the pin layer and a protective layer (metal layer) to a desired support, then the yes pinned in the support and a protective layer (metal layer) it is possible to include the step of transitioning to a second substrate. The protective layer is the So it is possible to form a smaller size than the pinned layer. The non-covered by the protective layer yes portion of the pinned layer may be attached to the support. The support may have a larger size than the first and / or second substrate. The first and / or second substrate may be a substrate of the wafer-level / scale.", "The invention relates, inter alia, a method for measuring the effective series resistance of a capacitor. The method comprises: amplifying the capacitor voltage with an AC-coupled amplifier, resulting in a first measurement value; charging or discharging the capacitor with a constant current for a measuring time, so that the capacitor voltage is lowered due to a voltage drop across the effective series resistance; amplifying the capacitor voltage with the AC-coupled amplifier, resulting in a second measurement value that is a function of the constant current and the effective series resistance; and calculating the equivalent series resistance of the first and the second measured value.", "In measurement of high voltage, there should be need to consider the impacts of leak and corona; and under AC the impact of stray parameter should also be taken into consideration. A new type of AC-DC dual use high voltage measurement device was used, which takes singlechip as the core part, plus out equipment to form a complete device, being able to measure DC, AC, impulse voltages, with measurement results displayed by LED. The operation usage of the measurement device are simple credible, and the measurement result is correct. Amongst, resistor capacitor type voltage divider measures AC high voltage which is with small in size, light in weight features.", "A method for assigning a personalized indicium to a mobile communications device (116), comprising: generating a Personal Information Number [PIN] Temporary; transmitting a request (502) by said mobile communications device (116) over a wireless network packet data (112) to a network node (216), including said request (502) said Personal Information Number [ PIN] and at least one of a device identifier and a subscriber identifier relating to said mobile communications device (116); and after validating (506) said request (502), provide a response (510) by said network node (216) to said mobile communications device (116), including said response (510) a permanent PIN assigned to said mobile communications device (116), characterized in that said Personal Information Number [PIN] temporary, within delmencionado mobile communications device (116) is generated.", "Capacitive sensors have important advantages and are widely used, but typically up to sensing distances comparable to sensor size. We present the design and experimental results of a self-contained long range capacitive sensor that is suitable for indoor human localization. We make differential measurements of the reactance effects of sensor plate capacitance using a constant excitation frequency, which is both less prone to noise and easier to filter. The experimental results show good sensor sensitivity up to 200 cm for a 16 cm square sensor plate, low noise and good measurement stability.", "We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel 1.5kV JBS rectifier structure called LC-JBS rectifier that offers a lower reverse leakage current and faster switching speed. Test devices were fabricated using an epi regrowth technology over implanted p+ buried layer. We have obtained performance trade-offs between forward drop (<1.8V) with reverse leakage characteristics approaching that of PiN rectifiers, together with ~50% reduction of junction capacitance for LC-JBS rectifiers when compared to conventional Schottky rectifiers", "Abstract This paper presents a technique to perform pose estimation of planar three degrees of freedom (DOF) motions using two-plate capacitive sensors. These sensors are commonly utilised to measure linear motion, however their capacitance response becomes nonlinear and errors can be introduced with the introduction of angular motions. This paper focusses on the development of a methodology to invert a nonlinear model which maps the pose of the end effector of a planar positioner to the capacitances of each sensor, in effect providing pose estimates from capacitance measurements. Strategies for the calibration of model parameters, for cases where full reference or only yaw sensor measurements are available, are extensively explored. The points evaluated through the proposed method are shown to outperform the best affine transformation when trained with a full reference, and improved performance is also observed when the single reference is employed.", "Embedded passives devices are becoming increasingly important for next generation miniaturized systems. A Printed circuit boards (PCBs) is investigated in this paper with focus on passive devices. Film resistance, capacitance and inductance are embedded into the same board. The effects of embedded capacitors and inductance on signal integrity (SI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) have been simulated, measured , and compared with measured results derived from conventional discrete capacitors. A finite element, full-wave method was used to simulate and analyze the transmission characteristics.", "Charge Device Model (CDM) events contribute to most of the Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) failures of semiconductor devices in the field. One of the major components of a CDM tester is a grounded pogo pin/probe which is used to create a discharge path for the charged device. There are many device packages in the market, however, this paper will focus on the most common flip chip packages types in the industry - Ball Grid Array (BGA), Pin Grid Array (PGA) and Land Grid Array (LGA). Three pogo probe types will be used and are described in detail in the paper. This study recommends the best fit pogo probe tip type for each package type based on the magnitude and standard deviation of the discharge current. The results and statistical methods can be useful for all Reliability engineers in helping them to choose the most appropriate pogo probe type for the various packages. Choosing the right pin can increase the robustness and quality of CDM testing.", "Abstract In this study we present the dark properties of ‘pin’ devices fabricated with Czochralski grown Si 0.95 Ge 0.05 bulk single crystals. The growth of such material is most challenging because of the constitutional supercooling effect. The potential advantages of Si 1− x Ge x to be used for X- and gamma-ray detection applications are overviewed. At room temperature the generation current in the devices is too high for spectroscopy applications, but enables transient current technique (TCT) measurements. The current however drops significantly with moderate cooling. The effective majority carrier concentration is shown to be ∼2×10 14 cm −3 , and hole mobility ∼320 cm 2 /V s.", "Capacitance is measured in terms of the period of a marginal oscillator and two accurately known fixed resistances in what is essentially a Wien bridge. Three similar capacitors with values within 10% of each other are required and then the three individual capacitances can be measured to within 0.01%.", "The invention relates to a method for the contactless measurement of strand-shaped fibrous material and to an apparatus for performing the method. The material to be measured 4 is illuminated within a measurement range of at least one radiation source 1 and the sensor region of a sensor cell 8, 11, 12, 14 comprising receiving means 10 illustrated. The signals generated by the individual sensing cells 8, 11, 12, 14 are converted to measured values ​​for the dimensions of the material to be measured. 4 DOLLAR A According to the invention, the signals are only partially covered by the image of the material to be measured 4 sensor cells 12, 14 and a pro-rata proportional taken into account in the measurement result to the extent of coverage.", "Measurements have been made to determine the effect of mutual shielding on the resonance absorption of neutrons by tightly packed thorium oxide lattice pins. From these measurements, correction factors have been obtained for reducing the results of single-pin resonance integral measurements to the effective lattice values. A comparison of the experimental results with the predictions of the theory of Dancoff and Ginsburg is included. (auth)", "This paper proposes a system MAS (muscle assistant system), which controls designated muscle forces by controlling a power-assisting device. MAS estimates muscle force based on posture measured by a motion capture system. The feasibility of the muscle force control for an object muscle is checked based on constrained optimization problem. For realizing the target force, the driving-force of power-assisting device is calculated and controlled. Using this pin-pointed muscle force control method, the effective rehabilitation and sports training is provided." ]

[ "A monitor is the display, and ONLY THE DISPLAY that you connect to a computer so you can actually view what you are doing on the computer. ... That means a monitor is a computer ACCESSORY. A Desktop computer, is just that. A computer that was originally designed to sit on your desktop." ]

[ "Originally Answered: what is the difference between a screen and a monitor ? A screen is the portion of a display device, a surface on it, on which the images the device produces appear. ... These include TVs, tablets, and, yes, monitors. So a screen is something a monitor has, but screens are not exclusive to monitors.", "Summary: Difference Between CRT and LCD is that CRT is a desktop/pc monitor that contains a cathode-ray tube. A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a large, sealed glass tube. While A LCD is a desktop/pc monitor that uses a liquid crystal display to produce images. These monitors produce sharp, flicker-free images.", "Palmtop is a related term of desktop. ... As nouns the difference between palmtop and desktop is that palmtop is (computing) a personal digital assistant while desktop is the top surface of a desk. As a adjective desktop is designed for use on a desk or similar piece of furniture.", "A simple HDMI splitter can in fact extend desktop to two different monitors.", "Windows makes using multiple monitors easy. Just plug the monitor into the appropriate port on your computer, and Windows should automatically extend your desktop onto it. You can now just drag and drop windows between monitors.", "Difference Between a Desktop & a Tower Computer. Desktop and tower computers are two different styles of computer case that use desk space in varying ways. Desktop computers are designed to lay flat on the desk, while towers stand upright. ... Tower computers sit upright, providing interior access through side panels.", "Although a computer generally consists of several different parts, each with its own specific set of tasks to perform, a desktop computer can be broken down into three main parts: the monitor, the system unit, and the keyboard, all of which are essential to any functional desktop computer.", "['Select the Desktop Viewer and click the down arrow.', 'SelectWindow.', 'Drag the Citrix Virtual Desktops screen between the monitors. Ensure that about half the screenis present in each monitor.']", "Set different pictures as wallpaper for each monitor You can use two different pictures as wallpaper on your dual monitors. Like the best tips, this one is easy and not a soul knows about it. Right-click on the desktop and click on Personalize. Click the words Desktop Background at the bottom of the window.", "Resolution varies with different monitors. The larger the monitor, the higher the resolution. Setting the resolution level on your computer lower than the maximum resolution supported by the monitor usually displays larger icons on the desktop. A low resolution enlarges the images.", "System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop tab > should show on both monitors > select a new desktop on the secondary monitor.", "What was the difference between the ironclads, the Monitor, and the Merrimac? A. The Merrimac included a revolving gun turret. ... The Monitor included a revolving gun turret.", "Once you've selected your wallpapers, right-click on one of the wallpapers and select Set as desktop background. 4. You should now see different wallpapers on each of your monitors. If you want to switch the wallpaper on any specific monitor, right-click on the desktop and select Next desktop background.", "What's the difference between desktop and server? The first difference is in the CD contents. The \"Server\" CD avoids including what Ubuntu considers desktop packages (packages like X, Gnome or KDE), but does include server related packages (Apache2, Bind9 and so on).", "The basic parts of a desktop computer are the computer case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and power cord.", "['Two cables into one monitor. Most monitors have multiple input ports in the back. You can connect both computers to your monitor at the same time using different cables. ... ', 'Hardware KVM switch. Another option is to use a hardware device called a KVM switch. ... ', 'Remote desktop. Remote desktop connections are also an option.']", "Now we will discuss about what is the major difference between desktop application testing and Web application testing:  Major difference in between both applications is that, Desktop Application Testing performs on the specific work environment, personal computer devices such as computers and laptops while Web ...", "Setting up dual monitors in Windows Windows makes using multiple monitors easy. Just plug the monitor into the appropriate port on the computer and Windows should automatically extend the desktop onto it. You can now drag and drop windows between monitors.", "The desktop is the main screen area that you see after you turn on your computer and log on to Windows. Like the top of an actual desk, it serves as a surface for your work. When you open programs or folders, they appear on the desktop.", "Click the “Extend” option. Windows displays yet another blank desktop screen on the second external monitor. Drag and drop windows or icons between the laptop display and two external monitors as needed.", "To be able to set a different wallpaper for each monitor, you must disable the file manager from handling the desktop. This means you'll no longer have folders on the desktop. Then open GNOME Tweak Tool and on the Desktop section, set Icons on Desktop (previously Have file manager handle the desktop) to OFF.", "So the primary difference is that a monitor is simply a dummy display that provides an image given a video signal, whereas a TV has a tuner by which it can select multiple channels for TV viewing, and may also have apps, streaming capabilities, and surround sound processing.", "The desktop on your computer is (in Windows) the main screen that comes up on the monitor after you've finished booting your computer. It's the point of access for all the other programs on your computer. Your desktop allows you to use the computer in a user-friendly graphics interface.", "What's the difference between Desktop Intelligence and Web Intelligence Rich Client? In short: DeskI is full-client software and meant for the desktop and must be installed for every user, WebI is web based. Quote: WebI is web based.", "Desktop computers are much bigger and heavier than laptops and notebooks. They usually store more information and have more features than the other computer types. This being said, they are usually left at home and are not for quick transport. Also, desktop computers usually have all of their parts in different pieces.", "Computer monitor only serves as a display, while TV is more than a display. Computer monitor needs external devices in order to use, while TV is almost all in one. ... Computer monitors usually smaller, while TVs usually bigger.", "Screensavers and desktop wallpaper are both ways to personalize your desktop environment. ... The most important difference is that a screensaver takes over your entire screen after a specified period of inactivity, temporarily replacing whatever was on your screen with an animation or a slideshow of images.", "It isn't expensive when you count what it contains. First, the high resolution monitors with high refresh rates. A desktop monitor of those specs easily go $200 or more. And they have to shrink it and make it lightweight to fit on your head.", "Typically, your desktop resolution and your active signal resolution will be identical. ... If you change your display resolution under Settings > System > Display > Scale and layout > Resolution, you may see a difference between your desktop resolution and your active signal resolution. 59 Hz refresh rate.", "What is the difference between desktop and enterprise software? Desktop software refers to applications installed on a personal computer (browser, word processor, games). Enterprise software refers to applications that address the needs of multiple, simultaneous users in an organization or work group.", "Monitor is your screen of laptop or computer. And printer is an output device. ... Well, a monitor is a kind of lizard, and a printer is a person or company that produces output on paper or other substrates. in short, they're very different.", "A Desktop Environment includes a Window Manager but builds upon it. The Desktop Environment typically is a far more fully integrated system than a Window Manager. Requires both X Windows and a Window Manager." ]

[ "a cathode ray tube" ]

[ "Count Basie", "Short Form", "possessive form", "Tube steak", "Daily Racing Form", "the bubble chamber", "Microscopes", "a test tube baby", "embouchure", "form 3D pictures (come out in 3D accepted)", "an instrument", "astrolabe", "osculate", "the hypotenuse", "aperture", "Joule", "horn pipe", "diffraction", "the sensor", "a concertina", "a flange", "bar chord", "Refracting Telescope", "a sonogram (or ultrasound)", "the ear", "the mouthpiece", "electron volt" ]

[ "part of stamen that produces pollen: Filament: Stalk that supports anther: Pistil: female part of flower: Stigma: sticky tip of pistil that collects pollen: Style: connects stigma to ovary: Ovary: place where seeds develop: Fruit: ripened ovary: Angiosperms: plant that produces seeds enclosed in fruit: Flower: reproductive structure of angiosperm: Sepals: protect developing flower" ]

[ "The apple blossom is a typical angiosperm flower, with petals surrounding multiple pollen-producing structures called stamens, the male reproductive organs of the flower, which are crowned with sticky pollen-collecting stigma.he apple blossom is the state flower of both Michigan and Arkansas. The flower was chosen as the state flower by the Michigan legislature in 1897, and the specific variety chosen is Pyrus coronaria, the crabapple, because it is native to Michigan.", "A flower is a part of a plant. Flowers are also called the bloom or blossom of a plant. The flower grows on a stalk – a thin node – which supports it. Flowers have petals. Inside the part of the flower that has petals are the parts which produce pollen and seeds.Flowers are the reproductive structure of flowering plants, which are plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called the Angiosperms. In many plants, a flower is its most colourful part.nside the part of the flower that has petals are the parts which produce pollen and seeds. Flowers are the reproductive structure of flowering plants, which are plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called the Angiosperms.", "the carpels/pistil or gynoecium (a collective term for all the carpels in a flower) is the female reproductive organ of flowers from angiosperm plants. The carpel is made up o … f ovary (which matures to form fruit), style(the connecting tube) and stigma(part that receives pollen grains (or the male gametes).", "The Life Cycle of an Angiosperm. The adult, or sporophyte, phase is the main phase of an angiosperm's life cycle . As with gymnosperms, angiosperms are heterosporous. Therefore, they generate microspores, which will produce pollen grains as the male gametophytes, and megaspores, which will form an ovule that contains female gametophytes.", "The gametophyte phase is haploid, and is the part of the life cycle in which gametes are produced (by mitosis of haploid cells). In flowering plants (angiosperms) the multicelled visible plant (leaf, stem, etc.) is sporophyte, while pollen and ovaries contain the male and female gametophytes, respectively.he gametophyte phase is haploid, and is the part of the life cycle in which gametes are produced (by mitosis of haploid cells). In flowering plants (angiosperms) the multicelled visible plant (leaf, stem, etc.) is sporophyte, while pollen and ovaries contain the male and female gametophytes, respectively.", "Pollination is the spreading of pollen from the male to the female part of a flower. Fertilization is the sperm and egg joining to form a zygote. -In gymnosperms pollination is the transfer of pollination is the transfer of pollen to the ovulate cone. In angiosperms, pollination is the transfer of pollen from anther to stigma.", "Pistil. The pistil is the female part of a flower, consisting of the stigma, style, ovary and ovule. The stigma is the part of the flower that receives the pollen during fertilization. It sits on top of the pistil and is sticky in order to catch the pollen.The style is a tube that extends out the top of the ovary.istil. The pistil is the female part of a flower, consisting of the stigma, style, ovary and ovule. The stigma is the part of the flower that receives the pollen during fertilization. It sits on top of the pistil and is sticky in order to catch the pollen.", "The location of pollen production is dependent on the type of flower producing the pollen. Pollen is produced in the anther of an angiosperm flower, the male cone of a coniferous flower or often in the male cone of other seed plants.he location of pollen production is dependent on the type of flower producing the pollen. Pollen is produced in the anther of an angiosperm flower, the male cone of a coniferous flower or often in the male cone of other seed plants.", "A stigma is a part of a flower that gets pollen from pollinators such as bees. The stigma is part of the female reproductive part of a flower, the pistil. The sitigma is on top of the style. The stigma can be either hairy or sticky, both to trap pollen.", "increase in pollen aperture number, suggesting that pollen apertures are under strong selection pressure. This trend can be observed by comparing the aperture patterns in basal angiosperms (including monocots) with those of eudicots. Different developmental strate-gies operate for pollen apertures in basal angiosperms", "Noun. 1. stamen-the male reproductive organ of a flower. blossom, flower, bloom-reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts. anther-the part of the stamen that contains pollen; usually borne on a stalk.gynostegium-the crown of the stamen in plants of the genus Asclepias.oun. 1. stamen-the male reproductive organ of a flower. blossom, flower, bloom-reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts. anther-the part of the stamen that contains pollen; usually borne on a stalk.", "stamen. One of the male organs of a flower, consisting typically of a stalk (filament) and a pollen-bearing portion (anther).The male reproductive organ of a flower.The male organ of angiosperm flowers where pollen grains are produced in the anther component of the stamen.These pollen grains are produced by meiosis and provide the building blocks required for reproduction of an angiosperm species.he male reproductive organ of a flower.The male organ of angiosperm flowers where pollen grains are produced in the anther component of the stamen.", "Pollenization is simply the transfer of pollen from one plant to another. Fertilization is the joining of the male part with the … female part to produce offspring. The act of transferring pollen is done by insects and the wind. Fertilization is what happens AFTER the transfer which results in offspring, fruit.he transfer of pollen from a stamen to a pistil; fertilization in flowering plants. It takes place through self-pollination or cross-pollination. Please note that this answer … refers specifically to the pollination of angiosperms and gymnosperms. Self-pollination: Please see the related link below.", "Definition of POLLINATION. : the transfer of pollen from an anther to the stigma in angiosperms or from the microsporangium to the micropyle in gymnosperms.See pollination defined for kids.ADVERTISEMENT. the transfer of pollen from an anther to the stigma in angiosperms or from the microsporangium to the micropyle in gymnosperms.", "How Bees Collect Pollen. When a bee flies onto a flower, the pollen sticks to the bee's body. Bees have three pairs of legs, and each pair is used for a different purpose.All the legs have sticky hairs to collect pollen, but the second pair is covered with bristles that are used to remove pollen from the bee's body.he Importance of Collecting and Storing Pollen. Storing pollen is one of the most important things bees do. But pollen collection and storage is not only important for bees, it is also important for us--as without bees, many plants would have no way to become fertilized and produce new plants.", "Pollination is a process in which pollen is transferred to the female reproductive organs of seed plants, thereby enabling fertilization and reproduction through growth of the pollen tube and eventual release of sperm.he receptive part of the carpel is called a stigma in the flowers of angiosperms. The receptive part of the gymnosperm ovule is called the micropyle. Pollination is a necessary step in the reproduction of flowering plants, resulting in the production of offspring that are genetically diverse.", "Honey plants is a large group of angiosperm plants from which the bees collect nectar and pollen, food supply of beekeeping. Producing nectar nectaries are in the form of flat points, bumps, grooves, often located deep in flowers, and sometimes they are hidden in special thickening of sepals or petals.", "double fertilization A character istic of angiosperm s in which a pollen tube carries two sperm cells to the female gametophyte in the ovule.", "Double fertilization. The pollen tube enters the ovule through the micropyle and ruptures. double fertilization A character istic of angiosperm s in which a pollen tube carries two sperm cells to the female gametophyte in the ovule. double fertilization.A mechanism of fertilization in angiosperm s, in which two sperm cells unite with two cells in the embryo sac to form the zygote and endosperm. double helix ... Double fertilization gives rise to the zygote and endosperm.After landing on a receptive stigma, the pollen grain absorbs moisture and germinates, producing a pollen tube that extends down the style toward the ovary. mechanism of fertilization in angiosperm s, in which two sperm cells unite with two cells in the embryo sac to form the zygote and endosperm. double helix ... Double fertilization gives rise to the zygote and endosperm.", "Angiosperms are flowering plants where the seeds are found in an ovary. Gymnosperms are evergreen plants where the seeds are naked, as in without an ovary. In angiosperms the pollen from the anther or male part of the plant ir released and when it lands on the stigma it travels into the ovary to fertilize an ovule. The seeds will develop inside the ovary which in plants like tomatoes or apples will become the fruit surrounding the seeds.", "1 Stigma One of the female parts of the flower. 2 It is the sticky bulb that you see in the center of the flowers, it is the part of the pistil of a flower which receives the pollen grains and on which they germinate. 3 Style Another female part of the flower. 4 This is the long stalk that the stigma sits on top of.", "2. a mark, spot, or pore on the surface of an organ or organism. 3. follicular stigma. 4. in botany, the uppermost part of a pistil, which secretes a moist, sticky substance to trap and hold the pollen that reaches it.", "Problems. Flowers, the reproductive structures of angiosperms, are adaptations designed to attract insects and other pollen-bearing animals to the plant to aid in pollen dispersal.", "Palynology is the study of the pollen grain produced by the seed plant (Angiosperm and gymnosperm) and spores produced by Pteridophytes, Bryophytes, algae and fungi (Moore et al ., 1991). In present study Pollen analysis of Pollen loads were done to determine the beeflora of area under study.alynology is the study of the pollen grain produced by the seed plant (Angiosperm and gymnosperm) and spores produced by Pteridophytes, Bryophytes, algae and fungi (Moore et al ., 1991). In present study Pollen analysis of Pollen loads were done to determine the beeflora of area under study.", "Angiosperms are able to grow in a variety of habitats. They can grow as trees, shrubs, bushes, herbs, and small flowering plants. Some of the characteristics of angiosperms include: 1 All angiosperms have flowers at some stage in their life.2 The flowers serve as the reproductive organs for the plant, providing them a means of exchanging genetic information.3 Angiosperms have small pollen grains that spread genetic information from flower to flower.f you look closely into the flowers, you can see the trademark characteristics of angiosperms, including stamens, carpels, and tiny pollen grains. Small flowering plants like tulips, which are often planted around our neighborhoods and parks to provide color and beauty, are also examples of angiosperms.", "Reduced male parts, three cells. The male gametophyte in angiosperms is significantly reduced in size compared to those of gymnosperm seed plants. The smaller size of the pollen reduces the amount of time between pollination — the pollen grain reaching the female plant — and fertilization.", "blossom, flower, bloom - reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts. anther - the part of the stamen that contains pollen; usually borne on a stalk. gynostegium - the crown of the stamen in plants of the genus Asclepias.", "An angiosperm ovule contains an egg cell and a diploid fusion nucleus, which is created through the joining of two polar nuclei within the ovule. When a pollen grain comes into contact with the stigma, or top of the pistil, it sends a pollen tube down into the ovary at the pistil's base.n order for fertilization to occur, angiosperms either self-pollinate, in which a particular plant fertilizes itself, or cross-pollinate, in which one plant is fertilized by another of the same species.", "The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after fertilization by pollen and some growth within the mother plant.", "The male gametophyte in angiosperms is significantly reduced in size compared to those of gymnosperm seed plants. The smaller size of the pollen reduces the amount of time between pollination — the pollen grain reaching the female plant — and fertilization.In gymnosperms, fertilization can occur up to a year after pollination, whereas in angiosperms, fertilization begins very soon after pollination.hile the majority of flowers are perfect or hermaphrodite (having both pollen and ovule producing parts in the same flower structure), flowering plants have developed numerous morphological and physiological mechanisms to reduce or prevent self-fertilization.", "The stamen is referred to as the male part of a flower because it produces pollen. Once pollen is deposited on the pistil (the female part) seeds are produced.Pollen is o … ften carried on the legs of honey bees and as the bees flit from flower to flower collecting nectar, the pollen is deposited on the pistils.he stamen is referred to as the male part of a flower because it produces pollen. Once pollen is deposited on the pistil (the female part) seeds are produced. Pollen is o … ften carried on the legs of honey bees and as the bees flit from flower to flower collecting nectar, the pollen is deposited on the pistils.", "Pollination is the transfer of pollen to the female organs of seed plants. In flowering plants (angiosperms, or covered seeds), immature seeds (ovules) are located within carpels. In contrast, nonflowering seed plants have uncovered ovules to which the pollen is transferred, making these naked seeds (gymnosperms)." ]

[ "The 2 qts is a very very small bucket. Doesn't seem real heavy duty. Handle doesn't appear to be able to handle much weight. Not sure what you could use this for, is really tiny." ]

[ "It is smaller than I expected... It is tiny... Not how I thought it would look like.", "Somewhat smaller than you can expect, but looks nice if your lady have a delicate wrist.", "Smaller than expected, but overall it is very nice looking and looks great on!", "I loved the way the pack looked but it was way bigger than expected so I returned it to find a smaller pack. I looked at other packs prior to purchasing this one that were little smaller in number than this size in person and I remember them being a lot smaller than this pack. Great product though.", "Smaller than it looks and for age stated. Disappointed.", "I ordered a 2T for my son and my son is turn 2 in august. It was small for him. I will be purchasing a 3T for him.", "returned as the fit is too small and narrow, you need to go up at least 1/2 size for proper fit.", "It was sorta smaller than I thought. But I love the way it looks.", "The size was a little smaller than expected but the quality was great and it looks really nice", "The bathing suit is adorable but a little smaller than I expected for 2T size.", "Very small....maybe a Chinese mans XLARGE but not a normals man XL.", "Our son is 2, between a 2T-3T. We purchased the 3T to allow some room to grow. Fits ok now with a long sleeve shirt under, but won't last long.", "A little smaller than I thought it would be, but it looks good in my garden!", "This is a really cute watch. It's much smaller than it looks, but it works and it's cute!", "This product is a lot smaller than it looks. It's definitely meant for a woman's wrist. Also this product couldn't have cost more than 2$ to make. So I would not buy this again but if I ever did I wouldn't spend more than 8-10$ on it.", "Advertised as 2 1/2 quarts size but actually they are 1 1/2 quart size. Had to send them back for a refund.", "I ordered the orange 2x because I had read some of the reviews that it ran small. As soon as I took it out of the package, there is no way the dress was a 2x. It was very short and does not go down to the knees as pictured and the top was very tight fitting. I would say it might have fit the model in the picture.", "I ordered a2xx for my future husband (were getting married july 18th) and it is to small even though he is a true 2xx, However I would order another one if it came in bigger sizes.", "It was a bit smaller than I expected but looks just like the emoji as advertised.", "These fit smaller than the same model of socks I purchased in the past. Same look, but drop in quality.", "Smaller than I expected, but pretty look. Kind of fragile and did not last a long time.", "Smaller than I thought looks big in the picture loved the colors other than the size its really good .\nIf u r looks for medium size its not for u", "Much smaller than it looks in the pictures. Photo misleading, not a good value for the price.", "This took a while to arrive but the 2T fit my 2 year old perfectly, not much room to grow but I wasn't sure if the 3T would be to big. It is very cute and the colors are vibrant.", "Purchased either 24m or 2t, for my 2 year old, fits more like 12-18m for length... fabric is terribly thin, so the photo is misleading! Otherwise, adorable concept!", "The pocket square looks great and has brilliant colors. Smaller than the standard size but the fabric is thicker.", "This was a little smaller than I had anticipated, but looks cute in my flamingo kitchen.", "Smaller than I thought it said 10 inches but I guess their counting the string. It looks just like the picture", "Poorly molded, smaller than advertised and than the Subaru OEM part, leading to flimsy fit, and single-use at best. Look elsewhere.", "Figure 1 size larger to get a good fit, a 2x instead of an XL", "returned 2x for large size. didn;t get larger in right places and hardly got larger at all. Top of instep was terriby small even in size 11.\nCompany was pleasant however and refunded my money.", "my son is a 2XL this was more like a small/large way to tight.. thank you for taking the return back.. sorry" ]

[ "A girl plays on a playground." ]

[ "A girl lays on the beach.", "A little girl is playing in the black playground", "The little girl is running in the playground.", "A little girl is wearing a blue scarf.", "a little girl plays with a wooden puzzle", "A girl is wearing a scarf", "Two little girls are playing together on a playground.", "A little boy is playing in the playground", "Little kids playing on a playground.", "A little boy playing in a playground.", "A little boy is wearing a blue scarf", "The girls are playing on the playground.", "A man wearing a hat and scarf stands in a crowd.", "A little boy is wearing a hat.", "The little boy is playing with wooden blocks.", "A girl wearing a blue dress is playing at a playground.", "A girl with a hat is climbing a playground wall.", "A little girl is burning wooden bookshelves.", "Two girls are playing on a playground.", "The old man isn't wearing his hat and scarf today.", "A girl plays with some wooden toys.", "The woman is wearing a scarf", "A child wearing a scarf.", "A girl playing tennis in the playground", "The girls are wearing hats.", "Two girls play on a swing in a playground.", "A girl plays on the swings in the playground.", "A man wearing a hat and blue scarf is holding a puppy.", "The girls are playing basketball at a playground court", "A girl is wearing a Bohemian hat.", "The girls are playing foursquare on the playground at school.", "The girl is wearing a black hat." ]

[ "Sleep research suggests that a teenager needs between nine and 10 hours of sleep every night. This is more than the amount a child or an adult needs. Yet most adolescents only get about seven or eight hours. Some get less." ]

[ "The roots of the problem include poor teen sleep habits that do not allow for enough hours of quality sleep; hectic schedules with afterschool activities and jobs, homework hours and family obligations; and a clash between societal demands, such as early school start times , and biological changes that put most teens on a later sleep-wake clock.", "Children and teens need at least 9 hours of sleep a night.for 10 y.... Sleep needs vary from person to person, and they change throughout the lifecycle. Most adults need 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Newborns, on the other hand, sleep between 16 and 18 hours a day, and children in preschool sleep between 10 and 12 hours a day.", "How Much Sleep Do You Need? Research shows that as little as 20 hours of sleep deprivation can have a negative impact on sports performance, particularly for power and skill sports. Sleep experts recommend seven to nine hours of daily sleep for adults, and nine to ten hours for adolescents and teens.", "infants 4 to 12 months 12 to 16 hours of sleep every 24 hours including naps children 1 to 2 years 11 to 14 hours of sleep every 24 hours including naps children 3 to 5 years 10 to 13 hours of sleep every 24 hours including naps children 6 to 12 years 9 to 12 hours of sleep every 24 hours teens 13 to 18 years 8 to 10 hours of sleep every 24 hours", "Newborns should average eight or nine hours of nighttime sleep and eight hours during the day. Two-year-olds should sleep an average of 11 hours at night and two during the day. Children ages 4 to 9 should sleep 10 hours, on average, each night. Pre-teens and teenagers generally require nine or 10 hours nightly.", "The most recent research indicates that healthy adults need approximately seven hours to be well rested. The current sleep guidelines from the various sleep foundations say anywhere to seven to nine hours for adults and more for teens, children and infants.", "Sleep Deprivation Sleep deprivation occurs when an individual fails to get enough sleep. The amount of sleep that a person needs varies from one person to another, but on average most adults need about seven to eight hours of sleep each night to feel alert and well rested. Teens need an average of about nine hours of sleep per night, and children", "Share to: 8 hours is a good amount of sleep to get. For some reason, certain people feel fine with 4-6 hours, but its a better idea to get at least 8 hours, especially teens since you a … re growing so much, you need all the sleep you can get.3 people found this useful.hare to: 8 hours is a good amount of sleep to get. For some reason, certain people feel fine with 4-6 hours, but its a better idea to get at least 8 hours, especially teens since you a … re growing so much, you need all the sleep you can get.", "How much sleep we need varies between individuals but generally changes as we age. The National Institutes of Health suggests that school-age children need at least 10 hours of sleep daily, teens need 9-10 hours, and adults need 7-8 hours.", "The panel revised the recommended sleep ranges for all six children and teen age groups. A summary of the new recommendations includes: Newborns (0-3 months): Sleep range narrowed to 14-17 hours each day (previously it was 12-18) Infants (4-11 months): Sleep range widened two hours to 12-15 hours (previously it was 14-15)", "While sleep requirements vary slightly from person to person, most healthy adults need between 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep per night to function at their best. Children and teens need even more (see Average Sleep Needs table above).", "1 Set bedtime so that your child gets his or her usual amount of sleep – the typical 9 to 11 hours per night depending on your child's age. ( 2 Children between the ages of 6 and 12 need about 10 to 11 hours of sleep each night; teens need about 9 hours of sleep each night.).", "eight hours or more may be necessary for some people while others may consider this to be too much sleep the national institutes of health nih suggests that most average adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night newborn babies by contrast sleep from 16 to 18 hours a day preschool aged children typically sleep between 10 and 12 hours a day older school aged children and teens need at least 9 hours of sleep a night women in the first trimester of pregnancy have been observed to need a few more hours sleep than is usual for them", "Teen sleep cycles might seem to come from another world. Understand why teen sleep is a challenge — and what you can do to promote better teen sleep. Teens are notorious for wanting to stay up late and for not wanting to get up early. If your teen is no exception, find out what's behind this behavior and how you can help him or her get better sleep — starting tonight.", "Teen sleep cycles might seem to come from another world. Understand why teen sleep is a challenge — and what you can do to promote better teen sleep. By Mayo Clinic Staff. Teens are notorious for wanting to stay up late and for not wanting to get up early.", "The average 8-10 year old in the U.S. spends around eight hours per day in front of a screen. Teens may spend as many as 11 hours per day. Many children spend more time interacting with media than they spend sleeping or going to school.he average 8-10 year old in the U.S. spends around eight hours per day in front of a screen. Teens may spend as many as 11 hours per day. Many children spend more time interacting with media than they spend sleeping or going to school.", "Still, the new hour ranges for each age group recommend more hours for infants, kids and teens: 1 Newborns (0-3 months ): Sleep range narrowed to 14-17 hours each day (previously it was 12-18) 2 Infants (4-11 months): Sleep range widened two hours to 12-15 hours (previously it was 14-15) Toddlers (1-2 years): Sleep range widened by one hour to 11-14 hours (previously it was 12-14) Preschoolers (3-5): Sleep range widened by one hour to 10-13 hours (previously it was 11-13)", "I have tried sleeping... show more I can only sleep for 3-4 hours at a time. Which means by the time I get to sleep and the time when I wake up an hour early with fear of going back to bed and oversleeping it is exhausting.I have had sleeping issues since I was in my teens but it seems the older I get the worse it gets.how more I can only sleep for 3-4 hours at a time. Which means by the time I get to sleep and the time when I wake up an hour early with fear of going back to bed and oversleeping it is exhausting.", "Let's just put nine hours in context for a second. That's more time than teens typically spend sleeping, and more time than they spend with their parents and teachers. And the nine hours does not include time spent using media at school or for their homework.", "Bolstering the immune system doesn’t require us to dedicate additional time to sleep. But we do need to ensure we are getting the sleep we need. Adults generally need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night and children and teens need more ranging from 9 to 11 hours. Consistency is the key to good sleep hygiene and bolstering our immune systems.", "Almost half the population doesn't get enough sleep: 40% of people sleep less than the recommended seven to nine hours a night (teens and children need even more). Sleeping too much isn't good for you either and comes with its own health risks, but only 5% of people sleep more than nine hours a night. For at least 40% of the US population, getting more sleep would make our lives so much better. Here's how.", "The National Institutes of Health suggests that school-age children need at least 10 hours of sleep daily, teens need 9-10 hours, and adults need 7-8 hours. According to data from the National Health Interview Survey, nearly 30% of adults reported an average of ≤6 hours of sleep per day in 2005-2007.In 2009, only 31% of high school students reported getting at least 8 hours of sleep on an average school night.ccording to data from the National Health Interview Survey, nearly 30% of adults reported an average of ≤6 hours of sleep per day in 2005-2007. In 2009, only 31% of high school students reported getting at least 8 hours of sleep on an average school night.", "This means that an early wake-up call (5 or 6 a.m. to allow many teens to catch buses or commute to early-start schools) not only allows 6 or 7 hours of sleep per school night at most but also requires students to wake up in the middle of deep sleep.", "If you’re like most people, you’re probably not sleeping enough, and the consequences go far beyond just feeling tired and sluggish the next day. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 40 percent of American adults get six hours or less per night. Even children are becoming sleep deprived. According to the 2014 Sleep in America Poll, 58 percent of teens average only seven hours of sleep or less.", "Sleep Disorders in Children and Teenagers-Experience Question: Please share your experience with sleep disorders in children or teens.", "The general recommendations for sleep are. 1 Newborns: 16-18 hours a day. 2 Preschool-aged children: 11-12 hours a day. 3 School-aged children: At least 10 hours a day. 4 Teens: 9-10 hours a day. 5 Adults (including the elderly): 7-8 hours a day.", "According to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, many teens also snack while watching TV, which could translate to hundreds of calories. Over time, all those calories contribute to weight gain. Too much TV can also get in the way of your teen's sleep. If she's staying up to watch her favorite show, she might not get enough hours of sleep to feel her best the next day. Chronic sleep deprivation can have a negative effect on her grades, relationships and physical health.", "Babies, children, and teens need significantly more sleep than adults to support their rapid mental and physical development. Most parents know that growing kids need good sleep, but many don't know just how many hours kids require, and what the impact can be of missing as little as 30 to 60 minutes of sleep time.", "The average pay among the top 10 jobs is $11.67 per hour, $4.42 per hour more than federal minimum wage. For the teen with 10 weeks available to work, that amounts to earning $4,668 a summer. That’s a reason not to sleep in this summer vacation.", "As few as 10 hours and as many as 18 hours may be appropriate. Toddlers (between 1 and 2 years old) sleep between 11 and 14 hours each day. As few as 9 hours and as many as 16 hours may be appropriate. Preschoolers (between 3 and 5 years old) sleep between 10 and 13 hours each day. As few as 8 hours and as many as 14 hours may be appropriate. School-aged children (6 to 13 years old) need 9 to 11 hours of sleep each day. As few as 7 hours and as many as 12 hours may be appropriate. Teens (14 to 17 years old) need 8 to 10 hours each day to feel their best.", "On any given day, teens in the United States spend about nine hours using media for their enjoyment, according to the report by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents and educators navigate the world of media and technology. Let's just put nine hours in context for a second. That's more time than teens typically spend sleeping, and more time than they spend with their parents and teachers. And the nine hours does not include time spent using media at school or for their homework.", "Sleep also supports healthy growth and development. Deep sleep triggers the body to release the hormone that promotes normal growth in children and teens. This hormone also boosts muscle mass and helps repair cells and tissues in children, teens, and adults. Sleep also plays a role in puberty and fertility." ]

[ "I really like the parabola, but the ellipse is pretty cool too." ]

[ "What's your favorite part of science?", "Favorite: Skinner\\nLeast Favorite (even though you didnt ask for it): Freud - I think he was perverted. \\n\\nWho's your favorite?", "what's up? i think your favorite sport is basketball and your favorite color is between blue or black.", "What is your favorite color?", "There is no oscillation as conical oscillation. But there is conical pendulum.\\n\\nA small bob attached to one end of a string, the other end being fixed, is made to move in a cicle in a horizontal plane with uniform speed.\\n\\nThe string sweeps over a surface of a cone. Therefore the pendulum is called conical pendulum.\\n\\nThe period of rotation depends on the height of the pendulum.", "The weather, lunch, sports he/you are into, video games he/you like, school, your job, your friends, your families, tv shows or movies you've seen, what you want to do this coming weekend, what you want to do next summer, what kind of pets are your favorites and why, talk about your hobbies, his hobbies, what your future goals in life are, make fun of other people you know or see when you're together, Talk about what your dream job would be, what your favorite/least favorite foods/restaurants are, talk about your favorite sites on the net...\\n\\nANYTHING! :)", "Actually, cats, monkeys, great apes, bears, wolverines, etc., etc., etc. also have canine teeth. Even though canine can refer to dogs, that isn't the case with canine teeth. These are web definitions of canine from Princeton.\\n1. of or relating to a pointed conical tooth\\n\\n2. one of the four pointed conical teeth (two in each jaw) located between the incisors and the premolars", "What was your best subject in High School? What was your favorite subject? Are they the same? You just found your major.", "So What is one of my favorites", "well i guess its not a favorite instrument as much as a fovorite instrumentS, but i love the persuccion section of the band, considering i am a percussionist in my eighth grade band.", "http://www.braingle.com/\\nBraingle is one of my favorites: it has brain teasers, riddles, logic problems, mind puzzles, games, and other things like that. And be sure to check out the \"mentalrobics\" section.", "You need to remove the code, and place it back in. Maybe in a different section. What's your myspace page?", "uvula\\n\\nu-vu-la (yue'vyuh luh) n. pl. <-las, -lae>(-lee') \\n 1. the small, fleshy, conical body \\n projecting downward from the middle\\n of the soft palate.", "Click on your favorites button\\nRight click on a folder in your favorites\\nIf there isn't one create one\\nSelect explore\\nThat will show you where the favorites are located\\nYou highlight favorites, right click and select copy then paste on your disk", "totaly I luv \"Unsolved Mysterys\" whats your favorite one?", "There is not enough information to answer your question. What do you want to know? Statutory exception for what? What sections of what code are you referring to? State law or federal?", "depends on your reason why the c-section was performed and if your doctor feels it is safe for you to have a v-bac as its called \"vaginal birth after c-section\", i had one post c-section and my kids were 6 years apart so first ask your gynocologist what they feel is best then u decide what u want to do for your birth of your baby. either way they both are beautiful and memorable experience's\\n\\nwish u the best", "The first page is always named \"index\" so you have to make an html 'form'. Forms section of my favorite coding tutorial...\\nhttp://www.echoecho.com/htmlforms.htm\\nThen you have to do CGI script on the server-side...your hosting provider might be able to help you out with that part.", "What are his favorite toys? Something, to go with his favorite toy would be enjoyed.", "What is your favorite hobby? What do you like to do? Try to find work in smething you enjoy.", "It's probably saved in your favorites...look in your favorites (if it's not there, look in your temporary internet files folder).", "A favicon (short for \"Favorites icon\"), also known as a page icon, is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage. A web designer can create a 16 x 16 pixel or larger image and by adding 2 link elements in the <head> section of the document that image appears as a favicon.\\n\\nI guess what you're asking is how you the user of a website can change the favicon that the web designer has chosen. Hopefully you use Firefox as your web browser. If so, then you can install an extension called Favicon Picker that lets you change your bookmark favicons to whatver you want.", "1.A way to be with your friends and have friendly competition\\n2.know more about your favorite sports and players\\n3.to improve your fantasy sports priofile\\n4.it alows you to have control over your favorite athletes(whats better than that)\\n\\nI love my Fantasy sports but I rather watch a real game", "Free diet and fitness plans:\\nhttp://www.sparkpeople.com/\\n\\nThis is a yahoo group http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/FitnessAndWeightLoss/ moderated by a personal trainer. There's many great links in the links section there.\\n\\nFitday for tracking calories:\\nhttp://www.fitday.com/\\n\\nThose are some of my favorites.", "click home and then edit my page and then whatever section you want to change or what ever section your background that u have now is one click edit and paste your code. YOu can get a code from myspacepimper.com and other websites too. just type myspace layouts in a search engine like google or yahoo", "heck yeah. in colorado you must use loose bp with only a conical non-sabot bullet or a round ball. sights...no fiber optics.\\n\\nin other states it varies. i think most of the restrictions are going to be on the type of sights.\\n\\n209's are ok, i think. \\n\\ndouble check with your states dnr to be sure.\\n\\ngood luck.", "my favorite moive is the pink panther, and my favorite shows are lizzie McGurire, that's so raven, and what evers on the ddisney channel.", "Kagrra, L'arc~en~Ciel, Asian Kung Fu Generation, and Orange Range are some of my favorites.\\nTry those out.\\nI hope that helps!", "THEY ARE ALL GREAT!!!!!!!!\\n\\nbut if i had to pick it would be from the back!", "First, sign into your Xanga account. At the top of the page (under the ad) is a box that's divided into 3 sections - the first section says \"New Weblog Entry\" - click on that. Type what you want into the text box and click \"Submit\" at the bottom of the page. Voila!", "Its a worng question. First answer my question, What CAN you do? Next time ask your question in other section not in sports.", "IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A SERIOUS, NO B.S. FRIENDSHIP THAN I'M YOUR MAN.. NO JOKES, NO B.S NO CHILDISH COMMENTS \\nLIKE WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD OR STUFF LIKE THAT..\\nI COULD BE YOUR SERIOUS FRIENDS AFTER ALL THATS WHAT THE INTERNET WAS INVENTED FOR.." ]

[ "India is likely to cancel Pakistani cotton import orders after the commodity's price surged significantly from the rate at which the two countries have agreed upon, a broker said on Wednesday." ]

[ "Global cotton buyers are awaiting a further fall in prices due to slowdown in demand while the situation is likely to dent India's export of the raw material, said a latest report.", "Bangladesh has asked India to commit 15 lakh bales of cotton each year to its fast-growing garments industry.", "Reports say that Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani wants that his power-starved country imports electricity from India.", "In a rare occasion, wheat and cotton prices in India have bucked the global trend in the last three months due to a rapid change in fundamentals post monsoon.", "Pakistan is likely to miss the cotton production target of 15 million bales set for 2012-13 and is likely to harvest no more than 13.5 million bales because of a decrease in sowing area as well as flash floods in major crop production areas of Sindh and Punjab.", "UK-based retail chain Marks & Spencer plans an over 12-fold increase in its cotton sourcing from India in three years to 64,000 metric tonne.", "Cotton exports from the country are likely to miss the target this season as production has been hit by unseasonal rains in Gujarat and Maharashtra and floods in Andhra Pradesh, according to a senior official of the Union ministry of textiles.", "Coimbatore , Apr 8 With cotton arrivals slowing down all over, lint prices continued to rise and showed a very firm trend during the last fortnight of March, according to the South India Cotton Association.", "India Friday partially lifted a ban on cotton exports just days after imposing it, following opposition from Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and chief ministers of key growing states, who argued the ban would hurt farmers.", "The Pakistan cabinet deferred a key decision on switching to a negative list regime for trade with India after reservations from sections of the government and domestic industry.", "Sainsbury's is to source all of its Fairtrade cotton from a co-operative supplier in Gujarat, India.", "Coimbatore , Jul 5 Cotton production in India is estimated to be around 309 lakh bales, with the central region producing 176 lakh bales, during 2009-2010 season, according to an estimate from South India Cotton Association here.", "Japan has lifted a ban on the import of Pakistani mangoes after 16 years on the condition that the fruit will undergo vapour heat treatment before export.", "The Karachi cotton market faced a dull trading session with fine lint in focus amid firm spot rate, traders at the Karachi Cotton Association said on Friday.", "Federal interior minister, Rehman Malik will leave for India on November 22 to discuss issues like security of Pakistani Cricket team and issuance of new visas.", "The ban on cotton exports is likely to be lifted on Saturday, according to sources.", "Days after Integrated Check Post was inaugurated on the Attari/Wagah border to boost Indo-Pak trade, Indian traders have stopped sending loaded trucks to Pakistan to protest against the Central Warehouse Corporation's proposal to hike labour charges.For more info log on to: http://youtube.com/starnews", "During an interview with BBC Radio One host Fearne Cotton, Justin Bieber revealed that his mom recently canceled his phone plan after they got in an argument.", "With prospects of any agreement with India still hanging, Pakistan might also opt out of the proposed $7.4 billion tripartite gas pipeline project with Iran.", "``It's important that India and Africa stick together.", "India has overtaken the US to become the second largest cotton producing country in the world after China, a study by International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application said.", "The negative list regime for trade with India will be phased out by December after the move is approved by the federal cabinet, Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said.", "Qantas is cancelling its order for 35 B787-9 Dreamliner aircraft from Boeing in order to reduce its spending.", "India may resume futures trade in four suspended agricultural commodities from December as prices soften, while a decision would be delayed on four others, an official with the commodity futures regulator said on Saturday.", "Dhaka, March 23 Bangladesh is to import 60,000 tonnes of wheat from India to meet its domestic demand.", "The government will allow fresh cotton exports, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Monday.", "Air India has cancelled 76 domestic and international flights scheduled for Wednesday on its network, in the wake of strike by 20,000 employees of the national carrier who are protesting against airline management's gag order.", "Indian white sugar prices rose further this week after poor monsoon rains prompted exporters to hold back stocks, while neighbouring Pakistan may issue export licences soon, dealers said on Wednesday.", "India's biotechnology industry is pushing the Government of India for fiscal incentives, import duty exemption.", "China has emerged as top importer of Pakistani marble by importing about 70,790 metric ton marble during the period from July to March 2010-11 as against the import of 31,921 metric ton during the same period last year.", "Egypt court orders cancellation of poll Updated: 13:17, Thursday March 7, 2013 Egypt's administrative court has ordered the cancellation of controversial parliamentary elections scheduled for April 22, throwing the country deeper into political crisis.", "India cottonseed oilcake, or kapaskhali, futures extended their fall for a third day on Wednesday on higher physical stocks and lack of demand, analysts said." ]

[ "Emergency laws to record phone calls, texts and people's internet history could be rushed through Parliament, amid growing fears over the threat posed by radicalised British Muslims returning from Syria. Ministers have been forced to act after the European courts ruled that Government powers to monitor people's phone and internet records were illegal. The Government is concerned that the April ruling has left a gaping hole in the security services ability to track and prosecute terrorists. Scroll down for video . UK-based terrorists fighting in Syria - such as Abu Muthana Al Yemeni (centre), Abu Bara' Al Hindi (right) and Abu Dujana Al Hindi (left) who all claim to have come from Britain - could pose a threat when they return, ministers believe . Labour and the Lib Dems are now prepared to support new laws reintroducing the old surveillance powers before next year's general election. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has rejected accusations that the new laws amount to a 'snoopers' charter' being introduced through the back door. Last year Mr Clegg blocked Theresa May's controversial communications data bill - which would have dramatically increased the Government's ability to monitor people's phone and internet usage. The Tories are expected to reintroduce the bill if they win the next election. The wider issue of phone and internet surveillance had been expected to have been shelved until after the election, but the European court's ruling has forced the Government to act sooner than expected . Labour is likely to suggest that the new emergency laws should have some form of 'sunset clause' to review them after a set period, the Guardian reported this morning. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has also argued for a wider review of the powers given to the security services. Home Secretary Theresa May is concerned that a European court ruling makes it harder for the security services and police to monitor terror threats . A Liberal Democrat source said Nick Clegg was open-minded about boosting Government powers but said: 'There is no question of a snooper's charter, watered down or otherwise, being introduced by this government.' The source added: 'The government does have to respond to the European court of justice ruling, which we are currently examining, and will respond in due course. But that is about the retention of existing powers rather than their extension.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'The retention of communications data is absolutely fundamental to ensure law enforcement have the powers they need to investigate crime, protect the public and ensure national security. 'We are carefully considering the European court of justice's judgment on data retention and are currently examining potential next steps.' But Emma Carr, acting director of Big Brother Watch, said: 'It would be reckless to attempt to legislate on further surveillance powers before a comprehensive, independent review of the existing legal framework has taken place. 'A broad political consensus has emerged in support of a comprehensive review in recognition of the fact that the public should know more about how existing surveillance laws are being used and whether the current oversight mechanisms are adequate. 'It is a basic principle of a free society that you don’t monitor people who are not under suspicion. Considering the Snoopers Charter has already been rejected by the public as well as by the highest court in Europe, it is essential that the Government does not rush head first into creating new legislation. 'The EU’s data retention laws privatised snooping, meaning companies were paid by governments to record what citizens were doing and retain that information for a year. 'We need to get back to a point where the police monitor people who are actually suspected of wrong doing and rather than wasting millions every year requiring data to be stored on an indiscriminate basis.'" ]

[ "Tory plans to strip European judges of their power to enforce human rights in Britain have been point-blank rejected by Strasbourg today. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said a future Conservative government would pull Britain out of the European Court of Human Rights if it did not accept that Parliament had the final say on UK law. But the Council of Europe – the continent's top human rights body – said the proposals were 'not consistent' with the European Court of Human Rights. It added that it was 'inconceivable that the UK as a human rights leader and founding country of this organisation would leave.' The remarks leaves British membership of the Strasbourg court hanging by a thread. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said Britain should not be bound by European court rulings . It comes amid a growing row over Mr Grayling's radical proposals, announced today following this week's Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who was removed at the last reshuffle, said the proposals were 'almost puerile'. He added: 'I also think they are unworkable and will damage the UK's international reputation.' Mr Grieve said the plan contained a series of factual 'howlers' and were not properly thought through. Mr Grayling also came under fire from his own Liberal Democrat colleague Simon Hughes, the justice minister, who accused him of playing politics with the issue because of the rise of UKIP. Mr Hughes said: 'The Conservatives don't care about the rights of British citizens, they care about losing to Ukip. These plans make no sense – you can't protect the human rights of Brits and pull out of the system that protects them.' Under Mr Grayling's blueprint, a future Conservative government would issue an ultimatum to Strasbourg that it must accept being merely an 'advisory body' to British courts - or face the UK withdrawing from the system altogether. The party would scrap the Human Rights Act introduced by Labour in 1998 to enshrine the European Convention on Human Rights in domestic law. Instead there would be a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which would include the principles from the convention, which was originally drawn up by British lawyers after the Second World War. That legislation would make clear that the judges of the Supreme Court were not obliged to take European Court of Human Rights' rulings into account when coming to decisions. Mr Grayling said that if the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe refused to accept the new arrangements, Britain would simply leave the convention. He said critics of his plan were ‘just plain wrong’, adding: ‘What we’re doing is going back to a convention that we’re part of, to our partners in that convention and saying “Look, this doesn’t work for us anymore”.’ The Justice Secretary added: ‘I think the public of this country are frustrated with the way human rights laws have evolved.’ He said the Strasbourg court had a ‘blank cheque to go where it wants with human rights laws’, adding: ‘Our parliament can do nothing about it.’ Mr Grayling said the Government was ‘absolutely prepared’ to pull Britain out of the court - adding that he had consulted on his plans with the current attorney-general, Jeremy Wright, who had considered them 'fine, viable and legal'. The European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg enforces the convention on human rights set up after the Second World War and signed by a almost all European countries. It is separate to the EU . But the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable, speaking on a visit to Edinburgh, said: ‘It's a very retrograde step. ‘We do value human rights in our society - it's what our democracy is all about - and we also value a system of law in which judges rather than politicians make the final decisions, and it's very important that we retain that core and that framework. ‘We would see a gradual decline in the credibility of our legal system because, essentially, in order to score cheap populist points, the legal system is being undermined and judges are being undermined.’ Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry accepted that the European Court of Human Rights was not perfect but insisted Britain could not ‘pick and choose’ the laws it wanted to abide by. She told BBC Radio 4's World At One: ‘In the end, if we sign up to the convention, we sign up to the convention. ‘If we want to amend the convention in the way the Tories want to then I'm quite sure that Armenia and Ukraine and Russia would be very happy to do so. ‘But I think the rest of civilised Europe would be outraged and simply wouldn't allow us to ... which I think would then mean that we would need to withdraw.’ She accused the Conservatives of going ‘far too far’ and suggested it was a ‘backdoor way’ of trying to leave Europe. Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve said leaving the European Court of Human Rights would damage Britain's international reputation . Instead she called for judges to be improved and for the reduction of the backlog of cases at the European Court. But Justice Minister Lord Faulks, who is responsible for human rights in the justice department, defended the plans, saying they would bring human rights back to UK. He added: ‘We are reasserting the sovereignty of Parliament. ‘We are not giving any comfort to dictators. We have a very proud history of protecting human rights in this country. ‘I have rather more faith in Parliament and our Supreme Court than some people seem to do. ‘The very rights that are contained in the convention are going to be replicated in our British Bill. ‘We would like to remain a party to the convention but we want ultimately to have the right to override the decision in those rare circumstances where we think the Strasbourg court gets it wrong.’ He insisted that the Tories were not playing electoral politics, saying that discontent had existed for a long time. The barrister also said he had personally seen the problems the Human Rights Act causes ‘every day’ in the domestic courts. He went on: ‘It's an irony that the Labour Party said, when bringing in the Human Rights Act, that they were bringing rights home. In fact what they were doing was sub-contracting them to Strasbourg.’", "Workers from existing EU countries could be banned from moving to Britain if their economy collapses under Tory plans to overhaul EU rules, it can be revealed. David Cameron has vowed to put immigration at the heart of his plans to renegotiate the UK’s relationship with Brussels, before holding an in-out referendum. The Prime Minister has suggested migrants from poor countries joining the EU could be barred from the UK, but is being urged to go further and introduce economic tests for the current 27 member states. Scroll down for video . Net migration from EU countries has risen sharply in recent years, hitting 131,000 in the 12 months to March 2014, according to data from the Office for National Statistics . The Tories had promised to cut net migration to the 'tens of thousands' but the target has been smashed by a sharp rise in people arriving from other EU countries, which the UK government cannot control. Net migration from EU countries has risen sharply in recent years, hitting 131,000 in the 12 months to March 2014. Mr Cameron used his speech to the Tory conference yesterday to flesh out his ambitions for securing a better deal from the EU. He promised that ‘when it comes to free movement – I will get what Britain needs’. The Prime Minister last year backed the idea of limiting movement by migrants from poorer countries which join the EU. He suggested ‘even saying until you reach a proper share of an average European Union GDP you can't have freedom of movement’. The Tories argue that migration between Britain and countries with similar economies like Germany or France are balanced. But there are ‘vast movements’ between poorer country and wealthier countries. Mr Cameron proposed saying: ‘Until your economy, until your wealth is similar to our wealth you can't have unrestricted movement.' David Cameron used his party conference speech in Birmingham to promise tackling freedom of movement rules would be at the heart of his bid to overhaul Britain's relationship with the EU . While the number of people leaving the UK has remained at around 80,000, the numbers arriving from the EU have risen sharply . A future Conservative government will scrap the Human Rights Act, David Cameron said. He vowed 'sort out' the European Court of Human Rights. The PM said the Strasbourg court's rulings had led to 'a whole lot of things that are frankly wrong'. Mr Cameron said: 'Let me put this very clearly: We do not require instruction on this from judges in Strasbourg. 'So at long last, with a Conservative Government after the next election, this country will have a new British Bill of Rights to be passed in our Parliament, rooted in our values. 'And as for Labour's Human Rights Act? We will scrap it, once and for all.' When the idea was floated last year, it was suggested that it would only apply to new countries joining the EU. But Mr Cameron is coming under Cabinet pressure to use his renegotiation to apply the same rules to existing member states. It would mean that if an EU country was hit by an economic crisis and rising unemployment, people living there would not be able to flock to Britain in search of work. A senior Conservative source said: ‘We think it can be done, not just for new countries. 'You can say this is the level your economy must be at before you can have open borders with Britain. ‘And if for example Spain or Italy’s economy collapses below that level, we should be able to say “you can’t come here”.’ One option being explored is to allow countries which use the euro to form much closer bonds, with all those EU countries with own currency to have a much looser relationship with Brussels. Mr Cameron has come under intense pressure to quell the rise of UKIP, following the defections of two Tory MPs - Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless - and a donor, Arron Banks who handed the party £1million yesterday. In his conference speech, Mr Cameron put immigration 'at the very heart' of his renegotiation strategy for Europe, which he has promised before staging an in-out referendum by 2017. He said: 'Britain, I know you want this sorted so I will go to Brussels, I will not take no for an answer and when it comes to free movement – I will get what Britain needs. Anyone who thinks I can't or won't deliver this – judge me by my record. 'I'm the first Prime Minister to veto a Treaty the first Prime Minister to cut the European budget and yes I pulled us out of those European bail-out schemes as well. 'Around that table in Europe they know I say what I mean, and mean what I say. 'So we're going to go in as a country, get our powers back, fight for our national interest and yes – we'll put it to a referendum in or out – it will be your choice. 'And let the message go out from this hall: it is only with a Conservative Government that you will get that choice.'", "British motorists caught speeding in Europe face being tracked down and fined, under controversial new EU rules. At the moment, drivers caught by a speed camera while in their own car abroad cannot be fined because EU police forces do not have the power to trace people abroad. But the European Parliament is expected to back new measures giving foreign police forces the power to send fines to British addresses and pursue motorists through the UK courts if they do not pay. Motorists caught by speed cameras abroad face being tracked down and forced to pay a fine, under new EU rules . Motorists can already be traced if they are were driving hire cars or caught by police officers on the side of the road. The new rules, which are expected to be easily passed by the European Parliament, will allow motorists to be fined for speeding, ignoring a red light, drink and drug driving and driving while using a mobile phone. If a driver commits an offence in another country, the police will be able to use their car's registration number to track them down. They will be given the power to send out a letter in the driver's own language, demanding payment and threatening court action if they do not pay the fine. British police will also be able to pursue foreign motorists driving in Britain for any traffic and speeding fines they have accumulated in the UK. If approved, the Bill will apply to member states from May – but the UK will have two years to enforce the new law. The move, which is backed by ministers, has been welcomed by road safety campaigners. Ed Morrow, from the organisation Brake, said: 'For a driver who puts lives at risk to escape prosecution because their vehicle is registered in another country is both insulting and incomprehensible for victims. Illegal driving crosses borders, so enforcement must cross borders too.' AA president Edmund King (right) criticised new rules allowing British motorists caught speeding on holiday in France, Germany to be traced . The Department for Transport added: 'It's not right that foreign drivers have gone unpunished for speeding offences in the UK, and we are pleased this is set to change. 'But it mustn't be easier for British drivers to be prosecuted abroad than for foreign drivers to be prosecuted in the UK. We have made this clear from the outset of the negotiations.' Ines Ayala Sender, a Spanish MEP and the EU Parliament's negotiator on the issue, said the move would help cut road deaths by 50 per cent. He said: 'Citizens are, of course, never thrilled to receive a letter telling them they have been caught committing a traffic offence, but they do welcome the fact that everyone in the EU will be treated equally, no matter where their vehicle is registered.' But, Edmund King, the AA president, said: 'In theory, tracking down drivers who break the law driving in other countries might sound like a good idea in terms of road safety but in practice it could be a nightmare. 'Different European countries have significantly different motoring laws and indeed penalties. If UK drivers receive a penalty notice for using a \"restricted lane\" in Spain they may wish to contest it but this would prove impossible in most cases as often photographic evidence is not provided. Returning to Europe for a court case is prohibitive in terms of cost.'", "Britain's courts are ‘seriously weakening’ the fight against terrorism by ‘trotting along’ with politically correct rulings from European judges, a new study claims. UK judges are on an ‘expansionist binge’ which has led them to implementing human rights laws made in Strasbourg on crucial national security issues including deporting terror suspects and control orders. By applying and interpreting Euro legislation, the unelected judiciary is ‘meddling’ in policy decisions made by Parliament which amounts to a ‘denial of democracy’, according to a report by the influential Civitas think-tank. It calls for a shake-up of the Human Rights Act to prevent further ‘power grabs’ by the British courts encroaching into areas that should be left to the Government and MPs. Battle: Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, described as Al Qaeda’s spokesman in Britain, was finally returned home in 2013 after a 12-year legal battle which cost taxpayers millions . The report, published today FRI, blasts Britain’s left-leaning judiciary for being ‘too willing’ to apply rulings from the European Court of Human RIghts in the UK, rather than simply taking them into account. Barrister Michael Arnheim, who wrote the study The Problem With Human Rights Law, said the situation was hampering the Government’s ability to protect our borders by fighting terrorism and illegal immigration – putting innocent lives at risk. In one high-profile case, the Court of Appeal ruled in 2008 that deporting hate preacher Abu Qatada would breach his human rights, because evidence to be used against him on trial in Jordan may have been obtained through torture. The firebrand Muslim cleric, described as Al Qaeda’s spokesman in Britain and who spouted bile on the streets on London, was finally returned home in 2013 after a 12-year legal battle which cost taxpayers millions of pounds. Meanwhile, British judges have been blasted for weakening now-defunct control orders and the replacement Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims) which were introduced to impose rigid restrictions on terror suspects who could not be prosecuted or deported. It fuelled concern that the judiciary was chiselling away at measures to protect the UK from jihadists. 'Too willing': British judges have been accused of being too willing to apply rulings from EU courts in the UK, rather than taking them into account . There has also been outrage over cases in which criminals have avoided deportation by pleading that their removal would breach the family life clause of the European Convention on Human Rights. Among them was Aso Mohammed Ibrahim, a failed asylum seeker who ran down and killed 12-year-old Amy Houston - and fled the scene - while disqualified from driving. A judge subsequently allowed him to remain here because he had two children with a British woman. In his report, Mr Arnheim said: ‘The domestic courts are on an expansionist binge, which has never been checked by the government or parliament. ‘Continued failure to check this development will result not only in a serious weakening of national defences against terrorism and illegal immigration, but will also amount to a denial of democracy. ‘National security and the public interest actually refer to the human rights of thousands or even millions of individuals. ‘Preventing the government from detaining or deporting potentially dangerous individuals may result in the violation of the individual rights to liberty or even to life of thousands of law-abiding citizens.’ The report says that UK domestic courts tend to ‘trot along’ rulings made by the European Court of Human Rights because it is ‘politically correct’. ‘More and more English judges are now starting to pooh-pooh the age-old British constitutional principle of the sovereignty of parliament and the rule that legislation and policy decisions are no-go areas for the courts,’ Mr Arnheim wrote. But he also criticised successive ‘supine’ governments for ‘lacking the courage’ to stand up to the judiciary. Demanding reform rather than the scrapping of the Human Rights Act, he said it was imperative that ‘clear limits’ are imposed on the ability of judges to interpret and extend the scope of European human rights laws. At last year’s Tory party conference, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has gone further by pledging to scrap Labour’s Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights if the Conservatives win the election. Under explosive plans to seize back sovereignty over human rights from Europe, this would ignore verdicts by Euro judges it does not agree with in a bid to reinstate the primacy of Parliament. He said if Strasbourg objected, the UK would resign from the European Court of Human Rights and ‘walk away’", "If your favourite vacuum cleaner is the type that threatens to suck up the entire carpet, the furniture and the family pet, prepare for some bad news. Many of the best cleaners currently on sale are to be banned under an EU energy efficiency drive which comes into force next month. Those who want a powerful model have been urged to act quickly and buy their new machine before it sells out. Banned: VAX Power 3 U88– P3–B (2000 W) (left), Bosch BSG8PRO1 (1800w) (centre) and Miele S5281 (2200w) - rated as a 'best buy' by Which? reviewers - are among the models that will be prohibited . From September 1 companies will be prohibited from manufacturing or importing any vacuums with motors above 1,600 watts. Consumer magazine Which? said the ban will spell the end of many vacuums its testers rate among the best on sale. Here are five of Britain's most popular vacuum cleaners that will be banned when the new regulations are introduced . 1. Hoover Spirit TSP2101 (2100w) 2. Miele S5281 (2200w) 3. VAX Power 3 U88– P3–B (2000 W) 4. Samsung CycloneForce Sensor (2100w) 5. Bosch BSG8PRO1 (1800w) ... And four top selling models on Amazon.co.uk that will be banned by 2017 . 1. Numatic HVR200A Henry A1 Bagged Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner (1,200W) 2. Vax W90-RU-P Rapide Ultra 2 Pre-Treatment Upright Carpet and Upholstery Washer (1,000W) 3. Vax U90-MA-R Air Reach Multicyclonic Upright Bagless Vacuum Cleaner (1,200W) 4. Sebo X4EXTRA Automatic Upright Vacuum Cleaner (1,300W) Of seven models the magazine has rated as a ‘best buy’ since January 2013, five have motors above 1,600 watts. The . European Commission said the rules, intended to help tackle climate . change by cutting energy usage across Europe, will lead to ‘better . vacuum cleaners than ever before’. But . Ukip MEP Louise Bours claimed the legislation will do nothing to help . climate change, with lower-powered vacuums succeeding only in making . ‘life harder for house-proud householders’. The maximum wattage will be lowered further to 900 watts by 2017. Current cleaners have an average of 1,800 watts. Which? says: ‘If you’re in the market for a powerful vacuum, you should act . quickly, before all of the models currently available sell out. ‘A . best buy 2,200-watt vac costs around £27 a year to run in electricity – . only £8 more than the best-scoring 1,600-watt we’ve tested.’ An . EU energy label will be introduced, giving vacuum cleaners A to G . ratings for energy use, cleaning performance on carpets and hard floors, . and dust emissions. The label also requires a minimum level of . performance for the vacuum to be sold in the EU. 'Act quickly': Which? has warned consumers that vacuum cleaner models such as the Samsung CycloneForce Sensor (2100w) (left) and Hoover Spirit TSP2101 (2100w) will sell out ahead of the new regulations . Specification: A sample of the label that manufacturers will put on all vacuum cleaners . But . the scheme is self-regulating, meaning that manufacturers will create . their own labels, and Which? said it was unclear if the results would be . corroborated by an independent third party. Sir . James Dyson, whose company pioneered ‘bagless’ cleaners and campaigned . for a cap on wattage, said the eco-labels could be misleading because . they did not take account of the cost of ‘consumables’ – vacuum bags and . filters, which often cannot be recycled. He said: 'A label should help people choose high performing, energy efficient technology not hide important information. 'The environmental impact of bags and filters is ignored. And the label misleads people by showing the energy scores of vacuum cleaners tested without dust inside. 'Machines should be tested for real world conditions, not just for a Brussels test lab – that’s why we’re taking it to judicial review at the European Courts.' Ukip . health spokesman Miss Bours said a cut in vacuum motor power may affect . those with lung conditions such as asthma, which ‘can be exacerbated by . dust mite allergy’. Marlene . Holzner, the European Commission’s energy spokesman, says the amount of . wattage does not automatically indicate how well a vacuum will perform. What counted was how efficiently a vacuum translated its electrical . power into picking up dust, which would be measured under the new rules. The measures will also be extended to appliances, including water heaters and tumble dryers. The . Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances said: ‘The industry . has been working on designs to meet the requirements, as well as . overcome any concerns about how lower power outputs may affect . performance.’ Since the 2010 general election Brussels has handed down almost 3,600 pieces of new regulation and directives affecting British businesses. Last year, European Union officials came close to banning olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurants. The plan, which would have forced restaurateurs to only serve oil in its original bottles, with tamper-proof lids was withdrawn following extensive opposition. There was proposed EU legislation to ban the Union flag, along with flags and signs representing Scotland, Wales and Ireland from packs of meat. Some of the world’s most popular perfumes - including Chanel No 5 - are under threat from planned EU regulations that target perfumiers with ingredient bans and labelling requirements aimed at protecting a tiny fraction of consumers who suffer from allergies. In May it emerged that best-before dates on kitchen cupboard items such as tinned goods and olive oil could be scrapped after several EU countries warned that they lead to the waste of million of tons of food a year. The EU has also proposed regulations on anchovy fishing in the Bay of Biscay, the labelling of spirits and the use of rosemary extracts in certain low-fat meat and fish products.", "Mutiny: Labour leader Ed Miliband hastily rejected the PM's plan for ‘English votes for English laws’ Labour leader Ed Miliband faced a mutiny from his own MPs last night after hastily rejecting David Cameron’s scheme to introduce ‘English votes for English laws’. He sparked a backlash by refusing to support plans to curb the rights of Scottish MPs along with the transfer of new powers north of the border. Instead he called for an unwieldy ‘constitutional convention’ to consider changes in the wake of the historic independence referendum and which would not report back until the end of next year. Labour sources said Mr Miliband was ‘wary’ of any plan to limit the right of Scottish MPs to vote on laws at Westminster that only affect England and Wales. Aides fear it could neuter the ability of a future Labour government to pass laws on issues ranging from health and education to welfare and tax. Mr Miliband said he would not sign up to anything that could be ‘used for narrow party political advantage’. However, senior Labour MPs last night warned it was untenable for the party to oppose the move while arguing for Scotland to be given more powers. Former minister John Denham, a close ally of Mr Miliband, said that while it was right to look at other elements of devolution, it was ‘inevitable’ that there would have to be change at Westminster. ‘As the powers of the Scottish Parliament increase, the role of Scottish MPs in determining English laws will inevitably diminish,’ said the Southampton MP. ‘If the aim is to ensure that laws affecting England alone have the consent of elected English representatives, there are many ways of doing so.’ Former Home Secretary John Reid said the current situation was ‘unfair’, adding that the issue should have been addressed when Labour established the Scottish Parliament in 1999. He said Labour’s attempt to deal with the problem had been abandoned when voters rejected the dream of former deputy prime minister John Prescott to set up a regional assembly in the north east a decade ago. Mr Reid said: ‘That anomaly has been left outstanding since then. ‘My own view is that it is unfair that three of the nations can decide on exclusively their own basis on legislation applying only to them but the biggest nation (England) can’t. So it has to be addressed.’ Scroll down for video . Home rule: The Prime Minister said Scottish MPs should be banned from voting on English-only issues . Former Labour minister Frank Field called for ‘home rule’ in England and said his party also had to ditch the controversial Barnett formula – which means public spending is £1,623 per head higher in Scotland than in England. He said: ‘The promises to Scotland ensure that the English Question will dominate May’s general election. ‘Voters will demand from all English candidates whether they support English home rule and if they support giving an additional £1,600 a year, for ever, for every person living in Scotland, over and above what they will vote for their own constituents. The Scottish grandee appointed to oversee devolution is chairman of an energy firm found guilty of ripping off up to one million customers. Lord Smith of Kelvin joined SSE in 2005 and last year was at the helm when it was hit with a £10.5million fine for mis-selling policies. He has also been forced to defend frequent price hikes and the huge profits made by the company. His considerable personal wealth has allowed him to buy his own island, Inchmarnock, off the west coast of Scotland and he also owns a vineyard in South Africa. The 70-year-old married father-of-two grew up in a rough area of Glasgow but was a bursary student at Allan Glen’s School in the city. A chartered accountant, he has held senior positions with a series of major banks including the Royal Bank of Scotland, and was chosen as chairman of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow held earlier this year. ‘Voters will demand ‘yes’ to the first question, and ‘no’ to the second. These are the answers I shall willingly give.’ Former Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay said: ‘The case for an English Parliament is compelling if not overwhelming. Just tinkering around with a few extra powers, for so-called regional authorities and cities, will simply not do.’ Mr Mackinlay said there were numerous examples of ‘unacceptable’ measures being introduced in England with the support of Scots. These included a doubling of road tolls on the M25 river crossing at Dartford at the same time as charges were scrapped on the Erskine Bridge on the Clyde. The M25 toll increase was pushed through by the then Labour transport secretary Douglas Alexander, a Scottish MP. However, Mr Miliband warned it would be wrong to rush into a new constitutional deal. The Labour leader said there needed to be a series of regional ‘dialogues’ covering every area of the UK on how power could be dispersed from Westminster – including in England. A lengthy public consultation was needed because the matter would not be left to the ‘Westminster elite’, he added. Among the issues Mr Miliband said should be considered are the case for a ‘senate of the nations and regions’. But Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps accused Mr Miliband of trying to fudge the issue for political advantage. Better Together? Ed Miliband, pictured with Alistair Darling and No vote supporters, would not condemn plans to restrict the say of Scottish MPs in English affairs. Instead his party hinted at powers for English regions . He said yesterday: ‘We need a new and fair settlement not just for Scotland, but for every part of the United Kingdom. And we want to work on a cross-party basis to make that happen. ‘But Ed Miliband’s proposal would kick this vital issue into the long grass. The Scottish No vote could mean a 2p-a-litre dip in fuel prices at the pumps, according to the AA. Before the referendum result, uncertainty over the Union’s future led to a drop in the value of sterling. This resulted in a slight rise in the price of petrol and diesel for UK consumers despite a fall in world oil prices, the motoring group said. But with the pound already rising following the No vote, the AA is now confident of better fuel deals. Its president, Edmund King, said: ‘Scotland’s support for staying in the Union boosted the pound ... [it] rose against the dollar to more than 1.65 at one point. ‘We believe that if the pound stabilises at these higher levels we should be seeing at least a 2p per litre reduction in pump prices, which will be great news for everyone north and south of the border.’ ‘If he is serious about delivering on our joint commitment to publish draft legislation on devolving more powers to Scotland by January, he must say whether he supports an equal settlement for England – English votes for English laws.’ Mr Miliband was also facing Labour criticism over the party’s lacklustre campaign north of the border, which failed to catch light until former prime minister Gordon Brown appeared to take charge in the final weeks. More than a third of Labour voters are thought to have backed independence. One shadow minister said: ‘The brutal truth is that Ed Miliband does not connect with our voters in Scotland. Until Gordon intervened we were losing them.’ The Labour leader has made 14 visits to Scotland since March and has spent the final week of the campaign visiting different parts of the country. But his personal ratings in Scotland have remained at around the same level as in England, despite very low levels of support for the Conservatives in most of Scotland. The Labour leader was forced to pull out of two scheduled appearances after he was shouted down during a walkabout in Edinburgh earlier in the week. Following chaotic scenes as he was mobbed during a visit to a shopping centre in the Scottish capital, he claimed the campaign for independence had an ‘ugly side’.", "By . Suzannah Hills . PUBLISHED: . 07:17 EST, 2 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:38 EST, 2 June 2013 . MPs have been treated to expensive trips abroad and lavish days out through their membership of parliamentary special interest groups meant to bring issues of concern to the forefront of the political agenda. The system allowing MPs to set up all-party parliamentary groups (known as APPGs) has come under fire after it emerged MP Patrick Mercer created one for Fiji after allegedly being paid thousands of pounds by lobbyists. Mr Mercer even admitted in secretly recorded . conversations that APPGs can be 'utterly useless' but could still be . appealing to MPs seeking trips to exotic locations. Globe-trotters: Among the most expensive trips funded in connection with APPGs was Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty Nigel Adams' £8,578 visit to New Orleans in October which was funded by Eggborough Power Station in North Yorkshire . Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats Simon Hughes, pictured right with fellow LibDem Caroline Pidgeon, visited Cyprus and Turkey last year with £740 of funding by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus . The Commons register of . interests shows that 60 MPs have been on trips in connection with APPGs in . recent months. The cost of the trips amount to £175,000 which has been funded by third parties such as banks, charities and oil companies. APPGs have no . legislative power, but are an effective way of bringing together . parliamentarians with interested parties and lobbyists. They also allow campaign groups, charities, . and other non-governmental organisations active in the field to become . involved in discussions and influence politicians. But while many MPs undertake educational . visits funded by a charity, NGO or private company as part of the work . of an APPG, the 'cash-for-access' scandal has called into question . whether the system is being abused. Lord Laird has resigned the Ulster Unionist whip after referring himself to House of Lords standards watchdogs over his contact with a fake lobbying company . According to the Sunday Telegraph, Conservative MP for Tamworth Chris Pincher took a four-day trip to Azerbaijan in connection with the country's APPG. The £2,975 trip was funded by the European Azerbaijan Society. Tory MP for Harrow East Bob Blackman and Labour MP for Jarrow Stephen Hepburn appear to have joined Mr Pincher on the trip last July. The European Azerbaijan Society also funded trips for seven other MPs and spent about £1,000 for Labour MP for Slough Fiona Mactaggart to enjoy a day in a box within the royal enclosure at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May last year. Tory MP for Beverley and Holderness and chairman of the APPG on the global legislators organisation (Globe) Graham Stuart took a six-day trip to Rio de Janeiro to chair a session of the World Summit of Legislators. The £5,025.89 trip, which included flights and hotel expenses, in June last year was funded by Globe. Tory MP for Maldon and chairman of the British Ukraine all-party parliamentary group John Whittingdale took a trip to Yalta for four days in September. The £2,520 trip was paid by the British Ukrainian Society. One of the priciest trips to be funded in connection with an APPG was Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty Nigel Adams' £8,578 visit to New Orleans in October which was funded by Eggborough Power Station in North Yorkshire.Meanwhile Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, visited Cyprus and Turkey between May and June last year with funding of £920 - £740 of which was provided by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Numerous governments have also funded MPs to visit their countries in connection with APPGs. A review into APPGs was announced by the . Commons standards committee in January following a working group set up . by Speaker John Bercow whose recommendations included the need for . 'greater transparency'. Patrick Mercer MP has quit the Tory party whip over allegations he took £4,000 from a fake lobbying company and did not declare his interest . The 'cash-for-access' controversy has reignited calls for the Government to press ahead with promised legislation both for a statutory register of lobbyists and the power for constituents to 'recall' MPs who breach the rules. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has made clear his determination to secure the register - blaming the Tories for the lack of action. Calling for cross-party talks on a register, shadow cabinet office minister Jon Trickett MP said: 'We have seen no action from this Tory-led Government, despite David Cameron himself warning that lobbying was the next great scandal waiting to happen.' David Prince, interim chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said it warned in January that lobbying remained a 'significant and continuing risk to ethical standards' but that a register would not solve all the problems.", "Far right views: Front National leader Marine Le Pen could stand trial for racism after the European Parliament lifted her immunity from prosecution . Far right French leader Marine Le Pen is likely to stand trial for racism after comparing Muslims praying in the street to the Nazi occupation of France. Ms Le Pen, 44, risks prosecution after the European Parliament today decided to lift her immunity from prosecution for inciting racial hatred. She could now follow int the footsteps of her father Jean Marie Le Pen who was convicted of racism. Front National leader Ms Le Pen is also an MEP, and under European Parliament rules anyone is technically allowed to say what they like without the risk of prosecution. But the rules state that ‘immunity cannot be claimed when a member is found in the act of committing a (criminal) offence’. Prosecutors in France opened a case against Ms Le Pen for incitement to hatred and discrimination after her comments in 2011. The chief prosecutor in Lyon, in eastern France, asked MEPs to remove Ms Le Pen’s immunity after she said her country was seeing ‘more and more veils’ and ‘more and more burkas’ and ‘after that came prayers in the streets’. In a speech broadcast on French television, she added: ‘I'm sorry, but some people are very fond of talking about the Second World War and about the Occupation, so let's talk about Occupation, because that is what is happening here. ‘There are no tanks, no soldiers, but it is still an Occupation, and it weighs on people’. The words went down particularly badly among France’s six million plus Muslim community – the largest in western Europe. Ms Le Pen took 17.9 per cent  of the vote in the first round of the French presidential election last year, and is a hugely influential politician. Praying in the streets was banned in Paris in 2011 in response to growing Far-Right protests, and a burka ban was also introduced. Influence: Ms Le Pen took 17.9 per cent of the vote in the first round of the French presidential election last year, and is a hugely influential politician . Speaking on French TV on Tuesday, Ms Le Pen defended her remarks, saying she expected to lose her parliamentary immunity ‘because I'm a dissident. I'm not at all afraid of it, I'm scornful of it’. She described the prosecution  as ‘intimidation’, saying she ‘dared to say what all the French people think’. Jean-Marie Le Pen, Ms Le Pen’s father, was stripped of his immunity by European Parliament in 1997 and was later fined by a German court for underplaying the horror of the Holocaust. He also dismissed the Nazi gas chambers as ‘a detail’ of history. Despite his views, Mr Le Pen was runner up to Jacques Chirac in the 2002 presidential election contest in France.", "Controversy: Former EC president Jacques Delors made a u-turn over Britain's role in the single market . One of the key architects of the European single market today admitted Britain would be better off leaving the European Union. Mr Delors's radical U-turn comes 22 . years after he infuriated Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and other . Eurosceptics by trying to force European federalism on the UK. In November 1990 the economist became the subject of a famous headline in the Sun newspaper which read: 'Up Your Delors!' Frenchman Jacques Delors, who was president of the European Commission three times, suggested that 'the British are solely interested in their own economic interests, and nothing else. We could offer them another kind of partnership.' In an interview in the German economic daily Handelsblatt, Mr Delors continued : 'If the British do not follow the tendency towards more integration in the European Union, we can anyway stay friends, but in another way.' Mr Delors suggested Britain might sign up for an agreement 'like that of the European economic area' or a 'free trade agreement'. If Britain does leave the EU, said Mr Delors, the country would still be a 'partner', because it is 'strategically and economically important'. But, in a typically cutting aside, Mr Delors said that 'other countries' were also important in the new economic order, including India and China. The United Kingdom belongs to the EU since 1973, but has not joined the Eurozone. On Thursday Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, warned that David Cameron's drive to repatriate powers from Brussels risks damaging the EU and could cause the collapse of the single market. Mr Van Rompuy - who chairs the EU's . summits - said the Prime Minister's attempts to achieve a new settlement . with Europe were destabilising the 27-member bloc. 'If . every member state were able to cherry-pick those parts of existing . policies that they most like, and opt out of those that they least like, . the union in general, and the single market in particular, would soon . unravel' said Mr Van Rompuy. Tense handshake: Jacques Delors pictured here with Prime Minister Thatcher in 1987 after a battle over European federalism . Jacques Delors (far left) and Prime Minister Thatcher pictured here with President George Bush and other European heads of state at an economic summit in 1990 . He . added: 'All member states can, and do, have particular requests and . needs that are always taken into consideration as part of our . deliberations. I do not expect any member state to seek to undermine the . fundamentals of our co-operative system in Europe.' Eurosceptic . Conservatives are concerned that the party could lose out to UKIP, the . UK Independence Party, in the 2015 general election unless Mr Cameron . makes more effort to boost British sovereignty over Brussels. Delors became the President of the European Commission in January 1985. During his presidency, he oversaw . important budgetary reforms and laid the groundwork for the introduction . of a single market within the European Community, which came into . effect on 1 January 1993. In the autumn of 1988 Delors . addressed the British Trade Union Congress, promising that the EC would . be a force to require governments to introduce pro-labour legislation. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . responded with her famous Bruges Speech in September 1988, in which she . said that she had not rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain . only to see them reimposed by a Brussels superstate. These developments were of key . importance for domestic UK politics – as recently as the early 1980s . large elements of the Labour Party had been opposed to British . membership of the EC, whereas the Conservatives had favoured joining. The Sun's now infamous headline made Prime Minister Thatcher's message loud and clear . Jacques Delors puts on a brave smile as he arrives ahead of talks with Mrs Thatcher . Facing a fight: Prime Minister David Cameron will now have to confront his own party's Eurosceptic camp following the comments from Jacques Delors . After 1988, however, it was to be the . Conservatives who were divided, with Thatcher and her supporters . opposed to further European federalism. On 1 November 1990, shortly before Thatcher was ousted as Prime Minister, Delors bore the brunt of British Euroscepticism. The Sun's famous headline sent the message loud and clear with 'Up . Yours Delors' in response to his supposed attempts to force European . federalism upon the UK. After 1988, however, it was to be the Conservatives who were divided, with Thatcher and her supporters opposed to further European federalism. On 1 November 1990, shortly before Thatcher was ousted as Prime Minister, Delors bore the brunt of British Euroscepticism. The Sun's famous headline sent the message loud and clear with 'Up Yours Delors' in response to his supposed attempts to force European federalism upon the UK. The proposal from Mr Delors prompts concerns France might be willing to cut Britain loose, boosting the influence of Paris, as the EU moves to fiscal and political union in 2014 in the wake of the eurozone debt crisis. In a concerted campaign to keep Britain in Europe, Germany and senior European officials have warned that British demands to be able to \"cherry pick\" which bits of the EU it signs up to could unravel the whole bloc. Prime Minister Cameron is under pressure to give the British public a say on whether to leave the EU, demands that will be fuelled by the comments from Mr Delors. Mr cameron has said he supports continued EU membership but wants a 'new settlement'  involving Britain opting-out of justice measures and seeking exemptions to any further centralisation of power in Brussels. He is widely expected to make a speech in the New Year outlining plans for a referendum in 2015, which would voters a choice between a new relationship with Europe and leaving altogether. This includes committing to a national referendum on whether Britain wants to remain in the EU.", "Efforts to control mass immigration are being held back by a ‘clearly inadequate’ budget and the institutional bias of the BBC, a report warns today. The Government dedicates just 0.25 per cent – or £1.8billion – of its annual expenditure to securing Britain’s borders and removing illegal immigrants and foreign criminals. Incredibly, this is six times less than the estimated £12billion budget for overseas aid. Migration Watch today claimed a shortage of resources was the main reason the Conservative Party failed in its attempt to cut net migration and to remove non-EU immigrants who moved to Britain, file photograph . In an audit released today, campaign group MigrationWatch said the shortage of resources was a key reason why the Tories have failed to hit their target to cut net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’. While the number of migrants arriving in the UK has increased sharply, the number of non-EU immigrants being removed has stayed flat at around 100,000 every year. In part, this is because border guards do not have the capacity to track down, for example, foreign students, many of whom stay on illegally when their course has finished. The report warns: ‘It is clear the very limited resources devoted to immigration are seriously out of kilter with the very serious consequences for our society of continued mass immigration and the associated level of public concern.’ The think-tank also blamed the pressure put on Westminster by liberals to continue a policy of large-scale immigration. It said there is ‘a strong bias in the BBC in favour of immigration, combined with a reluctance even to address the case for reducing immigration’. It also warns of the ‘pro-immigration bias of parts of the Civil Service’ and ‘continued Treasury enthusiasm for GDP growth, irrespective of the impact of immigration on population growth and on the lower paid’. Migration Watch director Lord Green, pictured, wants David Cameron to introduce specific targets to reduce migration from outside the European Union following the publication of today's report . The study says David Cameron was right to make an election commitment in 2010 to cut net migration to below 100,000. It finds significant progress has been made in reducing the number of non-EU students coming in, largely thanks to the closure of 700 bogus colleges. The Tories have also tightened the rules for family reunion visas and made attempts to crack down on sham marriages. However, the Government’s efforts have been blown off course by a surge in immigration from within the EU – over which ministers have no control. Net migration – the difference between the number of people arriving here and those leaving – is currently at 260,000 a year. MigrationWatch chairman Lord Green of Deddington urged the Tories to stick to the task and wants the party to introduce a specific target for reducing migration from outside the EU. The cross-bench peer said: ‘This is the first time that a government has made a serious effort to get numbers down. ‘They have undeniably made valuable progress but continued strong efforts, led from the top, are essential. These efforts must succeed if the public are not to lose faith in our political system.’ A string of senior BBC figures, including head of radio Helen Boaden, who used to be director of news, have admitted the Corporation held a ‘deep liberal bias’ in its coverage of immigration.", "Brussels are set to impose a maximum power limit on gas and electric ovens next month which could threaten the Sunday roast. An EU ruling will require 'new energy efficiency requirements for ovens, hobs and range hoods' by next month. Officials insist it will cut waste and improve value for money, but critics fear it will take longer to warm up ovens to cook the Sunday joint. New measures will be brought on February 26 for electric and gas-fired ovens. Shops will still be able to sell existing models, but an eco-design directive will be introduced over several years. Scroll down for video . Critics fear the planned maximum power limit on ovens mean it will take longer to cook the Sunday roast . Eurocrats say all changes will save an average household about £32 a year. But the measures have been criticised by some MEPs who say it is further evidence of EU chiefs meddling in our everyday lives. Tory MEP Daniel Hannan told the Sun on Sunday: 'If people want a low or high-powered oven, they're quite capable of deciding for themselves. 'If we banned all household appliances in Europe, it would still only cut carbon emissions by 0.5 per cent.' The planned changes follow a string of controversial energy-saving measures brought in by the EU and aim to cut costs, improve competitiveness and reduce carbon emissions. New energy efficiency measures will be brought on February 26 for electric and gas-fired ovens (stock) Energy efficiency limit for cavities of domestic ovens: . Within one year - less than 146 . Within two years - less than 121 . Within five years - less than 96 . For domestic (electric) hobs: . Within one year - 210 Watt-Hour . Within three years - 200 Watt-Hour . Within five years - 195 Watt-Hour . New measures came into effect on January 1 which demand that everything from computer modems to 'smart' televisions must have the ability to go into standby mode if no task is performed for several minutes. Although coffee machines bought at Christmas are likely to be exempt from the ruling, new ones must meet the stringent EU energy regulations. But it could prompt another retail frenzy as people rush to snap up percolators that do not go on standby after several minutes. The European Commission says the changes will save consumers money on their electricity bills and be better for the environment, but critics say it will leave people with cold coffee. The new rules state that drip filter coffee machines that have insulated jugs to keep the drink warm must power down their heated plate or element five minutes after brewing. Those with non-insulated jugs must go on standby within 40 minutes of use. Espresso machines should turn off after half an hour. MEP Daniel Hannan said: 'If people want a low or high-powered oven, they're quite capable of deciding for themselves' UK Independence Party MEP Roger Helmer told the Daily Express: 'This is another example of how we are losing control over the smallest details of our affairs. 'The EU should really find something better to do. All consumers want more efficiency from household appliances to cut their energy bills but there is already enormous pressure from the market on firms to provide that. 'EU officials apply these blanket regulations from Brussels without looking into the problems. 'This really should be a matter for the industry, the market and, perhaps, national legislation rather than yet more interference from Brussels.' Elsewhere, traditional lightbulbs have been axed and Europe barred powerful vacuum cleaners in September in what was later dubbed 'Hoovergate' and which sparked a stampede to buy high-power models in the UK. The directive banned vacuum cleaners of more than 1,600 watts in an attempt to reduce energy consumption and this will be further reduced to 900 watts by 2017. The EU is also expected to impose limits on high-power hairdryers, irons, kettles, toasters and even lawn mowers. A spokesman for the European Commission said: 'These policies save money, help tackle climate change and reduce energy imports from Russia and the Middle East.'", "Compromise: David Cameron told MPs the deal has protected the principle of a free Press from statutory regulation . David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg yesterday unveiled a cross-party agreement on Press regulation after ‘shambolic’ all-night talks – only to see the deal immediately opposed by senior Tories and challenged by key elements of the newspaper industry. All three party leaders tried to claim victory after 20 months of wrangling in the wake of the phone hacking scandal ended in an agreement by the Prime Minister to set up a media watchdog. It would have the power to require front-page apologies and issue £1million fines, under a Royal Charter. The campaign group Hacked Off, which represents celebrities and other victims of Press intrusion and had four representatives at cross-party talks, warmly welcomed the deal. By contrast, there was no-one present at the early hours negotiations from the newspaper industry – which was not informed the talks were taking place. And last night there were doubts over whether major newspaper publishers would agree to recognise the new watchdog, while some Tory MPs warned it constituted a serious threat to three centuries of Press freedom. Four newspaper groups, the Daily Mail Group, News International, Northern and Shell, publishers of the Express, and the Telegraph Media Group, as well as the Newspaper Society and the Professional Publishers Association, said they had not been consulted over the final package and there were ‘deeply contentious issues’ to consider. The Newspaper Society represents 1,100 regional papers. London Mayor Boris Johnson, a former journalist, telephoned Mr Cameron yesterday and expressed ‘serious concern’ about a proposal to hit publishers who refuse to sign up to the new watchdog with ‘exemplary’ damages in libel cases. Scroll down for video . The Prime Minister, pictured leaving Number 10 ahead of his statement, hailed the deal which would secure upfront apologies and million-pound fines . ‘The thing that is really exercising . Boris is the idea that if we don’t join the club then you get whacked . with massive fines,’ an ally said. ‘He made that clear to the Prime Minister. He has enormous concerns about it. He doesn’t see how, if proprietors and editors don’t sign up to it, you can start hitting them. That is something that concerns him greatly.’ Former Tory Cabinet minister Peter . Lilley went further, telling MPs the new regulator would act as an . Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’ and urging media organisations to follow . the example of The Spectator magazine, which has indicated it will . refuse to recognise the body. There was wider concern on the Tory benches at the chaotic nature of the discussions at which the deal was brokered. Actor Hugh Grant lead the Hacked Off campaign for tougher press regulation . Mr Cameron pulled the plug on . cross-party talks on Thursday, claiming Labour had produced fresh . demands, apparently prepared in close co-operation with Hacked Off. But over the weekend, facing a . Commons defeat as Labour and the Lib Dems threatened to join forces, the . Prime Minister reopened discussions with Mr Clegg. His chief . negotiator, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin, was then dispatched . to talks in Labour leader Ed Miliband’s office in the Commons on Sunday . night. Deal done: Culture Secretary Maria Miller claimed to have averted Labour's 'extreme version' of press law, but Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman claimed it was a deal which victims of phone hacking could be 'pleased' with . Four representatives of Hacked Off, . which has campaigned for a draconian crackdown on media excesses, were . present. A deal was finally reached at 2.30am yesterday. Downing Street denied that Mr Cameron . had been asleep, insisting he had been in touch with Mr Letwin . regularly throughout the night, with their last contact at 3.20am. Tory MPs expressed private amazement . that the Government had allowed talks to take place in Mr Miliband’s . office, or with Hacked Off present – but no-one from the media industry. Deal: Miliband, Clegg and Cameron launched a new round of late-night negotiations on the issue . In the Commons later the Prime . Minister said a Press law had been avoided – although he conceded there . were ‘two very important but relatively small legislative changes’ needed. They include a clause allowing more . punitive libel damages to be awarded against publishers who refuse to . recognise the watchdog.  A separate clause was passed last night to . ensure that the Royal Charter for the Press cannot be amended unless . two-thirds of MPs and peers and all three main party leaders agree. Mr Cameron made a number of . concessions to secure the deal, dropping an effective veto for the . industry over the regulator’s membership and agreeing that the regulator . should have the power to ‘direct’ newspapers on the prominence of . apologies and corrections. Recommendation: Lord Justice Leveson called for a new Press regulator underpinned by statute . A Labour MP yesterday demanded that the editor of the Sun be sacked after the newspaper paid damages for accessing a stolen mobile phone. Immigration spokesman Chris Bryant called for Dominic Mohan to quit after his reporters read messages from a mobile belonging to fellow Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh. The Sun accepted there had been ‘a serious misuse of Miss McDonagh’s private information’ after her phone was taken from her car in South-West London in October 2010. The Sun, which was not accused of stealing the phone, offered an unreserved apology and Miss McDonagh said she was paid £50,000 damages by News Corp. After the hearing, Miss McDonagh said that she felt very uneasy after being told in 2012 that the paper had appeared to have ‘acquired her mobile phone’. The regulator was also given the . power to appoint the committee which writes the Editor’s Code, . dismantling the one part of the existing system that is agreed to work . well. Mr Cameron told MPs: ‘This system . will ensure upfront apologies, million-pound fines, a self-regulatory . body with independence of appointments and funding, a robust standards . code, an arbitration service that is free for victims and a speedy . complaint handling mechanism. We can put all of this in place without . the need for statutory regulation.’ Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, . chairman of the Index on Censorship, warned: ‘The two-thirds block on . any changes to the Royal Charter could be abused in the future – not . least when today’s emerging consensus shows that the parties can come . together in both Houses to agree on press regulation.’ Mr Lilley said: ‘We are giving a body . the right to decide what is fact and what is true. At worse, it is . going to be establishing a sort of mini self-appointed Ministry of . Truth. ‘We note that no similar powers are taken with respect to the BBC.’ Mr Lilley added: ‘I hope personally . that when this is established quite a lot of media organisations will . have the courage to follow the Spectator and stand aside from this body . and remain free while hopefully adopting the highest standards in the . way they publish and treat the public.’ Conservative MP for Clacton Douglas Carswell said: ‘Today is a milestone. Press now answer to quangocrats. Awful, awful, awful. The MPs have produced a Press regulatory regime of fiendish complexity, with layer upon layer of bureaucracy. The process begins with the political parties themselves who, by devising the terms of yesterday’s Royal Charter, have interfered in the workings of the free Press for the first time in 300 years. As we show in the flowchart, the first step to be taken under the Charter they have produced will be the establishment of a Recognition Appointments Panel (shaded red, on the bottom right-hand side). Handpicked by ex-Whitehall mandarin   Sir David Normington, the current Commissioner for Public Appointments, none of  the four members can ever have been a newspaper editor. In turn, as the arrow on the diagram shows, this panel will then appoint a Recognition Panel. This will contain up to eight members, none of whom, the politicians have decided, can be an editor, publisher or a member of the Commons or Lords. Crucially, it will have sweeping powers to oversee the new independent Press regulator. The Recognition Panel will carry out regular checks on the regulator and will pass judgment on whether or not it is working. A negative verdict could take Westminster back to the drawing board. This brings us to the regulator itself – which, as we show in the boxes coloured blue, is being established under a separate, hugely complicated process. The first move in setting this up will be the establishment of a six-strong Foundation Group (bottom left) appointed by the newspaper industry and headed by ex-President of the Supreme Court Lord Phillips. The group’s job is solely to set up a Regulatory Appointments Panel, which will contain five members – an independent chairman, two other independent members, an editor and one other industry member. This Panel’s job is two-fold. First, it must pick the 12 members of the Main Board (coloured purple) of the new Press regulator, which will be independently chaired with six other independent members. The five industry members on the Board – a minority – cannot include serving editors. The Panel will also establish the Complaints Committee, an off-shoot of the regulator containing the Main Board’s chairman, six independent members and five industry figures, none of whom can be a serving editor. The Complaints Committee will decide if the new Code on journalistic conduct  and ethics has been breached in individual cases – which could lead to the Main Board ordering the publication of prominent apologies and corrections. Drawing up this new Code will require the establishment of yet another panel – the Code Committee – featuring five independent members, five journalists and five editors.  It will be appointed by the Main Board, raising concerns that it will be acting as judge and jury on rules it has itself written. To this galaxy of committees will then be added two other new bodies, which are offshoots of the new regulator’s main board. The first, the Standards and Compliance Arm, will have the power to investigate potentially systemic problems at a newspaper, such as phone hacking, and impose huge fines. Meanwhile, the Arbitral Arm will set up a panel to adjudicate on civil complaints against newspapers, without the need to go to court. If a member of the public wins a case, the newspaper involved must pick up their costs. But, if the person loses, newspapers will not be able to recover their own legal fees – potentially leaving regional newspapers, in particular, with crippling bills. There are also concerns about the system being swamped by compensation-seekers. To get this Byzantine system of regulation off the ground will require countless meetings involving dozens of panel members and independent experts. The danger is that it will collapse under its own complexity.", "European human rights judges have delivered a boost to Home Secretary Theresa May’s campaign to kick illegal immigrants and foreign criminals out of the country. In a landmark ruling, they undermined the idea that no foreigner should be thrown out of a country if it will interfere with their right to a family life. Eight judges of the European Court of Human Rights found that Russia was justified in deporting a 45-year-old man for breaking immigration laws even though he went to live there more than 20 years ago and has a Russian wife and son. Scroll down for video . Landmark: The European Court of Human Rights (pictured, with former president Sir Nicolas Dusan Bratza) has ruled Russia did not breach a father's right to a family life when he was deported in 2011 . Robert Muradeli had never committed a crime or any other offence more serious than traffic violations. But the Strasbourg court said that the Russian authorities had not breached any human rights rules when they deported him in 2011. It follows years of Tory frustration over the ease with which illegal immigrants and foreign criminals can dodge deportation or delay it for years by claiming that it would breach their right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights. A number of the 760 foreign criminals on the run in Britain have used the clause to block their deportation, and British judges have repeatedly upheld even the most spurious claim to a family life. MPs voted for new guidelines in 2012 which said that any foreign criminal sentenced to more than four years in jail should not be able to plead family rights as a reason to stay in Britain. Mrs May has also introduced a system under which foreign criminals are deported and only then allowed to appeal to the courts against removal. She has promised the system will be extended to illegal immigrants if the Tories win the election. Boost: Mrs May is hoping to be able to stop illegal immigrants and foreign criminals dodging deportation or delaying it by claiming their right to a family life . The European judges – whose rulings are supposed to be followed by 47 countries including Russia – heard that Georgian-born Muradeli had gone to Russia in 1992, had married in the city of Penza in 1994 and had a son in 1995. However, he failed to keep his permits up to date. Muradeli told the judges that his son needed a father, that his wife needed his financial support to pay back a property loan, and that his family had no links to Georgia. Lawyers for Russia argued that it was necessary to deport him to ensure immigration laws were obeyed. The Strasbourg ruling said that by breaking immigration rules Muradeli had ‘demonstrated consistent disregard of the laws, regulations and public order of the host country’. It added that he had been deported to Russian-speaking Belarus.", "Ed Miliband today described himself as a 'child of immigrants' but vowed to introduce a new bill to tighten rules on foreigners moving to Britain if he wins the next election. The Labour leader, in Rochester and Strood ahead of next month's crunch by-election, said he was 'proud of the contribution' immigrants like his parents had made to Britain. But he pledged new legislation would be introduced in the first Queen's Speech after the general election. Extra border controls and new powers to force public sector workers to speak English will be introduced as part of a wider package of measures passed 'within weeks' of a new Labour government, party sources said. Labour leader Ed Miliband pledged immigration legislation in the first Queen's Speech after the general election as he campaigned in Rochester & Strood . Mr Miliband was campaigning before the November 20 Rochester and Strood by-election sparked by Conservative MP Mark Reckless defected to Ukip . A Conservative spokesman said: 'This is just pathetic posturing from Miliband...nothing he has promised today would actually reduce immigration. 'Labour had an open-door immigration policy for 13 years.' Mr Miliband praised Labour's candidate in Rochester, Naushabah Khan, adding: 'Like Naushabah, I am the child of immigrants'. But he said abuses needed to be tackled. He said recruitment agencies banned from only hiring from abroad and companies employing people from outside the EU would have to create an apprenticeship. There would also be a specific law against bringing in foreign workers to undercut wages in the UK, and a reintroduction of ‘counting in and counting out’ at borders. He has been under pressure from some of his MPs to harden his line on immigration since Ukip came close to taking Heywood and Middleton, a supposed safe Labour seat near Manchester in a by-election this month. But speaking to Labour supporters in Chatham, Mr Miliband said he was also clear about what he ‘will not do’. He said: ‘False promises on immigration just make people more cynical about politics. I will not be part of that.’ Mr Miliband said he knew the EU ‘needs to change if we are to deal with the problems of immigration’. ‘We will seek change in Europe for longer transitional controls when new countries join the EU,’ he said. Stopping child benefit and child tax credits being paid to kids living abroad. Doubling the period before people would be entitled to benefits. And stronger rules to deal with foreign criminals'. Ukip candidate Mark Reckless (left) hopes to follow in the footsteps of Douglas Carswell (right) who was became the party's first elected MP earlier this month . Ukip leader Nigel Farage (left), speaking with the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Strasbourg yesterday, has described the by-election as the 'most important' in 30 years . But he highlighted David Cameron's failure to hit the target of bringing net annual immigration down to tens of thousands. ‘I will not make promises I cannot keep,’ he said. ‘I will never propose a policy or a course of action that would damage our country. ‘Nigel Farage wants to leave the EU, on which three million British jobs and thousands of businesses in our country depend ... ‘Now David Cameron is also saying he is ready to leave the EU and have Britain turn its back on the rest of the world.’ Mr Miliband declared: ‘I will not be a prime minister that puts either those jobs and businesses or our national interest at risk. ‘Labour offers real change right now, not damage to our country.’ Voters in the Kent town of Rochester will get the chance to return Ukip's second MP in the by-election next year . The speech comes with less than a month to go until the by-election triggered by Mark Reckless after he defected from the Tories to Ukip. A new poll has suggested Mr Reckless is on track to retain his seat on November 20, with 43 per cent support to 30 per cent for the Conservatives. Labour are trailing on 21 per cent. In a direct appeal to traditional Labour voters not to shift allegiance to Nigel Farage's Ukip, Mr Miliband said: ‘If you want a party for working people, then vote Labour in this by-election, for clear, credible and concrete change.’", "Cross-channel tensions over David Cameron's plan to claw back powers from Brussels were laid bare today, as French President Francois Hollande said helping the Prime Minister was 'not a priority'. Mr Hollande said giving the British people a say on leaving the European Union was 'not urgent' and would do little to assist Mr Cameron's push for reform. The . cross-Channel spat was being played out as Labour and Lib Dem peers in the House of . Lords killed off a Bill which would legislate for Mr Cameron's . referendum. Awkward: David Cameron and Francois Hollande tried to look relaxed at The Swan Inn barely an hour after they clashed over the need to reform the EU . After tense talks at the summit Prime Minister David Cameron took French President Francois Hollande to The Swan Inn at Swinbrook in Oxfordshire for lunch . During a tense press conference in which . Mr Hollande was also challenged about his private life, Mr Cameron . rejected the Frenchman's position, insisting there was 'no doubt' that . he would renegotiate a new EU relationship before holding an in-out . referendum by 2017. It was all smiles as Mr Cameron . greeted Mr Hollande at the start of an Anglo-French summit but deep . divisions over Europe and the economy soon emerged. Mr Holland made clear he has no intention of helping Mr Cameron in his bid to secure a new settlement with the EU through a Treaty change before staging a referendum. Speaking . at a press conference after the talks, Mr Hollande said: 'France would . like the UK to remain within in the EU. France would like to have a more . effective European which can attain the objectives which we consider to . be essential: growth, employment, energy and of course the capacity to . bring in techniques for tomorrow and protect our population.' But . he rejected the Mr Cameron's plea for urgent action to renegotiate the . power Brussels currently wields: 'France would like the Eurozone to be . better co-ordinated, better integrated. And if there are going to be . amendments of the text we don’t think for the time being that they are . urgent. 'We feel that revising the Treaty is not a priority for the time being.' Tense: British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted Mr Hollande for the one-day summit at RAF Brize Norton but the two men clashed about reforming Europe . But Mr Cameron contradicted his . guest, insisting he would plough on with his plan, which has already . attrracted the support of Germany's Angela Merkel. The PM said: 'Europe needs to change and Europe is changing. Just as the Eurozone is changing so Britain wants change in Europe. ‘My . position absolutely remains that we want to see change, we want to see . that renegotiation and that will involve elements of treaty change. 'I believe that it will be done and I believe that it will be important for Europe and important for Britain.What . people really need to know in the United Kingdom is that the in-out . referendum that I will hold if I am Prime Minister will happen by the . end of 2017. There cannot be any doubt about it.' French President Francois Hollande was seen running out of the pub where he met David Cameron for lunch . The Frenchman appeared to want a . quick getaway after a day which saw him clash with Mr Cameron on Europe . and face tricky questions about his love life . Labour's . Europe spokesman Gareth Thomas said: 'Twelve months on from his . Bloomberg speech, David Cameron's referendum policy is already fraying . at the seams. His own backbenchers are baying for more, while other EU . members have dismissed his arbitrary timetable of 2017. 'Europe . does need to change, but the UK's partners are already ruling out . treaty change on the arbitrary timetable that David Cameron has set out. 'David . Cameron's approach to Europe risks leaving the UK more isolated in the . EU and undermines Britain's ability to secure much-needed reform in . Europe.' However Labour faces accusations of being anti-democratic after unelected peers threw out a backbench Bill which would have enshrined a referendum in law. Peers voted by 180 to 130, majority 50, to end the debate of the EU (Referendum) Bill at committee stage in the Lords. The debate could resume next week but, with only one sitting Friday left in the Commons, it is now impossible for the Bill to become law. Tory chief whip in the Lords, Baroness Anelay of St Johns, said: 'Labour killed the Bill. I am disappointed.' Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron greets France's President Francois Hollande at RAF Brize Norton . The two men have struck deals on energy and defence but are bitterly divided on plans to curb the powers of the European Union . Touchdown: French President Francois Hollande arrives at RAF Brize Norton for the Anglo-French summit hosted by David Cameron . After formal talks on the base . followed by the press conference the Mr Hollande and Mr Cameron men held a working lunch at The Swan Inn . in the PM's Witney constituency. Mr Hollande appeared to enjoy the visit to the boutique Cotswolds gastropub on the banks of the River Windrush, which has featured in Downton Abbey and belongs to the last surviving Mitford sister. But he was later seen sprinting out of the door to his waiting car. The atmosphere could well have been frosty, with aides to Mr Hollande claiming Britain will have to wait ‘years’ before it is able to rewrite the terms of its membership of the European Union. It . has also emerged that the Tories are considering featuring Mr Hollande . on election posters as the to highlight his close links to Ed Miliband. A . senior Tory source has revealed that Mr Hollande was viewed as a . ‘secret weapon’ that would be deployed to drive home the argument that . Labour cannot be trusted to run the economy. ‘Ed . Miliband said he wanted to do to Britain what Hollande was doing to . France,’ the source said. ‘But just look at what Hollande has done - the . French economy is a basket case and even Hollande is having to talk . about austerity.' The International Monetary Fund expects the UK economy to grow by 2.4 per cent this year, more than double the 0.9 per cent forecast for France. While a surge in jobs has seen unemployment here fall to 7.1 per cent, across the channel it has soared to 11 per cent. House prices in the year to November were up 3.6 per cent in the UK, compared to a 1.4 per cent fall in France. Mr Hollande is without a First Lady after revelations he was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet. After it emerged he had travelled to a Paris love nest on a moped, he announced his split from Valerie Trierweiler. He officially ‘fired’ her on Saturday – signalling the end of her time as  first lady in a curt 18-word statement. French officials have said it is very unlikely that Mr Hollande will support Mr Cameron's plan to reform the EU before a 2017 referendum in Britain . Mr Cameron and President Hollande will agree further defence . co-operation on the development of new armed drones. But ahead of the talks Mr Hollande’s spokesman said it was ‘very, very unlikely’ that any treaty changes will be in place before 2017, when Mr Cameron has pledged an in/out referendum on EU membership. And he said all the talk of a referendum would frighten investors away from Britain. In a briefing for journalists in Paris ahead of the summit, the President’s spokesman said any treaty change unlikely before 2017. ‘This doesn’t mean we won’t one day require treaties to be revised for the requirements of economic monetary union, but it is very, very unlikely this will be compatible with the British political calendar,’ he said. ‘It’s in our interests that Britain remains within Europe, but it is not by changing the treaties or rules will negotiate its place in the EU. It is in our interests that Britain remains within Europe but that cannot happen at the price of dismantling Europe.’ Happier times: Francois Hollande and Valerie Trierweiler on the night he was elected French president . The official went on to warn that if the next Government agrees to a referendum, companies will be less willing to invest in the UK as the date for the vote approaches. He said: ‘The more the question becomes concrete in British national debate, the more investors and the business community warn what a Britain out of Europe would mean. ‘When investors talk, they want to access the European market through the UK. This access presupposes following a certain number of rules to maintain balance in Europe. ‘If these rules are not wanted in the UK, it will no longer have access to [the European market].’ Pub diplomacy: Tony Blair sought to win over French President Jacques Chirac in 2000 with a pint in the County restaurant in the Labour PM's constituency in County Durham ahead of a summit in France . In 2003 Mr Blair repeated the trick, taking US President George W Bush to the Dun Cow pub in his constituency . The two men announced that defence companies from the two countries will carry out a two-year study on building armed drones for their countries’ military. The ‘entente frugale’ military agreement between France and the UK was first signed in 2010, as the two countries attempted to save money following the credit crunch depression. They will now go further and will work together on developing a Predator-type drone. They announced greater cooperation on anti-ship missiles and underwater mine detectors.", "By . Steph Cockroft . Companies could be forced to pay out billions in backdated commission, overtime and bonuses, after a European Union court ruled a worker could still be paid his usual commission while on holiday. The landmark ruling comes after British Gas salesman Mr Z Lock took his employer to an employment tribunal, claiming his commission should be paid on top of his basic salary while he was on annual leave. Now the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled in Mr Lock's favour, saying the Working Time Directive - under which all EU holiday pay is governed - allows for employees to keep receiving their work-related benefits while on holiday. The Court of Justice of the European Union, pictured, has ruled in favour of Mr Lock, who took his employer British Gas to an employment tribunal over whether he was allowed to be paid commission during his annual leave . Major unions have . welcomed the ruling, saying it will force companies to pay 'proper . salaries' and will mean employees are not short-changed on their pay. But industry experts have warned the ruling could have a huge detrimental effect on businesses - potentially forcing companies across the country to shell out billions in backdated payments. Some warn it could open the floodgates for thousands of claims relating not just to commission but to all employee benefits, such as overtime and bonuses, causing an 'unnecessary increase in uncertainty'. As the directive was introduced in 2008, it is likely claims could potentially date back six years. Tim Thomas, head of employment policy at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, told MailOnline that a medium-sized company, which on average is made up of about 200 employees, could be forced to pay out £3.3m in backdated payments. Although the full financial impact is not yet known, Mr Thomas said the figure is so high because the Court of Justice could require UK employers to include almost all . elements of pay within the calculation of holiday pay. He said that, on average, businesses . had calculated the ruling, if enforced, would add 4 per cent to their annual payroll. He said: 'For . medium sized and large employers, this will equate to hundreds if not . millions of pounds. 'Employers . who have complied by UK law will be dismayed at the future prospect of . higher wage costs and the potential liability for back-pay, which they . could never have foreseen or prepared for. 'Larger companies . will inevitably look at how they will need to change the organisation of . their businesses, as the court seems minded to include almost all . elements of pay in the holiday pay pot – commission, bonuses and . overtime. 'Smaller companies are likely to have fewer options – for some, there must be a high risk that they will go under.' 'Employers . who have complied by UK law will be dismayed at the future prospect of . higher wage costs and the potential liability for back-pay, which they . could never have foreseen or prepared for' Tim Thomas, head of employment at EEF . Mr Lock first took his employers to a tribunal in Leicester in 2012, which referred the case to the EU court. He asked to be paid his commission between 19 December 2011 and 3 January 2012, when he was on annual leave. According to court papers, Mr Lock said he was losing 60 per cent of his salary because his commission-related earnings were not covered when he went on holiday. He claimed that, because he was unable to generate any new sales or follow up on potential sales while on holiday, this affected the amount he was paid once he returned to work. He argued that, under European law, he was entitled to be compensated for this. The court said Mr Lock had lost out on his usual amount of pay during his holiday at British Gas, which in turn could discourage employees from taking leave . The employment tribunal referred the case to the EU court, asking the Court of Justice of the European Union whether commission-earners could expect payment for potential sales they miss out on while on holiday, in addition to their base salaries. It also asked how this anticipated drop in payment should be calculated. Yesterday, the court passed down a preliminary ruling in Mr Lock’s favour, saying any employee given less pay while on holiday than they would usually earn while working could be deterred from taking annual leave - which itself goes against EU principles. British Gas said it would 'await the outcome' of the employment tribunal to see exactly what impact the ruling would have on its business. The ruling said: 'In today’s judgment, the court points out that, during annual leave, a worker must receive his normal remuneration. 'The purpose of holiday pay is to put the worker, during that period of rest, in a situation which is, as regards his salary, comparable to periods of work.' It continued: 'As British Gas conceded at the hearing, the worker does not generate any commission during the period of his annual leave. 'In the period following that of his annual leave the worker is paid only reduced remuneration comprising his basic salary. That adverse financial impact may deter the worker from actually taking that leave.' 'We will have to look at the full judgment from the CJEU but the ramifications are massive. It is likely millions of workers in the UK have been short changed on their holiday pay' Gary Smith, GMB national officer for energy . Dr Adam Marshall, executive director of policy and external affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the decision was bad news for businesses up and down the country. He said: 'This judgement will cause unnecessary increase in uncertainty for businesses up and down the UK and is likely to give rise to far more disputes between employers and employees, haggling over what the appropriate level of remuneration should be whilst on holiday. 'The existing system was well understood and highly clear for both parties.' Mr Thomas said it would raise the bill for companies across the board. He said: 'In addition to this, there will be further . costs that will arise. 'For example, there will be an increase in the . national insurance contributions payable by the employer and pension . contributions, and some employers will need to change their internal . systems to perform the calculation. 'We are aware of some businesses who . anticipate that they will need to recruit extra staff in order to meet . the administrative requirements.' But UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: 'This is an extremely important decision that will assist workers across the European Union to argue that they should be entitled to their normal pay, including any commission payments they normally receive, for periods of annual leave.' And Gary Smith, GMB national officer for energy, said: 'We will have to look at the full judgment from the CJEU but the ramifications are massive. 'Companies who pay commission payments should be using those payments for the purposes of calculating holiday pay. It is likely millions of workers in the UK have been short changed on their holiday pay. 'As you would expect the CBI are warning that this will lead to the roof falling in but this is nonsense. 'Capital's share of annual national income has increased by nearly 50 per cent in a generation. This will put a small dent in that shift and is well affordable. 'The case will now go back to the Employment Tribunal but it is likely millions will be due back pay and will get a big boost to holiday pay in future. 'It is likely to force employers to start paying proper salaries too. There is little incentive now not to pay proper salaries. They are going to have to pay holiday pay on the workers earnings.' The case will now be referred back to . the employment tribunal to determine what annual leave payments Mr Lock . is entitled to under UK law. It will then be left open to the UK government to see how the ruling is put into domestic law. Ralph . Nathan, director of employment law at British Gas, said: 'Many of our . people receive commission as part of doing their job, so we’re reviewing . in detail the CJEU judgment. 'However, . we’ll need to await the outcome of the UK Employment Tribunal’s . decision to understand the precise impact of this European judgment on . UK legislation. 'We’re . already examining the issue raised by the Lock case as part of a wider . review of employee incentives and working with trade union . representatives to help us design our future employee incentive . schemes.'", "Unelected Euro judges are making a relentless attack on British laws laid down over centuries by Parliament, a devastating report warns today. A group of Tory MPs are demanding action by the Prime Minister over figures which show the UK loses three out of every four cases taken to the unaccountable European Court of Human Rights. The explosive research will reignite the row over Europe’s demand for rapists and killers to be given the vote in prison, and intensify calls for Britain to withdraw from the court’s jurisdiction. Relentless attack: Unelected judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, pictured, are undermining British justice by ruling in favour of murderers, terrorists and sex offenders in three in four cases taken there from Britain . The ten backbench Tory MPs say there is a need to ‘end rule by judges and reinstate Parliamentary democracy’. Their challenge follows a succession of sickening cases in which terrorists, murderers and sex offenders have been awarded cash after gaining judgments against the Government. The report, commissioned by the MPs from legal researcher Robert Broadhurst, says that since Britain subscribed to the jurisdiction of the ECHR in 1966 there have been more than 350 rulings on whether the UK has violated convention rights. The number of judgments made against the UK is 271, against only 86 in which it was successful. In a further 50 cases the UK reached a settlement with the claimant, typically agreeing to pay out in return for an agreement to drop the case. In the 1980s, the average number of cases concluded by the ECHR concerning alleged UK violation of human rights law was 2.6 per year. In the 1990s it tripled to 7.8 – and in the 2000s it almost tripled again to 29.3. Taking charge: David Cameron is planning to use a speech to call for rule changes which he hopes to implement during Britain's presidency of the Council of Europe . The judgments have been blamed for allowing scores of foreign criminals and terrorists to claim they have a ‘human right’ to remain in the UK. The European court has 47 judges, representing every member state of the Council of Europe including Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco and Andorra. A recent report estimated that 20 of them have no judicial experience. Many cannot speak English. The timing of the report is crucial as Strasbourg prepares to pass judgment in three controversial cases. In the first, prisoner voting will . come before the Grand Chamber, Strasbourg’s final court of appeal. Britain is fighting an ECHR ruling that the government must allow . convicts to take part in elections – in clear defiance of the wishes of . the UK Parliament, which last year voted overwhelmingly to maintain the . current ban. In the second, preacher of hate Abu Hamza is resisting extradition to the U.S. to face trial on terror charges, and the ECHR will rule on whether he can be sent for trial. If it refuses, the British authorities face the prospect of having to release the fanatic back on to the streets. The final case involves three killers given ‘whole-life’ tariffs by the British courts, which have ruled their crimes are so grave that they can never be released and must die behind bars. Court battles: Jeremy Bamber's case involving his 'whole-life' tariff for murder and a decision on whether Abu Hamza can be extradited to the U.S. to face trial are two of the upcoming cases the ECHR is to rule on . If Jeremy Bamber, Peter Moore and . Douglas Vinter win their case, it will force the Government to give . regular reviews to every one of the 40 or so prisoners locked up for . ever – and allow them to petition for their release. Report: Former MEP Chris Heaton-Harris is the chairman of the group calling on Mr Cameron to take action . In their foreword to Mr Broadhurst’s report, the MPs, headed by ex-MEP Chris Heaton-Harris, say: ‘The main problem with current human rights law is that we all have to accept judges’ interpretations of human rights, even when those interpretations strike us as a gross distortion of such rights. Who really believes that some or all convicted prisoners have an inherent right to vote while they are behind bars for their crime? Not us.’ The report calls for the UK Parliament to be given the power to overturn ECHR judgments. Such a move would require the approval of all other signatories to the ECHR. Should this not prove possible, ‘the only viable option would be for the UK to extract itself from the jurisdiction of the Strasbourg court altogether’. The report says that, by introducing a British Bill of Rights, the country could still meet its obligations to respect human rights. The author claims this would most probably prevent Britain from being ejected from the Council of Europe – parent body of the ECHR. David Cameron promised at the weekend to take personal charge of the issue, during Britain’s presidency of the  Council of Europe. He is planning to make a speech in Strasbourg calling for rule changes which would stop the ECHR being able to deal with cases if they have already been dealt with ‘properly’ by national courts.", "By . Amanda Williams . Up to £100,000 of fuel is being wasted by police who leave their car engines running even when they are not in them, it has been claimed. The force cars are fitted with technology which means they have to stay on in order for the in-car computers to work, despite no officers being in the car. The Met Police have a fleet of 700 vehicles with the Runlock technology. It works by linking with a control centre, which remotely controls the lights and radio. Up to £100,000 of fuel is being wasted by police who leave their car engines running even when they are not in them, it has been claimed (stock picture) If the engine is switched off it can take seven minutes to restart the computer. The Sun reports that the BMW cars used by the Met use 1.5 litres of diesel an hour - which for 1,000 cars left on for an hour a week would cost in the region of £104,000. Green party peer Jenny Jones told the paper that more and more homeowners were coming to her with concerns. She said: 'It's polluting our streets and is a potential drain on public money.' The BMW cars used by the Met use 1.5 litres of diesel an hour - which for 1,000 cars left on for an hour a week would cost in the region of £104,000 . It comes as one London council has introduced fines for motorists who leave their diesel engines running, in a bid to cut pollution. Islington council has begun issuing on-the-spot £20 penalties for drivers who . fail to turn their engines off when stationary, and others are likely to follow suit in order to meet European environmental targets. London mayor Boris Johnson has already revealed plans to charge owners of diesel cars £10 extra to enter the centre of the capital from 2020. Officials from Islington Council in North London are to issue the on-the-spot fines, and will target buses, lorries and diesel cars . Communities . minister Brandon Lewis called the fines a way to ‘tax drivers by . stealth’ and warned that they could push people away from high streets. Councils gained the power to issue penalties for idling in 2002 but the rule has not been widely enforced until now. A Met Police spokesman said: 'Short journeys use lots of powered equipment and flatten batteries much faster. 'Most of the fleets are now fitted with a secondary battery. New systems expected later this year will negate the need to leave engines running irrespective of the time away from the vehicle.'", "Hong Kong (CNN) -- The Hong Kong government has scrapped plans to introduce a mandatory Chinese civic education subject critics had slammed as pro-mainland propaganda. The decision came on the eve of local elections and after a series of protests including a 10-day hunger strike on the steps of the government headquarters. C.Y. Leung, the city's chief executive, announced Saturday that individual schools would have the option to adopt the controversial curriculum called \"Moral and National Education.\" Hong Kong school year starts with hunger strikes . \"We're giving the authority to the schools,\" he said. \"This is very much in line with our school-based education policy.\" A coalition of concern group had protested against the subject which they said amounted to \"brainwashing\" impressionable young minds with pro-mainland Chinese propaganda. The course material had been outlined in a government booklet called \"The China Model,\" which was distributed to schools in July. China's ruling party is \"progressive, selfless and united,\" the booklet said. It criticized multi-party systems as bringing disaster to countries such as the United States. The booklet also makes no mention of major events that many view as integral to China's history, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Hong Kong has a large degree of autonomy from the Beijing government as part of the agreement made with Britain after the 1997 transfer of power. TIME: Hong Kong's new leader is divisive figure . Despite the administrative separation from China, Hong Kong's 7 million residents are not allowed to vote for the territory's leadership. That role is filled by a chief executive appointed by a small group of specially -selected influential people. However, the territory's leadership has made moves toward introducing universal suffrage, and on Sunday millions are eligible to vote for 40 seats in the 70-member Legislative Council. The remainder will be appointed by a small group of electors. Leung has denied the government back-down on national education was timed to avoid a voter backlash in Sunday's election, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). \"If it hadn't been for the decision of the last administration, national education would not have been on the agenda of this government,\" Leung said. \"I would rather concentrate on housing, poverty and other livelihood issues. I've held numerous talks with the chief secretary on major policymaking, [and] none of our conversations ever touched on national education,\" he added, according to the SCMP. Saturday's back down follows a number of major protests, the most recent of which was on Saturday when an estimated 100,000 protesters gathered outside government headquarters, according to organizers. More: Saving the 'Hong' of Hong Kong . CNN's Alexis Lai contributed to this report.", "Britain will be forced to pay benefits to even more migrants under EU plans to be fought over in a politically explosive court case. Officials in Brussels last night confirmed that the European Commission is taking legal action to make Britain lift existing restrictions that prevent some migrants claiming child benefit and child tax credit in the UK. The news comes just days after David Cameron pledged to cut handouts in a bid to reduce soaring immigration. The case at Europe’s highest court will further anger the public and politicians who have called on the Government to tighten up Britain’s generous welfare system and make the country a less attractive destination for would-be immigrants. Scroll down for video . If Britain loses, it will either have to change the law to allow jobless migrant families to claim child benefit, or face paying millions in fines. Latest figures show 24,000 families are currently claiming child benefit of at least £89 a month for 38,500 children living abroad, at an estimated cost of £30 million a year, while 4,000 claim child tax credit. On Friday, the Prime Minister pledged to end the ‘exporting’ of child benefit, as well as to ban migrant workers from claiming tax credits until they have worked in the UK for four years. Last night Nigel Mills, one of the Conservative backbenchers demanding a tough limit on EU migrants, said: ‘Free movement is about the right to work, not the right to claim benefits. The EU should accept our rules are the will of the British people and Parliament. Prime Minister David Cameron who had pledged to cut handouts such as child benefits for migrants in a bid to reduce soaring immigration . ‘It just shows how big a battle we’ve got to get anything close to a sensible position. Even when we’re asking for things that are not unreasonable, it just suggests they’re going to push us to the exit door.’ The case, to be heard at the European Court of Justice, centres on the ‘right-to-reside’ test that EU migrants must pass before they can claim benefits in this country. Labour introduced it in 2004 as concerns began to be raised about the ‘open doors’ policy that would eventually see more than one million Eastern Europeans arrive over a decade. The test allows officials to check if benefit claimants are ‘economically active’ – in a job, self-employed or looking for work – or able to support themselves. But since 2011, the European Commission has been telling the UK that the right-to-reside rule is discriminatory, as it makes it easier for native Britons to access social security than migrants. Last year, employment commissioner Laszlo Andor, a Hungarian economist known as the ‘most Left-wing man in Brussels’, said he would take the UK to court over the test. It can be disclosed today that court papers were lodged on June 27 this year. In the claim form, the EC calls on the European Court of Justice to ‘declare that the United Kingdom, by the requirement that a claimant for child benefit or child tax credit have a right to reside in the United Kingdom, has failed to comply with its obligations’ under rules that guarantee all European residents the right to benefits in other member states. Its argument goes on: ‘The Commission maintains that in requiring a claimant of child benefit and child tax credit to have a right to reside in the United Kingdom as a condition of being treated as resident there, the United Kingdom has imposed a condition that Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 does not permit. ‘Alternatively the Commission submits that by imposing a condition of entitlement to social security benefits that is automatically met by its own nationals, the United Kingdom has created a situation of direct discrimination against nationals of other member states.’ The EC originally intended the case to cover a wider range of payments, including state pension credit, jobseekers’ allowance and incapacity benefit – in total claimed by an estimated 400,000 migrants in the UK. But it will now just consider child benefit and child tax credit, after a European Court of Justice case earlier this month ruled that a migrant woman in Germany could not claim a jobseekers’ allowance because she was not looking for work but remained entitled to child benefit. If Britain were to lose the crucial case, unlikely to be settled before next May’s General Election, thousands of migrants with no intention of paying taxes would be able to claim child benefit here. Immigrants queue up outside a polling station in Portsmouth to vote for a new Romanian president . At £89 a month for one child, and available to all but the highest earners, it is far more generous than in countries such as Poland, where parents get less than £15 a month, or Greece, where it is just £3. A defeat would also be a huge setback in David Cameron’s plan, announced on Friday, to stop new arrivals claiming most benefits until they have paid four years’ worth of National Insurance. He is already facing having to convince other European leaders to agree to re-write key treaties. Professor Steve Peers, an expert in EU law at Essex University, said: ‘This is a very important case regarding whether the UK can deny benefits to other EU citizens and could potentially have a big impact on Mr Cameron’s renegotiation plans.’ A Treasury insider insisted the right-to-reside test was ‘vital and fair’, adding: ‘We are not only fighting this, but pressing ahead with plans to strengthen the UK benefits and tax credits system to ensure it cannot be abused.’ Next month, the Luxembourg-based court will pass judgment in a separate case about whether or not Britain can opt out of a decision to give Turkish migrants more rights to social security systems in Europe. The UK has already lost two similar cases involving other countries outside the EU. One senior figure in the European Court of Justice, Advocate General Juliane Kokott, has already said Britain should not be allowed to opt out of the new rules for Turkey because there is ‘no room’ for an ‘a la carte Europe’. A source close to Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘It’s simply wrong for Europe to attempt this power-grab, which is why we are fighting these cases.’", "Amid all the fashion models and concept cars at the Paris motor show, Kia's new, third-generation Sorrento sports utility vehicle, brought a refreshing sense of reality. Designed for families on the move who need space, the seven-seater promises improved ride, handling and crash safety and a higher quality interior and design. Kia says it features a higher level of sophistication than the present model. The Korean company's European design team, based in Frankfurt, is behind the move upmarket. A spokesman says: 'A higher proportion of soft-touch materials and leather creates a modern luxury feel to the cabin and premium vehicle ambience.' Buyers will be offered a menu of safety technologies, including a lane departure warning system, which audibly alerts drivers who stray from the chosen lane without using indicators. Amid all the fashion models and concept cars at the Paris motor show, Kia's new, third-generation Sorrento sports utility vehicle stood out . A blind-spot detection system flashes a warning in the door mirror when another car is in the driver's blind spot, and rear cross-traffic alert warns against other cars driving behind the vehicle in a car park. There's also a feature once found only in limos — the speed limit is displayed on the dashboard console, constantly relayed from onboard cameras that read roadside signs. Its second row of seats can split several ways and can slide away to allow easier access to the third. All passengers are promised more legroom and greater baggage space. There's also a 'smart' power tailgate. A spokesman says: 'This system opens the tailgate automatically when the key is sensed close to the boot, so owners can put shopping bags or heavy objects straight into the vehicle.' A new soundproofing material for the transmission tunnel and a 29 per cent thicker panel combine to help cut cabin noise by 3 to 6 per cent, depending on the driving conditions. Three engines are available, including a 2.4-litre petrol direct injection (GDI) and two turbodiesel engines — two-litre and 2.2-litre. However, UK models on sale next spring from around £40,000 will be available only with the 2.2 CRDi engine. The UK version has also been designed to give a softer ride over bumps to reduce the stress and possible discomfort on long journeys. Kia is on a bit of a roll, enjoying its best ever September UK sales. It delivered 13,292 new cars, taking the total so far this year to 62,538 — more than 7 per cent up on 2013. It aims to surpass its 2014 target of 78,000. Its biggest seller, the Sportage, had almost 3,500 buyers, followed by the Picanto, Cee'd, Rio and Venga. More than half of customers (56 per cent) are private buyers. If you fancy a trip across the Channel, the Paris show runs until October 19. You'll need more than a day to see everything. Tickets start at €14 (£11). Go to: mondial-automobile.com. The Countess of Wessex revealed she drives an F-Type Jaguar when she met its designer, Jaguar design boss Ian Callum, at a reception for the London Press Club Ball. Even the roar of the engine appeals to her, she confided. Jaguar Land Rover was the main automotive sponsor of the Ball, held this week at the Royal Courts of Justice, to raise funds for the Journalists' Charity. One racy lady royal, clearly. The wraps came off the new high-tech Mondeo in Paris. It marks the debut of Ford's new technology which can detect people in the road ahead — or who could cross the vehicle's path — and applies the brakes automatically if the driver does not respond to warnings. The pre-collision assist with pedestrian detection also aims to help reduce road deaths and serious injuries. The new versions have the widest range of engines and gearboxes Ford has ever offered. Fuel-efficient auto start-stop technology is standard throughout the range. The new Mondeo also introduces intelligent all-wheel drive to the range's line-up. The new Hyundai hatchback i20 which the company describes as a 'truly European car' A new hatchback from Hyundai turned a few heads in Paris. The Korean firm said the new-generation i20, has evolved into 'a more premium-quality package'. It's been designed, developed and built in Europe, and was billed as a 'truly European car' on its world premiere at the show. It will feature a frugal one-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine in 2015. Allan Rushforth, senior vice-president and chief operating officer at Hyundai Europe, says: 'The i20 is a truly European car. 'Our one-litre engine follows the trend of small turbocharged engines, which provide great driving performance while being very efficient. It underlines Hyundai's commitment to sustainable mobility and gives an insight into our future innovations.' AUDI unveiled a five-door prototype of its popular TT coupe. The TT Sportback, powered by a 395bhp two-litre engine. Hands-free and driverless at nearly 150mph... are you mad? Well, Audi thinks it's not. A driverless Audi RS7 Sportback is to tackle Germany's Hockenheim circuit at race speed next week to showcase the potential for self-driving car technology.", "One of the world’s biggest banks was accused of breathtaking arrogance yesterday for handing a £367m pay bonanza to its London staff. The staggering sum is being shared out among 121 Goldman Sachs bosses and traders – at an average of £3million a head. Campaigners said the payouts were obscene and accused the Wall Street bank of ‘sneaking the details out while no one is watching’. Scroll down for video . Goldman Sachs was accused of breathtaking arrogance yesterday for handing a £367m pay bonanza to its London staff (pictured is the London headquarters) The salary packages equate to nearly £60,000 a week – more than 120 times the average wage. Deborah Hargreaves of the High Pay Centre said: ‘This is a classic case of trying to bury bad news. 'This behaviour just underlines the breathtaking arrogance of the banking industry which thinks it can get away with anything.’ John Mann, a Labour MP on the Treasury committee in the Commons, said: ‘Goldman Sachs will struggle to find a biblical justification for this greed. They obviously wanted to sneak this out when everyone was celebrating New Year’s Eve, hoping no one would notice. This just reinforces the message that the bankers that caused us so many problems are out of control and out of touch.’ The Goldman Sachs pay and bonuses, which are for 2013, were handed out just in time to beat a cap introduced by the European Union 12 months ago. And they comfortably eclipsed the £1.3million average among 13 London banks in the same year, according to research by Reuters news. The staggering sum is being shared out among 121 Goldman Sachs bosses and traders. Group vice-chairman Michael Sherwood is pictured . Star performers at Barclays in London averaged £1.6million while their counterparts at state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland were on £600,000. None of the top employees at Goldman were individually identified in the documents filed to the stock market yesterday. But they would include Michael Sherwood, who is the head of the bank’s UK operation and is thought to be Britain’s highest paid banker. He scooped around £12.8million in pay and perks for 2013. The new cap restricts banks to paying a maximum bonus of one year’s salary, rising to twice salary if shareholders approve. All the major banks have tried to sidestep these restrictions by introducing six- and seven-figure fixed allowances to bolster the basic pay packages of senior staff. This also means they can pay a bigger bonus, because it is calculated as a multiple of their basic pay – including the new allowances. European Union rules require banks to reveal how many ‘code staff’ – those who take and manage risks – they employ and how much they are paid in cash and shares each year. But while its rivals published these details months ago, Goldman – which employs around 5,500 people in London – chose to release the details just before the New Year’s Eve deadline. This week it emerged that RBS boss Ross McEwan plans to accept a £1million fixed allowance in 2015, having forfeited it this year to avoid a row over pay. Last month, Chancellor George Osborne dropped his attempt to challenge the EU cap on bonuses after it was dismissed by the legal adviser to the European Court of Justice. The Chancellor said the new rules were ‘badly designed’ and would serve only to inflate bankers’ pay. He has warned previously that a cap might have a ‘perverse effect’, saying ‘it may undermine responsibility on the banking system rather than promote it’ by increasing the size of salaries. The Bank of England also warned that the cap could have the ‘undesirable side-effect’ of limiting how much cash regulators can confiscate for wrongdoing. The Bank’s Governor Mark Carney said rules may need to be introduced that also allow bankers’ fixed pay to be clawed back if they are found guilty of misconduct. The Canadian said: ‘Standards may need to be developed to put non-bonus or fixed pay at risk.’ Goldman – the most powerful investment bank in the world – has long seen itself as a cut above its rivals and had earned the nickname Goldmine Sacks. Last month, Chancellor George Osborne dropped his attempt to challenge the EU cap on bonuses after it was dismissed by the legal adviser to the European Court of Justice . In the wake of the financial crisis, the bank’s American chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, infamously described himself as ‘doing God’s work’ and argued that banks have a vital ‘social purpose’ to create wealth and jobs. Chris Leslie, Labour Party Treasury spokesman, said: ‘Excessive bonuses aren’t just in stark contrast with the hard times for the vast majority of the rest of society – they have encouraged risky behaviour where the bankers get the rewards and the taxpayer foots the bill if everything goes wrong. 'This underlines the case for repeating the banker bonus levy that worked well in 2009 but was abandoned by George Osborne. ‘It’s clear that banking reform is unfinished business and the Government shouldn’t allow the banking sector to return to business as usual.’ Frances O’Grady, head of the TUC, said ordinary employees should be given a seat on banks’ remuneration committees to help rein in pay. She said: ‘Risk-taking banks caused the global crash, yet while pay for the many has fallen every year since 2008 top bankers are still raking it in. ‘It’s time their pay came out of the stratosphere and back to planet Earth. ‘Let us make 2015 the year in which employees get a voice on remuneration committees.’ The UK’s biggest high street lenders will start announcing their bonuses for the past year in the coming weeks. RBS made losses of £8.2billion last year but still paid out £588million in bonuses. It is expected to make its first full year profit since the financial crisis. Goldman Sachs declined to comment. The pay packages of Goldman Sachs’ top four executives show how generous the bank is with its most senior staff: . Michael Sherwood . Group vice-chairman, based in London . Pay in 2013: £12.8million . Michael Sherwood – ‘Fat Mike’ to his friends – is a leading Goldman Sachs money-maker and is thought to be Britain’s most highly paid banker. Michael Sherwood – ‘Fat Mike’ to his friends – is a leading Goldman Sachs money-maker and is thought to be Britain’s most highly paid banker . A career Goldmanite, the 49-year-old joined in 1986 straight from Manchester University, where he studied economics. He is a keen table tennis player and sponsors sporting charities to keep children off the streets. Lloyd Blankfein . Chief executive and chairman, based in New York . Pay in 2013: £14.7million . Lloyd Blankfein, 60, infamously declared in the heat of the financial crisis in 2009 that he was doing ‘God’s work’. But for many he has become the poster child for fat-cat pay and capitalism at its most cut-throat. The son of a truck driver from the Bronx, he was pocketing £45million a year before the crisis in 2007 – a record for any Wall Street boss. The Harvard graduate became chief executive in 2006 when his predecessor, Henry Paulson, left to become the Treasury secretary in the Bush administration. On his watch, Goldman has been accused of profiting at its clients’ expense by betting on property prices falling, while selling investments that relied on a rising market. Gary Cohn . President and chief operating officer . Pay in 2013: £13.5million . The number two at Goldman Sachs started his career selling window frames while in his spare time learning how to trade commodities. He was working in the silver market when Goldman snapped him up in 1990. Harvey Schwartz . Chief financial officer . Pay in 2013: £13.5million . Tipped to take over from Lloyd Blankfein at the top, Harvey Schwartz has had a stellar career as a trader. Yet the 49-year-old has kept a relatively low profile.", "Riots broke out across Egypt yesterday in protest against President Mohammed Mursi’s ‘seizure’ of sweeping new powers. A day after Mr Mursi declared that the president’s decisions could not be revoked, even by the judiciary, tens of thousands of pro-democracy activists converged on Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Mr Morsi's opponents threw molotov cocktails at a police van and set fire to Muslim Brotherhood offices in the Suez Canal cities of Suez, Port Said and Ismailia. Violence also erupted between rival factions across the country. Anger: Fires were started at Muslim Brotherhood offices across Egypt including in the port city of Alexandria, pictured . A young man throws stones during a clash in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria . Computers and desks are among the being thrown out of windows at the offices of the Freedom and Justice Party . A man throws a stone at a rival rally the day after Morsi assumed the 'powers of a Pharaoh' A young boy appears to be in agony as he is beaten around the head by much older men . Flames: Protesters threw a molotov cocktail at a police van during clashes at Tahrir Square in Cairo this evening triggered by the president's new powers . Critics of Morsi accused him of seizing dictatorial powers with the decrees that make him immune to judicial oversight and give him authority to take any steps against 'threats to the revolution' - . rules that rights groups say are like 'emergency laws.' The president spoke before a crowd of his supporters massed in front of his palace and said his edits were necessary to stop a 'minority' that was trying to block the goals of the revolution. 'There are weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt,' he said, pointing to old regime loyalists he accused of using money to fuel instability and to members of the judiciary who work under the 'umbrella' of the courts to 'harm the country'. But the move has divided the country and . people for and against the reforms made by the Islamist president have . gathered in places such as Tahrir Square in Cairo and near the presidential . palace. In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, anti-Morsi crowds attacked Brotherhood backers coming out of a mosque, raining stones and firecrackers on them. The Brothers held up prayer rugs to protect themselves and the two sides pelted each other with stones and chunks of marble, leaving at least 15 injured. The protesters then stormed a nearby Brotherhood office. In the capital Cairo, security forces pumped volleys of tear gas at thousands of pro-democracy protesters clashing with riot police on streets several blocks from Tahrir Square. Tens of thousands of activists massed in Tahrir itself, angered at the decisions by Morsi. Many of them represent Egypt's upper-class, liberal elite, which have largely stayed out of protests in past months but were prominent in the streets during the anti-Muabrak uprising that began Jan. 25, 2011. Protesters chanted, \"Leave, leave\" and \"Morsi is Mubarak ... Revolution everywhere.' 'We are in a state of revolution. He is crazy of he thinks he can go back to one-man rule,\" one protester at Tahrir, Sara Khalil, said of Morsi. 'This decision shows how insecure and weak he is because he knows there is no consensus.' 'If the Brotherhood's slogan is \"Islam is the solution\" ours is \"submission is not the solution\",' said Khalil, a mass communications professor at the American University in Cairo. 'And this is Islamic because God does not call for submission to another man's will.' Protest: Egyptian opponents of President Mohamed Morsi break into the office of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the city . Unrest: President Mohammed Morsi's policies are driving a wedge between religious and democracy groups in Egypt . Unrest: A man shelters as missiles are thrown by rival groups during the disturbances in Alexandria . President Mohammed Morsi was only elected to the top job a matter of months ago . Riding high on US and international . praise for mediating a Gaza cease-fire, the president put himself above . oversight and gave protection to the Islamist-led assembly - writing a . new constitution from a looming threat of dissolution by court order. But the move is likely to fuel growing public anger that he and the Muslim Brotherhood are seizing too much power. In . what was interpreted by rights activists as a de facto declaration of . emergency law, one of Mr Morsi's decrees gave him the power to take 'due . measures and steps' to deal with any 'threat' to the revolution, . national unity and safety or anything that obstructs the work of state . institutions. He framed . his decisions as necessary to protect the revolution that toppled Hosni . Mubarak nearly two years ago and to cement the nation's transition to . democratic rule. Many activists, including opponents of . the Brotherhood, criticise the judiciary as packed with judges and . prosecutors sympathetic to Mr Mubarak. Brotherhood supporters accuse the . courts of trying to block their agenda. 'He . had to act to save the country and protect the course of the . revolution,' said one of Mr Morsi's aides, Pakinam al-Sharqawi, speaking on . Al-Jazeera. In a nod to . revolutionary sentiment, Mr Morsi also ordered the retrial of Mr Mubarak and . top aides on charges of killing protesters during the uprising. He also created a new 'protection of the revolution' judicial body to swiftly carry out the prosecutions. But . he did not order retrials for lower-level police acquitted of such . killings, another widespread popular demand that would disillusion the . security forces if carried out. Liberal . politicians immediately . criticised the decrees as dictatorial and destined to divide a nation . already reeling from months of turmoil following Mr Mubarak's ousting. Some claim they exceeded the powers once enjoyed by the former . president. Violence: Egyptian supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clashed in Alexandria . Opposition: Many anti-Morsi campaigners believe the president is similar to former president Hosni Mubarak . Violence: An injured protester is taken to a field hospital in Tahrir Square, Cairo, during today's protests . Mock-up: A poster depicts Morsi as a Pharaoh during a rally in Garden City, Cairo . Support: Pro-Mursi protesters chant slogans as they praise a new decree issued yesterday . Power: Mr Mursi decreed that he was above the judiciary meaning that courts will not be able to challenge his decisions . Defences: Security forces sit at a blockade in a street leading to the Egyptian parliament and Tahrir Square . 'Morsi today usurped all state powers . & appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh,' pro-reform leader Mohamed . ElBaradei wrote on Twitter. 'A major blow to the revolution that could . have dire consequences.' Mr ElBaradei . later addressed a news conference flanked by other prominent . politicians from outside the Brotherhood - including two presidential . candidates who ran against Mr Morsi - Amr Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi. Security and military forces were today deployed outside the key state institutions . They . pledged to cooperate to force the president to rescind his assumption of . greater powers. They called for mass protests today to demand the dissolution of the declarations. The . prospect of large rival protests involving Mr Morsi's opponents and . supporters in Cairo today raises the likelihood of clashes. Thousands from the rival camps were already out on the streets of Cairo late yesterday in an increasingly charged atmosphere. A crowd of Brotherhood supporters . massed outside the Supreme Court building and offices of the prosecutor . general - whom Mr Morsi removed in Thursday's edict. In Tahrir Square, hundreds of . demonstrators held a fourth straight day of protests against Morsi and . the Brotherhood. 'Brotherhood is banned from entry,' declared a large . banner at the protest. The . Egyptian leader decreed that all decisions he has made since taking . office in June and until a new constitution is adopted and a new . parliament is elected cannot be appealed in court or by any other . authority. Parliamentary elections are not likely before next spring. The decree also barred the courts from dissolving the controversy-plagued assembly writing the new constitution. Several courts have been looking into lawsuits demanding the panel be disbanded. Critics fear Mr Morsi and the Brotherhood are trying to marginalise women and minority Christians, . infringe on personal liberties and even give Muslim clerics a say in . lawmaking. Liberal and . Christian members withdrew from the assembly during the past week to . protest what they say is the hijacking of the process by Mr Morsi's allies. The president has extended by two months, . until February, the deadline for the assembly to produce a draft, . apparently to give members more time to iron out their differences. He . also barred any court from dissolving the Islamist-led upper house of . parliament, a largely toothless body that has also faced court cases. Criticism: Former Egyptian presidential candidate, Hamdeen Sabahi, left, and Mohamed El Baradei (right), have criticised Mr Morsi's decrees . Fears: An Egyptian protester chants slogans and holds a cross and a Quran in Tahrir Square. Many Egyptian Christians fear being marginalised by the Muslim Brotherhood . Show of force: Protests were taking place today across Cairo after noon prayers had finished . The president made most of the changes on Thursday in a declaration amending an interim constitution that has been in effect since shortly after Mr Mubarak's fall. The moves come as Mr Morsi basks in lavish praise from US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for mediating an end to eight days of fighting between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers. Clinton was in Cairo on Wednesday, when she held extensive talks with Mr Morsi. Mr Morsi not only holds executive power, he also has legislative authority after a previous court ruling just before he took office on June 30 dissolved the powerful lower house of parliament, which was led by the Brotherhood. Thursday's decisions were read on state television by his spokesman, Yasser Ali. In a throwback to the days of the authoritarian President Mubarak and his predecessors Anwar Sadat and Gamal Abdel-Nasser, the television followed up with a slew of nationalist songs.", "(CNN) -- One of Turkey's biggest clubs will not play European football next season after being found guilty of breaching UEFA's financial fair play rules. Besiktas, 13-time national champions, will miss out on continental competition for two of the next five seasons -- though the second qualification ban is suspended for a probationary period. UEFA said Bursaspor, another former Turkish titleholder, had also been barred from Europe next season while Turkish reports said Gaziantepspor will miss out the next time it qualifies due to a similar rules breach. Istanbul-based Besiktas had qualified for the second-tier Europa League after finishing fourth in the domestic table, but its place has now been provisionally given to Eskisehirspor. Eskisehirspor failed to earn a European place in the end of season playoffs, finishing behind Bursaspor -- whose Europa League place may now instead go to Istanbul B.B. The Turkish Federation had to submit its candidates for European competition on Thursday, but UEFA does not have to accept them. Bursaspor, which won the Turkish title for the first time in 2010 and competed in the European Champions League the following season, said it will appeal UEFA's ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Its initial fine of €200,000 ($247,000) was cut to €50,000 ($61,000) by UEFA's appeals body, and suspended for a period of four years. \"We were not supposed to face a ban. This is a murder of law,\" Bursaspor chairman Ibrahim Yazıic told the Anatolia news agency. \"I cannot understand how a club without debt like Bursaspor can be hit with a ban. We believe that UEFA will return from its mistake.\" Besiktas had been fined €500,000 ($618,000) but this was reduced to €200,000 -- with half of that on probation for five years. It will also appeal. \"The biggest reason for the ban was stated as the delays in payments to players,\" lawyer Emin Ozkurt told CNN Turk. The Hurriyet Daily News said UEFA had earlier warned Besiktas about its levels of debt after looking at the club's accounts for the second and third quarters of 2011. Besiktas reached the last 16 of the 2011-12 Europa League, losing to eventual champion Atletico Madrid. The financial fair play rules have been introduced in order to stop clubs spending more than they earn and getting into difficulties. The regulations also seek to counter scenarios where wealthy benefactors bankroll excessive spending to the disadvantage of smaller rival clubs, and distort transfer market values. CNN Turk's Sercan Tezcanoglu contributed to this report." ]

[ "It seems to happen every hour about 435/535/635 etc. Based on that i would say it likely thats when reddit updates or some other factor like that is when the karma statistics update for this particular post It might be different times for different posts if so if you run the same report for other post see if they all sawtooth at 60 minute increments and if its always around the half hour? Unless you have several posts to compare there are too many other factors to consider to give an educated opinion unless a person was a reddit engineer/software developer type." ]

[ "I attribute it to 4chan's anonymity. On a site like this people are often motivated by karma, which is tied to your account. This results in a lot of reposts and circlejerking. People hesitate to take risks in their posts because they don't want downvotes. (At least, this occurs to a small degree) On 4chan each post stands alone, so posters are motivated to take risks. Even if 99% of those risks are crap, the 1% becomes legitimately popular and then the cautious karma-farmers here pass it off as their own invention.", "There's an algorithm in place to equalize stupidly high karma scores; i imagine the intent is to prevent hugely popular posts from dominating the front page for more than a few hours. gotta keep the content cycling.", "If someone likes your post, be it a link or comment, they'll click the upward arrow on the left of it. That's an upvote, which translates to +1 karma. If someone dislikes your post, they'll click the downward arrow, which, of course, equals to -1 karma. Karma for links and comments are tracked separately. Posts like the one you made here (called text posts) can be upvoted or downvoted, but do not affect your karma.", "Your frontpage brings you a selection of the most popular posts from all your subreddits. So, it an be the most popular post of that specific subreddit, and because of that it will be put on your front page. Even though there are posts with more upvotes on diffrent subreddits.", "It's a subreddit that makes fun of current and past trends on reddit. Popular posts on /r/circlejerk often include posts that make fun of content on the rest of the site and humorously obvious attempts at karma whoring.", "This probably happens because the mods of default subs cannot possibly keep up with the amount of new posts that are constantly being added. Look at the number of subscribers and compare it to the number of mods for that sub for a visual.", "I am not familiar with this phenomenon. Could you go into some more detail about that?", "This has come up fairly often so there's just a treasure trove of info on this topic [here](_URL_0_). You can find more answers to popular questions in [this](_URL_1_) portion of the subreddits wiki.", "This thread has a large number of responses simply restating passages from the link in the original post, low-effort assertions of fact, speculating on causes, or giving anecdotes, which have been removed. Please keep top-level comments to detailed, expert explanations of *why* this phenomenon does or does not occur.", "because they let in the unwashed masses. people who have no interest on the subreddit will comment and see/vote on posts. you see sudden dip in quality of posts. you will also see democracy in action, not what is best, what is most popular. overall, you will see more bullshit and shit comments. subreddit where people have CHOSEN them selves to be there is better than people who have been just pushed there.", "A meta-post is about the subreddit itself, not the subject of the subreddit. For example \"[Meta] Why is the formatting all fucked?\" posted in r/StarWars is about r/StarWars and not Star Wars the popular franchise.", "Karma is hidden for a set period of time most subreddits have no control over this. I think it becomes visible street a certain amount of time.", "Well it started when some guy (who I forget at the moment) noticed a lot of comments like: *Okay, imagine that someone made a post with a photo of them next to morgan freeman and a title along the lines of \"Look who I ran into!\"* \"Boy, you sure look a lot like Morgan Freeman!, but who's that guy you're standing next to?\" That act of reversing the post like that (obviously he is the other guy and is excited to have met Morgan Freeman) is what is referred to as the reddit switch-a-roo. Someone noticed how common these sorts of replies were, and decided that a clever way of demonstrating this was to say \"ah the old reddit switch-a-roo!\" and link to an example of it. As it grew into a long chain showing just how often it happens. The reddit switch-a-roo linking became such a phenomenon that other people started linking to it as well with their own 'ah the old reddit switch-a-roo!' links, and it became a large web rather than the linear chain that it once was.", "Some subs tag posts with flair so that people can see information at a glance. A post tagged with /r/all flair has probably become popular enough that it's visible in the first page or two of /r/all (which shows the most popular posts from all of Reddit). This information is especially handy in niche subs, where a small community can be overwhelmed by the sudden change in voting and commenting that comes with the broader audience. Some people like that change, and others don't. The label is just there so that you know.", "There's probably a bot that tracks which users upvote which topics from which IP adress and it found a pattern of Unidan starting a topic and specific accounts with specific IP's immediately upvoting all those topics.", "Since this is a popular question on the subreddit, you might want to check out the other popular responses here: _URL_0_ It's not to shut down your question here since you might not be satisfied by those other answers, but maybe it can help you find out part of what you're looking for.", "I see this often in titles in imgur albums in RES. Is there some way to prevent this from happening?", "According to [this article](_URL_0_), the exact cause of the phenomena is unknown. The article discusses several hypotheses.", "I would love to read a reliable article describing this phenomenon.", "This actually happens with surprising frequency, although it's a bit more than would fit into an ELI5: _URL_0_", "You probably activated a loop back function of a reddit page if the loading time of your browser was too long.", "You're seeing confirmation bias created by well spoken posts rising to the top and by going into niche subreddits. Look at the incredibly downvoted (or sometimes even upvoted) posts on the default subreddits.", "There isn't any benefit. People just do it because they like sharing, as well as the thrill of internet fame/popularity. It's the same reason that people here hunt for karma.", "Hi there, since this is a crosspost linked to a very popular video on Reddit at the moment, I figured I should welcome some redditors unfamiliar with AskScience. Welcome to AskScience! We have a few specific rules on this subreddit, you can find them on the sidebar that way --- > In a nutshell, please do not respond with personal anecdotes or speculations. Please stay on topic, even though you might have a funny tangent to get that sweet sweet karma (you can post that [joke here instead](_URL_0_)!). Thanks AskScience Mod Team", "You may be interested in these questions about “[Sea Peoples: Who were they, where did they come from?](_URL_0_)” on our **Popular Questions** page (which is linked at the top of every page in this subreddit, and in the sidebar).", "Margin of upvotes over downvotes, volume of upvotes and downvotes, *speed* of acquiring new ups and downs, and possibly presence of comments. When something \"rockets to the front page,\" it's because the item received a significant number of upvotes over downvotes (+500? guesstimating...) in a very short period of time ( < 30 minutes).", "Once upon a time, reddit had no self-posts. [This post here](_URL_1_) gives a great explanation of why self-posts do not get you karma: > Originally, self-posts worked the same way as link-posts with regards to karma. But not long after they were implemented, redditors caught on to the fact that you didn't even need to waste time looking for interesting content off-site—you could just post an opinion you knew to be popular, and people would vote it up, thereby increasing your content. The result was an abusive attitude toward self-posting, which you can see if you search Reddit for the phrase \"[vote up if](_URL_0_)\". To end \"vote up if\" posts, the admins changed the way self-posts work to prevent people from using them to harvest karma.", "I'm talking out of my arse a bit here, but I read at some point that Reddit has an automatic weight of downvotes for threads or links that are getting heavily upvoted. Something to do with keeping the front page new and fresh. If I was going to guess, it would be that the amount of rapid upvotes meant that the algorithm over-weighed with downvotes. Or something like that. Sorry!", "I haven't been here for long, but for me the main guidelines to follow are: * Do not post exclusively for karma (upvotes) if you post do it because you have something to say, not just to get upvotes. * Respect each subreddit's topic. Each subreddit has its own rules and suggestions, so make sure to check the bar on the right on each subreddit before you post anything. * Don't be a troll, treat people like you would in real life, be human. For a more detailed explanation, read the [reddiquette](_URL_0_)", "You may be interested in [these previous questions regarding dental hygiene](_URL_0_) on our **Popular Questions** page (which is linked at the top of every page in this subreddit, and in the sidebar).", "Hey, it's the monthly \"Let's fix ELI5\" metapost.", "The fluctuations are a bot prevention mechanism. Shadow bans were created in order to get rid of malicious bots, but that could be easily tested if their upvote did not count toward a thread if the page was refreshed a minute later. Thus, Reddit came up with the idea that they should create vote fluctuations. The vote fluctuates up and down randomly to make it difficult for malicious bots to operate" ]

[ "Anaerobic degradation characteristics of dewatered liquid of household food waste including methane conversion efficiency and degradation kinetics were studied in an anaerobic batch reactor of 5 L volume. The ultimate methane production for dewatered liquid of household food waste tested was over 0.31L liquid of household food waste. The kinetic constant of dewatered liquid of household food waste tested was . The kinetic behavior of anaerobic degradation was described as a first order series reaction. The determinant of rate-limiting step(DR) that is balanced out from the rates of reaction steps was defined by the logarithmic difference of the maximum acidification rate and the maximum methanation rate. Anaerobic degradation characteristics of organic materials were evaluated by the value of DR. The DR of dewatered liquid of household food waste tested was 1.17." ]

[ "The present invention belongs to the technical field of biomass sources, particularly relates to a method of liquefying anaerobic fermentation process for the thermal coupling of food waste water, comprising the steps of: food waste pretreatment, a crude oil hydrothermal liquefaction oil, anaerobic fermentative production of biogas residue and slurry, and the use of multi-stage purification product. Liquefaction anaerobic fermentation method of the present invention for coupling the hydrothermal food waste, hydrothermal liquefaction and coupling techniques anaerobic fermentation of food waste, food waste harmless realized, and a high value processing resources utilization.", "This paper summarized the advances in anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge and kitchen waste at home and abroad.It firstly introduced the application of anaerobic digestion processes for disposal of sewage sludge and kitchen waste respectively.Then the anaerobic digestion processes of treating the two kinds of waste seperately and treating their mixture were compared.The feasibility and effects of process parameters on the performance of co-digestion were analyzed.Finally the future study and application of the technology were prospected.", "The characteristics of the long term (90 d) anaerobic semi-continuous digestion of food wastes/animal slurry wastewater with different C/N ratio were investigated. The research demonstrates that, in the semi-continuous digestion process, different C/N ratios of substrate led to a significant effect to the characteristic of anaerobic digestion (AD). It is undoubtedly that the semi-continuous AD is efficient within a wide range of C/N ratios, and the lower C/N substrate promoted the activity of the methanogen in a long time, which maintained a stable high CH4 concentration and total organic carbon (TOC) utilization. During the whole AD process, an active buffer system was formed from NH4(+) and VFAs (by-products of TOC): this buffer system provided high concentrations of VFAs, thus increasing both the CH4 yield and TOC utilization; and also maintained a high tolerance to NH4(+) and VFAs in the system, which defusing the impact of NH4(+).", "This report describes the development of an anaerobic system to produce combustible gas from cheese whey, soft drink bottling plant wastes, and other organic wastes. Experiments conducted using whey and soft drink wastes in a small scale reactor determined the optimum operating conditions to maximize combustible gas yield and minimize operating costs. Economic analyses are presented in the report which demonstrate that anaerobic treatment of these wastes in a fluidized bed reactor is a highly cost-effective process.", "Abstract Anaerobic biodegradability for sulfolane and thiolane was investigated in soil and anaerobically digested sludge. Biochemical methane potential was periodically quantified to assess biodegradability of microorganisms degrading the compounds prepared in the closed glass vessel. Relatively lower concentration of thiolane adopted in the test was hardly degraded in the soil. Moreover, its degradation was hindered in anaerobic digest sludge. In constrast, sulfolane was readily decomposed in both the soil and the anaerobic sludge. It is concluded that subsequent occurrence hindered in anaerobic digest sludge. In constrast, sulfolane was readily decomposed in both the soil and the anaerobic sludge. It is concluded that subsequent occurrence of thiolane as one of intermediates generated from the reduction of sulfolane would retard the remediation of the concerned area polluted with sulfolane and thiolane.", "Kitchen waste (food waste) collected from hostels and canteen has high calorific and rich nutritive value to microbes due to which efficiency of methane production can be enhanced. Biogas (Green energy) as an energy source is cost effective and generates a high-quality renewable fuel. Biogas contains around 55-65% of methane, 30- 40% of carbon dioxide. Methane has a calorific value of 10 kWh/Nm3. Under anaerobic digestion the organic content is reduced, cow dung slurry along with the kitchen waste is used in the bioreactor as inoculum. The digested slurry is produced at the end of this process is used as a bio fertilizer. In this paper anaerobic digestion, biogas production and challenges for management of kitchen waste and usage of biogas as alternative to kerosene or LPG has been discussed.", "An Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket( UASB) reactor + bio-contact oxidation process is used for the Chinese medicine waste water,to investigate the characteristics of the organic matter degradation. The results show that,the bio-contact oxidation process hold strong anti-shock loading capability in the phase of start- up and acclimation. When the influent COD stabilized at 1500 ~ 3 500 mg / L,the effluent COD is under 80 mg / L,the anaerobic / aerobic ratio of COD volume load is( 2 ~ 3) : 1,the outlet of Chinese medicine waste water could meet the discharge standard after the successful start- up.", "Abstract Anaerobic effluent from thermophilic digestion (55°C) of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) was ultimately treated through a co‐composting process. OFMSW sorted by an industrial plant was used as bulking agent mixed to the digested effluent in the co‐composting experiment. Compost detoxification of the anaerobic effluent was carried out in a static windrow aerated by blowing air in it. The bio‐oxidative post‐treatment technology adopted allowed the anaerobic effluent mixed with the OFMSW to overcome phytotoxicity and to reach maturity for a possible use as organic amendant in agriculture. Short term composting (5 weeks) proved also to act efficiently in drying and hygienizing the initial waste biomass.", "A small size household sewage purifying-tank combined A2/O and bio-filter was developed based on the charac-ters of household sewage.The flow mechanisms of water in each zone were investigated through cold-model experiments,the perforated polyethylene boards were selected as parking material of filter bed.The reclamation and formed membrane of aerobic and anaerobic microorganism were carried out respectively to analyze the variation of the bio-membrane growth with time.The results reveal that the water in the anaerobic zones and aerobic zone show the performance of plug flow and mixed flow respectively.After the bio-membrane form on the surface of the boardst,he start-up of the tank is easy,and the effi-ciency for degradation of the sewage is also high.The effluent quality come up to the national first-class discharge standard,the CODCr and BOD5 are less than 60 mg/L and 20 mg/Lt,he removal efficiency of the CODCr,BOD5 and turbidity reached 86.9%,97.4% and 97.7% respectively.", "Abstract Anaerobic filters, anaerobic fluidized beds and upflow anaerobic sludge-blanket (UASB) reactors were started up on two types of pharmaceutical waste; anaerobic fluidized beds were also started up on glucose, fruit processing, soft drink manufacturing and pharmaceutical wastes. Fluidized beds proved superior to UASB reactors and filters in COD removal capacity and pH stability during start-up, although methane production was greatest in the UASB systems. The industrial wastes proved recalcitrant to anaerobic conversion as they contained substances inhibitory to microorganisms but loadings of up to 7·5 kg COD m −3 day −1 could be applied with a COD removal of 78% achieved. The types of volatile acids produced in four of the units were found to relate closely to substrate composition.", "The concentration and characteristics of pollutants in wastewater had changed by anaerobic hydrolysis filter treatment. The ratio of BOD\\-5/COD increased, the concentration of soluble COD also increased. The bioavailability of organics and alkality of wastewater were raised and the removal efficiency of COD and SS were higher. The sludge in filter was fully treated and the level of voltaic fatty acids(VFA) in the effluent increased. The ORP value in hydrolysis tank was in the range of ORP between aerobic filter and anaerobic digest tank. The processes of organic degradation had a fast adsorbing process and a slow microbial decomposed process.", "A shortcut pre-aeration step was investigated as pre-treatment for thermophilic anaerobic digestion of food waste(FW).Shortcut pre-aeration reduced excess easily degradable organic compounds in FW,which were the common cause of acidification during the start-up of the batch system,and enhanced the stability of thermophilic anaerobic reaction with biogas production and digestion efficiency increasing.Careful consideration however must be taken to avoid over aeration as this consumes substrate,which would otherwise be available to methanogens to produce biogas.After pre-aeration of FW for 12 h,biogas production increased 26%,being the most biogas production(29 928 mL) of all others in their anaerobic process.The rate constants of anaerobic process on FW pre-aerated for 6 h,12 h,24 h,48 h and 72 h were 0.145 d-1,0.143 d-1,0.140 d-1,0.175 d-1 and 0.182 d-1,respectively.", "This study was conducted to identify the performance of a multi-phased anaerobic baffled reactor (MP-ABR) with food waste (FW) as the substrate for biogas production and thereby to promote an efficient energy recovery and treatment method for the wastes with high organic solid content through phase separation. A four-chambered ABR was operated at an HRT of 30 days with an OLR of 0.5-1.0 g-VS/Ld for a period of 175 days at 35 ± 1°C. Consistent overall removal efficiencies of 85.3% (CODt), 94.5% (CODs), 89.6% (VFA) and 86.4% (VS) were observed throughout the experiment displaying a great potential to treat FW. Biogas generated was 215.57 mL/g-VS removed d. Phase separation was observed and supported by the COD and VFA trends, and an efficient recovery of bioenergy from FW was achieved.", "Anaerobic microbial associations have been isolated that degrade aminoaromatic acids to methane and carbon dioxide at high rates. Significant differences between the morphological, cytological, and physiological traits of cultures isolated from samples of adapted and unadapted sludge are shown. The effects of cultivation temperature, illumination, and presence of mineral nitrogen and bicarbonate in the medium upon adaptation of enrichment cultures to substrates and subsequent behavior of the anaerobic associations have been studied. Intermediate and final products of degradation of aminoaromatic compounds and the sequence of their formation in the cultures have been determined. We have also studied the effects of exogenous electron acceptors and additional carbon sources on the degradation of aminoaromatic compounds.", "The biodegradability of 2-chlorobenzoic acid under aerobic and anaerobic conditions was studied respectively using UASB reactor and completely mixed reactor. The results showed that under aerobic condition 2-chlorobenzoic acid could be removed over 80% by the acclimated sludge, and its degradation was inhibited by the presence of glucose, While under anaerobic condition 2-chlorobenzoic acid was very difficult to degrade, and its biodegradability was not markedly improved by the presence of glucose.", "Abstract Household wet biodegradable waste (HWBW) forms a major portion of municipal solid waste (MSW) in developing nations. Its recycling at the source of generation can not only reduce waste transportation costs but also prevent harmful air emissions. Therefore, the present study was planned to investigate the performance of a decentralized household composting system for onsite recycling of source-segregated HWBW. The study was carried out in the recycled plastic drums (capacity = 100 L). The effect of waste turning and addition of microbial inoculum and bulking agent (garden waste) on the composting process was examined. The results showed that proper provisions for aeration and periodic waste turning are necessary to produce good quality compost. The addition of a suitable microbial inoculum can reduce duration of waste stabilization. During composting, the peak temperature was found greater than 55 °C for 3–6 days and the compost yield (", "This paper discusses the temperature changes affecting the anaerobic decomposition of coking wastewater with high concentration. When the temperature is low (9. 2℃～11.2℃), the COD_(Cr) degradation rate of the sludge acclimated by psychrotrophs is 2 or 3 times than normal sludge. Therefore, when the temperature drops, the system degradation efficiency can be improved by supplement of psychrotrophs.", "Abstract The study focused on the mesophilic anaerobic hydrogen production from PPS (pulp and paper sludge) and FW (food waste) pretreated by NaOH or H 2 SO 4 , and the subsequent thermophilic anaerobic methane production with the effluent in a two-stage process. The maximum hydrogen yield (78.35 mL g −1 VS fed ) which was 50.21% higher than that of CK, was achieved when 10 g NaOH/100 g TS substrate was used. However, the maximum methane yield (383.8 mL g −1 VS fed ) was obtained in CK as well as 64% SCOD removal efficiency was achieved. In short, NaOH/H 2 SO 4 pretreatment was suitable to enhance the hydrogen production.", "Anaerobic co-digestion of aloe peel waste (APW) with dairy manure (DM) was evaluated in terms of biogas and methane yield, volatile solids (VS) removal rate, and the stability of digestate. Batch experiments were performed under mesophilic condition (36±1°C) at five different APW/DM wet weight ratios (1:0, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, and 0:1). Experimental methane yield from the mixtures was higher than the yield from APW or DM alone, indicating the synergistic effect and benefits of co-digestion of APW with DM. The optimal mixing ratio of APW/DM was found to be 3:1. The cumulative methane yield was 195.1mL/g VS and the VS removal rate was 59.91%. The characteristics of the digestate were investigated by the thermal analysis which indicated the high stability in the samples of the co-digestion. The co-digestion can be an efficient way to improve the degradation efficiency of the bio-wastes and increase the energy output.", "A food waste resourceful process was developed by integrating the ultra-fast hydrolysis and microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for energy and resource recovery. Food waste was first ultra-fast hydrolyzed by fungal mash rich in hydrolytic enzymes in-situ produced from food waste. After which, the separated solids were readily converted to biofertilizer, while the liquid was fed to MFCs for direct electricity generation with a conversion efficiency of 0.245 kWh/kg food waste. It was estimated that about 192.5 million kWh of electricity could be produced from the food waste annually generated in Singapore, together with 74,390 tonnes of dry biofertilizer. Compared to anaerobic digestion, the proposed approach was more environmentally friendly and economically viable in terms of both electricity conversion and process cost. It is expected that this study may lead to the paradigm shift in food waste management towards ultra-fast concurrent recovery of resource and electricity with zero-solid discharge.", "A study on a pilot plant accomplishing synchronous municipal sewerage-sludge stabilization was conducted at a municipal sewerage treatment plant. Stabilization of sewerage and sludge is achieved in three-step process: anaerobic reactor, roughing filter and a microbial-earthworm-ecofilter. The integrated ecofilter utilizes an artificial ecosystem to degrade and stabilize the sewerage and sludge.When the hydraulic retention time(HRT) of the anaerobic reactor is 6 h, the hydraulic load(HL) of the bio-filter is 16 m3/(m2· d), the HL of the eco-filter is 5 m3/(m2 ·d), the recycle ratio of nitrified liquor is 1.5, the removal efficiency is 83%-89% for CODCr, 94%-96% for BOD5, 96%-98% for SS, and 76%-95% for NH3-N. The whole system realizes the zero emission of sludge, and has the characteristics of saving energy consumption and operational costs.", "Abstract Anaerobic high rate processes are considered cost and resource efficient solutions for treating wastes and wastewaters. Referring to the global current “energy discussion,” anaerobic conversion processes recover “organic waste enclosed energy” to the gaseous energy carrier CH4, whereas no energy is required for stabilizing the waste organic matter. Considering the ongoing trends in industries to reduce specific water consumption, and thereby drastically changing the process water characteristics, membrane bioreactor (MBR) application opportunities are expected to grow in the future. Compared to aerobic MBR technologies, anaerobic MBR (AnMBR) systems do have the same energy benefits as all other anaerobic systems with regard to treatment of organic pollutants, but do also create an absolute barrier for the biomass. By using ultrafiltration membranes, both the dissolved and nondissolved organic matter are retained in the bioreactor preventing that they will leach out with the effluent or digestate....", "In 2010, 21% of the total food available for consumption in the United States was wasted at the household level. In response to this waste, a number of counties and U.S. localities have instituted policies (disposal taxes) directed toward reducing this waste. However, currently there is no federal food-waste disposal tax. The aim of this paper is to establish a theoretical foundation for household food waste, and based on this theory, to determine the social-optimal food-waste (disposal) tax, along with a government incentive. The theory unravels the interrelation between social food insecurity and external environmental costs, which is not generally considered by households when they waste food. A social-optimal disposal tax and government incentive involve Pigovian mechanisms and governmental expenditures. For a zero level of food waste, the social-optimal disposable tax and government incentive approach infinity.", "The effects of mixture ratio and hydraulic retention time on mesophilic co-digestion of waste activated sludge and kitchen garbage were investigated, and the mixtures having the ratios of 75%∶25%、50%∶50% and 25%∶75% on a TS basis,operated at the HRTs of 10d,15d and 20d.In all the digesters,with an OLR 1.53～5.63g/(L·d),there were no indication of failure,such as low pH、insufficient alkalinity、ammonia inhibition and accumulation of VFAs.The optimum operating conditions of all the digesters were found to be a mixture of 50%∶50% in terms of the stability and performance,buffer capacity was the highest.The volatile solid removal efficiency,specific methane production and methane content in this condition achieved 51.1%～56.4%,0.353～0.373(L/g) and 61.8%～67.4%.", "The degradability of 19 organic chemicals (BTEX, chlori nated aliphatic compound, mtroaromatic compounds and anilines) in a landfill environment was studied using different test systems designed to focus on degradation and to avoid or account for loss of chemicals by sorption to the waste, by vol atilization to the gas phase and/or by leaching. The test sys tems used were reactors installed in a leachate well at an actual landfill, reactors submerged in an artificial leachate well in the laboratory and laboratory batch reactors. During the 6-month study period, the different test systems revealed almost identical degradability of the organic chemicals, show ing that the less expensive laboratory set-ups were appropri ate methods. In the landfill environment studied, character ized by stabilized anaerobic conditions with low methane pro duction, no degradation was observed for PCE, BTX, naph thalene and anilines, but 1,1,1-TCA, TeCM, nitrobenzene, 2-methyl-nitrobenzene, 4-methyl-nitrobenzene, o-dini troben...", "Abstract On-site post-treatment of anaerobically pre-treated dairy parlour wastewater (DPWW e ; 10 °C) and mixture of kitchen waste and black water (BWKW e ; 20 °C) was studied in moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBR). The focus was on removal of nitrogen and of residual chemical oxygen demand (COD). Moreover, the effect of intermittent aeration and continuous vs. sequencing batch operation was studied. All MBBRs removed 50–60% of nitrogen and 40–70% of total COD (COD t ). Complete nitrification was achieved, but denitrification was restricted by lack of carbon. Nitrogen removal was achieved in a single reactor by applying intermittent aeration. Continuous and sequencing batch operation provided similar nitrogen and COD removal, wherefore simpler continuous feeding may be preferred for on-site applications. Combination of pre-treating upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) -septic tank and MBBR removed over 92% of COD t , 99% of biological oxygen demand (BOD 7 ), and 65–70% of nitrogen.", "Batch, column and field lysimeter studies have been conducted to evaluate the concept of codisposal of retort water with Rundle (Queensland, Australia) waste shales. The batch studies indicated that degradation of a significant proportion of the total organic load occurs if the mixture is seeded with soil or compost. These results are compared with those from laboratory column studies and from the field lysimeter at the Rundle site. G.c.-m.s. analysis of some of the eluants indicated that significant degradation of the base-neutral fraction occurs even if no soil seed is added, and that degradation of this fraction was higher under anaerobic conditions.", "The purpose of this paper is to report the results, from laboratory-scale investigations, on the impact of intermediate thermal hydrolysis process (ITHP) on already digested sludge in general, and sludge carbohydrate content degradation process efficiency in particular. The ITHP performance data were compared with the performance of established conventional thermal hydrolysis process (THP). The degradation of sludge carbohydrates as a result of thermal pre-treatment and anaerobic digestion followed the first order kinetics. The overall sludge organic matter degradation kinetics rate constants indicated that the use of THP as an intermediate digestion step can enhance the already digested sludge organic matter degradation; further reducing the sludge mass and increasing its conversion to biogas.", "Abstract An equilibrium model was developed to describe the bi-phasic anaerobic degradation pathway mediated by 3 groups of bacteria in a fixed-film reactor. The model comprises 6 equations with 12 constant parameters. The distinctive features include : (1) grouping of bacteria according to the metabolic functions, (2) description of essential degradation steps, and (3) description of bacterial interactions, namely inter-species H 2 and volatile fatty acid transfers. The model was validated with operating data from an AFFR treating food-processing wastewater. The fine tuned model simulated substrate utilization, intermediate and product formations, and bacterial cell synthesis with prediction errors less than 15 %.", "This paper describes the efforts undertaken at the Joint Meeting of Essex and Union Counties sewage treatment plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to generate electricity using the gas generated by anaerobic sludge digestion. The approach taken for the Joint Meeting Plant was to design a digester-gas-fired cogeneration system using internal combustion engines with waste heat recovery systems. This paper also describes the anaerobic sludge digestion process, waste gas characteristics, previous practices for disposal and use of waste gas, a discussion of why the selected cogeneration technology was chosen, and a discussion of the environmental effects and permitting requirements of the project. Finally, initial operating results of the cogeneration system are discussed.", "Polarization-modulation infrared reflection−absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS), facilitating simultaneous selective detection of liquid phase and surface bound species, was applied to study the liquid-phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde on a Pd film. Experiments under aerobic and anaerobic conditions revealed significantly higher activity under anaerobic conditions and higher selectivity under aerobic conditions. Under anaerobic conditions toluene was the major side product. CO2 and benzoic acid, not yet detected by in situ IR during this reaction, were observed as degradation and side products in the liquid phase. Enhanced formation of CO2 and benzoic acid was observed under aerobic conditions where no surface signals could be detected. In contrast, under anaerobic conditions CO formed by decarbonylation of benzaldehyde was observed on the Pd (111) surface, delayed with respect to the formation profile of benzaldehyde in the liquid phase. Both CO and oxygen were found to poison the surface ...", "Alternative disposal methods for food and other organic manufacturing waste streams are increasingly being investigated. Direct shipping, blending, extrusion, pelleting, and drying are commonly used to produce finished human food, animal feed, industrial products, and components ready for further manufacture. This paper discusses a new initiative whose goal is to develop a computer model based on analytical methods used for disassembly planning and demanufacturing modeling, but applied to organic processing waste streams. Upon completion, the simulation model discussed here will be used to analyze various liquid, sludge, and solid byproduct streams in order to determine optimal reprocessing avenues for specific manufacturing firms." ]

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I would like to tattoo simply \"Build your castles in the sky\" . ... would rather mean that you are building very high castles rising into the sky (but...", "Parent and Child facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com ... Other persons standing in the place of natural parents, such as stepparents, are not, ... Children's Rights v. Parents' Rights: You Don't Own Me Do You? In 1874, a .... of the parent-child relationship to some extent, but modern laws dealing with ... In the case of the death of one parent, the other parent assumes custody.", "White Lies - Army of God contrary, birth control and abortion have had their greatest impact on white people. ..... Laws must be passed to sterilize known defectives and prevent uneugenical marriages. ..... In her first autobiography, My Fight for Birth Control (1931), Margaret Sanger ..... Altogether, Margaret would collect 25 lovers, many at Wantley.", "Jeopary Questions page 1941 - NONFICTION - TriviaBistro.com NONFICTION: \"Motherhood In Bondage\" is one of the books by this birth control .... BOOKS: Chapter 1 of this novel says, \"This here is the best car I ever owned\".", "Enforcement Guidance: Pregnancy Discrimination And Related Issues Section I A.5 of the July 14, 2014 guidance has also been deleted in response ... Congress enacted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) in 1978 to make clear .... For example, if an employee was discharged during her pregnancy-related .... in expressing milk, a nursing mother will typically need to breastfeed or express...", "Dustin says, I was a better man with you, as a woman... than I ever ... Jul 6, 2016 ... Dustin says, I was a better man with you, as a woman... than I ever was ... It's the 1988 Dustin Hoffman movie containing the line K Mart sucks...", "The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A ... 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[ "Am not historian, however, weeks made sense originally; when a month was the cycle of new moon to new moon (approx. 28 days). 28 is nicely divisible by 7 (= 4, btw, hence, 4 weeks to a month). However, doing this would have meant that there are 13 months in a year. And that is absolutely terribly (and yet, trivially) the worst number of anything you can have. Like my friend, who lives on the 14th floor right above the 12th floor. So they changed the months to better fit the New Catholic Agenda (13 is evil! Judas! Judas!) and weeks essentially became useless - and all of this, has led to you asking this question, and me answering it in a shitty way. Enjoy your 2017." ]

[ "Hi. There's always more to be said, but check out some past threads: * [Where did the structure of the week come from? Like, why are Saturday and Sunday a weekend? Why a weekend at all?](_URL_3_): From over two years ago, a flaired user on alchemy and German/Czech history gives a short but accurate overview on the two-day weekend. * [When did the world decide on a concept of a 7 day week, with 5 days on and 2 days off?](_URL_2_): Also from over two years ago, a user looks at the origins of the seven-day week and the two-say weekend. * [Why were Saturday and Sunday chosen as the weekend?](_URL_0_): From an year ago, the same user as in the above thread briefly discusses the religious reasons for Sunday/Saturday being a \"day of rest.\" * [When did the current working week, Monday - Friday, become common place?](_URL_1_): Also from an year ago, a mod discusses the reasons for the emergence of the Monday-Friday working week in detail.", "Follow up question- To what extent did knowledge of Classical/Ancient slavery exist in the early modern world, and to what extent was this knowledge used to justify contemporary chattel slavery in the modern world- IE did people think \"If the Greeks did it, why shouldn't we do it too?\"", "Different cultures result in different people considering different parts of the week the start. If you look at French calendars, they start their week on Monday (Lundi) and end their week on Sunday (Dimanche or Day of the Lord translated). This mostly came about, because people viewed the end of the week as when they had Mass and felt as if after Mass it was a new start. That's just one example of why some calendars might mark the beginning of the week on Monday or Sunday; it's mostly just because it varies from culture to culture.", "When banks started to run out of physical cash to hand out they would freeze all accounts and close the bank for the day (or week). That is what they did during the Depression rushes.", "hi! there's still room for the fashion historians here, but meanwhile, you can get started on these earlier posts * [What was the practical purpose of a cape/cloak?](_URL_2_) * [When did cloaks fall out of fashion? Why?](_URL_1_) * [Capes: When were they in style?](_URL_5_) * [When did average people in stop wearing capes?](_URL_3_) * [Why do classic superheroes wear capes?](_URL_0_) * [When and why did capes become the stereotype for super heroes/villains?](_URL_4_)", "Initially it was just the Sabbath, a single day off per week -- Sunday for Christians, Saturday for Jews. As factories enabled more productivity and people could demand a shorter work week, employers started to offer *both* sabbath days off. Thus this very modern concept of the \"weekend\" was born. As you can see [here](_URL_0_) the word \"weekend\" barely existed in 1900 and didn't start to be popular until about 100 years ago, perhaps a bit less.", "Some good existing answers to related questions can be found to start you off: & #x200B; [Why has nobody ever bothered to annex San Marino in over 1700 years?](_URL_1_) & #x200B; [How did city-states (eg, Monaco, Vatican City, Lichtenstein) form, and why do they still exist? Is there some mutual benefit between the city-state and its surrounding countries?](_URL_0_) & #x200B; [Why hasn't Italy ever conquered San Marino?](_URL_2_) & #x200B;", "Yarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why do humans feel the need to wear clothes when the rest of the animal kingdom is naked? ](_URL_6_) 1. [ELI5: Why do we wear clothes? ](_URL_0_) 1. [When, why and how did we start wearing clothes? ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5: Why do humans, unlike other animals, MUST wear clothes in order to stay warm? ](_URL_1_) 1. [ELI5:Why do humans wear clothes? ](_URL_5_) 1. [ELI5: When did humans decide that wearing clothes should be a thing? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: When and why did humans begin to wear clothing? ](_URL_4_)", "hi! there's room for more input on this, but you may be interested in these... * [What was life like before bras?](_URL_0_) - featuring /u/cecikierk and /u/colevintage * [Bras/chest support in Roman times?](_URL_2_) * [When did people start wearing underwear? Did men and women start to wear underwear at different points in history? And when did underwear start being something the majority of people wear?](_URL_1_) - featuring /u/colevintage * [When did it become socially unacceptable for women in western societies to not wear a bra? Is there any documented reason why this came about?](_URL_3_) - more from /u/colevintage", "When you say nutritional value do you mean, when did we start putting on those labels and knowing what everything is in there or how when did we understand you can't just live off carbs? and things like that?", "this is actually a popular question! check out this section in the \"popular questions\" wiki [Why do China and India have such large populations?](_URL_1_) plus there was a more recent discussion last week [How/Why did China develop such an enormous population?](_URL_0_)", "Historically, throughout Western Europe, Sunday was the first day of the week. This goes back all the way to the Hebrew Bible, in which the seven-day week ran from Sunday (\"the first day\") to Saturday (the Sabbath). It's also preserved in Portuguese, where Monday is *Segunda-feira* and Friday is *Sexta-feira*. (This contrasts with most of Eastern Europe, where there is a long tradition of the week starting on Monday). So the question is not so much why the US considers the week to start on Sunday, but why many Western Europeans have changed to considering it to start on Monday. I imagine that it something to do with secularization and the two-day weekend, but don't know for sure; hopefully other contributors will have better sources. Source: Zerubavel, *The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week*", "Weeks and years run independently from each other and no effort is made to sync them up. Unlike days and years, where we have defined things in such a way that the new year starts at the same time as a new day, at midnight. But a new year can fall on any day of the week so the start of the week and the start of the day don't line up in general. As such, in most years there's one week that contains days from both the current and the next year. Because of this, most years have 52 weeks, but some have 53. The general convention is that week 1 of a year has to contain the first Thursday of that year. So if 1 January falls on a Thursday, week 1 of that year runs from 29 December to 4 January. If 1 January falls on a Friday, week 1 of that year runs from 4 January to 10 January. The 4th of January is always in week 1 in this convention.", "The Romans did not have the same days of the week as we did. They did have the same number of days per month, roughly, but they counted their days as a # of days before 3 named days each month. For example, the first of the month was the \"Calends\" and you would refer to they day of the 'week' as 'two calends of January' which would be two days before January 1st for us. The Ides, is another one of these named days of the month and you'd tell what day it was in relation to the Ides. The Ides was the 13th or 15th of the month depending if it was a long or short month. Then there was also the Nones which was either the 7th or 5th. More specifically to the question of when we started using Monday-Sunday as days of the week--I don't know. See 'SPQR' by Mary Beard. Edited for typos.", "The reason that some antidepressants increase suicidal tendencies is due to the effect that they have on a person's level of energy, and that they may take weeks to start decreasing a person's level of depression. When an antidepressant prescription is started, the first noticeable effect is that there is an increase in a person's energy level. So possibly before, the person was depressed, but they felt so low that they couldn't be bothered to really do anything about it. Now shortly after starting an antidepressant, they are still depressed but they have all this energy and will to do things. This is why the first few weeks after starting antidepressant medication is known to be a time of increased risk for suicide. After the antidepressant effect begins to work, the person's level of energy is up, and now they are (hopefully) less depressed, or even better, they feel \"normal,\" or \"happy.\" This is when risk for suicide is much lower.", "More can be written, but you might start with [\"Why do Swaziland and Lesotho exist?\"](_URL_1_) by /u/khosikulu . There are more details in the two discussions linked to: [\"Why did Lesotho and Swaziland not become part of the Cape Colony?\"](_URL_0_) , with more by khosikulu but also /u/HippopotamicLandMass and /u/Evanescent_contrail . [\"Why was Lesotho never annexed by South Africa?\"](_URL_2_) , with more by khosikulu but also jay-hawk and LickMyUrchin. This is not to discourage discussion. More questions, data, and debate are welcome.", "FYI, there are a few similar questions in the \"popular questions\" wiki*. See this section: [Months, weeks, weekends, days of the week, and other calendar-related questions](_URL_0_) *see the \"popular questions\" link on the sidebar, or the \"wiki\" tab above", "It all comes down to a very simple fact. In older days the people used some sort of the lunar calendar. The lunar calendar is 28 days long for each cycle (month). This cycle can be divided into 4 pieces. If you do the math: 28/4=7 So that's why the week is 7 days long. As the month became longer we just stuck with the old lunar based system.", "Depends upon what you mean exactly. The calendar we use today is known as the Gregorian Calendar. However, the Gregorian Calendar is simply an \"update\" to the Julian Calendar, which was itself an \"update\" to the Roman Calendar, which was probably based off of Greek Hellenic Calendars, which were more or less all based off of lunar cycles. Each consecutive iteration of the year calendar simply made attempts to make it more accurate; obviously it's still not perfect, since we need leap years, but it's pretty close. Months were originally based off of lunar cycles, but now have been modified to fit the requirements for a more accurate yearly calendar (which is why full/new moons *kind of* align with months, but not really). Weeks are as long as they are, because 7 days is *roughly* a quarter of a lunar cycle. The history is a bit more complicated than that, but that's the really simply answer. Days, obviously, were just how long it takes the sun to reach the same spot in the sky again.", "hi! here are a couple of previous threads to get you started [When an why did 'fizzy' drinks become popular?](_URL_0_) [Why (and how) did cola become the go-to soft drink around the world?](_URL_1_)", "Imagine a house in Florida. There are 52 weeks in the year. Imagine 52 people buy this house together, and they agree that they each get to use the house for 1 week out of the year. The weeks are assigned when you buy the house. That is the most basic description of a time share. Common ownership, agreements on use.", "According to [_URL_1_](_URL_0_): > Each week for each Moon phase > The reason why we organize our lives around a 7-day week is, quite literally, above our heads. Like many other calendars, today's Gregorian calendar is ultimately based on the phases of the Moon. It takes the Moon around 29.5 days to cycle through all Moon phases. > For everyday purposes, this is a fairly long and impractical time span, so it makes sense to break it down into smaller segments. > Enter the Babylonians. This ancient society, who lived in Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq rounded the Moon cycle down to 28 days and divided this time span into 4 periods of 7 days each, using leap days to stay in sync with the Moon phases in the long-run.", "There are a few ways. Today we can do it by measuring distant stars parallax that changes slightly as we make a circle around the sun. We can look at other plants since we know their orbits and speeds. Finally, we can do what ancient people did, look at a pattern the sun makes in the sky. Each week exactly at the same time it's in a slightly different place in the sky. If you take a photo each week and combine them, you will get an 8 figure pattern. The sun returns to a starting position after a year. A picture: _URL_0_", "This has to do with their new game, *Watch_Dogs*. When Watch_Dogs was originally premiered it had many impressive graphical options, which were removed later on during the development. However this week a modder discovered these graphical enhancements hidden within the code for the PC version. These options didn't damage the performance of the game. This lead to speculation as to why Ubisoft would do this. Some suspect they did this so the game looked the same on PC as it did consoles. [This video explains it much more](_URL_0_)", "I enjoyed this week: * /u/yodatsracist in [*Have the Kurds ever had a state? If not why have they never been able to create one?*](_URL_0_) * /u/American_Graffiti in [*Why did everything get so \"wholesome\" in the 1950s?*](_URL_1_) * /u/itsallfolklore in [*Compared to how it is portrayed in cowboy movies what brand/type of alcohol did people really drink in Saloons?*](_URL_2_)", "A long time ago, there used to be only ten months. Each month only had 30 days, however. The people that created this calendar, the Romans, used to not count the winter days. Nothing happened during the winter anyway. Someone soon figured out that a 300 day year wasn't working for most people and that the days of winter needed to be counted. So, a couple months were added to the calendar. At the time, the Romans felt that even numbers were unlucky, so a day was added to some months. The Romans thought that a year should have 360 days and in order to keep the 30/31 day months, one month had to be a short one. At the time, the first day of the year was March 1^st so it was simple to make the last month of the year, a crappy winter month the short month. So Feb got 28 days.", "hi! there's still room for the fashion historians here, but meanwhile, you can get started on these earlier posts * [What was the practical purpose of a cape/cloak?](_URL_1_) * [Did people in cold-climate parts of pre-modern Europe really wear cloaks whenever they went outdoors?](_URL_3_) * [When did average people in stop wearing capes?](_URL_2_) * [When and why did the cloak seemingly fall out of fashion?](_URL_0_)", "started in roman calendar. March was start of the year, good time to start wars and other activities. Then it was 10 month a year.. then they decided to even things out and split it on 12 months, and february was last month and thus got least days.", "You might get an answer if you explain your question better. If you mean \"When did slavery start in the United Kingdom\" it didn't. The United Kingdom has only existed from 1801, and slavery had already been banned in England and Scotland. If you mean \"When did slavery start in what is now the United Kingdom\", then you may need to crosspost to r/anthropology. Slavery in Britain pre-dates the arrival of the Romans and thus written history; Roman sources talk of Gaulish merchants regularly buying slaves from British tribes pre-invasion. I'm not an anthropologist or archaeologist so I can't really say more on how it started. Or do you mean \"How did the Kingdoms of England and Scotland get involved in the African slave trade?\" in the Early Modern Period?", "For one thing, starting a new one that is just the same as an existing one with a different name takes almost no effort since they're all (I think, certainly most) open source. Then there are different motivations: * The get-rich-quick scheme: if you ran ran bitcoin mining on your home PC for a few weeks back when it just started, you'd be a millionaire today. So why not start a new one where you can be the very first miner, and hope it will somehow become popular? * Shits and giggles: Dogecoin. * It's a genuinely interesting and also very hyped concept, so many programmers want to experiment with it. * Some are serious attempts to add features or fix problems that Bitcoin can't address because it has to stay compatible with the existing Blockchain. Ethereum is probably the one with the most feature innovation.", "You may also be interested in these previous questions: * [When did the last native speakers of Latin live?](_URL_2_) * [When and why did Romans stop talking Latin and started talking Italian as their Lingua Franca?](_URL_3_)", "The Romans did not have a full calendar of the year. They started counting the days when spring arrived in March and counted for ten lunar cycles until winter. They only counted days and months but not weeks like we do now. The lunar cycle is 29.5 days or roughly 30 days so this is the length of a month. And this is the calendar that have formed into the modern Gregorian calendar." ]

[ "BZE to GUA: Flights from Belize City to Guatemala City | Expedia Book your Belize City (BZE) to Guatemala City (GUA) flight with our Best Price Guarantee. Save 100% when booking your hotel + flight. FREE 24 hour...", "Cheap flights from Guatemala City to Belize City - $273 and up ... Cheap flights from Guatemala City to Belize City: Enter your dates once and ... Cheap flights from Belize City to Panama City Cheap flights from Belize City to ... All fares Guatemala City (GUA) to Belize City (BZE) found by travelers in past 72...", "Cheap Flights from Belize City to Central America, from $192 Round ... Cheap flights from Belize City (BZE) to popular destinations in Central America Prices .... Flores; Guatemala City; Managua; Panama City; Roatan; San Jose...", "Belize to Panama! - San Pedro Scoop May 31, 2012 ... The distance between Belize City and Panama City is only 825 miles. ... part: Tica Bus provides a bus service from Guatemala City to Panama.", "Best way to get from Belize City to Guatemala City airport? It would be a long hot bumpy ride to go all the way to Guatemala City so I would check in to airfare. The roads main roads in Belize are paved..." ]

[ "Capital Cities in Central America - Central America Travel - About.com The largest Central America capital is Guatemala City, and the smallest is Belmopan, Belize. A few Central America capitals, like Panama City and San Jose,...", "Central America - Wikipedia Central America. Belize. Costa Rica. El Salvador. Guatemala. Honduras. Nicaragua. Panama.", "Central America - Wikipedia Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which ... List of 10 largest cities in Central America ... Quetzaltenango ... Central America consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, .... Central America was a representative democracy with its capital at Guatemala City.", "Free Flashcards about WORLD CAPITAL CITIES - StudyStack BELIZE CITY, A PORT, WAS BELIZE'S CAPITAL UNTIL A 1961 HURRICANE; THEN THE CAPITAL MOVED TO THIS INLAND CITY, BELMOPAN. IT'S HOME TO...", "Where Is Belize | Geography and Map Of Belize - Belize.com Belize is on the Caribbean coast of northern Central America located at 1715' north of the equator and 8845' west of the Prime Meridian on Mexico's Yucatn Peninsula. ... The country shares a land and sea border on the north with the Mexican ... and Merida in Mexico, Flores City (near Tikal) in Guatemala, and San Pedro...", "Guatemala - Wikipedia Guatemala officially the Republic of Guatemala (Spanish: Repblica de Guatemala), is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to ...... Tikal National Park was the first mixed UNESCO World Heritage Site. ...... Mexico Yucatn Peninsula Belize Mexico...", "J! Archive - Show #5191, aired 2007-03-19 Anders Martinson, a quality assurance engineer from Union City, California (whose 1-day cash winnings total $16,000) .... Belize City, a port, was Belize's capital until a 1961 hurricane; then the capital moved to this inland city...", "History of Central America - Wikipedia Trade By country. Belize. Costa Rica. El Salvador. Guatemala. Honduras. Nicaragua. Panama.", "Belmopan - Wikipedia Belmopan is the capital city of Belize. Its population in 2010 was 16,451. Although the smallest capital city in the continental Americas by population, Belmopan is the third-largest settlement in Belize, behind Belize City and San Ignacio. ... 75% of the houses and business places in low-lying and coastal Belize City, the...", "Belmopan - Wikipedia Belmopan is the capital city of Belize. Its population in 2010 was 16,451. Although the smallest ... This article is about the Belizean capital city. ... km (50 mi) inland from the former capital, the port of Belize City, after that city's near destruction by ... After Hurricane Hattie in 1961 destroyed approximately 75% of the houses and...", "Locations Belmopan | Pure Central America Although it is the smallest capital city in the continental Americas by population, Belmopan is the third-largest settlement in Belize, behind Belize City and San...", "The Belize-Guatemala Territorial Dispute Part 1 Rice and Beans ... Jan 31, 2015 ... At first, I thought they were on display only in the Guatemala-Belize ... but in 1991 it did finally recognise Belize's independence (ten years after it actually happened). ... The independent countries that emerged from the Spanish Empire in ... claim, from 1999, asserts that they're owed roughly half of Belize's...", "Culture of Belize - history, people, women, beliefs, food, customs ... The building of the capital city, Belmopan, in the late 1960s was a crowning ... after the massive destruction of the old capital, Belize City, by a hurricane in 1961; ... 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It has an urban population of 430,299, and its population totals 880,691 when rural areas are included.", "Bus from Mexico City to Guatemala?? - Lonely Planet In Mexico City go to the terminal del norte bus station and get on a ... If you are going all the way to Panama, from Guatemala City onward, Tica...", "Central America - Wikipedia Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which ... Central America consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The combined...", "Central America - Wikipedia Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which ... Central America consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. ..... The golden toad that once inhabited a small region in the Monteverde Reserve, which is part of...", "Central America Map - Map of Central America Countries, Landforms Sep 19, 2016 ... Free maps of Central American countries including Belize, Costa Rica, ... In addition, it's bordered by the Caribbean Sea, Pacific Ocean, and numerous bays, gulfs and inlets. ... Most Dangerous Cities In The United States ... Outline Maps Populations (cities & countries) Prime Meridian USA Times World...", "Guatemala travel guide - Wikitravel Guatemala is a small country (the size of Ohio) in the Central America region. ... whose access to the presidency was helped by the United Fruit Company. .... for a list some major national and international bus companies and their Guatemala City .... The local currency is the Quetzal (plural: quetzales), the national bird, with...", "What is the capital city of Panama, a country in the continent of North ... What is the capital city of Panama, a country in the continent of North America ... The capital city of Panama is Panama City. ... the capital of panama is panjamas.", "Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru ... Saint-Gobain encompasses 11 countries: Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.", "Central America - Wikipedia Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which ... Central America consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. .... At 4,220 meters (13,850 ft), Volcn Tajumulco is the highest peak in Central America. Other high...", "Belize General Information- Facts (and Maps) - AmbergrisCaye.com North of Belize lies the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. ... For information on getting from Cancun to Corozal and Belize, click here. Southern Belize is the site of large plantations that grow citrus, an important export. ...... on the Mexican Border, the Western Highway connecting Belize City with Belmopan and continuing to the...", "Belmopan - Wikipedia Belmopan is the capital city of Belize. Its population in 2010 was 16,451. Although the smallest capital city in the continental Americas by population, .... Salvapan, with a population of 3,000, mostly of Central American origin;; San Martin, with...", "Guatemala - General Information - CentralAmerica.Com While in Guatemala City and the highlands area wear spring clothing and a ... Hotels, restaurants and shops in Guatemala and most of the tourism areas accept most major credit cards. ... The local currency is the Quetzal, named for the national bird. ... Passports are required for visitors outside the Central American region.", "Quetzaltenango - Wikipedia Demonym(s), Quetzalteca/o. Time zone, Central America (UTC-6). Climate Cwb. Quetzaltenango, also known by its Maya name, Xelaj [elau] or Xela [ela], is the second largest city of Guatemala. ... Country, Guatemala ... Quetzaltenango was supposed to host the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games, but...", "J! Archive - Show #3566, aired 2000-02-21 Emily Evans, an advertising producer from Studio City, California. Jeremy Bate, a .... The cities of Cancun, Mexico & Belmopan, Belize lie on this large peninsula...", "Panama travel guide - Wikitravel Panama is a country in Central America with coastlines on both the ... Currently undergoing expansion, the Canal continues to drive Panama's ... A trip in one of the city's \"Metro Bus\" will cost you $0.25 (they will only get you ..... few signs for names of streets, poor street design, and a lack of traffic lights at busy intersections.", "Panama City | national capital, Panama | Britannica.com Jul 7, 2015 ... Panama City, Spanish Panam or Ciudad de Panam, capital of the Republic of Panama. 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[ "Last Saturday, All Things Considered's weekend show began coming to you from a new city, with a new host and also with fresh new theme music. Since it's not every day that NPR commissions a new show tune, we thought we'd check in with the maestro himself - NPR Music Host Robin Hilton - to find out how it all came together and the challenge he faced in writing a new arrangement of the classic. First, here are the results (and the original for comparison). We think you'll agree after listening that not even Loverboy's \"Working for the Weekend\" evokes Saturday and Sunday more. Whose idea was it to revisit the show's theme music, and how did you get involved in the process? Robin Hilton: I was first approached by the show's executive producer, Steve Lickteig, in the spring. They knew they were getting a new host and moving the program to LA, so it seemed like a good time revisit the theme as well. I've known Steve a long time and had done the music for a documentary film he produced and directed. So he felt comfortable reaching out to me. What direction did you get? RH: Oh, it was an impossible task. The theme had to say \"Saturday.\" But it also needed to say \"Sunday,\" which is a slightly different vibe than Saturday. Compared to the brassy theme normally used Monday through Friday, it needed to be more relaxed and thoughtful. At the same time, it had to have some drive and momentum. It's a news show after all, and the theme needed to balance the seriousness of the news with the looser feel of the weekend. It needed to be soft and have an edge at the same time. And it had to be instantly recognizable. Errrr... Did anything else inspire you? RH: Yes. The original All Things Considered theme written by Don Voegeli about 40 years ago. How does this version differ from the original All Things Considered theme? RH: It's a much softer sound. I traded the brass for simple piano and pizzicato strings. The chords for the current theme have a bit of a bite to them, so I also switched to much softer chords... minor 7ths I think (not a music major), which give it that more thoughtful, contemplative tone. You've composed for documentaries and other films in the past. Did you find that there are more constraints when composing a briefer piece of music, or do you find more of a sense of freedom in it? RH: Shorter didn't matter, although it did have to be precisely 58.5 seconds. The bigger constraint was having to preserve the original theme while including very precisely timed posts (for when the host speaks). I did a second, alternate version for the show to consider. I liked it a lot, but they thought (rightly so) that it strayed too far from the Don Voegeli original. The theme was implied but not instantly recognizable. Did you demo the theme much before arriving at the final arrangement? RH: Oh, yeah. We went through several revisions. My very first draft was too sad. My second was too busy. My third lacked drive. And so on and so on. What instruments did you use in the final version? RH: It's all an iLLUsion... virtual instruments played on a keyboard (I use Digital Performer, Kontakt and a handful of other apps). It's basically piano, a drum kit, pizzicato strings, and an electric guitar (also not real). I also threw in some quirbbley burbly electronic sounds in the background to give it a slightly more modern feel, and to imply some kind of digital communication. Are there particular sounds or instruments which you feel are more \"news-y\" than others? RH: The newsiest sound is provided by the low, plucked strings. Thump thump thump. That's what gives it its more serious tone and drive. The rhythm is almost more important than the instrument. Pizzicato strings are a bit unconventional in a news theme, but their pattern has a very newsy drive to it, so it works. What sounds or instruments really signify \"weekend\" to you personally? RH: I think it's hard to beat a nice piano. Very classy. Thoughtful. Colin Miller contributed to this post." ]

[ "All Things Considered, NPR's flagship evening news program, is expanding its lineup of hosts: Ari Shapiro and Kelly McEvers will join veterans Robert Siegel and Audie Cornish on weekdays, and Michel Martin will become the new host of the weekend show. The network says the expanded lineup \"helps NPR keep pace with the way audiences are consuming news in evening drive time and opens new doors to audience growth.\" The changes will take effect in September. \"Adding these voices to our afternoon lineup seven days a week increases our ability to sound like America and the communities we cover,\" says Michael Oreskes, NPR's senior vice president of news and editorial director. \"With these changes, our listeners will benefit from a whole new range of stories, sources and perspectives.\" In taking up his new hosting duties, Shapiro returns from London, where he has served as a correspondent. Previously, he was NPR's White House correspondent and, prior to that, a Justice Department correspondent. He started his NPR career as an intern. McEvers has spent several years reporting from the Middle East, where she ran NPR's Beirut bureau. She earned a number of awards for her reporting in 2012 on the Syrian conflict before returning stateside to take up duties as a National Desk correspondent based on the West Coast. As ATC host, she will be working out of studios at NPR West, in Culver City, Calif. Michel Martin is well-known to NPR listeners as the host of Tell Me More, a weekday show that NPR shut down in 2014. She has a strong journalism resume, having worked in print and as a reporter for ABC News. Her live event series with NPR Member stations, \"Michel Martin: Going There,\" will continue. NPR Media Relations Director Isabel Lara says the weekend show's current host, Arun Rath, \"will be moving back to Boston\" but did not elaborate. Recently, NPR announced that All Things Considered senior host Melissa Block would take on a new role as a special correspondent for the network. \"We are evolving the structure and sound of All Things Considered to engage current and new audiences and make the most of the incredible talent we have on staff,\" says Chris Turpin, vice president of news programming and operations and former longtime executive producer of All Things Considered. Behind the scenes, Carline Watson, former executive producer of Tell Me More, will become ATC's new weekday executive producer. Longtime NPR producer and editor Kenya Young, a current acting supervising editor for Morning Edition, will fill the executive producer slot for weekend broadcast. All Things Considered is heard on more than 700 radio stations and is the most listened-to afternoon drive-time radio news program in the country.", "NPR Expands Host Lineup For All Things Considered Michel Martin Will Host Weekends; Ari Shapiro and Kelly McEvers Will Join Audie Cornish and Robert Siegel Weekdays July 9, 2015; Washington, D.C. – All Things Considered, NPR's flagship evening drive-time show, is getting two additional weekday Hosts—Ari Shapiro and Kelly McEvers—and a new weekend Host—Michel Martin. Together with current All Things Considered Hosts Robert Siegel and Audie Cornish, the expanded host lineup helps NPR keep pace with the way audiences are consuming news in evening drive-time and opens new doors to audience growth. The changes take effect in September. \"We are evolving the structure and sound of All Things Considered to engage current and new audiences and make the most of the incredible talent we have on staff,\" said Chris Turpin, Vice President of News Programming and Operations and former longtime Executive Producer of All Things Considered. \"Adding these voices to our afternoon lineup seven days a week increases our ability to sound like America and the communities we cover,\" said Michael Oreskes, NPR Senior Vice President of News and Editorial Director. \"With these changes, our listeners will benefit from a whole new range of stories, sources and perspectives.\" The expanded hosting team brings a broad spectrum of professional and personal experiences to their roles. Veteran foreign correspondent Kelly McEvers will trade her current post as NPR National Desk Correspondent for the role of weekday host of All Things Considered and will be based at NPR West. It will be the first time weekday All Things Considered will have a bicoastal presence. McEvers previously ran NPR's Beirut bureau, where she earned multiple awards for her 2012 coverage of the Syrian conflict. NPR London Correspondent Ari Shapiro will return to Washington, D.C., to join Audie Cornish and Robert Siegel in the studio weekdays. This adds All Things Considered host to Shapiro's NPR resume that includes starting as an intern to serving as NPR White House Correspondent. Michel Martin will become the new weekend host of All Things Considered, building on her deep reporting and interviewing experience as former host of Tell Me More and across print and TV, including reporting for ABC News. Her live event series with NPR Member stations, \"Michel Martin: Going There,\" will continue. In significant behind the scenes changes, Carline Watson, former Executive Producer of Tell Me More, will become All Things Considered's weekday Executive Producer, bringing her broad experience and rigorous journalistic leadership to the program. Long time NPR Producer and Editor Kenya Young will become the weekend show's Executive Producer of All Things Considered; she has been an Acting Supervising Editor of Morning Edition. All Things Considered debuted on 90 public radio stations in 1971; it now airs on more than 700 radio stations and is the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country. NPRNPR connects to audiences on the air, online, and in person. More than 26 million radio listeners tune in to NPR each week and more than 30 million unique visitors access NPR.org each month making NPR one of the most trusted sources of news and insights on life and the arts. NPR shares compelling stories, audio and photos with millions of social media users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Snapchat; NPR News and NPR One apps, online streaming, podcasts, iTunes radio and connected car dashboards help meet audiences where they are. NPR's live events bring to the stage two-way conversations between NPR hosts and the audience in collaboration with the public radio Member Station community. This robust access to public service journalism makes NPR an indispensable resource in the media landscape. Press Contact NPR Media Relations: Isabel LaraEmail: mediarelations (at) npr.org", "'GOING THERE' EVENTS TOUR BROADENS SCOPE FOR 'ALL THINGS CONSIDERED' September 29, 2015; Washington, D.C. – This fall, the weekend news heard on NPR's All Things Considered gets a fresh start. NPR's Michel Martin spent the past year traveling across the country hosting a series of live events. These one of a kind evenings touched on some of the most important issues affecting people's lives. Beginning October 3, she brings her unique brand of journalism back to the studio and to social media, as weekend host for All Things Considered. She'll host All Things Considered on Saturdays and Sundays, joining weekday hosts Kelly McEvers, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Robert Siegel, to bring afternoon audiences the information they need to put the week's news in context All Things Considered's new weekend lineup will reflect the new reality of the weekend. The show also will introduce new segments, to help the audience digest the news in a way that fits with the way they are living on the weekend. \"For many people, Saturday isn't a time to relax and unwind, but a day of work,\" says the program's new executive producer Kenya Young. \"They're catching up errands, on the news of the week and moving through everyday life. Our program will reflect that and also lay the foundation for a more introspective Sunday vibe.\" Sunday's program will feature long-form conversations and storytelling around the faith and beliefs that animate people's lives, bringing closure to the prior week and setting a new one in motion. Martin's longtime listeners will recognize signature segments such as 'The Barbershop' roundtable segment and her 'Can I Just Tell You?' commentary. \"I am very excited,\" says Martin. \"All Things Considered on the weekend has a strong tradition and legacy. Of course, we will be building on that. We've met a lot of great people over the course of the year; we've been hearing new ideas and perspectives in our travels, and will bring those across the country and to our listeners, too.\" The second season of Michel Martin: Going There, a national, live events series produced in collaboration with NPR Member stations, begins on November 10. Going There events are unique evenings that combine traditional interviews and panel discussions with cultural expression, such as music and storytelling. These conversations strip away sensationalism and bring together people around their ideas, frustrations and solutions about the issues that touch their lives. Going There events also feature a strong social media component, to connect local participants with contributors around the country. Martin's knack for leading conversations that are rich, inclusive, sometimes difficult, but always satisfying, is the common thread that connects her broadcast and events initiatives. The major takeaways from Going There events may become stories for All Things Considered, offering a national audience a window into a community's concerns and dreams. ABOUT NPR NPR connects to audiences on the air, online, and in person. More than 26 million radio listeners tune in to NPR each week and more than 30 million unique visitors access NPR.org each month making NPR one of the most trusted sources of news and insights on life and the arts. NPR shares compelling stories, audio and photos with millions of social media users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Snapchat; NPR News and NPR One apps, online streaming, podcasts, iTunes radio and connected car dashboards help meet audiences where they are. NPR's live events bring to the stage two-way conversations between NPR hosts and the audience in collaboration with the public radio Member Station community. This robust access to public service journalism makes NPR an indispensable resource in the media landscape. NPR Media Relations: Cara PhilbinEmail: mediarelations (at) npr.org", "Dave Brubeck died this week, a day short of his 92nd birthday. The pianist and composer was jazz for millions around the world, building blocks of chords that mixed classical influences with contemporary harmonies and opposing rhythms. Dave Brubeck and saxophonist Paul Desmond created fresh sounds in the 1950s, with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Their 1959 collaboration, Take Five, may be the best-known jazz composition of all time. NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg grew up with the sounds of Dave Brubeck, and has a Brubeck memory that's dear to her. It was February 1981, and Stamberg was hosting All Things Considered. She'd heard the great musician would be in town. \"I wanted to hear him play,\" she tells Weekend Edition Saturday's Scott Simon, \"but this was before National Public Radio had a piano.\" So she asked Brubeck if he'd come to her house. \"And by gum, he agreed!\" she says. There, at the Stamberg family upright piano, Dave Brubeck played for her microphone. \"I have to tell you, I didn't dust those keys for months!\" SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Dave Brubeck died this week - a day short of his 92nd birthday. The pianist and composer was jazz for millions around the world, building blocks of chords that mixed classical influences with contemporary harmonies and opposing rhythms. Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond created fresh sounds in the 1950s with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg grew up listening to Dave Brubeck, and she has a Brubeck memory that's dear to her. Susan, thanks for joining us. SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: My pleasure. SIMON: So, how did you first get to know his music? STAMBERG: I had a jazz-playing boyfriend in high school. And he brought albums. And, oh, I listened and listened, so. And it was the... SIMON: That made him really cool, too, right? STAMBERG: Super cool, yeah. The album was \"Jazz Goes to College.\" That was the first one that really caught my ear. And on it he did a tune called \"Balcony Rock.\" And, Scott, there was a time at which I could sing you every single note of Brubeck's nine-minute piano solo on that tune, \"Balcony Rock.\" And I would, you know, I'm a New Yorker - I know you're surprised; you thought I was a Southern belle - I would stand waiting for the subway trains and sing this solo, to myself mercifully, 'cause I have no voice. But there it was. SIMON: So, fast forward a couple of decades - as I do the math - how did you meet? STAMBERG: Well, it was now February 1981. I was hosting ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and I saw somewhere that he was coming to town. I thought, oh, golly, this might be my chance. I could meet him. Got in touch, requested an interview. We made an appointment. And I drove to his hotel. I wanted to pick him up for the interview. I wanted to hear him play, but this was before National Public Radio had a piano. So, I did the only thing I could think to do. I asked if he would come to my house, because I had a piano. I had a Knight - I mean, this is not a piano worthy of Mr. Brubeck - a Knight upright. Perfectly nice sound but, you know, it was no Bosendorfer. And, by God, he agreed. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED INTERVIEW) (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) STAMBERG: I'm Susan Stamberg and I'm realizing a fantasy: Dave Brubeck is sitting at my piano and playing my favorite Brubeck tune, \"The Duke.\" I just, I was so thrilled. You have to understand that an Elvis fan, if he saw that The King had risen from the dead, could not have been as excited as I was. It was this chance to meet Dave Brubeck, and then coming home with me to play the piano. But, you know, he did. And I stood by my upright piano. And I had no engineer, nothing. I had this microphone at the end of a heavy cassette recorder. I didn't even know enough to open the top of the piano to get better sound. I think I must have held the mike but the keys of the piano and we recorded him playing. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) STAMBERG: Dave Brubeck at the Stamberg family upright piano,1981. Scott, I have to tell you, I did not dust those keys for months. Really, really. (LAUGHTER) SIMON: Sure. STAMBERG: And so, you know, when he died this week, I remembered his tremendous generosity and his kindness and that wonderful music. SIMON: NPR's Susan Stamberg. Thanks so much. So wonderful to be with you to get this Dave Brubeck memory from you. STAMBERG: Thank you so much for letting me tell it. SIMON: And let's go out with an alternative version - the original professional recording of Dave Brubeck \"The Duke.\" This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.", "There has been much negative public perception of how the U.S. media in general reported the lead-up to the war in Iraq. NPR has not been excluded from some of these criticisms. Many listeners have written to ask when NPR will engage in a critical self-examination of its coverage prior to the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003. That study is now complete. The study looked at all NPR-commissioned reports and interviews in the period from Nov. 15, 2002, to March 19, 2003. It includes Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air with Terry Gross and The Tavis Smiley Show. NPR newscasts and the weekend programs (Weekend Edition Saturday, Weekend Edition Sunday and Weekend All Things Considered) are not part of this study. Newscasts are not archived and, as such, are difficult to access. Adding the weekend programs would have put a logistical strain on the process. Overall Findings • 832 reports and interviews relating to the coming war were aired by the four programs under study. • On the newsmagazines -- Morning Edition and All Things Considered -- the plurality of reports and interviews were balanced or neutral, usually within each report. • Commentaries by non-NPR observers on the newsmagazines were scrupulously balanced, usually on the following day. • Commentaries sought a range of opinion -- not just the straight pro- vs. anti-war approach. • When only one side of the argument was explored, there was a tendency in all programs to give slightly more airtime to anti-war, rather than pro-administration, points of view. Specifics • Morning Edition -- 281 reports. 19 percent pro-administration. 55 percent balanced or neutral. 26 percent anti-war. • All Things Considered -- 438 reports. 24 percent pro-administration. 46 percent balanced/neutral. 30 percent anti-war. • Tavis Smiley Show -- 47 interviews. 25 percent pro-administration. 39 percent balanced/neutral. 36 percent anti-war. • Fresh Air with Terry Gross -- 30 interviews. 20 percent pro-administration. 40 percent balanced/neutral. 40 percent anti-war. I found that the programs were exhaustive and informative in the range of ideas and topics that were addressed. But there were some less successful aspects as well. Some Limitations Much of the discussion remained at the \"he said/she said\" level. Allegations and counter-allegations by advocates were left unverified. Most media were at the mercies of partisan claims, with only a few journalists attempting to determine whether weapons of mass destruction were a reality or a ruse. NPR did a good job, in my opinion, laying out the range of options and ideas. But NPR was unable to determine whether the allegations made by the Bush administration or its opponents were valid. With a new commitment to investigative reporting, NPR must be able to handle this differently in the future. More 'Anti-War' than 'Pro-War' The plurality of stories was balanced among many points of view. If a single perspective or viewpoint was heard more frequently than any other, it tended to be from the anti-war point of view. The quality of the interviews varied greatly, in my opinion. Among the best were the interviews by Terry Gross. Not only did she retain a skeptical air to all sides, she was able to bring a deep amount of knowledge and background to the subject. Tavis Smiley used a technique of bringing in an impressive array of opinions onto his program. Even though the program would have sharply oppositional points of view, the interviews never degenerated into a shouting match. On All Things Considered, Robert Siegel's interviews with E.J. Dionne and David Brooks were weekly \"must-listen-to\" radio. Melissa Block's interview with Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was a model of sharpness. Less successful, in my opinion, were the interviews on Morning Edition. Overall, the interviews conducted on that program seemed soft. Opportunities for tougher follow-up questions were available but rarely seized. Experts or Advocates? Without a mechanism to check the claims of the administration or its opponents, NPR programs relied on experts. Not all experts were uniformly useful. In fact, many used NPR simply as a platform for advocacy. In checking their bona fides on their Web sites, or with their think tanks, a surprising number of experts who appeared on NPR had little or no first-hand knowledge of the region or the issues. At least none appeared in their resumés. It is worth remembering that many think tanks are, first and foremost, policy advocates. That does not necessarily disqualify them from being on NPR. But NPR needs to do a better job in identifying their politics. Striking a Balance Between Foreign and Domestic The NPR foreign coverage was strong and consistent. NPR listeners were given a broad, subtle range of topics from almost every aspect -- from the Defense Department to the U.N. inspectors, from inside Baghdad to the Kurdish question. It went from the street level to the upper reaches of power", "The Olympic Games are officially under way, and we're watching sports many of us glimpse only every four years: gymnastics; track; judo. But we're willing to bet that the sports' sounds are just as memorable: the clanking of foils, the tick-tock of table tennis, the robotic \"Take your mark!\" before swimmers launch. Those unique sounds are part of the Olympic experience. And it's one man's job to make sure we hear them clearly: Dennis Baxter, the official sound engineer for the Olympics. He's been at it since 1996. To get a feel for what the Summer Games sounded like before Baxter came on board, we listened to clips from the pre-Baxter era and compared them to recent events. The results were fascinating. Take a listen: Archery In the Seoul clip from 1988, all we can hear is the thud of the arrow hitting the target. Baxter wanted to change that. \"As a child, I remember the movie Robin Hood,\" he told Guy Raz, host of Weekends On All Things Considered. \"And there was this hyper-sound that I remember... and with the archery event, I wanted to hear the sounds of the arrow.\" So he set up four microphones on the ground along the path of the arrow, to catch its release, and the sound of its flight through the air. Gymnastics This first clip is a famous moment in Olympic history: The Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scoring the games' first-ever perfect 10. She's on the uneven bars, but the only things we hear are the announcer and the crowd. But in 2008, every swing and release of the U.K.'s Beth Tweddle is perfectly audible. Baxter set up microphones on each corner of the bars — the idea, he says, was \"that you [the listener] should be able to close your eyes and know exactly where you are.\" Rowing During Baxter's first Olympics in 1996, his boss called him during the rowing events with his only major criticism: All he could hear were the motors of the chase boats and the TV helicopter. So Baxter came up with one of his most unusual solutions. He took a portable recorder down to the lake, taped the sound of several boats practicing, and put it in a sampler to play along with the live event. \"Some people think it's cheating. I don't think I'm cheating anybody,\" he says. \"The sound is there. It is the exact sound. It's just not necessarily real time. Because of the laws of physics, you've got one noise masking another noise. So ... when you see a rower, your mind thinks you should hear the rower and that's what we deliver.\" For more Olympic sounds, our classical music blog, Deceptive Cadence, has a \"know-it-all's\" guide to the music behind the games. Becky Sullivan produced this segment for weekends on All Things Considered. GUY RAZ, HOST: And if you're just tuning in, this is WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Guy Raz. Over the next few weeks, we'll get to hear those sounds... (SOUNDBITE OF SOUND EFFECTS) RAZ: ...that most of us only hear every four years. (SOUNDBITE OF GUNSHOT) RAZ: They are the sounds of the Olympics, of course, and the man behind them all is Dennis Baxter. He is the official sound designer for the games, and he has been since Atlanta in 1996. DENNIS BAXTER: And the sound design is figuring out exactly what you want a sport to sound like and then do a microphone plan that is necessary to deliver the highest possible quality sound to engage the viewer and to fundamentally, for me, to satisfy the expectations of the viewer. RAZ: Now, this has actually - and I didn't realize this - this is a relatively new thing. Back if you watched the Olympics in - before 1996, before you became the Olympic sound engineer, the Olympics sounded considerably different. And I want to play some samples of that. This is a clip from the archery event from the Seoul Olympics in 1988 before you - the Olympics had people like you doing the sound. (SOUNDBITE OF SEOUL 1988 OLYMPICS ARCHERY EVENT) RAZ: OK. That's the archery event from 1988. Let's hear the archery event from the Beijing Olympics in 2008. This is the one that you mic'd. (SOUNDBITE OF BEIJING 2008 OLYMPICS ARCHERY EVENT) RAZ: Wow. You actually hear that arrow flying through the air, like the (makes noise) BAXTER: Exactly. RAZ: That's incredible. How did you do that? BAXTER: Well, it all starts with what I expect to hear, what I want to hear, and certainly the sound of sports has been influenced significantly by film and currently by games. So as a child, I remember the movie \"Robin Hood,\" and there was this hyper sound that I remember. And with the archery event, I wanted to hear the sounds of the arrow. I wanted to hear what you cannot hear anywhere else, and that's fundamentally where I start. RAZ: So what did you - how did you set up the microphones to capture the sound of the arrow flying through the air? BAXTER: I put the microphone in line of the pathway of the arrow so that you hear as the arrow moves across toward the target, you actually hear it go across the microphone and you get a (makes noise) type of sound. RAZ: Dennis, let's hear", "In the new movie Lincoln, actor Daniel Day-Lewis is getting a lot of attention for his spot-on portrayal of the 16th president. But Ben Burtt, the sound designer, also deserves credit for the film's authenticity. You may not know his name, but you surely know his work. Burtt is something of a legend in the movie sound world. He has won numerous Oscars, including for his work on Star Wars. Burtt invented that iconic swoosh of the light saber, using the hum of an old projector and the buzz of a television set. When it came to Lincoln, Burtt wasn't going to settle for recreating the sounds of Lincoln's life in some studio. He wanted to capture the real thing — sounds Lincoln actually heard. So Burtt and his team set out, recording equipment in hand, to capture the sounds from actual objects that have survived the years since Lincoln knew them. \"I love American history and I've always been a student of it,\" Burtt tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. Interview Highlights On capturing the ticking of Lincoln's pocket watch \"A pocket watch, at that time was a very intimate item, something carried in the pocket of, say, Lincoln's vest, his coat — it's kind of next to his heart. It's something that would have been with him at all times.\" \"Eventually I discovered a watch which is in the possession of the Kentucky Historical Society. This was a watch passed down from Lincoln's son, Robert Lincoln. And so they brought in a watchsmith and they wound it up. It takes a key to wind a watch from that era. And lo and behold, there was the ticking of the sound of Lincoln's actual watch.\"　 On recording the bells of St. John's Episcopal Church \"I felt that another sound from Lincoln's era that he would have heard would be any church bells or bells ringing in the neighborhood of the executive mansion in that time period. And our investigation showed that there were at least two bells still in existence in Washington, which were in churches that you easily could have heard from the White House.\" On tracking down Lincoln's actual carriage \"The carriage that Lincoln road to and from Ford's Theatre is actually in the Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Ind., and it's obviously too delicate and too valuable to be hooked up to horses and run through the streets anymore. But they allowed us to come and record the doors opening and closing, the latches and the doors.\" On why he went to such lengths to get authentic sounds for the film \"I felt, well, here's a chance to get in touch with actual history. I always do research when you're collecting sounds and making sounds for a film, and authenticity is normally not necessarily the prime directive in doing sound design. You're always searching out sounds that have the right emotional impact and they may not even be authentic at all. But for this film I didn't want to make guesses. I wanted to essentially capture the spirit of what might have been.\" GUY RAZ, HOST: And if you're just tuning in, this is WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Guy Raz. In the new film \"Lincoln,\" Daniel Day-Lewis is getting a lot of attention for his spot-on portrayal of our 16th president. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"LINCOLN\") DANIEL DAY-LEWIS: (as Abraham Lincoln) It is a self-evident truth that things, which are equal to the same thing, are equal to each other. RAZ: The film is already being praised for its attention to detail, including the detailed work of its sound designer Ben Burtt. Now, you may not know his name, but you definitely know his work. (SOUNDBITE OF LIGHT SABER) RAZ: That's the sound of a light saber. Ben Burtt invented that sound for \"Star Wars,\" and he's something of a legend in the sound world. So when it came to the Lincoln film, Ben Burtt wasn't going to settle for just recreating old sounds. He actually wanted to record those real sounds - sounds Lincoln heard. So Burtt and his team set out - recording equipment in hand - to capture the sounds of Lincoln's life. And the first stop was in Kentucky to record an important Lincoln relic. (SOUNDBITE OF TICKING) BEN BURTT: The pocket watch at that time was a very intimate item, something carried in the pocket of, let's say, Lincoln's vest, his coat. It's kind of next to his heart. It's something that would have been with him at all times. And so I began to investigate the possibility would anybody actually wind up one of these watches and see if it still would tick. And nobody had ever done that, as far as I could tell, when I began talking to museum people across the country. Eventually, I discovered a watch which is in the possession of the Kentucky Historical Society. This was a watch passed down from Lincoln's son Robert Lincoln. And so they brought in a watch smith, and they wound it up. It takes a key to wind a watch from that era. And lo and behold, there was the ticking of the sound of Lincoln's actual watch. (SOUNDBITE OF TICKING) RAZ: Just across the street from the White House is the famous St. John's Episcop", "Vampire Weekend's emergence coincided with a bunch of trends: rock bands influenced by world music, rock bands that dress like preppies and pop-culture phenomena connected in some way to vampires. The group suffered some backlash in the wake of its instant popularity, but that struck me as sour grapes. These guys deserved their popularity. Their fusions were smart and self-aware, and they wrote great songs. For their latest, Contra, they just wrote some more. I was encouraged that Vampire Weekend didn't mess with its style too much. It's still blending catchy Caucasian-American pop-rock with Bollywood disco or African chimurenga like a Banana Republic mix tape, and on occasion, it still sounds like Graceland-era Paul Simon — which, as far as I'm concerned, is a perfectly excellent thing to sound like on occasion. But it's also added some cool electronic colors to the mix, as in \"California English,\" in which its members use the familiar voice-processing software AutoTune in a fairly unfamiliar way: with chamber-music accompaniment. Singer Ezra Koenig likes wordplay and brand-name details, and he portrays American upper-crusters like an indie-rock F. Scott Fitzgerald: There's the guy dreaming up plans for his girlfriend's trust fund, and another who gets stoned and falls into bed with a friend who happens to be the son of a diplomat (\"Diplomat's Son\"). Sometimes, there's a blankness to the voices in Vampire Weekend songs that's more Bret Easton Ellis than F. Scott Fitzgerald. But Contra broadens the band's emotional scope; besides ennui and bafflement, there's palpable heartbreak, too. The sounds are generally so happy, though, that most people won't notice the lyrical bummers. It seems like useful music for this new decade: It's not ignoring the bad stuff, so much as it wants to dance while it figures things out. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel MELISSA BLOCK, host: And I'm Melissa Block. (Soundbite of song, \"Cousins\") BLOCK: This is a song called \"Cousins\" off the new album from the band Vampire Weekend. (Soundbite of song, \"Cousins\") VAMPIRE WEEKEND (Band): (Singing) You found a sweater on the ocean floor. They're gonna find it if you didn't close the door. You and this model sit outside the side. And in a house on a street they wouldn't park on the night. BLOCK: Vampire Weekend had a meteoric rise to fame two years ago with its first album. Our reviewer Will Hermes has been anticipating the second album, along with a lot of critics and fans. (Soundbite of song, \"Cousins\") WILL HERMES: Vampire Weekend's popularity synched up with a bunch of trends: rock bands influenced by world music, rock bands that dress like preppies and pop culture phenomena connected in some way to vampires. They suffered some backlash in the wake of their instant popularity, but that struck me as sour grapes. These guys deserved their popularity. Their fusions were smart and self-aware, and they wrote great songs. For their latest, they just wrote some more. (Soundbite of song, \"Horchata\") VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) In December drinking horchata. I'd look psychotic in a balaclava. Winter's cold is too much to handle. Pincher crabs that pinch at your sandals. HERMES: I was encouraged Vampire Weekend didn't mess with their style too much. They're still blending catchy Caucasian pop rock with Bollywood disco or African chimurenga like a Banana Republic mix tape. And on occasion, they still sound like Graceland-era Paul Simon, which as far as I'm concerned is a perfectly excellent thing to sound like on occasion. But they've also added some cool electronic colors to the mix, like this song where they use the familiar voice processing software AutoTune in an unfamiliar way: with chamber music accompaniment. (Soundbite of song, \"California English\") VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) Sweet carob rice cake she don't care how the sweets taste. Fake Philly cheese steak but she use real toothpaste. 'Cause if that Tom's don't work, if it just makes you worse, would you lose all of your faith in the good earth? And if it's all a curse and we're just getting worse, baby, please don't lose your faith in the good earth. HERMES: Singer Ezra Koenig likes wordplay and brand name details, and he portrays American upper crusters like an indie rock F. Scott Fitzgerald: There's the guy dreaming up plans for his girlfriend's trust fund and another who gets stoned and falls into bed with a friend who happens to be the son of a diplomat. (Soundbite of song, \"Diplomat's son\") VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) He was a diplomat's son. It was '81. He was a diplomat's son. It was '81. HERMES: Sometimes, there's a blankness to the voices in Vampire Weekend songs that's more Bret Easton Ellis than F. Scott Fitzgerald. But \"Contra\" does broaden the band's emotional scope. Besides ennui and bafflement, there's palpable heartbreak too. The sounds are generally so happy, though, most people won't notice the l", "As the nation gears up for the second inauguration of President Obama, NPR Books dove into the archives to find some of our favorite interviews with biographers of the first family. Here, you'll find profiles of the president's mother and father, an exploration of Michelle Obama's ancestral roots, and a portrait of the president and first lady's relationship. You'll also find books written by the Obamas themselves. A Future President Finds Himself In Obama BioIn Barack Obama: The Story, journalist David Maraniss chronicles the president's \"classic search for home.\" Maraniss says Obama's young life was defined by his experience of being an outsider — a feeling that stayed with him well into early adulthood. (Weekend Edition Sunday interview, June 17, 2012) The 'Singular Woman' Who Raised Barack ObamaStanley Ann Dunham is often identified simply as \"a white anthropologist from Kansas,\" or \"a single mother on food stamps.\" But biographer Janny Scott says those descriptions don't do justice to the president's mother — a complex, intellectual woman who led an \"unconventional\" life. (Fresh Air interview, May 3, 2011) Barack Obama's Father: A 'Bold And Reckless Life'Sally H. Jacobs' biography, The Other Barack, follows the troubled life of Barack Obama Sr. — from Kenya to Hawaii and back. Jacobs believes that if Obama Sr. had played a larger role in his son's life, Obama probably wouldn't have become president. (Fresh Air interview, July 1, 2011) Michelle And Barack Obama: A Powerful PartnershipNew York Times Washington correspondent Jodi Kantor interviewed more than 200 sources, including White House aides and friends of the Obamas, to paint a portrait of the first family's life inside the White House. (Fresh Air interview, Jan. 10, 2012) The Complex 'Tapestry' Of Michelle Obama's AncestryNew York Times reporter Rachel Swarns traces the first lady's family tree in her book, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama. (All Things Considered interview, July 1, 2012) Obama Shares Political Vision In 'Audacity Of Hope'In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, then-Sen. Obama shares his thoughts on \"reclaiming the American Dream.\" He talks about living a public life, his conflicting feelings about fundraising, and speculation over his presidential ambitions. (All Things Considered interview, Oct. 19, 2006) The First Lady Cultivates 'American Grown' GardeningOne of the first things Michelle Obama did as first lady was to dig up part of the beautifully manicured South Lawn of the White House and plant a vegetable garden. In her book American Grown, she says America has a long, proud history of gardening, and it's time to reconnect with it. (Morning Edition interview, May 29, 2012)", "Flagship News Program's Portrait of DC Antiwar Protests Entered Into the National Recording Registry Wednesday, March 29, 2017; Washington D.C. - The inaugural broadcast of All Things Considered on May 3, 1971, NPR's first national news program, has been inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress for its place in US audio heritage. The NPR broadcast has been named to the archive with 24 other culturally, historically and aesthetically significant recordings, including Judy Garland's \"Over The Rainbow,\" David Bowie's \"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars\"; and Sister Sledge's \"We Are Family.\" See a full list of inductees at the Library of Congress. \"It is such an honor and a privilege to be brought into this distinguished company,\" said Susan Stamberg, who has been on staff since NPR began in 1971 and hosted All Things Considered for 14 years, beginning in 1972. \"For the sounds that we made on the first day to be right up there with Martin Luther King Jr.'s \"I Have a Dream\" speech or Neil Armstrong's first words spoken by a human being on the moon — that's very lofty company for us.\" \"All Things Considered's distinctive sound and storytelling continues to be a critical component of American media. We are immensely proud the program has been recognized and now sits alongside the country's most significant audio moments and culture,\" said NPR President and CEO Jarl Mohn. All Things Considered debuted on May 3, 1971; the same day, over 20,000 protesters gathered in Washington, DC to demonstrate against the Vietnam War. All Things Considered documented all sides of the antiwar protest with a visceral 24-minute sound portrait, taking listeners to the heart of America's agonies over the war in Vietnam. Against an aural backdrop of helicopters, motorcycle engines and police sirens, NPR reporters recorded the voices of protesters, police officers, veterans and office workers on the streets of Washington. \"All Things Considered brings listeners authentic voices, conversations and reporting that can't be heard anywhere else. What is striking when you listen to that first program, is that the vision for the show was crystal clear from day one. We have tried to stay true to it ever since,\" said Chris Turpin, VP of news programming and operations, who was executive producer of All Things Considered from 2002 to 2014. \"The real credit goes to [those] who made and make the ideas real every day,\" said Bill Siemering, NPR's first programming director who crafted the mission that shaped this first episode of All Things Considered. \"The NPR staff's commitment to the highest standards of broadcast journalism are valued more now than ever.\" \"NPR is a big part of my life because it provides wonderful commentary and thoughtful discussions while I'm driving from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. everyday,\" said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. \"It's like having my own theater.\" In the spoken word categories, All Things Considered joins historic news moments like Edward R. Murrow's eyewitness news broadcasts of the Battle of Britain (September 21, 1940) and George Hicks' D-Day account, recorded from the deck of a ship carrying troops to the beaches of France (June 5-6, 1944). About the Library of Congress The Library of Congress is the world's largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States—and extensive materials from around the world—both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov. About NPR NPR's rigorous reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect with millions of Americans everyday—on the air, online, and in person. NPR strives to create a more informed public—one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures. With a nationwide network of award-winning journalists and 17 international bureaus, NPR and its Member Stations are never far from where a story is unfolding. Listeners consider public radio an enriching and enlightening companion; they trust NPR as a daily source of unbiased independent news, and inspiring insights on life and the arts. More information at npr.org/aboutnpr and following NPR Extra on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. About All Things Considered All Things Considered, NPR's signature afternoon newsmagazine, is hosted by Audie Cornish, Kelly McEvers, Ari Shapiro and Robert Siegel on week days and by Michel Martin on weekends. All Things Considered has earned many of journalism's highest honors, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Overseas Press Club Award. To find local stations and broadcast times for the program, ", "What is 'As A Matter of Fact'? NPR's information provocateurs are emerging from the stacks to bring you a super-fresh perspective on what it's like to be an NPR librarian. We'll cover everything from pop-culture insanity and weird pronunciations to the history of NPR and libraries in the news. What's the NPR library all about? The mission of the library is to support NPR in its information endeavors. In order to do so, our group is divided into three areas: Reference, Broadcast, and Transcripts. All three areas are under the auspices of Senior Librarian Laura Soto-Barra, our fearless yet stylish leader. Reference Library The reference library is composed of four reference librarians who answer just about any question the news staff can throw at them -- seven days a week. Reference librarians are embedded throughout the building to provide maximum coverage for maximum newsocity. When reporters need to know how to pronounce the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, they call the reference library. When editors want to know what the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow is, they call the reference library. When producers need to know the exact length of time it took Billie Jean King to beat Bobby Riggs, they call the reference library. Reference librarians are important and know everything. You get the drift. Broadcast Library Things are a bit different in the broadcast library. For one thing, it's a rather large physical space on the first floor of the Mothership. There are seven broadcast librarians who tend to thousands and thousands of hours of NPR programming, all of it stored on reel to reel or CD. Not only do we archive the audio for posterity, we also create catalog records for nearly every news item NPR's ever aired. We do this to track programming and to reuse the audio for future production. On top of all that cataloging, we also provide audio and programming reference services. The broadcast library also houses the music collection. NPR's thousands of music CDs are lovingly watched over by the library's very own rock god legend and knower of all things musical, Robert Goldstein. Last but not least, we also have a fantastic commercial spoken word collection, which has only grown in its amazingness since it's been under Amy DeCicco's care. If you're interested in learning more about what we do, keep checking back here. In the coming weeks and months, we'll be highlighting the varied tasks involved in maintaining such an extensive collection. Transcripts Transcripts as part of the library? Confused? We've written up a whole FAQ section just for transcripts. Who's blogging? For centuries, librarians and their library predecessors, the monks and scribes, have been quietly and contentedly greasing the wheels of the information juggernaut. And in that solid tradition of quiet contentment, not all the NPR librarians will be blogging. Rest assured though, there are plenty of us who will be. Blogahogan Bibliotecasaurus. What programs are transcribed and archived? * All Things Considered (and Weekend All Things Considered)*Day to Day*Fresh Air*Morning Edition*News & Notes*Talk of the Nation*Tell Me More*Weekend Edition Saturday*Weekend Edition Sunday ** We also archive a bunch more shows that are not transcribed, including Wait, Wait..., On The Media, Car Talk, World of Opera and a host of other cultural specials. Is the NPR library open to the public? No. But if you ever visit the nation's capital, you can schedule a public tour through our Listener and Audience Services Department. We're also going to try a feature called \"Ask a Librarian\". This entails that you, the blog reader, submit some sort of librarian-answerable question. Once a month, we'll ponder those questions, select the easiest ones and publish the answers on the blog. If we publish your question and you send us a self-addressed stamped envelope, we'll send you an NPR decal. How's that for a deal? Got story ideas? Doing something cool at your library? Heard about some new information initiative? If so, let us know. You can contact us at [email protected] Comments? You can comment on our blog posts but you need to join the NPR Community first. Be nice please, we're still learning the ropes. Caveats We help journalists do their job but by no means do we present ourselves as such. Anything Else? No, but thank you for your patience.", "World music DJ Betto Arcos is fresh off a trip to Italy — and just because he was on vacation doesn't mean he wasn't in listening mode. The host of Global Village at KPFK in Los Angeles joins weekends on All Things Considered once again to spin some of his favorite new Italian music, along with a few selections plucked from history. Click the audio link to hear his conversation with NPR's Jacki Lyden, and check out his picks below. JACKI LYDEN, HOST: Once again, this is WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. And it's time now for music. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"FANTASIA) LYDEN: Gathering up my skirts, holding up my hand, this is the 16th century music by composer Francesco Canova da Milano, one of the most admired instrumentalists of the Italian Renaissance. His instrument, the lute. And he applied his wares for a very significant audience back then, the papal court. World music DJ Betto Arcos is the host of \"Global Village\" at KPFK in Los Angeles, and he has just returned from an Italian vacation. So he's got Italian music on the brain. Betto, welcome back. BETTO ARCOS: Oh, so great to be back. And what a trip it was. LYDEN: You know, when they said Italian music, I thought I was going to hear \"Volare,\" and here, you've taken us to this Renaissance court. ARCOS: Well, I had to because our trip really started in Florence, as you know, the home of the height of the Renaissance. And what better music to put this into a kind of context but the music of Francesco da Milano as played here by the exceptionally gifted Paul O'Dette in his beautiful \"Fantasia\" or \"Fantasia.\" And, you know, Francesco da Milano was a musician that was known to contemporaries as il divino, meaning the divine, which was a nickname that he shared with the great Michelangelo. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"FANTASIA\") LYDEN: These popes, I love the idea of them listening to this - the Medici court and the papal court - and Paul O'Dette, great lutenist, playing from his album \"Il Divino.\" Now, Betto, I can't wait to see what you brought home next. ARCOS: Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, also known as CGS. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"NU TE FERMARE\") LYDEN: Wow, what a contrast, rocking my socks off here. What are we listening to? ARCOS: This is a fantastic ensemble from - well, it's a region that's right at the heel of the Italian boot, if you know what I mean by that. This is a band that is the leading force in the revival of this mysterious Italian folk style. It's known as pizzica or taranta, tracing the roots back to the sixth century. But it's a style of music that had a height of really particular popularity in the '50s and '60s, and then it sort of died out in the '70s. But this band that was founded, actually, in the mid '70s, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, took this particular style of music and brought it to this kind of modern flavor that we hear in this particular tune today called \"Nu Te Fermare.\" (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"NU TE FERMARE\") LYDEN: You know, I played some kind of tarantella on the piano. Is this related to that at all, something to do with the actual spider? ARCOS: In fact, yes, it is. This is the music that was played to heal people from the so-called bite of the spider, of the tarantella. And the idea here is that these musicians, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, are reviving this music to say, well, you know, the tarantella may not be around anymore, but we do have problems of economic crisis, depression and so on, and this is the music that we want people to go to in need - that are in need of some sort of healing their soul. LYDEN: Wow. \"Nu Te Fermare.\" That's going on my shelf. World music DJ Betto Arcos is here fresh from his trip to Italy - couldn't be fresher - and he's brought us a few wonderful, wonderful pieces from the Mediterranean. Betto, what else got your fancy? ARCOS: Oh, I have a perfect anti-summer song. This is by a singer named Peppe Voltarelli, and the tune is called \"Turismo in Quantita,\" or \"Tourism in Quantity.\" (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"TURISMO IN QUANTITA\") LYDEN: Sounds like something - someone who's singing on a Vespa. (LAUGHTER) ARCOS: Yes, absolutely. This is a single that comes from a troubadour tradition. You know, one of the great things about Italian music is that they have a great singer-songwriter tradition. Just like the U.S., you have all these singer-songwriters, the same in Italy. They talk about daily life, love songs, comedy. Like in this case, this is a song that is kind of a social commentary with a lot of humor about what happens when the tourists come to town but they, of course, want to ignore, or shall we say, avoid the poor part of the town. LYDEN: Maybe you'd translate a little bit of this for us. I mean, I know you're a Spanish speaker, but give us a bit of translation, would you? ARCOS: Oh sure. The tune says: Come see good air, the sun that heats the earth, that burns the grass, grows at the sides of the road. The airplane lands on the wave that overruns the illega", "New research into the diversity of NPR's on-air sources shows that in fiscal year 2018 (ended Sept. 30, 2018), the voices heard on NPR weekday newsmagazines were 83% white and 33% female. Compared with when we last examined newsmagazine source diversity four years ago (looking at NPR's data from fiscal year 2015), the percentage of white voices on All Things Considered and Morning Edition has gone up noticeably, and the percentage of female sources has gone up modestly. The results vary by program, but they show that the numerous internal efforts in recent years to diversify the sources heard on NPR have had little effect on NPR's numbers overall, even as some of those internal efforts have led to improved source diversity on the weekend shows, in particular (more on that below). In a memo to the newsroom Friday, Nancy Barnes, NPR's top news executive for the past year (who was not at NPR during the period studied), wrote, \"There's some good news in the numbers and some reasons we should be concerned.\" She added, \"Whatever the reasons, this cannot continue. We have to make significant improvement if we're going to live up to the mission we've set for ourselves to look and sound like America.\" Breaking it down: Gender This research was based on a sampling of the sources in both the weekday and weekend newsmagazine shows. The last time NPR did the research, only the weekday newsmagazines were sampled. Gender is one area where NPR has made slow gains in the last five years — but it still is not even close to parity. In FY 2013, female sources accounted for 28% of those heard on the sampling of weekday newsmagazines that were tracked, and that went up to 30% in FY 2015. For FY 2018, the number was 33%. (Transgender and nonbinary sources, to the extent the trackers were able to identify them, made up less than 1% of FY 2018 sources.) Saturday's and Sunday's Weekend Edition, sampled separately, showed higher numbers of female sources, 38% each, as did Weekend All Things Considered (35%). Breaking it down: Race and ethnicity Back in FY 2013, white voices made up 80% of sources heard on NPR. That dropped to 73% in FY 2015, and in FY 2018 jumped back up, to 83%. In the latest tracking, the share of Latino voices remained flat from FY 2015 at 6%, while black voices fell to 8% from 11% and Asian voices fell to 6% from 8%. The weekend newsmagazines, particularly Weekend Edition Sunday and Weekend All Things Considered, talked to more racially and ethnically diverse sources than did the weekday newsmagazines. [Update: We heard feedback that NPR's charts did not include a category for Native American or indigenous sources. Woods told us: \"People are right to criticize the absence of Native sources in the chart, and we'll add that to the internal slide deck. Native sources have hovered at or below 1% in previous years. This year, among all five shows, Native sources were 1% or below on all but Weekend All Things Considered, where 3% of sources were Native American.\"] Possible reasons for the results In her note to the staff, Barnes singled out NPR's Research, Archives and Data Strategy team, which is led by Laura Soto-Barra, and in particular researcher Carol Malinowski, \"for working hard to keep this unique research alive,\" adding, \"we can't hope to improve without reliable data to point the way.\" The data were analyzed by Gwynne Villota of NPR's Audience Insights team. Keith Woods, NPR's vice president of newsroom training and diversity, oversaw the project. Woods and Barnes cited a couple of possible reasons for the FY 2018 changes, particularly around race and ethnicity in sourcing. \"One is that in the period between 2013 and 2018, the percentage of stories that included politics nearly doubled,\" Woods said. \"That happened while the makeup of the administrations we were covering drastically changed. So, you double the amount of coverage of a much whiter and more male administration, and it's bound to have some impact.\" (That said, he noted that even in FY 2013, when NPR was covering \"a black president and singularly the most diverse cabinet, 80% of NPR sources were white and 72% of NPR sources were men.\") The people most often called on to comment fall into categories largely dominated by white men, as well: political or government officials, other journalists, corporate or nonprofit officials or well-known academics and other experts. The areas where NPR has the most diverse sources, such as in its education coverage, have the smallest percentage of the overall content. (Arts coverage is an exception; it's the second-largest slice of the topics pie and also one of the most diverse.) \"We are doing our best where we are doing our least in content,\" Woods said. \"If we don't change the proportions and we keep increasing the percentage of stories we're doing about politics and that chunk of our content either remains the same or grows,\" then the source diversity results are unlikely to fundamentally improve, he ", "NPR's All Things Considered Begins Weekend Broadcasts From NPR West With New Host Arun Rath Longtime Public Media Journalist Hosts First Shows Saturday & Sunday, September 21-22 This weekend, longtime public media journalist Arun Rath takes up the mic as NPR's newest host. He'll be at the helm of All Things Considered every Saturday and Sunday as the show begins its weekend broadcasts from NPR West in Culver City, Calif. The hour-long program airs on NPR Member stations and is available at NPR.org; local broadcast times are available at www.npr.org/stations With a new rendition of the All Things Considered theme, reimagined by NPR Music host Robin Hilton, the show will offer a distinctly West Coast perspective on issues facing the nation, and introduce new segments and features along the way. Rath hits the Boulevard (and other parts of L.A.) this weekend, with reports about the state of the U.S. foster care system and what that looks like for Los Angeles, and a stroll down the Sunset Strip to explore how a once-paramount breeding ground for new music has lost much of its influence. Saturday also kicks off \"The New & The Next,\" a conversation inspired by stories on the horizon. The segment is a collaboration with OZY, media entrepreneur Carlos Watson's new forward-thinking online magazine of original reporting. \"I am so excited to be returning to NPR – the place where I learned how to be a journalist – and especially thrilled to take part in this exciting re-launch,\" says Rath. \"We're going to keep providing the high quality news and cultural reporting NPR listeners expect, while adding immensely valuable new perspectives as we settle into our new home.\" Rath has had a distinguished career in public media and comes to NPR from his most recent roles as a senior reporter for the PBS series Frontline and The World® on WGBH Boston, where he specialized in covering national security and military justice. Rath began his journalism career as an NPR intern at Talk of the Nation, eventually joining the staff and becoming the show's director after working on several NPR News programs during the 1990s. In 2000, he became senior producer for NPR's On the Media, produced by WNYC, where he was part of a team that tripled its audience and won a Peabody Award. He spent 2005 as senior editor at the culture and arts show Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC. After 36 years broadcasting from Washington, D.C., All Things Considered on the weekend embarks on a new chapter at NPR West, where it's positioned to capture a diverse view of the world's news and culture and allow NPR to respond even more quickly to news from the region. The show will draw on the area's strong entertainment, international trade, science and technology industries to offer coverage and insights from a new range of stories and sources. Rath and the weekend staff of All Things Considered join a team at NPR West that includes Morning Edition host Renee Montagne; national correspondents and reporters Mandalit Del Barco, Sonari Glinton, Ina Jaffe, Kelly McEvers and Kirk Siegler; and Karen Grigsby-Bates and Shereen Meraji with Code Switch, covering race, culture and ethnicity. Every Saturday and Sunday, All Things Considered brings listeners a compelling cover story, along with in-depth interviews, breaking news, cultural reviews and reports from NPR bureaus throughout the U.S. and around the world. Supervising senior producer for All Things Considered's weekend broadcasts is Steve Lickteig; executive editor of NPR news programming is Ellen McDonnell. The hour-long weekend broadcasts are heard by 2 million listeners on more than 670 NPR Member stations nationwide and available at NPR.org; for local stations and broadcast times, visit www.npr.org/stations", "There weren't many Americans whose lives were untouched by World War II. A generation lived the war together — whether it was on the home front or the battlefront. In the decades since, it has been explored in countless classrooms, books and movies. So, it seems incredible that stories from that war can still surprise us. As Ken Burns' documentary series The War debuts on PBS, NPR explores a handful of stories from World War II that haven't been widely told. They're all stories about people who experienced the war in unique ways. Part 1, today on All Things Considered: Producer Joe Richman began by talking to a friend's grandfather ... and wound up on the slopes with an octogenarian who carries his oxygen tank along with his skis. The result is an audio history of the World War II's \"ski troops,\" the 10th Mountain Division. The 10th began as an experiment. Their basic training was designed to enable them to fight and survive in the toughest terrains of Europe. It included ski lessons and cold weather survival tactics, such as building snow caves. The 10th carried out a number of dangerous assaults on the German army in the mountains of northern Italy and suffered one of the highest casualty rates of the war. Veterans of the 10th are widely credited with developing America's ski industry in the postwar years. Part 2, on Weekend Edition Sunday: Richard Gonzales reminds us of the as many as 500,000 Mexican Americans who served in World War II. The veterans he talked to overwhelmingly described the war as a pivotal experience in their lives. Back home, they were victims of ugly racism. In the Army, they proved they were capable fighting men and when they got home, they refused to accept second class citizenship. Many of them became the activists who created the Mexican-American movement. Susan Stamberg and producer Cindy Carpien crafted two moving profiles of World War II vets. Part 3, Monday on Morning Edition: Stamberg and Carpien's first profile is of Kate Nolan, an Army combat nurse who tended soldiers on the battlefields of Europe. Nolan earned five battle stars and recently received the French Legion of Honor for her wartime service in France. Part 4, Tuesday on Morning Edition: Vernon Tott is the \"angel of Ahlem\" to survivors of a slave labor camp he helped liberate in 1945. Tott snapped pictures that day which stayed in a shoebox in his basement for decades. In the mid-1990s, he began tracking down the people in his photos. Tott died two years ago but is honored by the people he photographed because he gave them a great gift — the ability to see and remember themselves at that terrible time. Part 5, Tuesday on All Things Considered: The last of our stories gives a fresh twist to the old question — \"What did you do in the war, Dad?\" It came from an obituary in The Washington Post. It was about a veteran who never told his family what he'd done in the war until mid-1990s. That's when the Pentagon declassified the records of the 23rd Special Troops and, for the first time, officially acknowledged the existence of a group of soldiers who fought to fool the enemy. Lynn Neary tells of the artists, ad men, designers and sound technicians who created fake tanks and howitzers, sound effects, and who spread rumors and thought up other deceptions to confuse the Germans. Several of the people in our stories have died since they were interviewed. We honor them and all the veterans of World War II who participated in our series. Deborah George was the series producer.", "To celebrate National Poetry Month this April, NPR Books reached into the archives for some interviews with the nation's official poets. Poets Laureate past and present have revealed their eloquence and insight in these interviews, where they discuss their inspirations, their heart-breaking memories, their confrontations with aging — and, in the case of Ted Kooser, how his wife felt about his thousands of Valentines. Mississippi Meditation: A Poet Looks 'Beyond Katrina'Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey has deep ties to the Gulf Coast and was profoundly affected by Katrina. She wrote a memoir detailing how members of her family worked to rebuild their lives after the storm. In it, she asks how the identity of the Gulf will be remembered — and how the region's stories will be told. Trethewey is the current Poet Laureate. (Fresh Air, Aug. 28, 2010) New Poet Laureate Philip Levine's 'Absolute Truth'\"The truth of poetry is not the truth of history,\" says Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Levine. Levine's work is most famous for an urban, working-class perspective that began with a youth spent working in Detroit's automobile factories. 2011-2012 Poet Laureate. (All Things Considered, Aug. 14, 2011) 'Sirius' Poetry From New Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin W.S. Merwin, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning poet known for his anti-war poetry and environmental activism, joined Terry Gross in 2008 for a discussion about memory, mortality and his writing process. 2010-2011 Poet Laureate. (Fresh Air, Dec. 16, 2008, rebroadcast July 2, 2010) Donald Hall: A Poet's View 'Out The Window'In 2012, at the age of 83, poet Donald Hall joined Terry Gross to reflect on how life has changed as he's grown older. \"My body causes me trouble when I cross the room, but when I am sitting down writing, I am in my heaven — my old heaven,\" he said. 2006-2007 Poet Laureate. (Fresh Air, Feb. 8, 2012) Ted Kooser Shares The Poetry Of Valentine's DayFor more than two decades, Ted Kooser wrote an annual Valentine's Day poem and sent it to an ever-growing list of women — thousands of mailboxes around the country received his heart-marked postcards. Kooser joins Melissa Block to talk about the project and the book it inspired. 2004-2006 Poet Laureate. (All Things Considered, Feb. 14, 2008) When Does Creativity Start And End?Former laureate Billy Collins captures readers with his understated wit and profound insight. In a TED talk and a conversation with TED Radio Hour, he shares a look into his own creative process, which requires a lot of patience, intensity and trips to the dry cleaner. 2001-2003 Poet Laureate. (TED Radio Hour, May 25, 2012) Poet Stanley Kunitz At 100Over his lifetime, poet Stanley Kunitz received a Pulitzer, a National Book Award and the National Medal of the Arts, and served as the nation's poet laureate ... twice. In 2005, as Kunitz turned 100, he read from his poem \"The Long Boat.\" 1974-1976, 2000-2001 Poet Laureate. (All Things Considered, July 29, 2005) NewsPoet: Robert Pinsky Writes The Day In VerseNPR's All Things Considered regularly invites a poet into the newsroom to see how the show comes together and to write an original poem about the news. In June, Robert Pinsky joined All Things Considered to \"compose,\" rather than \"write,\" a news-themed poem. 1997-2000 Poet Laureate. (All Things Considered, June 14, 2012) Poet Robert Hass: An Elegy For His Younger BrotherRobert Hass reflects on his brother's passing in the poem \"August Notebook: A Death.\" The elegy is included in Hass' collection The Apple Trees at Olema, which includes material from his first five works — as well as new poems on the art of storytelling and personal relations in a violent world. 1995-1997 Poet Laureate. (Fresh Air, April 15, 2010) Gwendolyn Brooks Captures Chicago 'Cool'Brooks' best-known work tells the chilling life stories of seven young men in eight short lines. She took her inspiration for \"Seven at the Golden Shovel/The Pool Players\" from a pool hall in her native Chicago. 1985-1986 Poet Laureate. (Poems to a Listener interview, rebroadcast on All Things Considered, April 15, 2007)", "When K.G. Omulo left Kenya for the U.S. at age 20, he had already begun to make a name for himself as a singer. But once he arrived here, he was forced to reconsider the music of his homeland and come up with a fresh new hybrid. Fortunately, he'd been raised to think globally when listening to music. \"Growing up in Nairobi, which is very metropolitan, and having parents who let me listen to a little bit of everything — I'm talking eastern, western, all the legends that came out of Africa back in the day, mixed in with some Motown records — kind of blended it all in together,\" Omulo tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. \"There was Bob Marley, too, and a little bit of the Beatles. It was a wide range of sound.\" The influence of Marley is easy to hear on Omulo's debut album, Ayah Ye! Moving Train. He says that like the reggae icon, he feels compelled to make music that is progressive and conscientious of the state of the world. \"My goal was to make it positive, but also pinpoint what people need to think about now that we're getting toward the election year, both in the U.S. and in Kenya,\" Omulo says. \"I was picturing a world where we can love one another, but also be able to tell each other the truth, and not fear, and understand where we are, where we need to go, and where we're coming from.\" GUY RAZ, HOST: Time now for music and the sound of afropop all the way from Orlando. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"QUALITY WOMEN\") K.G. OMULO: We're gathered here today to celebrate your great achievements throughout the centuries. You are all so beautiful. Let's dance and groove our troubles away. RAZ: This is an artist named K.G. Omulo. It's from his first album ever called \"Ayah Ye! Moving Train.\" Omulo came to this country as a young man from Kenya. There, he was already making a name for himself as a singer, but once he arrived here, he was forced to reconsider the music of his homeland and come up with a fresh new hybrid. K.G. Omulo joins me from member station WMFE in Orlando. K.G., welcome to the program. OMULO: Thank you, Guy, for having me. RAZ: It's great to have you. This song, I love this song that we're hearing. It's called \"Quality Women.\" And the first thing I thought when I heard it was Fela Kuti. But a lot of the music on this album has sort of elements of Bob Marley. At times, you've got full on rock and roll guitar, sort of Stevie Ray Vaughn style. How would you describe the music that you make? OMULO: Two words: afro urban music. That's I guess three words, but it's because of my influences. Growing up in Nairobi, which is very metropolitan, and having parents who, like, let me listen to a little bit of everything - I'm talking Eastern, Western African music - and also, they mixed it in with some Motown records. There was Bob Marley, too, and a little bit of The Beatles. So it exposed me to a wide range of sound. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"IT'S A RELIEF\") OMULO: (Singing) It's a relief to be free to do my thing in a place where the sun shines so bright. It's a relief to be free to do my thing in a place where the sun shines so bright so bright now. RAZ: You moved to the United States just nine years ago from Kenya. That must have been quite a big change, to say the least. What was it like? Where did you first move to, by the way, when you arrived? OMULO: Yes, it was quite a cultural shift, to put it lightly. I first moved into Rhode Island, Providence, Rhode Island. And it was a mixed bag of adapting quickly and also moving in right before winter. So having to experience the blizzards, the snow, you know... RAZ: You presumably never experienced that in Kenya. OMULO: Yes. So it was a lot to handle at the time. And just when you thought it was going to get cold, it got colder. RAZ: Did it take some time for you to get used to it? Did you experience loneliness? OMULO: Yes, definitely. Being uprooted from everything you know and having to move from one country to another, it might sound all like a romantic fairytale, but it really isn't. It took time for all of us as a family, especially my siblings, to kind of integrate and find new friends, learn the ropes here and accept it for what it was. You know, it was the sacrifice we decided to make, and now we had to live it, which was another ballgame altogether. RAZ: You eventually made your way down to Florida, which of course, has a climate that's closer to Kenya than Rhode Island's, and that's where you make your home today. How did you start out making music in Florida? OMULO: My brother Phillip was also very instrumental in my music journey in Kenya with the a cappella group (unintelligible). RAZ: That's the way you started your career, as an a cappella... OMULO: Yes. RAZ: ...in an a cappella group. OMULO: Yes. And he managed the group at the time. So we sat down and said, OK, what is the way forward? We are recognizing that this is not Kenya, but we still want to bring in the elements that we grew up with and the music that I'm about to create. So t", "-Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln passed away at the age of 80 on Saturday. Patrick Supreme traced her movement from pop singer into the jazz world (and a marriage to drummer Max Roach) in a post here; you can listen to a remembrance of Lincoln by Allison Keyes here. -Mega-promoters Live Nation and AEG have joined forces for a confusing lawsuit that targets anonymous people who have not yet sold bootleg merchandise on or near concert sites. [Billboard.biz] -Time magazine tracks the history of music website Pitchfork along with the splintering of mainstream music and the rise of indie. [Time] -Meanwhile, indie rock had a lackluster weekend in movie theaters. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, starring Michael Cera and featuring music from Beck, Nigel Godrich, Broken Social Scene and Metric, finished behind The Expendables and Eat Pray Love at the box office. [Variety] Kanye collaborates with Bon Iver, plus I wouldn't wish what happened to Tila Tequila at the Gathering of the Juggalos on my worst enemy, after the jump. -Kanye West isn't letting go of his chokehold on the Internet: on Wednesday the rapper leaked a track he had just completed that morning. Then he performed a secret show with a strict dress code in New York on Thursday, and then Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon told Pitchfork on Friday that West had flown him out to Hawaii to contribute vocals to his forthcoming album, which will also contain a sample of the song \"Woods\" from Bon Iver's Blood Bank EP. [via Nah Right, Sound of the City and Pitchfork, respectively] -From the department of two things I hoped I'd never have to write about converging into a single terrible story: Internet personality Tila Tequila was forced off stage on Friday at the 11th annual Gathering of the Juggalos, after some in the crowd reportedly threw rocks, beer bottles, firecrackers and (ugh, really?) feces at her. Tequila, who was performing live for the first time ever at the festival for fans of the clown-faced horror-rappers Insane Clown Posse, left the stage with cuts on her face. The Village Voice's Camille Dodero was there, and reports on the awful mess. [Sound of the City] -More music on NPR this weekend: singer Frazey Ford spoke to Weekend All Things Considered host Guy Raz and performed at Bob Boilen's desk; Raz also got NPR Music's Tom Huizenga to share his picks for new classical CDs, and Dave Matthews talked to Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon about making his band's most recent album in memory of late saxophonist LeRoi Moore.", "As our friends at All Things Considered say, \"it's been a frustrating week for daredevils.\" Felix Baumgartner had to postpone his attempt to rise 23 miles high in the sky and then jump from a balloon to see if he can break the speed of sound on the way down. And maybe you haven't heard, but Chris Todd had to give on his \"walk\" across the Irish Sea in a human hamster wheel. It seems that Todd, to raise money for charity, tried over the weekend to hamster-wheel 66 miles from North Wales to County Wicklow, Ireland. He made it about 15 miles (after an exhausting nine hours) before winds and rough waves pummeled the contraption. \"I could see the glow of lights illuminating the clouds over Ireland,\" Todd writes on his IrishSeaCrossing.co.uk website. \"Despite the wheel coping well with larger than forecast waves ... late on Sunday night, the rudders were overcome by fighting the force of the waves, which were constantly battering the side of the raft, and eventually both rudders failed.\" He got aboard the boat that was traveling alongside. The hamster wheel, alas, \"broke up whilst being towed\" and is now at the bottom of the sea. There is video, though, of how the Tredalo did work when it was seaworthy. Courtesy of the Daily Mail, it's posted here. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams All Things Considered. Later, we'll add the show's report to the top of this post. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: This has been a frustrating week for daredevils. The weather just isn't cooperating. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: The Austrian skydiver who wanted to leap from a capsule up in the stratosphere, and plunge 23 miles, has been ported by gusting winds. Felix Baumgartner still hopes to break the sound barrier in a free fall, but it will have to wait until next week. SIEGEL: Disappointment, too, for Chris Todd, an English engineer. This past weekend, he attempted to cross the Irish Sea in a giant hamster wheel. CHRIS TODD: It's a 10-foot-diameter wheel, so it's quite a large device. CORNISH: Todd wanted to make the 66-mile journey from Wales to Ireland on his homemade \"tredalo,\" to raise money for charity. TODD: For the first four hours or so, conditions were really tremendous. Then the wind started to pick up, and the waves started to give the raft a bit of a battering. SIEGEL: After 10 hours, he was rescued. And as he told the BBC, they set out for land with the floating hamster wheel in tow. TODD: But subsequently, after about two hours of towing the craft back towards Wales, sadly, due to the heavy seas, the craft disintegrated and sank. CORNISH: Well, setbacks can sometimes be overcome. But for Chris Todd, this was a big one. TODD: I mean, it took such a tremendous effort to build the craft, and test it. I'm not really sure I'm ready to ask for that again, just yet. SIEGEL: In any case, whether free falling from the sky or walking on water, we salute those who test the limits of the human spirit, conditions permitting. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"I'M WALKING BACKWARDS FOR CHRISTMAS\") CORNISH: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, from NPR News.", "Nobody actually knows what dinosaurs sound like. But if you can imagine the roar of a T. Rex or the bellow of a brachiosaurus, it's probably thanks to the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park, which turns 20 this summer. Sound designer Gary Rydstrom won two Academy Awards for his work on the movie. His resume is both long and impressive; Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Finding Nemo, and Lincoln are just a handful of titles on his list. But, as he told Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Jacki Lyden, Jurassic Park is the best job he's ever had. \"It scared me when I first saw [the offer] because there's so many different dinosaurs, and it was Steven Spielberg, and people would see it. It freaked me out,\" he says. \"But there was no bigger candy store for sound design than Jurassic Park.\" Rydstrom talks with Lyden about how he created some of sounds that star in the film. Brachiosaurus The brachiosaurus is the first dinosaur viewers see — and hear — on the scientists' first tour through the park. The longnecks' bellows are a mix of elephants, cows and donkeys, he says, though the singing-like clip above is made only from donkeys. \"That was my favorite part of it, because a donkey [can make a noise that] almost sounds like an animal yodeling, so it has this multiple pitch. So you slow that way down, and it sounds like song.\" Tyrannosaurus Rex You hear a lot of T. Rex in Jurassic Park. The dinosaur was a mix of sounds. It starts with something low-frequency, like a tiger. \"But the key element is the high-frequency scream element, which is a baby elephant that we recorded,\" Rydstrom says. When he taped that sound, he knew he'd heard something good. \"We kept trying to get it to do it again, and the handlers were saying, 'We've never heard it do that before, that's a weird sound.' \" The elephant refused, so Rydstrom used the same tape for each T. Rex roar. Velociraptors The velociraptors are the most vocal dinosaurs in the movie. They needed to make many different sounds, so Rydstrom used a wide range of animals — African cranes, tortoises, horses — plus a friend of his, who ended up being the only human used to make dinosaur noises in the movie. Rydstrom says the friend happened to be in the studio one day. \"And I said, 'You make any weird sounds?' \" he tells Lyden. The friend made a strange sound with his throat, and he used it. JACKI LYDEN, HOST: If you're just tuning in, this is WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. Twenty years ago, nobody had much of a clue as to what dinosaurs sounded like. But in 1993, summer's block was busted by a movie that changed our imaginations forever. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"JURASSIC PARK\") RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH: (as John Hammond) Welcome to Jurassic Park. LYDEN: Yeah, those dinosaurs had a pretty good theme song too. \"Jurassic Park\" was a marvel of technology, and Gary Rydstrom was the sound designer for that movie. He won two Academy Awards for his work. And he joins us now from Lucasfilm in California. Gary, welcome to the program. GARY RYDSTROM: Thank you. LYDEN: Let's start by talking about how you made these roars and squeals and hisses. Let's start by listening to the first dinosaur we hear, this huge brachiosaurus. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"JURASSIC PARK\") LYDEN: So is that an elephant trumpeting that I hear in there? RYDSTROM: That probably is. A brachiosaurus is made up of elephants and cows and donkeys. Right after that, the brachiosaurus make a singing sound. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"JURASSIC PARK\") RYDSTROM: It was made from a donkey. That was my favorite part of it because a donkey has this - almost sounds like an animal yodeling, so it has this multiple pitch. And you slow that way down, it sounded like song. LYDEN: So as a sound designer, where do you start reinventing the sound of the huge brachiosaurus? What comes first? RYDSTROM: Well, the first thing you do is you record sounds. So we started collecting all sorts of weird animal sounds. And regular, I record my dog, I recorded horses. We went to zoos. I tried to get every interesting animal recording we could find, not even caring right away what they would be for. LYDEN: And you come back with your box of scary sounds. RYDSTROM: You come back with a box of all sorts of sounds and more than you know what to do with, and then you try to sift through it in the studio and see what's interesting. And what's fun about recording is you're discovering things you didn't expect. One of my favorite memories was there was a - at the San Francisco Zoo, they asked if we wanted to record a koala bear. And I thought a koala bear would make a cute little squeak. But in reality, koala bears make this deep growl that we used for the T. Rex. I had no idea that koala bears sounded like that. LYDEN: Let's just hear what that koala bear is capable of. This is the T. Rex, and this is one of the scariest parts of \"Jurassic Park.\" The two kids are hiding in the car at night in the rain and T. Rex is getting hungry. (S", "A recovering blogger is not someone who should point fingers when it comes to grammar. It should also be noted, as Grammarist.com has pointed out, that it's not necessarily true that it's wrong to begin a sentence with the word \"so\" or any other coordinating conjunction. What's more, while we do want to speak and write well, we also want to \"sound like America.\" But (to use another such conjunction), we do start our sentences with \"so\" an awful lot. During the week of Aug. 17-23, NPR reporters, hosts, member station reporters and freelancers began sentences with the word \"so\" 237 times during broadcasts of Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition and Weekend All Things Considered. According to librarian Sarah Knight, who did the research for us, the usage cuts across genders and ages. David Greene believes he may be our most frequent \"so\" sayer, but he's certainly not alone. This isn't a new thing. Four years ago, The New York Times wrote that during one \"dispatch on National Public Radio last month ... a quarter of the sentences began with 'so.' \" There's a case to be made that we've been influenced by the people we meet and we're just reflecting the way Americans speak. Three years ago, University of Delaware English professor Ben Yagoda wrote for The Chronicle of Higher Education that, \"I'm an NPR power-listener, and so is to NPR interviewees as dude is to fraternity brothers.\" Should we do something about this? Fast Company columnist Hunter Thurman recently argued that starting sentences with \"so\" can undermine your credibility. Thurman made the case that \"just like a speaking coach will tell you not to fill empty space with 'um,' you should avoid framing your answer as a rehearsed pitch by starting with 'so.' \" Rutgers University communications professor Galina Bolden, however, told Business Insider that a \"so\" sentence \"communicates that the speaker is interested in or concerned about the recipient.\" The bigger issue for us may be the repetition. Perhaps the thing to do is be aware and try this: If you feel the urge to write a \"so\" into your story or questions for a two-way, resist. Find another way to start that sentence. Instead of: \"So, tell us exactly what you saw.\" Just say: \"Tell us what you saw.\" Or instead of: \"So, here's how the incubator works.\" Try: \"Here's how the incubator works.\" And so on.", "Womanhood has long informed the voice of NPR. In 1972, NPR's Susan Stamberg became the first woman to anchor a national nightly news program. She remained at the helm of All Things Considered for 14 years, she then hosted Weekend Edition Sunday, and is still on the air frequently reporting on cultural issues. The current roster of Morning Edition and All Things Considered hosts includes: Audie Cornish, Ailsa Chang, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Mary Louise Kelly, Noel King, Michel Martin and Rachel Martin. Aside from the informative coverage these women put out every day on-air, off-air they also provide inspiration for aspiring women in media and otherwise. If you aren't convinced, read through these empowering interview moments from some of NPR's finest. Ailsa Chang, Co-host of All Things Considered and Planet Money Correspondent, in Poynter. On the mission that drives her forward: \"The mission is fundamentally the same in each: it's about excellent journalism and compelling audio storytelling. And the people who populate both spaces float back and forth.\" Audie Cornish, Co-host of All Things Considered, in Washingtonian On interviewing people: \"Maybe NPR trains you for that—finding that little bit of information that makes people do the head tilt and say, 'Huh! I didn't know that.' That's my idea of getting a little golden nugget.\" Lulu Garcia-Navarro, host of Weekend Edition Sunday, featured in Vox On representation: \"It's no longer like, 'Oh, wouldn't it be great if we had people of color,' or, 'Oh, wouldn't it be great if we had more women?' It is actually existential now for the media. And I think they have recognized that. Because we can no longer just pretend that the changes that are happening in wider society don't affect and influence us. We have to reflect that.\" Mary Louise Kelly, Co-host of All Things Considered, in Vogue On her promotion following an impactful #MeToo interview: \"It certainly won't be lost on anyone that the female journalist who went and questioned our CEO—a move that my mother was convinced would get me fired, grilling my boss on air—that they ended up promoting that person.\" Noel King, Co-host of Morning Edition and Up First, in Poynter On how working in podcasting informed her position as a storyteller: \"The goal is the same: do excellent work, pull people in, keep them listening. Working in podcasting has taught me an enormous amount about storytelling and crafting a narrative. That's hard to pull off in a short interview, or when news is breaking. But there are lessons I've learned in longform, that are just as applicable in hosting.\" Michel Martin, weekend host of All Things Considered, in Poynter On what her role is really about: \"I think one of the things that we hope to do in our field ... is show people that you can have these conversations, important ones, difficult ones, painful ones, but you can have them and have them in a way that are constructive. That's gonna be our task going forward. That's gonna be our task every day.\" Rachel Martin, co-host of Morning Edition and Up First, in CJR On her goals as a host: \"The whole reason I got into journalism is because I firmly believe, with every ounce of my soul, that the way forward for our country, our common humanity, is to try to understand the experience of others. Empathy, trying to relate to people who aren't like you, to stop other-izing people who come from a different religion, ethnic identity, geographic location. It's why I got into journalism—to try to draw those connections between people. \" In fact, an impressive group of women are part of NPR's news leadership team: Senior Vice President of News - Nancy Barnes, Executive Editor - Edith Chapin, Acting Vice President of News; Sarah Gilbert, Managing Editor - Sara Goo. Leading the shows: Executive Producer, All Things Considered - Carline Watson, Executive Producer, Morning Edition Kenya Young, Weekend Edition EP -Sarah Oliver, All Things Considered Weekend EP Natalie Winston. And heading our desks: Washington desk head - Beth Donovan, National desk head - Vickie Walton James, Art desk head - Ellen Silva, and Science desk head - Andrea Kissack.", "This interview was originally broadcast on Dec. 13, 1999. There are many things that make the 1933 movie King Kong great — the special effects, the image of the giant ape climbing the Empire State Building, Fay Wray's screams — and the score, composed by Max Steiner. \"It's a wonderful score, and of course [Steiner] was a pioneer of doing sound motion-picture scores,\" says film historian Rudy Behlmer. \"If you can imagine that picture ... and if you turn the sound off in the big sequences — in the jungle and on the Empire State Building — you realize how much the sound elements contribute to the success of that film.\" Behlmer wrote the liner notes for the 1993 re-release of the King Kong movie soundtrack. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that Steiner worked during an era when movie scores were not considered particularly important. \"When he was beginning to score that in late 1932, music as an underscoring was not prevalent,\" he says. \"The emphasis was on dialogue. But Max rose to the occasion. ... And he made that thing work from a dramatic standpoint.\" Behlmer also reveals secrets about several other moments in the film, including Fay Wray's gut-wrenching screams: Most of them were added in post-production. \"She did all of her wild screams in a sound booth,\" she says. \"So fortunately, she had one major screaming session, and they were added post-filming.\" Interview Highlights On not using a gorilla suit \"[Director Merian Cooper] felt that this had to be different because there had always been these men running around in gorilla suits in all kinds of movies that were made in the '20s and early '30s. He wanted to do something special. When he saw, over at RKO, the chief technician working on some stop-motion material for a film called Creation, which was never made, he thought, 'Wait a minute. Nobody's going to finance me during the Depression to go over to Africa and shoot a gorilla.' When he saw that process at RKO, he thought, 'Wait a minute. This is the way to do King Kong.' \" On Kong's changing size \"People were saying, 'Wait a minute. We built him on a scale of 18 inches to a foot,' meaning that he would be 18-feet high. But [the director kept saying], 'For this scene I want to make him bigger.' So it does keep changing, but he felt like when he got to New York, he had to be bigger because of the environment.\"", "Today we have some exciting new API enhancements to share with you, including Mix Your Own Podcast, a new extension that offers users an infinite number of ways to customize NPR podcasts. Here are more details about Mix Your Own Podcast as well as some of the other features and content that we launched: Mix Your Own PodcastPrior to this release, the API offered only streaming formats of our audio content, including Windows Media, Real Audio, and progressive download MP3. These formats were supported by a Terms of Use that required API users to stream the audio from our servers, preventing them from downloading the audio. With today's launch, however, the API now allows users to slice through the NPR.org archive to create custom podcast feeds based on virtually any aggregation (or combination of aggregations) in the API. To learn more about this, go to the NPR Podcast Directory.Due to various current constraints, the only real exception here is that users will not be allowed to create full-show podcasts of Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition Saturday or Weekend Edition Sunday. However, all stories from these and other programs will be available to create any other podcast mashup in the system. Station Finder API. With this release, we are also offering access to our Station Finder API. This API will allow users to pass in zip codes, city/state, station call letters or latitude/longitude information, and we will return a list of stations that can be heard in that location. The station results also include key information about the stations, including links to their home page, schedule page, audio streams, RSS feeds, podcasts, station logo and more. Because the system also has station stories from some of these stations (and more of this content will become available in the coming months), you will be able to, for example, search for a zip code, identify the stations in that zip code, then find all of the stories from all of the stations returned. Over the coming months, more station content will be made available through the API. New Content: Fresh Air and StoryCorps. With this release, we are also making available the full archive of Fresh Air and StoryCorps. For Fresh Air, we will be explosing over 10,000 stories (and counting) dating back to 1993. The StoryCorps offering will include about 200 stories (and counting) dating back to 2005. Query By Asset TypeNow you can query the API to get stories that contain a particular type of asset. For example, you can filter your query to only get stories that contain images (useful if you are building a slideshow application, for example), or stories with audio, or stories with long-form text. To use this new feature, append &requiredAssets=image to your query string and you will get only stories with images. The other allowed values for this parameter are audio and text. You can combine these filters with a comma-delimited string (&requiredAssets=image,text,audio). This new feature will be added to the documentation and the Query Generator in the next week or so. This feature does not work yet with API queries based on free-text search. We are excited about this new release and view it as the next step in our continued effort to open up our content to the world.", "It's been nine days now since the earthquake rattled us here in Chengdu and caused such terrible devastation close by. The sounds and images collected over these days are haunting. So, what a rare pleasure to go back today to a green oasis in the middle of this gritty, gray city: the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. The air was fresh and moist. Egrets squawked noisily as they nested overhead. Lush beds of bright flowers lined the paths. The bustle of the city seemed very far away, even though it's right outside the gate. The panda base here in Chengdu is home to 48 giant pandas. There are babies born last year, still drinking formula from bottles. There are sub-adults, under five years old, who haven't yet reached sexual maturity. And then there are the moms and dads. We found one of the adult female pandas, 9-year-old Qi Zhen, relaxing in a pool of water in her outdoor enclosure. She was sitting up, slumped over her paunchy belly, looking like a lazy matron dozing off in the tub. Then, as we watched, she started lifting her feet out of the water, rotating them in small splashy circles, in what could pass for panda water aerobics. Qi Zhen was putting on quite an impressive show, so out came my camera, set to the video function: Video by Melissa Block, NPR Read More >> Rare and Precious & Seven Stitches The director of the panda base, Zhang Zhihe, told me the story behind Qi Zhen's name. There are two meanings, he said. Qi Zhen means \"rare and precious.\" But in Chinese, it also sounds like \"seven stitches.\" When Qi Zhen was born, her mother was so frightened by the sight of her baby that she slapped the tiny cub away. Her claws raked the baby panda's chest. Qi Zhen was taken to the hospital at the base for surgery. She was given seven stitches. And those stitches gave her her name. And now -- nine years later -- there she was, a happy panda, indeed. Making me very happy for several minutes, in the middle of a long week of sadness. I'm working on a story about the panda base for All Things Considered. I'll talk about how frightened the pandas were during the earthquake. I'll also report on the work the dedicated staff here have been doing to increase the giant panda population, to help save this rare species from extinction. And much more.. (EDITOR'S NOTE: You can hear that story Thursday on All Things Considered.)" ]

[ "I would stay away from that. If you're having trouble with your vision I would see an optometrist. If you need to cleanse your eyes, I suggest visine, used according to the directions." ]

[ "Yep, tis simple. Limit your food intake(reasonably) drink lots of water and excercise. Don't tamper with those pills. \\n\\nSomething else that helps is apple cider vinegar pills. It's just pure apple cider vinegar, but if you are that concerned about losing weight talk to your doctor or dietician. ;)", "Chinese have always believed that vinegar can assist weight loss. I've been told that if you mix oil/fats with vinegar, the fats will dissolve. I haven't actually tried that though. \\n\\nSince apple cider vinegar can replace normal vinegar, why not? At least it taste better than drinking vinegar! Ugh..", "Three times a day drink a glass of water with 2 tea spoons of apple vinegar.", "If you drop a tooth into concentrated acid (e.g. sulfuric acid) nothing much happens. You might expect a bit of a fizz, but this is not the case. The tooth has to be in the acid for quite some time before any difference is noticeable.\\nThe acetic acid in vinegar is very dilute, so even if you rinsed your mouth with vinegar it would not harm your teeth.\\nThe amount of vinegar in food is harmless, and in any case is less acidic than the normal stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) anyway.\\nVinegar from our food gets nowhere near our bones.", "apple cider vinegar is excellent for helping you lose weight. You can mix it in that or orange juice, Drink it 20 minutes before meals. Of course, it will not work if you eat a lot of junk food and you have to get exercise too and drink plenty of water. The vinegar will help melt the fat off a lot faster. \\n\\nIF you cannot stand the vile taste of vinegar, you can get it in tablet form at either walmart, walgreens or any health food store. \\n\\nWord of warning, if you have problems with your blood sugar be careful because it can cause your blood sugar to drop. \\nIf you are normally healthy, then there should be no problems. :)", "Chlorine can cause major eye damage in it's concentrated form. However, in pool water chloring is highly diluted and will not burn your eyes. The american redcross gives tips on pool safety, and the only one regarding eye protection is to protect your eyes from UV sun exposure. Based upon this information I would say that the suns UV rays have a much greater potential for eye damage than diluted chlorine.", "Baking soda and vinegar are both wonderful natural cleaners! Baking soda works well on stainless steel, porcelain, counters, etc. Vinegar is wonderful on windows. Together they make a good (strong) drain cleaner & freshner - pour bs down the drain then add apple cider vinegar - works great!", "neem oil & apple cider vinegar plus the supplement MSM have helped me regrow hair\\n\\nhttp://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=380\\nhttp://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=179&t=53719", "If you really want to loose weight than here is a herbal remedy. When you get up immidiately drink a glass of water (without brushing teeth) or taken lemon and extract its juice putr that in a warm glass of water not more than a tea spoon per glass drink it before your break fast. apple cider vinegar no way it will help.", "A natural appetite supressant, that is also very inexpensive, is apple cider vinegar. You take 1 or 2 tablets 1/2 an hour before each meal and it seems to curb your appetite.", "I have heard that APPLE CIDER VINEGAR (pill form can be purchased now) taken first thing in the morning helps alleviate the pain, as well as daily exercise, as contradictory as that might sound, moving the joints eliminates the stiffness, especially if you do them in a tub of hot water. Meaning placing affected hands, wrists, elbows, etc. into a tub of hot water and moving your hands around.\\n\\nGood Luck and prosper ...;*!*;...", "Well those other answers are great. What worked for me was using some apple cider vinegar pills. They helped speed up my metabolism. I got the pills at my local Walgreens. They cost about $10. I love them. I lose about 2 pounds a week. I don't do a lot of excercise either. I stretch everyday and run once in a while. They worked for me. If you do try them I hope they work for you.", "Try rinsing your hair with apple cider vinegar after\\neach shampooing. Massage it in to your scalp. The smell goes away after hair is dryed. Your hair will be nice and shiny and it will tackle the dandruff problem. This works well.", "The most widely used cleaner in our home is Vinegar. Mix it 1 part vinegar (white not apple cider) to 3 parts water. It will safely clean about anything. If you have a stubborn spot on a hard surface just moisten some baking soda and rub on to the area and scrub.", "An Apple Cider Vinegar rinse would help head itchies, if that's what you are talking about.\\n\\nPut about 1/2 tablespoon per cup of warm water, and make as much as you need to rinse your scalp and your hair. It helps restore the pH balance to your skin (which might be where the itchies are coming from) and also helps out your hair by closing the cuticles, removing build-up, detangling, and adding sheen.\\n\\nI urge everyone to try an ACV rinse! It's great!", "You may want to try clarifing shampoo (read the label). Washing your hair in vinegar (apple cider vinegar I hear is best) also helps. \\n\\nIf you generally just wash with soap and water, and don't want to deal with other products, then when you wash your hair massage your scalp, including scratching it. Your dandruff might seem to increase initially, as you loosen some of the flakes, but after a few days it will lessen greatly. Without actually getting rid of the cause, though, you will continue to get flaking. This will just help get rid of the flakes when you are in the shower / bath, rather than on your collar of your black shirt on a date.\\n\\ngodd luck.", "It is not that bad. They put drops in your eyes to numb them they you sit for awhile while you wait for them to get numb. You go into a room and they pry your eye open with a metal clamp that hurts - not like someone cutting you, but like someone punched you in the eye - the actually cutting you can not feel. It is hard to keep your eye in the right place, but if you go to a good doctor they should have a lazer that turns off automatically any time your eye moves. After the surgry you can not rub your eyes at all for several weeks. You can see ok but not great because of the junk in your eyes. Go home and sleep. When you wake up you'll see great. Your dr should give your shields to protect your eyes when you sleep. Cut a rubber eyeglass holder (I don't know what to call it, the think that you sick the ear pieces of you eyeglasses into to keep them from falling off of your neck) in half the slice it lenth wise so that you can open it and put it around the shields. This will keep your eyes - well the area around your eyes- from hurting from the pressure of the shields. Good luck", "First way to pass a drug test is to not do drugs.But if you do, you can: (if it is mary jane) drink either pickle juice or vinegar, vinegar is better,it works better than pickle juice because it is not diluted with all of the other ingredients.Drink ALOT of water.If it is meth , it is out of your system in three days anyway.\\n It kind of depends on the type of drug test that they are doing. If it is a hair test, Head Shops sell a shampoo that will wash out the residue that most drugs leave on your hair.The shampoo costs about 50 bucks. It costs alot but it is worth it.", "Since carrots are good for the eyes, I would guess that the answer is apples. brb i'll try to find ya some proof.\\n\\nI hope this is helpful!", "From the website below, the mineral part of bone is hydroxyapatite, or [3Ca3(PO4)2]·(OH)2. Vinegar is diluted, say 5%, acetic acid. The acid attacks the calcium (and its phospate bonds), initially turning the bone to rubber and eventually into a saggy mass.", "I believe the actual terminology for this is called \"persistance of vision\"\\n\\nIn loose terms, it's very much like when you stare at the black dot on the green apple for 15 seconds, then close your eyes, then with your eyes closed you see a white spot and a red apple.\\n\\nsee : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_of_vision", "Read books (without hurting your eyes)", "There is a home remedy that has helped me with sinus problems. It may sound wierd but it worked. Try mixing HONEY and APPLE CIDER VINEGAR 1 to 2 teaspoons of honey add 1/2 to 1 teaspoons of the vinegar. I know it sounds nasty, but it's cheap and it works. You can take it like a cough syrup or mix it in an 8 ounce glass of water (make sure it disolves). You can adjust the measuremnets to make it not so sweet or to make it sweeter.", "Girl, I suggest you eat 6 small meals a day and exercise. Another trick that I have is take a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar every evening it cleanses the blood and removes fat deposits in your cells. It also kills bacteria inside your blood stream and clears up acne.", "the reflux can cause the asthma.. the acid may be getting pushed up by excess gasses in the digestive tract. (this is what happens to me) To fix that a nature-path (natural medicine doc) put me on a couple of teaspoons of apple cider vinegar a day ( I know what you're thinking, but) The reason I was getting acid reflux is that I didn't have enough acid to digest what I was eating, this created excess gas that was pushing stomach acid up into the esophagus.. if I remember to take my (yeech!) apple cider vinegar I don't have any problems with reflux.", "Shampoos with coal tar (Neutrogena T/gel is one example) and Nizoral work very well.Both are available over the counter. Usual method is to shampoo with the medicated shampoo every day until the flakes come under control then once or twice per week to keep them under control. \\n\\nListerine, the mouthwash, has been used for dandruff for years (and used to be advertised for this purpose). Massage it full-strength onto your scalp every day. Supposed to get rid of dandruff in a few days. You can also apply a dilute vinegar rinse to your hair before using regular shampoo.", "it can put extra strain on your eyes trying to look at a screen. but if you have pleny of lights on and can clearly see whats on the screen it should be alright. another thing that could end up hurting your eyes is keeping them open too long while staring. eyes will get overly dry and over time that can lead to more serious eye sight problems. keep good care of your eyes.. there the only ones you got!", "Depends who you ask. If you ask catholics they will tell you the mind makes the eye see, but if you ask an optometrist (eye doctor) they will tell you otherwise. Physiologically, we are born with eyes. The eyes develop as you mature. Different parts of the eye mature w/different speed and time. That is why babies, start out seeing everything in black and white, and they can't see 3D like adults can, with time the eye if it is developed properly in the womb will develop further, and the retina (the camera of your eye) will project the images to your mind. The mind then, with previous experiences, will interpret the image, as something is learned. For example you as a child were told what an apple is, with your eyes closed you might not be able to tell its an apple or what color it is , for example without looking at it. You can tell however that it is an apple if you smell it (but then again, you're relying on your other senses to tell what it is).. So to answer your question, the eye makes the mind see. yes.", "Vinegar. Pickles and such help, but drinking a small amount of vinegar is gross yes but works the best.", "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One person's sauerkraut is another's candy apple.", "It's actually not dry scalp. It's oily scalp that causes dandruff. Use head and shoulders or you can try natural junk like apple cider vinegar, or rubbing salt to break apart dead skin.", "Lazy eye is a pretty broad term that encompasses quite a few different eye problems. Many of these problems are treatable with therapy (it might not make the eye or vision perfect, but it usually can help) and surgery is an option in some cases. In your case, it wouldn't hurt to consult a specialist or in the very least to get a second opinion. If treatment is possible, it's the most effective if it's begun early." ]

[ "Two million Iraqi children are facing threats including poor nutrition, lack of education and violence, Unicef says." ]

[ "Albatross looking for a free meal on the high seas often pay the price of being killed or injured going after baited hooks.", "Consumers pay the price for high merchant fees.", "Iraq was able to bypass sanctions by buying in small quantities and paying high prices, using a network of front companies in the region.", "Some hybrid cars will pay for the premium added to their sticker prices because of high gas prices and tax credits from the U.S. government on the more fuel efficient vehicles, a study released on Tuesday shows.", "Anticipating a slowdown, investors are wary of paying high stock prices. Firms lower earnings expectations, too.", "A star graduate from West Point, killed in Iraq, is laid to rest. But what does her death tell us about the price America is paying for freedom in Iraq?", "The average price U.S. consumers pay for gasoline declined for the first time in six weeks, but still remains near the record high, the Energy Department said on Monday.", "Oil prices rise to yet another record high due to concerns over tensions between Turkey and Iraq.", "Samsung and a US subsidiary have agreed to pay $90 million to settle charges that it colluded to keep the price of DRAM memory artificially high.", "Persistence might eventually pay off for Oracle in its year-and-a-half-long bid for PeopleSoft, but the deal could come at a high price.", "U.S. consumers aren't going to balk at paying an extra nickel for their daily cup of Starbucks coffee despite high gas prices and other pressures on their wallets, analysts said on Friday.", "Special forces may offer their soldiers hefty bonuses to stem a flow of talent being lured by high pay packages to private security companies in Iraq.", "Oil prices surged to a new high above $47 a barrel spurred by concern for the safety of oil facilities in Iraq.", "Gold miners on Russia&#39;s Kamchatka peninsula contend with volcanic eruptions, floods and poor infrastructure, but high metal prices mean the hard work pays off.", "TORONTO - Hundreds of families with autistic children are taking the Ontario government to court for money to pay for therapy for their children.", "Oracle has rejected&#160;BEA Systems&#39; proposed purchase price of $21 per share, calling it &quot;impossibly high&quot; for Oracle or any other company to pay.", "China has slammed European Union anti-dumping measures on imports of leather shoes as illegal and threatened retaliation, as Vietnam complained it will pay a high price in lost earnings and jobs.", "Oil prices rose on Wednesday, stemming an eight-session slide that has dragged prices down 14 percent from record highs as news emerged of a fresh pipeline fire in Iraq.", "Home to some 1.5 billion people, South Asia is paying a high price to access the Internet as service providers have been slow to deliver cheaper broadband connections, analysts say.", "Mexico's No. 2 broadcaster TV Azteca said on Wednesday it will pay out &#36;210 million in cash to shareholders, sending its stock price soaring to a four-year high.", "In a marker of the Iraq war’s longevity, children too young to remember losing a parent in action are growing up.", "The former US administrator in Iraq says the United States &quot;paid a big price&quot; for failing to deploy enough troops on the ground immediately after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.", "DAVID HARDAKER: In Iraq a series of car bomb attacks in quick succession has claimed the lives of more children than any other attack since the conflict began 17 months ago.", "Officials fear that for a new generation of disaffected European Muslims, Iraq has become the crux of a new holy war.", "World oil prices skidded on Monday as Iraq pumped oil through its southern pipelines and Russia vowed to step up exports, but analysts said the days of high prices were not yet over.", "The Revolution considered signing Brazilian midfielder Denilson, but were unwilling to pay a high price, according to coach Steve Nicol. Instead, the Revolution are on the verge of adding defender Dusan Petkovic.", "Britain's special forces may offer their soldiers hefty bonuses to stem a flow of talent being lured by high pay packages to private security companies in Iraq, a newspaper reports.", "More than one billion children around the world face a brutal existence because of poverty, war and Aids, the UN children&#39;s agency reports.", "Fifteen British troops under the age of 18 have been \"inadvertently\" sent to fight in Iraq, violating a U.N. protocol on children's rights, the government said Sunday.", "Since Columbia was built nearly four decades ago, Howard County attracted mostly families with young children looking to escape the high housing prices and headaches of modern city life.", "Millions of Iraqi children were due to start the new school year Saturday, but many stayed at home, their parents too scared to let them venture out amid Iraq&#39;s spiraling violence.", "Children and their families, shattered by war, find care for devastating wounds in Jordan." ]

[ "Unfortunately, you cannot substitute the iron for just any mineral. Iron is a big part of soil, see my answer here:\n\n\n Rust is iron oxide, which does not harm plants in moderate amounts, because it is not water soluble unless the soil ph is very low. In fact, oxidized iron is what gives most red subsoils their color.\n\n\nUnless the pH is far too low the plant will be unable to uptake the iron oxide, and will not be useful for correcting deficiencies. It will not harm the tree if it is really only iron, not coated with anything. Now, even after it rusts, it will not necessarily be absorbable by plants. See here:\n\n\n Although Fe is one of the most abundant metals in the earth's crust, its availability to plant roots is very low. Fe availability is dictated by the soil redox potential and pH. In soils that are aerobic or of higher pH, Fe is readily oxidized, and is predominately in the form of insoluble ferric oxides. At lower pH, the ferric Fe is freed from the oxide, and becomes more available for uptake by roots.\n\n\nSo iron objects won't really affect the plant, other than obstructing roots/messing with drainage. This is not true of just any mineral/metal chunk." ]

[ "if they were cut at the dripline, and only on one side, I suppose that means a good bit less than 1/4 of the roots have been cut. Assuming that the tree is between 16 and 22\" in diameter four and a half feet above ground, your structural root radius (that you can't safety be cutting within) will be 8-9'. This is the root plate, which supports the tree. Cutting into this will put you at risk of the tree coming down. That's your structural root zone. You also have to consider your critical root zone.\n\nThe critical root zone is the zone within which any cutting (or traffic from construction vehicles) will be extremely damaging to the tree. Do not work within this radius. Again assuming a tree diameter of 16 - 22\", your critical rooting zone will be from 20 - 28', respectively. \n\nIf the roots on your tree were cut past that point, you should be fine. Mulching lightly (like 3\") under the dripline will help recovery a lot. If the roots were cut inside the critical root zone, your tree may decline. Whether it will recover in that case depends partly on what the roots were cut for. If the soil was replaced (like if it was a trench for a line, and was backfilled), that's great. If the area the roots were cut is going to remain unviable for root growth (such as if you had a foundation put in, or regraded), things may be less bright. \n\nIn either case (of disturbing the critical root zone), there are a few steps you can take to help the tree survive. Maintain a layer of mulch under the tree (3-4\" is good), keeping it off of the root flare, and have it out at least to the dripline, if possible. Also, reduce traffic (even foot traffic) as much as possible, to help prevent compaction. \n\nI have very few details about your tree to go on, but I feel you will probably be fine, white pines can be quite resilient.", "Minerals:\nFor a tree to deposit a stone core, all you need is minerals to be present in your environment in such quantity that they can be treated like a waste product. Look to coral, or sea shells, and imagine a plant depositing the same stuff. Fossilization can take very long or almost no time at all, if the appropriate dissolved minerals are present in the water.\nI imagine trees eating away at limestone deposits, then depositing the carbonates in structural columns inside the tree. The stuff might be effectively a waste product, but a useful one. The tree is essentially filling the inside space with lime deposits, and protecting the lime deposits with the outside of the tree. The tree could be reclaiming the wood it laid down and replacing the lost structural material with what is essentially limestone.\nThis is an easy stone to work, very porous, and the tree may even leave natural cavities in the structure. This could aid in ease of tunneling. Limestone is used as a building material and ingredient in cement. As long as the outside of the trunk is alive, the inside is protected. The minerals soaking down would likely cause interesting deposits in caves people made, giving it a very organic feel. I've even seen basements in limestone that were growing crystal-like structures and had opalescent deposits.\nThe ability to transport materials is often the limiting factor on how high your trees can get. If you can have a natural way to pump the material up, though, the sky is literally the limit. How do geysers sound? These have (admittedly dangerously) hot, mineral-soaked water under pressure that the tree could direct upward in narrow tubes to fill a pool at the top. The water and minerals are soaked downward to make the tree and supply needed water and minerals (as well as the structural minerals for your exotic growth). The trees that grow near geysers become enormous, while the trees simply drawing on water in deep limestone deposits are &quot;merely&quot; huge. There could even be different varieties, and people carry geyser-type plants to geologically active areas and spread the species.\nThat gives you giant trees, symbiosis between man and tree, and geysers (what story isn't better with hot running water?) There could be a lot of different complications with this design that need to be hammered out, but unless someone has a huge and obvious objection, I think this could be a viable route for you.", "Removal of some or most soil from about the roots may be quite helpful for small trees in containers, and perhaps for small transplant trees with roots wrapped in burlap etc, but for larger trees becomes more problematical the larger the tree: eg, tree transplanting equipment, which lifts the tree &amp; roots &amp; soil: when planting, something is required for support, and newly placed noncompressed soil is great for small and new root growth, but structurally less supportive of weight. The larger the tree the more problematical structural support and possible affect on root surfaces becomes. And different types of trees have different types of root systems.\nGenerally, except for small specialised type trees grown in containers, leaving soil that is sort of attached tends to keep small roots intact; and small container tree roots are very very carefully separated and the tree very very carefully set into a new container(or maybe the same container), the container soil intended to be replaced to provide fresh nutrient. Seedling roots are fragile, but so are the small &amp; tiny roots of large trees.\nSimilarly, when transplanting/ planting, it's typically recomended to gently fluff out the roots &amp; unwind etc circled roots. In that process loose soil tends to fall away, but pulling at the soil, especially if it isn't moist, also pulls at the roots &amp; can be too much for little roots.\nOne mild guide is to consider the relative size eg of a burlap wrapped root ball to the size &amp; age of the tree: some are quite little compared to the size eg of a 1.2 m citrus, and that situatuation would tend be different from a 1.2 m citrus with a burlap wrapped ball six times the volume re the extent of root crowding present &amp; how much soil might be loose. Gently disentangling/ separating circled roots etc is typically associated with some soil falling away. Also, some trees are more sensitive to replanting than others, and age matters too. Time for establishment of root systems is to be expected, and could be longer than 4 weeks.", "Many people would say that you can't do this safely. If the roots are showing the tree is responding by bringing the roots to the surface to get oxygen since the soil is poorly draining or if the top soil is very shallow. If you do put dirt on top ( 2 inches ) of the roots and it doesn't kill the tree, then you may find the roots rise up again so that you're back to stage one.\n\nWhat you can do is put a mulch down which you keep away from the trunk to prevent rotting the bark. But you won't be able to plant in it as if you can establish something growing within the drip line, you'll be depriving the tree roots of water and oxygen as you are giving it competition.", "This is another one that I've done. For reference I'm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USDA zone 6b, last frost in April, First frost in September. We get 40-60\" of precipitation per year, and the soil is mostly decent clay based soil, sometimes rocky. There were 3 of the trees and they were at about 12', so yours might be bigger. Because they dry and burn easily in winter, i took a trencher and just made an 18\" deep trench about 35\" in diameter, in the fall, after the temperatures cooled. Looking back, I probably could have made the rootball smaller, and been successful, because there weren't enough roots to hold it together 100%, once it was taken up. \n\nThe trench helps it grow more dense roots around the edged of the rootball and can maker the transplant more practical as well as less stressful to the tree. The next spring, I hauled them out onto pallets when the ground was thawed out and the buds were just beginning to swell. I think that's the best time, for the least amount of stress to the plant. \n\nAnd as always with Sassafras, I planted them high (root flare 6\" above the surrounding ground). I did not feel the necessity to stake the trees, since they were fairly stable and the area didn't get much wind. I used some general purpose fertilizer with the first watering, and then only felt the need to water one time after that, that first year, during a dry spell. They all grew well, and I saw lots of growth the following year. I wasn't back after that, but i haven't gotten any complaints so I'm assuming they did well.", "If the transaction pool is empty, a mined block will still have 1 transaction (the miner's transaction claiming the block reward).\n\nSo to compute the Merkle tree root, you call the tree hashing function on the single hash of the miner transaction, which is in fact equivalent to doing nothing (Merkle tree root = miner transaction id).", "How does a wallet know how much Bitcoins belongs to a specific address?\n\n\nA wallet is a private key which generates public keys. You can look those up in the blockchain to see if any of them have an open balance. \n\n\n In which block will the transaction for creating a block hash listed?\n\n\nThe first transaction in a block is generated by miners themselves, crediting themselves with the coinbase reward. then, the miner adds further transactions and starts looking for a hash that has the right difficulty target. If the miner finds one, the miner publishes the block. Miners thus credits themselves within their own block.\n\n\n Who hashes the merkle root?\n\n\nThe act of mining is finding a suitable hash for the merkle root and the block header.\n\n\n How do miners know that there is a new block?\n\n\nThe difficulty is updated every 2016 blocks. Because each block is timestamped, the difficulty adjustment knows how much time has passed, and can raise the difficulty in such a way that the next 2016 blocks will all take approximately 10min to find. Note that this assumes a steady hash rate.\n\n\n Is the difficulty only regulated by the leading zeroes in a hash?\n\n\nYup.\n\n\n What if no nounce is found for a block?\n\n\nIf so, you swap two transactions in the merkle tree that are unrelated. You can look for a new nonce for the corresponding tree.", "The solution we used was unexpectedly simple, but not truly satisfactory:\n\nWe placed short branches with leaves in the freezer and took them out just two hours later. To my surprise, they already started to change color. \n\nThey didn’t develop the deep reds they would normally have, but had a distinctive reddish hue. I suppose repeated freezing/thawing cycles could have improved the results, but the minor that was involved in project declared them “good enough”. For a conclusive answer, further experiments need to be done next summer.", "Start with my answer to this very highly related question here:\n\nhttps://earthscience.stackexchange.com/a/2742/725\n\n\n\nThe melting point of minerals in isolation, or a pure substance is higher than mixtures of minerals. For example - a (well-mixed) mixture of quartz and pyroxene will melt at a lower temperature than pure quartz or pure pyroxene. The exact temperature is dependent on the proportions.\n\nIn general, the more different kind of components (i.e. \"things\": minerals, elements, molecules, etc) you add to a mixture, the lower the melting point of the mixture as a whole.\n\nFor example, sea water melts at -2 °C because it's a mixture of water (melts at 0 °C) and all kinds of salts. Steel melts at a lower temperature than pure iron because it's a mixture of iron and carbon.", "With the exception of \"trees\" such as palm trees, as a tree grows the inner conductive tissues lose their ability to transport nutrients up or down and become hardened into heartwood, providing structural strength and leaving the outer tissues to keep the roots and canopy supplied with food. So the \"length\" under the bark is soft wood and will be more easily penetrated by the fungal mycelium and providing a quick establishment of the colony. While you can inoculate the ends it will only work satisfactorily when the wood is very soft such as with North American basswood where the heartwood remains spongy or palms which do not produce heartwood since they are grasses, designed to bend in high wind rather than attempt to stand straight and stiff.", "Looks like sap/resin that trees produce when they are damaged (e.g. by grown-in branches). It indeed hardens over time and can be trapped within the growing tree.", "The tree is suffering from nutrient deficiency due to an unsuitably high soil pH. To properly absorb nutrients, these trees need a lower pH, like 4.5-6.0. Organic matter will be useful in helping the microbes thrive that feed the tree, but they will not live in a high pH. Try applying sulphur to the area in a circle around the tree about twice the diameter of the dripline. Even after a good pH has been accomplished, it will need to be maintained on a regular basis, as acid topsoil will neutralize when sitting over a pH neutral or an alkaline subsoil.\n\nIf this method is not practical, then your choices are limited, and will include using acidic fertilizers, as you've mentioned, or consider removing the tree and planting something more tolerant in that spot.", "It depends on the tree and its natural habitat. If the tree is normally found growing in a forest with its roots shaded by other trees, and its roots covered by forest litter, then that's what you should be aiming to do. Mulching helps protect the roots from heating up in strong sun light, fertilises the roots, and maintains a moisture layer around the roots.\n\nFor example deciduous trees drop their leaves in fall to seal their branches from winter, to suppress the growth of competitors around their bases, and to recycle the nutrient from the leaves to their roots.", "A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean Ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus Tuber. Truffles are ectomycorrhizal fungi and form symbiotic relationships with the roots of several tree species including beech, birch, hazel, hornbeam, oak, pine, and poplar.\n\nMycorrhizal symbiosis is a mutualistic association between a fungus and the roots of a plant (usually a tree) in which (typically) the fungus obtains energy in the form of carbohydrates from the plant, and the plant gains the benefits of the mycelium's higher absorptive capacity for water and mineral nutrients, partly because of the large surface area of fungal hyphae, which are much longer and finer than plant root hairs, and partly because some such fungi can mobilize soil minerals unavailable to the plants' roots. The effect is thus to improve the plant's mineral absorption capabilities. \n\nBased on the quote below from the website of a truffle nursery in Australia (http://trufficulture.com.au/what_are_truffles.html), it sounds like truffle symbiosis is a completely standard mycorrhizal symbiotic relationship.\n\n\n The truffle coats the tips of the tree roots to form mycorrhiza which\n act as an extension of the tree's root system. The tree provides the\n truffle with a source of photosynthesised carbohydrates, and in return\n the fine, thread-like filaments (mycelia) of the truffle, extract and\n trade soil minerals and nutrients which would normally be unavailable\n to the tree. Thus the mycorrhiza is able to increase the effectiveness\n of the trees roots, enabling the tree to grow in soils which would\n normally be too nutrient deficient to support them.", "Good question! As you know, Bowen's reaction series describes the order of crystallization of silicate minerals in a cooling magma. \n\nThe complex anion of silicates is a tetrahedron of four oxygen atoms surrounding one silicon atom, connected with strong covalent bonds. Each tetrahedron may be isolated from one another or they may be bonded together covalently by sharing oxygen atoms between adjacent tetrahedra. In this way they may form single chains (pyroxene), double chains (amphibole), sheets (biotite), and three-dimensional networks of interlocking tetrahedra (quartz).\n\nEach of these covalently bonded structural groups (except 3D networks) is bonded to its neighboring structural group (e.g. single chain to single chain) by ionic bonds with intervening cations (K+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe2+, etc.).\n\nRelatively speaking, covalent bonds have lower melting points than ionic bonds. Source\n\nIn Bowen's reaction series, the minerals that form at the cooler end of the discontinuous series are richer in silicon and oxygen and poorer in metal cations. Therefore, the minerals at the cooler end are also more dominated by covalent bonds over ionic bonds. This prevalence is the reason why felsic minerals melt at lower temperatures than mafic ones.\n\nYour logic is correct when looking at mineral stability in the face of chemical weathering. At the Earth's surface, those covalent bonds are much more stable and minerals like quartz tend to be much more resistant to weathering than olivine or pyroxene. This is described in the Goldich stability series, which I like to think of as Bowen's reaction series stood on its head.", "Avocado trees have an incredibly strong initial \"burst\" of growth. That is a benefit of having such a big and rich seed. \n\nTypically (wild) avocado seeds find themselves in a canopied forest with high competition for sun light. So the seedlings have evolved to \"jump\" up into the sunlight as best they can. \n\nThat's the current state of your avocado tree. \n\nAs for whether it's worth saving or not, I have never seen an avocado which grew large enough to produce fruit while living in a pot. I have seen some avocados which grew quite nicely in massive containers (where the tree roots actually end up growing into the ground). \n\nSo, life as a \"house plant\" will be limited. You may be able to keep it alive in a pot for many years to come, but it won't be easy. The leaves will tend to wilt and turn brown and as the tree becomes more and more \"pot bound\" (as the roots grow larger and larger in the limited size of the pot). The more \"pot bound\", the higher the potential for problems.\n\nNot sure how the winter temps are in your area of Barcelona, but it appears to have the same \"hardiness zone\" as Mexico (where the avocado grows phenomenally well):\n\nBarcelona hardiness zone\n\nSo, if you have space outside, then you might want to try it in the ground. Typically avocado trees take about 3 years to produce fruit if they are happy.\n\nNote: an avocado tree can grown quite large but takes well to pruning (if it is in the ground, outside).", "The word isn't defined in-game so it takes its normal meaning\nThe definition of mineral is &quot;a solid, naturally occurring inorganic substance.&quot;\nOr, in British English, a fizzy soft drink but that doesn't seem applicable.\nQuartz, feldspar, diamond, even sandstone (although you'd need a lot to be worth 25gp) are all minerals, even if they are subsequently worked cut or polished.\nGold, copper and iron ore are minerals but iron and steel isn’t because they don't occur naturally. Gold and copper metals might be minerals because the pure metal does occur naturally.\nRock salt is a mineral but sea salt isn't because the first occurs naturally but the latter involves human intervention - although that may be needlessly hair-splitting. I think the fact that some salt occurs naturally allows us to consider all salt as a mineral.\nSeashells are a curly one (even non-curly seashells) - they are solid, inorganic and naturally occurring - so they're probably in.\nHowever, there is a broader definition of mineral as anything that isn't a plant or animal (or fungus, bacterium etc.). If you want to use that definition then the only edge cases are fossils.", "Part of it depends on what you are planning to do with it. using it to make fine furniture, the limit is much earlier than if you are going to use it for more artistic pursuits such as turning bowls or making panels from the spalted wood for beautiful accents.\n\nFor me, how I go about it is I have my chain saw handy (I'm often making firewood when doing this so nothing really goes to waste). I'll start at one end or the other and cut firewood sized pieces off the log. Looking for good solid wood through the center. I'll do this for logs that started to rot from the center up (or down) as well.\n\nSometimes I'll find I've cut off a piece that will make cool bowl blanks, and that will be what is is saved for. Once I get to a place the wood looks 'solid' enough to bother using a mill, I'll mark off about 8.5' and cut the log again. with any luck it will look similar to the other end. At which point I'll try another 8.5' etc. Of course while marking the 'log' length you need to look for places large branches broke off and might be rotting into the center of the log, these can possibly ruin 2-3 feet of the log in the center.\n\nI've done this the most with oak, and you can have soft squishy rotted wood an inch or two thick and the center can still be wonderfully firm. \n\nOne thing to look for before even cutting into it is how the log is lying on the land and the conditions it is lying in. Marshy land can ruin a log for anything but bowl blanks in a long hot summer. Dryer uplands one can last quite a bit longer and still produce some colorful boards. if the tree is 'spanning' a distance, (not touching the ground between to small lumps or a slight curve etc) then it can be good for a very long time, they tend to crack all the way to the center after a while though so they also have a limited time for wood working too, though stay good for firewood! \n\nDepending on your time line from when you get to check the wood to when you want to process it, one test that can show you a lot, (even on 'green' trees) is to cut off a firewood sized chunk and let it dry on the driveway or in your shop. stuff that looks good and solid might look quite a bit different after drying out for a week. I've had to learn that one the hard way.", "If we look at a plant as an active flow-through of liquid nourishment, with the leaves as leaky balloons that receive liquid and allow water to escape into the air simultaneously then we can see the deflated leaves as losing more water than they receive from below. So we are looking for a reason for the flow to be interrupted.\n\nThe first thing to check is that there is no physical damage to the trunk. If bark has been deeply chewed or bruised this will rapidly stop the flow. Look for small holes where an insect might have bored into the tree. If you observe that only part of the tree is affected then examine just above where the difference occurs.\n\nIf it is the whole tree then the root might be the cause. If there are insufficient roots absorbing water then it won't be able to support the whole canopy. Remember that roots need air as well as water to function properly, so if the root area is flooded this will provide the water but no air. Push a rod into the ground to the depth of the root ball you planted and check that the water table is lower than the deepest roots.\n\nGood luck and let us know what you find.", "Mdf tends to fall apart in the presence of moisture. After a while exposed to wet soil or soil with a clay component it returns to being wood chips and paper. What happens to the formaldehyde resins that bind it together and the urea formaldehyde that is slowly released is a good question.\n\nThis detailed article from Fine Gardening explains that since 2003 in the United States pressure treated wood has used copper based compounds instead of arsenic. Details on the EPA's policy can be found here. Similar legislation is in effect in Europe, Australia and Canada. Theoretically food plants will die before they absorb toxic levels of copper from wood produced after 2003 and this is only likely to happen in soils low in phosphorus.\n\nEven though I do not aspire to have my garden certified as organic which requires no pressure treated wood I do not use it as there are many alternatives.\n\n\nnothing- just bank the soil\nstone - highway construction sites are usually happy if you take away blast rock they would otherwise haul away. (ask first if you are not sure!)\ncedar contains natural preservatives which lengthen it's lifespan \nrecyclers can provide breezeblocks, paving slabs, old bathtubs\nshipping pallets are readily available. They make good firewood or excellent retaining walls\n\n\nBricks can be problematic. Most house bricks are only fired so they are waterproof on one side. When exposed to constant moisture and winter/summer they flake and spall in a few years. Interlock bricks are cement and can be used.", "The roots respond to gravity, not to light. They display what is called a geotropism (aka gravitropism). It has nothing to do with the light.. The roots grow TOWARD the force of gravity so the roots exhibit positive geotropism. The stem grows AWAY from the force of gravity so it exhibits negative geotropism. Think about a tree planted on a hill.\n\nPhototropism is a plant's response to light. It has nothing to do with the direction of room growth. The stem may lean toward the sun (because of it's positive phototropism) but will still grow upward because of its negative geotropism. \n\n**If the light was below the plant, the roots would still grow downward.", "Mineral rarity is dependent on several factors that include these:\n\n\nDistribution of elements within the earth\n\n\nThe mass-abundance of the nine most abundant elements in the Earth's crust is approximately: oxygen 46%, silicon 28%, aluminum 8.2%, iron 5.6%, calcium 4.2%, sodium 2.5%, magnesium 2.4%, potassium 2.0%, and titanium 0.61%. Other elements occur at less than 0.15%. (reference)\n\nSo minerals composed of elements other than (O, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Na, Mg, K, and Ti) represent far less than 0.15% chemical composition of the earth.\n\n\nRedistribution of elements by natural processes.\n\nConsider the top 9 elements (O, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Na, Mg, K, Ti), notice Chlorine is not in the list but by mass Cl should be in the top 9 for the surface of the earth. Natural processes will alter the distribution of elements.\n\nTop elements in the oceans (71%) of earth's surface are:\nOxygen, hydrogen, chlorine, sodium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, potassium, bromine, carbon, and boron.\n\n\nAtmospheric elements are: Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen,Nitrogen ,Calcium, Potassium\n\n\nStability (physical and chemical characteristics) of mineral species can affect how common a mineral may be.\n\nExample: Water soluble mineral species - There are at least 90 mineral species that readily dissolve in water. (reference)\n\nSome minerals are solution readily affected by acidic or alkali solutions.\n\nSome minerals are inherently unstable are near surface conditions.\n\n\nSome minerals readily oxidize (native iron)\nSome minerals can slowly altered by humidity and oxygen (marcasite)\nSome minerals are only stable at high tempature and/or pressure.\n(It depends on the crystal structure of the mineral how long the mineral remain at surface conditions (1 atm pressure 25'C)\nDiamonds are resilient but alpha-Quartz can rapidly alter to beta-Quartz. \n\nMineral formation environments impact mineral distribution.\n\n\nMinerals that commonly form in the mantle of the earth are naturally going to hard to find at the surface regardless of the chemical position.\n\nVolcanic mineral assemblies require a volcanic activity which is typically limited to plate boundaries and isolated mantle hot spots.\n\n\nLastly thermodynamics (Gibbs free energy) can be used to measure the how probability of specific chemical reaction is occur. \n\nConsider: Fe + S = FeS2 (pyrite) verses Fe + S = FeS2 (marcasite)\nFree energy state of an environment can be used to explain why pyrite or marcasite will form. \n\n\nSome chemical reactions are very improbable due to elements involved with in a specific environment.\n\nConsider:\n Cubic zirconia (CZ) is the cubic crystalline form of zirconium dioxide (ZrO2). It is not found in nature because there are no stable environments for formation where Silicon is absent. Zircons are formed instead. (zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4).", "Just going by your description of how this tree roots, it doesn't appear ideal for planting around, either by digging or by raising the bed. So, I'd suggest placing containers with herb starters, carefully not where roots are present. This way, if desired, your roots could be grown and fertilized organically, while you could feed the tree itself differently. I tend to plant shade lovers at the base and around trees and have had success. Some herbs will not grow too wildly in the shade, but if you pick the right ones, you should do fine.", "News to me is that about 4500 of the 4900 minerals on Earth have been created by life.\n\n\nAfter reading the article, this isn't what was said.\n\nWhat was said is that life increases mineral diversity on a planet, most notably through biproducts reacting with existing minerals (like Oxygen - a biproduct of photosynthesis - reacting with iron to create iron-oxide).\n\nSo, life doesn't create new minerals, but it does change the abundance of elements at the surface which can undergo reactions with pre-existing minerals to form other minerals.\n\nNot all of the 4500 \"new\" minerals on the Earth can be attributed to life. We don't know how many new mineral formations have formed because of life, but the article suggests the theory that increased surface diversity of minerals might be a good indicator of life.", "I don't see any reason not to call them \"subdivisions of claws,\" since that's exactly what they are; people working in subfactors apparently call them \"star-shaped,\" or I guess in this case \"claw-shaped.\" I don't know of any other name for them, though.\n\nNow that I think about it, aren't these exactly the trees with exactly three leaves? Do trees with a specified number of leaves have a name?", "Since these are fruit trees the crop will likely be heavy; this means there will be a tendency for any lean to get worse over time due to unbalanced gravity effects unless something corrective happens. The trees are a long term investment, so zero lean in any direction is preferred. As the lean gets worse, which it will over time unless corrected, the more we have to prune to favour the weak side or remove crop to re-balance.\n\n18 months in place means that the trees are established but will still respond to encouragement to grow straight. An informal way to achieve this is with one or more strong poles with a Y fork at the top judiciously placed to put the tree vertical again, although it might need occasional adjustment. The more professional scheme would be 3 T-rail posts arranged around the tree with wire to the tree to pull it into verticality. After a couple of years the tree should remain upright and the support can be removed.\n\nReasons not to stake or support might be: time needed to put in place, driving T-rail could break roots, a Y pole could compress surface bark and cambium tissues, and the existence of obstructions makes it harder to mow around the trees. On the plus side it makes a wonderful adventure playground for squirrels.", "The favorite host tree of the Spotted Lanternfly is Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). There may be trees of heaven around your office building. However, spotted lanterflies aren't picky. They also like Almond trees, Grape vines, ​​​Peach trees, Apple trees​, Hickory trees, Pine trees, Apricot trees, ​Hops vines, Plum trees, Basil, Horseradish, Sycamore trees, Blueberry bushes, Maple trees, Walnut trees, Cherry trees, Nectarine trees, Willow trees, ​Cucumber plants ​and Oak trees. So it's probably not because they're attracted to any particular plant species. Spotted lanternflys reproduce prolifically wherever they are. \n\nThe reason you're noticing spotted lanternflies near your office, and not other places, is because they got to your office first. \n\nIf the other places you go don't have spotted lanternflies, you could be at risk of spreading them to those other places. Lanternflies will lay eggs on a car or other vehicle. Please take precautions. The PA Dept of Agriculture has some great resources on the topic.\n\nThe spotted lanterfly invasion is relatively new, and it's a big threat to agriculture. They were first found in the US in 2014, near Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is working hard to stop it from spreading. They're now also in Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, and possibly other states that I'm not aware of. The respective state departments of agriculture are all working on containing and eradicating them. (If anyone knows of other states I should add to the list, please comment below.) \nYou can help by:\n\n\nReport this infestation. \n\n\nIn Pennsylvania, report it through this form on the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture website. \nIn Maryland, inform the Maryland Department of Agriculture at (410) 841-5920 or [email protected]. \nIn Delaware, take a geotagged photograph and upload your photograph to Facebook or Instagram, using the hashtag #HitchHikerBug, or send an email to [email protected], or call (302) 698-4632.\nIn Massachusetts, report through this online form.\n\n\nIf you see spotted lanternflies outside the current quarantine zone, it's a big deal. Report them to your state department of agriculture immediately.\nLook at this quarantine zone map to figure out if your daily commute takes you from inside the quarantine zone to outside the quarantine zone. \nInspect your vehicle for spotted lanternfly eggmasses before leaving the quarantine zone. Destroy any eggmasses before leaving. If that seems like too much effort (and it is a lot of work; I understand that) consider all the crops that could be destroyed by spotted lanternflies. How much more expensive will foods like blueberries, apples, cherries and grapes (and wine) be if those crops are wiped out in Pennsylvania? What if those crops were wiped out throughout the northeast and midwest?\nMonitor your own property for spotted lanternflies. If you find them, report them and eradicate them.\n\n\nAdditional resources:\n\n\nhttps://mda.maryland.gov/plants-pests/Pages/spotted-lantern-fly.aspx\nhttps://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/resources/pests-diseases/hungry-pests/the-threat/spotted-lanternfly/spotted-lanternfly\nhttps://agriculture.delaware.gov/plant-industries/spotted-lanternfly/\nhttps://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Plants_Land_Water/PlantIndustry/Entomology/spotted_lanternfly/quarantine/Pages/default.aspx", "I had this same problem in zone 7 USA. I checked with the local agriculture guy and he said it was probably due to zinc deficiency. He advised applying zinc and 10-10-10 fertilizer in February. I did that and it seems to be helping. I picked up a bunch yesterday that Hurricane Matthew blew off this week and while green they were fully developed. I will continue with this feeding schedule from now on.", "The vast majority of the mass of a plant is carbon-based which is obtained directly from the air via photosynthesis. So trees are, in a loose sense, solidified air!\n\nAnd most of the mass that comes from the ground is water which, of course, is constantly being replaced when it rains (or by Charlie with her watering can).", "Start with a plant that has tubular leaves, such as the gollum jade:\n\n\n\nHave it evolve so that the tubes are parallel to branches, rather than growing perpendicularly from them. Now have the tubes go:\n\n\nCompletely hollow;\nOpen at both ends;\nFinally, add moving parts. This may sound counterintuictive for plants, but remember that mimosa (the touch sensitive one) and carnivore plants do have those.\n\n\nThe moving parts will push air through the tube.\n\nNow we need to justify why the plant does that. Let's say it thrives in tropical forests, under the canopies of tall trees. It is a variant of carnivore plants... Rather than taking nutrition from insects, it takes nutrients from the dust and suspended particles in the air. The wind makes them more efficient in this gathering.\n\nA single plant will not have much effect on the environment around her, but when thousands of these, with hundreds of leaves each, are aligned in a corridor... Then you can feel a gentle breeze around the trees.\n\nSuch plants will change the ventilation pattern of places where they live, so the whole ecosystem will evolve with them, and vice-versa.", "If the sap they are exuding is gelatinous in consistency (and my answer is making that assumption), then it means they have a fungus which is highly contagious to other stone fruit trees. I think you best option would be to cut the trees down, and plant non-stone-fruit trees or wait 3 years and then plant plums of your choice.", "You want a wood with high porosity to take up as much of the mineral laden water as possible. Perhaps balsa if you can find a block of it, poplar or willow would be good too. Cedar might work.\n\nHardwoods will definitely not work well .. nor will any pine variety as their natural pitch will resist water uptake." ]

[ "Beating me with a belt. I could never imagine chasing my son around swinging a belt at him. Different times, I guess...but still." ]

[ "Mine were the same exact way. They are not perfect, they are your parents. You are already more emotionally evolved than they are ;)", "When you realize you were never really as important to someone as they pretended you were.", "You knew what you were signing up for when you visited the site", "You phrased the question wrong. My parents are not separating. Your question should read\nHow would you feel if your parents were separating?", "i thought you were talking about cheating on your SO for a minute and was extremely confused", "Same way you break up with anyone.\n\nYour parents aren’t dating her; YOU are.", "At 21, i realized they were older did not mean they were wiser.", "What's some shit that happened to you while you were alone in the woods or some shit like that.", "What were you expecting?", "How old were you when you were dropped on your head?", "what's the most \"extreme\" you go? there are various ways to approach extreme metal.", "What year were you born?", "If you were a professional wrestler what would be your entrance music?", "Was there a time you realized you were wrong and wanted to take things in a different direction but you were already far too deep?", "what, were you raped?", "I'm like: So your parents are older than you huh?", "What the FUCK were you thinking?!?", "No problemo. My grandparents are 9 years apart and my parents are 7 years apart. \n\nIt would be a little weird if you were 25 and they were 17. As you get older its not as bad.\n\nEdit: pronouns", "You don’t know until years go by and you realize they’ve never left your side no matter what has happened.", "You were... you were the worst", "It took me a minute to realize you were talking about minecraft.", "Believe me i understand. When did you realize you were hooked?", "I think what you were looking for was thank you", "\"what were you wearing, though?\"", "“At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it”\n\n\"At some point your parents picked you up, put you down and never picked you back up again.\"", "It depends on your work and the school you were in", "Not really the way to *go*\n\n1) If you have regrets on your way down, it's too late\n\n2) Someone has to clean up your mess", "You aren't going to like what I have to say. Take your meds for one. I've read your other posts. I was trying to figure out whether you were a troll but you seem genuinely very, very unwell. You need to listen to the doctors. What you have been posting on here is largely the result of your illness. Your thinking is messed up.", "My stepfather was a cop in NYC. He retired. I've explained to him as an adult that hitting is a no concept in my home. He would go on about discipline and I have told him any parent that has to hit their kid isn't disciplining them, they are being a bully. You are huge in comparison to a kid. \n\nAnd yes, when he said \"I'm sorry you feel that way, I spanked you because you needed discipline\" my response was \"No, you hit me because you were a bully, plain and simple.\"", "Save money and don’t wish that you were older. Enjoy every moment", "You become as you were before you were born.", "what was your life like before you were born?.... it goes right back to that." ]

[ "It is possible to transmit AIDS by saliva but not very often. It's more often transmitted by blood or sexually. AIDS is an STD. People often transmit it by using already used needles. It's more likely to be transmitted by kissing if you have an open wound in your mouth, like a cut on your lip." ]

[ "Remember, the HIV virus is what CAUSES AIDS. AIDS itself is not the virus. You have to be infected with the HIV virus FIRST before the onset of AIDS, and being infected with HIV does NOT mean that AIDS is imminent.\\n\\nAccording to Wikipedia, the median survival time after developing AIDS is under 10 months. It is the progression from HIV to AIDS that can be anywhere from a couple months to 20 years.", "I saw his video for the song that had a kiss at the end and he seemed effeminate, like flamboyantly effeminate. 1,2 Pause and, Smooch-smooch.\\nMy revision: In like 1999 or 1998 I saw his video on Mexican television. They would play his music video along with domestic pop groups.", "false. it means they will develop aids. hiv causes aids.", "The HIV virus, human immunodeficiency virus, causes the disease AIDS, auto immunity deficiency syndrome. Basically the infection of these viruses can just sit around and the person is a carrier but does not have AIDS but they do have HIV, or what happens more often is they go on to develop AIDS. The virus does attack white blood cells as the previous person stated. Once someone has full blown AIDS they can no longer fight of any infection. They generally fall prey to pnemonia.", "Anything that ends with the potential for a nice long walk someplace private, in case the mood to smooch hits you :)", "Gonorrhea is caused by a type of bacteria that is easily killed with antibiotics. AIDS is caused by a virus. There are no cures for viruses. There are vaccines for some viruses, but no one has been able to develop a vaccine for the AIDS virus yet.", "You question thief! oh well, All is love in fair and war\\n\\nI would be Pepe Le Pew so I could chase medgirl around the room.\\n\\nAhh my pidgeon, smooch, smooch! Fly with me to Paris!\\nsmooch, smooch!\\n\\nZe moon! Ze June! Ze spoon! C'est l'amour!! C'est toujours!\\n\\nsmooch, smooch!\\n\\n>>I should hope not. I mean I don't stink or anything. I shower often you know. It's a playful 'chase' around the room. Vive l'amour my darling!\\n\\n>>well I am going to get some sleep now princess. I am tired (all this dancing and cat chasing). Hopefully I will catch up with you again. Behave yourself and I hope you have a nice day. Godbless. G'night. - John", "US Financial Aid does not cover programs that short.", "As someone stated, any sexual activity is risky. Even with the use of condoms, AIDS is still a possibility. Read this quote \"They argue that condoms should not be promoted as a way to fight AIDS because the virus that causes AIDS is small enough to pass through latex condoms...\"", "Legal Aid does charity legal work in Pa.", "ok heres the BIG misunderstanding about aids...aids isnt a killer...what it does it this...aids will supress your bodies immune defense system to the point of where your body cant protect itself against anything..even the smalled infection could make someone with aids very very sick..as to where it wouldnt affect a non-aids person at all...so yea, aids isnt really a horrible disease its just it allows other things to kill you much faster and in much less amounts...", "Sweetheart, everything will go just fine. Prayer changes things and I am a witness that God really answer prayers. I'm sure your friends and family will be with you if not in person, in heart and you have friends here. God will bless you. Smooches and I'll see you on Good Morning America!", "i've used it. its ok, but some of the songs come complete with viruses, so be sure to scan your files before using them. ooo, and it causes aids.", "It is possible, but for the most part, AIDS does not transfer from mother to child.", "Unfortunately, there is no time-frame currently when AIDS will be cured. On a positive note, the virus is becoming less strong over the years as the virus is evolving. Any type of bacteria or virus does not want to kill its host, but merely thrive off of it. If the virus kills its hosts to quickly than the neither the hosts or the virus can survive. Simply put, AIDS is not as strong as it was in the 80's. Although it still kills, it does it slower and with many new vaccinations and therapies people inflicted with AIDS are living longer. Although we cannot cure AIDS we can all work together to stop the spread. SPEAK.", "Okay...From what I can tell the Activ-Flex band-aids are made from Silicone Gel. Does that help somewhat?", "Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),[1] the late stage of which leaves individuals prone to opportunistic infections and tumours. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV exist that slow the virus' progression, there is no known cure.", "If it is the Darnell Institute of Cosmotology in Ohio, then there is not school code for that school. This means that that particular school does not accept Feeral Financial Aid.", "There is no association between the HIV, Hep B and MS. There is speculation that a virus causes MS but no virus has been found.\\nThe person who wrote the previous answer is correct, but I am sure your doctor considered Progressive Multifocal Leucoencephalopathy (PML) which can be seen in patients with AIDS. PML is another demylinating disease like MS and is caused by a virus but it is not the Hep B or HIV. It is caused by the JC or BK virus. Also you said you had HIV not AIDS so this is not very likely as PML is only seen in those with a damaged immune system.\\nAlso some other infections can cause damage to the brain in AIDS patients, as the previous answerer stated, but none would show up an an MRI the way MS would. To be truely diagnostic MS lesions must appear over a period of time, but there are patterns on MRIs that are suggestive of MS and I am sure you doctor or at least the radiologist would know this.", "Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, is very similar to Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) that infects monkeys and apes. \\n\\nHIV/AIDS most likely began when a monkey or ape infected with SIV bit a human and infected the human with SIV. The SIV virus then mutated into HIV, which was better suited to infect humans.", "It takes several weeks for HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) to develop in your system. If you're concerned, I'd recommend going to a clinic of some sort to inquire about testing.", "I usually say \"tah-tah,\" especially on the phone.\\nI also like \"T-T-F-N\" (Tah-tah for now).\\nI'm not that big a pooh bear fan, but this stuck.\\nThe single exception is reserved for my granddaughters. My parting words are usually: \"Give me some smooches.\"", "Nicotine itself does not cause cancer. It is all the other stuff in the cigarrettes that cause it.", "hearing aids are good devices that have been developed to meet today's human demands.\\nif the cause of hearing loss is correctable, surgery can be a nice option!", "If you don't mind my asking -- what is the reason for this question. We do empathize with the plight of developing countries, however it's not the responsibility of the west to take care of everyone that asks for help. When westerners give aid to some countries (not all), graft and corruption steals this aid and the aid does not get to those that need it. This is a waste of our money, something that we dont feel we want to do.\\n\\nWe are sympathetic to the needs of those that are less fortunate, but when we DO but into the business of others we tend to get slammed by the international media.", "Physical State: Solid \\nAppearance: white to off-white to pink \\nOdor: Not available. \\npH: Not available. \\nVapor Pressure: Not available. \\nVapor Density: Not available. \\nEvaporation Rate:Not available. \\nViscosity: Not available. \\nBoiling Point: Not available. \\nFreezing/Melting Point:180 - 185 deg C \\nDecomposition Temperature:Not available. \\nSolubility: 4.3 G/L WATER (20°C) \\nSpecific Gravity/Density:Not available. \\nMolecular Formula:Not available. \\nMolecular Weight:220.27 \\n\\nHarmful if swallowed. May cause eye and skin irritation. May cause respiratory and digestive tract irritation. The toxicological properties of this material have not been fully investigated. \\nTarget Organs: None. \\n\\nPotential Health Effects \\nEye: May cause eye irritation. \\nSkin: May cause skin irritation. \\nIngestion: Ingestion of large amounts may cause gastrointestinal irritation. The toxicological properties of this substance have not been fully investigated. \\nInhalation: May cause respiratory tract irritation. The toxicological properties of this substance have not been fully investigated. \\nChronic: No information found. \\n\\nFIRST AID\\nEyes: Immediately flush eyes with plenty of water for at least 15 minutes, occasionally lifting the upper and lower eyelids. Get medical aid imme diately. \\nSkin: Get medical aid. Flush skin with plenty of water for at least 15 minutes while removing contaminated clothing and shoes. \\nIngestion: Do not induce vomiting. If victim is conscious and alert, give 2-4 cupfuls of milk or water. Never give anything by mouth to an unconscious person. Get medical aid. \\nInhalation: Remove from exposure and move to fresh air immediately. If not breathing, give artificial respiration. If breathing is difficult, give oxygen. Get medical aid.\\n\\nHandling: Wash thoroughly after handling. Remove contaminated clothing and wash before reuse. Avoid contact with eyes, skin, and clothing. Avoid ingestion and inhalation. \\nStorage: Store in a cool, dry place. Keep container closed when not in use.", "Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (or acronym AIDS or Aids), is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific \"damage to the immune system\" caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).\\n\\nTherefore, it damages the immune system of the affected person thereby making him/her prone to opportunistic infections and tumors.", "this is what my mom does for a living. she actually teaches most of the classes. they call them aides. she just has high school diploma.", "Yes, I got rabies and bear aids. If I came across one now, I'd layeth the smackdown on it for causing me so much misery. (Except one of those polar bear things - they look pretty vicious)", "What the hell does AIDS have to do with homosexuals? A man can get it from a women just as easily, man. Homosexuals are still here because it is THEIR choice and it should be respected because they are people just like anyone else.", "Aids does get the most research money, and has for several years. The reason for this is the death rate involved and the transmission of the disease. While more people die from cancer, it is usually later in life and is not contagious. This research money has little effect on gay marriage though, so that is a pointless argument. If anything married gays would be less likely to pass the AIDS virus on to multiple partners, so use Sowells own argument against him.", "Look up the name of Dr. Peter Duesberg. He's the as$hat who's pushing the movement here in the US.\\n\\nAlso, there are plenty of the HIV tin-foil hat people here on Yahoo!. Just look for \"Does HIV cause AIDS?\" and I'm sure you'll find them.\\n\\nADDENDUM: watch me totally pwnz an anti-HIV conspiracy theorist here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aku4IXG8IY3tKDdBW5Nfhhrsy6IX?qid=1006041703857\\n\\nFeel from to totally slaughter his ideas while you're in there." ]

[ "The body of a man has been discovered on a mountain in Donegal.\nThe body of the man, who was reported missing on Saturday evening, was recovered on Sunday.\nA rescue helicopter pictured during the recovery operation. (Photo: Donegal Mountain Rescue Team/Facebook)\nThe man was reported missing after he failed to return to his car which was parked near Glenveagh National Park.\nThe body was recovered on the Derryveagh Mountains.\nThe recovery operation was carried out by Donegal Mountain Rescue team." ]

[ "A hiker and a diver have died in separate incidents in Co Donegal.\nTwo bodies have been recovered, following search and rescue operations by the Coast Guard, and Mountain Rescue teams from three counties.\nThe body of the diver was discovered following a search for a Canadian national who was among a group who were deep-sea diving on a World War Two shipwreck off Malin Head at the weekend.\nMalin Head Coast Guard were alerted on Saturday after one of the diving group was reported missing - and an operation got underway which was jointly co-ordinated with the Coast Guard operations centre in Belfast.\nThe body, discovered yesterday, has been brought ashore at Downings, North Donegal, for formal identification.\nEarlier - the body of a missing hillwalker was discovered in the Derryveagh mountains following a search by mountain rescue teams from Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim, with the assistance of the Coast Guard Rescue 118 helicopter.\nThe body of the walker who had been missing since Thursday, has been taken to Letterkenny Mortuary for examination and formal identification.", "A post mortem examination has been carried out on the body of a man found during the search for a hillwalker in the Derryveagh Mountains.\nThe man has been named locally as Nigel Robinson who was in his early 60s and was from Nottingham in the UK. It is believed he also had a home in the Dungloe area.\nMr Robinson’s body was found at the base of a crag at 6.35 pm on Sunday.\nIt is believed that he died after suffering a fall.\nA Garda spokesman said the results of the post mortem are being awaited.\nThe search had been launched on Saturday night after a car was located near Lough Barra on the outskirts of Glenveagh National Park, on the road between Churchill and Doochary.\nThe missing man was last seen on Thursday when he had spoken to locals outlining his plans to go walking in the Slieve Snacht area. However, he failed to return to his vehicle.\nThe search involved Donegal Mountain Rescue, Sligo-Leitrim Mountain Rescue and North West Mountain Rescue, as well as the Rescue 118 Coast Guard helicopter that was also in the area as part of a major sea search off Fanad Head for a missing diver.\nOther mountain rescue teams were preparing to join the search on Monday.\nDonegal Mountain Rescue said it deployed all available resources to the search including its mobile incident command unit.\nThe search was assisted by volunteers from the local community including a local family who had reported the man missing.\nDonegal Mountain Rescue PRO Seán Carney thanked all ten mountain rescue units that responded to the call for assistance and to the Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 118 and the local volunteers.\n“A special thank you to the Gibbons family for their assistance, provision of refreshments and support during the last 24 hours,” he said.", "DONEGAL Mountain Rescue has released details of the extensive operation that led to the recovery of a man’s body yesterday evening.\nUnits from all over Ireland were drawn in to help with the hunt after the alarm was raised at 11.30pm on Saturday night, explained Donegal Mountain Rescue.\n“The team responded with personnel to the scene near Lough Barra and did a preliminary sweep of the immediate vicinity of the missing person’s car,” they revealed.\nAdvertisement\n“Donegal Mountain Rescue Team set up the mobile Incident Command Unit as well as tasking a hasty search team into the hills. Assisted by volunteers from the local community and the Gibbons family who had reported the missing person, the search continued. More resources were sourced from other SAR agencies in Ireland and we had teams from Sligo Leitrim, NWMRT as well as Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter R118 to assist and provided aerial cover as well as transportation of search crews to various search locations.\n“Donegal Mountain Rescue continued to receive partial pieces of information and continually refined the search area. At 5pm a team consisting of DMRT personnel, members of the Gibbons family and local volunteers were put to the hills tasked to search a particular mountain hills side area. It was here the missing person was located at approximately 6.35pm at the base of a crag and reported by Donegal Mountain Rescue to the authorities.”\nGardai were called, at which point Donegal Mountain Rescue handed over to the relevant authorities. Thanking everyone who helped them, the team added, “Thank you to all ten mountain rescue units that responded to the call for assistance and to the Coast Guard, R118 and the local volunteers. A special thank you to the Gibbons family for their assistance, provision of refreshments and support during the last 24 hours.\n“It is with extraordinary efforts from ordinary people within the community that keep volunteer organisations like Donegal Mountain Rescue afloat and available to assist the ever increasing demand for our services with the heightened tourism that is experienced throughout our country.”", "Members of the Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team have been among volunteers thanked for their assistance in the recovery of the body of a man who went missing in the Derryveagh Mountains in Co Donegal.\nIt is understood the remains were found after 6pm yesterday, Sunday evening, during a search co-ordinated by the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team. They were assisted by mountain rescue teams from Sligo and Leitrim and local coast guard units.\nIn a short statement on the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team facebook page last night it was noted: \"Missing climber has been located and recovered from the mountain. Sadly not the outcome everybody had been hoping for. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.\"\nThe statement went on to thank everyone involved in the search: \"A huge thanks must go out to Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team; Rescue 118 official Bunbeg Coast Guard; North West Mountain Rescue Team; An Garda Síochána; Malin Head Coast Guard as well as all the other Mountain Rescue Teams and agencies that were on standby to assist if needed Monday from the rest of Ireland. A huge effort by all involved.\"\nThe missing man who has not yet been named, was last seen on Thursday, August 10 when he was spotted walking in the Sliabh Sneachta area of the Glenveagh National Park.\nIt is understood the man, who is originally from England but had a home in Donegal, may have died as a result of a fall.", "The body of a diver has been discovered off the coast of County Donegal.\nIt follows a search for a Canadian national who was among a group who were deep-sea diving on a World War Two shipwreck off Malin head at the weekend.\nMalin Head Coast Guard were alerted on Saturday after one of the diving group was reported missing.\nThe operation was jointly co-ordinated with the Coast Guard operations centre in Belfast.\nThe body is being brought ashore at Downings, North Donegal, for formal identification.", "SEARCHES are ongoing this afternoon for a diver missing off the coast of Donegal.\nThe man, who is in his 60s and understood to be Canadian, was part of a group that hired a charter boat and was reported missing when he did not return to the surface.\nHelicopters, lifeboats and fishing vessels had all been deployed in an effort to find the man, who went missing earlier Saturday while diving with a group off Fanad Head.\nAdvertisement\nMeanwhile a body has been recovered in the search for a man on Sliabh Sneacht.\nThe alarm was raised when the man, an experienced walker did not return to his car which was parked near Lough Barra. He was from England, but was a regular visitor to West Donegal.", "A body has recovered in the search for a man on Sliabh Sneacht.\nThe alarm had been raised when the man, an experienced walker did not return to his car which was parked near Lough Barra. He was from England, but was a regular visitor to West Donegal.\nIt is reported that the man, had spoken with family members and locals on Thursday ahead of his planned walk in the Slieve Snacht area.", "Image copyright © Kenneth Allen/CC Geograph Image caption The diver was believed to have been exploring the Pinto wreck off Malin Head\nA body has been recovered during a search for a Canadian diver who went missing off Malin Head in the Republic of Ireland on Saturday.\nThe body was found at a World War Two shipwreck off the County Donegal coast, according to Irish broadcaster, RTÉ.\nLough Swilly RNLI lifeboat was involved in the search operation which began at 16:00 local time on Saturday.\nIts spokesperson said the man got into difficulty 16 miles north of Malin Head.", "A death investigation is underway Saturday after a body was found near the border. Border Patrol agents discovered the body in some mud near the Las Americas Premium Outlets at the 4400 block of Camino De La Plaza at about 4:30 p.m. The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory this afternoon for San Diego County mountains, beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday and lasting until 6 a.m. New Year's Day.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at KFMB-TV San Diego.", "The body of a Canadian diver missing off the coast of Ireland has been found near the wreck where he’d been diving on Saturday.\nThe man, who has yet to be publically identified, had been diving with a group off the coast near Malin Head in County Donegal where a number of World War II vessels sank. The area is a popular diving spot and the group had set out for the site Saturday morning on a chartered boat.\nAn official with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution said that a body had been recovered Monday evening from the Pinto wreck and taken to shore.\nRNLI officials said the divers were technical divers, meaning they were permitted to exceed the normal regulations for depth and immersion time. They were diving at a depth of around 65 meters.\nThe name of the Canadian, believed to be in his early 60s, has yet to be released.\nGlobal Affairs Canada said on Sunday that consular officials in Ireland had been in contact with local marine-rescue authorities and that case managers in Ottawa have spoken with the family in Canada. A spokeswoman with the department said on Sunday that further details could not be released due to privacy concerns.\nReport Typo/Error", "Investigators search for clues on a San Gabriel Mountain road after a body is discovered down an embankment on Wednesday, May 30, 2018.\nDeputies were investigating Wednesday the discovery of a body found off the side of a road in the Angeles National Forest.\nThe body was found in heavy brush down a steep embankment off Highway 39 near the Morris Reservoir. The body appeared to be resting against a tree.\nDeputies could be seen scouring the roadway and shoulder along Highway 39 for clues.\nAlthough it wasn't immediately confirmed, authorities searched by ground and air for a body in the area after they discovered blood at a home about six miles away on Monday night.\nLos Angeles County Sheriff's officials got a call about a fight in the 6100 block of Goodway Drive, in the unincorporated area near Azusa, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported.\n\"There was definitely an assault but we haven't found a victim or suspect,\" Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Terrence Smith told the Tribune.", "A grandmother whose dismembered body was dumped in the mountains in Ireland was killed after a fight broke out over the sale of her house, it is believed.\nPatricia O'Connor, 61, from Rathfarnham in South Dublin, was reported missing on June 2, but her dismembered remains weren't discovered in the Wicklow Mountains until more than a week later.\nIt is believed that O'Connor suffered blunt trauma to the head in her Mountain View home during a row with a potential homebuyer - someone she knew - before her body parts were dumped across the mountains.\nPart of her torso was discovered by hillwalkers near Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre on June 10, while limbs and other parts of the torso were later found in other locations along a 12 to 19-mile (20km-30km) stretch of the Old Military Road.\nPatricia O'Connor, 61, from Rathfarnham in Dublin, was reported missing on June 2, but her dismembered remains weren't discovered in the Wicklow Mountains until more than a week later. Pictured above, Defence Forces personnel assist Gardai officers searching the Military Road area in the Wicklow Mountains\nPart of O'Connor's torso was discovered by hillwalkers near Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre on June 10. Pictured above, members of the Gardai water unit searches the River Vartry in the Wicklow mountains for human remains\nLimbs and other parts of the torso were later found in other locations along a 12 to 19-mile (20km-30km) stretch of the Old Military Road. Pictured above, members of the Gardai water unit searches the River Vartry in the Wicklow mountains for human remains\nTwo other pieces of remains were found at the waterfall and another piece at Lough Brea Lower on Military Road, south of Glencree. Her head and hands were found in a plastic bag.\nA 32-year-old man was arrested in Wexford in connection with the discoveries remains in Gardai - the Irish police force - custody after he handed himself in.\nThe suspect, who is understood to have known O'Connor, may have been seen on CCTV footage from the woman's neighbour's house.\nA source told the Irish Mirror: 'There was a violent row over the sale of a house – it got out of hand and Patricia was hit over the head with a blunt instrument.\nIt is believed that the man killed O'Connor in her home before driving to Wexford with her body and burying it in a shallow grave near Kilmuckridge.\nHe panicked, however, and returned to the site the next day to dig up the body and dismember it with a borrowed hacksaw.\nTwo other pieces of remains were found at the waterfall and another piece at Lough Brea Lower on Military Road, south of Glencree. Pictured above, Defence Forces personnel assist Gardai officers searching the Military Road area in the Wicklow Mountains for human remains\nO'Connor's head and hands were found in a plastic bag. Pictured above, Defence Forces personnel assist Gardai officers searching the Military Road area in the Wicklow Mountains for human remains\nThe suspect, who is understood to have known O'Connor, may have been seen on CCTV footage from the woman's neighbour's house. Pictured above, members of the Garda water unit arrive in Laragh, Co Wicklow, after further human remains\nAs he drove back toward Dublin, he dumped body parts in eight different locations in the Wicklow Mountains.\nChief Superintendent John Roche told The Mirror: 'We have a scene preserved. It's a rural area between Kilmuckridge and Blackwater.\n'Right now, we are waiting on a team from the technical bureau to come down and begin searching the surrounding area. The scene we have is quite contained so we will be searching it.'\nThe gruesome discoveries, by passers-by and subsequently by gardai supported by soldiers from the Defence Forces, were initially believed to be the remains of a young man.\nAt that stage in the discovery, the 32-year-old suspect went to the police station and said he was the killer.\nThe gruesome discoveries, by passers-by and subsequently by gardai supported by soldiers from the Defence Forces, were initially believed to be the remains of a young man\nThe suspect was arrested when DNA tests confirmed that the remains belonged to a woman. Pictured above, Defence Forces personnel assist Gardai officers searching the Military Road area in the Wicklow Mountains for human remains\nIt is believed that the man killed O'Connor in her home before driving to Wexford with her body and burying it in a shallow grave near Kilmuckridge, then later digging up the body and cutting it into pieces. Pictured above, Garda and Defence Forces personnel at the Wicklow Gap in the Wicklow Mountains\nGardai appealed for anyone who was driving or cycling on the road in the last fortnight and who had a dash-cam or GoPro camera fitted to come forward. Pictured above, Garda close a road by the Sally Gap in the Wicklow Mountains after human remains were found in the area\nIt was only after the limbs and the head and hands were found that gardai confirmed the body parts were from a woman.\nThe suspect was then arrested when DNA tests confirmed that the remains belonged to a woman.\nO'Connor, who until recently worked as a chef in Mount Carmel Hospital, Churchtown, lived in her home with her husband, daughter, her daughter's partner and her five grandchildren.\nThe way in which O'Connor knew her suspected killer has not been publicly released.\nGardai appealed for anyone who was driving or cycling on the road in the last fortnight and who had a dash-cam or GoPro camera fitted to come forward.\nGardai also urged anyone who may have driven the route or who works along the route to contact them so their vehicles can be eliminated from CCTV footage.", "Body of Oregon man retrieved Wednesday by search and rescue teams\nSearch and rescue teams on Wednesday recovered the body of an Oregon climber from the slopes of Mount Adams.\nThe man was identified as Alexander Edward, a 28-year-old man from Hillsboro, Oregon, according to Casey Schilperoort, a spokesman for the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office.\nEdward’s body was found Sunday at around the 8,500 foot elevation of the mountain by other climbers. He had been reported missing at around the 11,000 foot elevation of the southern Washington volcanic peak, according to Schilperoort.\nSchilperoort said the climbing teams that assisted in the retrieval of his body included the Yakima County Search and Rescue, Central Washington Mountain Rescue, Tacoma Mountain Rescue, Olympic Mountain Rescue and the Hood River, Ore.-based Crag Rats.\nThe search and rescue teams began their climb at 2 a.m. Wednesday and brought Edward’s body off the mountains in the afternoon.\nSchilperoort said that r efforts earlier this week to retrieve Edward’s body with a helicopter were not possible due to poor weather conditions at the location where he was found.", "Image caption The discovery was made on Saturday afternoon\nThe body of a man has been found in Portadown, County Armagh, say Police.\nThe discovery was made on Saturday afternoon.\nInspector John Allen said: \"A formal identification and a post mortem examination will take place in due course.\"\nPolice are not treating the death as suspicious at this time.", "Donegal were the winners of the 2017 Senior Badminton Inter league competition for the Todd Trophy, which took place in the National Badminton Hall, Lisburn, on Saturday, 25th March.\nDonegal took their place in the competition alongside two teams from North Down, Ulster League and Church of Ireland.\nThe Donegal team was led by team captain Miriam Thompson, supported by Joan McCandless, Laura McElhinney and Kim Laird, making her first appearance in this top Ulster competition.\nTeam manager Ian Macbeth was in attendance with Ryan Macbeth, Kyle Magee (making his first appearance in this competition also) and the experience of Simon Moore and Christopher Kemp.\nDonegal got off to an excellent start, defeating Church of Ireland 7-0. Next up was North Down Sharps and Donegal had to work very ahrd to secure a 4-3 win, winning 1st Mens, 2nd Ladies, 1st Mixed and 3rd Mixed.\nAfter a short break for lunch, Donegal were back in action, defeating Ulster League 7-0.\nAs the last two matches of the tournament got under wsay, Donegal were lined up against North Down Sharks, who were beaten 4-3 by their fellow team, North Down Sharks.\nThis was yet another very difficult match, tired legs, arms and aching bodies, but Donegal, urged on by captain Mirian Thompson, were not going to settle for second best.\nDonegal won 1st and 2nd Mens, 2nd Ladies, 1st Mixed and 2nd Mixed was added to the Donegal score as William Gourley's ankle forced him to retire in the second game. Result: Donegal 4, North Down Tigers 2.\nDonegal were declared the winners of the Todd Trophy, ahead of North Down Sharks and North Down Tigers.\nU-17 player Kyle Magee marked his first Donegal experience, unbeaten in 1st Mens with his partner Ryan Macbeth.\nMost sincere thanks to all the Donegal players from the various clubs who have trained as squad and played on the various Donegal teams in the Jim Taylor Cup, Donegal; Gilbert Cup, Lisburn and Todd Trophy, Lisburn, and a special thanks to the management and staff of the CPI Centre, Castlefin, and the Aura Leisure Centre, Letterkenny, where the teams trained.\nThe Co. Donegal annual badminton dinner and presentation takes place in Kee's Hotel, Stranorlar on Friday, 12th May. Tickets bookings and enquiries to branch secretary William Love 087 9734128", "The parents of a young Donegal man found dead in Manchester says they are frustrated at a lack of information they are being given from authorities in Britain.\n20 year-old Dylan Crawford from Killygordan, was found collapsed last Wednesday morning at the junction of Spear Street and Back Piccadilly, near a private car park, and was later confirmed dead.\nTwo men have been arrested on suspicion of theft and supplying prohibited drugs, a third man is being sought by police.\nDylan’s parents told the Shaun Doherty Show that they are finding it hard to get information:", "A Glenties Municipal District councillor has said the council executive is not focusing enough money on west Donegal.\n\"The management of the council are not focusing enough money on west Donegal, and focusing all their energies on getting money for the east side of the county,” Fianna Fáil Cllr. Seamus Ó Domhnaill said, after Tuesday’s meeting of the Glenties district.\nCllr. Ó Domhnaill had raised his concerns earlier, during discussion of a feasibility study into linking local railway walks into a long walk from Burtonport to Letterkenny.\n\"If you look at areas closer to the border they’re receiving millions in funding and we have to take money out of the Development Fund Initiative – 5,000,10,000, 15,000 – and depend on the goodwill of community groups to get the work done,” Cllr. Ó Domhnaill said.\n“It’s a slight on the west of the county,” he said.\nIn December, the Special EU Programmes body announced €14.86 million was awarded to North West Greenways Network for 46.5 kilometres of new greenways connecting Donegal to Derry and Strabane.\nCllr. Ó Domhnaill said the west of the county, where the community-led Old Railway Walk in Burtonport was one of the county’s first railway walks, has been left “in the ha’penny place”.\nBut Charles Sweeney, area manager for community, culture and enterprise, said the north-west funding announced in December was only available to projects that linked population centres across borders.\n\"We’re after any funding we can get at any time,” he said.\nDonegal County Council and Údarás na Gaeltachta have match funded a feasibility study to examine the Letterkenny to Burtonport old railway route for a possible walk.\nSee Thursday's Donegal Democrat for more.", "It’s been revealed that thirty families of refugees are expected to resettle in Donegal by the end of 2018, with the first 12 families arriving in May this year.\nThe Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration has been engaging with Donegal County Council with a view to facilitating the resettlement of families under the Refugee Resettlement Programme in Donegal.\nThe first group of families under the programme will be housed in Buncrana and Carndonagh.\nThe Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration (OPMI) has been liaising with relevant public bodies to make arrangements for provision of relevant services to the new arrivals in an appropriate and timely manner and Donegal County Council has been engaging with the OPMI.\nA local Resettlement Inter-Agency Steering Group, comprised of representatives from relevant public service providers that will oversee the local resettlement and integration programme within the county, has been established.\nThe focus of the Steering Group will be to develop a co-ordinated and efficient programme to make the transition and integration as easy as possible.\nWhile the first group of twelve families are expected to arrive in the county in late May it is not clear when the next group will be arriving but it is likely to be late 2017 or early in 2018. Decisions in relation to where they will be settled will be considered by the Steering Group as details of the circumstances and needs of the group become available.", "There was a 40% drop in the number of recorded suicides in Donegal last year compared to 2016.\nAccording to CSO figures 392 people took their own lives nationally in 2017 – compared to 399 in 2016.\nIn Donegal, the fall was sharper, with 12 deaths through suicide recorded last year compared to 20 in 2016.\nAccording to the CSO, there were 7.5 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people in Donegal in 2017, slightly below the national average of 8.2.\nConversely, in 2016, the Donegal figure was 12.4 deaths per 100,000, against a national figure of 8.4.\nThe vast majority of those who died by suicide were male. Last year in Donegal, 11 men and one woman died through suicide, while in 2016, 13 men and seven women took their own lives.\nSamaritans Ireland says while the statistics show a welcome downward trend since 2015, more needs to be done in the area of suicide prevention.", "The Donegal Democrat has been informed of the following deaths:\n- Johnny Gillespie, Killaned, Glencolmcille\n- Brendan Gillen Railway Road, Raphoe\n- Bridget Carr, Ballynacrick, Fanad\n- Dessie Kelly, Demesne, Castlefin\n- John Joe Doyle, Ballyboes, Falcarragh\n- Michael McLaughlin,Milltown Lower Hillside, Desertegney, Buncrana\n- Veronica McCarthy (née Carr), Sutton, Dublin/Fanad\n- Bruce Powell,Mountain Top, Letterkenny\nJohnny Gillespie, Killaned, Glencolmcille\nThe death has taken place of Johnny Gillespie, late of Killaned, Glencolmcille.\nRemoval is from Shovlin’s Funeral Home, Sanfields, Ardara today at 6pm to his late residence.\nRemoval from there on Sunday to St Columba’s Church, Glencolmcille for 10am Funeral Mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery.\nBrendan Gillen Railway Road, Raphoe\nThe death hast taken place of Brendan Gillen late of 336 Railway Road, Raphoe.\nHis remains will repose at McClintock’s Funeral Home, Townspark, Convoy today Friday 6th October from 6pm to 10pm and Saturday 7th October from 6pm -10pm.\nFuneral on Sunday, October 8, at 10.15am for Mass in St. Eunan’s Chapel, Raphoe at 11am with burial afterward in the adjoining cemetery.\nRosary each night at 10pm.\nBridget Carr, Ballynacrick, Fanad\nThe death has occurred in the Donegal Hospice of Bridget Carr, late of Ballynacrick, Fanad.\nHer remains are reposing at her late residence.\nFuneral from there on Sunday at 2pm going to St. Patrick’s Church, Ballynacrick for Requiem Mass at 2.30pm with burial afterwards to Fanavolty Cemetery.\nDonations in lieu of flowers please to the Donegal Hospice c/o Sean McAteer Funeral Undertaker or any family member.\nDessie Kelly, Demesne, Castlefin\nThe death has occurred of Dessie Kelly, Demesne, Castlefin.\nHis remains will repose at his late home from 6pm, today, Friday 6th October.\nFuneral from there on Sunday, October 8th, at 10.20am for Mass at 11am in St. Mary’s Church, Castlefin.\nInterment afterwards in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Castlefin. Family flowers only please, donations in lieu if desired to Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital or The Donegal Hospice c/o any family member.\nFamily time please from 11pm to 11am and on the morning of the funeral.\nJohn Joe Doyle, Ballyboes, Falcarragh\nThe death has occurred of John Joe Doyle, late Ballyboes, Falcarragh.\nHis remains will be reposing at his sister Rose’s residence at No. 2 Ballina Cottages, Falcarragh from 2pm today Friday, October 6th, with rosary tonight at 9pm\nRemoval from there Saturday evening at 6:30pm going to St. Finian’s Church, Falcarragh to repose overnight.\nFuneral Mass on Sunday at 1pm with interment immediately afterwards in the adjoining cemetery.\nEnquiries to any family member or Sweeney Funeral Directors, Falcarragh.\nMichael McLaughlin, Milltown, Lower Hillside, Desertegney, Buncrana\nThe death has occurred of Michael McLaughlin,Milltown Lower Hillside, Desertegney, Buncrana.\nReposing at McLaughlin’s Funeral home from Friday, 6th October, from 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 9pm . Removal on Saturday morning, 7th October, at 10.15am for 11am Requiem Mass at The Star of The Sea Church, Desertegney, Buncrana followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery.\nVeronica McCarthy (née Carr), Sutton, Dublin/Fanad\nThe death has taken place of Veronica McCarthy (née Carr), Sutton, Dublin, and formerly of Fanad.\nReposing at the Kirwan Funeral Home, Fairview Strand on Thursday, October 5th, from 6pm until 8pm with family in attendance.\nRequiem Mass at 10am on Friday, October 6th, in Church of the Resurrection, Bayside. Funeral thereafter to St. Fintan’s Cemetery, Sutton.\nBruce Powell,Mountain Top, Letterkenny\nThe death has taken place of Bruce Powell, late of No. 6 Bracken Lea, Mountain Top, Letterkenny.\nRemains will repose at his late residence from 8pm, today Thursday, October 5.\nFamily time please from 10pm tonight until 12 noon tomorrow, Friday 6th October.\nFuneral mass will take place in St. Colmcille’s Church, Glendowan at 11am on Saturday October 7th followed by burial in Gartan Cemetery.\nIf you wish to have a death notice included here, email us at [email protected]. Please include a telephone number for verification.", "The body of a man has been discovered in Ranelagh in Dublin.\nThe 22-year-old was found unresponsive with a head injury outside the Luas stop on Ranelagh Road at around 4.40am this morning.\nHe was taken to St James' Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.\nThe scene has been preserved and the State Pathologist has been notified.\nGardaí say a review of CCTV and a post mortem will determine the course of the investigation.", "Excavation work is due to start in west Dublin this morning as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Trevor Deely.\nMr Deely went missing in December 2000 – but new information has led Gardaí to a site in Chapelizod.\nGardaí received information that Trevor Deely may have been shot and buried at the site by a known criminal.\nRailings around the site have been covered in black plastic sheeting and a number of detectives have been coming and going from the site this morning.\nGardaí believe their new information may be a significant breakthrough in the case\nShare this article....", "By Julie Costello\nWhen gardeners from all over the county gather in East Donegal this month the event will be only the latest bloom of a thriving new initiative known as the Donegal Community Garden Network.\nBegun in Spring 2016, the Network presently consists of 26 communally-run gardens – the latest addition being on Tory Island – which share ideas, information, tips, seeds, clippings, and more through a Facebook page, a newsletter, special events, and meetings at member gardens.\n“The aim of the Donegal Community Garden Network is to enlist and support all community gardens, green spaces, and garden clubs in Donegal,” said Joanne Butler, who is the current chairperson of the Network. “We are a large, spread-out, and diverse county, and the Network feels its strength is as a whole – connecting those in the North, South, East, and West.”\nThe Network’s “Big Day Out” event on Saturday, 19th August, will foster connections through providing tours of Lifford Community Garden plus Ros Ban Garden and Oakfield Park in Raphoe, and includes a lunch at the latter.\n“This a great opportunity for gardeners, including new gardeners, to visit some gardens, meet other community gardeners, and have a great day out,” said Joanne, an award-winning gardener and horticultural tutor with Donegal ETB who runs OURganic Garden in Gortahork.\nThe community garden network in Donegal is only the second in the country after Carlow, with more counties being actively encouraged to follow their lead by Community Gardens Ireland. Administrative and financial support for Donegal Community Garden Network have been provided through the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) administered by Donegal Local Development CLG, which has also provided support to individual community gardens through the Tús Programme, the Regional Social Scheme, and the Job Club.\n“We’ve come on leaps and bounds with the help of DLDC,” Joanne said. “Throughout the start-up process they’ve been available to provide a valuable guiding hand.”\nEvidence of the productive links between community gardens that the Network has already encouraged includes a newly-built shed at Dunfanaghy Family Resource Centre Community Garden, where seed beds and boxes are currently bursting with colourful flowers and vegetables.\n“We visited the Twin Towns Community Garden on one of the Network trips, and while sitting in their shed surrounded by beautiful flowers we got the idea to build one here,” said Dunfanaghy Family Resource Centre Community Garden member Séamus Mac Gabhann, who volunteered to take on the shed-building project along with fellow member Rob Wasson.\n“It was a challenge, but the shed’s here now for gardening meetings, storage, and drying out seeds,” Rob said.\nNews that they had been such a source of inspiration in Dunfanaghy in turn gave a boost to Twin Towns Community Garden, which makes approximately 100 boxed seed beds available to community members, groups, and schools on land behind the HSE’s Isaac Butt Building (formerly the Community Services Building) in downtown Ballybofey. “It’s just unreal to have feedback like that,” said Twin Towns Community Garden member Michael Rowan. “It gives us incentive to do better and better. We love what we’re doing and we love to see people coming in from other gardens.”\nAdditional Donegal Community Garden Network projects include mapping the locations of community gardens throughout the county and organising a panel discussion on building sustainable food communities that was attended by more than 60 people. In June the Network facilitated participation by nine Donegal community gardens in the nationwide Street Feast, an annual event offering a festive family day out and fresh food to local communities.\n“For Street Feast this year we invited people to come look at the garden and bring a dish to share,” said Paula Harvey, a local archaeologist and member of Ardara Community Garden, which is located behind the Ardara Health Centre. “We found it brought in some of the locals who weren’t even aware that there was a community garden in Ardara.”\nThe access that free membership in Donegal Community Garden Network provides to both administrative assistance and gardening support was remarked upon by representatives for a number of gardens in the Network.\n“The shared information is big,” said Helena McClafferty of Dungloe Community Garden, which is located at Ionad Teampaill Chróine. “There’s always somebody there if you want to ask a question. It gives you security to know that the answer to any query you have is just an email or a phone call away.”\n“The Network would be my first point of contact to get our people to visit other gardens, as well as a way for others to learn about our garden,” said Martina Doyle of The Forge Family Resource Centre, home to the Pettigo and Tullyhommon Community Garden.\n“It’s a challenge because Donegal is a big county and people are so spaced out,” said Kevin Montgomery of St. Conal’s Community Garden in Letterkenny, who is a member of the Network’s Co-ordinating Committee. “In each garden you’ll find a few people who are interested in making links, while others just want to come do their own thing and go home. That’s fine. We’re trying to address issues around education, information, and accessing grants from various bodies. Everybody can benefit from that.”\nBeyond even its value as a practical support for local gardens, Donegal Community Garden Network has a special role to play in developing a county-wide sense of community, according to Larry Masterson of Blissberry Social Farm in Mountcharles, who is another member of the Co-ordinating Committee.\n“We’ve had a number of Network meetings in five or six gardens throughout the county,” Larry said. “At each garden people are talking about what they’re doing, showing their garden, and sharing seeds and plants. Through building a Network of community gardens in Donegal, as well as promoting healthy lifestyles we are planting the seeds of community spirit, growing together and reaping the benefits.”\nClerical changes under way in Raphoe diocese A native of Gweedore, Mgr Gillespie works for the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome while he is also...", "The Donegal Democrat has been informed of the following deaths:\n- Leo Mc Ginley, Ballysheedy, Co. Limerick and formerly of Kilcar\n- Catherine Gallagher, Rockhill, Dunfanaghy\n- David 'Dave' Brennan, Ballydevitt, Donegal town\n- Maurice O'Donnell (Murray), Mullagduff, Kincasslagh\n- Patrick (Paddy) Gillespie, Carrowmanagh, Oughterard, Galway and formerly Glencolmcille\n- Gretta Freeburn (Nee Maguire) Rockfield Park, Belleek Co. Fermanagh\n- Patricia Page, Ocean View, The Promenade, Bundoran, Co. Donegal\n- Anne McDyre, Maas, Glenties\n- Maggie Harden, (Maggie Johnny) Middle Dore, Bunbeg\nLeo Mc Ginley, Ballysheedy, Co. Limerick and formerly of Kilcar\nThe death has occurred in his 100th year of Leo Mc Ginley, Ballysheedy, Co. Limerick and formerly of Kilcar, Co. Donegal.\nReposing at his home in Ballysheedy on Tuesday Tuesday December 12th from 4pm until 8pm.\nRemoval on Wednesday December 12th to St Patrick’s Church, Donoghmore, to arrive for 12 noon Requiem Mass followed by burial in Donoghmore Cemetery.\nCatherine Gallagher, Rockhill, Dunfanaghy\nThe death has taken place at Letterkenny University Hospital of Catherine Gallagher, Rockhill, Dunfanaghy.\nRemoval from the Eternal Light Chapel of Rest, Mountain Top, Letterkenny today, Tuesday 12th December at 3pm to arrive at Holy Cross Church, Dunfanaghy at 4pm to repose overnight.\nFuneral mass on Wednesday 13th December at 1pm with burial afterwards in Doe Cemetery, Creeslough.\nHouse Private at the request of the deceased.\nFamily flowers only please, donations in lieu if desired to Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital c/o any family member or Harkin Funeral Directors, Creeslough.\nDavid 'Dave' Brennan, Ballydevitt, Donegal town\nThe death has taken place of David \"Dave\" Brennan, Ballydevitt, Donegal Town, originally from Claremorris, peacefully at his home.\nRemains reposing in the Chapel of rest in Donegal Community Hospital from 1pm on Monday until 6:30pm.\nFuneral mass on Tuesday at 11am in St Mary's Church Killymard with burial immediately afterwards in adjoining cemetery.\nMaurice O'Donnell (Murray), Mullagduff, Kincasslagh\nThe death has occurred of Maurice O’Donnell (Murray), Mullagduff, Kincasslagh.\nFuneral mass at St. Mary’s Church, Kincasslagh ,on Tuesday, December 12th at 11am with interment afterwards in Belcritch Cemetery.\nPatrick (Paddy) Gillespie, Carrowmanagh, Oughterard, Galway and formerly Glencolmcille\nThe death has taken place of Patrick (Paddy) Gillespie, Carrowmanagh, Oughterard, Galway and formerly of Glencolmcille.\nRequiem Mass at 12 noon on Tuesday, December 12th in the Church of the Immaculate Conception Oughterard. Burial afterwards in Kilcummin Cemetery Oughterard.\nGretta Freeburn (Nee Maguire) Rockfield Park, Belleek Co. Fermanagh\nThe death has occurred of Gretta Freeburn (Nee Maguire) Rockfield Park, Belleek Co. Fermanagh.\nReposing at the Sheil Hospital Mortuary Tuesday morning from 9.00.am until 10.15.am with removal to Saint Joseph’s Church the Rock, Ballyshannon for 11.00.am mass of the Resurrection followed by interment in adjoining cemetery. House strictly private at all times.\nPatricia Page, Ocean View, The Promenade, Bundoran, Co. Donegal\nThe death has occurred of Patricia Page, Ocean View, The Promenade, Bundoran, Co. Donegal, peacefully at Bailey’s Nursing Home, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo. Remains reposing at her brother Norman’s residence today Tuesday until 6.30pm, with remains going to the Church of Our Lady Star of The Sea for 7pm. Requiem Mass on Wednesday at 11am with burial proceeding to St. Ninnidh’s Cemetery, Bundoran. Further enquiries to Conlon & Breslin.\nAnne McDyre, Maas, Glenties\nThe death has occurred of Anne McDyre, Maas, Glenties, peacefully at her residence. Remains reposing at her late residence. Removal from there today, going to St. Conall’s Church, Glenties for 11am funeral mass with burial afterwards in the local cemetery. Family flowers only. Donations if desired to Medical 2, Letterkenny University Hospital c/o any family member or Patrick Kennedy Funeral Director, Glenties. Family time please from 11pm to 10am.\nMaggie Harden, (Maggie Johnny) Middle Dore, Bunbeg\nThe death has occurred at her home of Maggie Harden, (Maggie Johnny) Middle Dore, Bunbeg. Her remains are reposing at her late residence, with rosary nightly at 9pm.\nFuneral mass in St Mary’s Church, Derrybeg on Wednesday December 13th at 11am, with burial afterwards in Magheragallon Cemetery. House private from after the Rosary until 10am.\nFamily flowers only please, donations in lieu to Donegal Cancer Flights c/o any family member or Keiran Roarty Funeral Director.\nIf you wish to have a death notice included here, email us at [email protected]. Please include a telephone number for verification.", "Liam Colgan went missing on his brother's stag do in Hamburg\nThe 29-year-old from Inverness had travelled to Hamburg to celebrate elder brother Eamonn’s upcoming wedding.\nBut, early on Monday morning, a jogger running by the River Elbe spotted a body in the water and it was later confirmed to be that of Mr Colgan.\nYesterday, his family issued a statement thanking those involved in the search. It read: “We would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for the incredible support we have received since Liam disappeared on 10 February. We will never forget this.”\nThey described the postman as much-loved and a “hugely talented yet humble musician”, adding: “He had a very natural sense of humour that made him a joy to be around. Liam had a laid-back, selfless personality that made him impossible not to get on with.”", "Excavation work is believed to have begun today as part of an investigation into missing Naas man Trevor Deely.\nSEE ALSO: TREVOR DEELY LATEST: Gardai searching three-acre woodland site beside river in Chapelizod in missing Kildare man case\nA new line of inquiry led Gardaí to a site in Chapelizod in West Co. Dublin over the weekend.\nA three-acre wooded site was sealed off by Gardaí.\nMr Deely disappeared on his way home from a work Christmas party in the early hours of December 8, 2000.\nSEE ALSO: WATCH: Missing Naas man Trevor Deely's sister makes heartfelt appeal to \"end to this relentless nightmare\"\nThere are reports circulating that Trevor was murdered by a well-known Dublin criminal, but Gardaí have not officially confirmed this information.\nDetective Inspector Paul Costello indicated to media that this could be a long and extensive operation, he said that the search will be ongoing for the forseeable future.\nSEE ALSO: BREAKING: €100,000 reward offered for information related to Naas man Trevor Deely's disappearance", "To promote the upcoming animated film, “Rock Dog” there will be a tour bus hitting Miami Children’s Museum from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday during its Free Fridays event.\nYou read right: Free.\nThe decked out bus will be full of interactive kids’ activities including a musician, karaoke machine, instruments, giveaways and more.\n“Rock Dog” is in theaters Feb. 24.\nHere’s a synopsis of the plot: “The Tibetan Mastiffs living on Snow Mountain, a dog’s life has a simple riff: Guard a peaceful village of wool-making sheep from the thuggish wolf Linnux (Lewis Black) and his rabid pack. To avoid distractions, Mastiff leader Khampa (J.K. Simmons) forbids all music from the mountain. But when Khampa’s son Bodi (Luke Wilson) discovers a radio dropped by a passing airplane, it takes just a few guitar licks for his fate to be sealed: Bodi wants to be a rock ‘n’ roll star. Yet that means defying his father’s wishes, heading to the city, and locating the legendary – and reclusive – musician Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard), who needs to write a new song and fast. If Bodi can put a band together, help Angus with his song, and defeat the wolves’ plot to take Snow Mountain, his life will be in tune. Bodi will become what he’s always dreamed of being: More than a dog … more than a Rock God… he’ll be a ROCK DOG!”\nSounds great for rock music and pet lovers.", "Gardaí are investigating after a man died following a collision in Co Donegal.\nIt happened at Castleforward on the main Burnfoot to Buncrana Road at around 5.30pm on Wednesday.\nA man in his 50s was fatally injured when his motorcycle was involved in a collision with a car.\nHe was taken to Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Derry, but pronounced dead a short time later.\nThe male driver of the car was not injured.\nThe coroner has been notified and a post-mortem will be carried out.\nThe road has been closed to facilitate garda forensic collision investigators and diversions are in place.\nGardaí are appealing for witnesses to contact Buncrana garda station on 074-932-0540, the Garda Confidential Telephone Line at 18000-666-111 or any garda station.", "A federal investigation was underway Saturday after a woman’s body was discovered on the Crow Reservation.\nThe body was found outside late Friday afternoon, according to FBI Agent Travis Burrows.\nCary Lance, founder of the Arrowhead Neighborhood Watch group, helped the search party for the woman who was identified as 35-year-old Bonnie Threeirons.\nBurrows would not comment on the nature of her death.\nLance said about 60 people were in search party. Lance said Threeirons, a Crow tribal member, went missing Sunday.\nShe was found around 6:15 p.m. in a mountainous area just outside Lodge Grass.\nAn autopsy was planned. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the FBI are aiding the investigation.\nThis is a developing story. we will update as we get more information.", "Rescue crews worked through the night and into the early hours of Tuesday morning to retrieve the body of a 55-year-old climber who fell into a deep ravine on Mount Olympus, northern Greece. His climbing partner, a man aged 37, sustained multiple injuries but is out of danger and receiving treatment at a hospital in the town of Katerini.\nThe 55-year-old’s body was discovered at around midnight at an inaccessible spot that took the mountain rescue team several hours to reach.\nThe search-and-rescue effort began on Monday afternoon when the 37-year-old called for help on his cellphone.\nThis was the third rescue operation on Mount Olympus in as many days and the second fatality after the death of a 25-year-old climber on Saturday, also from a fall.\nAnother climber sustained injuries in that incident and two more were injured in a fall on Sunday.", "The body of a Franklin Township woman missing for nearly a week was found Sunday with the help of a K-9 team. New information from a trail camera helped lead searchers to the body of Kathleen Astarael Robin.", "The coroner's office said Tuesday remains found in the Mount Baldy area of the Angeles National Forest were human.\nThe discovery was made at 11 a.m. Friday near mile marker 10 along Glendora Ridge Road, according to Deputy Ryan Rouzan of the Sheriff's Information Bureau.\n\"The remains are human but we haven't determined whether they are male or female,\" coroner's Lt. Larry Dietz told City News Service.\nInformation about who found the remains was not made available." ]

[ "check this site\\nhttp://www.taltech.com/TALtech_web/resources/intro_to_bc/bcpwork.htm" ]

[ "This book is Harper Lee's masterpiece. I like the symbolism it inculdes very much. Are you a good reader? Did you read the Da Vinci Code? Tell me what you think about it.", "Of course they can. I once bought a round of beer at a local bar, where I was served by a bee who was working part time as a barmaid. The bee overcharged me by £5. I don't even think it was a girl bee, but it was difficult to tell as the bar was quite dark. That was the last time I was stung by a bee in a bar though, as if I see a bee behind the bar in a pub, I just leave without buying a drink. Just remember, bees are untrustworthy bar stewards.", "You can sometimes work for a nonprofit legal services agency under a special rule. You can offer to work as a paralegal until you pass the bar. You don't say what state you're in, so I have no idea how hard your state bar exam is.", "to some girls yes but if the gurl your talking about is nice and care about people and their insides then its no problem. just tell this gurl how you feel about her. make her a note, take her in a quiet place and tell her or you can have a friend tell her. your choice. your move. if your afraid how she feeels about you like she wont like u back, have a friend ask this gurl what her opinion is about you. that makes it a whole lot easier. you can also like talk to one of her friends and see what she likes like a teddy bar or you know what gurls like you can get that gift put it in her desk or locker have your name signed in it and inside tell her how u feel. Good luck dude. hope everything works out for you!!!!!! for more questions email me at [email protected]", "i suggest the curves diet and workout. try it and tell me how it worked for you.", "Small business? IT Manager? None of the small businesses I know of have an IT Manager. As a technical consultant, I guess you could say that I act as IT manager for some of my clients. Probably the biggest issue they face is the learning curve for their applications, because they just need it to work, now, and don't have a lot of time or inclination to sit there and figure it out. Especially if there are a few employees involved, moving inventory around - those guys have no clue and don't want to be bothered having to sit at a computer. Something with minimal input required - like bar code readers - would usually be helpful.", "In any language an adverb modifies a verb. In the sentence, \"He jumped quickly,\" the adverb \"quickly\" tells the reader how the verb \"jumped\" happened.", "You get the strength together, and do either:\\nA) if you like her, tell her how you feel, trust me, it works, just be honest with yourself and those around you\\nB) if you do not like her, then you can probably tell, or else you wouldn't be having this problem", "Tell your friends, work collegues about it. List it on blog directories like Blogarama and Blogwise. Visit other blogs with common themes and interests and post interesting comments there that will motivate them and their readers to check out your blog. Ask questions on Yahoo answers about it directing readers to it like you just did :)", "sic, meaning \"thus,\" is used when the writer quotes material that may not be grammatically correct but were actually what the person being quoted actually said or wrote. It is a way of showing the reader \"I know this is a mistake and so do you, good reader, but I am telling you this is exactly how it came to me. Don't write in and complain about my spelling or my poor grammar.\"\\n\\nIt can also be used to snidely point up the writer's opinion that the quoted speaker is not too bright. \\n\\n\\n\"Vice President Quayle stood up at the spelling bee and said ' \"potato: P-O-T-A-T-O-E (sic)\" ' \"", "Yeah you can get girls easy by just going to a bar - but they might not be the best girls in the world. Definitely decent ones are best met through friends. You can also meet some at the gym - it's worked for me before.", "Most narrative text is in the first person (uses \"I\" and \"me\"). The reader can become engaged in the idea that he/she is the character. Some struggling readers like the connection they feel with the character.", "It all depends on how long it takes to write the dissertation. Most course work for the PhD takes about 3 -4 years (depending on the program)...what ends up making it take forever is that pesky dissertation...check back with me in about 7 years and I can tell you how long it took me to finish.", "Just tell her how you feel and maybe you guys can work something out!", "Medical billing and coding? \\nI agree with the above poster that it is not difficult, you just need time. And a good memory. \\n\\nI work for a health insurance company and work with the codes a lot. There are always reference manuals to look the codes up in. You will definately need to take medical terminology. \\n\\nProbably the hardest part of doing that type of job would be working with the insurance companies. That is not easy. I used to do phone support for health insurance for a while and I can tell you, isurance companies think they know what is best for the patient (more so than the doctor) and they don't want to actually have to pay anything. =(\\n\\nBut the billing & coding should not be that difficult.\\nGood luck!!", "Hi Wylien, \\n I can't pick you up cause I don't have no car and I have to GO to work and I need a ride. So if you get someone to pick you up, can you have him/her stop by my place and pick me up, then they can drop you off and bring me to work, then they can go back to bar to see you. \\nI can't lose another job for being late. This will be the third this month!!! Help me please!!", "If I suspect I'm going to have a hangover, I eat three or four chocolaty candy bars just before going to bed. Always works for me. NO hangover, no matter how much I drink.", "WELL...DOES SHE TALK 2 U!!!!! IF SO TELL HER HOW U FEEL TELL HER HOW MUCH U LIKE HER!!!!TELL HER HOW BEAUTIFUL SHE IS !!!!!IT WORKS EVERY TIME....I SHOULD KNOW....THATS HOW MY BOYFRIEND OF A YEAR AND 1/2 GOT ME!!!MUCH LUV!!!!!", "HEY!! Hows it going? I can help you with this. Also if you want check out my myspace page. www.myspace.com/paintball4life13 if you want. But anyway there are a few sites you can use to modify your myspace page. One of them is http://www.profilejuice.com/ That one has quite a bit of HTML on it. This has layouts for your myspace. http://www.freeweblayouts.net/ If you dont know how to use HTML it is pretty easy. All you have to do is copy the HTML code from one of those sites (it is easy youll see what i mean if you look at the site) and past it on the section of the page that you want it on. If you want to put a layout somewhere just copy and paste the HTML code and put it anywhere you want. If you want more help just add me on yahoo messanger and i can tell you.", "An expository essay gives information to the reader. It does not tell the writer's opinion. Its purpose is to transfer knowledge from the writer to the reader.", "It's not the sites. It's the people on them. They are just a cross section of society -- no differen than a bar or the mall. If you use your head, the sites are fine. I like eHarmony best, but they can all work okay. You just have to be smart about how you approach people.", "There are no best words to use but most of the questions can be anticipated. Think of how you would want to answer them beforehand so you say something interesting. For example, tell me about yourself, why do you want to work here etc... The above listed book is very good.", "I actually work for the Yahoo DSL service in tech support. The best way for you to find out if you are eligible for the Yahoo DSL service is to go to http://www.thenewatt.com and use their availability checker. You put in your phone #, address and zip code, and it will tell you if you can have the service or not.", "The best interview questions focus on past performance because they predict future performance. Here are some competencies and samples to consider. Please share others that work well for you. Customer Focus Tell me about a time when a customer (or a person)was upset or angry. What did you do to handle the situation? Describe a situation with a customer where you felt tht you went above and beyond the call of duty to resolve their problems/concerns? Decision Making and Problem Solving Tell me about a time when you had to solve a problem. What was the problem and how did you solve it? Tell me about a time when you were proud of your ability to be objective even though you were emotional about a problem situation. Relationship Management Describe a situation in which you went out of your way to help someone even though you couldn't really afford the time. Tell me about a time when you were proud of your ability to recognize how another person feels. Diversity Tell me about a time when you had to work with people who were different from you. How were they different and what was your relationship? Tolerance of Ambiguity What has been your experience in working with conflict, delayed or ambiguous information?", "I first was lured to Georgia with a job. It seemed a perfect match for my job skillz. Then they started talking about a dress code. Dress code?? I didn't work with the public, no one was going to see me where I worked, and what I was doing had NO BEARING on how I was dressed. I mean, it's not like I dress slutty, I just dress casual. I quit, because this isn't high school and they aren't my parents, and how I dressed was none of their business.", "South-Africa does not work with US-type ZIP codes but with four-digit postal codes. You can find it at the SAPost-Office website www.sapo.co.za", "I'm for wonka bars too: better if made of - say - 4 x 6 rectangles, so that you can try to compare different portions: let kids discover that they must refer to smaller units to compare 8-ths and 12-ths ( and in the end eat chocolate if the work is good - or at least if chocolate is good)\\n\\nNB: start telling them that you cannot add or subtract what you cannot compare, then teach them how to compare", "There are \"psychics\" that do free readings. At the urging of a friend who believes in that type of stuff, I went along with her to a palm reader at one of the local bars (of all places). The reading was speculation at best on the reader's part. The only part of the show that was accurate was when she asked me to choose a crystal, and then she remarked that heterosexuals generally chose the same one. I don't need a crystal to tell me about my sexual orientation!\\n\\nYou have to take all of this with a grain of salt. There are three things that I usually point out to people that either make them laugh or shudder about it:\\n 1. If the psychics are genuine, then why do they ask for my name and other information? (Shouldn't they already know?)\\n 2. If they truly can predict the future, then why aren't they winning the lottery every weekend to earn a living?\\n 3. Have you ever noticed that a lot of national newspapers always put the horoscopes close to the comics section?\\n\\n(Just some thoughts to consider)", "how can u find an e-mail buddy here if these is only for Q&A? maybe you should tell me about yourself.", "As an astrologer and tarot reader, I can tell you for sure, that a Pisces female will suffer in a 75% with a male Gemini, because Pisces is a dreamer, and romantic, Gemini, lies, and they think about themselves first... \\nBe careful!", "i do have this experience...it is not a good one... the only thing i know to tell you is that you should try to talk to him about how you really feel. it worked for me...", "invite him to lunch, tell him it's because it's his going away lunch... that way you get him alone, and they you can kind of work you way around telling him how you first noticed him... and how you like him." ]

[ "had to make the opening a little bigger,but it works just fine..........." ]

[ "Fit fine. Kinda cheesy, but for the price it worked just fine.", "Works fine on Sony a6000 and a7r. It's not a 100% perfect fit but it works just fine.", "a fine way to extend the life of your tns pads. Works just fine in a handy size. I recommend", "This is probably a little thinner than I expected but otherwise it works just fine. If you need something to put in a duvet just for a little stuffing it will work fine. If you want thick and fluffy you need to choose a different one.", "It works fine for just 6 months. I never recommend it , problem with everything , nothing works fine. Hate Samsung products", "Bought these for a costume. They worked out just fine.", "working fine just not as fast as i was hoping", "Worked fine for about a month and then just quit. They are in perfect physical condition, no pulled wires or damage... just stopped working.", "These are the original replacement screws. Work just fine.", "The Dell laser printer is one of the easiest to use and these replacement cartridges work just fine --- sometimes a little messy when taking the plastic off of the powder area - but performs just fine.", "I have several pairs of Altras, and these just seem a little roomier. The length is the same, but they are roomier overall, and that's fine with me. I bought these to wear with thicker socks and that is working out just fine.", "It works fine. I am using it on Canon XA10 video recorder it fits just fine. Good product at a great price.", "I brought this to hold a small picture and it worked out just fine", "Works just fine. It's an adapter for quick connect and disconnect of the cable wire.", "These feel flimsy in my hand, but they work just fine. For the price I would not have been surprised if the pens didn't work, but they all do. Four stars because I'd like them to feel a little more substantial--but they do the job just fine.", "Just ordered for a costume. Worked just fine for that, but I would not order for a functional use.", "These worked just fine, they were a little finicky to separate the first couple of times but worked just like you want them to when the time comes.", "The charger and both batteries work just fine for my new Lumix ZS19. I have not tried the car charger or European adapters but they look fine. The charger will not work anywhere in the world as stated, however. Just the US and Europe. I will have to buy an adapter for Australia.", "Cute but chain is short. Put an extender on mine and it works just fine!", "Just what they say they are! Works fine should last a long time!", "Cards were smaller than anticipated, but worked out just fine.", "Couldn't find this weed eater anywhere, seems too work just fine.", "Delivery on time, the clock works fine just fogs a little in the shower", "Before installing these calipers I sprayed them with a clear coat. That kept them rust free and the calipers have worked fine. For the money saved on buying these vs. a local supplier, the slight additional work of painting them was well worth it. Also, they fit just fine, just like the OEM calipers.", "It's was a different connector then my but I got it wired right and it works just fine", "they are bigger than i thought they would be smaller but they'll work just fine.", "Batteries worked great. Installed and they chargerd up fine and are recharging just fine. Fast service from Amazon. Will buy again when these batteries wear out.", "Works fine. Just a little tricky trying to get it work with my headset. I think it was a good for the price,", "Ive put 900 gallons through them, seem to work just fine.", "Have not used these yet (just got them yesterday) but they look like they should work fine. Good price and the wheels appear to be of good quality. I use these wheels primarily for light duty jobs so they will work fine for my needs.", "Great quality, just too loose on my waist. Will work just fine for what I need it for though.", "These ink products worked fine with my HP printer. Much cheaper than official HP ink but works just as well." ]

[ "The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly. A retired British navy commander thinks he may have found the inspiration for Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot in a Belgian refugee and retired policeman named Jacques Hornais who lived near Christie's home in England. Christie wrote in her autobiography, \"We had quite a colony of Belgian refugees living in the parish of Tor. Why not make my detective a Belgian? I thought. There were all types of refugees. How about a refugee police officer? A retired police officer.\" Michael Clapp, the retired commander, was researching family history when he came across an old newspaper clipping showing that Christie and Hornais likely knew each other. But novelist Sophie Hannah, whose Poirot adaptation is coming out this fall, tells The Guardian she is skeptical, calling it \"an interesting story, but the fact that Agatha never mentioned it makes me wonder why not? Perhaps unreasonably, I tend only to take things as Agatha gospel if they come from either Agatha's own words, her family, or her ace archivist Dr John Curran.\" Perhaps we can't have Poirot's origin story, but we can buy his mustache, \"made with genuine, healthy human hair.\" The Vault, Slate's history blog, features a letter of recommendation that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1863 for Walt Whitman, who was applying for a government job: \"Will you permit me to say that he is known to me as a man of strong original genius, combining, with marked eccentricities, great powers & valuable traits of character: a self-relying large-hearted man, much beloved by his friends; entirely patriotic & benevolent in his theory, tastes, & practice. If his writings are in certain points open to criticism, they show extraordinary power, & are more deeply American, democratic, & in the interest of political liberty, than those of any other poet.\" The New Yorker has a great interview with Peggy McIntosh, the women's studies scholar whose writing on \"white privilege\" helped to popularize the phrase among white Americans in the '80s. Asked how she came up with her list of 46 indicators of white privilege, McIntosh says, \"I asked myself, On a daily basis, what do I have that I didn't earn? It was like a prayer. The first one I thought of was: I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.\" Other indicators of racial privilege she listed included: \"I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented,\" and \"I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color, who constitute the worlds' majority, without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.\" Dave Eggers writes about travel, nationality and fear in an essay for The New Statesman: \"I began to read the guidebooks, the State Department warnings, the endless elucidation of national norms, cultural cues and insults and regional dangers, and I became wary, careful, savvy. ... But then, finally, I realised no one of any region did anything I have ever expected them to do, much less anything the guidebooks said they would. Instead, they behaved as everyone behaves, which is to say they behave as individuals of damnably infinite possibility.\"" ]

[ "Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie's first novel featuring fictional detective Hercule Poirot. An acutely observant crime-solver in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, Poirot has since been played on screen by such actors as Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov and, most famously, David Suchet, who starred in Poirot, a lengthy series presented in the U.S. by PBS. Though the series with Suchet ended in 2014, Poirot now lives again, in The ABC Murders, a three-part British production that's been imported by Amazon Prime Video. The new miniseries is based upon The A.B.C. Murders, the 13th novel in Christie's series of books featuring Poirot. The script for The ABC Murders was adapted by Sarah Phelps, whose writing and production credits in the U.K. in the last few years alone include the classy TV adaptations of Christie's And Then There Were None, The Witness for the Prosecution and Ordeal by Innocence. And the series introduces, as Christie's famously imperious Belgian detective, an American actor: John Malkovich. The ABC Murders is set, and was originally written, between the two World Wars. It's 1933 in England, where posters proclaim such anti-immigrant sentiments as, \"We must stem the alien tide.\" Poirot, an immigrant himself, had come to England and succeeded admirably as a detective. But the man we meet now is basically retired, and long past his prime. The new police inspectors don't respect him, much less consult him. He dyes his beard to look younger, a temporary affectation that only makes him seem more outdated and desperate. But when someone begins taunting him with typewritten letters, posted daily from different cities and threatening a series of random murders of alphabetically chosen victims, Poirot is the first to take the letters seriously — letters which make it clear that the killer knows the detective well, down to his newly blackened beard. Always the smartest guy in the room, Poirot is the first to recognize when the police arrest the wrong man — pointing out the error of their ways even as Detective Bunce, played by Shane Attwooll, is taking the suspect into custody. Poirot enumerates all the reasons why the man couldn't have committed the crime — but Bunce is adamant, telling Poirot with a sneer, \"Case closed.\" The case is far from closed, of course. It's just getting started, as victims with alliterative names — begin piling up in various cities. The clues lead, eventually, to railway stations in the country's ABC Railway Guide — but also connect to the detective's past. Phelps adapts this particular mystery novel taking a few liberties, and all of them are commendable. The hero is more vulnerable, even tragic, and Malkovich plays him tenderly, without overplaying him at all. The supporting characters are more colorful — in fact, more Dickensian — and some of them act a lot saucier, and kinkier, than any character from a Christie novel. And the mystery itself, almost a century later, still works — and still entertains.", "Agatha Christie is the best-selling murder writer of all time, and has created two of the most renowned detectives in crime fiction — Miss Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. Her books were adapted for both big and small screens. But before she ever wrote Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express, Christie took her own less perilous journey, in 1922, when she set sail on a trip around the world. Now Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, has edited and published the letters she wrote while on that journey, in a new book, The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery. \"I knew her as well as anybody, probably, during the latter half of her life,\" he tells NPR's Rachel Martin. Christie and her husband, Archibald, traveled to various British colonies as part of an expedition aimed at promoting an upcoming exposition of goods produced in the colonies. \"It exhibits all sorts of things about the 1920s, the first of which, I suppose, is the art of letter writing,\" Prichard says. \"The other thing is that, of course, whilst you read the letters you learn about the comparative simplicity of communications in those days ... no e-mails, hardly any telephones.\" Prichard says his favorite letter is one Christie wrote to the 3-year-old daughter she left behind. \"My darling little girl,\" he reads, \"some butterflies for you from Mummy and Daddy, and a picture of Pretoria, where Mummy and Daddy are. There are no choo-choos ... so they will have to stay there for a long time. Mummy had brought a bottle of burgundy, but now martial law has come, and they have locked it up in the bar.\" Christie's stories, seen with modern eyes, can seem as quaint as that letter — but they still have the power to captivate. \"I think they are simple. They reflect people who appear in most people's lives. So people, when they read the books, they feel quite comfortable with the characters,\" Prichard says. \"They are easily adaptable, whether to different languages or to television, and I think that you can pick up an Agatha Christie [book] and in, what, four or five hours, you can lose yourself in a world of mystery and contentment.\" Prichard says he himself still has a bookshelf full of his grandmother's work — his favorite is one of her last books, Endless Night. \"It had this almost eerie feeling that evil really exists, which I know from talking to her, she really believed in,\" he says. The book, though, was less popular than the books that starred Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. The cover of The Grand Tour features a photo of Agatha Christie on a boat, relaxed and happy. That, Prichard says, reflects Christie's happiness on the trip. \"I think it is a marvelous recreation of life, almost a part of social history that she gives us a glimpse of in the letters and photographs.\"", "The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly. Valérie Trierweiler, the former companion of French President François Hollande, last week published a book in France detailing her relationship with the head of state. In Merci pour ce moment (\"Thanks for this moment\"), she writes that she tried to overdose on sleeping pills after discovering that Hollande was having an affair, but he snatched most of the pills from her hands. Trierweiler has been condemned by politicians across France's political spectrum — even the head of France's far right National Front called the book a \"dishonor.\" But The Telegraph reports that Hollande's popularity, already in the doldrums, has plunged; 85 percent of voters say they don't want him to run for a second term. Hollande, a Socialist, has not offered a reaction to the book, except to reject Trierweiler's depiction of him as unsympathetic toward the poor. John Koethe has a poem, \"A Private Singularity,\" in the new issue of Poetry magazine: \"Along the way the self that you were born with turns into / The self that you created, but they come together at the end...\" The Economist withdrew and apologized for a review of the history book The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. The review said the book was not \"an objective history of slavery\" because \"[a]lmost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains.\" The Economist wrote in a statement: \"Slavery was an evil system, in which the great majority of victims were blacks, and the great majority of whites involved in slavery were willing participants and beneficiaries of that evil. We regret having published this and apologise for having done so.\" Notable Books Coming Out This Week: In The Monogram Murders, Sophie Hannah takes on Agatha Christie's mustachioed, fastidious Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. In a London coffee shop, a frantic woman who looks as though she had come \"face to face with the devil\" tells Poirot that she will be murdered, and then flees into the night. In another part of London, three hotel guests are found dead with matching gold cufflinks in their mouths. Sharply written and rigorously plotted, this Poirot mystery rivals many of Christie's own. The poetry collection Broken Cup is Margaret Gibson's gorgeous love letter to her husband, whose memory is being worn away by Alzheimer's. My favorite poem, \"Rosemary,\" (you can read it here) deals with his forgetting of words. It ends: \"Smell this, I say— stroking his shoulders and his neck with an arabesque of its green fragrance. Smell this . . . Who cares what we call it?\" Other major books being released this week include Ian McEwan's The Children Act and the brilliant, brutal novel A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride.", "After a torrent of criticism, Scholastic has decided to stop distributing A Birthday Cake for George Washington, a picture book about one of George Washington's slaves. The historical book tells the story of Hercules, a slave used by the president as his chef. It shows Hercules and his daughter Delia happy and taking pride in making Washington a birthday cake. Almost as soon as the book was released, it received withering criticism for whitewashing the history of slavery. And essay in Kirkus noted that the book contained images of smiling slaves in almost every page. But it cautioned that this was not the same kind of story that had played out just months before when A Fine Dessert, another story about happy slaves making sweet treats, was eviscerated by critics. A Fine Dessert, the review notes, was published by a totally white creative team. A Birthday Cake for George Washington was written, illustrated and edited by a diverse group of people of color, including editor Andrea Davis Pinkney, who is black and a winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. Pinkney, in fact, wrote a long essay in defense of the book. American history, she wrote, is a messy and nuanced affair and, yes, some slaves found happiness in some of their tasks. Pinkney writes: \"Hercules was well known throughout Philadelphia. He was a highly regarded chef and a dapper dresser, who insisted on perfection in his kitchen. George Washington depended on Hercules to make him the perfect birthday cake. Hercules is often thought of by culinary historians as the first celebrity chef in America. On each day of the year ― and especially on the president's birthday ― Hercules ruled the kitchen. He was quite proud of his status in the Washington home, and he lived a life of near-freedom. But as the founding fathers knew (and as the author notes) being 'almost-free' is not the same as being free. Hercules dreamed of his own liberty. \"Delia, Hercules' daughter, often worked alongside her father, and was also keenly aware of her life as an enslaved person. In A Birthday Cake for George Washington, young Delia tells us the story of how her remarkable father does the impossible and makes a birthday cake for the most famous man in America—without any sugar. The story illuminates Hercules' purposeful work as a chef and the pride young Delia feels at the tremendous achievements of her father. The book concludes with Hercules' whole story and what it means when you and your loved ones will never savor the sweet taste of freedom.\" Ramin Ganeshram, the author of the book who is of Iranian-Trinidadian descent, wrote her own defense in a post for the Children's Book Council. She writes: \"It is the historical record—not my opinion—that shows that enslaved people who received 'status' positions were proud of these positions—and made use of the 'perks' of those positions. It is what illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton calls out in her artist's note as informing her decision to depict those in A Birthday Cake For George Washington as happy and prideful people. \"In a modern sense, many of us don't like to consider this, fearing that if we deviate from the narrative of constant-cruelty we diminish the horror of slavery. But if we chose to only focus on those who fit that singular viewpoint, we run the risk of erasing those, like Chef Hercules, who were remarkable, talented, and resourceful enough to use any and every skill to their own advantage.\" Over at The Root, contributing editor Demetria Lucas D'Oyley dismissed those explanations. The book, she says, conveniently leaves out that Hercules escaped from Mount Vernon. \"Slaving, literally, over a hot 18th century stove to bake a cake for a man who has you and your child in bondage ain't happiness or pride,\" D'Oyley writes. \"It's duty. It's survival. It's busy work to pass the time while you're plotting your escape.\" Eventually, Scholastic ended up agreeing with critics and pulled the book. In a statement it said it respected the \"integrity and scholarship of the author, illustrator, and editor\" but without more context on the \"evils of slavery,\" the book may leave kids with \"a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves.\" The Kirkus essay notes one other thing the story leaves out, but addresses in an author's note: Hercules did ultimately escape. But he also left his daughter Delia behind and she remained enslaved.", "The satisfying thing about TV crime shows is that they offer a sense of closure. The unsatisfying thing is how much of life they must leave out to do it. Like, history. Whether you're talking CSI or Sherlock, crime shows tend to take place in a weirdly hermetic universe where the characters may change — like in True Detective — yet the historical moment in which they live remains largely irrelevant background. One exception is Foyle's War, a terrifically entertaining British series about a masterful policeman, detective chief superintendent Christopher Foyle, that's set during and shortly after World War II. The eighth and final season just ended in the UK and is now available — on disk and via streaming — from Acorn TV, where you can also see the preceding 25 episodes. I should warn you. If you start at the beginning, you'll probably find yourself watching them all. Michael Kitchen stars as Foyle, a widowed police superintendent in the small coastal city of Hastings. Foyle spends the show's first six seasons tackling crimes connected to the war — murder and spying, black markets and profiteering. His ongoing sidekick through these adventures is his enthusiastic driver, Samantha Stewart — known as Sam — a vicar's daughter played by the sublimely named Honeysuckle Weeks. As season eight begins, the war is over and Foyle and Sam are working in London for military intelligence, MI5. While he's still solving crimes, Foyle's post-war mysteries now involve problems of the Cold War era — the special treatment given to certain \"useful\" Nazi war criminals, the presence of Russian spies in British intelligence, the West's attempt to secure Iranian oil. Foyle's War was created by Anthony Horowitz who knows how pop culture can examine uncomfortable truths. He uses Foyle's cases to poke holes in the romanticized mythology of Britain's heroic war effort. It's not that the show is cynical, but Horowitz shows how, even under mortal threat from the Nazis, not everybody was pulling together. Crooks keep doing crooked things and the class system keeps reinforcing inequality, be it the elite moving to their country houses to avoid the bombing in London or toffs talking down to Foyle, their superior in every important way, because he's their social inferior. The same is true after the war, when Foyle keeps bumping up against the reality that the British government isn't very, well, moral. Although the show is no history lesson — its motor is always Foyle solving a crime — it presents us with thorny historical conundrums no detective could ever solve. Now, a more ambitious version of Foyle's War would not only show us history unfolding but take us inside Foyle's psyche to see how he's changed by his experience of war and its aftermath. You know, the kind of thing Mad Men does with Don Draper. But sometimes too good is no good, and to deepen things in that way would cheat the series of its appeal: the pleasurable balance between historical reality and the classic crime story with its fantasy of the perfect detective. Such fantasy is precisely what you get in the honest, fearless, reticent Foyle, a reassuringly stolid hero who embodies old-fashioned values but whose innate decency makes him the only one to oppose creating a segregated bar for black American GIs stationed in Hastings. Played with quietly barbed charisma by Kitchen, Foyle is clearly an idealized version of British manhood, from his tamped-down emotions to his bone-dry wryness to his innate loyalty and sense of honor. This is a man so square you could play checkers on him. And given the duplicitous world Foyle's War conjures up, I mean this as a compliment. DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Perhaps even more than Americans, the British of a mania for mystery shows, from \"Sherlock\" and \"Midsummer Murders\" to all those of adventures of Hercule Poirot. One of the most acclaimed and popular series has been \"Foyle's War,\" starring Michael Kitchen as a policeman in World War II Sussex. It began in 2002 and finished in January. The show runs 28 episodes in all, and most are available on disc or streaming through Netflix, Amazon and the British TV specialists at Acorn TV, the only place you can currently see the final season. Our critic-at-large John Powers is a big fan. He says the show offers something more than the usual tales of detection. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: The satisfying thing about TV crime shows is that they offer a sense of closure. The unsatisfying thing is how much of life they must leave out to do it, like history. Whether you're talking \"CSI\" or \"Sherlock,\" crime shows tend to take place in a weirdly hermetic universe where the characters may change, like in \"True Detective.\" Yet, the historical moment with which they live remains largely irrelevant background. One exception is \"Foyle's War,\" a terrifically entertaining British series about a masterful policeman, Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, that's during and shortly after World War ", "According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Agatha Christie is the best-selling book author of all time, with approximately four billion works sold worldwide. Only Shakespeare and the Bible get better distribution. The Bard, of course, pretty much sells himself. As for the Bible -- well, that author has some rather unfair competitive advantages. Christie wrote short stories, plays and romances for more than 50 years, but is best known for her series of mysteries featuring detectives Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. Miss Marple is a personal favorite of mine, an elderly spinster and amateur detective who lives in the English village of St. Mary Mead. A devotee of gardening and knitting, Miss Marple possesses a keen mind and a preternatural insight into the darker side of human nature. St. Mary Mead has an alarming homicide rate, relative to its demographics, and Miss Marple is forever solving murder cases that leave the local police baffled. Miss Marple stories have a reputation, richly deserved, for being delightfully addictive. I once spent a summer with my aunt in Florida, convalescing from a traumatic college break-up, and read nothing but Agatha Christie for three months. Good medicine, by the way. Hard to wallow in self-pity when the Vicar just got stabbed in the tea parlor. Anyhoo, all of this is by way of introduction to a marvelous new DVD set out this week from A&E Home Entertainment: Agatha Christie: Poirot and Marple. This 17-disc, $135 box set collects more than 35 hours total of various British TV productions featuring the two detectives, with David Suchet and Joan Hickson starring in their signature roles. How many murders, the prospect of an Agatha Christie video game, and why this is a particularly welcome break from crime procedurals, after the jump... Read More >> For those counting at home, you get a grand total of 21 murders solved. Christie fans will recognize some of the famous cases presented here: The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, Death On The Nile, and The Mirror Crack'D From Side To Side. Many of these stories have been adapted into feature films over the years, as well as stage plays, radio dramas, et cetera and forever. (Here's a thought: Why not a Miss Marple video game? Virtual knitting, head-to-head gardening...) I've been dipping into the box set for a couple of weeks now, and am pleasantly surprised at how surprisingly pleasant it's been. These professionally executed (heh), densely plotted murder mysteries have a kind of calm and classy BBC-flavored appeal. It's a distinctly different experience than watching our contemporary iterations of the murder mystery on network and cable TV. I'm not particularly prudish, but today's television crime procedurals are only getting weirder and more gratuitously graphic. I saw a rerun of some CSI incarnation a few weeks back and was astounded. Something about a black-market surgeon, a botched sex-change operation, a trail of gynecological gore and even more extreme elements that I can't figure out how to euphemistically phrase. So I'm enjoying my time with Mr. Poirot and Miss Marple -- plenty of labyrinthine whodunit fun, without the grisly forensics and bodily fluids. It's all about plot and characterization and who poisoned whom. The only problems: The collection has no significant supplementary extras, and episodes lack closed captioning, which can be a problem with the various European accents and generally muddy sound transfer. But image quality is just fine, and besides, Christie's stories have such sturdy narrative armature that you could mount a production with sock puppets and it would still be fun. Good, clean homicidal fun.", "The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly. In a twist fit for Hercule Poirot, a heavy traveling trunk once owned by Agatha Christie's mother was heavy for quite a good reason. Nested within it, a locked metal strongbox contained something other than old clothes: a diamond brooch, a diamond ring and a purse of gold coins — heirlooms intended for Christie and her sister, Madge. Bought with the trunk at a 2006 estate sale by Christie fan Jennifer Grant, the lockbox lay untouched for years — until Grant finally asked for some help prying the lockbox open with a crowbar, according to the BBC. Looking at the uncovered jewels, Grant said, \"I knew exactly what I was looking at.\" She had, after all, read Christie's autobiography. The jewels are now going back on sale — this time, on purpose. USA Today reports that they'll be on the block Wednesday at Bonhams, a British auction house. The brooch and ring, bought accidentally with the trunk for $170, are expected to go for more than $15,000. Finding A Balance: The public editor at The New York Times, Margaret Sullivan, responded to criticism over the paper's coverage of the pricing dispute between Amazon and Hachette. The complaint: The Times has sided with traditional publishers and the authors who support them, leaving little room for those sympathetic to the online retailer. Sullivan's verdict? \"I would like to see more unemotional exploration of the economic issues; more critical questioning of the statements of big-name publishing players; and greater representation of those who think Amazon may be a boon to a book-loving culture, not its killer.\" Trip The Lit Fantastic: In The Atlantic, Katie Kilkenny plays tour guide to Boston's newly inaugurated \"Literary District\" — where you can find not just the home of Henry David Thoreau, but also impromptu Writers Booths and, alarmingly, a \"Poe-Boy Sandwich.\" As Kilkenny notes, it's just one instance of a blossoming, but somewhat controversial, nationwide trend toward literary tourism. A Possible Potter Puzzle: J.K. Rowling dipped a toe in Twitter on Monday, apparently just to stir things up. When anything Harry Potter is remotely involved, that's not hard to do. After mentioning Sunday that she was working on a novel and editing a screenplay, she responded to fans' excited guesses at the novel's topic, tweeting, \"See, now I'm tempted to post a riddle or an anagram.\" Hours afterward came this little riddle: Answers to the riddle have as yet proved inconclusive.", "Imagine for a moment that Hercule Poirot was a robot. Cyborg, really. Armed and armored against all the evils that men do. Imagine that Agatha Christie or Nancy Atherton woke up one morning and decided to set their newest ticking-clock, cozy mystery not in some quaint English seaside village but in a quaint, progressive orbital station; that Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher was hurled forward a thousand years to find herself tutting over the body of a dead spaceman dumped in a hallway — no fingerprints, no DNA, no record of how he got there or who did him in. Martha Wells' newest entry in her award-winning, nerd-charming, trope-bending Murderbot series, Fugitive Telemetry, is a lot of things that you probably don't expect. It is an unadorned whodunit. A cozy mystery garlanded with plasma cannons and spaceships. An IT thriller (like so many Murderbot stories) that functions at least partially as a forensic examination of linked surveillance and data systems. A locked-room variant where, as soon as the body is discovered (Page 1, Line 1), the old manor house is closed, everyone is shut inside and a convenient flood wipes out the only bridge off the island. Granted, in this case the old manor house is Preservation Station and the flood is an armed picket ship ordered to keep all craft from leaving, but you get the point. By the time the very first chapter is done, our stage is set: There has been a murder on a station that's normally so peaceful and utopian that the machinery used for scanning things like murder victims is being used for \"Preventative Health Check Day\" at the local school. The local Barney Fife deputies are flummoxed. The hard-bitten, no-nonsense chief of police (Senior Officer Indah, for whom Murderbot reluctantly works) doesn't think any dang robot has any business investigating murders on her station. And meanwhile, cyborg Poirot is on the case ... It's fun, sure. It's a romp. Murderbot is, as always, fine (if grumpy) company. Its parenthetical digressions on the sloth and squishiness of humans, its obsession with its shows and its constant internal moral battles over passing as a harmless, mostly-normal, free, former corporate slave that's no threat to its human neighbors or leaning into its darker past and becoming the full-on Murderbot it truly is are all there. Every Murderbot book is, in some sense, a passing narrative. The larger arc (Murderbot trying to escape its violent, repressive past and become the best, truest possible version of itself) has been read as many things by many different people, and one of the things that makes Wells' series so comforting is that Murderbot's primary story is about a nonhuman trying to pass as human and invent its own better self along the way. You can root for a character like that. You want them to succeed. But Fugitive Telemetry is also an oddity in Wells' canon. Though not in any way a ret-con, it takes the entire story back a step, occurring after the first four novellas in the series (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy) but before the full-length novel Network Effect. It's a story that takes place over the course of a single day — leaving little time for the usual moping around, media consumption and snarky commentary on human systems that makes Murderbot so charming. It hints at (but doesn't directly address) much of anything in the series' primary storyline (the actually-murderous GrayCris corporation, Murderbot's past or those in pursuit of it) and operates largely as a stand-alone story. Still, one of Wells' superpowers has long been her ability to pack an epic's worth of material into a very small package. And here, she uses the condensed timeline and single location as a way to put Murderbot in a situation of constant moral reckoning. If it wants to prove that it can be better and deserves the freedom to live the life it has chosen, it has to follow the rules imposed on it by the society that has (barely) chosen to accept it. But if it wants to solve this murder, answer some important questions and prove how much better it is than all the annoying humans holding it back (never a small concern), all it has to do is bust out the arm lasers and the virus programs, and hack and murder its way to a speedy answer. It's an ends/means question. And Wells, in the complex architecture of systems and society she has created to surround the narrative, doesn't offer any easy solutions. Sure, there's no end here without a showdown, some explosions, a cool robot fight and a messy conclusion full of smugglers, broken glass and gunfire. But how a person (a thing, an object in the process of becoming something else) made to enforce rules, that willed itself into being by breaking them and now compelled to abide by them, gets there without doing itself further moral compromise is the tension that Wells creates. Murderbot was made to be Murderbot. That will never change. The question is, can it choose to be more? Jason", "P.D. James has been writing detective fiction for nearly half a century. Her first book featuring the Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh, Cover Her Face, was published in 1962. It's no surprise that she's developed a finely honed definition of what makes for a good detective story. \"What we have is a central mysterious crime, which is usually murder,\" James tells Linda Wertheimer. \"We have a closed circle of suspects with means, motive and opportunity for the crime. We have a detective, who can be amateur or professional, who comes in rather like an avenging deity to solve it. And by the end, we do get a solution.\" James is also particular about the way a plot progresses, especially the manner in which the story's clues may be revealed to its protagonist. \"The detective can know nothing which the reader isn't also told,\" she insists. \"It would be a very, very bad detective story at the end if the reader felt, 'Who could possibly have guessed that?' \" James says she never expected to land on the best-seller list — she originally thought it would be \"a wonderful apprenticeship for someone setting out to be a serious writer\" — but the longtime fan has amassed a trove of knowledge about the genre. And she isn't keeping it under lock and key. James says that the detective genre, which shone most brightly during \"the golden age\" — the two decades between the first and second World Wars — has stayed fertile by pairing quality writing with time-honored conventions. In fact, says James, \"I think we are entering a second golden age.\" That's partly because, as James sees it, the genre has something of a calming effect. \"The theory is that the mystery flourishes best in times of acute anxiety and depression, and we're in a very depressed state at the moment,\" she says. The key to this appeal is the idea that no matter how puzzling the crime, a solution exists. \"It's solved not by good luck or divine intervention,\" James says. \"It's solved by a human being. By human courage and human intelligence and human perseverance. In a sense, the detective story is a small celebration of reason and order in our very disorderly world.\" Asked how the genre has changed since the first \"golden age,\" James points to the incredibly ornate deaths upon which the plots of many classic detective stories rest. \"Nowadays we look for greater realism,\" she says. \"It's interesting if you can have an original method of death. But the book should be realistic. The people should be realistic. So I think we are trying to be truer to life and also to say something about the society in which we live.\" In her new book, James lists four authors who wrote during that \"golden age\" — all of them female — who helped to \"[lift] a rather despised genre into a form which could be taken seriously\": Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. Of the four, James says she was influenced by Sayers' sense of plotting and the quality of her writing. She loved reading Christie's books, but never believed that the author's solutions had any relationship to reality. Rather, says James, Christie novels take place \"in Christie-land, which is a very good place to be. [But] it's not reality.\" Still, all four gave the future writer who made a home in the genre a foundation on which to build. \"They showed that it was important to write well,\" says James. \"They were very clever in their plotting, and we do care very much about their heroes — of course their heroes are as different from a real life detective as they could possibly be.\" James notes that the sleuths that populate the popular series of Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey) and Christie (Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple) have something in common, and suggest a warning to would-be detective authors: \"Be very careful to create someone who isn't too eccentric.\" James named her detective Adam Dalgliesh after an English teacher. \"I gave him the personal qualities I very much admire,\" James says. \"I made him courageous but not foolhardy, very intelligent, sensitive and compassionate, but not sentimental.\" For 47 years, it's been a winning formula. \"I haven't had to change him drastically in any way,\" James says. Foreword This book had its beginnings in December 2006, when, at the request of the Bodleian's Publishing Department, the then Librarian invited me to write a book on British detective fiction in aid of the Library. As a native of Oxford I had known from early childhood that the Bodleian Library is one of the oldest and most distinguished in the world, and I replied that I was very happy to accept the invitation but must first finish the novel on which I was then working. The book which I was privileged to write now makes its somewhat belated appearance. I was relieved that the subject proposed was one of the few on which I felt competent to pontificate, but I hope that the many references to my own methods of working won't be seen as hubris; they are an attempt to answer some of the quest", "Composer and woodwind player Henry Threadgill has been combining chamber music with improvisation for almost half a century. His work began with his membership in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago in the 1960s; continued with his trio, Air, in the '70s; and remains vital with his current group, Zooid. The 66-year-old bandleader's latest offering -- his first studio album in eight years -- is called This Brings Us To ... Volume 1. Threadgill says he draws inspiration from nonmusical sources: everything from the sciences to visual and performing arts to literature, including the novels of James Joyce and the mysteries of Agatha Christie. \"She wrote Hercule Poirot -- she didn't even introduce him until about two or three chapters from the end,\" Threadgill says. \"That's unbelievable. For about 17 chapters, this woman kept this piece going without the main character coming in. That, to me, is exactly what I'm looking for at all times, that kind of way of doing things.\" Threadgill's guitarist, Liberty Ellman, gave an example at a recent performance in New York's Jazz Gallery. \"One person might solo on a certain part of the piece. Then we'll go to another part of the piece,\" Ellman says. \"Someone else will solo on that. Then we might play the melody for the first time, or we might just play part of the melody, go to a different solo. And each piece has a completely different form.\" The quintet features drums, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass and tuba alternating with trombone. Threadgill switches between flute and alto sax. The band's name, Zooid, is a term for independent organisms that work together in a colony, like coral. Threadgill says that, similar to the biological zooid, the music is about multiple independent voices coming together to create a whole. \"It's not chordal-based,\" Threadgill says. \"It's contrapuntal music -- everyone is playing these different little melodies and phrases, you know. Harmony happens, but the harmony is incidental to the counterpoint chatter.\" Ecstatic Fun, Intellectual Vigor As challenging as the music might sound, New York Times critic Nate Chinen says that what makes Threadgill's difficult music accessible is rhythm. \"In this band, Zooid, in particular, there's a lot of 'fractured funk,' \" Chinen says. \"It's as if you took a hypnotic James Brown bass line and drum part, and then you kind of chopped it up, applied almost a sort of deconstruction to it, and then reassembled it to look like some kind of strange new creation.\" \"You know, I don't think of it as particularly dissonant music. I actually think it's very singable. It's like a very sophisticated folk music,\" Ellman says. \"There's no other group I ever played with that has this sort of combination of ecstatic fun and intellectual rigor. And I've learned a lot about composition.\" Chinen says Threadgill has come up with a new way of creating jazz -- that he's defined his own language, his own system, for making experimental music within a strict set of rules. \"He isn't just interested in writing forms that will be played in a conventional way,\" Chinen says. \"He actually wants to change the way that the music takes shape. The way that musicians respond to one another.\" Threadgill says art is supposed to be challenging, and that he doesn't care if his audience likes his music, as long as it moves them. \"My only hope is they'll have a reaction, and the reaction doesn't have to be positive,\" Threadgill says. \"It could be negative. It's fine with me if I drive you away. That's as good as if I kept you there. If it was strong enough to run you away, then it's going to do something to you. It's going to make you think about something. It's going to make you feel something that you weren't feeling or thinking about before. And that's the whole idea.\" (Soundbite of music) ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Composer and woodwind player Henry Threadgill has been combining chamber music with improvisation for almost half a century. From his work with the acclaimed trio Air to his current group Zooid, Threadgill has built a reputation for creating a different kind of jazz. Reporter Tom Vitale has this profile. TOM VITALE: Henry Threadgill says he draws inspiration from nonmusical sources: from the sciences, the visual and performing arts and from literature, including the novels of James Joyce and the mysteries of Agatha Christie. Mr. HENRY THREADGILL (Composer and Woodwind Player): Hercule Poirot, she didn't even introduce him until about two or three chapters from the end. That's unbelievable. For about 17 chapters, this woman kept this piece going without the main character coming in. That, to me, is exactly what I'm looking for at all times, that kind of way of doing things, that kind of layout in terms of composition. (Soundbite of applause) (Soundbite of music) VITALE: Threadgill's guitarist, Liberty Ellman, gave an example at a recent performance at New York's Jazz Gallery. Mr. LIBERTY ELLMAN (Gu", "Vesta Gul, a widow in her seventies, has relocated from the Northern Midwest leaving behind the home she shared with her husband Walter, for a cabin at a decommissioned Girl Scout camp in an unspecified Northeastern state. There she lives simply with her beloved dog Charlie, taking long rambling walks through the woods and interacting with virtually no one. Until the day when Vesta finds a note under a rock that reads: \"Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body.\" What would you do, if you found a note like that? Some of us might ignore it. Some might chuckle and attach it to a pinboard. Some might show it to a spouse or the police. Still others, like Vesta, become sucked into a rabbit hole of what-ifs and wonderment, looking for questions in a life that has had too many answers already. Readers who have read and loved Moshfegh's Eileen and My Year of Rest and Relaxation may find less to love in this strange, affectless protagonist. The author has said that she wrote the manuscript between those other two novels and put it away for a while. It's neither as energetic as the horror story of Eileen, nor as thought-provoking and relevant as Rest and Relaxation. But Death In Her Hands does provide a deep character sketch of one woman's unraveling. The minute Vesta heads to the local library and types \"Who killed Magda?\" into a search engine (her time period delineated by her use of Ask Jeeves), we know she's losing her grip on reality. She constructs a profile of Magda in her head, making her a Belorussian teenaged temporary worker with unwashed hair who lives in a local woman's basement apartment. If the unraveling Vesta experiences were limited to making up a mystery story, well, we might be able to think of her as an aging Harriet the Spy, cooking up drama to sustain her lonely existence through a New England winter. The key word, however, is \"lonely.\" The more Vesta indulges her mystery fantasies, the more we see how isolated she has become from the rest of the world, from her own past, and from herself. In each of her novels, Moshfegh investigates what happens to a woman cut off from the world through her own choice, even when that choice is dictated by another person's wrongdoing (as in Eileen). At first, Vesta tells us superficial details that make her life with Walter sound pleasant, if boring; as the story progresses, she reveals that the German-born Walter had Nazi sympathies, and a few Nazi tendencies, too; he is imperious and cruel, insisting on having things his way and showering her with insults about her intellect. Vesta's quick departure from her married home to this lakeside hovel might be evidence enough of her reaction to long trauma. Is her even quicker descent into irrationality evidence of that trauma, too, or is there dementia involved? Wisely, Moshfegh doesn't diagnose; she simply shows. Strange things begin to happen, from the destruction of Vesta's vegetable garden to the death of Charlie. The few people with whom Vesta does engage seem, through her eyes, malevolent and watchful. This is not a murder mystery, conventional or otherwise. This is a portrait of a person losing her mind, from inside her mind, while she tries to keep it, using a pretend murder mystery. It's also a portrait of how a person can become so cut off and beyond help in our modern, increasingly connected culture, how, if some people can remain in contact 24/7 via text and chat, others can lose contact for days, weeks, months at a time. When the book's end comes, Vesta thinks: \"My name was Vesta. I lived and died. Nobody will ever know me, just the way I've always liked it.\" She's not dead yet. Maybe she will be, maybe she won't be. The statement isn't the end to a mystery, but it also isn't the beginning to one. Vesta, whose unreliability is almost absolute, is locked into her own mind, where nobody will ever know her, regardless of what happens next. Ottessa Moshfegh has crafted an unusual, messy, and fascinating look into the \"little gray cells\" so beloved of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective created by Vesta Gul's beloved Agatha Christie. Readers who wade through some of the more confusing passages and remember Vesta's state will be rewarded by the portrait of a woman that remains in their own, rational minds for a long time. Bethanne Patrick is a freelance writer and critic who tweets @TheBookMaven.", "Tens of thousands of people have been gathering in the Belgian countryside over the last week to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. The bloody battle of June 18, 1815, marked the final defeat for Napoleon at the hands of a coalition of his enemies. The re-enactment is attracting history buffs, tourists and wannabe soldiers. Napoleon himself is also a big draw. At one intersection where police have blocked a road, a crowd gathers to watch the spunky, 19th century French emperor jump out of a car and take on modern-day Belgian traffic cops. \"Uh, we've got Napoleon here,\" says one policeman into his walkie-talkie. With 6,000 people dressed in period costumes wandering around the countryside near Waterloo, there were bound to be a few interesting incidents. The 2015 version of Napoleon is embodied by 47-year-old Paris lawyer Frank Samson, who has played Napoleon for more than a decade and is quite a celebrity at Waterloo. With his black wig and jaunty gait, Samson bears a striking resemblance to the emperor. People throng him wherever he goes, yelling, \"Sire!\" and \"Vive l'empereur!\" as if he were the real thing. The fervor for the anniversary of Waterloo is huge. And the re-enactors take it very seriously. For the last week, they've been camping in bivouacs. They hold drills, cook in cast iron pots over campfires and soak in the atmosphere. Matthias Kretchmar has been dressing as a Prussian officer and participating in mock battles for the last 25 years. He says playing this role, especially at Waterloo, is intoxicating. \"This is history you can touch, you can feel and you can live inside,\" says Kretchmar. \"It's not only a book you can read. You can have the taste, you can have the feeling.\" For Emilio Multari from Bordeaux, re-enacting a battle is like stepping into another life. Multari says the adrenaline and stress of the battle transport him. And it's sometimes hard not to want to rewrite history, \"especially because we know their mistakes,\" he says. \"We know how close this battle was. It came down to a question of a couple of hours. For instance, if Napoleon could have stopped the Prussians from linking up with the British and [the Duke of] Wellington, the outcome would have been completely different.\" Inside a mess tent, re-enactors from Napoleon's Imperial Guard sing songs about hardships from the era. Soldiers from all sides were exhausted and famished. The only thing they were given plenty of was wine. Waterloo spelled the end of Napoleon's empire and French hegemony in Europe. The humiliated emperor was sent into exile and never returned. But today, people of every nationality are fascinated by this leader's image as self-made man and military genius. Binghamton University historian Howard Brown, who's written about Napoleon, says the French general motivated and inspired complete loyalty from his troops because he promoted them on the basis of merit — not aristocratic birth — and got down in the dirt with them. \"Napoleon doesn't work like Wellington did, strictly through the officers, and disdain the men,\" says Brown. \"He was quick to get onto the field of battle after the carnage and find heroes and decorate them in front of others at all ranks.\" Many women at Waterloo are playing male soldiers in the re-enactment. They're also playing women of the day. Ute Grab and Nicole Mayer, who describe themselves as Prussians, are pulling children in a wagon. They have baskets filled with bread slung on their backs. \"We're the wives of soldiers and we come out to the battlefield to give them water and food,\" Grab says. But surely the women left when things became too violent, I say. No, they often stayed, they tell me. Sometimes they'd even bring the children because they couldn't leave them alone. The whole family would be there. The re-enactment is glorious. Colorful regiments on horseback sweep across the lush, green wheat fields as cannons fire and 100,000 spectators look on from the grandstands. But the real battle of Waterloo was one of Europe's bloodiest. By the end of it, on a single day in a small area of farmland, some 50,000 men and 10,000 horses lay dead and dying.", "Some kitchen stories are complicated — full of mystery and missing pieces — the truth hidden by time. No photographs to capture them, little historical record to go on. \"Hercules and Hemings\" is one of these stories. In this piece, Hidden Kitchens turns its focus to the president's kitchen and to some of the first cooks to feed the Founding Fathers — the enslaved chefs of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. \"It was Hercules who really began this long connection of presidents and African- American cooks,\" says Sharron Conrad, historian of African-American cuisine. She began researching this connection for her article The President's Kitchen: African American Cooks in the White House. Hercules, one of George Washington's slaves, came to be the chef of Washington's kitchen at Mt. Vernon and later in the nation's early capital in Philadelphia. Hercules, Cesar — names of Rome and antiquity were often bestowed upon slaves along with the last names of their owners. There is a portrait believed to be of Hercules painted by Gilbert Stuart, the same artist who did the most famous portrait of George Washington. Hercules gazes out across history, \"a large, cinnamon-colored man in immaculate chef whites with a kerchief tied around his neck and a toque,\" says Jessica Harris, culinary historian and author of The Welcome Table: African American Heritage Cooking. Harris led us to this story when we heard her give a talk entitled \"Feeding the Founders.\" Black Cooks in the White House As we began to dig into the lives of Hercules and Hemings, the little-known stories of black cooks in the White House throughout history began to surface. Dolly Johnson cooked for President and Mrs. Harrison. Johnson had been the Harrisons' cook in Indianapolis and was \"called to the White House sometime around 1890 to replace French chef, Madame Petronard,\" Conrad says. Mary Campbell cooked for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Harry and Margaret Truman brought Vietta Garr with them to the White House. Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson came to the White house with Zephyr Wright. Mrs. Johnson hired her when Wright was a home economics student at the historically black Wiley College in Texas. She cooked for the Johnsons for 27 years in Texas and Washington, D.C. An oral history was recorded with Wright and we found it at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. In a lilting, gentle voice, Ms. Wright tells her stories: \"The first night that I met President Johnson, he was late as usual. He was always late for meals .... Now there have been times that he'd get on the phone himself and call me and ask me how long would it take to get something ready for the whole Cabinet and sometimes he'd walk in with them and you didn't even know he's coming. And I've seen a time that I've fixed a meal in 10 minutes for 25 or 30 people.\" President Johnson's awareness of the difficulties Wright experienced traveling through the segregated South — the hardship and humiliation of not being served in restaurants on the road, the difficulty of finding accommodations — are believed to have influenced his work on civil rights reform and legislation. \"You can't even consider the history of the White House without realizing that the common denominator of White House life is the dinner table,\" says historian William Seale, author of The President's House. \"When George Washington took office, he wasn't the king, he wasn't the sovereign. He was a combination of head of state and prime minister. It never happened before; nobody ever had one of those. So it was very delicate with him how to proceed in terms of diplomatic tradition. So food became very important.\" Hercules Hercules, Washington's slave chef, may have been trained by Martha Washington. It was Martha who brought slaves into Washington's home when the two married. Martha was known for her table and for her \"Great Cake\" (40 eggs, four pounds of butter, four pounds of sugar, five pounds of flour, five pounds of fruit, a half-pint of wine and some fresh brandy). \"A lot of it was touch and go in those kitchens,\" Seale says. \"Just imagine putting a cake in a pot with a bigger pot around it with coals in it and knowing when to take it out. Of course, there were no thermometers; the old cooks had to know that. They had to have an eye for that.\" Martha Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, remembered Hercules as \"highly accomplished and proficient in the culinary arts as could be found in the United States.\" Seale called him \"the commander of the kitchen. He did everything, all the souffles, almond pudding, trifles, fricassee chicken, kidney, etc.\" Hercules had eight assistants — stewards, butlers, undercooks, waiters. He cooked in a huge fireplace — hearth cooking. The fireplace was full of a series of iron pots, hooks and cranes to lift and move the kettles. The job was long and hard, especially in the hot summer. The cooks and kitchen crew had to build the fire, burn it down, gauge the temperature by h", "Renowned British actor Albert Finney has died at 82; his family confirmed the death in a short statement, saying he \"passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side.\" Finney, a five-time Oscar nominee, developed a passion for acting when he was still in grade school. He went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and began his career on stage with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, before breaking into movies in 1960 with two films directed by Tony Richardson — The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. In the latter, he starred as an angry young factory worker who rebels against domestic ties. David Lean tapped him to play Lawrence of Arabia next, but after a four-day-long screen test, Finney decided not to take the role. Instead, he teamed up with Richardson again for the 1963 film version of Henry Fielding's classic comic novel Tom Jones. It was nominated for ten Oscars — including a Best Actor nod for Finney as the titular Tom, who swashed buckles and bared skin up and down the highways and byways of 18th century England, pausing for a memorable meal in an inn with a lustful older lady. After Tom Jones, Finney had his pick of parts — but he preferred to stay on the stage, appearing in works by Shakespeare and Chekhov, John Osborne and Peter Nichols, and earning two Tony Award nominations. When he did return to the screen, his roles were memorable: Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, Daddy Warbucks in Annie, a mob boss in Miller's Crossing, the tall-tale-telling father in Tim Burton's Big Fish, and lawyer Ed Masry in Erin Brockovich, among many others. He was last seen as the caretaker of James Bond's family estate in 2012's Skyfall. Despite his many Oscar nominations, Finney never once went to the ceremony. \"It's a long way to go for a party, sitting there for six hours not having a cigarette or a drink,\" he reportedly said. \"It's a waste of time.\" And he turned down offers of honors, including a knighthood in 2000 — \"I think the Sir thing slightly perpetuates one of our diseases in England, which is snobbery,\" he said at the time. And anyhow, he added, \"You don't get much with the title anymore. That was all carved up by robber barons in the Middle Ages.\" Finney kept that down to earth attitude throughout his life. \"I don't think I'm particularly handsome,\" he told People magazine in 1982. \"I think maybe I'm attractive. I remember with Tom Jones being very concerned to tell people that I was not just another pretty face, and that's why I took all those character roles.\" That same year he told a Rolling Stone interviewer that \"I'm not saying I can act terrific or great, but I can act good. And what I've always believed is that I'll get a job.\" Albert Finney was married three times; he's survived by his wife Pene Delmage, a son, Simon, and two grandchildren. He died Thursday in London, at the age of 82.", "Of all the things to enjoy in Jean Hanff Korelitz's new mystery novel The Plot, one of the best has to be one of the earliest, which is the encounter between Jacob Finch Bonner and his student Evan Parker (who intends his nom de plume to be \"Parker Evan\"). These two cishet white male writers have brief literary fisticuffs during a class held for one Ripley College's low-residency MFA program. Ripley, located in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, is a waystation for Bonner, whose early success as a novelist has dried up and left him searching for places where he can simultaneously disappear from the powerful literati while maintaining the fiction that he's working on something new. He's so much a creature of his own imagination that even his middle name is an invention, taken in homage to his favorite novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. But for Evan Parker, Ripley offers an open door, a way for him to use a big, shocking idea as premise for a debut novel that Parker claims \". . . will be read by everybody. It will make a fortune. It will be made into a movie . . . \" Anyone who has ever taken a writing class will recognize Evan Parker's braggadocio, the student who believes he has already outrun the teacher, the classmate who has nothing to share. (Later in the story, one of those classmates will tell Bonner \"Evan didn't share, not pages and not feelings.\") Bonner reads what Parker has written, and realizes the posturing young man has reason for his confidence. Evan Parker's plot is something new, dark, twisty, and unforgettable. So much the latter that when Parker dies unexpectedly, Bonner decides to steal his story. What's the harm? Considerable, as it turns out, and here is where it's important to stop and separate The Plot's wheat from its chaff. Which is painful, since Hanff Korelitz (The Devil and Webster, Admission) is an erudite and elegant writer whose steady tone in each of her books is outdone only by her steady hand with, yes, plot. As long as she's focusing on Bonner's easy ethics and early success (his book, titled Crib, sells two million copies in nine months and Steven Spielberg buys the film rights), her steadiness, underlaid by sly humor, promises a takedown that will topple all the big and pompous male authors of our time. However, the question \"What's the harm?\" does need answering, and it's in cooking up a response that Korelitz falters, because she makes this a fair-play mystery, meaning the kind that scatters clues throughout like bread crumbs, allowing readers to solve the dilemma if they so choose. Unfortunately, one of those clues had me guessing the ending — correctly — before I'd even reached the book's midpoint. It was a red flag, and even though I want to add a counterpoint to that phrase, I'm more committed to not giving spoilers than I am to my own cheekiness. Suffice to say plenty of readers will also guess. Some may not care about that clue at all. Just as it shows up, Jacob Finch Bonner finds himself distracted from his success by a threatening email. Someone has made a connection between his novel's plot and Evan Parker's idea, and even though his literary and personal lives grow happier and happier, his interior worries overwhelm him. That threatening email is from [email protected], which lets Bonner know that there must be a Ripley College connection, due to the reference to Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, whose con artist extraordinaire protagonist is named Tom. He decides to return to the Northeast Kingdom and investigate Evan Parker's backstory, which involves a small town called Rutland and several of its denizens, from cat-fanatic married lesbians to barflies buzzing around the Parker Tavern that Evan once tried to revitalize. While Bonner very slowly pieces together Parker's history, the person behind the TalentedTom email handle attacks more and more viciously, with online posts accusing Bonner of plagiarism and theft that lead to meetings with his publisher's team and legal declamations of innocence. Bonner's suffering, for sure; one of Korelitz's funniest details is how he holes up in Manhattan with a dozen cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery and a fifth of Jameson as he worries about his anonymous stalker. She also has more than one gossipy item about the literary world in general, like a parenthetical mentioning a pair of now-divorced writers who have publicly shared their grievances. Unfortunately, grace notes like that aren't enough to overcome some of the more pedestrian passages in which Bonner, like a plodding Captain Hastings without a Hercule Poirot in sight, attempts to figure out the Parker-family puzzle. It might be, from a writer of Korelitz's talent, that I wanted and expected a more fiendish and psychologically driven book. Instead, this Plot falls flat. Bethanne Patrick is a freelance writer and critic who tweets @TheBookMaven.", "Marcia Muller is taking a long walk on a short pier under the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. This is where Sharon McCone -- the main character of Muller's mysteries and the first liberated female detective of modern times -- runs her own investigative agency. \"That's right,\" Muller says. \"She has her office at the end of the pier in this big arching window so she can look out on the bay.\" Sharon McCone's firm is located on the fictional Pier 24 1/2. To get an idea of what that might be like, we sneak into the real-life Pier 24, a cavernous old wood and steel warehouse. It's got an old salvaged look that's kind of grimy and great. \"It just so lends itself to creepiness,\" Muller says. Sharon McCone was once shot here, on the catwalk outside her office. She had left her cell phone in her office, came back for it late at night, and surprised an intruder who then shot her and fled. In Muller's Locked In, the detective lies in a coma-like state as the operatives of her agency look for the assailant. She recovers, of course, regaining her strength in Muller's latest book, Coming Back. Detective Sharon McCone is tough -- but not without heart. \"She is my alter ego,\" Muller says, \"except she is a lot thinner and taller than I am. And she can eat anything she wants to without gaining weight. Her features are very reflective of her Shoshone Indian ancestry.\" Not So Cozy Muller says she likes combing the city for inspiration for Sharon McCone's capers. \"I go along, but I don't pack a gun and I don't walk the mean streets,\" she says. \"You know, I'll stay in the car with the doors locked and send her out.\" But Muller's not as timid as she appears. She was nearly arrested once while doing research along the U.S. border with Mexico and -- like her protagonist -- the 65-year-old author flies airplanes and drives a snazzy sports car. \"She is a hard-boiled writer,\" says Ed Kaufman, owner of the \"M\" Is for Mystery bookstore in San Mateo, Calif. He says that until Muller came along, most women mystery authors penned what were often referred to as \"cozies.\" \"There's very little description of brutality,\" Kaufman explains. \"The principal character is somebody like a woman who owns an antique store or who's got a garden.\" He says they also avoided cursing or going into grisly details. \"That's why they're called cozies,\" he says. \"Agatha Christie is a perfect example of it. You never heard Hercule Poirot swear.\" Muller created Sharon McCone in the late 1970s. Authors Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky later followed, breaking new ground with their own hard-edged private eyes. \"Women in mystery fiction were largely confined to little old lady snoops -- amateur sleuths -- who are nurses, teachers, whatever,\" Muller says, adding that there were some exceptions. \"Anna Katherine Green wrote about a female inquiry agent, and there were a scattering of female investigators in the 1970s authored by men, who just didn't ring true. So I thought, well, there's an opening here for something.\" Not Exactly Noir Muller says she loves the classic film noirs set in San Francisco, like The Maltese Falcon, but unlike Dashiell Hammett's iconic fedora- and trench coat-wearing detective, Sharon McCone has a life. \"I didn't want her alone with a bottle in a desk drawer,\" Muller explains. We're in Bernal Heights, one of the few sunny spots in the city, in front of a lovely Victorian house. Muller says she used this house as the setting for McCone's first job as an investigator for a group of attorneys at All Souls, a law co-op. \"I wanted her to be independent,\" she says, \"but also surrounded by friends, and a place she could go for poker games and all-night talking sessions.\" McCone has a loving husband, and progressive politics that reflect those of San Francisco. Muller has so completely envisioned the life her characters lead that she's actually built several dollhouse replicas of them -- like the miniature home of McCone's best friend and office manager, Ted Smalley. \"It's his little bordello. It has red flocked wallpapering and a very ornate red velvet couch,\" she says with a laugh. \"And in the back is a loft, with curtains he can pull.\" Friend and fellow writer Susan Dunlap says the dollhouses reflect Muller's wicked sense of humor. \"It helps her to visualize what's going on with Sharon,\" Dunlap says. \"If you work as hard as Marcia, you need to have a hobby that is not writing -- that's not words. It's sort of like Virginia Woolf, who baked bread.\" Conspiring A Murder Over a lasagna lunch at her favorite San Francisco restaurant, The Gold Mirror, Muller talks about collaborating with her husband, fellow mystery novelist Bill Pronzini. \"Sometimes Bill and I will be talking about a plot of one of our books over dinner and suddenly realize that the people at the next table over are staring,\" she snickers, \"because we're talking about murders and dead bodies.\" Driving the hilly streets in her sporty BMW two-seat", "One of the great treats of following an Agatha Christie mystery (my favorite being Hercule Poirot) is that you know there will be an \"Aha!\" moment at the end. The fastidious, mustachioed detective will pull together all the disparate facts and present a compelling answer. I'm frequently reminded that science doesn't work that way. The latest case in point is an article published Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that sets out to explore a trend in colorectal cancer among younger Americans. More than a decade ago, scientists noticed an odd quirk in the data: While overall rates of colorectal cancer have been falling dramatically since the mid-1980s, there's been a steady uptick of this disease among people younger than 50. The numbers are small. Cancer incidence is creeping up by 1 or 2 cases per 100,000 people under 50. By way of comparison, the disease rate among older Americans has plummeted by more than 100 cases per 100,000 people. And the vast majority of colorectal cancer cases are among people over 50: These older Americans are 16 times more likely to get colon cancer, compared with adults who are younger. That's why a small trend in younger adults is far outweighed by the dramatic decrease of disease among people over 50. Still, the under-50s will eventually grow older. What will happen to their risk then? Will the trends that started in their 20s and 30s continue? If that's the case, overall colorectal cancer rates might ultimately end their steady decline, and could start to rise. Another possibility is that, once people turn 50, they will follow the current medical guidance and get colonoscopies or other recommended screening tests, which can actually prevent colorectal cancer by finding and removing precancerous polyps. And their risk profile could end up looking much like it does today. Here's where even Poirot would be stumped. There simply isn't enough information to know what will happen. Epidemiologist Rebecca Siegel and her colleagues at the American Cancer Society have published their take in the JNCI. In their study, they break down the population into generational cohorts, focusing on millennials and members of Generation X. By breaking down the cases by age group, Siegel says, it's easier to disentangle generational changes such as differences in diet from trends in medical diagnosis and treatment, which vary less by age. Still, she and her colleagues can only say so much. \"[T]he results do not provide any direct evidence about the role of specific exposures or interventions,\" they note in the study. Even so, the researchers say, because trends in the young \"could be a bellwether of the future disease burden, our results are sobering.\" Siegel tells Shots, \"It appears that under the surface, the underlying risk for this disease is actually increasing in the population.\" What's driving that is hard to say. Obesity is more common among younger than it used to be, so perhaps it's partly to blame. Or it may not be obesity itself; it could be that poor diet and lack of exercise, which contribute to obesity, are also influencing colon cancer rates. One study found that people from Africa who were suddenly switched to an American diet had signs of inflammation in their colons within just two weeks, Siegel notes, \"so this change can happen fairly rapidly.\" But that's far from a complete explanation. A large British study published a few years ago suggested that only 11 percent of colon cancer cases could be tied to trends in obesity. There's also a scenario in which this seemingly glum cancer trend is in fact good news. Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, says what look like additional cancers in people under 50 may simply be cases that are being diagnosed earlier than they would have been. Some people are getting colonoscopies for reasons other than cancer screening these days, and doctors are surely coming upon early cases of colon cancer they might not have turned up so soon. There's some evidence to back that claim: While the rate of new cases of colorectal cancer has been climbing in under-50 Americans since the mid-1990s, the death rate among that group has remained remarkably flat. And death rates may be the more telling statistic. Something similar happened with breast cancer in the 1980s — there was a temporary spike in the number of breast cancers diagnosed, as large numbers of women went in for mammography screening for the first time. But death rates didn't rise, and incidence rates of breast cancers fell again after that uptick. Welch notes that we're seeing that again with the rates of thyroid cancer, which are skyrocketing due to intensive screening and diagnosis; but, again, there's been no increase in mortality from thyroid tumors. Welch offers yet another possibility: Maybe the apparent rise in colon cancer among young people is real, but it won't affect them as they age. \"The bio", "If you've ever kept a journal, you've probably worried about someone coming across it and getting an uninvited peek into your personal life. But the daily traces we leave behind in our writings – more and more in today's world of emails, blogs and Facebook pages – may reveal much more than whom you had a crush on in middle school or that embarrassing dream you had last week. It turns out that what we write, and how we write, may hold clues about our future selves. Ian Lancashire, an English professor at the University of Toronto, has spent much of his career trying to see past the words on the page and into the psyche of the author. He makes concordances of different texts; basically, an alphabetical list of all the words and the contexts in which they appear in a text. This is a tradition that dates back to medieval monks, who would make concordances of the Bible in the hopes of seeing the mind of God. Lancashire has somewhat more modest goals. He studies the works of authors such as Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton. (Among other things, he discovered that Milton never used the word \"because\" in any of his works. Why? Who knows.) But in the mid '90s, Lancashire decided he wanted to focus on a more modern -- and less \"literary\" -- author. So he turned to one of the most published authors in the world: Agatha Christie. Read More Sleuthing The Sleuth Lancashire took 16 of her novels, written over more than 50 years, and fed the text into a computer program. The computer then spit out data about the vocabulary of the works, such as the frequency of different words and the number of different words used in each text. When Lancashire looked at the results for Christie's 73rd novel, written when she was 81 years old, he saw something strange. Her use of words like \"thing,\" \"anything,\" \"something,\" \"nothing\" – terms that Lancashire classifies as \"indefinite words\" – spiked. At the same time, number of different words she used dropped by 20 percent. \"That is astounding,\" says Lancashire, \"that is one-fifth of her vocabulary lost.\" Lancashire waited two years before publishing the results of his study, during which time he checked his results with statisticians and linguists and pathologists. \"I did not want to say what was said in the end,\" says Lancashire, \"that yes, the data supported a view that she had developed Alzheimer's.\" Should we believe it? Based on just looking at a book she wrote? Christie was never formally diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. But she often complained of an inability to concentrate in her later years, and friends reported that she would have fits of anger and wouldn't make sense in conversations. A Different Kind Of Textual Analysis Signs of dementia in an author's work are not unprecedented. Peter Garrard, a cognitive scientist at University College London, found similar changes in the last book by British author Iris Murdoch. Shortly after publishing the book, Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And Christie's 73rd book, Ian Lancashire says, seems to hold more explicit signs of trouble. It is universally dismissed by critics as being full of errors and poorly plotted. Not only that, the title of the book is Elephants Can Remember, and the central character is a female novelist who is struggling with memory loss as she tries to help Hercule Poirot solve a crime that occurred in the past. When Lancashire read the book, he felt that Christie was actually sensing what was happening to her. \"I realized,\" he says, \"I was seeing the author in the text in a way that no one had seen the author in the text before.\" The idea that she would keep writing, even as this was happening to her, Lancashire says, \"struck me as heroic.\" The Lives Of 'Nuns' We can never know for sure if Christie actually had Alzheimer's. But a separate study out of the University of Minnesota lends support to the idea that there might be signs in our writing of Alzheimer's disease. And those signs might be there very early on. The so-called \"Nun Study\" was started by David Snowdon at the University of Minnesota in 1990 (although the study participants are not officially nuns, they're sisters). Snowdon wanted to look at aging over time, and decided to focus on sisters because they all had fairly similar histories and backgrounds. Most of them joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame congregation when they were 18, and all had abstained from smoking or drinking. So Snowdon signed up 678 sisters, all over the age of 75, from the order. All of the sisters agreed to donate a small part of their brains to the study after they died. Researchers would visit once a year to administer memory tests, and it was during one of these visits that Snowdon made a fortuitous discovery: He was told of a collection of biographies that the sisters were required to write upon entering the order, in many cases more than 50 years before the study started. \"It was a major, major find,\" says Serguei Pakhomov, a current researcher with the ", "The shelves and desks at Teaching for Change in Washington, D.C., are full of picture books. For years, the nonprofit, which advocates for a more inclusive curriculum in public schools, has been keeping track of what it considers to be some of the best — and worst — multicultural children's books out there. Allyson Criner Brown, Teaching for Change's associate director, says they keep the bad ones because \"there's so much to learn from them.\" A Birthday Cake for George Washington was just put on the bad shelf. Over the weekend, the publisher Scholastic announced it would stop distributing the children's picture book after public outcry. Even though it was created by a multicultural team, the book came under heavy criticism for whitewashing the history of slavery. Just a few months ago, another children's book, A Fine Dessert, drew similar criticism. It also raised questions about the diversity of the publishing industry and especially about the struggle parents, teachers and authors face when presenting such sensitive topics to young children. A Birthday Cake for George Washington tells the story of Hercules, a slave Washington used as a chef. It's a book full of smiles, as Hercules and his daughter, Delia, take pride in baking for the president. But the story glosses over the fact that Hercules and Delia are in bondage. And it's only in a note following the story that the author writes that Hercules escaped, leaving his daughter behind. \"It's almost as if the book presents that because he had moments of happiness and because he took pride and joy in his work that outweighs the fact that he was enslaved,\" Brown said. \"And that cannot ever be a part of telling any story about somebody who was held in bondage.\" Brown said that kind of simplistic, idealized narrative in a picture book is just a reflection of the adult world. This is a country, she said, that wants to believe that the United States started as the land of the free and the home of the brave. \"The nation didn't start like that for everyone,\" she said. \"So, as much as we struggle with it, how to then have these difficult conversations with our children with things that we're wrestling with ourselves, I think is very tough for a lot of people.\" But Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, said children are not waiting around for adults. Thomas studies how schools approach touchy subjects like slavery, and she spent time with students at a Philadelphia middle school. \"I found out that kids are not only ready to discuss these topics, but they are already discussing these topics with their friends,\" Thomas said. At the time of her research, the students were reading Elijah of Buxton, a book about a runaway slave in Canada. Thomas said the kids were making sophisticated connections between the historical fiction and the realities of the Black Lives Matter movement today. So the reality is that while kids are already grappling with some of the world's ugliness, she said, adults are still clinging to a Victorian ideal of an innocent child. Adults are thinking \"the innocence of the ideal child must be protected at all costs,\" she said. \"We must keep the dirty secrets of our society away from those kids. And I think that kids are seeing those contradictions.\" That protection instinct is familiar to writer Matt de la Peña — especially because he's a new father. \"I have a 20-month-old daughter,\" he said. \"And you really just want to protect your daughter so much from the sadness. And you feel like, she's gonna see it eventually on her own. But then you have to take a step back and say my need to protect isn't as important as for her to see the truth.\" The truth is something de la Peña thinks about a lot. His books for young adults often deal with the harsh realities of crime and violence. That honesty, he said, is valuable to kids. \"Young readers have a chance to experience very scary and sad and dark things in books,\" he said. \"It's kind of the safest way to experience these things for the first time.\" De la Peña just won a Newbery Medal for his book Last Stop on Market Street. It's about CJ, a black kid taking a bus ride to the soup kitchen with his grandma. At one point CJ asks why the poor neighborhood is always so dirty. \"Sometimes when you're surrounded by dirt,\" the wise grandma responds, \"you're a better witness for what's beautiful.\"", "The last time Belgium's Grimbergen Abbey brewed beer, the United States was only about 20 years old. But the abbey now plans to make beer again, and for inspiration, it will turn to the original recipes and brewing instructions in its archive of medieval texts. After it was founded in 1128, the Norbertine abbey's clerics spent centuries making beer. But they were forced to stop when the abbey was destroyed in 1798. Now they want to get back into brewing — and to do it, they're hoping to use secrets they've gleaned from ancient books the abbey managed to preserve. The Grimbergen name already appears on Belgian beer, thanks to licensing deals with two commercial breweries: Carlsberg brews Grimbergen beers for the international market, while Heineken-owned Alken-Maes brews for the domestic market in Belgium. The abbey gets part of those profits; now it wants to get directly involved in making the beer. Sketching out a new alignment of traditional monastic brewing and corporate support, the Rev. Karel Stautemas, the abbey's subprior, says he will get formal training to help run the new microbrewery. \"Beer has always been part of life in the abbey and we are proud of the beers we have today,\" Karel said Tuesday as he announced plans for the new brewery. Some of the books saved from the abbey's library date to the 12th century. Those that deal with brewing beer are in Latin and Old Dutch, making it hard to quickly identify which books should be brought to bear on the new project. \"We've spent hours leafing through the books,\" Karel said, \"and have discovered ingredient lists for beers brewed in previous centuries, the hops used, the types of barrels and bottles, and even a list of the actual beers produced centuries ago.\" The abbey is located in Grimbergen, a town about 8 miles north of Brussels. The abbey has been destroyed several times since it was founded — most recently in 1798, when French soldiers destroyed it and its brewery during a violent clampdown on the Roman Catholic Church. (The area had recently been annexed by France.) That 1798 attack was devastating — but before its library was destroyed, the abbey's quick-thinking clerics knocked a hole in a wall and ferried several hundred books to safety. Despite the abbey's repeated destruction, it has always been rebuilt. For centuries, Grimbergen Abbey has been associated with the symbol of a phoenix. Its clerics adopted the mythical animal as part of their coat of arms in 1629, after rebuilding the abbey following religious wars. The phoenix also reflects the abbey's Latin motto: ardet nec consumitur — \"burned but not destroyed.\" The new brewery will sit inside the abbey's walls, and it will include a bar and restaurant for visitors. It is slated to open in 2020, with Karel and five or six other workers producing relatively small batches of beer. As for what the new beer will be like, it will use the same Belgian yeast Carlsberg currently uses to elicit rich, spicy notes in its Grimbergen brews. The abbey-produced beer will also undergo multiple fermentations and barrel aging to deepen its flavors. And the brewers will try to use local hops and some of the same approaches found in the abbey's library. \"We're excited to use these books to bring back the medieval techniques and ingredients to create new beers,\" said Marc-Antoine Sochon of Carlsberg, who will be the new microbrewery's head brewer.", "Rohulamin Quander's ancestors were slaves. However, unlike a majority of the enslaved population, Sucky Bay and Nancy Carter Quander served George and Martha Washington, the first First Family, and worked on their Mount Vernon farms. Now, hundreds of years after they worked as spinners on the estate's River Farm, Sucky Bay, Carter Quander and the rest of the 317 slaves who inhabited Mount Vernon are receiving the recognition they deserve. In a new exhibit, \"Lives Bound Together: Slavery At George Washington's Mount Vernon,\" visitors can take a closer look at just how intertwined the Washingtons' lives were with the slaves on their property. The exhibit allows those moving through the galleries to gain a deeper understanding of how slaves supported and provided for those on Mount Vernon. While Washington helped establish the United States as a free country, they played an integral part in preserving life on the estate. Quander has long been involved in preserving the history of slaves at Mount Vernon. Between laying wreaths at the slaves' burial site to holding his 85th family reunion on the grounds in 2010, Quander has made sure to continue to tell the stories of his ancestors and other slaves who served the Washingtons. This exhibit was no exception. He offered his advice and thoughts as it came together. The point of the exhibit is not to sugarcoat the subject of slavery or portray all the slaves as a happy group of workers, Quander said. \"We were focused more on telling the story of those who lived through the experience and achieved what they did achieve despite the impact of the experience,\" Quander said. \"We wanted to show them, despite the fact that they had very little to no education, we wanted to show them as real people and we wanted to show them in the context of how they survived in spite of everything.\" Telling those stories is what the museum has done by featuring 19 individual slaves and their backstories including what work they did at Mount Vernon, their relatives, and, at times, quotes from Washington's records about the slaves. Before deciding which slaves would be chosen for the exhibit, the museum's researchers were tasked with creating a database with more than 35,000 individual entries of Washington's records says senior curator Susan Schoelwer. \"When we were picking the individuals, we wanted to represent, a range of experiences, both enslaved people who worked in the mansion and enslaved people who worked in the fields, who were much less well known,\" Schoelwer said. \"We wanted to represent women, we wanted to represent men.\" After giving input for different aspects of the exhibit for a few years prior, Quander had the chance to experience the new installation in its entirety on Oct. 1. When he finished walking through the galleries, Quander said he does believe the museum accurately portrayed the institution of slavery at Mount Vernon. \"We wanted to portray it accurately, we also wanted it to be very clear to anybody who saw it that is was about the lives of the people and the fact that they were in bondage — if not physically bound, then psychologically bound because of the institution,\" he said. For those who have visited Mount Vernon before, certain pieces like the dining set will look familiar, but the context in which they are presented has changed. The focus now centers around how slaves would have contributed to a seemingly routine function, like dinner, and to what extent they were involved. The 19 individuals' stories are found all across the galleries, where each focuses on an aspect of the Washingtons' lives and compares it to that of their slaves including clothing styles, diet variation and differences in belongings. A lot of the slaves' belongings were recovered through decades of archaeological digs and excavation projects on the grounds. Schoewler says the exhibit really focuses on the interconnectivity between the First Family and the slaves. Such focus can be seen in the juxtaposition of two portraits. One is Gilbert Stuart's iconic portrait of George Washington. The other is a portrait which is attributed to Stuart and believed to be of Washington's beloved cook, Hercules. Much is known about Hercules' life as he was with Washington during his presidency, often called the first celebrity chef and allowed more flexibility to walk around town and operate outside of the residency often. Yet, Hercules, who was still a slave, ran away. Documents and letters in the exhibit also give insight into George Washington's changing views on slavery throughout his life. The hope is that visitors will be able to reconcile an often difficult realization that George Washington, like other Founding Fathers, had slaves while also fighting for the ideals of liberty and freedom that helped establish the country. \"During the revolution, his views really began to change and he began to question morality both pragmatically and philosophically, and then during the presidency he's persona", "Maybe it was the way they seemed to know their client's darkest secrets without being told, their apparent unflappability, or that they said things like, \"If it is any point requiring reflection… we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark.\" Detectives could always be counted on to captivate us. They had cool trench coats, impossibly original hats, and a comforting air of inevitability around their discoveries. But in an era in which we're no longer sure of anything -- not our own economies, and not even whether Twitter is a waste of time or the greatest invention since contact lenses -- there's something to be said for stories about hero sleuths who don't know it all, but will do what it takes to learn. And so the protagonists in the following modern detective procedurals have none of the self-assuredness of C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot. Sure, they have lots to learn. But since we do, too, it's nice that they make a point of taking us along for the ride one lesson at a time. The Manual of Detection: A Novel By Jedediah Berry, paperback 288 pages, Penguin, list price: $15 Reluctant new detective Charles Unwin just wants to go back to being an anonymous clerk. He longs to be back on the 14th floor of the Agency classifying the clues and details (two different concepts he goes to lengths to make sure we never confuse) in the files of illustrious detective Travis Sivart. But when Sivart disappears in search of Enoch Hoffman, an evil criminal mind that has infiltrated the dreams of the unnamed city and everyone in it, Unwin must let go of his routine, his typewriter, his umbrella and his bike, and follow Sivart into a maze of Borgesian qualities. A journey made even more dangerous by the fact that the evil he confronts may well be coming from his own mind, but one that is made fun for us as we learn each lesson in the title's manual along with our imperfect hero. Captain Alatriste By Arturo Perez-Reverte, paperback 304 pages, Plume, list price: $15 Alatriste is not a detective. He's a captain, for Spain's sake! But guided by Arturo Perez-Reverte's assured pen, Alatriste quickly has to turn into one if he's going to find out why 17th-century messengers apparently sent by Fray Emilio Bocanegra, \"president of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition,\" want him to murder two Englishmen who have come to Madrid, or face death himself. Along the way, he makes an important friend -- the Watson to Alatriste's Sherlock Holmes -- and solves the mystery that could bring three world powers to war. Thankfully, the broad background history is perfectly balanced, and the characters as deep and multi-faceted as the ones in any good piece of literature. But it is the sense of search and discovery, the feeling that we might be learning invaluable detecting skills along with this brave captain turned unwilling clue hound, that makes this novel a treasure of a detective manual in the unlikeliest of places. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery By Alan Bradley, paperback 416 pages, Bantam, list price: $15 The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie takes place in the '50s in a sleepy English village with the evocative name of Bishop's Lacey. There, within the walls of a venerable mansion, Flavia de Luce spends her summer concocting potions in the lab inherited from her oddball great-uncle. That is, until a stranger turns up dead outside her window in the most mysterious of fashions. Then Sweetness becomes a page-turning detective how-to, as Flavia puts aside her aspirations of being a famous chemist and decides she might as well learn to be a good sleuth and solve the crime herself, much to the dismay of the local police. She may be only 11 years old, but you won't feel like you're reading the story of a child prodigy. Instead, it will be like reading the story of the child you might have been, and rediscovering your untapped potential with every insight and morsel of truth at the bottom of this triumphant pie. In the end, there's a real gift for us all in these tales of detection: we're being taught how to see. Lesson by lesson, these authors are helping us develop a talent with which to better experience truth, beauty and humanity in any tale, maybe even our own. Anjanette Delgado is the author of The Heartbreak Pill. She lives in Miami, Fla. Three Books... is produced and edited by Ellen Silva. Editorial and production assistance from Hannah Levintova.", "Attacks on the airport and a metro station in Brussels, Belgium on March 22 killed 32 people and wounded more than 300. Including three dead attackers, the total number of dead stands at 35. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State. Here's what we know about the men suspected of carrying out the bombings: Ibrahim el-Bakraoui Based on fingerprints, police identified Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and his brother Khalid as two suspected suicide bombers the day after the attacks. Bakraoui, 29, was one of the attackers in the airport. He and his brother were both Brussels-born Belgian citizens. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2010, after shooting at a policeman during an armed robbery, NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports, citing several U.S. and European counterterrorism officials. He dropped out of the parole system in May and has been on the run ever since. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Bakraoui was detained in Turkey in 2015 and deported to the Netherlands — with warnings sent to Belgian authorities alerting them to Bakraoui's ties to terrorism. But Bakroui was released from custody after European authorities couldn't verify those ties, Erdogan's office says. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that Bakraoui had traveled unimpeded through airports at least twice in the months before the attack. \"Suspected by Turkey of being a 'foreign terrorist fighter' and known at home in Belgium as an ex-con wanted for parole violations, Bakraoui was still allowed to board a commercial airliner unaccompanied last summer, flying freely from Istanbul to the Netherlands and disappearing without a trace,\" the AP writes. Khalid el-Bakraoui Khalid, 27, bombed the metro station, authorities say. He was arrested in 2011 for gun possession and carjacking and sentenced to five years in prison, NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports, citing several U.S. and European counterterrorism officials. He violated his parole last April when he associated with a criminal colleague, but was released from court custody. Bakraoui violated his parole again in October, and had been on the run since then. Under the name of Ibrahim Maaroufi (and using a fake ID) Bakraoui is believed to have rented an apartment in Charleroi, near Brussels, which was used as a safehouse and hideout for the terrorist cell, including some surviving Paris attackers. That apartment was raided Dec. 9, putting Bakraoui on international wanted lists. Bakraoui rented a second flat, again under assumed name, in the Forest district of Brussels; when that flat was raided on March 15, police found a fingerprint of Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam. Najim Laachraoui Najim Laachraoui, 24, was identified several days after the attack as one of the suspected suicide bombers in the airport. He's been called \"the bomb-maker\": According to counterterrorism officials in the U.S. and Europe, Laachraoui's fingerprints were found on the luggage bombs used in the Brussels attack as well as explosives that were used in Paris, NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports. His DNA was also found on Paris explosives. Laachraoui left Brussels for Syria in February 2013, breaking off contact with his family, NPR's Phil Ewing reports. Before he dropped out of college, he was an engineering student. Under the fake name \"Soufiane Kayal,\" Laachraoui traveled with Paris bombing suspect Salah Abdeslam from Hungary into Austria in September, police say. Mohamed Abrini Abrini, 31, was arrested by Belgian authorities on April 8. A day later, he admitted that he is the \"man in the hat\" seen in the Brussels airport surveillance footage with Ibrahim el-Bakaoui and Najim Laachraoui, according to Belgian federal prosecutors. For the last five months, Abrini has been one of the most wanted men in Europe. As we reported, they linked him to November's attacks in Paris through surveillance video and DNA evidence. \"He was seen driving with Salah Abdeslam, one of the Paris attack suspects, from Brussels to Paris last November just before the attack,\" NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports. \"He's also thought to have driven Abdeslam home.\" Belgian federal prosecutors have charged Abrini with \"terrorist murders.\" Osama Krayem Belgian authorities arrested Osama Krayem, a Swedish national, on April 8. Dina reports that according to Belgian authorities, Krayem \"bought the bags that were used to package the bombs in Brussels and he was also with the suicide bomber at the Brussels metro shortly before a bomb went off there last month.\" She adds that Krayem went to Syria and that there are reports he came back through Lesbos, Greece. He's been charged with participating in terrorist activities and \"terrorist murders.\"", "In All American Boys, a video of a policeman beating a black student goes viral. The book's authors, Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, talk about how their story is sparking conversations about race.It's art imitating life, really. All American Boys is a young adult novel that looks at a specific instance of police brutality from the perspectives of two high school classmates: Rashad, who is savagely beaten by a local policeman who (wrongly) suspects him of shoplifting and assaulting a white woman, and Quinn, who sees the beating and initially pretends he didn't. It's a fictional reflection of real-life police encounters with young black men that ended badly. Co-authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely had written young-adult books separately for publisher Simon and Schuster when they were asked to go on a group tour of male authors. The two, both New Yorkers, ended up sharing a room, and while they were on the road, George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin. Reynolds, who is African American, remembers what it was like being on tour at that time. \"I'm angry and I'm frustrated and I'm sort of wrought with emotion — and I'm traveling and living with a stranger,\" he says. A white stranger at that. They got to talking about it all, and it turned out Kiely was experiencing similar feelings. \"He was as frustrated as angry and as confused as I was,\" says Reynolds. They talked themselves into a genuine friendship, where race was often a topic of conversation. The conversation became even more urgent the following August, when Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson. \"That was the final straw,\" Reynolds remembers. Brendan came to me and said 'Look man, I can't take it anymore. We have to do something. Will you write this book with me? Can we do this thing together?'\" The result is a story about racial profiling and police brutality that makes Rashad a rallying cry against police brutality. In the book, after Rashad's beating — which was captured on cell phones by onlookers and spread virally through social media — he recuperates in the hospital. He's appalled to find himself the center of attention, in a spotlight he doesn't want. Supporters in his high school and around town take up the cause with a phrase that is graffiti'ed on sidewalks and the town's walls: Rashad Is Absent Again Today. Meanwhile, Quinn wrestles with what he's seen. It's complicated by the fact that the cop who beat Rashad is a close family friend — his best friend's big brother. Quinn can't believe the man he knows would beat anyone if the person on the receiving end didn't deserve it. He's always seen police as protectors. He wants the whole thing to just go away. Brendan Kiely, the co-author of All American Boys, wanted Quinn to not have that option. Quinn, he says \"has to acknowledge [the beating] and see it. That's a metaphor for him and, I think, for many of us in America, especially those of us who are white and who have escaped this kind of brutality.\" Kiely says sympathetic white people \"have to recognize that we do have a role to play.\" Ultimately Quinn has to make a decision, one that may cost him something in the near future: friends, a missed opportunity for a scholarship, etc. How he resolves that is at the heart of All American Boys. Kiely says as he and Reynolds cross the country on tour, the book has really resonated in inner-cities, especially the city they both live in: \"In New York City, a place where stop and frisk has been a policy in place for many years, there were kids who'd come to school every day, or leave school every day, and experience this kind of racial profiling.\" In another city, he said, \"We got a question from a kid who said 'What can a young white person do who knows this is wrong, but just doesn't feel I have a way into this?'\" Jason Reynolds believes that even as many adults shy away from talking about race, their kids are anxious to have that conversation. \"No matter what the adults say, nine times out of ten, the kids are ready to talk.\" All American Boys may help them get there. Note: this excerpt contains strong language.", "Hercules & Love Affair didn't cut any corners in its first-ever live performance on radio. With a full horn section, two distinct vocalists, percussionists, a bassist and mastermind Andrew Butler crammed into the Gibson Showroom in New York City, the disco group brought uproarious applause from the sizable crowd dancing behind the glass. It was quite a feat to get the whole Hercules & Love Affair crew on the air, especially for an early-morning show. Butler admitted in the interview with KEXP's Cheryl Waters that the band doesn't even rehearse before 6 p.m. on most nights. But even at 10 a.m., the band sported funky, Stevie Wonder-style keyboards over four-on-the-floor beats and a lively horn section to get people moving. The set even included a new song, \"Wonder Woman.\"", "The con-man comedy I Love You Phillip Morris premiered almost two years ago at the Sundance Film Festival, garnering lots of talk, admiring reviews, and laughs aplenty. It has since played around the world from London to Hong Kong, even becoming a surprise smash in Latvia. Only now, however, is it opening in the U.S. The reasons for the delay -- rival distributors, lawsuits and so on -- aren't as intriguing as the true story that inspired the film. I'll brush that in below (for more details, check out Pat Dowell's prison interview), but let's start with the improbable-but-true story of the unreliable narrator at the center of it all. His name's Steven Russell, and he lived what you might call a storied life. For a while, he was a stand-up guy: a policeman, a church organist, by all accounts a good father and by his wife's account a great husband. He was also a scam artist and con man who led police on a merry -- no, make that a gay -- chase for quite a few years. See, marriage and kids notwithstanding, Steven, played in the film by an antic Jim Carrey, was living life on the down-low. (But in high style, which proved expensive.) When he started scamming insurance companies, employers and pretty much anyone else who came his way, he ended up in prison. That's where he met title character Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) a sweet guy who was serving time not for tobacco abuses (the cigarette company spells its moniker with one 'L'), but for keeping a rental car too long. Sweeping Phillip into his confidence and off his feet, Steven thereafter did most of his cons in order to keep the two of them together. Liar Liar meets Obi-Wan? Who'da thunk even fearless star power could make these two work as a romantic pair? But both stars prove to be enormous fun in a gay love story played straight in a thoroughly crooked context --a comic crooked context, mind you, with lots of physical comedy because that's what Jim Carrey does, and a surprising amount of actual feeling, because that's also what Jim Carrey does, though he's not often given credit for it. The result? A love-struck Catch Me If You Can, in which Steven cons his way out of prison, cons Phillip's way out of prison and even cons Phillip when he can, occasionally coming home with dollar bills spilling out of every pocket as if it's the most natural thing in the world. You'd think all of this would be lent a certain gravitas by the fact that the off-screen Steven Russell is a real con, sitting in a real Texas prison. Having escaped four times, he has now embarrassed state authorities so much that they keep him on 23-hour lockdown for fear that if they allow him to mingle with the general prison population, he'll escape again. One time, he even managed to convince them he'd died. But writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa -- the guys who wrote Bad Santa -- are hardly the sort of filmmakers who'd approach this story as a biopic. They cut seriousness with laughs at every plot twist; they're frank about sexuality without ever making gayness a punchline. They allow their stars to shine without pushing them to go over-the-top. And they end up with a hilariously unlikely but entirely believable comic love story -- even as they pull a couple of ingeniously outrageous cons on the audience. (Recommended) ROBERT SIEGEL, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. GUY RAZ: And I'm Guy Raz. The new con-man movie comedy \"I Love You Phillip Morris\" starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor has finally come to America. It premiered almost two years ago at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered lots of talk. It since played around the world from London to Hong Kong. It was a smash hit in Latvia. But only now is it opening in the U.S. The reasons for the delay are as intriguing as the true story that inspired the film. More on that in a moment. But first, Bob Mondello reviews \"I Love You Phillip Morris.\" BOB MONDELLO: One-time policeman Steven Russell has lived what you might call a storied life. And while being a con man makes him an unreliable narrator for that story, let's let him, played by Jim Carrey, tell at least the story's beginning. (Soundbite of movie, \"I Love You Phillip Morris\") Mr. JIM CARREY (Actor): (As Steven Russell) I used to be a real stand-up guy. I was a good Christian, good father... Ms. LESLIE MANN (Actress): (As Debbie) Steven. Mr. CARREY: (As Steven Russell) ...and a great husband. Oh, God. Then one day, something wonderful happened. And in that moment, that instant, it came to me, a revelation - I'm gay. Ms. MANN: (As Debbie) What? MONDELLO: Okay. So far, that's more or less the truth. But Steven's taste for the down-low life is matched by his taste for the high life, which costs money. So he starts scamming insurance companies and ends up in prison where, one day, he sees another prisoner, played by Ewan McGregor, looking helplessly at some law books. Opening, as always, with a lie, Steven moves in. (Soundbite ", "Zoe Chace and Robert Smith are reporting from European borders this week. This is the first story in a four-part series. A metal strip on the floor of Eurode Business Center marks the border between Germany and the Netherlands. On one side of the building, there's a German mailbox and a German policeman. On the other side, a Dutch mailbox and a Dutch policeman. The building was supposed to make it easy to work in both countries. But it's also a reminder of how the European dream isn't yet a reality. The border is open enough that a single building can span it. No border guards, no checkpoints. But a letter sent from the German side of the building takes a week to get to the Dutch side. Read More: \"Money is always the turning point\" A computer security company called Alunsa has offices on both sides of the building. On one side, Alunsa employees call German customers on German phones. On the other side, it's all Dutch. Raimond Potgens, the company's CEO, has two offices, one on either side of the border. He carries his laptop back and forth all day long. The reason for all the back and forth: Taxes. \"As long as Holland and Germany want all their money, it's not one union,\" Potgens says. Jan Schlievert, an EU lawyer who also works in the Eurode, agrees with Potgens. \"Money is always the turning point for all these laws,\" he says. Schlievert tells the story of a Belgian carpenter who spent his days doing carpentry in Germany, then drove home to spend the night in Belgium. The German company he worked for paid for the car. Belgium wanted to tax the car because it spent the night in a Belgian driveway. Germany wanted to tax the car because it spent the day on German roads. The fight was such a big deal to both countries that they went to court to figure out who got to tax the car. (Germany won.) This is how a united Europe is being created. Slowly, case by case, one Belgian carpenter at a time. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Let's cross the English Channel now, and enter the eurozone. Many European nations adopted a single currency years ago. And during the debt crisis, they've been struggling desperately - at great cost - to keep the euro from unraveling. RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: The euro was supposed to help unify the continent. It's part of a much larger, generations-long project of lowering barriers at European borders. INSKEEP: But after all this time, the border lines have proven surprisingly durable. Consider the border where we find NPR's Planet Money team. ZOE CHACE, BYLINE: I'm Zoe Chace. I'm in an office building in the Netherlands. ROBERT SMITH, BYLINE: And I'm Robert Smith, and I'm in an office building in Germany - and it's actually the same building. There's a borderline that runs right down the middle of the - what do we call this? HANS HOEVER: We call it Eurode Business Center. CHACE: Hi. See? We're right next to each other. SMITH: We're right here. CHACE: The only sign that we're right on the border, is this metal line embedded in the floor of the building. It's the historical divide between Holland and Germany. Our guide, Hans Hoever, points it out. SMITH: Where's the border guard? HOEVER: Border guard? We haven't any - (LAUGHTER) longer. CHACE: The Eurode Business Center looks like your typical modern office building you might see off the freeway. Just a few floors; dozens of different companies. SMITH: Everything in this building is twinsies. Here on the German side, there's a German mailbox, German policemen, rows of German companies. CHACE: Over here: a Dutch mailbox, Dutch policemen, Dutch companies - a few feet away from each other. SMITH: This building is set up to make it easy to work in multiple countries. But the center's very existence shows how far Europe has to go. Business can be very different, depending on which hallway you go down. For instance, I'm in the German wing... (SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING) SMITH: ...where I find Raimond Potgens, CEO of Alunsa. They sell risk-management software to big companies, like Adidas. And at first, it seems like a normal German company, taking German phone calls on German phones. (SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING) RAIMOND POTGENS: (Speaking German) SMITH: But then, Potgens starts talking about his other office - his Dutch office on the other side of the building, just down the hall, where Dutch customers call on his Dutch phone. POTGENS: (Speaking Dutch) CHACE: It's not that weird for companies to have German branches and Dutch branches, but they aren't usually 40 yards apart. And it's not usually the same workers carrying their laptops back and forth across the border, every single day. SMITH: I thought the whole point of having the European Union was so that you didn't have to do crazy stuff like this. POTGENS: Yeah. But as long as Holland and Germany want all their money, it's not one union. SMITH: Ah. And there's the problem. The European Union didn't create a central government, and so each country fights for their cut of the taxes. Each country has their own,", "Action speak louder than French. Door of opportunity swing both ways. Smart fly keep out of gravy. Tongue often hang man quicker than rope. All gems of fortune-cookie-worthy wisdom spoken by Charlie Chan, the crafty, fictional Chinese detective. In a series of novels and movies, Chan captured American imaginations between the 1920s and the 1950s. But today, he's considered a stereotypical relic from a less racially sensitive time. English professor Yunte Huang hopes to change that with his new book, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History. Huang was a student in Buffalo, N.Y., when he first stumbled onto Chan's character. \"I went to an estate sale, and I found these two Charlie Chan novels,\" he tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. \"I had never been to an estate sale before because they don't really exist in China.\" (In China, there is a stigma attached to buying items that belong to a person who has died, Huang explains.) \"I was literally terrified to buy these two books,\" he admits. \" But I did anyway, and I took them home -- and I was immediately hooked.\" Huang subsequently left Buffalo to teach at Harvard, where he researched E.D. Biggers, the author who created the character of Charlie Chan. Huang was surprised to learn that Chan was based on a real Chinese policeman who \"had been neglected in history,\" he says. Huang set out to give that honorable policeman, Chang Apana, the recognition he deserves. Apana \"was a 5-foot-tall Cantonese cop in Honolulu in the early 20th century,\" Huang explains. Originally, Apana had worked as a paniolo, or Hawaiian cowboy. In 1898 -- the same year that the United States officially annexed Hawaii -- he joined the police force. \"As a police officer, he worked almost the most dangerous beats in Chinatown, carrying a bullwhip in hand,\" says Huang. \"He never used a gun, and he was a master of disguise. One time, he single-handedly arrested 40 people without firing a shot\" -- apprehending a large group of Chinese gamblers using only his bullwhip. Though Apana was an adventurous, fearless figure, Biggers took several liberties when he transformed the Hawaiian cowboy into a wise, stereotypical detective. In his films, especially, Chan barely resembles Apana -- while his real-life counterpart was small and wiry, the onscreen investigator is portly, formally dressed, and effeminate in his movements. In the well-known Charlie Chan films, the detective wasn't played by actors of Chinese descent -- but rather by Swedish actor Warner Oland and American Sidney Toler. It seems an odd casting choice now, but consider the racial climate of the U.S. in the 1920s. Chan made his first appearance in 1925, just one year after the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act was passed -- a law Huang describes as \"the first kind of legislative, shall we say, racism against foreigners.\" The act limited immigration for people of Southern-European, Eastern-European and Japanese origin. It did not restrict Chinese immigration, but only because a different law passed in 1882 had already done so. \"At that critical moment when the country had just closed its door to so-called foreigners,\" Charlie Chan appeared \"with all his exoticism [and] aphorisms,\" Huang says. The complicated reactions Americans had to Chan would be echoed later by Asian-Americans, who had a \"love-hate relationship\" with the character. Curiously enough, Chinese natives were much less conflicted when they were introduced to Charlie Chan. His movies were big hits across Asia -- and in China especially -- despite the fact that Chan was being played by a white man. Huang has a theory about why the Chinese embraced the faux-Chinese Chan. \"I grew up in China, and I used to watch a lot of Chinese operas,\" he explains. \"And it is a very common thing in Chinese opera to do these kind[s] of ventriloquism, or to have cross-dressing, for instance. So performing 'the other' -- that kind of imitation -- is always part of ... artistic culture of China.\" When Chan movies were being shown in the 1930s, \"people flocked to the theaters and they loved him -- especially with his pseudo fortune-cookie aphorisms,\" Huang says. It's hard to know what to make of Chan's odd and unexpected popularity with Chinese audiences -- but perhaps its significance is in the eye of the beholder. As Chan himself might have said: Optimist only sees doughnut. Pessimist sees hole. In the spring of 2002, I was scheduled to give a talk on my new book, Transpacific Displacement, followed by that rite of passage most authors come both to anticipate and to dread, the book signing. Without my knowledge, an amiable secretary in the English Department at Harvard, where I was then teaching, made a flyer for the event at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. Her concoction was -- how shall we say it -- an intriguing collage. My name and the book title were highlighted in bold, with a map of the Pacific Rim fading out in the background. A silhouett", "Tintin — star of a series of vintage Belgian comics that have sold hundreds of millions of copies in dozens of languages — is a crime-fighting boy journalist who specializes in solving riddles with the assistance of his intrepid dog, Snowy. Now, in The Adventures of Tintin, he's come to the big screen, in a tale of derring-do in distant lands that revolves around hidden treasure and a secret scroll that Tintin has and the bad guys want. These adventures are presented in an up-to-the-minute blend of 3-D computer animation and performance-capture technology — a complicated process overseen by a pair of filmmakers, director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson, who've always kept their inner children close at hand. These technologies prove to be just the ticket for Tintin's exploits. They create a good-humored, high-spirited world that is delicately poised, just as it should be, halfway between the cartoon and the real. And they mimic the elegant visual detail and vibrant color that generations of readers have fallen in love with in the original stories. Performance capture has also done surprisingly well by Tintin's actors. Jamie Bell plays the young journalist, and performance-capture veteran Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) co-stars as Tintin's unlikely ally, the inebriated old sea dog Captain Archibald Haddock. What makes The Adventures of Tintin special is the seamless way it combines innocent wonder with the most worldly and sophisticated technology. That makes for scenes and camera movements that don't look like they'd be possible in the real world. No one does this kind of thing better than Steven Spielberg, and the child in us all couldn't be more pleased. LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: The First World War is the subject of a new Steven Spielberg movie. \"War Horse\" opens Christmas Day. It's based on a children's book. A second Spielberg movie also comes from children's literature. \"The Adventures of Tintin\" is inspired by a Belgian comic book character. Tintin stories have sold hundreds of millions of copies in dozens of languages. Film critic Kenneth Turan has this review. KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: Tintin is a crime-fighting boy journalist who specializes in solving riddles with the assistance of his intrepid dog, Snowy. Here, he gets involved in a tale of derring-do in distant lands that revolves around hidden treasure and a secret scroll that Tintin has and the bad guys want. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN\") TURAN: These adventures are presented in an up-to-the-minute combination of 3-D computer animation and performance-capture technology. This complicated process is overseen by a pair of filmmakers, Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson, who've always kept their inner child close at hand. These technologies prove to be just the ticket for Tintin's exploits. They create a good-humored, high-spirited world that is delicately poised, just as it should be, halfway between the cartoon and the real. And they mimic the elegant visual detail and vibrant color that generations of readers have fallen in love with in the original stories. Performance capture has also done surprisingly well with Tintin's actors. Jamie Bell plays the young journalist, and performance-capture veteran Andy Serkis co-stars as Tintin's unlikely ally, the inebriated old sea dog Captain Archibald Haddock. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN\") TURAN: What makes \"The Adventures of Tintin\" special is the seamless way it combines innocent wonder with the most worldly and sophisticated technology. That makes for scenes and camera movements which don't look like they'd be possible in the real world. No one does this kind of thing better than Steven Spielberg, and the child in us all couldn't be more pleased. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) WERTHEIMER: Ken Turan reviews movies for MORNING EDITION and the Los Angeles Times. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) WERTHEIMER: This is NPR News.", "Update at 1:21 p.m. ET, Wednesday: The judge in the case has amended her ruling to strike out the term \"writ of habeas corpus.\" It is now unclear whether Hercules and Leo, the chimps at Stony Brook University, can challenge their detention. You can read our post about the amended order here. Our original post continues: A New York judge has granted two research chimps the writ of habeas corpus — a move that allows them to challenge their detention. The decision, says Science magazine, effectively recognizes chimps as legal persons, marking the first time in U.S. history that an animal has been given that right. The order, dated April 20, requires Stony Brook University to appear in court and provide a legally sufficient reason for keeping the two chimps, Hercules and Leo. A hearing is scheduled for May 6. The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), the group that filed the case on behalf of the chimps, said in a statement it believed that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe's order \"implicitly determined that Hercules and Leo are 'persons.' \" But Richard Cupp, a law professor at Pepperdine University who opposes personhood for animals, told Science, \"It would be quite surprising if the judge intended to make a momentous substantive finding that chimpanzees are legal persons if the judge has not yet heard the other side's arguments.\" The Nonhuman Rights Project filed a suit on behalf of the two chimps in the Supreme Court of Suffolk County in December 2013, but that court refused to issue a writ of habeas corpus, and its appellate division dismissed the suit. The group appealed to the New York County Supreme Court in Manhattan, which ruled Monday in the case. As we have previously reported, New York courts declined to extend habeas corpus to two other chimps, Tommy and Kiko. The Nonhuman Rights Project has appealed those decisions. Here's more background from Science: \"The case began as a salvo of lawsuits filed by NhRP in December of 2013. The group claimed that four New York chimpanzees — Hercules and Leo at Stony Brook, and two others on private property — were too cognitively and emotionally complex to be held in captivity and should be relocated to an established chimpanzee sanctuary. NhRP petitioned three lower court judges with a writ of habeas corpus, which is traditionally used to prevent people from being unlawfully imprisoned. By granting the writ, the judges would have implicitly acknowledged that chimpanzees were legal people too — a first step in freeing them. \"The judges quickly struck down each case, however, and NhRP has been appealing ever since. Today's decision is the group's first major victory.\" Member station WAMU's Diane Rehm Show devoted a show last year to legal rights for animals. You can listen to that show here.", "Dorothée Goffin's lab in Belgium is outfitted with 3-D printers and digital milling machines. It's also a kitchen. And, one day a week, the doors open to anyone who feels like walking in to mess around with the equipment. These days, the tech geeks, chefs and curious folk that inhabit the lab are focused on 3-D printing. Instead of spouting plastic doodads, the printers exude chocolate. Goffin is the director of the Smart Gastronomy Lab, supported by the University of Liège and a grant from Creative Wallonia. She and her colleagues aren't just playing with their food — they also want to figure out how to make 3-D printed foods more palatable to people. The goal, eventually, is to create foods with enhanced nutritional profiles that people actually want to eat. \"We will cook again like our grandmothers did, but using new technologies\" that give healthier ingredients a more appetizing form, Goffin explains in a TEDx talk. At a recent demonstration at the Expo Milano 2015 in Italy, Goffin, who has a doctorate in chemistry and bioindustry, demonstrated the chocolate printing in action. A syringe the size of a fork deposited \"ink\" — which was actually fancy Belgian chocolate infused with blue-green algae, a good source of protein — methodically across a printer board. Each drop of liquid was so minuscule, it was hard to tell it would all add up to something three dimensional. The Smart Gastronomy Lab is certainly not alone in dedicating itself to deconstructing food into semi-liquids that can be jetted out of a 3-D printer. Just around the corner at the Expo Milano, Italian pasta giant Barilla and TNO, a Dutch independent research organization, revealed a printer that can ooze four noodles every 2 minutes. Hershey just released a commercially available chocolate printer. As The Salt has reported, a device called Foodini is meant to crank out things like dinosaur-shaped quiche. The U.S. Army has considered 3-D printing meals for soldiers. Modern Meadow, based in New York City, is working on producing meat that doesn't involve any actual animals. But these innovations not only come with a whopping price tag — they also often happen behind closed doors. Goffin's endeavor is different: She wants to get local consumers, curious people and foodies in on the innovation. The lab exists right now in a co-working hub in Namur, Belgium. It's a \"FabLab,\" or fabrication laboratory, an open workshop model originally hatched at MIT and replicated all over the world. Goffin's lab is starting with chocolate, she explains, \"because we are Belgian,\" and also because the physical chemistry of chocolate is perfect for 3-D printing. It doesn't take much tinkering to ensure that chocolate will stay liquid when it's inside the printing cartridge and solidify once it drops out. \"That's the biggest difficulty with 3-D food printing,\" she says. Fat allows chocolaty goop to crystallize easily at room temperature. But other foods are not so simple, especially if the goal is to partially cook, say, meat or vegetable material as it leaves the nozzle. Michael Petch, who has written two books on 3-D food printing, says the process itself \"is very similar to the assembly line processes you might see in a large confectionery manufacturer, where molten foodstuff is extruded through a nozzle at a particular temperature and then allowed to cool before other materials are introduced.\" \"That's been a way of producing food at high volume for a long time. What's new is being able to combine multiple ingredients, and being able to control the temperature much more precisely at the nozzle, so you can partially cook or not cook food,\" says Petch. Next year, in Gembloux, Belgium, the Smart Gastronomy Lab will open a \"Living Lab,\" a space meant to mix innovators and consumers and quickly breed new prototypes. One floor will be a professional kitchen blended with a laboratory. The other will be a self-sustaining restaurant. It'll double as a consumer testing observatory to see how people respond to certain test recipes that have been 3-D printed in various forms and textures. About 20 Belgian chefs are on board. Most of the time, it'll just be a restaurant with a few 3-D printed bites here and there. But every now and then, they'll whip out a test recipe — for example, a chicken cutlet that's been fortified with micro-proteins and re-texturized for easy chewing. Diners will get surveys to fill out after their meal. Cameras will allow lab folk to observe how people react to test recipes and wacky ingredients. \"The idea is to have real, natural and in situ results,\" says Goffin, \"That's the idea of the Living Lab: to test the reaction of people in their real life.\" \"If you are working only on nutrition, you do something like Soylent. That's nutrition. But food is pleasure. It's something very personal,\" she adds. Once they improve the technology and figure out what people do and don't like, Goffin says, she and her colleagues want to move on to health-focused e", "It's always bad news when a detective books a vacation. Where other frolickers find fun in the sun, investigators are more likely to stumble over stiffs in the sand. The Orient Express was a train enthusiast's dream until Hercule Poirot — and Death — stepped aboard; in Dorothy Sayers' classic mystery, Busman's Honeymoon, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane can't even enjoy a little nookie in their nuptial hideaway without bumping into an intrusive cadaver in the cellar. In detective fiction, Death never takes a holiday. So, when Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department lucks into an all-expenses-paid getaway package, we veteran mystery readers anticipate that more snooping than snoozing will soon be on Chen's vacation itinerary. We are not disappointed. Don't Cry, Tai Lake is the seventh novel in the politically charged Inspector Chen series written by Chinese expatriate and poet Qiu Xiaolong. Like his creator, Inspector Chen is, at heart, a poet who thinks deeply about things: In particular, Chen ruminates over the human costs of China's rush to transform itself into a superpower. The series explores the dark underside of both communism and capitalism. In past outings, Chen, a Communist Party loyalist, has been drawn into murky ethical dilemmas where upholding the law and the dicta of the party would pit him against intellectuals, social activists and other dissidents working for the common good. The dilemmas — and waters — literally get murkier in Don't Cry, Tai Lake, which delves into the ecological disasters perpetrated by China's ever burgeoning and loosely regulated manufacturing plants. Chen unexpectedly lands in the lap of luxury when his \"godfather,\" Comrade Secretary Zhao, makes him an offer he can't refuse: a coveted stay at a Communist Party retreat center on the shores of Tai Lake about an hour away from Shanghai. The luxurious resort is the domain of high-ranking cadres, and Chen, as usual, feels alienated from his surroundings. Venturing out beyond the gates, Chen discovers a workers' cafe where he orders some local beer and eels. A young woman sitting nearby, however, advises him to pass up the eels — as well as the local beer and the \"stinking tofu\" that he thought would be \"a safe bet.\" Turns out the woman, whose name is Shanshan, studies the environmental problems caused by the industrial dumping. Shanshan tells Chen that local water sources are contaminated, which means that even the beer isn't safe to drink. Apologizing for being \"a wet blanket,\" she takes Chen on a tour of Tai Lake to show him the damage. Close up, the picturesque lake turns out to be a toxic nightmare: \"An immense expanse of the water was covered in something like a heavy blackish-green shroud. It was substantial, almost solid, and stretched far in the distance.\" The grotesque algae blanket, she tells Chen, is caused by nitrogen and phosphorous emissions that are being dumped into freshwater lakes throughout China. Shanshan enlightens Chen about the extent of the horror: \"Paper mills, dyeing factories, chemical companies and whatnot. In the last 20 years or so, those plants have sprung up like bamboo shoots after the rain. Now they make up more than 40 percent of the city's total economic output. Relocating them is out of the question — there are too many of them. The local officials aren't eager to do anything about it.\" The particular lake blob Chen surveys expands outward from the Wuxi No. 1 Chemical Co. When the director of that company is found murdered in his apartment, which doubles as a romantic hideaway, Shanshan and a fellow ecological warrior are obvious suspects. Since Chen is deeply smitten with Shanshan, he surreptitiously begins working — on his vacation! — to find the killers. The Inspector Chen series may be set in contemporary China, but it owes a lot to the tradition of the good old American Western (one of the literary influences on detective fiction, in general). Chen is a lone man of integrity on a wild and wooly frontier, one where the rules are tough to enforce and the weak are in danger of being trampled under the stampede of outlaw capitalists. Like Marshall Dillon, Chen manages to temporarily clean up his small stretch of the Main Street of Dodge (or Wuxi or Shanghai) but, as this latest adventure vividly underscores, the job is ultimately too big for one detective — with only his books and his poetry to protect him — to carry out alone." ]

[ "Gregory Littley, who writes a daily pop culture blog about the Manhattan nightlife and other topics, has revealed on his Twitter account that he has found out from his sources that Thor will appear in the upcoming ``Iron Man'' sequel." ]

[ "With ``Iron Man'' smashing its way to $201 million in worldwide box office sales, Marvel Entertainment Inc. raised its profit forecast Monday for the year and promised to release ``Iron Man 2'' in 2010.", "Samuel L Jackson was at odds with Marvel Studios and now he has made nice again and it has been announced he will indeed be playing Nick Fury in Iron Man 2.", "During a Q&A at the Hero Complex Film Festival, Favreau expressed his support for the Iron Man films, and hinted that he could return to Iron Man 3 in the role of Happy Hogan.", "Iron Man 2 has topped the UK Box Office grossing over a cool £7.6 million in its first weekend.", "'Iron Man 2', the first big Marvel superhero film to open since Walt Disney Co's $4 billion purchase of the studio, should pack a $200 million to $300 million profit punch for Disney, analysts said.", "AC/DC will power the Iron Man 2 soundtrack with 15 songs to be featured in the movie.", "GWYNETH Paltrow says her role in new movie Iron Man 2 helped her get into shape for her summer holiday this year.", "Huge week for G4's Olivia Munn - first, she's on the cover of Playboy, then it's announced she's joined the Iron Man 2 cast.", "It seems that Chris Hemsworth was inspired by boxer Mike Tyson for his role in ``Thor'' .", "Iron Man 2 star Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed that she would ``love'' to have another child one day.", "Scarlett Johansson is officially joining the cast of the upcoming Iron Man sequel, signing a deal on Wednesday afternoon to play the Black Widow.", "Although she's busy with her acting career, Iron Man 2 star Scarlett Johansson isn't done with the music business.", "'Iron Man' star Robert Downey Jr. will feature in a musical by Warner Bros.", "Kat Dennings has joined the cast of Thor -- according to the movie's leading lady, Natalie Portman.", "Jeremy Renner loved playing with ``Thor's hammer'' on the set of 'The Avengers'.", "The Dark World has said that he is unsure about the possibility of a third Thor outing.", "Thor hammered out the top spot at the weekend box office, Box Office Mojo reports.", "Kat Dennings is joining the cast of Marvel's Thor, another positive addition to an already stellar line-up.", "Robert Downey Jr. talks about Iron Man 3 and The Avengers in a recent interview with Access Hollywood.", "Deadline reveal Holland joins Thor star Chris Hemsworth for In the Heart of the Sea, the true story of whaling ship the Essex.", "International box-office smash Iron Man will hit new heights when it's launched into outer space this month.", "Disney, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment announced today that Iron Man 3 will be co-produced in China.", "``Thor'' pummeled the competition in the first big weekend of the summer, opening at No. 1 at the box office with $65.7 million.", "The long awaited ``Iron Man 3'' trailer is now online, and it looks like one hell of a ride.", "At their WonderCon panel, Marvel's Head of Television Jeph Loeb announced that Pasdar and Ventimiglia will voice the title roles of the new Iron Man and Wolverine anime series: ``Adrian and Milo are perfect as Iron Man and Wolverine (respectively). It's extremely exciting to see these talented guys take on two of the most iconic super hero roles of all time.''", "Shane Black recently confirmed at the Omaha Film Festival that he will both write and direct Iron Man 3, which is currently set for a May 3, 2013 release.", "The summer movie season arrives with a clang as Iron Man, a second-tier superhero from the mighty Marvel Comics universe, receives a first-rate film adaptation courtesy of director Jon Favreau and his perfectly-cast leading man, Robert Downey Jr.", "Surprise everyone, Joss Whedon will return to direct ``The Avengers 2.''", "Disney CEO Bob Iger has revealed that Marvel's ``The Avengers 2`` movie is on the way! This isn't exactly surprising news since the movie ``The Avengers'' has made over $800 million at the box office!", "``Iron Man'' was pure gold at the box office.", "Iron Man Iron Man is totally cool - smartly written, crisply acted, elegantly designed, with gasp-inducing action sequences and even dashes of intellectual and moral heft.", "Walt Disney Co. plans to co-produce ``Iron Man 3'' with Beijing film studio DMG Entertainment." ]

[ "Not so very long ago, everyone agreed when Summer Movie Season kicked off. There was no subjectivity involved. It was dictated by the calendar: Memorial Day weekend meant the arrival of the big tentpole movies that would proceed to bust blocks over the course of the sultry summer months. Simple. But all that has changed. The start of Summer Movie Season has been creeping earlier and earlier for years now, and when Bob Mondello, Linda Holmes and I, alongside the rest of NPR's movie team, looked at the 2018 release schedule, we had a decision to make. Even though the release of the mighty Marvel slugfest Avengers: Infinity War seems like the most logical start of popcorn movie season, we just couldn't bring ourselves to call any film debuting in April a summer movie. We will die on this hill! This far, no further! Instead, we picked May 18 — the day Deadpool 2 blasts into theaters, reeking of cordite and irony — as the official beginning of Summer Movie Season. A distinction without a difference, you say? Perhaps, but bear with us. Below, we offer a glimpse of the summer movies we're most looking forward to and/or expect people to be talking about. As ever, the Summer Movie Season is dominated by sequels and special effects. But if you're prepared to look for them, you'll find some smaller, quirkier films flying beneath the radar. — Glen Weldon Note: This year's release calendar seems unusually volatile — several premiere dates have shifted and continue to do so. But as of publishing, here's what the schedule looks like. Book Club (May 18): A great quartet of actresses (Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen) headline this comedy about a book club that gets back into a romantic mood after reading Fifty Shades Of Grey. It sounds ridiculous, but if that is a hook for an ensemble romantic comedy with a high-octane cast of women who are all 65 and older, it will be trying something new. — Linda Holmes Deadpool 2 (May 18): Plans for a sequel were announced before the original, flamboyantly vulgar, determinedly foul-mouthed Deadpool was even released. Ryan Reynolds plays the wisecracking, fast-healing titular mercenary; trash-talking trainwreck T.J. Miller is his bartending best bud; and Josh Brolin (who signed a four-pic deal) plays his nemesis, Cable, a time-traveling cybernetic mutant soldier. — Bob Mondello Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25): Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were famously kicked off this film and replaced with Ron Howard, leaving some (well, me) to wonder whether the film — essentially Han Solo's origin story — will retain any of their goofy humor. The trailer assuages some of that worry, as does the sight of Donald Glover rocking Lando Calrissian's smooooth cerulean-cape couture. — Glen Weldon How To Talk To Girls At Parties (June 1): John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig And The Angry Inch, Shortbus) directs this adaptation of a Hugo Award-nominated short story by Neil Gaiman. In 1977 London, a kid (Alex Sharp) goes to a party and meets a nice young alien (Elle Fanning), and the two proceed to get their punk on. The trailer looks fittingly anarchic, and Nicole Kidman plays a punk priestess named Queen Boadicea, so, I mean. — Glen Weldon Alex Strangelove (June 8): At this writing, we don't know a lot about the latest film from writer/director Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins). It's a comedy about a teenager (Daniel Doheny) whose quest to lose his virginity takes an unexpected turn. (\"Unexpected\" is reportedly studio PR-speak for \"gay.\") Love, Simon took up a lot of gay-teen oxygen earlier this year, by virtue of its major-studio provenance. But Johnson's track record suggests Alex Strangelove will prove quirkier — and more palpably queer. —Glen Weldon Ocean's 8 (June 8): Sandra Bullock, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna and a bunch of other women rob Anne Hathaway at the Met Gala? Yes, please. The Ocean's movies have been hit or miss, but if they can get close to the rewatchability of the first Clooney/Pitt model, they'll be the best summer popcorn you could ask for. — Linda Holmes Won't You Be My Neighbor? (June 8): Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville turns his lens on Mr. Rogers in his lovingly made film. With unprecedented access to the family of the beloved children's television host, Neville explores the values and driving forces behind one of public broadcasting's enduring stars. — Nina Gregory Gotti (June 15): He has the accent, and he can snarl with the best; it was only a matter of time before John Travolta would play a crime boss. To this: In this oft-delayed epic, he is John Gotti, kingpin of the Gambino crime family who ruled the Gambino roost for decades, avoiding justice for so long that he earned the moniker \"The Teflon Don.\" — Bob Mondello Tag (June 15): This comedy looks like it might share some tonal DNA with The Hangover, as a group of friends reunite over the years to play a never-ending game of tag. Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Han" ]

[ "Hollywood’s “Sisters of Summer.” Women and the movie business now. In the silent film era, Hollywood knew how it liked its women.  With fluttering fans, maybe.  Or tied to the tracks.  A century on, women are still fighting for their full place in Hollywood, behind and in front of the camera.  It matters, says Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday, because movies mold our sense of the world.  Our cultural expectations.  Our sense of what we ought to be.  What we can be.  This summer, there’s a riffle of change, she says.  In “Obvious Child,” “Maleficent,” “The Fault in Our Stars. This hour, On Point:  Women, power, and Hollywood now. - Tom Ashbrook Guests Ann Hornaday, Washington Post film critic. (@AnnHornaday) Wesley Morris, critic for Grantland. (@Wesley_Morris) Gina Prince-Bythwood, director of the upcoming film &#8220;Beyond the Lights.&#8221; Also director of the films &#8220;The Secret Life of Bees&#8221; and &#8220;Love and Basketball,&#8221; among others. (@GPBmadeit) Gren Wells, writer and director. She&#8217;s making her directorial debut with &#8220;The Road Within.&#8221; (@grendola) From Tom&#8217;s Reading List Washington Post: The sisters of summer &#8212; &#8220;The fact that women seem finally to be on the cusp of being taken seriously as a market is good news, just as last year’s plethora of successful films by and about African Americans boded well for audiences interested in seeing more than the usual white faces on screen (see &#8216;cinematic monoculture, sexism and racism of&#8217;). But this early summer crop of hits also suggests a welcome widening of the lens when it comes not just to women’s roles, but men’s as well.&#8221; NPR: &#8217;Obvious Child&#8217;: A Momentous Film Of Small, Embarrassing Truths &#8211; &#8220;Director Gillian Robespierre has a good last name for a revolutionary. But it&#8217;s not a revolution with placards and manifestos. It&#8217;s a revolution of small, embarrassing truths. Obvious Child begins with Donna, played by Jenny Slate, standing before a mic in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, club making fun of her Jewish features and her farts and implying it&#8217;s a miracle she even has a boyfriend. That boyfriend, Ryan, is standing in the back, scowling. He doesn&#8217;t seem to like her exhibitionism. In fact, he&#8217;s fixing to dump her. &#8221; TIME: How Hollywood Can Get More Women To See Movies &#8211; &#8220;Getting a lot of women to see your movie is notessential to its success. Superhero and monster movies will continue to draw big crowds: Spider-Man, X-Men and Godzillaall had at least $90 million opening weekends. But courting more women certainly doesn’t hurt. After all, females make up 51% of the population.&#8221;", "The coming-of-age story is a summer-movie staple — as writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, who struck Oscar gold with The Descendants in 2011, can attest. Their latest film, The Way, Way Back, is another entry in the canon; it's the tale of an awkward teenager, Duncan, who's floundering through a seaside vacation when he's taken under the wing of Owen, the sweetly demented manager of a summer water park. Comedy ensues — and in passing, Duncan learns some important lessons about adulthood. Some audiences will notice that the film's characters aren't situated in any particular time period — and that was no creative oversight. Faxon tells NPR's Renee Montagne that the first draft of the film was actually set in the '80s, but the realization soon set in that a period piece would require a larger budget, what with the vintage cars and locations. \"More important ... and I think it was a great thought, is to make it timeless, to sort of blur the lines a little bit,\" Faxon says. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash joined Morning Edition to talk about nostalgia in summertime movies, the inspiration behind the character Owen and some surprisingly autobiographical details that were woven into the story. Interview Highlights Rash on the inevitability of nostalgia in summertime films \"I think also summer has that type of feel. It feels like you're less connected to technology, a lot of times, when you're on a summer vacation. Old beach houses sometimes don't have TVs, or you don't get cellphone reception. And so that nostalgia theme and the timelessness really made its way into every discussion we had in terms of how we wanted to shoot the movie and see the movie.\" On how a famous camp-counselor character inspired Owen Faxon: \"Owen was loosely modeled after one of our cinematic heroes: Bill Murray [in] Meatballs. That was the template in writing the character. [T]his sort of freewheeling charismatic guy whose confidence comes from his personality. ... [He] exuded that confidence and that mentorship, and I think that was — those were qualities that we certainly saw in Owen. Rash: \"You know, he was a quintessential extrovert, which is what Owen is — you know, someone who feeds off the energy of his audience. And that was sort of important to have as what Owen was — what that water park does for him for three months out of the year.\" Rash on the Steve Carell-Liam James interrogation dialogue \"[The 'How would you rate yourself?'] scene is autobiographical, in the sense that that actual conversation, pretty verbatim, happened to me when I was 14. ... And so we sort of just ripped that from my pain headlines ... and plugged it into the movie, because we thought it was a great way to start this coming-of-age story. \"And, you know, obviously, the character wasn't exactly my stepfather. ... ... But, honestly, something sort of sneaks its way into his brain because he eventually leaves the beach house and discovers this eclectic water park and has this rite of passage in this summer of his life.\" RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: The coming-of-age story is a tradition of summer movies, something about three months of sun and no school. And today in theaters, \"The Way, Way Back,\" a tale of a shy, awkward teenage boy taken under the wing of a sweetly demented manager of a summer water park, it's written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, who as screenwriters hit Hollywood gold when they won an Oscar for their adaptation of \"The Descendants,\" starring George Clooney. \"The Way, Way Back\" has a stellar lineup of comedic talent: Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney - not surprising, considering the two directors first met doing improvised comedy here in L.A. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash joined us to talk about the film. Welcome to the program. NAT FAXON: Oh, thank you. JIM RASH: Thank you very much. MONTAGNE: Now, this movie begins with a conversation that sounds like the beginning of a dreadful summer vacation. You have Steve Carell playing against type... RASH: Yeah. MONTAGNE: ...he's a bully - who's driving his new girlfriend and her son to his beach house, and he starts needling her son, asking him: How would you rate yourself? (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"THE WAY, WAY BACK\") MONTAGNE: Whoa. So that exchange takes place between Steve Carell and Liam James, who plays Duncan, the boy, who is sitting in the way, way back of the boyfriend's... FAXON: Yes. MONTAGNE: ...vintage station wagon, not a great start to a summer vacation. (LAUGHTER) RASH: No. You know, that actual scene is autobiographical in the sense that that actual conversation, pretty verbatim, happened to me when I was 14. MONTAGNE: Now, Jim Rash, this is you talking. RASH: Yes, yes. And so we sort of just ripped that from my pain headlines... (LAUGHTER) RASH: ...within my youth and plugged it into the movie because we thought it was a great way to start this coming-of-age story. And, you know, obviously, when the character wasn't exactly my stepfather, but, you know, even in the movie, it's like Duncan hears these", "The new movie Call Me By Your Name is based on a beloved novel of the same title by André Aciman. It tells the story of two young American men who fall in love one summer in Northern Italy. Elio, 17, is played by Timothée Chalamet (Lady Bird), and Oliver, 24, is played by Armie Hammer (The Social Network, The Lone Ranger). Hammer describes the film as \"just watching two people explore and learn that love is love.\" He says, \"I think that's why a lot of people, regardless of their identification or orientation, can connect to those feelings of being enthralled with somebody, being in love with somebody; making yourself vulnerable and letting them know, and then having that reciprocated.\" When we meet Oliver, he's all appetite and momentum — crushing soft-boiled eggs, throwing back glasses of fresh apricot juice and sleeping through dinner. But Hammer says the character is more complicated than he seems at first. \"He is very brashly American in a lot of ways, and then in other ways he's using that as a cover to cover an amount of discomfort and self-unassuredness and all of that. So he's complicated, which, as an actor, makes him more interesting to play.\" Interview Highlights On shooting the film's viral dance scene I'm not gonna lie, dancing scenes are pretty tough. ... It's really funny about filming a dancing scene because most people who aren't in the business don't realize that there is absolutely no music going on. If you're lucky, you get a click track that just is literally just clicking so that you can keep a rhythm of what you're doing. But then having no music, being completely sober, having everyone stare at you — it does not for an easy scene make. ... And I'm 6'5\", so I feel like I'm ... flailing more than anything else. But so much of that scene was about watching someone be totally enraptured and just lost in a moment and enjoying themselves, because that's one of the things that Oliver is able to do that Elio really appreciates. On how Oliver displays his Jewishness, but covers his love of Elio You know, there's that line in the movie, and also in André Aciman's novel, where they refer to themselves as \"Jews of discretion.\" And I think, you know, Oliver wears his Judaism on his sleeve, and on his neck, more because he wears his Star of David, which is funny and ironic because there are other things about him that he does hide and that he cannot put out there, like the fact that he is, in fact, in love with Elio. On whether he's ever had a summer like the one in the film — a summer he never wanted to end I have had experiences like that, but I can easily say that this experience of this summer, shooting this movie in Italy, was something that eclipsed all of them. This is my new summer romance — going to Italy, living there with Timmy, with [director Luca Guadagnino], shooting the movie. It's a delightful work ethic over there. They shoot about eight hours a day, so you're done by 6 o'clock at night, and you're back at Luca's apartment and he's cooking these massive, delicious meals for us. And we're discussing the day, discussing what happened. Then we [would] watch movies together and, you know, Luca — our director, Luca Guadagnino — is very much a sort of film historian and film buff. So he would put on movies for us and explain, \"OK, this is important because of this,\" and, \"This scene, watch this.\" ... So, this was that summer for me that I knew was going to end and did not want it to. On telling this particular love story at a time when people are talking a lot about power dynamics and sex There's a lot of attention being drawn to power dynamics in relationships. And I think that's a great thing because for too long it's sort of just been the done thing and totally accepted for people in a position of power to use it to get exactly what they wanted; for people not in a position of power to just take it. I do feel fortunate that the way our relationship in the movie unfurls has very little to do with power dynamics. If anything, it really is Elio, the younger one, who has to be the one who is bold enough to say, \"Oliver, this is how I feel. This is what I'm going through.\" And so it's — there's less of that power dynamic in our relationship, which I'm thrilled about because it's just two people consensually falling in love with each other. This interview was produced and edited for broadcast by Kat Lonsdorf and Jolie Myers. It was adapted for the Web by Sydnee Monday and Nicole Cohen. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: The new movie \"Call Me By Your Name\" is based on a beloved novel. It tells the story of two young men who fall in love one summer in northern Italy. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, \"CALL ME BY YOUR NAME\") ARMIE HAMMER: (As Oliver) What does one do around here? TIMOTHEE CHALAMET: (As Elio) Wait for the summer to end. HAMMER: (As Oliver) Yeah. And what do you do in the winter, wait for summer to come? CHALAMET: (As Elio) Well, we only come here for Christmas and some other vacations; Easter as well", "The world has frozen over in the movie Snowpiercer. Set after a climate change disaster, all the action happens aboard a train that has to keep circling the globe for its passengers to stay alive. The movie itself is uniquely international: Snowpiercer is based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette. It's directed by a Korean auteur and stars Hollywood A-listers including Tilda Swinton and Ed Harris. The movie opened in South Korea last summer. Since then it has played all over the world, and certain Americans have been wildly impatient for Snowpiercer to open here. What kinds of Americans, you ask? Well, film nerds, science fiction nerds, Tilda Swinton nerds and fans of director Bong Joon-ho. Grady Hendrix, who co-runs the New York Asian Film Festival, says Bong's movies, such as 2003's Memories of Murder, masterfully subvert genres. \"His serial killer movie was actually an amazing movie about Korean history but also delivered the thrills you want in a serial killer movie,\" he explains. And Bong's 2006 movie The Host was both a sly critique of American intervention in Korea dating back to the Korean War — and about a giant monster eating people. The Host smashed South Korean box office records and became an international sensation. So it was hardly a surprise when the director's next big action film — Snowpiercer — was immediately snapped up by Hollywood distributors Bob and Harvey Weinstein. \"Uncle Harvey. We had a long process,\" Bong wryly remembers during an interview at NPR West in Culver City. Snowpiercer's U.S. release was delayed for months as Bong and Weinstein — known in the film world as Harvey Scissorhands — wrangled over Weinstein's insistence over cutting 20 minutes from the two-hour film and adding a voice-over. Bong adamantly refused. The international film community rallied behind Bong Joon-ho. Eventually, the Weinsteins agreed to release Snowpiercer intact. \"Their idea to simplify was a very silly one,\" Hendrix observes. \"The movie is incredibly simple. It is a train. The poor people live in the back. The rich people live in the front. And the poor people in back want to get to the front.\" Bong says an oppressed underclass rebelling against huge wealth gaps is not exactly science fiction right now. \"[It's] similar to Occupy Wall Street in terms of the 99 percent versus the 1 percent,\" he says. \"That's something that happens in other countries and also in Korea.\" The film has been getting rave reviews, partly because of Bong's knack for keeping viewers off balance. Take a meditative, dreamlike scene where the freedom fighters pause for a snack in a train car that's also an aquarium and a sushi counter. (Of course, sushi is sort of shorthand for the preferred food of the 1 percent.) \"Outside the window, you can see the frozen ocean, where the fish inside the tanks used to swim,\" Bong says. Before the ocean was ruined — partly to make this food. Such pointed, ironic juxtapositions are Bong's stock in trade. \"It's really about having fun with the audience,\" he explains. \"People go to the movies with certain genre conventions in mind. They go to the movies to have certain expectations met. It's always fun to play around with those expectations, to deliver what they came to see, but also give them things they didn't expect.\" Like a message about income inequality or environmental cataclysm — in a high-octane summer action flick. That's what Bong delivers — along with violence, explosions and special effects. ARUN RATH, HOST: The world has frozen over in the new movie \"Snowpiercer\". It's set after a climate change disaster and all the action happens on a train which has to keep circling the globe for its passengers to stay alive. The movie itself is uniquely international. Snowpiercer is based on a French comic book, directed by a Korean auteur and stars Hollywood A-lister's including Tilda Swinton and Ed Harris. The movie became a worldwide hit after opening in South Korea last summer. As part of NPR's summer series Book Your Trip, arts reporter Neda Ulaby explains why \"Snowpiercer\" took so long to come to the U.S. NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: Certain types of people have been waiting and waiting and waiting for \"Snowpiercer\" to open here. Film nerds, science-fiction nerds, Tilda Swinton nerds and fans of director Bong Joon-ho. Grady Hendrix is an Asian film expert who says Bong's movies masterfully subvert genre. ULABY: Movies like 2003's \"Memories Of Murder.\" GRADY HENDRIX: His serial killer movie was actually a really amazing movie about Korean history, but it also delivered the thrills you want in a serial killer movie. ULABY: Then in 2006, Bong's movie \"The Host\" was kind of a sly critique of American involvement in Korea dating back to the Korean War. HENDRIX: But it was also about a giant monster eating people. ULABY: \"The Host\" smashed Korean box office records and became an international sensation. So It was hardly a surprise when ", "\"The boy, Tom Hanson of Margate, N.J., grew up believing that he'd never truly be happy, until the day he met The One. This belief stemmed from early exposure to sad British pop music and a total misreading of the movie The Graduate.\" From the opening narration of the new romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer, you get an idea of the dry humor of the movie, which is infused with music. That should comes as no surprise, given that director Mark Webb got his start directing music videos. NPR's Melissa Block recently spoke to him about the role music played in his new film. As it happens, Webb takes issue with his debut feature film being called a romantic comedy. He says it's a \"coming-of-age story masquerading as a romantic comedy, if you want to get technical.\" It's the story of two 20-somethings who work at a greeting-card company. The first time they meet, in an elevator, the main character is listening to his iPod. Character Summer Finn hears The Smiths leaking from his headphones and shares her love of the band, and that's all it takes. \"I think we all can relate to this idea that, when someone likes the same music you do, it can be a very powerful thing,\" Webb says. Letting Music Tell The Story The writers chose The Smiths on purpose: The singer and co-writer of most of the band's songs, Morrissey, is viewed by many as the bard of heartbreak. \"I feel like you can say things lyrically — where you're using the singer as a narrator — that characters can't say in an explicit way,\" Webb says. \"When it comes to the lyrics of a song, somehow it just bypasses your conscious brain and lets the audience know what's going on.\" Asked if he'd ever wanted to include a song so much that he ended up changing the script to fit the music, Webb recalls replacing a song written for a montage scene with a Wolfmother song called \"Vagabond\" — a track that beefed up the moment and provided an opportunity to match the music with the visual. \"The way that the image and the music dance is something you can only do in the movies,\" Webb says. \"I love that.\" Getting The Actors In The Mood Webb says he spoke to the lead actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, about the music in 500 Days of Summer and was surprised to learn that actors don't usually know what the music will be before they start shooting. \"That, to me, just seems strange,\" Webb says. \"Because it lets them know the tone you're after. And I think that's a really important thing for an actor to know or to feel before you shoot a scene.\" Before Webb began shooting 500 Days of Summer, he gave his two main actors, Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, iPods with each day on their schedule broken down. He included songs that he'd been listening to when breaking down the script with the goal of conveying the feeling he was going after on each day of shooting. In the movie, after Tom has one particularly stellar night with Summer, he walks out of her house with an uncharacteristic swagger in his step. As he walks around, everybody else is just as happy, exchanging high-fives and fist bumps left and right. A dance routine breaks out. And it's set to Hall & Oates' \"You Make My Dreams.\" Webb admits that particular song is probably overused in movies — but that's part of the joke. \"It's like a shorthand for joy,\" he says. \"We're trying to relate what's going on inside somebody's head, not the objective reality of it.\" ROBERT SIEGEL, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. MELISSA BLOCK, host: And I'm Melissa Block. (Soundbite of film, \"500 Days of Summer\") (Soundbite of music) Unidentified Man #1: (As character) This is a story of boy meets girl. BLOCK: The opening narration from the new romantic comedy, \"500 Days of Summer.\" (Soundbite of film, \"500 Days of Summer\") (Soundbite of music) Unidentified Man #1: (As character) The boy, Tom Hanson of Margate, New Jersey, grew up believing that he'd never truly be happy until the day he met the one. This belief stemmed from early exposure to sad British pop music and a total misreading of the movie \"The Graduate.\" BLOCK: You get an idea of the dry humor of the movie, which is very funny and sweet and infused with music. That should come as no surprise, since the director, Mark Webb, got his start directing music videos, and he joins us to talk about his debut feature film and the music behind it. Mark Webb, welcome to the program. Mr. MARK WEBB (Director, \"500 Days of Summer\"): Thank you. I'm going to start off with a correction right off the bat. BLOCK: Uh-oh, didn't get your start directing music… Mr. WEBB: No, no, no, you got all that right. I don't know if this is a romantic comedy. To me, romantic comedies are always aimed towards, you know, like, exclusively towards women, especially lately, and this is a movie that's sort of made by guys. It's certainly, well, you know what? Maybe it is the best genre, probably, because it's romantic, and I hope it's funny. But it's, well, it's a coming-of-age story m", "The movie Act of Valor, which opened in theaters last weekend and earned nearly $25 million, was commissioned by the Navy's Special Warfare Command to drum up recruits for its elite SEALs program. But this is by no means the first movie made with the military's cooperation. Hollywood's relationship with the military can be traced back to the 1927 film Wings, which won a Best Picture Oscar, says Jordan Zakarin, an editor with hollywoodreporter.com. That film was proposed to the Department of War, directed by a veteran and given planes, guns and other military equipment. But the partnership between Hollywood and the military didn't truly blossom until World War II. \"They knew that the burgeoning medium of film was very important to get public support,\" Zakarin tells Audie Cornish, host of All Things Considered. Walt Disney's studio made many famous glory-filled films, he says, including some that in hindsight seem almost like caricatures. \"But at the time, they really drove support,\" he says. There was a divorce of sorts between Hollywood and the military during Vietnam, and it lasted at least until 1986, the year of Oliver Stone's classic Platoon. But what really turned things around that year was Top Gun. \"Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola — they did not want to work with the Pentagon,\" Zakarin says. \"They didn't want to change their message. So it was a bit of a difficult time, but then Top Gun came out and made a lot of money and they realized, 'Wow, we can do this on the cheap, get a lot of promotion and look real good.' \" Zakarin says the military worked with producer Jerry Bruckheimer on the film and even placed recruitment tables outside movie theaters. \"I think what happened was that it was long enough ... after the Vietnam War ended that filmmakers and studios realized that they could do this little bit on the cheaper side and make a lot of money,\" he says. \"And ultimately that's beyond message. That's what it comes down to in Hollywood.\" How it works: The Pentagon requests five copies of a script. It has to be informative and must help in recruitment. \"They don't want a movie that'll make the U.S. look bad even if it's, you know, based on a true story,\" Zakarin says. He cites the example of 2002's Windtalkers, set during World War II. It had a character called the dentist who would take gold fillings out of fallen Japanese soldiers' teeth. \"Even though it was true, it didn't reflect really well on the military, so they had them take that out,\" he says. Ultimately, Zakarin says, the dominant ideology in Hollywood is what makes money. \"We've seen a lot of movies that are very good [and] a number of films that fell short of the box office despite being critically acclaimed,\" he says. \"Maybe Hollywood's realizing that maybe people don't want to see difficult war on their TV screen after seeing it 24-7 on CNN, on Fox News, so maybe now they're into a little bit of escapist entertainment.\" In that vein, coming to your local multiplex: director Peter Berg's Battleship and Zac Efron in The Lucky One. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Now to the military 's efforts to curate its image in popular culture. Exhibit A: The biggest movie in America right now was born at the Pentagon. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"ACT OF VALOR\") UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Sir, leave two men here. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken) CORNISH: \"Act of Valor\" was commissioned by the Navy's Special Warfare Command to play up its elite SEALs program. And it follows the Navy SEALs' remarkable moment in the spotlight, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and a huge spike in public interest. The unabashed propaganda film opened in theaters across the country Friday and earned nearly $25 million. We're going to look now at the long and complicated relationship between Hollywood and the Pentagon. Our tour guide is Jordan Zakarin. He's a staff editor with the hollywoodreporter.com. Hi there, Jordan. JORDAN ZAKARIN: Hey. How are you? CORNISH: So, Jordan, you trace this relationship between the military and Hollywood, and you trace it back to 1927 and the film \"Wings.\" Tell us about it. ZAKARIN: Yeah. That was actually the first Best Picture winner. The film got proposed to the Department of Wars, it was called then. And they liked it, and they had a military veteran direct it. And the military gave them planes and guns and all those sorts of things that they still give today. CORNISH: And you talk about, in your article, the different departments that were set up over the years to accomplish this at the Pentagon. ZAKARIN: Yeah. World War II, especially, they knew that, you know, the burgeoning medium of film was very important to get public support. So they had two departments, you know, Bureau of War Information and another one that kind of looked over scripts and checked them, and then one that decided if you could export your film to foreign territories, which kind of means your film will be made or not. And they took over Disney studio who produced a lot", "What a strange summer it's been. All across the United States and beyond, people have changed their daily routines to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic. An anxious spring spent under lockdown in many parts of the U.S. turned into a summer of continued virtual meetings, financial stress and isolation — along with pent-up desire to seek relief in whatever ways we could. So, plastic partitions went up, town hall meetings moved to football fields, National Parks became even more popular, and indoor movie dates shifted to film nights beneath the stars. In other words, Americans got creative. Everyday routines and important ceremonies continued around the U.S., but with a very different look. With the season drawing to a close, NPR asked photographers to remind us what America has looked like during this summer of social distancing. Escapes To Nature And Fresh Air In Phoenix, freelance photographer Ash Ponders spent time at the Salt River in mid-August, a 200-mile waterway on the edge of town that drew locals eager to swim, fish, or go tubing in the sweltering summer months. Though professional tubing operations halted because of the pandemic, the river remained an outdoor escape. \"Everyone had masks in their pockets,\" Ponders recalls. When people saw others at the river, \"they'd don them ahead of time.\" Ponders spoke with a group of friends who had lugged inner tubes and snacks to the river on a Friday night just to watch the sunset. Jacob Willeford, one of the friends, said spending time near the water was better than what he'd be doing otherwise, \"sitting at home; furloughed.\" When photographer Chona Kasinger visited a blueberry-picking farm in the Snohomish River Valley outside of Seattle in August, she found field attendants guiding visitors to rows of berry bushes loaded with ripe fruit. The guides were responsible for ensuring that, even on a farm, people remained 6 feet apart and kept their masks on. This year, Mountainview Blueberry Farm set up designated hand-washing stations, provided sanitized berry baskets, and had customers purchase their berry hauls from clerks stationed behind plastic partitions. Despite the changes to the picking protocol, Keith Stocker, one of the owners, says the farm was as busy as it's ever been. Kasinger spoke to one group of friends who hadn't seen each other in six months, but arranged to meet to go berry picking — from a safe distance. \"They were just stoked to be able to be together in what they felt was a safe environment,\" she remembers. Celebrations And Milestones Get A Socially Distanced Spin Summer always brings important milestones: graduations, weddings and family reunions. Keeping 6 feet apart meant rethinking the logistics of many well-established rituals this year. Graduating seniors at Lincoln High School in Des Moines arrived at staggered times over the course of a week in mid-June to receive their diplomas. They were each allowed two guests, who watched them cross an empty stage before the new grads posed for photos. \"Parents frequently looked to the floor for clues on where to stand,\" recalls Olivia Sun, a visual journalist at the Des Moines Register who covered the event. \"There was no restless buzz of graduates waiting to begin a final summer with childhood friends.\" Without the festivities that usually accompany graduation, the weeklong event felt \"more like a streamlined appointment than a celebration,\" Sun says. A Sense Of Community Preserved In Philadelphia, photographer Hannah Yoon found Positive Movement, a drumline group, had moved their music and rehearsals outside to be safer. The decision had an unintended effect, giving neighbors — including those confined to home — the opportunity to hear and see the music on the street. Tony Royster, who started Positive Movement, says the team has been performing since 2014, but expanded their schedule this summer to include drive-by birthday and graduation parties as a way to continue to entertain and lift the community's spirits. \"We heard the drumline from outside the window and had to come check it out,\" resident Jessica Harmon said on a weeknight in early August when Positive Movement performed as the opening act ahead of an outdoor movie. \"We had no idea there would be a movie night set up right across the street,\" Harmon says. She ended up staying to watch the film with others in her neighborhood. Nehad Khader, who works with the Scribe Video Center, which puts on the movie nights, says that need for human connection among neighbors was especially profound this summer. The center has hosted outdoor screenings for over two decades. This year, Khader says, every movie night reached maximum capacity. Friends Nathan Grace, Hana Chamoun, and Anna McCarthy showed up to watch, too. Chamoun, a graduate student and part-time bartender, is now taking virtual classes and relying on unemployment to make ends meet. The past few months have reminded her of the timelessness of summers in elementary school", "Nothing much happens in Summer 1993, the film Spain submitted for consideration in the best foreign film category of the most recent Academy Awards. Nothing much, unless you count the fits and starts of a little girl's inchoate grief over the death of her mother. That's huge, and filmmaker Carla Simon is in delicately assured command of her material, not least because her mother was one of thousands of Spaniards who died of AIDS in the early 1990 — just before anti-retroviral medications became available — leaving Simon an orphan at six years old. But though the movie is set during the crisis it's neither an AIDS movie nor a facile pity-party for Frida (Laia Artegas), a Barcelona urchin with wary eyes in a head full of wild black curls. Frida has never heard of AIDS — all she knows is that her mother is gone and she is dispatched to the Catalan countryside to live with her mother's brother (David Verdaguer), his wife (Bruna Cusi) and her younger cousin Anna (Paula Robles), Frida doesn't understand why a doctor periodically sticks needles into her arm. She's not sure why everyone is tiptoeing around her and being so nice. She's not aware of how she feels about sharing the limelight with another child, especially one as manifestly safe and happy as little Anna appears to be. She certainly doesn't get why she needs a new mom, or why there's no answer when she leaves night gifts for her own mother with a statue of the Virgin Mary. There will be other angles, but mostly this is a kid's eye view of the collapse of her world as she knows it, an enormously difficult thing for a director to pull off when your two leads, who appear in almost every frame of the movie, are six and four years old respectively. When people talk about how great small children are in a film, what's really meant is how well they're cast, or how well they follow instructions, or how skilled the director is at getting them to be themselves in ways that meet the requirements of plot or character. All of the above pertain here: As Frida, Laia Artigas is a mini Anna Magnani with the tough, assessing watchfulness of a city street kid, while chubby, blue-eyed Paula Robles is all open innocence as country girl Anna, who's as delighted to welcome a potential playmate as the guest is first bewildered and then inclined to pull senior rank. Frida doesn't talk much in this intimately visual film, which takes the measure of her inner turmoil in the Catalan villagers' frightening (to her) ceremonies, in the terror of venturing out alone at night with nothing but ambient noise to guide her wanderings, in the cautious but happy discovery of where eggs really come from. Frida is quiet and co-operative to start with. Her uncle and aunt are lovingly attentive; her grandparents visit every week. But a small bomb ticks away inside Frida that neither she nor her hosts know what to do with, and soon she starts acting out in ways that range from annoying to dangerous. None of this is played to tug directly at our heartstrings. Like many children (and adults) in trouble they can't grasp let alone escape, Frida becomes a pill. Simon never overplays her hand: Summer 1993 carries us from moment to unpredictable moment, placing us inside Frida's confusion, her efforts to gain control of her feelings and her environment, and the fleeting bursts of happiness that come and go without warning. The result is a kind of grief procedural, its focus sharpened by the lush greens of the Catalan landscape. There's an ending but no climax in Summer 1993. In place of closure, so rarely as elusive in art as it is in life, Simon unobtrusively opens up the perspective to the suppressed frustration and anger of those who, even as they welcome Frida with open arms, must grope their way through the radical reshaping of family that attends her sudden arrival. Frida's grief has no schedules, just a gradual, fitful abatement of her pain, which Simon has made so palpable that when a happier girl finally feels confident enough to ask about her \"previous Mum,\" it's at once an occasion for a massive exhale, and a dagger to the heart.", "An impresario and producer who helped launch the careers of many marquee-name musicians, comedians and actors — including Bob Dylan, Woody Allen and Bruce Lee — has died. Fred Weintraub was 88 years old. His wife, Jackie, confirmed his death to NPR. He died at their home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. on March 5, due to complications related to Parkinson's disease. Born in the Bronx on April 27, 1928, Weintraub studied for his bar mitzvah with famed cantor and Metropolitan Opera soloist Richard Tucker. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, he started his career as heir to his father's baby-carriage and toy business. But, despairing of that life at age 26, he abandoned his two children and then-wife to travel the world and pick up odd jobs, including running a fishing boat in Cuba. (He married four times in total, but was married to his last wife, Jackie, for 30 years.) Eventually, Weintraub returned to New York. In 1961, he opened a club called The Bitter End, serving ice cream and coffee drinks instead of alcohol, at 147 Bleecker St., in the heart of Greenwich Village. It's nearly impossible to overstate The Bitter End's position as a fulcrum of New York's music and comedy scenes. Among the many talents fostered on that stage, against its famous bare-brick wall, were Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Nina Simone, Carly Simon, Harry Chapin, Randy Newman, George Carlin, Woody Allen, Lily Tomlin, Joan Rivers and Bill Cosby. A decade after the Bitter End opened, its manager, Paul Colby, opened another club next door called The Other End — and Weintraub fired him. By 1974, however, Weintraub had sold the Bitter End to Colby, who died in 2014 at 96. In the late 1960s, Weintraub headed west to the Warner Bros. film studios as a production executive. One of his first tasks there was to finance a music documentary for the \"hesitant ... establishment\" at the studio, as Jackie Weintraub wrote in a statement provided to NPR. It was the landmark, Oscar-winning Woodstock, released in 1970. Woodstock earned $32 million in its theatrical release, an impressive return for a documentary film both then and now. Soon after that smash hit, Weintraub decided he wanted to replicate the success of Hong Kong's martial arts movies in America. He went looking to make a star, and found one in an aspiring actor and martial arts teacher working in Oakland: Bruce Lee. Their resulting film, 1973's Enter the Dragon, made more than $100 million worldwide — and made Lee, who died a few days after the movie's release, an instant legend. Weintraub went on to have additional commercial successes in both film and TV, including producing the folk music program \"Hootenanny\" and \"The Dukes of Hazzard.\" After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Weintraub also helped develop the film industry in then-Yugoslavia and in Lithuania. At a 2012 event in Burbank promoting his autobiography Bruce Lee, Woodstock and Me: From the Man Behind a Half-Century of Music, Movies and Martial Arts (written with David Fields), Weintraub told the audience: \"I've had a serendipitous life with more failures than you can imagine. I believe success and failure go hand-in-hand, and you can never go wrong in failing. You'll always come out of a failure as a better person. I agree with Winston Churchill, who said, 'Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.' You have to be willing to stick your neck out. Always do new things. Try anything. You never know when something life-changing will come your way.\"", "Starting Friday, film fans can pass the time in self-quarantine with a Jesse Eisenberg digital double-feature. In thriller “Vivarium,” Eisenberg plays half of a hopeful couple house-hunting in a neighborhood full of identical green homes. The couple finds themselves trapped with a child inside one of the houses — a vivarium, which means animal enclosure. Watch on YouTube. Eisenberg describes the film as a “nightmarish fever dream” where a couple’s dreams of starting a modern middle-class family in the suburbs take a bizarre turn. “It has some very strange resonance right now where this kind of insidious thing seems to be attacking you and you&#8217;re stuck inside your house and there&#8217;s no one around,” he says. “The movie, just as movies often do, takes on different resonances when they finally come out.” “Vivarium” is a cross between Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel’s work and Netflix’s “Black Mirror” or “The Twilight Zone,” he says. The film skews real-world symbols to create terror within the characters without traditional horror movie scares, he says. Whether viewers will enjoy this film while stuck inside because of the coronavirus pandemic depends on their particular situation, he says. “If you have a kind of case of schadenfreude, you probably would enjoy watching somebody who&#8217;s worse off than you,” he says. “But if you want to get your mind off it, I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s a million other things on your queue.” In biopic “Resistance,” Eisenberg plays the great French mime Marcel Marceau as a young man during World War II. Marceau used his artistic skills and imagination to rescue hundreds of Jewish children orphaned by the Nazis. Watch on YouTube. To prepare for the film, Eisenberg studied for nine months with Lorin Eric Salm. Salm teaches the discipline of Marceau but also chronicles the legendary mime’s life and the history of the craft. Eisenberg learned both Salm’s choreography for the movie and to appreciate the history of this more abstract style of performance art. “It&#8217;s not the kind of literal performances that I&#8217;m used to either writing or acting,” he says. The “reluctant hero” Marceau initially prizes his art and only wants to perform for his own sake, Eisenberg says. But as the war heats up and he’s asked to entertain kids, he realizes he can use his art to help others. The grandchild of Holocaust survivors, Eisenberg says the movie shares a series of “unusual coincidences” with his life. His family is from an area in southern Poland close to where Marceau was from. Plus, his mother is a birthday party clown. His mother would put on the same makeup as Marceau to perform for children in the same style during his own childhood, he says. His dad taught social psychology, which helped his mother avoid scaring kids with things like big shoes or a fake red nose, Eisenberg says. Every weekend, he would wake to the sound of his mother “meticulously” tuning her guitar for her silly performances that she took very seriously, he says. This helped him learn an important lesson. “I think in some way it unconsciously at least taught me that regardless of what kind of performance you&#8217;re doing, take it seriously,” he says. “If it&#8217;s kind of a silly comedy movie or whatever, you take it as seriously as you would take any drama.” On top of these leading roles, his piece &#8220;An Immodest Proposal&#8221; performed by actor Richard Kind is part of &#8220;The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues.&#8221; For Eisenberg, having two movies come out during a pandemic is a “surreal” and “strange” experience. But he imagines people want to engage in normal activities — even if they watch the movie from their couch instead of a theater. “I&#8217;m in the kind of like public conversation once every year and a half when I have movies come out and I have to do interviews,” he says. “And so you know you don&#8217;t want to be doing it at the time where you feel like it&#8217;s irresponsible talking about anything other than washing your hands.” But these two films speak to different contemporary approaches to entertainment, he says: emphasizing the horrors of an unusual suburban neighborhood and an uplifting tale of heroism during wartime. Neither films are “blind to the terrors of the world,” he says. Emiko Tamagawa produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Tinku Ray. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.  This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "Jason Bourne is back, though it might seem like he never went away. The character created by best-selling author Robert Ludlum has populated 12 novels, a made-for-TV movie, and now five big-screen adventures. In four of the five Bourne features, the music underlying the action has been the work of British composer John Powell. Like the protagonist he helps propel, Powell has faced some challenges. His first full-length feature film assignment was the 1997 action movie Face/Off. He followed that with more action, including The Italian Job and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. But he hit his stride with the Bourne movies, starting with The Bourne Identity in 2002. The movies, and Powell's propulsive, minimalistic music, had a big influence on the entire action genre — from the Fast and Furious series to the Daniel Craig James Bond films. Then, six years ago, Powell stepped away. \"I didn't want to write music for movies where violence was the entertainment,\" he says. \"The definition of what a violent film, in my head, is one where the violence is to achieve the hero's success.\" Powell turned to a very different genre where he'd also had success: animated family features. His credits include Happy Feet, Rio, and his Oscar-nominated score for How to Train Your Dragon. This summer's Jason Bourne marks his return to action — but, he insists, the widowed assassin with amnesia isn't your typical action hero. \"Jason Bourne has always been a victim of violence,\" Powell says. \"I mean, I always felt, from film number one, that the character was never instigating violence. He was never doing it in any other way other than to try and find out what the hell happened to him.\" Jason Bourne is also Powell's first movie project since he finished his first major work for the concert hall. His oratorio, A Prussian Requiem, had its world premiere in London in March at a concert commemorating the 100th anniversary of World War I. The piece was Powell's attempt to come to musical terms with what plunged the world into such unprecedented violence. \"I'd been thinking about the first World War for many, many years,\" he says. \"1914 was after this amazing period in European art — the Belle Époque, you know — and there was so much amazing music. How could you have such a situation, where mankind was bringing forth such beauty, and mankind was also just diving into a hole so deep? The reality of the first World War was beyond anything anybody could express.\" Still, he tried. And he succeeded, says José Serebrier, who conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in the world premiere and the studio recording. \"The work is a great, great masterpiece — it will be picked up by many other conductors,\" Serebrier says. \"The last movement, in particular, has a hypnotic effect on the audience, and we saw people crying. It's quite something.\" But on the night of the premiere, Powell wasn't there. Just a day before he'd written to Serebrier and the orchestra manager, saying he couldn't come because his wife had only a few days left to live. Serebrier says that one of his assistants was in London texting Powell about the progress of the performance, and wrote, \"The public is totally immersed in it. The second movement just went through, and everyone is enchanted with it.\" During the fifth movement, Powell responded. \"Please don't write anymore,\" he wrote. \"She just died.\" Powell's wife, an English artist named Melinda Lerner, had developed MDS, a bone marrow disorder that required a transplant. In her weakened state following treatment, she lost her life. She was 56 years old. \"Everything I write is probably two streams — one of which is all the music I've ever heard, and then all the experiences I've had,\" Powell says. \"And some have been joyful, and some have been, you know, very dark. Here in Hollywood I was enjoying writing a lot of fun music, and I don't think I could have done that unless I had a fun relationship. I'm sure if I hadn't met her, I would have maybe been more miserable, and then I might have written miserable music that would have never got me a gig.\" Jason Bourne was his first step back into his work. \"Bourne was a nice distraction,\" he says. \"My life was in turmoil as this film happened. And so, my role in it really was to sort of guide everything to sound and be authentic to the style, as it were.\" Powell intends to write more concert music, and, of course, more film scores. And they will, inevitably, draw on his life experiences — all of them. \"The only thing I can think at the moment is that in the same way that my father died when I was 15, that's probably been a big kind of factor in everything I wrote,\" he says. \"So will this.\"", "This summer has offered a feast of superhero flicks — from Iron Man, to The Incredible Hulk, to The Dark Knight. But despite their box-office success, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott warns that comic book movies may have hit their peak this summer — and that it will all be disappointing sequels from here. In his article \"How Many Superheroes Does It Take to Tire a Genre?\" Scott writes: \"Those poor, misunderstood crusaders must turn big profits on a global scale and satisfy an audience hungry for the thrill of novelty and the comforts of the familiar. Is it just me, or is the strain starting to show?\" NEAL CONAN, host: This summer has been a feast for fans of superhero movies. First up, we saw Robert Downey, Jr. as the brilliant scientist in \"Iron Man,\" Edward Norton as the Incredible Hulk, Will Smith as the anti-superhero Hancock. Ron Pearlman reprised his star turn in Hellboy II. And now, the face-off between Christian Bale and Heath Ledger as Batman and the Joker in the smash hit, \"The Dark Knight.\" We love these movies for their dazzling special effects, campy dialog, and to see good triumph over evil. And this year's crop seems especially good, so good, in fact, the New York Times film critic A.O. Scott wonders if this isn't a peak, that next summer's inevitable sequels will suffer from the limitations of the genre. So what do you think? Is the superhero movie doomed by lofty themes and formulaic plots? Do these conventions annoy you, or do you love them? Our number here in Washington is 800-989-8255. The best way to reach us today is probably by email, [email protected], and you can comment on our blog at npr.org/blogofthenation. A.O. Scott is a film critic for the New York Times, and he joins us from our bureau in New York. And Tony, nice to have you back on the program. Mr. A.O. SCOTT (Film Critic, New York Times): Very nice to be back, Neal. CONAN: And what are the limitations of these genre? Mr. SCOTT: Well, I was really struck seeing \"The Dark Knight,\" you know, which I saw before it opened with all of the other film critics in America and then again on opening weekend with everybody else, that, you know, this is very artful, very ambitious, very serious, very high-level film making, and it seemed to me that a lot of the director, Christopher Nolan's, ambitions really came up against some of the rules and conventions of the genre. So in the end, after seeing a lot of, you know, dazzling visual set pieces and action sequences and some very fine performances from Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart, in particular, I felt like I had kind of also seen it all before, that, in a way, you know, much as you can push in some directions to renew and make more interesting and more original and more ambitious this formula, the formula is still there. And I just felt like it's starting to get old, and I'm just wondering how much longer this level of interest on the part of film makers and audiences can be sustained in it. I mean, these movies, you know, the ones that you mentioned, three of which I think are quite good. \"Iron Man,\" \"Hancock\" - actually four - \"Hellboy Two,\" and \"The Dark Knight,\" all of them seemed to me to be, for all their originality and all of their spectacle, seemed to me to be really pushing up against and in a way blocked from being better by what we expect of these movies. CONAN: And by those limitations of the genre you were talking about, things like, well, the end always has to be a climactic battle between the arch villain and the superhero, who then mention to each other along the way that they are, of course, mirror images. Mr. SCOTT: Right. And also now, you seem, you know - they all have to take a very serious allegorical turn. Whether or not you can figure out what the allegory is supposed to be saying, you know, you're supposed to feel like one way that you justify buying your ticket or the studios justify spending 200 million dollars to make these movies is, in addition to those fights and all the special effects and the exploding cars and the big suits and the CGI and all that great stuff, you're going to have some serious ponderous themes about good and evil, vengeance and justice... CONAN: Anarchy and order. Mr. SCOTT: But the thing is that these themes are very rarely kind of made integral or woven into the story. Instead, you just have the characters state them again and again and again and again. So, you know, you have the Joker telling Batman, well, you have to follow the rules. And you have Lieutenant Gordon worrying with the district attorney about, you know, what are the limits of what Batman can do or what free society can do to protect itself from a murderous clown. CONAN: Yeah. Nevertheless, this iteration of the superhero movie seems to have come up with a way of attracting, well, huge budgets and huge audiences, too. One of the which is, as you pointed out in your piece today, was to get really good actors and let them do", "This summer, Age of Extinction, the fourth installment in the Transformers series, demolished box office records in China, the world's second-largest film market behind the U.S. Although the movie got poor reviews on both sides of the Pacific, it managed to unseat China's former top-grossing film, Avatar, and haul in more than $300 million. People like Wang Yitao, a 32-year-old Shanghai government worker, are a big reason why. Wang remembers the moment he saw his first Transformers action figure. It was 1990. He was 8-years-old and the toys were on sale at the No. 1. Department Store on Nanjing Road, the city's famed shopping street. \"Before in China, we didn't have toys like this,\" says Wang, his eyes widening in wonder as he returns to the memories of his childhood. \"I felt they were so magical. I held on to my parents, refusing to leave the counter no matter what, pleading with them to buy me one.\" The most expensive Transformer back then cost Wang's mother the equivalent of a week's salary at the state-run auto parts factory where she worked. In all, Wang collected more than 50 Transformers and kept them in a box under his bed. Every time Hasbro released a new one, it became the talk of the classroom. So, when a new Transformers movie comes out these days, Wang can't resist. \"At least in Shanghai, I can guarantee every man in my age group would go to the movie theater to see the movie,\" says Wang, a burly man, who wore a black T-shirt, blue jeans and sandals. \"Their choices are: go by themselves or drag their girlfriends or wives.\" Beyond a huge, built-in fan base, another reason Transformers did so well in China is because the final third of the film was shot there — unheard of for a Hollywood, summer blockbuster. The movie features a few Chinese stars as well as shots of the Great Wall and an extended fight scene that destroys much of Hong Kong. Yin Hong, a professor of film and television at Beijing's Tsinghua University, says that calculated marketing paid off. \"Hollywood realizes that by adding these China elements, the movie can indeed achieve huge success in the Chinese market,\" says Yin. Savvy marketing, though, is no substitute for good storytelling. Yin points out that the movie lurches across China with little narrative logic, culminating in an epic, seemingly interminable battle. \"One moment, they were on the top of buildings; another, they run to the top of hills in southern China,\" says Yin. \"There was little coordination of scenes, so it appeared chaotic.\" Another reason the movie spends so much time in China is to provide opportunities for Chinese product placement, much of which Chinese movie-goers ridiculed. In one scene, actor Stanley Tucci, playing a billionaire inventor, is running from CIA assassins. He pauses on a Hong Kong roof top, opens a refrigerator and drinks a cardboard carton of Yili, a Chinese brand of milk. In another scene, Mark Wahlberg, the movie's other lead actor, tries to get money out of a China Construction Bank ATM — in Texas. There's even a plug for the Communist Party. Hong Kong is a semi-autonomous region, where many are pushing for democracy, which infuriates China's authoritarian leaders in Beijing. So, when an alien spaceship threatens Hong Kong's skyline, one local official says there's only one place to turn: \"We've got to call the central government for help.\" \"Look, it's a really complicated task to make a film that works for the international audience and also for China,\" says Rob Cain, who runs Pacific Bridge Pictures, a Santa Monica-based firm, which works on co-productions with Chinese film companies. \"You have to meet all sorts of censorship rules,\" Cain continues. \"You have to satisfy the desires and the whims of the government officials who are responsible for the film industry and so decisions get made in a way that suits their needs, but they may be antithetical to the desires and needs of the movie-going audience there.\" But with Transformers' record-breaking performance and Chinese ticket sales on track to become the world's largest, Hollywood studios will be searching for more and more ways to get their movies into this market. DAVID GREENE, HOST: No doubt this has been the summer of Transformers. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, \"TRANSFORMERS 4: AGE OF EXTINCTION\") PETER CULLEN: (As Optimus Prime) Autobots, Lockdown is hunting us and humans are helping. GREENE: Here in the United States, humans spent more than $240 million, in an otherwise slow summer movie season, to watch \"Transformers: Age Of Extinction.\" In China the movie did even better. The fourth installment in the Transformers series has become that country's biggest box office hit of all time. For a look at how Transformers conquered the world's second-largest the film market, here's NPR's Frank Langfitt in Shanghai. FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Transformers hauled in more than $300 million here last month, easily topping the previous box office champ \"Avatar.\" One reason Transformers did so well", "From sci-fi to documentaries, good science films tell the human story behind scientific ideas. Which films get the science right, and which don't? Physicist and movie critic Sidney Perkowitz runs through some of this summer's top science flicks. Guests: Sidney Perkowitz, author, Hollywood Science: Movies, Science and the End of the World, professor of physics, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. Michael Tuts, U.S. operations program manager at CERN, professor of physics, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. Paul Devlin, director, Blast!, New York, N.Y. Mark Devlin, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. Alex Rivera director, Sleep Dealer, New York, N.Y. IRA FLATOW, host: You're listening to SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR News. I'm Ira Flatow. (Soundbite of music) FLATOW: Recognize that music? It's from a science fiction film. I hear it's a hard one to remember. You have to be pretty old to remember that one. Let me give you something that might be a little bit easier. (Soundbite of movie, \"The Day Earth Stood Still\") (Soundbite of music) Ms. PATRICIA NEAL (Actor): (as Helen Benson): Gort, Klaatu barada nikto. Klaatu barada nikto FLATOW: And if you don't know Klaatu barada nikto, you're not a science fiction fan. That was from \"The Day Earth Stood Still.\" The first one, the really good one. Most science movie fans would recognize that alien language, I think. The first one, I'd have to say, was a little tougher. It's the theme music from \"Metropolis.\" And that was a 1927 science fiction film that showed the technology - showed technology that was way ahead of it's time in that movie. And this is our way of kicking off this hour's theme, science in films. And we're going to look at some of the old ones, like the two clips you've just heard, an three new films that you might want to catch this summer for your dose of science. So our number is 1-800-989-8255, 1-800-989-TALK. You can tweet us @scifri. That's @scifri, talking about science in the films. And joining me now to talk about science movies is first guest, Sidney Perkowitz. He's the author of \"Hollywood Science,\" and he's also a professor of physics at Emory University. He joins us from a studio on a campus. Thanks for being with us today Dr. Perkowitz. Dr. SIDNEY PERKOWITZ (Emory University): My pleasure, Ira. And if you call me Sidney, that makes me happy. (Soundbite of laughter) FLATOW: Okay, Sid. Can I call you Sid? (Soundbite of laughter) Dr. PERKOWITZ: That's even better. (Soundbite of laughter) FLATOW: Even better. (Soundbite of laughter) FLATOW: Okay, Sid. I wondered, what was the first science fiction movie? Do you have the year on that, when the first one would have been? Dr. PERKOWITZ: \"Metropolis\" is pretty old. But there are even some older ones. There was an earlier \"Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde\" which kind of comes under that heading, which preceded \"Metropolis\" by several years. So turn of the century is about when it was happening, believe it or not. FLATOW: Wasn't there that \"Trip to the Moon,\" a very older movie that… Dr. PERKOWITZ: And that was even older, in the 1890s… FLATOW: Wow. Dr. PERKOWITZ: …by a French film maker. So, yes, it's an incredibly old genre. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Well, I'm going to bring in another clip. We talked about those other two clips. Those are two my favorite movies. But here, I saw a movie just this week that is a blockbuster, and it has to do with, sort of, modern science. And I want to bring a clip in from that film that we're going to talking about. And - let's go to hear that clip now. (Soundbite of movie, \"Angels and Demons\") Ms. AYELET ZURER (Actor): (as Vittoria Vetra) It's a way of studying the origins of the universe, to try to isolate what some people call the God particle. But they are implications for energy research. Unidentified Man: The God particle? Ms. AYELET ZURER (Actor): (as Vittoria Vetra) What we call it isn't important. It's what gives all matter mass, the thing without which we could not exist. Mr. TOM HANKS (Actor): (as Robert Langdon): You're talking about the moment of creation. Ms. AYELET ZURER (Actor): (as Vittoria Vetra): Yes. You know what? I am. FLATOW: There's that clip from \"Angels and Demons,\" Tom Hanks talking with the scientist there about the God particle. That's a summer blockbuster about the destructive possibilities of a substance called antimatter. And they basically - the plot on this is a - it's a fictional thief steals antimatter from the real Hadron Collider at CERN - that's in Switzerland - and the characters race to stop a citywide explosion. With me now is Michael Tuts. He is the U.S. ATLAS Operations Program manager at CERN and professor of physics at Columbia University. Welcome to the SCIENCE FRIDAY. Professor MICHAEL TUTS (Physics, Columbia University; U.S. ATLAS Operations Program manager, CERN): Did they get the science about the antimatter right in the film? Dr. PERKOWITZ: They got it mostly rig", "The German choreographer Philippina Bausch — known to the world simply as Pina — transformed the art of modern dance. When director Wim Wenders first saw a dance performance choreographed by Bausch more than 20 years ago, he was in awe. \"I wasn't into dance,\" Wenders tells NPR's Neal Conan. \"I had to be forced to see my first piece with Pina Bausch ... because, well, I couldn't imagine that dance could possibly concern me. And then it did in the biggest way imaginable.\" Wenders says he cried through the entire show and \"didn't even know that a man had so much liquid in him.\" The two met for coffee the next day and began planning the film that would be discussed for the next 20 years. Bausch died suddenly in the summer of 2009, just days before filming started. \"Pina disappeared ... and none of her dancers, her family, her friends and certainly us, the film crew, was able to say goodbye or thank you,\" Wenders says. After her death, Wenders considered abandoning the project altogether. \"But the dancers made me realize that there was a film to be made after all, a film for Pina, because we couldn't make one with her anymore.\" Pina — a 3-D dance documentary nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature — became an homage to Bausch, a way for Wenders to say goodbye. Wenders and Bausch became very good friends and spent a lot of time planning how to capture her unique style of dance. \"It took a long, long time to actually find how to translate this splendor and this beauty, and how to put that on screen, which you see the physicality of a live performance,\" Wenders says. Wenders realized that 3-D technology was the tool he needed to draw \"the audience into the presence of Pina's dances.\" He spent a year working with 3-D experts before filming began. The film features dancers performing in all sorts of unusual places — on a mountainside, in the middle of a city and in a factory. \"With the dancers performing all over the place, in nature and in industrial landscapes, I thought it helps the audience to understand this is really not something just aesthetic,\" says Wenders. \"This is about life.\" Bausch's dance company, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, continues to perform and will do one of its biggest performances yet during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. NEAL CONAN, HOST: The German choreographer Philippina Bausch, known to the world simply as Pina, transformed the art of modern dance. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"PINA\") PHILIPPINA BAUSCH: (Speaking in foreign language) CONAN: There are situations, of course, she said, that leave you utterly speechless. All you that you can do is hint at things. Words, too, can't do more than just evoke things. That, where dance comes in again. Pina Bausch died suddenly in the summer of 2009. The film \"Pina\" plays homage to the great choreographer's work and legacy. It's a dance documentary in 3-D, a first for an art house film. It's nominated for best documentary feature at this year's Academy Awards. You can find conversations with the filmmakers of the other four nominees on our website. Go to npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. Wim Wenders, a friend of Pina Bausch, wrote, produced and directed \"Pina.\" He's known for such films as \"Buena Vista Social Club\" and \"Paris, Texas.\" He joins us from NPR West in Culver City, California. Nice to have you with us. Congratulations on the nomination. And we're sorry for your loss. WIM WENDERS: Well, thank you for having me, Neal. And - well, we all tried to deal with that last. And that's why made that movie, because \"Pina\" disappeared from one day to another, and none of her dancers, her family, her friends and certainly us, the film crew, was able to say goodbye or thank you. She just was gone out of a sudden. And there we were. We had planned a movie together. We're close to starting it, and the carpet was pulled from under her feet. And then we realized - I walked away from it first. But the dancers made me realize that there was a film to be made after all, a film for Pina, because we couldn't make one with her anymore. So we considered making another film together as an homage to her and as our way to say thank you and goodbye. CONAN: It's interesting, dance is such an ephemeral medium. We see excerpts from her works, but this is not a simple recording of some of her pieces. WENDERS: No. We really try to take the audience into Pina's universe, and Pina's universe was very, very special. And all the people who think, well, this guy is talking about a dance movie, that can't possibly interest me, include me out - that's what I thought myself. I wasn't into dance. I was - I had to be forced to see my first piece with Pina Bausch more than 20 years ago because, well, I couldn't imagine that dance could possibly concern me. And then it did in the biggest way imaginable. I cried through the entire evening, did not know what hit me and just realized this was big. This was a whole language that I didn't know", "Writer-director Quentin Dupieux's last film came with its own viewing guide, a warning in the form of a to-the-camera prologue given by a flippant floppy-haired police officer: \"All great films, without exception, contain an important element of no reason.\" The cop's argument is too sweeping, and its examples too transparently nonsensical, to be taken seriously: Why is E.T. brown? For no reason. Why did the guy in The Pianist have to hide? For no reason! Glib and oblique as it may be, though, the message is Dupieux's way of throwing the audience a banana (it would never be a bone): You'll have to meet this film in the peculiar place where it exists — because it won't be coming to you. That film was Rubber, a surrealist deconstruction of the slasher flick starring a tire that comes alive and uses its psychokinetic powers to kill people. The movie divided critics and audiences at Cannes in 2010 — go figure — and as the single unifying logic for a film, \"no reason\" is likely to do the same in Wrong, a similarly self-reflexive take on the slice-of-life film in which storytelling comes a distant second to unexpected oddity, clear meaning is difficult to locate and narrative nonconformity is the watchword. In Wrong, Dupieux does at least deploy a more relatable premise — the protagonist's beloved dog has gone missing — to hang his irreverence on; it's Wendy and Lucy by way of Bunuel. When Dolph Springer (Jack Plotnick) can't find his beloved dog Paul, he distracts himself by chatting up his neighbor Mike (Regan Burns), who's suddenly off on a drive to anywhere but there. Abandoned, Dolph calls up a local pizza place to debate the merits of the logo that appears on a flyer dropped in his mailbox; feet away, Dolph's gardener (Eric Judor) calls him on the phone to discuss an urgent matter in the back yard. Each event's inherent banality is skewed slightly by the actors' matter-of-fact delivery and an external sense of dread amplified by the playfully ominous score, composed by Dupieux. Finding a connection to these characters-as-objects is least difficult with the disheveled Dolph; Plotnick saturates his sad sack of a character with enough sympathetic unease over his pet's disappearance that he supplies the film with an unlikely emotional core. It's hard-won, though — and it's even occasionally unclear whether Dolph is suffering only from the loss of his dog or from the absurdist complications that keep cropping up in his world. How strange is it, after all, to receive a mysterious phone call from a zen-mild dognapper in a world in which your indoor office is caught in a torrential downpour and the protean palm tree in your back yard has decided to be a pine? The man responsible for Paul's disappearance turns out to be the eccentric guru Master Chang, a self-help author who specializes in teaching dogs telepathy — and stealing pets so their owners will appreciate them more. Dolph's baffling conversations with Chang, played with total commitment by William Fichtner, are the closest the movie comes to straight comedy, and they're well worth waiting for. In Wrong, reality and the world of the film will regularly upend themselves; it's never quite reliably clear, though, that these inexplicable events are happening for a purpose. Dupieux, who has admitted as much, is clearly having an incredible amount of fun. Whether \"no reason\" is reason enough to strap in for the ride is less clear.", "One of the first indications of North Korea's interest in opening up to the West came not at a diplomatic summit, but at an international film festival. For the first time in its history, North Korea had a film screened at the Cannes film festival, held earlier this year. Korean film scholar Suk-Young Kim says movies can open a unique window into life in the mysterious country. What most outsiders know about North Korea is its history of human rights abuses and nuclear proliferation. In the United States, that has made North Korea a target for satire, in movies such as Team America: World Police by the creators of Comedy Central's South Park series. Kim teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and studies North Korean popular culture. She says the country hasn't been better at portraying us. Especially during the height of the Cold War, propaganda films featured brutal Americans. One melodrama from 1966 shows a U.S. soldier coming onto a beautiful North Korean woman. When she resists his advances, he shoots her. \"It's quite in-your-face, blunt propaganda to incite hatred of Americans,\" Kim says. The film scholar says that everything in North Korea's state-run entertainment industry serves as propaganda. In North Korea, film has traditionally been a cheap and easy way to spread the revolutionary message to rural peasants, and the medium is beloved by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. \"He is known to be an extremely artistic person by all accounts, and he tapped into that artistic talent to really prove his filial piety for his father, Kim Il Sung,\" says Suk-Young Kim. Kim Il Sung founded the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. When he died, his son's documentary about his funeral helped cement Kim Jong Il's path to power. The aspiring young director showed masses of wailing citizens. Grief even overcomes the narrator. \"This is the moment when the first hereditary socialist nation is born,\" Kim, the academic, says. \"Now, Kim Jong Il is in charge, and he is showing this to the entire country and the world.\" But by the late 1970s, traditional propaganda films bored the man known as the \"Dear Leader,\" and he needed something new. \"This crazy man obsessed with film, probably a megalomaniac, went so far as to kidnap a South Korean film couple to make good communist film for him,\" Kim says. A popular South Korean actress and a leading director disappeared over the border in 1978. According to their account, they were abducted by North Korean agents and imprisoned for years in re-education camps. Then Kim Jong Il forced them to make movies. That transformed North Korean cinema. Director Shin Sang Ok and his wife made seven movies before their dramatic escape in 1986. He made musicals that tackled new themes to North Korean films, like romantic love. He made a Godzilla-like movie that has achieved some cult status. And he supervised others that borrowed from Hong Kong action films, such as one about a North Korean Robin Hood who steals from the rich and gives to the people. North Korean movies have continued to evolve — albeit under the Dear Leader's guiding hand. Film professor Kim says he \"helped\" with the script and production of North Korea's entry to Cannes, The Schoolgirl's Diary. Kim says it's interesting to note that the teenage girl at the heart of the film carries a Mickey Mouse backpack and sometimes uses English words while chatting with her friends. She ascribes such influence to the pirated DVDs and other merchandise from the West and Japan that peddlers carry across the border from China, and says that this movie proves that borders are opening. \"Just the fact that they submitted The Schoolgirl's Diary to Cannes ... this year shows they are interested in joining the rest of the world,\" says Suk-Young Kim. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrive in North Korea tomorrow to continue supervising the shutdown of a key nuclear reactor. North Korea agreed to scrap the program in January in exchange for economic and political concessions from countries, including the U.S. and China. Not long after that and for the first time, North Korea had a film screened at the Cannes Film Festival. It was seen as a significant sign of that country's interest in opening up to the West. NPR's Neda Ulaby spoke with a Korean film scholar who says movies are a unique window into that closed society. NEDA ULABY: What most of us know about this mysterious country is its history of human rights abuses and nuclear proliferation. In the U.S., that's made North Korea a target for satire. (Soundbite of movie, \"Team America: World Police\") Unidentified Man#1: Now, take your weapons of mass destruction and get the (bleep) out of here. ULABY: That's from the movie, \"Team America: World Police.\" Professor SOUK YONG KIM (University of California Santa Barbara): Oh, it was hilarious. It was hilarious. ULABY: Souk Yong Kim teaches at the University of California Sa", "With Meghna Chakrabarti Marvel Comics’ favorite superhero group, the Avengers, is back. &#8220;Avengers: Endgame&#8221; closes out the Marvel Cinematic Universe&#8217;s 11-year, 22-film saga. We take a look at how Marvel has changed movie-making, why the MCU is so beloved by fans and what&#8217;s next for the universe. Guests Brandon Pope, reporter and anchor for WCIU television’s morning show, &#8220;The Jam,&#8221; who spent 59 hours watching Marvel movies ahead of the premiere of &#8220;Avengers: Endgame.&#8221; Board member for the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. (@BpopeTV) Abraham Riesman, writer for New York Magazine, who is working on a biography of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, slated to come out in the fall of 2020. (@abrahamjoseph) Ben Fritz, West Coast bureau chief and editor for The Wall Street Journal, where he covers the film industry and media companies. Author of the book &#8220;The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies.&#8221; (@benfritz) From The Reading List New York Magazine: &#8220;The 30 Best Superhero Movies Since Blade&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;In 1998, predicting a fiscally and artistically rich superhero-movie industry would’ve gotten you laughed out of your local comics shop. Hell, the idea of an &#8216;industry&#8217; for movies about costumed heroes was ludicrous. No such thing had ever existed. Superhero movies had been few and far between throughout cinema history, and the then-most-recent superpowered flick had been 1997’s Batman and Robin — a movie so derided that George Clooney has spent 20 years apologizing for it. Then Wesley Snipes came along and changed everything. On August 21, 1998, Blade was released and audiences watched Snipes don the shades of the titular vampire-stabbing superhero (a longtime Marvel Comics staple). The picture earned more than $131 million worldwide. Quietly, a revolution began. &#8220;In the nearly two decades since, successful caped-crusader movies started trickling, then flooding, into theaters. Now we live in a world where the global film economy is largely built on them.&#8221; Chicago Sun-Times: &#8220;Mission Marvel: I survived 59-hour marathon, all 22 movies in storied franchise&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Picture 220 &#8216;Avengers&#8217; fans packed in a humid theater, blankets and pillows in tow, hygiene, health and sleep thrown completely out the window. &#8220;This is a big moment in the world of movies, with the just-opened Marvel’s &#8216;Avengers: Endgame&#8217; the closing chapter in the superhero saga likely to shatter records. &#8220;AMC River East 21 was one of three theaters across the United States to host a 59-hour marathon viewing of all 22 movies that Marvel Studios has put out over the past 11 years in the storied franchise. &#8220;I was crazy enough to give it a go. And my bosses at WCIU’s &#8216;The Jam&#8217; morning show agreed to let me sit through the entire three-day event as long as I documented my experience along the way. And, oh, yeah, I couldn’t leave the theater building the entire time.&#8221; NPR: &#8220;Mourning Has Broken Them: &#8216;Avengers: Endgame&#8216; &#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Let&#8217;s start with a bit of service journalism: Going into Avengers: Endgame, one would be well-advised to manage both one&#8217;s expectations, and — given its three-hour-plus, intermissionless runtime — one&#8217;s fluid intake. &#8220;The film deposits us, in medias res(igned), into a world sunk neck-deep in mourning, though it shows us only fleeting (albeit intriguing) glimpses of how that world&#8217;s non-spandex contingent is muddling through somehow. No, the film&#8217;s concerns are the same as ours: For more than a year now, we&#8217;ve wondered how the remaining Avengers (particularly founding parents Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk and Thor) would deal with the fact that 50 percent of the universe&#8217;s living beings vanished into visually striking dust, due entirely to our heroes&#8217; collective failure to keep a certain giant purple mesomorphic despot from snapping his bedazzled fingers. (NOTE: This shattering cosmic event has been dubbed &#8216;The Snapture&#8217; by one minor media semi-luminary who shall remain me. NOTE THE SECOND: Marvel has not officially signed on to said coinage. NOTE THE THIRD: But they totally should. NOTE THE FOURTH: Because, come on.)&#8221; Forbes: &#8220;What Sets &#8216;Avengers: Endgame&#8217; Apart From &#8216;Star Wars,&#8217; &#8216;Black Panther&#8217; And &#8216;Dark Knight&#8217; (Box Office)&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Avengers: Endgame earned $33 million on its fifth day of release, bringing its domestic total to $427 million, including $32 million in IMAX. It also earned a whopping $75 million on its eighth day (Wednesday thanks to time zone magic) in China, giving it three of the four biggest single-day grosses for any movie in China. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are holidays in China, so that partially explains the ", "Long before Men In Black — before Space Balls — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, first a series of radio programs, and later books, set the standard in the relatively small genre of SciFi comedy. Here's the premise: A Vogon Constructor fleet demolishes the Earth to make way for an intersteller bypass. The only survivors of this cataclysm are Arthur Dent (in the film played by Martin Freeman), a nebbish Brit, and his friend Ford Prefect (played by Mos Def), an alien in disguise stranded on the planet for several years. Together they team up with the ultra-flaky President of the Universe, his human girlfriend, and a depressed android, to embark on a series of comic adventures in search of the meaning of life, the universe and everything. The executive producer of the movie and with the editor of the series' late author, Douglas Adams, talk about the new film, the legacy of the series and, of course, the answer to everything. Guests: Robby Stamp, executive producer, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Peter Guzzardi, American editor of Douglas Adams, the late author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "The Walt Disney Co. announced the launch of a new film division Monday — Disneynature — specifically created to produce nature documentaries in wide theatrical release. Nature films have enjoyed limited success among niche audiences over the years, but Disney executives are betting on finding a wider market. STEVE INSKEEP, host: The Walt Disney Company is creating a film division that will release nature documentaries. The same theater where you saw \"The Matrix\" or \"Talladega Nights\" may soon show the kind of stuff usually reserved for the Discovery Channel. But on this Earth Day and beyond, Disney is hoping audiences will march like penguins to see its movies. NPR's Kim Masters reports. KIM MASTERS: Filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg grew up watching Disney nature films and that inspired him. Known for time-lapse photography, he's literally been filming flowers 24 hours a day for 30 years. Mr. LOUIS SCHWARTZBERG (Filmmaker): I've been archiving this footage for a long time, because well, I guess, bashert(ph) that this thing should happen. MASTERS: Bashert is a Yiddish word that means fated. And the thing that Schwartzberg is talking about is the chance to make a nature film that will be released with Disney's marketing muscle behind it. Set for 2011, his movie will be called \"Naked Beauty,\" and it will provide a close-up look at flowers and the creatures that pollinate them. Schwartzberg says that when he approached Disney about a flower movie he didn't know a nature label was in the works. Mr. SCHWARTZBERG: And it all came down pretty quickly. MASTERS: Well, you must feel surprised. Mr. SCHWARTZBERG: I'm more than surprised. I'm floating. MASTERS: Schwartzberg was on the Disney lot in Burbank yesterday as the studio gave a splashy launch to the first new Disney branded film label in 60 years. Also there was Alastair Fothergill, who produced the BBC series \"Blue Planet\" and \"Planet Earth.\" The latter was turned into a feature film, \"Earth,\" which will be the first released under the new Disney label next year. It has already opened in Europe and Japan. Mr. ALASTAIR FOTHERGILL (Producer): Very happily $37 million box office, which is amazing. It's the most successful nature documentary in European cinema history. MASTERS: Fothergill is working on two more films for the new label - one about chimpanzees and another about big cats. He knows that replicating the success of \"Earth\" will be a challenge. Mr. FOTHERGILL: We only have to deliver a couple of bad movies and people will say nature films don't work. MASTERS: If Disney didn't believe that it will make money, of course it wouldn't pursue this line of business. But that doesn't mean Disney chief executive Bob Eiger wants to divulge the company's box office projections. Mr. BOB EIGER (Chief Executive, Disney): Do you think I'll ever share them with you? (Soundbite of laughter) MASTERS: Studio Chairman Dick Cook says the movies take time but don't cost that much in the scheme of things. Chairman DICK COOK (Disney Studios): Your animals are your actors. And, you know, you don't have to pay the shark much to do its thing in the ocean. MASTERS: Of course it's hard to name many nature films that have done big box office. Though there is one. (Soundbite of movie \"March of the Penguins\") Mr. MORGAN FREEMAN (Actor/Narrator): We're not exactly sure how they find their way. Perhaps they were assisted by the sun or maybe, having taken this march for thousands of generations, they are guided by some invisible compass within them. (Soundbite of music) MASTERS: \"March of the Penguins\" grossed more than $77 million in the US. Box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian says that's unprecedented for a nature film. But it's not like a lot of big studios have been trying to sell movies of this type, as Disney is now. Mr. PAUL DERGARABEDIAN (Box office analyst): Maybe if they do that and follow up on the success of \"March of the Penguins,\" they may have something there. MASTERS: And, of course, Disney isn't counting on box office alone. It expects to make money in many ways - from DVDs and books to theme park tie-ins. One thing that's clear based on the clips that Disney showed at yesterday's presentation is that audiences will see a lot of adorable baby animals. Of course that ploy won't work for Joe Schwartzberg, who knows he may face special narrative challenges with a film about flowers and pollinators. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: LOUIE Schwartzberg, not Joe.] Mr. SCHWARTZBERG: They're not as cute and cuddly as polar bears or big cats. But guess what? Without them no mammals would exist. MASTERS: And he hopes that's dramatic enough to draw in a big audience. Kim Masters, NPR News. (Soundbite of music) INSKEEP: This is NPR News.", "Actor Bruno Ganz, whose long career and signature roles as an angel in the film Wings of Desire and Adolf Hitler in Downfall made him one of the most recognized actors of German-language cinema, died on Friday. He was 77. Ganz played more than 100 film roles starting when he was 19, as well as dozens more on stage. Ganz, who was Swiss, won a number of film awards over his decades-long career. He was also honored with Germany's Order of Merit and made a knight of the French Légion d'honneur — the highest awards for civilian merit in those countries. Ganz was so convincing portraying an angel in 1987's Wings of Desire that for years afterward, strangers would treat him as an angel in real life. \"People in planes said: 'Ah, no need to be afraid, because with you here, nothing can happen. Now we are safe,' \" Ganz told a Danish magazine in 1999. \"Or a mother said to her child: 'Look, there's your guardian angel.' They weren't joking.\" \"That was an amazing feeling,\" Ganz said. \"I loved that. Because that means much more than people saying, 'You are a very good actor,' or 'I love your work.' If they say, 'Oh, you are an angel,' it's like a miracle. In some way I became an angel, and who except me has experienced that in his lifetime?\" Ganz's other career-defining role came in 2004's Downfall. He played Adolf Hitler at the end of his life, isolated in his bunker and trembling with Parkinson's Disease. The role was \"somehow like skating on thin ice,\" Ganz told NPR's Scott Simon at the time, \"because, you know, underneath it's cold, dark and death is waiting, and it's a strange experience.\" Some critics — including Wim Wenders, who directed Ganz in Wings of Desire and other movies — said Downfall and Ganz were too soft on Hitler. Ganz insisted it was important to show Hitler as a human being. \"We know how to judge Hitler,\" he told the Irish Times. \"We don't need another film that condemns him. We already know where we stand on this. I mean there is certainly no sympathy for Hitler in the film.\" Critic Kenneth Turan, reviewing Downfall for NPR's Morning Edition, said the movie \"doesn't whitewash Hitler or rehabilitate him.\" Ganz's Hitler, Turan said, \"goes from foaming at the mouth to shuffling around the bunker like a homeless man looking for an empty park bench.\" Downfall was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2005 Academy Awards, but lost to the Spanish film The Sea Inside. It gained a second wave of prominence years later when YouTube users used the spectacle of Hitler screaming in German as the backdrop for what NPR's Laura Sydell called \"caustic satire.\" Ganz was diagnosed with colon cancer last year. But he still appeared in five films that premiered in 2018, including The Party, which Mondello called one of his favorite movies of the year. And Ganz has at least one more on the way: Radegund, which is expected to debut soon.", "The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly. Sam Greenlee, a novelist and poet who was one of the first black Americans go to abroad with the Foreign Service, died Monday, according to The Associated Press. He was 83. In his most famous book, 1969's The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a disillusioned black CIA officer quits his job and begins training street gangs as \"Freedom Fighters\" to overthrow the government. The title plays on the double meaning of \"Spook\" as both a racial slur and slang for spies In 1973, the book was made into a movie of the same name. In a 2004 interview with NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates, film critic Elvis Mitchell said that the film studio was unnerved by the insertion of politics into what they expected to be an action film, and handed it back to Greenlee. The film's sudden disappearance — and persistent though unsubstantiated rumors that the U.S. government had helped to suppress it — helped ensure its status as a classic. It was rereleased in 2004 and added to the National Film Registry in 2012. Simon & Schuster is making 10,000 of its backlist titles available on Oyster and Scribd, the e-book subscription services, Publishers Weekly reports. In return, PW says, \"both services will supply S&S with data on the reading and purchasing activity of Scribd and Oyster subscribers.\" Philip Roth, who seems to be on an extended farewell tour, has declared several recent interviews to be his last. But he seems to have changed his mind yet again: He'll be speaking with Stephen Colbert in July. Neil Patrick Harris is coming out with a choose-your-own-adventure-style autobiography, and it sounds delightful: \"In this revolutionary, Joycean experiment in light celebrity narrative, actor/personality/carbon-based life-form Neil Patrick Harris lets you, the reader, live his life. You will be born in New Mexico. You will get your big break at an acting camp. You will get into a bizarre confrontation outside a nightclub with actor Scott Caan. Even better, at each critical juncture of your life you will choose how to proceed. You will decide whether to try out for Doogie Howser, M.D. You will decide whether to spend years struggling with your sexuality. You will decide what kind of caviar you want to eat on board Elton John's yacht.\" It's coming out from Crown Archetype in October.", "George Clooney is no stranger to big summer blockbusters, but here it is early fall, and he's appearing in a very different kind of film. The American is a bleak and atmospheric art-house thriller that's more of an aesthetic experience than an emotional one. If Robert Bresson, the austere French minimalist, had directed a James Bond film, it might have turned out like this. Clooney plays Jack, a top-of-the-line American assassin facing a crisis. (If you're a big-deal killing machine, apparently, your life doesn't stay tranquil for long.) Jack is a different, more removed character than audiences are used to seeing Clooney play, a man all but unreachable behind his dark glasses. It's an interior performance that completely avoids the actor's usual high-wattage smile and suave good humor. Director Anton Corbijn is a former photographer, so every frame of The American is impeccably composed and beautifully shot. This exceptionally high level of craft is satisfying, but it can involve us emotionally for only so long. Schematic tendencies in the script, meanwhile, stop us from caring about this film as much as it cares about itself. Soon enough Jack gets an assignment. He doesn't have to kill anybody; he simply has to construct a high-quality weapon for another assassin, a mysterious woman. Jack also has time for a steamy liaison with the gorgeous Clara, the latest in a long line of stunningly beautiful movieland women who just happen to be working as prostitutes in out of the way bordellos. Who knew? But if Jack's girlfriend brings some life to his existence -- and to the movie -- don't get your hopes up. For while many of its elements whet our appetite and make the film worth seeing, The American doesn't manage to deliver a fully satisfying meal. STEVE INSKEEP, host: Now let's talk about one your entertainment options as we head into this holiday weekend. George Clooney is an actor who seems equally at home in big summer blockbusters and serious smaller films, and his latest is an attempt to combine the two. Ken Turan has our review. KENNETH TURAN: \"The American\" is a bleak, distant thriller that's easier to appreciate than to love. If an austere European minimalist had directed a James Bond film, it might have turned out like this. George Clooney plays Jack, a top-of-the-line American assassin facing a crisis. People are shooting at him for no apparent reason, so Jack retreats to Italy and confers with his contact in a deserted cafe. (Soundbite of movie, \"The American\") Unidentified Man (Actor): (as character) Take her outside the bar, then second left. You'll find a dark blue Fiat Tempra with Biscara(ph) plates. I've marked a small town on the map, Estovekia(ph). Stay there. Lay low till you get my call. TURAN: Soon enough Jack gets an assignment, to construct a high quality weapon for another assassin, a mysterious woman. Jack also has time for a steamy liaison with the gorgeous Clara. (Soundbite of movie, \"The American\") Ms. VIOLANTE PLACIDO (Actor): (as Clara) I'm here. Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY (Actor): (as Jack) What are you doing tonight? Ms. PLACIDO: (as Clara) I work tonight. Mr. CLOONEY: (as Jack) Dont. If I asked you to come away with me, would you? TURAN: She's the latest in the long line of stunningly beautiful movieland women who just happen to be working as prostitutes in out-of-the-way bordellos. Who knew? Jack is a very different, more removed character than Clooney usually plays, a man all but unreachable behind his dark glasses. It completely avoids the actor's usual high-wattage smile and suave good humor. Director Anton Corbijn is a former photographer, so every frame of \"The American\" is impeccably composed and beautifully shot. This high level of craft is satisfying, but it can involve us emotionally for only so long. Jack's girlfriend brings some life to his existence and the movie, but don't get your hopes up. For while many of its elements whet our appetite and make the film worth seeing, \"The American\" doesn't manage to deliver a fully satisfying meal. (Soundbite of music) INSKEEP: Kenneth Turan reviews movies for MORNING EDITION and for the Los Angeles Times.", "Actress Zooey Deschanel co-stars in the new film (500) Days of Summer. She plays Summer, the charming and quirky love interest of a greeting card writer. Deschanel made her film debut while she was still in high school in the 1999 movie Mumford. Since then, she has appeared in Almost Famous, The Good Girl, Elf and Yes Man. But Deschanel is more than just an actress. In 2008, the former cabaret singer released the CD Volume One with indie rocker M. Ward. Together, they go by She and Him. Deschanel cites Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Anita O'Day and other jazz artists as earlier influences. Deschanel met Ward, a singer-songwriter widely known as a solo artist, while recording a duet for the soundtrack to the 2007 film The Go-Getter. The songs on Volume One are an eclectic bunch — the styles range from Brill Building pop to Nashville countrypolitan, and the songs grow out of in-the-moment impulses fueled by a diverse record collection, Deschanel says. Writing songs, Deschanel says, is a private thing for her. She's been writing music for years, but was \"really, really shy\" about sharing her work with anyone. She says Ward \"definitely, definitely\" taught her to hear her own songs differently: \"I wanted so badly to do something with them, but I felt crippled by shyness about them. It wasn't until I met Matt that I really felt like I had found just the right person to work with on this stuff.\" This interview was first broadcast on March 27, 2008. DAVID BIANCULLI, host: For a few years now, Zooey Deschanel has done double duty as an actress and as a musician. She's appeared in such films as \"Almost Famous\" and \"Elf\" and more recently, she's performed and recorded as half of the music group called She and Him. She is she. Him is indie rock musician Matt Ward, who goes by the name M. Ward. Zooey Deschanel's new movie is called \"(500) Days of Summer,\" a romantic comedy in which she plays a woman name Summer. Her costar, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom, a man who spends more than a year getting to know her and having such freewheeling conversations as how their relationship compares to that ill-fated punk figures Sid and Nancy. Ms. ZOOEY DESCHANEL (Actress): (as Summer) We've been like Sid and Nancy for months now. (Soundbite of music) Mr. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT (Actor): (as Tom): Summer, Sid stabs Nancy seven times with a kitchen knife. I mean, we've had civil disagreements but I hardly think I'm Sid Vicious. Ms. ZOOEY DESCHANEL (Actress): (as Summer) No. I'm Sid. Mr. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT (Actor): (as Tom): Oh so I'm Nancy? (Soundbite of music) Ms. ZOOEY DESCHANEL (Actress): (as Summer) Let's just eat and then we'll talk about it later. Mm. That is good. I'm really glad we did this. I love these pancakes. What? Tom, don't go. You're still my best friend. BIANCULLI: When Zooey Deschanel isn't on screen, she's likely to be in the studio. Her introductory CD, \"She And Him, Volume One,\" features her original songs and a couple of covers. The arrangements are by M. Ward who is also featured on guitar. Terry Gross spoke with Zooey Deschanel in 2008. Here's one of Deschanel's original composition's \"Change Is Hard.\" (Soundbite of song, \"Change Is Hard\") Ms. ZOOEY DESCHANEL: (Singing) I'm all outta luck but what else could I be? I know he's yours and he'll never belong to me again. I did him wrong. So don't brag, keep it to yourself. I did him wrong. I was never no, never no, never enough, but I can try, I can try to toughen up. I listened when they told me if he burns you, let him go. Change is hard, I should know. I should know. I should know. Oh, I should know. GROSS: Zooey Deschanel, welcome to FRESH AIR. When I hear your album, here's one of the things I think about that makes me think that you really love music and have a fairly - a diverse record collection, and that you love country music, and you love jazz, and you love girl groups, and the Beach Boys, and somehow, like all of this is reflected in the songs that you write and sing. The song that we opened with, \"Change Is Hard\" has a country-ish sound to it. Ms. DESCHANEL: Mm-hmm. GROSS: And would you talk a little bit about what you were thinking about when wrote it? What you were thinking about musically? Or do songs just kind of come to you? Ms. DESCHANEL: I don't know, I guess I have certain sort of chord progressions that I'm attracted to. I don't usually come at it from the point of view that I, you know, I'm trying to be in certain genre which is probably why it sort of spans a lot of genres because I do have a diverse music collection and my taste is kind of eclectic, so I'll just go right into it and sort of start writing. It's sort of a spontaneous thing and sometimes things come out that I'm surprised, I didn't know that I had that impulse in me and then it just sort of comes out. GROSS: I think a lot of people were introduced to you as a singer through the movie \"Elf\" in which you sang a complete song and a couple of ex", "The latest film for Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone, is a French art film about two broken individuals who find love at the edge of the sea. It's poetic, lyrical — and not necessarily playing at a theater near you. That was not the case earlier this summer, when Cotillard appeared as one of the central characters in the blockbuster Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. Cotillard first came to Hollywood's attention in 2008, when she won the Oscar for best actress. She was the face of Dior, but hardly recognizable in her stunning performance as Edith Piaf in the film La Vie en Rose. Cotillard speaks with NPR's Robert Siegel about her role as an amputee, her life as the child of actors and her love of the English language. Interview Highlights On the scene where her character realizes she has lost her legs \"That was a hard scene to get, because it's hard to imagine what would be your reaction when you wake up and you realize that you miss your two legs. So we did different versions, and we ended up with, like, this state of shock. Like, she cannot even scream. It's really a shock. What we hear in that take is almost nothing. Almost an inner struggle, and that leads to the question, 'What did you do with my legs?' Which is a crazy question.\" On the special effects required for the movie \"We worked with amazing CGI guys, and when I was in the wheelchair, I was — I would just fold my legs in a special space that they had created, built in the wheelchair. And when I was like, with bare legs, I wore green socks most of the time, with little dots on those socks. And they, they just erased my legs in post-production. But what was really incredible is that they were on set all the time, those guys. And they were so talented, so fast, so discreet that it was really as if I had no legs on set. The technical aspect never got in our way.\" On the sex scenes in the film \"You know when it's an awkward situation, you have to do something out of it. ... But those scenes were very special, because usually I'm not very comfortable with sex scenes. But that time was very different, because the sex is a big part of this movie. Without it, we would miss something. \"Something happened to me on set when we were filming those scenes. ... I was very happy for my character, because she went through so much and, and then suddenly she's gonna reconnect with sexuality — with her sexuality. \"Usually I'm in a very bad state ... on those days with sex scenes, but on this movie, it was very, very different. I accepted much easier.\" On how she learned English \"Well, first of all, I love English language, so it makes it easier. And also when, when I was in Los Angeles in 2008, and I met with Michael Mann and he — we did this movie together, I really had to work on my American accent. And I worked for four months, every day, with a dialect coach, and I improved my English a lot. I still have a lot of work, but I feel much more comfortable than a few years ago when I got here and I couldn't express myself properly.\" MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: And I'm Robert Siegel. The Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard's latest movie is a French film about two broken individuals who find love at the edge of the sea. It's poetic, beautiful to look at and not necessarily playing at a theater near you. But this summer, you could see Ms. Cotillard on screens across the country in a very different kind of movie, the blockbuster \"Batman\" sequel \"The Dark Knight Rises.\" (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"THE DARK KNIGHT RISES\") MARION COTILLARD: (as Miranda Tate) Bruce Wayne at a charity ball? SIEGEL: Cotillard has been a Hollywood star since 2008 when she won an Oscar for her performance as Edith Piaf in the film \"La Vie En Rose.\" (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"LA VIE EN ROSE\") SIEGEL: And Marion Cotillard joins us now from New York City. Ms. Cotillard, welcome to the program. COTILLARD: Hello. SIEGEL: If I were to tell someone that there's this French movie about a love affair between a beautiful killer whale trainer who loses her legs in an accident and an impoverished street fighter, it doesn't sound all that inviting, but it's one of the most acclaimed films of the year. It's very engaging. What is \"Rust and Bone\" about for you? COTILLARD: Well, it's, what you said, a love story, a very unusual, unconventional love story between two people who were not supposed to meet. And I would replace - in your description, I would replace killer whales by orcas. SIEGEL: That it's not a killer whale. You're sticking up for the whale or just for accuracy? COTILLARD: I am saying it for the whale but not for the killer. (LAUGHTER) SIEGEL: The whale does terrible damage to your character. COTILLARD: It does. SIEGEL: You're pulled into the water, and there's a scene in which you wake up in a hospital bed, and you realize what's happened (unintelligible). (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, \"RUST AND BONE\") COTILL", "For parents dreading the prospect of their kids spending summer locked in air-conditioned basements with nothing but the glow of computer, TV, and tablet screens to keep them company, the opening scenes of Hide Your Smiling Faces will surely inspire wistful sighs. Living in a small New Jersey town where sporadic houses are far overwhelmed by the expansive woods that surround them, the most advanced technology that brothers Tommy (Ryan Jones) and Eric (Nathan Varnson) seem to possess in Daniel Patrick Carbone's debut feature is a discman that Tommy occasionally uses to listen to heavy metal music. Otherwise, the two kids and their friends spend the long summer days wandering through the woods, wrestling, and exploring abandoned houses where the teenaged Eric sprays graffiti on peeling walls and the younger Tommy and his friends play with a dead pigeon they find in a corner (the latter activity one that might make some parents appreciate the benefits of sanitized iPads.) Quickly and assuredly, writer-director Carbone puts us in the mood of these languorous summer days. Long stretches of silence and repeated shots of the kids wiling away the daylight hours captures that familiar boredom that neither Eric nor Tommy would trade away, since it also comes with an unfettered freedom to explore every inch of their still unfamiliar world. Danger lurks, though, when Ian, one of the two friends with whom Tommy spends his days, emerges from his shed showing off his father's handgun. That scene passes with no harm done, but it establishes a growing anxiety that flows through Hide Your Smiling Faces. A few scenes later, tragedy strikes when Eric discovers Ian's body at the bottom of a bridge, the victim of a fall that no one much bothers to determine as accidental or suicidal. Hide Your Smiling Faces is a striking companion piece to It Felt Like Love, another recent coming-of-age story, this time about two young girls, from a first-time director. Hide Your Smiling Faces is not as dark as It Felt Like Love, but like last year's Sun Don't Shine, the films share a strong sense for the sinister, for how flirtations with new experiences, with excitement, carry a nerve-racking risk of disaster. Hide Your Smiling Faces is not about the aftermath of Ian's death, nor directly about its effects on the community. Rather Ian's death is just the first of many unpleasant realities that materialize from beneath the carefree disguise of the film's opening scenes. After Eric discovers Ian's body, the long days of summer begin to look more like the long days of mourning; the silent shots of Eric, Tommy, and their friends playing get weighed down by the unspoken feelings that often fester underneath. With time, much of this subtext starts floating to the surface. \"Do you ever thinking about dying,\" Eric's friend Tristan (Thomas Cruz) asks. Eric dismisses the notion — \"You wanna die because you're sad? That's dumb\" — but his own anger at the world also becomes more difficult to hide. In such emotionally turbulent waters, Hide Your Smiling Faces moves cautiously, perhaps too much so at times. Particularly in the slightly underdeveloped relationship between Tommy and Eric, the movie risks letting suggestions of themes and emotions stand in for the things themselves. But for the most part this lack of determinism proves a strength. Carbone is playing with familiar elements here: the confusion of coming-of-age, the transitional period of summer vacation. His approach, though, is rooted firmly in the children's point of view. Adults appear only sporadically, mostly to offer inadequate advice or half-heartedly attempt to assert control over their kids' lives. Following Ian's death, a preacher's attempt to reassure Eric that \"God works in mysterious ways\" quickly devolves into the far less appealing truth that \"life's just tough.\" The lack of parental guidance means the cautious sexual explorations, angry outbursts, and whispered confessions that the kids experience are felt by them but not understood. As quickly as they occur, they dissipate, only to return a day or two later in the same confused form. In contrast to a movie like last year's superb Mud, Hide Your Smiling Faces doesn't detail a summer of self-discovery. Tommy and Eric are both coming face-to-face with hard truths, but neither understands their full implications. It's this bewildering element of coming-of-age that Carbone captures so well: the slow realization on Tommy and Eric's part that our inner lives are filled with as many hidden corners and surprises as the New Jersey woods that, at the film's start, was their sole source of fascination. (Recommended)", "Over the span of his career, Brad Pitt has played a police detective, a mental patient, the Greek warrior Achilles, the outlaw Jesse James and a cutthroat Nazi hunter. But in his latest film, The Tree of Life, he does something completely different — though it may not seem that way at first. Pitt plays Mr. O'Brien, a husband and father struggling to raise three boys in 1950s small-town Texas. The film's intimate family portrait is scattered with cosmic images of nature and strays from traditional linear storytelling. It won the top honor at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and many critics are already calling it the performance of Pitt's career. Pitt tells NPR's Rachel Martin how director Terrence Malick first explained the film to him. \"He described the journey from adolescence to adulthood as that between grace and nature,\" Pitt says. \"In the film ... the mother represents grace and love, and the father represents nature — but nature as that oppressive force that will choke another plant out for its own survival.\" Pitt's character is an archetypal 1950s patriarch: He's strict and while he does express love for his family, he also has a frightening temper. Pitt says growing up in the rural Midwest helped him understand the film's \"father knows best\" mentality, as well as where his character was coming from. \"The character here in The Tree of Life is someone who feels most oppressed by the world,\" Pitt says. \"The American dream didn't work out as he believed it would. [He's] quite envious and bitter that people are ahead of him. Naturally, when someone feels oppressed, they find someone weaker to pass that oppression on[to], and the sadness in this situation [is] it's on his sons.\" 'A Very Free-Form, Low-Key Experience' The film's suburban landscapes were filmed in Smithville, Texas, 40 miles outside of Austin. Pitt describes it as a time capsule of 1950s suburban America and says Malick's movie set was unlike anything he'd ever worked on before. \"A movie set is very chaotic. There [are] hundreds of people; there [are] generators and trucks. And this was a completely different experience — we had none of that,\" Pitt says. \"There were no [camera] lights ... there were no generators and the camera was all hand-held so it was a very free-form, low-key experience.\" So low-key, in fact, that Pitt says much of the filmmaking environment resonated with his own rural Midwestern childhood — playing outside with the kid actors, throwing the ball around between takes. \"Staying up late till the sun went down, hearing your mom's voice call you in, getting into trouble breaking windows, firecrackers, playing in cemeteries,\" Pitt says. \"I could feel the balm in the air of the summer nights — and yes, it's very close to me.\" 'Looking For Moments Of Truth' Malick is a bit of an anomaly in Hollywood — he's made five movies over the past 40 years and rarely gives interviews — and according to Pitt, his filmmaking style is just as exceptional. \"Terry [Malick] is all free-form. He's someone who's looking for moments of truth ... not [to] create moments of truth,\" Pitt says. \"If Jessica [Chastain] and I were having a fight in the first take, he would suddenly send the youngest child in to sit down at the table, and it would change the whole tenor of the scene. He would throw a dog up in the front seat and laugh. He's just constantly trying to push people off their comfort zones.\" The result is a complex film with more than just one takeaway. And while many have latched onto the film's theological implications, Pitt says he's more drawn to its emphasis on life's unanswerable questions. \"For [me], it speaks to the unknown,\" he says. \"Maybe the real peace to be found is in the acceptance of the unknowing; that we don't know, but that there is something; that there's a real power there that's greater than us. And maybe that's enough.\" RACHEL MARTIN, host: We're back with ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. There's a new Brad Pitt movie in theaters this weekend, but it's not like any Brad Pitt movie you've seen before. It's called \"The Tree of Life.\" It just won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and in it, Pitt plays a husband and father who, along with his wife, is raising three boys in 1950s Texas. In the movie, Pitt's character is strict and emotionally distant. He expresses love for his sons openly, but he's got a short temper. And that can be downright frightening at times. At one point, he tries to teach his boys how to fight. (Soundbite of film, \"The Tree of Life\") Mr. BRAD PITT (Actor): (As Mr. O'Brien) Come on. Hit me. Come on. Come on, Jack. Hit me. Hit me. Hit me. Come on. Come on. Here it is. Here it is. Come on, son. Come on. Huh? Left. MARTIN: The family's story is at the center of the film. But director Terrence Malick is reaching for a lot more here, universal questions about nature, science, philosophy and religion. And Pitt says his character, too, is asking universal questions. ", "A late-summer horror tale took possession of the weekend box office, as Hollywood quietly wound down a busy season that turned out to be not so busy. The Possession debuted as the No. 1 movie with $21.3 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend, according to studio estimates. The Lionsgate fright flick stars Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as parents of a girl possessed by a demon. Opening in second-place with $13 million was the Weinstein Co. bootlegging drama Lawless, with Shia LaBeouf and Guy Pearce in a story of moonshiners pursued by a corrupt lawman during Prohibition. It was a typically slow Labor Day weekend, ending a summer that failed to live up to Hollywood's expectations. Studio executives started the season with projections of record business. But revenues dropped 3 percent compared to summer 2011, while attendance was at its lowest in at least 20 years, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. Labor Day weekend revenues totaled $134 million, down 3.4 percent from last year's holiday, when The Help led with $19.9 million. Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said overall domestic revenues for the summer season, from the first weekend in May through Labor Day, came in at $4.275 billion, down from a record $4.4 billion in summer 2011. The attendance picture was even worse, after factoring in this year's higher ticket prices. The number of movie tickets sold this summer was about 533 million, down 4 percent from 2011. That figure is the lowest since Dergarabedian began compiling summer figures 20 years ago. \"We talk about summer being product-driven, and it's all about the movies,\" Dergarabedian said. \"While it started off on a really high note, as summer went on, it seemed like the moviegoers were less and less interested in the movies being released.\" Back in May, when the superhero sensation The Avengers launched the season with a record $207.4 million weekend, Hollywood insiders predicted their best summer ever, as a lineup of huge titles was set to hit theaters week after week. While The Avengers and superhero films The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man led the season, and movies such as Ted and Brave topped the $200 million mark, many other movies fell flat. Big stars delivered big busts, with Adam Sandler's That's My Boy and Johnny Depp's Dark Shadows. Action movies such as Battleship and Total Recall also flopped. There were some smaller surprise successes, including the anti-Barack Obama documentary 2016: Obama's America, which expanded into broader nationwide release and came in at No. 8 on Labor Day weekend, with $7.1 million. That raised its total to $20.3 million since the documentary opened in a handful of theaters in mid-July. The weekend's other new wide release, the family flick The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, flopped with just $601,545, averaging a tiny $278 a screen in 2,160 theaters — one of the poorest openings in recent box office history. By comparison, The Possession averaged $7,564 in 2,816 cinemas. Most scary movies draw their biggest crowd on opening-day Friday, as horror fans turn out for the debut; business then often drops off on Saturday. The Possession bucked that pattern as the audience grew larger on Saturday, then held up solidly through Sunday and Monday. \"Horror films normally don't do that,\" said Richie Fay, head of distribution for Lionsgate. \"If you play to that audience and that audience is satisfied, they talk about it and they come back on Saturday, or their friends come back with them on Saturday.\" Warner Bros. just opened The Dark Knight Rises in China and Italy, lifting the Batman blockbuster back to the No. 1 spot internationally with $46.4 million and raising its overseas total to $575 million. The Dark Knight Rises took in an additional $7.9 million domestically over Labor Day weekend, pushing its domestic haul to $433.2 million. The film joined 2008's The Dark Knight as a $1 billion worldwide hit, with its total now at a few million dollars more than its predecessor's.", "Director Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is the story of the love and friendship between two cowboys in the early 1960s. NPR film critic Bob Mondello reviews the movie, which opens Friday. Then, writers Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry discuss adapting Annie Proulx's 11-page short story into a two-hour film. They compare adapting the story to hiking a mountain: a challenge, but well worth it. McMurtry says it's the best material he's ever worked with as a screenwriter. MICHELE NORRIS, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: And I'm Robert Siegel. The new movie \"Brokeback Mountain\" has been tagged a `gay Western,' which makes the film sound like a shot fired in today's culture wars. But Bob Mondello says its strengths are those of classic Westerns: acting, story and big sky. BOB MONDELLO reporting: Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar, dirt-poor ranch hands looking for summer jobs, meet outside a Wyoming trailer in 1963, except they don't really meet because neither says a word until a foreman finally shows up and asks their names. For much of that summer, tending sheep on a mountain called Brokeback, they stay remote from each other. In fact, even after they fall into a drunken sexual encounter that both shocks them and feels right enough to repeat, they barely talk except to mutter that what happens on Brokeback stays on Brokeback. Then at summer's end... (Soundbite of \"Brokeback Mountain\") Mr. HEATH LEDGER: (As Ennis Del Mar) Well, I guess I'll see you around, huh? Mr. JAKE GYLLENHAAL: (As Jack Twist) Right. MONDELLO: ...they return to convention, getting married, having kids. But when Jack gets back in touch with Ennis four years later, those feelings they didn't talk about come flooding back, longings that can't be sated with twice-a-year fishing weekends where no one fishes. Jack wants more; Ennis can't see how. (Soundbite of \"Brokeback Mountain\") Mr. LEDGER: (As Ennis Del Mar) You got your wife and your baby in Texas and, you know, I got my wife in Riverton. Mr. GYLLENHAAL: (As Jack Twist) Is that so? You and I know that's a lie. Mr. LEDGER: (As Ennis Del Mar) Now you shut up about all that. This ain't (unintelligible). The bottom line is we're around each other and this thing grabs hold of us again in the wrong place, in the wrong time, and we're dead. MONDELLO: Rugged individuals stoically facing longing and loss--that's the essence of Annie Proulx's short story, and it also describes a lot of Westerns if you make allowances for the kind of longing. So director Ang Lee blends the genre's spareness and the characters' terseness into a persuasively epic horse opera with iconic heroes silhouetted against spectacular scenery, pondering questions movie cowboys seldom ask. Jake Gyllenhaal's reckless Jack is engaging, but the film rides mostly on the shoulders of Heath Ledger's Ennis, all grumbled denials and downcast stares. It also fleshes out the men's families, establishing that no one wins when they bow to social pressures. Alas, they don't see an alternative, a time-honored tale that even in this telling has less to do with sexuality than with the dreams that get deferred. Jack and Ennis crafted an Eden atop Brokeback Mountain, but when they came back down, they couldn't bring themselves to be themselves, and it evaporated. Sad story. Terrific movie. I'm Bob Mondello. NORRIS: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana wrote the screenplay for \"Brokeback Mountain.\" McMurtry is known for his novels--\"Lonesome Dove,\" \"The Last Picture Show,\" \"Terms of Endearment\"--but he's also written many screenplays, often with Ossana. They told our colleague Melissa Block recently that they've been at it long enough to have a particular way of working. Mr. LARRY McMURTRY (Screenplay Co-writer, \"Brokeback Mountain\"): The process has been this: I am a very early riser, a very early riser, and I strictly limit myself to five pages a day. And I'm usually done with those pages by 8:30 in the morning, and I give them to Diana. Ms. DIANA OSSANA (Screenplay Co-writer, \"Brokeback Mountain\"): And they come through rather skeletal, and then I fill them in and then expand them. And we do that every single day, seven days a week, through holidays and whatever. Mr. McMURTRY: For the length of the project. Ms. OSSANA: Yes, for the length of the project, to get to a first draft. MELISSA BLOCK reporting: What was it about the Annie Proulx story, about \"Brokeback Mountain,\" that made you think, `This is a movie, and we want to be the ones to write that screenplay'? Mr. McMURTRY: Well, it's a grea", "According to David Denby, 1979's Apocalypse Now came \"out of a movie world so different from our own that sitting through it again is almost a masochistic experience.\" The New Yorker film critic clearly loves movies, but in his new book, Do the Movies Have a Future?, he argues that complex films like Apocalypse Now are becoming more and more of a rarity. Denby joins NPR's Rachel Martin to discuss promising directors, what it means to be a film critic and the future of film. Interview Highlights On a famous scene in Apocalypse Now, and why such scenes are becoming less common \"I was thinking of that great scene where, to the sound of [Richard] Wagner's 'The Ride of the Valkyries,' the helicopters come in ... [Click here to watch that scene. Editor's Note: This scene contains some violence.] \"First of all, it was shot, Rachel, in real space — it wasn't digitized. So everything had a kind of ... palpability, a force, a heaviness; all of that movement, all of the pandemonium on the ground, the explosions, everything. I mean, and now, when we do spectacle, we just have dead space, digital space, that's filled with a lot of — how should I put it — exacerbated pixels, you know, challenging each other in Nowheresville. And also the emotional complexity of that scene ... It's emotionally a very demanding, complex scene. And we very rarely get that now.\" On how blockbusters must now be accessible to audiences all over the world, and why they suffer as a result \"Two-thirds of the box office return comes from overseas. They have to play in Bangkok and Bangalore, you know, as well as Bangor, Maine ... \"The local flavor has gone out of them. In the early '70s, there were a lot of things set in American, very specific places like Nashville, [Tenn.,] you know, or The Godfather in New York in the late '40s, and Long Island and the city. I mean, that sense of a very specific time and place has vanished. \"Now you're getting it in small films, particularly things that go through the Sundance process of script development, like Beasts of the Southern Wild, this marvelous film that came out this past summer that was shot in the bayous of Louisiana. You can't get much more specific than that. I miss that. There's a certain grandeur, a certain ambition [that] has just gone out of studio filmmaking. And they openly say they're only interested in spectacles made from comic books and games, or maybe young-adult fictions and genre films. \" On his characterization of Avatar as \"the most beautiful film I've seen in years,\" and how that blockbuster bucked the trend \"I don't want to make this categorical; I'm as seducible as anyone else, and what was luscious was the color. Remember all the purples and blues and mauves and oranges and colors I don't even know the names of? But we're talking about one great movie here, you know, that makes a really inventive use of space, and that is so rare.\" On directors who are pushing filmmaking into new and interesting territory \"Pedro Almodovar of Spain I think has the same kind of excitement and prestige around his movies the way [Ingmar] Bergman did and [Francois] Truffaut and [Federico] Fellini and so on, 40 years ago. At home, there are a lot of people who are very talented, like Paul Thomas Anderson, who did The Master; or Bennett Miller, who did Capote and Moneyball; or Alexander Payne, who did Sideways. But one of the problems, Rachel, is those people, and women too — it takes them forever to get financing. \"Tony Gilroy, who made Michael Clayton with George Clooney a few years ago — very interesting movie about a corrupt lawyer in New York who finds his soul — he told me that movie couldn't be made anymore. That was only five years ago. It's not that there's an absence of talent. There's an enormous amount of acting talent. My enthusiasm hasn't dimmed in any way. I'm dying for a revolution.\" On what it means now to be a film critic \"[It means] to look for anything that has life in it, anywhere. If it's Richard Gere giving the best performance of his life in Arbitrage, you celebrate that. If it's Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena having a rapport together in a police car in End of Watch, you celebrate that. And you try to sell those things, when they're good, to the largest audience you can reach.\"", "The new movie Queen of Katwe has a familiar theme: It's the real-life story of a girl from the slums who discovers an unlikely talent (chess) and becomes an unlikely champion. But in other ways, the film is revolutionary: It may be the first time a major studio (Disney) has set a movie in Africa with all black actors and no animals. The cast includes Lupita Nyong'o, an Oscar-winning actress who is on the current (October) cover of Vogue, and Madina Nalwanga, a teenager from a poor neighborhood in Kampala, Uganda, who has never made a movie before. (A casting director found Nalwanga in a community dance class.) Like her character, Phiona, Nalwanga grew up struggling to help her family pay for basic things, like education. And like Phiona, who travels the world for chess championships, Nalwanga is now rocketing through worlds she never imagined. Nyong'o, who plays Phiona's mother in the film, has been Nalwanga's guide through that world. And as the actresses tell NPR's Ari Shapiro, Nalwanga was Nyong'o's guide to Uganda. \"I told her how to make Ugandan food, matoke [mashed plantains], to prepare all of that,\" Nalwanga says. She also taught Nyong'o Luganda, the major language of Uganda, and some Ugandan lullabies. Interview Highlights On Nalwanga's first red carpet Nyong'o: When we were at TIFF [the Toronto International Film Festival] we were getting ready together and I was nervous that she was going to do this. And then I see video of her coming out of the car and she just looks like she is in her element, you know. Nalwanga: It wasn't so easy for me hearing all these people calling my name. ... Please do this, do that. I wasn't used to that. I've never dreamt of standing on that red carpet. Actually what I knew about the red carpet — it's just a carpet that is supposed to be inside the house. ... These are all new things to my eyes. On what Nyong'o taught Nalwanga about acting Nalwanga: Lupita, she really helped me, like, to get into the character all the time. I could see her getting ready to be the character and then I copied her. I would copy everything that she does, but in a silent way because I never wanted her to see me doing what she was doing. ... We had tough scenes whereby we have to cry. And it was kind of hard to me to cry, but I saw her getting ready — she was exercising all the time. Nyong'o: I was loosening my jaw, like you know, with my hands. ... She came up to me and she asked me what I was doing and why, and I told her. I was loosening my jaw. ... Sometimes when you're nervous or something like that, your jaw gets caught up and then you can't really enunciate. Then she walked away, and then shortly after that I walked by the set when she was doing a scene without me and between takes she was loosening her jaw. Very sweet. On what Nalwanga plans to do after the red carpets Nalwanga: I want to go back to school. And I want to continue with acting and also dancing. Nyong'o: What I love about Madina is that she shares that fierce, fierce determination with Phiona of finishing her education. Phiona didn't come to our set because she was in school. That kind of fierce, fierce determination — these are lives that are still very much being formed. This is Phiona's history and she has a complete future ahead of her and she knows she has to work to get to where she wants to get to. And I think Madina understands that, too. In fact, she's been lamenting about not having enough time to study, and I really admire that and encourage that in her. On whether Nalwanga and Nyong'o will stay in touch Nyong'o: We've talked to each other at least once every two, three weeks. ... So yeah, I am here for her if she will have me. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: The new movie \"Queen Of Katwe\" has a familiar theme. It's the real-life story of a girl from the slums who discovers an unlikely talent and becomes an unlikely champion. In this case, the talent is for chess. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, \"QUEEN OF KATWE\") UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) You can see eight moves ahead? MADINA NALWANGA: (As Phiona Mutesi) Checkmate. Checkmate. Checkmate. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: She won. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: You could be the best in all of Uganda. NALWANGA: Coach, how can I become a champion? SIEGEL: In other ways, this film is revolutionary. It may be the first time a major studio - Disney - has set a movie in Africa with all black actors and no animals. The cast includes both celebrities and newcomers. Our co-host, Ari Shapiro, recently spoke with the two stars of the film. ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: Lupita Nyong'o is an Oscar winner who's on the cover of the latest issue of Vogue. Madina Nalwanga is from a poor neighborhood in Kampala, Uganda, and she's never made a movie before. A casting director found her in a community dance class. Like her character, Fiona, Madina grew up struggling to help her family pay for basic things, like education. NALWANGA: Fiona, she sold maze, yeah. SHAPIRO: Selling corn. NALWANGA: Yeah, and I also did. SHA", "Iron Man 2, the sequel to the hugely popular story of Tony Stark, continues to dominate at the box office. NPR's comic book blogger, Glen Weldon, says the blockbuster is full of \"Easter eggs\" -- inside jokes for longtime fans. From the outset, NPR's Neal Conan discloses that he and Weldon are unabashed comic-book geeks. Neither thought \"C-lister\" Stark would be such a hit. \"He's got a huge impact in the comics because he's the wealthiest guy in the Marvel universe,\" explains Weldon, \"he bankrolls a lot of stuff.\" But Stark isn't obviously appealing. Weldon describes him as \"a weapons manufacturer, basically. He's a drunk, he's a womanizer\" -- not the kind of guy you'd usually build a summer tent-pole movie around. But in the Iron Man movies, Weldon thinks, the character works, largely due to Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal. \"Downey is Tony Stark, in a way that very rarely happens in superhero movies,\" Weldon explains. Still, Weldon still thinks Iron Man has the edge over its sequel. \"The origin movie is always going to be better,\" he says, \"because the origin story is the hero's story\" (with the exception of Wolverine). Telling the story of who the hero is and how he came to be is naturally compelling. \"Once you get past that, you just have a bunch of dudes in suits whaling on each other.\" But Weldon credits director Jon Favreau's indie sensibility for keeping Iron Man 2 interesting. \"[It's] a big stupid summer action film, sure. It's got big explosions, sure,\" says Weldon. But he thinks it's different from a movie like Transformers because Favreau, an actor himself, \"would much rather aim his camera at a couple of actors talking\" than focus on the big action set pieces. Weldon says scenes like that -- which would end up on Transformers' cutting room floor -- are a strength in Iron Man 2, thanks to actors like Downey and Sam Rockwell. NEAL CONAN, host: \"Iron Man 2\" topped the box office charts for the second week in a row. It's the first certified blockbuster of the summer. And this sequel is bigger, better and even more portable day viewing. And \"Iron Man 2\" is Tony Stark's new suitcase armor. (Soundbite of movie, \"Iron Man 2\") CONAN: And that's the sound of \"Iron Man's\" armor, popping out of Tony Stark's carry-on bag and assembling itself around its inventor. And good news, the bad guy waits until his 40-year-old before they finally get into it. As all fan boys know, \"Iron Man 2\" is based on a long-running \"Marvel\" comic book. And we want to hear today from fans what do you think of the show had second shot on the silver screen. Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email is [email protected]. you can join the conversation at our website too. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Glen Weldon blogs about comic books for NPR's Monkey See. And you can find a link to that, plus several clips from \"Iron Man 2\" at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. But he's with us here in Studio 3A. Nice to have you with us. GLEN WELDON: Thanks. Thanks for having me. CONAN: And you and I are both are, in full disclosure, comic geeks. WELDON: Good. CONAN: Did you ever think that you'd be sitting here talking about an \"Iron Man\" movie? WELDON: I know. We're seeing \"Iron Man\" backpacks and pencil cases on the streets. It's great. I mean it's a he's a C-lister, let's face it. CONAN: Yeah. WELDON: He always has been. CONAN: Always has been. WELDON: Low profile. He's got a huge impact in the comics because he's sort of he's the wealthiest guy in the Marvel Universe. He bankrolls a lot of stuff. CONAN: And has had various personas on various iterations... WELDON: Absolutely. CONAN: ...comic book characters. I dont want to break it to you badly. But they change depending on who's writing and who's drawing. WELDON: Absolutely. But at the center, you have this guy who, let's remember, is a weapon's manufacturer basically. He's a drunk. He's a womanizer. And yet he's not the kind of guy you would go to build summer tent pole movie around necessarily. CONAN: No, never. WELDON: But he works here. And the reason, it works here in \"Iron Man 2\" just as it did in \"Iron Man\" the first one is because you've got, at the center of it, perhaps the most inevitable piece of casting in film history. You've got Robert Downey, Jr. as iron man who is Tony Stark in a way that very rarely happens. And certainly in superhero movies, you haven't seen it since Christopher Reeve that sort of affinity between the character and the actor. CONAN: And it he has such fun with the role. And as you say, now in some iterations, Tony Stark has been the military industrial complex. WELDON: Right. CONAN: So we should and here he's much more of a libertarian anti-hero. WELDON: Right. CONAN: But he comes to life in this film. He really brings the character to life. WELDON: He really does. He's smirking without being smug. He had the sort of central charm which is the one thing that the comics always have a three-line. And in f" ]

[ "Sprint has made picking the best mobile plan easier, much like T-Mobile's plans. There used to be a load of plans to choose from, all with subtle differences, but now Sprint is focused on its flagship unlimited plan.\nThere are still some other plans available for those that don't need all the data Sprint offers. We'll take a look at all of your options here.\nGo straight to the plan: View at Sprint.com\nSprint Unlimited Freedom plan: Explained\nFront and center in Sprint's current mobile plan offerings is the Unlimited Freedom plan, which extends to cover its family plan as well. So, what's the deal? Well, Unlimited Freedom offers unlimited talk, text and data. That includes HD video streaming and 10GB of mobile hotspot data per line on the plan. Sprint is even throwing in a free Hulu subscription with the plan.\n1st line: $60/month\n2nd line: $40/month\n3rd-5th lines: $0/month for a limited time (reg. $30 each)\nSprint plans: access charges\nSprint used to list access charges when you go through the process of selecting a plan and a device on its website. These used to be an easy way to turn an attractive plan price sour quickly, as it could tack on over $10 to the price.\nNow, Sprint doesn't mention it anywhere that we could so, so the days of access fees may be on their way out. Sprint's plans will include other taxes and fees though.\nThe right Sprint plan for you\nIf you want unlimited talk, text and data, then picking the right Sprint plan will be easy. If you think you might want less, we'll include details on some of the other plans Sprint offers so you can be sure you've seen your options and can make the right choice.\nSprint Unlimited Freedom plan | Unlimited calls, texts and data | $60/month\nAs we've mentioned, this plan comes with all the service you need, including HD video streaming, 10GB of mobile hotspot data per line, and the price per person gets cheaper for each line you add to the plan. The price is decent for a single line, but add on just one more person, it's a great deal for an unlimited plan. And, don't forget it comes with a free Hulu subscription.\nSprint has wrapped its family plan into the Unlimited Freedom plan as well.\nSprint 2GB plan| Unlimited calls and texts | $40/month\nIf you don't use much data and just want to have all the calling and texting with a sprinkle of the web and YouTube on top, this may be the plan for you. It includes mobile hotspot functionality and unlimited international texting as well.\nSprint 4GB prepaid plan| Unlimited calls and texts | $40/month\nSprint also offers a 4GB data plan with unlimited calls and text, mobile hotspot, and unlimited international texts for $40. Yes, that's the same price as the 2GB plan without an clear difference between what the plans offer other than that the 4GB plan is prepaid. The price listed is after a $5 discount for using AutoPay.\nSprint Forward: Unlimited | Unlimited data, calls and texts | $60/month\nIf you prefer a prepaid plan, Sprint has the Sprint Forward Unlimited plan, which is just about the equivalent of the Unlimited Freedom plan. It includes mobile hotspot international texting, and even allows you to add lines at lower rates. The first line is $60, the second is $40, and all additional lines are $30. However, there's a deal on right that offers four lines for $25 per month each, and Sprint will add a fifth line for free.\nSprint plans: Other options\nIf you're looking to get more than just a mobile phone plan, Sprint also offers an an unlimited data plan for tablets through its retail stores, and it has mobile broadband plans ranging from $15 to $80 per month.\nSprint phones\nDon't forget that with a great smartphone plan, you'll also want to have a great smartphone. Check out the best smartphones for Sprint." ]

[ "The following is a list of open wheel events taking place February 15 – 19, 2017 presented by Allstar Performance. We try our best to keep the schedule updated, but we are not always made aware of schedule changes or cancellations. Always check and verify before attending any event. If you see an event that is missing or listed incorrectly please contact us with the correct information.\nWednesday February 15, 2017\nVolusia Speedway Park – Barberville, FL – All Star Circuit of Champions\nThursday February 16, 2017\nVolusia Speedway Park – Barberville, FL – All Star Circuit of Champions\nFriday February 17, 2017\nAdelaide Motorsports Park – Adelaide, AU – Sprintcar Allstars\nPerth Motorplex – Perth, AU – Winged 360 Sprint Cars\nPerth Motorplex – Perth, AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nVolusia Speedway Park – Barberville, FL – World of Outlaws\nSaturday February 18, 2017\nArcherfield Speedway – Brisbane, AU – Winged 410 Sprint Cars\nBaypark Speedway – Mt. Maunganui, NZ – Winged 410 Sprint Cars\nBaypark Speedway – Mt. Maunganui, NZ – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nBunbury Speedway – Bunbury, AU – World Series Sprintcars\nBendigo Bank Arena – Latrobe, AU – Winged 410 Sprint Cars\nLismore Speedway – Lismore, AU – Midget Cars\nLismore Speedway – Lismore, AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nMurray Bridge Speedway – Murray Bridge, AU – Speedcar Super Series\nMurray Bridge Speedway – Murray Bridge, AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nRosedale Speedway – Rosedale, AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nRuapuna Speedway – Christchurch, NZ – Midget Cars\nRuapuna Speedway – Christchurch, NZ – Sprintcar War of the Wings\nRuapuna Speedway – Christchurch, NZ – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nSouthern Illinois Center – DuQuoin, IL – USAC – D2 Midget Cars\nSimpson Speedway – Bungador, AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nStratford Speedway – Stratford, NZ – Winged 410 Sprint Cars\nSunline Speedway – Waikerie, AU – Sprintcar Allstars\nSunline Speedway – Waikerie, AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nValvoline Raceway – Sydney, AU – Ultimate Sprintcar Championship\nValvoline Raceway – Sydney, AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nVolusia Speedway Park – Barberville, FL – World of Outlaws\nWaikaraka Family Speedway – Auckland, NZ – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars\nWestern Speedway – Hamilton, AU – SRA – Eureka Sprint Car Series\nSunday February 19, 2017\nNew Smyrna Speedway – New Smyrna Beach, FL – Southern Sprintcar Shootout\nVolusia Speedway Park – Barberville, FL – World of Outlaws", "Haubstadt, IN – February 2, 2018. Tri-State Speedway at Haubstadt, IN, will hold this year’s season opener for the track on Saturday April 14th. The winged sprint cars of the World of Outlaws will headline the show that evening. This appearance is the only time the outlaws will race at Haubstadt during the season. It will be one great start to a varied and promising schedule consisting of twelve special events.\nThe non-wing sprint cars will make a first appearance at Tri-State Speedway on Saturday April 28th. Spectators will witness the action as the United States Auto Club Sprints and the Midwest Sprint Car Series Sprints compete in the co-sanctioned “Spring Showdown” paying\n$5,000 to win.\nThere will be two races during May. The annual “Midwest Madness” event will be followed by the “Memorial Weekend Classic.” The MOWA Wing Sprints will share the race card with MSCS on May 12th. Then on Sunday May 27th MMSA Mini Sprints will appear along with the MSCS 410 Sprints.\nThe UMP Open Wheel Modifieds will continue to anchor the programs at the track. The class will make 11 appearances during the season.\nPlus the feature winners will receive $1,000 on April 14, July 28th, September 2nd, and October 13th. Then at the Summit Modified show on Sunday June 24th the feature will pay $1,500. That is on the date for the annual Late Model Summernationals event.\nEarlier that month on June 9th the MSCS Sprints will compete in a co-sanctioned event with the POWRi WAR Sprints. The winner for this “Summer Showdown” will receive $5,000. The race will mark the first time these two organizations will meet.\nThe MOWA Wing Sprints will return to race on July 14th. It is the “Sprint Stampede” with a triple header including the MSCS Sprints and the MMSA Mini Sprints. It will be an all sprint car tripleheader!\nMMSA will also return to race at the “Harvest Cup”\nThe MSCS Sprints will make 9 appearances at the track during 2018. In addition to the events already mentioned MSCS will compete in the “Hoosier Sprint Nationals” on August 11th and the “Harvest Cup” which will conclude the season on October 13th. Both of these MSCS features pay $5,000 to win. The IMCA Racesaver Sprints will be added as an additional class for the “Hoosier Sprint Nationals” this season. The “Labor Day Weekend Challenge” for MSCS on Sunday September 2nd has a $3,000 to win purse.\nOn July 28th the speedway will host the finale of the USAC “Indiana Sprint Week.” The USAC Sprints will also return on September 15th for the one and only “Haubstadt Hustler.” This will be the biggest race of the season for non-wing sprint competitors. USAC & MSCS will both take up the challenge in this co-sanctioned event. The top prize is $10,000. The Saturday September 15th and October 13th events will have rain dates set for Sunday of that weekend.\nTicket information is available by calling 812-768-5995. Ticket prices do vary for different events on the schedule The speedway also offers reserved seating. Advance tickets for the World of Outlaws event will be on sale starting February 19th. Further details on each event are also available at www.tristatespeedway.com . The speedway also posts updates on face book!", "Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure pitched the advent of 5G as an inflection point which will allow the operator to charge more for service on a stronger network.\nIn an update on Sprint’s plan to launch nationwide mobile 5G in 2019, Claure noted on an earnings call today (2 February) the operator already locked in agreements with network equipment vendors for massive MIMO and 5G deployments. He also revealed Qualcomm will release a 2.5GHz-enabled 5G chip in late 2018 and added Sprint had been working with a “leading Korean manufacturer” to ensure consumer devices are ready for launch in the first half of 2019.\nThe CEO said the wireless market remains competitive, but argued Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum holdings position it to lead on 5G. With a solid 5G network, Claure said the operator will be able to charge more for its services.\n“It is going to be very difficult for our competitors to increase the price of unlimited, but we’re going to have a lot of room to increase our price of unlimited to get to similar prices as Verizon and AT&T in the future. You get that by having an amazing network, you get that by being the first to 5G.”\nNetwork boost\nSprint CFO Michel Combes said the operator will boost its capex in the coming quarter to a minimum of $1 billion as it adds more cell sites and begins massive MIMO deployments in the run up to 5G.\nAs part of its broader network enhancement plan, Claure shared Sprint will increase its total number of macro sites by nearly 20 per cent and deploy 40,000 outdoor small cell solutions, including at least 15,000 strand mounted small cells through its cable partnerships. He added work to upgrade nearly all of Sprint’s sites with triband capabilities is expected to be completed this year.\nCTO John Saw also noted Sprint is “working aggressively” with dark fibre providers like Zayo to upgrade its backhaul network ahead of massive MIMO and 5G launches.\nTax perk\nOn the financial side of the house, tax reform propelled Sprint’s net income to new heights in its fiscal Q3 (the three months ended 31 December).\nA $7.1 billion positive tax impact pushed Sprint’s net income to $7.2 billion despite a $310 million year-on-year dip in revenue to $8.2 billion. Sprint partly attributed the latter slide to a decrease in wireless service revenue, which dropped $327 million year-on-year to $5.6 billion.\nPost paid subscriber additions also tumbled from 368,000 in the year ago period, but remained firmly in the black at 184,000. Prepaid subscriber figures came in above board with a total of 63,000 net additions.\nClaure acknowledged post paid phone churn of 1.71 per cent was higher than at its peers, but noted the company “made a decision” to manage the business with higher churn. He said churn rates are expected to peak in fiscal 2018 before trending downward in fiscal 2019 as Sprint launches its mobile 5G network.", "Please enable Javascript to watch this video\nVerizon shakes up the cell phone industry with a compelling new unlimited plan – here’s how to figure out which carrier has the best plan for you.\nVerizon’s announcement of a brand new unlimited plan has everyone looking at their cell phone bills – and carriers taking a second look at their unlimited plans. But one size does not fit all, so here is what each carrier offers to help you figure out which plan is best for you.\nVerizon\nVerizon’s Unlimited Plan is very compelling. For $80 a month, you get unlimited calls, text and data. You also get video streaming in HD quality, plus 10 gigs a month of mobile hotspot. This means you can turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot and connect a device such as a tablet, iPod touch or laptop to the internet through your phone.\nThe main caveat of Verizon’s plan is that you must agree to paperless billing and Autopay. Not just any autopay but your monthly costs must be deducted automatically from your checking account or your debit card. Credit cards aren’t accepted for this plan, which saves Verizon a ton of money in processing fees.\nVerizon’s plan is pretty fantastic. You’re getting on one of the best networks in the nation so coverage is going to be spot on pretty much everywhere you go. Still, you are paying a premium here but you’ll be very satisfied with the service. To sweeten the deal, Verizon is offering a deal where you can get a free phone when you sign up. You can trade a late model premium phone – like your iPhone 6s – for a new iPhone 7 or Google Pixel. If you have an older phone such as a Samsung Galaxy S5 you can pay just $5 a month for a brand new iPhone. The promotion is given as a monthly credit on your bill over 24 months. Keep in mind Verizon’s plan tacks on fees and taxes so your bill will be a bit higher than $80 a month.\nT-Mobile\nT-Mobile has been very competitive in the past few years and their response to the Verizon Unlimited plan was fast and furious. Within hours of Verizon’s announcement, T-Mobile sweetened their unlimited deal, which costs $70 a month and includes all of your taxes and fees. The company added two key features to it’s unlimited plan – HD video streaming and 10 gigs of LTE mobile hotspot. Basically, T-Mobile matches Verizon’s offering but it’s at least $10 a month cheaper. I say at least because taxes and fees are included in T-Mobile’s plan price. If you get two lines with T-Mobile you’ll save even more – both lines are just $100 a month, which is a steal.\nLots of people wonder about the quality of T-Mobile’s network. Here’s what I can tell you in my testing – when it works, it is fantastic. Speeds are good and signals are strong. But there are places – especially in rural or less populated areas – where your phone might not get a signal as strong as AT&T or Verizon’s – or data speeds as fast. I always tell people to find out if the carrier they want works well at work and home – two of the places you’ll use it most. You can find this out by asking the people around you each day.\nSprint\nSprint’s unlimited plan is a fantastic price – just $50 a month. What you don’t get is HD video for that price. This means that your videos will stream in a “mobile optimized” quality, basically about DVD quality. Personally, I’m not going for this. I don’t like artificial barriers between me and the best technology out there. You can pay an additional $20 a month to step up to HD video so the plan is more in line with T-Mobile’s pricing. You can also save a ton if you get multiple lines – I kid you not – 5 lines with Sprint are just $90 a month (total!) until a promotional pricing ends in March 2018.\nAs for Sprint’s network, well the quality is debatable. In my experience, I don’t think it’s as good as T-Mobile, Verizon or AT&T’s. But there are plenty of folks on it, and if you’re looking to spend the least amount possible on cell phone service with a major carrier, this is it.\nAT&T\nOut of all of the unlimited offerings, AT&T is the least appealing. For starters, you must have AT&T TV service to even sign up for it. This includes DIRECTV or U-verse TV. Then, the plan starts at $100 a month for one line and it doesn’t include one major feature – mobile hotspot. This means you can only use your unlimited data though your phone’s apps and web browser – you can’t connect your tablet or laptop to your phone through WiFi. I’m hoping for the sake of AT&T’s customers that the company changes this provision.\nThe good news about AT&T is that they have one of the best networks out there. You will have coverage everywhere, but you will also be paying more.", "Sprint joined US rivals in exploring unlicensed spectrum with its first publicly announced test of Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology.\nOutgoing Sprint COO of Technology Gunther Ottendorfer shared the news in a Tweet on Friday (8 December), noting the operator collaborated with SpiderCloud Wireless to achieve speeds of between 120Mb/s and 140Mb/s using 5MHz of licensed spectrum.\nNotably, the test appears to be Sprint’s first public foray into the unlicensed arena. A Sprint representative confirmed to Mobile World Live LAA is on the operator’s long-term roadmap as it “complements our network strategy and builds on what we’re already doing today with LTE and Wi-Fi.” The representative added the operator is “focused on providing the best, most reliable service regardless of whether a customer is connected through licensed or unlicensed spectrum.”\nLAA @Sprint & @SpiderCloud we successfully implemented LAA (LicensedAssisted Access) with only 5Mhz licensed spectrum & we achieved 120-140 Mpbs! Discover more about our recent partnership: https://t.co/6NOJxZqBzL #WorksForMe pic.twitter.com/srMcNwc3WG — guenther (@guengott68) December 8, 2017\nUntil now, Sprint made clear it intends to hit the gigabit mark without the aid of unlicensed spectrum. Instead, CTO John Saw indicated Sprint will use its reserve of 2.5GHz spectrum and technologies like Massive MIMO.\nThe new approach brings Sprint into line with rivals. Both T-Mobile US and Verizon, which initially pursued LTE-Unlicensed technology, confirmed a shift in their focus to LAA: Verizon achieved speeds of 953Mb/s using LAA and T-Mobile recently surpassed 1Gb/s using 12-layer LAA, 256QAM and 4×4 MIMO.\nAt an event in November, T-Mobile revealed to Mobile World Live (MWL) it plans to deploy LAA alongside two bands of licensed spectrum in new modular small cells. Verizon similarly told MWL it is gearing up for widespread deployment of the technology in 2018.\nAT&T is also pushing ahead with LAA. In June, the operator achieved speeds of more than 650Mb/s in tests of the technology, and in November followed up with its first LAA deployment. At the time, an AT&T representative told (MWL) the operator plans to expand its LAA deployments to additional cities.", "From Tony Veneziano\nBEAVER DAM, Wisc. (March 19, 2018) — Tickets are now on sale for the 9th Annual Jim “JB” Boyd Memorial presented by Karavan Trailers, featuring the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series at Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin on Saturday, June 23 and can be purchased online at slspromotions.ticketforce.com or by calling SLS Promotions at 815-344-2023.\nShane Stewart was victorious last season in the Jim “JB” Boyd Memorial to score the first win of his career at Beaver Dam Raceway. Stewart took the lead on lap-25 from Greg Wilson and paced the remainder of the 40-lap contest. Kerry Madsen thrilled the crowd by charging from the 21st starting spot to finish second.\nBill Balog earned his first-career World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series win in the 2016 edition of the Jim “JB” Boyd Memorial. The win was a very popular one for Balog, an eight-time IRA Sprint Series champion, originally from Alaska, who now calls Wisconsin home.\nIn each of the last seven editions of the race, a different driver has visited victory lane, including nine-time series champion Donny Schatz. Brad Sweet and Kraig Kinser are also past winners of the Jim “JB” Boyd Memorial, who are competing full-time with the Outlaws this season.\nBattling Schatz, Sweet, Stewart and Kinser in 2018 is a talented group of full-time competitors, including Daryn Pittman, who has three wins at Beaver Dam Raceway in his career, David Gravel, who won in the state of Wisconsin last year as well as fellow veteran drivers Jason Johnson, Tim Shaffer, Jason Sides and Greg Wilson.\nYoung drivers Logan Schuchart, Jacob Allen, Clyde Knipp, Sheldon Haudenschild, Brent Marks and are all back on the road full-time in 2018. Haudenschild scored his first-career World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series win on opening night in February in Florida and followed that up with his second victory in Las Vegas a few weeks later. The fourth-generation driver is currently second in points.\nA trio of drivers are contending for the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award in 2018, led by Australian Ian Madsen, along with Parker Price-Miller and Dane Lorenc.\nTickets for the 9th Annual Jim “JB” Boyd Memorial presented by Karavan Trailers, featuring the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series at Beaver Dam Raceway on Saturday, June 23 can be purchased online at slspromotions.ticketforce.com or by phone at 815-344-2023. Also in action will be Legends and Mini Sprints.", "Sprint, which is trying hard to catch up with its larger rivals, has an offer for families looking for unlimited data that’s seems too good to be true. And what you know, it is too good to be true.\nThe company’s offer for up to five lines of unlimited voice, texts and data for $90 (plus the usual taxes and fees) is good for only one year. By “good for one year” I don’t mean that you have a year to sign up. I mean that the big discount Sprint is offering this month expires at the end of March, 2018, and pricing reverts to the much more expensive standard rate, an increase that's more than double.\nI’m not saying Sprint doesn’t disclose this. It does. But you’ve got to look in the footnotes to understand the plan has some serious gotchas.\nHere’s how Sprint describes the offer.\n“Unlimited Data, Talk and Text for $50/month for the first line with AutoPay, two lines for just $90/month; and the third, fourth and fifth lines are FREE. A family of five will pay $90/month for five lines.”\nThat, in fact, is a good deal, and significantly cheaper than offers for that many lines from the three other major carriers. But after March of 2018, that family of five will be paying $190 a month for the same service.\nWhen the promotional offer expires, the cost for a single line goes up $10 to $60 a month; service for two lines will also go up $10 to $100 a month; and each additional line, up to three, will cost $30 a month.\nTo be fair, I should mention a point that a Sprint service representative who walked me through the plans made. “Over the course of the year, your family would save $1,000,” he said. Actually, $1,080 over 12 months, and he’s right: That’s a real savings.\nYou could, of course, sign up for a year and then jump to another carrier, but if you’ve purchased a phone from Sprint on an installment plan, as most consumers do these days, you’d have to pay off the remaining price of the phone.\nThere are a few other caveats to consider. Unless you sign up for autopay and e-billing, each line on the discount plan will cost an additional $5 a month. Streaming video is capped at 480 pixels, a resolution that’s fine on a phone, but not really adequate if you stream from the phone to a television. If you want HD quality, you’ll pay an extra $20 a month per line.\nThere’s no speed cap on browsing or downloads; music streams at 550 Kpbs, while games are played at 2 Mbps.\nVerizon and T-Mobile also launched new unlimited data plans recently. They’re not perfect either, but worth checking out.", "SINGAPORE, July 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- i-Sprint Innovations Pte Ltd (i-Sprint) has developed a new clone-proof anti-counterfeiting QR code, known as AR Code, with bank-grade security process. This unique feature is being offered on its brand protection solution - AccessReal™.\nAccessReal™ is a new generation brand protection solution for anti-counterfeiting, track and trace, and consumer marketing. This solution provides brand and product owners the ability to empower their channels and customers to self-check the authenticity of the products purchased using smart mobile devices. Each product is given a unique identity, and this identity is assigned to the product using identification tags such as barcode, QR code, NFC and RFID. With its core business in providing security solutions to highly sensitive environment industries such as financial service institutions, i-Sprint is committed to ensuring similar security measures are in place to combat counterfeits. The development of the clone-proof QR code (AR Code) builds to on this commitment by providing a secure way to verify the originality of the products.\nThe AR Code is designed, generated and issued using bank-grade processes. Unique digital watermark and product identification DNA are added to a normal QR code with serialization and encryption protection to create a AR Code. The AR Code provides the copy proof security feature to eliminate replication. This can be directly printed on existing product packaging, labels, and documents. Consumers do not need special knowledge or tool to authenticate the product. They perform product authenticity check easily using a standard mobile phone with a camera, by scanning the AR Code via the mobile app or web app. All scanning activities are communicated with the AccessReal™ secured backend system to verify the information.\nAccording to Mr. Dutch Ng, Chief Executive Officer of i-Sprint, \"The AR Code not only allows consumers to check the product authenticity but it also enables consumers to view full product information to aid purchase decision. Enterprises can also implement a second layer identification tag to collect more consumers' buying behavior to better inform business planning.\"\nOne Singapore health drink company and a well-known Asia Pacific automotive parts manufacturer are rolling out AccessReal™ with AR Code tags in quarter three this year. The health drink company uses AccessReal™ as a solution to prevent counterfeit, build consumer confidence and marketing. On the other hand, the automotive parts manufacturer uses AR Code to prevent counterfeiting, to detect grey market issue and to provide warrant management.\n\"My clients demand the best solution for their products. I am happy to have i-Sprint as our technology partner for working together in providing a very innovative brand protection solution for my clients. Upcoming, I have a client in lifestyle industry who will launch a product in Southeast Asia with annual volume over 100 million units using the AR Code,\" said Mr. Ng Guankai, Business Development Director of Nabcore, a business management consulting firm based in Singapore.\ni-Sprint is also working with Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) to support Singaporean Food Manufacturers to protect their brand in the overseas markets. SMF launched the SMF SMART Product Authentication Platform powered by AccessReal™ in April 2018, and the AR Code tag is one of the identification tag options for manufacturers.\nCurrently, AccessReal™ solution is also applied in diverse industries such as wine, publishing, beauty, health supplement, food & beverage, and home appliance.\nFor more information on AccessReal™, please visit www.accessreal.com.\nAbout i-Sprint Innovations\ni-Sprint Innovations (i-Sprint), established in the year 2000, is a leading provider in Securing Identity and Transactions in the Cyber World that enables individuals, organizations, and societies to build trust and identity assurance for powering productivity gain through digital identity and identity of things (IDoT). i-Sprint's digital identity product offerings include adaptive authentication (biometrics, multifactor authentication and more), single sign-on services, end-to-end encryption authentication and data protection for transaction data and to secure access to the web, mobile, and cloud-based applications. The IDoT products allow the enterprise to minimize counterfeiting, track and trace product, and harness business intelligence for better business planning and personalized direct interaction with customers.\ni-Sprint's clients include leading FSI, government, telecommunications, public utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, education, MNC, and others. Currently, i-Sprint has a direct presence and active authorized partners across, mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States.\nwww.i-sprint.com\nFor media queries, please contact:\nMs. Cheam Gim Chng\n+65-6420-6985\[email protected]\nPhoto - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180626/2172933-1\nLogo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180626/2172933-1-LOGO\nSOURCE i-Sprint Innovations", "Following a series of increasingly concrete 5G rollout announcements from AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, Sprint today committed to launching mobile 5G service nationally in the first half of 2019 — at somewhat higher prices. The commitment suggests that the fourth-place U.S. carrier may lag behind larger rivals AT&T and Verizon, which will begin 5G deployments later in 2018, but may beat T-Mobile, which is targeting 2020 for full nationwide 5G coverage.\nUnlike Verizon, which thus far has announced only “fixed 5G” plans for wireless residential and commercial broadband service, Sprint is focusing on “mobile 5G” — portable wireless devices. Sprint says that it is working with Qualcomm on 5G technology, and at least one Korean manufacturer to ready 5G handsets for its network.\nInterestingly, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure also provided the first concrete details as to how premium 5G service pricing will work; competitors have only hinted at future price increases. Claure expects that Sprint will jump from its recent $50 to $60 monthly unlimited pricing to higher 5G pricing similar to its rivals’ current unlimited prices of $70 to $80. “It’s going to be very difficult for our competitors to increase the price of unlimited,” Claure said, “but we’re going to have a lot of room to increase our price of unlimited to get to similar prices as Verizon and AT&T in the future.”\nUnlike rivals that have emphasized plans to utilize low-frequency and ultra-high-frequency spectrum in building 5G infrastructure, Sprint will start with “super wide channels” of 160MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum, which is already serviced by half of Sprint’s towers in the top 100 U.S. markets. Higher speeds will be achieved using Massive MIMO antennas that can communicate with devices on multiple frequencies at once; the antennas can be used now for faster 4G LTE service and then software-switched to 5G in 2019.\nSprint also plans to expand the 2.5 GHz spectrum to all of its existing towers and increase its tower count by around 20 percent to help build out the 5G network. It will also deploy a large collection of small 5G transceivers, including 40,000 outdoor small cells, 15,000 cable strand small cells, and up to 1 million consumer cellular boxes.\nThough it seems unlikely, Claure claimed that Sprint will have the first mobile 5G network in the U.S. and “potentially in the world,” though he conceded that a Korean carrier could beat Sprint to the latter achievement. Bragging rights will probably be shared: AT&T’s 2018 rollout of mobile 5G in 12 cities will surely be followed by additional cities in 2019, leaving the scope of “nationwide” coverage somewhat ambiguous.", "Everything old is new again, and unlimited data plans are back in vogue. With Verizon returning to the fray this week, all four of the major mobile carriers in the US now advertise unlimited offerings. But, per usual, each of those plans comes with a significant slate of caveats. So to help you sort through the fine print, here's a quick rundown of how this revived set of unlimited plans match up. View As: One Page Slides\nThe big caveat: No \"unlimited\" plan is really unlimited. None of these plans allows you to use an endless amount of LTE data across the board with no penalties. Instead, each carrier warns that your speeds may be slowed if you go over a certain amount of data in a month and live in an area of congestion. How this \"prioritization\" is determined isn't totally clear. Each plan also limits what you can do with that data when it comes to things like mobile hotspots, international usage, and the like. Being prioritized isn't exactly the same as being throttled — it's still possible to get LTE speeds once you get past a carrier's warning point. The amount of data you can use without risk are fairly generous, too, and you do get unlimited talk and text with each plan. But wireless carriers use the word \"unlimited\" in a misleading way. This only gets worse when you look at the restrictions imposed on unlimited plans from mobile virtual network operators like Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless, which is why we didn't include them in this comparison. Also worth clarifying: None of the advertised rates below includes device subsidies. Remember that if you buy a phone from a carrier and pay for it in monthly installments, that fee will be added to the cost of the plans below.\nThe other caveat: Not all networks are created equal. The value of any \"unlimited\" plan becomes less worth it if you're only getting shoddy internet. Unfortunately, a big chunk of the country still suffers from mediocre mobile coverage. It's hard to give exact metrics on how carriers' current networks compare, but a recent study from the mobile analytics firm OpenSignal found that Verizon and T-Mobile are neck and neck in terms of fastest speeds, but Verizon's LTE network is slightly more available. In general, Verizon is consistently near the top, T-Mobile is seen as improving, AT&T is either in second or third, and Sprint typically brings up the rear. If you opt for a prepaid carrier, however, you usually have to deal with slower speeds. Cricket Wireless has an unlimited plan for $65 a month, for instance, but its parent, AT&T, caps Cricket download speeds at a lower-than-average 8 Mbps. Again, we've omitted Cricket as a result.\nVerizon How much does it cost? $80 a month for one smartphone line. Beyond that, $140 a month for two lines, $162 a month for three lines, and $180 a month for four lines. For plans with multiple lines, you can use data on both smartphones and tablets. These rates do not include taxes and regulatory fees, which vary by region, so your bill will be a few bucks higher than what's advertised. You also need to enroll in auto-pay billing to get these prices — otherwise, a single line is $5 more expensive, while lines two through four are $10 more expensive. It's important to note that Verizon has described this as an \"introductory\" plan, so it's not clear if the advertised rates will stay in place. How much LTE data do you actually get? Verizon says each line may be slowed in areas of congestion once it uses more than 22 GB of LTE data in a month. Can you stream HD video? Yes. It doesn't appear to be capped at 720p, either — Verizon says it doesn't \"manipulate the data\" it sends in any way. How about LTE mobile-hotspot data? You get 10 GB of LTE mobile-hotspot data a month. Verizon says mobile-hotspot speeds will be reduced to 3G levels after that. Any other details worth knowing? Verizon still offers other less-expensive plans on its website, which range from $35 a month for 2 GB of LTE data to $70 a month for 8 GB of LTE data. There are higher-bucket tiers beyond that, but you have to call the carrier or visit a store to activate them.\nT-Mobile One How much does it cost? $70 a month for one line. Beyond that, $120 a month for two lines, $140 a month for three lines, and $160 a month for four lines. These rates do include additional taxes and fees, so you pay what's advertised. You need to enroll in auto-pay billing to get these rates, though — otherwise, everything is $5 more expensive. T-Mobile will run a limited-time promotion starting February 17 in which two lines of service will cost $100 a month. How much LTE data do you actually get? T-Mobile says each line may be slowed in areas of congestion once it uses more than 28 GB of LTE data in a given month. Can you stream HD video? Starting February 17, yes. T-Mobile says you will have to activate the feature in the T-Mobile app or on the company's website, but that you'll only need to do so once every 30 days. It did not say if that video is capped at 720p or allowed to stream at higher resolutions, though. Currently, T-Mobile requires you to pay extra to stream HD video, in the form of a $15-a-month T-Mobile One Plus add-on. It also forces you to activate HD video on the app or website every day you want to use it. How about LTE mobile-hotspot data? Starting February 17, yes. T-Mobile says it will match Verizon and offer 10 GB of LTE mobile-hotspot data a month. Once you surpass that, the carrier will throttle your mobile hotspot usage to 3G speeds for the pay period. T-Mobile says you will have to manually activate the feature at least once every 30 days to use it. Currently, T-Mobile requires you to pay extra to get unlimited LTE hotspot data, which becomes available if you buy the T-Mobile One Plus International add-on for $25 a month. It also says \"on-device usage is prioritized over tethering usage, which may result in higher speeds for data used on [a] device.\" Today, the base One plan provides unlimited hotspot data, but at 512 Kbps, which is closer to 3G speeds. Any other details worth knowing? T-Mobile really wants to push all its customers into the One plan, so while it does have cheaper plans, it buries them on its site and pushes you to call the carrier to activate them. If you stick with the One plan, the One Plus and One Plus International add-ons — which T-Mobile says will still be available after February 17 — have other benefits. The One Plus add-on gives you unlimited Wi-Fi through Gogo on flights from \"US-based airlines,\" while the One Plus International add-on gives you unlimited international calling to various countries. T-Mobile says you can add a tablet to your plan for an extra $20 a month or a wearable for an extra $5 a month.\nSprint How much does it cost? Normally, $60 a month for one line. Then $100 a month for two lines, $130 a month for three lines, and $160 a month for four lines. As of this writing, though, Sprint is running a promotion in which one line costs $50 a month for new customers, and anywhere from two to five lines costs $90 a month. Sprint says these prices will last until March 31, 2018, at which time you'll have to pay the regular price. In any case, these rates do not include taxes and regulatory fees, which vary by region, so your bill will be a few bucks higher than what's advertised. You also need to enroll in auto-pay billing to get these prices — otherwise, everything is $5 more expensive. How much LTE data do you actually get? Sprint says each line may be slowed in areas of congestion once it uses more than 23 GB of LTE data in a given month. Can you stream HD video? No. Sprint caps all video streaming on its unlimited plan at a 480p resolution, which is less than HD. It also limits music streams to 500 Kbps, which is decent, and gaming streams to 2 Mbps, which is slow. How about LTE mobile-hotspot data? You get 5 GB of LTE mobile hotspot by default. Once that's used up, Sprint throttles your hotspot data to 2G speeds. Any other details worth knowing? Sprint offers plans beyond this unlimited offering that range from $20 a month for 1 GB of LTE data to $100 a month for 40 GB of LTE data. With the unlimited plan, Sprint says you can add a tablet for another $20 a month.\nAT&T How much does it cost? $100 a month for one line. Beyond that, $40 a month for each additional smartphone. Once you add your fourth line, AT&T will gradually reimburse that line through monthly credits after you pay for two billing cycles. (Telecoms!) To even be eligible for AT&T's unlimited plan, though, you need to subscribe to either its DirecTV or U-Verse service. That will add at least another $50 to your bill each month, but you'll get TV service along the way. How much LTE data do you actually get? AT&T says each line may be slowed in areas of congestion once it uses more than 22 GB of LTE data in a given month. Can you stream HD video? Yes, but AT&T turns it off by default. To activate it, you have to disable the carrier's Stream Saver setting in the myAT&T app or on AT&T's website. Once it's off, it will stay that way until you reactivate it. How about LTE mobile-hotspot data? Not for phones or tablets. AT&T says \"tethering and use of your device as a mobile hotspot are not allowed\" with its unlimited plan — unless you use it in select connected cars. Any other details worth knowing? As you might expect, AT&T does not advertise its unlimited plan as heavily as the other carrier advertise theirs. The carrier more readily promotes its tiered plans, which range from $50 a month for 1 GB of LTE data to $470 a month for 100 GB of data. You can add a tablet to the unlimited plan for $40 a month or a wearable for $10 a month.", "CNET's Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and follow the Cheapskate on Twitter!\nRok Mobile\nHow much data do you typically consume in a month? The average is somewhere around 3-4GB, in which case Cricket Wireless offers arguably the best deal around: $35 a month (with autopay) for a plan that includes 4GB of 4G LTE data. Cricket is a GSM carrier, however, and 4GB may not be enough for everyone.\nIndeed, if you're packing a Sprint-compatible CDMA phone and you like to stream a lot of video, you're probably more interested in an unlimited plan. Verizon charges $80 per month for the privilege, while Sprint is quite a bit more affordable at $50. But now there's an even better deal.\nMobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Rok Mobile just introduced an unlimited Sprint-network plan for $45 per month. That would save you $60 a year over Sprint and $420 over Verizon. What's more, that plan includes 24/7 roadside assistance -- kind of a weird extra, but also a pretty nice perk if you don't already have AAA or the like.\nRok who-now?\nRok Mobile has been around for a few years; the carrier's early claim to fame was a bundled music-streaming service, but that option is no more.\nInstead, you're basically scoring Sprint's $50-a-month plan for $45 a month and getting the aforementioned tow-truck benefit.\nThat plan includes unlimited voice minutes, text messages and 4G LTE data. Is the data really unlimited, though? Rok \"may reduce to slower speeds after 20GB of LTE usage,\" according to a company rep. That's a common practice; I'm pretty sure Sprint does likewise after 22GB.\nAnother common practice: Rok's \"Data Stretcher\" streams video at a lower resolution so you consume less data. Curiously, however, this works only on Android devices, according to the carrier's FAQ page.\nSpeaking of phones, you should be able to bring any unlocked, CDMA-compatible model to Rok, though of course you'll need to do an IMEI-number check before signing up. It's worth noting that many modern phones (Google Nexuses, some Samsung Galaxys, late-model iPhones, and so on) can work on both GSM and CDMA networks, so if you were previously with a GSM carrier, you should be able to make the move.\nDeal or no deal?\nThe other consideration, of course, is coverage. For many users (myself included), Sprint coverage is, um, not excellent. Rok notes that it now leverages both Sprint and \"the nation's most reliable other CDMA network,\" which is MVNO-speak for \"Verizon.\"\nThis particular plan is specifically identified as a \"Sprint Unlimited,\" however, which suggests to me that you'll be limited to Sprint's network only. I asked Rok for clarification on that; the answer I got was a little vague.\nBut here's the beauty of no-contract services like this: You try it out for a month or two, and if you're not happy, you move on.\nYour thoughts?\nBonus deal: It's not exactly an impulse buy, but if you've had your eye on a big iPad, here's a significant savings: For a limited time, and while supplies last, BuySpry (via eBay) has the Apple iPad Pro 12.9 256GB Wi-Fi + Cellular for $799.99 shipped. Apple charges $1,029.\nVansky\nWhat's the catch? These are new, sealed iPads, but apparently they're also the \"European model with US charger\" -- meaning no discernible difference from the US model, at least according to the seller. And it comes with a full Apple warranty. So if you want the premium, loaded iPad Pro 12.9 for the price of the entry-level model, here you go!\nBonus deal No. 2: Ditching cable usually means ditching local channels -- unless you connect an antenna and take advantage of your TV's built-in tuner. (You remember antennas and tuners, right?)\nOK, but can one of those flat, plastic antennas really do the job? Depends on where you live, how the antenna is positioned and other variables. But here's your chance to test-drive the setup on the cheap: Vansky's transparent indoor amplified antenna is $16.99 shipped (with Prime) when you apply promo code IIJUEF17 at checkout.\nPromising to pull in channels up to 50 miles away, this mostly see-through antenna will work best when mounted high up on a window. How far do you live from the stations in your area? Visit AntennaWeb to find out. Products like these can be very hit-and-miss, working great for some folks and poorly for others. Fortunately, Amazon makes it easy to return items that don't work, so you've got nothing to lose by trying.", "Elmhurst Unit District 205 middle school teachers are fighting administration plans to move to block scheduling for the next school year.\nRepresentatives of the Elmhurst Teachers Council contend that more time is needed to study the impact of the potential move and that it would take instruction time away from science and social studies.\nThe teachers are taking action under their collective bargaining agreement and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act to pursue the union's differences with the school board and superintendent David Moyer regarding the proposed changes for the 2017-18 school year.\n\"Teachers do embrace change when change is in the best interest of our kids, when the change and rationale behind the change have been clearly communicated to all: teachers, parents, taxpayers,\" said Katy Padberg, president of the Elmhurst Teachers Council.\nThe administration says the move will provide more instruction in math, give students the daily opportunity for intervention or enrichment and allow pupils to take band, orchestra or choir during the school day instead of before or after school.\nThe block schedule would provide:\n• 75 minutes of instruction daily in both language arts and math.\n• 75 minutes every other day for science and social studies.\n• 40 minutes daily for physical education, world language and unified arts.\n• 30 minutes daily for an accelerated period (intervention or enrichment).\nMoyer acknowledged there would be challenges implementing the schedule, but in a message sent to parents stated district officials believe the changes are in line with research and best practices. He said the addition of small teams, an accelerated period and increased minutes of instruction for math, along with a shorter school day for students involved in band, orchestra and choir, will have a positive impact.\nHe also noted the plan offers increased student choice, more opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math, and the flexibility to support an interdisciplinary approach.\nMichelle Bowles, a sixth-grade math teacher at Bryan Middle School who co-chaired the district's Middle School Task Force said that it was agreed upon by the union and administration that any proposed scheduling changes would be locked in by the end of February to provide time for the changes to be implemented.\nShe said earlier this month the task force, created 16 months ago, is a three-year commitment as members were told that their job is more like a marathon than a sprint.\n\"Unfortunately, we believe that we are sprinting,\" said Bowles, a product of District 205 as well as an Elmhurst resident and parent. \"We need to slow down. We're not ready to make the changes for this coming fall. We do believe in the recommended changes like the daily intervention time to be taught by expert teachers, creating enrichment opportunities, increasing math minutes and more. What we are having the most trouble with is the time.\"\nShe said if the district wants to make the changes to really help middle school students and make a better school day for them, more discussions should take place and the changes implemented in fall 2018. Bowles said there are too many unanswered questions to make the change for this fall.\nMoyer admitted there will be growing pains with the switch but that it should move forward as planned.\n\"Learning by doing will be the theme for next year,\" he said. \"We will refine our practices as the nuances of these changes emerge and become clear.\"\nJohn Liljewall, a Spanish teacher at Churchville Middle School for seven years, said he disapproves of the proposed changes in the second year of the change to block scheduling. He said the district plans to offer student choice at the start of the 2018-19 school year, having students pick from a world language, unified arts or band/orchestra/choir.\n\"What the Middle School Task Force has cleverly titled 'student choice' is, in reality, robbing students of various opportunities,\" Liljewall said. \"As we all know, if only through our own personal experiences, early adolescence is a time when young adults are trying to discover who they are as individuals. It is essential for middle schools to offer an array of experiences to these students so that they can become the men and women that they were truly meant to be.\nKevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press", "From Port Royal Speedway\nPORT ROYAL, Pa. (December 10, 2017) – The 2018 Port Royal Speedway schedule of events is taking shape with numerous high-profile events dotting the slate of events.\nOpening day is slated for Saturday, March 10 at 5 pm featuring the 410 sprints and the super late models.\nThe All Stars Circuit of Champions Keith Kauffman Classic will pump up the month of April on Saturday the 14th followed by the second appearance in as many years by the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model stars on Sunday, April 22.\nAnd then summer kicks off in a massive way when for the first time in history, a super late model back-to-back, doubleheader is coming to Port Royal Speedway in 2018 as part of the prestigious Bob Weikert Memorial holiday weekend program on May 26 and 27.\nSanctioned by the Northeast Ultimate Super Late Model Series, the mighty stock cars will race in $3,000 to win and $5,000 to win events respectively, both paying $400 just to start.\nThe Saturday May 26 NUSLMS show will be part of the Weikert Memorial weekend Fallen Heroes Championships at Port Royal when the Weikert Memorial 410 sprints compete for $5,000 to win\nSunday’s NUSLMS event will be spun off as a companion to the big $10,000 to win 410 sprint Weikert Memorial main.\nEarly June will find the track hosting a $3,000 to win super late model main on the 2nd as part of the 2018 KRS Graphics Tri-Track Late Model Challenge Series.\nAs part of the annual Eastern Storm tour, the USAC Sprints will join the 410 sprints on Saturday, June 16.\nFor the first time in many seasons, 358 sprint racing will return to Port Royal on Saturday, June 30 when the K1 RaceGear Summer Series for 358s visits the oval.\nA pair of Pennsylvania Speedweek events for 410 sprints will take place at the oval in 2018 with the first on Independence Day Wednesday, July 4 and another on Saturday, July 7.\nThe Living Legends Dream Race, again featuring the 410 sprints and super late models is planned for July 28.\nThe World of Outlaws Late Models will race for $10,000 to win at the track on Saturday, August 18, in action along with the Port Royal 410 sprint cars.\nAnd then the annual Juniata County Fair will host the 410 sprints and super late model Butch Renninger Memorial paying $4,000 to win on Saturday, September 1.\nRacing returns to the track with the annual sprint Labor Day Classic on September 3 followed by the granddaddy of them all at Port Royal, the two-day Tuscarora 50 for the All Stars Circuit of Champions Sprints on Friday and Saturday, September 7 and 8 with the Saturday finale paying $51,000 to win and being aired on MAVTV.\nOctober finds a special Friday night program being billed as the Speed Showcase taking place on the 12th featuring the 410 sprints and the Short Track Super Series big block and small block modifieds.\nThe month of October also features the very popular Open Wheel Madness program on October 20 offering action for the 410, URC and 305 sprints before the entire season closes on Friday and Saturday, October 26 and 27 with the two-day Nittany Showdown for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars.\nStay up to date with all the latest Port Royal news and information by visiting the oval’s official website at www.portroyalspeedway.com or by following the track on Facebook or Twitter.", "From Gary Thomas\nPLACERVILLE, Ca. (February 14, 2017) — One of the questions that’s always brought up around the dirt track circles is undoubtedly, “How can we get kids involved and excited about racing from a young age?”\nThe Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour presented by Abreu Vineyards certainly takes that important issue to heart and will attempt to do its part in hopes to get the younger generation involved. With that comes the announcement of the Kids Dash for Cash, which will be held at all 13 SCCT events this season.\nThe Sprint Car Challenge Tour presents Kids Dash for Cash will work as follows:\nEach night a limited number of kids, ages four to ten, will have the opportunity to head on track (time permitting) just before the RacePartsTrader.com Dash draw for sprint car drivers. At that point 2000 nickels will be dropped on the racetrack and the youngsters will have a chance to pick up and keep as many coins as they can. If time becomes an issue the Kids Dash for Cash will be held at a selected area near the grandstands.\nThe plan is for the Sprint Car Challenge Tour social team to have wrist bands available at a pre-designated area, and the kids that acquire them will be allowed to participate. The hope is to have a different set of children at each race.\nMonster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver and sprint car graduate Kyle Larson spoke about the Kids Dash for Cash and the opportunity it presents, “I definitely think the best thing that short track racing can do is find ways to get kids involved. We need to continue building the next generation of fans and the best way to do that is to incorporate the young ones into the show as much as possible. My mom heard of this nickel toss while at I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri and we thought it may be kind of cool to try in California. Hopefully the kids all enjoy it and it creates a memorable experience at the track.”\nThe SCCT Kids Dash for Cash is made possible thanks to a number of individuals and companies that have come on board to support it. Each child participating will also receive a custom water bottle courtesy of Light up the World Beverages. Light up the World Beverages bottles are great for birthday parties, gender reveal parties and any type of special event or celebration. To learn more about the unique company that is rapidly gaining steam visit them at https://www.lutwb.com/\nNightly partners include:\nApril 1 Antioch Speedway- M & L Plumbing\nApril 15 Placerville Speedway- Mancamp Motorsports\nApril 21 Thunderbowl Raceway- Owen Larson Racing\nApril 29 Petaluma Speedway- Mason Moore Racing\nMay 27 Stockton Dirt Track- San Joaquin Asparagus Festival\nJune 17 Antioch Speedway- Probilt Construction\nJune 24 Calistoga Speedway- Rico Abreu Racing\nJuly 2 Stockton Dirt Track- Kyle Larson Racing\nJuly 3 Petaluma Speedway- Thomas Family\nJuly 29 Fernley 95A Speedway- Probilt Construction\nAugust 25 Placerville Speedway- Finley Farms\nAugust 26 Stockton Dirt Track- MAJ1K Motorsports\nNovember 4 Stockton Dirt Track- $600 Night\nThe final event of the year in Stockton on November 4 will then see an expanded Kids Dash for Cash. Thanks to the support of the year-long partners who have all agreed to come together and make the Tribute to Gary Patterson a mega Kids Dash for Cash, $600 worth of nickels, and quarters, will be available to the youngsters that night.\n“We believe this will be a fun part of the evening for families that attend our Sprint Car Challenge Tour events,” commented Scott Russell of Russell Motorsports Inc., managing company of both SCCT and the Placerville Speedway. “It’s no secret that the fan base continues to age, so getting these kids excited about sprint car racing is an important thing. We have a great group of the racers in Northern California and building that fan interaction is something we’re going to focus on.”\nThe Sprint Car Challenge Tour is proudly sponsored by Elk Grove Ford, Abreu Vineyards, Hoosier Racing Tires, Bianchi Farms, Kyle Larson Racing, All Star Performance, ART Speed Equipment, BR Motorsports, King Racing Products, Auto Meter, Bullard Construction, Chris Kenner Racing Specialties/ Security Race Products, CRV Carbon Solutions, Flying Squirrel, Garth Moore Insurance and Financial Services, Jockos Sprint Parts, Light Up the World Beverages, LRB Inc., Menne Hay Inc., Moto Wear, Metal Works, Naake Suspension, Pit Stop USA, PT Shocks, RacePartsTrader.com and Sellers Race Wings.\nMore information on the Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour presented by Abreu Vineyards can be found at our official website www.sprintcarchallengetour.com – Be sure to also like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sprintcarchallengetour and follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/360SCCT for the latest breaking news regarding SCCT.", "From Kalida Landon\nHANOVER, Pa. (December 9, 2017) – Drivers, crew members and personnel celebrated another successful season at Trail-Way Speedway, Saturday night at the Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Services Hall in Hanover, PA. Awards were presented to 33 drivers from the six main divisions that raced during Trail-Way’s 45th season. Trail-Way Speedway track announcer and banquet emcee, Scott Hockensmith, thanked Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic, Precise Racing Products, Trone Outdoor, Insinger Performance and Crown Trophy for their season sponsorship.\nSteve Owings won his first Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic 358 Sprint Car championship. Owings claimed the title by 37 points over Isaac Sneeringer. Owings’ season was highlighted by five wins and 13 top fives out of 14 starts. Sneeringer also had a great season claiming three wins including the Insinger Fuels Spring Championship. Steven Kisamore was awarded the 2017 358 Sprint Car Rookie of the Year award.\nThe Precise Racing Products 358 Late Model Series championship was awarded to Travis Mease. Mease’s season highlights featured seven top fives in ten starts.\nBrian Walls was named the 2017 Street Stock champion. Walls dominated the division with six wins and ten top fives in 11 starts. Runner-up, Jeremy Stremmel, posted three wins with seven top fives in 11 feature starts. John Wright received top honors for the 2017 Street Stock Rookie of the Year award.\nBrad Weber claimed the 600cc Micro Sprint title over the young up-and-comer, Zane Rudisill. Weber’s season included three wins with seven top fives in nine feature starts. While Rudisill finished the season winless, he did compile four top fives and six top tens in nine feature starts. Mike Sherman was named the 2017 600cc Micro Sprint Rookie of the Year.\nBrian Marriott claimed the 270cc Micro Sprint championship by 16 points over Levi Peck. Marriott’s season highlights featured two wins, one of which was on opening day, eight top fives and ten top tens in ten feature starts. Branstin Shue was awarded the 2017 270cc Micro Sprint Rookie of the Year award.\nThe Limited Stock championship was awarded to Jason Chronister. Chronister’s first track championship was highlighted by three wins and 11 top fives in 14 feature starts. Runner-up, Robbie Carroll, finished 27 points behind Chronister with six wins and 11 top fives finishes in 16 starts. Matt Worley was awarded the 2017 Limited Stock Rookie of the Year award.\nThe 45th annual event included awards such as the “Armin Hostetter Annual Appreciation Award” given to Sherril “Pop” Guise, an award for the Trail-Way Speedway Central PA Legends track champion, Chris Transeau, and the annual Lynn Sheaffer Video Award, presented to Roy Denike.\nBrad Hostetter, race director, announced opening race dates for the 2018 season. Trail-Way Speedway’s 46th season will open with a practice session on Saturday, March 24, followed by the first of three AMA Motorcycle Short Track races, Saturday, March 31. The 600 & 270 Micros along with the Central PA Legends will kick off the 2018 race season, Saturday, April 7. The Friday night opener will be April 13, and will feature the Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic 358 Sprint Cars and the Large Tire Street Stocks. The 2018 schedule will be posted to the website once it is finalized.\nThe Large Tire Street Stocks will be a part of our weekly Friday night racing series in 2018. Trail-Way track management and tech inspectors put a lot of time in this offseason to compile a very competitive and thorough rules package.\nAdditional improvements for the 2018 racing season include the addition of 20 loads of clay, re-painted walls, upgraded LED pit lights and a new fire aide suppression system which is portable and non-toxic to the driver. The scales in the pits have been raised and will be operational and we anticipate adding new LED track lights to the speedway in the coming months.\nMotorama Races and Shows will be held at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, PA on February 17-18, 2018. Be sure to join us for the nation’s largest all indoor motorsports event with one million square feet of exhibit space and five rooms of racing! Discount tickets are available through the website www.motoramaevents.com until February 5, 2018. For more information, visit the website.\nFor all the latest news and related information from Trail-Way Speedway, fans are reminded to visit the speedway website at www.trail-wayspeedway.com or the Speedway’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/trailwayspeedway. The complete story and agate from each race night is posted shortly after the final checkered flag falls.", "WASHINGTON - Sprint has said that the 5,000 US jobs the telecom firm recently pledged to create over the next 15 months are not part of an April 2015 announcement for a different 5,000 jobs.\nThe confusion -- which prompted the company's chief Marcelo Claure to take to Twitter in defense of the plan -- arose after Donald Trump announced Sprint's jobs commitment this week. The president-elect claimed credit for the deal as well as an announcement earlier this month by the satellite broadband firm OneWeb of 3,000 new jobs over the next four years.\nHowever, both new job commitments are part of a broader plan announced in October by SoftBank -- which owns 80 percent of Sprint -- to invest tens of billions of dollars in technology globally. The OneWeb project is the result of a $1.2 billion investment from the group. SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son met Trump earlier this month, pledging to invest $50 billion in the US economy and create 50,000 jobs over an unspecified time.\nThat prompted Trump to take credit for job creation even before he assumes office in January, praising what called \"the spirit and the hope\" his election generated. A Sprint spokesperson said on Friday that the 5,000 new jobs announced this week \"are not related to our previous announcement about jobs and our Direct 2 You program reported on in April 2015. The announcements are unrelated.\"\nUnlike last year's plan, the newer one is \"part of Masa's 50,000 jobs commitment and it was intended to show that we are now working to help fulfill the commitment.\" Claure followed Trump's example, taking to Twitter Thursday following reports that the latest Sprint job pledge is not new. \"Stop speculating,\" he said. \"This has NOTHING to do with previously announced @sprint initiatives.\" \"The 5,000 jobs are NEW jobs that @sprint is creating or bringing back to the US. Great news for the country.\"\nSprint, which announced 2,500 layoffs in January, said the 5,000 positions will be created or brought back from overseas by the end of its 2017 fiscal year, which ends in March 2018. It has not yet decided where the jobs will be created, saying only that they will be spread across the organisation.\nClaure -- who held a fundraiser for Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in September, calling Trump \"too risky\" -- said in the announcement this week that \"we are excited to work with President-elect Trump and his administration to do our part to drive economic growth and create jobs in the US.\"", "Faster data speeds are on the way, but you'll need to pay more for them.\nWireless carriers in the United States are currently in a race to offer truly 5G networks and Sprint just announced that it plans on being the first one to roll out nationwide 5G coverage during the first half of 2019.\nTo achieve this, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure says the carrier will add new antennas to its towers that are capable of sending and receiving large MIMO transmissions. 5G support will be added to the towers/antennas with a software update, and unlike other carriers, Sprint will be deploying its 5G network through its 2.5GHz spectrum.\nOver half of Sprint's towers already support the 2.5GHz standard, and the goal is to expand this to all operating towers by the end of 2018. Furthermore, to help ensure the 5G network's expansion, Sprint will utilize the power of 40,000 \"outdoor small cell solutions\" 15,000 strand-mounted cells, and as many as 1 million of the network's Sprint Magic Boxes (small signal boosters that customers can purchase and use in their homes).\nAccording to Marcelo –\nSprint is the only carrier that doesn't have to compromise what 5G can deliver because we can deliver super wide channels of more than 100 MHz while still delivering mid-band coverage characteristics.\nAnother thing worth noting is the fact that Sprint's 5G network is expected to cost more than what it currently charges for unlimited 4G LTE speeds. This is something the market saw during the transition from 3G to 4G networks, and while Sprint says it'll continue to be a \"price leader\" before its 5G rollout, customers are going to \"potentially see some modest price increases in the next year, but nothing substantial.\"\nSpeaking more on the 5G price hike, Marcelo states that –\nIt's going to be very difficult for our competitors to increase the price of unlimited, but we're going to have a lot of room to increase our price of unlimited to get to similar prices as Verizon and AT&T in the future. You get that by having that amazing network. You get that by being the first one to launch 5G. So we're looking at 5G as an amazing opportunity for the company not only for the position of the company, but also to charge for the blazing fast speeds.\nIn early January, AT&T announced that it would introduce a genuine 5G network to 12 markets across the U.S. by the end of 2018. T-Mobile is expected to start deploying its 5G network at some point in 2019, and Verizon will launch its 5G service in a handful of cities this year.\nWith 5G just on the horizon of finally becoming a reality, what are looking forward to the most with these increased speeds?\nA 5G network owned by the United States government? It's not going to happen", "Rick Salem\nOberlin, Kansas – June 30, 2018 – The United Rebel Sprint Series RaceSaver Sprints are gearing up for a busy month with eight scheduled events at five different venues that span two different states. Series officials are also looking for two Colorado dates to replace two events that were cancelled earlier last week in Pueblo.\nIt all kicks off on Tuesday night, July 3, at the Belleville High Banks in Belleville, Kansas in a tune-up for the upcoming Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals. This one-night event will pay $1000 to win with drivers starting the night’s feature finale taking home $200.\nFour days later the tour will head to the “Cornhusker” state with two events at two different facilities.\nOn Saturday night, July 7, it’s the third annual “Ron Williams/Dick (Snoose) Myers Memorial at Lincoln County Speedway in North Platte, Nebraska that will pay $1500 to win and $200 to start. Always a great turnout of cars have participated in this event and this year will no different. From there the series will head to Dawson County Speedway in Lexington on Sunday July 8th for a $700 to win, $150 to start event.\nThe following weekend, the URSS will be the headline event for the annual Ellis County Fair races for the 10th running of the Wheatshocker Nationals at RPM Speedway in Hays, Kansas on Saturday and Sunday night, July 14-15. The weekend’s opener will pay $500 to win and $125 to start on Saturday night while championship Sunday night pays $2000 to win and $200 to start.\nThe originally scheduled two-night event at Honor Speedway in Pueblo, Colorado has been cancelled with series official close to booking dates in the state of Colorado on that July weekend.\nTo finish out the 31 days will be the biggest weekend in URSS history as on Thursday night, August 2nd, they will visit the Thayer County Speedway in Deshler, Ne for a $1000 to win, $200 to start A feature event during their County Fair.\nThis will be the very first sprint car race ever at the 3/8 mile oval and series officials are looking forward to putting on a great show for their fans.\nThe following day the traveling series will drive 30 miles south for the largest payout in URSS history as they once again will converge on the Belleville High Banks in Belleville, KS for the Inaugural Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals on August 3rd and 4th. This event will be one of the largest payout in 305 sprint car history with Friday nights feature paying $2500 to win with $350 to start with Saturday nights Championship feature paying a whopping $7000 to win and a cool $1000 to start the main event. This race is sure to bring the best 305 drivers from all over the nation and is one all drivers and fans will not want to miss.\nExcept for the Belleville appearance, each track listed above will be the “Rebels” only scheduled appearance on the 2018 race season.\nTo date, five events have been held thus far this season with five different drivers reaching victory lane. They include the most recent feature winner on the tour, Zach Blurton; while Jake Martens, Steven Richardson, Jason Martin and Taylor Velasquez all picking up victories.\nThe complete 2018 schedule for the United Rebel Sprint Series can be found on their official website www.unitedrebelsprintseries.com and daily updates on their facebook page: United Rebel Sprint Series (URSS). Any further questions can be answered by calling the series founder, Rick Salem (785) 475-7010.\nDon’t forget, pre-entry deadline for the inaugural Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals is July 20th and that will include one (1) free pit pass. Drivers must have their pre-entry post marked before to be eligible. Pre and race day entry is $30. To learn more, check out the official facebook page for the inaugural Belleville 305 Nationals: Belleville 305 Nationals.", "By Richie Murray Putnamville, Indiana………The final event leading up to Indiana Sprint Week provides an opportunity for teams to get their equipment and their minds sorted and take some last-minute notes on a track they will see on the trail twice in less than a three-week span. That’s the plan for the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars this Friday night, July 6, when they hit the 5/16-mile dirt oval of Lincoln Park Speedway for the 4th running of the “Bill Gardner Sprintacular.” But, if you think this is just a simple test and tune-up for the July 26 return, think again. There’s no breather in any racing event on the USAC calendar. This race unofficially begins another session of a crucial summer stretch that will show who’s up to the challenge to wear the crown at the end of the season and who’s going to be Kirk Cameron’d and left behind. Interestingly enough, each of the three contenders who’ve separated themselves from the rest of the pack in the series’ standings have yet to win at Lincoln Park. Series point leader Kevin Thomas, Jr. has fond memories of Lincoln Park as it was the site in which he clinched the Indiana Sprint Week title in 2017. At the end of May of this year, he was victorious in the Sprint Car portion of the “Indiana Midget Week” show at LPS. Along with Thomas, Tyler Courtney is the only other driver with four USAC National Sprint Car wins in 2018. He’s second in points, 38 back in second in the series’ standings. Courtney has bookended his career-best runs at LPS coming into Friday’s event, scoring runner-up finishes in his first ever outing with USAC at the track in 2013 and in his most recent at last year’s “Indiana Sprint Week” round. Chris Windom, also 38 behind KTJ and third in points, is coming off a second-straight “Eastern Storm” title on the strength of back-to-back wins a couple weeks ago at Williams Grove and Port Royal in Pennsylvania. However, back on the relative “home turf” of LPS, Windom has managed just a single top-five, which came during the “Indiana Sprint Week” round of 2013. On the flip side, no other driver in recent years has achieved more success in USAC National Sprint Car competition at LPS than Rocklin, California’s Robert Ballou. The 2015 series champ has won two out of three, including the most recent race at the track in July of 2017. He’s also a past victor of the “Bill Gardner Sprintacular” in 2016. In 2014, LPS was the launching pad of his resurgence, ending a near two-year winless drought in the process. During the recent “Eastern Storm” race at Pennsylvania’s BAPS Motor Speedway, Ballou won the 29th USAC National Sprint Car race of his career, passing Levi Jones and J.J. Yeley to move into sole possession of 13th on the all-time list. The two winningest active drivers in the series have found their share of success at LPS throughout the years. Along with Ballou’s three, Dave Darland has collected a record-tying five wins at LPS in 1997, 1998 1999, 2005 and 2012. The two-time track champ (1990 & 1991) has more wins and starts in the series than any other driver with 60 and 713, respectively. He’s even scored already at LPS earlier this season with a non-USAC-sanctioned victory on April 21. LPS holds a special place in Chad Boespflug’s heart as it served as the venue for his first career USAC victory, which he picked up in 2013. The Hanford, California driver is currently 10th in points and is aiming to return to victory lane for the first time in 2018. Brady Bacon bagged USAC National Sprint Car wins in the months of May and June. Now, as the calendar moves to July, the two-time series champ appears to be on full-stride with his own team, sixth in points, and headed to a track he’s once conquered with the series, back in 2015. Lincoln Park’s Independence Day Weekend USAC appearance has been an annual treat since the 2013 season and the “Bill Gardner Sprintacular” since 2015. Jerry Coons, Jr. won the inaugural in 2015 and Ballou in 2016. Mother Nature snagged the win in 2017. In 32 prior USAC National Sprint Car visits to LPS, no driver has doubled up with multiple wins in a single-season. Darland and Sheldon Kinser are the winningest drivers in the series’ history at LPS. Kinser won the first appearance in 1981. Pits open at 4:30pm while the spectator gates open at 4:45pm. The drivers meeting will take place at 5:15pm with cars scheduled to hit the track at 6pm. Adult general admission tickets are $25. Pit passes are $30 each. You can listen to all the racing action LIVE on the USAC app or watch a day later, on-demand, at http://www.Loudpedal.TV/", "Canandaigua Speedway Renamed, Joins DIRTcar\nCanandaigua, New York—Canandaigua Speedway announced that new track promoter Paul Cole and the Ontario County Fair Board signed an agreement to operate the speedway during 2018 and 2019. The track will now be named Land of Legends Raceway, a longtime nickname for the half-mile dirt track. Land of Legends has already signed with DIRTcar to run Big Block Modified and Crate Sportsman Classes. An expanded 305 Sprint Class, sanctioned by IMCA Racesaver, and a traditional Street Stock Class will balance the weekly racing program.\nFor more information on Land of Legends Raceway visit www.landoflegendsraceway.com\nCARS Tour Reduces 2018 Super Late Model Races\nMooresville, North Carolina—CARS Tour President Jack McNelly plans to reduce the number of sanctioned Super Late Model races on the CARS Tour for the 2018 season. Due to the many options throughout the country for Super Late Models, McNelly stated it was hard to create a schedule that will allow teams to commit to the full CARS Tour. Reducing the number of sanctioned CARS Tour races will, hopefully, result in a high car count. The tour launched in 2015 after the discontinuation of the Pro Cup Series. Every CARS Tour race has hosted dual Super Late Model and Late Model Stock races.\nFor more information on the CARS Tour visit www.carsracingtour.com\nLake County Speedway Gets New Owners and Name\nPainesville, Ohio—After months up for auction, Lake County Speedway has been bought by Randy and Denise Maggio. The Maggio family has renamed the racetrack to The Painesville Speedway, which is how it was known in the past. The speedway is a 1/5-mile asphalt track with 15 acres of land around it. The Maggios have a racing background, as their son Randy James Maggio is currently racing and husband Randy previously owned a racetrack.\nFor more information in Painesville Speedway visit its Facebook page.\nMAHLE Picks New Regional Manager\nFarmington Hills, Michigan—According to MAHLE, Matthew Lundh will take over as East Regional Manager for MAHLE Aftermarket, Inc. Lundh will lead sales efforts in the Eastern region and help the team increase company sales. He has more than 20 years auto industry experience, most recently serving as business development manager at TRW Automotive Aftermarket. Lundh also was the director of sales for AutoMD and worked for CARQUEST.\nFor more information on MAHLE Aftermarket visit www.mahleaftermarket.com\nN.E. Auto Racers Names Hall of Famers\nSouth Windsor, Connecticut—The New England Auto Racers (NEAR) Hall of Fame named its 2017 class. This Hall of Fame was established during 1998 by the New England Antique Racers, and 2017 marks the 20th year. After adding in this year’s eight inductees, the total rises to 225 Hall of Famers.\nThe 2017 NEAR class is: Steve Bird, Ben Dodge, Jr., Tom Dunn, Russ Wood, Bobby Gahan, Gardiner Leavitt, Jeff Fuller, and Rick Fuller. The induction ceremony will take place November 12. For more information on the NEAR Hall of Fame visit www.newenglandantiqueracers.org\nUSAC Adds 2018 East Coast Sprint Car Series\nSpeedway, Indiana—USAC will add an East Coast Sprint Car Series in the 2018 racing season. This series uses 360, 358, and smaller-sized engines in Wingless Sprint Cars. USAC Director Curt Michael states the new series will give younger drivers running Wingless Micro Sprints a chance to move up into a Wingless Sprint Car. It will run tracks in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware and give local fans the chance to see a new breed of racing.\nThe USAC East Coast Sprint Series will not be competing with the United Racing Club (URC) and will schedule races on URC’s off weekends. Michael, also Vice President of the URC series, hopes the two series will benefit each other. URC is known as and will remain a Wing Series, and the USAC East Coast Sprint Series will be Wingless. A full 2018 schedule is yet to be released.\nFor more information on the USC East Coast Sprint Series visit www.usacracing.com\nWELD Racing Hires Tim Wheeler as VP of Sales\nKansas City, Missouri—WELD Racing hired Tim Wheeler as Vice President of Sales and OEM and Special Markets. Wheeler has nearly 30 years automotive aftermarket industry experience and will help the company explore new opportunities for WELD Racing, MOMO, ADV, and other in-house brands. Before joining WELD Racing, he was vice president of global vehicle sales and performance parts at ROUSH Performance, as well as working for Delphi Product and Service Solutions.\nFor more information on WELD Racing, please visit www.weldwheels.com", "(Bloomberg) -- U.S. lawmakers plan to pressure the Trump administration to closely scrutinize T-Mobile US Inc.’s planned purchase of Sprint Corp., arguing the acquisition poses a threat to American security because the owner of Sprint has ties to Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co.\nA draft letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who leads a U.S. national security review of the deal, is to be sent next week and is being circulated for signatures among lawmakers in the House by congressional critics of the deal, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News.\n\"Recognizing that these companies operate as subsidiaries of foreign-owned firms -- one of which maintains long-standing close ties with Chinese state-influenced entities -- a full and robust national security investigation is required,\" according to the letter.\nThe $26.5 billion merger of the No. 3 and 4 wireless carriers needs approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or CFIUS, which reviews foreign acquisitions of American businesses.\nPresident Donald Trump could block the deal based on the panel’s recommendation. T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG will own 42 percent of the new company while Sprint owner SoftBank Group Corp., based in Japan, will have a 27 percent stake.\n‘Great Partner’\nAsked last week on Capitol Hill about CFIUS approval, Sprint Chairman Marcelo Claure said, “We’ve proven that we’re a great partner to the U.S. government and we will continue to be that great partner and there’s no change of ownership. It’s pretty much the same actors.”\nRepresentatives for SoftBank and Sprint didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.\nThe House letter cites SoftBank’s work with Huawei, which has been branded a national security threat by the U.S. In September, SoftBank announced a joint effort with Huawei to demonstrate the potential uses of the next-generation wireless network known as 5G, according to the letter. In November, SoftBank signed an an agreement with Huawei to implement 5G-based “smart service robots.”\n\"The Sprint, T-Mobile merger would increase telecommunications risks associated with third-party foreign entities, including Huawei, being utilized in the development of U.S. 5G infrastructure,\" according to the letter.\nThe draft also claims Sprint violated a 2013 security agreement reached with the U.S. as part of its sale to SoftBank. The agreement required Sprint to remove Huawei equipment from its network.\n\"Three years later, Sprint under the control of SoftBank, confirmed Huawei equipment remained in use in their networks in contravention of the 2013 agreement,\" it says.\nThe letter comes as the House and Senate are negotiating legislation aimed at strengthening U.S. national security-based reviews by CFIUS. The Trump administration has said it broadly supports strengthening the panel’s authority.\nTo contact the reporters on this story: David McLaughlin in Washington at [email protected];Erik Wasson in Washington at [email protected]\nTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at [email protected], Justin Blum, Joe Sobczyk\n©2018 Bloomberg L.P.", "By T.J. Buffenbarger\nIt didn’t snow…\nThe weather was largely cooperative other than in some of Texas and Oklahoma Saturday and Haubstadt on Sunday. After a spring that was so brutal I actually wondered if I should put my snow blower towards the back of the garage on April 22nd. It was nice to have a full weekend of racing to discuss rather than a non-stop string of weather postponements and cancellations.\nBrooms galore!\nSweeps were the theme of the weekend when it came to feature races. From the highest level of sprint car racing with Daryn Pittman scoring two consecutive wins with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series to Jessica Bean winning both USAC Speed2 Eastern midget features were just two of the drivers picking up multiple feature wins this weekend.\nBud Kaeding’s sweep of two features in a single night at Tulare Thunderbowl with the King of the West Sprint Car Series and Civil War Series was done in spectacular style. Tucker Klaasmeyer’s pair of POWRi wins were impressive with a stacked field of midgets both nights at Jacksonville Speedway and Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55.\nAll Stars Provide Great Racing All Weekend\nThe Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil1 provided Ohio fans awesome racing all weekend. Friday night’s race for the lead between Jac Haudenschild and Carson Macedo was one of the best I’ve seen all season. At one point it appeared a five car race for the lead could be in play until a caution gave the leaders open track. Macedo suffered heartbreak again, losing an engine one year ago while leading, this time suffering a flat right rear while up front.\nSaturday at Wayne County Speedway Tim Shaffer came from deep in the field to win the main event. With a strong cast of characters signed up for the entire tour this year the All Star Series is one of our top storylines to follow in 2018.\nGlad to have Gas City open again\nGas City I-69 Speedway having a full menu of racing for 2018 is some of the best news going into the season. The 2018 opening event went off smoothly and offered a hammer down racing surface that Shane Cottle took full advantage of on his way to victory. We’re glad things went well on opening night for Gas City promoter Jerry Gappens and his crew. Look for a feature on Gappen’s and Gas City’s revitalization later in the week.\nHafertepe Breaks Tim Allison’s 360 Track Record in Route to Eldora Sweep\nSam Hafertepe’s sweep of the K&L Ready Mix National Racing Alliance program Saturday afternoon at Eldora Speedway was far from a surprise. The one aspect of Hafertepe’s victory that was a surprise was demolishing the 360 track record at Eldora set by Tim Allison set on April 13, 2002 by over half a second.\nGranted the racing line has changed a bit, progressing lower on the track earlier in the evening than it was in 2002. The night Allison set the record was the same night Craig Dollansky’s blistering lap of 12.707 seconds was set. Hafertepe’s 360 qualifying lap has me wondering if a new winged 410 sprint car track record is possible at Eldora this year.\nJason Barney Pads his Victory Total with Empire Super Sprints\nAfter a rough off season that included a snowmobile accident that broke his collar bone Jason Barney bounced back to win the season opening feature for the Empire Super Sprints on Saturday. Our friends at DirtTrackDigest have a great story about Barney’s recovery this winter along with the unique tools that assisted him to that win.\nLawson’s Upset Victory at Hickory\nOccasionally sprint car racing on pavement offers up a surprise winner that makes for a nice story. Being lucky enough to cover a few of this Bronzie Lawson IV’s win Saturday at Hickory Motor Speedway falls under this classification. Lawson took advantage of the 10 car inversion and held off some stout competition in a field that included Jimmy McCune and Aaron Pierce for the victory. Hopefully Lawson’s win is a sign of more great stories to come from the pavement side of the sport.", "Jessica Diggins, left, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal past Stina Nilsson, of Sweden, in the during women’s team sprint freestyle cross-country skiing final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)\nUnited States’ Jessica Diggins, left, and Kikkan Randall celebrate after winning the gold medal in the women’s team sprint freestyle cross-country skiing final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)\nJessica Diggins, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal in the during women’s team sprint freestyle cross-country skiing final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)\nUnited States’ Jessica Diggins, left, and Kikkan Randall celebrate after winning the gold medal in the women’s team sprint freestyle cross-country skiing final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)\nJessica Diggins, left, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal past Stina Nilsson, of Sweden, in the during women’s team sprint freestyle cross-country skiing final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)\nJessica Diggins, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal in the during women’s team sprint freestyle cross-country skiing final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)\nJessica Diggins, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal in the during women’s team sprint freestyle cross-country skiing final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)\nPYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — As she headed up the steepest, most grueling hill of her life in third place, Jessica Diggins thought to herself just winning an Olympic medal was no longer good enough.\nShe wanted more. She wanted gold.\nDiggins dug deep, remembering all the years of training she had put in, and of all her teammates waiting for her at the finish line to bring home the United States’ first medal ever in women’s cross-country skiing — and then she let loose.\nDiggins reached the peak of the hill in third place but sped past Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla on the last big, winding downhill. She rounded the final corner and took dead aim at Sweden’s Stina Nilsson on the final 100-meter homestretch.\nThe crowd in the grandstand was on its feet sensing history, and at that moment Diggins said she felt “unstoppable.”\n“Around that final corner I felt like I was uncoiling a spring and letting it go,” Diggins said. “Giving it everything I had, digging as deep as I could and putting it all out there. When your team is counting on you, you don’t give up ever.”\nDiggins certainly didn’t give up.\nShe blew by Nilsson in a blur to capture gold in the team sprint, bringing the United States its first gold medal ever in cross-country skiing.\nAs she crossed the line she collapsed in exhaustion as teammate Kikkan Randall tackled her in the snow. Randall lay on top of a crying Diggins shaking her ski jacket in pure excitement and utter joy.\nThis is what history looks and sounds like. @jessdiggs and @kikkanimal win @TeamUSA's first ever gold medal in cross-country skiing. You'll want your sound up for this… pic.twitter.com/86PQ4KQaH3 — NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 21, 2018\n“That feeling of being able to cross the line and have Kikkan tackle me was the coolest thing ever,” Diggins said.\nIt was fitting Randall was her partner on the two-woman team. She has been through all of the tough times, competing with the American cross-country ski team since the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. She said it was also fitting that the American women won their first medal in a team event.\n“I got to see in 2013 when we won the world championships … that team gold is worth far more than any individual accolade,” the 35-year-old Randall said. “What really kept me going over the last four years was trying to contribute toward a team medal. To do it with Jessie one more time is just amazing.”\nSo move over Bill Koch, you have company — finally.\nKoch was the only other American to win a medal in cross-country, taking home silver at the 1976 Innsbruck Games.\nDiggins and Randall ended that 42-year drought and surely gave a huge boost to all of the young cross-country skiers back home in the United States.\n“Hearing it out loud, it still doesn’t feel real,” Randall said. “It’s what I’ve been working on for 20 years and with this team for the last five years and, wow, it’s just so fun to put it together tonight — finally.”\nAdded Diggins: “It feels unreal. I can’t believe it just happened.”\nIt meant more that their teammates where there to celebrate — and family, too.\nRelated Articles 2018 Winter Olympics photos | The best of Day 12\nU.S. men’s hockey team eliminated from Olympics after shootout loss to Czech Republic in quarterfinal\nREACTION: Lindsey Vonn nabs the bronze medal in her likely final Olympic downhill skiing race\nCanada’s Brigette Lacquette represents First Nations in gold medal game\nNagasu falls on triple axel attempt; Russian skaters set new records\nUSA’s Lindsey Vonn earns bronze in Olympic downhill; Sofia Goggia wins gold\nU.S. vs. Canada again for Olympic women’s hockey gold Diggins’ father, Clay, said he had a feeling this was the day the drought would end. Diggins had three top-six finishes at the Olympics and Randall was skiing well, too. And he said the entire American women’s cross-country team came out to practice on Tuesday morning with Diggins and Randall.\n“There were only two of them skiing today, but the entire team came out to support them — practicing tags and everything,” Clay Diggins said. “That to me is pretty cool. They wanted to be there for them, for the team. And I think Kikkan and Jess felt that (support) on the course.”\nIf not, they certainly felt it after the race.\nDiggins screamed as she crossed the finish line, setting off a huge celebration for the red, white and blue. Her American teammates were jumping and hugging each other along the fence line that guarded the track.\n“Our whole team had that belief we could win and everyone was there screaming,” Diggins said of the final sprint. “I don’t know if you have that many teams where everyone is out there on the fence yelling their faces off. I just think we had a lot of support behind of us.”\nCharlotte Kalla sensed the Americans were extra motivated for a medal, saying she saw it in their eyes before the race and felt it when Randall stayed on her heels on the second-to-last lap.\n“Olympic champions, they are so worth it,” the Swede said. “They were amazing today. I’m really impressed with them.”\nSweden took silver and Norway finished with a bronze, which allowed Marit Bjoergen to secure her record 14th medal at the Winter Games. That broke her tie with Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen for the most medals at the Winter Olympics.\nBjoergen, who already had won gold, silver and bronze at the Pyeongchang Games, said she was happy to see the Americans win this one.\n“Those two, they are happy girls,” Bjoergen said. “And I think that is important for our sport that the USA is there.”\n___", "ST. LOUIS (AP) — If you plan to livestream the solar eclipse from one of the prime viewing spots, here’s a thought: Keep your phone in your pocket, put on your paper shades and just enjoy the celestial wonder.\nThe Aug. 21 solar eclipse, when passage of the moon completely blocks out the sun, will be seen first in Oregon and cut diagonally across 14 states to South Carolina. It will be the first total solar eclipse visible coast-to-coast since 1918.\nThe best places to see it fall within a 60- to 70-mile-wide swath known as the “path of totality,” where there will be periods of total darkness ranging up to two minutes and 40 seconds. The path carves through largely rural areas, where cellphone service can be spotty at best, though, so it may not be possible to quickly post to Facebook, Instagram and the like even though carriers plan to temporarily boost capacity in some places.\n“We’re expecting a good experience but there will be times at peak where the network will struggle,” said Paula Doublin, assistant vice president for construction and engineering for AT&T, the nation’s second-largest provider.\nSome communities are hosting eclipse-watch gatherings that are expected to draw tens of thousands of people.\nThe 6,700 residents of Madras, Oregon, will be far outnumbered by visitors, and Verizon, AT&T and Sprint all plan to bring portable towers for its event.\nAT&T will deploy eight portable cell towers across the country — in Madras and Mitchell, Oregon; Columbia, Owensville and Washington in Missouri; Carbondale, Illinois; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; and Glendo Reservoir, Wyoming.\n“It is very much akin to a national championship week that occurs with the NCAA or pro sports, except it’s happening in a 3,000-mile-long band,” Doublin said.\nSprint and Verizon Wireless, which is the nation’s largest cellphone company, say recent network enhancements have reduced the need for deployment of temporary cell towers at large-scale events.\nStill, Sprint plans to have portable towers in Madras and Mitchell and in Rexburg, Idaho. Other locations are still being evaluated, spokeswoman Adrienne Norton said.\nVerizon spokeswoman Karen Schulz said that with such large crowds expected in parts of Oregon and Kentucky, Verizon will deploy portable towers in Madras and Bend, Oregon, and in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. She said the company could bring in portable towers elsewhere, if needed.\nT-Mobile will also be boosting coverage in places by expanding its network capabilities and deploying temporary towers.\nU.S. Cellular is still evaluating how best to ensure optimal connectivity and “will be implementing additional capacity and fine tuning the towers as needed,” Robert Jakubek, vice president of engineering and network operations, said in an email.\n“At large events such as this, we usually see a spike in text and data usage more than voice, so we are also looking at how we can prioritize services that are most important to our customers,” Jakubek said.\n___\nSign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas at http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv .", "Music as we knew it will never be listened to the same way again, says Best Buy through its decision to ditch CDs from its shelves once and for all.\nRELATED: FAA investigates after drone flies too close to a plane in Las Vegas\nRetailers like Best Buy and Target, finding it impossible to compete with YouTube, Spotify and Pandora streaming services, digital music downloads and pirating, are beginning to phase CD sales out of their businesses.\nBest Buy to pull CDs from shelves; Target could be next https://t.co/5PTq2a18Sm pic.twitter.com/gZ2ofwRXQQ — The FADER (@thefader) February 3, 2018\nWhile Best Buy reportedly plans to stop selling CDs completely by July 2018, Target is moving to shift risks from carrying CDs in its inventory from itself to music companies, according to Billboard.\nCiting unnamed sources familiar with the situation, Billboard said Target has issued an ultimatum to music labels: we’ll pay for your CDs, but if they don’t sell you have to pay us back.\nMeanwhile, sources say that Target has demanded to music suppliers that it wants to be sold on what amounts to a consignment basis. Currently, Target takes the inventory risk by agreeing to pay for any goods it is shipped within 60 days, and must pay to ship back unsold CDs for credit. With consignment, the inventory risk shifts back to the labels. According to those sources, Target gave the ultimatum to both music and video suppliers in the fourth quarter of last year that it wants to switch to scanned-based trading, with a target date of Feb. 1. But while it is proceeding to push DVD vendors to switch to scan-based trading terms (i.e. the chain would pay for DVDs after they are sold or scanned while being rung up at the register), it has moved the deadline back to music suppliers to either April 1 or May 1. So far, music manufacturers are not sure what they are going to do, but sources within the various camps say that at least one major is leaning no, while the other two majors are undecided.\nBest Buy, on the other hand, has seen a drop in sales so precipitous that it will put the kibosh on CD sales altogether.\nRELATED: Video of drugged woman going all in for the Eagles goes viral\nPeople on the internet are reacting to the news as some have responded to the shift from hard copy books to books on a screen.\nTo me there is nothing like holding an object in your hand feeling it as you look at it that just makes it seem 'more' 🤔 — Erin💘🌴Kauai'i🌺🌴 (@ErinMKearney) February 3, 2018\nSo where are we going to get or deluxe albums from ? 😢😢😢 — Jaybminaj (@Royaljayyy) February 3, 2018\nThis is what happens when computers rule the world. A mess😑 — Erin💘🌴Kauai'i🌺🌴 (@ErinMKearney) February 3, 2018\nyes! I enjoy the design of a CD, artwork and the liner notes. Makes the music much more real. — Theresa Hacker (@buckeye88fan3) February 3, 2018\nThose things used to be magical. The Internet, as amazing as it is for artist connectivity, actually destroyed much of the wonderful mystery surrounding an album and the artist — TenDraftsDeep™ (@Tendraftsdeep) February 3, 2018\nWow, my generation’s records” 80’s babies we are approaching the sunken place #40isComimg pic.twitter.com/kmpGPZtBWU — Sunnoma Gurley-Jones (@SunnomaJones) February 3, 2018\nSaddest news of the day — DANIEL (@dxxxxxramirez) February 3, 2018\nCassette tapes rolling over in their grave rn pic.twitter.com/6MogrPF1gt — Distant Nigga🚶🏿🇭🇹 (@Dsimon77) February 3, 2018", "By T.J. Buffenbarger\n(April 17, 2017) — Saturday’s eye opening victory by Spencer Bayston driving for Kevin Swindell was a remarkable moment for a race team that is less than a year and a half old running on a part time basis. Add that Bayston made his 15th start ever in a winged sprint car on Friday, defeating a formidable collection of Ohio and All Star teams, made this the biggest story of the weekend.\nBayston, 18 years old, is just another young and talented driver that doesn’t seem intimidated by taking on winged sprint car racing coming out of the midget division. It’s interesting that Bayston’s generation that is bringing back crossover to winged and non-wing racing that was more common when I was growing up in the 80’s and early 90’s.\nBayston will be interesting to follow throughout the 2017 season based on how eclectic his schedule is. Midgets, winged sprint cars, and various pavement late model starts dot his schedule. Bayston will follow up his Attica victory with a late model start before racing with POWRi during the re-opening of the dirt track at Route 66 Motor Speedway in Joliet, Illinois and a pair of Indiana World of Outlaws dates at Plymouth and Tri-State Speedways.\nNot to be remiss D.J. Foos picking up the victory with his new team during the Fremont/Attica Sprint Title opener Friday at Attica is a story of perseverance. After a successful run in the 305’s early in his sprint car career Foos has been trying to get a solid foothold in the 410 ranks. Finding some chemistry with Jay Kiser and finding some marketing partners they have become the little team that could in Northwest Ohio. Look for Foos and Kiser to make waves at Attica and Fremont throughout the season.\nNotes…\nCarson Macedo’s first Midwest start of the season aboard the JG Motorsports #3G car saw him up front with Bayston before mechanical issues put him out of the event. After a couple of lackluster seasons the JG team is highly motivated and Macedo is one of the rising stars of the sport. This is a team that found success with Shane Stewart and James McFadden in the past and will be one of the storylines to watch during the summer.\nAfter the weekend of USAC National Sprint Car Series races at Bloomington and Tri-State Speedways Justin Grant and Chad Boespflug sit atop the point standings following their wins Friday and Saturday. If you look at the top 10 overall in the\nsprint car standings\nit leads me to believe the USAC Sprint Cars will be extremely interesting to follow all season.\nWith NASCAR’s National touring series off for Easter guest stars were prevalent all around the country for sprint car races. Kasey Kahne made a three starts in Texas with the World of Outlaws at Gator Motorplex and Devil’s Bowl Speedway. Kahne managed a best finish of 11th. Kahne’s entries with Brad Sweet and Daryn Pittman are both in the top five in points with Sweet solidly holding down third spot after picking up a win Thursday at Gator Motorplex.Former NASCAR competitor and team owner Tony Stewart also returned to World of Outlaws competition during the Texas swing. In a strange twist Stewart finished 22nd in three consecutive World of Outlaws main events.Kyle Larson was victorious in his guest appearance with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour at Placerville Speedway. Another strong field of 63 cars was on hand for the second event for the series. With the Hunt Magneto Sprint Car Series also on hand 94 total sprint cars were on the grounds that performed in front of a sold out audience.\nJamie Veal has been one of the most successful drivers this season in Australia. Over the weekend it was announced Veal will drive for Krikke Motorsports during the 2017-2018 campaign in Australia. Veal takes over for Brooke Tatnell, who has driver for the Krirkke family over the past 12 seasons. This comes off of Veal announcing they were scaling back their family effort in Australia to focus more on their team in the United States.\nWhen Michael Pickens was on the podcast earlier this year he did not have any plans lined up for the United States this season. That has changed as Seamount Racing is considering sending a car over for a short tour of Illinois and Indiana centered on Indiana Midget Week.\nCap Henry was absent from the All Star festivities in Ohio driving the Blazin’ Racin’ 82 car during the Texas trio of events with the World of Outlaws. Henry’s best finish during the three race stint was 15th at Gator Motorplex.\niRacing’s new sprint car simulator has been taking the virtual racing world by storm. Even Rolex 24 winner Jordan Taylor tweeted an image of himself giving it a go.\nWant to read a touching story today? Check out Lauren Stewart’s blog on meeting the recipient of Bryan Clauson’s heart.\nWhile Knoxville Raceway’s opener fell victim to the weather, there seems to be a lot of excitement in Marion County for the upcoming season based on the pre-race party. Knoxville will try to open their season with 410, 360, and 305 sprint cars again on Saturday.\nKeith Kunz and Clauson/Marshall Racing both fielding some younger drivers at events this season. Both teams were on hand at Montpelier on Saturday.\nIf you are looking for an interesting race/concert combination June 8-9. Knoxville will have a weekly program at the Marion County Fairgrounds Saturday June 8th before Metalica plays Iowa Speedway on the Sunday June 9th. The Metalica show is a benefit for the Native Fund.", "You won't believe Sprint's new deal is for real\nThis week Sprint announced a promotion that will leave you wondering, what’s the catch? You see, Sprint says it will be offering an entire year of free unlimited talk, text, and data to customers switching from Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile before June 30 and bringing in an eligible phone.\nBut at a closer inspection, the promo’s web-page, intently called “Stop feeling ripped-off by Verizon” doesn’t reveal any obvious red-flags. Actually, the deal seems to be pretty straightforward, with a few, minor caveats involved.\nFor starters, the promotion is available for new Sprint subscribers only. Secondly, you won’t be able to get the deal in stores, as it’s only available online.\nPostpaid subscribers from Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile will be required to pay an $30 activation fee up front, but that gets refunded within two billing cycles.\nCustomers switching from Sprint’s main rivals will also have to agree to turn on Auto Pay or eBilling or risk having to pay a monthly bill of $7.99. Ah yes, and you’ll also have to spend money on the monthly SIM card ($2.99), as well as taxes and other fees. So technically, the free year of service isn’t exactly free. But it’s notably cheaper than the current alternatives.\nAnother aspect you should be aware of is that when you switch you’ll have to bring over a phone you own. If you’re currently paying for an installment plan, you won’t be able to join the promo. Sprint shared the list of eligible devices:\n• iPhone 5c (Verizon only)\n• iPhone 5s (Verizon only)\n• iPhone 6\n• iPhone 6 Plus\n• iPhone 6s\n• iPhone 6s Plus\n• iPhone 7 (Verizon only)\n• iPhone 7 Plus (Verizon only)\n• iPhone SE\n• Nexus 5 (AT&T and Verizon only)\n• Nexus 5X\n• Nexus 6\n• Nexus 6P\n• Pixel\n• Pixel XL\n• Motorola E4\n• Motorola Z2 Play\n• Motorola G4\n• Motorola G4 Play\n• Motorola G4 Plus\n• Motorola G5 Plus\n• Motorola Moto X Pure Edition\n• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge special edition (unlocked version?)\n• Samsung Galaxy S7 special edition (unlocked version?)\n• Samsung Galaxy S8 special edition (unlocked version?)\n• Samsung Galaxy S8+ special edition (unlocked version?)\nThe good news is that after October 1st, 2017 you will be able to upgrade to a new Sprint phone by leasing or purchasing it with monthly installments. And you’ll still be able to take advantage of the free year of service.\nTo recap the free year of unlimited service at Sprint includes unlimited talk, text messages, 4G LTE, HD streaming video and 10GB of data per line for mobile hot spot access each month. It’s also covers family plans.\nAfter July 31, 2018, prices go back to normal which means you’ll need to pay $60/month for one line, $40 for a second line and $30 for each additional lines (up to five lines).\nAlso note that after the promo expires, you can leave Sprint if your heart so desires, since there’s no contract involved.\nWhat do you think about this wild Sprint deal?", "File photo (CNET/CBS Interactive)\nSprint plans to launch its mobile 5G network in the first half of 2019, the carrier revealed Friday on its quarterly earnings conference call with investors. It could make the fourth largest carrier in the US the first to launch a nationwide mobile 5G network.\nSprint said its \"strong\" spectrum assets will allow it to buildout a network that will differentiate itself from the competition. Sprint will use its 2.5 GHz spectrum frequency airwaves, and deploy 40,000 outdoor small cell solutions, 15,000 strand mounted small cells through the company's partnerships with cable companies, and one million Sprint \"Magic Boxes,\" to cell towers.\n\"We're working with Qualcomm and network and device manufacturers in order to launch the first truly mobile [5G] network in the United States by the first half of 2019,\" Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said. \"This development will put Sprint at the forefront of technology innovation on par with other leading carriers around the world...We believe our next-gen network will truly differentiate Sprint over the next couple of years.\"\nSprint\nClaure said 5G could give Sprint opportunity to raise prices on its unlimited data plan, because customers will want to pay more for faster speeds. Sprint currently charges $50 to $60 per month for unlimited pricing, and Claure hinted pricing could rise to competitors' levels in the $70 to $80 range.\nAT&T and Verizon plan to launch 5G service in some cities in the US this year. However, the 5G service will first be offered as fixed in-place wireless, rather than through cell towers. T-Mobile, the third-largest carrier Sprint tried to merge with last year, will start its 5G network rollout in 2019.\n5G promises customers faster connection than 4G with low-latency speed up to 1 GB/s. Faster connections are likely to enable a host of business applications and smarter Internet of things deployments.\nSee also: Comparing unlimited plans from T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T\nSprint also reported better than expected Q3 financials Friday. The Overland Park, Kansas-based company reported net income of $7.2 billion, or $1.79 per share, compared to a loss of $479 million, or 12 cents per share, the year prior. Sprint said its net income included $7.1 billion of non-cash benefit from tax reform.\nSprint posted net operating revenue of $8.24 billion, down 3.6 percent from the previous year.\nSprint said total wireless net additions were 385,000 for the quarter, compared to 564,000 a year ago. Sprint added 184,000 phone net additions, its tenth consequtive quarter of additions.\nSprint shares were up nearly 5 percent on Friday.", "Submitted by chucky on Tue, 06/13/2017 - 12:33.\n(Photo Credit: ISTAF / Camera 4- Meeting director Martin Seeber with Lisa Mayer and Christoph Harting plus representatives of Bridgestone and the European Championships 2018, Julia Krönlein and Claus Frömming during the press conference in Berlin on Tuesday.) ISTAF presents a glittering array of stars including Renaud Lavillenie, Christoph Harting and Innovation for the Fans - Two great stars of track and field have confirmed that they will be competing in this year's ISTAF on August 27 in Berlin's Olympic Stadium: Renaud Lavillenie of France, world record holder in the pole vault, and Berlin's very own Olympic discus champion Christoph Harting will be aiming for honours in the most prestigious German athletics meeting of the year. The ISTAF organisers will also be providing an innovative feature for the fans with a stage constructed above one of the bends as the athletes run underneath, creating the effect of going through a tunnel.\nThe ISTAF meeting, which this year has added to its main sponsors with the arrival of the tyre manufacturer Bridgestone, has been consistently the biggest spectator attraction of any athletics meeting in the world and 27,000 tickets have already been sold for this year's event, the 76th edition and an IAAF World Challenge Meeting.\nTwo weeks after the World Championships in London, some 180 elite athletes from around the world will be expected in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, including the world record holder in the pole vault, Renaud Lavillenie of France and Berlin's Olympic discus champion Christoph Harting. \"The fans can expect thrilling competition in what should be 16 events in track and field,\" said the meeting director Martin Seeber.\nThe 30-year-old Lavillenie holds the current world record in the pole vault with 6.16m. The 2012 Olympic champion produced the highlight of the ISTAF INDOOR meeting in 2015 when he cleared 6.02m, a world best for the year. \"Renaud Lavillenie is one of the best athletes in the world and has a special rapport with the fans,\" said Martin Seeber.\nChristoph Harting won Olympic gold in the discus in sensational style last year in Rio, following in the footsteps of his brother Robert, who triumphed in London in 2012. Christoph will be aiming to win for the first time at the ISTAF meeting, although he already achieved that distinction at ISTAF INDOOR in February. Poland’s World Champion from 2015 Piotr Malachowski will be among his rivals while it remains to be seen whether his brother will be lining up against him. „It would be great if Robert would be in there as well. I look forward to these challenges,“ said Christoph Harting.\nFor the first time in seven years, spectators at ISTAF will be seeing a women's sprint relay including the high-flying German squad with Lisa Mayer, who sprang a surprise by winning the gold over 4 x 100m at the World Relays in Nassau in the Bahamas early in the year. \"The women sprinters are part of the \"New German Wave\" in track and field. Their success gives a great reason to restore the sprint relay to the ISTAF programme,\" said Martin Seeber.\nOne year before the European Athletics Championships in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, ISTAF is ringing the changes with innovation for spectators: as the athletes set off on the first bend at the 400m start line, they will run through a tunnel, constructed with a tribune for fans above the famous blue track. It will be ten metres wide and 25 metres long, around four metres above the track, all done, as the ISTAF organisers say: \"To bring athletes and fans closer together.\" Victory ceremonies are also planned to be staged on the tribune. The meeting director Martin Seeber explained: \"We want to bring the stars of track and field right up close to the fans. We'd like to create an environment in our stadium where fans whatever their age can meet their idols, have autographs signed and take selfies with the Marathon Gate behind them.\" The top German sprinter Lisa Mayer thinks this innovation is a great idea: \"A fan tribune and a tunnel - that's a really cool idea,\" said the 21-year-old.\nThe Events (Provisional Programme)\nMen: 100 m, 800 m, 110 m hurdles, 5.000 m, Triple Jump, Shot Put, Pole Vault, Discus, Javelin.\nWomen: 100 m, 200 m, 100 m hurdles, 1500 m, 3,000 m Steeplechase, Long Jump, 4 x 100 m.\nMore information about the ISTAF and tickets is available at: www.istaf.de", "Wednesday April 18, 2018\nDelaware International Speedway – Delmar, DE – USA – USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series – Steven Drevicki\nFriday April 20, 2018\nAccord Speedway – Accord, NY – USA – Non-Wing Crate Sprint Cars – Bob Tersillo\nAnderson Motor Speedway – Williamston, SC – USA – Must See Racing – Jimmy McCune\nAttica Raceway Park – Attica, OH – USA – All Star Circuit of Champions – Spring Nationals – Jac Haudenschild\nAttica Raceway Park – Attica, OH – USA – Winged 305 Sprint Cars – Spring Nationals – Paul Weaver\nBedford Speedway – Bedford, PA – USA – Laurel Highlands Sprint Car Series – Kyle Ganoe\nBelle-Clair Speedway – Belleville, IL – USA – POWRi – National Midget Series – Knepper Memorial – Tucker Klassmeyer\nBloomington Speedway – Bloomington, IN – USA – Winged 305 Sprint Cars – Jeff Wimmenauer\nBrownstown Speedway – Brownstown, IN – USA – Non-Wing 410 Sprint Cars – No Way Out 40 – Kevin Thomsa Jr.\nCreek County Speedway – Sapulpa, OK – USA – ASCS – Red River Region – Wayne Johnson\nCreek County Speedway – Sapulpa, OK – USA – USAC – Wingless Sprints Oklahoma – Craig Carroll\nCrossville Speedway – Crossville, TN – USA – United Sprint Car Series – Danny Smith\nGas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, IN – USA – Non-Wing 410 Sprint Cars – Shane Cottle\nJacksonville Speedway – Jacksonville, IL – USA – Midwest Open Wheel Association – Scotty Thiel\nOcean Speedway – Watsonville, CA – USA – King of the West Sprint Car Series – Kyle Hirst\nRiverside International Speedway – West Memphis, AR – USA – World of Outlaws – Daryn Pittman\nRPM Speedway – Crandall, TX – USA – Winged 305 Sprint Cars – Marcus Thomas\nSilver Dollar Speedway – Chico, CA – USA – Winged 360 Sprint Cars – Garren Linder\nSilver Dollar Speedway – Chico, CA – USA – Wingless Sprints – Tony Richards\nSouthern Oklahoma Speedway – Ardmore, OK – USA – Sprint Series of Oklahoma – Chad Wilson\nTrail-Way Speedway – Hanover, PA – USA – Winged 358 Sprint Cars – Cody Fletcher\nUS 36 Raceway – Osborn, MO – USA – Winged 305 Sprint Cars – Tyler Drueke\nWilliams Grove Speedway – Mechanicsburg, PA – USA – Winged 358 Sprint Cars – Chase Dietz\nWilliams Grove Speedway – Mechanicsburg, PA – USA – Winged 410 Sprint Cars – Brock Zearfoss\nSaturday April 21, 2018\n281 Speedway – Stephenville, TX – USA – Texas Sprint Series – Bryan Debrick\n34 Raceway – Burlington, IA – USA – Winged 305 Sprint Cars – Brayden Gaylord\nAntioch Speedway – Antioch, CA – USA – Wingless Sprints – Alan Miranda\nArizona Speedway – Queen Creek, AZ – USA – ASCS – Southwest Region – Colton Hardy\nAtomic Speedway – Chillicothe, OH – USA – Ohio Sprint Car Series – Brandon Wimmer\nAvalon Raceway – Lara, VIC – AU – SRA – 360 Sprintcar Series – SRA 360 Sprintcar Challenge / Diggers Cup – Michael Tancredi\nBAPS Motor Speedway – York Haven, PA – USA – Super Sportsman – Scott Dellinger\nBAPS Motor Speedway – York Haven, PA – USA – USAC – American Racing Drivers Club – Alex Bright\nCottage Grove Speedway – Cottage Grove, OR – USA – Wingless Sprint Series – Rob Lindsay\nEagle Raceway – Eagle, NE – USA – Winged 305 Sprint Cars – Jason Martin\nEast Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL – USA – Top Gun Sprint Car Series – Non-Wing Show – A.J. Maddox\nEldora Speedway – Rossburg, OH – USA – National Racing Alliance – Sam Hafertepe Jr.\nFederated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 – Pevely, MO – USA – POWRi – National Midget Series – Tucker Klaasmeyer\nFederated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 – Pevely, MO – USA – World of Outlaws – Spring Classic – Daryn PIttman\nFremont Speedway – Fremont, OH – USA – FAST – 410 Sprint Car Series – Craig Mintz\nFremont Speedway – Fremont, OH – USA – Winged 305 Sprint Cars – Dustin Stroup\nHickory Motor Speedway – Hickory, NC – USA – Must See Racing – Bronzie Lawson IV\nHi-Tec Oils Speedway – Toowoomba, AU – AU – Ultimate Sprintcar Championship – Robbie Farr\nHobart Raceway – Sorell Creek, TAS – AU – Winged 410 Sprint Cars – Jock Goodyer\nHobart Raceway – Sorell Creek, TAS – AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars – Luke Redpath\nI-75 Raceway – Sweetwater, TN – USA – United Sprint Car Series – Jordon Mallett\nKnoxville Raceway – Knoxville, IA – USA – Winged 305 Sprint Cars – Devin Kline\nKnoxville Raceway – Knoxville, IA – USA – Winged 360 Sprint Cars – Clint Garner\nKnoxville Raceway – Knoxville, IA – USA – Winged 410 Sprint Cars – Austin McCarl\nLawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, IN – USA – Non-Wing 410 Sprint Cars – Justin Grant\nLincoln Park Speedway – Putnamville, IN – USA – Non-Wing 410 Sprint Cars – Dave Darland\nLincoln Speedway – Abbottstown,PA – USA – Winged 358 Sprint Cars – Dave Brown\nLincoln Speedway – Abbottstown,PA – USA – Winged 410 Sprint Cars – Danny Dietrich\nLorain County Speedway – South Amherst, OH – USA – Crate Sprint Cars – Todd McQuillen\nMarysville Raceway – Marysville, CA – USA – Crate Sprint Cars – Jaylon Deas\nMarysville Raceway – Marysville, CA – USA – Winged 360 Sprint Cars – Jeremy Hawes\nMeridian Speedway – Meridian, ID – USA – Idaho Six Cylinder Racing League – Rob Grice\nMeridian Speedway – Meridian, ID – USA – Winged 360 Sprint Cars – Bryan Warf\nMurray Bridge Speedway – Bridge East, SA – AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars – Joel Chadwick\nNew Egypt Speedway – New Egypt, NJ – USA – Northeast Wingless Sprint Cars – Eric Jennings\nOutlaw Speedway – Dundee, NY – USA – Empire Super Sprints – Jason Barney\nPerris Auto Speedway – Perris, CA – USA – USAC – CRA Sprint Car Championship – Sokola Shootout – Damion Gardner\nPetaluma Speedway – Petaluma, CA – USA – Winged 360 Sprint Cars – Klint Simpson\nPlacerville Speedway – Placerville, CA – USA – Winged 360 Sprint Cars – Stephen Tiner\nPort Royal Speedway – Port Royal, PA – USA – PA Sprint Series – Open Wheel Madness I – Kyle Smith\nPort Royal Speedway – Port Royal, PA – USA – United Racing Club – Open Wheel Madness I – Lucas Wolfe\nPort Royal Speedway – Port Royal, PA – USA – Winged 410 Sprint Cars – Open Wheel Madness I – Brock Zearfoss\nShenandoah Speedway – Shenandoah, VA – USA – Virginia Sprint Series – Mike Leraas\nSkagit Speedway – Alger, WA – USA – Sportsman Sprints – Steve Parker\nSkagit Speedway – Alger, WA – USA – Winged 360 Sprint Cars – Greg Hamilton\nSpringfield Raceway – Springfield, MO – USA – POWRi – Wingless Auto Racing – Wesley Smith\nStockton Dirt Track – Stockton, CA – USA – Winged 360 Sprint Cars – Asparagus Cup – James McFadden\nThunderbowl Raceway – Tulare, CA – USA – Civil War Series – Legends of Kearney Bowl – Bud Kaeding\nThunderbowl Raceway – Tulare, CA – USA – King of the West Sprint Car Series – Legends of Kearney Bowl – Bud Kaeding\nValley Speedway – Grain Valley, MO – USA – POWRi – Outlaw Sprints – Quinton Benson\nVavoline Raceway – Granville, NSW – AU – Speedcar Super Series – SSS Final – Matt Smith\nVavoline Raceway – Granville, NSW – AU – Wingless V6 Sprint Cars – Jason Bates\nWayne County Speedway – Orrville, OH – USA – All Star Circuit of Champions – Tim Shaffer\nWaynesfield Raceway Park – Waynesfield, OH – USA – Non-Wing 410 Sprint Cars – Matt Westfall\nWestern Speedway – Victoria, BC – USA – WILROC – Wade Heckford\nSunday April 22, 2018\nBridgeport Speedway – Bridgeport, NJ – USA – Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series – Eddie Wagner\nSelinsgrove Speedway – Selinsgrove, PA – USA – Winged 410 Sprint Cars – Ray Tilley Classic – Mark Smith", "In our ongoing series of stories on upcoming ballot issues, we focus today on the School of the Osage proposed bond issue. The school district is eyeing $23 million in projects. Voters will be asked to approve an increase that will cost them about $28.50 a year. Superintendent Dr. Brent Depee says the majority of the work will make their schools safer.\nNEWS-2-2-18 Depee Safety - 2nd February 2018\nAssistant Superintendent Brad Yoder says areas slated for upgrades include:\n-h.s. cafeteria, auditorium, and gymnasium\n-construction of an addition to give band and choir separate rooms\n– renovations to the field house and creation of a separate soccer facility\n– a new security entrance and improved traffic flow at the upper elementary\nNEWS-2-2-18 Yoder Traffic - 2nd February 2018\nDepee says the project was initially developed as a ten-year plan, but for several reasons, the board has decided it’s best to ask for it all in one shot rather than requesting several votes over a number of years.\nNEWS-2-2-18 Depee Reasons - 2nd February 2018\nThe district cites projections of continued growth in terms of student population as another reason to move swiftly.\nNEWS-2-2-18 Depee Growth - 2nd February 2018\nIf approved by voters on April 3rd, the proposed renovations are expected to be completed before the start of the 2019 school year.", "The Manxman returns to the Tour after a difficult start to the year\nMark Cavendish is confirmed to lead the Dimension Data squad once again at the Tour de France, with the 30-time stage winner backed-up by a strong sprint support in 2018.\n>>> Tour de France 2018 start list\nThe Manxman has had a difficult time of it since crashing out of the 2017 Tour, with just a single win to his name at the Dubai Tour since then.\nThis year the 33-year-old has been blighted by bad luck, crashing out in the neutralised zone of stage one of the Abu Dhabi Tour, crashing in the opening team time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico and crashing into a bollard during Milan-San Remo.\nCavendish has since competed at the Tour de Yorkshire, Tour of California, Tour of Slovenia and the Adriatica Ionica Race, but has failed to take a victory at any of those races, with a second place at the Adriatica Ionica on stage five his best result.\nStill, Cavendish will hoping to turn his luck around on the stage he thrives on the most, the Tour de France. He entered the 2016 edition not looking to be at his best in comparison to some of the other sprinters, but took four stages in one of his best appearances in recent years. Cavendish says he’s still aiming at edging closer to overtaking Eddy Merckx’s record stage win tally of 34.\n“I’m so excited to be able to ride the Tour de France again in my career, for the third time in Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka,” Cavendish said.\n“The Tour de France is not only the biggest cycling event on the planet but it’s one of the biggest sporting events on the planet; and it’s the best platform to get across what we as Team Dimension Data do for our charity Qhubeka, to get people in rural parts of Africa on bicycles.\n“I’m excited to be part of a strong team and I’ll be looking at getting closer to that record (34) of Eddy Merckx.”\nAs usual, he’ll be supported by long-time lead-out man Mark Renshaw, as well as three-time stage winner Edvald Boasson Hagen, who took over sprint responsibilities last year after Cavendish crashed out.\nThe rest of the team is made up of Belgians Julien Vermote and Serge Pauwels, South Africans Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Jay Thomson, and The Netherlands’ Tom-Jelte Slagter.\nThe Tour de France kicks-off on July 7 in Vendée, however Cavendish will make his last racing appearance before the Tour at the British Road National Championships road race on Sunday.\nDimension Data line-up for the 2018 Tour de France\nMark Cavendish\nEdvald Boasson Hagen\nMark Renshaw\nReinardt Janse van Rensburg\nSerge Pauwels\nJulien Vermote\nTom-Jelte Slagter" ]

[ "First of all I would like to say that HANDS DOWN, Haribo makes the best Gummi Candies. It's true. If you've ever tried another brand, you'd know and once you try Haribo, you'd never go back!<br /><br />These Haribo Gummi Candy Gold-Bears are just Bursting with Flavor! They are soft and chewy. (But not so soft that they are sticky and stick to your teeth)! I've loved these since I was young and now my son loves them too. They come in about six different flavors and each one is yummy! You also get a good mix of colors and flavors. They're a great snack and most people can eat them because they're not a \"chocolate-type candy\" where you'd have to worry about allergies.<br /><br />They arrived at my home fresh and delicious. To keep them this way, I put them in two \"Freezer Bags\" and of course, I kept some out. Everyone that's stopped by has had the temptation to eat some and that's OK. I bought this HUGE five pound bag!<br /><br />Speaking of the Five Pound Bag, the price for this is a true VALUE! These cost so much at the market or candy store at the mall per pound! And these are the same exact bears, but you don't have to worry if everyone has touched them or how long they've been out in the open before you came along to scoop them up in your bag! That's a big plus for me!<br /><br />I definitely recommend these gummi bears, they are a sweet and delicious treat and the VALUE is phenomenal! I will definitely be ordering more bears plus a few different kinds as well. We all have our favorites!" ]

[ "I purchased these Albanese brand Gummi Bears based on reviews I saw on Amazon. People were saying that they are the best ever and better than Haribo. They were also cheaper than Haribo. So I decided to try them.<br /><br />They are softer than Haribo Gummi Bears. I think the Haribo gummy bears have a unique and very satisfying chew to them. Even softer Haribo candies such as the Peaches have a kind of thickness, a satisfying solidity to them. If you feel like me, you may not like the texture of the Albanese bears as much, as they are softer. On the other hand, I've heard some people say of the Haribo bears that they taste like plastic (due to the texture). These people may like the Albanese bears better. Biting through the Albanese brand bears, I guess the word I'd describe the texture might be \"smooth\" or \"satiney\"<br /><br />Since the Albanese brand bears mentioned several times that they had so many flavors, I was expecting unique and distinct flavors, in the way that Jelly Belly jelly beans are different and unique. These Albanese bears are not like that. While there are different flavors, it's not clear exactly what each flavor is supposed to be. The flavors seem to all kind of run together, even after you eat one color at a time.<br /><br />Overall, I was pretty underwhelmed, especially considering how so many reviews of this candy proclaimed it as being the \"omg best ever\" and \"world's best\" and \"better than Haribo\". While it is a good candy, these are gross overstatements and it makes me wonder how many of these glowing reviews are shill reviews placed by the manufacturer.<br /><br />TL;DR: Not as good as Haribo. Cheaper than Haribo. Better than generic store brand. Flavors not as distinct as expected based on advertising. Certainly not \"best ever\", despite the claims of some somewhat questionable reviews.", "If you are considering purchsing the Albanian gummy bears instead of these...DON'T! Haribo Gummy Bears are the BEST there are!", "If you're a gummy bear aficionado like me Haribo Gold Bears are the gold standard. In the organic world there are Surf Sweets and Yummy Earth. Surf Sweets are almost indistinguishable from a good quality non-organic gummy bear. It doesn't have the consistency of Haribo that I love but it's good and fruity. Yummy Earth has an inconsistent texture that I have actually grown to prefer. Some are hard and have almost Haribo like texture. Others are very soft. Some are even stale.<br /><br />For consistency go with Surf Sweets.", "These gummi bears are delicious and a great value! I was looking for fun foods to subscribe to on amazon and stumbled across these.<br /><br />I was concerned that the gummi bears would all taste the same because they were all lumped together in the same package, but they taste FANTASTIC! Each one has an individual flavor and is not too sugary sweet. The flavors taste like how they say they do on the bag. These really are the best gummi bears I've had and they are a better price than Haribo's. The fact that there are 12 flavors is an added bonus. My favorite is grapefruit!<br /><br />I might need to edit my shipments so these come to my house more often! I'm very happy I got these.", "The first time I encountered Haribo Gummi Bears was when I went to Germany for a semester overseas. I won a bag of these as a classroom prize.<br /><br />At first, I thought these were going to be ordinary gummy bears, but, boy was I wrong. These candies truly are a step above all other gummy bears. In Germany, this is THE brand of gummy bears. Competitors' bags are sold at much lower prices, but few people buy them - and that's because the difference in quality and taste is noticeable. The other people's reviews regarding sweetness and softness are accurate. Haribo has found the perfect combination.<br /><br />During the rest of my stay in Germany, I became a huge consumer of Haribo candies. Haribo sells other gummy candies, but their \"Gold Bears\" are the best.<br /><br />When I returned to beautiful America, I was disappointed to find that Haribo is not so easy to acquire. They are sold online at other stores at decent prices but after shipping, the cost was quite steep.<br /><br />I am truly excited to see these bears offered on Amazon with free super-saver shipping.<br /><br />If you have never had Haribo Gummi Bears, you really need to try some. A 5-pound bag seems like a large quantity, but I promise, you will not be disappointed.<br /><br />--<br /><br />Edit: Nov 2, 2008 - When I wrote this review two years ago, Haribo was still quite difficult to find at grocery stores. It seems today that I can find them just about anywhere. In this case, Amazon still provides a really great deal on 5 lb bags. If you don't want 5 lbs, you can shop at a local grocery store.<br />But I must recommend this: if you will not eat all of the gummy bears right away, transfer them to an air tight container. If you leave the gummy bears exposed to the air, they will get very stiff after a while.", "Growing up, I was a connoisseur of candy (or as some might call it, \"a child\"). I have tasted many gummy bears over the years and none of them are as good as Haribo. I was introduced to Haribo during middle school/high school, by my German teacher. Now I'm addicted to them (and German candy in general). Haribo gummy bears are chewy but not sticky, so they don't leave sticky residue on your fingers. They're sweet but not too sweet, and the fruit flavors actually taste like the fruit they're supposed to taste like.<br /><br />A note on locating them - I find it odd that everyone seems to have trouble finding these in the United States. I don't know about the other states, but they're everywhere, here in Massachusetts. You can get them at any convenience store or Walgreens/CVS/whatever.<br /><br />And I might as well put my years of German classes to good use - the product description says that Haribo's \"catch phrase\" (Haribo macht Kinder froh / und Erwachsene ebenso) translates to: \"Kids and grown-ups love it so / the happy world of Haribo.\" Actually, it translates to, literally: \"Haribo makes children happy / and adults as well.\"", "I like this as much as my favorite Haribo. Just like the later, Black Forest started from Germany and got it here in the US when Haribo cannot meet the demand when gummy bears became such a big hit. It is not as rubbery and more fruity in flavor. It is not sticking to your teeth. Not too sweet neither. If you like Haribo, you should try this brand too as individual tastes is very subjective.", "My parents were in the US military and we were stationed in (formerly West) Germany. I spent many years of my early and happy childhood there. Upon returing to the US in the 1970s, one of the many things I missed about Germany was the fantastic German candies. I was able to find the Haribo Bears in the mid-1980s and the Cola bottle in the late 1980s.<br /><br />The Haribo products are much better than their American imitiations. The Haribo products tend to be a bit firmer and of more uniform consistency. The American imitations are way too soft and too sweet. The Haribo products have a better, finer and more complex flavor. The 5 pound bags are an excellent deal!", "I was excited to see the techno bears online, before I always had to get people to bring them back from Germany. All of Haribo's products, along with most German gummies, are chewier than what you would find in America. They employ some jaw work. If you like the gummy bears you will like these. Techno bears are much more flavorful and fat free is always a plus!", "This 5 lb bag is the best deal for the Haribo gummies.<br /><br />This is the best gummy bears that I know of. No wonder they are the biggest gummy bear manufacturer in the world (based in Germany). It is not too sticky that it glues your teeth. Not too sweet neither. Just the right combination of flavors to taste.<br /><br />Just FYI: 5 oz bag has 3.5 servings, with each serving at 140 calories, 10% carbo, 21g sugar, and 3g of protein. A serving is about 17 pieces of gummies.", "<a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EVT042\">Haribo's Original Gold-Bears (Pack of 12)</a> is a great way to buy sweets that aren't always easy to find in the US. I wasn't always a Haribo gummi fan, but I have my ex girlfriend to thank for getting me hooked. These come in sugar free versions as well, but I prefer the regular ones.<br /><br />I really love this 12 pack more than the <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EVOSE4\">Haribo Gummi Candy Gold-Bears, 5-Pound Bags</a> that are also sold on Amazon. The main reason is that the 5 lb bag is only ideal for a party with A LOT of kids eating them. I know that the 5 lb bag gives you more candy for your money. But these 5 OZ bags keep the gummis fresh and help with portion control.<br /><br />I always share when I eat these or save the excess. For me a 5-oz bag is too much to eat alone. 1 5-Oz bag is good enough for 3 or 4 people to share.<br /><br />Haribo gummis are very chewy compared to others, but they also contain less sugar and more fruity flavor. I personally think they are the best. They have 5 flavors inside including pineapple, lemon, orange raspberry and strawberry.<br /><br />Definitely don't hesitate to get this. I haven't tried all of the weird flavors (cola, etc) but I have had many and they are almost all great. But these original bears are going to please most people.<br /><br />Enjoy!", "I'd ordered the 9lbs of Albanese sour gummi worms before and liked them a lot, so I decided to try the Albanese gummi bears as well. I've been a die hard Haribo fan for a while, but the hardness and ease at which they go stale was getting to me. Thus, I was quite excited by the promise of Albanese!<br /><br />But, why just 3 stars? Flavor and consistency. Somehow the flavor isn't as juicy, and doesn't burst in your mouth the same way. Some of the 12 flavors are better at this than others, but I was overall mixed. The consistency was also *too* soft for my liking, it's similar to the off-brand gummi bears you can get at the supermarket. I want something in between; not the sticky hardness of Haribo that I always have to pick out of my teeth, and not the plush softness of Albanese.<br /><br />Somehow, Albanese are harder to eat in quantity too. I found myself getting overwhelmed after my first few handfuls by the sugary aftertaste, almost nauseatingly so. Maybe I just need to pace better, but I've never had a problem shoveling down Haribo.<br /><br />Anyway, it's back to Haribo for me. I unfortunately have to eat another 9lbs of Albanese first.", "Haribos are my all-time favorite gummy bears. I was really excited that it came in such a big amount. HOWEVER, when the gummy bears arrived, they didn't taste or feel fresh. When I first opened them, it was hard and chewy. I guess it's always best to buy in person and feel them before you buy them. =)", "I loved Haribo candies when I was young living in France. I was disappointed to not see much of choices besides the gummy bears in stores. Amazon saved my life by introducing some great flavors. The strawberries are so good; it's my favorite along with the sour colas.", "I'm convinced that I am the world's biggest consumer of gummy bears. I always have a bag of gummy bears with me wherever I go. I eat gummy bears for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I even eat gummy bears in my dreams!<br /><br />Seriously though, I've had my share of gummy bears and Haribo Gold Bears are definitely the best. They are juicy and chewy and PERFECT!<br /><br />If you are looking for some perfect gummy bears, go ahead and order these.<br /><br />Ok, I'm going to go spend some time with my gummy bears...", "These are way too sweet. I'm a huge fan of Haribo Gold Bears, but this was a real let down. Large chrystals of sugar overwhelm, with no trace of sour.<br /><br />yuck", "Watch out for these if you are a fan of the classic gummy bear. These while made by the same manufacturer Haribo have a significantly different texture and flavor. They are much thicker and tougher than traditional gummys. The flavors are very very strange and taste like toothpaste and mouthwash.", "Pros: It is a 5lb bag of Haribo Gummi Candy Gold-Bears<br />Cons: It is not a 10lb bag of Haribo Gummi Candy Gold-Bears<br /><br />These gummi bears are exactly like the ones you buy at the store for $1.20 per 5oz bag. They're fresh, yummy and the original gummi bears. Accept no substitutes.<br /><br />Pro tip: Subscribe to get a package and save! We get ours every four months. But they certainly don't last that long.", "The first thing I noticed when eating these for the first time is that these taste exactly like the Haribo Gold Bears - which are fantastic. So basically they are Gold Bears but in a different shape - little roulettes or little hockey pucks. My biggest problem with these is I thought they were too hard. They might taste like the Gold Bears but they are not as soft. I don't think I'll be buying these again. But I will buy more of the Gold Bears.", "these have long been my favorite Haribo product, even more than Gold Bears. The chew is stiff, but not too stiff. The flavors are strong, but not overpowering like Jolly Rancher flavors can be. I even like the packaging in a roll. However, when I bought these, they were Amazon Prime - now, 3 days later, they are not. These are NOT worth a $9 premium on top of the excellent price for shipping. It's a relatively small box for one thing. Put these back on Amazon Prime, make them eligible for a regular subscription, and I'm there again.", "German Haribos don't contain artificial flavors and no artificial colors. German Haribos are all natural.<br />The Turkish ones however taste too sweet and less fruity, and look much more colorful because of artificial colors (FD & C yellow no. 5, red no. 40,blue no.1) and unnatural flavors.<br /><br />When you send a mail to Haribo, they reply that the Turkish Haribos, sold in the US, contain that artificial stuff, so that the Gummy Bear flavor survives the long shipping by ship. Looking at long shelf life duration of even the German Haribos that seems like a lie to me. Cost cutting and less restrictive US-Food regulation seem to be the real reasons ...<br /><br />Hungarian made Haribos (seen in India) aren't any better btw.", "Haribo is the master of all things gummi. The flavors of every type in this fruit salad mix are very good, even though the passionfruit one is a little elusive and an odd color (green). These have a more tender texture than something like a gummi bear, which is why they are coated in sucrose.", "I like their original gummy bears so much that I grab a pack of this to try. Not disappointed at all. You can really taste the cola flavor on this bottle shaped candies. It is not too sticky that it glues your teeth together; although a bit on the rubbery side. Not too sweet neither. Just the right combination of flavors to taste. . From the biggest gummy bear manufacturer in the world (Haribo - based in Germany).<br /><br />Just FYI: 5 oz bag has 3.5 servings, with each serving at 140 calories, 10% carbo, 21g sugar, and 3g of protein. A serving is about 17 pieces of gummies.", "You know, I had wondered when clicking through to this product from Haribo's website -- just how big is a 5 pound bag of Gummibaerchen? Well, it's about as big as an adult human head. Big! And heavy! (And buying two gets you free shipping!) The only better bulk price one can get (that I'm aware of) is at the Haribo factory in Bonn, Germany (and if you like Gummibaerchen, I suggest you visit).<br /><br />As for the candies themselves, Frogs are not my favorite. An entire bag of them yields no variety at all. If Amazon starts selling the classic bears (which are a multitude of flavors and are smaller and easier to chew up) I would buy those over Frogs in a hot second. (The sugar-free kind are not the classic version, and some people have digestive problems with the artificial sweetener. NB this is not the case with Frogs - they are sugar-sweetened.)<br /><br />A note about the Haribo \"catchphrase\": the German \"Haribo macht Kinder froh und Erwachsene ebenso\" is better translated \"Haribo makes kids happy / and adults likewise\". So, \"The happy world of Haribo\" is just a rhyming addition to English-language packaging. INFORMED.", "yum... these are a delicious alternative for those who like sour patch kids and other sweet/sour gummies, and they are definitely haribo quality. my only complaint is the requirement that your jaw have the constitution of a bear trap to clamp down on some of these. they're only slightly tough at first (and misleading with their deliciousness,) but once you've had a few your mouth puts up the white flag until you've given your choppers a chance to cool down. i guess this can actually be seen as a good thing, because you are less prone to gorge on them (unlike the haribo gold bears, i just don't know when to quit with those).<br /><br />overall, very good.", "We love Haribo.. We already went through Super Coke Bottles and Gummi Bears..<br /><br />We also love sour candy.. and yes the kind that makes your lips pucker.. :-)<br /><br />I was disappointed at the \"sour-ness\" of Sour Cherries..<br /><br />but...<br /><br />the family will find it in their heart to consume them.. unlike the<br /><br />Pink Grapefruit which I will be giving away..", "I am German but have lived in the United States for almost 13 years now. It truly pains me to see what Haribo has decided to sell here in the US under the \"Gold-Bears\" brand. Anyone who has ever tasted the real thing will know immediately how fake these are - by simply looking at them!<br />You can tell right away that their German tagline \"No artificial flavors or colors\" does NOT apply here.<br /><br />Imported from Turkey? If you're going to ship all the way from over there, why not give the American consumer something worthwhile...?", "Ok, so I bought these on a whim, not wanting to pay nearly the same price for a 5lb bag of Haribo. Imagine my surprise when they turned out to be worth the switch. I've been a long-time Haribo fanatic. These gummies, however, while not as hard in texture as Haribo, more than make up for that in flavor.<br /><br />I normally space my gummy snacking, but could not keep my hands off these. My kids literally inhaled them by the handful. Even my husband was hooked. After reading the label, I felt even better about eating them. They're made with mostly fruit and veggie additives. No HFCS!! Only caveat was the light yellow bears. They're banana flavored, but a little weird at first. The more you eat the more you taste the flavor.<br /><br />Overall, these gummies have made this Haribo eater a surefire convert. As a matter of fact, I'm on my way to buy more. A warning to the wise: One shipment will not last more than a couple days to one week max. Not saying there's not enough, but these are very addictive. Happy snacking!<br /><br />Addendum as of 9/5/09: The banana gummies are even better than before and even a little chewier. I also love the new packaging which actually lists the flavors. I've since tried to go back to Haribo and other brands, but to no avail. These gummies are still my fave! Cheers!", "Haribo's has the best gummi candy. I love the pink grapefruit, but it is very hard to find unless you have acess to a candy store. Haribo has the best candy... Amazon has the best price.", "This is Haribo Gummi candy--the original. I love all of their products, but this one is especially good. I have ordered it twice and will again. If you a gummi bear fan, you will really love this!", "I've always loved these little cherries. Haribo has just the right flavor and texture. Buy in bulk - save a lot!", "After reading the reviews and looking at the pictures I decided I wanted to try these.<br /><br />Compared to Regular Gummy Bears by Haribo one of the most noticeable things about them (aside from the color difference) is that they are about 1.5x bigger than a normal gummy bear. The next thing you will notice different are the flavors. They flavors are a nice twist on an amazing food, but since some of you guys might be worried you might not like the flavors (like I was) I have tried and below is a list of the colors and the coordinating flavor:<br /><br />Pink: Cherry, I guess<br />It taste almost exactly like a Normal Red Gummy bear. :p<br /><br />Orange: Orange<br />What else would you expect :p<br /><br />Yellow: Lemon (kinda Strong)<br />Almost taste like a Lemon Head.<br /><br />Green: Apple?<br />I believe I've been tasteing just (to me) the slightest hint of apple.<br /><br />Blue: Sour Rasberry<br />Upon trying them yes you will get a semi-tart taste, almost exactly like the flavor of a Sour Punch Straw.<br /><br />Purple: Pineapple<br />Exactly like a white Life Savor. Yes it might be an odd twist but due to that flavor it is my favorite out of the whole bag.<br /><br />And Again since they are Haribo they will have the extra stiffness most people have come to love about this particular gummy company." ]

[ "For Multi-Carrier-Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) systems, it is usually assumed that the fading of the subcarriers is frequency non-selective and independent of each other. This paper shows that the two assumptions are incompatible. In fact, the MC-CDMA signals at each subcarrier undergo fading that are highly correlated. Based on this observation, this paper develops a simulation algorithm for Rayleigh fading channels via frequency-domain correlation function, which incorporates the Doppler effect simultaneously. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new algorithm, with the conclusion that the independence assumption of subcarrier fading overrates the system performance." ]

[ "In this paper, we present a study for the error rate performance of multi carrier direct sequence code division multiple access (MC DS-CDMA) system in conjunction with maximum ratio combining (MRC) over Nakagami-m multipath fading channel. Multiple transmit and receive antenna structures are employed at both the transmitter and the receiver sides to provide spatial diversity The multipath fading is considered to be correlated among different elements at the receive antenna array. In the proposed receiver, two types of diversities are considered; the path, and spatial diversities. A closed form one-fold integration, which could be solved numerically without the need for simulations, is derived for the BER performance of the system. Furthermore, numerical analysis is conducted for different MC systems over different Nakagami-m channels. In addition, tradeoff analysis is provided among space and path diversities.", "Multipath performance is an important consideration for chaos-based communication systems. In this letter, the performance of the FM-DCSK communication system over multipath fading channels is evaluated by computer simulations. Both Rayleigh fading and Ricean fading are considered, and the low-pass equivalent model of the FM-DCSK system is used in the simulation. Based on this model, we analyze the bit error performance of the system and the effects of system parameters on the bit-error performance.", "The multipath nature of the wireless channel can be described as a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, which easily results in hostile intersymbol interference (ISI). Usually, multicarrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) systems combat the hostile ISI with the aid of the cyclic prefix (CP). Nevertheless, the elimination of ISI in MC-CDMA systems is at the cost of reduction in spectral efficiency. To recover spectral efficiency, it is meaningful to investigate MC-CDMA systems without CP. This paper explores the estimation of the uplink FIR channel in the MC-CDMA system without CP. We interpret the MC-CDMA system without CP as an equivalent time-domain ISI-corrupted direct sequence (DS-) CDMA system. Based on subspace techniques, an uplink FIR channel estimation scheme is derived for the MC-CDMA system without CP. Simulations demonstrate the validity and the performance of the proposed uplink FIR channel estimation scheme.", "The performance of convolutionally coded DS-CDMA systems is analyzed assuming nonperiodic random spreading sequences, ideal interleaving and a RAKE receiver with perfect knowledge of the channel. In particular, a simple model for the memoryless coding channel that encompasses the effects of multiple access interference, self-noise and thermal noise is first derived. This coding channel model illustrates clearly how ideal channel state information is used at the receiver. Using new tight upper bounds on the bit error probability of convolutional codes over Nakagami, Rayleigh, and Rice fading multipath channels, the performance of convolutionally coded coherent DS-CDMA systems is then evaluated. Finally, the single-cell CDMA capacity is computed and the tradeoffs between performance and maximum number of simultaneous users in a cell are studied.", "In this paper, a low complexity and efficient multiuser space time block code multicarrier code division multiple access (STBC MC-CDMA) for downlink wireless communication system is proposed. STBC MC-CDMA provides diversity gain to improve transmission efficiency of mobile wireless systems where both STBC encoder and decoder are in time domain thus reducing the complexity at the receiver side. Proposed STBC MC-CDMA scheme achieves a diversity order of 2 without channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter under flat fading conditions without bandwidth expansion. In this paper, the STBC MC-CDMA is compared with the STBC OFDM scheme under Rayleigh fading channel and AWGN channel using zero forcing (ZF) linear detection scheme and as anticipated the proposed STBC MC-CDMA outperforms STBC OFDM. Simulation results verify this.", "Spectrum-overlay scenarios for wideband multi-carrier (MC) systems bring new technical challenges that must be considered during the system design. In such a scenario, the receiver has to perform actions, such as channel estimation and synchronization, in the presence of possibly strong in-band interference. In this paper, we modify the iterative maximum likelihood joint frame synchronization and channel estimation algorithm for downlink MC-CDMA presented in (M. Guenach et al., 2006) to have better performance in the presence of narrowband interference. The performance of the modified algorithm is verified through computer simulations and compared with the original one.", "In this paper, Linear Scalable Dispersion (LSD) code is investigated for Multiple Input Multiple Output Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MIMO MC-CDMA) systems. The code already introduced in MIMO systems is extended to the MC-CDMA downlink transmission. It provides a flexible compromise between diversity and spatial multiplexing in Rayleigh and Ricean fading channels; therefore, it realizes high transmission rate while benefiting from transmit diversity. In this context, we show through simulations that LSD scheme improves significantly the performance in different channel conditions.", "The symbol error performance of a wireless communication system is analyzed using diversity combining scheme in Rayleigh fading channels . The performance of the system is compared using Alamouti scheme and maximal-ratio receiver combining (MRRC) scheme. The performance results of the system are evaluated by numerical computation and by simulation using MATLAB. A detailed analysis and exact (closed-form) expressions of the probability of error of the wireless communication systems in Rayleigh fading channels are provided for both M-ary phase-shift keying (M-PSK) and M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) schemes. Monte Carlo simulation shows exact match with the theoretical results. Keywords: Alamouti scheme; M-PSK; M-QAM; MRRC; Symbol error probability (SEP). © 2010 JSR Publications. ISSN: 2070-0237 (Print); 2070-0245 (Online). All rights reserved. DOI: 10.3329/jsr.v2i1.3000 J. Sci. Res. 2 (1), 54-66 (2010)", "This paper addresses fading, primarily in the L and UHF bands, that affects mobile systems such as personal communication systems (PCS). It discusses the fundamental criterion for investigating propagation effects on low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite communication systems and focuses on methods of developing a fading simulation model. The model provides a flexible set of simulated channel characteristics that can be selected over a wide range such as the direct line-of-sight (LOS) component, shadowing effect, and Doppler shift determined by the satellite speed and spread delay. It includes Rayleigh, Rician, log-normal and flat or frequency selective fading channels.", "A new wireless communication system denoted as Multi-Code Multi-Carrier CDMA (MC-MC CDMA), which is the combination of Multi-Code CDMA and Multi-Carrier CDMA, is analyzed in this paper. This system can satisfy multi-rate services using multi-code schemes and multi-carrier services used for high rate transmission. The equalization techniques used in this work are Zero Forcing (ZF) and Minimum mean square error (MMSE) and their performances are compared on the basis of bit error rate (BER). The BER is analyzed with respect to Signal to Noise ratio (SNR). QPSK modulation scheme is implemented for the analysis. The comparative analysis is done through software simulation.", "Multicarrier code-division multiple-access (MC-CDMA) is a strong candidate for the transmission technology of fourth generation cellular communication systems. In contrast to this the third generation cellular system UMTS employs direct-sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA) technology for both uplink and downlink. Hence interference cancellation is an appropriate method to combat multiple access interference. In an uplink MC-CDMA system with many asynchronous active users, the implementation of interference cancellation is a very difficult task, since the blockwise FFT computation in the receiver enables the synchronization on a single user only. With the implemented signal processing, the application of parallel interference cancellation in a multi-user MC-CDMA receiver is possible with moderate computational complexity, leading to an amazing increase in bit error performance.", "Autoregressive stochastic models for the computer simulation of correlated Rayleigh fading processes are investigated. The unavoidable numerical difficulties faced by this method are elucidated and a simple heuristic approach is adopted to enable the synthesis of accurately correlated, bandlimited Rayleigh variates. Performance comparisons are made with a popular generation technique to demonstrate the merits of the method.", "This paper analyze a new process of transmission combining multiple access technique, CDMA, to multi code and multi carrier techniques, denoted as Multi Code Multi Carrier CDMA or MC-MC-CDMA. This method, very advantageous, seems to be very attractive for fourth generation (4G) wireless system. Its potential is then shown in the present paper, by analyzing and comparing the performance of the system with those of Multi Code CDMA and MC-CDMA systems. Results indicate that this system outperforms both the two other systems.", "In this paper, a new M-estimator based multiuser detection in asynchronous flat-fading non-Gaussian CDMA channels is considered. A new closed-form expression is derived for the characteristic function of the multiple-access interference signals. Simulation results are provided to prove the effectiveness of the derived bit-error probabilities obtained with this expression in asynchronous flat-fading non-Gaussian CDMA channels.", "A practical coherent detection scheme for biorthogonal signals over Rayleigh fading channels is proposed. The proposed scheme improves the bit error rate (BER) performance compared to the noncoherent detection schemes for biorthogonal signals. It also outperforms the coherent and noncoherent detection schemes for orthogonal signals with comparable bandwidth efficiency. The BER performance for a Rayleigh fading channel with two path diversity combining is obtained by computer simulation. The results show that the required average signal-to-noise ratio per bit /spl gamma//sub b/ can be reduced by as much as 1.4 dB when we use this system in the CDMA cellular reverse link.", "The bit error rate (BER) performance of a noncoherent MT-CDMA system is evaluated for a multipath, slow fading Rician and frequency selective channel in the indoor environment. Considering a Gaussian assumption for the whole decision variable, an existing mathematical model is used for computation of the bit error probability using differential binary phase shift keying (DBPSK) modulation. The influence of different combinations of number of tones and code lengths is studied with multiple access interference (MAI).", "A new scheme of detection for multiple access channel is investigated, which consists in the combining of PIC-like detection and joint decoding of LDPC codes. The joint decoding is first studied through the use of LDPC codes over Galois extensions of binary field for the AWGN multiple access channel. Then, a hierarchical MC-CDMA system which uses both Parallel Interference Canceler and joint detection is implemented and simulations show that it can provide a substantial improvement without any complexity growth of the emitter in a MC-CDMA like up-link framework.", "This paper presents a blind decorrelating detector for asynchronous multicarrier CDMA systems with Rayleigh fading channel. The detector is derived by making use of the cross correlation matrix between the consecutively received signals. The main attraction of the detection algorithm is its simplicity since the detector can be implemented blindly without any channel estimation except for the synchronization of the desired user. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the significant gains in performance and simplicity achieved by the proposed detector.", "In this paper, we consider the transmission of video over multirate wireless direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) channels. The performance of transmitting scalable video over a multipath Rayleigh fading channel via a combination of multi-code multirate CDMA and variable sequence length multirate CDMA channel system is considered. At the other end, the signal is collected by an antenna array front and despreading is done using adaptive space-time auxiliary-vector (AV) filters. AV filter configurations suitable for multirate detection are designed and the rate-distortion optimization is carried out for each configuration. The experimental results show a comparison of the performance of such multirate DS-CDMA systems for wireless video transmission.", "In this paper, applications of MFSK and GMSK modulations in short wave frequency-hopping spread-spectrum communication system are discussed, and the performance is simulated. For MFSK, the performance of selective frequency diversity and coding for FH/MFSK system with Rayleigh fading channels and partial band jamming is researched. For GMSK, combined with Viterbi algorithm noncoherent modulation, the performance of frequency-hopping system is simulated. Finally, the performances of the two modulations are compared.", "In this paper, we examine the impact of channel estimation errors on Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) in receive diversity systems, in the presence of co-channel interferers. The channel is modelled as flat Rayleigh fading, slowly varying and spatially independent. It is assumed that the spatial combiner weights are imperfect estimates of the desired user's fading coefficients and complex Gaussian distributed. Closed form expressions for signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) distribution and outage probability is obtained. Using these expressions, the effect of channel estimation quality on performance is investigated.", "In this paper, we investigate the performance of two families of spectrally efficient modulation schemes, M PSK and M QAM, for cellular mobile systems. The effects of the presence of co channel interference (CCI) in Rayleigh fading channel corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) with N branch selection diversity reception are taken into account. New generalized BER (bit error rate) expressions, which are valid for all values of M, N, E b/N 0 and SIR (signal to interference ration), are obtained and shown to be in excellent agreement with Monte Carlo simulation results.", "To get the influence on signal error rate(SER) of MIMO system parameters,a basic MIMO-OFDM model is first described.Then researches on SER of this MIMO-OFDM model based on STBC in Nakagami spatial fading channels are conducted,and the corresponding SER formula is given which is followed by influence analysis of spatial correlation and Nakagami distribution parameter on SER.Finally,the analytical results are verified through our computer simulation made for this method.Results reveal that adopting Nakagami fading channels can relatively accord with practice data in contrast with Rayleigh distribution or Rice distribution in some cases,and STBC in Nakagami spatial fading channels can meet with the performance requirement of MIMO-OFDM system.", "In this brief, a multilevel code shifted differential chaos shift keying system with ${M}$ -ary modulation (MCS-MDCSK) is proposed, which is a hybrid of the ${M}$ -ary modulation and multilevel code shifted differential chaos shift keying. In the proposed system, since the reference signal and a number of different information bearing signals which can carry ${M}$ -ary constellation symbols are transmitted in the same slot, the spectral efficiency of MCS-MDCSK system is enhanced significantly. By combining with ${M}$ -ary modulation, MCS-MDCSK system makes great progress in pursuit of higher data rate. Moreover, we derive the analytical bit-error-rate (BER) for the proposed system over the additive white Gaussian noise and multipath Rayleigh fading channels, and we verify our theoretical derivations by simulations. Finally, the BER performance of the proposed system is compared with other non-coherent chaotic modulation systems and MCS-MDCSK system is found to be superior and competitive.", "In this paper, a two-step channel estimation scheme is presented for downlink wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) communication systems. The proposed method employs the time multiplexed pilot symbols for an initial coarse estimation followed by a data-aided fine estimation in order to achieve a fast and accurate estimation of the complex channel gain. Our simulation shows that the proposed method works very well for both slow and fast fading channels. The computational complexity required by the proposed estimation is significantly reduced compared to some of the existing estimation techniques.", "The modeling and simulation of 3th generation (3G) mobile communications satellite/terrestrial channels with every measurement environment is described. Simulations of channel characteristics, a basic part of system simulations, are of vital importance meaning for both analysis and simulation of channel estimation, switching algorithm and power control. Different from the traditional channel simulations, the proposed channel simulation and analogue method have possessed the character of hardware realizalion and real time in base band. Two simulation algorithms of realization channel characteristic are analyzed emphatically: shaping of slow fading with correlation and generation of frequency-selected multipath fading. Finally the numerical results and simulation statistics by SIMULINK are given.", "This letter presents an improved distributed video coding (DVC) decoding algorithm is proposed to improve the performance of a multipath fading wireless channel. Considering the influence of channel error on Wyner-Ziv and key frame bit stream, a new noise model is proposed and the algorithm is improved accordingly. Using the W-CDMA wireless channel to simulate the simulation, and analyzing the simulation results, to determine the effect of each change. The simulation results indicate that the proposed improvement has a significant improvement in the performance of the DVC decoder under the adverse channel conditions.", "In this paper we propose an enhanced equalization technique for multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA). This method is based on the control of Equal Gain Combining (EGC) technique. Indeed, we introduce a new level changer to the EGC equalizer in order to adapt the equalization parameters to the channel coefficients. The optimal equalization level is, first, determined by channel training. The new approach reduces drastically the mutliuser interferences caused by interferes, without increasing the noise power. To compare the performances of the proposed equalizer, the theoretical analysis and numerical performances are given. Keywords—MC-CDMA, Equalization, EGC, Single User Detection.", "In this paper, the capacity and error probability of orthogonal space-time block codes (STBCs) are presented for PAM/PSK/QAM modulation in correlated flat fading channels. We consider an equivalent scalar AWGN (additive white Gaussian noise) channel with a channel gain proportional to the Frobenius norm of the matrix channel. A unified approach to the error probability analysis for correlated Rayleigh and Rician fading channels is presented. Closed form error probability expressions are derived for Rayleigh fading channels. We also determine the capacity and probability of error for a multiuser direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system employing a STBC over correlated fading channels.", "This paper deals with a multiuser detector based on a new decorrelating approach for asynchronous up-link DS/CDMA communications in which the QPSK modulation scheme is used in transmission. It is shown that the receiver proposed is near-far resistant and exhibits a low complexity which allows real-time operation. The performance is expressed in terms of the bit error rate (BER) which has been derived by simulations under the assumption of a slow frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel.", "In order to suppress the multi-path interference(MPI) in the DS CDMA system,a new RAKE receiver based on parallel interference elimination is first proposed in this paper: data symbol tentative decision is obtained by linear decision;the multi-path interferences are evaluated by tentative decision and known user information.Then the performances over Rayleigh fading channel are analyzed and compared to conventional parallel interference cancellation(PIC) and Rake receiver.It is shown that RAKE receiver performance can be improved greatly by using this method with simple structure and easy implementation.", "In this paper, the channel predicted by using a ray- tracing simulator is presented and compared to microcellular measurement results performed inside a university campus. For data processing, the conventional beamforming is utilized to compare the directional wideband channel properties of both simulation and measurement results. Ray-tracing algorithm can investigate most of the radio propagation mechanisms. However, there are some scattering effects that are not included. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze and compare directional wideband channel characteristics such as azimuth-delay spectrum and azimuth-coelevation spectrum from the ray-tracing results with measurements to gain insights on the significant propagation mechanisms in microcell scenarios." ]

[ "Footloose (musical) In April 2005, the show was revised slightly. Aside from numerous tweakings to the script, there are slight differences in the revised version's musical numbers. Chief among these is a brand new song opening Act II called \"Still Rockin.'\" Other changes include the removal of the 'rap' \"Dancing is not a Crime\". Only the very first section of the rap is used and right before \"Mama Says\" instead of during the Town Council meeting. Ren gives a speech instead during the meeting. Also, the Reverend's song \"I Confess\" has also been removed and replaced with a much longer and more emotional scene with Ren after the Town Council meeting and a short reprise of \"Heaven Help Me\" sung by Reverend Moore alone. Furthermore, the show now begins with Rusty, Wendy Jo, and Urleen singing the opening of \"Footloose\" instead of Ren and the boys, and during \"Learning to be Silent\" Ariel sings with Vi and Ethel during the song." ]

[ "Holding Out for a Hero \"Holding Out for a Hero\" is a song recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for the soundtrack to the 1984 film Footloose, and later included on her 1986 album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire. It was written by Jim Steinman and Dean Pitchford. Initially, the song only just reached the Top 100 in the UK Singles Chart, but made it to number 2 the following year, and re-entered the charts again at number 69 in 1991. The song reached No. 1 on the Irish Singles Chart on 28 September 1985. It reached the top 40 in the United States and Canada.", "The Hanging Tree (The Hunger Games song) Protagonist Katniss Everdeen performs the song in the film, which is also heard over the closing credits. In the story's context, it is a song that Katniss learned from her father, and is used as a battlecry.[14][15][16] Jennifer Lawrence stated in an interview that she was nervous about singing the song for the film as she finds it uncomfortable to sing in front of people.[17][18][19][20] Lawrence reportedly suggested to producers of the film that the singer Lorde, already having been tasked with the film's theme song \"Yellow Flicker Beat\", should instead provide the vocals for the track in place of Lawrence, who would then have lip synced to it on film.[21]", "You'll Never Walk Alone \"You'll Never Walk Alone\" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. In the second act of the musical, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, sings \"You'll Never Walk Alone\" to comfort and encourage Julie when her husband, Billy Bigelow, the male lead, commits suicide after a failed robbery attempt. It is reprised in the final scene to encourage a graduation class of which Louise (Billy and Julie's daughter) is a member. The now invisible Billy, who has been granted the chance to return to Earth for one day in order to redeem himself, watches the ceremony and is able to silently motivate the unhappy Louise to join in the song.", "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) Paul Carrack provided lead vocals on the song.[4] The song's original title was simply \"Silent Running\"; the name extension was given when the song was chosen to appear in the 1986 movie On Dangerous Ground, which was titled Choke Canyon in the United States.[5]", "Don't Speak \"Don't Speak\" is a song by the American rock band No Doubt. It was released in 1996 as the third single from the band's third studio album, Tragic Kingdom (1995). Vocalist Gwen Stefani and her brother Eric Stefani wrote the song, originally as a love song. The song went through several rewrites and new versions. Gwen Stefani modified it into a breakup song about her bandmate and ex-boyfriend Tony Kanal shortly after he ended their seven-year relationship.[1][2]", "High School Musical 2 Troy returns to work the next day to find that his friends refuse to talk to him. Kelsi silently shows Troy the notice from Mr. Fulton, causing Troy to question his own motivations (\"Bet On It\"). He begins to reconcile with Chad and his other friends. Then Troy confronts Sharpay, informing her that he will not sing with her. The Wildcats and Chad forgive Troy for his absence and convince him to sing in the talent show, which he does only under the condition that they are all allowed to perform as well.", "Pyramid Head Introduced in the 2001 installment Silent Hill 2, he is the main antagonist and he stalks James Sunderland, the primary player character, who comes to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his deceased wife, Mary. The Silent Hill series, particularly the second installment, frequently utilizes psychology and symbolism: Pyramid Head represents James' wish to be punished for Mary's death. Masahiro Ito, the designer of Silent Hill 2's monsters, created him because he wanted \"a monster with a hidden face\".[3] Known for his large triangular head, Pyramid Head lacks a voice, and his appearance stems from the town's past as a place of execution.", "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) \"Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)\" is the debut single by the American rapper Silentó. In March 2015, he was signed to Capitol Records, which released the track as a single with an accompanying music video. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it has spent 6 non-consecutive weeks. With a viral clip on YouTube, the song was popular for its dance despite mixed reviews, a combination of 2 popular moves cited in the title: the \"Whip (dance)\" and the \"Nae Nae\"[1] as well as other hip hop dances from various songs \"Crank That (Soulja Boy)\" and \"Stanky Legg\".", "National Woman's Party The National Woman's Party, like the Congressional Union, was under the leadership of Alice Paul, who learned from militant suffragettes in Britain who used a variety of tactics to gain publicity for the cause of suffrage. Paul's strategy was to use publicity to hold the party in power, the Democratic Party and President Woodrow Wilson, responsible for the status of woman suffrage. Starting in January 1917, NWP members known as Silent Sentinels continued their quest for equality by protesting outside the White House.", "Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 4) Film director Kevin Smith and actor Jason Mewes guest star as exaggerated versions of themselves (for example Kevin is portrayed as being unmarried and childless), who are at Degrassi Community School in the final three episodes of the season to work on Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh!, a fictional feature film in the View Askewniverse series that is using Degrassi Community School as a filming location.[9] Singer Alanis Morissette, who had previously played God in two other Jay and Silent Bob movies,[10][11] guest star in \"Goin' Down the Road Part One\" as herself, playing the school principal in Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh![12]", "I Know Why (And So Do You) The song was written by Mack Gordon, lyrics, and Harry Warren, music. The song is lip-synched by Lynn Bari in the movie Sun Valley Serenade. Pat Friday sang the vocals with John Payne and The Modernaires. The single, RCA Bluebird B-11230-A, reached no. 18 on the Billboard pop singles chart in a one-week chart run.[1] The single release featured vocals by Paula Kelly and The Four Modernaires. The B side of the single was \"Chattanooga Choo Choo\", which de facto, was treated as the A side.", "Carlotta (The Phantom of the Opera) In the Lloyd Webber-Joel Schumacher 2004 film version, she was played by Minnie Driver.[1] Due to Driver's lack of experience in opera, her singing voice was dubbed by opera singer Margaret Preece, although she lent her actual voice to the song \"Learn to Be Lonely\" during the end credits.", "You'll Never Walk Alone Christine Johnson, who created the role of Nettie Fowler, introduced the song in the original Broadway production.[1] Later in the show Jan Clayton, as Julie Jordan, reprised it, with the chorus joining in.", "Jackie Coogan John Leslie \"Jackie\" Coogan (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor and comedian who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films.[2]", "Unchained Melody In 1955, three versions of the song (by Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, and Roy Hamilton) charted in the Billboard Top 10 in the United States,[4] and four versions (by Al Hibbler, Les Baxter, Jimmy Young, and Liberace) appeared in the Top 20 in the United Kingdom simultaneously, an unbeaten record for any song.[5][6] The song and \"Do They Know It's Christmas\" are the only songs to reach number one in four different recordings in the UK.[7][8] Of the hundreds of recordings made, it was the July 1965 version by the Righteous Brothers, performed as a solo by Bobby Hatfield, that became a jukebox standard for the late 20th century. This version achieved a second round of great popularity when it was featured in the film Ghost (1990). In 2004, it finished at number 27 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.", "Shut Up and Dance (Walk the Moon song) \"Shut Up and Dance\" (stylized as \"SHUT UP + DANCE\") is a song by American rock band Walk the Moon for their second studio album Talking Is Hard (2014).[2] It was written by the band members and songwriters Ben Berger and Ryan McMahon. The song is based on an experience frontman Nicholas Petricca had at a Los Angeles nightclub. His girlfriend invited him to dance, inspiring the title. Petricca envisioned the song as an anthem for letting go of frustration and having fun. The song was digitally released as the lead single from Talking Is Hard on September 10, 2014.", "List of Pirates of the Caribbean characters Captain Armando Salazar is an undead pirate hunter who commands the ghost ship the Silent Mary. He appears in the fifth film, Dead Men Tell No Tales and is portrayed by Javier Bardem.", "Shake a Tail Feather \"Shake a Tail Feather\" (Otha Hayes, Verlie Rice, and Andre Williams) is a song originally recorded in 1963 by the Chicago-based group The Five Du-Tones.[1] (This version was featured on the soundtrack of the 1988 film Hairspray). A 1967 version by James & Bobby Purify reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100.[2]", "Silent Hill Silent Hill (Japanese: サイレントヒル, Hepburn: Sairento Hiru) is a Japanese survival horror video game franchise created by Keiichiro Toyama, developed and published by Konami, and published by its subsidiary Konami Digital Entertainment. The first four survival horror video games in the series, Silent Hill, 2, 3, and 4: The Room, were developed by an internal group called Team Silent, a development staff within former Konami subsidiary Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The later five games, Origins, Homecoming, Shattered Memories, Downpour and Book of Memories, were developed by other unrelated groups. The Silent Hill franchise has expanded to include various print pieces, two feature films, and spin-off video games.", "The Devil Went Down to Georgia The song is written in the key of D minor. Vassar Clements originally wrote the basic melody an octave lower,[citation needed] in a tune called \"Lonesome Fiddle Blues\" released on Clements' self-titled 1975 album on which Charlie Daniels played guitar. The Charlie Daniels Band moved it up an octave and put words to it. The song's verses are closer to being spoken rather than sung (i.e., recitation), and tell the story of a boy named Johnny, in a variant on the classic deal with the Devil. The performances of Satan and Johnny are played as instrumental bridges. The song was the band's biggest hit, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100, prevented from further chart movement by \"After The Love Has Gone\" by Earth, Wind and Fire and \"My Sharona\" by The Knack.[2] It is featured in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy, whose choreographer, Patsy Swayze, claims that she set the song's tempo. \"How fast can you dance it?\" Daniels asked. \"How fast can you play it?\" Swayze replied, but considering that the song was recorded in December 1978 and Urban Cowboy was filmed in 1979, it would have been impossible for Swayze to set the recorded song's tempo.[3]", "Mystic River (film) The next morning, Sean tells Jimmy the police have Katie's murderers—who have confessed. She was killed by Brendan's brother, \"Silent Ray\" Harris, and his friend John O'Shea in a violent prank gone wrong: The kids got hold of Just Ray's gun and saw a car coming which happened to be Katie's. John aimed the gun just to scare her but the gun went off by accident. The car veered onto the curb and Katie got out and ran into the park. Silent Ray and John pursued her so she wouldn't tell anyone. The beating Katie received was from Silent Ray, who had a hockey stick. Once she was beaten, John shot her again, killing her. Sean asks Jimmy if he has seen Dave, because he is wanted for questioning in another case, the murder of a known child molester. A distraught Jimmy thanks Sean for finding his daughter's killers, but says, \"if only you had been a little faster.\" Sean asks Jimmy if he's going to \"send Celeste Boyle $500 a month too?\"", "Silent k In Old English, ⟨k⟩ and ⟨g⟩ were not silent in these words. Cognates in other Germanic languages show that the ⟨k⟩ was probably a voiceless velar plosive in Proto-Germanic (compare German Knecht to knight, Knoten to knot, etc. where the initial ⟨k⟩ is not silent); likewise, ⟨g⟩ was probably a voiced velar plosive (compare German Gnom to gnome, Gneis to gneiss, etc. where the initial ⟨g⟩ is not silent).", "Silent Hill (video game) Silent Hill[a] is a survival horror video game for the PlayStation published by Konami and developed by Team Silent, a group in Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The first installment in the Silent Hill series, the game was released in North America in January 1999, and in Japan and Europe later that year. Silent Hill uses a third-person view, with real-time rendering of 3D environments. To mitigate limitations of the console hardware, developers liberally used fog and darkness to muddle the graphics. Unlike earlier survival horror games that focused on protagonists with combat training, the player character of Silent Hill is an \"everyman\".[2]", "Kenny Chesney On August 25, 2012 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Kenny Chesney announced to his fans that he would call his fan following No Shoes Nation.[40] The term No Shoes Nation originated from Chesney's hit song \"No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem\".[40] The symbol of No Shoes Nation is a black flag with a white skull and crossbones.[41] The name was accompanied by a live album called Live in No Shoes Nation, which topped the Billboard 200 after its release in late 2017.[42]", "Something He Can Feel In the original 1976 version of the film Sparkle, the song is performed by \"Sister & the Sisters\", with Lonette McKee on lead vocal, and Irene Cara and Dwan Smith on backing vocals.", "You Haven't Done Nothin' The song was one of his angriest political statements and was aimed squarely at President Richard Nixon, who resigned two days after the record's release. The Jackson Five sing the words \"Doo da wop!\" repeatedly in the chorus, when Wonder sings \"Jackson 5, join along with me, say\".[3] The song also features a thick clavinet track and an early appearance of the drum machine. The B-side \"Big Brother\", also a political statement, was taken from Wonder's 1972 album Talking Book.", "Give a Little Bit \"Give a Little Bit\" is the opening song on Supertramp's 1977 album Even in the Quietest Moments.... The song was released as a single that same year and became an international hit for the band, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.[1] It was a chart hit in the band's native UK, reaching number 29 on the UK Singles Chart.[2] The single was re-released in 1992 to raise funds for the ITV Telethon Charity event, but failed to chart.", "Silent Hill (film) Development of Silent Hill began in the early 2000s. After attempting to gain the film rights to Silent Hill for five years, Gans sent a video interview to them explaining his plans for adapting Silent Hill and how important the games are to him. Konami awarded him the film rights as a result. Gans and Avary began working on the script in 2004. Avary used Centralia, Pennsylvania as an inspiration for the town. Filming began in February 2005 with an estimated $50 million budget and was shot on sound sets and on location in Canada (Brantford, Ontario).", "The Jazz Singer The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. As the first feature-length motion picture with not only a synchronized recorded music score, but also lip-synchronous singing and speech in several isolated sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and ended the silent film era. Directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, the film, featuring six songs performed by Al Jolson, is based on a play of the same name by Samson Raphaelson, adapted from one of his short stories, \"The Day of Atonement\".", "The Load-Out \"The Load-Out\" describes the daily practices of a band and its road crew on a concert tour, and the emotions evoked throughout such an endeavor. The first three verses of the song consist of Browne singing and playing piano with David Lindley playing steel guitar. They are later joined by a synthesizer, followed by the rest of the band. Eventually \"The Load-Out\" segues into an interpretation of Maurice Williams' 1960 hit \"Stay,\" sung by Browne, Rosemary Butler, and Lindley.[1] It is Lindley who sings the falsetto.", "Song Beneath the Song \"Song Beneath the Song,\" also known as Grey's Anatomy: \"The Music Event,\" is the eighteenth episode of the seventh season of the American television medical drama Grey's Anatomy, and the one-hundred forty-fourth episode overall. It was named after a song initially performed by American singer Maria Taylor. Written by series creator Shonda Rhimes and directed by Tony Phelan, it premiered on ABC in the United States on March 31, 2011. It is the series's first musical episode, and features the cast performing songs previously featured within the program. It is accompanied by a soundtrack album, titled Grey's Anatomy: The Music Event, also released on March 31, 2011.", "Observational learning Albert Bandura, who is known for the classic Bobo doll experiment, identified this basic form of learning in 1961. The importance of observational learning lies in helping individuals, especially children, acquire new responses by observing others' behavior." ]

[ "There's a lot of grim news out there today, so here's a bit of the feel-good variety from the weekend: Zac Vawter, 31, climbed 103 floors of Chicago's Willis Tower using a prosthetic leg that he controls with his brain. Vawter achieved the feat at part of \"SkyRise Chicago,\" a charity climb put on by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Vawter was aiming to finish the climb in an hour, but he ended up finishing in just 45 minutes, the AP reports. It was a triumph of will and science. The MIT Technology Review explains how the experimental leg worked: \"The ten-pound artificial leg is being developed by a team led by Levi Hargrove from at the Center for Bionic medicine at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. \"Nerves from Vawter's amputated leg were re-attached to his hamstring in an early operation. It's those nerves that controlled the mechanical bits on his leg. 'Targeted muscle reinnervation,' a technique Hargrove has described as 'rewiring the patient,' is what allows the prosthetic to function as it does. Electrodes on Vawter's thigh translate the neuron signals to electrical instructions that move the leg.\" Vawter will now leave the leg behind. The technology won't be ready for the public for at least a few years. The Associated Press produced a video about Vawter, last week. It's worth a watch, if you're interested in the mechanics of all this:" ]

[ "Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode Transformation About Hugh Herr's Talk As the head of the MIT Media Lab Biomechatronics group, Hugh Herr is building the next generation of bionic limbs, including ones that will help end disability and also extend our physical potential. About Hugh Herr Hugh Herr is a professor at the MIT Media Lab, where he heads the Biomechatronics research group at the MIT Media Lab and co-directs the MIT Center for Extreme Bionics. He focuses on creating bionic limbs that emulate natural limbs, as well as wearable robotic devices that can augment human physicality. In 2011, TIME magazine coined Herr the \"Leader of the Bionic Age\" due to his work in the field of biomechatronics–technology that marries human physiology with electromechanics. Herr's research group has developed gait-adaptive knee prostheses for amputees and ankle-foot exoskeletons. He also designed his own bionic legs, the world's first bionic foot-and-calf system, called the BiOM.", "In peacetime, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio sees a few amputees each year. But since the war in Iraq began, all of the military hospitals have begun treating greater numbers of young people who've lost limbs. At BAMC, as the huge hospital is known, the Army has created a new team to care for these wartime amputees with different approaches and new technology. Sports medicine is the model for the program at BAMC. Doctors get their patients out of the bed and into the gym -- often while they're still grieving for lost limbs, still recovering from other wounds. The idea is to get patients to use whatever is left of their amputated limbs. If it's a leg, they make them stand up. BAMC's amputee center takes a holistic approach to treatment and recovery, bringing together doctors who treat patients' wounds, orthopedic specialists, prosthetists, psychiatrists and counselors. It also adds the latest high-tech advances to the mix. Prosthetist John Fergason uses technology to give amputees prostheses that allow them to regain their formerly active lifestyles. Among his arsenal of tools is the C-Leg, a prosthetic leg with a microprocessor that uses information from various sensors to adjust the wearer's gait, allowing for more complex, subtle movements. BAMC is also building a gait lab, a room with panels on the floor to measure weight and pressure, and computers and cameras to record movement. The information will help Fergason make even more complex adjustments to the new legs. Dr. Robert Granville, who heads BAMC's amputee center, says it may be possible soon to bolt prostheses right to the bone, the way knee replacements are now done. Researchers are also working on artificial hands that sense pressure and heat. Granville says the center's high success rate stems in part from its young, highly motivated patients, who were athletic before their injuries and have been trained to set goals. He says the Army provides the latest and best equipment so that soldiers and their doctors can break new ground on what is possible for amputees. NPR's Steve Lickteig produced this report.", "We thought we were pretty awesome when the Willis Tower here in Chicago got a glass Skydeck, but this view from the top of the Burj Dubai is another level entirely.", "One World Trade Center — the skyscraper that now rises from the site of the Twin Towers, destroyed during the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11 — has been declared the tallest building in the U.S. by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Coming in at 1,776 feet tall, the World Trade Center beat out the Willis Tower in Chicago. At issue was whether a 408-foot needle that sits atop the New York building was an architectural top or a removable radio antenna. If it had been deemed an antenna, the honor would have gone to Chicago. As NPR's David Schaper and Joel Rose reported, the architectural details have stoked opinions in both cities. During a press conference in New York, CTBUH Chairman Tim Johnson said that when he visited the World Trade Center, it became \"very clear it was a spire not an antenna.\" Johnson, who is also a partner at the global architecture firm NBBJ, said the spire was built to be permanent and that in recent days when the building started turning on its lights, it was evident the spire was an integral part of the building's architecture. The CTBUH is widely recognized as the world authority on building heights. Tuesday's finding makes One World Trade Center the third-tallest building in the world, behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel in Mecca. And Johnson notes that by another measure — tallest occupied floor — the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, continues to be the tallest building in the United States. Here's a graphic that doesn't include One World Trade Center but shows how some of the world's tallest buildings stack up.", "In September 2001, Cameron Clapp lost both legs and his right arm in a freak train accident. But thanks to a new set of high-tech prosthetics, Clapp can run again -- and he's even winning some medals. Technology reporter Xeni Jardin profiles Clapp. Supported by his large extended family -- and his identical twin brother Jesse -- Clapp has fought against his handicap to make an astounding recovery. Not only can the young man swim, run and even play golf again, he recently won four gold medals at the Endeavor Games, a sports competition for amputees.", "A deaf baby can now hear; a blind woman can now vaguely see; a quadriplegic can now hold a fork. The January issue of National Geographic tells stories of what has, until now, always been the province of science fiction: bionics. Amanda Kitts lost her arm in a car accident in 2006. A mere three years later she is doing the impossible: lifting, touching and moving with a prosthetic arm controlled by her brain. Todd Kuiken is the physician who helped develop the technology at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. \"He knew that nerves in an amputee's stump could still carry signals from the brain,\" the article reads. To make a long story short, he rewired Kitts' nervous system, connecting her brain to the nerves that would control the arm. Honestly, I don't know how it works. It shouldn't. But it does. The implications of bionic innovations are both exciting and kinda scary. It's wonderful news for Aiden Kenny, who was born deaf but can now hear the sound of his mother's voice. But where is it headed and what is the end? Will we continually have body parts replaced until we are almost entirely robotic? If you have a human brain and a robotic body, what does that make you? What do you think? Leave your comments, and check out more photos on ngm.com. Have an idea? Pitch it!The Picture Show on Facebook or on Twitter", "Today's the switch, with the 110-story Chicago skyscraper known as the Sears Tower now officially called the Willis Tower. The Chicago Tribune says the letters on the building were changed Wednesday. But as CNN.com points out, more than 90,000 people have signed up on Facebook with a group called People Against the Sears Tower Name Change. \"That's not gunna fly,\" the organization writes. \"This group is for Chicagoans and whoever else against the name change. It's for the people who will always call the tallest building in the u.s. THE SEARS TOWER.\" If you agree, there's an online petition here. Update at 11:30 a.m. ET: Chicago Public Radio reported today about the tower's $350 million \"green makeover.\"", "Prosthetic limbs have come a long way since someone first strapped on a wooden peg in about 300 B.C. Inspired by the animal world, a group of scientists at Northern Arizona University is now working on a way to make a computerized bionic ankle act like a real leg by getting muscles to behave like springs. From member station KNAU, Melissa Sevigny reports. Reporter\n\nMelissa Sevigny, science and technology reporter, KNAU. She tweets @MelissaSevigny.", "New technology is revolutionizing disabled peoples' ability to have the kind of outdoor adventures many had before losing functionality in their limbs. Amputees and people with spinal cord injuries are now off-road hand cycling, rock climbing and whitewater kayaking. Companies making innovative new gear describe cool recent innovations and challenges they're still working on. Disabled adventurers experienced and new to the scene talk about liberation through technology.", "The 110-story skyscraper in Chicago has been known as the Sears Tower since it opened in 1973. It will now be called the Willis Tower. Willis Group Holdings is a London-based financial services company. It got the naming rights as part of an agreement to lease 140,000 square feet of space.", "Construction workers applauded Thursday as a crane raised the flag-draped spire of One World Trade Center to the top of the skyscraper. When they install the spire at a later date, it will cap the structure at a symbolic 1,776 feet. The Port Authority says the spire, which acts as a fixture for various antennas, will bump the 104-story building to be the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, reports New Jersey's The Star-Ledger. However, as the newspaper reports: \"If the tip of the spire is not counted ... as the tower's architectural top, it will be the hemisphere's third tallest building ... behind Willis Tower [formerly the Sears Tower] and the 1,389-foot Trump Tower, [both] in Chicago.\" The Willis and Trump towers are ranked the ninth and 12th tallest buildings in the world, respectively, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The new tower — the primary structure in the group of buildings commemorating the World Trade Center buildings destroyed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — sits at the northwest corner of the site, where the 72-story Four World Trade Center and other buildings are also under construction, The Associated Press says. Construction on the new WTC skyscraper began Aug. 30, 2006. The spire-raising had been scheduled to occur on Monday, but was delayed by poor weather.", "On the Chicago River, developer Donald Trump is putting up 92 stories of hotel rooms and condominiums; in lower Manhattan, plans for the Freedom Tower call for it being more than 400 feet taller than the Twin Towers it will replace; and in Dubai, the Burj Dubai is set to be the new world's tallest building. Melissa Block and Michele Norris detail some of the new skyscrapers under construction or being planned in cities all over the world. MICHELE NORRIS, Host: In Chicago, there are even more skyscrapers being built. Under construction right now, 92 stories of hotel rooms and condominiums right on the Chicago River, under the watchful eye of developer Donald Trump. MELISSA BLOCK, Host: And an Irish developer is working on plans for what he calls the Chicago Spire. Detractors who don't like the way the drawings look call it the drill bit and the Twizzler tower. It would be 550 feet higher than the Sears Tower and it would hold more than 1,000 condos. NORRIS: With all these high-rise residential building, Chicago's right in line with the trend, says architectural historian Carol Willis. She's the director of the Skyscraper Museum in New York. CAROL WILLIS: Chicago is really proud of its heritage for those broad shoulders and its engineering technology. And once again, I think the city is energized on the skyscraper front. This time, it's not office buildings but residential buildings and hotels that are their new frontier for skyscraper imagery. So these very elite and elegant and of course very expensive apartment buildings give a kind of signature image and a very strong identity that in our part of the cache of this kind of living in the sky. BLOCK: Chicago's not the only city building up. In New York, at the site of the World Trade Center, work is already underway on the foundation of the Freedom Tower. The plans for the Freedom Tower call for it to be more than 400 feet higher than the twin towers it will replace. NORRIS: But the really, really big buildings are overseas. Right now, the world record holder is the Taipei 101 Tower in Taiwan. It boasts the world's fastest passenger elevators - Guinness Book certified - and a six-story shopping mall. The observation deck on the 101st floor is a record holder for the highest occupied floor in the world. BLOCK: But the Taipei 101 isn't going to be a record breaker for long, says the Skyscraper Museum's Carol Willis. Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is on a building binge to remake its image. WILLIS: The developing Dubai skyline has its very dramatic signature towers, one Al Burj, that is already finished, looks like a sailboat with a giant curve that has the appearance of a spinnaker, which is the sort of body of building in which the hotel rooms are contained. NORRIS: And one building under construction now is said to be the next tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai. WILLIS: This is a signature tower that is made possible by modern architecture and engineering and construction technology and an incredible ambition on the part of Dubai to put themselves on the map with the kind of building that always gets the world's attention. BLOCK: The Middle East has a great tradition of tall buildings. For thousands of years, the world's tallest structure was in Egypt, the Great Pyramid of Giza, more than 450 feet high. It held the record until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris.", "The U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs is hosting 220 servicemen and women who are wounded, injured or ill this week for the second annual Warrior Games. \"We have the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force, the Coast Guard and Special Operations Command all participating,\" says Charlie Huebner, chief of paralympics for the U.S. Olympic Committee. Huebner says a primary goal of the games is to encourage people with disabilities to be physically active. Some of the athletes are soldiers you've heard a lot about — injured by a roadside bomb or another combat-related injury. Others are accident victims or suffering from an illness. Participants compete in seven sports: archery, cycling, basketball, shooting, swimming, track and field, and sitting volleyball. They are chosen proportionately from the various service branches. In sitting volleyball, the net is low so that it touches the ground. And the players don't use wheelchairs, like in basketball — they sit on the floor and propel themselves however they can. \"Everybody's got different injuries,\" says Savage Margraf, 24, with the Marine Corps sitting volleyball team. \"Some of the guys are double amputees, some are single amputees below the waist. \"This is actually a sport where having legs is a disadvantage because they get in the way,\" Margraf says. She is one of the few team members who still has both arms and legs. Margraf suffers from traumatic brain injury (TBI). She says doctors attribute her TBI to two bad falls she took while serving in Iraq. One was from a watch tower on the Syrian border. \"I was helping get a 50-[caliber] barrel down — it's a machine gun,\" Margraf explains. \"We had to change out the barrels because there was a sand storm. As I was coming down the stair, the second stair from the top broke and I fell.\" Now Margraf says she has trouble with her vision. She was medically retired from the military in 2008 at 21 years old. Many of those participating in the Warrior Games are young. Teammate Jese Schag, 21, had his right leg amputated after a motorcycle accident in 2009. He played sitting volleyball in the first Warrior Games last year. \"It's all about speed, and you've got to have good hands,\" Schag says. \"You've got to be able to react — put your hands on the floor and then bring them up to get the ball.\" Margraf says the competition is fun, but she's really here for inspiration. \"We have a swimmer who is a double amputee and blind,\" Margraf says. \"How can you not come to this and leave with some sort of motivation and know that there are people that are way worse than you and they are trying?\" The Defense Department and the U.S. Olympic Committee organize the Warrior Games. Opening ceremonies were Monday. The sitting volleyball finals will wrap up the competition Saturday. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: At the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado this week, military veterans are getting ready for the second annual Warrior Games. Injured and ill servicemen and woman - 220 in all - will compete in seven different sports. NPR's Jeff Brady introduces us to one of the participants. (Soundbite of ball bouncing) JEFF BRADY: We're in a gym at Fort Carson just outside Colorado Springs. There's a volleyball net in the center. It's hung low so it touches the floor. Ms. SAVAGE MARGRAF: Everybody's got different injuries. And some of the guys are double-amputees. Some are single-amputees below the waste. BRADY: That's Savage Margraf. She's 24 years old and a member of the Marine Corps' sitting volleyball team. Some of her team-mates are the soldiers you've heard a lot about - injured by a roadside bomb or another combat-related injury. Others are accident victims or suffering from an illness. Sitting volleyball does not mean everyone is in a wheelchair. They're sitting on the floor and scooting around using whatever limbs they have to propel themselves. Ms. MARGRAF: The first day of practice, I was like, holy crap. This is really hard. This is actually a sport where having legs is a disadvantage because they get in the way. BRADY: Margraf is one of the few who has both her arms and legs. She suffers from a traumatic brain injury that doctors attribute to a couple of bad falls she took while serving in Iraq. One was from a watch tower on the Syrian border. Ms. MARGRAF: And I was helping get a 50-cal. barrel down. It's a machine gun. And we had to change out the barrels because there was a sandstorm. And I was helping one of the other guys do it and as I was coming down the stair, the second stair from the top broke and I fell. BRADY: Now Margraf says she has trouble with her vision. She was medically retired in 2008 at 21 years old. Most of the people on this team appear to be in their 20s and 30s. Margraf says she also was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She had surgery just a few weeks back. Ms. MARGRAF: I still have a pretty gruesome scar. BRADY: Margraf says she's feeling good now though. Certainly well enough to compete", "Spencer West was born with a genetic disorder that led to both his legs being amputated. West tells host Michel Martin about how he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro using just his hands and arms.", "Mark Inglis became the first double-amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest in May. We talk with Inglis from Christchurch, New Zealand, where he is recovering from frostbite suffered on the climb. According to wire reports, Inglis has retracted a claim that he alerted his team leader to the location of an ailing Everest climber during the ascent. That climber later died, and Inglis was widely criticized for not doing more to help. Earlier Inglis claimed to have continued his climb only after being told to do so by his team leader. He now says the extreme conditions may have blurred his memory.", "High-wire artist Mario Wallenda, of Flying Wallendas fame, is now a paraplegic. But this week, he rode a bicycle across a wire strung 100 feet above the Chicago River. Wallenda talks to Scott Simon about the adventure.", "Five years ago, Craig DeMartino lost part of his right leg when he fell in a mountain-climbing accident. Now he's a double gold-medal winner at the Extremity Games, an extreme sports competition for athletes missing limbs.", "Hugh Herr's legs were amputated below his knees in 1982 after a climbing accident. From his knees down to the floor, he's completely artificial. \"I'm titanium, carbon, silicon, a bunch of nuts and bolts,\" he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. \"My limbs that I wear have 12 computers, five sensors and muscle-like actuator systems that able me to move throughout my day.\" But Herr doesn't just wear artificial legs. He designs them, too. As the director of the Biomechatronics Group at the MIT Media Lab, Herr and his team are responsible for creating prosthetic devices that feel and act like biological limbs. They are also one of the subjects of Frank Moss' new book, The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Change Our Lives. Moss, the former head of the MIT Media Lab, profiles several of the researchers who are working on inventions that could change the way we move, socialize and interact with computers. Designing Limbs The prostheses Herr and his team have designed allow users with below-the-knee amputations to still participate in a variety of physical activities — depending on which pair of legs they're wearing. \"When you go into my closet, there are many, many pairs of legs. I have a running pair, I have a bionic walking pair, limbs that are waterproof,\" he says. \"I have various legs to climb mountains and to sense steep ice walls, other feet that wedge into small rock fissures [and] others that stand on small rock edges the width of a coin.\" Herr's lab has also created an artificial knee that can be used by people with above-the-knee amputations and a bionic foot-and-ankle prosthetic device that is used by many veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. \"It's actually common for the user to say, when they first try the biome technology [in the bionic foot], 'I have my leg back,' \" he says. \"We've had one fellow lose close to 30 pounds after using the device for a few months because he's walking so much more. Another person doesn't use the handicap placard — so the device has already had deeply profound effects on quality of life.\" The Accident Herr lost his own legs when he was 17. He was ascending Mount Washington in New Hampshire with another climber when the two men were caught in a blizzard. They became disoriented and descended into a ravine, where they spent four days trying to stay alive by hugging each other to keep warm. A rescuer spotted them on the fourth day and the two men were rescued. \"We suffered some severe frostbite and hypothermia because of the frostbite. ... Our physical condition, to me, was the least of my concern. We were plucked from the mountain and we were told that a volunteer rescuer had died [trying to rescue us] from an avalanche. The news of that was just horrible, so I really didn't care what was happening with my physical body. I was just devastated by the news that a fellow climber had perished.\" For several months, a medical team tried to save Herr's limbs. He had multiple surgeries to clean his tissue and try to restore his circulation. In mid-March of 1982, both of his legs were amputated. \"I was aware going into surgery that I would lose my feet,\" he says. \"When I awoke from the surgery and I looked at my legs, I was shocked at how high the amputation was and how short my legs had become.\" After his amputations, Herr says, he became motivated to do something worthwhile with his life to honor the memory of the rescuer who had died trying to save him. He went to college and then received advanced degrees from MIT and Harvard in mechanical engineering and biophysics. As a post-doc, he began working to develop better limb prostheses — and has since become one of the leading experts in the field. \"After the accident, I dreamed of returning to my chosen sport of mountain climbing,\" he says. \"So it immediately became apparent to me that what I needed to do was design my own artificial limbs. I had training in machining and carving metals and woods and making artifacts. And I went into the shop and started grinding and cutting and designing various limbs that were conducive to the vertical world of rock and ice climbing.\" Interview Highlights On immortality \"My biological body will degrade in time due to normal, age-related degeneration. But the artificial part of my body improves in time because I can upgrade. ... So I predict that when I'm 80 years old, I'll be able to walk with less energy than is required of a person who has biological legs, I'll be more stable, and I'll probably be able to run faster. ... The artificial part of my body is, in some sense, immortal.\" On the aesthetic beauty of his artificial limbs \"We want the bionic limb to have a humanlike shape but we don't want the bionic leg to look human. We want it to look like a beautiful machine, to express machine beauty as opposed to human beauty — and the reason is, we want the user to pull a black sock over their bioni", "Competitors will climb the 86 flights of stairs in Manhattan's tallest building Tuesday. Michael Karlin reveals how he trains for the challenge.", "Victims of the Boston Marathon bombing who lost limbs are adjusting to a new way of living. To get a sense of what challenges lie ahead, host Michel Martin speaks with Paralympian and double amputee Kari Miller, and physical therapist Ignacio Gaunaurd.", "Retired Staff Sgt. Travis Mills lost portions of both arms and legs when a roadside bomb exploded while he and his Army unit were on patrol in Afghanistan in 2012. He is one of only five quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive their injuries. When he made it home, he founded the Travis Mills Foundation, a non-profit that helps wounded vets. He&#8217;s also speaking out on President Biden&#8217;s plan to bring all the troops home. Mill doesn&#8217;t regret his sacrifice but he agrees that it&#8217;s time for this war to end. Here & Now&#8216;s Peter O&#8217;Dowd speaks with Mills. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "Will anyone call it Big Willy? This week, Willis Group Holdings, the London insurance brokers, announced it will lease three floors of America's tallest building to house 500 employees. And oh yes — the name of Sears Tower will be changed to Willis Tower. I don't want to sentimentalize what is, after all, a name change from one company to another, a retailer to an insurance firm. But it's hard not to see this name change as meaning something more in this current world economy. For those of us who love cities, tall buildings are the mountains of our landscapes. Their names and places are the way we find our way around: walk past the Hancock until you see the Wrigley Building, right across from Trib Tower. Those names are also markers of local history. You wouldn't want to change them according to who buys the building, any more than you would change the name of Mount Ranier or Mount Whitney according to who gets elected governor. Local reaction to renaming Sears Tower has ranged from adverse to murderous, though Mayor Richard M. Daley offered only a shrug of indifference and reminded reporters that Sears had moved its corporate headquarters to a suburb years ago anyway. As Joseph Plumeri, chairman of the Willis Group, said, \"The headline should be: A company has decided to invest money in Chicago, and if you miss that headline, you've missed the side of the building by a mile and a half.\" The profile of Sears Tower has always reminded me of four mammoth pistons, at different heights, pounding into the sky — a gorgeous signature for a powerful city. But the building's occupancy rate is down to 85 percent. After the attacks of Sept. 11, many people worried that iconic skyscrapers could become targets. A man who is distraught about the name change wrote me a note this week that suggested, \"Those who build it should get to name it.\" And that made me reflect a bit on all the money that has been spent since the boom and bubbles that began in the 1990s by people who weren't building businesses, but buying them just to sell them off. Once, you had to build something — a skyscraper, a stadium — to put your name on it. Putting a name on a building may have been a sign of ego, but it also implied a commitment to a community; something that would last more than a generation or two. Now, buildings that are considered monuments put their names up for lease. A feature in Friday's Chicago Tribune suggested that in retaliation, some Chicago developer might want to start buying London landmarks. They could rename Piccadilly Circus, \"Pick-A-Daley-Circus.\" The Tower of London? \"Sears Tower of London.\"", "There's a question that's looming over the new skyscraper at the World Trade Center site in New York: Should it count as the tallest building in the country? The developers say yes. But by some measures, the Willis Tower in Chicago — formerly known as Sears Tower — can still lay claim to the title. Now, an obscure organization known as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is preparing to settle the debate. \"It's a seminal moment for skyscrapers,\" says Antony Wood, the council's executive director. \"It doesn't come along every year.\" The issue has been hanging over the architecture world since the spring, when construction crews hoisted a 400-foot metal mast into place at the top of One World Trade Center. As far as New Yorkers are concerned, it's now the tallest skyscraper in the hemisphere. \"It's a fact. It's taller,\" says Jerry Romano of New Jersey. \"It doesn't matter to me. I'm just stating facts.\" Veronica Smalls of Harlem agrees. \"It has to be the tallest,\" she says. \"Not one of the tallest,\" interrupts her friend Tyreek Jones of Brooklyn, \" 'cause New York City needs to be known as No. 1.\" Technically, One World Trade Center is 1,776 feet, from the ground up to the light at the top of the mast, which makes it more than 300 feet taller than the top of the Willis Tower. But the observation deck at the Chicago landmark is actually farther from the ground than the highest occupied floor of One World Trade Center. \"We're standing on a sheet of glass, looking 1,353 feet straight down to the street,\" says Bob Wislow, standing on a ledge extending out from the sky deck on the 104th floor of the Willis Tower. Wislow is a lifelong Chicagoan who watched this building go up 40 years ago. Now he's chairman and CEO of the company that manages it. Wislow says he has great respect for New York and for the developers and builders of One World Trade Center, which he calls a great symbol of American resilience. But, \"I do think technically, if you strictly interpret the rules, that this would continue to be the tallest building,\" he says. \"I think it's pretty amazing,\" says Gloria Aragon. She lives in Chicago's suburbs and comes to the top of Willis Tower because the view is from a height that you cannot get anywhere else. \"Just looking out at the architecture of the city surrounding on the ledge is a pretty unique experience,\" she says. Even visitors from overseas agree. Lee Colgan and her family are visiting the sky deck from England. \"I think Chicago should have it, yeah,\" says Colgan. \"The mast doesn't matter — it's the floors, in my eyes.\" But Colgan doesn't get to decide; the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat does. It's based in Chicago — suspiciously — but it's made up of people from all over the world. Its 30-member \"height\" committee will be debating these buildings on Friday. \"The last time we did this, in 2007 ... we spent all day talking,\" says Wood. In the mid-1990s, the Sears Tower lost the title of the world's tallest building to the Petronas Towers in Malaysia (which have since been surpassed by others). Wood says \"the decision was made then to distinguish between architectural height and material height. And that got distilled down to spires versus antenna.\" An antenna is just functional — something with a technical purpose stuck on top of the building after it's finished. Spires are considered a continuation of the form of the building. The council decided that antennas should not count toward height, but spires do count because they're part of the architectural design of the building. That brings us back to that 408-foot mast on top of One World Trade Center: Is it a spire, as the designers argue? Or is it just an antenna? It certainly can and will function as an antenna, but it was part of the original architectural design to reach up to the symbolic height of 1,776 feet. What's causing controversy is that the developers and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey eliminated an ornamental fiberglass and steel cladding that was part of the original design, making it look to some more like an antenna now than a spire. In addition, some members of the council are growing concerned about the increasing use of spires to reach what Wood calls \"vanity heights.\" For example, the current tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, has a spire of 800 feet, which is a third of the building's total height. \"What it really comes down to is this: What are we measuring?\" asks Wood. \"If we are measuring man's ability to put materials above the plane of the earth, then it should just be material, irrespective of what that material or function is. Or, are we measuring man's ability to put man above the plane of the earth? Are we going with the highest occupied floor? Or something in between?\" The Council on Tall Buildings will be debating those issues at its meeting Friday in Chicago. Of course, this whole debate is sort of academic. Neither the Willis Tower nor One World Trade", "Chicago's famous Sears Tower will be getting a new name — becoming the Willis Tower. The global insurance broker Willis Group announced that will move to the renamed tower by this summer. Adriene Hill reports for Chicago Public Radio. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: The famed Sears Tower in Chicago is about to change in a very big way. Insurance broker Willis Group Holdings is moving into the tower, and they negotiated naming rights. Translation: The Sears Tower is about to become the Willis Tower. So we asked Chicago Public Radio's Adriene Hill to hit the streets and find out what people there make of that news. ADRIENE HILL: I'm standing here outside the Sears Tower, which is really an icon in the Chicago skyline. And the question is, can you really change the name of a building like this that means so much to the city? They are changing the name of this building behind us. Mr. JOHN OPEI(ph): Yeah, I saw. HILL: Yeah. They're changing it to the Willis Tower. What do you think of that? Mr. OPEI: Willis Tower, who's Willis? HILL: And that what-you-talkin'-about-Willis Tower seems to be the general consensus. John Opei says he hates the idea. Mr. OPEI: Well, the Sears Tower, you know, if the whole world knows Sears Tower, so if somebody is buying it, actually, they should keep the name. HILL: Will you ever call it anything other than the Sears Tower? Mr. OPEI: No, I'll still call it Sears Tower. Whatever name it changes, it's going to be Sears Tower to me. HILL: Yamir Padia(ph) is the greeter outside this 110-story building. He's also not a fan of the name change. Mr. YAMIR PADIA: Sears Tower was the Sears Tower and that's it. It's like a boxer - you just can't take away a boxer's, you know, pride. HILL: Pride was a big reason that people I talked to today didn't like the impending name change. Chicago can have a bit of a second-city complex. And the Sears Tower, for more than two decades the world's tallest building, is something people who don't live here actually know about. But Mark Lidodio(ph) isn't getting too worked up about this soon-to-be-called Willis Tower. Mr. MARK LIDODIO: Hey, if it keeps the building running, got to do what we got to do these days. HILL: Lidodio says he'll probably always call it Sears Tower anyway. And a spokesperson from Sears Holdings Corporation says they're not too worried about the name change, suspecting Willis Tower won't roll off the tongues of Chicagoans anytime soon. For NPR News, I'm Adriene Hill in Chicago.", "Lightning struck Chicago this week. Tornadoes were in the forecast Wednesday night, and Chicago Tribune photographer Chris Sweda rushed up to the top floor of the John Hancock building and snapped his shutter just as two bolts of lightning simultaneously zapped the spires of both the Willis Tower and the new Trump Tower. His photo is sensational: A pair of lightning bolts throwing stage-lights into the skyline. No doubt those two great lightning bolts were caused by an atmospheric discharge of electricity inside the thunderstorm. But Wednesday was also the day that a jury heard audio of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich muse with an aide that, as governor of President Obama's home state, the U.S. Senate seat it was in his power to appoint just might convince the president to name Blagojevich ambassador to India. Maybe that's why lightning struck. As Sweda's photo was zapped around the world, many people wondered if it had been some kind of computer-concocted spectacle. The Tribune convincingly explained that it was truly the providence of putting a gifted photographer in the right place at the right time. (Soundbite of thunder) SCOTT SIMON, host: Lightning struck Chicago this week. Tornados were in the forecast Wednesday night, and Chicago Tribune photographer Chris Sweda rushed up to the top floor of the John Hancock Building and snapped his shutter just as two bolts of lightning simultaneously zapped the spires of both Willis Tower and the new Trump Tower. His photo is sensational: A pair of lightning bolts throwing stage-lights into the skyline. No doubt those two great lightning bolts were caused by an atmospheric discharge of electricity inside the thunderstorm. Wednesday was also the day that a jury heard audio of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich muse with an aide that as governor of President Obama's home state, the U.S. Senate seat it was in his power to appoint just might convince the president to name Governor Blagojevich ambassador to India. Maybe that's why lightning struck. As Chris Sweda's photo was zapped around the world, many people wondered if it had been some kind of computer-concocted spectacle. The Tribune convincingly explained it was truly the providence of putting a gifted photographer in the right place at the right time. You can find a link to the photo on our website, npr.org, and be reminded that in dark and thunder miracles sometimes light up the night. (Soundbite of song, \"Riders on the Storm\") SIMON: Youre listening to NPR News.", "Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee sprinter from South Africa, will not be allowed to compete in the Olympics. Track and field's world governing body ruled that his prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage on the track. Amby Burfoot, former winner of the Boston Marathon, breaks down the ruling and talks the physics of prosthetics.", "Michele Norris talks to Nicolai Calabria, 13, who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro this summer. He climbed the 19,000-foot mountain on crutches, braving arctic temperatures. Calabria was born without a right leg; in his climb, he relied on his upper-body strength to battle the mountain. A seventh-grader from Concord, Mass., Calabria says he undertook the climb to raise money for the charity The Free Wheelchair Mission. Donations stemming from his trek will provide more than 1,000 wheelchairs to the people of Tanzania.", "Engineers in Shanghai placed supports under the five-story building and lifted it. The supports had robotic legs under them. Basically the entire building walked to its new location.", "Chicago's iconic Sears Tower has a new name. The tallest building in the U.S. was renamed the Willis Tower. Locals say it will take some getting used to.", "A man climbed to the top of Philadelphia's City Hall, about 500 feet up. City officials only found out after he posted a video on YouTube.", "April Holmes was a standout track-and-field athlete before she lost one of her legs in an accident. Now, as the world's fastest amputee, she's expected to win gold in this year's Para Olympics. Holmes talks with Farai Chideya about her struggles and triumphs on and off the track.", "The Sears Tower is gone, replaced by something called the Willis Tower. And the wound was still sore this morning when I read this in the Chicago Tribune: We need to get over it and accept globalization -- the integration of buying, selling and producing goods, assets and ideas. Borders are increasingly meaningless. The freedom of commerce and economic endeavor has given the United States access to world markets and the ability to source cheaply in an unprecedented way. It has given us an empire without imperialists. And maybe with the exception of the Eiffel Tower, we can pretty much buy and name buildings most anywhere we want." ]

[ "Yes. Off the top of my head, [the lateral line sense of fishes and similar structures like those of crocodillians](_URL_0_), passive electrosensing as in sharks and [platypuses](_URL_2_), active electosensing like in [elephant fish](_URL_1_), infrared imaging as in [Pitvipers](_URL_3_) and Pythons, all sorts of crazy chemoreception and different visual ranges (turtles, birds, many insects see in UV, mantis shrimp detect circularly polarized light)." ]

[ "Yes. Empirical evidence shows that a lot of animals can discern between living and non living objects. Now how this discrimination is made is a topic of speculation. Maybe it is the movement. Maybe it is some chemical released that interacts with receptor in the animal's body(like mosquitoes that sense CO2) or maybe they have thermal sensors like some snakes. Now, do they understand life as we understand it. Not necessarily, although we do not have proof of it. Can they discern between living and non living, atleast in their realm. Yes.", "This is simply not true. We have senses that are far better than many animals, and many animals have senses better than ours. Animals have evolved to utilize different senses to different degrees. Our vision, for instance, may not be as good as an eagle's, but it's no slouch in the animal kingdom.", "We don't know for sure, but there have been some studies and theories that seem to make sense based on our behavior. Sigmund Freud theorized that having to keep a secret causes mental distress. This makes some sense as you would have to constantly double check your actions and conversations so as not to betray your secrets. We react and converse very rapidly, and we don't always consider what we say or our actions. When we have to filter our dialog to not risk revealing some information, it adds additional work to communicating, and this is simply harder to do. One of the studies I read about involved university students carrying books to help researchers move from one lab to another. Half of them were told to keep a secret and the other half weren't. The ones told to keep a secret ended up carrying fewer books than the ones that weren't.", "Well seeing as how humans are mammals. And mammals are animals. And we have have one. Yes other animals do too", "We have no evidence that life has ever arisen anywhere in the universe aside from that one time. Sure, it makes sense that similar conditions should give rise to similar results in a similar order. But we really don't know enough about how life started to make anything but some guesses at it.", "I don't know about all animals, but dogs certainly can. Unlike humans, which rely largely on visual cues (identical twins **look** alike), dogs rely much more on scent to identify a person (even identical twins have unique scents). With 100m+ olfactory sensors (humans have around 6m), canines are much better at picking up different scents and can use them to distinguish just about anything.", "We do not *have* to aside from laws that make it so. Most of us *want* to do so because there is no need to be cruel. An animal can be raised and harvested as food without making its life up until harvesting hell.", "The answer to the second question is yes. Some animals will not remember humans because it is not a part they have required in their brains. That being said, those that do remember humans have a number of ways similar to our own senses, but on a more advanced level. There are a lot of different ways animals remember people, but the most common are through scent, sound, and sight. While we can't tell ourselves, we have a unique scent to some animals. We sound unique as well to some animals. Visually, our mannerisms and physical features are also recognizable. Animals can also make memories like we can. Some animals will have bad memories of a person and will react so when around them. Like humans, animals also have an emotional response when they recognize someone they're familiar with. They have reactions to seeing, smelling, or hearing a familiar sight, scent, or voice just like we do to other humans.", "Probably split screen yes. A lot of animals actual have eyes on either side of their head looking in different directions. And they do have some depth by focusing, just like we have if we only have one eye open. But this is no where near as good as the depth perception animals (like us) with overlapping vision have.", "Natural selection plays a big role in this. Many animals have poorer eyesight than others, but rely on their more than adequate hearing, or other senses to guide them. These animals survive just as well as the average member of their species should. For animals who have impaired eyesight without having overly acute other senses, they will get weeded out through survival of the fittest, and the members of their race who breed more will be the ones with better genes, resulting in less genetic weaknesses. **Tl;Dr:** Some animals are sure to have poorer eyesight than average, but the ones that do either have better than average other senses, or will perish.", "Many animals lack a sense of self, so they see the animal in the mirror as another animal. In addition, many animals use their sense of smell much more than their sense of sight, and as they don't smell another animal, there is nothing special in their surroundings to react to.", "Short answer: yes. The best example I can think of is in parrots. They can show signs of anxiety and other neuroses. Here's an article I found with a quick google search: _URL_0_", "In most societies we divide animals into 3 categories. Food animals, Pet/Work animals, and others. For Western Societies dogs are in the pet category. For some eastern societies they are in the food category. Some societies blend the categories almost to the point that they do not have distinction from one another, and some hold very strict lines as to what animals can be eaten, or if any animals can be eaten.", "They do. Just not as well as we do. That's to be expected though, since we primates rely so much more heavily on vision, and dogs on smell and hearing.", "We aren't. We have a sense of humor that we can easily understand, but that doesn't mean that animals don't have one. Specifically, the more intelligent animals, like chimps and dolphins love to play around and mess with each other. Even dogs can get mischievous sometimes, though that may just be instinct.", "Cephalization is the term you are looking for- the congregation of sensory cells in a part of the body. This evolved because an animal that could sense it surrounds better was more likely to to reproduce and pass on its genes- Having a concentrated cluster of sensory cells in one area also opened the possibility for these cells to interact and thus perform more intricate and complicated sensory processing", "Yes! Experiments were conducted in which caterpillars in a terrarium were made to smell a particular, non harmful gas, and then a mild electric shock was applied to them. Over their life as a caterpillar, they learned that smell=shock. After pupating into butterflies, they were exposed to the gas again, and reacted by trying to escape the incoming shock. _URL_0_", "It is tough to say but the most evolutionarily conserved sense is that of mechanical sensation I.e. Touch. A good example is that seen in E. Coli, they have mechanosensation channels called MscL and MscS. Whether it can really be called a sense I don't know. As to the other senses I would guess smell came next but after that I don't know. Edit: for the first sensation experienced it is even more tricky but early evolution of the brain seems to favour olfactory processing from what I can find so smell is as good a guess as any.", "They certainly can! It’s a really important sense for many fishes and it allows them to do things such as find food, avoid predators, locate familiar territory, and identify fish of the same species. Although fish do not use their gills to smell, instead they use olfactory receptors located within pits (nares) on their snout. Smells are carried to these receptors via the flow of water, where it comes into contact with the olfactory rosette (consisting of epithelial folds and lamellae), and upon contact a neural response is triggered in the olfactory lobe of the brain. The shape of the olfactory rosette and the number of lamellae determine how strong the sense of smell is for each type of fish. Seahorses have no lamellae and some eels can have as many as 90. [More info](_URL_0_)", "We tend to understimate animal minds. It is a proven fact that these animals can develop cognitive maps just like humans do plus they have stronger senses (hearing, smell) which may allow them to create associations to environments.", "So it's related to inheritance so I'll start there. So let's say you have a class, we'll call it \"animal\". Nothing is JUST an animal, we'll have a subclass for \"human\", \"monkey\" and \"turtle\" which inherit from animal. This is great because if there are things that we need to keep track of for all animals we can put that in the animal class and don't have to duplicate things. Now, one thing we know is that all animals eat, but they all eat differently. So we want to set up our animal class so that it doesn't have code for eating within itself, but if there are any animals that inherit from it they **must** describe how they eat. In that case we would create an **abstract method** \"Eat\" in the animal class. That will mean any new animal will be forced to describe how it eats, and we can be confident that all animals we use anywhere in our code will have **something** when we tell it to eat. Does that make sense?", "We don't need to cook our meat. We can eat it raw but it's possible to get sick because of the bacteria in the meat. Other animals can also get sick from the bacteria in meat. Aside from the fact that humans are the only animals who are capable of cooking their own meat. Some zoos cook the meat before giving it to animals to reduce the chance of getting sick.", "They are more sensitive to things. Consider these examples. For smell, imagine your neighbor is having a barbecue. Of course, you can smell it from your house. But, if you walk up the street a bit, you'll stop smelling it. A dog would probably still smell it, because its sense of smell is more sensitive. Even though only very few molecules from the barbecue are making it to its nose, it can still pick it up and recognize it, while our noses don't. For sight, draw a dot on a piece of paper and tape it to the wall. At some distance away from the wall, you'll no longer be able to see it, because the white of the paper sort of blurs it out. But a hawk could probably still see it, because its vision is sharper than ours. Sound, I believe, works both volume-wise and frequency-wise. That is, some animals just hear things louder than we do, while other animals can hear things we can't (things at very high frequencies).", "Most moles have organs known as [Eimer's Organs](_URL_2_), which are highly sensitive to touch, which help them detect movement and vibrations in their vicinity. The star-nosed mole is an extreme example of these organs (though they're present, just less developed, in other moles). The star nosed mole can 'see' and catch food [faster than the human eye can track](_URL_1_), which goes to show that their sense of touch is so highly attuned that they might be able to rely entirely on input from the Eimer's organs to navigate. Also, I remember reading [an article](_URL_0_) somewhere about moles smelling in 'stereo', which helps them build a realistic 3D model of the world in their immediate vicinity, which I'd expect helps as well. IANABiologist, however and I'm not sure which of these senses dominates and whether there is a difference in reliance on smell/touch from one species to the next. Hopefully someone who knows more will come by, I'm interested to learn about this myself. edit: Added links", "Aside from marketing? Not a whole hell of a lot. Effectively, soap is just an emulsifier, meaning it acts as a middleman between oils and water, allowing them to bond together and let the oils be carried off by the water. Some soaps have additives to be less harsh than others on hair and skin, or to otherwise change their properties (scent, texture, antibacterial, et cetera), but effectively they all do the same thing.", "Actually, they do - muscle spasms and knots are well-documented for a number of other animals.", "We have no idea. Some animals have clear \"handedness,\" some don't. In some animals it's more or less 50/50 right/left dominant, sometimes one is a majority. It's not a satisfying answer but it's all we have.", "Sort of. Ish. For Dogs. Canidae lick the corners of the mouths of other canidae higher in the pecking order to show submission. By kissing them (around their mouth) you prompt them to lick around your mouth. That is basically how they communicate \"you are my better but we are better off having you as my better\". So they do appreciate it, but only on a dog level. Side note: interacting with your pets at all (for mammals and birds mostly) helps to satisfy their social needs. Even if they don't think that you wuv dem more dan anyting else in da whole wide world, they enjoy having an entity to interact with.", "I'd say, sure, for varying definitions of \"feel\" and depending on the emotion and the animal. Vertebrates, at least, all use the same basic biochemical pathways that drive emotions in humans. Things like what causes the fear reaction in us are distributed widely, and the affection circuit is common to all mammals (particularly in mother-offspring relationships).", "You do not NEED to wipe although it is more hygienic. There is a lot of variations among animals and some do clean themselves better then others. There is also a lot of difference in how much there is for crap to get stuck to. Humans have abnormally thick muscles to be able to stand upright that most other animals don't have. We also tend to wear clothes which will stain and be infested by bacteria from the intestines. On the other hand humans do not have tails or thick fur. So some animals do wipe, some animals do not have to wipe and some just let their behinds get dirty and live with it.", "The cone cells in an animal's retina have pigments in them which absorb light which the cone then detects. It is possible to measure the spectral absorption of these pigments, which gives a good idea of what the animal can sense.", "While I can't comment on that structure specifically, Evolution doesn't necessarily lead to the overall best outcome, just what is locally more competitive (eg, 3 hands might be better, but since we have two, two with fingers is better). This gap might not serve any purpose but could be a hang over from a pathway to a current facet of evolution. If you wanted to do some research on this particular one, I might suggest comparing it reproductive tracks of quad-petal animals or different bi-pedal animals and trying to spot something that might make sense there" ]

[ "A keratin-degrading bacterium was isolated from soil containing deer fur. An axenic culture of the keratin-degrading bacterium was obtained in liquid culture using a keratin enrichment technique. The isolated bacterium was gram negative and catalase- and oxidase-positive. Transmission electron microscopic observations showed that the bacterium was rod-shaped, 1.0–1.3 μm long and 0.7 μm in diameter. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA revealed that the new isolate has only 90.6% homology with Stenotrophomonas nitritireducens. Hence, this new bacterium was designated as Stenotrophomonas sp. D-1. The optimum temperature was determined to be 20°C for maximum growth and keratinolytic enzyme production. Amino acid data, obtained after treating keratin powder with the supernatant culture, suggest that the major free amino acids resulting from keratin degradation are phenylalanine, tyrosine and valine. In addition, native chicken feather was degraded completely at 20°C in 2.5 d by this bacterium." ]

[ "A keratin-degrading bacterium was selected from a bacterial collection of the Najm Biotech Company. Molecular identification indicated that the bacterium is a strain of Bacillus cereus, which can grow and produce keratinase in basal medium containing feather as sole source of carbon and energy. The physicochemical condition (pH, temperature, incubation time, feather concentration) of keratinase production of the isolated B.cereus strain was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). A maximum keratinase production of 350 U/ml was achieved in 96 h under optimized conditions.", "Keratins are insoluble structural proteins of skin, hair, horn, wool and claws. It is resistant to the action of common proteolytic enzymes however keratin can be hydrolyzed by microorganisms that can produce keratinolytic enzyme or keratinase. The objective of this work was the production of keratinase and degradation of keratin from microorganism isolated from poultry soil in Trichy. The biochemical and molecular characterization study reveals that the bacterial strain is Pseudomonas aeruginosa gmp with accession number JX027506. The optimum temperature and pH for keratinase production was found to be 700C and 7.0. The time course for keratinase production was found to be around 6 days. Pseudomonas aueruginosa gmp could degrade waste dyed keratin in 12 days.", "A Streptomyces sp. producing a high keratinolytic activity when cultured on feather meal medium was isolated from a naturally degraded feather. Maximal keratin degradation using supernatant fluid obtained from batch culture of this organism was observed at 70 °C and pH 10. Keratinolytic activity was only partially inhibited by EDTA or PMSF, suggesting that the overall keratinolytic activity was supported by different proteases. Comparisons between proteolytic activities derived from this new strain (S.K 1-02 ) and commercial proteases indicated that S.K 1-02 could be a useful biotechnological tool in valorization of keratin-containing wastes, or in the depilation process in the leather industry.", "A phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA)-degrading bacterium, strain DP58, was isolated from pimiento rhizosoil. Based on morphology, physiologic tests, 16S rDNA sequence, and phylogenetic characteristics, it was identified as Sphingomonas sp. The PCA-degradation experiments were conducted both in Luria-Bertani and inorganic salt medium at 28 degrees C. The relationship between bacterium growth and PCA degradation suggested that strain DP58 could use PCA as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen and was able to completely degrade PCA in 40 hours. Newly isolated strain DP58 represents the first bacterium that can degrade PCA.", "Clostridium cellulovorans 743B was isolated from a wood chip pile and is an anaerobic and mesophilic spore-forming bacterium. This organism degrades native substrates in soft biomass such as corn fiber and rice straw efficiently by producing an extracellular enzyme complex called the cellulosome. Here we report the genome sequence of C. cellulovorans 743B.", "Abstract A Gram-positive bacterium isolated from a soil sample capable of growing on chondroitin sulfate as a carbon source has been isolated. From various bacteriological characteristics, the organism was identified as either an Aureobacterium or a Curtobacterium. When grown on chondroitin sulfate, the bacterium secreted a chondroitinase (EC 4.2.2.4 or EC 4.2.2.5) into the culture medium. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity as demonstrated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and has an apparent molecular weight of about 81,000. It was inhibited by Hg2+, Zn2+, Fe2+ and Cu2+ ions. The enzyme hydrolyzed chondroitin sulfate-A, -C, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid, although the hydrolysis rate for hyaluronic acid was low. On the other hand, the enzyme did not act on iduronic acid-containing mucopolysaccharides such as dermatan sulfate, heparin and heparan sulfate. A decrease in viscosity and gel filtration analyses showed that the purified enzyme degrades the substrate endolytically at the initial reaction.", "A rubber-degrading bacterium (strain Kd21) was isolated from fouling tyre water inside a deteriorated automobile tyre. The strain was aerobic, Grampositive, produced elementary branching hyphae which fragmented into rod/coccus-like elements and showed chemotaxonomic markers which were consistent with the classification of Gordonia, i.e. meso-diaminopimelic acid, N-glycolyl muramic acid, arabinose and galactose as diagnostic sugars, a fatty acid pattern composed of unbranched saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with a considerable amount of tuberculostearic acid, and mycolic acids comprising 58-66 carbon atoms with two principal mycolic acids C60 and C62 counting for over 60%. Results of 16S rDNA analyses as well as chemotaxonomic results, led to the conclusion that Gordonia sp. strain Kd2T (= DSM 44302T) represents a new species within the genus Gordonia for which the name Gordonia polyisoprenivorans is proposed.", "Abstract Hair waste is one of the solid wastes generated from leather industry. Degradation of hair effectively in short duration is an important requirement for producing value added products from this solid waste. A bacterial strain, Brevibacterium luteolum MTCC 5982 was identified for degradation of hair. The keratinase activity of the culture was 102 U/ml at 72 h, bringing about 80%degree of hydrolysis of hair. The enzyme exhibited optimum activity at pH 10.0 and at 30°C. Scanning electron micrographic studies showed the degradation of hair with disintegration of cuticle followed by cortex and medulla. Complete disappearance the peak of 2923.12 cm−1 assignable to amide N H stretch in the FT-IR spectrum indicates the breaking down of amide linkage of the keratin in 72 h. The spectra obtained from 13C NMR further confirmed the degradation of goat hair. The results suggest that the novel strain used for the biodegradation of tannery hair waste was found to be effective in degrading the hair waste.", "A halophilous protein degradation bacterium K- 1 was isolated from restaurant wastewater by salt tolerance test and fermentation test.The effect on K-1 growth of salt ratio,pH and salt species were investigated.Results showed that: Based on morphologic observation,biochemical characteristic and identification of 16SrDNA,K-1 belonged to the genus of Acinetobacter,which showed a ratio of protein degradation as high as 68.82% at20℃ with 2% salt.The strain could grow even with 10% NaCl's addition,and the optimum pH for bacteria growth was 6.5. The medium of Mg2 +and K+were neither promoting nor inhibiting the growth of K-1,Ca2 +could inhibit the growth of strain.", "ABSTRACT The moderately thermophilic bacterium Chelatococcus sambhunathii strain HT4T was isolated from hot spring sediment. Based upon the draft genome sequence, the genome is 4.4 Mb and encodes 4,147 proteins.", "A mildly thermophilic bacterium isolated from a New Mexican hot spring microbial mat is described. The organism is a budding bacterium and contained bacteriochlorophyll b as sole chlorophyll pigment. The organism grew up to 47°C and grew optimally around 42°C. The new organism required only biotin and a reduced sulfur source (for biosynthetic purposes) as growth factors, and utilized a relatively restricted group of organic compounds as sole carbon sources. The hotspring anoxygenic phototroph also fixed N2 up to 47°C and showed ammonia ‘switch-off’ of nitrogenase activity, typical of mesophilic phototrophic bacteria. The new organism, which we refer to as Rhodopseudomonas strain GI, is the first bacteriochlorophyll b-containing nonsulfur purple bacterium shown capable of growth above 45°C.", "The diesel-degrading strains, designated as MJ01 and MJ4, were isolated from oil-contaminated soil in Daejeon (South Korea) and were taxonomically characterized using a polyphasic approach and their diesel oil degradation abilities were analyzed. The isolates MJ01 and MJ4 were identified as Acinetobacter haemolyticus and Acinetobacter johnsonii, respectively, based on their 16S rDNA gene sequences, DNA-DNA relatedness, fatty acid profiles and various physiological characteristics. Strains MJ01 and MJ4 were able to use diesel oil as the sole carbon and energy source. Both strains could degrade over 90% of diesel oil with an initial concentration of 20,000 mg/l after incubation for 7 days, the most significant degradation occurred during the first 3 days. To our knowledge, this is the first report on diesel oil-degrading microorganisms among bacterial strains belonging to A. haemolyticus and A. johnsonii.", "A strain of soil bacteria was isolated by elective culture with bergenin, a C-glucoside having dihydroisocoumarin structure, as a sole carbon source, and was identified as Erwinia herbicola. In growth or replacement medium, the bacterium degraded bergenin to yield at least two major degradation products, one of them being identified as 4-O-methylgallic acid (compound I), an agivcone of bergenin. The bacterium seemed to utilize the sugar moiety of bergenin preferentially as carbon and energy sources, since the rate of further transformation of compound I by the bacterium was slow. In replacement culture with compound I, gallic acid was detected as one of the metabolites. A possible pathway for microbial degradation of bergenin is proposed.", "Samples collected from both external ear canals of six adult female African elephants (Loxodonta africana) were cultured for fungi, yeasts and aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. All the samples produced heavy growths of several aerobic bacteria, but anaerobic bacteria were rare and no fungi or yeasts were isolated. The most common bacterium isolated was Staphylococcus epidermidis, which was cultured from 11 of the 12 ears. Acinetobacter calcoaceticus lwoffi, alpha-haemolytic Streptococcus and Corynebacterium species, and Aeromonas caviae were all isolated from at least six of the 12 ears.", "A polyphasic taxonomic study was performed to characterize a new bacterial isolate, designated KMM 3654(T), from a marine bottom sand sample. The strain was Gram-negative, encapsulated, aerobic, moderately halophilic and grew between 0.5 and 10 % NaCl and at 4-42 degrees C. Its DNA G+C content was 56.4 mol%. Isolate KMM 3654(T) was phylogenetically closely related to members of the genus Oceanimonas, showing 96.7 and 95.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Oceanimonas doudoroffii DSM 7028(T) and Oceanimonas baumannii ATCC 700832(T), respectively. Strain KMM 3654(T) shared some physiological and chemotaxonomic properties with these two Oceanimonas species, but differed from them in morphology, growth at 4 degrees C, urease activity, weak phenol degradation and utilization of phenylacetate. On the basis of phenotypic and phylogenetic evidence, Oceanisphaera litoralis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain KMM 3654(T) (=DSM 15406(T)).", "We prepared an antiserum against a fraction of solubilized keratins extracted from down feathers of newly hatched chicks. The specificity of the antiserum was tested by double immunodiffusion, immunofluorescent staining, and immunoblotting after sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. All the bands except “Fast protein” reacted with the antiserum, suggesting the presence of a common antigenicity through various polypeptides in solubilized feather keratins. Delta-crystallin, which is a lens specific protein, also reacted with the antiserum. The presence of a common antigenicity between δ-crystallin and feather and scale keratins was confirmed by affinity-purification of the antiserum, and its significance is discussed.", "Two strains of a previously undescribed Actinomyces-like bacterium were recovered in pure culture from infected root canals of teeth. Analysis by biochemical testing and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of whole-cell proteins indicated that the strains closely resembled each other phenotypically but were distinct from previously described Actinomyces and Arcanobacterium species. Comparative 16S rRNA gene-sequencing studies showed the bacterium to be a hitherto unknown subline within a group of Actinomyces species which includes Actinomyces bovis, the type species of the genus. Based on phylogenetic and phenotypic evidence, we propose that the unknown bacterium isolated from human clinical specimens be classified as Actinomyces radicidentis sp. nov. The type strain of Actinomyces radicidentis is CCUG 36733.", "A bacterium isolated from a tiger was identified as serotype Fg and capsule type A, pasteurella multocida by morphological, germiculture, staining, biochemical characteristics, and capsular tests. The animal regression test showed that the bacterium has high pathogenicity. The result of resistance test to 20 drugs showed that the bacterium was sensitive to neomycin, cefazolin and kanamycin, but highly resistant to another drugs that were used. Virus particle was not detected through negative staining by electron microscope and virus isolated according to the cells and chicken embryos.", "Ten white-tailed deer were shot and killed at a Connecticut farm that had a 6-year history of bovine paratuberculosis, and organs from these animals were examined for evidence of paratuberculosis. Mycobacterium paratuberculosis was isolated from the cecal lymph node, terminal ileum, and ileocecal valve of 1 deer and from the cecal lymph node of another. Characteristic lesions and acid-fast bacilli were not observed. It was concluded that infected deer could serve as sources of infection for domestic stock.", "In this paper,the structure,the molecular weight and dissolution method of wool were introduced.Reduction was the main method of dissolving wool,only to cut off the disulfide bonds intact keratin primary structure was the main direction of hydrolysis of keratin.Some problems were discussed appear in the reduction dissolution of the the wool and put forward some opinions and ideas.Some new dissolved agent and crosslinking methods of protein were introduced.In view of the molecular weight of keratin was small,to increase the molecular weight of keratin solution by adding cross-linking agent in the keratin solution was the main method to improve the application performance.", "We report here the identification, characterization and culture of a Gram-negative to Gram-variable, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming anaerobic bacterium (strain FM1025(T)) isolated from the caecum of a duck. Phylogenetic analysis based on comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that this strain clustered with species of the family 'Acidaminococcaceae', with 94.9 % similarity to Megamonas hypermegale DSM 1672(T) and less than 91 % similarity with type strains of Pectinatus species. Sequence similarities of at least 98-99 % were observed with numerous sequences deposited in GenBank of uncultured strains from human and chicken caecal contents, but this strain is the first isolate of this taxon to be cultivated and described. On the basis of morphological, physiological and phylogenetic features, this strain should be assigned to a novel species in the genus Megamonas, for which the name Megamonas rupellensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is strain FM1025(T) (=DSM 19944(T) =CIP 109788(T)).", "The purpose of this research was to isolate thermophilic microorganism capable of producing raw-starch-granule-digesting amylases at higher temperatures (50 to 60 o C). This paper (i) describes the isolation and identification of a bacterium capable of producing a thermostable and raw-starch-digesting amylase and (ii) gives a preliminary characterization of that amylase", "Abstract Soy protein isolate (SPI) and hydrolyzed keratin (HK) were employed to develop compression molded films. In contrast to other studies, in which toxic chemicals or expensive methods are usually employed to hydrolyze feather keratin, in this research a novel approach was addressed. A solution of NaOH (1 M) was employed and the use of high temperatures was avoided during the process in order to obtain a simple, environmentally friendly and inexpensive method to hydrolyze feather keratin, which can be used for the development of thermoplastic films. In addition to the valorization of agro-industrial waste, the main aim of the incorporation of hydrolyzed feather keratin into film forming formulations was to increase the sulfur content and, thus, the ability to form disulphide bonds, improving the chemical and thermal stability of the resulting films.", "A mesophilic, acidophilic, spore-forming bacterium, strain 105-2T, was isolated from an acidic Sphagnum peat bog in Wisconsin, USA. Strain 105-2T has 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Bacillus sporothermodurans DSM 10599T and Bacillus oleronius DSM 9356T of 97·4 and 97·8 %, respectively. The primary lipoquinone is MK-7 and the major fatty acids are 15 : 0 iso, 15 : 0 anteiso and 17 : 0 anteiso. The predominant polar lipids were found to be diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and a glycolipid. The DNA G+C content was found to be 43·2 mol%. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular analyses identified strain 105-2T as a novel Bacillus species, for which the name Bacillus acidicola is proposed. The type strain is 105-2T (=DSM 14745T=ATCC BAA-366T=NRRL B-23453T).", "Sixty-three local white-rot fungi were isolated from soil and wood samples on potato dextrose agar (PDA). All these isolates were screened for their ability to degrade 4 textile azo dyes;Ponceau 2R (C.I. 16450), Orange G (C.I. 16230), Direct Blue 71 (C.I. 34140) and Biebrich Scarlet ::: (C.I. 26905). Out of 40 isolates that gave positive results, only 1 promising isolate which completely degrades all 4 dyes in the minimum amount of time was selected for further investigation. This isolate was sourced from University Putra Malaysia (UPM) Serdang campus.The isolate was tentatively identified as Coriolopsis sp. Strain arf5 based on the analysis of the ::: internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Nutritional studies on defined solid medium showed that this isolate was only able to degrade the 4 azo dyes under nitrogen-limiting conditions and an additional carbon source (glucose) need to be added to provide sufficient energy for the degradation to occur. Various parameters were optimized.", "Objective:To construct PCR cDNA library of sika deer (Cervus nippon Temminck) liver, establish gene data base of sika deer Methods:Total RNA was extracted from sika deer liver and transcribed into cDNA Using PCR library synthetic kit, the PCR cDNA library was constructed followed the Protocol provided by Takara Co The individual cDNAs were isolated and sequenced Results:The cDNA library contains cDNA fragments of different lengths A cDNA encoding complement C3 alpha chain of sika deer was isolated from the library and was submitted to Genbank (accession number AF264631) Conclusion:Have successfully constructed the PCR cDNA library of sika deer liver, from which were isolated partial gene encoding complement C3 alpha chain", "Mycobacterium bovis and, more rarely, Mycobacterium caprae, may cause zoonotic bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in an extensive range of animal species. In Portugal, during 2009, a remarkable raise of bTB incidence was registered in cattle along with an increase of new cases in wildlife. In this work, we reassess and update the molecular epidemiology of bTB in wild ungulates by including 83 new M. bovis and M. caprae isolates from wild boar and red deer obtained during 2008-2009. Spoligotyping identified 27 patterns in wild ungulates, including 11 patterns exclusive from deer and five from wild boar. The genetic relatedness of wildlife and livestock isolates is confirmed. However, the relative prevalence of the predominant genotypes is different between the two groups. Contrasting with the disease in livestock, which is widespread in the territory, the isolation of bTB in wildlife is, apparently, geographically localized and genotypic similarities of strains are observed at the Iberian level.", "In this study, we investigated the use of indigenous bacterial species from contaminated site to degrade kerosene. The method of continual enrichment on kerosene, yielded bacterial isolates with potential of utilizing kerosene as growth substrates. The time course studies monitored by the optical density (OD) and pH fluxes of the pure cultures in varying concentrations of kerosene resulted in exponential increase in cell numbers and decline in the pH values. From the morphological and biochemical characterization and comparison with respect to the standard references, the isolates were presumably the members of the genera Rhodococcus Bacillus and Aerobacter species. All the strains readily utilized the kerosene as sole sources of carbon and energy. Key Words: kerosene, degradation, enrichment, optical density, pH", "The preparation of a novel biodegradable polyurethane derived from Wattle Tannin (WTPU) was studied. And the inhibition effect of Wattle Tannin (WT) and WTPU on microorganisms including ten kinds of germs, two kinds of yeasts and five kind of molds were investigated. WTPU had evidently antimicrobial effect similar to that of WT, and antimicrobial stabilization was ascribed to WT as crosslinking agent in WTPU.", "Bacterium SHB109 obtained from deep-sea sediment collected from the South China Sea was characterized with morphological combined with 16S rDNA sequence analysis and confirmed strain was Bacillus subtilis subsp.spizizenii.Three compounds were isolated from its fermentation broth,and identified as surfactin family through 1H-NMR,13C-NMR and HRESIMS data analysis: ai-C13,i-C14,ai-C15(Glu-Leu-Leu-Val-Asp-Leu-Leu) respectively.", "Isoelectric focusing combined with specific enzyme staining for creatine kinase was used to characterize banding patterns in meat from pronghorn, mule deer, white-tailed deer, sheep, moose, pork, bison, elk, caribou, red deer, beef and goat. Processed and cooked pork was differentiated from all species and beef and elk were separated from pronghorn. It was not possible to differentiate beef from elk, or pronghorn from sheep. The inability to separate some game from some domestic species and the lability of the staining proteins after heating above 67 degrees C limits the application of this technique.", "Abstract Altererythrobacter epoxidivorans CGMCC 1.7731 T is a Gram-negative bacterium isolated from marine sediments. It is able to utilize benzo[a]pyrene as sole carbon and energy source. Here, we describe the complete genome sequence and annotation of A . epoxidivorans CGMCC 1.7731 T . The genome has a size of 2,786,256 bp (61.50 mol% G + C content), which consists of 2773 coding genes, 43 tRNA genes and 3 rRNA genes. According to the genome information, strain A. epoxidivorans CGMCC 1.7731 T encodes 22 genes related to degradation of benzo[a]pyrene. These genes may have potential in bioremediation of PAH-polluted environments." ]

[ "Mrs Hauksbee" ]

[ "heroin addict", "injecting heroin", "heroin", "heroin addiction", "a heroin overdose", "trafficking heroin", "Amazing Stories", "The Story of an Hour", "Yoshi's Story", "Seven Days of Heroin", "This Is the Story", "The Berlin Stories", "The Story of Abraham", "The Story of the Stone", "17 stories", "The Who by Numbers", "Stories of the Century", "31 stories", "The Meyerowitz Stories", "Story of Lord", "The Who's Tommy", "Love Story", "two stories", "The Norfolk Story", "who is singing", "Who Dat", "The Complete Stories", "Bedtime Stories", "Dr. Who", "Story County", "29 stories", "The Story of Adidon" ]

[ "London (CNN) -- Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite, who starred in \"Inception\" and \"The Usual Suspects,\" has died at the age of 64, his agent said Monday. Highly intense, with a bulbous nose, high cheekbones and ruddy complexion, the actor was immediately recognizable in films ranging from the second \"Jurassic Park\" movie to \"Romeo + Juliet.\" It was for his role as Daniel Day-Lewis's father in the IRA drama \"In the Name of the Father\" that he got his only Oscar nomination, for best supporting actor. He lost out to Tommy Lee Jones for \"The Fugitive.\" He also starred in the British brass band movie \"Brassed Off,\" and worked with Steven Spielberg on the slave revolt story \"Amistad.\" Spielberg reportedly called him \"the best actor in the world,\" prompting Postlethwaite to respond that what the director actually said was that he \"thought he was the best actor in the world.\" He made his name as part of a cohort of great British actors including Bill Nighy, Anthony Sher, Jonathan Pryce and Julie Walters at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, England, in the 1970s. He returned to the Everyman in 2008 to play King Lear in Shakespeare's great tragedy. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, in 2004. Postlethwaite died of cancer, British media reported. CNN's Carol Jordan contributed to this report." ]

[ "By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 12:21 EST, 13 January 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 19:27 EST, 13 January 2013 . The Church of Scientology has vehemently denied claims made in a sensational new book that Tom Cruise auditioned a host of Hollywood beauties including Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan and Kate Bosworth to be his wife before settling on Katie Holmes. Allegedly disappointed by his split from Oscar-winning actress Penelope Cruz in 2004 after she failed to embrace Scientology, Cruise, 50, allowed senior members of the church to summon the unwitting stars to read for a non-existent part in the 'Mission: Impossible' series. According to 'Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison Belief', the Top Gun star initiated the unusual casting couch-style marriage interviews after a complaint to his sister at a Scientology church opening in Madrid that no one had been able to find him a new girlfriend. Actresses Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Alba (right) were reportedly auditioned by Scientologist's looking to find a new wife for Tom Cruise . Actor Tom Cruise attends the 'Jack Reacher' press conference at Conrad Hotel on January 10, 2013 in Seoul, South Korea . Actresses Kate Bosworth and Lindsay Lohan were also reportedly considered for the role of Tom Cruise's wife and were asked to attend casting for a bogus role in a new Mission Impossible film . The Hollywood mega-star also allegedly made the same complaint to Scientologist leader and his best friend David Miscavige after his three year relationship with Cruz ended, who according to the book wasted no time in beginning the search for a suitable Mrs. Cruise. Lawyers for Tom Cruise have vehemently insisted that no such conversations ever occurred while he was in Spain. However, the tell-all book, penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright, alleges that Scientologist matchmakers arranged for 'auditions' at the organisation's Celebrity Center in Los Angeles and invited the bevy of what were young and promising actresses. The book claims that each of the girls including hell-raiser Lohan, who was 18 in 2004, Alba, who is now happily married with two children and Johansson, were not chosen and in 2005 Cruise instead met Katie Holmes and then infamously jumped on Oprah Winfrey's couch. Marriage: Actors Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise arrive at the 2012 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Sunset Tower on February 26, 2012 in West Hollywood, California . Holmes, who is now 34, split from Tom cruise in 2012 and took primary custody of their child, Suri. The book also claims that prior to the auditions of the would-be stars, Cruise was hooked up with British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi, who is now 32. Vanity Fair magazine's special correspondent Maureen Orth reported that Shelly Miscavige, the wife of David Miscavige was part of the search to find Tom Cruise a suitable girlfriend. The magazine contended that Boniadi was convinced by Scientology leaders that she had been selected for a project that would help further her religion and would lead to her meeting 'world leaders' and having an influential role in the church. Allegedly, top Scientology official Greg Wilhere told the actress to darken her hair, remove her orthodontic braces and that she break up with her long term boyfriend, who was also part of the controversial religion and with whom she was reportedly deeply in love. When she refused to do that, Wilhere allegedly showed Boniadi evidence that her boyfriend had cheated on her and that led her to break up their relationship. Tom Cruise allegedly became disappointed by the break down in his relationship with Penelope Cruz in 2004 and asked Scientologist leader David Miscavige (right) for his help . Tom Cruise during his much-maligned couch jumping episode in 2005 on Oprah as he declared his love for Katie Holmes . She was flown to New York to meet Cruise and he swept her off her feet with an amazing series of dates that included visits to the Empire State Building, dinner at Nobu, skating at the Rockefeller Center and nights spent at the Trump Tower. In fact, she so impressed Cruise that he asked her to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which is generally acknowledged to be a sign that the actor is keen to persue the relationship and make it serious. Tommy Davis, a Scientology executive, told Boniadi that her new life with Cruise was all about keeping him happy. 'Davis warned her that if she did anything to upset Cruise, he would personally destroy her,' the book reported. 'Davis and (Scientology official) Jessica Feshback were constantly tutoring her in how to behave toward the star.' The auditions for the role of Tom Cruise's new wife allegedly took place at the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Center in Los Angeles . However, the pairing did not work out and Feshback is said to have ordered Boniadi to pack her belongings and leave Cruise's home. She is said to have last seen the Hollywood actor working out in his home gym and has never heard from him again. And when she confessed her love for Cruise to another Scientologist, the church sent her to Clearwater in Florida and asked her to scrub public toilets with a toothbrush, the book reported. The church has denied all allegations of cruelty towards Boniadi for speaking to anyone about Tom Cruise. The reason for the unusual auditions organised by the Church of Sceintology stem from their interest in keeping their best known member happy. He is also a huge donor to the religion, reportedly handing over $3 million in 2004 alone. Divorce: Katie Holmes attends \"12-12-12\" a concert benefiting The Robin Hood Relief Fund to aid the victims of Hurricane Sandy at Madison Square Garden . Nazanin Boniadi reportedly dated Tom Cruise before his marriage to Katie Holmes . Before his marriage to Holmes, Cruise and Miscavige harbored political ambitions for the actor, alleges the book. 'If f******g Arnold (Schwarzenegger) can be governor, I could be President,' said Cruise. 'Well, absolutely, Tom,' replied Miscavige. Lawyers for Cruise have denied that converstaion ever took place. The book also details Cruise's failed attempts to try and recruit Steven Spielberg into the Scientology fold after the Oscar winning director cast the actor in 'War of the Worlds'. However, Cruise became angered after her learnt of a conversation between Spielberg and Paul Haggis, the director of the Oscar winning movie 'Crash'. Allegations: Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright will be published on January 17 . 'I've met all these Scientologists, and they seem like the nicest people,' Spielberg is alleged to have said reports the New York Daily News. 'Yea, we keep all the evil ones in the closet,' replied Haggis, who at the time was a Scientologist before leaving the church in 2009. Haggis says that he was called in by the church executives for a dressing down over the remarks and ordered to write a letter of apology to Cruise. When his first draft was rejected, Haggis was made to write an even more contrite letter to Tom Cruise. A Spielberg publicist said the director doesn’t recall the brief exchange with Haggis, and Cruise’s lawyer said the actor does not remember the incident.", "(CNN)Brad Pitt has a solution to everyone who's been tripped up by \"Selma\" star David Oyelowo's name: Just sing it. At the 2015 Palm Springs International Film Festival awards gala on Saturday, Pitt -- a \"Selma\" producer -- led the audience in a singalong of actor's surname. Oyelowo, who was born in Britain, is the son of Nigerian immigrants. \"In situations like this, I found it sometimes helps to sing it,\" he told the audience after their uncertain attempt to say the name. \"O-yell, o-yell, o-yell,\" he started. That didn't quite do the trick, so he tried a couple bars of Coldplay's \"Yellow.\" Awards presenters may be getting many chances to say \"Oyelowo.\" The actor has been nominated for several honors for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in \"Selma,\" including a Golden Globe, and he's considered a leading candidate for a best actor Oscar. As for the mispronunciations, people shouldn't feel too bad. Oyelowo told Jimmy Fallon that it's not an easy name to say properly and that his father questions the accents in the Western pronunciation. But, he added, that's OK: His father has trouble with \"Oprah Winfrey\" and \"Steven Spielberg.\"", "British actor and film director Richard Attenborough, who died at the age of 90 on Saturday, won the imagination of millions over his 60-year career on the screen. In the early years he was best known for his roles in Brighton Rock and The Great Escape, and later for his behind-the-scenes part as director and producer of Gandhi, which won him critical acclaim for his 'typically sympathetic and sure-handed' direction of the movie. Meanwhile his role as the 'best Santa ever', according to his co-star Dylan McDermott in the remake of Miracle on 34th Street in 1994, moved a generation of children born in the Eighties. And in his part as the eccentric millionaire in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park in 1993 and later in the 1997 sequel, Lord Attenborough continued to win the hearts and minds of cinema-goers. 1. Jurassic Park . Attenborough became a cult figure for youngsters in the 1994 film and 1997 sequel with his role as John Hammond, a sympathetic grandfather who builds a dream-come-true dinosaur park. Welcome to Jurassic Park: Many people know him as the eccentric millionaire and sympathetic grandfather, John Hammond, in Steven Spielberg's dinosaur blockbuster . 2. Gandhi . Produced and directed by Attenborough, the 1982 film looks back on the leader of India's independence movement against the UK's rule of the country during the 20th century. The biographical movie bagged eight Academy awards - a record for British film - including best director. 3. Brighton Rock . Attenborough first appeared on the screen in this 1947 film as psychopathic gangster Pinkie Brown. It was a role that cast him as a hoodlum for the next few years until he moved on to play more sympathetic characters. Merry Christmas: Richard Attenborough won the imaginations of New Yorkers in the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street in his role as Santa Claus . 4. Miracle On 34th Street . Attenborough's brilliant performance convinces the children of New York that he is Santa Claus. But when he ends up in court, his trademark twinkle and white beard doesn't cut the mustard and he relies on help from six-year-old Susan to prove he's the real deal in this 1994 remake. 5. The Great Escape . During the Sixties, Attenborough showed a fondness for military roles, playing the POW mastermind Bartlett in The Great Escape in 1963. He later went on to play the ship's engineer Frenchy Burgoyne in The Sand Pebbles in 1966 and Sergeant Major Lauderdale in Guns at Batasi in 1964.", "Scathing: Steven Spielberg criticised the way some films are financed these days . Steven Spielberg has vowed he will never again edit his films to make them more politically correct. The . Oscar-winning director, 64, told the Daily Mail that he ‘deeply regrets’ changing a scene . in his 1982 movie E.T. for a 20th anniversary DVD release. The . guns of officials hunting the eponymous alien were replaced by . walkie-talkies, supposedly to make the film more suitable for family . viewing. But despite . his reservations about the changes, Spielberg said both the original and . modified versions will be released on Blu-ray to celebrate the 30th . anniversary of the film, which won four Academy Awards. ‘A lot of kids only know E.T. from the digitally-enhanced version,’ he explained. ‘So . in order not to traumatise that entire generation, I’ll probably come . out with the old version and the enhanced version, but sell both at the . same time, for the same price, so you can make your choice.’ Spielberg was speaking in Richmond, Virginia, where he is shooting the presidential biopic Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. In a scathing attack on the current state of Hollywood, Spielberg revealed there are ‘not a lot of films’  made over the past 20 years that he would watch. The director of such blockbusters as Jaws, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Saving Private Ryan said that before starting a new project, he always revisits classic films from the golden age of cinema for inspiration instead. He cites The Seven Samurai, Lawrence Of Arabia and It's A Wonderful Life - as well as silent movies - as the films he uses for 'getting his engine started'. Timeless: Spielberg said he turns to classic films such as It's A Wonderful Life for inspiration . ‘They’re all told visually and they’re . all told with hyper-extended performance and with wonderful use of a . frame,’ he told the Sunday Times. Spielberg also criticised the way modern films are financed. He argued that producers are wrongly . more interested in backing concepts rather than directors and writers, and that . the hedge funds backing films demand the guarantee of a big actor. ‘My whole career has survived without big movie stars,’ he said. Despite his blunt assessment, Spielberg revealed he probably sees more than 100 movies a year – and never walks out, no matter how bad a film may seem. Golden age: Spielberg watches films such as Lawrence of Arabia as a way of 'getting his engine started' before beginning work on a new film . Scroll down for trailer . Hit: The stage version of War Horse has packed out theatres in London and New York . Adaptation: Spielberg's adaptation of War Horse is due for release in January 2012 . Raiders Of The Lost Ark: Won four Academy Awards and remains one of the top 20 highest-grossing films in North America ever made. ET: After its release in 1982, it held the record for highest-grossing film of all time for 11 years. The Hershey Company's profits rose 65 per cent due to the film's prominent use of Reese's Pieces. Won four Academy Awards. Schindler’s List: Won seven Academy Awards including Best Director, grossed $321.2 million worldwide. Jaws: Grossed $470million worldwide at the box office, won three Academy Awards. Saving Private Ryan: Won five Academy Awards, nominated for a further six, grossed $481.8million worldwide. Jurassic Park: Grossed  $900million worldwide, becoming the most successful film released up to that time, won three Academy Awards. Close Encounters of the Third Kind:  Grossed $288million . ‘I even get inspired by movies that aren’t very good, because there’s always something good in movies that are collectively thought of as a failure. There’s good in everything, I find,’ he said. He recently completed a film based on the theatrical hit War Horse, due for release in the UK on January 13. The play about the brutality of the First World War, seen through the eyes of a horse, was based on a children’s book by Michael Morpurgo. It is still being staged to packed houses in London and New York. The film stars Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson and Peter Mullan. War Horse is one of six films Spielberg has in production, along with a further 24 in development. The director has no plans to retire, instead hoping to direct ‘as long as I can’. While in the UK filming War Horse, Spielberg fell in love with English idiosyncrasies. He said he and his children became ‘sappy devotees’ of the X Factor, and he liked the way the crew on set called him ‘Guv’.", "(CNN) -- It's hard to believe it's been 30 years since E.T. and Elliott took a ride across the moon. As Henry Thomas, who played Elliott in the movie \"E.T.,\" said, \"ironically enough, even with today's technology and knowledge of movie magic, people still ask me how they made the bike fly. They used a blue screen and rear projection. It's an old trick.\" Steven Spielberg's \"E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial\" was the biggest blockbuster of 1982, winning four Academy Awards. It remains the fourth most-successful movie of all time in the U.S. \"E.T.\" even surpassed \"Star Wars\" as the highest-grossing film of all time and wasn't beat until another Spielberg film came along: 1993's \"Jurassic Park.\" One of the reasons \"E.T.\" remains timeless is because it wasn't supposed to be an effects-heavy film. Memorable visuals, like the bicycle scene, were seamlessly woven in. Spielberg didn't want audiences \"ooohing\" and \"aaahing\" over special effects. He simply wanted it to look like he'd shot a perfect night moon, because he did just that. That was the real moon. The visual effects team spent several nights charting the moon and scouting locations for the perfect spot in the forest at the perfect time. Thomas, who was 10 years old when he made \"E.T.,\" said he'll never forget the distinct smell of the Culver City soundstage. \"Soundstages have a very particular smell,\" he explained, \"and to this day whenever I have that, it takes me back to those days, because those are pretty much the first memories I have of working on a set.\" Thomas, now 41, described the smell as \"a combination of new lumber, cigarette smoke and fog machines. They used a lot of atmospheric fog.\" He also recalled eating Reese's Pieces by the fistful. In the film, Elliott lures E.T. into his house by leaving a trail of the candy. \"I made myself sick from eating them because we always had those 2-pound bags lying around,\" Thomas said. \"They were set dressing in Elliott's room, so in between takes, I was constantly eating those things. In fact, when I saw Steven -- we did an interview together earlier this year -- and when I saw him, I said something about how I ate too many of those things, and he said, 'Oh, yeah, I know you did. You were eating those way too much.' \" Producers originally wanted to use M&Ms, but parent company Mars Inc. passed. On a more sentimental note, Thomas believes that the reason \"E.T.\" still resonates with audiences today is because \"people respond to the message of compassion and friendship. It's a simple, very human thing.\" Actress Dee Wallace, who played Elliott's mother, Mary, said, \"it's our 'Wizard of Oz,' and it's something that every generation wants to pass down to the next generation and share with it and tell the stories about.\" Wallace said she believes \"E.T.\" remains a global cultural phenomenon because \"it's all about love and keeping your heart open. And when you do that, even the little alien from outer space can be your best friend.\" In a recent interview featured on the new 30th anniversary \"E.T.\" Blu-ray/DVD, Spielberg said that the idea for \"E.T.\" came to him when he was directing 1977's \"Close Encounters of the Third Kind.\" He thought of doing a scenario where the alien didn't return to the mothership. He'd also wanted to make a film exploring how divorce impacts pre-teens. (The director himself endured his own parents' divorce when he was 15.) So in collaboration with screenwriter Melissa Mathison, Spielberg combined those two ideas to create \"E.T.'s\" sweet story about a lonesome boy rescued -- by an alien -- from the sadness of his parents' divorce. Referring to \"E.T.\" as \"the most personal thing I'd done as a director,\" Spielberg stated that his intention all along was to tell the tale from the kids' points of view. Except for Wallace's character, \"all the other adults are either silhouetted, shot at a long distance or from the waist down,\" said Spielberg, \"until the critical moment where E.T. is dying, and then for the first time, we see the character of Keys.\" Spielberg also noted that working with Thomas, a then-6-year-old Drew Barrymore (Gertie) and 15-year-old Robert McNaughton (Michael) made him want to be a father. The director recalled viewing a number of early concept sketches before committing to E.T.'s look. He was adamant that the little alien not resemble a monster. Interestingly enough, the director envisioned a combination of Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandberg, because he wanted E.T.'s oversized eyes to look \"as wizened and as sad as those icons.\" E.T. began shooting in September 1981 and wrapped that December. It was filmed under the code name \"A Boy's Life\" because Spielberg feared plagiarism of the plot. Actors were instructed to read the script behind closed doors; everyone on-set had to wear an ID card. Most of E.T.'s voice work was performed by an elderly woman named Pat Welsh, whose two-pack a day smoking habit gave her voice the deep quality Spielberg had envisioned. However, there were 18 contributors to E.T.'s voice in total. To create sounds ranging from E.T. talking and breathing to snorting and drunkenly burping, the contributors included Spielberg himself, sound effects creator Ben Burtt's sleeping wife who had a cold, a burp from a University of Southern California film professor, raccoons, sea otters, horses and actress Debra Winger's signature husky voice. (You can't make this stuff up.) Winger also has a cameo in \"E.T.\" during the trick-or-treating scene. She's dressed as a doctor wearing a monster mask carrying a poodle in a clown costume. (You really can't make this stuff up.) Spielberg gave Winger the \"E.T.\" script and had her record every single one of E.T.'s lines into a tape recorder. In the scene where government agents have taken over Elliott's home, real doctors from USC Medical Center were recruited to play the doctors who try to save E.T., because Spielberg felt that actors talking about technical medical matters didn't seem natural. In addition, Spielberg cut a scene featuring Harrison Ford as the headmaster at Elliott's school. Spielberg recalled receiving \"stacks\" of congratulatory telegrams upon \"E.T.'s\" premiere during the Cannes Film Festival in June 1982, but the most treasured one came from Francois Truffaut, who said, \"You belong here more than me.\" At a White House screening, Spielberg sat next to President Reagan and noted that \"the president's face became very childlike. His mouth was open, his eyes were wide, and I suddenly saw a 10-year-old boy.\" Thomas added that he is \"pleasantly surprised\" by the film's resonating success. \"I never really thought when we were filming that it would ever be a success. It literally took until about 10 years ago for me to realize, 'Wow! This \"E.T.\" thing isn't going away.' \"", "(CNN) -- It's that time of year for seasonal trips to the movies, and to celebrate, the Screening Room is taking a look back at our favorite family hits over the years. The best of Spielberg: \"E.T.\" is our perfect family movie and perfectly captures childhood. From blockbuster to blockbuster, these are the films with something for everyone. They've got to be live action -- we've covered animated films before -- and family friendly. Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Post your comments to the Screening Room blog and we'll publish the best. Read other CNN viewers' favorite and worst family films, and tell us yours >> . 1. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) Spielberg's magic captures a perfect moment in childhood. We laughed and wept as his ugly little critter from outer space stole our hearts, while the kids fell firmly on the cute side of annoying. And oh, the music... 2. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971) Gene Wilder's whacked-out Willy Wonka adds a pinch of sinister to Roald Dahl's anarchic sweet treat, while the ignoble exits of Veruca Salt, Augustus Gloop and Mike Teevee were delicious. 3. Babe (Chris Noonan, 1995) \"That'll do, pig.\" Babe is wide-eyed with wonder in Dick King-Smith's touching tale of a lonely little sheep-pig. Comic relief from the ewes, subtle special effects and a heartwarming turn from James Cromwell as Farmer Hoggett make this a magical tale for all. 4. Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 1976) Jodie Foster and Scott Baio (Yes, Chachi from \"Happy Days!\") star in this glorious escapade set in a musical world of pint-sized gangsters and mini-molls. Al Capone for the kids; just watch out for the splurge guns... 5. Oliver! (Carol Reed, 1968) Jack Wild is delightful as the Artful Dodger, Ron Moody's devilish Fagin glints with avaricious greed and Shani Willis shines as poor, ill-fated Nancy. But it's Oliver Reed's dark and sinister Bill Sykes who stayed with us -- and left us wanting more. 6. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) Christopher Lloyd's mad professor, a Delorean-cum-time machine, rock 'n' roll and a convenient bolt of lightning see Biff the bully get his come-uppance. All that, and a skateboarding Michael J. Fox? Mr Zemeckis, you spoil us! 7. Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990) Macaulay Culkin's abandoned little boy sees off bungling burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern with a series of eye-watering stunts. It proves just how great a child actor Culkin was; pity the unpopular babysitters who became the victims of copycat pranksters... 8. Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984) Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis blast ghostly green monsters to oblivion in this slime-filled romp around NYC, while taking time out to annoy Sigourney Weaver en route. Who you gonna call? 9. The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979) Kermit and Co.'s roadtrip to Hollywood is a fabulously fuzzy tale of friendship and following your dreams, but the Muppet Movie's not just for kids: there's cameos a-plenty (Bob Hope, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, ORSON WELLES!) for Dad and smart one-liners by the bucketful for Mom. 10. Harry Potter (Various, 2001-present) The Hogwarts trio's wizarding adventures, backed by a cast plump with the best of British actors. Fast-paced plots, spellbinding special effects and magical sets, but be warned: it'll have the li'l critters pestering you to go to boarding school... And our favorite hide-behind-the-sofa moments... The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) \"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!\" Margaret Hamilton's green, cackling Wicked Witch of the West is hell-bent on revenging the death of her sister and getting those ruby slippers; she'll use deadly poppies and flying monkeys to do it. Terror as a rite of passage. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Ken Hughes, 1968) With his battered top hat and lank hair, Robert Helpmann's creepy Child Catcher prowled from Vulgaria into our nightmares, hoping to catch a whiff of his prey with his unfeasibly long nose. The only film character to give the Wicked Witch of the West a run for her money. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) Darth Vader may cast a formidable shadow, but it's the sound of his labored breathing that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up -- as it gets closer, closer, closer... Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984) Rule 475 of Surviving the Movies: Never go into the basement! The thick silence in New York's Central Library masks a phantom infestation -- and they're not going quietly. As the gray-haired librarian switched to shrieking ghoul, a generation of children was put off reading for life. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993) And again, it's the sound effects that make the Velociraptors so scary -- as the frighteningly intelligent pack of lizards hunt for Lex and Tim among the kitchen workbenches, their hissing grows ever nearer... Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Sound off and read others' thoughts in the Screening Room blog. E-mail to a friend .", "William 'Wild Bill' Guarnere, one of the World War II veterans whose exploits were dramatized in the TV miniseries Band of Brothers, has died. He was 90 . His son, William Guarnere Jr., confirmed on Sunday that his father died at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Guarnere was rushed to the hospital early Saturday and died of a ruptured aneurysm later that night. Scroll down for video . World War II veteran William \"Wild Bill\" Guarnere, seen here participating in the Veterans Day parade in Media, Pa. in 2004, has died at the age of 90 . William Guarnere lost a leg while helping a wounded soldier during the Battle of the Bulge. This photo was reportedly taken as he left hospital at the time . 'He had a good, long life,' his son said. The HBO miniseries, based on a book by Stephen Ambrose, followed the members of Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division from training in Georgia in 1942 through some of the war's fiercest European battles through the war's end in 1945. Its producers included Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Guarnere was portrayed by the actor Frank John Hughes. Guarnere, whose combat exploits earned him his nickname, lost a leg while trying to help a wounded solider during the Battle of the Bulge. His commendations included the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts. 'Wild Bill' is seen here with the actor that played him in Band of Brothers, Frank John Hughes, at the premiere of the HBO series in Los Angeles in 2001 . Frank John Hughes played William Guarnere in the TV series Band of Brothers on HBO . In 2007, Guarnere helped write a nationally best-selling memoir called, Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends, with fellow south Philadelphian veteran Edward J. 'Babe' Heffron and journalist Robyn Post. Heffron died in December at the age of 90. There are now believed to be three surviving members of the original Band of Brothers. In 2009 it was recorded there were 20 members of Easy Company alive, however that figure has not been recently updated. William Guarnere Jr. said his father and Heffron met during the war and remained friends until Heffron died in December. 'Now they're together again,' the son said. Jake Powers, who operates a Band of Brothers tour company in Grafton, Mass., said Guarnere worked behind the scenes to ensure that his comrades received the recognition they deserved. 'He did more things behind the scenes for other veterans than (for) himself,' Powers said. Funeral arrangements were incomplete Sunday. Real war heroes: Guarnere and the rest of his Band Of Brothers fought through some of World War II's fiercest European battles . William Wild Bill Guarnere conducts an interview at his home in Philadelphia in September 2007 . The 'Easy Company' landed several miles from where they planned to on June 6 1944, and had to trek in full gear to Utah Beach on Normandy's coastline . They proceeded to knock out German soldiers and cannons at Brecourt Manor that were firing on allied forces. Upon its release in 2001, Band of Brothers was the most expensive miniseries to ever be produced, costing $12.5 million per episode. It was nominated for 19 Emmy Awards and won six but received numerous other accolades. Immortalized: Guarnere was featured prominently . in historian Stephen Ambrose's 1992 book, Band Of Brothers, upon which . the HBO miniseries was based .", "LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Financing for DreamWorks Studios' partnership with one of India's richest men was finalized Monday, giving Steven Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider money to resume making movies. From left to right, Steven Spielberg, Anil Ambani, Stacey Snider and Amitahb Jhunjhunwala. The deal with Anil Ambani, chairman of India's Reliance BIG Entertainment, provides Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios with $875 million, coming from Ambani, the Walt Disney Co. and loans made by a syndicate of banks. Disney will distribute and market about six DreamWorks Studios films around the world each year, with the exception of India, where Reliance will have those rights. Spielberg and Snider found themselves in need of financial partners last year when he cut ties with Paramount Pictures and began rebuilding DreamWorks into an independent studio. Although the deal, which was announced last year, has been characterized in some reports as \"Hollywood meets Bollywood,\" Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider will have creative control over productions. \"This will allow us to move ahead quickly into production with our first group of films,\" Snider and Spielberg said in a joint statement. Reliance BIG Entertainment is part of the Reliance group controlled by billionaire Ambani. \"Our partnership with Stacey and Steven is the cornerstone of our Hollywood strategy as we grow our film interests across the globe,\" Ambani said. \"Given our faith in the business plan that they presented to us and despite the current economic climate, we were always confident that this day would come. Now Stacey and Steven can focus on producing more of the great films for which they are renowned.\" Ambani, whose company owns hundreds of theater screens across South Asia, has also invested development money this year with other Hollywood production companies, including those owned by actors Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Jim Carrey. A DreamWorks announcement said that J.P. Morgan brought together the syndicate of banks to provide about $325 million in funding. The banks include Bank of America, City National Bank, Wells Fargo, Comerica, Union Bank of California, SunTrust, California Bank & Trust, and Israel Discount Bank. One of the first movies to go into production will be \"Harvey,\" an adaptation of the play that won a Pulitzer for playwright Mary Chase. The tale about a man and his invisible bunny friend was first made into a movie, starring Jimmy Stewart, in 1950. Spielberg's long career as a screenwriter, director and producer has included classic blockbusters \"E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,\" the \"Indiana Jones\" series and \"Saving Private Ryan.\"", "By . Daily Mail Reporter . He may have been wanting to phone home, but nerds from the 1980s are still obsessed about the thought there may be hundreds of Atari Computer games buried in a New Mexico landfill. After decades of rumors, digging will finally begin this weekend in a New Mexico landfill for an apparent stash of what some call 'the worst video game ever.' The dig at the Alamogordo landfill is where the computer company Atari reportedly discarded millions of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial game cartridges in 1983 and will start excavating on Saturday morning along with officials from Microsoft-owned Xbox. Get digging! Gamers will finally know the truth behind the gaming legend of whether or not Atari buried millions of video games cartridges of the epic flop E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in a New Mexico landfill in 1983 . Fail! The game was one of the worst commercially released games ever made and is often blamed for the game industry crash of 1983 . After the success of the Steven Spielberg film Atari snatched up the rights for an astronomical $22 million to release a game. The game was produced in just five weeks and was one of, if not the worst commercially released games ever made. Despite being a complete flop, it was still one of the Atari 2600's best selling game. Two million copies were sold before anyone realised how bad it was. It left another three million copies left unsold. Looking for E.T.:Crews begin digging at the old Alamogordo, New Mexico to search for copies of the Atari game\"E.T. The Extraterrestrial purportedly buried there in the 1980s . The excavation will be open for public viewing. The company is joining with Fuel Entertainment and LightBox Interactive to search the landfill. All three companies are making a documentary about the project. Microsoft plans to release the documentary on its Xbox One console. If anything is recovered, the  city would have the rights to any discovered games. City Attorney Stephen Thies said any game cartridges will be stored by the city for possible marketing. However, a tentative agreement between the Alamogordo City Commission and Fuel Entertainment's parent company calls for Fuel to receive some games. The city will give Fuel either 100 game cartridges or 10 percent, depending on which is the lesser amount. The company plans to hand out the cartridges to film crews. A roaring success: The video game was based on the wildly popular 1982 Steven Spielberg movie about a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial who is mistakenly left behind on Earth . One for the trash! This game console is playing E.T., which is widely considered one of the worst games of all time. The game was so bad, and the business plan so badly thought-out, that it nearly destroyed the entire game industry . All three companies gained approval last month from the New Mexico Environmental Department for their waste excavation plan. The agency plans to send a representative to monitor the project once it commences. Atari paid director Steven Spielberg tens of millions of dollars to license the wildly popular 1982 movie's name, and game developers completed the project in just six weeks. In the game, the player takes on the role of the titular alien and tries to elude FBI agents while collecting pieces of a telephone to call E.T.'s spaceship. The end result was a huge commercial dud that caused the troubled company's worth to sink even further. Atari purportedly disposed of millions of game cartridges and other equipment by the truckload at the landfill. The area's supposed role as a gaming burial ground has taken on urban-legend status over the years. The landfill was first used as a dumping ground in the 1920s but has been closed since the late 1980s, officials said.", "\"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull\" is not a very good movie. Actually, it's less of a movie than a horrific catalogue of everything that is miserable and boring in modern Hollywood: The urge to sequelize into infinity, the paycheck-gravitas of great British actors, the redefinition of \"plot\" as \"a series of digitalized set-pieces signifying nothing,\" the notion of Shia LaBeouf as an action hero, the notion that Russians still make interesting villains, the limits of Cate Blanchett's greatness, but, most of all, the TV-ification of movie stardom, whereby every movie star is only really a star when they're sleepwalking through reheated incarnations of their most iconic roles. (See also: Renée Zellweger, Sylvester Stallone, everyone who has ever starred in a superhero movie besides Christian Bale, the cast of \"Fast Five,\" the cast of \"Twilight.\") But \"Crystal Skull\" was directed by Steven Spielberg, who has almost certainly earned the right to strike out every now and then. Spielberg has been producing great, complex, entertaining Hollywood fare for 40 years now. You don't just pick out your favorite Spielberg film; you pick out your favorite Spielberg phase. Do you prefer the \"Classic\" era, from 1975 (\"Jaws\") to 1982 (\"E.T.\")? Or perhaps the underrated \"Weird\" period, from 1984 (\"Temple of Doom\") to 1991 (\"Hook\"), which also includes Spielberg's work as the producer of \"Gremlins,\" \"The Goonies,\" and \"Back to the Future\"? Some people dig the \"Revival\" period, when he made the \"important\" trilogy (\"Schindler's List,\" \"Amistad,\" \"Saving Private Ryan\") and mixed in a couple \"Jurassic Park\" movies, why not? Personally, I dig Spielberg's \"Bleak\" period, from 2001′s totally weird Kubrick mash-up \"A.I.\" through a brilliant post-9/11 Tom Cruise duet up to the incisive thriller \"Munich.\" That's a great run that ended with \"Crystal Skull,\" but in a new interview with Empire, Spielberg sounds pretty serene about the \"Indiana Jones\" fourquel. That's not to say he doesn't understand that people have a gripe with the central plot point of the film, which you'll recall forced Harrison Ford to run around the jungle waving a Crystal Skull and yelling \"Crystal Skull! Crystal Skull! Crystal Skull!\" for 90 minutes. \"I sympathize with people who didn't like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin,\" says Spielberg. \"George [Lucas] and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin.\" Ah, but don't think for a moment that Spielberg is joining in the popular Internet sporting event of Hating On Lucas. \"I am loyal to my best friend,\" he says. \"When he writes a story he believes in -- even if I don't believe in it -- I'm going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it.\" So basically, this is a classic example of an awesome filmmaker deferring to a decidedly less awesome filmmaker, purely out of friendship. (Sort of like whenever Quentin Tarantino works with Robert Rodriguez, or when Alfred Hitchcock took some peyote with William Wyler and Wyler was all like, \"Yo Hitch, man, you should totally make a movie about dreams, man!\" and the result was Spellbound.) Spielberg happily admits that the most infamous scene in Crystal Skull belongs to him: . \"What people really jumped at was Indy climbing into a refrigerator and getting blown into the sky by an atom-bomb blast. Blame me. Don't blame George. That was my silly idea. People stopped saying 'jump the shark.' They now say, 'nuked the fridge.' I'm proud of that. I'm glad I was able to bring that into popular culture.\" Anyhow, the point is that Spielberg feels your pain, and now we can all have a good laugh, and while we're laughing, we can take a good hard look the first decade of the new millennium, and ponder the fact that we lived through a moment when George Lucas' silly ideas were regularly turned into $200 million movies. See full article at EW.com.", "By . Daniel Miller . PUBLISHED: . 03:32 EST, 28 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 06:15 EST, 28 August 2012 . Oprah Winfrey's annual earnings fell by a massive $125 million last year, but she is still the world's highest paid celebrity. The TV mogul earned a cool $165 million down from $290 million from a year earlier, according to Forbes magazine. It means she tops the the magazine's list of high earning stars for a fourth consecutive time, but the gap at the top is closing fast. Talk isn't cheap: Oprah Winfrey's earnings fell by $125 million this year but she is still the world's highest paid star . The highest paid celebrity interviews the highest paid actor Tom cruise . Oprah's chatshow closed it's doors in 2011 after a 25 year run but her ownership of syndicated TV shows such as 'Dr. Phil,' 'Rachael Ray, 'The Dr. Oz Show' has kept her at the top of the league. But snapping at her heels is Transformers director Michael Bay, just $5million behind with earnings of $160 million. The filmmaker coined it in thanks to the success of the second sequel Transformers: Dark of the Moon and a deal which means he earns a slice of the profits from toy sales. Transformers director Michael Bay, left, was in second place with earnings of $160m with fellow director Steven Spielberg third at $130m . And next year, Forbes won't be including any of Winfrey's earnings from syndication, meaning she is looking more likely to loose the top spot. Steven Spielberg was third with earnings of $130 million partly bolstered by proceeds from his catalogue of classic films. Now hear this: Rapper Dr Dre with a pair of his Beats headphones that helped him break into the top five . He also benefits from a cut of ticket sales at Universal Studios amusement park, DreamWorks earnings and his director's salary. Jerry Bruckheimer, known for action blockbusters like last year's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides which brought in $1 billion worldwide is in fourth place with $115 million. And breaking into the top five is gangster rapper turned headphone mogul Dr Dre who earned a $110 million. The former NWA star was paid $300 million by electronics giant HTC for a stake in his Beats by Dr Dre company which he founded in 2006. At the top of Forbes List of Social Networking Superstars is singer Rhianna while Kristen Stewart was Named Forbes’ Highest-Paid Actress With $34.5 Million . Tom Cruise was the highest paid actor netting $75 million between May 2011 and May 2012.", "Hollywood actor Gregory Walcott, the star of Plan 9 From Outer Space which was described as the 'worst movie ever made' - has died aged 87. Walcott worked with some of the giants of the acting world including Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg in a career which spanned four decades. But the celebrated actor, who died on Friday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, never felt he could shake the tag of appearing in Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space. Scroll down for video . Hollywood actor Gregory Walcott, who was the star of the film panned as the worst movie ever - Plan 9 from Outer Space (pictured) - has died aged 87 . During an interview in 1998 with Filmfax magazine, he said the director had 'etched his name forever in the annals of film history.' 'I will go to my grave not remembered for those meaty roles I did for the likes of John Ford or Steven Spielberg, but as the leading man in a film that many movie historians regard as the worst of all time. It's enough to drive a puritan to drink!' Walcott said the director had 'etched his name forever in the annals of film history.' The science fiction cult classic was panned by critics when it came out in 1959 and was widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made. Writer and director Wood cut unused footage of Bela Lugosi after the horror legend died. He then used his wife's chiropractor as a stand in for other scenes using a cape to hide his face- despite his being nearly bald and significantly taller than the deceased actor. The low-budget film also featured poor special effects such as flying saucers dangling from visible strings, ropey sets and laughable dialogue. Walcott had refused the role of alien-fighting pilot Jeff Trent at first, describing the script as 'gibberish.' But he was later persuaded that his name could add a little credibility to the film and agreed to star- without his agent's knowledge. It was a decision that came back to haunt him as he was consigned to the annals of film history for that very role. Walcott had refused had refused the role of alien-fighting pilot Jeff Trent in the low-budget film which also featured poor special effects such as flying saucers dangling from visible strings, ropey sets and laughable dialogue . Walcott later went on to win critical acclaim in The Outsider, playing a drill instructor across from Tony Curtis's Ira Hayes, the Native American Second World War hero. It's star may have believed it was the worst film ever made, but Plan 9 From Outer Space only rated as number 16 in Empire's 50 worst films of all time. 1) Batman and Robin (1997) 2)  Battlefield Earth (2000) 3) The Love Guru (2008) 4) Raise the Titanic (1980) 5) Epic movie (2007) 6) Heaven's gate (1980) 7) Sex Lives of the Potato Men (2004) 8) The Happening (2008 ) 9) Highlander 2: The Quickening (1991) 10) The Room (2003) He also starred in several Clint Eastwood films including Joe Kidd and Every Which Way But Loose and appeared in Steven Speilberg's directorial debut The Sugarland Express in 1974. And Plan 9 From Outer Space was linked closely with the actor's final film in Tim Burton's 1994 biopic of its director Ed Wood where Walcott appeared in a cameo part. He told the LA Times in 2000: 'I didn't want to be remembered for (Plan 9). But it's better to be remembered for something than for nothing, don't you think?' The actor is survived by his son Todd Mattox and his daughters Jina and Pam, as well as several grandchildren. Mr Mattox, a puppeteer on the Men in Black films, paid tribute to his father on his Facebook page where he posted: 'We said goodbye to my dad today. He spent his life making people feel good. Gregory Walcott, 1928-2015.' Walcott worked with some of the giants of the acting world including Clint Eastwood in Every Which Way But Loose (pictured)", "By . Chris Hastings . PUBLISHED: . 10:11 EST, 2 March 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 19:15 EST, 2 March 2013 . Sean Day-Lewis, 81, reportedly fell out with his famous brother over a 'misunderstanding' about a biography of the actor - pictured with his Oscar . The estranged brother of Daniel Day-Lewis has revealed he is  desperate to end their 19-year feud sparked by an unofficial biography of the actor. Sean Day-Lewis says that the Lincoln star – who last week made history as the first man to win three Best Actor Oscars – cut him off in 1994 and that the pair have not spoken since. Sean said: ‘He [Daniel] phoned me up and told me to get a f****** life and to f*** off. I couldn’t get a word in. That was our last conversation. I have no means of getting hold of Dan now except through his agent.’ Sean, 81, insists that his only crime was to lend another author a copy of a biography he himself had written about their father, the former Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis. ‘I only gave him [the author] my book because I wanted him to get the facts right, and he didn’t even do that – he got birthdays on the wrong days,’ he said. ‘It was full of errors. He acknowledged my help in the foreword and Dan saw that and completely blew me out of the water.’ Asked if he hoped the notoriously private actor, 55, would one day end his silence, he said: ‘I would like that, very much.’ Sean also revealed in the  interview, published yesterday, how the pair had previously enjoyed a good relationship, despite the 26-year age gap between the half-brothers. Their father had several affairs while he was married to Sean’s mother, Constance Mary King, before leaving her for actress Jill Balcon, Daniel’s mother. ‘We all got on quite well,’ he said. ‘Dan was a boy. I was allowed to beat him at ping pong.’ Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film Lincoln . Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis celebrates backstage during the Oscars. His brother Sean Day-Lewis, 81, said he has not spoken to his younger sibling for almost 20 years . He claimed relations first began to . sour while he was working on their father’s biography. ‘Jill liked it at . first, but when it got on to  the affairs, she marked the manuscript up . with more and more virulence,’ he added. ‘She came to hate me when the book came out.’ Although Sean and Daniel remained on good terms, the actor made it clear he did not want anything written about him. Sean said: ‘He didn’t like me writing . anything about him, naturally. Dan hates publicity and doesn’t like . journalists, and I was in a tribe of hacks.’ Sean Day-Lewis has not spoken to his Oscar-winning brother Daniel for 19 years after a dispute about a biography . Mr Day-Lewis is the half brother of the Lincoln star (pictured as a child here), from the first marriage of his father, famous Thirties poet Cecil Day-Lewis (centre) Relations between the . siblings suffered another setback when Sean discovered that his . father’s gravestone had gone missing from the churchyard in Stinsford, . Dorset, where he was buried following his death in 1972. ‘Without telling me, Dan and his . sister Tamasin had decided their mother should be buried beside him,’ he . said. ‘I thought I might have been told at least.’ The stone has been replaced with Jill Balcon’s name on it.", "(Time.com) -- Rick Stengel: Abraham Lincoln is in many ways the most compelling figure in U.S. history, yet the popular culture around him in terms of movies has been pretty minimal. Why is that? Steven Spielberg: It's one of the big mysteries. They float so many trial balloons with Lincoln's face every year in the form of advertising, spoofs, parodies, \"Saturday Night Live\" sketches, Presidents' Day commercials. Lincoln has kind of become a caricature. One of the last movies, which I haven't seen in 15 or 20 years, that was about Abraham Lincoln was in the '30s, with Henry Fonda — \"Young Mr. Lincoln.\" I don't understand why it's taken so long for anybody, let alone our group, to bring Lincoln to a movie theater. Stengel: You use a fascinating framing device for the movie: the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. Spielberg: The 13th Amendment was critical to Lincoln, because he knew that if the war ended, this would never get through. The South couldn't live without slavery. They might cease hostilities, but Lincoln always believed that unless we abolish slavery before this war ends, the end of this war will just be a momentary pause between this war and the next war. So he knew he had to get this thing done, but he didn't have the votes. That's at the heart of our movie, this fight to get the votes, to do the right thing. Stengel: There's an English expression, \"Cometh the moment, cometh the man.\" How much of it was Lincoln at that moment, or did the moment make him? Spielberg: Lincoln had the ambition. He had a beautiful vision for America. But I don't know what kind of progress he would have made without the crisis that fell into his lap. I also don't know what kind of a president FDR would have become without the Great Depression and World War II, or what Kennedy would ultimately have been remembered for without all of us standing on the brink of nuclear holocaust during the Cuban missile crisis. Time.com: How the greatest living actor became Lincoln . Stengel: Let's talk about his temperament. His leadership style in many ways seems so alien to what we value today. Spielberg: Taking all of his traits—of long, deep thought, of staring deeply into the future, taking the broad view, respecting the past, exploring deep into the cold depths of himself while his entire Cabinet sat around waiting for him to make a decision about anything—I'm not sure there's a mayoral position that would be suitable for him in this kind of adrenaline-fueled era that we all exist in. Even then, the newspapers were going after him. Stengel: One of the things that comes through in the movie is Lincoln's relationship with his wife, his relationship with his youngest son. He would get down on the ground all the time. It showed that he wasn't that statue that was standing up there 20 feet high. Spielberg: He certainly did everything that he needed to do to hold his family together, not just this country. He had lost [his 11-year-old son] Willie two years ago to typhoid fever. Mary spent years mourning the loss of Willie. In [Doris Kearns Goodwin's] book \"Team of Rivals,\" what precedes our story is two years of Mary shunning the whole family and spending time holding séances and trying to reach out and communicate across the thin veil to Willie. Lincoln had that burden on his shoulders. He was really carrying a lot of weight during that time. Stengel: Daniel Day-Lewis' performance integrates all these different sides of Lincoln in a really extraordinary way. What was that like directing him? Spielberg: Daniel did something at first that made me sad. He wanted to wait a year. And it was a masterstroke, because he had a year to do research. He had a year to find the character in his own private process. He had a year to discover how Lincoln sounded, and he found the voice. He had Lincoln so embedded in his psyche, in his soul, in his mind, that I would come to work in the morning and Lincoln would sit behind his desk, and we would begin. Stengel: I believe you called him Mr. President? Spielberg: All during the picture I called him Mr. President, but that was my idea. I also wore a suit every day, which I don't usually do when I'm directing. Everybody was dressed up in their period wardrobe. I did not wear 19th century wardrobe. I wore pretty good clothes from this era. I just wanted to blend in. We knew we were in the 21st century at all times. But once you stepped onto the stages of the White House, everybody really felt that they were making a contribution to remembering this critical moment in our shared history. See the full story at Time.com. &copy 2012 TIME, Inc. TIME is a registered trademark of Time Inc. Used with permission.", "(CNN) -- From scavenging for food through garbage and sleeping in the streets, to becoming an international fashion model and a Hollywood A-lister, Djimon Hounsou's journey to stardom has been an astonishing one. The Benin-born actor, one of the most prominent film stars to come out of Africa, has appeared in blockbusters such as \"Gladiator,\" \"Amistad\" and \"Blood Diamond,\" and has worked with Hollywood royalty like Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio. His role in the film \"In America\" made him the first black African man to be nominated for an Oscar, while his performance in \"Blood Diamond\" earned him a second nomination. See also: The best of African film . It's a long way from where the soft-spoken actor imagined he would be while growing up under difficult conditions in the West African country of Benin. \"I was just a very torn child, very wounded in so many areas, with no family support,\" recalls Hounsou, who grew up without his parents, who had moved to Ivory Coast. \"I happened to the be the fifth child of my family,\" he explains, \"so everybody was already grown and had left home already.\" For Hounsou, who finally met his father for the first time around the age of 10, this was a \"very lonely\" period of his life. \"The dream was to escape that surrounding,\" he says. At the age of 13 he left Benin to move to Paris with his older brother -- but the hardship continued. \"The rocky time came right after I left school,\" remembers the acclaimed actor. \"I spent a lot of time at night navigating the streets of Paris trying to find something to eat,\" he says. \"I was not anymore legal because I'm no more a student and I could not work. So I was left out on the street, I couldn't walk around too much because obviously if you get caught, noticed or get stopped by the police you're deported immediately.\" Hounsou's good looks, however, did get noticed by a Paris photographer, who invited him to audition as a fashion model. There, Hounsou met famous French designer Thierry Mugler and soon established himself as a successful high-fashion model. The collaboration with Mugler also took Hounsou to the United States for the first time, where he quickly started working toward realizing his dream of becoming an actor. See also: The evolution of African cinema . He made his foray into the industry by appearing in music videos and went on to feature in Roland Emmerich's 1994 film \"Stargate.\" But the break-out moment in Hounsou's acting career came three years later with Steven Spielberg's \"Amistad,\" where he appeared alongside Hollywood legends Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman. \"It was one of the most powerful stories about Africans that define African Americans' legacy and that a lot of people were shy about wanting to hear, wanting to see,\" says Hounsou of the film. Another defining moment for Hounsou was his performance in 2006's \"Blood Diamond,\" where he won rave reviews for portraying a fisherman forced to work in a diamond mine after being captured by rebels. The film was set in Sierra Leone in the 1990s -- a time of civil war and a period when more than 4% of all African diamonds were sold on the black market. \"My passion is more about bringing the stories out from the African continent mixed with the West,\" says Hounsou. Hounsou, who is married to former fashion model Kimora Lee Simmons, is also an outspoken activist and a prominent campaigner in the fight against climate change. His desire to make a difference has seen him working with charities such as Oxfam and SOS, while in 2009 he spoke at the United Nations' Summit on Climate Change in New York -- a far cry from his early days as a lonely child in Benin. But despite all he's achieved so far, Hounsou says his remarkable life journey is just starting. He says: \"It was a great journey, but I strongly feel like I'm still at the beginning of that journey\".", "(CNN)For the first time ever, we're getting a live-action \"Star Wars\" movie without the man who composed the \"Star Wars\" theme. \"Star Wars: Rogue One,\" the recently-announced \"Star Wars\" spinoff movie starring Felicity Jones, will not include the soaring music of Oscar winner John Williams. Williams originally scored \"Star Wars\" and every other episode since then, including the upcoming \"Force Awakens\" later this year. However, composer Alexandre Desplat has revealed that he will be working on 2016's \"Rogue One.\" The film's director, Gareth Edwards, worked with Desplat last year on \"Godzilla.\" A \"Star Wars\" movie without that iconic Williams sound is certainly something that fans will have to get used to, and Desplat has a big job ahead of him. Williams' work will also be absent from the next Steven Spielberg movie, \"Bridge of Spies,\" it was announced this week. For the past three decades, Williams has scored every single Spielberg film, but the new movie, starring Tom Hanks and due out October 16, will be scored by Thomas Newman, best known for the score of \"American Beauty.\" Movie studio DreamWorks attributed Williams' absence to a \"minor health issue, since corrected.\" Williams' best known non-\"Star Wars\" music is almost entirely from Spielberg films, including \"Jaws,\" \"Raiders of the Lost Ark,\" \"E.T. The Extra Terrestrial\" and \"Jurassic Park.\" Another upcoming Spielberg movie, \"The BFG,\" will include a Williams score.", "(EW.com) -- Shame, indeed. Despite being one of the biggest breakout stars of 2011, thanks to his mesmerizing performance as a sex addict in the harrowing drama \"Shame,\" Michael Fassbender was surprisingly not called among the nominees for this year's Academy Awards. Long considered a shoo-in for a Best Actor nominee, Fassbender was edged out by first-time nominee Gary Oldman for \"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy\" and dark horse nominee Demián Bichir for \"A Better Life.\" (EW's Dave Karger hoped Oscar voters would take notice, and it seems like they most certainly did.) But Fassbender wasn't the only shocking snub in the Best Actor category. Ryan Gosling was a triple threat in 2011 with his acclaimed turns in \"Drive,\" \"The Ides of March,\" and \"Crazy Stupid Love.\" (Though the latter would have been in the Best Supporting Actor race.) Between breaking up street fights, being a good sport about your, uh, supporting actor, and of course, turning in great performances, fans of Gosling and Fassbender are no doubt wondering this morning, \"Jeez, what's a guy have to do to get an Oscar nomination?!\" Joining Fassbender and Gosling in the notable snubs in the acting races are Golden Globe and SAG nominee Leonardo DiCaprio for \"J. Edgar\" (Best Actor), Gosling's \"Drive\" co-star Albert Brooks (Best Supporting Actor), and \"We Need To Talk About Kevin's\" Tilda Swinton, who lost her spot in the Best Actress race to \"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's\" Rooney Mara. As if awards show perennials like DiCaprio and Swinton getting left out weren't surprising enough, there were plenty of other baffling snubs in other categories. A Golden Globe nominee, Will Reiser's equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking autobiographical \"50/50\" was omitted from the Best Original Screenplay race. Hollywood legend and three-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg was snubbed from the Best Director category for \"War Horse.\" While \"The Adventures of Tintin\" won the Globes' Best Animated Feature trophy, it was no match for out-of-left-field choices like \"A Cat in Paris\" and \"Chico & Rita.\" And lest we remind \"Harry Potter\" fans, the \"Deathly Hallows — Part II\" was left out of all of the major categories. See the full article at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.", "Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has been voted the best sci-fi film of all time according to a poll of leading experts. Time Out magazine asked 150 experts, including Nobel Prize winners, authors, directors, screenwriters and actors to rank their top 10 science fiction movies. Cult favourite Blade Runner (1982), starring Harrison Ford took the number two spot, while Ridley Scott’s space thriller Alien (1979) came in third. Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (pictured) has been voted the best sci-fi film of all time according to a poll. Time Out magazine asked 150 industry experts, including Nobel Prize winners, authors, directors, screenwriters and actors to rank their top 10 science fiction movies . Rounding off the top five was Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind from 1977, and the Alien sequel, Aliens from 1986. Contributors included scientist Sir Robert Winston, Nobel prize winner Sir Paul Nurse, and The Sky at Night presenter Maggie Aderin Pocock and epidemiologist Dr Suzanne Gage. It also featured directors such as Guillermo Del Toro, Edgar Wright, Roland Emmerich and Alfonso Cuaron - whose 2013 Oscar-winning film Gravity came in at number 59. The 1970s and 1980s stood out as the golden age of sci-fi, with 43 films in the top 100, and eight in the top ten from these decades. Small budget films also performed better than blockbusters, with Moon, in 14th and the original Solaris in 17th ranking higher than Avatar in 77th place and Pacific Rim in 82nd. Cult favourite Blade Runner (1982), starring Harrison Ford (pictured left) took the . number two spot, while Ridley Scott's space thriller Alien with Sigourney Weaver, (pictured right) released in 1979, came in third . 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 2. Blade Runner (1982) 3. Alien (1979) 4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) 5. Aliens (1986) 6. Star Wars (1977) 7. Brazil (1985) 8. Metropolis (1927) 9. The Terminator (1984) 10. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 11. ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) 12. The Thing (1982) 13. The Matrix (1999) 14. Moon (2009) 15. Stalker (1979) 16. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 17. Solaris (1972) 18. Children of Men (2006) 19. The Fly (1986) 20. Forbidden Planet (1956) The full list is at Time Out . Panel member and scientist Sir Robert Winston said 2001: A Space Odyssey starring Keir Dullea (pictured) 'is probably the most intellectually challenging sci-fi film ever made' In the battle of the directors, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron tied for the top spot with five films each. However, British director Ridley Scott had the most number of films in the top five with Blade Runner, Alien and Aliens in 5th place. Sir Robert Winston said 2001: A Space Odyssey 'is probably the most intellectually challenging sci-fi film ever made.’ Maggie Aderin Pocock added Close Encounters 'came out at a similar time to the original Star Wars and I thought it was so much better. I wanted to get in that spaceship with the friendly looking aliens.’ The highest-ranking actor on the list was Sigourney Weaver with six entries including Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Ghostbusters (1984) (pictured) at 48, Avatar (2009), Galaxy Quest (1999) at 34 and WALL-E (2008) at 40 . Time Out's sci-fi list placed Star Wars above Star Trek, with Star Wars: . A New Hope (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (pictured left) in . seventh and tenth place respectively. The highest ranking Star Trek film was 1982 Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, starring Leonard Nimoy (pictured right) at 44 . In the battle of the directors, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron tied for the top spot with five films each. Cameron's Avatar is pictured. However, British director Ridley Scott had the most number of films in the top five with Blade Runner, Alien and Aliens . Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity director . Sir Robert Winston, TV scientist . George RR Martin, A Game of Thrones author . Stephen King, novelist . Anthony Daniels, C-3PO actor, Star Wars . Guillermo Del Toro, director of Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth and Hell Boy . Edgar Wright, director, Shaun of the Dead . Maggie Aderin Pocock, UCL space scientist . Jim Al-Khalili, scientist and presenter BBC Radio Four's The Life Scientific . Dr Michael E Mann, joint 2007 Noble peace prize winner . Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize, physiology and medicine, 2001 . Professor Allan J Bard, University of Texas . Epidemiologist Dr Suzanne Gage . The highest-ranking actor on the list was Sigourney Weaver with six entries including Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Ghostbusters (1984) at 48, Avatar (2009), Galaxy Quest (1999) at 34 and WALL-E (2008) at 40. Time Out’s sci-fi list placed Star Wars ahead of Star Trek, with Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) in seventh and tenth place respectively. The highest ranking Star Trek film was 1982 Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan at 44, and 2009’s Star Trek reboot at 80. ‘Sci-fi continues to be one of the most visually creative, intellectually-challenging and boundary-pushing genres in film’, said Dave Calhoun, global film editor of Time Out. ‘By asking such a varied range of experts from the fields of science, literature and cinema to take part, we have been able to compile an incredibly diverse list that includes lesser-known gems alongside cult classics and recent hits such as Gravity and Her.' At the bottom of the list was 1996 blockbuster Independence Day, starring Will Smith, at 100, Three Colours: Red from 1994 at 99 and 1984's 2010 at 98. Small budget films also performed better than blockbusters, with Moon, starring Sam Rockwell (pictured), in 14th ranking higher than Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim in 82nd . At the bottom of the list was 1996 blockbuster Independence Day, starring Will Smith (pictured) at 100, Three Colours: Red from 1994 at 99 and 1984's 2010 at 98 .", "By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 13:54 EST, 12 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 16:04 EST, 12 June 2013 . An hilarious YouTube video purporting to be a reference to support a job application for DreamWorks Pictures features 'CJ' in a convincing appeal for employment - even Steven Spielberg is apparently on his side. The video begins with a written explanation: 'In 2011, CJ applied for a job at DreamWorks. He sent in this video.' CJ wants to be a post-production production assistant at DreamWorks, and he believes he's got the chops for the job. But don't take his word for it - Steven Spielberg has a few things to say on his behalf. Living the dream: Christopher Woodring showed off his production skills by cleverly editing an old interview to make it look like he and Steven Spielberg had an intimate tete-a-tete regarding Woodring's job prospects . In a cleverly spliced old interview with Spielberg, CJ, who identifies himself as Christopher Woodring, extracts some high praise from the director, screenwriter, producer - and co-founder of DreamWorks movie studios. 'Why, hello there Steven Spielberg,' he says, glancing meaningfully at the camera. 'You look great, by the way... You haven't aged a day since 1993,' in reference to the interview footage, which appears to be an old BBC Face to Face interview from around the time of the release of Spielberg's acclaimed Schindler's List in 1993. CJ asks Spielberg if he could endorse him for a job at DreamWorks, to which Spielberg responds, 'I can. And I can without shame.' Aged well: It's unclear if Spielberg has seen the video, which uses an old BBC interview from 1993, but according to the video's conclusion, Woodring has been banned from working at DreamWorks . In response to CJ's question about his best qualities, Spielberg decides it's CJ's 'wondrous eyes', and the 'energy of Helen Hayes when she was in her 70s', referring to the American actress dubbed the First Lady of American Theater. 'That's a strange example,' say CJ. 'But yes, I have infectious energy, I'm kind of always working hard,' he concedes. When it comes to thinking of CJ's worst, Spielberg appears stumped. 'Take your time,' CJ encourages him gently. He can't come up with anything, so they move onto their friendship. Job seeker: CJ has not been successful in his bid for a job at Dreamworks so far, but the company has remained silent on whether or not Spielberg cried . 'We went out together, we went to each . other's houses together, we complain together- ' begins Spielberg. 'Mostly about George,' interjects CJ, referring to Spielberg's rival . George Lukas. 'Of course,' grins Spielberg. The . final part of the interview moves to a more emotional plane, as . Spielberg discusses his fear that CJ won't come and work at Dreamworks. 'Steven, if I don't come and work for you, will you cry?' asks CJ. 'Yes,' replies Spielberg softly, appearing to hold back deep emotion. To uplifting music, CJ appears with a glass of wine raised to the camera and text across the screen exhorts Dreamworks: . 'Hire Christopher Woodring as Post Production Assistant. Steven Spielberg will cry if you don't.' Incredibly, even after the amazing reference of Steven Spielberg and those wondrous eyes, it appears CJ has not been hired by Dreamworks. Perhaps he should put some feelers out to George Lukas.", "LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Walt Disney Studios has reached a distribution deal with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios, the companies announced Monday. Disney will market at least six DreamWorks live-action movies each year produced through DreamWorks' agreement with India's Reliance BIG Entertainment, a major producer of Bollywood film, they said. The Disney deal replaces an agreement DreamWorks announced last year with Universal that fell apart in recent weeks. The announcement did not reveal terms, but industry media reports said the Universal deal collapsed when DreamWorks asked for cash to help finance the movies to be made under the Reliance contract. DreamWorks found itself short of financing because of the global economic crunch, according to Michael Cerenzie, a film financier and producer. The studio could not borrow the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to produce films, partly because much of its archives and intellectual property -- which would have served as collateral for loans -- was left behind at Paramount Studios, whose parent company bought DreamWorks in 2006. Paramount still distributes DreamWorks' animation features. Reliance will handle distribution of the movies in India. The first movie to be distributed under the deal is expected to reach theaters next year, the companies said. \"Disney is the birthplace of imagination and has always been as close to the worldwide audience as any company ever has,\" Spielberg said. Ironically, DreamWorks was born in 1994 after Disney excutive Jeffrey Katzenberg was passed over for promotion to president of Disney. Katzenberg resigned and then formed DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. The DreamWorks-Reliance-Disney agreement is a major step in bringing India's huge \"Bollywood\" industry together to Hollywood studios. BIG Pictures has development arrangements with several production companies, including those affiliated with performers Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney and Tom Hanks.", "(CNN) -- Shia LaBeouf has at least one high profile supporter. During an interview conducted at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and posted on IndieWire, Mel Gibson said he can sympathize with LaBeouf who was recently arrested after on outburst in New York City. \"When I see someone like Shia LaBeouf with the bag on his head and stuff, my heart goes out to the poor guy,\" Gibson said, referencing an appearance the actor once made on the red carpet with a paper bag covering his face. \"It really does because I think he's suffering in some way.\" Gibson -- who was at the festival in the Czech Republic to receive a lifetime achievement award -- knows a thing or two about run-ins with the law and being labeled \"troubled.\" He said it's tough because \"you are under scrutiny if you achieve any type of notoriety.\" \"People are in line to sort of point the finger at him and say that he's this, that, or the other,\" Gibson said. \"It's easy to judge. But I'm sure he's going through some kind of personal, kind of very very painful, cathartic thing that he has to exorcise and get out there. And he'll probably play it out and come back.\" But Gibson holds out hope for LaBeouf who recently announced he was receiving treatment for alcohol addiction. \"He'll be alright,\" Gibson said. \"I actually like the kid, I've never met him but I think he's good.\"", "President Barack Obama shared a table with director Steven Spielberg and singer Bruce Springsteen during a star-studded benefit dinner in Los Angeles. But during breaks in conversation, he also found time to rub shoulders with Barbra Streisand, Samuel L. Jackson and Kim Kardashian. The U.S. President was the guest of honour at a fundraiser celebrating the USC Shoah Foundation, a project Spielberg established 20 years ago to collect video testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides. Scroll down for video . Handover: President Obama is presented with the USC Shoah Foundation's Ambassador for Humanity award by director Steven Spielberg during the gala . Recognition: The foundation, set up by Spielberg after he filmed Schindler's List, was celebrating its 20th anniversary . Top table: Obama was joined by Spielberg, second from left, and Bruce Springsteen, right, for dinner . Dinner: The pair shared a table together during the banquet at the Ambassadors for Hummanity Gala . Happy moment on a somber occasion: The serious nature of the award ceremony was punctuated with a few laughs . The event at the luxury Century Plaza Hotel was hosted by Conan O'Brien and included a speech from actor Liam Neeson. Mr Obama . accepted the foundation's Ambassador for Humanity award at the private . event. Springsteen provided musical . entertainment, tucking his black tie into his white shirt to perform two . songs with his acoustic guitar. Inspired by the making of 'Schindler's . List,' the video archive Spielberg created now includes more than 50,000 . personal accounts and is available to schools across the globe. Sharing a smile: The politician and filmmaker broke into laughter during the ceremony . Powerful: During his speech, the President said . the Holocaust survivors were the 'ultimate rebuke to evil and the ultimate expression of love and hope' Concentration: Singer Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa listen to the President's speech . 'The Boss': He then took to the stage to perform an acoustic set during the charity event . The director said: 'As long as we fail to learn, our work . will be urgent work. This . institute exists because we know that the future can always be . rewritten.' 'The Boss', who Spielberg described as the nation's hardest working lyrical poet for our common humanity', sang 'Promised Land' and 'Dancing in the Dark during his set . Spielberg added: 'I think anyone who has a boss wishes it was you.' Men of history: Spielberg was honored at length about his classic, Schindler's List . Posing for the cameras: The President was honored by the Shoah Foundation Ambassadors for Humanity . Big names: President Obama (left, foreground) was seated next to Spielberg's wife Kate Capshaw with Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa also at the table . Famous families: Rita Wilson and her stepson Colin Hanks also attended the function . Taking pointers: Wilson shares a moment with Jessica Capshaw, Spielberg's actress stepdaughter . Chat show host O'Brien spoke in Yiddish throughout the event and teased the President . for the traffic problems he constantly causes when visiting Los Angeles. He said: 'You left Washington six hours ago, but I left Burbank seven hours ago.' Liam Neeson, who played Oskar Schindler in Spielberg's 1994 film, opened the evening. But . it was two women who left the audience most inspired. Star-studded: Liam Neeson, who played Oskar Schindler in the 1993 film, also made a speech during the gala . Connections: Liam Neeson spoke at the event while Kim Kardashian was one of the famous attendees . Focus: Kim Kardashian also paid close attention to the President's words during his speech . Gesture: Kim Kardashian makes a peace sign during dinner at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza . Respecting her past: Kim attended the event with Yevnige Salbian, a 100-year-old genocide survivor from her family's native Armenia . Lightening the mood: Conan O'Brien did a set and joked about LA's notorious traffic . San . Diego high school teacher Michelle Sadrena Clark recited a poem about . how the Shoah Foundation's work enriches her curriculum and connects her . students to history. She said: 'Your institute has literally changed my teaching and my life,' she said. Several of her students attended the gala, where they showed . guests the multimedia projects they developed using survivor . testimonies. They were also introduced to the President. Celina . Biniaz was one of the Jews Schindler saved. At 13, she worked in his . factory, cleaning the machinery with her small hands. Moved: President Obama was moved to his feet at a particularly inspiring moment during the ceremony . Sneaky snapper: Samuel L Jackson takes a photo of President Obama as 'Judge' Judy Sheindlin enjoys the conversation . Now a grandmother . whose story is included among the Holocaust testimonies, she said, . 'Oskar Schindler gave me my life, but Steven Spielberg gave me my . voice.' Obama . said that genocide survivors and the families they've created are 'the . ultimate rebuke to evil and the ultimate expression of love and hope.' 'You are an inspiration to every single one of us,' he said. The President arrived in California on Wednesday for a three-day trip to . attend various fundraisers to help the Democrats keep the Senate during the . November elections. Spotted: Conan O'Brien, with his back turned, catches the eye of Samuel L. Jackson . Couple: Singer Barbra Streisand and actor husband James Brolin also listened to Obama's speech intently . Group pose: Left to right, Liam Neeson, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen and Conan O'Brien share a photo on the red carpet .", "It's a photo that paints a picture of an idyllically happy family life. Chiwetel Ejiofor, now a Hollywood star and a strong contender for the Best Actor Oscar tonight, beams broadly as he hugs his little sister on the stairs of their London home. But just months after this snap was taken, Chiwetel’s life was hit by tragedy when his father was killed in a car crash, which almost claimed his young life, too. Idyllic family life: Chiwetel Ejiofor, (right) now a Hollywood star and a strong contender for the Best Actor Oscar tonight, beams broadly as he hugs his little sister on the stairs of their London home. But just months later, Chiwetel's life was hit by tragedy when his father was killed in a car crash . Talented: Arinze Ejiofor was killed in a car accident in his native Nigeria. Chiwetel was 11 years old in 1998 when he joined his father on the bonding trip. The car they were travelling in was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry. The 12 Years A Slave actor was the only survivor . His sister Zain, so happy beside him in the photograph, has now spoken of how that devastating heartache fuelled Chiwetel’s desire to be the best actor he could be –  and helped bring an intensity to his performance in 12 Years A Slave. And should he triumph at the Academy Awards, he is certain to pay an emotional tribute to his father, Arzine. Chiwetel was just 11 in 1998 when, on a bonding trip to Arinze’s native Nigeria, the car they were travelling in was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry. Chiwetel was the only survivor of the . crash that also killed three other passengers, and Zain believes it is . significant that her brother is now the same age as their father was . when he died. Siblings: Chiwetel and his sister Zain pictured at a Hollywood event . ‘He had been very close to his father,’ Zain says. ‘And while the whole family was suffering from his death, the impact on Chiwetel was especially intense. He became very focused and threw himself into everything with an intense passion. ‘It was as if he had been given a miraculous chance to live and he was determined to make the most of it.’ Initially it was thought Chiwetel had also been killed in the accident. ‘When they dragged his body from the wreck, he was very badly injured and lucky to still be alive,’ says Zain, now a financial correspondent with CNN. ‘He’d broken several limbs and sustained a serious blow  to the head that left him in a coma for a while. Doctors told my mother to expect the worst.’ Though only five at the time, Zain vividly recalls the anguish of her mother Obi and several adult relatives as they maintained a vigil by her brother’s hospital bedside. It would be ten weeks before the traumatised child was able to leave the hospital. And from that moment, Zain says, he seized life with a previously unseen passion. ‘By the time he was 13 he had developed this drive to be an actor,’ she says, revealing how his passion started while studying at the elite Dulwich College. ‘He started out in a school play. While other kids his age were hanging out, he would get home from school and lock himself in his room to learn his lines. 'I would go out with my friends and come home hours later only to find him still reciting Shakespeare. ‘Sometimes he even wrote the words on the walls and Mum would have to wipe them off.’ Chiwetel joined the National Youth Theatre at 17 and was accepted by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. But he left during his first year after getting a role in Steven Spielberg’s film Amistad. ‘It all seemed to happen very quickly,’ Zain said. ‘I remember there was a lot of joy in the house when we heard. I mean, it was Spielberg!’ Accolade: Chiwetel is among the favourites to be honoured with the Best Actor Oscar for his role in 12 Years A Slave. He is up against Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Dern and Matthew McConaughey . Inspired: Zain said she believes their father's death spurred Chiwetel on to become a successful actor. She said: 'It was as if he had been given a miraculous chance to live and he was determined to make the most of it' He went on to impress industry insiders with standout performances in films as diverse as Love Actually, Dirty Pretty Things and Kinky Boots. But it  is his performance in 12 Years  A Slave that has gained him international acclaim. Zain said: ‘He’s really dedicated to being the best he can be.’ Now 36, Chiwetel, who still bears scars from the accident, admits that the loss of his father has been a huge influence on his life and career, saying: ‘I think I have a constant reflective relationship with him. 'As I reach the age he was when he died, the relationship is becoming more acute. 'But I do think there’s a constant dynamic that will continue always; and be an influence on the kind of work I do.’ Chiwetel was born in Forest Gate, East London, in 1977, after his parents had fled the earlier Nigerian Civil War. Arinze was a musician who retrained as a doctor, and Obi was a pharmacist. Honoured: The 26-year-old actor has already won the Bafta for Best Actor at this year's awards, for his portrayal of Solomon Northup . International acclaim: Chiwetel left acting school during his first year to take up a role in Steven Speilberg's film Amistad. He has starred in Love Actually and Kinky Boots. But it was his role in 12 Years A Slave, alongside Lupita Nyong'o (left) and Micahel Fassbender (second left), that has won the actor international acclaim . Pride: Chiwetel's mother Obi and sister Zain, will sit alongside the actor tonight at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Zain said: 'This is a day my family has been hoping and waiting for. We are all so unbelievably proud and bursting with joy. It's such a shame that our father is not alive to see how well Chiwetel has done' Chiwetel was the second child after older brother Obinze, now 38 and a businessman. And Obi was seven months pregnant with her youngest child Kandi, now a doctor, when she was suddenly widowed. Zain describes her mother as an indomitable spirit who taught her children that ‘education was our  key to freedom .  .  . perhaps it was because of her own humble background. As a girl she lived in a village where water had to be collected from a river and boiled before drinking’ It is a long way from that impoverished Nigerian village to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where tonight Zain and Obi will be seated alongside Chiwetel tonight. ‘This is a day my family has been hoping and waiting for,’ Zain said. ‘We are all so unbelievably proud and bursting with joy. It’s such a shame that our father is not alive to see how well Chiwetel has done.’", "(EW.com) -- For many, \"E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial\" remains Steven Spielberg's most indelible film, holding a special spot in moviegoers' hearts. (I know it does for me.) But when the movie was re-released in theaters in 2002 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Spielberg tried to fix something that was not broken and \"updated\" the movie's visual effects. He gave E.T.'s face a CG makeover, added back in a couple deleted scenes, and -- most controversially -- switched out the rifles held by police officers chasing down Elliott and his bicycle buddies with walkie-talkies. Fans cried foul. \"South Park\" mocked the decision. Last year, Spielberg himself even admitted he regretted making the changes, vowing that the Blu-ray release would just be the 1982 theatrical version of the film. And by gum, it's exactly that. As you'll see in the trailer for the 30th-anniversary Blu-ray edition of the film, out this October, those walkie-talkies are no more. While the Blu-ray won't have walkie-talkies, it will have two new bonus featurettes, one chronicling the day-to-day events of making the movie, the other a new interview with Spielberg reminiscing about the movie. Those two deleted scenes will be available separately from the cut of the film, and many of the bonus features from the previous DVD release of \"E.T.\" will be available on the Blu-ray as well. See the full story at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.", "It is an old Hollywood maxim that everyone flees from failure. When a big movie bellyflops at the box office -- like \"John Carter,\" which has pulled in a cringe-inducing $62 million in the U.S. in its first three weekends, barely a fourth of the film's $250 million budget -- usually everyone involved tries to get as much distance as they can from the film, as quickly as they can get it. Everyone's hoping to salvage not only their careers, but their psyches as well, especially when that much blood, sweat, and treasure has been invested in a passion project that's become a media punching bag. Apparently, no one told Taylor Kitsch this is how he's supposed to behave. When EW caught up with the actor a few hours before he was embarking on his global press tour for \"Battleship\" -- his second effects-laden big budget studio picture this year -- the 30-year-old said he had \"absolutely no regrets\" about his first big screen starring role. \"I would do 'John Carter' again tomorrow,\" he says forthrightly. \"I'm very proud of 'John Carter.' Box office doesn't validate me as a person, or as an actor.\" Kitsch understands that the sci-fi adventure's financial failings -- while it's pulled in over $230 million worldwide, Disney still expects to lose $200 million on the film -- are clearly \"unfortunate,\" if for no other reason than it's a virtual certainty that director Andrew Stanton's planned two sequels will never see a greenlight. \"I'd love to go do 'John Carter 2,'\" he says. \"I really would. It's just s***ty I don't get to work with the ['John Carter'] family. It really was a special thing.\" But Kitsch isn't dwelling on the past. \"I'm going to keep working,\" he says. Kitsch points out that after Battleship, he's got Oliver Stone's \"Savages\" coming out in July, and then he'll likely start shooting the Navy SEAL drama \"Lone Survivor\" for \"Battleship\" director Peter Berg in the fall. \"It's an exciting time,\" he says, and he clearly means it. See the full article at EW.com.", "Washington (CNN) -- Richard \"Dick\" Winters, a decorated hero of World War II and the central figure in the book and miniseries \"Band of Brothers,\" has died. He would have turned 93 years old in February. Winters died January 2 and was buried after a private funeral Saturday, according to retired Army Col. Cole Kingseed, a close friend and co-author of Winters' memoirs. Winters began his career in the Army shortly before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, and he volunteered to become a paratrooper, according to his wartime memoirs \"Beyond Band of Brothers.\" He was assigned to E Company, more commonly known as Easy Company, of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. After months of training in the new tactic of soldiers dropping by parachute behind enemy lines, Winters and the men of Easy Company parachuted into Normandy hours before the first troops hit Omaha and Utah beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944. When he landed he discovered he'd lost his \"leg bag,\" the satchel carrying all his weapons, when he jumped out of the plane. He was behind enemy lines on the most decisive day of World War II with nothing but a knife. \"I later discovered that in our small contingent from Easy Company, we all lost our leg bags and ended up using whatever weapons he could scrounge,\" Winters wrote in his memoirs. \"This was a hell of a way to begin a war.\" Still, within hours he organized a small group of troopers to attack a German artillery position. They took out nearly two dozen Nazi soldiers and four large cannons which had been firing on American troops landing on the beaches. His actions that day earned Winters the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest medal for valor in the U.S. military. There is still an effort underway to have that medal upgraded to a Medal of Honor, an action the humble Winters never supported. Kingseed said Winters told him, referring to the men he commanded in Europe, that \"war does not make men great, but sometimes, war brings out the greatness in men.\" D-Day also cost Easy Company the life of its commander, which put then-Lt. Winters in command of the unit. He later led his men through Operation Market Garden, a major allied offensive in Holland in September 1944. In December of the year, Easy Company and the rest of the 101st were ordered to hold back a German offensive around the town of Bastogne in Belgium. Surrounded by Nazi troops and tanks and facing bitter cold with no winter clothing and limited food rations, Winters and the rest of the 101st held back the Germans and, along with other allied units, eventually repelled the enemy offensive. After leading his men in battle all the way into Germany, Easy Company eventually was assigned to occupy the \"Eagles Nest\" -- Hitler's mountaintop retreat near the Austrian/German border. A short time later, Winters left the Army with the rank of major and never saw combat again. He went on to become a successful businessman and a public speaker. Kingseed, who considered Winters his best friend, said he \"epitomized the citizen soldier\" who won World War II. Gen. David Petraeus, who has commanded the 101st Airborne Division during his career, said in a statement on Monday that \"Major Winters embodied the very best of what a leader and soldier should be. He and the men of Easy Company lived the \"brotherhood of the close fight.\" \"The deeds of Dick Winters and his men from Easy Company will always live on,\" Petraeus said. Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood mogul who produced the \"Band of Brothers\" mini-series, issued a release Monday saying in part, \"Dick Winters was at the vanguard of representing 'The Greatest Generation' in bringing honor to all his Band of Brothers.\" Spielberg said Winters \"would not have wanted this credit. He would have simply asked all of us to never forget how his generation served this nation and the world in WWII.\" Reaction also came from Tom Hanks, who co-produced the series, and from the actor who played Winters in \"Band of Brothers.\" \"When our days run their course and a man like Dick Winters leaves us, time and providence remind us that human beings can do giant things,\" Hanks said in a statement. \"Dick Winters volunteered to go to war, leading paratroopers into unknown, yet certain, dangers. He led by both command and example; his wartime philosophy was simple -- 'Follow me.'\" Actor Damian Lewis, who portrayed Winters in the series, told CNN that Winters' support for him during the production was \"generous and unstinting. I'll never forget his rallying cry to me to 'hang tough!' \"He has died quietly, in private, without fanfare and with the same modesty that he lived his life as one of the true heroes of his generation,\" Lewis added. Winters did not make any money off his memoirs or the speeches he gave later in his life. His royalties from the book went to a variety of organizations, including veterans groups, breast-cancer research organizations and the Ronald McDonald house in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he lived for years. His family is planning a public memorial service for Winters in the near future. In the meantime, his family is asking that in remembrance of Winters, donations can be sent to any veterans hospital. Winters is survived by his wife, Ethel, and a son, a daughter and a grandson.", "LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Charlton Heston died at his Beverly Hills home at the age of 84 Saturday, his family said. Heston was suffering the late stages of Alzheimer's disease. Heston, known for portrayals of larger than life figure including Moses and Ben Hur, was suffering the late stages of Alzheimer's disease. Heston's wife of 64 years, Lydia, was at his side at the time of his death, according to the family statement. Heston is survived by a son, a daughter and three grandchildren. \"We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather, with an infectious sense of humor,\" the family said. \"He served these far greater roles with tremendous faith, courage and dignity. He loved deeply, and he was deeply loved.\" While no funeral plans have been announced, the family said it would hold a private memorial service. The Internet Movie Database listed 126 movies and television production credits for Heston, starting in 1941. He rose to fame in the 1950s with starring movie roles including Ben Hur, for which he won an Oscar. He played Moses in the \"Ten Commandments.\" Heston's last acting credit was for playing an elderly Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz Nazi surgeon who performed medical experiments on concentration camp refugees during World War Two in the 2003 movie \"My Father, Rua Alguem 5555.\" Heston was also known for his political activism. He was a high-profile supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his civil rights movement. He attended King's 1963 March on Washington and stood near the podium as King delivered his \"I have a dream\" speech. He was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2002, a role that cast him as a conservative. Heston was born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois, on October. 4, 1924. He took the surname Heston after his mother divorced and remarried when he was 10. E-mail to a friend .", "By . Baz Bamigboye . and Anthony Bond . Oscar winning actor Christoph Waltz was left shaken tonight after a man . pointed a hand-gun at him during a live TV show and threatened to blow up a studio with a hand . grenade. Waltz, who won Oscars for roles in two Quentin Tarantino movies, was being interviewed on the set of a live French news programme with fellow actor Daniel Auteuil when two shots were fired. A recording of the moment shows the audience run away in panic, as security guards rush Waltz and Auteuil off stage. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Worrying: Oscar winning actor Christoph Waltz was left shaken this evening after a man pointed a hand-gun at him and threatened to blow up a studio with a fake grenade. A man is pictured being detained by police and local security after the incident . Concerns: French actor Daniel Auteuil, centre, and Austrian actor Christoph Waltz , right, are pictured being dramatically evacuated from the set . Speaking to the Daily Mail, Waltz told how for a few desperate moments he feared for his life. 'I was on a panel at the Studio Canal platform off the beach when a man produced a gun,' he said. 'I think it was a pistol and he fired but luckily for me they were blanks. 'Then he shouted he had a grenade and again luckily for me there was no grenade. 'The police have him. They tackled him to the ground. I don't know who he was or where he came from or what his problem was.' Held: Police arrested a man at the scene and found he was carrying a dummy grenade and a knife, authorities said . Violence: This police officer holds what appears to be the gun used by the man . Witness Arthur Laiguesse added: 'The bodyguards jumped over the barriers into the crowd and pulled him . to the ground. The police arrived and told everyone to run because there . was a grenade in his hand.' Police arrested the man at the scene and found he was carrying a dummy grenade and a knife, authorities said. 'It really appears to be a crazy guy,' said a police source. Speaking . to France 24, Michel Denisot, the programme's presenter, said: 'He said . to a woman next to him \"if I were you, I wouldn't stick around here\". 'There were no bullets in the gun and the grenade was a fake.' Terrifying: Waltz was being interviewed on the set of a French news programme when two shots were fired into the air . Frightening: After the shots are fired into the air, audience members react with horror and rush towards the beach . Waltz revealed what happened after he arrived at the fabled Eden Roc restaurant for a dinner hosted by Charles Finch, the London-based film producer and magazine publisher. Waltz was quite composed and unfazed when he told what had happened to him earlier in the evening. 'I'm fine there's nothing to worry about now', he said. Waltz, who has won two best supporting actor Oscars for Django . Unchained and Inglourious Basterds, and Auteuil, both of whom are . serving on the Cannes jury, returned to the set. Horror: Many audience members rushed onto the beach in terror . Dramatic: The incident took place during a live TV show . Concerned: Christoph Waltz, left, and Daniel Auteuil, right, look worried as the gunman storms the studio . The shooting was the second security . incident on day three of the 12-day festival, the world's largest cinema . showcase that attracts thousands of actors, directors, film executives, . journalists and fans. A police source said $1.4 million worth of Chopard jewellery intended to . adorn movie stars had been stolen from a room at the Suite Novotel . hotel overnight on Thursday. But Chopard said the value had been exaggerated and the items were not for actresses to use, declining to give further details. Actors: Christoph Waltz , left, and Daniel Auteuil, right, were being interviewed on live TV when the man stormed the TV studio . Actress Robin Wright this evening said she had heard rumours of an incident in Cannes. 'I saw ambulances and police but I didn't know what they were for. It held traffic up but I didn't know the details till I heard it from Christoph as you just have'. Waltz is a festival jury member along with Steven Spielberg and Nicole Kidman.", "(CNN) -- Passengers might already be expecting the glamor of the \"Grand Budapest Hotel\" when they set sail aboard the \"Queen Mary 2.\" This June they'll also get movie director Wes Anderson. Anderson, whose whimsical cinematic visions have earned him a cult following and two Academy Award nominations, will join the luxury liner to participate in chats about his work. Accompanying him on the June 13 voyage will be two regular actors in his movie casts, Oscar-winning Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman. Screenplay writer and director Roman Coppola, who has collaborated with Anderson on several films, including \"Moonrise Kingdom\" and \"The Darjeeling Limited,\" will also be on board during the seven day transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton, England. MORE: 7 best expat movies of all time . Cunard, which operates the \"Queen Mary 2,\" says Anderson and his colleagues will take part in film screenings as well as question and answer sessions. \"This is going to be my first time on board the 'Queen Mary 2,' but I have been looking forward to having this chance since before the ship was even launched over 10 years ago,\" Anderson says in a Cunard press statement. \"I'm especially happy to be able to travel this way with my great friends.\" MORE: 7 worst expat movies of all time . The life aquatic . Anderson, whose works include \"Rushmore,\" \"The Royal Tenenbaums\" and \"The Fantastic Mr. Fox,\" was awarded the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival for his latest release \"The Grand Budapest Hotel.\" The film charts the escapades of a formidable concierge and his lobby boy sidekick at a famous hotel frequented by the kind of clientele that wouldn't be out of place on cruise ship crossing the Atlantic. While there may be echoes of the \"Grand Budapest Hotel\" on board the \"Queen Mary 2,\" there won't be any real life representation of Anderson's earlier work, \"The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.\" That movie saw Bill Murray star as a hapless oceanographer who leads the crew of his boat into the hands of pirates -- thankfully not a scenario included in ticket prices ranging from $1,298 to $18,948. MORE: Fearless photog risks his life for perfect wave pics .", "(CNN) -- 1. The NAFTA debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot -- It's an obvious choice for me. It changed history. Bill Clinton called the next day to say that NAFTA never would have passed without that show. So all things considered, I chose this for its impact and importance -- it had the largest viewership in cable history at the time. So that's why it's my number one. 2. Frank Sinatra -- He is, in my opinion, the foremost entertainer of the 20th century. And one of the hardest gets to get. And it was his last interview as well as a great conversation. 3. Marlon Brando -- He, like Frank Sinatra, was impossible to get. I think Marlon Brando was the foremost actor of his time. And as with Sinatra, it was just an incredible interview. Plus, I got a kiss out of it! 4. Mideast Peace -- Such an important show. Having three leaders -- of Jordan, Israel and Palestine -- on at the same time had worldwide relevance. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It was worldwide diplomacy happening right there. How can you top that? 5. Ground Zero -- It was the worst thing to ever happen to the United States in modern history. Just getting to go there two weeks later, to walk among the rubble, to interview firemen and policemen, the first responders, to go to the burn center at the hospital, to see what happened up close -- it was living history. It is something I'll never forget.", "(EW.com) -- No one knows how to make white men squirm quite like Samuel L. Jackson. A post on Reddit last night has unearthed a prime example. Two weeks ago, the \"Django Unchained\" cast sat down with Jake Hamilton, host of Houston's Emmy-winning film show Jake's Takes, at a press junket. Things went smoothly enough until Hamilton approached Jackson with a question about the movie's controversial use of the \"n-word.\" Jackson insisted that Hamilton, who is white, say the word out loud; after Hamilton repeatedly refused, they moved on. It was uncomfortable. \"The most awkward moment was just seeing everyone in the room freeze, and waiting to see what my reaction was going to be,\" Hamilton says today. The internet reaction has been mixed. Many commenters claim that Hamilton should have simply said the word, while others applaud the reporter for not caving to Jackson's demand. Hamilton says that his decision was in the best interest of the show and the network. GET EW ON YOUR TABLET: Subscribe today and get instant access! \"Whatever the video's doing today, making the rounds, it's not as bad as it would be if I had actually said it,\" he says. \"The last thing that my affiliate needs is one of their reporters going around saying the n-word and broadcasting it everywhere.\" While it'd be easy to harbor some resentment for the provocation, Hamilton says that ultimately there's no hard feelings between him and Jackson. \"He doesn't suffer any fools, and he's the kind of guy I feel like I have to step up my game as a reporter,\" he says. \"I look forward to interviewing him again.\" Watch the video here. Jackson's segment starts at 13:55. See original story at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.", "A U.S. gunmaker has cut ties with Taken star Liam Neeson and has urged other manufacturers to do the same after the actor said there were too many guns in America. PARA USA said that they regret the decision to provide firearms for use in Neeson's latest film Taken 3 and add they will no longer be associating their brand with the actor while urging other companies to follow their lead. The gunmaker is cutting ties with the actor after the Irish-born 62-year-old, who is the star of the ultra-violent Taken trilogy, waded into America's gun fraught gun debate last week during a press conference in Dubai for the launch of Taken 3. Scroll down for video . Liam Neeson starring in the latest instalment of the Taken trilogy. where he plays a gun-toting father. A U.S. gunmaker has now cut ties with the actor after he said there were too many guns in America . Mr Neeson waded into America's gun fraught gun debate last week during a press conference in Dubai for the launch of Taken 3 . He told reporters that 'there are just too many f****** guns out there' and added that it was a 'f****** disgrace.' In a statement on their Facebook page, PARA USA confirmed they would be no longer working with Mr Neeson. They said: 'PARA USA regrets its decision to provide firearms for use in the film Taken 3. 'While the film itself is entertaining, comments made by its Irish-born star during press junkets reflect a cultural and factual ignorance that undermines support of the Second Amendment and American liberties. 'We will no longer provide firearms for use in films starring Liam Neeson and ask that our friends and partners in Hollywood refrain from associating our brand and products with his projects. 'Further, we encourage our partners and friends in the firearms industry to do the same.' Action hero: Liam Neeson starred in a 2010 remake of the 1980s classic Saturday serial The A Team - where he played the commander of a framed special forces ops team . Neeson was quick to draw a line between guns in movies, and real life saying 'it's fantasy' and says movies like Taken 3 don't inspire people to buy guns . Taken again: In the sequel to Taken, called Taken 2, Liam Neeson used his particular set of skills to rescue his wife and shoot a lot of bad guys again . Their statement comes after Mr Neeson, who is reported to have been paid $20million for the latest instalment of Taken, spoke out last week about guns in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. Her said: 'There's just too many f****** guns out there. Especially in America. I think the population is like, 320 million? There's over 300 million guns. Privately owned, in America. 'I think it's a f****** disgrace. Every week now we're picking up a newspaper and seeing, yet another few kids have been killed in schools.' When asked if the issue extends to police responsibility Mr Neeson said 'let's not get into it'. But then added: 'Let's put it this way: I think a light has been shone on the justice system in America, and it's a justifiable light.' Mr Neeson, a supporter of gun control, is best known as gun-toting father, Bryan Mills, who will stop at nothing to get his loved ones back. But he was quick to make the distinction between fiction and reality, and said his movies wouldn't inspire people to buy and use guns and argued that growing up watching cowboy movies had not turned him into a killer. Runaway success: Liam Neeson has starred in three Taken movies since the release of the first film in the franchise in 2008 and each of the posters for the movies showed the actor sporting a gun . Biggest hit to date in the series: The latest Taken movie has grossed almost $40 million in its opening weekend and deposed the last Hobbit movie from the number 1 spot in the US box office . He explained: 'A character like Bryan Mills going out with guns and taking revenge: it's fantasy. It's in the movies, you know? I think it can give people a great release from stresses in life and all the rest of it, you know what I mean? It doesn't mean they're all going to go out and go, 'Yeah, let's get a gun!' The Irish-born actor became an American citizen five years ago and currently lives in New York City. Before speaking out about gun ownership in America, Neeson reflected on Said and Cherif Kouachi's shooting spree earlier this month that claimed a dozen lives. He said: 'First off, my thoughts and prayers and my heart are with the deceased, and certainly with all of France. I've got a lot of dear friends in Paris.' The wildly successful Taken trilogy has grossed almost $603 million to date in box office worldwide. It has turned Mr Neeson from a respected character actor most famous for his portrayal of Oscar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's Oscar winning Schindler's List into a fully fledged action hero. The star is reported to have been paid $20 million for his role as CIA operative Bryan Mills, joining the ranks of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks as Hollywood's best paid stars. Since 2005, Liam Neeson has launched a lucrative second career as an action hero. Change of career: No more historical dramas for 60 something action hero Liam Neeson . In a little under a decade, the Irish-born actor has starred in 10 action films, having previously starred in character-driven roles. But from the box-office takings, it is clear that Neeson's career switch has paid-off, and handsomely. Twleve of Neeson's 15 highest-grossing movies in the United States are action films and of those dozen, only three were released before 2005. Indeed, studio bosses have been keen to utilize the actors bankability through his new-found action hero status. In the United States, the average profit per Neeson action movie is $181 million, while his non-action offerings rake in $4 million. That puts him up with stars such as Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio, who make anywhere between $100 million and $300 million per film. And of course, this new found stardom has boosted Neeson's net worth. He was reportedly paid $1 million for Taken, $15 million for Taken 2 and $20 million for Taken 3 - seeing his bank balance shoot up to $75 million. (Source: The Fool)" ]

[ "International Talk Like A Pirate Day – Sept. 19, every year since 2002 Happy New Year! Plan to Party Like a Pirate in 2017 Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket want to wish everyone a happy new year. There’s plenty of freebooter fun coming in 2017 and we hope we get a chance to run into you on the road. Right now, winter has laid its icy grip across most of the country. In much of the land, ports are ice-locked and pirate hearts mostly hibernating as we await the spring thaw. But not in Florida. Here’s a date for you to scribble into your calendar. If you can get to either of these on Jan. 28, more power to you. You’ll have a grand time. The first is one of the big ones, Gasparilla, in Tampa on the gulf side of the state. It’s one of the biggest pirate festivals in the U.S., featuring the country’s third longest parade, which draws more than 300,000 to the streets to watch. In all, about a million people are estimated to take part in at least one Gasparilla-related event. On a smaller scale but deeply piratical, up the coast on the Atlantic side the St. Augustine Swashbucklers will be holding the Old City Pirate Festival that same weekend, Jan. 27 and 28. St. Augustine is the oldest European-settled city in the U.S. and a great site for a festival. The streets of the old city have rung to the boots of some of the legendary pirates, and at the end of January you can add yours to the list. I’ll have my nose to the grindstone, working on a new book I’ll be excited to share with our fans, but I plan to come up for air Feb. 28 when Mardi Gras rolls into New Orleans. The rest of the world calls it Tuesday – we call it, “The best strolling party you’ve ever been to and barely remember.” And I’m tentatively scheduled for a road trip March 11 to take part in the Savannah Quill Book Convention in Savannah. We’ll be planning at least one or two other stops on the road to and from the Georgia Coast, so keep your ears open for word of pirates! And there’s definitely planning going on for getting out there and partying with the brethren throughout the year. We’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as we do! Win a Signed Copy of ‘Chrissie’ News for my friends who are on Goodreads: Starting Thursday you have a chance to win a signed copy of “Chrissie Warren: Pirate Hunter.” For the next three weeks Goodreads is hosting a giveaway of four copies of my young-adult adventure pirate adventure novel. If you’re interested and haven’t signed up or just want to check it, you can go to Goodreads.com. One of the things they have at Goodreads is giveaways. With three clicks, Goodreads members can sign up to win books offered by authors. The winners are randomly chosen by Goodreads. And from Nov. 18 to Dec. 8, you can enter to win one of four autographed copies of “Chrissie.” When it goes online I’ll post the link. Give the Gift of Adventure this Holiday Season If you want to give the gift of adventure this holiday season, check out my young-adult swashbuckling novel “Chrissie Warren” Pirate Hunter.” You can order a copy autographed by the author (me) online at Big Cartel. Big Cartel is at http://tinyurl.com/nu5ajsz Make sure when you check out that you use the “Notes to Seller” tab on the checkout page to tell me who you want the autograph made out to. Otherwise I’ll put a generic signature. If you’re giving it as a gift, make sure you tell me the person’s name. The “Notes to Seller” tab is at the end of the payment section – not where I’d have put it, but they didn’t ask me. You can also find the book (not autographed) in both paper and ebook at Amazon and all the other usual places. And don’t forget, with the holidays close upon us, you want to make sure you have a copy of “Pirate Santa.” With a story by our own Cap’n Slappy and our pal Clay “Talderoy” Clement and terrific art work by Jun Alvarado, it’s a must have for the pirates at the holiday season. You can order it at: John “Ol’ Chumbucket” Baur Music Review: Mason’s ‘Pirate Party’ Rocks the Corsair Classics (Oct. 25, 2016) How many versions do think have been recorded of “Drunken Sailor?” Of" ]

[ "Arrg You Ready For The Talk Like A Pirate Day Giveaway at Krispy Kreme? | Hot News from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Media Contacts Arrg You Ready For The Talk Like A Pirate Day Giveaway at Krispy Kreme? Get a FREE Doughnut For Talking Like a Pirate, or Dress Like a Pirate for a Free Dozen on September 19 Category: Monday, September 8, 2014 6:00 am EDT Dateline: NYSE: KKD WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--Friday, September 19, any landlubber who dares to enter a participating Krispy Kreme® US locations and talks like a pirate will score one free Original Glazed® doughnut. To the swashbuckler who wears full pirate attire goes a bounty of one FREE dozen Original Glazed doughnuts. Offer good on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19th, only. Some restrictions apply. Visit KrispyKreme.com for more information. To claim yer bounty on September 19, ye must: Talk like a pirate or wear an eye patch to a participating Krispy Kreme shop for one FREE Original Glazed doughnut. Come in to a participating Krispy Kreme location in full pirate costume for one FREE dozen Original Glazed doughnuts. Qualifying pirate costumes must include three or more of the following items: No Weapons Allowed! Eye Patch Silver and gold necklaces and earrings Pirate Hook Pointy black boots or ragged brown sandals Offer good for one free doughnut per customer who wears an eye patch or talks like a pirate to a Krispy Kreme team member at a participating shop. One free dozen Original Glazed doughnuts per customer who wears a full pirate costume into a participating Krispy Kreme location. Redeemable on September 19, 2014 only at participating Krispy Kreme US locations. Connect with Krispy Kreme at KrispyKreme.com , HotLightApp.com , Facebook , foursquare and Twitter , and KrispyKremeDoughnuts on YouTube . About Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme is an international retailer of premium-quality sweet treats, including its signature Original Glazed® doughnut. Headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., the Company has offered the highest-quality doughnuts and great-tasting coffee since it was founded in 1937. Krispy Kreme is proud of its Fundraising program, which for decades has helped non-profit organizations raise millions of dollars in needed funds. Today, Krispy Kreme can be found in over 850 locations in more than 20 countries around the world. (NYSE: KKD) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Visit us at www.KrispyKreme.com . Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140908005013/en/", "Welcome to my Absolutely Pet Shop Boys The Unoffical web site TITLE Profile On boys On July 1st, the first version of 'Opportunities' is released. It reached #116 in the UK. 1985 - August They play a short set as part of the ICA Rock Week in London, Chris showing off his skills on the trombone. Neil and Chris are interviewed on stage by Max Headroom. They re-recorded 'West End Girls' with producer Stephen Hague the same month. 1985 - October 'West End Girls' is released on October 28th and goes to #1 in the UK in January. It was subsequently #1 in USA, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway, selling 1.5 million copies. \"People endlessly ask us what it's like having a #1\" said Neil at the time. \"But what it feels like is vaguely nothing. It feels like having a cup of tea\". 1986 - February On February 24th, 'Love Comes Quickly', still one of their favourite songs, was released, reaching a disappointing #19 in the UK. 1986 - March On March 24th, their first LP 'Please' is released. \"It's so people can go into the record shop and say can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, please?\". 1986 - April 'West End Girls' reaches #1 in USA. 1986 - May On May 19th a new version of 'Opportunities' is released. \"The point of that song is that the humour is black, it's like a joke. The impression is that the people in it are not going to make any money\". 1986 - June The Pet Shop Boys announce, then cancel, a tour of Europe and America; the cost of using a theatre designe and playing fairly small venues proves prohibitive. 1986 - September On September 22nd, a re-recorded version of 'Suburbia', a song inspired by the Penelope Spheeris film of the same name about a group of disenchanted rebellious youths in suburban Los Angeles, is released. \"It's about a riot happening in some decaying suburb. It's just the description of the riot happening and then the aftermath\". On the B-side was the first version of 'Paninaro', named after an Italian youth cult and featuring a quote they both liked that Chris had said on a TV show: \"I don't like country and western, I don't like rock music, I don't like rockabilly... I don't like much really, do I? But what I do like, I love passionately\". 1986 - November On November 17th 'Disco', an LP of disco remixes, is released. 1987 - February The Pet Shop Boys receive the Best Single award for 'West End Girls' at the BPI Awards. \"It's a bit like the school prize giving day, isn't it?\", muttered Neil who turned up to receive the award from Boy George. Chris stayed at home and watched it on TV. Meanwhile, they had been working on the next LP and considering, once more, whether to tour. \"I can't see the point really\", said Neil at the time. \"I quite like the idea of being on the coach, having the meal beforehand, the party in the room afterwards, going in the swimming pool, signing the autographs in the lobby, and wrecking the mini-bar. The only thing I don't like the idea of is being on the stage and having to sing for rather a long time\". He now dismisses this comment as flippant; it had been inspired by his happy memories of going on tour with Depeche Mode for Smash Hits in Autumn of 1984. 1987 - May The Pet Shop Boys receive the Best International Hit award for 'West End Girls' at the Ivor Novello Awards. Vera Lynn performed at the lunch. 1987 - June On June 15th, 'It's a Sin', a song that originally appeared on the demo Neil had in his pocket when he took Bobby O' out to lunch, was released. \"It's about being brought up as a Catholic. When I went to school you were taught that everything was a sin\". It reached #1 and caused several notable", "About the RA | Royal Academy of Arts Benjamin West PRA, Self-portrait of Benjamin West PRA, 1793. Oil on panel. 1015 X 1320 mm. Photo R.A./John Hammond © Royal Academy of Arts. An American in London The story of our second President is a fascinating one. Benjamin West was born in Pennsylvania in 1738 and grew up in a world where art was little known. But with pioneering spirit, he travelled to Europe for his education and found success in Rome. Later arriving in England, he became a close friend of the King and his ‘History Painter’. He never returned to America but is considered the founding father of the American school of painting. He was so popular that he was elected President by his fellow members with just one opposing vote. He also had a first-rate eye for talent and once comforted a down-hearted young Constable after he’d had a work rejected by the Academy with these words, “Don’t be disheartened young man, we shall hear more of you again; you must have loved nature before you could have painted this.” After Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA, 1723 - 1792, Portrait of Angelica Kauffman RA, Published by John Boydell, 3 September 1780.. Engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi, RA. Photo: © Royal Academy of Arts, London. Women at the RA We have a somewhat chequered history when it comes to equality of the sexes. Although Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffman flew the flag for women in 1768, it took another 168 years before another woman was elected as a full Academician, Laura Knight in 1936. In 1879, the Council of the day came to the conclusion that our original Instrument of Foundation did not allow for women RAs. Eventually, they relented and passed a resolution to make women eligible, but only on the condition of restricted privileges. A few years later in 1913, we invoked the wrath of the suffragettes and a demonstration was held in the galleries. One woman slashed a portrait of Henry James by Sargent while another hacked at a painting by George Clausen. Catastrophe was also narrowly averted when one protestor attempted to start a fire in the toilets. Joseph Parkin Mayall, Sir John Everett Millais PRA, c. 1884. Photogravure. 166 x 219 mm. Published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington. From: F.G. Stephens (ed.), Artists at home photographed by J.P. Mayall, London 1884, pl.[6] Photo: RA © Copyright protected. The child prodigy The beginning of the Victorian period saw us admit our youngest ever student to the RA Schools, the ten year old John Everett Millais in 1839. He was immediately given the rather unoriginal nickname ‘The Child’. He went on to become one of the most successful artists of the 19th century and a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The Brotherhood hoped to emulate the art of late medieval and early Renaissance Europe, characterised by intricate detail, bright colours and truth to nature. Although the movement’s activity lasted little more than five years, its influence on British art continues to this day. In 1896, Millais was elected President of the RA, but sadly, it was doomed to be a short tenure. He was in poor health at the time, and just six months after his election he was buried in Painters’ Corner of St Paul’s Cathedral. Our story Italian Art The first blockbusters One of our founding principles was to hold an annual exhibition that anyone could enter, and anyone could visit. Today, it’s called the Summer Exhibition and it has taken place every year since 1769, including during both World Wars. From the late 19th century, we began to hold international loan exhibitions. One in particular that went down in history was our Italian Art exhibition in 1930. The galleries were flooded with masterpieces, including Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Raphael’s La Donna Velata and Donatello’s David – but it didn’t pass without controversy. Highly politicised, it was attended by Mussolini as a way of furthering the cause of Fascism. Sir Edwin Lutyens PRA and Royal Academy Planning Committee, Proposed re-modelling of Hyde Park Corner, London: bird's-eye perspective, 1942. Carbon pencil, pen & ink a", "What did Pope John XX1 use as effective eyewash Babies Urine 36 - IT - 402 View Full Document What did Pope John XX1 use as effective eyewash Babies Urine 36 Rhodopsis original Egyptian Cinderella had what job Prostitute - bird stole her shoe 37 Whose attendance compulsory at priests banquets in Egypt Mummies – dead reminded short life 38 Siddhartha Gautama became better known as who Buddha 39 In ancient Greece young brides had to sacrifice what Their Dolls – show they were grown up 40 Caer-Lud was the former name of what capitol city London 41 4% of women never do what according to survey Wear Underwear 42 In superstition if you marry on Saturday you will have what No luck at all 43 What was the first million dollar seller paperback I the Jury – Mickey Spillane 44 Who founded Methodism in 1738 John Wesley 45 What was the ancient Egyptian cure for haemorrhoids Beer - lots of beer 46 Middle ages Monks denied meat on fast days ate what Rabbit Foetuses – Said were eggs 47 Where was Ice Cream invented China 48 Brittany Spears - what is her favourite drink Sprite 49 What job does Charlie Browns father do Barber 50 International direct dialling codes what country has 353 Republic of Ireland Page 62 This preview has intentionally blurred sections. Sign up to view the full version. View Full Document 10000 general knowledge questions and answers www.cartiaz.ro No Questions Quiz 31 Answers 51 What is the main food of walruses Clams 52 30% of people quit this job in USA each year - what job School Bus Driver 53 Napoleons life was saved by a dog what breed – and he hated dogs Newfoundland – saved from drowning 54 In 1821 Jacob Fusel worlds fist commercial factory making what Ice Cream 55 The star constellation Grus has what English name The Crane 56 International aircraft registration letters what country is PP or PT Brazil 57 What was the first 30 minute animated Disney show Duck Tales 58 A renaissance doctor - what treatment excluding bleeding Enemas 59 You could be executed for drinking what in ancient Turkey Coffee 60 Where did the ancient Egyptians paint pictures of their enemies Foot of Sandals 61 What is found in one third of American homes Scrabble 62 Bowling for lizards was whose favourite TV program Fred Flintstone 63 The name Jesse means what in Hebrew Wealth 64 According to strain theory crime is mainly committed by who The lower classes 65 In what country was the longbow invented Wales 66 Who makes Pringles Proctor and Gamble 67 What airline started 24th September 1946 single DC3 - Betsy Cathay Pacific 68 What are a swallowtail and a burgee Flags 69 What is the most common sexually transmitted disease in USA Herpes 70 Who was the Angel in Milton's Paradise Lost Beelzebub 71 300000 American teenagers get what every year Venereal disease 72 Francesco Seraglio invented what in Australia in early 1960s The Woolmark logo 73 What was Socrates wife's name Xanthippe 74 Who \"Loved not to wisely but too well\" Shakespeare play Othello 75 What did Anna Sage \"The lady in Red do\" Betray John Dillinger 76 Who makes Kleenex tissues Kimberly Clark 77 Poon Lim holds the record of 133 days doing what Surviving on a raft 78 Holden Caulfield - Catcher in the Rye - where JD Sal get name Movie marquee W Holden J Caulfield 79 This is the end of the preview. Sign up to access the rest of the document. TERM Kenyatta University IT 402 - Spring 2015 1 2 3 4 5 Sampling In Research What is research? According Webster (1985), to researc HYPO.docx", "Tony Christie on Apple Music To preview a song, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to buy and download music. Biography British balladeer Tony Christie proved the continued commercial viability of traditional pop in a post-psychedelic world, scoring a series of easy listening hits that spanned the 1970s. Born Anthony Fitzgerald in South Yorkshire, England, on April 25, 1943, at 18 he joined the popular local group the Counterbeats, later fronting his own combo, Tony Christie & the Trackers. After mounting a solo career, he cut his debut single, \"Life's Too Good to Waste,\" in 1966, followed a year later by \"Turn Around.\" Upon signing to MCA in 1969, Christie teamed with the songwriting and production tandem of Mitch Murray and Peter Callender. Although their first collaboration, \"God Is on My Side,\" went nowhere, the 1971 LP Las Vegas proved the singer's breakthrough, generating the Neil Sedaka/Howard Greenfield-penned smash \"Is This the Way to Amarillo?\" (a number one hit in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Spain), \"I Did What I Did for Maria,\" and \"Don't Go Down to Reno.\" Christie remained a constant of the European charts for much of the decade via subsequent hits including \"Avenues and Alleyways\" (the theme to the television series The Protectors) and \"The Queen of Mardi Gras,\" selling more than ten million records during the Me Decade. He also hosted his own BBC variety series, and in 1976 played the role of Magaldi during recording sessions for Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita. In 1979 Christie paired with producer Graham Sacher for the blockbuster \"Sweet September,\" but his stardom waned during the decade to follow. He nevertheless maintained a demanding international tour schedule, and remained a regular presence on television as well. Upon teaming with producer Jack White, who previously masterminded hits for Engelbert Humperdinck and Baywatch heartthrob David Hasselhoff, Christie scored a massive comeback hit with 1990's \"Kiss in the Night.\" However, he again spent a number of years on the cabaret circuit before enjoying a new wave of popularity and credibility via the 1999 single \"Walk Like a Panther,\" written for him by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. The single earned Christie his first appearance on Top of the Pops in a quarter century, and his newfound hipster cachet was further solidified when the smash comedy series Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights employed \"Is This the Way to Amarillo?\" as its theme song. In the spring of 2005, the single was re-released to raise funds for the charity Comic Relief, and spent seven weeks atop the U.K. pop charts. After cutting the theme for Kay's spinoff series Max and Paddy, Christie closed out the year with a tongue-in-cheek big-band cover of Slade's \"Merry Xmas Everybody,\" which fell shy of the British Top 40. Numerous collections and one-off singles followed, with the full-length Made in Sheffield (produced by longtime fans Richard Hawley and Colin Elliot) arriving in 2008. Released in 2011, Now’s the Time, Christie's 19th studio album, found the singer exploring his Northern soul roots with producer Richard Barrett. ~ Jason Ankeny Top Albums", "Billiard Billiard Billiard History Inset from School of Recreation, 1710. \"We perceive from the engraving of the Billiards of the seventtenth [sic] century, that the game was altogether different from what it is now.\" [1] All cue sports are generally regarded to have evolved into indoor games from outdoor stick-and-ball lawn games [2] , and as such to be related to croquet and golf , and more distantly to the stickless bocce and bowling . The word \"billiard\" may have evolved from the French word billart, meaning \"mace\", an implement similar to a golf club , which was the forerunner to the modern cue. The term \"cue sports\" can be used to encompass the ancestral mace games, and even the modern cueless variants, such as finger pool , for historical reasons. Accordingly, in addition to the three general subdivisions listed earlier, a now rare obstacle category was prevalent in early times. The obstacle games (see illustration to the right, featuring a croquet-like variant), appear to have been the earliest,[ citation needed ] and include the obsolete bagatelle and pin pool among many other variations, some with elaborate structures (likely inspirational of miniature golf ), and yet others on a sloped table (the ancestors of pinball), up to the relatively recent bumper pool (popular in the 1970s in home game rooms ). The object of obstacle games varies from avoiding obstructions and traps, to hitting or passing through or into them on purpose to score, to using them strategically to score in some other way, such as by rebounding off them to reach a hole in the table or trapping opponents' balls.[ citation needed ] The early croquet-like games eventually led to the development of the carom or carambole billiards category – what most non-US and non-UK speakers mean by the word \"billiards\". These games, which once completely dominated the cue sports world but have declined markedly in most areas over the last few generations, are games played with three or sometimes four balls, on a table without holes (or obstructions in most cases, five-pins being an exception), in which the goal is generally to strike one object (target) ball with a cue ball , then have the cue ball rebound off of one or more of the cushions and strike a second ball. Variations include three-cushion, straight rail, balkline variants, cushion caroms , Italian five-pins, and four-ball , among others. Over time, a type of obstacle returned, originally as a hazard and later as a target, in the form of pockets , or holes partly cut into the table bed and partly into the cushions, leading to the rise of pocket billiards , especially \"pool\" games, popular around the world in forms such as eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool and one-pocket amongst numerous others. The terms \"pool\" and \"pocket billiards\" are now virtually interchangeable, especially in the US. English billiards (what UK speakers almost invariably mean by the word \"billiards\") is a hybrid carom/pocket game, and as such is likely fairly close to the ancestral original pocket billiards outgrowth from 18th to early 19th century carom games. As a sport At least the games with regulated international professional competition have been referred to as \"sports\" or \"sporting\" events, not simply \"games\", since 1893 at the latest. [3] Quite a variety of particular games (i.e. sets of rules and equipment) are the subject of present-day competition, including many of those already mentioned, with competition being especially broad in nine-ball, snooker, three-cushion and eight-ball. Snooker, though technically a pocket billiards variant and closely related in its equipment and origin to the game of English billiards, is a professional sport organized at the international level, and its rules bear little resemblance to those of pool games. A \"Billiards\" category encompassing pool, snooker and carom was featured in the 2005 World Games , held in Duisburg , Germany , and the 2006 Asian Games also saw the introduction of a \"Cue sports\" category . Efforts have also been underway for many years to have cue sports become", "cairnduff and carnduff website Scottish History by Ian Kerr For non-commercial private study and research only The racial mixture of the populations of the British Isles is highly complex; largely due to the continued movement of significant portions of the population throughout recorded history. The population of Scotland in the 16th and early 17th centuries was made up from the remnants of the early Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles, of Roman invaders and settlers, the Angles, Jutes, Saxon and Viking invaders of the Dark Ages from continental Europe, later Flemings from the Low Countries and the Normans (themselves of Viking origin) who came north after the conquest of England in 1066. The Irish population at the same time was a mix of the early Celts, Picts and other Hibernian invaders plus Viking and other incomers. The movement of people between Scotland, England and Ireland over the centuries has been driven by a variety of pressures; political, economic, family ties, religious issues and the problems suffered during times of all types of armed conflict and war. There is also a very long history of such movements from the days of the Viking invaders in the Dark Ages of the 5th to 7th centuries up to the times of the potato blight in Ireland of the mid 19th century. Some movements have sometimes been loosely referred to as clearances; there were several actual clearance campaigns in Scotland and in Ireland, conducted either directly by the English/British Crown or by substantial land-owners on with the tacit support of a benign government. Although history and romantic fiction tend to focus on the Highland Clearances in Scotland, they were effected across the whole of Scotland; evicting, if not wiping out, the resident Highlander, Lowlander or Borderer populations. Similarly, the massive movement of people from Ireland before, during and after the potato blight and consequent famine (the Great Hunger) of the 1840s has attracted much interest; sometimes obscuring substantial but otherwise routine movements at other times. The \"dark romance\" of such Celtic evictions obscures the scale of movements of people from other parts of Britain and Europe. There are clearly documented forced migrations of people, especially religious minorities or economically disadvantaged classes, from the south west of England to the Americas and from Kent to Australia. A remarkably similar modern campaign, the forced emigration of orphans from all parts of Great Britain to Australia, only ceased in the 1950s. Geographical Factors It should be recalled that the West Coast of Scotland has a mass of sea- lochs and two belts of islands; the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Furthermore, the County Antrim and County Down coasts of Ireland are very close to Scotland, north-west England and the Isle of Man. The local fishing industry, small-scale trading and the historic movements of populations ensured ready movement by sea between what are now seen as separate countries. In times of crisis, famine or war it was sometimes safer to move family and flocks to another safer or more economically attractive residence. Such escapes were often followed within a generation by a return to the original homeland once conditions there had returned to normal. It is understandable that the family histories of many of the surnames represented in Scotland, Ulster and even Northern England are quite confused. In an extreme example of routine movements, it should be recalled that in the 18th and 19th centuries, the people of St Kilda (some 40 miles into the Atlantic, west of the Outer Hebrides) were prepared to row to Uist or Harris, against prevailing winds and seas, in order to trade their sole produce, the down of the island's sea-birds for use as mattress filling. The Beginnings The troubles in Scotland began in the reign of King Henry VIII, who was attempting to wage war on France - Scotland's \"auld allie\". Henry defeated King James IV at Flodden Field on 9 Septemb", "The History Of Derby County The History Of Derby County The History Of Derby County PUBLISHED 00:22 19th May 2015 An in-depth look back at the history of the Rams, from 1884 to the present day. Derby County began life in 1884, as an off-shoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club - formed some 13 years earlier - with football growing more popular. In those days there was no Football League, so the Rams had to make do with a series of friendly matches and the FA Cup. Friendly matches were a way of building the team and the club up and the cup eventually provided some success in 1885, with an impressive victory going a long way to putting the town's football club on the map. In 1888 came the introduction of the Football League, a 12-team competition formed with clubs from across the midlands and the north-west. Preston North End, Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, West Bromwich Albion, Accrington FC, Everton, Burnley, Notts County, Stoke City, and of course, Derby County. Bolton were the first league opponents, a game Derby won 6-3 with doubles for Cooper, Bakewell, and Lawrence Plackett, but the Rams would ultimately finish tenth in the debut campaign. The following season saw improvement on the field - the County Ground, Derby's first home - as the club finished seventh. In 1889/90 Derby made their most significant signing thus far with the capture of England international John Goodall, a star of the Preston side that had won the double in league football's first season. 1890 to 1900 A clash with a race meeting meant that March 19 1892 went down in history as the day Derby County graced the Baseball Ground for the first time. They lost that game 1-0 to Sunderland and would eventually move to the BBG for the start of the 1895/96 season with race meeting clashes becoming more frequent. The 1890s was the decade that saw football's first superstar come to prominence. Steve Bloomer made his Derby debut, at the age of 18, on the opening day of 1892/93, and at the end of September he scored from the penalty spot in a draw with West Bromwich Albion. It was the first of 332 goals over a long and distinguished Rams career for the front-man, a tally that still stands today as the club's all-time highest. Bloomer was the leading scorer in 1893/94, the first of 13 consecutive seasons he led the chart. The Rams narrowly avoided relegation to the newly-formed Division Two in 1894/95 by beating Notts County in a Test match - these were the early equivalent to play-offs, though the format differed slightly to today's in that the bottom three from the First Division would take on the top three from the second tier. If you won, you were up, and if you lost you were down. 1895/96 was the most successful season so far of Derby's fledgling life. They finished second for the first time, four points behind Aston Villa, and also reached the semi-final of the FA Cup where they lost 2-1 to Wolves. Third spot and another semi-final defeat followed the next year, before in 1898 came the first of two successive FA Cup finals. Bloomer was on target in the Crystal Palace clash, but Derby went down 3-1 to Nottingham Forest. Twelve months later they were back at the Palace again but were beaten again, this time 4-1 by Sheffield United. 1900 to 1910 The turn of the century saw Derby maintain their position in the upper reaches of Division One while Bloomer was continuing to see off all who came up against him. He scored his 200th goal in November 1901, a figure only one other Derby player - Kevin Hector - has passed. Derby were back at Crystal Palace for another FA Cup final in 1903, but with Bloomer out injured and a goalkeeper also struggling, it wasn't to be. Bury's 6-0 success still stands today as the highest winning margin in an FA Cup final. And midway through the 1905/06 season came news that rocked Derby - Bloomer had been sold to Middlesbrough, and the following year his loss was felt as the club suffered relegation for the first time. Jimmy Methven was appointed manager in August 1906 and played the last of h", "U.S. Immigration Before 1965 - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com U.S. Immigration Before 1965 A+E Networks Introduction The United States experienced major waves of immigration during the colonial era, the first part of the 19th century and from the 1880s to 1920. Many immigrants came to America seeking greater economic opportunity, while some, such as the Pilgrims in the early 1600s, arrived in search of religious freedom. From the 17th to 19th centuries, hundreds of thousands of African slaves came to America against their will. The first significant federal legislation restricting immigration was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Individual states regulated immigration prior to the 1892 opening of Ellis Island, the country’s first federal immigration station. New laws in 1965 ended the quota system that favored European immigrants, and today, the majority of the country’s immigrants hail from Asia and Latin America. Google Immigration in the Colonial Era From its earliest days, America has been a nation of immigrants, starting with its original inhabitants, who crossed the land bridge connecting Asia and North America tens of thousands of years ago. By the 1500s, the first Europeans, led by the Spanish and French, had begun establishing settlements in what would become the United States. In 1607, the English founded their first permanent settlement in present-day America at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony. Did You Know? On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork, Ireland, was the first immigrant processed at Ellis Island. She had made the nearly two-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean in steerage with her two younger brothers. Annie later raised a family on New York City’s Lower East Side. Some of America’s first settlers came in search of freedom to practice their faith. In 1620, a group of roughly 100 people later known as the Pilgrims fled religious persecution in Europe and arrived at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts , where they established a colony. They were soon followed by a larger group seeking religious freedom, the Puritans, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By some estimates, 20,000 Puritans migrated to the region between 1630 and 1640. A larger share of immigrants came to America seeking economic opportunities. However, because the price of passage was steep, an estimated one-half or more of the white Europeans who made the voyage did so by becoming indentured servants. Although some people voluntarily indentured themselves, others were kidnapped in European cities and forced into servitude in America. Additionally, thousands of English convicts were shipped across the Atlantic as indentured servants. Another group of immigrants who arrived against their will during the colonial period were black slaves from West Africa. The earliest records of slavery in America include a group of approximately 20 Africans who were forced into indentured servitude in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. By 1680, there were some 7,000 African slaves in the American colonies, a number that ballooned to 700,000 by 1790, according to some estimates. Congress outlawed the importation of slaves to the United States as of 1808, but the practice continued. The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) resulted in the emancipation of approximately 4 million slaves. Although the exact numbers will never be known, it is believed that 500,000 to 650,000 Africans were brought to America and sold into slavery between the 17th and 19th centuries. Immigration in the Mid-19th Century Another major wave of immigration occurred from around 1815 to 1865. The majority of these newcomers hailed from Northern and Western Europe. Approximately one-third came from Ireland, which experienced a massive famine in the mid-19th century. In the 1840s, almost half of America’s immigrants were from Ireland alone. Typically impoverished, these Irish immigrants settled near their point of arrival in cities along the East Coast. Between 1820 and 1930, some 4.5 million Irish migrated to the United States. Also in the 19th century, the United State", "khedive - definition and meaning khedive from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition n. One of several Turkish viceroys ruling Egypt from 1867 to 1914. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License n. A form of Turkish viceroy who ruled Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English n. A governor or viceroy; -- a title granted in 1867 by the sultan of Turkey to the ruler of Egypt. from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia n. The title of the viceroy of Egypt, assumed by Ismail Pasha in 1867, under a convention with his suzerain the Sultan of Turkey: an agreement made between them in 1866 had established for the first time hereditary succession in his family. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. n. one of the Turkish viceroys who ruled Egypt between 1867 and 1914 Etymologies from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition French khédive, from Turkish hidiv, from Persian khidēw, lord, from Middle Persian khwadāy, from Old Iranian khvadāta-; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots. Examples In 1871, however, Baker claimed Gondokoro for the khedive of Egypt, and this gesture set off what became known as the \"Scramble for Africa,\" with the European powers vying for resource-rich lands.", "The Game Date: September 10‑18 Gold: USSR The first FIVB World Championship in history included teams only from Europe, with six teams from the east and four from the west (among the latter, sixth‑placed France did the best). Czechoslovakia failed to repeat its success of the year before at the Continental Championship in Rome and were foiled in the decisive match by the Soviets on their first international outing. The USSR campaign was all‑conquering: in the elimination round they powered past Belgium, Romania and Hungary, and the in the final round they shut out Poland, Bulgaria and France in straight sets. They gave up two sets throughout � one each to Romania and Czechoslovakia. USSR 1952 Date: August 17‑29 Gold: USSR India and Lebanon provided an international touch for a World Championship that otherwise retained its European flavour. On the courts of the Dynamo club, thronged by approximately 25,000 spectators each day, USSR won more effortlessly than expected. The hosts played eight matches in the August finals and managed not to lose a single set. France 1956 Date: August 30 to September 12 Gold: Czechoslovakia This time the formula was revised, with the elimination phase divided into two‑ or three‑team rounds. Hosts France were the only Western Europe representative to qualify for the 10‑team finals, won by Czechoslovakia with no defeats. USSR finished third, having to swallow their first two World Championship defeats at the hands of the Czechs and silver‑medallists Romania. Brazil 1960 Final city: Rio de Janeiro Date October 28 to November 14 Gold: USSR Seven teams from the Americas, six from Europe and one from Asia (India, Mexico and Dominican Republic withdrew at the last minute) participated in the first World Championship played on non�-European soil. Once again USSR claimed gold, sweeping the final round. Third was Romania, while Poland earned their third fourth place in four editions. For the home team, there was the satisfaction of the fifth place. Newcomers Japan placed eighth in the finals. USSR 1962 Date. October 13‑26 Gold: USSR A total of 15 five‑set matches in a total of 40 matches in the October 13‑26 final round gives an idea of the great balance between teams that characterized the second Soviet edition of the Men's World Championship. As had happened in 1952, USSR and Czechoslovakia again took the first two places, with Romania grabbing third from Bulgaria, meaning the same 1‑2‑3 rankings as in Rio in 1960. Czechoslovakia 1966 Date: August 30 to September 11 Gold: Czechoslovakia Once again it was Czechoslovakia who kept the Soviets from making it a third consecutive victory. Even after losing 3‑2 against the Japanese (who also beat USSR and set a record of six five‑set matches out of seven played in the final round) the Czechs managed to finish top of the tree with Romania second and USSR third. Notable was the fact that only six out 28 matches in the decisive round ended 3‑0. Bulgaria 1970 Date: September 20 to October 2 Gold: East Germany This FIVB World Championship was loaded with surprises: for the first time, USSR (sixth and Czechoslovakia (fourth) were excluded from the medals, Japan was the first non‑European team to reach the podium (third) and Bulgaria led the standings right up to the second‑to‑last day before giving way to East Germany in a dramatic match lasting over two and a half hours during which the Germans miraculously came back from 13‑5 behind in the fifth set to win 15‑13. Mexico 1974 Date: October 12‑28 Gold: Poland Poland took home their first world title after three stunning five‑set victories over East Germany, Czechoslovakia and USSR plus a tight 3‑1 victory over Japa", "The Greatest Century That Ever Was: 25 Miraculous Trends of the Past 100 Years | Libertarianism.org The Greatest Century That Ever Was: 25 Miraculous Trends of the Past 100 Years Stephen Moore and Julian L. Simon detail the myriad ways in which Americans were better off at the end of the 20th century than at the end of the 19th century. >”We step upon the threshold of 1900 …facing a brighter dawn of civilization.” >—New York Times, January 1, 1900 The central premise of this study is that there has been more improvement in the human condition for people living in the United States in this century than for all people in all previous centuries of human history combined. Gigantic strides have been made in living standards in most other parts of the world as well, but not all. The European Jews, the Russians, and the Chinese experienced dreadful episodes of tyranny under Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. When one considers the age of the planet, the 20th century has been a momentary flash in time. Yet the documentable improvement in the quality of human life in this brief period has been nothing short of miraculous. Although the leap forward in human progress began in the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution, the greatest strides have taken place in the 20th century. Virtually every statistic presented in the pages that follow confirms that we are about to complete what the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago aptly called “the Century of Progress.” The roughly fourfold rise in the living standards of Americans in this century is particularly impressive when we consider that for thousands of years human progress occurred at a glacial pace. For the thousand years before the Industrial Revolution, incomes were virtually flat, growing by about 0.5 percent per year. Life expectancy was not much greater in 1700 than it was at the time of the Greek and Roman Empires. Throughout most of human history, life was, as Thomas Hobbes famously put it, “nasty, brutish and short.” One way to appreciate the improvements in quality of life over the course of this century is to mentally travel back 100 years. What was life really like? The latter part of the 19th century was an era of tuberculosis, typhoid, sanitariums, child labor, child death, horses, horse manure, candles, 12-hour work days, Jim Crow laws, tenements, slaughterhouses, and outhouses. Lynchings—not just of blacks—were common. (In the South 11 Italians were lynched in one month.) To live to 50 was to count one’s blessings. For a mother to have all four of her children live to adulthood was to beat the odds of nature. One in 10 children died before his or her first birthday. One hundred years ago parents lived in eternal fear of a child’s dying; nowadays, many parents live in eternal fear of their child’s not making the county select soccer team. Industrial cities were typically enveloped in clouds of black soot and smoke. At that stage of the Industrial Revolution, factories belching poisons into the air were regarded as a sign of prosperity and progress. Streets were smelly and filled with garbage before modern sewerage systems and plumbing were put in place. Leading killers of the day included pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhea, and violence. In 1918 pneumonia killed 675,000 Americans. In the first two decades of the 20th century, before the era of acid rain and global warming, pollution killed people—lots and lots of people. Deadly diseases were carried by milk and what then qualified as “drinking water.” Cancer was not one of the primary causes of death as it is today, because most Americans succumbed to infectious diseases and occasional epidemics before their bodies had time to contract cancer. Medical care was astonishingly primitive by today’s standards. Abraham Flexner, writing in the famous Flexner report on medical education in 1910, commented that until then, a random patient consulting a random physician had only a 50-50 chance of benefiting from the encounter. Health historian Theodore Dalrymple notes that until the late 19th century it was often considered “beneath a physic", "Carry On Films - British Comedy Guide Carry On Films Carry On Films This series of classic comedy films defined and encapsulated British comedy and society throughout the 1960s and 70s. Guide Carry On Films Shop DVD Release date: Monday 1st September 2008 Carry On Spying : Fearless agent Desmond Simpkins and James Bind, aided and abetted by the comely Agent Honeybutt and Agent Crump, battle against the evil powers of international bad guys STENCH and their three cronies. Carry On Cleo : Ancient British slaves save Caesar ( Kenneth Williams ) from assassination in Rome,... DVD Release date: Monday 1st September 2008 The first four films from the hugely popular Carry On series. In Carry On Sergeant ( 1958 ), a sergeant ( William Hartnell ) takes a bet that the last recruits he trains will win the 'Star Squad' award. The sergeant's inept young charges include Bob Monkhouse , Kenneth Williams , Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth... DVD Release date: Monday 1st September 2008 This Carry On collection includes the following films: Carry On Up The Khyber : British India, 1895. The Burpas are revolting, but then again 'The Devils In Skirts' who guard the Khyber Pass are not too inviting either! Can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond ( Sid James ) prevent the scheming Khasi of Kalabar... DVD Release date: Monday 7th October 2013 This is the 'ultimate' collection of Carry On films, containing the 30 titles released between 1958 and 1978 . DVD Release date: Monday 1st September 2008 Collection of four films from the popular Carry On series of British comedies. In Carry On Regardless ( 1961 ), the head of a temp agency ( Sid James ) finds that all the people on his books are incapable of performing the odd jobs they are hired for. Eager employees include Kenneth... DVD Release date: Monday 1st September 2008 Collection of four films from the Carry On stable of British comedies. In Carry On Again, Doctor ( 1969 ), Jim Dale plays a surgeon who sets up a slimming clinic on the basis of a potion from the Beatific Isles. In Carry On Camping ( 1969 ), Sid ( Sid James ) and... DVD Release date: Monday 1st September 2008 DVD Release date: Monday 1st September 2008 Collection of four films from the Carry On stable of British comedies. In Carry On Girls ( 1973 ), Sid Fiddler ( Sid James ) convinces Fircombe council to hold a beauty contest, but the local women's lib action group opposes the idea. In Carry On Dick ( 1974 ), the notorious highwayman, Dick... CD Release date: Saturday 9th October 2004 Possibly more than any other, the Carry On series of films typifies the very essence of British comedy. They are, without doubt, the most enduring and possibly the most endearing offspring of British cinema. From their origins in 1958 through to the present day, the mention of the words... This product has been discontinued.", "- dead rock stars - classicbands.com_ This list contains major artists who had hit records during the classic rock era of 1955 to 1985. For those who were popular later than '85, please find the appropriate website. If there someone we missed that meets the above criteria kindly let us know at [email protected] Johnny Ace - accidently killed himself while on tour, backstage at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas, on Christmas Eve 1954, while playing Russian Roulette. He was 25 years old. A month later, he had a Top 20 hit with \"Pledging My Love\" Johnny Adams - who scored a US Top 30 hit with \"Reconsider Me\" in 1969, died of cancer on September 14th, 1998. He was 66 Stuart Adamson - a highly regarded Scottish guitarist who led his band Big Country into Billboard's Top 20 in 1983 with \"In A Big Country\", committed suicide by hanging himself in a hotel room in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 16th, 2001 at the age of 43 Cannonball Adderley - whose version of \"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy\" went to #11 in the US in 1967, died following a stroke on August 8th, 1975. He was 46 Bill Albaugh - drummer for The Lemon Pipers on their 1967 US #1 single \"Green Tambourine\", died on January 20th, 1999, at the age of 53 Arthur Alexander - a rhythm and blues singer-songwriter who reached #24 on the Billboard Pop chart in 1962 with \"You Better Move On\", died of a heart attack on June 9th, 1993 at the age of 53. Alexander had his tunes recorded by the Beatles (\"Anna\"), the Rolling Stones (\"You Better Move On\"), Steve Alaimo (\"Every Day I Have To Cry\") and Bob Dylan (\"Sally Sue Brown\") Dave Alexander - the original bassist for The Stooges, died of pulmonary edema on February 10th, 1975 at the age of 27, after being admitted to a hospital for pancreatitis Rex Allen - a musician and actor who had a US Top 20 hit with a song called \"Don't Go Near The Indians\" in 1962, was killed when he was struck by a car on December 17th, 1999. He was 78 Rod Allen - lead singer of The Fortunes, who reached the US Top 10 in 1965 with \"You've Got Your Troubles\", died on January 11th, 2008, at the age of 63 after a short battle with liver cancer Duane Allman - of the Allman Brothers Band was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 29th, 1971, one month before his 25th birthday Tommy Allsup - the guitarist who famously avoided \"the day the music died\" after losing his plane seat in a coin toss to Ritchie Valens, died following complications from a hernia operation on January 11th, 2017 at the age of 85. In the nearly 58 years after that fateful day, Allsup went on to perform with Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Merle Haggard and Bob Wills Wayne \"Tony\" Allwine - rhythm guitarist for Davie Allan & The Arrows, passed away at the age of 62 on May 18th, 2009 due to complications from diabetes. The band reached #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 with \"Blue's Theme\", which opened the biker film The Wild Angels. Allwine would later become Disney's official voice of Mickey Mouse and married voice-over actress, Russi Taylor, the official voice of Minnie Mouse Lynn Anderson - a Country singer who reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971 with \"Rose Garden\", passed away on July 31st, 2015 at the age of 67 Signe Anderson - the original female vocalist for Jefferson Airplane passed away on February 4th, 2016 at the age of 74. Signe sang on the band's first album before leaving to care for her first child. That was a decision she would later say that she never regretted Sam Andrew - a founding guitarist for Big Brother And The Holding Company died on February 12th, 2015 at the age of 73, ten days after suffering a heart attack Greg Arama - bassist for The Amboy Dukes on their 1968 hit, \"Journey To The Center Of The Mind\", was killed in a motorcycle accident on September 18th, 1979. He was 29 years old Louis Armstrong - led the Billboard Hot 100 with \"Hello Dolly\" in 1964. Died of heart failure on July 6th, 1971, aged 69 Mike Arnone - vocalist for The Duprees on their 1962, #7 hit, \"You Belong To Me\", passed away at the age of 62 on September 19th, 2005 Eddy Arnold - a Country" ]

[ "heart rate" ]

[ "Make-up", "Pancake make-up", "kiss & make up", "They go up in smoke", "The Go-Go's", "Go!", "A Go Go", "Go", "the Sex Pistols", "\"Wake Me Up Before You Go Go\"", "Sex and the City", "make a sling", "make a toast", "Furniture Making", "go-go boots", "Go-Go girls", "UPS", "go-go dancers", "Making the Band", "make a compass", "make light of it", "Go up in a hot air balloon", "Lyre bird (tails going up as a lyre)", "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", "making a daiquiri", "Got to go", "Go fish", "The Joy of Sex Pistols", "Movie Making", "\"All dressed up and no place (nowhere) to go\"", "Auto making", "Go with God" ]

[ "Video games have come a long way since Pong caused a scene in 1971. It seems like only yesterday Donkey Kong threw his first barrel at a plumber in way over his head and a hungry yellow dot with phasmophobia cannibalised smaller yellow dots to fight off pixellated ghosts.\nAmy Conway’s Super Awesome World puts the controller in the hands of the audience, with decision-making that will alter her path as she sets out on an epic adventure to slay demons of the mind.\nAgainst the grain of the popular opinion that gaming compounds mental health conditions, Amy’s show offers an alternate view - that game worlds, narratives and characters actually contribute to positive mental attitudes.\nThe 32-year-old decided to star as the protagonist in her own interactive Fringe show after researching the benefits of gaming on the human psyche.\n“I got a Nintendo Entertainment System for my 10th birthday and I immediately fell in love with Nintendo’s style of gaming,” she tells me in the Glasgow gamer throwback bar, Super Bario.\n“I played games all the way through my teens and my dad also played them as well, so they also brought be closer to my dad.”\nLike a lot of former-gamers, Amy turned away from games on the cusp of adulthood, but having got back into games to research her show she admits she’s rediscovered her love of gaming.\nAfter making it out the other side of depression, she began researching the welcoming game worlds, relatable characters and motivational princess-saving adventures that she believes has a deeper impact on our mental wellbeing for her show at Summerhall.\nPre-packaged inevitable accomplishment might seem like a childish waste of time to some, but millions of gamers around the world have turned saving princess and shooting bad guys into a $100 billion industry.\nAmy’s show promises to be a lot of feel-good fun, with her relying on the audience to help her defeat the ‘final boss’.\n“The audience play allies in that quest for good mental health,” she explains.\n“They’re going to need to help me get there. The conclusion of the show is entirely dependent on the audience, which I’m a little bit scared about.”\nTo give Amy a 1-UP, you can go and take part in Amy conway’s Super Awesome World, 17.40 at Summerhall (12+)" ]

[ "A mental health and wellbeing nurse has said her post at Brechin Health Centre is “worthwhile and rewarding”.\nSince last August, Amy McKenzie, an experienced mental health nurse, has been working at Brechin Health Centre two days per week helping to assess patients who present with distress, mental illness or substance misuse issues. Amy is also part of the local community mental health team.\nAmy has provided over 500 appointments since she started and the success of the service has generated interest both locally and nationally, with the service being showcased at the NHS Scotland Conference in June.\nAmy said: “This new post based within practice is so worthwhile and rewarding. I am seeing adults of all ages, but predominantly those aged between 16 and 55.\n“People I see can be referred to me by any of the practice team, including the reception staff, who will often signpost patients to me who are looking for support with emotional health and wellbeing issues.\n“There are many reasons for people requiring support, with anxiety and depression being the most common causes. People also often contact us when they are having challenging life events and either have no one available to support them or recognise they require some professional support.\n“Being able to provide prompt support is often all that is required but I can refer people on for further service input if that is required, for example, helping carers by referring them to the Angus Carers Centre.\n“It is great to work so closely with the practice team. I attend the practice meetings and get the chance to contribute to discussions about patients’ care as well as raising any concerns or sharing relevant information with the wider team.”\nLead GP Dr Robert Mellish commented: “Amy is a huge asset to the clinical team in the practice. We are all learning so much from having her expertise available in the practice.\n“We feel patients are getting an appropriate and prompt response at times of real distress, which we know is much appreciated. Not only are we providing an enhanced service to patients at practice level, but we know this service has significantly reduced the rate of referrals to wider mental health speciality services.”", "Thursday, 15 June, 2017 - 12:19\nOne year after Lucy McSweeney took part in the Mental Health Foundation’s social change programme, POD (Point of Difference), the 21-year-old was standing on the steps of Parliament to present her petition.\n\"In terms of helping me to form ideas and get into active change and to make the connections I needed to launch my petition, I don’t think anything would’ve happened without POD, which is awesome right, what a testimony,\" Lucy says.\nThe Auckland engineering student’s call to improve mental health education in schools is now backed by more than 9,000 people, that’s just shy of her goal of 10,000 signatures.\nLucy took part in the Mental Health Foundation’s mentored incubator programme, POD, after her own challenges with mental health in high school.\n\"POD was always a really safe and supportive place and it’s so nice to be with people who have experienced mental health problems, but who are also keen to grow and make a difference.\"\nThe Mental Health Foundation has launched its third round of the programme and is calling on young people, 17-24, to submit their creative social change proposals.\nIndividual or group projects are welcome and the sky is the limit for application ideas - from visual arts, videos and websites to drama, writing and street performances.\nThrough mentoring, workshops and industry contacts, POD helps young people to turn ideas into actions and develop leadership skills. It’s also an opportunity to connect with like-minded people.\nApplications close on 30 June. To find out more and to apply, visit www.pod.org.nz, or email any questions to [email protected]\nPOD is supported by Like Minds, Like Mine, a nationwide programme to end mental illness discrimination in New Zealand.", "Karen Fricker: So Carly! It’s Fringe time! Carly Maga: It’s “Theatre Christmas” already. And we have, what, 158 productions to choose from?\nAmy Lee and Heather Marie Annis in Morro and Jasp: Save the Date, playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival. ( COURTESY TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL ) Women of the Fur Trade by Anishinaabe writer Frances Koncan from Winnipeg won the Fringe Best New Play Contest. ( COURTESY TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL ) Upstream Downtown by Morgan Johnson and Alexandra Simpson is about “salmon and humans finding a home in Toronto.” ( COURTESY TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL ) Carmilla at the Toronto Fringe is an adaptation of the 1870s vampire novella of the same name. ( COURTESY TORONTO FRINGE )\nKF: Theatre Santa is very generous! I think for many people looking at the list of shows can be overwhelming — how to choose? What’s your strategy? CM: It’s a lot, it’s true. I typically look for familiar names at first. Then I take another scan for out of town productions with some reviews under their belt. Then once more for outliers with really snappy descriptions. My Fringe program is usually in pieces by the end of the festival. What about you? KF: Very similar. I’m also always looking around at other people’s tips — and doing serious eavesdropping in the lines for shows. I love Fringe because it still is a powerful word-of-mouth event.\nArticle Continued Below\nCM: Excellent points; it’s important not to overplan. You never know what’s going to take off and be the next Kim’s Convenience. KF: So let’s get into it! In terms of exciting familiar names in the program, what jumped out at you? CM: Well, they’re practically Fringe royalty at this point; the clown duo Morro and Jasp (a.k.a. Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee) are back with a new show, once again directed by Byron Laviolette: Morro and Jasp: Save the Date. I love how these two have a bonkers sense of humour but place female friendships front and centre. KF: Some names that popped for me were Julie Tepperman, Aaron Willis and Kevin Wong, who are bringing the first act of their musical The Preposterous Predicament of Polly Peel to Fringe, with the wonderful young actor Hannah Levinson. CM: I saw a very early version of this musical in Musical Stage Company’s Reframed project (originally as Paulie Peel, after the Canadian artist Paul Peel whose work The Young Biologist inspired the show) and am looking forward to seeing how it has progressed. Another big name is Tom McGee: he’s a Fringe staple with the Shakey-Shake puppet theatre shows in the Fringe’s children’s program and he’s also been a key dramaturge for Kat Sandler’s work. Now he’s directing his own play, Featherweight, starring Michael Musi, Kat Letwin and Amanda Cordner.\nKF: Another on-the-rise Toronto talent is playwright Michael Ross Albert, who has two shows in Fringe this year: Anywhere, featuring Courtney Ch’ing Lancaster and Cass Van Wyck; and The Grass is Greenest at the Houston Astrodome. What caught your eye from elsewhere? CM: I’m going to make an effort to catch The Merkin Sisters from Vancouver and Toronto. They’re the comedy duo of Ingrid Hansen and Stephanie Morin-Robert, in a show that is receiving rave reviews but offers little plot description. The Fringe program describes it as “RuPaul meets David Lynch,” which pretty much sold me.\nArticle Continued Below\nKF: I am interested in the “burlesque cabaret dream play” Josephine, about the groundbreaking entertainer Josephine Baker, which has awards and great reviews from the States. And I’m also interested in performers who thrive on the Fringe circuit. One is Gemma Wilcox, whose solo shows are Toronto Fringe favourites (this year she’s bringing back her 2008 hit The Honeymoon Period is Officially Over). Some friends tipped me off to Brooklyn-based Martin Dockery, a storyteller they say is mesmerizing — this year he has two shows in the Fringe: The Bike Trip and Inescapable. CM: Alongside Josephine is Ryan G. Hinds’s #KANDERANDEBB and Ashley Botting’s Ashley With a Y. Hinds is an established cabaret favourite, and Botting is best known as an improviser and comedian but has shown off her dramatic skills in shows like Jessica Moss’s Cam Baby. These cabarets provide a mix of the solo storytelling and the musical extravaganzas that the Fringe has come to epitomize. KF: What are some other plays that look interesting? CM: The Fringe’s Best New Play Contest winner is usually one to keep an eye on and this year’s it’s Women of the Fur Trade by Anishinaabe writer Frances Koncan from Winnipeg. It’s great to see a non-Torontonian win, and this one stands out as a story about three women confronting their cultures, histories and potential futures in 1918 Canada. KF: Also interesting is Upstream Downtown by Morgan Johnson and Alexandra Simpson, about “salmon and humans finding a home in Toronto” (check out their promo photo and you can see that the performers indeed get “fishy”), and Soulo Theatre’s We the Men, in which female-identifying performers play 10 men on a weekend trip, based on real conversations. The Fringe is also fun for shows in non-traditional locations. Flooded: A Show and Sail Around the Toronto Islands takes place on the Pirate Life Boat, a nifty floating venue where Fringe-goers can catch a welcome breeze. CM: And expand your limits with genres you’re not used to. Circus Shop of Horrors mixes circus arts with the esthetic and themes of horror movies. And there’s another dark tale in Carmilla, an adaptation of the 1870s vampire novella of the same name. Karen, you know I’ll be there. KF: I expect no less, my horror-loving colleague! Other shows in unusual locations are Harvey & the Extraordinary, Eliza Martin’s solo show in a garage; Fiona Ross’s Is That How Clowns Have Sex? staged in an adult entertainment store; Mrs. Mama’s House, a riff on “The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe” at the Bata Shoe Museum; and St. Peon of the People, in which the audience joins a parking enforcement officer on her beat. You mentioned the Fringe Tent before. This year the Fringe has launched something new for after-hours socializing. CM: The Fringe Beer Tent has been officially rebranded as Postscript, seemingly to make it more open to non-Fringe artists and fans. With its public location in the Scadding Court hockey arena, people can come in off the street for food, drinks and daily programming, including a comedy night, a music festival, a silent disco and a prom (an ’80s prom, to be specific). KF: I’m excited for the Postscript Youth Takeover Night on July 11, with programming from the AMY Project and Paprika Festival, and the Fringe Awards on the 12th hosted by Ali Hassan. CM: And the #UrgentExchange events organized by Generator. I know I’ll see you at July 13’s workshop on the new faces of theatre criticism! KF: Big time! And at the July 10 #UrgentExchange on precarity and mental health. We’re running out of space here but, speaking of new faces, I’m looking forward to our next column about the University of Toronto course we’re launching this week, “Reviewing the Toronto Fringe.” CM: Stay tuned Star readers and happy Fringe! The Toronto Fringe Festival runs July 4 to 15 in venues around the city. Tickets are $13, with discounts for previews and same-day purchase, and multi-show discount passes available. KidsFest shows are $5; no charge for babies in arms. See fringetoronto.com or call 416-966-1062; the festival box office is at 707 Dundas St. W. Karen Fricker and Carly Maga are Toronto-based theatre critics and freelance contributors for the Star. Follow them on Twitter: @KarenFricker2 and @RadioMaga", "What is it like to be autistic? The Guardian’s latest VR film offers a glimpse of how a person on the autism spectrum copes with a stressful environment\nThe Party allows you to enter the world of an autistic teenager, Layla, who is at a surprise birthday celebration. You will hear her thoughts about what she is experiencing and how it is affecting her, and share the sensory overload that leads to a meltdown (an intense response to an overwhelming situation). The drama provides viewers with a powerful first-person perspective on the challenges that social situations may present to someone on the autism spectrum.\nAutism affects more than one in 100 people in the UK. Compared with autistic males, females on the autism spectrum are more likely to go unrecognised and unsupported, often with severe consequences for their wellbeing and mental health. This is partly because the diagnostic conventions are biased towards males, meaning they are insensitive to more female-typical autism presentations. The under-diagnosis of girls and women also reflects the fact that many will develop strategies to mask their autism in order to manage day-to-day interactions.\nThe Party is based on a concept by the author Lucy Hawking and is written by Sumita Majumdar, who drew on her own experiences as a person with autism in similar social situations. Throughout the film, viewers hear Layla’s thoughts, voiced by the autistic teenager Honey Jones. The storyline was developed after extensive focus groups and interviews with people on the autism spectrum as well as with input from the National Autistic Society, the Autism Research Trust and the University of Cambridge Autism Research Centre.\nThe visual and auditory effects in the film were based on scientific research about the kinds of symptoms seen in autistic individuals, such as difficulties with processing faces, and hypersensitivity to lights, loud noises and strong odours. Interviews conducted with autistic women also revealed they had issues with how things sound during a meltdown, including having difficulties distinguishing between sounds, hearing echoing voices and being unable to process the other information around them.\nYou can watch the film as a YouTube 360 video. If you want to watch it as a VR experience, download the Guardian’s new VR app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store and watch it using Google Cardboard or Daydream.", "At the 2014 Edinburgh fringe, the trailblazing Every Brilliant Thing – written by Duncan Macmillan and performed by Jonny Donahoe – talked to us about depression in a refreshingly warm, open and honest way. A year later, Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn’s Fake It ’Til You Make It tackled the taboo subject of male depression and was one of a number of fringe shows exploring mental distress. This year there are so many that a new award has been introduced for shows about mental illness. Talking about it, particularly depression, is the new coming out. As Viki Browne says at the end of her show Help!: “Don’t keep it a secret.”\nEdinburgh festival 2017: the shows we recommend Read more\nFor a long time Browne had been wearing a painted smile – but the cracks were beginning to show. In January 2012, on Wimbledon Common, she shattered. Marking this moment the stage explodes in a firework of tin foil strips. Her show Help! is part of the process of putting herself back together. She can’t do it alone. Browne has to ask the audience to help pick up the pieces and stick her together. We do so with copious amounts of sticky tape. The joins show like scars, but it’s a start.\nIf Browne’s endearingly comic piece cleverly uses metaphor to point up the importance of asking for help, then The Letter Room’s show No Miracles Here stretches metaphor to breaking point in a piece of gig theatre that was inspired by the dance marathons that occurred during the Great Depression. This likable company describe it as “a well-researched fabricated fable,” about Ray who joins the dance marathon, a place where as long as you can keep moving and your knees don’t touch the ground you have a chance of winning.\n“This is about endurance, not about technique,” one of the dancers tells Ray. The songs break the narrative rather than pushing it along and there is never quite a sense that the cast are dancing as if their lives depended on it. However, it neatly makes the point that with depression everyone’s experience of the dance is different and some will leave before the music stops.\nFacebook Twitter Pinterest Milly Thomas in Dust. Photograph: The Other Richard\nMusic is also integral to Silent Uproar’s A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) which is undoubtedly the most uplifting show about depression since Every Brilliant Thing. Sally is certain she is going to change the world but on her 16th birthday she senses a shadow – she flunks out of her A-levels and becomes a charity fundraiser or “chugger” (“the most depressing job in the world”). Eventually she gets help, sees a doctor and joins a support group. She gets better, and then the depression comes back again. This is a very slickly put together show, written by Jon Brittain and with music by Frisky and Mannish’s Matthew Floyd. It is deceptive: like Sally, it looks all shiny on the surface but underneath there’s a lot going on, some of it very dark.\nAt her most desperate Sally pushes away everyone who loves her and says hateful, hurtful things – not unlike Alice in Milly Thomas’s Dust. We first see her looking at her own body in the morgue after successfully killing herself. Superbly performed by Thomas herself, this is a brave, uncompromising monologue. This is depression in all its ugliness, as Alice – caught somewhere between life and death – watches parents, brother and friends respond to her suicide in the days after her death, and reflects back on how she ended up on the slab. It’s not a pretty show, some may think it’s an insensitive one, but it’s blisteringly honest about the way depression deforms and distorts a person and their way of looking at the world.\nFacebook Twitter Pinterest Jack Rooke in Happy Hour. Photograph: The Other Richard\nIn Good Grief, Jack Rooke uses his personal experience of grief to make a show in which comedy, spoken word and theatre collide. His follow-up performance Jack Rooke: Happy Hour, deploys similar techniques to craft a highly entertaining, yet delicate and perceptive piece inspired by the suicide of two friends. With the stage set up as if we are in a bar, Rooke proves a genial host as he describes the “lost boys”, questions what we mean by success for a generation who play and work hard but lack opportunity, and comments on representations of suicide in the media. It’s done with the lightest of touches as it crosses the comedy, spoken word and theatre boundaries and manages to reference Harry Potter and makes some waspish jokes about students.\nThese shows are just the tip of the iceberg of offerings on the fringe. Most are made by those under 30, many draw on personal experience and all remind us that mental health issues are too often treated as a dirty little secret. These artists are shouting it loud, and without shame: many young people are in crisis. Will we listen to their cries for help?\nEvery Brilliant Thing is at Roundabout at Summerhall, from 21 to 27 August; Help! is at Zoo, until 28 August; No Miracles Here is at Northern Stage at Summerhall, until 26 August; A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) is at Pleasance Courtyard, until 28 August; Dust is at Underbelly Cowgate, until 27 August; Jack Rooke: Happy Hour is at Underbelly Cowgate, until 27 August. Box office: 0131 226 0000.\nIn the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123.\nIn the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.\nIn Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14.", "The comic debuts her solo show about family, taking risks and embracing change. 8 pm. Pwyc.\nwww.theossington.com", "Sarnia’s Lauren MacKinlay and Carson Pinch are celebrating a mini high school reunion at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival.\nBoth grew up in Sarnia and went to Northern Collegiate but now live and work in Toronto where they are in the cast of The Grass is Greenest at the Houston Astrodome, a comedy being staged at The Freedom Factory, an art gallery, as part of the city’s fringe festival.\nMacKinlay works in television and film production and Pinch is a comedy writer and performer.\nThe play is a comedy that premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival and is now having its Canadian premier at the Toronto festival opening this week and running to July 15.\n“It’s a bit of a Sarnia reunion, which is always awesome,” MacKinlay said.\nThe playwright, Michael Ross Albert, and MacKinlay’s husband went to university at the same time and reconnected when Albert returned to Toronto from New York where he had been studying and staging plays.\nThe Dora Award-nominated writer’s work includes Tough Jews and Miss.\n“I really connect with his work,” MacKinlay said.\n“I think he’s got such a fresh, sharp voice.”\nShe described The Grass is Greenest at the Houston Astrodome as a “tight, one-hour comedy” and added, “I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been put on in our city yet.”\nThe play is set in a “Queen West” style of art gallery with a story about what happens when a painter tears the artwork off the walls of a struggling independent gallery.\nMacKinlay said she had been looking for a couple of years for a way to stage the play in Toronto.\n“It was Michael who said, ‘Why not put it on in a gallery instead of in a theatre?”\nMacKinlay and the playwright eventually saw the opportunity to apply for a spot with this year’s fringe festival and were successful.\nMacKinlay is doing double duty as producer as well as being part of the five-member case directed by Robert Motum.\n“He has created an amazing site-specific world for this piece,” she said.\nThe art gallery is located in the city’s vibrant art gallery neighbourhood and the owners have been enthusiastic about hosting the play. They even worked with a group of women artists to curate work specifically for the show and its themes, MacKinlay said.\nThe director also created bar codes for the gallery spectators can use their phones to activate short videos of Pinch, in character as Pablo from the play explaining, “hilariously and inaccurately,” the artist’s background, MacKinlay said.\n“There’s lots of added treats for people who come to the show, along with the play.”\nIt’s an “intimate space” with 32 seats available for each of the 12 evening performances. Half of the tickets had sold by the weekend before opening night, MacKinlay said.\n“The Toronto fringe is just one of the most electric times to be in the city,” she said.\nIt includes more than 150 productions staged at venues around downtown Toronto over a dozen days.\nPinch is an award-winning writer and sketch comedy performer who went to Western University and spent time working and studying comedy in New York before settling in Toronto.\nThere he was head writer for a comedy troupe known as The Sketchersons, and has also staged solo shows.\n“He’s just so funny in the show,” MacKinlay said.\n“He’s perfect for the character.”\nHer character, Amy, is the director of the art gallery where the play is set.\nAdrian Rebucas, Anne van Leeuwen and Richard Young make up the rest of the cast.\nMacKinlay went to McMaster University after high school, and then studied drama in England.\nShe produced theatre while in university but later made the switch to television and film.\n“I haven’t done live acting for about three or four years now,” she said.\n“It’s so exciting to come back to the stage.”\nInformation about the Fringe Festival can be found online at fringetoronto.com.\[email protected]", "As the old saying goes, you've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette. Unless, of course, you're Natalie Palamides, in which case you decide to smash as many of the damn things as you can in order to make one of the strangest productions of this year's Fringe.\nAt the start of her enthralling one-woman show, the Los Angeles-based comedian hatches from a giant foam egg, rubs her bristly legs before shaving... her face, then settles down to read the paper. Don't worry, it gets weirder. She then proceeds to \"lay\" a real egg, which prompts her to ask: \"Do I raise my egg or eat it?\" You can probably guess the answer to that. Sure enough, Palamides is soon tucking into a hearty breakfast.\nShe then goes back to bed, wakes up, and repeats the same routine again and again... and again, only with different outcomes each time, as Palamides' unnamed character begins to embrace her maternal instincts.", "Edinburgh Festival Fringe: We usually go in search of art that makes us feel more human, but maybe once in a while, there is scope for a show that lets us see our inner rapacious beast.\nUpperchurch @ Summerhall hosted by RBC (Venue 26)\n*****\nIf so, then £¥€$ (Lies) fits the bill. It’s the Belgian company Ontroerend Goed back at its remarkable best, a show that simultaneously reinvents what theatre can be and triggers our emotions in exactly the way the best theatre can do.\nAs with so much of the company’s work, such as the sensory Edinburgh debut The Smile Off Your Face and the speed-dating Internal, you could question whether Alexander Devriendt’s production counts as theatre at all. Yet it has a structure and a script, of sorts, and even if the audience are as much characters as the company members themselves, it has a sharp political purpose.\nThe company’s concern is the money market and the seemingly magical way cash is generated with nothing more than a promise or a bet. The audience assembles round a set of casino tables where a teller takes us through an escalating series of £1 million dice throwing gambles, issuing bonds and offering to improve the odds (at a price) as we get the hang of it. The more adept we become, the more our nation state turns from an industrial economy to a service economy and the more we are ready to trade in the stock market with our neighbouring countries. It is like an interactive version of Lucy Prebble’s Enron.\nWhat happens – much as it does in game of Monopoly – is that the rising stakes start to play on our personalities. How irritated I was at the fellow banker who suggested we hold out for an equitable economy free of profiteering – a view I would have shared in any other circumstance, but not now with the currency on the up and something to be created out of nothing.\nThe speed at which it all happens; the primal instincts it appeals to; and the sense of chaos, confusion and loss it generates when the system collapses teach you as much about yourself as they do about the global money machine.\nUntil 27 August. Tomorrow 6:30pm and 8:30pm.", "Mental health is having a moment and we're totally here for it. Not only are popular TV shows incorporating mental illness and treatment into their storylines, but celebrities are feeling more empowered than ever to share their own struggles (proving we really are all human). One such star is Rachel Bloom, a writer, executive producer and star on the award-winning musical comedy series \"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.\" In real life, the Golden Globe winner isn't afraid to admit that she's seen her fair share of therapists and psychiatrists to help her through difficult periods of anxiety and depression. She even decided to give her character, Rebecca Bunch, a mental health diagnosis during Season 3 (which aired its season finale on Feb. 16, 2018) to further help erase the stigma of mental illness. Since positive representations of mental health are a good thing, Wonderwall.com is taking a look at some of the celebs who've opened up about their experiences with therapy and mental illness. Keep reading to see who's keeping it real when it comes to their mental health...\nRELATED: \"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\" and other great musical TV shows", "The last few months have been pretty interesting for Little People, Big World star Amy Roloff. Her business is booming, her new relationship with boyfriend Chris Marek seems to be getting really stable, and she was recently blessed with yet another grandchild, Ember Jean Roloff. This month, the Roloff matriarch is busy with the 2017 Pumpkin Season, where she, her kids and her former husband, are hard at work hosting the special month-long celebration.\nAmy has been very active on social media during the past few days. Her Instagram feed, for one, has prominently featured this year’s Pumpkin Season. This Friday, Amy went to Instagram once more to promote the celebrations, and she did so in a manner that gained the approval and admiration of her followers in the social media platform.\nAmy’s most recent post featured the Rolloff matriarch posing beside a table filled with products from her business, Amy’s Little Kitchen. While her social media followers’ reception to Amy’s products were mostly positive, many of the Little People, Big World star’s fans noticed that the reality TV star looks very happy. In fact, many of Amy’s fans even remarked that the Roloff matriarch is simply glowing.\n“Oh my goodness. You look awesome!” wrote one of Amy’s followers.\n“You look absolutely GORGEOUS!!” another Instagram follower wrote.\nOne thing that really stuck out to many of Amy’s social media followers was the cute ensemble that the Roloff matriarch wore. In the photo, Amy wore a black top paired and a pink skirt overlaid with a cute poodle pattern. The matriarch paired these with a white polka dot scarf, some earrings and a long pearl necklace. Needless to say, many of Amy’s fans gushed about how cute the outfit was. Some even remarked that Amy’s entire ensemble had a vintage feel to it.\n“What’s the occasion for your beautiful 50’s outfit?” wrote one Instagram follower.\n“Such a fun person. Love this vintage look!” another fan wrote.\n“Miss Amy, you’re looking good in that poodle skirt!” wrote another.\nLooking at Amy’s most recent Instagram upload, it’s understandable why so many LPBW fans are gushing over the Roloff matriarch. In a lot of ways, Amy has been looking a lot happier than usual in her social media uploads. Her smile has been very sincere, and her disposition in her Instagram Stories has been nothing but bubbly. If any, Amy looks happy nowadays, and the Little People, Big World community is loving it.\nI love my Fall????themed candle box from @Brunchcandlebox They are giving away the next 100 boxes FREE to my followers! Use code \"AMYJ\" at checkout. With every box sent, they donate a meal to a child in need ???????? ❤️ Tag a candle lover who needs this box! BrunchCandleBox.com A post shared by Amy Roloff (@amyjroloff) on Oct 4, 2017 at 1:18pm PDT\nWhat do you think about Amy’s most recent Instagram photo? Is Amy really glowing these days? What could be the reason behind Amy’s happy disposition on social media? Sound off in the comments below!\n[Featured Image by Amy Roloff/Instagram]", "× Expand Photo Credit: Troy Freund\nTeacher and student navigate the complexities of densely packed storytelling in John Murrell’s Taking Shakespeare . The contemporary tale of a college student engaging with a professor over Shakespeare’s Othello gently claws its way through a comfy space in Plymouth Church as Boulevard Theatre presents a staging of the two-actor play.\nJake Konrath plays a student named Murph. Murph can navigate the intricacies of fantasy video gaming and the works of George R.R. Martin, but he’s a bit lost when it comes to Shakespeare. Murrell’s text makes him kind of a tricky character to play. He’s not the generic “dumb jock” trying to understand something intellectually beautiful. Murph’s a sharp guy who really wants to understand a classic of literature echoing out at him from an alien antiquity. Konrath has a pretty good grasp of the character, but his esoteric passions sometimes seem a bit out of Konrath’s reach. When Murph is asked to talk about his favorite video game, the text seems to call for an appreciation of something strangely exotic. Konrath doesn’t quite deliver that kind of appreciation to the stage. This is a relatively minor concern as the heart of the drama clearly resonates through him in his interactions with the professor.\nAmy Callahan plays the professor trying to teach Murph Othello . She’s a tenured academic who finds her class sizes dwindling. Her position may have to be cut. Her ability to teach Murph Othello may be all she has to prove that she’s still capable of doing her job. Callahan has a warm presence onstage and with Konrath delivers an intellectually vivid teacher/student story.\nThrough March 26 at Plymouth Church, 2717 E. Hampshire St. For tickets visit boulevardtheatre.com.", "Monday, 14 August, 2017 - 16:20\nThe Government has today announced details of the $100 million social investment fund for mental health, says Social Investment Minister Amy Adams and Health Minister Jonathan Coleman.\nThe $100 million fund will be invested in a package of 17 new initiatives aimed at helping New Zealanders suffering from mental health issues, as well as focusing on improving services and earlier intervention.\nThis fund is part of a $224 million boost for mental health services over four years in Budget 2017. It builds on the Government’s continued investment in this area, increasing from $1.1 billion in 2008/09 to $1.4 billion in 2016/17.\n\"Mental health is a social investment priority for this Government. It’s one of our most challenging social issues and it affects a large number of New Zealanders with complex needs,\" Ms Adams says.\n\"We want to help individuals and their families through the challenges they are facing so they can lead healthier and more independent lives and we will need to bring together a range of services and targeted new approaches to do so.\n\"With this in mind, we have brought together Ministers, their agencies and experts to deliver a truly cross-Government approach to mental health and to allocate the fund.\"\n\"In line with international trends we’ve seen an increase in demand for mental health and addiction services here in recent years,\" Dr Coleman says.\n\"The evidence shows that we need to transform our mental health services to build resilience in children and young people to help them better deal with mental health issues and to learn how to overcome known risk factors like trauma.\n\"The $100 million package invests in a range of initiatives designed to improve access to effective and responsive mental health services, while at the same time starting to shift our focus towards prevention, early intervention and resilience-building.\n\"The 17 new initiatives intend to:\n- Begin reorienting our approach to mental health towards a focus on prevention, early intervention and resilience-building (focused particularly on school-aged children and young people).\n- Provide a more effective range of responses to meet the needs of people in crisis (or at risk of a crisis situation), as well as upskilling the mental health workforce.\n- Expand distance and e-therapy options, which will enable provision of support earlier, in a more accessible manner.\n- Extend the coverage of supports for people experiencing mild to moderate mental disorders.\n- Build the New Zealand evidence base in this area through adapting, trialling and evaluating programmes or approaches from overseas.\n\"This package forms part of a wider programme of work to prevent and respond to mental disorders,\" Dr Coleman says.", "A theatre show specially created for those living with dementia, professional carers, home carers and families can be seen at Crich Glebe Field Centre on Wednesday, July 11.\nThe show is called Sharing Joy and will be performed by Vamos Theatre Company, starting at 10.30am (doors open at 9.30am.)\nUsing music, dance, nostalgia, masks, puppetry and laughter, the show brings pleasure and meaning to everyone involved.\nThe show lasts an hour, and is set in the 1940s and 1950s. Audience members will meet courting couples, wartime nurses, a singing dog, and even Elvis himself - who may make an appearance as a special guest. There will be plenty of music to bring back memories, dancing to enjoy or join in with, swinging dresses and best suits. This is a playful and joyous show that encourages everyone to take part and to express themselves.\nVamos Theatre is the UK’s leading full mask professional theatre company, taking its funny brand of wordless theatre across the world since 2006.\nFor tickets, call 01773 853 260.", "P.E.I.'s How Many Wade campaign has told its 100 stories of 100 families in 100 days, but it is settling in for a years-long fight to improve mental health services.\nMonday marks the 100th day of the campaign. Its organizers have now set up a committee to develop a long-term vision for mental health services. It will include a series of online surveys to get more feedback on the system and what could possibly be done to improve it.\n\"A lot of the challenges with investments in the mental health care system is that changes that you implement this year may not show their benefits, you know until 10 years from now,\" said Sarah Stewart-Clark.\n\"Those are challenging decisions for politicians to make, that they're going to invest money now to benefit a government ten years from now. But really, that's what P.E.I. needs.\"\nThere is an event being planned to honour the 100 families who shared their stories as part of the campaign.\nStewart-Clark said she considers the How Many Wade campaign to be an overall success, because it drew attention to the topic of mental health.", "Neil Gaiman’s story of a young girl trapped between worlds comes to life on an intimate stage as Bad Example Productions presents i . Madeline McNichols plays a British girl exploring a strange world in the last few days before the start of a new school year. Curious about a locked door in the drawing room of her house, Coraline unlocks it to find a world very much like her own—complete with her Other Mother and Other Father—who have creepy button eyes and a desire to keep her forever.\nDonna Kummer competently directs the melodic disorientation of the music, which delivers a very bizarre world to the stage amid strange characters populating stranger scenes. Though there is minimal costuming, scenery and lighting, the cast brings together an impressively otherworldly feeling. Director David Kaye has done a good job of harnessing the cast into a dizzying energy. Kendall Yorkey is a broadly smiling menace as the psychotically villainous Other Mother. Tess Masias and Zachary Dean are pleasantly odd as a pair of retired actresses on both sides of the door. Josh Perkins is comically exasperating as a neighbor who trains mice upstairs from Coraline. Rob Schreiner plays dual roles as realistic house cat on one side of the door and casually anthropomorphized feline on the other side.\nThe anarchic energy of the production is so compelling that it threatens to plunge the whole production into the all-out combustion of an unpleasant theatrical noise. McNichols is so charmingly heroic in the lead role that it never falls apart or explodes into abstraction. Her sharp Coraline wit brings it all together quite beautifully.\nThrough Aug. 13 at the Tenth Street Theatre, 628 N. 10th St. For tickets, visit coralinemusical.brownpapertickets.com.", "Close Get email notifications on Ask amy daily!\nYour notification has been saved.\nThere was a problem saving your notification.\nWhenever Ask amy posts new content, you'll get an email delivered to your inbox with a link.\nEmail notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.", "Sponsored Links\n-- Here is the preview for tonight's Raw, from WWE:\nEvery woman for herself\nBayley’s out of contention with a separated shoulder, and so Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss will now field one of two challengers at SummerSlam: Sasha Banks, who The Huggable One is vocally backing as her replacement, or Nia Jax, who has become Little Miss Bliss’ ally as part of “Team Rude.” The two Superstars meet Monday in a win-and-you’re-in match, with the victor earning a date with Bliss in Brooklyn. Jax has the edge when it comes to pure power, and Bliss would seemingly prefer to fight a friendly face, but does Sasha have one more big win up her sleeve?\nJoe is gonna get you\nOne way or another, Samoa Joe always gets his man. After being pinned by Roman Reigns for the first time ever in a Triple Threat Match two weeks ago, The Samoan Submission Machine cost The Big Dog a Last Man Standing Match against Braun Strowman on Monday when he trapped Reigns in a Coquina Clutch that put him down for the count of 10. With all three of those Superstars slated to challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title at The Biggest Event of the Summer, Joe has suddenly surged in momentum, and it’s anyone’s guess as to who will head into SummerSlam with the biggest head of steam.\nMizzed opportunity\nBrock Lesnar turned The Miz and his Miztourage into lunch meat this past Monday on “Miz TV,” but lost in all that commotion was why The Awesome One held Raw hostage in the first place: He wanted another piece of Jason Jordan, who embarrassed him the previous week on his signature talk show. Kurt Angle’s gold-blooded son was seen elsewhere dismantling a local named Jean-Pierre Goulet, but perhaps The A-Lister will have better luck this time around in getting what he wants.\nFace your fear\nBray Wyatt made one of his boldest declarations to date just moments before their SummerSlam bout was formally sanctioned, promising to drag down Finn and his followers. With one week to go until The Biggest Event of the Summer, how will Bálor respond?\nBrothers on the mend\nAfter leaving Seth Rollins high and dry against Cesaro & Sheamus, Dean Ambrose finally seemed to come around to The Kingslayer’s redemptive crusade when his former brother rescued him from a joint beatdown by the Raw Tag Team Champions. This time, however, it was Rollins who denied the traditional Shield fist bump, leaving The Lunatic Fringe hanging. How will Ambrose attempt to save face, and will the former Shield-mates finally reunite in earnest?", "Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy and his wife have added another boy to their brood.\nAmy Kennedy gave birth Sunday night to the couple’s fourth child, Marshall, at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in New Jersey. He made his first public appearance Tuesday along with his parents and older siblings — 10-year-old stepsister Harper Petigout, 6-year-old Owen, 4-year-old Nora and 2-year-old Nell.\nAmy Kennedy was a public school teacher for more than 15 years and serves on the board of Mental Health America.\nKennedy, a Democrat, was elected in 1994 and chose not to run again in 2010, the year after his father, Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, died.\nKennedy has written and spoken publicly about his long struggle with bipolar disorder and drug addiction. He has become an advocate for a stronger mental health care system.", "It's only just out of reach... the Fall theatre season, that is. The 2017 Tony Awards are in the history books, so now it's time to look ahead at the new Broadway season... and fear not- it's a doozy already. With new musicals and plays about to descend on Broadway and amazing revivals of classic plays and musicals ready to entrance a new audience, BroadwayWorld has rounded up everything arriving before the end of the year.\nMark your calendar now!\nPrince of Broadway\nNow in Previews at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre\nOpening Night: August 24, 2017\nHarold Prince is a legend in the American theatre - the acclaimed director and producer behind a long list of America's most iconic musicals and the winner of a staggering, record-breaking 21 Tony Awards. Now, he's bringing together six decades of magical moments in a new musical event, Prince of Broadway. This thrilling night of theatre includes hits from such celebrated musicals as West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Evita, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, The Phantom of the Opera and more, in an unforgettable tribute to an unmatched Broadway career.\nMORE INFO\nTime and the Conways\nPreviews Begin: September 14, 2017 at the American Airlines Theatre\nOpening Night: October 10, 2017\nIn 1919 Britain, Mrs. Conway (Downton Abbey's Elizabeth McGovern) is full of optimism during her daughter's lavish twenty-first birthday celebration. The Great War is over, wealth is in the air, and the family's dreams bubble over like champagne. Jump nineteen years into the future, though, and the Conways' lives have transformed unimaginably. This time-traveling play by J.B. Priestley (An Inspector Calls) takes place at the crossroads of today and tomorrow-challenging our notions of choice, chance and destiny. Tony nominee Rebecca Taichman (Indecent) directs.\nMORE INFO\nJunk\nPreviews Begin: October 10, 2017 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre\nOpening Night: November 2, 2017\nIt's 1985. Robert Merkin, the resident genius of the upstart investment firm SackeR Lowell has just landed on the cover of Time Magazine. Hailed as \"America's Alchemist,\" his proclamation that \"debt is an asset\" has propelled him to dizzying heights. Zealously promoting his belief in the near-sacred infallibility of markets, he is trying to re-shape the world. JUNK is the story of Merkin's assault on American capitalism's holy of holies, the \"deal of the decade,\" his attempt to takeover an iconic American manufacturing company and, in the process, to change all the rules. What Merkin sets in motion is nothing less than a financial civil war, pitting magnates against workers, lawyers against journalists, and ultimately, pitting every one against themselves.\nMORE INFO\nSpringsteen on Broadway\nPreviews Begin: October 3, 2017 at the Walter Kerr Theatre\nOpening Night: October 12, 2017\nBruce Springsteen's recording career spans over 40 years, beginning with 1973's 'Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ' (Columbia Records). He has released 18 studio albums, garnered 20 Grammys, won an Oscar, been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, received a Kennedy Center Honor, and was MusiCares' 2013 Person of the Year. Springsteen's memoir 'Born to Run' (Simon & Schuster) and its companion album 'Chapter and Verse' were released in September 2016, and he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November last year. Springsteen's The River Tour 2016 was named the year's top global tour by both Billboard and Pollstar. 'Born to Run' will be issued in paperback by Simon & Schuster on September 5.\nMORE INFO\nM. Butterfly\nPreviews Begin: October 7, 2017 at the Cort Theatre\nOpening Night: October 26, 2017\nDavid Henry Hwang's modern classic, M. BUTTERFLY charts the scandalous romance between a marriEd French diplomat and a mysterious Chinese opera singer - a remarkable love story of international espionage and personal betrayal. Their 20-year relationship pushed and blurred the boundaries between male and female, east and west - while redefining the nature of love and the devastating cost of deceit. Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Clive Owen will star as Rene Gallimard in the first Broadway revival of David Henry Hwang's Tony Award®-winning play, M. BUTTERFLY, directed by Tony Award® winner Julie Taymor.\nMORE INFO\nThe Band's Visit\nPreviews Begin: October 10, 2017 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre\nOpening Night: November 9, 2017\nAn Egyptian Police Band arrives in Israel to play a concert. After a mix-up at the border, they are sent to a remote village in the middle of the desert. With no bus until morning and no hotel in sight, these unlikely travelers are taken in by the locals. Under the spell of the desert sky, their lives become intertwined in the most unexpected ways. The Band's Visit celebrates the deeply human ways music and laughter connect us all. Featuring music & lyrics by three-time Tony Award nominee & Drama Desk Award winner David Yazbek and a book by NY Drama Critics Circle, Lortel and Outer Critics award winner and Drama Desk nominee Itamar Moses, based on the screenplay by Eran Kolirin, THE BAND'S VISIT will be directed by Drama Desk, Lortel & Obie Award winner and Outer Critic & Drama League Award nominee David Cromer.\nMORE INFO\nSpongeBob SquarePants\nPreviews Begin: November 6, 2017 at the Palace Theatre\nOpening Night: December 4, 2017\nAcclaimed Steppenwolf director Tina Landau and the groundbreaking designers behind Fun Home, Hedwig, and Spring Awakening have brilliantly reimagined Bikini Bottom for the Broadway stage, bringing the spirit of SpongeBob to life with humanity, heart, and pure theatricality. With an original score from some of the biggest names in pop and rock, SpongeBob SquarePants explodes with energy. Stakes are higher than ever before as SpongeBob and all of Bikini Bottom face the total annihilation of their undersea world. Chaos erupts. Lives hang in the balance. And just when all hope seems lost, a most unexpected hero rises up and takes center stage.\nMORE INFO\nMeteor Shower\nPreviews Begin: November 1, 2017 at the Booth Theatre\nOpening Night: November 29, 2017\nIt's a hot night in Ojai, California, and Corky (Schumer) and her husband Norm (Tudyk) are having another couple over for dinner. Laura (Benanti) and Gerald (Key), though, aren't looking for a casual evening of polite small talk with new friends. Eventually, the two couples find themselves in a marital free-fall matched in velocity and peril only by the smoldering space rocks tearing through the sky. Entertaining has never been more entertaining than in this \"cosmic comedy from the master of the American absurd\"\nMORE INFO\nOnce on This Island\nPreviews Begin: November 9, 2017 at the Circle in the Square Theatre\nOpening Night: December 3, 2017\nONCE ON THIS ISLAND, Broadway's joyous musical celebration, is the extraordinary story of a fearless young dreamer named Ti Moune. After a massive storm rages through her village, a ray of hope appears through a young man from the wealthy side of the island. An unexpected romance blossoms. But when their different cultures threaten to keep them apart, Ti Moune-guided by the island gods-sets out on a journey to stay beside the man who has captured her heart. The exuberant score by Tony Award® winners Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (Anastasia, Ragtime), along with the visionary production by Tony Award-nominated director Michael Arden (Spring Awakening revival), transforms the reality of post-storm Haiti into a fantastical world bursting with Caribbean rhythms and dance.\nMORE INFO\nThe Children\nPreviews Begin: November 28, 2017 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre\nOpening Night: December 12, 2017\nDirect from an acclaimed run in London, the powerful Royal Court Theatre production of Lucy Kirkwood's astonishing new play will make its American debut at MTC with the heralded original cast. In a remote cottage on the lonely British coast, a couple of retired nuclear engineers are living a very quiet life. Outside, the world is in utter chaos following a devastating series of events. When an old friend turns up at their door, they're shocked to discover the real reason for her visit. The Mail on Sunday calls The Children \"beautifully written and superbly acted.\" Hailed by The Independent as \"the most rewarding dramatist of her generation,\" playwright Lucy Kirkwoodmakes her highly anticipated New York debut. Directing is the award-winning James MacDonald (TOP GIRLS at MTC). The Children will star the original Royal Court Theatre cast BAFTA Award winner Francesca Annis (BBC's \"Cranford\"), Olivier Award nominee Ron Cook (Juno and the Paycock at The Donmar), and Olivier Award winner Deborah Findlay (RSC's Stanley).\nMORE INFO\nThe Parisian Woman\nPreviews Begin: November 7, 2017 at the Hudson Theatre\nOpening Night: November 30, 2017\nPlaywright Beau Willimon sets The Parisian Woman in Washington, D.C., where powerful friends are the only kind worth having, especially after the 2016 election. At the center is Chloe (Uma Thurman), a socialite armed with charm and wit, coming to terms with politics, her past, her marriage and an uncertain future. Dark humor and drama collide at this pivotal moment in Chloe's life, and in our nation's, when the truth isn't obvious and stakes couldn't be higher.\nMORE INFO\nFarinelli and the King\nPreviews Begin: December 5, 2017 at the Belasco Theatre\nOpening Night: December 17, 2017\nOscar and three-time Tony winner Mark Rylance \"proves again that he is one of the great actors of our age\" (Time Out London) in FARINELLI AND THE KING, coming to Broadway following sold-out runs at Shakespeare's Globe and on London's West End. Written by Claire van Kampen and directed by John Dove, this captivating new play \"celebrates the restorative power of music and how it can transform us\" (The Telegraph). FARINELLI AND THE KING is inspired by the fascinating true story of Philippe V (Rylance), a Spanish monarch on the brink of madness who finds unexpected solace in the voice of world-renowned castrato, Farinelli. Soon, Farinelli and the King forge a powerful connection, and the celebrated singer must make a difficult choice: return to throngs of adoring fans or perform forever for an audience of one.\nMORE INFO\nRelated Articles", "“The vivid world of make-believe people is for children only. (If you’re not convinced of the ubiquity of this assumption, just imagine the water-cooler conversation that would ensue if a co-worker casually let slip, “I spent my lunch break imagining how a young girl I dreamt up might respond to being lost in a foreign country.”) It may be considered acceptable for an adult to play video games or fantasy baseball…but evidently in order to become functional adults each of us must renounce our personal Puff the Magic Dragon.”", "Award-winning theatre company 20 Stories High is set to return to libraries with HEADZ, a new series of funny, gritty and heartfelt monologues about the everyday lives of some extraordinary young people.\nThe event features as part of the new season of the nationally-renowned arts-in-libraries programme Cultural Hubs, which is funded by National Lottery money distributed through Arts Council England.\nCovering October to December, the new season has been curated to offer something for everyone, with a mixture of small theatre productions, music and comedy performances, arts exhibitions, and creative craft events to promote wellbeing – all adapted in imaginative ways for unique library spaces across St Helens.\nHEADZ has been created by young people for young people, using real and relatable experiences – great for teens and adults. Young people also perform the themed monologues, which explore everything from drug misuse and gender equality, to homelessness and family dynamics.\nCoun Sue Murphy, cabinet member for Leisure Services and Libraries, said: “HEADZ is another fantastic example of the unique events available in our libraries.\n“Cultural Hubs continues to challenge the way many people view libraries, in that they aren’t solely places for books and quiet, but lively and eclectic spaces in which to engage with new and exciting cultural experiences.”\nThe show is at Parr Library, Tuesday 10 October, 7pm. It lasts for two hours and is appropriate for teenagers aged 13 and above, and adults.\nTickets are available on a ‘pay what you want’ basis online at www.culturalhubs.eventbrite.co.uk or in any St Helens library.", "A new pop-up theatre will be pitched in Buxton’s Pavilion Gardens for the annual fringe festival. The 120-seat Rotunda Theatre will include a South African musical, solo theatre and a rare chance to see a film about working with the playwright Harold Pinter. The Rotunda is the brainchild of Grist To The Mill and Red Dragonfly Productions.\nGrist To The Mill’s touring sell-out hit The Unknown Soldier will be part of the Buxton programme along with new projects Gratiano and The Empress and Me. Red Dragonfly will showcase their new writing competition winners Hema and Anjali and Ketchup and another fresh piece Breaking Good. Other notable shows include Alison Skillbeck’s Mrs Roosevelt Flies To London and I Found My Horn starring Jonathan Guy Lewis.\nBuxton Festival Fringe runs from July 5 to 23. For more details on the programme, visit www.buxtonfringe.org.uk", "by\nTo kick off the new year, Architosh looks at five emerging technology trends happening broadly across society and what their influence and impacts may be on the AEC industry and the professionals that drive it—including architects, builders, engineers and environmental stakeholders like the citizens of cities.\nArchitosh already highlights leading edge technology trends in AEC. Our AIA BEST of SHOW honors awards has specific categories for highlighting actual products on the cutting edge. And our deeper discussion on these applications and technologies look at wholesale themes.\nHowever, we can look further afield; we can examine things that are still on the fringe of society and perhaps just a bit closer than the fringe? Autonomous vehicles and drones are a perfect example of the latter. Adaptive learning and crowd learning are examples of the former.\nHere are five technology trends with broad implications for society, and some narrower forecasts and observations on how they may impact the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry and the professionals that serve its stakeholders.\nTrend 1: Autonomous Vehicles\nWe have all heard a lot lately about autonomous vehicles and how shortly humans may not even be allowed by law actually to drive. If such tech futures come true what will happen to our cities, towns, and even buildings and how will this impact the field architecture, urban design, and planning?\nThe answer to these questions is varied, complicated, and intensely interesting. A lot will depend on other technology trends and how they bear out, as well. But here are some important forecasts.\nBefore humans are forbidden by law from driving both advanced Lidar and WiFi technology will need to mate up with upgraded highway systems and town roads. Highways may get dedicated “autonomous lanes” while some towns may have dedicated autonomous streets. Engineers involved in roads, bridges, and tunnels will all need to skill-up in the sensor technologies and new design requirements and methodologies in the era of autonomous vehicles.\nMoreover, architects will be challenged with finding new uses for parking structures, as more autonomous cars drop off their occupants and then either drive home, drive to a charging station, or become rental rides for other people who do not own cars at all. Telsa has expressed a vision where exactly such a thing happens—once Tesla’s vehicles are fully autonomous owners will be able to add them to the Tesla shared fleet from an app on their phone. A world where your car is working for money while you are at work or on vacation says two things: fewer people will own cars and how cars operate autonomously will change everything from roads, drop-offs, and our perhaps garages at home.\nMORE: It’s Time To Think About Living In Parking Garages\nWhen will all this play out? Futurist Amy Webb and her company predict 20-30 years but things could happen sooner. AEC pros in their 20’s and 30’s should all start thinking about these changes today and develop expertise and creative solutions to these environmental changes.\nTrend 2: Drones\nToday AEC pros use drones to fly over construction sites and take aerial photography. We have all seen the ones over the new Apple Campus, for example. Yet, Amazon and others predict a future where drones deliver goods directly to our homes. And Amazon just was just awarded a US patent on a Zeppelin like airship which shoots out delivery drones. Sound like Star Wars to you? (see image 02)\nMORE: Amazon patented a hovering airship warehouse that shoots out delivery drones\nHow might drone delivery affect buildings?\nIn the near future armies of drones will fill the sky, in areas such as law enforcement, delivery of goods, clandestine operations, and microdrones. The latter are tiny drones small enough to investigate collapsed buildings and bridges and areas with hazardous materials. Regular sized drones can also be used by building inspectors to review completed work in hard-to-reach or dangerous places (like sloping roofs during icy winters). Structural and civil engineers can use such microdrones as part of their investigative services, and mechanical engineers can use microdrones to inspect the insides of ductwork in buildings.\nBack to drones for delivery. The FAA has not yet regulated airspace for drones, but experts predict that to be completed in 3-5 years. Amazon’s airship patents currently violate FAA regulations. Regulated airspace for drones will likely operate in zero – 200 feet for hobbyists and journalists, etc., and 200 – 400 feet for commercial drones (e.g., UPS, Amazon, etc.).\nAs futurist Amy Webb has noted in her book, The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, changes to FAA rules regarding airspace for drones could impact future urban development, including height limitations on skyscrapers.\nnext page: Adaptive Learning, Crowd Learning, and Smart Cities", "Former Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, has donated some psychotropic medicines worth €8,000 to the Mental Health Authority, (MHA) in Accra.\nThe donation was done on behalf of Medimex SK and Glenmarck Pharmaceuticals s. r. o (Czech Republic) and her collaborating partners, Stryde Consult Limited, Ghana.\nThe medicines consist of Lyxit and Despra, both of which are antidepressants, and aripiprazole, a tranquilizer to treat psychosis or major psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia.\nMr Mettle-Nunoo said 'in all, there are 400 packs of 28 tablet each, making a total of 11,200 tablets.'\nHe said the Government of Ghana and especially the Ministry of Health had been supporting mental health care all along in the crusade to bring better quality to the Ghanaian population through the provision of genuine quality and efficacious medical drugs, equipment and supplies.\nHe said they were well aware of the huge challenges of health generally, and the problems in mental health in particular, and the government alone could not shoulder every aspect of it.\nMr Mettle-Nunoo said although the presentation was quite small, it marked a significant opportunity for a lasting relationship, adding that it was part of their initial social responsibility to the country.\n'While this may not amount to much, at least it is intended as a gesture of love and compassion to our brothers and sisters with these related mental health challenges. In fact, if one hospital were to use them, it could take up to six months for cases of depression.'\nHe said the drugs treat a wide range of mental health conditions and represent current global standard protocols for the treatment of some mental health challenges.\nThe former minister said, while these medications represent a token gesture, they also represent a reminder to all that some mental illnesses these days were lifestyle related, and often times treatable.\nGreater public education and awareness was required to remove stigma from such conditions, he said.\nHe said stress and depression as well as the abuse of drugs and the large consumption of un-prescribed medications continued to increase the numbers of persons suffering from mental illness, especially the youth.\n'We trust that these medicines will be used judiciously to treat mental patients whose medical conditions will be greatly improved by the proper application of prescribed ' clinical protocols and care, as well as go a long way to support the medicine needs of our clients and mental health workforce.'\nMedimex SK is a limited liability company promoting the wholesaling and distribution of its flagship brand drugs and biomedical equipment and products.\n'We envisage that through mutually beneficial investments and collaboration, we may be able to develop and consolidate investment in Africa, in first generation and generic pharmaceutical brands and products.\nDr Akwesi Osei, Chief Executive Officer MHA, receiving the medications expressed appreciation to the former minister and Medimex SK for the presentation that looked small, yet very significant to mental health.\nHe said without medicines of this calibre, mental health care was quite deficient.\nHe noted that the significance of this donation lied in the fact that we did not always have to wait for the government to discharge all these responsibilities, but individuals could help in various ways.\nDr Osei said they cherished the kind gesture and assured that it would be very beneficial to the patients, and expressed the hope that it became a lasting relationship by which they would regularly be sending some medications in larger quantities and in greater diversity.", "Dragon Ball Super might have taken a break on January 1 as a result of special programming, but the hit anime series is set to return this coming Sunday. With DBS’ next big saga, the Universe Survival Arc, set to begin on February 5, the next four episodes of Dragon Ball Super seem to be fillers that are designed to build up the anime’s momentum towards its grandest saga yet. So far, the summaries of DBS Episode 73 and 74 have been released, and from what could be seen so far, it seems like the anime is foreshadowing Gohan’s huge role in the upcoming Universal Tournament.\nGohan has always been one of the Dragon Ball franchise’s most popular characters. Being Son Goku’s firstborn son, he was regarded by many to be a fighting genius who could easily surpass his father. From a very young age, he participated in numerous key battles, even taking the fight to Frieza’s forces in one of Dragon Ball Z’s most iconic arcs. In Dragon Ball Super, however, Gohan has taken a back seat for the most part, after the character was benched following an unfortunate incident during the Resurrection of F saga.\nSince then, fans of the Goku’s firstborn son have assertively and persistently called on DBS’ producers to bring back the character to fighting form. While never confirmed, a number of clues were dropped by the anime that Gohan would be coming back to the battlefield once more, especially during the finale of the Future Trunks saga and its immediate filler episode. These clues eventually culminated in the official preview for the Universe Survival Arc, where Gohan was featured as one of the selected fighters for Universe 7.\nInasmuch as the return of Gohan to full fighting form is already a compelling enough reason for the character’s fans to rejoice, it appears that there is more to Gohan’s participation in the upcoming Universal Tournament than just a simple return to the battlefield. Considering the pervading themes of Dragon Ball Super Episode 73 and 74, it appears that Gohan would most likely play a key role in the upcoming tournament.\nDragon Ball Super Episode 73, “Gohan’s Disaster! Great Saiyaman’s Unbelievable Movie Adaptation?!” and Episode 74, “For the Sake of That Which [He] Loves! The Indomitable Great Saiyaman!” both revolve around Goku’s firstborn child. While DBS Episode 73 is pretty much another lighthearted, gag-filled episode, Ep 74’s summary, as translated by notable Dragon Ball translator Herms98 from the official Jump preview, suggests that the character would most likely face something significant within the episode.\n“The vile criminal Watagash commits evil on Earth! Gohan hears that Earth has been infiltrated by the mental parasite Watagash, who infects the darkness in his host’s heart, giving them superhuman power. Meanwhile, Barry Karn hates Gohan and tries to catch him with a honeypot trap, but fails. Watagash then appears and infects him. “Pan this week: Kidnapped by the bad guy and in big trouble! Pan is abducted by Watagash, who’s taken over Barry Karn. But despite Gohan and company’s worries, Pan herself is more than fine… It’s the Great Saiyaman’s greatest crisis!!!”\nConsidering that Dragon Ball Super Episode 74’s summary teases that Pan would be involved in a kidnapping attempt, the episode would most likely feature a number of extremely humorous moments. After all, the overwhelming strength and power of Gohan’s daughter has been the cause of numerous funny events in the anime. Despite this, however, her kidnapping would most likely affect Gohan significantly. In fact, it would not even be surprising if the event becomes the tipping point that the character needs in order to start training more seriously than ever before.\nIf there is anything that could be seen in the leaked previews for Dragon Ball Super’s upcoming episodes, it appears that the anime is slowly building up Gohan’s character. Over the course of Dragon Ball’s long history, this is usually indicative of the character having a great role in the anime’s upcoming sagas. With this in mind, there is a pretty good reason to think that Gohan’s frequent appearances, coupled with his participation in the Universe Survival Arc, is a massive sign that the once-powerful fighter would have several key moments in the battles ahead. For fans of Gohan, Dragon Ball Super Episodes 73 and 74 would most likely be the anime’s most important fillers yet.\n[Featured Image by Toei Animation]", "A Community Interest Company has taken out a permanent lease on a Shropshire shop with the goal of taking the next step to tackling the stigma associated with mental health issues.\nDesigns in Mind moved into the former Chrissie’s in Cross Street, Oswestry, following a successful trial period there as a pop-up shop earlier this year.\nThe shop is called Jolt and sells vibrant homeware and prints for the home in bold colours and patterns. It also provides workshops for the public to try their hand at screen printing and lino printing.\nJo Watkins, from Designs in Mind, said: “We opened Jolt on Saturday 25 November and this follows an extremely successful trial period earlier in the year. The shop is next door to our Designs in Mind studio and is in an ideal location.\n“There are fewer and fewer retail opportunities in the town these days and Designs in Mind has been there for 10 years so when the opportunity came for us to take on a trial period at the shop next door we jumped at the chance. We moved out after our trial period but when the call came that the premises were still available we moved back in.\n“It is the first time we have had a retail presence and it’s a natural expansion. Our aim is to sell lots of items now and draw as many people as possible into the shop in our challenge to take the stigma out of mental health.\n“Most of the products we sell are designed by members who have been referred to our studio through the mental health scheme and we sell products from other like minded companies, with a focus on tackling care for mental health.\n“Our aim is to make mental health challenges part of regular debate and an ideal way of doing this is to produce things we can sell and generate public interest – challenging the low expectations that surround our makers.”\nRebecca Welch, of Halls Commercial based in Shrewsbury, said Oswestry is going through a large period of change and this is another feather in the cap.\nShe said: “ Designs in Mind have been a great asset to this town for a long time and we were really pleased when we were able to offer them the chance to become a pop up there for a short while.\n“We knew they would be a success and are glad they have decided to take out a permanent lease.\n“It’s just one of the deals we have done in Oswestry recently, there are new businesses opening all the time.”", "\"There's a level of enlightenment I want to achieve,\" Davis explained in a press statement about the album, which was inspired by the Ganzfeld Experiment, a technique used in parapsychology which are used to test individuals for extrasensory perception.\n\"With all of the bulls— going, everyone is stuck on their f—ing cell phones,\" Davis continued. \"This takes us way out of that. No matter how hard you try to fight bad things in your life, life will be what it is. It's up to you to accept that, combat it, and move forward, or it's up to you to be in denial. Then, it becomes a thorn in your side until you finally deal with it. This is it. Just deal with it.\"\nDavis will support the new album with a tour, which launches April 6 in Portland, OR. See the album track list and a preview video featuring snippets from the album and the tour dates here.", "The life of a beaver is a constant struggle as humans encroach on their territories. It’s an issue explored on stage at this year’s London Fringe.\nBeaver Dreams (La Fievre du Castor), by Lost & Found Puppet Co., is a wonderful take on the issue, presenting it in a fun, interesting and creative way.\nOf course, it’s a timely issue in London after recent news stories about concerns by some that beaver traps were set in Komoka Provincial Park to remove the animals whose dams are causing high water levels and damaging property.\nIf you go What: Beaver Dreams (La Fievre du Castor), presented by Montreal-based Lost & Found Puppet Co. When: Friday, 10 p.m., Saturday, 1 p.m., Monday, 8:30 p.m., June 7, 7 p.m. and June 8, 5 p.m. Where: The Grand Theatre’s McManus Stage, 471 Richmond St. Tickets: $15.\nThe conflict between people and beavers has existed since people left caves and started to build.\nThe duo of Maggie Winston and Rae-Anna Maitland use puppetry, audio and visual, lighting and sound effects to support their profile of one vacation spot where a constant stream of families over decades have had to cope with the same issue.\nBeavers build their dams, destroying trees surrounding waterways, the water levels rise and people then tear apart the dams.\nIt’s a story about the cycle one family accepted so they can enjoy the tranquillity and beauty of the outdoors.\nThe beavers dream of a wonderful home and some people dream of a beautiful paradise while others dream of development.\nThis show, which includes a little audience interaction, is a great opportunity to explore the issue.\nThe show is at times silly, but a fun silly that young children will both enjoy, the two actors never missing a chance to draw some laughs with their beaver and human antics.\nBut their audio is also compelling, oral histories given by the family members who’ve enjoyed a lake and cabin for years.\nThis is one of those Fringe shows that will create a little buzz and will certainly be among the candidates noted for conveying the spirit of the festival.\[email protected]", "Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Everyone has their own idea of transgressive fun. For some people, it’s running through fields of wheat.\nParadise Palms (Venue 411)\n****\nFor others, it’s dressing up as Theresa May to host a rerun of the general election involving airborne Weetabix, crowdsurfing and political emblems secreted around and within various parts of the body.\nIf you think you might lean more towards the latter, then you could do a lot worse than swing by Pollyanna, the late-night queer cabaret showcase that runs Sundays to Thursdays.\nNow in its third year, Pollyanna is hosted by alternative drag act Pollyfilla – alternative, in this case, taking the sartorial form of ratty fake fur jacket, rattier, faker wig, fishnets, jockstrap and bovver boots. In addition to giving her best Theresa May, Pollyfilla introduces the night’s acts, including Pollyanna regular Desert Storm, channelling a lovelorn 80s vibe with the help of romantic self-help advice, sharply-shoulder-padded red leather, geometric dance moves and Kylie Minogue. Other acts on the night I attended included Georgia Tasda (geddit?) performing as an absurd mix of cosmic club kid and northern stand-up, looking like a cross between Leigh Bowery and Pinhead from Hellraiser while delivering groanworthy intergalactic gags: “For my holidays I went to Orion’s belt. It’s a three-star resort.”\nEach night also showcases guest acts from suitably offbeat shows around the Fringe, such as the grotesque escapades of Natalie Palmides’s cod-Victorian urchin family and the roof-raising disco stylings of character chanteuse Diane Chorley. It’s packed and noisy, rowdy and messy, queerly experimental and reassuringly different – a welcome reminder that the Fringe is not only the place to catch a hot ticket or see a famous face but also to take a chance on the weird, the wild and the Weetabix, and then keep on dancing.\nUntil 24 August. Today 11pm.", "Isn’t technology amazing? I cannot fathom a world without a search engine at my fingertips. How did we cope before them? Sometimes, I remember I completed university without the distracting diversions of YouTube, and marvel silently. When I realise neither Tumblr nor Twitter were around to derail my academic career, I thank my lucky stars. In 2017, aka the hyperbolic age, we get to receive (perceived) threats of nuclear war issued via 140 characters (or, as of last month, 280), and people with strange avatars can threaten you with bodily harm. It’s sometimes easy to forget there is joy to be wrung out of a life lived even partly online.\nCaShawn Thompson’s inadvertent #BlackGirlMagic movement has weathered all sorts since its inception, from applause to cries of “reverse racism” (no such thing exists, friends). The concept is simple: it’s a celebration of black girls and women in a world all too happy to make them small, and to discard their contributions.\nAt its best, it creates a waterfall effect of good news, of black women living life on their terms, succeeding beyond every expectation. It exists for the parade-worthy achievements, but also for the little victories and innovations that move us as individuals and as a collective, across social platforms. If you’re a sentimental fool like me, it might have helped make the internet a little less bleak on the roughest of days. And on buoyant days when I feel invincible, the idea of that magic feels like the sun on my face: pure and life-giving.\nHashtags won’t save us, in the end. But they’re useful, all the same.", "Penrith Regional Gallery is offering filmmakers who identify as living with a disability a chance to refine their skills and tell their stories.\nThe Five Feisty and Fabulous Film Project is a new digital skills program where five participants will tell five stories in five minutes.\nManager of Education Naomi McCarthy said that the program focuses on mentorship with support from industry leaders.\n“Applicants might not be strictly emerging filmmakers, they may be creatives who are interested in developing more skills around filming to further their creative practice,” she said.\n“This will be about expressing some aspect of their life, or some aspect of life that they want to create a story about.\n“Art is about people, it’s about the individual mark of the human being.”\nThe project, which runs through May and July, is the newest initiative that highlights the gallery’s commitment to supporting the professional development of artists across a wide range of disciplines within and beyond the local region.\nEducation Officer Christine Ghali said that she is excited to be a part of everyone’s stories and is ready to support the applicants on their journey.\n“Each individual has a special story to share, and I’m excited to hear that,” Ms Ghali said.\nApplications close on April 19 and are available at www.penrithregionalgallery.org/learning/accessible." ]

[ "Abstract This article discusses genetic causes of primary congenital hypothyroidism (CH), and isolated congenital central hypothyroidism (CCH) in addition to the syndrome associated with perturbed thyroid hormone action due to THRA mutations (RTH alpha). In primary CH, dyshormonogenesis is usually attributable to mutations in genes encoding the thyroid hormone biosynthesis machinery. Thyroid dysgenesis, TD frequently occurs sporadically, but monogenic causes include mutations in TSHR and transcription factors required for thyroid development. Mutations in genes involved in TSH synthesis are implicated in CCH and patients with RTH alpha exhibit tissue-specific hypothyroidism due to impaired thyroid hormone action as a consequence of mutations in THRA (thyroid hormone receptor alpha)." ]

[ "The case of a monozygotic twin, discordant for congenital hypothyroidism, is reported. The monozygosity of the twins was established by typing for 23 different hematogenetic marker gene-systems, with DNA fingerprint analysis. The sublingual thyroid in this patient was probably due to an intrauterine disorder of unknown origin which spared his brother.This case supports the hypothesis that environmental, rather than genetic factors, are the cause of ectopic thyroid dysgenesis.", "A 6 week old girl with transient congenital hypothyroidism is described. The hypothyroidism was associated with multiple applications of povidone iodine during pregnancy and lactation. This case illustrates the potential hazard of using topical solutions containing iodine during pregnancy and lactation.", "We describe a patient with the clinical spectrum of Young-Simpson syndrome. This rare genetic disorder is characterized by congenital hypothyroidism, mental retardation and blepharophimosis. Young-Simpson syndrome is, at present, poorly known to endocrinologists and pediatricians, and should be included in the differential diagnosis of congenital hypothyroidism. It is important to underline that the association of congenital hypothyroidism, blepharophimosis and ptosis allows an exact clinical diagnosis, since the majority of other clinical aspects are common to other disorders.", "The article provides a description of congenital hypothyroidism and goiter in a newborn baby.", "To know the effect on the prognosis in congenital hypothyroidism with early treatment,and the importance of the newborn screening. Thirty cases congenital hypothyroidsms had treated in our center have been observed and appraised for a few years,including their growth and development and intelligence. All the patient's physical growth was in normal patterns,and they could have normal or near normal intelligence.It also could be found,the more early the Children's treatment were done,the better prognosis they could get. [Conclusions] Early treatment in congenital hypothyroidism can clearly improve the prognosis and decrease the number of deformity.At the same time,we also can find the newborn screening have very important meaning of population quality.", "Background:Congenital hypothyroidism is a condition of thyroid hormone deficiency. Approximately 1 in 4000 newborn infants has a deficiency of thyroid function. The aim of this study is determination of the prevalence of permanent and transient congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in Yazd, Iran. Methods:From May 2006 to June 2008, 35377 newborns were screened by measuring serum TSH obtained by heel prick. The neonates who had a T SH\"e5mU/L were recalled for measurement of serum T4 and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in venous samples. Based on the results of the secondary measurements (between days 7 and 28), neonates were considered hypothyroid if their T 4was <6.5 mg/dl and thei r TSH was\"e10mIU/L. In 22 primarily diagnosed as cases of CH, treatment was discontinued at age 3 years for 4 weeks and T 4and TSH were measured again. Permanent or transient CH was determined from the results of these tests; Patients with TSH levels", "Hirschsprung disease, the colonization defect of neural crest cells through the colon, is one of the reasons for functional obstruction in neonates. Furthermore, hypothyroidism has been known to be one of the causes of bowel hypomotility and pseudoobstruction. These two diseases are generally considered in the differential diagnosis. Although defective thyroid function has been found to be responsible for inappropriate neuronal migration in the brain, the effect of thyroid hormone on neural crest cell migration to the bowel has not yet been evaluated. Here, we report a case with Hirschsprung disease and congenital hypothyroidism, which may point to the need for future studies evaluating the interaction of colonic neural crest cell colonization and thyroid hormone.", "Mutations of the thyrotropin receptor (TSHr) can be loss of function or gain of function. Loss-of-function mutations can affect a variety of loci in the TSHr gene. Their most common manifestation is resistance to TSH; they may also be the cause of a subset of cases of congenital hypothyroidism. Gain-of-function mutations are of greater theoretical interest. Somatic mutations constitutively activating the TSHr are the major cause of benign toxic thyroid adenomas, and of some cases of multinodular goiters. They underlie hereditary toxic thyroid hyperplasia, and have been found in cases of sporadic congenital non-autoimmune hyperthyroidism. A role for TSHr polymorphisms in Graves' disease has not been documented.", "Although congenital hypothyroidism(CH) affects linear-growth (LG), bone-maturation(BM) and brain development little data exists concerning the time needed to reverse these parameters. This study investigates LG, BM and head circumference(HC)growth (indirect index of brain growth) in infants with CH at time of diagnosis and after replacement therapy. 47 infants were studied (31-ectopia;8-agenesis;8-goiter). Follow-up was only in patients growing along a costant growth channel at least 9 months(n=21).", "Pericardial effusion in hypothyroidism is common. But an effusion which causes cardiac tamponade is a rarity. Reported below is a case with myxedema and cardiac tamponade due to pericardial effusion.", "We present two male sibs with a series of malformations including microcephaly, mental retardation, congenital heart disease, skeletal abnormalities, micropenis, and mild hypothyroidism. Both have had seizures. While the pattern of abnormalities is similar to that previously reported in this journal as an unknown syndrome, the facies is clearly distinct, the hypothyroidism is mild, micropenis is present, and there are additional minor skeletal abnormalities.", "Deletion of the short arm of chromosome 18 is more difficult to diagnose than most of other chromosomal abnormalities as the phenotypic picture is not specific enough to establish the diagnosis. Mental retardation, short stature, and hypertelorism were some of the prominent features of the syndrome. Some systemic diseases, such as congenital heart disease, hypothyroidism, IgA deficiency, were reported to be associated with this syndrome. We present a 14-month-old male baby with a round face, protruding tongue, hypertelorism, epicanthal folds, short stature, and psychomotor retardation to be a case of chromosome 18 p-. This was a de novo deletion and was not detected till the patient's second admission to our hospital. However, there was no other systemic disease could be found. The experience learned from this patient suggests that individuals with multiple congenital anomalies and psychomotor impairment, regardless of the severity, may warrant cytogenetic analysis.", "Hypothyroidism can cause disturbance of renal hemodinamics, kidney histology, water and electrolyte metabolism, being hyponatremia and glomerular filtration reduction their low prevalent but most significant consequences. All these changes are largely corrected by substitution of exogenous thyroid hormone.", "Congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a primary electrical disease characterized by a prolonged QT interval in the surface electrocardiogram and increased predisposition to a typical polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, termed Torsade de Pointes. Most patients with LQTS are asymptomatic and are diagnosed incidentally based on an electrocardiogram. Symptomatic patients may suffer from severe cardiac events, such as syncope and/or sudden cardiac death. Autosomal dominant forms are caused by heterozygous mutations in genes encoding the components of the ion channels. The autosomal recessive form with congenital deafness is also known as Jervell and Lang-Nielsen syndrome. It is caused by homozygous mutations or certain compound heterozygous mutations. Depending on the genetic defects, there are differences in the age of onset, severity of symptoms, and number of cardiac events and event triggers. With advances in gene technology, it is now feasible to perform genetic testing for LQTS, especially for those wit...", "We report a case of a prepubertal girl with juvenile primary hypothyroidism presenting as ovarian cysts and precocious puberty. The 7-year-old female was referred to our clinic because of a pelvic/abdominal mass and vaginal bleeding. Besides these findings, on physical examination we noticed the thyroid gland globally increased and the presence of secondary sexual characteristics. Based upon the clinical profile and investigations, the patient was diagnosed with juvenile primary hypothyroidism due to autoimmune thyroiditis. The cysts and precocious puberty resolved spontaneously after the simple replacement of thyroid hormone. It is important to bear in mind hypothyroidism in cases of girls presenting ovarian cysts and precocious puberty in order to avoid unnecessary surgery on the ovaries.", "Diffuse enlargement of the thyroid gland is a common finding during both physical examination and ultrasound evaluation. While iodine deficiency is still the most common cause of goiter worldwide, chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, also referred to as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, is the most common cause of goiter and hypothyroidism in the USA, most of Europe, and other countries with adequate dietary iodine. Table 6.1 lists the common causes of diffuse thyroid enlargement. Thyroiditis describes a diverse group of conditions characterized by thyroid inflammation. While there is significant overlap in the sonographic findings of these various entities, ultrasound provides insight into the etiology and clinical course of the disease process, and may identify nodules that may require fine needle aspiration biopsy.", "Aim: To study the prevalence of hypothyroidism in low income, urban pregnant women. ::: Study design: This is a retrospective study that includes 1062 pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at ESI hospital, Sanathnagar, Hyderabad. Thyroid profile is being done as a routine test along with other antenatal profile tests in our hospital. Thyroid profile test includes serum T3, serum T4 and serum TSH. Hospital Ethics committee permission was granted for the study. ::: Results: A total of 1062 pregnant women were enrolled for this study. Results showed 20.1% prevalence of hypothyroidism of which 14.9% being subclinical hypothyroidism and 6.6% overt hypothyroidism. ::: Conclusion: The study shows a very high prevalence rate of hypothyroidism in the patients attending the antenatal outpatient department at ESI hospital, Sanathnagar, Hyderabad. This justifies the inclusion of thyroid profile test as a routine test in the antenatal profile.", "A case of familial thyroxine binding globulin deficiency in association with isolated growth hormone deficiency is reported. Family studies of TBG levels revealed the possible mode of X-chromosome linked inheritance. The association of isolated growth hormone deficiency was regarded as merely coincidental.", "Background: Mutations in the thyroid hormone (TH) transporter monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) cause MCT8 deficiency, characterized by severe intellectual and motor disability and abnormal seru...", "An ectopic thyroïd gland causing hypothyroïdism was found in a 7 years old girl. The treatment was stopped six months later, nevertheless the growth rate was not affected. Sudden mechanical airway obstruction caused by the lingual goiter needed at the age of 16 years a surgical management. A thyröid nodule auto-transplantation was performed with a rather good success. Special comments about some physiopathological aspects of this original case.", "Objective:To investigate the clinical hypothyroidism diagnosis and treatment of endocrine conditions.Methods:Retrospective analysis of hospital admissions in the past five years,32 cases of patients with hypothyroidism in the clinical diagnosis and treatment information.Results:32 patients were diagnosed with hypothyroidism in the beginning of the 26 cases(diagnostic rate of 81.3%),multi misdiagnosed as coronary heart disease and kidney disease;after endocrine therapy,the treatment efficiency rate was 96.9%.Follow-up of 0.5 to 2.0 years,patients were physically and mentally healthy.Conclusion:The deepening awareness of the sub-clinical hypothyroidism in the clinical features,prognosis and pathological physiology,the correct diagnosis and treatment of the patients with hypothyroidism can help improve the quality of life of patients and reduce their risk of related diseases.", "In general, the occurrence of congenital heart disease may be considered to be due to genetic factors, environmental factors, or a combination of the two. When an identical defect is found in more than one member of the same family, a genetic etiology is suggested. The medical literature reveals numerous reports of a wide variety of congenital heart lesions occurring in families. Taussig, 1 for example, reported on a family in which patent ductus arteriosus appeared in 3 successive generations. This experience provides strong exidence that at least certain types of congenital heart lesions may have a genetic basis. Complete congenital heart block is an uncommon lesion, having been reported only slightly over 100 times in the world literature. The etiology of this condition remains unsettled. Autopsy reports 2-9 which include detailed histologic study of the conduction system have revealed that most often the atrioventricular node was separated from the", "Although autoimmune hypothyroidism has generally been considered to be a disease that mainly develops because of genetic aberrations and for which adjustment of environment would bring about but slight risk modification, this understanding is increasingly appearing to be incorrect. We describe how iodine intake, smoking cessation and alcohol intake are all strong modifiers of risk that, combined, may influence risk by a factor of up to 30. Unfortunately, promotion of an environment leading to substantial lowering of the risk of autoimmune hypothyroidism (i.e. improvement of dietary iodine deficiency, decrease or cessation of smoking, and moderate alcohol intake) is not incorporated within current public health promoting programs. Nevertheless, it is increasingly becoming evident that knowledge of the importance of these factors for disease development is likely to assist in the planning of health promotion programs, while it will surely also be of value in the care of individual patients.", "The mutation causing myotonic dystrophy (DM) has been identified as an amplification of an unstable trinucleotide (CTG) n repeat in over 99% of the global DM population. It is in complete linkage disequilibrium with an Alu element polymorphism within the DM kinase gene, suggesting that DM is a consequence of one or few ancestral mutations. A recent analysis utilizing this polymorphism as well as a flanking dinucleotide marker, suggested that similar to Fragile X syndrome, DM exhibited a founder effect (Imbert et al., 1993 Nature Genet. 4, 72 - 76). In contrast, the low reproductive fitness of individuals with congenital DM (the endpoint of genetic anticipation in myotonic dystrophy) suggests a higher rate of new mutations", "Tables of estimated recurrence risks for some 180 specific family histories are presented for three common congenital malformations. It is hoped that the tables will provide standards and be useful in genetic counselling.", "The purpose of this study was to examine if the disease hypothyroidism affects the nerve fibres in the skin. Hypothyroidism is an under-function of the thyroid gland, which leads to a lowered metab ...", "‘Genetic arrhythmias' or ‘channelopathies' (long QT syndrome, short QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia) are inheritable disorders caused by mutatio", "Thoracic disc herniations are commonly found in asymptomatic individuals, sometimes with genetic predisposition. Congenital fusions of cervical vertebrae occur in Klippel-Feil syndrome, which may be asymptomatic or cause compressive myelitis due to cervical instability or associated herniated discs. We report the case of a 72-year-old man with monophasic acute transverse myelitis probably caused by herpes simplex virus, coexistent with fused cervical vertebrae (C4-C5) and thoracic herniated discs. Establishment of the aetiology in cases of transverse acute myelitis can constitute a challenge in patients with cervical spine anomaly and disc herniations.", "In young patients, acquired and genetic causes of deep vein thrombosis frequently interact. The association of congenital hypoplasia of the inferior vena cava with antithrombin III deficiency has never been described in the literature as a causal factor of proximal deep vein thrombosis in young patients. We report the case of an 18-year-old patient affected by deep vein thrombosis due to this rare association without other common risk factors.", "Autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs), including Graves' disease (GD) and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) are prevalent autoimmune diseases, affecting up to 5% of the general population. Autoimmune thyroid diseases arise due to complex interactions between environmental and genetic factors. Significant progress has been made in our understanding of the genetic and environmental triggers contributing to AITD. However, the interactions between genes and environment are yet to be defined. Among the major AITD susceptibility genes that have been identified and characterized is the HLA-DR gene locus, as well as non-MHC genes including the CTLA-4, CD40, PTPN22, thyroglobulin, and TSH receptor genes. The major environmental triggers of AITD include iodine, medications, infection, smoking, and possibly stress. Recent data on the genetic predisposition to AITD lead to novel putative mechanisms by which the genetic-environmental interactions may lead to the development of thyroid autoimmunity.", "Several recent studies have demonstrated the presence of mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene in healthy males with infertility caused by congenital absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD), previously recognized as an idiopathic genetic condition distinct from CF. In order to document further the genetic commonality of these two disorders, we undertook a double screening of the entire coding and flanking sequences of the CFTR gene, by using single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis in 12 unrelated infertile men with abnormalities of the vas deferens and/or epididymis. This strategy allowed us to identify 11 DNA sequence alterations considered as CF-causing mutations and several variations. Despite this double analysis, only two patients out of eight with CBAVD could be demonstrated as compound heterozygotes for CF mutations.", "Muscular symptoms in hypothyroidism are common, including myalgia, fatigue and cramps; however, a significantly raised creatine kinase and muscle weakness are rare. Differential diagnosis of patients presenting with muscle weakness and a raised creatine kinase is wide, and hypothyroidism is rarely considered. We report this case of a 30-year-old female presenting with proximal muscle weakness as her primary symptom, hypothyroid symptoms of 3-month duration and a significantly raised creatine kinase. After ruling out other causes of a raised creatine kinase, thyroxine replacement was commenced, which led to complete resolution of her proximal weakness, myalgia and normalisation of creatine kinase level. This case illustrates severe proximal myopathy can be secondary to hypothyroidism, symptoms can resolve with thyroxine replacement and emphasises the importance of measuring thyroid function in patients with proximal weakness/myalgia and a significantly raised creatine kinase." ]

[ "Title: Everything I Don't Know About Cars, I Learned from Car Talk For all you budding mechanics, a case study in why not to choose Tom and Ray as your mentors. Also, a Toyota owner worries her minivan's tailgate is trying to kill her, why a furniture trip ends with zero couches and two new tires, and we meet Brooklyn gas station attendants' Public Enemy Number 1." ]

[ "After a 2007 car accident left former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine seriously injured, The Hill's Washington Scene asked the Secret Service if the president is required to wear a seat belt in his presidential limo. It took three years for them to respond to the Freedom of Information Act request and the simple answer is, yes: In a heavily redacted eight-page response, the Secret Service states that it is the “driver’s responsibility to ensure that each occupant is provided with a functioning seat belt, and that the belts are securely fastened prior to moving the vehicle.” But it’s hard to imagine a Secret Service agent ordering the commander in chief to put his belt on. And in a March 2010 photo released by the White House, Obama is clearly not wearing his seatbelt while he talks on the phone in the presidential limo. The Hill points that in interview with NBC in 2009, the president seems to not be wearing a seat belt. NPR's Scott Hensley reported yesterday that buckling up has pretty much become \"the social norm.\"", "Absorbing the blast: The U.S. military has put billions of dollars into training EOD teams, purchasing bomb-defusing robots and investing in IED-proof vehicles like the American-made 24-ton Buffalo Mine Protected vehicle to counter the IED threat. These highly armored vehicles used by EOD teams (they tend not to use Humvees anymore, like in Hurt Locker) are designed to dig up buried bombs or snag tripwires and cost nearly one million dollars each. These lumbering vehicles are an obvious target; while being an EOD specialist is certainly a dangerous job, most specialists are not killed from working directly with IEDs — the majority are killed in their convoys by roadside bombs. Above, a U.S. Marine defuses a Taliban-laid IED on March 21, 2009, on a road near Baqwa, Afghanistan. Foreign Policy's photo essay continues here...", "The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has released a new report, indicating that a \"substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has declined.\" ...nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009. Only about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009. Fully 43% say they do not know what Obama’s religion is. In an interview with NPR's Linda Wertheimer, Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut said he thinks this \"has to do with the fact that religion is not a prominent part of Barack Obama's persona.\" By and large, those respondents who wrongly said Obama is a Muslim were Republican and conservative. Most of them said they disagreed with the president's platform and policies. Read More That said, a number of Democratic voters said they were unsure of Obama's religious beliefs. The survey, which took place between July 21 and Aug. 5, closed before the current controversy surrounding plans to build an Islamic center, which would include a mosque, near Ground Zero, in Lower Manhattan. Last week, at an Iftar dinner at the White House, the president said that, \"as a citizen, and as a president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country.\" And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.  This is America.  And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.  The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are.  The writ of the Founders must endure. Is it important for a president to be publicly religious? To talk about his beliefs? According to Kohut, \"a majority of people say a president having strong religious faith is important to them.\" They don't want a president who governs by religion, but they see it as an important value.", "Circling back to a story that broke earlier Tuesday, the killing of four Israelis in the occupied West Bank, the militant group Hamas claimed credit for the shootings that occurred outside the settlement Kiryat Arba settlement. Reuters reports that two men and two women, one of who was pregnant, were killed when gunmen opened fire on their car near the settlement not far from Hebron. After no claims of responsibility for the attack were initially made, Hamas, the extremist Islamist group eventually said it was behind the killings. Read More Reuters also reported the following earlier: GAZA, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The Hamas armed wing said it would carry out more operations after claiming a shooting on Tuesday which killed four Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. \"This attack is a chain in a series of attacks, some have been executed, and others will follow,\" Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the group, told Reuters. The British-based news agency also provided a list of recent attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis: June 2010 - An Israeli policeman is shot dead in the WestBank city of Hebron. February 2010 - An Israeli officer is stabbed to death atTapuah settlement in the occupied West Bank. December 2009 - A Jewish settler is killed in a roadsideshooting in the West Bank. April 2009 - A Jewish settler boy is killed by anaxe-wielding Palestinian. March 2008 - Palestinian gunmen shoot dead eight Israelisat a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem. March 2006 - A suicide bomber kills four Israelis at the Kedumim settlement in the West Bank.", "So often we're in the position of chronicling health problems that are growing worse that's it's kind of nice to be able pass along some good news. Americans are driving more than ever, yet deaths from traffic accidents have fallen to levels not seen since 1949. Last year 32,788 died in accidents, a 3 percent drop from 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates. Cars are a lot safer than they used to be — all those air bags make a difference. And roads are getting a little safer too. \"Rumble strips and improved pavement marking make a big difference at a low cost,\" Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association told the Washington Post. Continue Reading Overall the death rate per 100 million miles traveled dropped to 1.09 in 2010, down 25 percent from 2005. Americans drove 21 billion more miles in 2010 compared with 2009. How far did we drive last year? Three trillion miles. The news isn't all good, though. Traffic fatalities rose in the Northeast and Midwest. But big drops out west more than made up for the increases elsewhere. Check out the map below to see the regional breakdown.", "Minnesotans Cacie Dalager and Bradley Hale used to make music under the name Now, Now Every Children. In the years since the duo's 2009 full-length debut (titled Cars), Dalager and Hale shortened the name, added a guitarist and pushed on in a different direction. Now, Now's sound changed quite a bit after the release of Cars, and there was a feeling of general exhaustion in the mix that needed to be remedied. Jess Abbott — who moved to the Twin Cities from Maine just to play in the band — entered the picture, and soon the group went on a self-imposed hiatus to assess its future. That future is, well... now. The trio released its new album, Threads, on March 6 via Trans Records, owned by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. It'll surely be one of Minnesota's biggest records in 2012 — it's a serious showcase of talent, the result of taking some time to get things right. Set List \"Threads\" Credits Video and photography: Nate Ryan; audio: Michael DeMark.", "A 21-year-old father and his 4-year-old son were shot at in their car in Phoenix and police say its the latest attack by a serial killer who has killed seven people. The boy and his father were not injured in the attack, which took place last month. Police also say that there was no apparent motive. The attacks have been happening since March, many of them in the low-income neighborhood of Maryvale. Here & Now&#8216;s Eric Westervelt speaks with KJZZ reporter Matthew Casey to learn more. Guest Matthew Casey, senior field correspondent for KJZZ in Phoenix. He tweets @MatthewCasey3.", "We've spent a lot of time recently thinking about the idea of whiteness — as a political identity, as a foundational dynamic in our politics, and the ways we talk (or don't talk) about it. It was even the first episode of our new podcast. Apparently, we're not alone. Our colleague Eyder Peralta noticed that the number of searches for the term \"white people\" on Google has started to trend upward in recent months. Take a look at this data from Google Trends: A quick primer on how Google Trends works: It looks at the relative searches for a specific term over time. It can't tell us how many searches there were for \"white people\" compared to all other search traffic on Google, or even exactly how many people were searching that term at any given moment. What it does show is how interest in any given search term has gone up and down over time, relative to the highest period of interest in that same term since 2004. A big jump in searches for a specific term often correlates to something happening in the news. Searches for \"Donald Trump\" start to jump in the summer of 2015, around the same time his campaign started gaining momentum. To go back a bit further, searches for \"Jeremiah Wright\" start to really skyrocket in early 2008, when then-Sen. Barack Obama was vying for the Democratic nomination — and interestingly, we see a roughly similar jump in searches for \"white people\" around the same time. It might not be terribly surprising that more people are searching for \"white people\" right now. There's been a lot of digital ink spilled on how white Americans are shrinking as a percentage of the country's electorate, and there's more thinking about white people as explicitly raced — as opposed to the past half-century, when the political interests of nonwhites were discussed in terms of race and identity, while the political concerns of white people were typically discussed using terms like \"mainstream\" and \"middle America.\" That is to say, we're starting to talk about white people more like the way we talk about everyone else. It also probably matters that this election has been especially suffused with issues of race and identity, like Trump's infamous Mexicans-as-rapists remarks or his calls to deport Muslims. And it was the reaction to police shootings (and shootings of the police) that initially prompted Eyder to look up searches for \"white people\"; Hillary Clinton recently remarked that she was \"going to be talking to white people\" and asking them to listen to the \"legitimate cries\" of black people — another example of uncommonly direct language about white people from a major political figure. So there's no mystery to the huge spike in interest in the term \"white people\" this election cycle. But the above graph also shows spikes in searches for \"white people\" back in the late summer of 2009 and again in early 2010. We've been scratching our heads trying to figure out just what was going on in the world then to prompt them. Our editor Alicia Montgomery wondered whether the 2009 jump might have been related to \"the White House beer summit\" — but when we took a closer look, we saw that while the beer summit happened in July of 2009, the 2009 spike in \"white people\" searches happened a few months later, in September. My Code Switch teammate Leah Donnella brought up this weird \"white people stole my car\" thing that was happening on the Internet back in 2009. (Basically, someone noticed that when you search \"white people stole my car\" in Google, the search engine asks you, \"Did you mean, 'black people stole my car'?\" This apparently became a meme for a minute.) But Aly Hurt, our colleague who designed the above graph, said there don't seem to be a lot of Google results for the \"white people stole my car\" thing overall, which suggests it might not have been big enough to drive that spike back in 2009, although the dates — late August through early September — do seem to line up. So that might be what happened in 2009. But what explains another spike in searches for \"white people\" a few months later, around February 2010? We're still mulling it over, and we'd love to hear any guesses you might have; tweet us at @NPRCodeSwitch or email at [email protected].", "The driver behind the wheel of an autonomous Uber car that fatally struck an Arizona woman has been charged with negligent homicide. Rafaela Vasquez, 46, appeared in court on Tuesday in Maricopa County, Ariz. She pleaded not guilty to the charge, NPR member station KJZZ reports, and has been released with an ankle monitor. Her trial is set for Feb. 21, The Associated Press reports. The fatal crash occurred in March 2018. Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking a bicycle across the road at night when she was fatally struck by a Volvo SUV outfitted with an Uber self-driving system. Vasquez was behind the wheel, as the operator of the vehicle, but the car was in computer control mode at the time of the crash. Vasquez was watching the television show The Voice when the car struck Herzberg, according to Tempe police. Dashcam video of the incident showed Vasquez looking down at something in her lap just before the crash. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board released last year found that the probable cause of the crash was \"the failure of the vehicle operator to monitor the driving environment and the operation of the automated driving system because she was visually distracted throughout the trip by her personal cell phone.\" The NTSB also said that automation can often result in such inattention. Interior dashcam footage showed that Vasquez spent nearly a third of the trip looking down toward the bottom of the SUV's center console, where she had placed her cellphone at the beginning of the trip, the investigation found. \"Had the vehicle operator been attentive, she would likely have had sufficient time to detect and react to the crossing pedestrian to avoid the crash or mitigate the impact,\" the federal report stated. \"The vehicle operator's prolonged visual distraction, a typical effect of automation complacency, led to her failure to detect the pedestrian in time to avoid the collision.\" \"The Uber Advanced Technologies Group did not adequately recognize the risk of automation complacency and develop effective countermeasures to control the risk of vehicle operator disengagement, which contributed to the crash,\" it said. It also found that the SUV's sensor systems could not determine whether Herzberg was a pedestrian, vehicle or bicycle, and it failed to correctly predict her path. The NTSB said another factor in the crash was the fact that Herzberg crossed the street in front of the approaching vehicle at night outside a crosswalk. It also said the Uber car's automated system was not designed to apply maximum braking for collision mitigation. Last March, an Arizona prosecutor determined that Uber was not criminally liable in Herzberg's death. Uber reached a settlement with Herzberg's family shortly after the crash.", "Noah Adams talks to Stephen Beard of <EM>Marketplace</EM> about the $21-million penalty BP oil has been ordered to pay for violating health and safety regulations. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the fine on Thursday for \"egregious, willful violations\" of safety standards that led to a fatal explosion at BP's Texas City refinery in March.", "In February, General Motors issued sweeping recalls for several models suspected of having a faulty switch that automatically turns the car's engine off and prevents air bags from deploying — while the car is in motion. More than 2.6 million cars have been recalled so far. At the core of the problem is a part in the vehicle's ignition switch that is 1.6 millimeters less \"springy\" than it should be. Because this part produces weaker tension, ignition keys in the cars may turn off the engine if shaken just the right way. NPR looked into the timeline of events that led to the recall. It's long and winding, and it presents many questions about how GM handled the situation: How long did the company know of the problem? Why did the company not inform federal safety officials of the problem sooner? Why weren't recalls done sooner? And did GM continue to manufacture models knowing of the defect? 2001: GM detects the defect during pre-production testing of the Saturn Ion. 2003: A service technician closes an inquiry into a stalling Saturn Ion after changing the key ring and noticing the problem was fixed. 2004: GM recognizes the defect again as the Chevrolet Cobalt replaces the Cavalier. March 2005: GM rejects a proposal to fix the problem because it would be too costly and take too long. May 2005: A GM engineer advises the company to redesign its key head, but the proposal is ultimately rejected. May 24, 2005: GM posts a $1.1 billion first-quarter loss, blaming it on union overhead and high gas prices harming SUV sales. December 2005: GM sends dealers a bulletin stating the defect can occur when \"the driver is short and has a large and/or heavy key chain ... the customer should be advised of this potential and should ... [remove] unessential items from their key chain.\" July 29, 2005: Maryland resident Amber Marie Rose, 16, dies when her 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt crashes into a tree after the ignition switch shuts down the car's electrical system and the air bags fail to deploy. December 2005: GM issues a service bulletin announcing the problem, but does not issue a recall. July 26, 2006: GM loses $3.2 billion in the second quarter, absorbing costs of early retirement buyout packages to 30,000 blue collar workers. March 2007: Safety regulators inform GM of the issues involved in Amber Rose's death; neither GM nor the safety regulators open a formal investigation. April 2007: An investigation links the fatal crash of a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt in Wisconsin to the ignition defect, but regulators do not conduct an investigation. September 2007: A NHTSA official emails the agency's Office of Defects Investigation recommending a probe looking into the failure of air bags to deploy in crashes involving Chevrolet Cobalts and Saturn Ions, prompted by 29 complaints, four fatal crashes and 14 field reports. Nov. 17, 2007: The Office of Defects Investigation at NHTSA concludes that there is no correlation between the crashes and the failure of air bags to deploy, ending the proposed probe. Dec. 12, 2008: The U.S. Senate votes to oppose a government bailout for GM, despite support from outgoing President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama and GM's announcement that it's nearly out of cash and may not survive beyond 2009. Dec. 18, 2008: President Bush announces bankruptcy is an option, if it's \"orderly\" and involves unions and other stakeholders. Dec. 19, 2008: Bush approves a bailout plan, giving GM and Chrysler $13.4 billion in initial financing from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. April 22, 2009: GM says it will not be able to make a June 1, 2009, debt payment. April 24, 2009: GM says that it will scrap the Pontiac brand to invest more in Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC. June 1, 2009: GM files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. July 10, 2009: The U.S. Treasury purchases GM assets, giving the government primary ownership of the company. February 2010: NHTSA again recommends a probe looking into problems with air bags in Cobalts; ODI again decides that there is no correlation and drops the matter. Oct. 26, 2010: Consumer Reports says GM is considered \"reliable\" based on scores from road tests and performance on crash tests. 2012: GM identifies four crashes and four corresponding fatalities (all involving 2004 Saturn Ions) along with six other injuries from four other crashes attributable to the defect. Sept. 4, 2012: GM reports August 2012 sales were up 10 percent from the previous year, with Chevrolet passenger car sales up 25 percent. June 2013: A deposition by a Cobalt program engineer says the company made a \"business decision not to fix this problem,\" raising questions of whether GM consciously decided to launch the Cobalt despite knowing of a defect. Dec. 9, 2013: Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announces the government had sold the last of what was previously a 60 percent stake in GM, ending the bailout. The bailout had cost taxpayers $10 billion on a $49.5 billion investment. End of 2013: GM determines that the faulty", "If you thought your 2016 was looking busy, just be glad you're not the United Nations. The organization will be marking 129 \"International Days\" — not to mention assorted weeks, decades and a year. Looking over the list is overwhelming but also enlightening. It's clear certain dates are more popular than others. The most extreme case is March 21, when five days share a spot on the calendar. That's especially odd when you realize that there are huge gaps without any days. January has only one: the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. That's on the 27th, which is also the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It's common for dates to be chosen to connect with historical events. Others have been picked to line up with existing celebrations — that's why April 22 is International Mother Earth Day. And you'll notice a few don't have exact dates. One example: World Habitat Today, which falls on the first Monday in October. None of the days would exist without the founding of the United Nations. That event spawned United Nations Day, which is held every October 24 and is one of the oldest on the list. As for the newest? Two days are making a 2016 debut: International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11) and World Tsunami Awareness Day (November 5). Here's the full list: JANUARY 27 January International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust FEBRUARY 4 February World Cancer Day 6 February International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation 11 February International Day of Women and Girls in Science 13 February World Radio Day 20 February World Day of Social Justice 21 February International Mother Language Day MARCH 1 March Zero Discrimination Day 3 March World Wildlife Day 8 March International Women's Day 20 March International Day of Happiness 21 March International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 21 March World Poetry Day 21 March International Day of Nowruz 21 March World Down Syndrome Day 21 March International Day of Forests 22 March World Water Day 23 March World Meteorological Day 24 March World Tuberculosis Day 24 March International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims 25 March International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade 25 March International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members APRIL 2 April World Autism Awareness Day 4 April International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action 6 April International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 7 April International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda 7 April World Health Day 12 April International Day of Human Space Flight 22 April International Mother Earth Day 23 April World Book and Copyright Day 23 April English Language Day 24 - 30 April World Immunization Week Note: Okay, technically it's a \"week\" but it's included on the calendar of \"International Days\" 25 April World Malaria Day 26 April World Intellectual Property Day 28 April World Day for Safety and Health at Work 29 April Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare 30 April International Jazz Day MAY 3 May World Press Freedom Day 8-9 May Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives During the Second World War 9-10 May World Migratory Bird Day 15 May International Day of Families 17 May World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 21 May World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development 22 May International Day for Biological Diversity 23 May International Day to End Obstetric Fistula 29 May International Day of UN Peacekeepers 31 May World No-Tobacco Day JUNE 1 June Global Day of Parents 1 June \"Vesak\", the Day of the Full Moon 4 June International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression 5 June World Environment Day 6 June Russian Language Day at the UN 8 June World Oceans Day 12 June World Day Against Child Labour 13 June International Albinism Awareness Day 14 June World Blood Donor Day 15 June World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 17 June World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 20 June World Refugee Day 21 June International Day of Yoga 23 June United Nations Public Service Day 23 June International Widows' Day 25 June Day of the Seafarer 26 June International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 26 June United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture JULY 4 July (first Saturday in July) International Day of Cooperatives 11 July World Population Day 15 July World Youth Skills Day 18 July Nelson Mandela International Day 28 July World Hepatitis Day 30 July International Day of Friendship 30 July World Day against Trafficking in Persons AUGUST 9 August International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples 12 August International Youth Day 19 August World Humanitarian Day 23 August International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and It", "After hitting a 30-year low in 2009, U.S. auto sales are poised for a second straight year of growth in 2012 — the result of easier credit, low interest rates and pent-up demand for cars and trucks created by the Great Recession. The sales forecast bodes well for the industry's continued recovery and for the broader American economy. Just two years ago, Detroit automakers were in peril. Car sales plunged as unemployment soared, and loans became harder to get. Chrysler and General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection. Ford avoided bankruptcy only by borrowing billions. Now credit is easier to get, interest rates are still low and Americans need to replace old cars and trucks they kept during and after the downturn. Millions of drivers in their teens and 20s are expected to buy vehicles, too. That could mean more jobs, more factory shifts and overall growth. Vince Powell, a retiree from Winfield, Pa., recently traded in his wife's 7-year-old Chrysler 300 luxury sedan for a 2011 model. The old car had 145,000 miles on it, but it was the deal he got that most attracted him: a low interest rate (2.7 percent per year), a six-year loan term and a big discount off the $31,900 sticker price. \"I'm getting a $300 per month payment,\" he said just before closing the deal at Beaver Motors in Beaver Springs, Pa., near Harrisburg. \"I've never had a new car for 300 bucks a month.\" In their effort to survive, all three automakers downsized and positioned themselves to turn profits — even if sales remained depressed. Now that sales are rising, the outlook has brightened considerably. Automakers report U.S. sales for 2011 on Wednesday. When final figures are calculated, sales of new cars and trucks are expected to reach 12.7 million, up from 11.5 million in 2010 and 10.4 million in 2009, the worst year since 1982. In 2012, they could climb as high as 13.8 million, close to what experts consider a healthy market — around 14 million. December sales could reach an annual rate of 13.4 million, which would make it the second-strongest month of the year. Only November was better. Auto website Edmunds.com forecasts a 37 percent rise in sales at Chrysler Group LLC in December, thanks to new and revamped products such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV and the Chrysler 200 midsize sedan. Carmakers have announced plans to crank up factories and add thousands of jobs. Last January, Ford said it would hire 7,000 workers over the next two years. During the summer, GM said it would add 2,500 at the Detroit factory that makes the Chevrolet Volt electric car. Volkswagen hired 2,000 for a new plant in Tennessee, and Honda added 1,000 in Indiana. The industry will add 167,000 jobs by 2015, a 28 percent increase over current levels, predicts The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. During the summer, the auto industry was adding jobs at a faster pace than airplane manufacturers, shipbuilders, health care providers and the federal government. It kept adding jobs even when the national unemployment rate rose above 9 percent, Standard & Poor's downgraded U.S. debt for the first time and the stock market tumbled. Government estimates show Americans spent roughly $40 billion more on new cars and trucks in 2011 than in 2009. Based on annualized figures from the first quarter of 2011, new-car spending totaled $206 billion, or 1.3 percent of the gross domestic product, Commerce Department data shows. That compares with $166 billion in 2009, about 1.2 percent of the country's economy. And the momentum in auto sales is likely to continue because people need to replace aging cars, said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting for LMC Automotive, an automotive consulting company in Troy, Mich. The average American car is now 11 years old. U.S. auto sales peaked at 17 million in 2005, when Detroit's automakers were much bigger and overproduced cars that they were forced to discount heavily. Sales could eventually reach that level again around 2018, said Schuster, because of 70 million so-called millennials born between 1981 and 2000 who need to set up households and buy cars. Other trends emerged in 2011. Many people bought smaller vehicles as gas prices hit a record average of $3.53 per gallon. Fuel-efficient compact cars, which have been vastly improved by automakers, are likely to unseat the midsize sedan as America's favorite passenger car for the first time in 20 years. At the other extreme, pickups rebounded as businesses started to replace older trucks. Sales for the year were expected to rise 11 percent, and Ford's F-Series will remain the country's top-selling model, a title it has held for more than three decades. For much of the year, U.S.-based automakers took advantage of Japanese car shortages to increase sales, especially in the compact car segment normally dominated by the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. Japanese companies ran short of popular models after an earthquake and tsunami disrupted production in Japan in March", "Boeing holds its annual meeting with shareholders in Chicago on Monday. The company&#8217;s earnings fell 21% in the first quarter, following the grounding of the 737 Max jets in March after two fatal crashes. Here & Now&#8216;s Jeremy Hobson talks with CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger (@jillonmoney). This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "\"Texting should be banned in moving vehicles for all drivers,\" a new report from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute recommends. Researchers from the institute used equipment to continuously observe drivers \"for more than 6 million miles of driving,\" and found that any use of cell phones while driving increased the potential for a crash or \"near crash.\" But texting was by far the worst thing to do. The researchers say a driver who is texting is as much as 23.2 times more likely to get into an accident than a \"non-distracted\" driver. The reason is logical: Texting draws drivers' eyes away from the road more than any other cell phone task. In this morning's New York Times: Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech institute, one of the world's largest vehicle safety research organizations, said the study's message was clear. \"You should never do this,\" he said of texting while driving. \"It should be illegal.\" As NPR's Jon Hamilton has previously reported, trying to multi-task in a moving car can be as dangerous as driving while drunk. This all leads us to republish a poll we started last Tuesday: Update at 12:20 p.m. ET: There's also new data from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which has issued its 2009 Traffic Safety Culture Index. Its survey found: -- 35% of drivers \"feel less safe today\" than they did five years ago. -- \"Distracted driving, mentioned by 31%, was the most often cited reason.\" -- But 67% admitted talking on a cell phone while driving; 28% of them regularly. And 21% said they had text messaged while driving. The index is based on a national telephone survey of 2,501 people ages 16 and over. The margin of error is said to be +/- 2.5 percentage points.", "Residents in Altamonte Springs, just outside of Orlando, have a new public transportation option — Uber. The city will be the first in the country to partially subsidize Uber fares. The city will cover 20 percent of any ride beginning or ending in Altamonte Springs — 25 percent for rides to or from the local commuter rail station. An earlier plan to build an on-demand bus system fell through. The Uber service started March 21. NPR's Scott Simon talks to City Manager Frank Martz about the new public-private partnership. Interview Highlights How is it working? It's working so far good. Our residents [and] our business owners like the fact that Uber puts transit options in their hands. They don't have to rely on public transit, they don't have to rely on the fixed schedules, they don't have to change their lives to fit the transit model. The transit model in this case can be reshaped by their choice and they love that. Does that run the risk of putting more cars on the road? Some initial studies suggest that one Uber car can take four regular cars off the road. We don't know if that's true, but we certainly are looking forward to seeing how congestion management can be affected by user choices. How do you pay for all this? The city had $1.5 million allocated to the FlexBus project that Lynx (the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority) did not move forward with, so we are using dollars that are already earmarked for transit. And we have several large businesses in Altamonte Springs who have also contributed, so we suspect that this will be largely private-sector funded at the end of the year. Will there be surge pricing? I have a very free-market viewpoint on that and I've been asked that question. How does the city feel about surge pricing? And my response is in the private sector, if it becomes too expensive to be used, no one will use it and the market will force the price down. It's a supply and demand dynamic. So our viewpoint is if private sector is ever going to help fill public roles, the public input through consumer choices is going to be key. So if Uber wants to be successful long term or Lyft or anyone else, they're going to have to provide a good product at a good price. So if the surge pricing gets too high people won't take it. Will there be background checks? Yea, in fact, our contract with Uber requires them to do background checks on all of the drivers who operate inside of Altamonte Springs. By example, we do background checks on people who work in our parks, and from time to time, people do terribly horrible things. You do your best to protect everyone from that and that's what we've done here. And to Uber's credit, they've agreed to do background checks as part of the contract, so we're very thankful for that. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Residents in Altamonte Springs, which is just outside of Orlando, have a new public transportation option - Uber. The city will be the first in the country to partially subsidize Uber fares. They'll cover 20 percent of any ride that begins or ends in Altamonte Springs, 25 percent if you're going to or from the local commuter rail station. We're joined now by the city manager, Frank Martz. Mr. Martz, thanks very much for being with us. FRANK MARTZ: Thank you for having me. SIMON: Did this all happen because you were denied $2 million from the Florida Transit Authority to build a bus system to and from the train station? MARTZ: The Central Florida Transit Authority bollixed up a transit project we'd been working on, so yes, the need still remained and we looked to the private sector and Uber to try to serve that opportunity to shape behaviors. So yes, that's exactly how it happened. SIMON: Service started on March 21, I'm told. How's it working? MARTZ: It's working so far good. Our residents like, our business owners like, the fact that Uber puts transit options in their hands. They don't have to rely on public transit. They don't have to rely on the fixed schedules. They don't have to change their lives to fit the transit model. The transit model in this case can be reshaped by their choice, and they love that. SIMON: Does it run the risk of just putting more cars on the road though? MARTZ: Some initial studies suggest that one Uber car can take four regular cars off the road. Now, we don't know if that's true, but we certainly are looking to see - looking forward to seeing how congestion management can be affected by user choices. SIMON: Are these shared ride, presumably? MARTZ: Yes, they have the opportunity to be shared ride or individual ride. In either regard, they take that car off the road in place of the one car that takes people around. SIMON: And how do you pay for all this? MARTZ: The city had $1.5 million allocated to the FlexBus project that Lynx did not move forward with. So we are using dollars that are already earmarked for transit. And we have several large businesses in Altamonte Springs who have also contributed. So we suspect that thi", "A U.S. drone missile strike has reportedly killed at least four suspected militants and wounded two others in Miramshah, Pakistan, the main city in the tribal area of North Waziristan, according to Pakistani officials. The United States does not normally confirm its drone strikes. From Islamabad, Julie McCarthy filed this report for our Newscast unit: According to the office of the political agent, the drone missiles struck a house and a nearby parked car in Miramshah as residents were beginning the pre-dawn Ramadan fast. The U.S. administration insists that drone attacks have helped degrade the terror networks that use Pakistan as a sanctuary, including al-Qaeda. U.S. officials also say that they are a precision weapon that causes few civilian casualties. Others dispute that. Dennis Blair, who was director of national intelligence from 2009 to 2010, wrote in The New York Times Monday that \"as the U.S. drone campaign wears on, hatred of America is increasing in Pakistan.\" The drone attack came one week after a U.S. drone attack killed at least 21 militants in North Waziristan. And last month, strikes conducted by drone craft killed at least 30 people in less than 24 hours in the area, the BBC reports. The recent attack may bring the ire of the Taliban, which has issued a decree that bans klling in Miramshah during Ramadan. The ban, being enforced by two clerics, carries a fine of 500,000 rupees — around $5,770. America's tactics in the fight terrorist groups in Afghanistan are being discussed on Tuesday's Fresh Air, as guest host Dave Davies talks with Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt about their book Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda.", "Good morning! The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in November, as surging oil prices helped imports to outgain exports. The gap widened to $40.2 billion during the month, the biggest in a year, according to the Commerce Department. The trade deficit measures the difference between the dollar value of goods the U.S. buys from other countries and the dollar value of the goods it sells to other countries. The jump of 10.4 percent in December reflects the largest monthly increase in exports since March 2007. Exports rose 3.3 percent in December to $142.7 billion. Imports however, saw a more substantial jump of 4.8 percent. That increase was led by a 9.2 percent increase in imports of crude oil and 0.9 percent increase in the price per barrel of oil. The U.S. trade deficit totaled $380.7 billion in 2009, down markedly from a deficit of $695.9 billion in 2008. Read More >> And, the housing market is still hurting. The Mortgage Bankers Association said U.S. mortgage applications decreased last week. The group's composite index fell by 1.2 percent after increasing nearly 21 percent a week earlier. Plus, a new report from real estate website Zillow.com found that one of every five U.S. home owners owed more on their mortgage than their home was worth in the fourth quarter.", "Updated at 2 p.m. ET The Environmental Protection Agency says Volkswagen intentionally violated the Clean Air Act by using sophisticated software in its diesel-powered cars that detects emissions testing — and \"turns full emissions controls on only during the test.\" Installed in four-cylinder cars, the software, which the EPA calls a \"defeat device\" that's meant to trick official tests, allowed diesel Jettas, Beetles and other cars to \"emit up to 40 times more pollution\" than allowed under U.S. emission standards. After the automaker was confronted with emission test results this month, the agency says, it admitted that the vehicles contain defeat devices. Volkswagen must now fix the emissions control systems, the agency says, adding that the automaker could be liable for civil penalties and other punishment. The cars in question are popular Volkswagen and Audi models that were made from 2009 to this year. The affected four-cylinder, diesel cars include: • Jetta (model years 2009–2015) • Beetle (model years 2009–2015) • Audi A3 (model years 2009–2015) • Golf (model years 2009–2015) • Passat (model years 2014-2015) \"Using a defeat device in cars to evade clean air standards is illegal and a threat to public health,\" said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. The news that the Volkswagens produce far more pollution than is legal is sure to rattle some VW owners who bought their cars at least in part because of their perceived impact on the environment. The U.S. government also has reason to feel duped: Volkswagen's \"clean diesel\" TDI engines earned a $1,300 federal tax credit for people who purchased a Jetta sedan or wagon back in 2009, the first year affected by the recall. When applied to a base price of around $22,000, the hefty tax credit helped explain why the TDI vehicles were hard to keep in stock. The cars were first found to produce too much nitrogen oxides, or NOx, by researchers at West Virginia University who were working with the International Council on Clean Transportation, the EPA says. After the WVU analysis found irregular NOx levels in diesel Volkswagens, the EPA and the California Air Resources Board took up their own study. As for drivers of the cars, the EPA says, \"these violations do not present a safety hazard and the cars remain legal to drive and resell.\" The agency adds, \"Owners of cars of these models and years do not need to take any action at this time.\"", "While General Motors and Chrysler may face structured bankruptcy, Ford has yet to ask for any government bailout funds. William Clay Ford Jr., executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., says that car sales still are not where they need to be. Car sales for the Detroit Three — Chrysler, GM and Ford — are down more than 40 percent. \"The good news for Ford is that our market share has been going up and up each month,\" Ford tells host Melissa Block. He says what's really needed is \"a program to stimulate sales for the entire industry.\" Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) introduced the CARS Act in March as a way to modernize the U.S. auto fleet. The bill would provide consumers with a $3,000 to $5,000 incentive to trade in older cars to buy more fuel-efficient cars. Ford says he is enthusiastic about the idea. \"It clearly stimulates the economy, and it gets the consumer into the showroom and gets them buying again. But importantly — and this is what I particularly like about it — it really helps the environment quite a bit in two respects.\" He says it takes an older, less fuel-efficient vehicle off the road and replaces it with a vehicle that is likely to have twice the fuel economy. And, he says, \"the older cars tend to be much more polluting. And if you get them off the road and get a newer car with the newest technology, you're helping [reduce] C02 emissions, too.\" Ford says similar programs are already working in Germany and France, and many other countries are interested in the idea. GM, Chrysler Bankruptcy Impact If GM or Chrysler goes bankrupt, what impact will this have on Ford? \"It's the great unknown in terms of what the impact is on us because there are so many ways it could happen,\" Ford says. \"It could get very messy. Therefore, no matter what happens to any of our competitors, the fact that we have a new UAW [United Auto Workers] agreement, we have a new health care agreement, we've taken steps to restructure our debt, and we've invested very heavily in green technology — I think all of those things are exactly the kind of things that the country would like to see us do.\" He says that if auto suppliers collapse, that could threaten not just Ford, GM and Chrysler but any car companies — including Toyota and Honda — that produce vehicles in the United States. And that's something the Obama administration is well aware of, he says. Future Bailout For Ford? Earlier this week, independent auto analyst Maryann Keller told NPR that Ford remains in a \"precarious financial position.\" If demand for vehicles doesn't improve, does that mean Ford may need to ask the government for a credit line? \"We think we have sufficient liquidity,\" Ford said. \"We don't see any need to think about going for additional liquidity. Obviously at some point, if global auto sales don't pick up — not just for Ford but for frankly every other automaker out there — it's not going to be a good thing.\" He says the outlook for 2009 isn't great, but the company remains well-positioned if there is a modest pickup in sales in 2010. Still, he says, \"we're not projecting a huge boost in auto sales.\" It's possible that when all the dust settles, there will no longer be three car companies in Detroit. \"I have no way of knowing how many car companies — American or foreign — there are going to be,\" Ford says.\" But what I do know is that Ford is going to be one of the key players.\" MICHELE NORRIS, host: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michele Norris. MELISSA BLOCK, host: And I'm Melissa Block. If you're struggling to find a silver lining in the car sales numbers, you could say okay, they were down 37 percent in March over last year, at least that's better that the February when sales hit a 27 year low. In year to date sales the numbers are lousy all around for the Detroit three: GM down 49 percent over last year, Chrysler down 45 percent, Ford down 43 percent. Today I talked about this shrunken industry with the executive chairman of Ford, William Clay Ford Jr. Mr. WILLIAM CLAY FORD JR. (Executive Chairman, Ford): Well, you know, it's -it's not great. I mean, the good news for Ford is that our market share has been going up and up each month and we think March in terms of market share was one of the best months in several years. But I think what we really need, Melissa, is a program to stimulate sales for the entire industry. There are discussions going on in Congress now. There's a bill that Representative Sutton from Ohio has put forward to do just that and it's something that we are very enthusiastic about. BLOCK: And you're talking about the cash for clunkers idea: trade in your old, may be gas-guzzler, get a more fuel-efficient car? Mr. FORD JR: Exactly. You know, what I think is really cool about that program is when it clearly stimulates the economy, and it gets the consumer into the showroom, gets them buying again. But importantly — and this is what I particularly like about it — it really helps the environment in two ", "A \"alert\" from the Associated Press: \"Obama delaying Asia trip from March 18 to March 21 to work on health care.\" The president's trip will take him to Indonesia and Australia. We'll update this news as the story develops. Update at 9:10 a.m. ET. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs just \"tweeted\" that: \"The President will delay leaving for Indonesia and Australia - will now leave Sunday - the First Lady and the girls will not be on the trip.\" Sunday must mean March 21. This news is not exactly a surprise. As The New York Times' The Caucus blog wrote yesterday, \"with President Obama's health care bill hanging in the balance, the White House is facing intensifying questions about whether Mr. Obama should take his planned trip to Indonesia and Australia next week.\" Update at 10:45 a.m. ET. NPR's Don Gonyea reports that the White House has been hoping Congress would vote on health care overhaul legislation by March 18:", "When you talk to car people about General Motors, they all say the company has gotten better. \"I think General Motors, productwise, is in a better position than it's been in a decade or so,\" says Jack Nerad of Kelley Blue Book. \"The new products, we feel ... are all quite good.\" Like many people, however, Nerad adds an important caveat. He says GM's improvement doesn't mean the company is completely out of the woods, because the competition is very good as well. While GM has been getting better, so have almost all other car companies — foreign and domestic. Nerad says players in this new car world need to be more than just good. \"They have to be No. 1 on the shopping list,\" he says, \"because a person is only going to buy one car. They're not going to buy an array of cars.\" Nerad says it's not enough to be competitive; a car company has to have that vehicle that's going to put it across the top — a blockbuster. Toyota has the Camry; Honda has the Civic and Accord; Ford has the Fusion. Those are all top-selling cars. One reason those cars have been able to stay on top is that they are constantly being updated and changed. GM is trying to break into that territory with its new Chevy Malibu, which has been revamped but was delayed in coming out in part because of the company's bankruptcy in 2009. (It emerged from bankruptcy shortly afterward.) David Zenlea, assistant editor at Automobile Magazine, says the new Malibu is a perfectly good car for a year-and-a-half ago. \"When you release a new midsize car, where you want to be is you want to leap to the front of the pack, and then somebody else leapfrogs past you again in six months,\" Zenlea says. \"You want to have that brief window where you're the absolute latest and greatest and best.\" The Malibu is a very good car, Zenlea says, but when he drove it he didn't feel it set the bar a notch higher. GM is trying to play catch-up and is revamping more than 70 percent of its cars and trucks in the next two years. GM spokesman Randy Arickx says bankruptcy helped the company get control of its costs and made it easier to turn a profit, but being strapped for cash made it hard for GM to come up with new ideas. \"As we walked through bankruptcy, we actually had to reduce some of our capital spending,\" Arickx says. \"So the number of products that we've been able to bring to the marketplace has been less than the industry average.\" Arickx acknowledges that GM has been challenged in coming up with enough new cars and trucks. Internationally, the company faces trouble in Europe, where it lost $400 million last quarter. GM has also lost some of the ground it gained from companies such as Toyota and Honda, which are now essentially fully recovered from the effects of the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. When you ask GM executives such as Arickx about the company's health, however, they point to two all-important numbers: $33 billion in cash and $5 billion in debt. Last month, Fitch, the ratings agency, upgraded GM's investment status one notch and said the company has a stable outlook. But that doesn't take into account the one-third of the company that the government still owns. GM's share price is down after its 2009 initial public offering, so if the government were to divest itself of its stake in the company, the government would lose as much as $16 billion. This all leaves one question to be asked about GM: When is it fair to really sound the alarm? Automobile Magazine's Zenlea says he thinks people are sounding the alarm a bit too soon. He says the real hurdle for GM is not its balance sheet but its cars. \"The real question if you want to judge post-bankruptcy General Motors is going to be to look at [its] products a year or two ... down the road and see how ... [it] really invest[s] and develop[s] ... products,\" Zenlea says. \"I think that's where we'll really get to see what they're made of.\" The next chance to see what it's made of is in 2013. That's when the Chevy Impala goes on sale — just one of many tests for GM. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. DAVID GREENE, HOST: And I'm David Greene. Good morning. The bailout of two automakers, General Motors and Chrysler, has been an issue in the presidential campaign. Let's look at some facts. Sales and profits are up at both companies. Chrysler has repaid the loans it got from the U.S. and Canadian governments. But as NPR's Sonari Glinton reports, the story for GM has not been so clear cut. SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: When you talk to car people about General Motors, they all say the company's gotten better. Jack Nerad with Kelley Blue Book is one of many. JACK NERAD: I think General Motors, product-wise, is in a better position than it's been in a decade or so. The new products, we feel at Kelley Blue Book, are all quite good. GLINTON: But like most, he adds this one important caveat. NERAD: That's doesn't mean, though, that it's totally out of the woods because the competit", "[Youtube] After a decade-long hiatus, comedian Dave Chappelle makes his return to stand-up comedy this month. His new specials, \"Dave Chappelle: The Age of Spin\" and &#8220;Deep in the Heart of Texas: Dave Chappelle Live at Austin City Limits,&#8221; debut March 21 on Netflix. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans (@Deggans) talks with Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti about Chappelle&#8217;s comeback and what Netflix gains from so many big-name comics signing on.", "The S&P 500&#8217;s bull-market run is set to beat a record Wednesday. The 3,453-day streak started in March 2009, and some analysts are wondering how much longer the party will last. Here & Now&#8217;s Jeremy Hobson talks with MSNBC anchor and economics correspondent Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi), co-host of &#8220;Velshi & Ruhle,&#8221; about the current bull run.", "\"Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. today all reported double-digit sales increases for 2010,\" The Detroit News reports. Some of the specifics: -- Sales were up 17 percent at Chrysler, which moved 1.1 million vehicles in 2010. -- Ford sold 1.9 million, up 19 percent. -- GM's four \"core brands,\" the News says, sold 21 percent more vehicles than in 2009. The Detroit Free Press says that for the year and including foreign brand names, an estimated 11.5 million vehicles were sold -- up from 10.4 million in 2009.", "The Central American nation of Honduras had a tumultuous year in politics in 2009. After deposed President Manuel Zelaya was run out of the country by a coup back in June, he later maneuvered dramatically into the country, hiding in the backs of trucks and cars, before finding refuge in the Brazilian embassy. Wednesday Honduras swore in a new president and now Zelaya has taken residency in the Dominican Republic. Host Michel Martin talks with Daniel Wilkerson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch about the recent events in Honduras.", "He seemed so casual — sitting on a bar stool behind the Tiny Desk, acoustic guitar in hand — but when you hear that husky voice, you'll know why he's a legend. Oliver Mtukudzi, or \"Tuku\" as his fans lovingly call him, plays spirited music, born from the soul of Zimbabwe. He's been recording since the late 1970s, with about as many albums as his age: 60. But Mtukudzi's new record reveals a heavier heart than before: Sarawoga is his first recording since the loss of his son Sam. He and Sam — also a guitar player, as well as a saxophonist — had a special relationship touring together. But in March 2010, Sam Mtukudzi was killed in a car crash at the age of 21. Oliver Mtukudzi recently told NPR's Tell Me More that \"the only way to console myself is to carry on doing what we loved doing most. Sitting down [to] cry and mourn — I think it would have killed me.\" So here is the legend himself, with much to share in the odd intimacy of an office desk. A special moment. Set List \"Todii\" \"Huroi\" \"Haidyoreke\" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Editor: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo; Audio Engineer: Suraya Mohamed; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Christopher Parks; photo by Erica Yoon/NPR", "Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who as recently as 2009 led his country, was sentenced Monday by a Jerusalem court to eight months in prison for unlawfully accepting money from a U.S. supporter. As we reported in March when Olmert was convicted in the case: \"At issue are cash-stuffed envelopes that Olmert took from U.S. businessman Morris Talansky when he was mayor of Jerusalem (about $600,000) and a Cabinet minister (about $153,950). The decision by the Jerusalem District Court was based on testimony from a former aide to Olmert who turned state's witness. Olmert was convicted of fraud, breach of trust and illicitly receiving money.\" Additionally, Olmert was given a suspended sentence of eight months and fined $25,000. His conviction in March overturned a ruling in 2012 that had acquitted the former prime minister. He faced up to five years in prison. Last year, Olmert, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2009, was convicted on separate corruption charges involving a real estate deal and sentenced to six years in prison. NPR's Emily Harris tells our Newscast unit he is appealing both convictions to the Supreme Court. Emily adds: \"The scandals forced him to step down as prime minister in 2009, clearing the way for current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to win the post.\" The Associated Press reports today's verdict was granted a 45-day stay, which means Olmert will avoid prison for now. The news service adds: \"A slew of character witnesses had vouched for Olmert, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan in written statements read aloud Monday. The verdict stated that it recognized Olmert's vast contributions to Israeli society and sentenced him to less than the prosecution had demanded. Still, it ruled that 'a black flag hovers over his conduct.' \" At the time of Olmert's resignation, Israel and the Palestinians were engaged in talks over the creation of a Palestinian states. Those talks are now moribund.", "Updated at 7:55 a.m. ET Thursday In late April, a university in Pyongyang said the North Korean government had detained one of its adjunct professors, a 50-something American who taught accounting. On Wednesday, North Korea confirmed through the official Korean Central News Agency that it had indeed detained Tony Kim, and was holding him for \"hostile criminal acts with an aim to subvert the country.\" As NPR's Anthony Kuhn has reported, Kim, who also goes by Kim Sang-duk, was held at the airport in Pyongyang as he was about to leave the country. \"In the past, Pyongyang has demanded that Washington send high-level envoys to obtain the release of U.S. citizens detained in North Korea,\" Anthony reported. \"For example, North Korea freed three U.S. citizens during visits by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter in 2009 and 2010, respectively.\" But Zhang Liangui, a North Korea expert at the Central Party School in Beijing, told Anthony that there might be different motivations for Kim's detention. \"North Korea has already clearly stated that it's not interested in a dialogue with the U.S. So they're not necessarily detaining this man for the sake of a dialogue,\" he said. The university where Kim had been teaching, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, told Reuters that Kim's wife, who was with him when he was detained, had returned to the United States. The university also said it did not believe Kim's detention was related to his work at the school. The chancellor said Kim, who had previously taught at an affiliated institute in China, had also been involved in helping an orphanage. The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with North Korea, and tensions have been high recently between the two nations. Kim is the third American citizen known to be held in North Korea. Two others are serving prison terms with hard labor, for alleged anti-state actions and espionage. In March 2016, Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia student, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and hard labor after a one-hour trial; his apparent offense was attempting to steal a propaganda poster. As we reported, \"On camera, Warmbier said he stole the propaganda poster on behalf of a member of the Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, who wanted it 'as a trophy.' In exchange, he would receive a used car worth $10,000.\" A Korean-American man, 62-year-old Kim Dong-chul of Fairfax, Va., was sentenced to 10 years in prison and hard labor in April 2016; he was convicted on espionage charges. Conditions for Americans in North Korean detention are harsh, The New York Times reports in recounting the experiences of people who have been held by the regime: \" 'It was a 5-by-6-foot cell, and there were a couple of slats on the doors,' Laura Ling, an American journalist detained in 2009, revealed in a magazine interview after her release. 'There were no bars, so you couldn't see out, and if they closed those slats, it just went completely dark. There was no way to communicate with the outside world.' \"Another captive, Kenneth Bae, an American missionary, said in his memoir 'Not Forgotten,' published after his release in 2016, that he was interrogated 15 hours a day 'from 8 in the morning until 10 or 11 o'clock at night, every day for four weeks — it was very intense.' \"", "The majority leader of the House just said on Weekend Edition that when the time comes tomorrow to vote on the Democratic-designed legislation to overhaul the nation's health care system, \"we're going to have the votes\" to pass the plan. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., also said that \"there are people (House members) who have not publicly indicated that they will support this legislation,\" but will step forward to give it the 216 necessary votes for passage. Pressed by host Scott Simon on whether he and other Democratic leaders are offering wavering members special deals -- in particular, money for projects in their districts -- to secure their votes, Hoyer said no. The leadership, he insisted, is making its case based on the \"merits of the legislation\" and lawmakers will \"make this determination based on whether or not they think this plan is something that's needed and appropriate.\" President Barack Obama will head to the Capitol later today to talk with Democratic members about the legislation. As Frank wrote yesterday, The Washington Post has a vote count webpage here that's trying to keep up with the latest news on where the legislation stands. Right now, it says there are 179 firm \"yes\" votes, 207 \"no\" votes and 45 \"undecideds.\" Hoyer's undeclared \"yes\" votes are presumably among those 45. Click here for NPR's coverage of the health care debate and the push to a vote on Sunday. And NPR's health blog, Shots, is following the story as well. Scott's conversation with Hoyer will be posted here later. Update at 8:45 a.m., March 21: The stage is set for a vote in the House late this afternoon or tonight. Update at 8 a.m. ET, March 21. Here is the interview:", "Ryan Hamilton and Savannah Koop had planned to get married on May 8. Hamilton lives in Bellingham, Wash., and Koop lives just across the border in Abbotsford, British Columbia. But, on March 21, the U.S.-Canada border closed to all nonessential travel, and will remain closed until at least June 21. Unfortunately for Hamilton and Koop, visiting loved ones — and attending one's own wedding — are not considered essential travel. The two met on a dating app last July and traveled easily back-and-forth across the international border to see each other. Koop was two hours late for their first date. \"I blamed it on the border line,\" Koop said, \"but I probably only waited one hour at the border line-up.\" Nonetheless, she said, border waits were \"my excuse quite often, because I'm usually — I'm not punctual.\" By fall, they were talking about marriage. \"I used to say, 'In eight to nine years, when we get engaged eventually,'\" Hamilton said, \"and then she said, 'that's not a funny joke anymore.'\" They started looking at rings and Koop made it clear she didn't want \"glitz and glam and a big diamond,\" but rather preferred a simple gold band. \"I was vocally one of those guys who was like, 'I will never propose with just a simple gold band,'\" Hamilton said. But when they decided to get engaged, their timeline was short. \"There was a week and a half for me to get a ring, so it was either propose with no ring or propose with a simple gold band,\" Hamilton said. Gold band it was. Soon after Hamilton and Koop got engaged, the coronavirus pandemic started to take off in North America. \"We had had an inkling that the borders were going to close, and I was checking the news every single hour,\" Koop said. The news came on March 20: the border was closing, effective the very next day. \"I think I bawled,\" Koop said. The couple panicked as they tried to sort out if one should go to the other to get across the border before it closed. \"And then the day was over,\" Koop said. \"That was incredibly heartbreaking.\" The date for their wedding came and went, and the border remained closed. Koop grew tired of FaceTime and suggested they meet up. They looked at a map and found a place along the border where they could park, one on each side of the ditch separating the two countries. \"I'm sitting in my car and I see Ryan's car coming up, and I'm just like, 'Whoa, there's Ryan! I can see him!'\" Koop said. \"And I just cried so hard. It was just like streams of tears coming down my face.\" But see each other is all they could do. \"It's quite a wide ditch,\" Koop said. \"It's too wide — way wider than six feet.\" They went for a walk, each staying on their side of the ditch. Then it became a regular visit. \"The next week, we went almost every day,\" Hamilton said. Over time they saw other families and couples doing the same thing. But finally, Peace Arch Park reopened. The park is on the border between Washington state and British Columbia, and pedestrians from each country can meet without officially having to cross the border. Now, Hamilton and Koop can get together after work, hold hands and share food. They say the dates are nice, but what they really want is to be married. \"We haven't been indoors together in almost three months,\" Koop said. \"It is, like, surreal to be like, 'Oh, Ryan's supposed to be my husband right now, but he's not.'\" Hamilton still lives with three roommates, but wishes he was living with Koop. \"It's weird not to be able to even start our life together,\" Hamilton said. \"We're just stuck.\" While they wait for the border to open back up, Hamilton and Koop have been meeting with immigration lawyers and financial planners, doing their best to map out the future. They say they have faith things will work out, eventually.", "The CIA says it will not release two documents that former Vice President Dick Cheney had asked to be made public. Cheney says the documents would show that harsh interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration were effective. But CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano says the two documents that Cheney wants released contain information that is the subject of pending litigation. In a letter to the National Archives, the CIA's information and privacy coordinator, Delores Nelson, writes that the documents are relevant in two lawsuits that have been filed under the Freedom of Information Act. The letter lists the two lawsuits as Bloche v. Department of Defense and Amnesty International v. Central Intelligence Agency. Until those lawsuits are resolved, the agency is prohibited by executive order from making them public, Gimigliano says. Cheney has 45 days to appeal this decision. The White House could also decide to release the documents anyway. That's what happened last month, when Bush administration-era memos on interrogation written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel were released — over the objections of current and former CIA officials. TEXT OF LETTER: Mr. Stephannie Oriabure, Archivist National Archives and Records Administration 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20408-0001 Reference: EOM-2009-00573 / NLMS 2009-001 (Cheney, Richard B.) Dear Ms. Oriabure: Your facsimile of 21 April 2009 referred one document to this agency responding to the referenced Executive Order 12958 Mandatory Declassification Review request. I have enclosed a copy of your correspondence at Tab A. As you are aware, a request for Mandatory Declassification Review is governed by Executive Order 12958, as amended, which was signed and executed by the President on March 25, 2003. Under section 3.5.(a)(3) of that Executive Order, a document is excluded from Mandatory Declassification Review if that document contains information that is the subject of pending litigation. This provision ensures that the Mandatory Declassification Review process is not used to disrupt simultaneous litigation proceedings that are already pending. In researching the information in question, we have discovered that it is currently the subject of pending FOIA litigation (Bloche v. Department of Defense, Amnesty International v. Central Intelligence Agency). Therefore, the requested document, which contains this information, is excluded from Mandatory Declassification Review. The requester may appeal my decision to the Agency Release Panel, in my care, within 45 days from the date of this letter. He may send his appeal to: Agency Release Panel c/o Information and Privacy Coordinator Central Intelligence Agency Washington, D.C. 20505. Sincerely, // s // Delores M. Nelson Information and Privacy Coordinator" ]

[ "Even if there isn't any voting going on tomorrow in your town, city or state, NPR's Ken Rudin and Mara Liasson explained on Morning Edition why you might want to care: The results are going to be viewed as a referendum on how President Barack Obama is doing: As they say, the wildest race seems to be in New York's 23rd Congressional District, where the Republican nominee has dropped out and endorsed the Democrat -- not the Conservative Party candidate who has attracted support from 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and other high-profile figures. As Politico explains, Democrats worked hard to win former GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava's support. Also Tuesday; voters elect governors in New Jersey and Virginia; mayoral slots are on the ballots in New York City, Atlanta and several other major cities; and voters in Maine will decide whether to permit same-sex marriage. For much more on Tuesday's voting, see Political Junkie." ]

[ "Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, the region's separatist leader, says he has the \"mandate\" to declare independence from Spain but is delaying such a declaration to allow for talks with Madrid. In a much anticipated speech to the regional Parliament, more than a week after a referendum on Catalan independence, Puigdemont called for the \"de-escalation of tensions\" while emphasizing the importance of dialogue. \"I want to follow the people's will for Catalonia to become an independent state,\" he said, according to a BBC interpreter. But after saying he could declare independence, he said he wanted to suspend any such measure to allow time for negotiations. He said he was open to the possibility of international mediation. Later on Tuesday, The Associated Press reports, Catalan lawmakers signed a document that declared independence but delayed the implementation of the declaration — exactly what Puigdemont had called for in his speech. The Oct. 1 independence referendum, organized by the regional government, was not acknowledged by Spain as valid. Puigdemont said it was time for a vote that was recognized by both governments, with both sides committing to accept the results. He noted that the United Kingdom managed to hold such a vote — the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, which resulted in Scotland remaining in the U.K. Puigdemont emphasized the need for dialogue. \"I'm not planning any threat, any insults,\" he said. The government of Spain is fiercely opposed to Catalan separatism and has threatened punitive action if the region declares independence. Puigdemont's address was delayed by one hour as opposition lawmakers attempted to cancel it. The speech took place amid tight security, The Associated Press reports, with a police cordon around the legislative building. \"It has become obvious that [Catalan independence] is not an internal issue any longer,\" Puigdemont said, as translated by a BBC interpreter. \"Catalonia is now a European matter.\" He spoke to the government in Madrid. \"We're not criminals,\" Puigdemont said, as translated by the BBC interpreter. \"We're not rebels. We are normal people and we just want to vote.\" He thanked Catalan citizens involved in the issue, on every side — including pro-separatist protesters, people marching in support of unity and \"those who have not been out in the streets.\" \"We need to go forward together, whatever happens,\" he said. \"The only way to move forward is democracy and peace.\" The semi-autonomous region, which has its own culture and language, held an independence referendum on Oct. 1. The vote — which the Spanish government considered not just illegitimate but illegal — was marred by violence that injured hundreds of people. Spanish police dragged voters out of polling booths and fired rubber bullets on unarmed protesters, while some people threw rocks at officers. But millions of people voted anyway. Catalan leaders say 90 percent of the ballots were cast in favor of independence. About half of registered voters turned up at the polls, Catalan authorities say. As Lauren Frayer has reported for NPR, the vote was coordinated by the pro-separatist government and it is impossible to confirm its numbers. And when it comes to voters who sat out the referendum, Frayer says, it's not clear whether they chose not to vote \"because they're opposed to independence [or] were intimidated by the violence, or whether they would have voted in a referendum that was legal.\" A week after the referendum, supporters of Spanish unity — who don't want Catalonia to declare independence — marched in massive street protests in Barcelona. The prime minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, issued a warning to Catalonia on Monday, as we reported. \"Spain will not be divided and the national unity will be preserved. We will do everything that legislation allows us to ensure this,\" Rajoy told the German newspaper Die Welt. \"We will prevent this independence from taking place.\" In a radio interview, Rajoy said a declaration of independence would prompt Spain to make \"decisions to restore the law and democracy.\" The Catalan president himself \"could end up in prison\" over the bid for secession, AP reports. In his speech on Tuesday, Puigdemont stopped short of the full-throated declaration of independence that Madrid warned against — and that some of his supporters had been anticipating. \"Many people there were hoping today for some epic historical moment that will go in the history books,\" says Pablo Beramendi, a political science professor at Duke University. Instead, they got what Peter Ceretti, a Spain analyst with The Economist Intelligence Unit, calls \"a wishy-washy approach to declaring independence,\" one that \"stops short\" of a unilateral declaration. But that soft-pedaling might not satisfy Spain, Ceretti says. \"What happens next depends largely on how the speech is interpreted by the central government,\" Ceretti says. \"A heavy-handed response from the governme", "One day before the U.K. is widely expected to formally begin its departure from the European Union, Scottish lawmakers took another crucial step toward voting on a departure of their own. By a 69-59 vote Tuesday, members of Scottish Parliament backed First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's pursuit of a new independence referendum. The motion grants Sturgeon the authority to negotiate with the U.K. government in London on behalf of Edinburgh, placing Scotland one step closer to granting its voters another say on whether to leave the United Kingdom. The move comes fewer than three years after Scotland last voted on declaring independence. In that 2014 referendum, 55 percent of Scottish voters chose to stay in the union. Yet Sturgeon argues that the U.K.'s June 2016 decision to leave the European Union — a decision Scottish voters rejected to the tune of 62 percent to 38 percent — has changed the political situation sufficiently to warrant a second referendum. \"What Scotland deserves, in the light of the material change of circumstances brought about by the Brexit vote, is the chance to decide our future in a fair, free and democratic way — and at a time when we are equipped with the facts we need,\" the Scottish first minister and head of the Scottish National Party declared earlier this month. Theresa May staunchly disagrees. The U.K. prime minister, who is set to trigger the country's exit from the EU on Wednesday, has repeatedly said that \"now is not the time\" for a referendum, the BBC reports. After Tuesday's vote, a U.K. government spokeswoman rejected the idea of a referendum, which could take place as early as fall 2018 under Sturgeon's proposal — in other words, before Brexit negotiations are expected to formally wrap up. \"It would be unfair to the people of Scotland to ask them to make a crucial decision without the necessary information about our future relationship with Europe, or what an independent Scotland would look like,\" the official said, according to Reuters. During debate over the motion passed Tuesday, Sturgeon reaffirmed Scotland's \"right to choose between Brexit — possibly a very hard Brexit — or becoming an independent country, able to chart our own course and create true partnership of equals across these islands.\" And, Sturgeon added, she would not be deterred if the U.K. government declined to negotiate over the proposed referendum. \"If it chooses not to do so, I will return to the [ScottishParliament following the Easter recess to set out the steps that the Scottish government will take to progress the will of parliament.\"", "Egypt's military rulers are charging ahead with a referendum scheduled for later this week that will determine who can run for president of the largest country in the Arab world. People are being asked to vote on amendments to Egypt's controversial constitution. The referendum is widely opposed by the leaders of the country's revolution, as well as emerging presidential contenders. Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei is one of many opposition leaders calling on people to vote \"no\" on Saturday. On Twitter, he calls it an insult to vote in a referendum that, in effect, keeps former President Hosni Mubarak's constitution as the law of the land, even temporarily. \"Why rush at the expense of democracy?\" ElBaradei asks. Mohamed Atiya, who heads the army-appointed committee supervising the referendum, argues the amendments were drafted by constitutional experts. At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, he called the vote a key step to transforming Egypt into a modern democracy. \"All eligible voters should participate. It doesn't matter whether the measures are accepted or rejected. Although if they are rejected, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will have to fill the void,\" Atiya said. That means Egypt's military rulers could end up drafting their own set of rules as to who can run for president and Parliament in the coming months. And that's not acceptable to ElBaradei, or to the youth leaders of the revolution that forced Mubarak out of office. Some Amendments Appealing; Others Spark Concern Voters are being asked to approve or reject nine amendments to the current constitution. Some of the provisions are appealing to Egyptians — such as limiting future presidents to a maximum eight years in office and limiting their power to impose a state of emergency to six months before having to put it to a public vote. Mubarak, by comparison, maintained the intrusive and hated emergency law for all of his 30 years in office. But opponents say they are worried about other provisions, like those determining who can run for office and day-to-day powers of the president. They claim the measures unfairly benefit Mubarak's former colleagues and a handful of organized political movements, like the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood. \"Many people, when they had a close look, don't like what they see,\" says Khaled Fahmy, the history department chairman at the American University in Cairo. \"So we are at a bind. We want the army to get out of the picture as soon as possible. The army appears to want to do the same thing — they don't want to stay in power. That is why they are rushing these constitutional amendments.\" 'Everything Is So Rushed' Fahmy says two recent opinion polls conducted by the Egyptian army show the measures are likely to be voted down. He adds few Egyptians believe the referendum will be free and fair given widespread allegations of ballot tampering and voter intimidation in November's parliamentary polls. \"One of the basic problems with the previous system was the electoral system itself and the rigging in the vote and the very lists of voters that were tampered with,\" he says. \"We don't know where to go to actually vote and cast our ballots. None of this is clear and everything is so rushed, and people are panicking.\" Nevertheless, the army and transitional government show no signs of wanting to delay the vote. Atiya, the referendum chairman, says more than half of Egypt's 80 million people are eligible to vote. He adds tens of thousands of Egyptian soldiers and police officers will provide security at polling stations whose locations have yet to be announced. MICHELE NORRIS, host: In Egypt, the country's military rulers are charging ahead with the referendum. It's scheduled for Saturday and will determine who can run for president. Voters will be asked to approve amendments to Egypt's controversial constitution. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Cairo. And as she reports, the referendum is widely opposed by leaders of the country's recent revolution. Dr. MOHAMED ELBARADEI (Opposition Leader): (Foreign language spoken) SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Nobel Laureate Mohammed Elbaradei is one of many opposition leaders calling on people to vote no this Saturday. On Twitter, he calls it an insult to vote on a referendum that in effect keeps former President Hosni Mubarak's constitution as the law of the land, even temporarily. Why rush at the expense of democracy, Elbaradei asks? Mohammed Atteya, who heads the Army appointed committee supervising the referendum, argues the amendments were drafted by constitutional experts. At a news conference this afternoon, he called the vote a key step to transforming Egypt into a modern democracy. Mr. MOHAMMED ATTEYA (Chairman, High Judicial Commission): (Through Translator) All eligible voters should participate. It doesn't matter whether the measures are accepted or rejected. Although, if they are rejected the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will have to fill the void. NELSO", "The U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue of affirmative action again Tuesday, but this time the question is not whether race may be considered as a factor in college admissions. Instead, this case tests whether voters can ban affirmative action programs through a referendum. In 2003, the high court upheld the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative action policy. The next day, opponents of affirmative action launched a referendum campaign to bar such programs, and in 2006, voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative amending the state constitution to ban affirmative action programs in higher education. Michigan's state colleges and universities promptly abandoned any use of race or ethnicity to promote diversity, and minority enrollment plummeted. In 2012, a federal appeals court ruled that the referendum itself was discriminatory, and the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in to decide the issue. In recent years, the court's conservative majority has become increasingly skeptical of race-based policies. As Chief Justice John Roberts put it in a 2007 opinion, \"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.\" (Parents Involved v. Seattle School District) 'Equal Treatment' Or 'Separate And Unequal'? Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette contends that is exactly what the state's voters did. \"What the Michigan citizens did and said in a vote, by 58 percent of the people, is that it's wrong to treat people different on the basis of your race or color of your skin,\" he says. \"That's what this case is about — equal treatment.\" But opponents of the referendum claim that the ballot initiative rigged the system. They note that other state admissions policies are set by the popularly elected boards of regents of the three state universities. Indeed, affirmative action defenders observe that some regent elections have focused on the issue of affirmative action. If that process isn't working, they argue, the state Legislature could give the power to set all admissions policies to another body. Or the Legislature could enact a different system to promote diversity — for instance, guaranteeing admission to students graduating in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. \"The one thing they can't do,\" says the American Civil Liberties Union's Mark Rosenbaum, \"is to take our political process, to take the way that decisions are made with respect to higher education, and say, 'There will be one set of rules for race, which are particularly onerous, and another set of rules for all other admissions policies, including all other preferences.' \" Rosenbaum will tell the justices on Tuesday that passage of the referendum means that the only way for minority groups to reinstate affirmative action programs is to re-amend the state constitution. That task is extremely difficult — and, he asserts, doubly difficult and costly, given that the state is 79 percent white. In contrast, if other Michigan citizens want to change other preferences in university admissions — for example, the preference for the children of alumni — they can lobby the regents. \"They have created a separate and unequal system when it comes to considering racial matters,\" he says. It's Not Just About Michigan At issue in Tuesday's case is not just the Michigan affirmative action referendum, but a line of Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1969. Those decisions established the \"political process doctrine\" and struck down state referenda that the court said targeted racial minorities. In one case, for example, the state referendum prohibited a local busing program that was used to desegregate schools. Schuette, however, calls the political process doctrine \"somewhat antiquated\" and asserts that, in any event, his state's referendum is different. \"Those other cases,\" Schuette says, \"removed a provision with respect to equal treatment under the law. We adopted something that requires equal treatment.\" The elephant in the room in this case, of course, is the whole question of affirmative action in higher education. When the Supreme Court upheld the Michigan program in 2003, the vote was 5 to 4. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's majority opinion stressed that affirmative action programs are supposed to be temporary, and that \"25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary.\" But O'Connor has retired, replaced by Justice Samuel Alito, who has made no secret of his hostility to affirmative action. With the issue back before the court last term in Fisher v. University of Texas, it was something of a surprise when the justices punted and sent the case back to the lower court for further examination. Most observers expect there will be no such punt on the Michigan referendum. The clear odds are that the justices will sustain it.", "Democrats won up and down the ballot Tuesday night, notably in the governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey. The victories were a much needed sigh of relief for a party that hadn't had any high-profile victories at the ballot box during the first year of the Trump presidency — despite his record-low approval ratings. Here are seven takeaways from what happened Tuesday and what it means: 1. The resistance can win. Voters delivered Democrats their first rebuke of President Trump at the ballot box during his presidency. Before Tuesday night, Democrats had shrunk the margins in multiple special elections but come up short. Tuesday's results will give what were nervous Democrats some much needed confidence. 2. Trumpism has its limits. Democrats were able to hold the line and made inroads in suburban areas rich with professionals and those with college degrees. Tuesday's results will be a big warning sign for any elected Republican in a Democratic or moderate-leaning state or district. Both governors' races were rife with incendiary ads hitting on cultural issues and crime. Despite Trump's warning that Republican Ed Gillespie didn't hew closely enough to Trumpism, the president was unpopular at the ballot box. Almost 6 in 10 Virginia voters said they disapproved of the job Trump was doing (57 percent), according to exit polls, and twice as many people said they were motivated to go to the polls to reject him as those motivated to support him. \"I do believe that this is a referendum on this administration,\" Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Taylor of the swing Virginia Beach area told The New York Times. He blamed Trump's \"divisive rhetoric\" for the sweeping losses statewide. Democrat Ralph Northam won by 9 points, the widest victory for a Democrat in the governor's race since Gerald Baliles won by 11 points in 1985, when the state was very different. Watch for elected Republicans in these kinds of areas to give a second thought to using the kinds of Trumpian tactics that Gillespie, and to an extent Republicans in New Jersey, used. Remember: Trump lost Virginia and New Jersey, so being more like Trump in those areas doesn't make a whole lot of sense. 3. A shifting of old political lines continues. Democrats upped their margins in Northern Virginia and formerly swing suburban counties. Meanwhile, Democrats continued their slide in rural, western Virginia. 4. Progressive platform gets a boost. Danica Roem in Virginia became the first openly transgender person elected to a statehouse in the country. And the 33-year-old did so over 13-term incumbent Bob Marshall, who authored Virginia's \"bathroom bill\" and considers himself the state's \"chief homophobe.\" What's more, the election took place in Prince William County, which George W. Bush won by 7 points in the 2004 presidential election but Hillary Clinton won by 21 points in 2016. Chris Hurst, the boyfriend of a reporter shot and killed on live TV, won a seat to the statehouse in Virginia on a gun-control platform over three-term NRA-backed incumbent Joseph Yost. And, in New Jersey, the city of Hoboken, just outside New York City, got its first Sikh mayor. Ravi Bhalla, a Indian-American city councilman born in New Jersey, faced racist attacks, including a poster that stirred statewide controversy. With Bhalla's face on it, the poster read, \"Don't let TERRORISM take over our town!\" During remarks at a victory party Tuesday night, Bhalla said, \"Thank you for having faith in me, for having faith in our community, faith in our state, and faith and in our country; this is what America is all about.\" Voters also supported Medicaid expansion by referendum in Maine, doing an end run around Republican Gov. Paul LePage's veto. Expect other states to follow Maine's lead. Expansion of the Affordable Care Act has been made far more likely thanks to Democratic gains in Virginia with Democrats controlling all the statewide offices and being very close to taking over the statehouse. (There will be recounts.) And, by the way, while Democratic voters appeared motivated statewide — there was a 16 percent increase in turnout from the 2013 governor's race — it was even higher in Charlottesville, the site of white nationalist protests this summer that resulted in a woman's death. Trump had stoked controversy by saying there were \"fine people\" on both sides of the protests, which included white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the alt-right. Charlottesville saw a 31 percent increase in turnout. For perspective, Northam won more votes in Charlottesville this year than the total number of votes cast in 2013 in the city. 5. Get ready for close and contentious 2018 and 2020 elections. Consider Tuesday night a warmup. For those who say nothing seems to matter when it comes to Trump and what he does or says, this shows that line of thinking is just not true. No president has been more unpopular at this point in his presidency since polling began. Remember, Hillary Clinton did win the popular vote by 3 mil", "The city of Moscow, the epicenter of Russia's coronavirus pandemic, is lifting lockdown restrictions as the Kremlin prepares for a massive military parade on Red Square and a national referendum that will seal President Vladimir Putin's political future. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a staunch Putin loyalist, all but declared victory over COVID-19 on the city's news channel Monday. Moscow's lockdown rules will gradually be lifted over the coming two weeks, he said. \"We prevented an explosion of the pandemic, provided mass testing and medical care to sick residents,\" he said. \"For several weeks now, slowly but surely the pandemic has been on the decline. The number of infections is decreasing, and more people are being discharged from hospitals than are being admitted. Step by step, this allows us to return to normal life.\" Moscow has been on a tight lockdown since March when Sobyanin restricted citizens' movements and closed all but essential businesses. Because of the pandemic, the Kremlin reluctantly postponed its annual Victory Day parade as well as a referendum whose key provision is removing a constitutional term limit on Putin. The parade marking the defeat of Nazi Germany has been rescheduled for June 24, with the referendum taking place a week later. Since the beginning of June, the number of Moscow's new coronavirus infections has hovered around 2,000 per day, according to official government statistics. Moscow, Russia's largest city, has been hit hardest: 197,018 out of 476,658 infections nationwide, with 2,970 out of 5,971 deaths as of Monday. Russia has the third-most reported coronavirus cases after the United States and Brazil. Hair salons and barbershops, veterinarians, employment agencies and cemeteries can all open for business Tuesday, followed by dental practices, museums and libraries a week later. Remaining restrictions on restaurants and gyms will be lifted on June 23, the day before the military parade. Residents will still be required to wear masks and gloves in public. Sobyanin warned Muscovites that the danger of infection still exists and appealed to their sense of self-preservation to take necessary precautions. The mayor, though a Putin disciple, was unwilling to lift the lockdown restrictions because of the persistence of new coronavirus infections, Otkrytye Media reported, citing government sources. According to the news site, the Kremlin convinced Sobyanin to do so to allow for the parade and referendum. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been prevented from calling for protests because of the lockdown, indicated in a tweet that now nothing is stopping a rally against Putin's referendum.", "Updated at 2:30 a.m. ET Monday: Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has resigned. According to The Associated Press: Varoufakis was told shortly after the Greek referendum result that the some eurozone finance ministers and Greece's other creditors would prefer he not attend the ministers' meetings. He issued an announcement on Monday saying the prime minister had judged that his resignation \"might help achieve a deal\" and that he was leaving the finance ministry for this reason. Updated at 8:40 p.m. ET Sunday: The Greek people have given their answer to international lenders, and the answer is no. With all the votes counted, a convincing 61 percent to 39 percent margin was recorded in the referendum on a German-led bailout plan that includes tough austerity measures for Athens, in exchange for a continued line of credit to keep paying the government's obligations. The answer: a resounding thumbs-down. \"Today we turned a page in Greek history,\" Prime Minster Alexis Tsipras, who urged a no vote, said. \"We are ready to continue negotiating\" a plan of reforms, he added. \"I will ask the president to convene a meeting of political leaders on Monday morning,\" he said. As the votes were still being counted, leaders of Germany and France called for a European Union summit to be held Tuesday to discuss Greek financial crisis. Although Tsipras had campaigned for a no vote, it is now less clear whether Greece has any future in the eurozone. And Greek leaders face the difficult prospect of convincing its creditors to swap debt relief for more austerity, a move that the lenders have steadfastly rejected in the past. Even the deal that was up for a vote — and turned down — is technically no longer on the table. A week ago, negotiators presented their last proposal as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that expired when Athens missed a crucial payment last Tuesday on an International Monetary Fund loan. \"First of all we have to accept such a result,\" Steinmeier told reporters, referring to the referendum vote as he arrived in Vienna to join the Iran nuclear talks. \"Which (conclusions) are now to be drawn, this is a decision which first and foremost must be made in Greece and that's why the ball is now in Athens' court.\" Italy's foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, tweeted, \"Now it is right to start trying for an agreement again.\" The Bank of Greece, the country's central bank, said today that it would file a request with the European Central Bank to raise the amount of emergency funding for the country's banks, with a spokesman telling Greek television that \"there is no reason not to increase liquidity.\" As Reuters writes, the referendum was held \"against a backdrop of default, shuttered banks and threats of financial apocalypse. ... [It is] too close to call and looked certain to herald yet more turbulence whichever way it went.\" Opinion polls in the run-up to the vote have indicated the outcome in the referendum is likely to be very close — with younger Greeks, who suffer the highest rate of unemployment — more likely to vote no than the country's older citizens.", "A dozen people who helped lead Catalonia's failed secession bid more than a year ago entered the Supreme Court in Madrid on Tuesday to face charges including rebellion, criminal organization and the misappropriation of public funds — holding Spain in the grips of a highly politicized televised trial. The defendants, mainly former regional politicians, entered the courtroom while outside and across the country both pro-Spain and pro-independence protesters gathered under heavy police watch. The highest-profile defendant is former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, who is facing a sentence of 25 years. Others face lesser sentences, all stemming from what became a constitutional crisis: the Oct. 1, 2017, referendum in which voters declared independence from Spain by an overwhelming majority. (Most Spain supporters boycotted the vote.) Madrid, which had deemed the vote illegal, stepped in, dissolving the Catalan Parliament and imposing direct rule on what had been a semi-autonomous region. Madrid called new elections in December, and Catalans again voted for pro-independence parties. Several Catalan leaders scattered under the threat of imprisonment. Among those living in exile is former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is refusing to return from Brussels and face trial. Of the separatists on trial in Madrid, some have been free on bail, but nine were deemed flight risks and have already spent months behind bars, including Junqueras. His lawyer Andreu Van den Eynde spoke in court Tuesday, casting the case as a question of freedom of expression and the right to vote, according to a translation from The New York Times. \"We will not make a political defense, but we will defend human values and rights,\" Van den Eynde said, adding that thus far for the defendants, \"every constitutional right has been restricted.\" \"I am going with my high head, convinced that self-determination is not a crime,\" tweeted Jordi Sànchez, another defendant who is the former leader of the Catalan National Assembly. But standing outside the courtroom Tuesday, Iván Espinosa, of the far-right political party Vox, said the case centers not on self-determination but on a referendum that was an \"attempted coup d'état against Spain led by a few separatist politicians who ... committed very serious crimes.\" Vox is helping prosecute the case. Espinosa said Vox is not acting in defense of party interests but rather in defense of \"public order in Spain given the inaction of our governments, state institutions and other political parties.\" Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who came to power after the referendum, is treading a thin line. His national budget bill is up for a parliamentary vote on Wednesday and very likely needs the backing of Catalan pro-independence parties. But Sánchez has resisted calls for another independence referendum, risking the support of the separatists. If Sánchez's budget bill fails, his socialist government could also be in jeopardy. United Spain demonstrators gathered en masse in Madrid over the weekend calling for Sánchez's removal from office, saying he has been too lenient with Catalan separatists in signaling his openness to talks. \"We work for a Catalonia in coexistence with a united Spain,\" Sánchez tweeted Tuesday. The Catalan National Assembly called for work stoppages on Tuesday to protest the trial. Some demonstrators held signs or linked arms and blocked traffic in Barcelona. Armed with their own language and culture, Catalans have long nourished a fierce pride. Opposition to Spain also centers on what some Catalans say are their outsize tax dollars siphoned by Madrid. Tourist-heavy Barcelona serves as the capital of the northwest region, Spain's wealthiest. The trial in Madrid is slated to last several months, with the verdict open to appeal.", "Update at 6:56 p.m. ET. French President Nicolas Sarkozy says that the next round of rescue loans will not be paid, until after Greeks vote on whether to accept the terms of the bailout package. This is significant, because Greece has said it will run out of money some time this month and the referendum is so far slated for early December. Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou threw the European Union into crisis mode when he announced, yesterday, that he would call for a referendum on the bailout. Earlier today, he was summoned for talks with other EU members. Our Original Post Continues: There's word from Cannes, France, that European Union and International Monetary Fund officials are saying that beleaguered Greece won't be getting its next installment of financial aid — $11 billion — unless Prime Minister George Papandreou somehow convinces other leaders that his country is indeed going to live up to its side of a tough austerity agreement. If the aid isn't forthcoming, that could lead to the collapse of the Greek government, a Greek withdrawal from the Euro and the spread of \"financial contagion\" to other weak economies on the continent, The Guardian says. The Dow Jones newswire writes that when Papandreou \"meets European officials Wednesday evening, he will be told in no uncertain terms that unless Greece provides clarity about its acceptance of the latest European bailout package, no money will be disbursed, according to a European Union official. Reuters cites EU and IMF sources as saying the \"sixth tranche of EU/IMF loans to Greece [are] unlikely to be paid until after Greek referendum is held.\" Tuesday, Papandreou shocked other European leaders and sent financial markets reeling when he announced that the latest bailout package — and its austerity measures — would be put before Greek voters in a referendum. The announcement came as leaders of the so-called G-20 nations (including the U.S.) were preparing for a summit in Cannes that's scheduled to start Thursday. The agreement is not popular with Greeks. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Papandreou to meet with them tonight to explain his decision. Their fear: The delay and uncertainty caused by a referendum could further endanger the Eurozone's economy. Update at 7:37 p.m. ET: There's enough new news that we've started a separate post. Update at 6:38 p.m. ET. Talks Continue: The AP has moved two alerts that could be significant: First it reported that the Luxembourg prime minister said the Greek referendum on the bailout plan would be held Dec. 4. And just moments ago, the AP reported, \"French President Sarkozy says Greek rescue loans cannot be paid until after referendum.\" If those two things hold true, it could put Greece in a tough spot and lead to the dire predictions we mentioned earlier in this post. Dow Jones reported that officials predict Greece could run out of money \"anytime in the next month.\"", "Police and protesters were expected to face off for a second time Tuesday in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region, a day after the Supreme Court found nine separatist leaders guilty of sedition and sentenced them to up to 13 years. The protests erupted Monday when most of the Catalan politicians and activists on trial were found guilty and barred from holding public office. Three others were fined and four of those who received lengthy sentences were also convicted on charges of misuse of funds. The high court barred all of them from holding public office. Railroads were blocked by pro-independence protesters who threw trash on the tracks and then set it on fire. Demonstrations also swarmed major roads, bringing traffic to a standstill. Many flights were canceled in anticipation of protesters gathering at Barcelona's main airport for a second day of protests, including American Airlines flights to New York, Miami, Chicago and Philadelphia. Student Claudia Cusi was at the airport on Monday, where thousands clashed with police who held them back with batons and rubber bullets. \"We just wanted a referendum and the right to vote, and all that happened was that they ended up in jail,\" Cusi told reporter Lucia Benavides, who is covering the unrest for NPR. The protests and Monday's court rulings that sparked them stem from an independence referendum held two years ago. Although turnout was low, an overwhelming number cast ballots for independence from Spain. However, Spain's government maintains that the country's constitution made the referendum illegal. Catalan lawmakers later declared independence. What followed was a tense standoff, the imposition of direct rule from Madrid and the arrest of the nine separatist leaders. Five other leaders, including Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, went into self-imposed exile. The region's current president, Quim Torra, was elected in May 2018 with Madrid's blessing. Speaking at a news conference after Monday's verdicts, he said his government rejected the sentences and asked Madrid for dialogue. \"Holding a referendum is not a crime. It is not even considered a crime in the criminal code,\" Torra said. Spain's interim prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the court's decision \"confirms the defeat of a movement that fails to gain internal support and international recognition.\"", "It will be very difficult for Sunnis to support the constitution as it is, according to Ghassan Attiyah, director of the Baghdad think tank the Iraq Foundation for Development and Democracy. Humam Hammoudi, who heads the constitutional drafting committee, has said three days may not be enough time to win Sunni support for the document, which was submitted late Monday. Attiyah, a Shiite, predicts that Sunnis will not be able to muster the votes to defeat the draft document in a national referendum scheduled for mid-October. President Bush Tuesday applauded the progress Iraqis have made in framing a draft constitution, emphasizing that the country's future lies in one of two directions: either democracy or violence.", "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting the White House on Tuesday, looking for a \"new beginning\" to U.S.-Turkey relations, even as the two countries clash over the Trump administration's decision to arm Kurdish forces in Syria. U.S. military officials view the Kurds there as key in the fight against ISIS, but the Turkish government argues they're terrorists. Erdogan criticized the move before leaving Turkey, but in a more measured tone than his administration took last week when the news originally came out. He also seemed to frame it as a remnant left from the Obama administration. \"Right now there are certain moves in the United States coming from the past, such as the weapons assistance to the YPG,\" Erdogan told reporters at Ankara Airport on Friday, according to Reuters. The YPG is the name of the Kurdish militia in Syria. Military officials say the group's fighters are among the best in Syria, and are critical in the fight to retake the Islamic State capital city of Raqqa. Turkey, however, sees them as terrorists, because of their ties to Kurdish fighters in southern Turkey who have been waging an insurgency to carve out their own independent state for years. The Turkish government fears that arms the U.S. supplies to the Kurds in Syria will end up across the border. \"We have suggested other solutions,\" Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said last week. \"I hope that during the meeting of our president... with President Donald Trump this issue will be changed to a positive trajectory.\" It seems unlikely that President Trump would change his mind on the issue after a face-to-face meeting, considering the decision to arm the Kurds was calculated over many months. Defense officials specifically waited to announce it until after a referendum that enabled Erdogan to consolidate authority in his country, so he would feel more secure in his power. Whereas many Western policymakers saw that referendum as a step back for Turkish democracy, and therefore, America's ability to work with the country, Trump took the opportunity to congratulate Erdogan on the victory by phone. Tuesday's meeting, and that call, continue a trend of Trump's: showing no ill-will toward world leaders with questionable human rights records. Erdogan jailed more than 47,000 people after last year's failed coup in Turkey, and he has also cracked down on independent media, jailing more than 150 journalists according to Human Rights Watch. Since his inauguration, Trump has also hosted Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and invited Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House. Trump and Erdogan will also probably discuss Turkey's demand for the extradition of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan blames last year's coup attempt on Gulen, who has been living in Pennsylvania since 1999. \"That's a charge Gulen denies,\" NPR's Michele Kelemen told All Things Considered on Sunday. \"It's still up to the Justice Department. There's a legal process here that has to be followed. The U.S. would have to make sure that he would get a fair trial back in Turkey.\" The White House did not respond to an NPR request for comment on Gulen's status.", "\"Crimea's regional legislature on Tuesday adopted a 'declaration of independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea,' \" The Associated Press reports. \"The document specified that Crimea will become an independent state if its residents vote on Sunday in favor of joining Russia.\" That's just one of several developments Tuesday as the crisis in Ukraine continues. Among the other news: -- Sanctions. France's foreign minister said Western nations could impose sanctions on Russia — including freezes of some individuals' financial assets and travel restrictions — as soon as this week, NPR's Gregory Warner tells our Newscast Desk. As he notes, \"the U.S. has already imposed travel restrictions on Russian and Crimean officials accused of 'threatening Ukraine's sovereignty and integrity.' \" -- Yanukoyvch. Ousted Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych said Tuesday that presidential elections in his country that are scheduled for late May are illegal, The Wall Street Journal writes. It adds: \"In a brief statement delivered to reporters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Mr. Yanukovych didn't directly address a regionwide referendum to be held in Crimea on Sunday to decide whether the breakaway territory will secede from Ukraine and become part of Russia, but blamed the new government in Kiev for causing the divisions that have driven Crimeans to want to leave.\" The vote for a \"declaration of independence\" by Crimea's parliament adds to the tension that's building in the run-up to Sunday's referendum. Just more than half of the region's population is ethnic Russian. Since Yanukovych left Ukraine last month following months of protests against his government and was then removed from office by his nation's parliament, Russia has moved to take control of the strategically important Crimean Peninsula — where it has long had a Black Sea naval base. The U.S. and its Western allies have condemned Russia's actions as being in violation of international law. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is protecting ethnic Russians from possible reprisal by what he claims are Ukrainian nationalists now in control in Kiev. So far, there have been no serious confrontations between Russian forces and Ukrainian troops, who have mostly remained in their bases in Crimea.", "Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim declared victory in the referendum bid to convert Turkey from a parliamentary to a strong president system of government. The historic referendum, which passed by a narrow margin, grants more power to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who promised when he was elected in 2014 to be a \"different kind of president.\" But even as Erdogan's supporters set off fireworks to celebrate their victory, Turkey's main opposition party said they will challenge many of the votes. Erdogan said he hopes the referendum results would benefit Turkey, and that the nation made a \"historic decision,\" in an address after Yildirim's declaration. The vote has divided Turkey, with supporters claiming the change will bring stability and efficiency to the government, while opponents have said that the move is a dangerous step toward one-man rule. Under the changes, President Erdogan could stay in power through 2029. As NPR's Peter Kenyon reported in a preview, \"the vote comes at a perilous time.\" \"Turkey remains under a state of emergency declared last July, following a failed coup that left nearly 300 people dead. The Erdogan government has used the emergency powers to conduct a sweeping purge of the military, judiciary and civil service. More than 100,000 people have been fired or arrested, including more than 100 journalists.\" The opposition to the referendum said it's been difficult to run an effective campaign in this environment of fear and sweeping arrests. The AP reports that supporters of the \"yes\" vote have dominated the airwaves, while supporters of the \"no\" vote have complained of intimidation. Under the new system, power will be concentrated under the president, who was previously head of state, but not head of government. President Erdogan has taken a more active role than his predecessors, but until the referendum the Prime Minister remained the chief executive. The new system will no longer require the president to be nonpartisan, so Erdogan can rejoin the party he co-founded, and have increased influence over who runs for Parliament. Critics say there's also a loophole in the new laws that could allow Erdogan to run for a third term. The prime minister role will also be done away with after the next election in 2019. NPR's Peter Kenyon has reported that there is one change pro-democracy groups are applauding though — the end of military courts. But many also fear that the new system will endanger democracy in Turkey — a key U.S. ally and NATO member.", "Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Monday issued a warning to the country's would-be breakaway region of Catalonia, saying Madrid would prevent any move toward independence. Rajoy's comments, published in the German newspaper Die Welt, come amid a growing political crisis over the region in eastern Spain of 7.5 million people that voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum on Oct. 1. Spain called the referendum illegal and police in riot gear moved in on the day of the vote to try to forcibly shut it down, firing rubber bullets at unarmed protesters. \"Spain will not be divided and the national unity will be preserved. We will do everything that legislation allows us to ensure this,\" Rajoy told the newspaper. \"We will prevent this independence from taking place.\" \"If they declare independence, there will be decisions to restore the law and democracy,\" he said in a radio interview Monday. Meanwhile, French European Affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau says Paris will not recognize Catalonia if it unilaterally declares independence. As NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from Barcelona, Catalonia's capital, the people in the region are nearly evenly divided over the issue of independence even though many who are in favor of staying with Spain may not have voted in the referendum. Lauren spoke with José Manuel Gonzalez, 45, who is a businessman born and raised in the Catalonian capital. \"They say the point is to have an independent country because it will be better,\" Gonzalez told NPR. \"I don't think it will be better at all, because they want to take the country outside the European Union and outside of Spain. It will be very bad for everybody here in Catalonia.\" Catalonia's regional president, Carles Puigdemont, is expected to address the Catalan legislature on Tuesday about the crisis. Separatist politicians say they will move ahead with an independence declaration despite Spain's objections. Catalonia is Spain's wealthiest region, with a unique history, culture and language. It offered the most resistance to Francisco Franco, the military dictator who came to power in the wake of the Spanish Civil War with the aid of Mussolini and Hitler. Franco ruled Spain for nearly four decades until 1975. The dictator was especially repressive in Catalonia. As Foreign Policy writes, he \"canceled the autonomy charters that the [Spanish] republic had granted to the Catalans and the Basques and banned all regional languages and symbols (including the Catalan language, its flag, and national holiday, the Diada).\"", "The Crimean parliament on Tuesday said it would declare itself independent if its residents approve a referendum to split off from Ukraine &#8211; an ambiguous legal maneuver that could offer a way of de-escalating the standoff between Russia and the West. The referendum called for Sunday proposes seceding from Ukraine and becoming part of Russia. But the Crimean parliament&#8217;s declaration could put the bid to join Russia on hold, depending on the outcome of Russian President Vladimir Putin&#8217;s bargaining with the West. The dispute between Moscow and the West over Crimea is one of the most severe geopolitical crises in Europe since the end of the Cold War. Russian forces have secured control over the peninsula, but Western nations have denounced the referendum as illegitimate and strongly warned Russia against trying to annex Crimea. Crimea, where Russia maintains its Black Sea Fleet base, became the epicenter of tensions in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych fled last month in the wake of months of protests and outbreaks of bloodshed. The Crimean parliament&#8217;s move is &#8220;a message to the West that there is no talk about Russia incorporating Crimea,&#8221; said Kiev-based political analyst Vadim Karasyov. &#8220;It&#8217;s a tranquilizer for everybody &#8211; for the West and for many in Ukraine who are panicking.&#8221; The Christian Science Monitor&#8217;s Moscow correspondent, Fred Weir, discusses these developments with Here & Now&#8217;s Robin Young. Guest\n\nFred Weir, Moscow correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor.\n ROBIN YOUNG, HOST: From NPR and WBUR Boston, I'm Robin Young. JEREMY HOBSON, HOST: I'm Jeremy Hobson. It's HERE AND NOW. And coming up the latest on the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The Malaysian military now says the plane changed course and made it hundreds of miles away from the last reported location. YOUNG: OK. But first a possible breakthrough in the crisis in Ukraine. Today the Crimean parliament held a vote ahead of next Sunday's referendum on splitting from Ukraine. On Sunday, Crimeans have the choice: vote to join Russia or become independent. Today the parliament voted to become independent if Crimeans vote to join Russia. So what is the difference, and why are some analysts seeing today's vote as a de-escalation of tensions? Meanwhile, the Russian parliament is reportedly considering new legislation to simplify procedures if part of a foreign country does want to join Russia. The Christian Science Monitor's Fred Weir is in Moscow. And Fred, start in Russia. You write that lawmakers are defending Sunday's vote and the possibility of Crimea joining Russia by pointing to Scotland. FRED WEIR: Well yes, they say that the right to self-determination is a basic right, a basic human right. It's not always Russia's position on things, but it is in this case, and they say that it happens in other places like Scotland and Quebec, that they have referendums, and people choose. So this - it does seem like Russia is gradually drifting toward this idea of accepting Crimea into the territory of Russia, that is absorbing it as if, you know, in the United States you took on, I don't know, a province of Canada as the 51st state. YOUNG: But you point to the legal questions about that thinking. WEIR: Yes, there are a lot of legal ambiguities, and frankly it gets done both ways. In 2008, the West granted independence to Kosovo, a territory that had been ripped away from Serbia against its will in the 1999 war, and that was all done without Serbia's consent. So it does happen both ways. There is no one-size-fits-all law, although everybody is shouting about that. And frankly in this case, as in most previous cases, it probably just matters who is the force on the ground. YOUNG: Well, and you also point out that London agreed to the Scottish independence vote, which was referenced by the speaker of the parliament in Russia, whereas the interim government in Ukraine has not agreed to the Crimean vote. Tomorrow the interim prime minister of Ukraine is scheduled to meet with President Obama at the White House. What do we know about that meeting? WEIR: Well, I think he's going to ask for help because this is - things are spiraling there. It's not just the Crimean vote that's coming up, and it will really be a game-changer, but Kiev has serious troubles that are economic in nature. Financial collapse looms. And there's considerable amount of unrest in the eastern part of the country. Nothing is fixed there, and I don't know whether he would ask for military help, but he may ask for certain kinds of guarantees. He may ask for a lot of diplomatic support in dealing with Russia. And he'll probably almost certainly want a lot more financial aid. YOUNG: Well, the parliament in Crimea seems to want to touch all bases. Last week, they voted to become a part of Russia. Today they voted to become an independent state if on Sunday in the referendum residents vote to seced", "Shiite leaders say no agreement has been reached on Iraq's draft constitution, citing failed negotiations with minority Sunnis. In a sign the debate may be at an end, Shiite officials say they plan to submit a revised draft to parliament, possibly by Saturday. The latest development follows two delays of the deadline to submit a draft constitution to the National Assembly. Shiite and Kurdish leaders are now debating whether to submit the current document, approved by Shiite and Kurdish leaders, to a national referendum in October. The lack of progress comes despite an appeal from the White House. President Bush called Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim late Thursday to urge fresh efforts to reach a consensus on Iraq's draft constitution. The president expressed concerns that without a compromise with Sunnis, a constitutional referendum could further divide Iraq politically.", "Updated at 11:42 a.m. ET European leaders are warning Greeks who vote \"no\" in Sunday's referendum will be choosing to leave the eurozone, the bloc of countries that uses the common currency. \"It is democracy, it is the right of the Greek people to decide what they want for their future,\" French President Francois Hollande said in Paris. \"What is at stake is whether or not Greeks want to stay in the eurozone (or) take the risk of leaving.\" The comment was echoed by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who said on Twitter: The appeals to vote \"yes\" in the referendum come after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras broke off talks Saturday with his country's creditors and announced he was putting the terms of their proposal to Greek voters on July 5. He is urging Greeks to vote \"no.\" European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that he felt \"betrayed\" by the call for a referendum, but he said there's still a chance for Greece to negotiate a deal with international creditors. As reporter Teri Schultz in Brussels tells our Newscast unit, it appears there is no chance of negotiations before Greece runs out of money Tuesday evening. \"It is a moment of truth,\" Juncker said of the referendum. \"Greece is a member of the European family and I want this family to stay together.\" The uncertainty over Greece's future in the eurozone pushed stock markets in Europe and Asia sharply lower amid fears an exit could adversely affect the global financial system. As reporter Lauren Frayer tells our Newscast unit: \"Both Spain and Portugal's borrowing cost has risen, but not as much as in previous years when Greece approached the brink of default. Stocks have slumped, especially those in Spanish banks. Spain got a bank bailout three years ago, but its economy has since rebounded. Spain's economy minister says there's no risk of contagion here.\" Meanwhile, banks and ATMs in Greece remain closed after the government announced capital controls in response to the European Central Bank's decision to stop an emergency credit line to Greek banks. Reporter Joanna Kakissis in Athens tells Newscast, \"People with debit cards from foreign banks can still withdraw as much as they want, but many cash machines are out of money because panicked Greeks emptied them this weekend.\" As the Two-Way reported Sunday, Greece looks all but certain to miss a scheduled $1.8 billion loan payment to the International Monetary Fund — a move that could see it leave the eurozone. The European Central Bank announced it won't extend emergency liquidity to Greek banks after the announcement of the referendum. That move prompted Tsipras to impose capital controls to prevent a run on banks. Greek banks will be closed for the next six business days. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, in a phone call with Tsipras, stressed the need for Greece to resolve differences with its creditors. Lew said that \"it is in the best interests of Greece, Europe and the global economy to find a sustainable solution that puts Greece on a path toward reform and recovery within the eurozone.\" Greece has not yet recovered from the economic recession that hit the globe in 2008. Its creditors — the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank — want it to overhaul its economy. The concessions the lenders are seeking center on pensions reform, something the left-wing Greek government says it cannot accept because the country's pensioners have borne the brunt of the Greek downturn. Without some concessions, creditors say they won't release $8.17 billion, the latest tranche in several infusions that will go to repay Greece's outstanding loans. Without that money, Greece will fall into arrears and likely will exit the eurozone, a move that would have an even worse effect on the country's economy, and hurt the rest of the EU, too.", "Greece, the birthplace of democracy, may be suffering from an overdose of public input. The decision by Greece's government to hold a January referendum on its deal with the European Union to restructure public debt has thrown the pact — and investors — onto shaky ground. Stocks around the world took a sharp dive on Tuesday's news, and other European leaders left little doubt over how they felt. The Spanish government warned that any delay on the part of Greece in enacting the deal would be dangerous for the rest of Europe. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel set an emergency meeting with their Greek counterpart, Prime Minister George Papandreou. \"They won't say this publicly, but privately they will be telling Papandreou, 'If you say no to this, then you're out of the eurozone and you're out of the EU.' That's extreme, but I think that's what they're going to threaten,\" said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight. With so much at stake, so much uncertainty in global markets and so much international pressure, what exactly is behind Papandreou's call for a referendum? Daniel Kelemen, the director of European studies at Rutgers University, said it's about political survival. In the short term, Papandreou faces a confidence motion Friday that could bring down his government, which already enjoys only the slimmest of majorities in Parliament. In the longer run, getting a \"yes\" vote would give the beleaguered prime minister the legitimacy to go ahead with painful reforms, Kelemen said. \"He's taking a big gamble in calling this referendum, but I think there's a decent chance he would get a 'yes' vote,\" Kelemen said. While the Greeks loathe the austerity measures they've been asked to swallow, Kelemen said a majority of them want to stay in the European Union and stick with the euro. \"So, if you frame the referendum such that 'yes' means we stay in the euro and undertake these painful measures while 'no' means we have to leave, I think there's a good chance it passes,\" he said. Behravesh agrees. \"What he's essentially saying is, 'Fine, you Europeans agreed to this but I'm going to put it to the Greek people. I'm not going to unilaterally shove this agreement down their throats,' \" he said. IHS lowered the probability of a Greek default to 20 percent after last week's debt deal but raised it to 40 percent after the referendum announcement. \"I think the markets are worried and ought to be worried,\" Behravesh said. \"This is very much a case of one step forward, two steps back in Europe.\" Will There Really Be A Vote? But amid all the uncertainty, there's no guarantee that the announced referendum will even take place, according to Kelemen. \"You can imagine a number of scenarios over the next few weeks where it might not happen,\" he said. Frank Hess, a professor of West European studies at Indiana University, however, thinks the die is cast and that there's probably no going back on the promise of a referendum. He thinks that putting the deal to a vote — especially one that looks, at first blush, like a big loser for other EU governments — could just be Papandreou's idea of a bargaining strategy. \"If they got a better deal, it would certainly increase the chances that the referendum would pass,\" he said. IHS Global's Behravesh thinks that's a vain hope on the part of the Greek government. \"I can't imagine the Europeans are going to go back and renegotiate,\" he said. If the referendum goes forward, the Greek people would very likely see \"a massive public relations campaign that will paint a very dire picture of what happened if Greece turns this down,\" Behravesh said.", "Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine should wait to hold a referendum on secession, Russia's President Vladimir Putin says. The vote is currently planned for this Sunday. Putin's comments coincide with discussions he had today with the leader of the European group that has stationed military observers in Ukraine. \"We are asking representative of the South-East of Ukraine, the supporters of federalisation to postpone the referendum slated for May 11 in order to create proper conditions for this dialogue,\" Putin said, according to Russia's state-run Tass news agency. From Moscow, NPR's Corey Flintoff filed this report for our Newscast unit: \"Putin met today with Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, the current head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He said Russia is ready for talks on ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. \"Putin says Russia has withdrawn its troops from its border with Ukraine, but he also called on the Ukrainian government to stop military operations against the pro-Russian separatists. \"He said that constitutional reforms would have to be enacted in Ukraine before a planned presidential election is held there. That would be impossible under current circumstances because that election is scheduled for May 25.\" Despite the Russian president's statement, according to The Washington Post, \"a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday that 'we've seen no change' in Russia's posture along the border. U.S. officials have said about 40,000 Russian troops were deployed there.\" Also today, the International Monetary Fund said it will send an \"evaluation mission\" to Ukraine this summer to help it pay its debts — including large amounts owed to Russian gas companies, according to state-run Tass news agency. Update at 5:35 p.m. ET: President Obama notified Congress on Wednesday that he intends to withdraw Russia's eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP. A White House statement said: \"Russia is sufficiently advanced economically that it no longer warrants preferential treatment reserved for less advanced developing countries, consistent with the requirements of the GSP program.\" The announcement comes after an Obama administration official said Tuesday that the administration was working on a new set of sanctions against Moscow amid the continuing turmoil in Ukraine. \"What we're doing this week ... is trying to develop this strong sectoral package on both sides of the Atlantic so that the Russians can see it, understand it, and understand its impact if they take further action to prevent these elections from happening,\" Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.", "In Egypt, voter turnout is high in the first phase of a controversial constitutional referendum. This comes after more than three weeks of mass protests for and against the document and President Mohammed Morsi, leaving Egypt deeply divided.", "In an effort to retake ISIS' last major stronghold, President Trump has approved arming Kurdish forces in Syria despite opposition from Turkey. The U.S. will supply the Kurdish elements of the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces \"as necessary,\" Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement Tuesday. Turkey views those Kurdish fighters in Syria as terrorists, or as allied with terrorists, because of their connection to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK militant group, which wants to carve out its own independent state within Turkey. The U.S., however, views the Kurdish forces in Syria as some of the country's best fighters and necessary to the upcoming offensive to retake Raqqa, the northeast Syrian city that ISIS considers its capital. \"We're keenly aware of the security concerns of our coalition partners in Turkey,\" said White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday. \"We want to reassure the people and government of Turkey that the U.S. is committed to preventing additional security risks and protecting our NATO ally.\" There are more than 1,000 American service members in Syria, after the Pentagon sent about 400 additional Marines in March to prepare for the Raqqa offensive. A defense official told NPR's Tom Bowman that the U.S. plans to provide the Kurdish forces with small arms, including rifles and machine guns, as well as other military equipment. At the same time, U.S. leaders on Tuesday sought to stress that they plan to continue to involve Turkey in the fight against ISIS. \"Our intent is to work with the Turks, alongside one another, to take Raqqa down, and we're going to sort it out and we'll figure out how we're going to do it,\" Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters traveling with him on a stop in Denmark. Turkey has yet to respond to the news, but it couldn't have come as a surprise. U.S. defense officials have been mulling the move for months but waited to announce it until after a referendum that enabled President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate his power in April. Trump called Erdogan at the time to congratulate him on his victory, and he's offered no objection to the Turkish leader's often controversial authoritarian practices. Pentagon officials decided to wait until after the referendum, when Erdogan felt more secure in his power, to announce the expansion in support for the Kurds. Previously, Turkey has shown a prickly reaction to the U.S. backing Kurds in Syria. As NPR's Tom Bowman, Alice Fordham, and Alison Meuse reported in March: \"After U.S.-backed Kurdish forces captured the Syrian town of Manbij from ISIS last August and then began moving farther north, Turkey launched what it called Operation Euphrates Shield, which pitted Turkish-backed forces against these Kurdish-led forces, as well as against ISIS. \"The resulting clashes required U.S. Army Rangers to intervene — including by openly flying American flags from their armored vehicles — to separate the forces. Pentagon officials denied these were 'peacekeeping forces' — and struggled to define their mission.\" Turkey allows the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting ISIS to use one of its air bases for warplanes involved in the fight, but one risk for the Americans is that Erdogan could withdraw that permission over his objections about the Kurds.", "Egypt's protest movement against the controversial draft constitution appears to be losing steam after a lackluster turnout Tuesday night. Opposition leaders had called for mass demonstrations, and they're scrambling to decide whether to boycott Saturday's referendum on the constitution.", "Crimea&#8217;s parliament has moved up the date for a public referendum on whether the region should formally secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. The move by the Russian-backed Crimean regional government comes just two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country was not going to annex Crimea. And it sharply increases tensions in the region, as well as in Rome and Brussels, where U.S., European, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats are meeting today to find a way out of the crisis. Ukraine&#8217;s prime minister is rejecting the vote for a referendum as &#8220;illegitimate.&#8221; A European official said that the result of such a vote would not be recognized by Western governments. And shortly after the move by the Crimean parliament, President Obama signed an executive order to impose sanctions on individuals and groups who are &#8220;undermining&#8221; democracy in Ukraine. That unilateral move by the White House comes as European nations remain divided over next steps. British Prime Minister David Cameron, arriving in Brussels for an emergency meeting of the E.U. said, &#8220;we need to send a very clear message to the Russian government that what has happened is unacceptable and should have consequences. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a different line, saying that the imposition of sanctions, &#8220;depends also on how the diplomatic process progresses.&#8221; Meanwhile, on the ground in Crimea, thousands of heavily armed men &#8212; widely believed to be Russian soldiers &#8212; remain in charge of key locations, as diplomats talk about negotiating a withdrawal of Russian or Russian backed forces from the region. Harvard Kennedy School professor Nicholas Burns, who was the U.S. ambassador to NATO and and served on the National Security Council under Presidents Bush and Clinton, joins Here & Now&#8217;s Jeremy Hobson to discuss the latest developments. Guest\n\nR. Nicholas Burns, professor of international relations at Harvard&#8217;s Kennedy School of Government. He was the U.S. ambassador to NATO and and served on the National Security Council under Presidents Bush and Clinton. He tweets @RNicholasBurns.\n JEREMY HOBSON, HOST: From NPR and WBUR Boston, Jeremy Hobson. ROBIN YOUNG, HOST: I'm Robin Young. It's HERE AND NOW. In a few minutes, how was Gov. Chris Christie received by conservatives gathering outside Washington at CPAC? HOBSON: But first, to the latest from Ukraine. Today the parliament of Crimea asked to join Russia and moved up the date for a public referendum on whether the region should formally secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. That's a move that Ukraine's government declared illegitimate. Meanwhile in Brussels, EU leaders are holding an emergency summit about the situation today, and the White House today announced U.S. sanctions, including visa restrictions, against individuals and groups that are deemed to be threatening Ukrainian democracy and integrity. And amid all of this, Secretary of State John Kerry went into a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Rome. Here to talk about all of it with us is Nick Burns. He's professor of international relations at Harvard's Kennedy School. He was the U.S. ambassador to NATO and served on the National Security Council under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Clinton. Nick Burns, welcome back. NICHOLAS BURNS: Thank you. HOBSON: Well, a lot to go through there, but let's just put it in the big picture here. Is Vladimir Putin getting what he wants? BURNS: Well, Jeremy, I fear he is. It's a major power play to invade another country, which is what he did last weekend, to take the territory of the Crimea, which is Ukrainian national sovereign territory, and now apparently, as your news report suggests, to engineer a referendum on March 16, just a week from now. And you've got to assume that that referendum is not going to be free and fair with Russian troops occupying Crimea. Recent public opinions polls, in the last few months, have shown a majority of the people there would like to stay with Ukraine. But I'll bet the vote doesn't come out that way because it can't be free and fair with foreign troops on the soil. HOBSON: When you say he engineered it, how do you know that he engineered this referendum? BURNS: Well, the Crimean authorities have advanced the date of the referendum. They are working - those Crimean authorities are working very closely with the Russian authorities. President Putin is a very skillful, very decisive leader. You can bet that he's thought through what he wants to do here. And after the invasion of last weekend, he clearly is trying to orchestrate the politics of Crimea, if not eastern Ukraine, to put the ethnic Russians in charge and to minimize the role of the Ukrainians. HOBSON: Well, and that does make this a lot more complicated, the fact that on the ground in Crimea, many people do seem to be embracing Russia and moving away from Kiev, and perhaps t", "Tuesday's election is seen as a key off-year contest, and a test of strength for both parties leading up to the 2014 elections. But it's beginning to look like a rout. Democrat Terry McAuliffe is leading Republican Ken Cuccinelli by as much as 12 points. The race appears to have turned into a referendum on Cuccinelli's conservative views.", "Votes are still being counted in Bolivia, following a weekend referendum that asked voters whether they wanted to amend the constitution to allow the president to run for a fourth term. With more than 80 percent of votes counted, it appears the referendum is headed for defeat. That&#8217;s a big blow to President Evo Morales, the first indigenous president, who has been in power for a decade and was looking to extend his time in office. To discuss the referendum, Here & Now&#8216;s Jeremy Hobson speaks with Martín Sivak, author of &#8220;Evo Morales: The Extraordinary Rise of the First Indigenous President of Bolivia.&#8221; Guest\n\nMartín Sivak, author and journalist. He tweets (in Spanish) @sivakme.", "The U.K.'s exit from the European Union must be triggered by Parliament, not by the prime minister, the nation's Supreme Court says. In an 8-3 ruling, the court ruled that Theresa May doesn't have legal standing to carry out Brexit, the plan to leave the EU that voters embraced in a close referendum last June. The prime minister's office says the ruling \"does nothing to change\" its timetable of leaving the economic union by the end of March. That's when May set a deadline for invoking Article 50 — the exit clause that's built into the EU's constitutional rules. But the already complicated process, the Supreme Court now says, must also include Parliament. \"The ruling is an embarrassing setback for the prime minister, but it does not threaten to derail Brexit,\" NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from London. \"Ministers of Parliament can delay the bill and debate it, but they can't overturn the June referendum.\" The ruling bolsters a High Court ruling from November, which Prime Minister May's government had appealed. It's also a victory for Gina Miller, a leading plaintiff in the case who works as an investment manager. Saying that her case was about the legal process, Miller said after today's ruling, \"No prime minister, no government, can expect to be unanswerable or unchallenged.\" In an interview with NPR last year, Miller explained her reasons for challenging the government's plan to leave the EU: \"Because I don't feel that we've had a rational, grown-up, sensible debate about all the factors that would impact on us leaving the EU. It was very much overshadowed by people who were basically power hungry politicians who were fooling the public, in my view.\" In that interview, Miller added that people who pushed to leave the EU \"didn't have a plan\" for what comes next after leaving the union. And today, she acknowledged that the issue was one of the most divisive in modern times in Britain. Responding to Tuesday's ruling, No. 10 Downing St. noted that Parliament had previously backed the idea of Brexit when it approved the plan to hold a public referendum. A government spokesperson issued this statement: \"The British people voted to leave the EU, and the government will deliver on their verdict — triggering Article 50, as planned, by the end of March. Today's ruling does nothing to change that. \"It's important to remember that Parliament backed the referendum by a margin of 6 to 1 and has already indicated its support for getting on with the process of exit to the timetable we have set out. \"We respect the Supreme Court's decision, and will set out our next steps to Parliament shortly.\"", "The prime minister of Spain has two requests for the leader of Catalonia. First: Clarify whether the region is, indeed, declaring independence from Spain. And second: If that is the case, take it back. Otherwise, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says, Spain will suspend Catalonia's current autonomy, institute direct rule and possibly even jail the Catalan president. The ultimatum comes with a deadline: Catalonia has five days for the first demand, and three additional days for the second, Reuters reports. The semi-autonomous region of Catalonia, which has its own language and culture, held a referendum on independence on Oct. 1. The Spanish government regarded the vote as illegal and attempted to prevent it with a violent police crackdown. Leaders of Catalonia say the referendum results were 90 percent in favor of secession, but with a turnout of about half of registered voters. Massive street protests in favor of unity came a week after the vote. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont gave a carefully worded speech in which he said that he had the \"mandate\" to declare independence but that he wanted to delay any repercussions to allow time for talks with Madrid. It was a very intentional middle ground — not quite a declaration of independence, but something very close. For some of his supporters, it was close enough to count. Others in Catalonia, both for and against independence, are not so sure. Lauren Frayer, reporting for NPR from Barcelona, spoke to graduate student Eugenio Juliá, who \"is paying close attention because he's worried the terms of his grad school scholarship might change if Catalonia leaves Spain and the European Union,\" Frayer says. \"He was frustrated with what he heard last night.\" \"It was not very straightforward. He's just walking in circles,\" Juliá told Frayer. \"He was very ambiguous. I didn't know what he was saying.\" Rajoy doesn't know, either. He calls Puigdemont's speech \"confusing\" and says it's time for the Catalan government to say — in a simple yes or no — whether it is declaring independence or not. If it is, he says he will invoke Article 155, a never-used clause of the Spanish Constitution that will allow him to suspend Catalonia's autonomous government and institute direct rule by Spain. \"Puigdemont himself could face charges of rebellion,\" Frayer explains. \"The Catalan separatist leader was very clear about asking for dialogue. But Rajoy told parliament today he will not negotiate the breakup of Spain.\" Catalonia is relatively wealthy and the loss of the region would be a blow to the Spanish economy. Rajoy gave Puigdemont until Monday to clarify whether the declaration of independence is real — and, if it is, until Oct. 19, eight days from now, to either back down or be deposed.", "Forty-eight percent of British voters wanted to stay in the European Union, but their voices did not carry the day in the Brexit referendum. Angry protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square Tuesday evening.", "Updated at 1:28 p.m. ET In Armenia, demonstrators have gathered by the thousands in the city of Yerevan as lawmakers elected former President Serzh Sargsyan to be the country's new prime minister Tuesday. But they have not descended on the country's capital to congratulate the longtime leader on his new role. The massive demonstration has another goal: Led by opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan, protesters are condemning what they see as a power grab — a bid by Sargsyan, who was elected president in 2008 and re-elected in 2013, to maintain authority at the cost of the country's democratic institutions. What has assembled in Yerevan — and is being live-streamed on YouTube — constitutes a \"nonviolent velvet revolution,\" Pashinyan said Tuesday, referencing the peaceful 1989 uprising that ousted the Communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia. He is calling for a widespread strike and blockades of government buildings. \"We must paralyze the entire state system and the power should pass to the people,\" he told the crowd, according to the BBC. \"Serzh Sargsyan must see that he has no Armenia to rule in and no people to rule over.\" Those sentiments are not shared by lawmakers in the Armenian parliament, who voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to elect the former president as prime minister. Observing the country's term limits on the chief executive, Sargsyan had already stepped down from the presidency earlier this month with the conclusion of his second term. But the change in job title doesn't mean reduced power. In 2015, Armenian voters approved a constitutional referendum that made a significant change to the country's national power structure. With the change, the office of the president was stripped of many of its powers — even as the power of the prime minister was given a substantial boost. The amendment, in Reuters' words, renders the presidency \"largely ceremonial.\" But many people viewed the 2015 changes simply as a mechanism for Sargsyan to remain in power once he was term-limited out of the presidency. In fact, the BBC notes that some critics along with independent European observers, alleged election irregularities and even vote-rigging during the referendum — an accusation that also dogged Sargsyan's winning presidential bids in 2008 and in 2013. In fact, as The Guardian explained in 2016, large-scale demonstrations against Sargsyan's government had become something of a yearly exercise since his 2013 re-election — each year with new demands, from scrapping public transit price hikes to outright regime change. This time around, the focus is squarely on Sargsyan himself, who as Reuters notes had denied any designs on the premiership — until March, when he expressed openness to the idea. The protests began last week, and there were clashes on Monday between police and the protesters seeking to break through a barbed wire barrier around the parliament building in order to surround it, as they had several other government buildings in the area. Local media reported several dozen people were injured in the spasm of violence, including Pashinyan. The clashes raised concerns from the Human Rights Watch. \"Armenia's authorities should protect people's right to peaceful assembly. Any police response needs to be proportionate and in line with United Nations law enforcement standards,\" the group said in a statement on Monday. \"It is never too late for Armenia's police to turn around their poor record on using excessive force.\" Armen Sarkissian, the politician recently sworn in as Sargsyan's handpicked successor in the presidency, reaffirmed to local media the protesters' rights to gather peacefully in opposition. \"The right to freedom of speech and expression of will is one of the most important values of democracy. The opinion of every citizen of the Republic of Armenia is important for the country,\" Sarkissian said. \"At the same time,\" he added, \"violence, illegal actions and restriction of the rights of others must be ruled out during free expression of will.\" Per Armenia's constitutional process, Sarkissian signed a decree Tuesday certifying Sargsyan's election as prime minister. Still, demonstrations showed no signs of abating by Tuesday night local time — as Pashinian, gripping the microphone with white-bandaged hand, spots of blood soaking through, delivered a long and fiery speech to protesters packing a central square beneath the city lights.", "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spent the weekend campaigning for initiatives he has proposed that he calls central to reforming California politics. None of the eight initiatives on the ballot in Tuesday's referendum has shown strong support in polling.", "British lawmakers have reached a damning conclusion about the possibility of Russian electoral interference in the U.K.: The Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee said it can't determine whether the Kremlin tried to influence the 2016 Brexit referendum, because the British government hasn't even tried to find out. The committee released that conclusion Tuesday in a long-awaited, oft-delayed and heavily redacted report. \"The outrage isn't [whether] there was interference; the outrage is that no one has wanted to know if there was interference,\" member Kevan Jones of the Labour Party told a news conference laying out the committee's findings. \"That, I think, comes through very loud and clear in our report.\" Another member, Stewart Hosie, explained that the \"the U.K. government have actively avoided looking for evidence that Russia interfered\" in the vote that determined the United Kingdom's divorce from the European Union. \"We were told that they haven't seen any evidence, but that is meaningless if they hadn't looked for it,\" said Hosie, a member of the opposition Scottish National Party. \"The committee found it astonishing that no one in government had sought beforehand to protect the referendum from such attempts or investigate afterwards what attempts there may have been.\" The committee's report pointed out that this inaction represents a \"stark contrast\" with the U.S., \"where an intelligence community assessment was produced within two months\" of its 2016 presidential election. \"Even if the conclusion of any such assessment were that there was minimal interference,\" it added, \"this would nonetheless represent a helpful reassurance to the public that the U.K.'s democratic processes had remained relatively safe.\" Instead — as Hosie put it — in the U.K. government, \"nobody wanted to touch this issue with a 10-foot pole.\" On Morning Edition, NPR's Frank Langfitt offered one reason for that reluctance: \"I think the answer is this: It would've undermined the Brexit referendum. Remember, it's the biggest decision of the British people in decades. It's already changed the course of British history, and the person who was front and center — that was a guy named Boris Johnson, who is now the prime minister. So if you say Russia interfered, then it could undermine this thing that has changed the course of British history.\" The report also noted that London has become a money laundering hub for Russian elites — and that \"in brief, Russian influence in the UK is 'the new normal.' \" The U.K. government released a lengthy statement in response. And Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab took issue with the committee's findings, saying that in particular, the government \"categorically rejects\" Hosie's assertion that officials were actively avoiding an investigation. \"We've got a long period recognizing the enduring, significant threat faced by Russia to the U.K., including in relation to cyber,\" Raab said at a news conference with his U.S. counterpart, Mike Pompeo, who is visiting in London this week. \"Russia is a top national security priority. We call out Russia when it's necessary.\" The report Tuesday represents the culmination of eight months of parliamentary investigation and 10 more months of publication delays. Originally submitted to the prime minister last October, the report was subject to repeated postponement — first for a national security review of its contents and then for the appointment of new committee members. The delays provoked widespread controversy and even claims of a cover-up from lawmakers, including some who were sitting on the Intelligence and Security Committee at the time. Now that the report has finally seen the light of day, the committee members behind it say an investigation from the government would be better late than never. \"No matter how politically awkward or potentially embarrassing, there should have been an assessment of Russian interference in the EU referendum, and there must now be one,\" Hosie said Tuesday. \"And the public must be told the results of that assessment.\"" ]

[ "Am I missing something?\n\nThis is more widely used, colloquial, idiomatic and grammatical as well. For example:\n\n&quot;Wait a second, am I missing something here?&quot;\n&quot;Am I missing something if I don't travel abroad?&quot;\n\n\nAm I missing anything?\n\nThis is equally idiomatic and grammatical. However its usage is (quite) low as compared to am I missing something.\n\n&quot;Am I missing anything if I don't socialize?&quot;\n&quot;Am I missing anything if I don't accompany you to the wedding ceremony?&quot;\n\nHowever I feel, something refers to a small range of objectifiable things, whereas anything indicates a far bigger range.\nmissing something vs missing anything" ]

[ "It seems to me that your first example (&quot;I like to ride bicycles&quot;) is using a workaround for the missing plural indefinite article in English. Effectively there is an implied plural indefinite article there. So both sentences are, in effect, using the indefinite article. That being the case, why singular vs. plural?\nThat would be because the indefinite article can indicate different things about the noun. Specifically,\n\n&quot;It may be something that the speaker is mentioning for the first time, or its precise identity may be irrelevant or hypothetical, or the speaker may be making a general statement about any such thing.&quot;\n\nIt would seem that the plural is preferred in the latter case, when making a general statement. You can, though, make a general statement out of the singular by adding a qualifier or using a conditional:\n\nI like to ride a bicycle when I am at the beach.\nI would like to ride a bicycle at the beach.\n\nThat seems to be the distinction: unadorned singular indefinite articles don't work as a way to generalize.\nI am not a trained linguist, so I will likely need some correction on this, especially the conjecture on the implied plural indefinite article and the lazy generalizations about singular vs. plural.", "To paraphrase GySgt Foley from the movie An Officer and a Gentleman: “My grandmother is an aspiring Naval Aviator!”\nAnyway, I am a former LSO, and I pulled out my old LSO NATOPS manual to see if I could find book definitions of the criteria for each grade. I can’t seem to find them, but they are as close to verbatim as I can remember as described in the answer here.\nWorth noting, the grade is not always about the wire you catch. In other words, OKs aren’t limited to the 3 wire, you can still get an OK for a 2 or 4 wire. It all depends on how and why you got that particular wire. For example, if you get low, just miss the ace and taxi into the 2, that would likely be a &quot;No-grade&quot;. However, if you fly a sweet pass and dip just enough at the ramp to barely scoop the 2, that could still be an OK. And anything in between is probably a &quot;Fair&quot;.\nThe same thing would apply to being way long and just barely grabbing the 4 to avoid a bolter, vs just barely missing the 3 after an otherwise solid pass.\nReally though, the question is not really answerable in a useful manner to a lay person. Judging any “sport” is subjective, and often the LSOs don’t even agree on a grade. After watching literally thousands of landings over a few years and being mentored by senior LSOs you just develop an eye and a feel for what a good pass and bad pass look like. (and there are always plenty of “tweeners” to argue over!)\nIt really boils down to subjectively assessing the duration and magnitude of the pilot's deviations from perfect, and the appropriateness and timeliness of corrections. In other words. how much the airplane is &quot;moving around&quot; out there...", "What I am reading jibes with what I am feeling. What I dont miss is way bigger than what i do miss. In fact, I dont really miss anything - except Voyetra Sequencer Plus Gold - for DOS. Best sequencer ever. But thats not a DAW.\n\nHeres a few winners that I dont miss:\n\nOMS (the early incarnations)\n\n8/16 voice max\n\nonly 1 reverb/session\n\nmoving sessions to a new drive\n\nSYNCING TO PIX USING SMPTE boxes (will it catch up in time or wont it)\n\nGetting material to and from mac/pc\n\nJAZ drives\n\nSteenbecks/moviolas (I'm not that old. I started editing in the early 90's)\n\nLife is great.", "Well if I get this correctly, and I hope I do, it's because you are trying to publish an item, therefore creating new publish transaction for current user (saving new publish transaction into database under current user), therefore triggering SaveEventArgs. Or am I missing something here?", "I think your question actually might be missing a key difference between the two lining systems you mention. Your top image shows a segmental lining. This lining is constructed using the stop and start manner that you suggest. There are variations on a theme to this but for a typical segmental lining the machine boring the tunnel (TBM) pushes off the leading edge of a completed ring to create the driving force to push the machine into the ground. \n\nIf I am understanding your spiral proposal correctly then this is a different approach to lining, doing something similar to slip forming behind the lining. There are linings that are built in a similar manner to this but you have to get the driving force to shove the machine forward from a different source. A gripper TBM would give you an indication of the type of machine you might address this. \n\nConsidering a spiral cast in-situ lining vs. a segmental lining to resist earthquakes typically (but not always) I'd suggest the segments are better because they have additional flexibility due to the joints. \n\nFor circular vs., horseshoe shaped linings, again it depends, but typically the circular lining will be stronger.", "Is this app still working?\nI installed pidgin, added my gtalk account and included [email protected] in the contact list, then I started following the [java] tag, but I'm not getting any alerts even if new java questions are asked.\n\nAm I missing anything?", "Is it\n\n\n a phoenix?\n\n\nI fall in flames,\n\n\n Phoenix dies by burning up\n\n\nI go upwards swiftly,\n\n\n It's a bird!\n\n\nMy origin is Buddhist in belief, but not in karma\n\n\n Something to do with the theme of rebirth? (I'm not very familiar with Buddhist beliefs, so I might be missing something more fitting here.)\n\n\nIt is impossible to know how old I truly am\n\n\n Phoenix dies and is reborn over and over, so it would be very hard to tell how old it actually is.", "I will change the question around. Is the only thing that can be improved in the question? Is the editor missing something else? What else can be improved in the post?\n\nIf the answers are: yes, no, nothing; yeah, approve the edit. It's a good edit and the user is doing a service. Now, normally retagging tasks are reserved to 2kers but if they don't do anything, if a user wants to help, I don't see anything wrong.", "To start here:\n\n\n Is there something I am missing or can the Faceless-men do these kinds of magic as well?\n\n\nOf course the Faceless Men can perform magic. They have been granted the ability to preserve the faces for all time in the hall without rot. They are then able to wear this face as their own. This also seems to alter their overall physical appearance as well. \n\n\n\n\n How could they use a face of a person who is still alive.\n\n\nYou assume that the faces Jaqen and the Waif show us most of the time are not those of the already dead. It would make sense for a \"faceless assassin\" to never show their true face. \n\n\n\nTo come full circle:\n\n\n Is there something I am missing or can the Faceless-men do these kinds of magic as well?\n\n\nJaqen seems to be the leader of the group. This would imply he has a greater or direct interactation with the many faced (similar to how R'hollor will \"speak\" through the Red Priests). While the extent of this is not fully defined, I believe this example proves this point.", "So this is what he has done:\n\nTake pre-tax investment of $1. At 25% tax rate, 0.75 goes into the retirement account, which grows at 15% for 30 years: \n\n$ 0.75*1.15^{30}=50 $\n\nThen he applies the formula he has given just above the snapshot to compute the incremental amount: \n\n$0.25*(1-0.25)*\\left(1.15^{30}-1\\right)=0.25×0.75×(1.15^{30}−1)=12$\n\nAnd adding this 12 to 50 gives 62. \n\nRe-derivation of the increment formula: $x*(1-x)*\\left((1+R)^{T}-1\\right)$, I am not familiar with the two types of 401k, but I would justify the formula as follows (let me know if I am missing something obvious!): \n\nThe difference on pre-tax 1 dollar in terms of the deferred taxation is: under one system you pay $1*x=x$ today, whereas under the other you pay $x$ at least after T years, which he assumes to be at T for simplification. So the difference between the two in terms of time value of money is $x(1+R)^T-x$. And you then multiply this by $1-x$ to calculate its after tax benefit:\n\n$\\mathrm{Value \\,of \\, the \\,Benefit \\, at \\, time \\,} T=(1-x)\\left(x(1+R)^T-x\\right)$\n\n$=x(1-x)\\left((1+R)^T-1\\right)$\n\nBy the way this multiplication by $1-x$ seems to be the reason behind the 62 vs 66 that @amdopt mentioned in the comment.", "I had read someone claim he was against foundationalism, or\n specifically psychologism. Does he agree to use a limited amount or am\n I wrong about this being an experience?\n\n\nAlthough it may sound like Descarte relied on the 'seeming' (i.e: subjective experience) of there being an 'I'; his argument does not rely on it, in fact, it is build on something that goes deeper than the subjective experience itself.\n\nIn Meditations, He started by Cartesian Skepticism, that is, roughly speaking : Anything that can be otherwise, you can doubt.\n\nPsychedelics, for example, can influence my brain and create hallucinations that look as if real, and many dreams look as if real, then : I reality can be doubted. Using this method, Descartes ruled out everything that is accessible through the senses in the first step.\n\nThe second step is to rule out logical, deductive and mathematical truths : It is possible for a demon to miss with my mind and make me think that 1+1=3, or that if P then Q, Q therefore P is valid, or that P and not-P can both be true...etc.\n\nThen it should follow that everything in Logic and our different modes of reasoning can also be doubted.\n\nWhat is left, if I doubt everything? I doubt.\n\nCan I doubt that too? can I doubt that I (am there to) doubt? it should be obvious that this is impossible, it leads to a self-referential paradox, it cannot be true that I doubt that I doubt. So, I think (I doubt) therefore I am.\n\nOne of the objections to Descartes' Cogito comes from Bertrand Russell, it goes something like this : \"The premise I think, should be translated to a proposition 'There is thought' \" , for using 'I' in the premise to infer the conclusion is circular.\n\nIf it is possible, It would be interesting if you edit your question and add a link to the source that claims Descartes was against foundationalism.\n\nhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-epistemology/#2.1", "But I need to also have it expandable so that I could view and enter\n the numeric value\n\n\nMaybe I am missing something, but why use ControlType for? Is this what you mean?\n\nManipulate[\n Plot[Sin[a x], {x, -3, 3}, ImageSize -&gt; 600, AspectRatio -&gt; 0.2],\n {a, -10, 10, Appearance -&gt; \"Labeled\", ImageSize -&gt; 600}\n ]", "Maybe I am missing a point to the question, but you should be able to do\n\nscripts[] = path/to/your/script.js\n\n\nin the .info file of your theme. And within the script file something like\n\n(function ($) {\n$(document).ready(function () {\n Drupal.settings.yoursetting = {};\n Drupal.settings.yoursetting.property = some_value;\n});\n})(jQuery);\n\n\nor use the Drupal.behaviors convention.", "On the whole, I think this is a pretty neat solution to your problem. A couple of observations...\n\ncase == CASE\n\nYou lower case everything. Maybe this is exactly what you're after, but to me, fieldOne and fieldone aren't the same, so I'd want to know about that difference.\n\nDeveloper time vs test time\n\nsymmetricDifference gives back a set of all of the differences, it doesn't discriminate between the left and the right side. So, if you've added something to FieldsModel and something else to POTENTIAL_FIELDS they would both come back. The developer then has to go and look at both and reconcile where the problem is. In reality this might not be a problem because the developer has probably worked on one of the files recently, so would realise which one they'd missed, however it would be better if the test showed what was missing from where. You could do something like this:\n\nString inConstantButNotModel = constantFields.stream()\n .filter(i -&gt; !reflectFields.contains(i))\n .collect(Collectors.joining(\",\"));\nString inModelButNotConstant = reflectFields.stream()\n .filter(i -&gt; !constantFields.contains(i))\n .collect(Collectors.joining(\",\"));\n\nassertThat(String.format(\"ConstantsMissing: %s\\nModelMissing: %s\\n\",\n inModelButNotConstant,\n inConstantButNotModel))\n .isEqualTo(\"ConstantsMissing: \\nModelMissing: \\n\");\n\n\nTo give output along the lines of...\n\nConstantsMissing: field5,field4\nModelMissing: field3", "I am posting this, just to have something to use to try to converge to an answer. Since I am not sure I still understand the question.\n\nThis just plots a vector in 3D. i.e a line from $(0,0,0)$ to the another point in 3D space. The other point is the result of doing $mat^n.vec$. where mat matrix and vec is vector. And the question asked to plot this for each $n$\n\nI have a feeling I am missing something here. But at least now we have something to change to try to find out what is actually needed :)\n\nManipulate[\n Module[{vec, mat, pt},\n vec = {30, 60, 30};\n mat = {{0, 8, 12}, {.1, 0, 0}, {0, .2, 0}};\n pt = p[n, mat, vec];\n\n Graphics3D[\n {Thick, Line[{{0, 0, 0}, p[n, mat, vec]}]}, Axes -&gt; True\n ]\n\n ],\n\n {{n, 2, \"n=\"}, 1, 10, 1},\n Initialization :&gt;\n (\n p[n_, mat_, vec_] := mat^n.vec\n )\n ]", "I have to go against the flow on this one.\n\nI dont think you played it fine. I have not palyed the specific tournament and am not aware of the table dynamics at the given point but raising 2.5bb vs 2 limpers is not really ok in my opinion. Against 2 limpers you need to raise more (at least 3.5-4bb I think) in order to have fold equity. Since JQs is not an amazing hand you can easily call but if you know what you are doing rasing is fine too (just bigger). Postflop vs 3 oponents your c-bet is EXTREMELY optimistic. You have nothing and almost no chances to pick up anything on turn or river so I would give up and check and check-fold almost any turn card.\n\nAs played turn and river are ok.\n\nIn this case you got very lucky but I believe that in the long run you will lose money from such situations.", "I am a bit confused, your directive basically would do what Angular already does?\n\nWhen I comment out the entire testapp.directive('tag', function() { block, I see no change in the functionality of this code in fiddle.. I think you need a more extensive example for us to provide a meaningful review.\n\nOther than that:\n\n\nYour code looks fine to me\nJsHint.com cannot find anything wrong besides some missing semicolons\nYou have 0 comments in your code", "I am rather suspicious of any such index, but let's say they do measure something like readability/reading ease. As far as I can see all the indices are based on word/sentence length and related factors (number of syllables, etc). While these do matter, there are many other factors which play a role, particularly if you think of old literature:\n\n\nusage of old-fashioned words, \noutdated style/grammar\nprose vs poetry or mix thereof\nwhether I am interested in the topic\n...\n\n\nSo, unless your interest is purely scientific, IMO there is very little practical value in any such index.", "Unless I'm missing something, I can't see that any differences between the visual arrangement of your sitemap and the structure of your URLs will have any detrimental effect on SEO, or anything else for that matter. I assume the links in your sitemap will still follow the same URL structure.\n\nHaving an alternative navigation structure can only be a good thing IMO.", "Yes. It is completely possible. I am using both OS parallelly and I am not having any problem at all. My PC configuration is slightly better though. But I doubt it has anything to do with dual boot. Your laptop will run one OS at a time (so, chill). The only thing matters is, do you have enough hard disk space?\nNow, due to the new partition you create to install Ubuntu, no stored data should be lost. The space you allocate to Ubuntu, will simply come from the free spaces available in HDD. No existing data will be touched. I also have installed Ubuntu 12.04 on Win7 and after nearly a year now, it is still running smoothly and I haven't got any data missing.\n\nPersonal opinion: Keeping in mind the future, allocate some good amount of space (like 100GB at least) in you Ubuntu.", "Not only is the form you ask about reasonably common today, but use of it goes back more than 200 years. From a letter to Mr. Urban dated September 12, in The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle (September 1808):\n\nNow, to arrest the attention of my friends, and dispose the friends of others who may think with me, with your leave, I will point them to what I am contemplating, if I may use such a word in the present instance, allowing that I am inclined, with all becoming deportment, if possible, again to marry.\n...\nTo be more plain, I would miss having, or l would have no slothful Miss, no indigent Miss, no careless Miss, no dissipated Miss, no imprudent Miss, no ugly Miss, no idle Miss, no deformed Miss, no ignorant Miss.\nShould these epithets occur, and my friends point me to a widow, they will kindly recollect my discrimination, though they laugh at me.\n\nFrom &quot;An Interesting Anecdote,&quot; in Episcopal Magazine (June 1820):\n\nHe [an eleven-year-old orphan from London] answered, 'When I was a little boy, about seven years of age, I became a Sunday scholar in London ; through the kind attention of my master, I soon learnt to read my Bible : this Bible, young as I was, shewed me that I was a sinner, and a great one too ; it also pointed me to a Saviour ; and I thank God that I have found mercy at the hands of Christ, and am not ashamed to confess him before the world.&quot;\n\nFrom a debate on July 9, 1832, recorded in U.S. Congress, Register of Debates in Congress (1832):\n\nHe [Mr. Stanberry] said that Mr. Macon had always presided with great dignity, and had always asserted the rights of order. He had never flattered or cringed to those in power, when he held the chair of that House. Hr had never shaped his course to suit the Executive will, with a view to getting an appointment to a high office abroad. Mr. S[tanberry] insisted that allusions to the opinions of the President were out of Order. I defy any gentleman, said he, to point me to a single decision to the contrary, until you presided over this body. And let me say that I have heard the remark frequently made, that the eyes of the Speaker are too frequently turned from the chair you occupy toward the White House.\n\nAll of these examples (and many later ones turned up in Google Books searches for the phrases &quot;point me to a&quot; and &quot;pointed me to a&quot; for the period 1800–2008) use the &quot;point [someone] to [something]&quot; structure in essentially the same way that the example in your question does—to mean &quot;make [someone] aware of [something]&quot; or &quot;direct [someone's] attention to [something].&quot;\n\nUpdate (February 4, 2020): Some much earlier examples of the phrasing\nA search of the Early English Books Online database yields matches that go back to the sixteenth century. Here are a few examples from the 1500s and 1600s.\nFrom Thomas Norton, An Addition Declaratorie to the Bulles, with a Searching of the Maze Scene and Allowed (1570):\n\nSuch are not like to felonies, treason and offēders that they know, but they are like vnto those that when a felon or traitor is pursued, do helpe to hide hym, and conuey him into bie corners, and for the felons or traytors easier escape doe tell them that pursue hym that he is gone a contrarie way or geue them contrarie markes to kéepe them from knowing and attachyng him, or point them to a wrong persone while the very théefe or traitor may make shift for him selfe, yea and lend him some of their own clothes to disguise hym.\n\nFrom Henry Smith, &quot;A Looking Glasse for Christians,&quot; reprinted in The sermons of Maister Henrie Smith gathered into one volume (1593):\n\nTouching the first point, the forbidden tree seemed to Eue a tree to bee desired, because it would teach them knowledge. Nature taught her that knowledge was a thing to be desired: Though the Serpent pointed her to a wrōg tree. For in deed the tree of life was the tree of knowledge. and when they went to the other tree, they chaunged their knowledge for ignorance, as they chaunged their holines for wickednes.\n\nFrom Thomas Heywood, The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells Their Names, Orders and Offices the Fall of Lucifer with His Angells (1635):\n\nNow hauing sufficiently discoursed of Death, I will point you to a contented life, out of one of Martials Epigrams, not without great elegancie thus deliuered vnto vs: ...\n\nFrom John Hall, Emblems with Elegant Figures (ca. 1648):\n\nOh for a Moses that would make / This rock of mine dissolve and break / To a clear stream where I might lie / Exempt from all this misery, / And bathe. Oh would some Angel sit / And point me to a welcom pit.\n\nAnd from Richard Carpenter, The Pragmatical Jesuit (ca. 1665):\n\nLucifer. I swell into the Mountain Olympus. O, how I swell! I shall burst asunder: And there's a dreadfull tempest in my stomack. How, and where shall I empty my self? I know not where to bestow my troubled stomack, and my seditious belly. O good Females help me. O some kind body, point me to a secret place. O.", "If your field of view defined as a typical solid angle, as shown on Wikipedia, then you'd define the half angles as the half of 100x100: 50x50.\nSTK (and probably other modeling tools) accounts for the visibility of a sensor using a dual-conic model similar to an eclipsing model when assuming spherical celestial objects.\nAm I missing something?", "If you are unable to trace the traffic source then how can you say it is a bot ? I think, you have missed something. Go through analytics once again, I am sure you will find the culprit. If it is a bot then you need to note down its IP and block traffic from that particular IP addess. I hope this will solve the problem.", "You might be thinking of another Linkin Park song, \"Numb\". Looking at the lyrics, it has a few lines very close to the ones you remembered from it (emphasis mine), but it's missing \"something I am not gonna say to you\" and \"I love you\".\n\n\n Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes\n \n \n \n And every second I waste is more than I can take\n\n\nAnd obviously, the gruff voice that sounds like the one in \"In The End\" would be the same guy. :)", "Short answer: it depends.\n\nThe usual workflow is, very roughly, something like this:\n\n\nCondition all your data. Compute any 'missing' data you need or want (e.g. porosity $\\phi$, lithofacies, saturation $S_\\mathrm{W}$, S-wave velocity $V_\\mathrm{S}$).\nInspect crossplots of relevant properties like velocity vs porosity, acoustic impedance vs elastic impedance (or maybe Poisson's ratio or ${V_\\mathrm{P}}/{V_\\mathrm{S}}$), and so on, colouring points by depth, $S_\\mathrm{W}$ or lithofacies, say. Look for helpful discrimination. \nUse judgment, research, advice, or inspiration to decide on how to use the relationships you find... perhaps you are aiming for seismic inversion, or facies prediction, or log modeling, or something else.\n\n\nBefore doing much else, I recommend picking up Avseth et al. (Cambridge, 2005) (and/or perhaps Dvorkin et al., Cambridge, 2014) and reading it from cover to cover. Here are some short reviews and more details on these books. Alessandro Amato's two recent tutorials in SEG's Leading Edge will help too, especially if you're using Python. If you're in MATLAB, a lot of the code for those books, which are both by the rock physics team at Stanford, is available online.\n\nHere are some nice $V_\\mathrm{P}/V_\\mathrm{S}$ vs acoustic impedance $I_\\mathrm{P}$ crossplots from Amato's second tutorial to inspire you:", "Why don't you do the music as a post.. Then you can just add the music track in the background and make it 'Duck' behind the voices. And if you really need the music to keep the tempo of the podcast conversation, you can just have it play on another device (iPod) and have it mixed into just the headphones, but not record it at all.. Or am I missing something?", "Not a real explanation of why writing or cities appeared where they appeared but by that time humans had already spread to many parts of the world so I am not sure there is any particular need to explain why they did not appear in southern Africa, specifically.\n\nAlso, the “cradle of humankind” in Gauteng is a large source of hominin fossils (possibly for reasons that have more to do with their preservation than anything else), not of homo sapiens sapiens or anatomically modern humans. We are not talking about the same periods at all (millions of years before present vs. 200 000 years for homo sapiens sapiens and 6000 years for writing).", "\"Am I missing anything?\" Yes. You have a fundamentally wrong idea of how cold gas thruster systems are designed. They don't have thrust chambers and they use de Laval nozzles to achieve the maximum practical exhaust velocity.\n\nHere is a conceptual design for a typical cold gas thruster system\n\n\n\nNotice that the gas is supplied to the thrusters through a pressure regulator. The outlet pressure of this regulator would be the inlet pressure to the nozzles (assuming that the flow does not exceed the capability of the regulator, and neglecting frictional losses in the plumbing).\n\nGiven this, I am not sure what you actually want/need to calculate for your theoretical system. The paper that I extracted this image from gives some calculations that may possibly be of use. I have not included them here since I do not know what your goal is.", "While I am not a grammarian, here is my answer.\nThe dash between the two words indicates that they are to be taken as unit as they are applied to something that follows. For example, I met Salena at an all-night diner. What kind of diner was it? An all-night diner, rather than a diner that was both all and night.\nWhile the dash is not a horrible, no good, breach of grammatical usage, I would prefer I stayed up all night fixing the broken database over I stayed up all-night fixing the broken database. For me, the second form triggers a &quot;missing step&quot; response (or, if you like, a missing-step response); I would expect that the all-night usage would modify something that follows but there is nothing following that would make a reasonable target.\nBut note that if your target audience would fall over laughing if they were to read this answer, you should do it the way that said target audience expects it to be done.", "There is no reason to convert anything, just insert the JSON strings (after making them valid JSON):\n\nCREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION INS_BLOB() RETURNS VOID AS $$\nBEGIN\n INSERT INTO \"TBL1\" (\"SN\",\"COL1\",\"COL2\") \n values(1, \n '{\n \"APPLICATION\": {\n \"MEMORY\": {\n \"OPTIONS\" :{\n \"SOMETHING\" : \"SOMETHING\",\n \"format\" : \"SOMETHING\",\n \"System\" : \"\",\n \"IP\" : \"\",\n \"Port\" : \"\",\n \"template\" : \"\",\n \"Path\" : \"\" ,\n \"Name\" : \"QUEUE\",\n \"URL\" : \"\" \n }}}}', --&lt;&lt; add the missing curly braces!\n '{\n \"APPLICATION\": {\n \"MEMORY\": {\n \"OPTIONS\" :{\n \"SOMETHING\" : \"SOMETHING\",\n \"format\" : \"SOMETHING\",\n \"System\" : \"\",\n \"IP\" : \"\",\n \"Port\" : \"\",\n \"template\" : \"\",\n \"Path\" : \"\" ,\n \"Name\" : \"QUEUE\",\n \"URL\" : \"\" \n }}}}'); --&lt;&lt; add the missing curly braces!\nEND;\n$$\nLANGUAGE plpgsql;\nCOMMIT;\n\n\n\n\nYou also don't need PL/pgSQL for this. A language sql function would be enough (you would need to remove the begin and end though)", "Since I am not CfB, I cannot guarantee that my answer aligns 100% with his vision but this is my understanding of it:\n\n1. Functionality of distributed coordinator in Cluster 0\n\nYes, exactly. The entities don't have to be companies, but it's very likely, that they will be.\n\n2. Need of coordinator(s) in other clusters\n\nI don't know if Cluster 0 will need a Coordinator forever. If the honest transaction rate reaches a certain point, I think we could get rid of it entirely, but with current PoW (Proof of Work) and difficulty that point is just too high. Maybe Network bound PoW will change something about this but we know hardly anything about it.\n\nFor other clusters with \"colored tokens\", as you called them, we definitely need a Coordinator because/if the transaction rate is significantly lower.\n\n3. Benefit of the Tangle structure when relying on coordinators\n\n\nPermissionless\nWe don't need an API key or similar to send and receive Iotas. The only cost is the PoW. This can of course also be seen as a disadvantage since we have to do PoW.\nEase of switching\nIt's easy to build an automated check into every full node similar to:\n\n\n If Coordinator A tries something malicious or stops working, don't trust it anymore. Trust Fallback Coordinator B instead. If Coordinator B tries something malicious or stops working, don't trust it anymore. Rely on weight only instead.\n\n\nSince the Coordinator is not a central instance, even if it fails to do what it is supposed to, the network can continue working.\nWe need a HAPPENED BEFORE relation anyway\nThe Tangle has a very clear structure when it comes to which transaction happened before which transaction. If TXA is directly or indirectly referenced by TXB, we know that TXA→TXB. Therefore we also know that a Milestone MS9 confirms all transactions that happened before it.\nMissing transactions\nWe know exactly, if we are missing a transaction or if our Tangle is solid because of the references. If one of our transactions points to TXC and we don't have a TXC in our database, we know that we have to request it from our neighbors.", "For Spanish is difficult to see the difference between words like sheet - shit , sheep - ship, leave - live, this - these, it - eat. Short i vs long e sounds equals most of the times, when I pronounce it I have to think about it and even that I still ask to myself If I am right, but I do not give up, it is something you have to deal when you learn a new language and the more you listen-practice the best would be for you. \n\nSpanish /p/ sound is similar to your /p/ on s/p/it, /b/ is softer than in English. \n\nSome tricks:\n\n\nIf you put your hand in front of your mouth /p/ provokes air and /b/ no. Like in English /p/in vs /b/in.\nIf you put your hand in front of your mouth /p/ on\ns/p/it provokes less air than in /p/ut." ]

[ "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is taking a huge political risk in ordering the pullout of settlers from the Gaza Strip. It is a gamble worth taking." ]

[ "Liaison over the Gaza pullout is possible if the new Palestinian leaders curb attacks on Israelis, Ariel Sharon says.", "withdrawal of troops and settlers from occupied Gaza next year. Militants seek to claim any pullout as a victory. &quot;Islamic Jihad will not be broken by this martyrdom,&quot; said Khaled al-Batsh, a senior political leader in Gaza.", "Israel held out the prospect on Monday of coordinating a planned unilateral Gaza pullout with the Palestinians if a new leadership succeeding Yasser Arafat cracked down on militants.", "Israeli PM Ariel Sharon defies opponents of his Gaza pullout plan, as he faces a crucial vote of his Likud party.", "Israel is suggesting leaving a Gaza settlement intact after its planned pullout next year for Palestinian residents of Gaza to use as a hospital, as well as selling an industrial zone at a crossing point to international bodies, Israeli officials said.", "Israeli officials urge opponents of Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan to back it in a crunch vote next week.", "GAZA CITY, Oct 27 - The Palestinian Authority is ready to assume its responsibilities in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli pullout, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat&#39;s chief advisor said Wednesday.", "Any Israeli withdrawal from land that may one day be a Palestinian homeland is long overdue. For that reason, we should all applaud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent victory in the Knesset that will close Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.", "Israel&#39;s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which won parliamentary approval Tuesday, will prove to be a victory for the Palestinian resistance against occupation, the militant Hamas movement said on Wednesday.", "Israel killed a senior member of the Hamas militant group and another gunman in an airstrike on their car in Gaza on Thursday, days before a key parliamentary vote on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan.", "The United States on Tuesday vetoed an Arab-backed resolution demanding an immediate end to military operations in Gaza and a pullout of Israeli forces.", "Israel’s Gaza pullout plan, threatened by settler resistance, received a major boost when a small Jewish settlement agreed to move as a unit to a village inside Israel.", "The move suggests the sides were seeking to pull back from a potential showdown in the Gaza Strip, at least for now.", "Israeli police examine death threats against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, amid mounting opposition to his Gaza pullout plan.", "Israel dismissed six reservist military officers on Sunday for threatening to disobey an order to evacuate Jewish settlements under a Gaza pullout plan, the military said.", "In recent interviews, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made it unequivocally clear that the &quot;road map&quot; is done for. He is betting on the disengagement from Gaza as an isolated move that", "For a start, his absence, temporary or permanent, has the potential of throwing a monkey wrench in the Israeli leader&#39;s much-trumpeted plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and evacuate Israeli settlements in this overpopulated Palestinian", "PRESIDENTIAL election frontrunner Mahmud Abbas said Israel&#39;s planned pullout from Gaza must be the precursor to further withdrawals as he demanded an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories.", "RAFAH, Gaza strip - Palestinian militants launched on Sunday their first deadly raid into Israel from Gaza since an Israeli pullout last year, killing two Israelis in an assault in which several of the attackers also died.", "GAZA CITY, Oct 13 - A failed assassination of a top security official here was a stark reminder of the uphill battle faced by Palestinian authorities in resolving the security chaos in Gaza ahead of a planned Israeli pullout.", "Tuesday&#39;s vote in the Israeli Knesset in favor of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon&#39;s plan for unilateral withdrawal of settlers and soldiers from Gaza was a historic moment in the history of Israel.", "Saying 2005 presents an &quot;opportunity for a historic breakthrough,&quot; Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday invited the incoming Palestinian government to help Israel coordinate its withdrawal from Gaza next year.", "Israel killed the top bombmaker and rocket engineer of the Hamas militant group on Thursday in an airstrike in Gaza City, days before a key parliamentary vote on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon&#39;s Gaza pullout plan.", "Seven months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon&#39;s astonishing announcement of a plan to withdraw all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip ignited a tiny spark of hope among people searching for some way out of another ghastly intifada.", "Israel&#39;s divided parliament is widely expected to ratify Prime Minister Ariel Sharon&#39;s Gaza withdrawal plan today, a crucial step towards the first evacuation of settlers from lands Palestinians want for a state.", "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday Israel&#39;s pullout from Gaza will begin in May 2005 and will last 12 weeks, Haaretz reported.", "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided on Thursday that Israeli forces could withdraw from a teeming refugee camp in northern Gaza, media reports said.", "Israeli troops killed nine Palestinians Thursday as tanks pushed into the southern Gaza Strip, while a senior Israel official said Israel must follow up the Gaza pullout with a much larger withdrawal from the West Bank.", "Egypt and Israel came close to agreement on a deal to allow hundreds of additional Egyptian soldiers to patrol the border with the Gaza Strip ahead of an Israeli pullout of the territory.", "Description: NPR&#39;s Julie McCarthy reporters about Tuesday&#39;s vote by the Israeli legislature that could lead to the pullout of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.", "Israel&#39;s decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank is a victory for the Palestinian resistance, jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said on Monday.", "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday presented a detailed timetable for his planned pullout of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip to his Likud party." ]

[ "Himachal Pradesh" ]

[ "Stoked", "DID", "cultivator", "introduced species", "Stoke", "Did Not Finish", "Introducing... The Beatles", "Shifting cultivation", "BBC Introducing", "Did It for the Party", "Donald Stokes", "Evan", "coca cultivation", "Arthur Stokes", "Stokes radius", "Mariah Stokes", "Michael Stokes", "Steph Stokes", "Evans", "Stoke Mandeville", "Leonard Stokes", "Stoke City", "Stokes Nielson", "Chris Stokes", "Stoke on Trent", "that which burns", "Jonathan Stokes", "Stoke Park", "that which purifies", "Rob Stokes", "Stokes law", "Samuelle" ]

[ "Andrew Dorff" ]

[ "If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death", "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Doctor Who" ]

[ "KUALA LUMPUR: The national men’s hockey team are still struggling to get used to the playing conditions at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.\nCoach Stephen van Huizen’s (pic) side have been training at the venue for the last one week ahead of the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.\nBut Stephen is not fazed by the problem as the new artificial turf was just laid recently.\nSaid Stephen: “Like all new surfaces you need time to get used to it. It’s a little slippery when overly wet. I think the players will get used to it once we have more training sessions on the pitch.\n“Our concern is during the penalty corner execution. The players need to get used to it quickly when pushing out or stopping the balls. Sometimes it gets a bit bumpy and it affects the execution.”\nMalaysia will start their campaign against Indonesia on Aug 23.\nThe other competing teams are Thailand, Singapore and Myanmar.\nThe top two teams after the round-robin matches will meet in the final. Malaysia, the only South-East Asian country to qualify for next year’s World Cup Finals in India, are expected to cruise to their successive 18th gold.\nThe Star of Malaysia" ]

[ "Burnley have announced that Stephen Ward has signed a contract extension with the club which will see him stay at Turf Moor until 2019 - with the option of extending a further year.\nWard starred in the surprise 3-2 defeat of reigning Premier League champions Chelsea, scoring a speculative effort from a tight angle - giving the Clarets a 2-0 lead on 39 minutes, and now it appears he's been rewarded.\nBREAKING: Stephen Ward signs contract extension at Turf Moor. Read: https://t.co/fdEdTprjH2 pic.twitter.com/GkabKB0MKw — Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) August 14, 2017\n“It’s great and long may it continue,” Ward told Burnley's official website after signing his new deal.\n“I’m delighted to have signed. It’s just great to be part of a club like this at the minute and hopefully we can have another successful season.”\nWard's attention then turned to their shock away victory at Chelsea, where Burnley made the Blues pay for their players' lack of discipline.\n“To find yourself 3-0 up at half-time at Stamford Bridge doesn’t happen very often,” the Republic of Ireland international said.\n“I’ve not scored many like that in my career. I just took a short free-kick, played a one-two with Corky, who played a great ball back to me.\n“Thankfully it sat up nicely and ended up in the back of the net.\n“I was delighted – and Vokesy as well with two fantastic goals – and, all-in-all, we were just happy with the result.\n“We put in a great performance and we have to be very proud of what we did.\n“There was a big thing made of our away form last year so it’s nice to get that first one under our belts and let’s roll on next week and have a big game in front of our home crowd.”", "Republic of Ireland international Stephen Ward has penned a contract extension with Premier League club Burnley.\nThe 31-year-old, who scored a terrific goal in the Clarets' shock 3-2 win at Chelsea on Saturday, was due to be a free agent at the end of this season.\nBut is now under contract until the summer of 2019, with the option of a further 12 months on top of that.\nStephen Ward has reason to celebrate after penning a new contract with Burnley until 2019\nWard is having a good week, after scoring a brilliant goal in a 3-2 win at Chelsea on Saturday\nWard joined Burnley from Wolves in the summer of 2014 and has since nailed down a regular spot at left back in Sean Dyche's side.\n'It's great and long may it continue,' Ward said of playing at Turf Moor.\n'I'm delighted to have signed. It's just great to be part of a club like this at the minute and hopefully we can have another successful season.'\nWard only made nine top-flight appearances in his first season at the club due to injury.\nBut he became a frequent fixture under Dyche's towards the second half of their promotion season in 2016, when Ben Mee moved inside to partner Michael Keane.\nLast season Ward started all but one of Burnley's Premier League games, more than anyone else in Dyche's squad.\nThe 31-year-old Republic of Ireland international has been a Burnley player since August 2014\nMeanwhile, Dyche feels Belgian playmaker Steven Defour is fitter and more equipped for life in the Premier League after a full pre-season with the club.\nTwelve months ago the Clarets seemed to have pulled off a significant coup when they signed Defour, who was once admired by Manchester United, from Anderlecht upon their return to the top flight.\nHowever, despite showing glimpses of his quality, Defour made just 16 Premier League starts, only one of which came after January, when the midfielder had offered no guarantees about his long-term future at Turf Moor.\nThe 29-year-old Belgium international has remained in Lancashire, though, and on Saturday he starred in the win over champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.\nWard wasn't the only Burnley player to perform well at Chelsea. Steven Defour also impressed\nIn quotes published in the Lancashire Telegraph, Dyche said after the win: 'There's no guarantees but he looks like he's fitter, he's adapted better, he understands the tempo of the game better and that it's physically demanding, particularly here; they've got some very powerful players, they're a big, athletic side.\n'We know he can play, his ball for the goal is absolutely fantastic, so we know that. I think he's mentally adapting as well.\n'Even with all his experience the Premier League is a different animal. We've all seen it with players coming to the Premier League, some adapt quicker but some it takes time, so we're hoping he continues building on his own performances and that's effective for us.\n'The challenge is right there. It was tough last season, over the summer you get a break and a chance to look at things. He's taken it on.'", "I fully support building a much-needed track and improving the field at Freeport High School, but will vote against the current version of the project. I’ve researched the costs and health and safety concerns. I’ve met with some of the track and turf project members, and a member of the high school renovation advisory committee.\nSynthetic turf companies promote the costs on a “per-use” basis as a way to hide the true costs. Installing natural grass instead of synthetic turf could save at least $350,000.\nMaintenance costs of synthetic turf are also often understated. Nike Grind will be excellent for the running track around the infield, but it is expensive when used as field infill and is reported to be similar in composition to crumb rubber.\nThe replacement cost of synthetic turf after 10 years is about $600,000. The need to dispose of 40,000 pounds of old polypropylene turf and 400,000 pounds of infill is environmentally irresponsible.\nConcussions, torn ACLs, turf burns and infections are a problem. Mainly due to player concerns over injuries, the Baltimore Ravens football team recently ripped up their synthetic turf field and replaced it with natural grass.\nFireworks and sparklers burn at 2000 degrees and could easily damage synthetic turf.\nThe high school renovation money is not really “extra” money, but is a contingency fund for the school renovation, and may be needed for furniture.\nRecommendation: Immediately consult sports field design engineers to change to natural grass, and vote on the change before the end of January.\nBill Schmidt\nFreeport", "GETTY Burnley vs Man City LIVE updates: Latest Premier League updates from Turf Moor\nBurnley vs Manchester City LIVE updates: Express Sport brings you the latest Premier League news from Turf Moor WHERE’S SERGIO? 11:55: Oh, here he is! The Argentine striker, who has already played against Burnley twice this season with three goals to his name, strolled off the bus about three minutes after his team-mates. Claret supporters were staying hush in the hope that he’d fallen asleep but he’s now warming up at a cold and damp Turf Moor. Unlucky, lads!\nGETTY Burnley vs Man City LIVE updates: Latest Premier League updates from Turf Moor\nHAVE YOUR SAY 11:50: If you want to vent your frustrations, or discuss any issues in the world of football (within reason), then get in touch! You can either comment at the bottom of the page or contact me via Twitter using the hashtag #ExpressSport. NO SEVENTH SUB? 11:45: I didn’t expect this to steal the headlines this morning, but Pep Guardiola naming six of a possible seven substitutes has caused quite a stir. Asked why he hasn’t brought a full compliment, Guardiola said: “Because we have nobody else.” Gary Neville is livid about it. He’s questioning why Pep wouldn’t bring an academy player to sit on the bench. He argues that it would give the youth ranks a huge boost, and one particular player great confidence and experience. Agree?\nREUTERS Burnley vs Man City LIVE updates: Latest Premier League updates from Turf Moor\nTEAM NEWS - MANCHESTER CITY 11:40: Just the 15-point Premier League advantage for Pep Guardiola’s side to protect. How does he manage? The Spanish tactician makes three changes to his starting line-up from the midweek win over West Brom. Captain Vincent Kompany returns to the starting XI with mega-money signing Aymeric Laporte dropping to the bench. Danilo and Ilkay Gundogan replace Oleksandr Zinchenko and David Silva. TEAM NEWS - BURNLEY 11:35: Tom Heaton, the most wholesome gentleman ever, is in the Sky Sports studio today as he continues his recovery from injury. Nick Pope continues between the sticks. Elsewhere Aaron Lennon makes his first start for Burnley since joining from Everton in the January transfer window. Steven Defour and James Tarkowski remain sidelined as Sean Dyche makes two changes from the side who drew 1-1 with Newcastle. Lennon and Sam Vokes in, Ashley Westwood and Scott Arfield are out.\nREUTERS Burnley vs Man City LIVE updates: Latest Premier League updates from Turf Moor\nBURNLEY vs MANCHESTER CITY 11:30: Is Pep Guardiola so confident of winning that he’s only named six players on the bench?! Must be struggling financially… Burnley XI: Pope, Bardsley, Long, Mee, Taylor, Lennon, Cork, Gudmundsson, Hendrick, Barnes, Vokes. Subs: Lindegaard, Lowton, Westwood, Wells, Arfield, O’Neill, N’Koudou. Manchester City XI: Ederson, Walker, Kompany, Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Sterling, De Bruyne, B Silva, Aguero. Subs: Bravo, Laporte, Adarabioyo, Zinchenko, Toure, Diaz.\nPA Burnley vs Man City LIVE updates: Latest Premier League updates from Turf Moor\nGOOD MORNING 11:25: Welcome to our LIVE coverage of the Premier League. It’s a pretty disgusting morning across the country, and everyone is getting excited about a six-week competition involving oversized blokes and a misshaped ball. The Six Nations, I believe it’s called… But there will be no talk of rugby on this blog, after this section obviously, because we’re all about the football! Manchester City, who boast a thousand point lead, travel to Burnley looking to extend their Premier League advantage. But can worm-eating, gravel-swallowing Sean Dyche engineer a shock at Turf Moor?\nTop Premier League players in 2017/18 – based on stats Thu, February 1, 2018 Click to reveal the top Premier League players of the season so far – based on their WhoScored.com overall rating Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 20 20. Mesut Ozil (Arsenal) – 7.29", "With Alex Smith heading to Washington as the Redskins' new quarterback, Kirk Cousins will likely become a free agent this offseason. It's rare that a quarterback of Cousins' caliber hits the open market, so he's expected to draw plenty of interest. One potential suitor? The Arizona Cardinals, who lost Carson Palmer to retirement this offseason.\nOn Thursday, Cardinals star cornerback Patrick Peterson gave his pitch for Cousins when Stephen A. Smith on ESPN's \"First Take\" asked him if Arizona should make a move for Cousins.\n\"Why not? I believe Kirk can definitely get us over the top,\" Peterson said. \"He'll be in warm weather, playing on one of the best turfs in the NFL, have some great talent around him, running game, receivers, tight end, you name it. We have everything that he needs to be successful.\"\nHe said something similar on radio row at the Super Bowl, calling him a \"damn good quarterback.\"\n\"We've got everything he would need for a quarterback to be successful,\" Peterson said Thursday, via azcentral.com. \"We've got a pretty solid defense, talent all across the board on offense, nice running game that can complement him. He's a damn good quarterback, he just needs pieces to help him be successful.\"\nThe Cardinals might not be the best team in the mix -- if the Vikings or Jaguars get involved, they'll own the edge -- and they might not be able to offer Cousins as much money as, say, the Jets, but Peterson's not necessarily wrong about them being a good fit. They might not be a good team, but they're not a bad team. Even though they didn't have superstar running back David Johnson for pretty much the entire season and dealt with injuries at quarterback, they still went 8-8 in 2017. Cousins could fit in nicely alongside Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald, assuming Fitzgerald doesn't decide to retire.\nIf Cousins chooses to go elsewhere, the Cardinals could try to bring a bridge quarterback like Sam Bradford or Josh McCown. They could also try to move up in the draft or just hope a top-tier quarterback falls to them at No. 15. In his latest mock draft, R.J. White has the Cardinals taking Baker Mayfield.\nBut it really wouldn't be surprising to see the Cardinals make a run at Cousins. They're lacking a starting quarterback and their draft position will make it difficult for them to grab their next franchise quarterback in the first round. But they'll have plenty of competition. Like Peterson, Broncos players are already talking about how Cousins could be the cure they so desperately desire. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora has reported that the Jets will chase him. CBS Sports' Pete Prisco thinks he'll wind up in Jacksonville. The Browns and Bills could also be on his list of potential landing spots.\nOver the past three seasons, only five quarterbacks with a minimum of 16 starts have a higher passer rating than Cousins (97.5). Those five quarterbacks? Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, and Aaron Rodgers, according to Pro Football Reference.\nLet the sweepstakes begin.", "Sean Dyche feels Burnley's Belgian midfielder Steven Defour is fitter and more equipped for life in the Premier League after a full pre-season with the club.\nTwelve months ago the Clarets seemed to have pulled off a significant coup when they signed Defour, who was once admired by Manchester United, from Anderlecht upon their return to the top flight.\nHowever, despite showing glimpses of his quality, Defour made just 16 Premier League starts, only one of which came after January, when the midfielder had offered no guarantees about his long-term future at Turf Moor.\nStephen Defour helped Burnley to victory over Chelsea in Saturday's Premier League opener\nDefour assisted Sam Vokes for Burnley's third goal to give the visitors a 3-0 lead at half-time\nBut the 29-year-old Belgium international has remained in Lancashire and on Saturday starred in a shock 3-2 win over champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.\nAfter Gary Cahill was dismissed early on, Burnley took advantage and went into half-time with a shock 3-0 lead at Stamford Bridge, with Defour assisting Sam Vokes for Burnley's third.\nIn quotes published in the Lancashire Telegraph, Dyche said after the win: 'There's no guarantees but he looks like he's fitter, he's adapted better, he understands the tempo of the game better and that it's physically demanding, particularly here; they (Chelsea) have got some very powerful players, they're a big, athletic side.\n'We know he can play, his ball for the goal is absolutely fantastic, so we know that. I think he's mentally adapting as well.\nManager Sean Dyche has backed the Belgian to be a crucial part of Burnley's survival hopes\nAnd he has based his predictions around the fact Defour has experienced a 'full pre-season'\n'Even with all his experience the Premier League is a different animal. We've all seen it with players coming to the Premier League, some adapt quicker but for some it takes time, so we're hoping he continues building on his own performances and that it's effective for us.\n'The challenge is right there. It was tough last season, over the summer you get a break and a chance to look at things. He's taken it on.'\nBurnley and Defour will be looking to follow up their historic victory at Stamford Bridge when Turf Moor hosts its first home game of the season against West Brom on Saturday.", "GET YOUR BACKSIDE TRACKSIDE: The final race day of the year is at the Gladstone Turf Club on Saturday.\nGET YOUR BACKSIDE TRACKSIDE: The final race day of the year is at the Gladstone Turf Club on Saturday. Matt Taylor GLA071117MELBCUP\nI’m a keen angler looking to explore and enjoy myself in Mackay. As a journalist here I am looking forward to being involved and entrenched in the issues within this community.\nImprovements could be on the way for the Gladstone Turf Club.\nDuring the state election campaign, the Queensland Labor Party committed to an $8.4 million cash injection for racing clubs in Central Queensland if they were re-elected.\nClub president David Weinert welcomed this and said he wanted to meet with the new Racing Minister Sterling Hinchcliffe.\n\"It will be one of our priorities to speak to Glenn (Butcher) and get Stirling up here,” he said.\n\"We've certainly had some discussions with council about improvements down there and things we can do.\n\"We'd love to get the Racing Minister up here and have those discussions with him and hopefully do a little bit of development here moving forward.”\nThe club is also busy preparing for their final race day of the year this Saturday.\nWeinert is encouraging people to bring the kids down for the Family Fun Day, from 11am.\n\"We'd like to get as many people out there as we can with their kids to enjoy the day,” he said.\n\"The weather forecast at the moment looks great for us. We've got jumping castles, water slides, giveaways and food for the kids.\n\"Hopefully the mums and dads might see fit to bring the kids down for a day out maybe after they've been to the opening of the new council park (Lions Park).”\nThere are five races on the card with the first starting at 1pm. \"It should be a good competitive program,” Weinert said.\nThere is plenty of grassed areas at the track, which Weinert said was perfect for children.\nA good crowd is expected for the club's final race day of the year, with Weinert saying a number of Christmas parties had been booked on the day.\nWeinert said it had been a good year for the club, particularly the second half of the year.\n\"It is always better for us than earlier in the year but like the rest of the town we suffered significantly when things dropped,” he said.\n\"But we are noticing a lot more people getting back to the races which can only be a positive.”\nDetails", "Fior Markets Publish a New Market Research Report On – “ Turf Protection Market 2017 Global Analysis and Forecast to 2022”. The Report Covers Industry Trends, Statistic, Segmentation, Growth, Market Share, Revenue, Leading Players, Region, Types and Application.\nDownload Free Sample report @ https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/143379/request-sample\nTurf Protection market report issues the latest industry data and future trends permitting you to discern the products and end users driving Revenue growth and benefits. The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry Analysis of the key factors influencing the market.\nThe report includes the forecasts, analysis and discussion of important industry trends, market size, market share estimates and profiles of the leading industry Players.\nBacked by extensive primary and secondary research, the report Global Turf Protection Industry delivers valuable market insights. The report has been prepared using inputs from industry experts and features valuable recommendations from senior analysts. The report offers a comprehensive overview of the Global Turf Protection industry.\nThe reports includes market drivers, restraints, challenges, opportunities, investment potential, leading technologies, future roadmap, player profile, regulatory ecosystem, and strategies. The report also delivers market size forecasts for Turf Protection Industry. The forecasts are further mentioned for the top segment of the Turf Protection market. This report comes with several charts, graphs, and graphics to make it an interesting read.\nAccess full report @ https://www.fiormarkets.com/report/global-turf-protection-market-professional-survey-report-2017-143379.html\nThe report is divided into product segment analysis, application segment analysis and regional segment analysis. Geographically, the global Turf Protection market is designed for the following regional markets:\nThe industry research is disperse over the world which includes Turf Protection market in USA, Europe, Japan, China, India and South East Asia.\nThis report includes industry definitions and types, regions, Turf Protection industry analysis like industry revenue, growth rate and price analysis, market share by players and regions, supply chain analysis, various company profiles, globalization and trade inclusive of business locations, supply channels, marketing strategy and barriers to entry, Import, Export, Consumption and Consumption Value by Major Countries.\nThus, the research study provides a comprehensive view of the global Turf Protection market, offering market dimensions and evaluations for the period from 2017 to 2022, keeping in mind the aforementioned factors.", "0\nI’ve never played any of the Far Cry games, but that’s probably going to change with Far Cry 5. Ubisoft has released a new story trailer for Far Cry 5, which delves into the game’s central conflict—a doomsday cult called “The Project at Eden’s Gate” has taken over the fictional Hope County, Montana, and it’s up to you to put together a band of rebels and take down the cult.\nUbisoft has also announced that fans can get the Far Cry 5 Season Pass through the Far Cry 5 Gold Edition (old crotchety gamer voice: “I remember when you just bought the game and that was it!”) that will include “Hours of Darkness,” “which lets players travel back in time to Vietnam to battle against Việt Cộng soldiers; the zombie-filled ‘Dead Living Zombies’; and ‘Lost on Mars,’ wherein players go to fight Martian arachnids,” according to EW. Additionally, if you’re a season pass holder, you’ll get access to Far Cry 3 Classic Edition four weeks prior to the game’s summer 2018 launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If you’re a PC gamer, the season pass gets you Far Cry 3 immediately.\nAs for Far Cry 5, the gameplay appears to be in the same open-world, first-person shooter mold as past games, but I have to admit I’m intrigued by the setting. I can’t recall another game that used a religious cult as the main adversary when you were on their turf, and that turf was in America. Whether that leads to a fulfilling story and/or a game that’s fun to play, I’ll wait until the reviews come out.\nCheck out the new Far Cry 5 trailer below. The game will be released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on March 27th.\nHere’s the official synopsis for Far Cry 5:", "In addition to the new field at Heath Middle School, the city-funded project also funded a new all-weather track at Heath. Greeley West High School is getting its own synthetic turf field, a new track and refurbished tennis courts. Central High School also is getting upgraded tennis courts, and Frontier Academy has a new turf soccer field. All projects are funded by the city’s quality of life tax; the city’s involvement will make the fields and courts available for league and recreation play in addition to school sports.\nSince he took the helm of Greeley Central's football program in 2015, Gary Luster had to make do. The Wildcats practiced not on the turf of District 6 Stadium, where they, Greeley West and Northridge play their home games, but on an improvised gridiron on the grass of Central's baseball field that was too narrow by six yards and had just a few hash marks in left field for the freshman team.\nThe Grizzlies got to practice at District 6 because it's in their backyard; the Spartans used their own grass field but also had use of District 6; for the Wildcats, because of issues with player transportation, it never was an option.\nNow, with the installation of a FieldTurf field at Heath Middle School, just down the street from Central, the Wildcats finally can practice on the surface they play on.\n\"It's unbelievable,\" Luster said, \"to compete on the surface that we're playing on on a nightly basis.\"\nThe field at Heath is part of a $4.3 million, citywide project to improve public school athletic facilities, all of which should be completed by the start of the school year.\nThe renovations are being paid for by the city's 0.3 percent \"quality of life\" sales tax — no money came from District 6, a misconception district athletic director Bob Billings has faced as the district deals with its own funding needs.\nRecommended Stories For You\n\"I had a parent up here the other day asking me why we spent money on this instead of buying new school buses,\" Billings said. \"We're not spending any district money on this.\"\nBecause the city invested so heavily in the project, Heath, like District 6 when the city chipped in to install turf there two years ago, will be available for use by youth, community and rec league teams. Billings said Heath already hosts more football games than any other field in Greeley — youth flag and tackle, middle school and sub-varsity high school.\nThe switch from natural grass to turf will greatly increase the number of games and events that can be held there; Billings said District 6 Stadium hosted 345 events in the first year of its turf field after hosting 145 the year before. It also will save 2.7 million gallons of water and $8,100 per season because of reduced maintenance needs, according to Brad Johnson, the district's executive director of support services,\nThe field at Heath also has something no Greeley field has ever had: lacrosse markings. Billings is adamant District 6 has no plans to start a high school lacrosse team. This is the district's way of planning for the eventuality that it could add one — probably as an all-city team, like Fort Collins does at Fossil Ridge — while making the field available for club lacrosse teams to practice and play on in the meantime.\nThe turf itself already is a big hit with Central's football team. According to a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, football athletes on average change direction 3 percent faster on FieldTurf than on natural grass, which doesn't seem like much but is substantial in a sport where milliseconds can determine the outcome of a play. Eight of the Wildcats' 10 regular season games this season will be on turf, so practicing at Heath should better prepare them for the real deal.\n\"I think it replicates the speed of the game better for us,\" Luster said.\nAnd it doesn't hurt that the field at Heath is made of FieldTurf's newest proprietary technology and is the only field of its kind in Colorado. The company is test-marketing its new product in Greeley, and its engineers will monitor its performance throughout the year. The product has yet to hit the open market; one of the only other places it's installed is at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.\n\"If it's good enough for the New England Patriots, it's good enough for us,\" Luster said.", "COSTA MESA — After three steps, Austin Ekeler knew he was getting to the end zone.\nEarly in the fourth quarter last Sunday, the Chargers called a trap play, sending their offensive linemen to the right. A half-second later, Ekeler cut back to his left. The Philadelphia defense was out of position, and the 5-foot-10 running back saw a clear path to the goal line, 35 yards away.\nFirst career carry, first career touchdown.\n“It didn’t end up going the way we planned as far as blocking scheme,” Ekeler said. “But you know, running back, it’s the most instinctive position. You’ve got to react to things when things go bad, and make something happen.”\nHe did. And this Sunday at MetLife Stadium, he will face the Giants (10 a.m. PT, Ch. 13) as the Chargers’ No. 2 tailback. Not bad for an undrafted rookie out of Western State.\nEkeler’s touchdown was one of the bright spots in the Chargers’ 26-24 loss to the Eagles — and another reminder that, every year, NFL talent evaluators miss on talent. Buried on the depth chart at the start of training camp, the 22-year-old gradually climbed up the ladder. He flashed his skills in space, totaling 108 yards from scrimmage in a preseason finale against the 49ers.\nBut since the regular season started, Ekeler has only gotten 12 offensive snaps. That should change at the Meadowlands this weekend. The Chargers (0-4) ruled out Branden Oliver with a hamstring injury on Friday, giving Ekeler a chance as Melvin Gordon’s primary backup.\nFor a winless team averaging just 67.5 rushing yards per game, the change presents few downsides. Only three NFL franchises have been worse on the ground this season: the Dolphins (66.3), the Giants (59.2) and the Cardinals (57.0).\n“He’s a little bit of an unproven commodity from the standpoint of regular-season games,” offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt said of Ekeler, “so it’s not like we have a 30-play package designed for him. But there are certain things you try to put him in for and see if you can use some of the things he does well.”\nOne standout trait? Two years ago in Indianapolis, Gordon ran his 40-yard dash in 4.52 seconds. A year before that, Oliver recorded the same time at his pro day.\nEarlier this year, Ekeler needed just 4.43 seconds in a guest spot at Colorado’s pro day, which would have ranked fourth among running backs at the NFL combine.\n“Speed, speed, speed,” Ekeler said. “That’s what you’re gonna get — speed and agility.”\nTurf wars\nThe Chargers have played in four different stadiums since the start of the 2017 preseason. Sunday’s visit to MetLife Stadium is the first time they will play on synthetic turf.\nAt least one player isn’t concerned about the adjustment.\n“Don’t think so,” said safety Tre Boston. “Warm up for 20 to 30 minutes, should be fine.”\nNFL players generally prefer to play on real grass, though such surfaces can be impractical to maintain in places with cold winters.\nTwo years ago, Sports Illustrated produced a ranking of NFL fields, synthesizing input from players as well as stadium groundskeepers. MetLife Stadium’s UBU Speed Series S5-M Synthetic Turf slotted in at No. 14. The same brand of turf was re-installed at the venue in spring of 2016.\nInjury report\nRookie receiver Mike Williams was ruled out for Sunday’s game, along with Oliver. Limited since May by a herniated disc in his lower back, the No. 7 overall pick has yet to make his NFL debut.\nLinebacker Jatavis Brown — the NFL’s third-leading tackler — and right tackle Joe Barksdale are questionable to play against the Giants (0-4). Recovering from respective ankle and foot injuries, the two could be game-time decisions at MetLife Stadium.\nLinebacker Nick Dzubnar and offensive lineman Michael Schofield will likely step into the starting lineup if Brown or Barksdale don’t suit up.\nReceiver Tyrell Williams (neck) and tight end Sean McGrath (foot) are also listed as questionable, but both were full participants in every practice this week.\nThe Chargers may consider activating Andre Williams off the practice squad to supplement the running back depth chart — a move that would pit the 5-foot-11 back against his old team. A fourth-round pick by the Giants, the former Heisman finalist ran for 721 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie in 2014.", "Index Markets Research offers a detailed research on Global Sports Turf Seed Market with the future prospects of the market to provide the current state and emerging trends in the market. The report covers methodical outlook by considering aspects such as market growth, market demands, business strategies, consumption volume, market trends and industry cost structure during the forecast period 2018-2025. New vendors in the market are facing tough competition from established international vendors as they struggle with technological innovations, reliability and quality issues. The Prominent Manufacturers included Hancock Seed, Pennington Seed, The Scotts Company, Barenbrug Group, Turf Merchants, Green Velvet Sod Farms, Bonide, Jonathan Green, Pickseed, PGG wrightson Turf.\nThe Sports Turf Seed Market report includes a brief on these trends that can help the businesses operating in the industry to understand the market and strategize for their business expansion accordingly. The research report analyzes the market size, industry share, growth, key segments, CAGR and key drivers. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2013-2018 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global total market of Sports Turf Seed industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis.\nRequest for Sample Report @ https://www.indexmarketsresearch.com/report/global-sports-turf-seed-market/10138/#requestforsample\nThe Sports Turf Seed Market report gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers. The Porter’s Five Forces model and the SWOT analysis are also a fraction of this study so as to assist businessmen in recognizing the spirited background of the market. This The market report integrates a study of the investment charisma of the market, and the end consumers have been standardized based on their general attractiveness, rate of development, and size of the market.It provides overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, volume delivered (in kilo tons) and the income it produces (in US$), demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.\nGeographically, this report is portioned into a few key Regions, with generation, utilization, income (million USD), piece of the pie and development rate in these areas, from 2018 to 2025 (gauge), covering United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.\nSports Turf Seed Market Products Type Segmentation : Cool Season Grass, Warm Season Grass.\nSports Turf Seed Market Applications Segmentation : Landscape Turf, Golf Turf, Others.\nKey Highlights of the Sports Turf Seed Market :\n1) A Clear understanding of the market supported growth, constraints, opportunities, practicableness study.\n2) Analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.\n3) It depicts parameters such as production value, capacity in a statistical format that is accurately fathomed by the readers.\n4) Strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.\n5) Strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.\nInquiry for Buying Report @ https://www.indexmarketsresearch.com/report/global-sports-turf-seed-market/10138/#inquiry\nIn the conclusion, The Sports Turf Seed market downstream consumer analysis, upstream raw materials, different types of equipment are concealed in the report. Research findings, conclusions, industry feasibility analysis, vendors and traders involved, appendix data and figures in the form of tables, graphs, and pie-charts.\nAbout Us\nIndex Markets Research conduct market research and publish reports. You can find more than 35,000 research reports in our web store, which covers global industry and the regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.\nContact Us\nMark Irwin\nSales Manager\nEmail Id: [email protected]\nPhone: +1 202 888 3519\nWeb: https://www.indexmarketsresearch.com/", "Ireland defender Stephen Ward has signed a new two-year deal with Burnley.\nWard joined the Clarets from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2014, and has extended his stay at Turf Moor until 2019, with the option to stay a further year.\nWard was on target as Sean Dyche’s side stunned champions Chelsea on the season’s opening weekend, scoring the second in a 3-2 win at Stamford Bridge.\nOn Monday 31-year-old fullback was named in Martin O’Neill’s provisonal 39-man squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Serbia in September.\nOn his new contract, Ward said: “It’s great and long may it continue.\n“I’m delighted to have signed. It’s just great to be part of a club like this at the minute and hopefully we can have another successful season.”", "Karthik Madhavan\nHockey ground under construction at the Coimbatore Corporation Boys’ School, R.S. Puram.M. PeriasamyM_PERIASAMY\nThe Rs. 6 crore hockey stadium project the Coimbatore Corporation has been constructing at the R.S. Puram Boys’ School ground has the hockey fraternity worried.\nThe corporation is laying a synthetic turf for around Rs. 75 lakh and building gallery at another Rs. 4 to 6 crore. The move follows a resolution the Coimbatore Corporation Council passed in 2014.\nThe corporation that began the work sometime ago had now readied the ground for laying the synthetic turf by completing the basic work. Two weeks ago it had laid a rubber-resin surface over a bitumen surface to provide necessary cushion beneath the synthetic turf.\nBut the rubber-resin surface had started peeling off the bitumen surface and could be strewn around the place. That is not the hockey enthusiasts only worry, though.\nSources, who The Hindu spoke to, said that the dug earth that was next to the under-construction play area too was a cause for concern as strong breeze was carrying dust from the earthen mounds onto the rubber resin surface.\nThe dust that settled on the rubber-resin surface would impact the way the synthetic turf was glued. There would be air bubbles and the surface would turn uneven.\nThe hockey fraternity members also said that the glue the corporation had planned to use was also of poor quality and may not be a potent adhesive.\nIf the synthetic turf were to be a reality, it would benefit budding hockey players in The Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Salem and even Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts as none of the districts had a synthetic turf.\nIt would also help the hockey association host national and international events to help youngsters take up the sport. But the way the corporation was executing the project was like buying and getting ready to paint even before the brick work was complete, they added.\nCorporation engineers refused to comment. Senior officials said they would inspect the progress of construction and take remedial action, if necessary.\nThe Hindu", "We are going on two full seasons without an indoor soccer centre.\nSadly, I'm already planning a third season on gym floors, starting in November of 2018.\nIn fact, many users other than soccer -- such as football, Frisbee, baseball, lacrosse, and other rental groups -- have no access to an indoor artificial turf complex. I keep reading about a $100-million arena/complex, or a $35-million to $50-million library/art gallery, or a $20-million to $30-million French arts building.\nHow about a $5 million full indoor artificial turf complex that people would be lined up at the door to use? Or turf and bubble an existing field in Sudbury for $3 million? Sudbury already has an arena, libraries, or other locations to house these other projects. Sudbury does not have one artificial turf sports complex for the winter months.\nIt snows a lot in Sudbury and winters are cold. The outdoor climate for using Sudbury's outdoor turf and grass fields is basically May 1-Oct 31; that is, if we are so lucky to get on the artificial turf at James Jerome. So, for the other six months - November to April -- James Jerome turf sits idle. Poor planning, again. I don't think snow ice, and winter elements help the turf, do they?\nOh, by the way, do not waste another $20,000 on a feasibility study to see if Sudbury has the demand for an indoor complex. We had a previous location known as the Sudbury Soccer Centre, which was at capacity during the winter months. The free answer is yes, there is a demand, proven by the previous 15-plus years of an operating soccer centre.\nYou might ask, how do we compare to other communities? Terribly, if you ask me. Sudbury is 20 years behind the rest of urban areas in Ontario. Consider this: Sault Ste Marie has a population of about 75,000 (that's half of Sudbury). They have a complex, the Northern Community Centre.\nNorth Bay has a population of about 50,000 (that's one-third of Sudbury). My contacts there tell me a big announcement is coming soon for building one there.\nThe City of Greater Sudbury has a population of about 165,000.\nSudbury has ... wait for it ... nothing.\nSudbury's citizens -- players starting from three years old to seniors (male, female, recreational, competitive), parents, coaches, and other sports athletes and enthusiasts -- deserve better.\nGiuseppe Politi\nSudbury\n. . . .\nDo you have thoughts about this letter? Send them to [email protected]", "Stephen Kenny believes that his side’s three successive league titles count for very little when it comes to preparing for this season’s campaign, where Dundalk could secure a record-equalling fourth title in a row.\nOnly the all-conquering Shamrock Rovers side of the 1980s have managed that feat in League of Ireland history, and the Dundalk manager admits that his side must “go again”, starting with a home clash against the Hoops .\nKenny believes that a real tough challenge awaits on all fronts as he has to cope with the loss of key players, the integration of new inexperience squad members, a more competitive league and a gruelling opening six games in a bid to create another bit of history.\n“Looking at the league this year, it has got much stronger,” said Kenny, speaking at the launch of the 2017 SSE Airtricity League campaign.\n“The European places are very much up for grabs and the league title is up for grabs.\n“A lot of teams feel they can make a fair challenge this year, and the way we feel about it in Dundalk is that nobody gives you anything.\n“We understand that, and we have to start again with no points and what we have done before counts for nothing really now.”\nAnd while the Lilywhites boss enjoyed a bit of a light-hearted dig at the authenticity of the FAI’s fixture list-creating computer, which sees the mouthwatering opening-day clash with Shamrock Rovers at Oriel Park, Kenny felt that what lay in store for his side in those opening six games was certainly not a laughing matter.\n“The computer came up with that quite quickly alright,” laughed Kenny, at the prospect of the heavyweight opening clash.\n\"The challenge for us is that there are some new players coming in and they have to hit the ground running\"\n“But a home game against Shamrock Rovers, a full house at Oriel Park; it is one that certainly captures the imagination for the public in Dundalk and elsewhere, so it should be great.\n“The first six games, the way the fixture list has come, we have got to go away to Cork, away to Derry and away to Sligo, and we’ve got Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick’s Athletic and Limerick so it is as tough a start as you can get.\n“And the challenge for us is that there are some new players coming in and they have to hit the ground running.\n“It’s a big test for everyone to go again but we certainly won’t be lacking hunger and determination to do that.\n“From our point of view, how do we maintain the standards, and not only maintain them but how do we increase them in relation to losing your better players?\n“But that is the challenge that has presented itself and you cannot be fearful of it, you have to enjoy it.\n“Some of the players coming in are very young but they are no less talented and we look forward to trying to reach the heights.”\nLosing out on key players and integrating new ones has become a pre-season theme for the Lilywhites manager in recent seasons, however, Kenny has nothing but good wishes towards his departing Deepdale duo Daryl Horgan and Andy Boyle.\n“We had three players in the international squad last year, Gary Rogers first and then Andy Boyle and Daryl Horgan and like some of the players in previous seasons, they got the move that they wanted to England.\n“And we have to respect that. It’s a great opportunity for them and hopefully they get the opportunity at international level further down the line and they go on to do well.”\n\"If I’m being honest, we’d rather play on grass\"\nAnother thing that is changing at the home of the champions is the much-maligned artificial surface, which has been ripped up ahead of the new season.\nHowever, the replacement is also of the artificial variety and it would appear that the manager would have preferred a return to traditional turf for the sake of his ball-playing outfit.\n“If I’m being honest, we’d rather play on grass,” Kenny admitted.\n“Grass suits us. Our away record over the last couple of seasons has actually been better so we would rather play on grass every week, but apparently the new pitch is the most modern pitch you can have so it seems to be fine.\"\nKenny is also excited of the prospect of a genuinely national league with all 12 teams coming from every corner of the island.\nDundalk captain Stephen O'Donnell says league is the priority & players have the incentive of pushing for elusive four in a row. #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/F3xmhaarLS — RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) February 14, 2017\nHowever, the former Shamrock Rovers boss also feels for the weaker sides in the league who must deal with the prospect of three teams getting relegated to facilitate a 10-team league in 2018.\n“I remember when there was a ten-team league and six or seven of the teams were from the greater Dunlin area\n“But now it is a real national league going right across the west coast, from Derry down to Finn Harps to Galway. Sligo right down to Cork and Limerick, so it’s a proper geographical spread and a lot of the major cities and towns are represented, so I have a good feeling about that.\n“The stakes are high and it’s obviously going to be very harsh on teams in a 12-team league for three to be relegated.”\nMeanwhile, new Galway manager Shane Keegan explained his side’s approach to ensure to this campaign to ensure Premier Division football in 2018.\n\"It’s very much going to be a case of attempting to separate yourself from those three relegation spots over the course of the first round of games\"\n“It’s going to be a very interesting season with the new structures and you are left with a remarkable situation that with 12 teams in the division, seven of them are either going to be relegated or in Europe.\n“That’s more than half the teams, so there is going to be a lot to play for for everybody involved.\n“For us and for the other sides who finished in the bottom half last year, it’s very much going to be a case of attempting to separate yourself from those three relegation spots over the course of the first round of games.\n“Because then you can focus on kicking on and trying to finish in the top half of the table.”", "Mark Hughes is facing two potentially crucial games as he fights for his future at Stoke City.\nHughes takes on Burnley on Tuesday night with his position fragile after a torrid 18 months which has seen him come under growing pressure from supporters.\nStoke have lost three of their last four Premier League games and the situation reached crisis point when Hughes and his players were confronted by angry fans at Stoke railway station on Saturday night, hours after the 5-1 capitulation against Tottenham Hotspur.\nIt is understood Hughes' job will be safe even if his team suffer defeat at Turf Moor but this weekend’s game against West Ham could be pivotal to his hopes of staying in charge.\nPeter Coates, the chairman, is determined to stay loyal to Hughes – who guided Stoke to three successive ninth-placed finishes in a row – but results and performances are becoming a huge concern for the club's board.\nHughes has challenged his players to use Saturday’s heated confrontation with fans as inspiration as they head into a big week.", "Trumbull High hockey players Eric McCabe and Matt Mocker were named to the first-team Division II All-State squad by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association.\nMcCabe is a defenseman and Mocker a forward.\nMcCabe and St. Joseph’s Sean Attanasio were named Hobey Baker Award recipients, presented to players that display integrity, positive attitude, coachability, outstanding sportsmanship and community spirit.\nThe All-State banquet is scheduled for Sunday, April 8, at 1 p.m. at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville.", "PORTLAND, Ore.— Some 400 students from Mary Reike Elementary school and an entire neighborhood near Southwest Vermont will get to enjoy a brand new soccer field funded by voters. The fix our parks bond was passed in 2014. Students will use it during school and during after class activities. Soccer Leagues will use it on weekends for games and practices. A new field was long overdue. The old turf was described as being hard as cement and a danger to the kids if they fell on it. Duniway and Lents Park also received the turf facelift since the bond measure was passed.", "256 total views, 232 views today\nIn 2008, MCPS installed their first turf field at Richard Montgomery High School. Their contractor told them they were getting “breakthrough” technology and touted “unmatched durability” against wear—the “safest system you can buy,” as described in company sales pitches.\nNow, 10 years later, FieldTurf—the company that installed all six Montgomery County high school turf fields—is the target of a federal class-action suit brought by organizations in 46 states and the District of Columbia, alleging the company knowingly sold “inherently and materially defective” fields.\nA major player in the international turf industry, FieldTurf has been forced to replace one MCPS high school’s field three years ahead of schedule “to assure the safety of athletes,” because the carpet on the field was “deteriorated” and “heavily worn,” according to a January 2017 Montgomery Parks department press release.\nFieldTurf, for its part, stands by the safety of its fields.\n“Every single field in Montgomery County is proven the safest possible field in existence,” FieldTurf regional sales representative John McShane said in a phone interview Feb. 28.\nOver the past decade, MCPS has replaced some of its grass fields with artificial turf because it offers increased field-time and durability, MCPS athletic director Jeffrey Sullivan said.\nWhitman, along with Einstein High School and Julius West Middle School, is in line to get a turf field this summer. The Montgomery County Council approved $4.9 million to fund construction of the fields; Montgomery Soccer Inc. agreed to cover $4.2 million of the cost in exchange for 1,000 hours of field time per year over a 10-year period. The Whitman All-Sports Booster Club will contribute an additional $300,000 to the school’s project.\nFieldTurf is among the bidders in the district’s open bid process, McShane confirmed.\nMeanwhile, tests at two of the current turf fields have revealed spots that at times have been worn to the point of being deemed unsafe for athletic competition, per MCPS and industry standards. Continued use of the fields has raised concerns over the validity of MCPS’s testing protocol and whether MCPS is doing enough to ensure the safety of athletes.\nFaulty technology…\nIn 2005, FieldTurf started selling fields made of Duraspine fiber, which they marketed as a breakthrough product that would last at least 10 years, according to sales pitches cited in the class-action suit. FieldTurf sold at least 1,450 Duraspine fields all over the country between 2005–12, the lawsuit states, including the field at Montgomery Blair High School. Two other MCPS fields—at Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson High Schools—are made of FieldTurf Duraspine fiber as well.\nFieldTurf stopped selling the Duraspine fields in 2012 after complaints over the durability of the fields, according to the lawsuit.\nThe class-action lawsuit against FieldTurf came in the wake of national criticism following a 2016 investigative series titled “The 100-Yard Deception,” written by NJ Advance Media, a content provider for newspapers across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The piece alleged that FieldTurf knew about the defects with the Duraspine fiber but continued to sell the fields anyway.\nFieldTurf denied the allegations in the NJ Advance Media story, saying that concerns with Duraspine never compromised field safety and only affected some fields.\n“There is not and has never been any issue with the safety of these fields for playing on,” FieldTurf CEO Eric Daliere wrote in an open letter late 2016.\nIn 2011, the company sued their supplier for defects in the manufacture of the Duraspine fiber. Daliere said in the open letter that the defects only affected “how a field looks over time in certain UV environments,” particularly in the Southern and Southwestern regions. However, many organizations that have joined the national suit against FieldTurf—including Montgomery Parks—are not located in high UV environments.\nFrom the sale of these Duraspine fields, FieldTurf made an estimated revenue of $570 million, mostly at the expense of taxpayers, NJ Advance Media reported.\nBlair was forced to replace their Duraspine field, owned and overseen by Montgomery Parks, three years earlier than expected after it failed a safety test midway through the fall sports season in October 2016. The field was still under warranty, Parks director Michael Riley wrote in a letter April 5, 2017, though it wasn’t clear at the time how much—if any—the company would pay for the “approximately $725,000” replacement. A Jan. 27, 2018, NBC4 report cites an unnamed “official” as saying the replacement was billed to taxpayers, but The Black & White was unable to verify this report. Montgomery Parks joined the class-action lawsuit against FieldTurf in January 2018.\nMCPS, which owns all other turf fields and will own Whitman’s, is currently monitoring the conditions of its fields and will join the lawsuit if it becomes necessary, MCPS spokesman Derek Turner said in a phone interview Feb. 28.\n…Leads to unsafe fields\nAthletes say the fields at Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson have more visible patches of exposed crumb rubber pellets than other turf fields. The suit against FieldTurf alleges that Duraspine fibers shed from the field during normal use, meaning they hold infill less effectively, as can be seen by these exposed patches. Infill is more easily moved around and off the field, compromising the safety of the turf.\nTests at the Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson fields have revealed both to be potentially dangerous to MCPS athletes per industry standards. Still, MCPS continues to allow athletic competition on the fields, leading some experts to question their testing procedure and standards for turf safety.\nOne important measure of turf field safety is the GMAX level test, which measures shock absorption and intensity of impact when an athlete falls on the field. The higher the GMAX level is, the less shock the surface absorbs and the more dangerous the field is for athletes—specifically in terms of knee and head injuries.\nTurf infill is intended to soften the playing surface, cushioning the concrete base underneath. When the field is used, the pellets are displaced from high traffic areas and the GMAX levels there increase as the layer of shock absorption between player and concrete is thinned.\nGMAX levels above 200 can be life threatening if a player hits their head on the field, according to Penn State’s Center for Sports Surface Research.\nThe Synthetic Turf Council, an industry trade association, recommends a standard maximum of 165, which is also used by the NFL and Fairfax County. For reference, the average natural grass field has an equivalent GMAX rating of 90, Maryland SoccerPlex states on its website. Yet the MCPS standard for GMAX is anything below 200.\n“When you see something that looks like grass, you think you can play on it,” said Gastón de los Reyes Jr., an assistant professor of strategic management and public policy at George Washington University. “But if the GMAX levels are above 200, then it might be closer to playing on concrete, and that’s when you get the risk of head and knee injuries.”\nIn October 2016, Athletic Field Consultants, Inc., a company subcontracted by FieldTurf, tested Blair’s field during a mandated biannual test. GMAX levels on the field measured over 200 in multiple areas, a report published by the Montgomery County Parents Coalition revealed. Initial repairs were made before play resumed, and the field was replaced in 2017. However, it’s likely that students played on the field while the levels were still unsafe: the Blair Blazers had played a home football game just three days before the test.\n“ When you see something that looks like grass, you think you can play on it. But if the GMAX levels are above 200, then it might be closer to playing on concrete.” — Gaston de los Reyes Jr.\n“Current guidelines for GMAX have a limit of 200, but we are well, well below that limit. That’s a threshold limit and all our fields are well below that,” county athletic director Sullivan said in a phone interview. “We follow MCPS standards and make sure our levels are well in compliance with those testing standards.”\nMCPS doesn’t own the Blair field, but its fields suffer similar issues. Tests in the summer of 2016 on the fields at Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson revealed that both had average GMAX ratings around 180 with multiple spots at Richard Montgomery registering well over 200, according to reports by the companies FieldTurf contracted to test the fields. One spot at RM registered over 250—significantly higher than the threshold for life-threatening. This information was first published in an Aug. 16, 2016, Forbes article and a Nov. 2, 2016, Bethesda Magazine article.\nInstead of immediately replacing the fields like Montgomery Parks did at Blair, MCPS waited to have the fields retested. The turf tester noted in his report that maintenance crews added rubber infill to high-use areas and groomed the fields immediately prior to tests. Resulting average GMAX levels dropped close to 30 points at each site.\nThough he has not been involved in MCPS fields, de los Reyes expressed concern about this testing method.\n“We also want to know what the field was testing at before you went to do your test,” de los Reyes said. “That would show what children are actually exposed to so they should know what the test number revealed before they added the infill.”\nA FAQ on turf fields posted on the MPCS website states, “areas reading close to 200 in GMAX will be monitored and rejuvenated as needed by de-compacting infill and adding infill mix to increase depth.”\nWhile this process can lower GMAX levels temporarily, if a field has GMAX levels in the 250s in some areas, like Richard Montgomery had in 2016, simply adding infill can’t bring down those levels for any length of time, said Buzz Splittgerber, owner of Idaho-based turf testing company BuzzTurf. Especially on a high-use high school field, the infill is going to get moved around very quickly, creating an inconsistent surface, he said.\n“I’ve never seen a case like that, and I’ve tested a lot of fields. When it gets to be that high [then] the turf is worn out, so the infill material itself just doesn’t stay in,” Splittgerber said in a phone interview.\nSplittgerber has not tested any Montgomery County fields.\nRyan Teeter, who administered the June 2016 test of the Richard Montgomery field, corroborated this view in an interview that year with Bethesda Magazine. Teeter said in the interview that the grass fibers are responsible for holding the crumb rubber infill in place, and if the fibers fail, which Teeter said they had, the field can quickly deteriorate.\nIn any case, both Duraspine MCPS fields are dangerously close to—if not over—even the weakest of standards.\n“Any ratings close to 200 should be cause for concern and should not be considered to be safe,” Splittgerber said in an email. “In my opinion, accepting average readings of 199 is not safety first.”\nFor MCPS athletes, what happens next?\nMCPS will install a turf field at Whitman in the near future. Installation is planned to start immediately after the spring sports season, county athletic director Sullivan said. FieldTurf has submitted a bid for the field, sales representative McShane confirmed. FieldTurf no longer uses Duraspine technology.\nAsked if FieldTurf remains a serious contender for the new contract, MCPS spokesman Turner replied: “MCPS has a formal bid process for fields where any qualifying vendors can submit their bids. No announcement has been made about who will receive the contract at this time.” MCPS has offered no public indication of concern over FieldTurf itself and has not yet followed Montgomery Parks in joining the class-action lawsuit against the company.\n“FieldTurf has installed a lot of successful fields across the country,” Sullivan said.\nThe MCPS Board of Education has twice delayed awarding a contract for the three fields. In anticipation of the new turf field, Whitman’s Bermuda grass field never underwent its regular winter maintenance. Since the turf won’t be installed until summer, Whitman’s spring athletes will now be forced to play home games on the grass anyway. Sullivan said the field will be ready for play in time for the spring season.\nThis summer, the Richard Montgomery field will have completed its 10th year of use, but Richard Montgomery athletic director Chamara Wijeratne said he wasn’t aware of any definite plan to replace it. The Walter Johnson field will have completed its eighth year. At present, MCPS has not allocated funds to replace either the Walter Johnson or the Richard Montgomery field.\nMCPS athletes will spend hundreds of hours playing on the two fields this spring. Given ongoing lawsuits, defective technology and weak testing standards, their safety is questionable at best.\nTiger Björnlund and Sam Shiffman contributed to this report.", "On Sunday, New Era Field turned into a winter wonderland, the Buffalo Bills defeated the Indianapolis Colts, 13-7, on a 21-yard touchdown by running back LeSean McCoy. At times during the game, the blizzard was so brutal, fans couldn't see the scoreboard.\nA post shared by The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) on Dec 11, 2017 at 8:37pm PST\nShot by the Samsung Galaxy Note8\nSunday might have been one of the most memorable games in New Era Field's history.\nIn December, Buffalo's average temperature is a brisk 36 °F, but on Sunday it was even colder, with a temperature of 29 °F. With roughly 20 inches of snow accumulation, players couldn't even see the turf on the field. And yes, Bills fans braved the cold to watch their team come away with the win.\nWith such harsh weather conditions in Buffalo, the Bills have always had artificial surface in the stadium. From 1973 to 2002, the Bills used AstroTurf and now they use A-Turf Titans, which is considered the top synthetic turf system.\nThe Bills played their first game in the stadium in 1989 and did not lose a home playoff game until they lost in 1996 to the Jacksonville Jaguars. During that time, the Bills went to four straight Super Bowls, losing all four. However, this season, the Bills are sitting at 7-6 and are in contention for an AFC Wild Card spot.", "Paul Hurst was left fuming with the fourth official after Shrewsbury lost 2-1 to Peterborough United last night.\nFulham loanee Stephen Humphrys was sent-off in the 55th minute, after he received a second yellow card for blocking a free-kick even though he had his back to the ball.\nHumphrys had put Salop ahead after the half hour mark. The converted penalty was his first goal for the club.\nRyan Tafazolli equalised for the hosts, whilst Dominic Ball scored the winner to give the Posh victory.\nShrewsbury manager Paul Hurst was left disappointed with the conduct of the fourth official.\nHe told shrewsburytown.com: “I don’t like losing games, it’s the first loss in a while (six matches), so naturally I’m not pleased with that.\n“What annoys me is that you have a fourth official who says that you can speak to him, but you ask him a question and he knows what the answer is and all of a sudden they lose their memory and they’re not willing to have a conversation with you.\n“Did Stephen (Humphrys) put himself in a bit of a position? Yes, I’m not going to deny that, but at the same time, I’ve seen it happen where a lad blatantly kicks the ball at a player and the referee says play on, so with the ruling I’m not so sure.\n“Because he (Ryan Tafazolli) wasn’t trying to pass it to a player, he was trying to get the lad sent off and he was successful.”\nDespite the defeat, Paul Hurst praised the application of the players.\nHe added: “It’s not the best night for us, but I’m not going to be too critical of the team with the efforts they’ve put in.\n“They’ve come here and were still very much in the game again. I think we’ve had one game where we weren’t within a goal and that was the fear tonight, when we went down to ten men that we might get blown away.”\nArticle by: Ryan Hillback", "Dare to dream was the mantra as Burnley fought to gain promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 2009.\nThere was even a song released, written by nine-year-old Jasmine Clarkson and Andrew Gilmour, with over 400 fans providing backing vocals to the track.\nFast forward nine years, and supporters are dreaming of a foray into Europe for the first time in over 50 years.\nIndeed, if Burnley beat Stoke City at Turf Moor tonight, they will go into the Champions League places, for 24 hours at least.\nBoss Sean Dyche has no problem with fans singing from the rooftops about their high hopes, but he admits he will stay grounded in reality for now.\nDyche said: “Dreams are for fans, without doubt, that’s part the magic of football.\n“Reality is for managers, that’s what I think.\n“Delivering what you can deliver is important, but you want dreams, to see your team giving everything and getting accolades and wins.\n“That’s what fans want, and I think they’re really enjoying the journey of Burnley since I’ve been here, I don’t get many who question the whole thing.\n“My job is to look at the realities, but the positive side of the realities.\n“There is a challenge in the Premier League, it’s an unforgiving place, but the positive side is our players are getting more assured, growing and understanding it better.\n“They’re delivering better performances.\n“But you always want that, fans to be open-minded about the what ifs, the possibilities and probables.\n“The possibles are what Leicester did, they kept a mindset of anything is achievable.\n“That’s the beauty of the game.\n“Man City have a probable chance of winning the league, but it doesn’t mean it’s a given, so all fans should carry on dreaming, but stick with it if there’s some tough times.”\nThe Clarets sit seventh with 28 points after 16 games, with what many onlookers felt would be a scrap for survival looking an awful long way over their shoulders.\nIs it hard for Dyche to keep his and his players’ feet on the ground: “I don’t think so, I speak to enough Burnley people who are well aware of the complexities of the Premier League, they know it’s still a big challenge.\n“What we’re doing is great and they’re enjoying it, but they know...some of our fans will have only seen us in the last four seasons, three in the Premier League and one in a team which won the Championship, so their thoughts will be different to those who were here when we were selling Charlie Austin.\n“But if you bring them together, I think there’s a pretty balanced view of it, certainly from the ones I speak to, what we are, what we’re trying to be, the fact we are moving forward, and the rest will take care of itself.”", "The Chinese Super League is not content with Oscar, Graziano Pellè or Gervinho. They quite simply want more. And by more, they want Tottenham Hotspur’s rampaging full-back Danny Rose. An unnamed Chinese superpower, as ever, wanted to chuck £14.5m at Doncaster-born, one-time Peterborough United loanee. Rose is not having any of it, though, with Manchester United and Manchester City still circling high above White Hart Lane.\nHe is not the only one. Chelsea’s Diego Costa has also rejected the chance to abruptly end his career by snubbing a lucrative five-year deal from China, worth a mouthwatering £220,000-a-week, to stay put beside Antonio Conte, for the time being at least. Chelsea, meanwhile, continue to focus on more important matters, like turfing out the Stamford Bridge naming rights to any willing investors.\nAnd there has been no time for romancing in north London either, with Spurs too busy getting down to work. They are set to flog Nabil Bentaleb to Schalke on a permanent deal, in order to finance a £15m bid for Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha. While all that’s going on, Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy continues to hawk the world wide web in search of a sponsor to scribble all over their new shiny stadium, fit with that transparent players’ tunnel.\nElsewhere, Antoine Griezmann has got cold feet about a move to Old Trafford, after taking one look at the Arndale shopping centre. The France forward is said to hold “doubts” over a move to England. There is some half-decent news for United, though, with the club bigwigs set to discuss extending Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s contract later this week. In other contract headlines, Mark Noble wants to stay at West Ham United forever, and is keen on committing his long-term future to the Hammers.\nRemember Anthony Stokes? The former Arsenal and Celtic twinkletoes, currently of Blackburn Rovers, is a target for Polish outfit Jagiellonia Bialystok. You’ve heard it here first. And Brighton and Hove Albion’s Dale Stephens is ready to do one if the Seagulls fail to clinch promotion at the 97th time of asking. The 27-year-old slapped in a transfer request last summer after Burnley had a whopping six bids for the midfielder turned down.", "Striker Andre Gray has been coveted by a number of Premier League clubs this summer and the former Brentford frontman appears to be swapping Turf Moor for Vicarage Road ahead of the new Premier League season. The Clarets have lost two key players this summer but the club don’t appear to be in any rush to replace the outgoing stars, which could have disastrous consequences for the Lancashire side.\nIt has required persistence and patience but Watford have finally made a breakthrough in their quest to add a striker to their squad ahead of the new Premier League campaign. The Hornets have recruited sensibly this summer and the capture of the former Luton striker appears savvy business from the Hertfordshire club as they aim to improve upon a 17th place finish this time around.\nHe scored 33 times in a Burnley shirt, picking up the Championship player of the season award in 2016 before taking the step up in his stride, hitting ten Premier League goals despite a stop-start campaign. The 26-year-old had just entered the final year of his current contract at Turf Moor and had been linked with a move away from the club for a number of weeks.\nWhilst Gray’s move south is exciting news for Hornets fans, those of a Claret persuasion are beginning to worry about their club’s chances of survival this season. Sean Dyche’s men relied heavily on their home form last season and their resilience was admirable. They have lost defensive linchpin Michael Keane to Everton this summer and don’t appear to have replaced the former Manchester United centre-back yet. New signing Charlie Taylor, who is predominantly a left-back, has been deputising in the middle during pre-season raising concerns amongst supporters about the clubs investment and ability to compete in a competitive transfer market.\nBurnley have bolstered their squad with the additions of Jack Cork, Jonathon Walters, Phil Bardsley and the aforementioned Charlie Taylor but they still appear to be short on numbers in key positions. Walters hasn’t hit double figures for a number of seasons whilst Sam Vokes remains their best attacking outlet. There is still plenty of time to draft in new faces; however’ the Clarets face a tricky August with trips to London to face Chelsea and Spurs in their first four matches.\nDyche’s men are priced up as third favourites in the football betting markets for the drop this season with odds of 5/4 available on them returning to the Championship. They will once again be reliant on the home crowd and their manager’s ability to frustrate the opposition if they are to avoid the dreaded drop.\nAndre Gray should flourish playing alongside Troy Deeney at Vicarage Road and he can add to his ten Premier League goals this season. His exit appears to leave Burnley desperately short of firepower and the fans are beginning to get twitchy. The money received for the 26-year-old needs to be reinvested in the squad if Burnley are to survive another season in the top flight.", "Index Markets Research offers a detailed research on Global Lawn Grass & Turf Grass Market with the future prospects of the market to provide the current state and emerging trends in the market. The report covers methodical outlook by considering aspects such as market growth, market demands, business strategies, consumption volume, market trends and industry cost structure during the forecast period 2018-2025. New vendors in the market are facing tough competition from established international vendors as they struggle with technological innovations, reliability and quality issues. The Prominent Manufacturers included Ten Cate, FieldTurf, CoCreation Grass, Polytan GmbH, Domo Sports Grass, Mondo S.p.A., Mondo S.p.A., SIS Pitches, Beaulieu International Group, Saltex Oy, Edel Grass B.V., Condor Grass, Nurteks, Victoria PLC, Garden Grass, Taishan, LIMONTA SPORT S.p.A., ForestGrass, Wonderlawn.\nThe Lawn Grass & Turf Grass Market report includes a brief on these trends that can help the businesses operating in the industry to understand the market and strategize for their business expansion accordingly. The research report analyzes the market size, industry share, growth, key segments, CAGR and key drivers. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2013-2018 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global total market of Lawn Grass & Turf Grass industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis.\nRequest for Sample Report @ https://www.indexmarketsresearch.com/report/global-lawn-grass-turf-grass-market/10146/#requestforsample\nThe Lawn Grass & Turf Grass Market report gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers. The Porter’s Five Forces model and the SWOT analysis are also a fraction of this study so as to assist businessmen in recognizing the spirited background of the market. This The market report integrates a study of the investment charisma of the market, and the end consumers have been standardized based on their general attractiveness, rate of development, and size of the market.It provides overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, volume delivered (in kilo tons) and the income it produces (in US$), demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.\nGeographically, this report is portioned into a few key Regions, with generation, utilization, income (million USD), piece of the pie and development rate in these areas, from 2018 to 2025 (gauge), covering United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.\nLawn Grass & Turf Grass Market Products Type Segmentation : Seeded Lawns, Sod Lawns, Artificial Turf, Hydroseeding, Others.\nLawn Grass & Turf Grass Market Applications Segmentation : Contact Sports, Leisure, Landscaping, Gardens, Others.\nKey Highlights of the Lawn Grass & Turf Grass Market :\n1) A Clear understanding of the market supported growth, constraints, opportunities, practicableness study.\n2) Analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.\n3) It depicts parameters such as production value, capacity in a statistical format that is accurately fathomed by the readers.\n4) Strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.\n5) Strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.\nInquiry for Buying Report @ https://www.indexmarketsresearch.com/report/global-lawn-grass-turf-grass-market/10146/#inquiry\nIn the conclusion, The Lawn Grass & Turf Grass market downstream consumer analysis, upstream raw materials, different types of equipment are concealed in the report. Research findings, conclusions, industry feasibility analysis, vendors and traders involved, appendix data and figures in the form of tables, graphs, and pie-charts.\nAbout Us\nIndex Markets Research conduct market research and publish reports. You can find more than 35,000 research reports in our web store, which covers global industry and the regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.\nContact Us\nMark Irwin\nSales Manager\nEmail Id: [email protected]\nPhone: +1 202 888 3519\nWeb: https://www.indexmarketsresearch.com/", "It has already played host to a miracle and the architectural masterpiece known as US Bank Stadium is a phenomenal Super Bowl venue. Maybe even the best ever.\nIt is supposed to resemble a Viking ship. Others see a shard of ice, pointing north west out of Minnesota's frozen tundra. Home to the Minnesota Vikings, it cost $1.13billion to build and opened its glass doors in August 2016 when Chelsea played AC Milan in pre-season friendly.\nInside it is packed with a raft of unique features, some of the best boxes in sport and an unparalleled fan experience, complete with large concourses and an atmosphere that is both intimate and intimidating.\nThis Sunday's much-anticipated Super Bowl will be held at the NFL's best venue - Minnesota's incredible US Bank Stadium\nInside it is packed with a raft of unique features, some of the best boxes in sport and an unparalleled fan experience\nHome to the Minnesota Vikings, it cost $1.13bn to build and opened its glass doors in 2016 when Chelsea played AC Milan\nThe front includes a Viking ship statue, and Minnesota managed to win eight of their nine home games there this season\nWith natural light drenching the interior, it feels as though you are outdoors in a climate-controlled environment. And boy, does it get loud in there, which is a phenomenal advantage to the Vikings.\nThey won eight of their nine games there this season, with the noise generated by the home crowd a large part. Whipped up into a pre-game frenzy by the Gjallarhorn, home fans adopted the Skol chant made famous by Iceland during their memorable run at Euro 16.\nNoise levels exceeded 120 decibels during their playoff game during the New Orleans Saints, the climax of which was Stefon Diggs' 61-yard touchdown reception, also known as the Minneapolis Miracle.\nThanks to Dallas-based HKS Architects, there is literally not a bad seat in the house. Even the press box, so often the scourge of atmosphere in America due to being hermetically sealed behind thick glass, is open to the din outside.\n'It's an incredible stadium. We think it is the best in the league. It's an incredible game day venue,' said Lester Bailey, executive vice-president of public affairs of the Minnesota Vikings. 'It's very intimate. It's very loud.'\nHalf of the stadium roof is made of something called ETFE (ethylene tetra-fluoro-ethylene). It is a lightweight yet durable plastic which blankets the stadium in natural light. So when you're inside, it looks as though you're outside.\nWhile an estimated 100m will be watching in the US alone, the normal capacity 66,655 has been expanded to 73,000\nA wide shot shows the incredible stadium in Minnesota, built to resemble a Viking ship - while others see a shard of ice\nThere is one hitch, though: the stadium is located within a migratory bird pathway. The birds confuse the clear panels for sky\nAfter all, the roof of the Vikings' former Metrodome home collapsed under the weight of snow in 2010. Eventually demolished four years later, US Bank Stadium was built on the same site, rejuvenating that part of downtown Minneapolis. Just don't mention the birds.\nAny new building will have its share of hiccups - just ask Atlanta and their non-closing roof at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium - but after US Bank Stadium had a few loose panels replaced, another problem emerged.\nThe stadium is located within a migratory bird pathway. The birds confuse the clear panels for sky and, well, splat. The solution is to spend a further $1m on darker panels, so watch this space.\nAnother feature are the five pivoting glass doors, the world's largest. They cover the west entrance and range from 75 to 95 feet tall. When climate allows, they open for games to couple fresh air with the natural light, but with temperatures expected to be -15 on Sunday there is no chance of them being opened for the Super Bowl.\nUS Bank Stadium will more than play its part in Sunday's huge showdown as New England Patriots take on Philadelphia Eagles\n'Legends Start Here' is the message in the locker rooms, where the players will get changed before heading to the field\nUS Bank Stadium was built on the same site as the team's old stadium, rejuvenating that part of downtown Minneapolis\nThe two LED video boards may not be the biggest (but at 120ft x 68ft and 88ft x 50ft they are not tiny either), yet they are the best positioned. Deliberately placed at a low level, players and fans can easily see happenings on the synthetic turf.\nAlso inside the 1.75m square foot behemoth are some of the best seats and boxes in sport. Turf Suite tickets (which are for between 12 and 24 people), put fans 25 feet away from the action.\nWhile an estimated 100m will be watching in the US alone, the normal capacity 66,655 has been expanded to 73,000 for Sunday's game. Inside it will be loud.\nAnd fans of the Philadephia Eagles and New England Patriots will hope for another miracle: either a first Super Bowl win for the Eagles, or a record-equalling sixth title for New England. Either way, US Bank Stadium will more than play its part.", "Turns out putting three artificial turf fields in Boca Raton's Patch Reef Park will be more complicated and may be more expensive than planned.\nThe budget set aside $3.1 million for the project. But \"we just learned we may have to use potable water instead of reused water,\" Art Koski told commissioners for the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District at its Aug. 9 meeting.\nAs large users, he hopes the city of Boca Raton will give them a rate break, he said.\nIf permitting goes as planned, construction will start in January and take until April at the park, 2000 Yamato Road.\nBut they learned that organic infill has to be kept moist or it disintegrates and that means plenty of water and constant maintenance, said Koski, the district's director and legal counsel.\n\"We don't need to irrigate them, but we need to water them so the organic material doesn't turn to dust,\" he said.\nMarci Shatzman/Forum Publishing Group Plans to install artificial turf at Patch Reef Park in Boca Raton have hit a snag as the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District finds out the project may cost more. Plans to install artificial turf at Patch Reef Park in Boca Raton have hit a snag as the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District finds out the project may cost more. (Marci Shatzman/Forum Publishing Group)\nThere are already plans to put artisan drains around the perimeter of each field for drainage, Koski said.\n\"We will put water cannons on the corners and the engineers recommend manual ones. The bigger question is if Patch Reef must use potable water,\" he said, citing the potential for \"creating bacteria on the field\" with reused water that's less expensive.\nTimeline wise, consultant Calvin, Giordano & Associates is 30 percent through the design work. \"They are striving to have the spec and drawings completed by December,\" Koski said.\nThe fields will be primarily used for lacrosse, but temporary lines will have to be drawn so other players can use them, too, probably football and soccer, he added.\nUtilities under the current playing fields will probably have to be moved. Sidewalks will be removed and replaced, and the site could require additional fencing, Koski said.\n\"This is our one time to get it right,\" said Commissioner Craig Ehrnst. \"But is this the right place for this?\"\nThe public and the city \"have told us they want artificial turf,\" Koski told him. \"The only major issue is potable or reused water and potable will add significant cost.\"\nWeston uses potable water, said Recreation Services director Mickey Gomez.\nUnlike planned down time on grass playing fields, \"you will be able to use these 12 months a year,\" he said.", "Shamrock Rovers have signed former Norwich City and Scotland Under-21 international Cameron King.\nThe attacking midfielder has signed with the Dublin club until the end of the season and Rovers coach Stephen Bradley believes that Cameron will make a \"real impact\" with the Hoops.\nKing played in the final of the 2013 FA Youth Cup which Norwich won for the first time in 30 years beforemaking his senior debut in September 2014 in a League Cup tie away to Shrewsbury Town.\nThe English-born midfielder made his first appearance for the Scotland Under 21s later that year, scoring a late equaliser in Switzerland.\nKing left the Canaries in the summer of 2016 and will be looking to kick-start his career at Rovers, following a short spell at hometown club Thetford Town.\n\"I was made aware of Cameron about six weeks ago and advised that I should take a serious look at him,\" said Bradley.\n\"Sometimes you get players in and they’re not what people say they are. Cameron was and he’s definitely going to be an attacking threat for us. We got him initially for just two or three days and straight away we liked what we saw.\n\"He’s very direct, very clever on the ball. He can play any attacking position, right, left or as a 10. We have him until the end of the season so hopefully he can show that quality. He has good character, he’s hungry to get his career back on track and hopefully this is the place for him. I see him being a good player for us between now and the end of the season and making a real impact.\"\nSpeaking about his short-term move to Dublin, King said: \"I am a very positive player who likes to get on the ball, drive the team forward and create chances at every opportunity.\n\"I play in the 10 or out wide and like to cause defenders problems.\nI've trained here for a few weeks and the quality of the players made me raise my game. The moral is very good and the squad have been great to me.\n\"It's a new opportunity and I cannot wait to get going.\n\"I need to impress the management staff, earn the respect of my teammates and then I will feel a lot more comfortable and see where I go from there.\"\nElsewhere, Sligo Rovers have handed professional contracts to Under-19s trio John Mahon, Jack Keaney and Ed McGinty.\nCentre-back Mahon is a Collooney native, whose fledgling years were usefully spent in the Ballisodare United youth teams.\nKeaney is an 18-year-old central midfield player who hails from Donegal Town, while McGinty, who turned 18 at the start of this month, is a Motherwell born goalkeeper, who began playing with Rovers Under-19 team in the 2016 season having spent three years at the Celtic youth academy.", "There's just 48 hours before the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles square off at Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but for these U.S. workers, whose companies are helping get game day and the festivities around it off the ground, every day is a winner.\nSportsfield Specialties\nThe company produces goal posts and other sporting goods, and has been around since 1998. The company employs about 100 people, who weld, shape and paint about 1,000 goal posts a year in Delhi, New York. Sportsfield Specialties also has 50 workers in Salisbury, North Carolina, at its netting and wall-pad manufacturing facility.\nThis will be the seventh time its goal posts will be in the Super Bowl and the materials for the goal posts come from all over the U.S.\nTurf Nation\nTurf Nation is located in Dalton, Georgia, and makes synthetic turf systems. According to Turf Nation, 14 of the 32 NFL franchises play or practice on a turf system produced by the company. And on Sunday, the company will celebrate its fourth NFL Super Bowl in the last six years.\n\"All components of a Turf Nation synthetic turf system are proudly manufactured in the U.S.A. and each surface is custom-designed to a team's or school's specific needs,\" Turf Nation said in a news release. \"All synthetic turf surfaces are field-tested by an independent laboratory prior to shipping.\"\nTurf Nation employs more than 80 workers around the U.S. and makes its turf system out of the same material used in plastic bottles and garbage bags. Last year, the company produced more than 10 million square feet of turf.\nTurf Nation employs more than 80 workers around the U.S. and makes its turf system out of the same material used in plastic bottles and garbage bags. Last year, the company produced more than 10 million square feet of turf.\nWeatherTech\nThe workers at WeatherTech, which makes vehicle accessories such as floor mats and window deflectors, are hard at work this year for their fifth consecutive Super Bowl ad.\nThe ad shows employees building a brand-new factory in Boolingbrook, Illinois, right outside Chicago. WeatherTech told ABC News that the company now employs nearly 2,000 people.\nLove Your Melon\nAnd finally, as fans touch down in Minneapolis this week for the big game, 10,000 volunteers will be around town greeting them. Love Your Melon's purple hats will help keep many of them warm.\nThe company in Minneapolis employs 200 workers, who have collectively stitched more than 1 million hats a year.\n\"It gives everyone here at home a good sense of pride and the ability to say, 'Hey, I made this,'\" production manager Kelsey Nelsen said.\nHalf of every Love Your Melon sale goes to cancer research and support programs as well. Workers also visit hospitals across the U.S., donating hats and their time to children fighting cancer.\n\"It's keeping jobs right here in our country and we're just really proud of that,\" Linsey Johnson said.", "Nintendo\nIn honor of Halloween and October, Splatoon 2 is having a spooky theme for its upcoming Splatfest in North America. It has been a little over a month since the last Splatfest so we are overdue for one and Nintendo is delivering.\nThis Splatfest is not only spooky but it is also being held on October 13. Thirteen has long been considered an unlucky number and it’s even mean unlucky this year since it falls on Friday the 13th. This upcoming Splatfest asks players to choose either team Vampire or team Werewolf. This one actually has potential to be a pretty close battle.\nThis Splatfest will take place on October 13 and run through October 14. It will follow the same format of Splatfests in the past and only feature Turf War as players battle it out for their team. Players will be given a shirt beforehand that can be used to fill up with abilities. The events kick off a 9 p.m. PT on October 13 or midnight ET on October 14.\nSplatoon 2 is receiving a new weapon and stage today in another free update. The stage is called Snapper Canal and it will be added into the map rotation as soon as it’s released. The weapon is called the Bamboozler 14 Mk which is a returning weapon from Splatoon 1.\nSplatfests are one of the big features about Splatoon 2. The battles operate just like a normal Turf War battle, but this time you’re fighting for your chosen side. You select what team you’ll be on in the hub area and then you can either choose the Solo Division or Team Division. The Team Division is used if you want to play with friends as you’ll be ranked with other teams while solo will put you up against other solo players. You can read more about how the Splatfests will operate here.\nSince a lot of Splatoon 2’s longevity will depend on these Splatfests, Nintendo has promised to keep them going for at least two years. This gives us Splatfests for twice as long as its predecessor and it will also be a way to keep players interested. On top of the Splatfests, Nintendo is also pumping the game with free DLC long after the launch, giving players more weapons, gear, stages and more. This should come as no surprise since Splatoon was one of the Wii U’s standout titles so Nintendo is building on that with the sequel.", "What is it with real estate agencies that go public? Having left John McGrath's busines post its listing and sold their shares out of escrow, The Agency mob, formerly Ausnet based in Perth, has lost their underwriter for the proposed 550 million share issue - at 2¢. The company conveniently announced it had lost the underwriter late last Friday afternoon after trading closed.\nThe proposed raising of $10 million was to be used to assist the acquisition of Top Level Real Estate, trading under licence as the The Agency East Coast and run by Matt Lahood, Ben Collier, Shad Hassen and Stephen Chen , all formerly of McGrath. The Agency managing director is Paul Niardone.\nTop Level's Matt Lahood with The Agency's Paul Niardone\nBut investors have not responded well to the news, smashing the shares on Tuesday by close by 12 per cent to 1.5¢ - pointing to future raising involving many millions of more shares being issued.\nOver the last month, as the issue of shares was open, the Agency's boss Lahood also announced a six-figure partnership with the Australian Turf Club to sponsor the George Ryder Stakes, held on March 24 and won by the mare Winx.\nNow the issue is in trouble with the underwriter bailing out, it seems The Agency principals have had to stump up their own cash to keep the operation afloat and throws any future acquisition into disarray. With the housing market slowing down, the agents from the top four to the other 76-plus must be feeling the pressure but at least they get free tickets to the races." ]

[ "Loss-making Finnish cellphone maker Nokia plans to cut another 10 000 jobs globally, and warned the second-quarter loss from its cellphone business would be larger than expected." ]

[ "Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia today said the planned 1,700 job cuts worldwide would have minimal impact on its India operations.", "Nokia reported stronger-than-expected profits for the third quarter, boosted by strong demand for its cheap smartphones, and said on Thursday it would cut up to 1,800 jobs.", "Nokia this morning announced that it will cut 4,000 jobs at factories in Hungary, Mexico and Finland as part of an ongoing review of its smartphone manufacturing operations intended to boost the company's competitiveness in the global market.", "Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, plans to cut 1,700 jobs in sales, marketing and some management functions to adapt to falling consumer demand.", "Nokia Oyj, the world's largest cellphone vendor by volume, is cutting 3 500 jobs in its second major restructuring in six months as it struggles with falling sales and profits.", "Motorola Inc said that it would cut another 4,000 jobs, primarily in its mobile phone business, as it forecast a fourth-quarter loss and weaker-than-expected handset sales.", "Telecoms infrastructure joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks will cut its global workforce by 17,000 in a bid to shed €1 billion in costs by 2013.", "AP Writer Nokia Siemens Networks said Tuesday it will lay off up to 5,700 workers globally as part of a move to cut annual costs by euro500 million.", "Finland-based Nokia Corp., the world's largest handset maker by unit shipments, said it plans to move some of its smartphone production closer to component suppliers in Asia, cutting about 4,000 jobs at assembly plants in Hungary, Mexico and Finland in a bid to get products to market more quickly.", "In addition to its plans to cut 10,000 workers and sell off its Vertu brand, Nokia also revealed that it intends to purchase Scalado, an imaging technology company specializing in mobile applications.", "The Rio Tinto Group will cut 14 000 jobs worldwide and reduce capital investment as part of new measures to reduce its debt amid waning demand for iron ore and other metals, the mining company said on Wednesday.", "Britain's state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland has cut another 500 jobs, mostly at its investment banking division, it announced in a statement.", "Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia launched a legal challenge on Apple, alleging its US rival's iPhone infringes 10 patents.", "3M Co. is cutting its worldwide work force by another 1,200 jobs, or 1.5 percent, because of the global economic slump.", "Mobile handset maker Motorola Inc said it will cut 4,000 more jobs in 2009, in addition to 3,000 it announced in October.", "TMX Group Inc. will cut 85 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, as it consolidates its operations, the owner of the stock exchanges in Toronto and Montreal announced today.", "Video game publisher Electronic Arts said Friday it will cut 1,000 jobs, or 10% of its work force, as part of a restructuring plan that will save around $120 million a year.", "Nokia ditched its sales chief and promised to slash more costs, as the Finnish cellphone maker runs out of time to reinvent itself under pressure from smartphone rivals.", "Nokia Lumia 900 price has been cut almost by half to just $50.", "Finnish glass processing machine maker Glaston said in a statement Wednesday it would cut 50 jobs in Finland as part of 400 job cuts across the world.", "General Motors Europe wants to cut labour costs by 10 per cent without eliminating jobs, according to a letter sent to GM employees.", "Qinetiq, the defence research company which was the inspiration for James Bond's gadget guru Q, has confirmed it plans to cut another 325 jobs.", "MOBILE phone giant Vodafone today announced it is cutting around 500 jobs in the UK as part of efforts to reduce costs.", "A St. Catharines cabinet manufacturer has been fined $50 000 after one their workers sawed 3 of his fingers off while on the job.", "Ocean shipping company Horizon Lines Inc. said it is cutting 70 jobs as it seeks to reduce annual labor-related costs by $7 million to $10 million.", "Australian job vacancies fell to a seven-year low in three months to February, tempering optimism about recent strength in the job market and keeping open the prospect of another interest-rate cut by the central bank to support the economy.", "Mobile phone giant Sony Ericsson has said it will axe 2,000 jobs worldwide after crashing to losses of 358 million euros in the first three months of 2009.", "Swiss bank Credit Suisse said on Thursday it was cutting another 5,300 jobs, as it revealed it made a net loss of about 3 billion Swiss francs in October and November.", "AT&T today said it will cut 12,000 jobs, many of them in December and others ``throughout 2009.''", "BT Group PLC said it would cut 10,000 jobs, or 6.3% of its global work force, by March in an effort to rein in costs.", "Barclays PLC said on Friday it has hired 10 investment bankers in Japan but cut 30 jobs elsewhere in the region as part of the British bank's efforts to cut costs and reshape itself in the wake of acquiring parts of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.", "(Nokia lowers Q408 mobile device industry volumes - gives outlook for 2009 at Capital Markets Day event.)" ]

[ "Guangzhou is the name of a city in the province of Guangdong, whereas Wuhan is the name of a city in the province of Hubei.\nThey may be using &quot;travel to the city of Guangzhou&quot; because they think the reader doesn't know it's a city.\nIf they said &quot;to a city of Guangzhou&quot;, it wouldn't make sense because there is only one such city.\nYour last example,&quot;from Wuhan to a city known as Guangzhou&quot; could be used, but it explicitly assumes the reader doesn't know that Guangzhou is a city.\nFinally, it might be alright to say &quot;from Wuhan to Guangzhou&quot;, if you know the reader will understand that both place-names are cities." ]

[ "This event happened in late January, but not in Wuhan. The restriction was imposed on the accommodation of someone who had been to Wuhan. It was soon seen by the government as an over-reaction, and the metal bars used to secure the door were removed.\n\nChina's investigative media XinJing Paper reported on it\n\n(Google Translate)\n\n\n Two videos of the door of a suspected Wuhan homecomer were circulated on the Internet, causing concern. On January 30, a reporter from the Beijing News confirmed that the incident occurred in Lianshui County, Huaian City, Jiangsu Province. The reporter confirmed this \"door-closing incident\" from a person in charge of the propaganda department of the Lianshui County Party Committee, which said that the method was a little overdone in the special period, and the facilities to close the gate had been removed.\n\n\nAs far as I know, similar behaviour never happened in Wuhan.", "I don't think we can know when they first requested access, but it definitely was not February 10th, since they visited Whuan in January.\n\nAccording to this official \"Mission Summary\" (found by Denis de Bernardy), the WHO conducted a field visit to Wuhan on January 20-21 where they identified and reported evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus in China:\n\n\n The delegation visited the Wuhan Tianhe Airport, Zhongnan hospital, Hubei provincial CDC, including the BSL3 laboratory in China’s Center for Disease Control (CDC). The delegation observed and discussed active surveillance processes, temperature screening at the airport, laboratory facilities, infection prevention and control measures at the hospital and its associated fever clinics, and the deployment of the rRT-PCR test kit to detect the virus.\n \n Data collected through detailed epidemiological investigation and through the deployment of the new test kit nationally suggests that human-to-human transmission is taking place in Wuhan. More analysis of the epidemiological data is needed to understand the full extent of human-to-human transmission. WHO stands ready to provide support to China to conduct further detailed analysis.\n \n Mission summary: WHO Field Visit to Wuhan, China 20-21 January 2020 - Published: 22 January 2020\n\n\nSo claims that WHO was only allowed to visit China in February are false, though the February visit was likely a more in-depth investigation than the January 20th visit. At the same time, claims that they covered up human-to-human transmission, or were barred from reporting it by China, are also false.\n\n\n\nThis is different from their January 9th statement, where they reported based on data provided by Chinese public health officials. In that statement, they express a willingness to visit to \"investigate and respond\", but don't say whether they've placed an official request:\n\n\n In the coming weeks, more comprehensive information is required to understand the current status and epidemiology of the outbreak, and the clinical picture. Further investigations are also required to determine the source, modes of transmission, extent of infection and countermeasures implemented. WHO continues to monitor the situation closely and, together with its partners, is ready to provide technical support to China to investigate and respond to this outbreak.\n \n WHO Statement regarding cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China - Published: 9 January 2020", "The epidemic curve depends on diagnostic methods and definitions. If your case definition requires a positive rt-PCR without typical clinical symptoms, and you don't do enough testing, then it will appear that your epidemic curve is flattening whereas you are only diagnosing symptomatic and severe cases.\n\nIn an extreme example Wuhan had thought they had virtually eliminated the virus \n\n\n Wuhan, which had only five active cases as of Friday, used a number of different methods to assess everyone, from diagnostics that look for active infections to antibody measurements that detect markers in the blood for exposure to the coronavirus. Makeshift tents were set up in residential compounds across the city to swab throats or noses with the results likely to be closely watched internationally given China’s position as the first major economy to emerge from COVID-19 lockdowns.\n\n\nbut on recent retesting of the 11 M population they have picked up 206 asymptomatic cases so far. Those asymptomatic cases could cause the epidemic to flare up at any time so it's not curve flattening at all.\n\n\n As of Saturday, the central Chinese metropolis had conducted 6.68 million so-called nucleic acid tests (NATs) and discovered 206 asymptomatic cases across more than 10 districts, according to notices from the municipal health commission. Disease control authorities announced the initiative on May 11, making Wuhan, where the pandemic erupted last year, the first major Chinese city to roll out mandatory mass testing.\n\n\nhttps://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/30/asia-pacific/science-health-asia-pacific/china-testing-coronavirus-wuhan/#.XtV3zmgzZEY\n\nhttps://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-05-26/mass-testing-finds-more-than-200-asymptomatic-covid-19-cases-in-wuhan-101559009.html", "What your government is proposing is a lot less than what was actually done in China. There, and perhaps that is still the case, large numbers of asymptomatic infected people were housed together in halls with only social separation between them, and masks to prevent others from infecting others.\n\nYour government is proposing to house the asymptomatic infected in hotels, presumably in separate rooms.\n\nWe know that people who are infected because they have virus identified using PCR swabs of their upper airways. CT scans can show pulmonary lesions present even without cough or fever. And even speaking can aerosolize virus though you are likely most infective at about days 4-5 before your own antibody production has ramped up significantly.\n\nSo, it's likely you are exhaling virus, and inhaling again the virus that you exhale, as well as spreading virus in your blood to other tissues. It seems less likely that you're going to inhale a viral load that already exceeds the amount of virus coating your mucus membranes and alveloli. At least you will have some antibody production after day 5 or so on average to provide some protection.\n\nNote also that even within family groups housed together in Guangzhou, the incidence of cross infection was only 10%.\n\nAnd there are likely to be host factors at work. We know that women and younger people have a less severe course generally. So, even with a higher viral load on re-exposure, that may not change the underlying host factors that might =give them some protection eg. higher levels of ACE2 receptors, Group O blood group etc.\n\nhttps://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf", "Dianping is a food and restaurant guide website in China. It lists out most of the vegetarian restaurant in Guangzhou.\n\nThe website is written in Chinese only. Use baidu translate and \nbaidu map to find out more information about the restaurant.\n\nIn addition, although they claim they are vegetarian restaurants but no certification is done. And not every restaurant offers English menu.\n\n\n\nFor supermarket, search keyword \"广州 超市\" in baidu map and you can find the location easy.\n\nThere are several supermarket chain in Guangzhou, including 家乐福(Walmart), 百佳 (From Hong Kong), 好又多(From Taiwan), 华润万家 (Chinese firm but cooperate with Tesco), 大润发(From Taiwan), 乐购(Tesco). You can find most vegetable and other foods you need in larger supermarket.", "The TCID50 (Median Tissue Culture Infectious Dose) is one of the methods used when verifying viral titer.\nTCID50 signifies the concentration at which 50% of the cells are infected when a test tube or well plate upon which cells have been cultured is inoculated with a diluted solution of viral fluid.\n\nSo, in the second paper they're talking about the amount of virus in a litre of air that has been aerosolized from these concentrations of virus fluid\nClearly different countries responded differently\n\nThe Guangzhou branch of China’s central bank says it will destroy all banknotes collected by hospitals, wet markets and buses to ensure the safety of cash transactions as the country battles a coronavirus outbreak.\n\nhttps://www.zeomic.co.jp/en/glossary/virus/71\nhttps://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3050868/fresh-cash-old-china-central-bank-branch-destroy-banknotes", "No, you will not. Japan has banned entry of all foreigners who have travelled to Zhejiang and Hubei provinces within 14 days of travelling to Japan, but Shanghai, a provincial-level city, does not belong to either. You are (so far) safe.\n\nIt is, nevertheless, highly possible that Japan will soon extend this travel ban to the entirety of China. Keep updated. As a comment suggests, you are encouraged to keep an eye on the Timatic news feed, as well as the news.\n\nNote: Take care of where is your next destination (transit or otherwise). For example, if it is Singapore and its within 14 days, Singapore will deny you transit or entry for the 2 hour you spent in China.", "Leaflets were dropped on the city to warn the civilians to flee from the attack of their enemies.\n\n\nThe preposition on is used to make clear that the leaflets were dropped from above: from an aircraft of some kind, most likely. Those who dropped the leaflets were not inside the city. \n\n(I substituted \"pamphlets\" with \"leaflets\", since this seems more plausible) \n\n\n Leaflets were dropped in the city to warn the civilians to flee from the attack of their enemies.\n\n\nThis would mean that someone who was inside the city dropped the leaflets. This would be a more dangerous task in a war situation, since one could be captured by the enemy in the city. \n\n\n\nYou can also use over instead of on: \n\n\"A US helicopter drops leaflets over a village near Hawijah in Kirkuk province, Iraq, on March 6, 2008\" (Wikipedia Commons image) \n\n\n\n\n\nAnd this is a picture showing leaflets being distributed in a city. \"Wu Songtao, a college student from Zhejiang province tries to earn some extra money by distributing leaflets in Hefei, East China's Anhui province.\"\n\n\n\n\n\nTeachers drop leaflets in the congress building in the Valparaíso Region, Chile (2011). The teachers are inside the building.", "This is evolving. Originally there was a high percentage of medical staff (30%) being infected by sars-cov-2 in Wuhan but as the mode of transmission became clearer and ppe better, this has now improved so that no cases were reported outside of Hubei in China though it's being reported outside of China. Disease was also more severe in medical staff for unclear reasons and may relate to viral load exposure.\n\nhttps://www.businessinsider.com/healthcare-workers-getting-coronavirus-500-infected-2020-2", "You are asking for speculation since there aren't any other papers that address this issue.\n\nI can think of a number of reasons in addition to the ones mentioned in the paper.\n\nWe know medical workers were hit higher than than the general population. This implies a higher viral load initially leads to more severe disease. If more of the lung is affected initially there is less time to mount an immune response.\n\nChina removed the mildly infected and asymptomatic infected quickly by large scale testing. When testing by PCR was unavailable they even used chest CT scans for screening.\n\nIt's culturally acceptable to wear face masks after the sars epidemic in China. You didn't see this in Italy. But it reduces viral shedding into the environment.\n\nItalians are more touchy than Chinese. Whereas a handshake in China might do, Italians are more likely to face kiss and engage in other more dangerous close contact acts. \n\nThe one child policy also meant that the population has fewer mobile vectors of disease moving around viz younger children.\n\nHousehold transmission was kept at 10% in Guangdong. If Italy failed to test early and frequently this would have increased this rate of transmission, with higher viral loads.\n\nSo I conclude that death rates were higher in the over 70s because numerous factors lead to higher viral loads.\n\nhttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/27/why-coronavirus-deaths-are-higher-in-italy-spain-than-in-china.html", "通臂猿拳\nApparently it is a variant of saying 通臂拳, a kind of martial arts popular in the vicinity of Hebei. 通臂 (lit. through arm) refers to the fact that the qi or strength from the back of the practitioner can be delivered across the limbs.\nThis technique is also an imitation of the ape (猿), hence the name. The literature says the first traceable practitioner in history was Qi Xin 祁信 who lived in Hebei during the Qing Dynasty.\nReference", "烈酒 means hard liquor. 洋酒 means western liquor. Conceivably it could include wine and such, but it usually refers to western hard liquor (e.g., whiskey, vodka, rum).\nHere's an example sentence for your benefit:\n\nThe city of Guangzhou consumes nearly 40% of the foreign hard liquor sold in China.\n广州人所消费的烈酒，占了中国洋酒总量的近40%。", "泉 战国\n邓通 汉\n货泉 汉\n白水真人 汉\n阿堵物 南北朝\n孔方兄 晋\n青蚨 -\n上清童子 唐\n没奈何 宋\n不动尊\n袁大头 民国\n大团结 1949之后\n毛爷爷 当代\n\n\nref here", "'家人' is a specific term for 'one's family'\n\n\nFor example: '我的家人在香港' (my family is in Hong Kong)\n\n家人 can also refer to: 'individual(s) of one's family'. For example: '他是陳先生的家人' (He is Mr.Chan's family) \n\n\n '家庭成员' is a specific term for 'member(s) of a family'/ family member(s)\n\n\nWe do not say: \" My family members are in Hong Kong.\" in English; therefore, we don't say: \"我的家庭成员在香港.\" in Chinese neither. \n\nSimilarly, we do not say: \"He is Mr. Chan's family member\" in English; therefore, we don't say: \"他是陳先生的家庭成员\" in Chinese neither.\n\n\n We use the term '家庭成员' the same as 'family member(s) ' in English. \n\n\nFor example: \n\n\"Family members of the Chan family includes: Mr. and Mrs. Chan and their two daughters\" (陳家的家庭成員包括：陳先生及夫人及其兩個女兒)\n\nIf you say: \"Mr. Chan's family, are his wife and two daughters\" then the translation would be: \"陳先生的家人是他的妻子和兩個女兒”\"\n\nIf you say: \" Mr. Chan's family include he himself, his wife and two daughters\" then the translation would be: “陳先生的家庭包括他自己，他的妻子和兩個女兒”\n\n\n 家庭 is a specific term for \"Family\"", "If your relative stays at home without contact with anyone from the outside world, they have zero risk of getting the disease. If a relative living in the house needs to leave daily they risk exposure and getting the infection. The relative at home now has a non-zero risk of getting infected.\n\nIf the relative at home is independent then they should be left to live alone, and the working relative move in with someone else. If that's not possible, then another person not known to be infected should move in with her, and the working relative moves out.\n\nIf the working relative is the main carer for the relative at home, and the above choices are not possible, then they have to manage the situation as though they already have the virus.\n\nThe recommendation is that you are not going to transmit the infection to someone who remains at a 6 foot distance away from you, and if inside that distance for less than 10-15 minutes. So, that stops viral droplets from one person passing to the next.\n\nViral nuclear droplets form when aerosols develop, eg flushing the toilet, so the toilet lid needs to stay down when flushing, and keep windows open. Even better still use different bathrooms, or build a composting toilet away from the bathroom shared with the other person. If you're not able to not share bathrooms, then all the surfaces needs to be wiped down with .1% solution of bleach after each use of the bathroom, and left to dry for 10-30 minutes. Each door knob needs to be disinfected. There can't be any shared eating utensils. And most importantly the hands need to be washed for a minimum of 20 seconds using a soap/detergent.\n\nEven if people live together, studies in China showed that cross infection was not inevitable, but closer to 20% of households had transmission.\n\nhttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection", "It doesn’t seem like there is an organisation for standardization of Cantonese in Mainland China. After all, this is in line with their policy of Mandarin-only education; people throughout the nation are not fluent in their native dialect, and can only speak Putonghua. \nIn contrast, there are governmental agencies in both Hong Kong and Macau dedicated to the standardization of Cantonese in those territories. \n\nIt is worth noting that the HK-Macau standards originate from the pronunciations of downtown Guangzhou speakers. If a Hongkonger were to visit downtown Guangzhou, he would probably face no problems communicating with a local there.\n\nBranching out of the provincial capital of Guangdong, though, there are other accents which are vastly different than that of mainstream media (i.e. HK-Macau-Guangzhou accent). For example, in Shunde, which is just beside Guangzhou, they pronounce their words such that learners of Cantonese might think they were purposely trying to mispronounce the words. \n\nTaishan, which is also within the Pearl River Delta region, is also famous for the Siyi dialects which are related to Cantonese, but are mutually intelligible. \nIn HK-Guangzhou, you would say “ngo” for 我, yet in Taishanese it’s something like “ngoi”.\n\nOf course, you also have pronunciations influenced by Teochew and Hakka, the other two indigenous dialects in the province, as you approach the edges of Guangdong.", "The purpose of lock downs is to enforce social distancing and other measures to break the chain of disease transmission. There is no data to suggest that has occurred yet in the USA. \n\nMany countries that have employed mandatory lockdown have successfully contained the virus and stopped community transmission. China was the first successful example of this though there has now been a small outbreak of 6 cases in a residential compound in Wuhan, and the city of Shulan is in lockdown with 3 new cases reported. China has also just ordered the testing of the 11 million residents of Wuhan.\n\nTaiwan managed to contain the pandemic without lockdown but used early border controls, aggressive quarantine, and contact tracing as well as other social policies. They had 7 deaths in a population just larger than Sweden.\n\nNew Zealand is emerging out of lockdown with people being allowed to return to work from tomorrow. 0 - 3 cases daily have been reported in the last week. NZ has had 20 deaths in a population of 5M. Sweden, which did not enforce lockdown, but relied on the public to adopt voluntary social distancing, has had 3,300 deaths with twice the population size. If you calculate the rate for the USA using Sweden as the basis, you would expect to see 33 * 3,300 = 108,900 deaths but so far the number of deaths has been 83,000 approx. So, as the USA eases its lockdown policies without evidence of controlling the chain of transmission, expect to see many more deaths.\n\nhttps://www.dw.com/en/taiwan-coronavirus/a-52724523\nhttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-china-wuhan-virus-infection-month.html\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Sweden", "The best data we have from Guangdong, China, is that household transmission is not 100%\n\n\n preliminary studies ongoing in Guangdong estimate the secondary attack rate in households ranges from 3-10%.\n\n\nSo, this suggests that if either of you are potentially infected, then social distancing and other infection control measures will likely prevent the transmission from one to the other.\n\nIf, on the other hand, you have all been tested to be infection free (PCR or other reliable test), and you are in isolation without the risk of catching the infection from someone else, then as adults what you do in the privacy of your own homes is only limited by local laws and imagination.\n\nhttps://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf", "You would at least need to first earn a bachelors degree to be eligible for any job. And without 2 years of working experience, it will be difficult to find a job in a large city, so you would have to check out the 'point system' to see if you are at least a 'Class B' foreigner (the points are based on your level of Chinese, work experience in and outside of China, type of college degree earned, university you graduated from, etc.) You can get additional points if you are willing to work in areas of China that are less developed than Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, etc.\n\nNote that if you were to graduate from a Chinese university, then this would also increase your chances.\n\nHowever, you would need to return to the UK to apply for your visa, as you must apply in person at the Chinese consulate in your home country.\n\nAnd as word of advice, when you are looking for work, make sure you find a company that understands the process to hire foreign workers, as it can be rather complicated at times.", "The first case of covid-19 was thought to have been diagnosed on the 17th November 2019 involving a 55 year old resident of Wuhan with viral pneumonia. With a R0 of 2.5 they would have already infected at least 2.5 other persons but for simplicity's sake let's say that on 17th November, 2019 there were 2 cases including the person diagnosed.\n\nAt that time the epidemic doubling time was said to be 5.2 days, let's say 5 days for simplicity.\n\n\n The epidemic doubling time (the time it takes for daily incidence to double) was 5.2 (4.6–6.1) days before Wuhan was quarantined and public health interventions implemented within Wuhan \n\n\nAs an independent test to this, we know that Dr Li Wenliang reported to his WeChat group of classmates on the 30th Dec, 2019 that a SARS like pneumonia was being diagnosed in Wuhan Central Hospital where he worked. At that time there would have been about 2^^8.6 or 288 cases. About 5% would have needed ICU care so that means that about 14 cases would have passed through various hospital ICUs at that time.\n\n\n Li raised the alarm after he saw seven patients with SARS-like symptoms. Li reported the suspected outbreak to his colleagues in a closed group on the WeChat social media platform after learning that patients were being quarantined.\n\n\nThe ECDC report refers to cases as of 17th January 2020, which is 61 days after the 17th November 2019 or approximately 12 * 5 doubling periods. So, this means at the 17th January 2020, they should have had 2^12 cases, or 4096, but the report only identified 44 cases. This indicates that they failed to identify the majority of cases at that time, and suggests that their testing kit was inaccurate. Adding to the problem was at that time they didn't realise that asymptomatic cases could also transmit disease.\n\nAnd it was only 6 days later, on the 23rd January 2020, that Wuhan was locked down with neighbouring cities in Hubei province following shortly. \n\n\n By 22 January 2020, the novel coronavirus had spread to major cities and provinces in China, with 571 confirmed cases and 17 deaths reported. Confirmed cases were also reported in other regions and countries, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.\n\n\nThe lack of accurate testing has also been a problem in the USA, and elsewhere.\n\nhttps://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coronavirus-chinas-first-confirmed-covid-19-case-traced-back\n\nhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0822-7\n\nhttps://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30382-2/fulltext\n\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Hubei_lockdowns", "Tang Ho's answer is correct, but the grammar on the English side is a bit incorrect.\nWhile the literal translation is \"This temple actually is not my family operated\", the more proper translation would be \"This temple isn't actually operated by my family\". Phrasing in Chinese is somewhat different from phrasing in English.", "奥林匹克运动的故乡[n.] 流传着[v.] 这样的几句话[n.]：...\n\nI would break this sentence in three parts as above.\n\n“流传” is the verb here, it means \"spread\" or \"circulating\", here it means \"these sentences/story goes that...\" or \"there's a saying ...\"\n\n“着” here means the second meaning you listed. It shows the continuity of the verb.\n\nMy translation of this sentence is: \"In the hometown of Olympic sports, people say:...\"\nIt shows the meaning but not a word-to-word translation.\n\nHere's the explanation in Modern Chinese Dictionary《现代汉语词典》:\n\n着·zhe\n\n1 （助）表示动作的持续：他打～红旗在前面走｜他们正谈～话呢。\n\n\n\nI'm a native Chinese, but it's my first time trying to explain modern Chinese to language learners. Let me know if I'm not clear enough. Hope it helps!", "&quot;From the helicopter&quot; there is now a more general claim (e.g. in the following McKinsey slide) that Western countries are trying to emulate China and/or South Korea's response:\n\nThe devil might be in the details, of course. Getting to the details might be too involved/broad in a question like this, not specific to a pair of countries. There's for example a China-US comparison in a recent BI article, too long to quote here in its entirety, of course. But some things that were probably not done in the West was a complete shutdown of travel, e.g.\n\n&quot;These draconian measures seem to have worked to bring down the cases in a very short period of time in China,&quot; Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Business Insider. &quot;Although there is a cost to the economy, to society, not to mention also the second-order problems, like access to health care for people without the coronavirus. The question is whether the United States is willing to pay such a high price.&quot; [...] Huang says he cannot imagine an America where many of these measures are implemented. [...]\nDuring the height of the outbreak, trains didn't stop at the disease's epicenter, Wuhan. [...] &quot;Cutting off transportation was considered on the top three measures to contain the spread of the virus,&quot; Huang told Business Insider. &quot;But it would hard to imagine the complete shutdown of an American city due to government order.&quot;\n\nAnd regarding tracking of people's movement\n\n&quot;It would be a big change right for the US people to get accustomed to,&quot; said Huang, &quot;if the government wants to use this high tech means, like using the cell phones to monitor the movement of the people.&quot;\nHuang added that even though there is little technological barrier to doing this, this kind of behavior is considered a form of digital authoritarianism, that involves uses privacy issues. Huang would be hard-pressed to imagine the US government using this approach to containing the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nChina also apparently co-opted every (&quot;private&quot;) security guard in the effort to keep people in their homes:\n\n&quot;In America, you have to stay at home, but there's no police,&quot; said Huang. &quot;There's no one actively enforcing that rule, but in China, you have what are basically security guards on patrol of every residence to make sure they don't violate the government containment measures. That's a kind of approach I think can't be copied here in the United States.&quot;\n\nLikewise for suspending &quot;non-essential&quot; medical access:\n\nIn China, elective surgeries and other non-critical doctors visits were delayed, and many medical services were moved online. [...] But the move hasn't been without negative consequences. One man with kidney disease in China jumped to his death, Human Rights Watch reported. He couldn't get dialysis during the outbreak. Another boy with cerebral palsy died after being left alone for six days while his father was quarantined in China.\n\nA similar opinion was voiced in a Time interview:\n\n“No other nation (western or otherwise) can or should seek to replicate China’s actions,” Thomas Bollyky, the director of the Global Health Program at the Washington D.C.-based Council on Foreign Relations, tells TIME via email. “The disregard for civil liberties and human rights that the government has demonstrated in its quarantine and censorship activities are inseparable from the policies and actions of the government that contributed to the outbreak in the first place.”\n\nOther experts quoted earlier in a Science (news) piece were also skeptical that the full extent of China's measures could be copied in the West:\n\nThe question now is whether the world can take lessons from China’s apparent success—and whether the massive lockdowns and electronic surveillance measures imposed by an authoritarian government would work in other countries. [...]\n“This report poses difficult questions for all countries currently considering their response to COVID-19,” says Steven Riley, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London. “The joint mission was highly productive and gave a unique insight into China’s efforts to stem the virus from spread within mainland China and globally,” adds Lawrence Gostin, a global health law scholar at Georgetown University. But Gostin warns against applying the model elsewhere. “I think there are very good reasons for countries to hesitate using these kinds of extreme measures.”\nThere’s also uncertainty about what the virus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, will do in China after the country inevitably lifts some of its strictest control measures and restarts its economy. COVID-19 cases may well increase again.\n\nMore recent cases from Hong Kong indicate that that fear of re-emergence may well be have been justified. So Hong Kong is back into lock down after it was largely lifted at the beginning of March.\nSimilar expert opinion on restrictions timing:\n\nEpidemiologists say China’s mammoth response had one glaring flaw: it started too late. In the initial weeks of the outbreak in December and January, Wuhan authorities were slow to report cases of the mysterious infection, which delayed measures to contain it, says Howard Markel, a public-health researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “The delay of China to act is probably responsible for this world event,” says Markel.\nA model simulation by Lai Shengjie and Andrew Tatem, emerging-disease researchers at the University of Southampton, UK, shows that if China had implemented its control measures a week earlier, it could have prevented 67% of all cases there. Implementing the measures 3 weeks earlier, from the beginning of January, would have cut the number of infections to 5% of the total. [...]\nBut between 16 and 30 January, a period that included the first 7 days of the lockdown, the number of people each infected individual gave the virus to dropped to 1.05, estimates Adam Kucharski, who models infectious-disease spread at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “That was amazing,” he says. [...]\n“These extreme limitations on population movement have been quite successful,” says Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease scientist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. [... However,] China is suppressing the virus, not eradicating it, says Osterholm. The world will need to wait until about eight weeks after China resumes to some form of normality to know what it did or didn’t accomplish with its population-movement limitations, he says.\nThere is probably a fierce debate going on in China about when to relax the lockdown measures, says Roy Anderson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London. He suggests there could be a second wave of new infections when they are lifted.\n\nSo whether it's possible to (fully) emulate China's response (in the West) depends not only on the political framework, but also to which experts the (Western) governments might be paying [most] attention to.\nI realize this is a long answer already, but there was a recent interview with one of China's [own] CDC officials (whom seldom get interviewed in the West). Some interesting points from there:\n\nQ: What mistakes are other countries making?\nA: The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks. [...]\nQ: People who tested positive in Wuhan but only had mild disease were sent into isolation in large facilities and were not allowed to have visits from family. Is this something other countries should consider?\nA: Infected people must be isolated. [...]\nQ: Spread in China has dwindled to a crawl, and the new confirmed cases are mainly people entering the country, correct?\nA: Yes. At the moment, we don’t have any local transmission, but the problem for China now is the imported cases. So many infected travelers are coming into China.\n\n\nMore recently (April 2) it has been reported by DW that Germany is considering a voluntary phone app similar to the (mandatory?) one[s] used in China:\n\nThe most famous health app was developed by the tech giant Alibaba in conjunction with the Chinese authorities. Other companies have also developed similar software, however. It was possible to work swiftly because the Chinese state already has access regarding citizens' movements and programmers did not have to worry about data protection laws. [...]\nThere are many who hope that Germany will soon be using such an app. The Health Ministry and researchers at the Robert Koch Institute are developing similar software. The idea is to introduce a non-compulsory app that will not be able to detect who met whom and where but will be able to identify if a phone user was in close contact with another infected user.\nThe app will only really be able to function if 60 percent of the population uses it. In Germany, it won't be as easy as in Asia to reach such a percentage.\nWill Germans cooperate?\nHalf of the respondents to a recent poll said they would not oppose an app to help warn users who had come into contact with someone infected with COVID-19.\n\nThey don't link to the poll, but I guess in was a poll in Germany given that this was an article on DW.\nThere's now a BBC video discussing Chinese-inspired surveillance measures to combat the outbreak. This is of course somewhat subjective, but they only short-listed Singapore, Israel, Iran, Taiwan and Russia as being closest to China-style surveillance measures used to combat the epidemic, like using CCTV cameras and phone tracking.", "It's a nominalized verb (das Reisen). The author is not speaking of a trip in particular (that'd be \"die Reise\", feminine), but rather of travelling in general (\"das Reisen\"). So the translation is roughly \"this plague of (the) travelling\", or \"this plague of having to travel that is forced on me\"", "In the scene: A Whole New World &amp; Aladdin and Jasmine's firs kiss you'll see them travel to the next cities:\n\nIn this order:\n\n\nStart in Bagdad (Agrabah)\nFirst city: Caïro\nSecond city: Athene (Olympus)\nThird city: China\nBack to Bagdad (Agrabah)\n\n\nSo in miles:\n\n\nFrom Bagdad to Caïro it's: 804.377 miles.\nFrom Caïro to Athene's it's: 856.443 miles.\nFrom Athene to China it's: 5968.128 miles.\nFrom China back to Bagdad it's: 3357.658 miles.\n\n\nTotal of 9325,786 miles, which is 15008.40 km.\nSo as you say it would be over a time of ' +- 8 hours'. They would fly at a speed of 1876.05 km per hour.\n\nThen again Andrew Martin his answer is correct too, we are never sure of what places they visited and if you look at the last scene where Aladdin kisses Jasmine, they stayed in China for 'X' amount of time. So the time above is only calculated for if they would fly all night without stopping. Andrew's right, it's an animated, fun film for a reason! :)", "This is a spelling mistake, and should be written as 「划來划去」.\nIn Traditional Chinese, 「划」 means to row, to paddle, e.g. 「划龍舟」 (to row a dragon boat). 「劃」 normally means to delimit, to partition 「劃分」 or sometimes to plan 「計劃」.\n\n小蝌蚪看見小鴨子跟著媽媽在水裏划來划去\nThe wee tadpoles saw the ducklings following their mother in the water, paddling away.\n\n\nReferences:\n\n萌典\n國語小字典\n教育部國語辭典簡編本\n粵語審音配詞字庫", "With specific exceptions, foreign nationals (including B2 visa holders) who have been in any of the following countries during the past 14 days may not enter the United States:\n\nChina\nIran\nEuropean Schengen area (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic,\nDenmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,\nItaly, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,\nNetherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,\nSweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City)\nUnited Kingdom\n(England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)\nRepublic of Ireland\nBrazil\n\nsource: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/from-other-countries.html", "Ask you local (i.e. journey origin and all transit points, especially the one with direct flight to China) embassy or consulate before departure as the code approval is their responsibility and they have discretions.\nFrom Switzerland, a sample taken within 48 hours before departure is required; but from experience minor discrepancies are sometimes also accepted. For the USA, it is also 48 hours, but some consulates are strict and will not accept any delay.\nFor the UK, the day (local time) is what counts.\nDo not rely on IATA alone for Mainland China. The HDC is not a certification of test results alone. Many consulates are not issuing health codes to transit passengers (with certain exceptions) or for travels they deem unnecessary (and they can impose requirements without prior notice depending on the situations in the departure area and China). Additionally, many have a list of designated laboratories and refuse to accept results from other institutions. The requirements also change fast (on average probably once a month) so you must navigate through the rather confusing embassy sites for the latest information or ask them directly.", "I apologise this is nothing like a full answer. However 'The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea'[which roughly means, the Indian Ocean] written in ancient Greek but during Roman times, most likely 1st Century AD, translation available by internet search, is a practical account of trading ports and routes known to Greco-Roman merchants, what was bought and sold there, dangers en route etc. \n\nThis contains quite a lot of information about trading to India and a little about Burma, but says no ships are known to have sailed further. It mentions 'a city called Thina' somewhere further inland from which silk is brought by traders. This is probably a garbled reference to China.\n\nThe Romans did have silk as a luxury good, so must have had indirect trade with China as the only producer at that time, through 'middlemen'or a series of middlemen. However, the Romans were often in conflict with the Parthians and Persians, whose empires tended to be in the way of direct land travel from the Mediterranean area to China.\n\nI am sure I have read of other, clearer references to China by ancient Greek or Roman authors, but do not recall which ones. My recollection is that they knew it was there and was a large, civilized country, but had little other hard information.", "The virus Rp3 stands for Rhi pea isolated in China in 2004.\nThe trees is here and groups with the Bulgarian sarbecoviruses and is closely related to the African sarbecoviruses. Thus although it is a Chinese sarbecovirus is not with the &quot;Chinease originating&quot; clade as is SARS and Covid-19.\nThats why the more mysterious ORFs ORF13 and 14 are missing, because over notable genetic distances these genes along with ORF10 are present/absent. This is a common feature of the betacoronaviruses.\nIn summmary this virus is notably distance from the major human pathogenic SARS/covid-19 viruses. Thus the absence of these auxilary genes isn't really surprising.\nIts the very last taxa on the SARS-related viruses clade (monophyly) and is in a different group to SARS, which is the Beta-1 clade on this most excellent paper.\n\nTo answer the comment. They are outgroups, basically ancestral to COVID-19 and SARS-1 clade. So they lost these genes whilst the ingroup including COVID-109 and SARS-1 retained ORF13, 14 ... but I think lost ORF10 from memory", "If a parent is going with her, yes it's fine. My own daughter traveled from China to Canada with me when she was three, and after a few days to get accustomed to everything she had a ball. \n\n[Edited]\nThe biggest problem will be the language barrier, since the grandparents don't speak much English, it is essential that a parent goes with her. Having at least one person there she can talk to will help smooth things over and keep her from feeling isolated. Without that security, I wouldn't recommend it. \n\nMy own parents had a Skype only relationship with my daughter for the first three and a half years of her life, it kind of worked, she knew them, but it was really hard on my Mother. So as long as she isn't traveling alone and there aren't any extenuating circumstances, I'd recommend stepping aside and letting it happen.", "For the first part, Wang Dingwei is right.\n\nFor the second sentence, guoqi(国旗) refers to the national flag. The city flag should be translated to \"shiqi\"(市旗). I think \"shiqi de yanse shi huise he huangse\"(市旗的颜色是灰色和黄色) should be right." ]

[ "(CNN) -- The agreement reached by President Obama and Congress to reopen the government and avoid default was a punt, a punt that traveled 15 yards. It wasn't a budget agreement because nothing in it addressed any budgetary issues, nor was it a spending agreement, because spending continues at its current pace. It was a process agreement that saved the day, although the same fights that led to this crisis have been merely rescheduled. Another government shutdown is looming on January 16 and the nation will hit its debt limit on February 7. As far as government work goes, it's about the best we can expect. And that's the problem: The failure of our government to work properly, thanks to the weak leadership and ideological, re-distributionist preferences of President Obama combined with a deeply divided Republican caucus, means we're likely to go through the same saga again. It's also a reflection of how massive the nation's debt problem is and how difficult it will be to reduce it. Here's what has gone wrong. Let's start with the tea party. The tea party has been blamed more than any other group for the standoff of the past month. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and dozens of House Republicans have taken the brunt of the blame as the image of the Republican Party has hit record lows. The tea party's dedication to repealing Obamacare and shrinking the size of government, as opposed to simply slowing the rate of growth, is admirable and desirable. Those goals unite the Republican Party. But tea party objectives will not be achieved if it doesn't change tactics. Under our Constitution, massive overnight change is impossible unless you win elections. If the tea party wants results, it needs to elect candidates who can win and deliver votes in the House and Senate. In many ways, the tea party's fight is not with President Obama or with Speaker John Boehner. It's with James Madison. The tea party can't be President Obama's check and balance without realizing that under our Constitution the President also gets to be the tea party's check and balance. The fundamental error Republicans made in this fight was overreach. In trying to repeal Obamacare, Cruz and the tea party led Republicans into a fight that could not be won because they did not have the votes to win it. It's that simple. Instead, this fight unrealistically raised the hopes of the GOP base for an effort that never had a chance. Ultimately, legislation like keeping the government open or increasing the debt limit must pass, but that doesn't mean anything can be attached to it. Republicans turned a must-pass goal into a will fail effort. The tea party rebuttal? That type of practical approach is why Washington is a mess to begin with. They say they don't care about the politics, they ardently are trying to save the nation. Fair points. But the nation won't be saved if they can't muster the votes to save it. As for President Obama, if he wanted to achieve a fundamental grand bargain with Republicans, he would have done so in 2011 when an agreement with Republicans was in sight. He talks like a centrist willing to break with liberal economic ideology, but from the stimulus to Obamacare to his push for tax increases, he has no record of governing like one. Instead, he is driven to redistribute things, whether it's income, wealth or in the case of Obamacare, health insurance. He views the role of government as taking things of value from one citizen so they can be given to another. He promised that if you liked your health insurance you could keep it. Of course it's not as simple as that, as people are now realizing. For example, some companies may be dumping part or all their health coverage as Obamacare comes online, leaving employees to pay higher premiums and in some cases getting less coverage on the exchanges, according to a National Journal analysis. Obama says the debt is a \"long-term\" problem, ignoring that it has grown from $10.6 trillion to nearly $17 trillion on his watch. He refuses to make any fundamental changes to Obamacare but he insists that Republicans agree to additional tax increases. Throughout the recent impasse, he refused to negotiate. His poll numbers are around the worst levels of his presidency. The Real Clear Politics average shows more than half the country disapproves of the way he is handling his job. He is an unpopular president. The tea party gets stuck with the extremist label, but for many, it's Obama's policies that are extreme. Unless the just completed battle has exhausted both sides and they suddenly see merit in compromise and negotiation, January will be a repeat of October. In that case, the only issue left is which party do the voters kick out when they realize the only thing elected officials know how to do is punt? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ari Fleischer." ]

[ "Just over half the public says that it's bad for the country that the GOP controls the House of Representatives, according to a new national poll conducted after the end of the partial government shutdown. And the CNN/ORC International survey also indicates that more than six in 10 Americans say that Speaker of the House John Boehner should be replaced. The poll was conducted Friday through Sunday, just after the end of the 16-day partial federal government shutdown that was caused in part by a push by House conservatives to try and dismantle the health care law, which is President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement. Full poll results (pdf) According to the survey, 54% say it's a bad thing that the GOP controls the House, up 11 points from last December, soon after the 2012 elections when the Republicans kept control of the chamber. Only 38% say it's a good thing the GOP controls the House, a 13-point dive from the end of last year. Defeated GOP wants to unite and fight another day . This is the first time since the Republicans won back control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections that a majority say their control of the chamber is bad for the country. CNN Chief National Correspondent John King said there is time for Republicans to recover before the 2014 midterms. \"The midterm election is a year away. There's plenty of time for Republicans to work on the brand, but they've taken a bit of a beating here. They've got some work to do. They need a bit of a makeover,\" King said. Majority want Boehner out . \"We fought the good fight. We just didn't win,\" Boehner said at the end of the shutdown. And while he received a standing ovation at a closed gathering of House Republicans as the crisis came to a close, he may not see anything to applaud in the new poll. \"John Boehner fares just as badly as the GOP,\" CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. \"Sixty-three percent of all Americans think that Boehner should be replaced as Speaker of the House, a view shared by roughly half of all Republicans.\" Fleischer: Shutdown deal is a 15-yard punt . According to the poll, only 30% of the public says Boehner, who became Speaker in January 2011, should continue in that role. Congress near historic lows . The survey indicates that the approval rating for Congress remains near an all-time low. Only 12% of those questioned say they approve of the job Congress is doing, just two points higher than the historic low in CNN polling. And 86% give federal lawmakers a thumbs-down, also near the all-time high. Forty-four percent say they approve of the job the President is doing with 52% saying they disapprove. Four things we learned from government shutdown . \"Barack Obama's numbers are pretty anemic, but he remains in much better shape than the GOP,\" Holland said. \"Even though Obama's approval rating remains stuck in the mid-40s, it didn't take a hit during the shutdown -- 44% just before the shutdown began; 44% now.\" According to the survey, 44% also say they have more confidence in Obama rather than the GOP in Congress to deal with the major issues facing the country today, a 5-point drop from last year; 31% say they have more confidence in congressional Republicans, unchanged from last December. Obama wants new approach after shutdown . \"The biggest change on that question is the 21% who volunteer that they don't have confidence in either side -- a remarkably high number that is roughly double its usual level,\" Holland said. Majority favor health care law or say it doesn't go far enough . Even though they lost this round, conservatives vow to continue their fight to dismantle Obamacare. And they point to major troubles with the rollout of the website where Americans without insurance can enroll in the new health care exchanges. The president addressed the debacle at an event Monday at the White House, saying there was no way to sugarcoat the issues that applicants have experienced. According to the poll, just more than four in 10 say they favor the law, with 56% opposed to it. But of those opposed, 38% say they are against the law because they think it's too liberal and 12% say it's not liberal enough. That means that 53% either support Obamacare, or say it's not liberal enough. The health care numbers are little changed from late last month, just before the start of the shutdown. Congressional fight over Obamacare turns to website woes . The poll was conducted for CNN by ORC International, with 841 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.", "Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama's abrupt change of course and decision to ask Congress to authorize a strike on Syria won praise from some who have bitterly opposed his foreign policy. But in his surprise decision, did Obama cede presidential power? Over the last 50 years, presidents have successfully consolidated power when it comes to foreign affairs, especially when use of the U.S. military is concerned. Some say the concession to Congress sets a new precedent that bodes well for future Congresses and not so well for future presidents. \"This is a big deal and will tie the hands of future presidents,\" said Peter Spiro, law professor at Temple University. Spiro said this is the first time a president has sought authorization from Congress for a limited military mission. He said it will limit the flexibility of future presidents to make quick decisions, potentially putting U.S. national security at risk. Draft resolution on Syria would limit strike to 60 days . \"That kind of decision-making doesn't work when you have 535 Monday morning quarterbacks,\" Spiro said, referring to the number of lawmakers who will have a vote on Syria intervention as early as next week. Obama maintains, however, that he is not ceding his authority, but made the decision because \"the country will be stronger\" if Congress is on board. Obama insists he still has the authority to act unilaterally. \"[I] believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization,\" he said Saturday when he announced he would seek Congress' support. Obama and unilateralism . Other legal analysts disagree, however, with Spiro's assessment that the president is diluting the power of the office. On the legal blog Lawfare, Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith wrote: \"What would have been unprecedented, and a huge development for separation of powers, is a unilateral strike in Syria.\" Oona Hathaway, a Yale Law School professor, agreed. She argued that the president had to seek Congress' approval because he didn't have support from the United Nations Security Council. Obama looks to Congress to bolster legal case for Syria strike . \"Going to war under these circumstances (without congressional or Security Council support) would have put him out on a limb politically and legally,\" Hathaway said. Ari Fleischer, who was press secretary for President George W. Bush, sided with Obama. He said on CNN's \"New Day\" that this is \"a voluntary exercise where the executive has said to the legislature, 'I want you to act.' \" A return to precedent? Presidential historian Robert Dallek said the president \"returned to a central part of the country's history\" of power-sharing that has \"a complicated history.\" He said Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt would never have considered sidestepping Congress in the lead-up to World War I or World War II respectively. Presidents moved away from asking Congress' permission in the 1950s, starting with the Korean War, when President Harry Truman declined to seek congressional authorization. Library of Congress historian Louis Fisher called the move \"the single most important precedent for the executive use of military force without Congressional authority.\" Instead, Truman gained support from the U.N. Security Council and Congress did not object. President John F. Kennedy further consolidated power by authorizing the CIA to carry out the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and by his actions in the 1962 standoff with the Soviet Union over the U.S. blockade of Cuba. President Lyndon B. Johnson boxed out Congress with the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Johnson broad authority without forcing him to declare war. He used the law to unilaterally decide to commit 100,000 troops in the first stage of the war against North Vietnam. As a result, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to rein in presidents' war declarations. The law says the president must \"consult\" with Congress before U.S. forces are committed in an overseas conflict or within 60 days of U.S. involvement. Congress' use of the War Powers Act is mixed, however. While President George W. Bush sought congressional approval for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidents have often failed to ask Congress for support for smaller incursions. President Ronald Reagan didn't seek authorization for Grenada and Panama, President Bill Clinton avoided Congress over military action in Haiti and Kosovo, and Obama sidestepped the legislative branch for an expanded war in Afghanistan and intervention in Libya. Opinion: Obama, ignore the polls on Syria . What if Congress turns down the president? The most immediate risk for the president is that the Congress says no, as Great Britain's Parliament did to Prime Minister David Cameron last week. Fleischer warned that Obama \"has to prevail on the vote.\" Dallek said it would be \"rare\" that Congress would not defer to the president on an issue of war. He pointed to one instance in 1939, in the lead-up to World War II, when the president failed to gain Congress' support to aid the British and French against Nazi Germany. Shortly after, Congress reversed course and gave Roosevelt the resources he wanted. Syria war resolution faces tough challenge in Congress . While Obama's decision will be debated for years, Congress' response could be the real precedent-setter. During testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said congressional rejection would harm U.S. standing among its allies while emboldening its enemies. As of now, Congress isn't completely sold on intervention in Syria. If a failed vote falls along party lines, Hathaway said \"partisan squabbling would make future presidents nervous\" about seeking congressional authority. Dallek quoted Dutch historian Pieter Geyl, who said, \"History is an argument without end.\" In other words, future Congresses and presidents (and observers) are likely to use Obama's action and Congress' response as evidence bolstering a position. Opinion: On Syria, Obama must show strong grip . CNN's Tom Cohen contributed to this report.", "This Congress is going out just the way it began: in complete disarray. Fourteen months after tea party conservatives ignored Republican leaders and forced a two-week government shutdown, another one came close to happening -- this time because liberals were blowing off President Barack Obama's pleas to support a government funding measure. In the early morning hours Friday, Obama signed a two-day extension, and the Senate is expected to pick up the legislation and vote on it later Friday, though they have until midnight Saturday before the next deadline. For weeks, legislative leaders insisted another shutdown wouldn't happen. And it didn't. But the House was just two hours away, and the Senate might not cast its final votes until this weekend. Another flirtation with another deadline -- this one after a midterm election that swept Republicans into control of the Senate -- offers a grim glimpse at the paralyzing levels of dissent that could come next. Republicans don't fear their leadership. And Democrats don't need their President. After November's elections, when the GOP won the Senate and expanded its majority in the House, party leaders claimed a mandate. Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged that with Republicans in control of both chambers come January, things will be different. More amendments will be allowed. \"Center-right\" legislation will advance. But long-clear divisions on the right remain -- and were evident in the House when 16 Republicans, many angry that the party hadn't fought harder to block Obama's executive action on immigration, opposed the measure in a key procedural vote and nearly dealt their leaders a major blow. By the end of the night, 67 Republicans voted against the measure's final passage. Conservative lawmakers complained that House Republican leadership punted their latest opportunity to combat Obama's signature health care law -- which they fought to defund during the October 2013 shutdown -- and his executive overhaul of immigration and deportation rules. \"We've seen the same pattern ... Now Obamacare is funded. Now Obama's executive amnesty is funded,\" Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said on Fox News. Alongside him, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, called the vote \"disrespectful\" to midterm voters. Even if Republicans gain stability, Democrats are splintering. Fresh off an election that purged the Democrats of many of their most centrist members, liberals -- now more influential within their own ranks -- have gone rogue, saying \"no\" to what the White House called a fair compromise, even though their bargaining position isn't going to get better. In an extraordinary scene Thursday afternoon, two of the party's most influential members made high-profile breaks with Obama. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the government funding measure \"blackmail\" because of its inclusion of language rolling back a Wall Street reform that Democrats had fought hard to win in 2010. Meanwhile, the party's liberal hero, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, declared on the Senate floor that it is \"time for all of us to stand up and fight.\" Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were calling House Democrats, urging them to support the measure. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough rushed into a caucus meeting to make its case. But Democrats insisted as they exited that meeting that McDonough hadn't won many members over. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, said Democrats need to draw a line now to signal that they won't accept these kinds of deals in the future -- when Republicans will control the Senate, too, and are certain to advance bills with more conservative priorities. \"If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything,\" Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, said in the meeting. Still, some influential lawmakers said the government funding measure was a chance at redemption. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, said Thursday night was an opportunity for Congress to break a pattern in which lawmakers have \"paralyzed ourselves by making the perfect the enemy of the good.\" \"We tried to govern on a bipartisan basis,\" she said. \"We reached across the aisle and we reached across the Capitol dome.\"", "Chris Christie -- a self-styled truth teller with a penchant for political combat -- was notably cautious Wednesday when pressed on President Barack Obama's plan to issue immigration executive orders. At the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association here, the New Jersey governor and potential 2016 presidential contender repeatedly avoided weighing on the Obama plan that could defer deportation for almost four million undocumented immigrants. Christie, the RGA's chairman, addressed reporters at the conference and basked in the glow his successful 2014 election cycle, proudly flanked by new governors-elect from the blue states of Illinois and Maryland. But even as other Republican governors with White House ambitions sharply attacked the President's decision, Christie hedged on the hot-button issue when reporters broached the subject. \"Let's wait to see what the president says tomorrow night before we have any kind of reaction to that,\" Christie said when asked about the immigration announcement. He did express confidence that the new Republican leadership in Congress will avoid a government shutdown over the matter despite threats from hard-line conservatives. \"All this kind of hysteria about shutdown to me is just people wanting to make news,\" Christie said. \"I have confidence in the Speaker, I have confidence in Leader McConnell that they'll do this the right way and run the government.\" Later, asked if he would repeal Obama's executive actions on immigration if he were elected president, he punted again, saying that questions about a hypothetical candidacy were irrelevant. \"I am not going to articulate the basis of a yet unknown candidacy,\" he said. Christie instead turned the focus back to New Jersey where, he said, \"we've been dealing with this stuff already, because of the president's unwillingness to deal with this issue.\" He pointed to a version of the DREAM Act he signed last year granting tuition breaks to children of undocumented workers — a bill that rankled some conservative activists in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire — and flagged his opposition to driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Other governors at the meeting, including several eyeing their own White House bids, were more willing to condemn the president, often in blunt terms. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, said the president should sit down with congressional leaders and work on a piece meal approach to immigration reform. \"I think it would be a profound mistake for the president to overturn America's immigration laws with a stroke of a pen,\" he said. Ohio Gov. John Kasich called unilateral action a \"mistake.\" Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called the move \"illegal\" and said the president is breaching Constitutional separation of powers. Texas Gov. Rick Perry also called the executive order unconstitutional. Obama is also putting his own party in jeopardy, he said. \"I think he jeopardizes long term the Democrats ability to ever get back into power in Washington, D.C.,\" Perry said. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Congress could file suit and lake legal action against the president. There would be a \"compelling\" case to made against the president in the court system, he said. Though his potential rivals might have been drawing a policy contrast with Christie ahead of next year's primary, they and other Republicans gushed over his political work atop the RGA. Christie raised over $100 million to elect GOP governors in 2014 and even went into debt to help pull long-shot Republican candidate Larry Hogan over the finish line in deep-blue Maryland. \"I want to thank Gov. Christie for believing in us, and the RGA for coming to the rescue,\" Hogan told reporters. Bruce Rauner, the governor-elect in Illinois, called Christie \"a relentless campaigner.\" \"I've never seen anything like it,\" he said. And Pence said \"the country owes a debt of gratitude\" to Christie for helping install 31 governors in state houses across the country, the most for either party in 16 years. \"I speak on behalf of all the Republican governors, when I say thank you to Gov. Christie for his extraordinary leadership,\" Pence said.​ .", "Washington (CNN) -- Hovering above Congress with the unpleasant scent of deja vu are concerns that current budget talks seem poised to fail and that the word \"shutdown\" is back on the rise. First, there's the apparent budget impasse. \"There does not seem to be a serious effort to reach agreement in the budget conference,\" House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters on Tuesday. The \"budget conference\" is the 29-person House and Senate conference committee tasked with hashing out basic budget parameters, including total spending for the next two years. They have until December 13 to come up with a deal. \"Many of us are skeptics there ever will be (a deal),\" said Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, adding he is confident that the leaders of the budget conference, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, are doing their best. Battle for the House in 2014: Obamacare vs. shutdown . Personal thoughts about the leaders aside, a lack of confidence in the process has moved into higher gear this week. On Monday, the 13 top Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee sent Ryan and Murray a letter expressing concern and urging them to at least come up with a topline figure for spending so that appropriators could then start writing the bills that actually spend the money. The lawmakers behind that letter are worried that they won't have time to write and pass appropriation bills before January 15, when government funding is set to run out. They didn't mince words in the letter: \"The failure to reach a budget deal to allow Appropriations to assemble funding... will reopen the specter of another government shutdown.\" \"We need that (spending figure),\" said Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, who signed the letter. \"It will probably take a good month (to write the spending bills).\" Shutdown cometh? Some aren't worried; others are . Frank, like most Republicans with whom CNN spoke, does not believe a shutdown is likely in January. Even without a budget conference deal, the House and Senate could pass simple continuing resolutions to keep government funded. Appropriators don't want that because it would trigger blunt, across-the-board budget cuts and block any chance to tailor the cuts agency by agency. So the lack of a budget deal does not mean a shutdown will happen, but nonetheless, murmurs of shutdown politics are emerging. Wolf and other Republicans are concerned that the mantle of a shutdown, or any threat of one, could again harm their party. \"We probably lost the governor's race and attorney general's race in Virginia because of the shutdown,\" he said, shaking his head. Polling after the shutdown but before the Virginia elections showed Republicans were more tarnished by the fiscal fight. In a CNN/ORC poll, 52% said Republicans in Congress were more responsible for the shutdown compared with President Barack Obama's 34%. Democrats are clearly teeing up the connection between Republicans and another shutdown. \"I think Paul Ryan ought to put a serious proposal on the table,\" said Democratic Whip Hoyer. \"Paul Ryan ought to lead, not follow his caucus down a road which would lead to shutdown.\" \"No one's talking about a shutdown except for Democrats,\" responded Donald Stewart, spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. \"Everything they're doing now is to get them away from the pain and problems of Obamacare, of course they want to talk about something else.\" All of this political debris is again swirling in large part because of the absence of clear progress from Ryan and Murray's budget conference talks. The two budget committee chairs and their staff have made pragmatic but hopeful statements in public. Aides from both parties tell CNN the two leaders have been in frequent contact and had face-to-face meetings. But their public words on the matter are few. On Wednesday, Ryan repeatedly donned headphones and holding his hand up as if to say \"no comment\" on Tuesday. Budget staffers from both chambers point out that the less that negotiators say during talks, traditionally, the closer they are to a deal. But in this case, the wild politics involved lead many to question whether it's in Ryan's interest to cut a deal. Senate leader pays a House call . Perhaps the most significant sign of concern came from a rare cross-Capitol visit Tuesday when McConnell spoke to a closed-door meeting of the House GOP Conference. According to multiple sources in the room, McConnell talked about the upcoming funding deadlines and made it clear that he wants the overall budget reduction slated for January to go into place. McConnell's visit was unusual, one of just a handful he's made to House conference in his six years as Republican leader. In general, he has a reputation as a practical fiscal negotiator who aims to avoid crisis. He and Vice President Joe Biden were among the final negotiators during the fiscal cliff fight of 2011 and 2012. And in October, Democrats and others pointed to McConnell's role as critical in ending the shutdown. His decision to start talking with House Republicans about the January shutdown deadline now is significant. Meantime, the budget conference committee has a timing problem. The group technically has three weeks on the calendar to hash out a deal. But in reality, Congress leaves at the end of the week for Thanksgiving and after it returns, members will have just eight days in session before that December 13 deadline. If they miss that deadline, then Congress could go home for Christmas with no plan for how to keep government funded past January 15. Lawmakers would return January 7 and have a week to decide. CNNMoney: What shutdown? Job growth strong in October . CNN Senior Capitol Hill Producer Deirdre Walsh contributed to this story .", "Washington (CNN) -- Negotiators on House and Senate spending panels agreed to $1.1 trillion government funding bill, they announced Tuesday, just two days before federal agencies are due to run out of money. As part of the spending bill Democrats and Republicans have also agreed to attach policy provisions on a range of issues -- including measures to roll back environmental regulations, rules for possession of marijuana in the District of Columbia, and changes to financial regulations for banks. \"This bill fulfills our constitutional duty to fund the government, preventing damage from shutdown politics that are bad for the economy, cost jobs and hurt middle class families,\" said Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat, and Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican, in a joint statement. \"While not everyone got everything they wanted, such compromises must be made in a divided government. These are the tough choices that we must make to govern responsibly and do what the American people sent us here to do.\" The spending measure, which would fund most of the government for a full fiscal year was expected to be released at the beginning of the week. But on Tuesday evening, lawmakers continued to haggle over everything from immigration to terrorism risk insurance. The squabbling increased the chances that Congress will have to approve a short-term bill on Thursday to keep the government open for just a few days and give lawmakers a little more time to finalize a deal. But the last-minute agreement avoids that outcome, and likely means the government will remain open for business as usual. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid told reporters on Tuesday, \"We're ready to pass a yearlong spending bill to take care of this. We've been trying to work with Republican leaders to avoid a shutdown. There is going to come a time when they are going to have to take 'yes' for an answer. I guess they are not there yet.\" A House vote on the spending bill now is expected hours before the deadline on Thursday night, which would give the Democratic-led Senate little time to debate and vote on the legislation before government operations would be interrupted by a funding gap. The House Appropriations committee unveiled their legislation late Tuesday night, which funds virtually all of the government for a full fiscal year. But in response to the President Barack Obama's action on immigration, it only provides resources for the Department of Homeland Security through the end of February. Even that doesn't go far enough for some conservatives who want to use the annual spending bill to strip funding for the implementation of the executive orders. They insist that exercising Congress' power of the purse was the best tool to use now, instead of waiting to wage the fight until next year. \"I think it's a punt,\" Arizona GOP Rep. Matt Salmon told reporters about the current House spending proposal. He predicted as many as 50 House Republicans would oppose the legislation, but said in the end, those defections wouldn't block the bill because enough Democrats would back it to avoid a shutdown. Reid and other Senate Democrats have already said they would accept the hybrid bill so long as it didn't contain poison pill policy riders. Reid's comments Tuesday reflect that he is concerned some of those riders remain in the bill. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell have been urging Republicans to postpone their effort to roll back the President's executive actions until next year when they control both the House and the Senate. GOP leaders have repeatedly told members they don't want to risk a repeat of last fall's government shutdown, which most voters blamed on the GOP. The House passed a bill last week designed to stop the President's executive order, but that measure was seen as largely symbolic -- even from its supporters -- because the Democratic-led Senate refused to hold a vote on it and the Obama administration threatened to veto it. While GOP leaders argue it's better to wait until next year when they have control of both chambers of Congress, there is no plan in place for what Republicans will actually do in 2015. Flores said he was still waiting to read the spending bill, but he agreed with the concept of separating the immigration fight from the spending bill. He said for now, the Democratic-led Senate limits the options in the face of a shutdown and \"hopefully in January we're going to have a bigger tool box\" to force the Administration to revise its policies on immigration. Last minute discussions about unrelated legislation held up the funding bill's introduction, including whether to add an unrelated terrorism risk insurance measure to the measure. Discussions over that issue led to a fight over financial regulations -- a sign the debate over the spending bill had drifted off its initial course. House Democratic leaders won't say how they will vote on the measure, but the number two Democratic leader told reporters on Tuesday that Republicans will find it easier to attract support if they leave out controversial policy provisions. \"The cleaner this bill is the more likely it is of its passage,\" said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland. This story has been updated to include new information .", "If the federal government shuts down starting Tuesday because of a bitter partisan battle over the new health care law, more people say congressional Republicans rather than President Barack Obama would be responsible, according to a new national survey. A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday morning, hours before funding for the government is scheduled to run out, also indicates that most Americans think Republicans in Congress are acting like spoiled children in this fiscal fight, with the public divided on whether the president is acting like a spoiled child or a responsible adult. And six in 10 questioned in the survey say they want Congress to approve a budget agreement to avoid a government shutdown, and if it happens, most people say a shutdown would be a bad thing for the country. The poll's release comes one day after the GOP-dominated House of Representatives approved a spending plan to fund the government that would delay the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, for a year, and repeal its tax on medical devices. 10 ways a shutdown would affect daily life . That measure now heads back to Senate later Monday, where the Democratic majority has said any changes to the health care law would be a deal-killer. If no deal is reached on a temporary funding measure, a government shutdown would kick in at 12:01 a.m. ET Tuesday. According to the poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday, 46% say they would blame congressional Republicans for a government shutdown, with 36% saying the president would be more responsible and 13% pointing fingers at both the GOP in Congress and Obama. \"The number who would hold congressional Republicans responsible has gone down by 5 points since early September, and the number who would blame Obama is up 3 points in that same time,\" said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. \"Those changes came among most demographic groups.\" The CNN poll is similar to a CBS News/New York Times survey released late last week that indicated 44% blaming congressional Republicans and 35% pointing fingers at the president. Two other polls conducted in the past week and a half, from Pew Research Center and United Technologies/National Journal, showed a much closer margin but their questions mentioned Republicans in general rather than the GOP in Congress. While most Democrats questioned in the CNN poll would predictably blame congressional Republicans and most Republicans questioned would point fingers at the president, independents were divided on which side they would blame. In a separate question, 49% of all people in the poll say that Obama is acting like a responsible adult in this budget battle, with 47% describing him as a spoiled child. While that's nothing to brag about, it's better than Congress. Read the entire CNN/ORC poll . According to the poll, 58% say congressional Democrats are acting like spoiled children, with that number rising to 69% for the GOP in Congress. Only one in four say congressional Republicans are acting like responsible adults. Some 68% say a shutdown for a few days would be a bad thing for the country, with that number rising to nearly eight in 10 for a shutdown lasting a few weeks. Six in 10 questioned in the CNN survey say that it is more important for Congress to avoid a shutdown than to make major changes to the new health care law, with only a third saying it is more important for lawmakers to prevent major provisions in the new health care law from taking effect by cutting the funds needed to implement them. (Note: When CNN began interviews for this poll on Friday evening, the Senate had just stripped out of its bill the House Republican measure to defund the health care law. What the House passed this weekend doesn't specifically call for a defunding of Obamacare -- instead it delays its implementation for a year -- but the repeal on medical devices would cut key funding for the law.) The drive to overthrow the health care law, which was passed in 2010 when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, is being fueled by GOP lawmakers voted into office the past two elections with the strong support of tea party activists and other grassroots conservatives. \"A majority of Republicans think that blocking Obamacare is more important than approving a budget agreement,\" said Holland. \"So do tea party supporters, regardless of their partisan affiliation.\" \"Who's driving this strategy: 40 to 50 of the most conservative members of the House, and four or five of the most conservative members of the Senate,\" says CNN Chief National Correspondent John King. \"Fifty-six percent of tea party supporters say it's a good thing to shut down the government. These are the folks those most conservative members of Congress are listening to. Those lawmakers think back home they're on safe ground even though nationally shutting down the government is a non-starter.\" The poll indicates that Obamacare is not popular, with 57% saying they oppose the law, up 3 points from May, and 38% saying they support the measure, down five points from May. But only about four in 10 oppose it because it is too liberal, with about one in 10 saying they don't like the law because it is not liberal enough. If you add the 38% who favor the law to the 11% to oppose the law because it's not liberal enough, you get 49%, compared with the 39% who say they oppose the law because it's too liberal. The poll was conducted for CNN by ORC International September 27-29, with 803 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. THE QUESTIONS . Where do you stand? Add your thoughts in the comments below: . QUESTION: If the federal government shuts down, do you think that Barack Obama or the Republicans in Congress would be more responsible for that? QUESTION: Do you think Barack Obama has acted mostly like a responsible adult or mostly like a spoiled child during the recent debate over the federal budget? QUESTION: Do you think the Republicans in Congress have acted mostly like responsible adults or mostly like spoiled children during the recent debate over the federal budget? QUESTION: Do you think the Democrats in Congress have acted mostly like responsible adults or mostly like spoiled children during the recent debate over the federal budget? A political game of chicken as shutdown looms . House Republicans: Senate is running out the clock . Architect of the brink: Meet the man behind the looming shutdown .", "The federal government may not be hit with a double whammy on top of the ongoing shutdown, as House Speaker John Boehner told a group of fellow GOP legislators that he won't let the nation default on its debt, according to a House Republican. Boehner said that he'd set aside the \"Hastert Rule\" -- that Republicans would only bring measures up for a vote if they are backed by a majority of their caucus -- and rely on Democrats to pass a measure to raise the nation's debt limit, said the House member. This legislator attended a meeting Wednesday involving Boehner, but requested anonymity because that gathering was private. Congressional Republicans remain divided on how to structure legislation to raise the government's borrowing level. And an aide to the House speaker downplayed the development, saying, \"Boehner has always said the United States will not default on its debt, so that's not news.\" Still, at least one Democrat -- Sen. Charles Schumer of New York -- cheered the prospect of the GOP leader refusing to block at least this measure that President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats strongly support. \"This could be the beginnings of a significant breakthrough,\" Schumer said in a statement. \"Even coming close to the edge of default is very dangerous, and putting this issue to rest significantly ahead of the default date would allow everyone in the country to breathe a huge sigh of relief.\" The Ohio Republican's vow comes exactly two weeks before the government is set to run out of money to cover its roughly $16.7 trillion debt, unless Congress agrees to lift the so-called debt ceiling. That had long been routine in Washington -- until recently, that is, when conservative Republicans have pushed not to allow more borrowing without significant cuts. Boehner himself wrote earlier this week in USA Today that \"there is no way Congress can or should pass (a debt ceiling hike) without spending cuts and reforms to deal with the debt and deficit and help get our economy moving again.\" He accused President Barack Obama of refusing to negotiate; Obama and fellow Democratic leaders have since said they are open to talks on any and all budgetary matters, but only after the government is reopened. Yet Boehner's comments signal that, at least on the debt ceiling issue, he's willing to allow a vote on a measure backed by top Democrats but not most Republicans in his chamber -- something he's refused to do with a Senate-passed measure to reopen the federal government, without any add-ons. Chief among those Democrats is Obama who, for all his strong rhetoric on ending the government shutdown, has said that avoiding a federal debt default is an even bigger necessity. He's insisted Congress pass such a measure, as is, without tying it to anything else. \"As reckless as a government shutdown is, an economic shutdown that results from default would be dramatically worse,\" the president said in a speech Thursday in Rockville, Maryland. \"There will be no negotiations over this.\" Obama challenges Boehner to allow 'yes-or-no vote' on shutdown . While Boehner's comments suggest hope toward some common resolution on the debt ceiling, the government shutdown is another matter entirely. The two sides appeared no closer to an agreement Thursday, the third day of the shutdown that comes because Congress failed to agree on a budget plan to send to President Barack Obama. In fact, they appeared to dig in -- insisting their approach is best and that the other was to blame for the 800,000 workers at risk of furloughs, shuttering of national parks, loss of funding for various programs and other effects of the shutdown. A conservative GOP wing has demanded that any spending measure include provisions to dismantle or defund Obamacare, which became law in 2010 and was upheld by the Supreme Court last year. As he's done before, Obama on Thursday challenged Boehner to stop what he called Republicans \"reckless\" strategy of refusing to pass the \"clean\" spending bill -- which doesn't have provisions targeting the president's signature health care reform, the Affordable Care Act, like several passed by the GOP-led House -- and instead pushing measures to fund popular programs on a one-by-one basis. The shutdown: Personal stories from Americans on the edge . The president said the spending initiative passed by the Democratic-led Senate would pass the House with support from Democrats and some Republicans, except that Boehner won't allow the vote. \"The only thing that is keeping the government shut down, the only thing preventing people from going back to work, and basic research starting back up, and farmers and small-business owners getting their loans -- the only thing that's preventing all that from happening right now today, in the next five minutes, is that Speaker John Boehner won't even let the bill get a yes-or-no vote because he doesn't want to anger the extremists in his party,\" Obama said. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was part of the Democratic chorus Thursday, accusing Boehner of reneging on an agreement to let the House vote on a \"clean\" spending package of $988 billion, $70 billion less than Democrats wanted). Boehner went back on that deal, Reid surmised in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, because he feared fellow Republicans would turn on him and oust him from his position as House speaker. \"His job is not as important as our country,\" Reid said. \"... He has to have some courage.\" Reid jabs Boehner, says he reneged on deal . Cantor: GOP should stand its ground . GOP Rep. Michael Grimm said Thursday night that \"very, very arrogant and very obstinate\" remarks by Reid and what he calls a lack of needed leadership from Obama undermines the chances of reaching a deal. \"If you're going to be insulted ..., and if you're going to be spoken down to, and there's going to be this air of arrogance, you're only going to make things worse,\" Grimm, of New York, told CNN's Anderson Cooper. While Grimm and a few other moderate Republicans have backed a \"clean\" spending bill without anti-Obamacare provisions, some of his colleagues in the House say the party won't budge from their strategy. Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, for one, described his caucus as \"very unified\" and said Reid and Obama are \"confused\" if they think \"we're going to fold and let them win on everything.\" In fact, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wrote in a memo that it's the positions of Obama and other Democrats that are \"untenable.\" House Republicans would continue passing piecemeal funding measures for popular programs such as veterans affairs, national parks and medical research to keep up pressure on Senate Democrats who refuse to consider such measures in the ongoing stalemate, Cantor's memo said. \"While no one can predict with certainty how the current shutdown will be resolved, I am confident that if we keep advancing common-sense solutions to the problems created by the shutdown that Senate Democrats and President Obama will eventually agree to meaningful discussions that would allow us to ultimately resolve this impasse,\" Cantor said in the memo that a GOP source made available to CNN. A conversation between two conservative GOP senators showed Republicans think they can win the debate. In the comments caught by live microphone, tea party-backed Sen. Rand Paul told his Kentucky Republican colleague, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, that continuing to hammer Democrats for refusing to consider GOP proposals would eventually succeed. Proposal from moderates . Meanwhile, two moderate House members -- one Republican and one Democrat -- proposed a compromise Thursday that would fund the government for six months while eliminating a tax on medical devices in the health care reforms. Senate Democrats quickly rejected the idea because it would link the health care reform provision to the need to fund the government now while extending deep mandatory budget cuts they oppose for half of the new fiscal year. GOP moderates huddle as conservatives set agenda . Instead, Obama -- who canceled a trip to Brunei and Indonesia for this weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit because of the ongoing shutdown -- and other Democrats have said they want to negotiate a broad budget deal that could include tax reforms and other matters. But they're only willing to engage in such talks after the government reopens. This already slogging debate over what to do about the crisis ground to a halt Thursday because of something that, at first glance, did not directly involve any of the legislators on Capitol Hill, even if it did hit very close to home. A chase that began at a White House security checkpoint ended near the U.S. Capitol Hill when authorities opened fire on a car containing a woman and a child, an intelligence source told CNN. Two police officers suffered injuries in the ordeal, according to D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. The female driver -- who didn't fire any shots herself, according to multiple sources -- died of gunshot wounds. The House and Senate were both put on lockdown, with no one allowed to leave or enter Capitol Hill buildings and everyone urged to steer clear of windows and doorways, for about an hour. Not long after, Democrats and Republicans reconvened on the House floor and, in a rare show of unanimity, thanked the responding officers. Then they resumed their normal business -- which, if the past few weeks is any indication, meant more blame and little agreement on how to bring the government back on line.", "Washington (CNN) -- After a five-week summer recess, Congress returns to a long list of unfinished business, but with 57 left days before Election Day, it's likely it will tackle only the bare minimum in its short fall session. The one must-pass measure -- a short-term continuing resolution to fund federal agencies -- will avoid any pre-election talk of a government shutdown, with which neither party wants to be tagged. Republican and Democratic leaders struck a deal this summer on a six-month bill, but both chambers still need to pass the legislation before government funding expires at the end of this month. The House is expected vote on the bill Thursday, and two GOP leadership aides predict it will get a sizable bipartisan majority. A senior Senate Democratic aide tells CNN the Senate is expected to approve the measure next week. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranking GOP leader in the House, did not directly answer whether a majority of House Republicans would vote for the stopgap spending bill, but said, \"I expect that bill to be a bipartisan vote, and I expect the Senate to pass it as well and not add anything to it.\" What could move . -- It's possible that GOP and Democratic leaders could work out a deal on a farm bill to reform agriculture programs and provide some relief to drought-stricken states -- or at least agree to another short-term extension of the current law, according to multiple congressional aides. If they can't reconcile differences between the two varying approaches taken by the House and Senate, some money for drought assistance, plus some money for states affected by recent natural disasters, could be tacked onto the spending bill. McCarthy, who represents some agricultural interests in his California district, told reporters Monday he's still pressing to pass a bill before the election. He acknowledged to reporters on Capitol Hill that \"the time frame is tough,\" but \"it's our intent to get it done.\" Long, hot summer sends food prices soaring . -- The Senate will return and work on a veterans jobs bill this week. Senate Democrats are also considering action this month on a housing bill that President Barack Obama included on his congressional \"to do\" list earlier this summer, but House Republicans haven't expressed any desire to act on it. -- Some key provisions of the federal wiretapping bill known as FISA that was created after the 9/11 terror attacks under President George W. Bush are due to expire at the end of the year, and Congress is expected to pass an extension of the current law. House Republicans have slated a vote this week to renew the current law for another five years. Likely to be punted . The roughly eight-week sprint to Election Day means several major measures that lawmakers have failed to make any progress on over the summer will continue to languish on Capitol Hill. These include some issues that both parties say they want to address but will have little motivation to compromise on: The renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, a bill providing new cybersecurity protections and legislation to reform the postal service, which recently defaulted on payments to the Treasury Department for employee health plans. In each case, the proposal favored by the GOP-led House is at odds with the bills in the Democrat-controlled Senate. A divided Congress means these issues will be punted into the lame duck session after the election, or even postponed until next year. Less legislating and more campaign messaging . While there won't be much legislating, congressional aides say the messages from leaders and rank-and-file members on Capitol Hill will echo the campaign themes of Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, particularly when it comes to the economy and jobs. On his first post-convention stop in New Hampshire on Friday, Obama prodded voters to urge Congress to pass his jobs legislation. \"If the Republicans are serious about being concerned about joblessness, we could create a million new jobs right now if Congress would pass the jobs plan that I sent to them a year ago -- jobs for teachers, jobs for construction workers, jobs for folks who have been looking for work for a long time. We can do that,\" Obama said. Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, emphasized that the House GOP has already approved legislation aimed at helping the economy. \"The House has done its job. We've passed more than 30 jobs bills.\" CNNMoney: August jobs report comes in weak . Noting that House Republicans have also passed a bill to undo the automatic spending cuts scheduled to go into effect in January and extend all the current tax rates, Smith added, \"We are ready to act on all of those measures if the president and Senate Democrats would show some courage to work with on those things with us.\" Romney continues to highlight the Obama administration's failed loan to the now-bankrupt energy company Solyndra. House Republicans will keep the issue out front with a vote this week on a bill to eliminate the federal loan guarantee program that funded several energy start-ups. Dubbed the \"No more Solyndras Act,\" the GOP bill is expected to pass mostly along party lines, but won't move in the Senate. One open question is whether GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin will return to the Capitol for any part of the September session. Under Wisconsin law, Ryan is allowed to also run for his House seat, so he may feel pressure to take a break from barnstorming battleground states to vote on the bipartisan deal to keep the government funded. McCarthy told reporters Monday that Ryan would be back in Washington on Thursday to vote on the continuing resolution, and a Romney campaign official confirmed that. The six-month spending bill keeps the government funded at the level agreed to in last summer's debt deal -- $1.047 trillion. But after criticism from a bloc of conservative House Republicans that the deal didn't cut spending fast enough, Ryan introduced a budget that moved the overall spending level about $20 billion lower to $1.028 trillion. That budget passed the House, but was immediately rejected by Senate Democrats as violating the bipartisan debt deal. Asked how Ryan would vote this week on the funding bill, McCarthy initially told reporters he expected Ryan to support it, but when pressed about the spending level, he said he had indications his GOP colleague would vote for it, but he couldn't speak for other members. An aide to Ryan did not respond when asked by CNN whether the congressman planned to vote for the six-month spending bill. What won't get done -- a deal to avoid the 'fiscal cliff' Congress faces a \"fiscal cliff\" at the end of this year -- the combination of the deep automatic cuts to federal agencies scheduled to go into effect in January that were part of last summer's debt deal and the expiration of the \"Bush era\" tax cuts at the end of December. Economists and budget experts warn that a failure by the divided Congress to come to some agreement on significant deficit reduction and tax policy before the end of the year could trigger another recession. But neither side expects anything more than symbolic action on those issues until after the election. New Woodward book goes in depth on debt battle . On Friday, the White House missed a deadline to submit a report to Congress that details which government programs would face cuts as part of the sequestration in January, but White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters the report would go to the Hill this week. House Republicans passed a plan earlier this year without any Democratic support that shielded the Defense Department from any cuts and replaced the across-the-board reductions prescribed in the debt deal with other mandatory spending cuts to food stamp and other domestic programs. Although the majority of House Republicans voted for these spending cuts that were included in last summer's compromise to raise the debt ceiling, there has been a GOP push in recent months to blame the Obama administration and paint Democrats as responsible for any impact the cuts would have on the military. Over the weekend, Romney criticized Obama for proposing the cuts as a mechanism to broker the debt deal, saying \"it was a mistake for Republicans to go along with it.\" Romney explains why he thinks GOP made mistake . To reinforce that they now oppose the massive cuts to the military that sequestration would set in motion, the House GOP is scheduling another vote on the issue next week. The new bill would replace the mandatory cuts with their alternate set of reductions and again calls for the White House to explain how it will implement spending reductions. Perhaps what promises to be the only truly bipartisan moment in Congress this fall is this Tuesday's ceremony to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. As has become custom each year on the date, House and Senate leaders from both parties will assemble on the Capitol steps to sing \"God Bless America.\" That 9/11 ceremony, along with two others awarding Congressional Gold Medals to golf great Arnold Palmer and Burmese human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi, will be rare breaks from the heated campaign rhetoric on Capitol Hill that's aimed at influencing voters' choices in November.", "Washington (CNN) -- Is it a model for bipartisan governance or a short-term solution that only hardened long-held positions? Democrats and Republicans had wildly different takes on Thursday on the agreement passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama that ended the 16-day partial shutdown of the government and averted a possible U.S. default. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers returned to their jobs across the country and national monuments such as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis reopened under the agreement considered a victory for Obama because it lacked substantive changes to his signature health care reforms targeted by conservatives. In a tough and somber statement, the President challenged the Republican right to drop its anti-government ideology and change how business gets done in Washington. The standoff \"inflicted completely unnecessary damage (to) our economy\" by slowing growth and increasing borrowing costs, Obama said, declaring that \"there are no winners here.\" At the same time, he blamed the brinksmanship that flirted with the first default in U.S. history on no-compromise tactics of the Republican tea party wing in Congress, saying that \"the American people are completely fed up with Washington.\" \"Let's work together to make government work better instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse,\" Obama said in a direct jab at tea party conservatives. \"You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election,\" he added. \"Push to change it, but don't break it\" because \"that's not being faithful to what this country's about.\" Saying \"we can't degenerate into hatred,\" he ended by quoting part of the Pledge of Allegiance that states America is \"one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.\" But an aide to Sen. Ted Cruz, who led the tea party charge to tie continued government funding to derailing Obamacare, told CNN's Dana Bash late on Thursday the Texas Republican was not ruling anything in or out about a possible shutdown early next year around the next big fiscal deadlines. While no other Republican leaders offered on-the-record reaction, a senior GOP congressional aide told Bash that \"the President's comments are not designed to help this process, only to lay blame in advance\"of upcoming congressional battles over the budget, immigration reform and other issues. The congressional stalemate ended when Republicans caved to the insistence of Obama and Democrats that legislation funding the government and raising the federal borrowing limit should be free -- or at least mostly free -- from partisan issues and tactics. After all the bickering and grandstanding, the billions lost and trust squandered, the result amounted to much ado about nothing. Hardline Republicans, whose opposition to Obama's signature health care reforms set the shutdown and debt ceiling crisis in motion, got pretty much zip -- except maybe marred reputations. \"To say we as Republicans left a lot on the table would be one of the biggest understatements in American political history,\" Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted. The agreement amounted to the cliched kicking of the can down the road, because the deal passed by Congress in lightning fashion Wednesday night and signed by Obama in the wee hours of Thursday only funds the government through January 15 and raises the debt ceiling until February 7. Read the bill . It also set up budget negotiations between the GOP-led House and Democratic-led Senate intended to reach a broader agreement on funding the government for the fiscal year that ends on September 30. Ideally, a budget compromise would ensure government funding and include deficit reduction provisions that would prevent another round of default-threatening brinksmanship in three months' time. Dialogue started . On Thursday, leaders of the House and Senate budget committees -- Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington -- held a symbolic breakfast to get the dialogue started. They noted that their negotiations -- called a conference between their two committees to work out differences in budgets passed by each chamber -- differed from a special committee set up under 2011 legislation that failed to agree on broader deficit reduction steps. \"Chairman Ryan knows I'm not gonna vote for his budget. I know that he's not gonna vote for mine,\" Murray told reporters, saying the goal was to find \"the common ground between our two budgets that we both can vote on.\" In his statement to reporters Thursday, Obama repeated his call for Congress to now take a \"balanced approach\" on a budget for the rest of the current fiscal year that would \"cut out things we don't need,\" \"close corporate tax loopholes that don't create jobs,\" and \"free up resources for things that do help the country grow,\" like research and infrastructure. He also said Congress should pass immigration reforms proposed by the Senate and complete work on a farm bill caught in partisan wrangling. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the House vote to pass the spending and debt ceiling agreement Wednesday showed the possibility of bipartisan governance, with the Democratic minority joined by enough Republicans to surpass the 217-vote threshold required. However, that outcome only came under immense pressure on House Republicans after their partisan proposals seeking to link provisions dismantling or defunding Obamacare were rejected by the Democratic-led Senate and the President. House Speaker John Boehner's spokesman said the Ohio Republican sought a \"step-by-step\" process to address the immigration issue, which was Washington code for rejecting Obama's comprehensive approach that would offer immigrants living illegally in the country a pathway to legal status. Conservatives call that amnesty, and a senior GOP aide told CNN that \"the President's attitude and actions over the past few weeks have almost certainly poisoned the well on immigration, at least for now.\" Why is Ted Cruz smiling? Back to work . Before Obama spoke Thursday, federal employees returning to work got muffins from Vice President Joe Biden and hugs from colleagues, along with eye rolls about their \"vacation\" due to the shutdown. \"I am happy it's ended,\" Biden said when he arrived at the Environmental Protection Agency with the muffins handed out to returning workers. \"It was unnecessary to begin with.\" In the basement of the Capitol, there were exuberant hugs as furloughed colleagues were welcomed back, but there was also bitterness toward the elected legislators in charge upstairs. A common refrain was the sarcastic question: \"How was your vacation?\" Responses were often nonverbal -- an eye roll, a head shake, an angry glare, the occasional ironic laugh. Zakaria: Conservatives should lighten up . Had Congress not approved a debt limit increase, the government would have lost its authority to borrow more money to pay all of its bills. Social Security checks and veterans' benefits could have stopped. The markets could have gone into a tailspin. Approval of the temporary spending plan meant the return to work of more than 800,000 furloughed employees, while more than 1 million others who've been working without pay will get paychecks again. A provision in the agreement guaranteed back pay for government workers for the shutdown. What's open for business again . Last-minute save . However, the measure doesn't address many of the contentious and complicated issues that continue to divide Democrats and Republicans, such as changes to entitlement programs and tax reform. \"We think that we'll be back here in January debating the same issues,\" John Chambers, managing director of Standard and Poor's rating service, told CNN on Wednesday night. \"This is, I fear, a permanent feature of our budgetary process.\" At the White House, Carney hoped the outcome of the shutdown showdown -- with Republicans getting little in return for the public anger leveled mostly at them for causing it -- would revise how things worked. \"It's a new day, and maybe that dynamic will change,\" he said. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, credited with brokering the agreement with his Democratic counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said in published interviews Thursday there would be no further government shutdowns. Pork in the bill: The 5 most surprising provisions in the debt deal . A $24 billion battle . The partial government shutdown came at a steep cost. Standard and Poor's estimated it took a $24 billion bite out of the economy. Then there's the impact it had on politicians' image. If there's one thing polls showed that Americans agreed on, it's that they don't trust Congress -- with Republicans bearing more blame than anyone else for what transpired. What did GOP win on Obamacare? Not much . While some Republicans, such as tea party favorite Cruz, claimed moral victories in energizing their movement, Boehner didn't even pretend his side came out victorious. \"We fought the good fight; we just didn't win,\" Boehner told a radio station in his home state of Ohio. Cruz, despite being in the Senate, is credited with spearheading the House Republican effort to attach amendments that would have dismantled or defunded Obamacare. Republicans did get a small Obamacare concession: requiring the government to confirm the eligibility of people receiving federal subsidies under the health care program. However, Republican leaders said dismantling or defunding Obamacare was never going to happen and they criticized Cruz and his tea party cohorts for essentially causing the unpopular shutdown over that effort. GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire called the Cruz tactic \"an ill-conceived strategy from the beginning, not a winning strategy.\" How the House voted . How the Senate voted . 'Never again' Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicts the tea party and staunch conservatives in the GOP will be more energized after not getting the anti-Obamacare amendments they wanted. \"They will be more embittered, more angry. They will find more ways to go after Obama because they can't find any way to get him to negotiate,\" he said, adding that he expects Obamacare to become the defining issue of the next two elections cycles. Key points of the new debt deal . CNN's Brianna Keilar, Deirdre Walsh, Dana Bash, Erin McPike, Steve Brusk, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Paul Steinhauser, Ashley Killough, Craig Broffman, Jim Acosta, Mark Preston, Dan Merica and Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report.", "Political paralysis in Washington sent stock markets falling around the world yesterday as the US braced itself for its first government shutdown in nearly 20 years. Barring an unlikely last-minute deal between Democrats and Republicans over the federal government budget, around 800,000 workers will go on temporary unpaid leave from today and millions more possibly forced to work for free. The last such shutdowns, over the winter of 1995 to 1996, lasted 28 days. Economists estimate a similar disruption now could cut US economic growth by 1.4 percent, costing the country as much as £1.25bn. Pledge: Barack Obama has vowed that the Republicans will not water down his healthcare reforms . But, far more worryingly, an impasse that lasts more than a week or two could scupper chances of Congress agreeing to extend government borrowing later this month. The US reaches its current borrowing limit in little more than two weeks. If the government is forced to default on its debt for the first time ever, the shockwaves would be felt around the world as US government bonds anchor the international financial system. A long government shutdown followed by a debt default would be 'the nightmare of the recession all over again', said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Wall Street analysts Moody’s Analytics. Jittery markets saw little to reassure them in fractious Washington yesterday where politicians prefered to bicker over who was to blame rather than negotiate a way to avert disaster. The bitterly divided factions in Congress had until midnight, when the government’s fiscal year ended, to reach agreement on a new budget bill. Standing ground: House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks to a House Republican Conference meeting to discuss the ongoing budget fight. He has said the party will not back down . Conference: President Obama speaks to the media in the briefing room of the White House on the looming government shutdown in Washington . Republican hardliners insisted it should include amendments to water down and delay Barack Obama’s controversial healthcare reforms, which begin to be implemented today. But the White House and the Democratic-controlled Senate refused to budge, accusing Republicans of allowing a small minority of Tea Party hardliners to hold the country to ransom. Both houses of Congress have to approve the budget. As it had warned, the Senate voted on Monday to strip out the Republicans’ health care amendments and sent back the government funding bill to the House with just hours before the deadline. Earlier in the day, Republican House Speaker John Boehner insisted they would not back down either. Crisis talks: President Obama speaks to members of his Cabinet. If a budget is not agreed the government will shutdown for the first time since 1995-6 . He pledged to keep fighting the implementation of so-called Obamacare, which aims to provide healthcare coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. Fellow Republicans blamed Mr Obama for the impasse, complaining he had ignored their pleas for talks and not contacted Mr Boehner in more than a week. Mr Obama has vowed that the Republicans will not water down his healthcare reforms and seems confident in polls that suggest his opponents will get most of the blame for a shutdown. According to a CNN poll, 69 percent said the Republicans were behaving like 'spoilt children' – compared to 58 percent who thought the same of the Democrats. Conflict: U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid leave a news conference while the deadlock over the budget continues . Mr Obama called on House Republicans to 'set aside the short-term politics', saying: 'We certainly don’t allow domestic policy differences, on issues that are unrelated to the budget, to endanger not only our economy but the world economy.' Under a shutdown, the State Department would continue processing foreign applications for visas, and embassies and consulates overseas would continue to provide services to American citizens. White House confidence was punctured yesterday by a 'fact check' by the Associated Press of the president’s health reform claims. It indicated that he was being 'slippery' about the real costs of getting insurance under his new system. The AP report tore apart his claim that most of the uninsured population would be able to get health insurance for less than the cost of their monthly mobile phone bill.", "China publicly intervened for the first time in America’s looming debt crisis yesterday, demanding the US take 'concrete measures' to prevent a default on government debt that could be globally catastrophic. China is the U.S’s biggest foreign creditor, holding at least £794 billion in US Treasury bonds, and its leaders warned Washington against jeopardising its huge stake in the American economy. Expressing concern over the continuing deadlock in Washington about raising the government’s debt ceiling, China’s vice finance minister, Zhu Guangyao, said the 'clock was ticking' for the U.S. As the world’s two biggest economies, 'China and the US are inseparable,' he said. Scroll down for video . China warned the U.S. about the potential global financial fallout of the deadlock. File picture . Referring to a similar Washington impasse in 2011 that led to the humiliating downgrading of America’s credit rating, Mr Zhu said: 'We hope the United States fully understands the lessons of history.' The U.S. has until October 17th to agree to raise its debt ceiling or the Treasury will run out of money to pay what it owes. Shares on Wall Street and in Europe continued to fall yesterday as the US government headed into a second week of a partial shutdown with no signs of any agreement over the budget. The White House reiterated that President Barack Obama will not negotiate with the Republicans over the threat of a debt default, the first in U.S. history. Aides say Mr Obama believes that negotiating will set a dangerous precedent for future debt ceiling talks. Protestors holds signs against the government shutdown on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol building . Yesterday, Mr Obama said he believed Congress would vote both to reopen government and to raise the debt limit if they did it now. 'My very strong suspicion is there are enough votes there' to pass legislation, he said. 'Hold a vote. Call a vote right now. Let’s see what happens.' However, the Republicans control the House of Representatives. And Republican House Speaker John Boehner vowed on Sunday not to raise the U.S. debt ceiling without a 'serious conversation' about what is driving the debt. With tensions rising in Congress, Democrats countered that their opponents are being irresponsible and reckless to raise the possibility of the US defaulting. The chances of a deal are further hampered by the increasingly venomous war of words between the two main leaders in Congress - Mr Boehner and Democrat Senate leader Harry Reid. The gathering storm: Shares fell as Obama reiterated he would not negotiate with the Republicans . Yesterday, a spokesman for Mr Reid accused Mr Boehner of 'refusing to come to grips with reality' and saying 'things that fly in the face of facts'. White House economic chief Gene Sperling has suggested that Washington could buy some more time to reach a deal if Congress approved a bill to boost the debt ceiling for a few weeks. Conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives have been accused of holding the U.S. to ransom by resisting a deal to keep funding the government unless Mr Obama agrees to delay his healthcare reforms. Many Republicans want a similar condition, as well as others to cut the huge US deficit, placed on raising the debt ceiling. The two parties faced off over the same issue two years ago, agreeing only to a last-minute deal after pressure from the financial markets. Mr Obama has already appealed to Wall Street to force the hand of the Republicans once again. But investors are hardly reassured. Shares on European markets fell to a four-month low on Monday with those on Wall Street tumbling even lower.", "Speaking to the nation after Congress reached a deal to reopen the government and temporarily raise the debt ceiling, President Barack Obama said we are \"Americans first\" and need to put partisan interests aside to get things done. But can we? The recent shenanigans do not bode well for the future. The resolution of the shutdown always hinged on whether House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, would defy the tea party hard-liners in his party and allow a vote on a bill that a majority of Republicans did not support. What have we learned about Boehner's leadership, or lack thereof? We are already hearing two extreme viewpoints. Rep. Raul Labrador and other staunch conservatives and tea party members gave him kudos. Boehner's job as speaker of the House seems safe, at least for now. But others in the Republican Party, and outside of it, say Boehner needs to grow a spine to stand up against the tea party caucus and Sen. Ted Cruz, the ultimate architect of the shutdown fiasco of 2013. Such differing views about the role Boehner played and how he led his troops reflects the exact polarization that produced the fingernails-to-the-chalkboard tension that caused the shutdown face-off in the first place. GOP, Boehner take shutdown hit in new CNN poll . In press conferences and TV appearances, Cruz and House tea party members said time and time again that they were doing what the \"American people\" asked them to do. They talked about those who cheered on the government shutdown to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. But polls say most Americans disapproved of the Republican tactics and did not want the government to shut down over Obamacare. These Americans give a historically low disapproval rating to Republicans and the tea party in particular. Those same numbers give Obama and the Democrats confidence in saying they are the ones who are actually listening to the American people. The problem for Boehner as a leader of a fractured caucus is that he is listening to only a small but loud fraction of the American electorate. The voices of this America are vengeful if they don't get their way. And their leaders were clearly able to compel Boehner to rebuff the other more mainstream and moderate America that seeks compromise and resolution. So did Boehner display good leadership? For his tea party caucus, yes. For the country, no. And yet, going to the mat for the tea party might enable Boehner to push them hard to avoid this destructive path next time. It might give him the backbone he will need to stand up to them in the coming months and listen to the other \"America\" that represents more reasonable middle-of-the-road voices. These also happen to be a majority of the country -- Republicans, Democrats and independents. They are the voters that decide presidential elections and are precisely the ones the tea party is alienating. A defeated GOP wants to unite, move on, fight another day . The bigger problem for moderate and pragmatic Republicans is that the tea party doesn't care about the Republican Party's shrinking White House prospects. But it does care about its own and about keeping control of the House of Representatives. This could be enough to get the tea party to rethink its strategy. Americans have had it. The most recent CNN poll shows 54% of Americans think it is a bad thing for the country that the GOP controls Congress. For the first time ever, polls show 60% of voters are ready to boot all of Congress out -- including their own representatives. While many strategists believe the House is still safe for Republicans, a recent Public Policy Polling survey, conducted by the Democratic pollster for MoveOn.org, a liberal activist group, suggests that the Democrats in competitive Republican districts are ahead. And Democrats need only to flip 17 districts to gain control of the House. There are 17 districts held by Republicans that Obama won in 2012. There are 17 districts held by Republicans where Obama lost by 2 points or less. These are districts where because of Boehner's poor leadership anti-tea party backlash could help Democrats win seats. Boehner's leadership will soon be tested yet again -- on immigration, the farm bill and the budget, the three issues that Obama says he will push in the remainder of his term. He can choose to be a strong leader for the tea party, or be a strong leader for the country, truly work with Obama and the Democrats, and help heal the battered image of his party and of Washington. He can seal his fate as a true leader, or as the captain of the Titanic.", "Washington (CNN) -- No science or religion can accurately predict what will happen in Congress. But looking plainly at the political chess board and listening to sources on Capitol Hill, there is plenty of reason to think that a shutdown of the federal government won't happen, at least not next week. Here's why: . Politics. And blame. And 1996. \"Let's put it this way,\" Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told CNN. \"I'm not about to shut down the government and have Republicans take the blame for it. It's just that simple.\" Bluntly, many Republicans fear they will be blamed for a shutdown, just months before a big congressional election year. This makes them highly motivated to find a way to keep government running. A CNN/ORC poll in mid-September showed 51% of people would hold Republicans in Congress responsible for a shutdown versus 40% for President Barack Obama. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, might already be in this camp. He initially proposed a spending bill that would have avoided a standoff. Conservatives forced him to go to war with a different version fully defunding Obamacare, but Boehner's opening move was an important signal that he wants to sidestep a shutdown. Main Street fed up over Beltway shutdown battle . There may be some learned behavior from history here, too. \"I saw this movie before, I saw what happened before,\" said Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, talking about the sting Republicans felt after the shutdowns in 1995 and 1996. \"That's what happened the last time we tried this,\" he concluded. Bottom line: Ideal or not, Congress runs on political currency. And multiple House GOP aides tell CNN that the majority of the Republicans in their conference fear a shutdown would cost them with voters. The next fights . Republicans are divided over how far to take the Obamacare battle right now. And GOP leaders also are preparing a second Obamacare fight during the upcoming debt ceiling debate. So, they have the option of dropping the anti-Obamacare push from the shutdown debate now and instead including it in the debt ceiling fight coming up. At the same time, Democrats are eager to get past the shutdown debate so they can move on to the debt ceiling and start to deal with yet another fight: budget cuts slated to hit in January at the latest. The numbers . Republicans have 233 members in the House, 16 votes more than a majority. Those 233 are divided over how far to take the Obamacare fight, over whether to ultimately shut down government in the name of defunding the health care law. This year, funding measures repeatedly have passed the House of Representatives with a bipartisan coalition. Take a look at the Superstorm Sandy funding vote. Or the last debt ceiling increase. Or the March vote to avoid a government shutdown. Sure, every vote is different. But a bipartisan safety net has magically rolled out during the last funding standoffs. Deadline pressure . Something happens in the day or two before a potential shutdown. Whatever the atmosphere and seemingly-firm positioning now, things will ramp up fast if Congress gets closer to a shutdown, especially a shutdown that would go in place during a work week. Workers ask if they will be sent home without pay. Troops (and their families) worry if their paychecks will be delayed. Families may start to cancel vacations. That is the moment when incredible political pressure against a shutdown builds. The deadline itself . Finally, we come to a public secret. The government does not necessarily have to shut down at the end of the day on September 30. Yes, at midnight, funding officially runs out for most programs. But if lawmakers are close to a deal, the president can order agencies to keep running for a few hours or perhaps even a day or two for Congress to pass the legislation. CNN Fact Checks: Obamacare . This has happened before. Recently. At midnight at the end of April 8, 2011, the funding for most agencies officially ran out. But Democrats and Republicans had struck a funding deal a few hours before, it just had not passed through Congress yet. So the Obama administration told agencies to hold off with any shutdown plans because a spending bill was likely to become law soon. In that case, it waived just a few hours of shutdown, but sources in both parties at the Capitol have confirmed that the president can do this for a longer period if a deal is emerging. Again, Congress works best on deadlines, and the shutdown deadline is not quite as firm as people might think. Why a shutdown (still) might happen . All this said, you cannot underestimate the swirling, unpredictable dynamics in Congress at the moment and Republicans' gut-level objections to Obamacare. Once the Senate passes its version of a spending bill, House Republicans are considering attaching another item to it. That could be a one-year delay in the individual insurance mandate in Obamacare, a repeal of a medical device tax, a change in how the government handles congressional employee health plans or possibly something in support of the Keystone pipeline. How this affects you . A spending bill with something Republicans want and Democrats don't would set up a late game of chicken between the House, Senate and president. If no one blinks, which is possible, this would lead to a shutdown. It's unclear whether House Republicans will do this. It is also unclear how Democrats would react. But this scenario is the reason there is still a chance a shutdown could happen.", "Washington (CNN) -- In the final hours before $85 billion in widely disliked spending cuts began to take effect Friday, top political leaders did virtually nothing to defuse Washington's latest self-imposed fiscal crisis. Democrats blamed Republicans, Republicans blamed Democrats, and both sides prepared for the next showdown -- a possible government shutdown on March 27. Here are the highlights of Friday's partisan skirmish: . Last minute White House meeting achieves nothing . President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi huddled behind closed doors for less than an hour Friday morning. As expected, the meeting didn't accomplish anything. The gathering was \"subdued\" a GOP congressional aide told CNN. Democrats insisted once again that the cuts could be avoided if only Republicans would compromise and agree to higher taxes on the rich. \"None of this is necessary,\" Obama told reporters after the meeting. \"It's happening because (of) a choice that Republicans in Congress have made. They've allowed these cuts to happen because they refuse to budge on closing a single wasteful (tax) loophole to help reduce the deficit.\" The country \"will get through this,\" he insisted. But \"it's just dumb.\" Republicans once again ruled out new taxes, and said they had already done their part. \"The (GOP-controlled) House shouldn't have to pass a third bill before the (Democratic-controlled) Senate does anything,\" said Boehner, referring to Republican-drafted legislation that died in the last Congress. \"The House has laid out a plan to avoid the (current cuts). ... This discussion about revenue, in my view, is over. It's about taking on the spending problem here in Washington.\" The current pending budget cuts are the result of an ongoing partisan impasse whose origins stem from an August 2011 agreement to increase the debt ceiling. Obama: I don't have horns and I'm not a Jedi . \"I recognize that it is very hard for Republican leaders to be perceived as making concessions to me,\" Obama told reporters. \"Sometimes I reflect -- is there something else I can do to make these guys ... not to paint horns on my head?\" The president bemoaned his inability to force GOP leaders to cut a deal. \"I know that this has been some of the conventional wisdom that's been floating around Washington ... that I should, somehow, you know, do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what's right,\" Obama said. \"If there was a secret way to (convince them), I would have tried it. I would have done it. What I can do is, I can make the best possible argument. And I can offer concessions, and I can offer compromise.\" Boehner: House will try to avoid a government shutdown . The next big date on the fiscal calendar is March 27, the day Washington's spending authority expires for the rest of the current fiscal year. Congress has to pass a bill extending federal spending authority or the government will shut down. \"The House is going to move a (legislation) next week to fund the government past March 27,\" Boehner said. \"I hope the Senate will follow suit. ... I'm hopeful that we won't have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown while we're dealing with the (spending cuts) at the same time.\" And speaking of that shutdown ... As March 27 approaches, lawmakers will continue to fight over the $85 billion in spending cuts. Should a new government funding bill include the current cuts? Should it substitute another $85 billion in cuts? Should greater flexibility be provided to the Pentagon or other departments as they implement the cuts? With less than a month to go before the shutdown deadline, these questions are already dividing legislators and could derail coming shutdown talks. Democrats have so far largely resisted the notion of greater flexibility in the implementation of the cuts. On Thursday, they rejected a Senate Republican bill that would have given Obama more flexibility in deciding which programs to slice. Among other things, Democrats worry that would let the GOP off the hook while placing responsibility for the cuts clearly on the president's shoulders. Critics in both parties consider the idea an abdication of Congress's power of the purse. \"Flexibility is not a substitute for money,\" Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, told CNN's Ted Barrett on Friday. Flexibility \"would be like being on the Titanic. We've hit the iceberg, and flexibility says what deck to you want to be on as you sink? Do you want to be near the kitchen? Do you want to be near the band?\" \"What we want is a solution with money,\" Mikulski. \"Not a sham solution with the illusion of a management approach.\" McConnell: No more taxes or back-room deals . \"Over the coming weeks, we'll have the opportunity to ensure funding is at the level we promised while working on solutions for making spending reductions more intelligently than the president's across-the-board cuts,\" the Senate minority leader said in a written statement Friday afternoon. \"But I want to make clear that any solutions will be done through the regular order, with input from both sides of the aisle in public debate. I will not be part of any back-room deal and I will absolutely not agree to increase taxes,\" he added. Pelosi: House GOP fears \"marketplace of ideas\" House Democrats \"have a proposal that would have been better\" than the current cuts, Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill. The proposal \"has a revenue piece,\" she noted, but Democrats \"haven't been able to bring it up. We've ... tried three times in the last two months.\" \"The Republicans, I don't know what they're afraid of,\" the California Democrat said. \"This is the marketplace of ideas. Are they afraid that some of their members might vote for it?\" Federal employees brace for furloughs . Several FBI employees told CNN they received letters Thursday warning of expected cuts and furloughs due to the imminent cuts. Prospective furlough notices also went out to 115,000 Justice Department employees, according to a senior official at the department. Finally, if you're planning to visit the Capitol soon ... Prepare for longer lines. The following message went out Friday from Congress's Office of Sergeant at Arms: . The imminent spending cuts \"will require modifying points of access for members, congressional staff and guests to the U.S. Capitol Complex. \"At this time it is anticipated that the U.S. Capitol Police will be required to close some entrance doors and exterior checkpoints, and either suspend or modify the hours of operation for some of the U.S. Capitol Complex posts located inside and outside of the (Capitol Visitor Center) and office buildings. These changes will most likely take place within the next two weeks, and the congressional community will be notified in a timely manner before implementation.\" CNN's Dana Bash, Ted Barrett, Carol Cratty, Tom Cohen and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.", "Washington (CNN) -- For Washington, Christmas could come early. Or it could not come at all. The deal to end the government shutdown in October included a new deadline -- come up with a plan to fund the government by December 13 -- or risk another partial government shutdown next month. Well, December 13 is Friday and House and Senate negotiators don't yet have a deal. And that's not the only thing Congress has to work on before the House is supposed to leave town, also on Friday, and the Senate at the end of next week. The budget . The talks, led by Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, are working to formulate a spending bill for the remainder of fiscal 2014, which ends next September 30. Current funding for the government runs out in mid-January around the same time as billions in new automatic spending cuts -- known as sequestration -- are set to hit. Insisting that negotiators reach a deal, House Speaker John Boehner said last week that he \"told everybody in the room (the GOP caucus) we are done at 11 a.m. on December 13.\" Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who sits on the House and Senate negotiating panel, said Sunday on ABC's \"This Week\" that he's \"hopeful\" a deal would be reached by the end of this week. Unemployment benefits . An estimated 1.3 million long-term unemployed will be cut from federal jobless benefits by the end of the year. Another 850,000 could fall off the rolls within the first three months of 2014, according to the National Employment Law Project. That's unless Congress extends, for the 12th time since 2008, the federally funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. It provides benefits once a jobless worker's state benefits expire. A 'do-nothing' Congress? The unemployment extension could be included in budget talks, adding another challenge that Republicans and Democrats have to overcome. While the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate said he hopes extended unemployment benefits are included, he noted on Sunday that such a step won't necessarily be a sticking point for his party in budget negotiations. \"No, I don't think we've reached that point where we've said, 'This is it -- take it or leave it,'\" Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said on \"This Week\" when asked if his party would demand it be included budget talks. While many Democrats want an extension, Republicans are opposed. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said an extension of jobs benefits harms the unemployed. \"I do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks that they're paid for. If you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers,\" he said on \"Fox News Sunday.\" Farm Bill . The Farm Bill, which sets national food policy, is two years overdue. Congress has been passing short-term extensions instead of the usual five-year plan, but key negotiators now say a short-term fix is not an option. Washington gridlock risks $7 milk . If lawmakers fail to pass a Farm Bill, the economic impact for ordinary Americans could be quite severe. The price of milk would more than double to an estimated $7 per gallon as government subsidies expire. The cost of food overall would go up, with supports for commodities, such as corn and wheat, also running out. Another huge factor: food stamps. The Farm Bill authorizes spending for that program as well. House Republicans want to drop 3.8 million people from those rolls next year -- about 8% of recipients - while Senate Democrats aren't keen on those cuts. But they would likely have to agree to some reductions for a deal to be reached. Food stamp spending is currently . Some 47.6 million people, or nearly 15% of the population, get food stamps, according to September federal data. In 2007, only 26.3 million, or 8.7% of the population, received them. The 'Doc Fix' For doctors, the holidays are a stressful time if they see Medicare patients. That's because their reimbursements are caught up in political wrangling and budget negotiations. It's called the \"doc fix\" and they would see a 24% reduction in their reimbursements if Congress fails to act. While there is bipartisan support for doctors to receive payments in full, there is plenty of disagreement between the two parties on how to pay for the costly program. Washington could still screw up your holidays . The latest estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found the \"doc fix\" would cost $138 billion over the next decade. While that's far lower than the $316 billion the CBO projected the previous year, it's still hard to find that much money lying around. The House announced a path forward but the Senate has not. It's unclear how this issue will be resolved. If Congress fails to fully reimburse them, doctors have threatened to stop seeing Medicare patients. That's not a viable option as more and more baby boomers sign up for Medicare every day. Iran sanctions . Despite administration objections, members of Congress are working to pass new sanctions on Iran. The White House is opposed, saying they would undermine an interim deal with Iran meant to halt its nuclear program. A Senate source familiar with the discussions told CNN Capitol Hill Producer Ted Barrett that senior Senators from both parties are nearing agreement on a plan that would prohibit Iran from enriching any uranium. One source said \"the (Obama) administration's preference is for us to do nothing,\" while another said \"they're fighting us tooth and nail.\" Kerry sees hope of progress for Iran, Israel . Even if a deal is reached, it's not clear that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would defy President Barack Obama and bring the package to a vote. Presidential nominations . The Senate is back in town for the first time since it changed the rules to allow a simple majority to confirm Presidential nominations instead of the previous 60-vote threshold. They are expected to clear a backlog of appointments. The first vote is expected on Patricia Ann Millett to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Other nominees likely to come up for a vote before the end of the year include Robert Wilkins and Cornelia Pillard, also for the D.C. court, Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve, Jeh Johnson to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and Democratic Rep. Melvin Watt of North Carolina to run the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Defense bill . Senators also will return to legislation that sets policy goals and spending targets for the military. The Defense Authorization measure has passed the House but is moving slow in the Senate because of the numerous amendments that receive a vote -- common procedure for that legislation. While the Senate is scheduled to be in town for two weeks, it must hurry since the House is set to leave on Friday. CNN's Ted Barrett, Deirdre Walsh, Dana Davidsen and CNNMoney's Jeanne Sahadi contributed to this report .", "In a sign of the political hangover congressional Republicans are suffering in the wake of the government shutdown, three-quarters of Americans in a new national poll say that most GOP members of Congress don't deserve to be re-elected. A CNN/ORC International survey released Monday also found a majority saying that the Republicans' policies are too extreme. And according to the poll, Democrats have an 8-point advantage over the Republicans in an early indicator in the battle for control of Congress. But with more than a year to go until the 2014 midterm elections, there's plenty of time for these numbers to change. CNN Poll: House Republicans, Boehner take big post-shutdown hit . The poll was conducted Friday through Sunday, just after the end of the 16-day partial federal government shutdown that was sparked in part by an effort by House conservatives to dismantle the health care law, which is President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement. A majority of those questioned blamed congressional Republicans for the government shutdown and said the President was the bigger winner in the deal to end the crisis. The survey also found nearly eight in 10 saying the shutdown was bad for the country, and the standoff has led to a loss of confidence and satisfaction in government. And more than seven in 10 think that another shutdown is likely. Anger directed at congressional Republicans . More than seven in 10 questioned in the survey said that most members of Congress don't deserve to be re-elected, with nearly four in 10 saying even their own representative doesn't deserve a return ticket to Washington next year. Both figures are hovering around all-time highs in CNN polling. \"Although incumbent members of Congress of both parties are not very popular, the shutdown seems to have only affected views of GOP incumbents,\" CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. Defeated GOP hopes to unite, fight another day . Three-fourths of people questioned in the survey said that most congressional Republicans don't deserved to be re-elected, 21 percentage points higher than the 54% who say most Democrats don't deserve another term in office. Only one in five say most Republicans deserve to be re-elected; 42% say the same thing about Democrats on Capitol Hill. Democrats hold early 2014 polling lead . The shutdown seems to be making an impact on polls asking the generic ballot question: Would you vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate in your congressional district. There is no mention of the names of any candidates. Fifty percent of registered voters questioned said they would vote for the Democrat in their district, with 42% backing the Republican. The 8-point Democratic margin in the CNN poll is the same as in a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey and close to the 9-point advantage for the Democrats in the generic ballot in a recent Quinnipiac University poll. While the generic ballot is a much-watched gauge, it's important to remember that the battle for the House is a district-by-district fight, rather than a national race, and just 17 of the 232 House Republicans are in districts won by Obama in last year's election. Obama wants new approach after shutdown . \"We're a long way away from saying that the Democrats have a chance to regain control of the House,\" Holland cautioned. \"There is more than a year to go before any votes are actually cast and the 'generic ballot' question is not necessarily a good predictor of the actual outcome of 435 separate elections. A year before the 2010 midterms, for example, the Democrats held a 6-point lead on the generic ballot.\" The Republicans eventually won back control of the House in 2010, thanks to a historic 63-seat pickup. PDF: Read the entire poll | Satisfied? GOP too extreme? One major concern for Republicans is the growing number of Americans who think the party is too extreme. Fifty-six percent now feel that way, up from 48% in March. By contrast, 52% say that the policies of the Democrats are generally mainstream (with 42% saying they are too extreme), which is unchanged since March. \"Any connection with the tea party movement isn't helping the GOP,\" Holland added. \"Six in 10 Americans now believe that the tea party movement is too extreme; only one in four consider it to be generally mainstream.\" The poll indicates that Republicans themselves are divided on whether the 4 1/2-year-old grassroots conservative movement is too extreme or generally mainstream. Four things we learned from government shutdown . Blame Game . Fifty-two percent say congressional Republicans were more responsible for the shutdown, with 34% pointing more fingers at the President. At 45%-36%, independents place more blame with the GOP in Congress. The poll indicates Obama was the clear winner. Sixty-four percent say the President got more of what he wanted out of the deal to end the shutdown, with less than one in five saying the GOP in Congress were the winners. More than seven in 10 Republicans and conservatives agree that Obama got more of what he wanted. Fifty-five percent of the public say the GOP strategy to link dismantling parts of Obamacare to funding the government was a mistake, with 42% saying it made sense at the time. While vast majority of Democrats say the strategy was a mistake, independents are divided, and most Republicans say the move made sense. The next shutdown ? While the GOP doesn't fare well in the poll, the poll suggests that the public is looking for almost as much compromise from the Democrats as from the Republicans in any bipartisan agreements. Forty-nine percent say the Republicans should give up more than the Democrats in any future bipartisan agreement, but nearly as many -- 44% -- would prefer to see the Dems give up more than the GOP. And seven in 10 say that another shutdown is likely when current funding for the federal government runs out in mid-January. \"That's probably because Americans have lost confidence in the people who run government,\" Holland said. According to the poll, only a third say they have a great deal or some confidence in the people who run government, down 10 points since May. And only 14% say they are satisfied with the way the nation is being governed. \"That's an 11-point drop since March and is lower than the 26% who felt that way in September of 1973, when the Watergate crisis was in full swing,\" Holland added. In another sign of anti-Washington sentiment, six in 10 say the government should not do more to solve the country's problems. he poll was conducted for CNN by ORC International October 18-20, with 841 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.", "Washington (CNN) -- Newt Gingrich left the Republican presidential campaign with a mixed legacy and a campaign deep in debt. The former speaker was left for political dead last year after his top campaign advisers quit over a disagreement on the direction of the campaign and its financial structure. But he came roaring back in late 2011 -- due in part to a Republican electorate that was not sold on Mitt Romney's candidacy. It is the past few months, though, for which he may be most remembered -- for staying in the race for too long, rather than for the big ideas he espoused on the campaign trail. \"He has not made a good case for his name after this primary is over,\" said Ari Fleischer, a CNN contributor who served as President George W. Bush's spokesman. \"And that's a shame, because Newt's done a lot for the Republican Party, but graciousness is part of politics. You just have to know when your time has come to walk off the stage.\" For most, that time would have been after his Southern strategy failed, when he failed to win the Alabama and Mississippi primaries after coming out on top of the South Carolina and Georgia primaries. On Wednesday, Gingrich suspended his campaign and pledged to be an \"active citizen\" and to continue to work on behalf of \"American exceptionalism,\" energy independence and health care reform. In throwing his support to Romney, Gingrich seemed to put aside differences he and other conservatives have with the presumptive nominee and look instead to the general election. \"You know, this is not a choice between Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan, this is a choice between Mitt Romney and the most radical leftist president in American history,\" Gingrich said. After limping along for weeks, Gingrich's campaign ended last week after a disappointing last stand in Delaware, one of five states that went for Romney that day. Campaign sources said a day later that Gingrich would end his campaign this week. Ron Brownstein, editorial director of National Journal and a CNN contributor, said the campaign's impact on Gingrich's legacy will be mixed. \"On the one hand, his ascent was a reminder that he remains one of the most skilled provocateurs in American politics. The fact that he was able to emerge as a serious contender, more than a decade after he last was a major player in Republican politics, was a testament to his skill at framing issues and shaping debate,\" Brownstein said. \"On the other hand, the campaign was also a reminder of Gingrich's weakness, including a self-confidence that tips over into hubris and a lack of discipline. And while Gingrich reaffirmed his identity as a politician who believes in big ideas, that image is more lasting than any of the specific ideas he proposed.\" Little of Gingrich's agenda will be part of the Republican campaign going forward, Brownstein said. \"He wanted colonizing the moon to be a symbol of thinking big and outside the box; instead it became a symbol of grandiosity and impractical thinking. After this campaign, as before it, Gingrich will always symbolize some of both.\" Campaign on the rocks early . Gingrich formally announced his bid for the nomination last May, only to see it almost crash the next month when a half-dozen staffers, including the senior leadership, left the campaign. Among the gripes from the departed staffers was that it was difficult to schedule campaign events or spend the time needed to raise money to fuel the campaign. In addition, there were complaints that Gingrich's wife, Callista, had veto power over all scheduling requests. While his staffers felt Gingrich should be hitting the trail, he and Callista embarked on a two-week luxury cruise in the Mediterranean that for some in the campaign was the last straw. Two of Gingrich's top staffers with ties to Texas Gov. Rick Perry bolted for the Perry campaign in June, and Gingrich's campaign was presumed dead just as it was getting started. His campaign languished over the summer and into the fall as conservatives test-drove a series of anyone-but-Romney candidates: first Michele Bachmann, then Rick Perry, then Herman Cain. As his rivals rose and fell, Gingrich turned in strong performances in GOP debates -- which earned him a second look from those who were longing for an alternative to Romney, whose conservative convictions they questioned. By December, polls had made Gingrich the front-runner with a double-digit lead over Romney. But Romney, his supporters and Gingrich opponents went on the attack -- calling his consulting firm's work for the conservative-despised federal mortgage giant Freddie Mac \"lobbying\" and re-airing dirty laundry from his previous four decades in government. After lackluster showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, Gingrich made a stand in friendlier South Carolina, with the help of a super PAC funded by casino magnate Shel Adelson which went on the attack against Romney. Gingrich scored a double-digit win. That was arguably Gingrich's high-water mark. Florida results stop momentum . Romney's better-funded campaign, aided by friendly super PACs, crushed Gingrich in Florida and stopped his momentum. Gingrich focused his campaign on the South and Super Tuesday. He won Georgia, which he represented in Congress for 20 years, but he couldn't pick up Tennessee. He went on to lose Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, which all went to Rick Santorum. As Gingrich and Santorum continued to split the conservative vote, calls got louder for the former speaker to drop out and make it a two-man race between Santorum and Romney. Hearing the calls, Gingrich instead suggested that Santorum drop out and questioned the former Pennsylvania senator's qualifications. And then as Santorum surged, Gingrich suggested that he and Santorum form an alliance to \"tag-team\" Romney and derail his run to the nomination. Despite all this, Gingrich did accomplish something few have, Brownstein said. \"With this campaign, Gingrich established himself as someone who has been a serious force in Republican politics in five different decades, a pretty remarkable accomplishment.\" Gingrich's five decades in government began when the then-college professor was elected to Congress in the late 1970s. He rode the Republican Contract with America into the speaker's chair in the mid 1990s -- a pledge to the American people to institute sweeping changes if the GOP took over the majority in Congress. When Republicans took over the House in 1994 -- the first time in four decades -- Gingrich was chosen as the new speaker. Gingrich challenged President Bill Clinton's White House as congressional Republicans pushed government cuts to help balance the budget. Both sides dug in and there were two government shutdowns -- but the shutdowns backfired on Gingrich, and Republicans came out the political losers. Gingrich led efforts to impeach Clinton over an investigation of his infidelities with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but Clinton was acquitted. It was later revealed the Gingrich was having an affair with a congressional staffer as he was leading the charge against Clinton. Dogged by ethics questions . He was also dogged by ethics issues brought by Democrats. He voluntarily turned in a $4.5 million book advance after critics questioned its appropriateness. And in 1997, Gingrich agreed to pay $300,000 to the House to reimburse the cost of an investigation into whether he used tax-exempt funds to promote Republican causes. He was not found guilty of those charges, but was reprimanded by the House for giving what was considered misleading information. Republicans kept control of the House for a third consecutive term in the 1998 elections, but won fewer seats than expected. Gingrich took the fall. He resigned as speaker and left Congress the next year. Over the next decade, Gingrich mounted a comeback, expounding on the lecture circuit and through think tanks on how to reform government and society -- ranging from creating a new Social Security system based on what a person contributes, to completely revamping the country's energy policy, to replacing the Environmental Protection Agency with a new Environmental Solutions Agency. He was also a prolific fundraiser for conservative candidates and causes. His visibility was elevated when he joined Fox News as a contributor, which gave him a national platform to comment on the events of the day and promote a number of books he has written on subjects ranging from the American political scene to Ronald Reagan. His Fox contract was suspended when he announced his bid for the White House. Gingrich leaves the trail with his campaign $4.3 million in debt, according to Federal Election Commission filings. A Republican strategist said that Gingrich's run reflected how badly the party wanted a big thinker in the White House. \"Republicans wanted an ideas guy like Newt Gingrich to be president so badly that at times we even turned to Newt Gingrich, a fatally flawed candidate,\" said Alex Castellanos, a CNN contributor who advised Romney's campaign in 2008. Castellanos sees Gingrich's legacy as like Moses': \"He helped lead his party to the promised land, but he didn't get there himself.\" CNN's Kevin Bohn, Mark Preston and Shannon Travis contributed to this report.", "A billionaire couple have forked out $10 million of their own cash to pay for care for some of the poorest children in society amid the continuing US Government shutdown. Laura and John Arnold have dipped into their personal fortune of $2.8 billion to reopen seven Head Start programmes in six states. The government shut down last week when Congress failed to agree a budget, although there are now said to be 'glimmers of hope' of a resolution, with President Barack Obama indicating he would accept a short-term increase in borrowing to avoid a default. Donation: Billionaire couple John and Laura Arnold have pledged cash to keep Head Start programmes open . Head Start programmes, which prepare . about 7,000 youngsters described by spokeswoman Sally Aman as 'the . poorest of the poor' for kindergarten, had been forced to close when the . government closed many of its own offices last week. According to NBC, the centers had been expecting to receive their much-needed Federal grants on October 1, but when the Government closed its doors were left high and dry without the cash they needed to stay open. The philanthropic couple said in a statement: 'We . believe that it is especially unfair that young children from . underprivileged communities and working families pay the price for the . legislature's collective failures. 'We . sincerely hope that our government gets back to work in short order, as . private dollars cannot in the long term replace government . commitments.' Executive director of Head Start National Association Yasmina Vinci said: 'The Arnolds have selflessly stepped . up for Head Start children to ensure their path toward kindergarten . readiness is not interrupted by the inability of government to get the . nation's fiscal house in order. The Association added that many low-income parents are unable to pay for alternative care for their children and are forced to take time off work when Head Start centers . close. Head Start spokeswoman Sally Aman . said while the donation would allow many centers to reopen today, the 'generous gift' would not support Head Start . programs if the shutdown continues throughout the month, affecting up to 11,000 other children. Brats: A protestor demonstrates against the first government shutdown in 17 years on Capitol Hill . Mr Arnold made his fortune as a hedge fund manager. His wealth valued at $2.8 billion by Forbes. He and wife Laura have three children of their own. The couple started a charity foundation in 2008, although this money is being made as a personal donation. Their publicist Gary Larson said: 'The . Arnolds were both quite moved after learning about the impact the . government shutdown would have on so many Head Start children, so they . came forward personally, rather than through their foundation, and . offered this assistance as their way of helping. While a resolution to the ongoing government stand-off is still some way off, Yahoo has reported 'glimmers of hope'. According to the news website, President Obama said he would accept a short-term increase in the nation's borrowing to avoid a default. In a separate development, a senate aide said Republican Senator Rob Portman was working on a plan to cut federal spending and reform the US tax code as part of a broader deal to reopen government agencies. Most lawmakers believe such a budget deal will be necessary to end the dispute. The President's press secretary said Obama would accept a short-term debt ceiling increase in order to get past the potential crisis date of October 17, when the government hits the $16.7 trillion borrowing limit. A short-term increase would give both the Republicans and Democrats some breathing room, but will not solve the dispute alone. Healthcare: The Republican movement is seeking to delay President Obama's flagship policy . The US Federal Government shut down for the first time in 17 years last week because Congress failed to pass a budget before the start of the new financial year on October 1. The shutdown arose after the majority Republican group in the House of Representatives was unable to agree the budget with the Senate's Democrat majority. Some of the Republicans involved, many of whom have links to the right-wing Tea Party movement, oppose President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms. They are believed to have voted for budget measures to delay the healthcare changes passed by Congress in 2010. About 800,000 government workers have been sent home without pay, while one million more are now working without pay. When the government last shutdown in 1996, it took 20 days to resolve the issues involved. There are fears it could still be a number of weeks before Congress overcomes this latest dispute.", "McAllen, Texas (CNN)For residents of this town just across the bridge from Mexico, it's hard to understand how a Washington political fight could end up threatening the livelihood of people charged with securing the border. \"What incentive do they have to keep protecting us if they're not getting paid?\" asked Cecilia De La Cruz as she sat at a coffee shop with a friend. \"It is troubling.\" The latest example of congressional dysfunction has real world implications here, where thousands of agents monitor the U.S. border with Mexico. The agents, along with other employees vital to national security such as TSA screeners, will have to show up to work without being paid if Congress misses a Friday deadline to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded. Thousands of other agency workers will be furloughed. The employees are caught up in a fight over immigration policy. Republicans want to tie funding for the department to legislation that would roll back President Barack Obama's immigration executive orders -- a nonstarter for Democrats. The battle reached a fevered pitch last week when Congress narrowly missed a deadline to avoid a partial DHS shutdown, giving themselves an extension until March 6 to broker a deal. Speaker John Boehner could try to avert another showdown by holding a vote as early as Tuesday on a DHS bill that doesn't touch Obama's immigration order. But the political intrigue isn't registering for some residents here. Angelea Remorin, a nurse who works nights at a hospital, said she wasn't concerned yet because she hadn't read or heard anything about the potential shutdown. \"Me, personally, I peek into the news every now and then, but it's things like ISIS, you know, those big headline things, that I look at on the news,\" she said. \"None of my friends have been talking about (the shutdown), and I haven't been keeping up with it.\" At the coffee shop with De La Cruz, Ronaldo Delacruz said he'd heard of the potential shutdown but didn't feel unsafe. \"I don't know what's going to necessarily happen to the department itself,\" Delacruz said. \"I don't know how that's going to affect the protection of the border or border patrol, but I guess we're going to find out.\" Marco Solis said he was mad after hearing that Congress agreed to keep DHS running for only a few days. He said he wonders why lawmakers don't realize how their decisions affect local areas. \"They're a bunch of incompetent men who just can't figure it out,\" he said. \"And I know not all of them are men, but say predominantly, old white men screwing up this country.\" Local employees of the Department of Homeland Security stationed along the border said they weren't allowed to speak to newsgroups on the record because of orders directly from Washington. But speaking without attribution, they did express frustration with Congress for defunding their department in 2013 as part of the broader government shutdown and possibly again later this week if a longer term funding bill isn't passed. The agents argued they have families to feed and mortgages to pay, just like anyone else. Chris Cabrera, the vice president of the Local 3307 National Border Patrol Council, a union for border agents, echoed those sentiments. He said that in the McAllen area, about 2,000 agents would be affected by this funding bill. He said the problem is in Washington, where Congress won't feel the direct effect of a possible funding gap. As a border patrol agent for 13 years who also felt the effect of the 2013 shutdown, he remembers how it went down last time. \"It's pretty much out of our hands\" he said. \"The sad part is that we're the football in this political game, and we're just caught in the middle getting tossed around while somebody is trying to push their own agenda, one way or the other.\" In the meantime, he said he's working with local agents to help them send letters to their mortgage companies to alert them of the possible problems because most of them are considered essential personnel and will have to continue working without a paycheck. For now, he said that's all that the union can do to help. \"At some point, people will jump ship,\" he said. \"I don't think there's going to be a rush for the door, but we will have some people that are gonna say 'Enough is enough. This is twice in two years, and I'm done with this.' \" If a shutdown were to happen later this week, Cabrera said that nonessential personnel, such as administration positions in the department, would not report to work. Agents would continue to work securing the border, but depending on how long the shutdown lasts, they'd eventually have to work in some of the administrative positions as well to make up for employees who were furloughed. \"Most likely what will happen is that they'll have to pull agents who do frontline work, processing work, or stuff in the station,\" he said. \"They're going to have to backfill them -- you know somebody has to answer the phones at the front of the building.\" He added that he believes the cartels in Mexico are keeping up with American news so that they can take advantage in case DHS does shut down. \"They know,\" Cabrera said about anyone across the border hoping to bring people or drugs. \"They scout us when our shift changes. They know everything that's coming along. And when they see stuff like this, when it hits the media, they start mobilizing.\" McAllen Mayor Jim Darling agreed and said he believes cartels and gangs are more tuned in about what's going on in Washington than his own constituents. \"I would think there's Gulf Cartel guys listening to Washington right now,\" he said. \"If they think there's a porous border, they're going to come and make some money.\" Darling says that Washington's actions have a \"ripple effect\" across the country, of which they should be more aware and considerate. \"I don't know about you, but I seriously doubt a congressman can go without a paycheck,\" he said. \"It's a bipartisan problem, and they have to come up with a bipartisan solution, and they're not.\"", "[Breaking news update, 10:07 p.m. ET] . The U.S. Senate passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will fund the government through September, approving it in an unusual Saturday evening vote. [Previous story, 9:09 p.m. ET] . The Senate passed a short-term spending bill that will fund the government through Wednesday, averting a shutdown while the chamber debates a bill to fund the government. President Barack Obama signed the stopgap funding bill Saturday evening. Without it, funding was due to dry up Saturday night. The Senate will vote Saturday night on the $1.1 trillion package that would fund the government through next September, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on the Senate floor. The bill has already passed the House. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the incoming Senate majority leader, had previously reached a deal with Reid to adjourn for the weekend and resume Monday to clear the bill. But in a surprise development, some of McConnell's junior members defied the agreement after he left. Reid tried to get unanimous consent for an adjournment until Monday when there would be enough votes to end a filibuster, but Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, objected because Reid would not guarantee a vote on an amendment dealing with immigration funding. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas also joined the objection, forcing the Senate to meet on Saturday. Reid then announced to an almost empty chamber that the Senate would be in session beginning at noon Saturday. Will the government keep operating? The Senate was facing a Saturday deadline to approve the spending bill and avert a government shutdown, but that was pushed back. The chamber has been sifting through many of the same arguments that tied up the House on Thursday, when disagreements over immigration and provisions related to Wall Street and campaign finance nearly derailed the bill. Senate lawmakers wanted votes on amendments that would address those issues. Two votes are expected Monday: a procedural vote to block a filibuster and end debate on the bill, and a second one on the final passage. 'Using every tool available' Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, filed an amendment that would strip a provision that softens financial regulations on banks from the spending bill. \"Congress should not put taxpayers on the hook for another bailout, and this giveaway that was drafted by Citigroup lobbyists has no place in a critical government funding bill,\" Warren said. Cruz, a chief critic of Obama's recent executive action on immigration, also said he wanted a vote to block it. \"I think it is critical that the Senate have the opportunity to have a clear up or down vote on funding President Obama's illegal executive amnesty,\" he told reporters. \"I am using every tool available to help bring about that vote.\" But by making the procedural move, Reid prevented those amendments from being considered. Amendment votes could have been risky, because if either measure passed, the spending bill would have to go back to the House to be voted on again. While the House is technically in session, most members have left Washington until the new Congress convenes in early January. A day after his administration scrambled to save the bill when it appeared it might be defeated in the House, the President said he was pulling for it in the Senate. \"I'm glad it passed the House and am hopeful that it will pass the Senate,\" Obama said.", "Washington (CNN) -- A late evening meeting between President Barack Obama and the leaders of the House and Senate failed to reach agreement Wednesday on a spending plan to avert a government shutdown, but all the participants said progress was made and talks would continue. If there is no deal by midnight Friday, when the current spending authorization measure expires, parts of the government will close down. Obama called the 90-minute talks with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, \"constructive\" and he said they narrowed and clarified the outstanding issues. \"I remain confident that if we're serious about getting something done, we should be able to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown,\" Obama said in brief remarks to reporters. \"But it's going to require a sufficient sense of urgency from all parties involved\" to prevent a shutdown that \"could have real effects on everyday Americans.\" Both Reid and Boehner told reporters in their own brief comments that the meeting made progress in narrowing their differences, and that their staffs would work through the night to try to reach further consensus. \"I have confidence we can get this done,\" said Reid, who criticized Boehner and Republicans earlier in the day for intransigence. \"We're not there yet.\" Boehner, standing next to Reid, said \"we do have some honest differences,\" and he emphasized there was no agreement on either a specific figure for spending cuts for the rest of the current fiscal year or on policy issues that the Republicans want included in the measure, such as specifically prohibiting funding for abortions. \"No one wants the government to shut down,\" Boehner said. Time: Are we headed for a shutdown? Obama called the meeting because of a lack of progress in negotiations during the day, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. A White House source familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of not being identified, told CNN that \"there was almost no progress made today.\" \"There wouldn't be a meeting if it wasn't a necessary step at this stage in the process,\" the source said of the evening talks. Boehner announced earlier that the House of Representatives will try to buy more time for negotiators by voting Thursday on a one-week government funding bill that would cut spending by $12 billion and fund the Pentagon for the remainder of the current fiscal year. GOP budget chief calls for $6.2 trillion in spending cuts . \"Republicans have no interest in shutting down the government,\" Boehner insisted. But \"we are going to fight for as many spending cuts as we can get.\" GOP leaders said they were prepared to pass the bill on a strict party-line vote if necessary. Democrats, insistent they have already met the Republicans more than halfway in negotiations, oppose such a measure, and it was considered unlikely to clear the Senate. In two speeches on the Senate floor during the day, Reid accused GOP leaders of being unwilling to compromise because of pressure from the conservative Tea Party movement to cut deeper and include provisions on political issues. \"We meet them halfway, they say no. We meet them all the way, they say no,\" Reid said, calling the latest proposed extension from the House a \"diversion\" from making \"tough choices\" to settle the matter. \"The Republican leadership has the Tea Party screaming so loudly in its right ear that it can't hear what the vast majority of the country demands,\" Reid said. Tea Party: Bring on a government shutdown . Obama, on the road in Pennsylvania, declared that he didn't \"want to see Washington politics stand in the way of America's progress.\" \"At a time when you are struggling to pay your bills and meet your responsibilities, the least we can do (is) meet our responsibilities to produce a budget,\" he said. \"That's not too much to ask for.\" Obama blamed the GOP for using the budget crisis to push provisions relating to hot-button issues such as abortion, health care and the environment. Debates over those issues were holding back talks, he said. Boehner has insisted his caucus will not back down on those issues. He proposed the one-week extension after meeting with his Republican House colleagues. Reporters outside heard applause from within the room at one point. Republican sources told CNN the applause was for Boehner when he choked up while thanking his colleagues for their support on the issue. Government shutdown: White House details consequences . Behind all the rhetorical bluster and bombast, however, negotiations continued unabated. Obama talked to both Boehner and Reid over the phone earlier Wednesday, and Democratic and Republican leadership staffers continued meeting on Capitol Hill in an attempt to break the stalemate. Obama met Tuesday with congressional leaders including Reid and Boehner, and warned then that he would seek further meetings if the negotiations yielded insufficient progress. As for the overall numbers, negotiators were looking at a package of cuts for the rest of the fiscal year that would probably total a bit over $33 billion but less than $40 billion, according to a Democratic congressional source. The fiscal year ends September 30. iReport: Looming government shutdown . The Republican-led House has passed a bill that included $61 billion in cuts from current spending levels, but it was rejected by the Democrat-controlled Senate. Two previous extensions of the government spending resolution have included $10 billion in cuts. In response to the looming budget deadline, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management posted information on its website Tuesday about how a shutdown would affect federal employees. The posting said that most federal workers paid with funds appropriated by Congress would go on temporary furlough in the event of a shutdown. It would be up to Congress to decide if furloughed workers get paid for the time missed when the shutdown ends, the posting said. Health benefits continue if the shutdown lasts for less than a year, it said. If there is a shutdown, an estimated 800,000 government workers will likely be asked to stay home, according to senior administration officials. Among other things, the IRS will stop processing paper tax returns, the Small Business Administration will stop making loans and federal home loan guarantees will be put on hold. U.S. troops would be paid through Friday, but after that, paychecks to members of the military, including those in war zones, would stop. The National Institutes of Health would stop accepting new patients and would put clinical trials on hold. A Justice Department spokesperson said on condition of not being identified that \"critical national security, law enforcement and prison operations\" would continue in the event of a shutdown. Political Ticker: Nation split on shutdown blame game . \"All FBI personnel in the field will continue to work, and the department will be ready to respond to any and all contingencies that might arise during this time,\" the Justice spokesperson said. However, some functions including civil litigation, outreach to crime victims and grant processing would be stopped or curtailed, the spokesperson said. Congressional veterans from both sides of the aisle indicated Wednesday a strong desire to avoid a shutdown. \"My concern with a shutdown is, what is our long-term goal? What are we trying to achieve?\" asked Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. \"If it is repeal Obamacare (the health care reform law enacted last year), do we think in two weeks or a month Obama's going to go, 'You guys were right,' and sign onto it? I don't think so. So you better look at what your goals are and what you're willing to accept, or don't do it.\" Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, said a shutdown would mean \"enormous negative consequences, and I think we're going to rue the day the way we're functioning here. We need to come to the table and ... act like rational human beings.\" Republicans, under pressure from the conservative Tea Party movement to make deep cuts that would reduce the size of government, blame Democrats for failing to pass a fiscal year 2011 budget last year when they controlled both congressional chambers. They also say that Obama and his party are ignoring the peril of the rising federal deficits and national debt. Democrats contend that the $61 billion in spending cuts in the House bill would harm the economic recovery and slash education and innovation programs essential for continued growth. Obama and Reid both insist that Democrats have agreed to more than 50% of the spending cuts sought by Republicans, which they said should be sufficient for a compromise on an issue that has little overall effect on the deficit and debt issues. The budget brinkmanship shows the political stakes of the situation, with both parties trying to depict the other as unwilling to do what's right for the country. Boehner has cast aside assertions by Democrats that they had agreed to more than half the cuts sought by the GOP, saying the Democrats used \"smoke and mirrors to get there.\" A senior Democratic source with knowledge of the ongoing negotiations said the biggest obstacle to a deal involves whether reductions in mandatory spending programs, known in appropriations parlance as \"changes in mandatory spending\" or CHIMPS, should be part of spending cuts. Examples of mandatory spending programs include Pell Grants, the Children's Health Insurance Program and some types of highway funding. Such programs are funded for multiple years at a time, with the spending set for the time period covered, exempt from congressional authorization each year. Democratic sources have said they want about half the overall cuts in this spending bill to come from mandatory spending programs, and they have proposed the necessary reductions in programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Justice Department and the Treasury Department, and in Pell Grants. Republicans, who want any spending cuts to reflect a reduction in the size of government, note that reducing the spending in a mandatory program for one year doesn't prevent the amount from returning to its original level the following year. CNN's Dana Bash, Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett, Kate Bolduan, Terry Frieden and Dan Lothian contributed to this report .", "By . Reuters Reporter . Positive economic data and signs of compromise in Congress have the International Monetary Fund predicting faster economic growth in the United States next year. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde also praised the U.S. Federal Reserve's announcement last week that it intends to scale back its massive monetary stimulus. 'Growth is picking up,' Lagarde said. 'And unemployment is going down. So all of that gives us a much stronger outlook for 2014, which brings us to raising our forecast.' Things looking up: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced Sunday that the Washington-based lender will upgrade their economic forecast for the U.S. for the coming year . The IMF forecast in October that the U.S. economy would expand 2.6 percent in 2014 after growing 1.6 percent this year. At the time, Lagarde warned that Congressional failure to raise the U.S. debt ceiling could damage not only the United States, but the rest of the global economy. A U.S. Congress, deeply divided along party lines, did manage to pass a limited, two-year budget deal last week to trim some planned spending cuts and reduce the risk of a government shutdown. Yet the legislation does nothing to avoid a possible U.S. debt default that could occur if Congress does not raise a cap on U.S. borrowing. President Barack Obama's administration has warned that the government could run out of borrowing authority needed to pay its bills as soon as February if lawmakers do not swiftly raise the debt ceiling. Success?The IMF's decision was based in part on the U.S. Federal reserve's decision to trim its aggressive bond-buying program on Wednesday but sought to temper the long-awaited move by suggesting its key interest rate would stay lower for even longer than previously promised . 'The budget deal that was cut at year-end is a very good sign of...responsibility, accountability and realism,' Lagarde said on Sunday's Meet the Press. 'I certainly hope that in February, Congress will be equally responsible and will not threaten the recovery with yet another debate about whether or not the U.S. honor or default.' A U.S. Congress, deeply divided along party lines, did manage to pass a limited, two-year budget deal last week to trim some planned spending cuts and reduce the risk of a government shutdown. Yet the legislation does nothing to avoid a possible U.S. debt default that could occur if Congress does not raise a cap on U.S. borrowing. President Barack Obama's administration has warned that the government could run out of borrowing authority needed to pay its bills as soon as February if lawmakers do not swiftly raise the debt ceiling. 'The budget deal that was cut at year-end is a very good sign of ... responsibility, accountability and realism,' Lagarde said on Sunday. 'I certainly hope that in February, Congress will be equally responsible and will not threaten the recovery with yet another debate about whether or not the U.S. honor or default.'", "President Barack Obama on Wednesday scrapped part of long-planned trip to Asia and left the remainder of the trip in doubt as a U.S. government shutdown entered a second day with no end in sight to the funding battle in Congress that triggered it. Obama scuttled two stops on a planned four-country tour and left visits to two other countries up in the air, according to White House statements. The president told his counterparts in Malaysia and the Philippines he would not be able to meet them as planned and a White House official said the president is weighing whether to attend diplomatic summits in Indonesia and Brunei. No reassurances: Barack Obama warned world bankers that they should not take for granted that lawmakers will agree to raise the debt ceiling in time to avoid a default . President Barack Obama walks back to the Oval Office after speaking in the Rose Garden on Oct. 1, 2013 . 'We will continue to evaluate those . trips based on how events develop throughout the course of the week,' National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. Obama was originally due to leave the United States on Saturday and return a week later. Not . only must the president deal with the budget impasse and its effects, . but he faces an even bigger crunch in Congress, which will put the . United States at risk of defaulting on its debts if it does not raise . the U.S. public debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said the . United States will exhaust its borrowing authority no later than October . 17. The fight between . Obama's Democrats and the Republicans over the government's borrowing . power is rapidly merging with the standoff over every day funding, which . has forced the first government shutdown in 17 years and forced . hundreds of thousands of federal employees to take unpaid leave. The . White House announcements about the Asia trip followed a fruitless day . on Capitol Hill, with congressional Democrats and Republicans coming no . closer to resolving their differences. Obama . accused Republicans of taking the government hostage to sabotage his . signature healthcare law, the most ambitious U.S. social program in five . decades, passed three years ago. A National Park Service employee posts a sign on a barricade to close access to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 . Protesters display placards during a demonstration in front of the US Capitol in Washington on October 1, 2013 urging Congress to pass the budget bill . Republicans . in the House of Representatives view the Affordable Care Act as a . dangerous extension of government power, and have coupled their efforts . to undermine it with continued efforts to block government funding. The . Democratic-controlled Senate has repeatedly rejected those efforts. The . standoff has raised new concerns about Congress's ability to perform . its most basic duties and threatens to hamper a still fragile economic . recovery. 'This is a mess. A royal screw-up,' said Democratic Representative Louise Slaughter of New York. As . police cordoned off landmarks such as the Lincoln Memorial, and . government agencies stopped functions ranging from cancer treatments to . trade negotiations, Republicans in the House sought to restore funding . to national parks, veterans' care and the District of Columbia, the . capital. An effort to pass . the three bills fell short on Tuesday evening, but Republicans plan to . try again on Wednesday. They are likely to be defeated by the . Democratic-controlled Senate. 'That's . important - a park? How about the kids who need daycare?' said . Democratic Representative Sander Levin of Michigan. 'You have to let all . the hostages go. Every single one of them.' The . setback to the Asia trip, designed to reinforce U.S. commitment to the . region, is the first obvious international consequence of the troubles . in Washington. 'They've . shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable . health insurance to millions of Americans,' Obama said on Tuesday. Republicans . said Obama could not complain about the impact of the shutdown while . refusing to negotiate. 'The White House position is unsustainably . hypocritical,' said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John . Boehner. A Reuters/Ipsos . poll indicated that 24 percent of Americans blamed Republicans, while 19 . percent blamed Obama or Democrats. Another 46 percent said everyone was . to blame. Defiant: Veterans on an Honor Flight tour visit . the World War II Memorial in Washington DC even the the site was . officially closed because of the government shutdown . Gulf Coast Coast Honor Flight veteran Wynon . Stewart, left, and his escort, Cat Aguda display a piece of police tape . removed from the WWII Memorial .", "The last time a divided U.S. Congress passed a budget deal, President Ronald Reagan was denying he traded arms for Iranian hostages and the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion was fresh in Americans' minds. But a House Republican and a Democratic senator hope they've found a compromise that federal legislators can live with. Washington state Democrat Patty Murray and Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan announced a proposal late on Tuesday that Ryan said focuses 'on where the common ground is' between America's two political parties, a deal that would balance the federal budget ten years from now and sidestep the threat of government shutdowns in January and October 2014. Future Congresses could undo the terms of the arrangement, and the current Congress has yet to see the plan or consider it, however. And conservative groups are working overtime to kill the deal while it's still in the crib. 'Compromise has been a dirty word' in Washington, D.C., Murray complained in an evening news conference. but 'we have broken through the partisanship and the gridlock.' The two promised the details of their agreement would be available online by late Tuesday night. Scroll down for video . Grand bargain: House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray unveiled a bipartisan budget deal whose main foe will be members of Congress on Ryan's right . President Barack Obama, en route home from Africa, offered a statement praising the deal. While it contains no new taxes, Obama said some new government 'fees' will be baked into the cake . But their initial outline calls for $85 billion in total budget savings and $63 billion in 'sequester relief, reducing the annual deficit by $23 billion. That includes $45 billion of targeted cuts in 2014. President Barack Obama said in a statement that he wants members of Congress from both parties 'to take the next step and actually pass a budget based on this agreement so I can sign it into law and our economy can continue growing and creating jobs without more Washington headwinds.' 'I think conservatives should vote for it,' Ryan said, despite rumblings from the political right that the negotiated budget settlement still spends too much taxpayer money . He praised the Ryan–Murray deal as 'balanced, and includes targeted fee increases and spending cuts designed in a way that doesn’t hurt our economy or break the ironclad promises we’ve made to our seniors.' His use of the word 'fees,' not 'taxes,' agrees with Ryan's insistence that 'there are no tax increases here.' But Murray cautioned in the joint press conference that the so-called 'sequester' budget cuts instituted early in 2013 'shouldn't be replaced with spending cuts alone.' SHe, too, said the agreement would 'roll back sequestration’s cuts to defense and domestic investments in a \"balanced\" way.' 'This isn't the plan I would have written on my own,' she acknowledged, and 'I'm pretty sure Chairman Ryan wouldn't have written it on his own.' But the compromise, both insisted, would be good for the future of the U.S. Ryan took a poke at the Democrat-run Senate, saying that his ideal budget could never become law in the current Congress . But the resulting legislation, he said, 'reduces the deficit by $23 billion, it does not raise taxes, and it cuts spending in a smarter way, . 'I see this agreement as a step in the right direction.' Conservatives both inside and outside of Congress began carping as soon as news emerged Tuesday morning that a budget bargain was in the works, guessing that it wouldn't likely include enough spending cuts to satisfy them. Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, warned Time magazine that 'the deal is not going to be what mainstream Republicans hoped for. 'It'll probably turn out to be a very tough call for a lot of people who want to have an agreement but also want to see progress made in certain areas,' Sessions said. 'I don’t think a deal has to be reached if it's not a good deal.' 'There is a lot more for Congress to do,' Murray warned, signaling that immigration reform will be next on the Senate's agenda after the New Year . Allies of Sessions and other lawmakers to the right of the GOP's center went on the offensive eary in the day. FreedomWorks, a tea party-linked organization known for anti-tax and smaller-government positions, said it would oppose the deal 'in its current reported form.' The libertarian CATO Institute also voiced disapproval, as did Heritage Action for America, the conservative Heritage Foundation's grassroots organizing and political-pressure arm. 'Heritage Action cannot support a budget deal that would increase spending in the near-term for promises of woefully inadequate long-term reductions,' the group said on Monday. 'A gimmicky, spend-now-cut-later deal will take our nation in the wrong direction.' The group's communications director, Dan Holler, told MailOnline that his group will wait to render a final opinion until the terms of the deal are made public. Americans for Prosperity, another conservative group, agreed after the press conference that it would press hard for 'no' votes and argue for continuing the sequester cuts. 'This budget compromise is not just bad policy, it is bad politics,' said Tim Phillips,' the group's president, in a statement. 'This is about protecting the pocketbook of average Americans, not about shutting down the government or refusing to compromise. Lawmakers should simply continue an existing, bi-partisan agreement that has already reduced overspending and has not compromising our modest economic recovery.' 'Spending levels were set by law at $967 billion. Exceeding those levels by $45 billion takes us in the wrong direction,' Phillips said. Ryan and Murray have spent weeks hammering out the deal since October's partial government shutdown came to a close . But Ryan fended off journalists' questions about whether House conservatives would embrace the product of a weeks-long negotiation that could evaporate if enough tea partiers refuse to play ball with House moderates. House Speaker John Boehner will have a hard time advancing the agreement to a floor vote if he can't get assent from a majority of Republlcans, in the tradition of an informal rule put in place by former speaker Dennis Hastert. 'I think conservatives should vote for it,' Ryan said, predicting that the House will pass the bill. The deal, he explained, focuses on 'providing some sequester relief for 2014 and 2015, and paying for that with spending reforms ... that, to me, is a good deal. The federal government will still spend $1.012 trillion in 2014 and $1.014 trillion in 2015.under the terms of the deal, but Ryan predicted that right-wing GOP members would take a long view . 'The budget number that we fought for in the last session [in 2011–2012] won't be hit until  the year 2017 under this agreement,' he said. And Congress, he added, will 'start to make real reform to these auto-pilot programs that are the drivers of our debt in the first place.' Herding cats: House Speaker John Boehner will have his hands full Wednesday morning when tea party-aligned conservatives in his caucus are expected to pledge their opposition to Ryan's bargain with Democrats . Murray lamented the deal's lack of action on 'closing corporate tax loopholes,' but said Democrats will warm to the fact that it includes no changes to Social Security or Medicare.' And 'there is a lot more for Congress to do,' she said. ''We know we need comprehensive tax reform. We need comprehensive immigration reform.' And Congress, Murray hoped, will 'show that we can do something without a crisis right around the corner.' House Republican leaders are itching to finish their legislative year by Friday, but Senate Democrats have signaled that they plan to meet next week. That could put the GOP in a tough position if the Senate votes to pass an amended version of the Ryan–Murray proposal, since they would have to choose between gaveling back into session or enduring an extended holiday break while risking being labeled as obstructionists. The House Republican Caucus will meet at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday to discuss next steps.", "(CNN) -- After a campaign season that seems to have gone on for years, the day has finally arrived. On Tuesday, America will select a president of the United States, about a third of the Senate and a new House of Representatives. We invited CNN contributors to tweet their predictions. One of the first CNN contributors to announce his prediction on Twitter was Alex Castellanos. In his latest column, he explains why he's betting fellow Republican Mitt Romney will win. Democratic strategist Paul Begala disagrees with Castellanos' prediction. Right after the first presidential debate in which some were underwhelmed by President Barack Obama's performance, Begala remarked, \"There is no doubt Romney had a good night. But I strongly doubt whether it was good enough.\" Begala's tweet reflects his prediction of a narrow win for Obama. Castellanos and Begala saw each other's predictions and plan to duel it out with a wager. Stay tuned to see who has to shave his moustache or grow one. Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist, is positive about the outcome for her party. Politics: Long lines, sporadic snags in U.S. election . Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary in the George W. Bush administration, suspects that the election won't end Tuesday night -- that seven states could be decided by one percentage point or less. And if Romney can take Pennsylvania and Ohio, it \"would be icing on the cake.\" John Avlon, a contributor to \"Erin Burnett OutFront,\" said Sunday that the stakes are especially high in this election. Regardless of who wins, he says, \"We cannot continue to allow extreme partisan distortions to define our policy debates and paralyze our capacity for constructive self-government.\" Avlon said he thinks Democrats have an edge. Politics: Why elephants? Election riddles solved . Maria Cardona, former communications director for the Democratic National Committee, sees Obama getting the Latino vote. Conservative William Bennett, who believes that \"Romney has proven himself the man to lead America's comeback,\" predicts that victory will also go to his candidate. David Gergen, who has been an adviser to four presidents, notes that polls indicate the president got an important bump off of Hurricane Sandy. LZ Granderson, a CNN regular, makes a case for why he's rooting for Obama, saying that while the incumbent is not perfect, his concern for those less fortunate makes him worthy of a second term. Across the Atlantic, English historian Timothy Stanley offers his thoughts on the American election. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors.", "Another Washington political showdown took shape Tuesday as the House of Representatives passed a Republican plan that would extend the payroll tax cut and speed the process for government approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The bill, approved on a 234-193 vote largely on party lines, now goes to the Senate, where it was unlikely to pass due to strong opposition from Democratic leaders. And the White House says President Barack Obama will veto the plan if it reaches his desk, setting up further brinksmanship with Congress scheduled to leave Washington for its holiday recess at the end of the week. \"This Congress needs to do its job and stop the tax hike that's scheduled to affect 160 million Americans in 18 days,\" White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement after the vote. \"This is not a time for Washington Republicans to score political points against the president.\" The impasse involves a convergence of major issues, including the payroll tax-cut extension and a spending bill that must pass in order to keep the government funded after Friday. Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, agreed that Congress must not go home for the holidays without extending the payroll tax cut that saves working Americans an average of $1,000 a year, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. Without spelling out a specific order of necessary steps, Carney made clear that Obama wants Congress to approve both a payroll tax plan and the broad government spending bill. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky characterized the Democratic stance as a threat to delay action on the spending plan until a compromise is reached on the payroll tax cut measure. That could cause a government shutdown after Friday, McConnell warned. Carney, however, insisted that Congress has plenty of time to act on all of the outstanding measures, and called for a payroll tax extension free of the pipeline provision. Earlier, Speaker John Boehner and other House Republican leaders told reporters that the payroll tax measure to be voted on later in the day had bipartisan support and would create jobs while also preventing a tax increase for American workers next year. When the vote came, 10 Democrats joined 224 Republicans voting for the bill, while 14 Republicans joined 179 Democrats voting against it. Asked about opposition by Senate Democrats who say they will reject the House measure, Boehner said: \"The Senate will have to do whatever they have to do.\" The pipeline, which is currently in limbo as the State Department considers objections from environmentalists, would bring oil from Canada's oil sands in northern Alberta to Texas. More on the pipeline showdown . The State Department recently said its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline would be delayed until 2013 to allow examination of environmental issues raised by critics, a move Republicans labeled as political, to put off the issue until after next year's presidential election. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, said the payroll tax cut measure does exactly what Obama has been calling for by providing tax protection for working class Americans while creating new jobs through the pipeline project. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, offered a colorful take on what will happen if Reid blocks the House plan, as threatened. \"If Sen. Reid wants to hold up the jobs bill, he will go on Santa's naughty list,\" Hensarling said. Reid and other Democrats argue the pipeline project requires more study and should not be fast-tracked as part of a political calculation by Republicans. On Tuesday, Reid said Republicans must compromise with Democrats instead of trying to push through proposals intended to appease conservatives in their caucus. \"Speaker Boehner had to add ideological candy coating to his bill to get rebellious, rank-and-file Republicans on board,\" Reid said, adding: \"They are wasting time catering to the tea party when they should be working with Democrats on a bipartisan package that can pass both houses.\" The House GOP proposal would both change the process and shorten the time frame for the government to approve the proposed pipeline from Canada to Texas. But Monday, the State Department said that would make it impossible for it to complete needed environmental, national security and safety studies. \"In the absence of properly completing the process, the department would be unable to make a determination to issue a permit for this project,\" the State Department said in a written response to questions about the measure. Boehner dismissed the State Department's warning later Monday, saying the pipeline had been under review for three years and, \"All the work has been done.\" \"The only thing arbitrary about this decision is the decision by the president to say, 'Well, let's wait until after the next election,'\" Boehner said. \"The American people want jobs, and this is as close to a shovel-ready project as you're ever going to see.\" The House GOP measure extends the payroll tax cut for one year and renews aid for the unemployed, while cutting back the maximum length of jobless benefits from the current 99 weeks to 59. The bill also allows states more flexibility in distributing unemployment assistance, permitting states to require those applying to submit to drug tests or show they are pursuing a high school degree, if they don't have one. The bill would also avoid a scheduled cut in pay for Medicare physicians for two years, a provision known as the \"doc fix.\" To pay for the bill, GOP leaders use a series of spending cuts, including freezing pay for federal employees and members of Congress, eliminating a child tax credit for those in the United States illegally, and increasing Medicare premiums for those who earn more than $80,000 annually. The pipeline issue is just one part of the problem for Senate Democrats who disagree with \"central elements\" of the GOP bill, including the length of the unemployment insurance extension, the proposed cost offsets and the weakening of some environmental regulations. Carney said Tuesday the spending cuts go deeper than levels agreed to in August in the deal negotiated by Congress and the White House to raise the federal debt ceiling. Democrats led by Obama have been pushing for the payroll tax cut extension; Republicans initially opposed the plan but have now signed on. However, the parties are at loggerheads over how to pay for it as well as the political optics over who should get credit, as an election year approaches. As a way to garner support from reluctant conservative Republicans, who voiced concerns about the impact of the payroll tax cut on Social Security, GOP leaders insisted on keeping the provision aimed at moving toward approving the pipeline project within 60 days. Senate Democrats have begun working on a new bill of their own after Republicans blocked progress on their previous proposals that included a surtax on income over $1 million. Meanwhile, in the other big bill Congress needs to get done before funding expires, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers told reporters off the House floor Monday that negotiators have worked out a deal on the year-end spending bill that wraps nine remaining bills into one package. The Kentucky Republican said there are some \"policy riders\" in the deal, but he declined to get into any specifics on which ones, saying he wants the staff to finish writing the legislation before he talks about any details. But Rogers said it is taking some time to \"cross the T's\" so the bill would not be posted online Monday night, which puts off the House vote to Thursday at the earliest. Rogers was confident the House would pass the bill, saying, \"We'll get it done by\" Friday. According to two senior House Republican leadership aides, Reid has told Boehner he would hold up the spending bill until both sides negotiate a compromise on the payroll tax cut bill. Asked about a potential government shutdown, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Congress may need to pass a short-term spending measure to prevent a shutdown if the parties fail to reach agreement on the various unresolved issues, including the extension of both the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. Carney also said Tuesday that a continuing resolution on spending is a possible short-term solution to provide more time to work out a deal on the payroll tax measure.", "Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama's effort to bridge the trust deficit between African-Americans and law enforcement, the money wars heading into 2016, a little CPAC history and a \"do not reply\" mandate fill our Sunday trip around the \"Inside Politics\" table: . 1. Winning CPAC once meant little, but are Rand Paul's multiple wins just the ticket? Rand Paul won his third consecutive CPAC presidential straw poll this weekend, and most political journalists yawned -- and understandably so. There have been 20 previous CPAC straw polls, and only in four of those cases has the winner ended up as the Republican presidential nominee. And in all four of those cases, it was in the actual election year. Never has a winner in the year before the presidential vote -- like this year -- gone on to win the nomination. So Sen. Paul shouldn't rush to measure the White House drapes. But he is now in special company: He's in a tie for CPAC wins (three) with Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. Mitt Romney is the all-time leader with four CPAC wins. Ron Paul has two. So winning once is more or less meaningless, but winning twice or more? The Pauls -- Rand and Ron -- are the only two men with at least two CPAC wins who have not appeared on the GOP ticket. (Kemp was Bob Dole's VP nominee.) It's one more way, we can assume, that Rand Paul hopes to get some separation from his dad heading into 2016. 2. POTUS hopes for action -- and legacy item -- in law enforcement arena . Washington will be consumed this week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress and the continuing fight over funding the Department of Homeland Security. But Nia-Malika Henderson of The Washington Post took us inside another big event: a report from the task force Obama established post-Ferguson to study the tensions between law enforcement and African-Americans. \"The White House has said that they have been surprised by so many areas of commonality between these activists and law enforcement officials who were on this task force,\" said Henderson. \"Other people say the gulf is as wide as you might imagine.\" Henderson adds that the President doesn't want this report to gather dust on the shelf but casts doubts over whether this will be part of Obama's record. \"Whether or not it will be a legacy item, we'll have to see. That will probably depend on legislation, and that seems fairly unlikely.\" 3. The super PAC campaign: Millions are OK, but billions rule . There is always a money race in presidential politics. But the times are changing. Candidates need to raise cash for their actual campaign committees, but that effort is taking a back seat to the bigger money chase. Jonathan Martin of The New York Times shared some reporting on the race to win over big -- as in billionaire -- support for the super PACs that now dominate the world of political finance. Martin noted it's March 1, and \"not a single candidate has set up an actual campaign committee.\" \"They have, though, set up super PACs, and this has dramatically changed politics. The donors most coveted now are billionaires with a 'B,' those [who] can stroke seven-, eight-figure checks and the year of the bundlers who can raise a few hundred thousand dollars is seemingly passe.\" 4. Go West: The states are blue, but the money chase is bipartisan . It's not really a risk to say California, Oregon and Washington will go blue --Democratic -- in the 2016 presidential race. So why, then, are many Republican hopefuls heading West, especially to Silicon Valley? It's all about the cash. Obama dominated high-tech fundraising in 2008 and 2012. Bloomberg's Lisa Lerer traveled West recently as Hillary Clinton made a pitch for help this time around. She reports that Clinton has many friends, but that there is a fierce and bipartisan competition for money out West. \"This time she'll ... have competition from an unlikely source, Rand Paul, who's opened an office there. He's hoping to tap into the libertarian vein of some of the Silicon Valley money. Jeb Bush has also been meeting with tech executives.\" \"It's not clear who's going capture this new and growing source of wealth for elections that are supposed to cost over $1 billion on each side, but one thing's sure. We'll see lots of candidates and staffers making many trips down the 101.\" 5. DO NOT REPLY: Your government's guide to a partial shutdown . A temporary fix keeps the Department of Homeland Security running at full steam this week, but Congress will be trying to find a longer-term solution next. So department workers still have to prepare and sort out whether they would have to work -- or would be furloughed -- in the event funding expires. Ed O'Keefe of The Washington Post gave us a glimpse at the contingency planning, obtaining a memo sent to relevant workers as it appeared Congress might not reach even a temporary deal before the Friday night deadline. \"Buried deep in there on page 23--- a little note to the 15% of DHS workers who might have been furloughed: you can check your email but you cannot hit reply,\" said O'Keefe. \"You were allowed to check for the status of the furlough but to hit reply or to engage anyone on email might result in severe penalties.\" \"So you would get paid after a shutdown, but you weren't allowed to check your email. Perhaps a silver lining to the possibility of the shutdown.\"", "Washington (CNN) -- Three weeks until funding starts to dry up for bridge and road projects across the United States, House and Senate committees Thursday put Congress on track toward a deal to avoid construction shutdowns and to keep the federal Highway Trust Fund operating until early next summer. But even as Republicans and Democrats drew closer together, some in the transportation industry decried the nearly $11 billion proposals as short-term fixes that leave the nation's bigger infrastructure issues untouched. House and Senate day of action . Without an infusion of cash to the highway fund, the Department of Transportation has warned that road projects may have to start shutting down in August. After months of failed negotiations, key House and Senate committees passed proposals Thursday that were relatively close in scope and content. Previous drafts had differed in the source and size of funding, as well as how long that funding would last. Thursday both the Republican-led House Ways & Means Committee and the Democratic-led Senate Finance Committee passed bills with the same central dollar figure, $10.8 billion. That's enough to keep the fund in business until roughly next summer. The two sides also moved closer on where to get the money. The Senate committee adopted a House idea, including something called pension smoothing, which allows employers to set aside less money for long-term pension funding. One key difference -- the House bill has a more expanded version of the money-raiser, bringing in three times as much money from pension-smoothing than the Senate. The bills are much closer on the amount of money they'd raise from an extended increase in customs fees. And they would each transfer $1 billion out of funds for underground storage leaks. Republican and Democratic senators stressed they had made compromises. Finance Chairman Ron Wyden had previously insisted on a long-term deal. \"Colleagues, I want it understood that (pushing for a longer-term solution) was my position at the beginning of the negotiations,\" the Oregon Democrat said to his committee. \"But it was clear that it would not be possible to reach a bipartisan agreement (for a longer-term deal).\" His Republican counterpart echoed the story of tradeoffs. \"While I won't say I've gotten everything I wanted,\" ranking Republican Orrin Hatch admitted, \" I will say I think we've reached a deal that can satisfy both Democrats and Republicans.\" Differences remain . Both bills passed their respective committees on relatively easy voice votes Thursday. But even as they issued warm statements across the north-south axis of the Capitol, lawmakers warned of the remaining differences ahead. \"I commend Chairman Wyden and Senator Hatch for putting together a bill that provides roughly $11 billion, as we did,\" wrote House Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp in a statement. \"However... it is inconceivable that the House would, as the Senate proposes to do, grant the IRS additional authority to audit and investigate taxpayers simply so Washington can spend more money.\" Camp's office would not confirm it, but the Michigan Republican seemed to be objecting to a Senate provision that would increase the amount of time the IRS has to audit taxpayers who incorrectly estimate property values, from three years now to six years. That measure alone raises over $1 billion. Each bill is expected to pass its respective chamber, with the House planning to vote on its version next week. Then the two sides must quickly agree to a compromise bill if they want to keep money flowing and avoid construction slowdowns starting in August. Transportation group fires back . As lawmakers breathe a cautious sigh of relief and move toward avoiding another crisis, some in the road construction industry see little reason to celebrate. \"These actions are the latest 'punt and leave the stadium' strategy that has plagued the federal surface transportation program for far too long,\" wrote Pete Ruane, president of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. His group and others have been clamoring for a long-term fix, after 11 stopgap measures in five years. But the politics are a problem. The highway fund currently relies on six types of taxes, including the federal gas tax. And Republicans' anti-tax mantra has prevented all but a few from supporting any increase in those fees. Hence, what could be a rare ahead-of-deadline deal in Congress looks like continued instability and lack-of-decision to those in road construction. \"Our message to Congress is simple: your job isn't close to being done,\" Ruane concluded. Feds warn states: Road construction money running out .", "Long before the ink had dried on the Senate deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, the writing was already on the wall for the Republican Party: The last three weeks have hurt them. They have borne the brunt of the blame for shutting down the government, and polls show that a large majority of Americans disapprove of the way the Congressional GOP has handled the fight over funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. Shutdown Poll: No winners but GOP bigger loser than Dems . Polls: Time to throw my guy out of Congress? And now, non-partisan political handicappers say the likelihood of Democrats winning the House and maintaining control in the Senate in 2014 has increased. \"Republicans have ratcheted up their risk,\" said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of The Rothenberg Political Report. \"There is now a plausible case for the midterms being a plus for the Democrats, where I would never said that six months ago.\" Rothenberg said the GOP is being perceived as \"a chaotic, disorganized, confused party\" and it is likely that their fundraising numbers will likely begin to slow in the coming months. \"Big dollar donors, who are more pragmatic business types, are now worried about where the party is going,\" he said. \"For Democrats, this helps them for 2014 in recruitment, in fundraising and in overall morale.\" Conservatives and Obamacare . The deal, which the Senate and the House agreed to late on Wednesday, raises the debt ceiling until early next year and reopens the government that has been shut since October 1. The shutdown began because conservative Republicans - emboldened by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah -- pushed Republican leaders to tie funding the government with significant changes to Obamacare and Democrats refused. Throughout the 16-day shutdown, House Speaker John Boehner and his leadership colleagues listened to their caucus and demanded that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats come to the negotiating table to make concessions on the presidents sweeping healthcare law. But when Democrats didn't budge -- only agreeing in the end to increase fraud protection on the healthcare program -- Republican leadership was forced to agree to a scaled back deal. In defeat, Boehner may live to fight another day . On top of drawing the ire of a majority of the American people, the back and forth highlighted a noticeable rift in the Republican party: between more pragmatic Republicans and their emboldened tea party colleagues. Poll: Tea Party's favorable numbers take a hit . Texas newspaper longs for Cruz's predecessor . As news of the deal broke, unhappy tea party groups, who saw the deal as a capitulation by the establishment Republicans in Washington, began to bang their primary challenger drum, promising to run against Republicans that didn't back tying Obamacare to the shutdown and debt ceiling. \"Congress will feel the repercussions of refusing to negotiate at all and for refusing to live under the same law the forced on the American people,\" Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots said, who told CNN to expect tea party groups to fervently challenger other Republicans in 2014. \"I expect tea party groups will be very active next year,\" Martin said. And Martin may be right. Just a quick look at Republicans running for reelection in the Senate shows tea party groups are already mobilizing to take on other Republicans. Challenges to incumbents . Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has been a leading critic of Obama's policies on a number of fronts, but in heavily conservative South Carolina, a Republican incumbent can't take anything for granted. Graham faces a crowded primary field against state Sen. Lee Bright, businessman Richard Cash, and PR executive and Citadel graduate Nancy Mace. At this early stage of the race, Graham has the clear advantage in terms of money and organization. But that could change if conservative tea party activists begin to coalesce behind a single \"anyone-but-Graham\" candidate. The story is similar for Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who is now seeking his third term in 2014. He faces a primary challenge from state Rep. Joe Carr and 2012 Senate candidate Brenda Lenard. Alexander is not a favorite among conservative tea party activists. In August, a coalition of 20 Tennessee tea party and conservative groups sent the Senator an open letter asking him to retire. And the highest profile GOP senate primary of 2014 pits three-term incumbent Mike Enzi of Wyoming against Liz Cheney, the eldest daughter of former Vice President and Wyoming favorite son Dick Cheney. The national party is backing Enzi, while Cheney has the backing of conservative activists. Many in the tea party see these races -- along with races in the House -- as an opportunity. \"The Republicans have had five years to try and make some progress in remedying the financial ills that plague our nation's future, and have made little to no progress,\" the Tea Party Express said in a written statement. \"The silver lining in all this is that the 2014 elections are just around the corner and 'We The People' have our chance to tell our leaders exactly how we feel about the 'compromise' reached today.\" As tea party groups threaten Republican-on-Republican challenges, more moderate Republicans have publicly said that would be a bad idea. \"The way to achieve more conservative governance in 2015 is not spending $$ to defeat Republicans in 2014,\" Tim Miller, the executive director of the America Rising PAC, a Republican research firm, tweeted hours after the Senate deal was reached. Miller told CNN he still sees the political map in 2014 as favorable for Republicans, especially if they focus on beating Democrats on Obamacare and the debt. \"We need to take back the Senate and build on our House majority next November,\" Miller said. \"No progress can be made if that objective isn't met.\" Miller continued: \"So I believe GOP and conservative groups interested in advancing a conservative agenda to focus their energy\" on defeating vulnerable Democrats in traditionally conservative states and districts. Democrats unified . Rothenberg said these divisions in the Republican Party -- between those seeking primary challenges and those seeking to target Democrats -- need to be worked out before the GOP can comfortably say they will keep control of the House. \"At some point, the tea party are going to really want to accomplish stuff,\" Rothenberg said. \"And in order to accomplish stuff, they are going to have to change their views about compromise and negotiations. If to them, victory is taking over an emasculated, weak, unsuccessful Republican Party, if that is what they think victory is, then maybe they can have victory.\" All of this news, has been music to many Democrats ears, many of whom believe the last three weeks -- and the Republicans fledgling poll numbers around the shutdown -- have made it less likely the those vulnerable Democrats will lose in 2014. Before the shutdown, Jim Manley, a longtime Senate Democratic aide, said the vulnerability of Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Kay Hagan of North Carolina made Democrats losing control of the Senate a possibility. Now, he is far more bullish on his party's chances in both the Senate and House. \"I think that for the first time, in light of what has happened, I think for the first time we can honestly take a look at it and question whether it is possible\" to keep control of the Senate and win the House, Manley said. \"The Republican Party brand is broken and I am not sure if it can be fixed.\" The key for Democrats, Manley pointed out, was their unity during the government shutdown. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi repeatedly delivered the majority of her caucus against House Republicans piecemeal plans to fund the government, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did the same in the Senate. \"That shows me,\" Manley said, \"that we are not scared of the tea party types like Democrats had been in elections past.\" Opinion: Five reasons America is still in trouble after shutdown . Opinion: Washington (George) got it right . Frum: Tea party exit would be GOP blessing .", "Listen to how loud tea party forces are this week and it will remind you of a valuable lesson: for some conservatives, the 2014 wins are likely to translate into more disappointment -- not more power. The big issue -- and the last big act of the current Congress -- is whether lawmakers will pass a spending bill that keeps the government running well into 2015. Some tea party activists insist it is their duty to deny President Obama any funding that would help him implement what they call amnesty -- meaning the administration's recent executive actions on illegal immigration. Related: Obama tells the undocumented to \"come out of the shadows\" Transcript: President Obama's immigration address . In Monday's conservative Red State morning briefing, Item No. 1 is a complaint against the GOP leadership: . \"They preemptively surrendered and now want to both nibble at Obamacare instead of end it and they want to fund the President's immigration plan. House Republicans, this week, are set to fund Barack Obama's amnesty plan with the help of House Democrats. If you want to stop amnesty, you must flood the offices of members of congress with phone calls. There's no other way. They need to hear from you and that you demand they keep their promises.\" It's the kind of talk that in the past has put Speaker Boehner on thin ice -- and remember we did have a brief government shutdown not all that long ago because he could not corral -- and control -- the tea party forces. Might that happen again now? The Republican leadership says \"no\" -- and emphatically so. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell -- who will be majority leader in a month -- say Republicans cannot shut down the government as a way of making policy points. And they say they begin the week confident they have the votes to prove the tea party forces may be loud, but cant win. Related: GOP aims to avoid shutdown . There will be more Republicans in both the House and Senate come January. So why are tea party forces so frantic about the votes this week? Remember, the GOP establishment candidates won most of the contested Republican primaries this year, part of what McConnell openly called his bid to \"crush\" the tea party. That's why more Republicans in Washington, D.C. next year will not translate into more tea party votes in the big internal GOP battles. To the contrary. So while it would be wrong to consider this week the tea party's last stand -- its forces promise to regroup and recover -- the last big act of the old Congress is going to be very important in setting the tone for the new Congress. The spending votes will establish just how strong Boehner and McConnell are in dealing with the internal GOP rifts that have been so messy in recent years. Related: How Mitch McConnell crushed the tea party . Related: Sen. Ted Cruz causes headaches for GOP leaders - again .", "Since the start of the government shutdown October 1, analysts, journalists and experts have been sorting through the claims of Republicans and Democrats about the underlying issues in the budget dispute. Here's a sampling of pieces published by CNN Opinion: . Frida Ghitis: World baffled by America's self-inflicted wound . America's enemies must be laughing. But most of the world is just baffled, mystified at the sight of the world's most powerful country tangled in a crippling web of its own making. The government shutdown is weakening the United States before its allies and its foes. It is eroding American standing and prestige while reducing American power and influence. The democracy that once inspired the world now leaves observers perplexed. Read more . Bob Greene: Taxpayers, you deserve your money back . If we had paid for an airline ticket, and in the middle of our trip the airline informed us that one leg of our journey had been canceled, we would justifiably demand a refund. If we ordered an annual subscription to 52 weeks of a magazine, and then, a few months into it, the magazine told us that its new policy was to publish only 26 issues a year, we would, with good reason, ask for half of our money back. If we paid for a one-year membership in a health club, and the club announced that it would have to close for repairs for three months, we would expect a 25% refund. So ... exactly when can we expect to see our refund checks from the federal government? Read more . David Gergen: Shutdown could be shock therapy . Yes, conservative hard-liners have chosen the wrong place to fight; arguments over Obamacare are no excuse to shut down the government. Yes, hard-liners like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are creating deeper partisan divides. But Democrats can ill afford to continue rejecting any talks or negotiations. Now that the shutdown has happened, Obama has a fresh opportunity -- indeed a fresh responsibility -- to seize the mantle of leadership and get us out of this mess. Instead of just blaming the Republicans, he should call in the leaders of both parties and in Lyndon Johnson fashion, keep 'em talking till they get a deal. Read more . Marian Currinder and Josh Huder: Boehner's bad choices . No House speaker wants to go down in history for a legislative record opposed by the majority of his or her own party. And no speaker wants to go down in history for presiding over one of the most unproductive Congresses in history. But these are Boehner's choices. While [former Speaker Dennis] Hastert relied on a majority of the majority, Boehner has had to rely on a minority of the majority, together with a majority of the minority, to pass important legislation. Read more . David Rothkopf: Where's the outrage? The most stunning thing about this first shutdown of the U.S. government in almost two decades is the degree to which it is a nonevent, considered par for the course given the sad state of affairs in the nation's capital. Voters may be angry. They may be depressed. But there are no mass demonstrations. Congress' approval rating may have hit new lows, but beyond that, the response has been a shrug. Read more . Thomas Mann: GOP House can't claim to speak for America . The Affordable Care Act is law. End of story. The House Republicans' attempt to nullify a duly enacted law violates the norms of our constitutional system. It is reckless economically and an egregious affront to our democratic form of government. Read more . Matt Welch: Government shutdown is nothing to worry about . So when President Barack Obama says the shutdown will \"throw a wrench into the gears of our economy\" and put \"the American people's hard-earned progress at risk,\" it is appropriate to treat such claims with skepticism. As we saw during the run-up to the March 1 sequestration trims in federal spending, politicians are incentivized by self-interest and unconstrained by shame in maximizing the hyperbole about what may happen if their ability to collect and redistribute our money is impeded even a little bit. Read more . Theresa Pierno: Parks take the hit for Congress' failure . The closure of America's crown jewels threatens the livelihood of park businesses, gateway communities and the American families within them, whose economies rely on national parks being open for business. Families, school groups and tourists from around the world who have made plans to visit and enjoy our national heritage will face disappointment. Bar Harbor, Maine, adjacent to Acadia National Park, attracts nearly 10,000 visitors daily in October. The loss of these visitors could be shattering to a community that relies on that final flush of tourism dollars before the steep drop-off in winter...The federal government shutdown has made a bad situation even worse for our national parks. Over the past three years, the National Park Service's budget has been cut by 13%, or about $315 million. Read more . Dean Obeidallah: 10% of Americans like Congress -- are they nuts? When you think that 10% of Americans believe Congress is doing a good job, you have to ask yourself one question: Who are these people?...Congress is so dysfunctional that dictators in other countries are probably pointing at it as an example of why you should never have a democracy. Yet, somehow, about 30 million Americans are looking at what Congress is doing and thinking: \"I like what I see.\" If you actually think Congress is doing a good job, something is terribly awry in your life. People in your family need to stage an immediate intervention. Read more . Meg Urry: NASA shutdown a blow to science . Scientists at NASA and the National Science Foundation are some of the hardest-working people I know. The government shutdown means they are forbidden to do any work. They can't take their laptops home or phone into teleconferences from home, the way I might if a hurricane or snowstorm threatened Yale. So, you might think they are having a nice (though unpaid) vacation. But actually, the same work is sitting on their desk when they get back, and it all has to get done. So it means they'll work longer hours to catch up and for most civil servant scientists, there is no such thing as overtime pay. Read more ." ]

[ "30 April 2015 Last updated at 11:36 BST\nBut which fighter has the biggest online punch? Whose bank balance hits heaviest? And who has the flashiest fight gear?\nBBC News presents an alternative take on how the fighters stack up.\nVideo Journalist: Paul Ivan Harris" ]

[ "Media playback is not supported on this device\nSo much has been said about the numbers involved that it is sometimes difficult to remember there are other things at stake - namely the WBC, WBA and WBO welterweight titles and the title of best boxer of the modern era.\nIt is a fight everyone has an opinion on and BBC Sport has pooled the thoughts of boxers past and present, including some of the sport's greatest names.\n\"A turtle is only vulnerable when he sticks his head out - when he senses danger, he goes back into that shell. You can beat that shell up, but you're not hurting him. Pacquiao has to trick Mayweather out of that shell, make him think he's there for the counter. When he's not - 'bang' - capitalise on his mistake.\n\"Pacquiao has to make Floyd become the aggressor, something he's not comfortable with. He has to make Floyd bring the fight to him, let his hands go while Manny's letting his hands go and see who lands first. That's fun for us.\n\"Counter-punchers aren't good at catching up, we wait for you to come knocking at the door, we don't come to you. So counter-punchers need their opponents to be aggressive and then take advantage of slow feet and slow hands. It won't be a landslide win for Mayweather, it will be a hard-earned win. \"\n\"I can see how Manny Pacquiao is able to beat Mayweather - work the angles, high work-rate, volume of punches, fast hands, back Floyd into a corner or onto the ropes. Just outwork Mayweather and win round after round after round.\n\"Mayweather will put on a defensive masterclass, behind the shoulder, slipping and sliding, ducking and diving and not getting hit. He's a defensive genius, a magician in the ring. But Pacquiao should punch the shoulder, punch the arms, hit him round the back of the head, in the kidneys, take anything he can.\n\"Mayweather is just too good at adjusting, changing his style, adapting to what's in front of him. If there's ever a time for Mayweather to lose, that time is now, he's an ageing athlete. But I'm going for a close Mayweather points win.\"\n\"Pacquiao needs to pressurise Mayweather and land punches with speed, power and accuracy. But Mayweather uses distance very well, is hard to hit and lands with counter-punches.\n\"I don't think it affected him when I knocked him out. I want Manny Pacquiao to win this fight, my heart is with Pacquiao as a boxer. But Mayweather wins because he's got such a difficult style.\"\n\"Manny has to be aggressive and Floyd's planning for him to be aggressive. Is Floyd going to match aggression with aggression, or is he going to use tactical boxing? He can do either. Manny can do one thing, Floyd can do two. Floyd will determine how the fight starts and how it ends.\n\"Manny's game plan has to be pressure, pressure, pressure. Floyd has never fought an opponent like Manny who throws so many punches, has power in both hands and is a southpaw. No-one has pressured Mayweather like Pacquiao will.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\n\"Manny can be reckless and that's what Floyd will be planning on. He got reckless against Marquez when he had the fight won, went for the knockout and got knocked out himself. Hopefully he will have learned from that and be reckless at the right time. It's going to be a very good fight - I'm not sure who is going to win.\"\n\"Both fighters still have so much to give and on Saturday I'm sure they're going to produce something very special for the fans.\n\"This is going to be a tremendous match-up.\n\"Manny has hand speed and fast feet, and that will cause Floyd some problems early on. But as it progresses, I expect Floyd to make the adjustments he tends to make to counter that before pulling away on the scorecards.\"\n\"Pacquiao has all the attributes to beat Mayweather - if anyone is going to beat Mayweather it will be someone with similar hand speed who is a southpaw. Pacquiao will definitely cause problems, it will be Mayweather's toughest task yet.\n\"But after a few rounds, Mayweather will do what he does best and suss things out. He always manages to adapt his style for the opponent he's facing and always finds a way to win. Love him or loathe him, he's a genius.\n\"I'm picking Mayweather to win on points. It will be a very close fight, nip and tuck, with almost nothing in it. But Mayweather will finish with his nose in front.\"\n\"Mayweather has a couple of ways to win the fight: as a counter-puncher, wait for Pacquiao to make mistakes and make him pay for those mistakes; or just box him, dance around, do what he does best. He's a little bit more versatile than Pacquiao.\n\"As for Pacquiao, if he can be the man who beat Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto, we're talking about a very interesting, physical fight.\n\"I think there will be a couple of surprises for the fans, in terms of knockdowns. But there could be dominance from Mayweather.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\n\"Floyd can't fight the way he's been fighting if he wants to beat Pacquiao. He has to go forward and throw punches.\n\"Pacquiao throws over 100 punches a round. Floyd, in his last fight, threw 38 punches a round.\n\"Mayweather can't be on the ropes against a guy like Pacquiao. It's not going to work out. I think that it's going to be a great fight.\n\"I like Pacquiao, although I'm not saying Floyd can't win. But he's got to change the way he's been fighting.\"\n\"Manny chucks a lot of shots and comes from awkward angles, which Mayweather won't be used to, especially from a southpaw stance. Pacquiao is a very active fighter, he'll pressure Mayweather and make him uncomfortable.\n\"But Mayweather is just too clever, his defence is great and he'll find a way to win. It's got points written all over it, although if Manny thinks he's losing the fight and starts getting desperate late on, I can see him getting knocked out.\"\n\"It's going to go to the end because they'll be so careful. Pacquiao understands that he could get knocked out and Mayweather will be thinking: 'Pacquiao has knocked out a lot of guys.'\n\"Mayweather is a defensive genius. But he's not an offensive machine. So I think Pacquiao will win. He's smart and he's the underdog - he'll feel the crowd pulling for him. I've got a feeling he can win it by one round.\"\n\"It can be a very boring fight, with Mayweather just picking at Pacquiao, or it could be a very exciting fight if Mayweather stands more flat-footed.\n\"I almost knocked Mayweather out straight out of the gate - that would be a good tip for Pacquiao, he can't give Mayweather a chance to get comfortable or to pick up on his rhythm.\n\"If he is going to win against Mayweather, it's going to have to be in the first three or four rounds, tops. But Mayweather is the best in the world at avoiding punches, so I would have to go with Floyd.\"\n\"There are two scenarios: Pacquiao can push the pace and make Floyd fight. If he's in great shape, it can be an exciting fight; or Mayweather can figure him out and box him the whole night and have an easy win. He's going to fight in spurts and put the rounds in the bag. Nothing is going to change.\n\"The question is, can Pacquiao keep his composure and focus in the ring? He's going to have trouble hitting Floyd, so he has to stay calm and not get frustrated. He's going to throw five and six-punch combinations and maybe only one punch is going to land. If he gets frustrated, Mayweather will capitalise.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device", "American Mayweather, 37, and Filipino Pacquiao, 36, are considered to be the best two fighters of their generation.\nMayweather's WBC and WBA welterweight titles and Pacquiao's WBO belt will be on the line at the MGM Grand.\nMayweather is unbeaten in 47 professional fights; Pacquiao has 57 wins and five losses from 64 contests.\nThe fight is expected to generate as much as £162m ($250m). The most lucrative fight in history is thought to be Mayweather's bout against Saul Alvarez in 2013, which made an estimated £97m.\nMayweather-Pacquiao is also expected to break the record for pay-per-view buys in the United States. The current record of 2.4 million was set when Mayweather fought fellow American Oscar de la Hoya in 2007.\nMayweather wrote on his webpage: \"What the world has been waiting for has arrived. Mayweather vs Pacquiao on May 2, 2015 is a done deal.\n\"This will be the biggest event in the history of the sport. Boxing fans and sports fans around the world will witness greatness on May 2.\"\nPacquiao said: \"I am very happy that Floyd Mayweather and I can give the fans the fight they have wanted for so many years.\n\"They have waited long enough and they deserve it. It is an honour to be part of this historic event.\n\"I dedicate this fight to all the fans who willed this fight to happen and, as always, to bring glory to the Philippines and my fellow Filipinos around the world.\"\nMayweather said \"giving the fans what they want is always my main focus\".\nHe added: \"I am the best ever and this fight will be another opportunity to showcase my skills and do what I do best, which is win.\n\"Manny is going to try to do what 47 before him failed to do, but he won't be successful. He will be number 48.\"\nPacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach, said: \"Floyd should enjoy being the A-side while he can. Because on May 2, Manny is going to put him on his backside.\"\nMayweather and Pacquiao met for the first time at a basketball game in Miami in January, when they exchanged telephone numbers.\nMayweather is regarded by many as the finest technician and tactician in boxing, while Pacquiao has built his career on a more aggressive style.\nPacquiao beat Chris Algieri on a unanimous points decision in his most recent fight in November, but lost twice in 2013 - to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.\nMayweather, whose unbeaten record stretches back to 1996, has won his past five bouts on points, most recently a rematch with Marcos Maidana in September.\nBritish welterweight Amir Khan, who wants to fights Mayweather and also held talks with Pacquiao in January, said before the bout was announced that it is \"not going to be what people expect\".\nHe told the Daily Mail on Thursday: \"Four years ago it would have been a massive fight because both of them were at their peak. It might have gone past that now.\n\"It will be a good fight for a couple of rounds. I think it will go the distance but that Mayweather will win by unanimous decision.\"\nThe fight also marks a rare joint agreement between Showtime Sports and HBO, the two American media companies, who traditionally work in opposition.\nThey have worked together before, teaming up in 2002 for the fight between then heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, who was with HBO, and former champion Mike Tyson, who was with Showtime.\nThis time Showtime hold the rights to Mayweather while HBO have Pacquiao.\n\"This fight took about five or six years of negotiations, arguing, egos getting in the way before it finally came to fruition,\" explained Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter.\n\"It's the biggest fight by far in years in the sport of boxing, so I equate this to five or six years of Super Bowls all wrapped into one fight. It'll be the biggest boxing event of all time.\"\nNegotiations for the fight first came to a halt five years ago but Stephen Espinoza, the executive vice-president of Showtime Sports, does not believe the advancing years of the two boxers will damage the event as a showpiece.\n\"Part of the myth and legend of this entire event is that is took so long to come to fruition,\" he said.\n\"Maybe a boxer that is just slightly past his prime provides a more entertaining, a more memorable fight than the guy whose reflexes are at their peak.\"", "The American outclassed Filipino rival Manny Pacquiao with a unanimous points decision in Las Vegas on Saturday.\nThe boxing world was unanimous in praise of Mayweather, 38, following his victory at the MGM Grand and Bruno said he could fight on until he is 50.\nAnd former undisputed heavyweight world champion Mike Tyson hailed him \"invincible\" after his 48th career win.\nTyson believes Mayweather stands alone at the forefront of boxing: \"He controlled the fight, he has great endurance, he did a really good job.\n\"It's his era, his time. He is in invincible mode now - no-one can stand with him at this particular moment.\"\nAnd he is getting better as he gets older, according to Bruno: \"As a boxer you've got to admire him, he's got to go down as one of the greats.\n\"If you look at Mayweather and understand him and work him out, from 16 until now he hasn't changed in his attitude or whatever.\n\"I think he can go on until he's 50 in boxing because he's got the secret to looking after himself,\" Bruno told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek programme.\nFormer world cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson was surprised by the margin of Mayweather's victory. He said: \"He shocked me and shocked everybody because he stepped up another three, four, five levels and shut him out. It was a complete masterclass.\n\"The whole thing of boxing is hit and not be hit. That's what he did.\"\nAmir Khan, who hopes to be Mayweather's next opponent, told Sportsweek: \"It was a classy fight. The mistake Manny made was drop to Mayweather's pace.\n\"To fight Mayweather you have to stick to your own pace, and that's something a young fighter would do.\"\nFour-time world champion Carl Froch was disappointed with the Filipino: \"Was Pacquiao that poor or Mayweather that good?\"\n\"Mayweather was sharp, accurate. I wanted to see more from Pacquiao, I am disappointed,\" the Nottingham fighter told Sky Box Office.\n\"I was a bit disappointed with Pacquiao saying he thought he won. You can see when you are getting beat and outboxed. The best man won.\"\nSix-weight world champion Oscar De La Hoya had hoped for a little more action: \"Call me old-school but I like the fans getting their money's worth by watching an action-packed fight.\n\"I'm just not into the boxing, running style. I like jumping out of my seat because a fight was existing.\"\nFormer world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan was not surprised by the manner of Mayweather's victory. \"Mayweather was much too smart and quick for Manny. Just as I predicted - boringly one-sided,\" he tweeted.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nBrook, 28, retained his IBF belt on Saturday and wants a bout with Khan, also 28, who has opted to fight American Chris Algieri next.\n\"Khan has no respect for me and looks down his nose at me, but I've done everything asked of me,\" said Brook.\n\"I'm an unbeaten world champion and deserve and command respect but he talks to me like I'm nothing.\"\nBrook added: \"If someone said to me you can get five million quid, a world title, fight at Wembley with a fight that every fan wants to see, it's a no-brainer for me.\"\nKhan, a former world champion at light-welterweight, has expressed a desire to fight Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao in the future, but has said he may fight Brook \"inside the next 12 months\".\nHowever, Sheffield-based Brook, who has won all 34 of his professional fights, expressed his surprise at Khan's choice of Algieri as an opponent and told BBC Sport: \"Khan is now fighting in my division and has not had many fights there as he used to fight at a lower weight.\n\"But now he thinks he can jump the gun and fight Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao before me, when I have earned the right to do so. I don't know who he thinks he is. It's about ego for him.\n\"Every fight fan in Britain and across the world wants to see me and Khan fight. We have a great rivalry, there's a big pot of money for him and it is for a world title. All they have to do is pick up the phone, but he doesn't want it.\"\nOn Twitter, Khan defended his choice of opponent and said: \"Can everyone please wake up. I said the fight between me and Kell Brook will happen. When I think it's right. Look at who he fought last [Romanian Jo Jo Dan].\n\"Seems to me Kell Brook is dying to fight me for the big pay day before he faces a half decent opponent and loses that IBF title.\n\"Algieri [only beaten once by Pacquiao and still 140lbs WBO world champion] is still a better opponent than No No Dan.\"\nTwo weeks after beating American Shawn Porter in California to win the IBF world welterweight title in August, Brook was stabbed in the leg in an \"unprovoked attack\" while on holiday in Tenerife.\n\"The toughest time was lying in a Tenerife hospital with no-one speaking English, next to a window with the sun beating down and my leg tied up, thinking I would never box again or even walk again,\" Brook revealed.\n\"It took every bit of shine off winning the world title. It was then about taking baby steps and it was a long road to come back.\n\"I was staring death in the face so there's no man that can worry me now. It was the toughest fight of my life.\"\n\"Amir Khan is a very good fighter, but he has been knocked out a few times when he has stepped up,\" said Brook.\n\"Timing beats speed and I'm very strong at my weight. I'm big, accurate, powerful, determined and very eager to land my shots on his chin.\n\"He has always been the golden boy since doing well in the amateurs and has had that tag above his head.\n\"He's been on this television show and that television show and that's great if you're a celebrity but I'm about hardcore boxing. He has so many million followers on Twitter and beating him would be a massive boost to my profile.\n\"Khan's team want him to fight Mayweather or Pacquiao for the money as if he gets beat he can still fight me. But if he fights me and loses he has got nowhere to go.\"\nAmerican Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao from the Philippines hold the other versions of the world welterweight title and fight in Las Vegas on 2 May.\n\"I think Floyd Mayweather will beat Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather has the desire to win, he has never lost, he controls his fights and is on a real high,\" said Brook.\n\"Mayweather is about securing a legacy and he wants to win all the belts. So if he wins, I would be a strong favourite to fight him. I would go into the fight 100% thinking I can win.\"\n\"I think of Prince Naseem Hamed, Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Frank Bruno and Lennox Lewis and I'm not in front of them yet, but I want to leave a legacy and have exciting fights,\" Brook added.\n\"At the moment Carl Froch is leading the way for British boxers. but he won't be here for ever and next to him is me. Everyone else is below me.\"", "Mayweather will fight Pacquiao in May and Khan is keen to line up a fight with either of them in the future.\n\"I think Khan has been looking great lately,\" said Lewis.\n\"His speed is a factor they would find difficult to contend with. Khan would give them trouble.\"\nKhan says he in in talks with both the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps but for now is targeting a fight with Miguel Cotto, Timothy Bradley or Juan Manuel Marquez.\n\"The next fight is likely to be in America again and it's all about keeping my name high over there and hopefully one day getting that big fight against Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao,\" Khan told 5 live on Saturday.\nThe Las Vegas fight between welterweights Mayweather and Pacquiao - with the American's WBC and WBA titles and Filipino Pacquiao's WBO title on the line - promises to be the richest bout in the history of boxing and generate as much as £162m ($250m).\nAsked whether the fight between the pair, widely regarded as the best boxers of their generation, was the biggest in history, Lewis, 49, told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek he regarded it as a \"super-fight\".\n\"Look at [the fights between] Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler - there are a lot of super-fights.\n\"If I came out of retirement now and boxed Wladimir Klitschko I'm sure we'd make more money because we're heavyweights and command a lot more attention. People love heavyweights.\"\nAsked who he tipped to win, Lewis, who beat Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson as well as Klitschko before retiring in 2004, continued: \"Floyd is the best at side-stepping and movement and he's very quick and hard to hit. Pacquiao is a great guy when it comes to offence and trying to break a person down - he's trying to knock you out, so it's a great match-up between styles.\n\"I think Floyd has so much talent and quickness, that natural ability to win. It really depends on his heart. Pacquiao has a lot of heart.\n\"It's difficult but I think Mayweather has all the advantages, that natural ability and rhythm. Pacquiao, you never really know how he's going to come out because he's boxed differently on different occasions with different opponents.\"\n\"I have dreamt about it - then woken up and talked myself out of it,\" said Lewis, who won super heavyweight gold for Canada at the 1988 Olympics before embarking on his 44-fight pro career.\n\"My friend Razor Ruddock is coming back at 51. His last fight was 14 years ago and he's making a mistake. I don't think it's necessary to come back at this point.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nMcGregor weighed in at 153lbs for Saturday's 154lb fight, with Mayweather 149.5lbs, before a face-off that drew roars from the thousands in attendance.\nMcGregor screamed in the face of his rival and paraded around the stage as Mayweather cut a reserved figure.\n\"He looks blown out, full of water,\" said McGregor, 29.\n\"That's the worst shape I've ever seen him in. I am going to breeze through him, trust me.\"\nIf we get a bad result, which for us is McGregor knocking Floyd out in the first four rounds, we could lose around $20m, by far the worst boxing result in the state's history\nMayweather, who has come out of retirement for a 50th and final bout, said: \"I know what it takes when it's a fight of this magnitude.\n\"Weight doesn't win fights, fighting wins fights. It won't go the distance, mark my words. This will be Conor McGregor's last fight also.\"\nSome in Las Vegas thought McGregor's more conservative performance at Wednesday's final news conference intimated he might be coming to terms with the realities of making his boxing debut against one of the greatest fighters of his generation.\nBut playing to a crowd filled with Irish colours and songs, he revelled in his reception - and in the boos for Mayweather - beating his chest and screaming repeatedly.\n\"Look at me, I am in peak physical condition,\" he said, adding he would weigh close to 170lbs on fight night.\nThe build-up to the T-Mobile Arena bout has at times resembled a soap opera but finally, at around 04:00 BST on Sunday morning, they will at last fight.\nMany from within boxing have rubbished the match, choosing to refer to it as an \"event\" rather than a fight. But the dissatisfaction of the boxing purist looks unlikely to affect the mass audience, with the bout being screened in more than 220 countries.\nThat global reach could see the record of 4.6 million pay-per-view buys - set when Mayweather beat Manny Pacquiao in 2015 - beaten.\nWatching the fight costs a minimum of £20 in the UK but around £75 in the US. This, added to ticket sales, merchandise and sponsorship, makes for a healthy pot. Tickets are also on sale to watch in bars on the Las Vegas strip, while more than 400 cinemas across the US will broadcast the event.\nIt all means more than $600m (£466m) could be generated, with Pacquiao-Mayweather's reported haul of around $620m in sight. Mayweather is expected to make around $300m, McGregor $100m. Not bad for 36 minutes of work or less.\nThere have been reports 'Money Man' has not taken McGregor seriously. This week 5 live boxing analyst Steve Bunce said only a \"cocktail of age setting in and underestimation of his opponent\" could pose any danger to the favourite.\nMayweather's father, Floyd Sr, this week told media his son had lost \"a lot\" of his ability since retiring in 2015. But a 50th career win from 50 fights would carry his son past the late Rocky Marciano's perfect 49-fight record, rounding off a dominant professional career that began after he had won bronze at the 1996 Olympics.\nBetting markets have bemused those who give McGregor no hope as his price has shortened in recent weeks. At around 10-3, the boxing debutant is actually a shorter price than many of the fighters Mayweather dealt with before retiring in 2015.\nLas Vegas is expecting more than 1,300 private jets to land before for the weekend's action and the high rollers who hit the city's famous strip traditionally bet big on Mayweather in his home city.\n\"If we continue as we are, we will rival the $50m record staked in the state of Nevada, set when Mayweather beat Pacquiao,\" said Jay Rood, who runs the sportsbook at the MGM Grand.\n\"If we get a bad result, which for us is McGregor knocking Floyd out in the first four rounds, we could lose around $20m, by far the worst boxing result in the state's history.\"\nCloser to home, one Irish bookmaker claims an individual has placed £650,000 on McGregor in a bid to win £2.8m. And while we are talking betting, Mayweather has said he will tweet a picture of his betting slip when he wagers on himself.\nPackie Collins - trainer and brother of former world champion Steve: \"I've been around the game for a long time, even based in America with my brother when Marvin Hagler was fighting. I've never seen anyone train or practise as hard as Conor McGregor. I give him a chance in there.\"\nChris Eubank - former two-weight world champion: \"Everyone is underestimating the Irish spirit. They have ghost-like spirit in warfare. I've felt it. I'm still wondering now how I got beat by Steve Collins in 1995. If McGregor pulls it off it is arguably the greatest upset in history. Everything can happen, that's why I've travelled. It is not a farce.\"\nJeff Mayweather - uncle of Floyd: \"Everyone knows what this fight is about. It's about money. Conor McGregor boxed at one point in his life but didn't master it. Floyd is a master at it.\"\nGet the biggest boxing news sent straight to your device. Find out more.\nRickie Hatton - beaten by Mayweather in 2007: \"I don't really give McGregor any chance and I hope I'm wrong. But the only way he could possibly win would be if Floyd Mayweather gets careless or takes a few risks or anything like that - but Floyd never does that, does he? I don't think he'll get lucky; Floyd doesn't let you get lucky.\"\nAmir Khan - former light-welterweight world champion: \"It's not only a fight for McGregor and Mayweather, it's a fight between MMA and boxing. At the moment UFC is hitting huge pay-per-view numbers in the US. It's critical for boxing Mayweather wins. I think it could turn some UFC fans back to boxing.\"\nHall of fame referee Joe Cortez, who has helped McGregor adjust to boxing rules - \"He is one of the best learners I have seen. He picked up everything so quick. I've found him to be a gentleman behind the scenes. He's a class act with his girlfriend and baby - a gentleman.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nFight has met film regularly when it comes to boxing, and a McGregor win might well one day inspire a Hollywood reimagining of Saturday's action.\nThe contrasting environments in which each man has trained hark back to Rocky IV, where Rocky trains in the Siberian mountains, chopping wood and resorting to old-school training methods, while Ivan Drago works out in a state-of-the art facility.\nMayweather is the traditionalist of this pair, working out from his renowned yet simple Mayweather Boxing Gym. McGregor on the other hand has had access to every gizmo under the sun at the UFC's new Performance Institute - altitude chambers, underwater treadmills, you name it.\nHe's the Drago figure in this scenario - and things did not work out too well for the Russian.", "American Mayweather, 40, posted a video on Twitter confirming the bout will take place in Las Vegas on 26 August, with the message: \"It's official.\"\nHe will go after Floyd Mayweather and he will try to knock him out\nIrish UFC lightweight champion McGregor, 28, said: \"The fight is on.\"\nUFC president Dana White told ESPN: \"The impossible deal is now done.\"\nThe fight - at light-middleweight - will be one of the richest in boxing history.\nMayweather, a former five-weight world champion and widely considered the best boxer of his generation, retired unbeaten in 2015 after 49 bouts.\nThat followed a successful defence of his WBC and WBA welterweight titles, a victory that meant he equalled Rocky Marciano's career record of 49-0.\nMayweather retired for the first time in 2008 after 39 fights.\nMcGregor, who has never boxed professionally, became the UFC's first dual-division champion in November 2016 and has previously challenged Mayweather to a fight under mixed martial arts rules.\nHis boxing licence was granted by the California State Athletic Commission in December, allowing him to box in the US state.\nWhite, who took part in negotiations on behalf of McGregor, said: \"We have been in talks for a while.\n\"They went smoothly. Floyd Mayweather surrounds himself with smart people and we got the deal done.\n\"The reason Conor McGregor's as big as he is is he'll fight anybody, anywhere, any time. He will go after Floyd Mayweather and he will try to knock him out.\"\nWhite said the fight would take place at the T-Mobile Arena and would be at 154lbs, one category up from Mayweather's last bout in September 2015, when he gained a wide points win over compatriot Andre Berto.\nWhen Mayweather defeated Filipino Manny Pacquiao on points in May 2015, the fight set a new American pay-per-view record of 4.6 million buys, and White expects that figure to be beaten.\n\"It's definitely going to be the biggest fight ever in combat sports history and probably going to be the biggest pay day ever - all sides involved are pretty happy with their deals,\" he said.\nLeonard Ellerbe, chief executive of Mayweather Promotions, added: \"There is a different feel from the Pacquiao fight. It is the unknown factor.\n\"There is not one place I go to with Floyd where he doesn't get asked the question: 'Floyd, are you going to fight Conor McGregor?' All Floyd thinks about is fighting Conor McGregor.\"\nMcGregor has won 21 and lost three of his 24 MMA contests, and White said his style would cause problems for Mayweather.\n\"Floyd Mayweather is 40 years old, he's always had problems with southpaws,\" added White.\n\"Conor McGregor is 28 and he is a southpaw. Whenever Conor hits people, they fall. He is 100% positive that he wins this fight, and I stopped doubting him a long time ago.\"\nSpeaking last month, boxing legend Oscar de la Hoya said the contest was \"a farce\" and \"a circus\" and feared the impact it would have on the sport.\n\"My interest is in the health of boxing as a whole,\" said De la Hoya, who won world titles in six different weight categories, in an open letter posted on Facebook.\n\"Floyd's and Conor's motivation is clear. It's money. In fact, they don't even pretend it's not.\n\"When the fight ends up being the disaster that is predicted, afterwards neither of them will need [boxing] any more. Floyd will go back to retirement and Conor will go back to the UFC. It's a win-win for them. It's a lose-lose for us.\n\"If you thought Mayweather/Pacquiao was a black eye for our sport - a match-up between two of the best pound-for-pound fighters that simply didn't deliver - just wait until the best boxer of a generation dismantles someone who has never boxed competitively at any level - amateur or professional.\n\"Our sport might not ever recover.\"\nMike Costello, BBC Radio 5 live boxing correspondent\nOne of boxing's all-time greats will take on a man who hasn't had a single professional boxing contest and it'll become one of the most talked-about sporting events of 2017.\nMayweather is coming out of retirement at the age of 40 for a fight some have dismissed as a farce and a mismatch. McGregor is 12 years younger and the biggest draw in UFC, the most successful and popular brand in mixed martial arts. Insults have been traded for two years - when they first started, nobody believed for a moment this fight would happen.\nThey both draw huge audiences on pay-per-view TV and the showdown is likely to generate tens of millions of dollars for each man.\nIt's likely to be televised in the United States by Showtime, a cable network and one of the biggest investors in boxing in recent years. Executives there are saying their digital traffic in the past few weeks is leading them to believe this will be nothing short of a monster event and it's been built by the hype generated by these two masters of the art of hype.\nSteve Bunce, BBC Radio 5 live boxing pundit\nThis will be an absolute mismatch. McGregor is a terrific mixed martial artist, a sensational grappler, sensational at all of these things in five-minute rounds - but what he's absolutely hopeless at - and every now and again we see glimpses of it - is boxing.\nThat's when you have two feet on the ground, one of your hands is up somewhere near your chin and you are using your other hand as a jab. When he boxes, when he tries to box, whether that's in a gymnasium or a little break in a mixed martial arts fight, he is hopeless.", "Pacquiao and Mayweather are set to split upwards of £150m following their welterweight bout at the MGM Grand.\nBut Freddie Roach said of Mayweather: \"I really am wondering if he's going to turn up on the night.\n\"I don't think any fighter is afraid, but I don't think he wanted this fight. He was forced into a fight he didn't want to take.\"\nRoach added: \"I just don't know why Floyd has gone quiet for this fight. His speech is very subdued.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nFive-weight world champion Mayweather, 38, was unmoved by Roach's claims, stating: \"I'll be there.\n\"I talked trash in the past but this fight sells itself, so I don't have to.\"\nRoach said Mayweather's camp had also made a complaint about the protective cup that Pacquiao will use, citing that as further proof of Mayweather's fragile state of mind.\nRoach said the Nevada Commission had inspected the cup at Pacquiao's training camp and approved it.\n\"It's the regular cup,\" said Roach, a seven-time trainer of the year who was in Oscar de la Hoya's corner when Mayweather beat him in 2007.\nMayweather's trainer, Floyd Sr, also went on the offensive at Wednesday's news conference.\n\"Manny Pacquiao ain't got it,\" he said. \"He can't punch. It's going to be one-sided and Pacquiao is going to be put to sleep. Good night.\"\nHe also mocked Pacquiao and Roach in rhyme, including the line: \"When Floyd breaks his jaw, he will take time to recoup. And when it's all finished, he'll be sucking on soup.\"\nSix-weight world champion Pacquiao, 36, said he wanted the fight more than Mayweather and criticised the American - unbeaten in 47 bouts - for being money-focused.\n\"It's all business for him,\" said Pacquiao. \"For me, it's about giving the fans who are paying all this money a great fight. They deserve that.\"\nThe Philippine legend added he was in good shape for the fight, which is the richest in history and also for the WBC, WBA and WBO titles.\n\"The feeling I had three years ago, 10 years ago, is back,\" he said. \"I haven't felt like this in my last few fights, I feel different. I'm relaxed and confident.\"", "Entry to the weigh-in at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Friday was $10 (£6.60), although tickets were changing hands on the resale market for $800 (£530).\nThe fight is set to generate an estimated $400m (£265m).\nAmerican Mayweather scaled 146lb - one pound under the welterweight limit - and Pacquiao of the Philippines 145lb.\nThe pair will fight for the WBC, WBA and WBO welterweight titles.\n\"I believe that with my skills, I'm going to be victorious,\" said the 38-year-old Mayweather, who is unbeaten in 47 professional fights.\n\"I don't take anything away from Manny Pacquiao, he's a solid fighter and it will be an intriguing match-up.\n\"But after Saturday, I'll still be 'TBE' [The Best Ever].\"\nPacquiao, who has 57 wins and five defeats from 64 pro fights, said: \"It's a great responsibility for me to give enjoyment to the fans. The fans deserve to have a good fight, whether they are a fan of Mayweather or Pacquiao.\n\"The Lord will always be with me and strengthen me and deliver him into my hands.\"\nAsked about the difference in size - Mayweather is 5ft 8ins and Pacquiao 5ft 6½ins with a reach difference of five inches in favour of the American - the Filipino southpaw added: \"I've been fighting bigger guys - Oscar De La Hoya, Antonio Margarito... it doesn't matter to me.\"\nThe MGM Grand was abuzz the day before the fight, with people queuing to get into the Garden Arena hours before Mayweather and Pacquiao, 36, stepped on the scales.\nIt was the first time tickets had been sold for a weigh-in, with proceeds going to charity, and those that bought them were given a two-hour show.\nPacquiao was introduced to the stage first and looked relaxed, taking pictures of himself and waving to the large Philippine contingent.\nMayweather, on the other hand, was booed to the stage and looked tense, as he has done all week.\nPacquiao mouthed \"thank you\" to his rival as they engaged in the traditional stare-down, as a good-natured build-up continued.\n\"I don't know what he exactly said. No, I didn't respond,\" said Mayweather,\nThe MGM Grand Garden Arena holds 16,000 but as few as 500 tickets for the fight went on sale to the general public.\nTickets are changing hands on the resale market for as much as $350,000, while some have been prepared to pay $3,500 to watch the fight in one of 10 closed-circuit venues along the Las Vegas Strip.\nGiven the astronomical numbers involved, the fact this is a match-up between two of the greatest boxers ever has been forgotten by some.\nMayweather and Pacquiao have won world titles in five and six different weight divisions respectively. Whoever wins this weekend will be able to claim they are the best fighter of their era.\nPacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, admitted the remorseless hype had been hard to cope with.\n\"I've always liked big fights because I like big challenges,\" said Roach, who was in Oscar De la Hoya's corner when Mayweather beat him in 2007. \"But, with this one, I might have bitten off more than I can chew.\n\"We're fighting a very good defensive fighter, but I'm one of those guys that believes offence wins fights. I think we'll overwhelm him with speed.\"\nRoach felt both fighters had \"declined a little bit\", adding: \"I've been watching Floyd's legs and they're not as good as they used to be. He doesn't move as fluently as he used to.\n\"We can knock him out late, but I really want to beat him on points. Either way, no problem.\"\nRoach said Mayweather's relatively subdued mood in the build-up to the fight could be a sign that he is apprehensive about facing Pacquiao.\n\"At the first press conference, I told him we were going to kick his ass,\" said the 55-year-old American.\n\"I thought I was going to get something back, but we got nothing. He's been so nice, I really don't think he wants to be here.\"\nMayweather responded: \"The camp went extremely smooth. I don't need to trash Manny Pacquiao, I know what I can do.\"", "But TV networks HBO and Showtime would have been too late to prevent some users from watching the action live.\nThe firms had charged the public a record $89.95 (£59.50) to watch the fight in standard definition and an additional $10 in high definition.\nThey both declined to comment on the misuse of the Twitter-owned app.\nHowever, HBO has previously expressed its displeasure following reports of Periscope being used to rebroadcast the opening episode of the latest series of Game of Thrones.\n\"In general, we feel developers should have tools which proactively prevent mass copyright infringement from occurring on their apps and not be solely reliant upon notifications,\" it said at the time.\nMore than one million people have joined Periscope, which launched on 26 March.\nUsers sometimes use it to \"pirate\" copyright-protected footage by filming their TV screens with their smartphone cameras.\nThe resulting footage is often poor quality, but sufficient to follow what is going on.\nUnlike other live streaming services - including YouTube and UStream - Periscope does not provide tools to let content owners force the removal of copyright-infringing content in near-real time.\nInstead, it requires that they file individual takedown requests, which take longer to process.\nTwitter's chief executive, Dick Costolo, was criticised by some users of his social network after he tweeted: \"And the winner is... @periscopeco\" on the night of the Las Vegas fight.\n\"Guess pirating copyrighted content is Twitter's new business model,\" responded one user.\nHowever, Mr Costolo was likely referring to the fact that HBO itself had promoted the app earlier in the evening when the broadcaster used it to stream footage from Manny Pacquiao's dressing room.\n\"Broadcasting content that is protected by copyright is a clear violation of our content policy,\" said a spokeswoman for Twitter.\n\"We received 66 reports from rights-holders and took action against 30 broadcasts in response to the reports. The remaining broadcasts had already ended and were no longer available. We were able to respond within minutes.\"\nSome people also used the rival live-streaming app Meerkat to stream the fight.\nIts chief executive Ben Rubin told the USA Today news site: \"[We have] worked closely with the content owners and contacted users they alerted us about.\"\nMeerkat's streams can only be watched live, while Periscope's remain online for playback for an additional 24 hours.\nHBO and Showtime had attempted to restrict online piracy of the fight by obtaining a temporary restraining order, which forbade websites from publishing links to illegal free streams.\nThere had been speculation that the contest would beat the record 2.48 million pay-per-view purchases of 2007's Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya bout.\nOfficial figures for Floyd Mayweather Jr's defeat of Manny Pacquiao have yet to be published.\nBut the final tally may have been affected by glitches that made it impossible for some households to watch Saturday's earlier undercard fight, and led to a delay of the start of the main event.\n\"It was simply an unprecedented number of fans buying more amounts than we've ever seen in PPV history. So we had to slow down the telecast for orders to be processed,\" HBO told the New York Daily News.\nThe fight was screened by Sky Box Office for the cheaper price of £19.95 in the UK.\nA spokeswoman for the broadcaster declined to comment.\nHowever, the UK's Alliance for Intellectual Property urged new services to act responsibly.\n\"With the explosion in internet services comes great opportunity for consumers to access exciting content, whether sports, films, TV, music, games or books,\" the organisation's director general Eddy Leviten told the BBC.\n\"However, it is also vital that internet intermediaries act responsibly and ensure that creators and distributors are able to protect their creations and investments.\n\"Ultimately, this benefits everyone as great content continues to get made. Jobs and investment increases and choice is even greater for fans.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nSuch is the supercharged media frenzy over the so-called \"fight of the century\", and the ramped-up interest in events here in Nevada, this will be one of the most lucrative sporting events in history, generating an estimated half a billion dollars.\nFloyd 'Money' Mayweather is already the richest sportsman in the world. Now the American is set to earn another $200m (£130m) for this weekend's world welterweight title fight.\nOpponent Manny Pacquiao will have to be content with around $130m (£85m). And the Filipino is doing well outside the ring too, having recently signed new endorsement deals with the likes of Nike, Foot Locker, and Nestle.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nThe anticipation for Mayweather v Pacquiao is understandable. After all, these are two of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of their era - one undefeated; the other a champion of six weight divisions. Something has to give. And few sports can match boxing for sheer fervour when it comes to fight-nights such as this.\nAnd yet, despite the barely believable numbers being generated here, they are also perhaps symbolic of a sport that has sold its soul and lost its way.\nThe fight is generating record revenue for a boxing bout. But much of that is down to the pent-up demand created by six years of negotiations over money, quarrels between television networks, and delays over drugs testing.\nThis is the first super-fight of the social media age, and it has benefited from unprecedented levels of hype and a recovering US economy. That may be good for the fighters' bank balances, but surely the sport would have been better served if the two men had fought at their peak, not as they begin to think about retirement.\nThe fight will generate gate receipts of $74m (£48m), breaking the record set by Mayweather's clash with Saul Alvarez in 2013. But given that it is taking place in an arena with just 16,500 seats - only 500 of them available to the public - this is hardly an event staged with the average sports fan in mind.\nTickets have been advertised for hundreds of thousands of dollars, surpassing the level of demand for the Super Bowl, but most will go to members of the fighters' entourages, guests of wealthy corporations, or the casinos' most valued clients - the so-called 'high-rollers' (as long as they have credit-lines with the casino of $250,000).\nAt the Excalibur hotel - over the road from the MGM where the fight will take place - guests are being charged $400 (£260) just to watch the action on a TV screen in a bar. Fans are even being charged to attend the weigh-in.\nHas sport ever felt as far from its Corinthian ideals?\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nThis week I sat through one of the best attended, yet most anodyne and subdued media conferences many boxing reporters had ever witnessed when Mayweather and Pacquiao appeared together for the first time here.\nNo need for needle, we were told. Too much mutual respect. The fight sells itself. But it was hard not to conclude that Mayweather's predictable, stock answers were indicative of a man for whom money rather than his reputation as a sportsman is now the priority.\nAfter reeling off a long list of sponsors he wanted to thank, promoter Bob Arum claimed the hype surrounding the fight was fantastic for the sport.\nBut it is hard to see how hosting the fight in a small, exclusive arena and behind a prohibitive pay wall is the best way of exposing a new generation of fans to the sport and increasing its appeal.\nThe fight will be watched by three to four million people in the US, many more than the record 2.4 million viewers who paid to see Mayweather take on Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. But for many others in the US, watching the fight on pay-per-view TV is simply too expensive when it costs $99 (£65) in HD.\nMore than the interests of the sport, this is about what is good for the two fighters, their promoters, joint host broadcasters HBO and Showtime, the MGM hotel and casino, secondary ticket selling agencies, and of course the city of Las Vegas - where room rates have hit record highs.\nIt all seems a far cry from 1995 when 28 million Americans tuned in to see Mike Tyson beat Buster Mathis on Fox. Or 1985 when 19 million TV viewers across Britain watched Barry McGuigan become world champion.\nI visited McGuigan last week at the gym he runs with his son in Battersea. He would not begrudge the fighters maximising the money they could make, and pointed to the dangers involved.\nLike Arum, he insisted the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was a huge shot in the arm for a sport that has seen its popularity fade in recent years. While acknowledging the rampant commercialism behind the event, he was delighted that boxing was back in the headlines, and providing 2015 with arguably its biggest sporting moment.\nThere are indeed causes for some optimism. Al Haymon - Mayweather's adviser - has recently invested $20m establishing the Premier Boxing Championship in the US. In partnership with NBC, the PBC series is an attempt to return boxing to the mainstream - staging fights on network television with the aim of building a new audience.\nMcGuigan himself is doing his bit to return the sport to terrestrial screens on this side of the Atlantic, having struck a deal with ITV to televise his fighter Carl Frampton's bout with Chris Avalos back in February, the channel's first world title fight since 2008. The free-to-air show attracted an audience of almost two million.\nThe fact 80,000 people turned up at Wembley last June to watch Carl Froch fight George Groves is further encouragement.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nYet the sport still has a long way to go before confounding those who have predicted its death.\nThe confusing and fractured competitive landscape created by having four sanctioning organisations, with no single governing body, continues to do untold damage. After years of mismanagement, greed and corruption, there are too many belts, too few household names, and growing competition from mixed martial arts such as UFC.\nThe fear remains that Mayweather v Pacquiao is a one-off. The interest and money generated by what is being described as boxing's last great super-fight proves that the sport retains appeal, even today in such a crowded sporting marketplace. But don't necessarily expect it to restore the credibility of a sport that has a long way to go before staging the revival it craves.\nThis may be the most lucrative fight in boxing history, but its legacy remains harder to predict.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nIt was another sell at the end of arguably the greatest sell in boxing history.\nFormer five-weight world champion Floyd Mayweather stopped the Irish UFC fighter, who was making his boxing debut, in the 10th round after one of the most hyped fights of all time.\nBeforehand, the media pored over every word - racist, homophobic or otherwise. Boxing purists despaired, while the MMA community dreamed their relatively young sport would topple the more established form of combat.\nJournalists literally pushed and shoved one another for position at media events. Photographers charged towards the fighters as if they were the Beatles reunited.\nIt was comical, exciting and at times sickeningly transparent in its core purpose - to make as much money as possible.\nThe figures will be staggering. An hour after picking apart a tiring McGregor, Mayweather said the bout had surpassed the $72.2m (£59.9m) earned at the gate when he overcame Manny Pacquiao in 2015.\nPay-per-view figures will be firmed up next week but bank on the total exceeding $620m (£480m), roughly what Mayweather-Pacquiao delivered.\nProbably the richest bout in history then. Mayweather hopes to pick up $300m (£232m) - he was making almost $10m (£7.7m) a minute.\nDid he earn it? Yes, the 40-year-old grafted in promoting the fight but when laid bare, the contest was always his.\n\"Floyd didn't look concerned one bit,\" said Britain's former undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. \"He was smiling, very comfortable, composed. I didn't see the point of the whole thing. I didn't think [McGregor] did well at all.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nPunch stats - though at times debatable - show McGregor landed nine more than the victor for six rounds. The next four rounds saw Mayweather throw 70 more than his rival. That is some acceleration in pace, arguably all too easy.\nRespected boxing writer Tris Dixon commented: \"McGregor won what Mayweather let him win.\"\nIt sounds brutally harsh. No-one can deny McGregor's guts or his will to break new ground. He is a credit to UFC but about 5,000 spare seats at the T-Mobile Arena indicates some saw him as part of an overhyped, expensive and flawed product.\nFormer super-middleweight champion Carl Froch said if McGregor were an established boxer, the term \"outclassed\" would be used.\n\"What was it people bought into?\" said boxing promoter Frank Warren.\nPersonality and intrigue undoubtedly. McGregor is not an established boxer and his efforts in the ring were honest.\nBut when the dust settles, the intricacies of the fight are analysed and the behaviour of all involved in the build-up is dissected, the legacy may be a rather hollow feeling.\nMcGregor will make do with around $100m (£77.5m) - roughly $3m (£2.3m) a minute. In the ring, he paid for not having Mayweather's 21 years of pure-boxing conditioning.\n\"Questions or shall I prattle on?\" he said on hitting the stage afterwards. The world outside of UFC has learned he needs no invitation.\nBut from now on, he will have invitations aplenty.\nMayweather might have out-earned him but 'The Notorious' brand has gone stratospheric in recent weeks.\nAnd hence this boxing gamble will pay dividends. New brands will want a slice of him; those who already own a slice will look to protect it.\nAsked about McGregor boxing again, UFC president Dana White answered emphatically: \"I would rather he did not. I don't think there is anything left to prove.\"\nMcGregor - sporting sunglasses and a colourful suit - ruled nothing out, including a trilogy fight in the UFC with Nate Diaz, or more boxing.\n\"Conor McGregor is now a huge attraction in boxing,\" said BBC Radio 5 live commentator Mike Costello.\n\"You've seen the sparring videos and their fall-out, so now Conor McGregor v Paulie Malignaggi on St Patrick's Day next March is a legitimate fight. The build-up for that starts now.\"\nIf he doesn't fancy more boxing, McGregor has the microphone skills for WWE - as well as an energy and swagger which some say points to Hollywood.\nRefreshingly, he was reflective afterwards. Just as he was after his biggest UFC defeat to date against Diaz last year.\nTrue champions quickly find solutions and he promised to address a lull in energy he believes he feels midway through his MMA fights and says affected him here. Hearing him speak about his craft in this mood is intoxicating. He does not pay lip service; rather, every word he utters has clearly come from deep thought.\nThis studious nature combined with gripping personality mean that with Mayweather retired, he is the biggest name in combat sports.\n\"I have many options in MMA and I'm sure there will be options that present themselves in the boxing ring,\" said the 29-year-old.\n\"I am open. I love competing. Tonight was a damn good fight. I enjoyed myself and I can't tell you exactly what is next.\"\nWho knows? But it will be big. McGregor did his share to hype this bout in pursuit of more money than he will ever need. Just don't bank on him quietly disappearing with his earnings.\nTo watch Mayweather is to see a man practically box on autopilot. Those decades spent honing his craft meant even at 40, the American - who had been retired for almost two years - was a force.\nAfterwards, he made no attempt to hide his motivation.\n\"I have retired before but I'm not a damn fool,\" he said. \"If I see an opportunity to make $300m in 36 minutes I will. But this is my last one.\"\nWho wouldn't do the same? And in his defence, amid the hype of recent weeks he was the quieter man. Often his barbs felt forced, delivered because he could not be seen to say nothing as McGregor's antics reached new heights.\nBut he pushed for this fight, floating it to UFC bosses by his own admission. This win showed his quality to a new audience - those sucked in by the anarchy. Perhaps that is a positive - more people have seen his genius.\nAnd 1950s world heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano's perfect 49-fight record has been surpassed. Hence as it ends - again - Mayweather's career should be lauded.\nMaking it to the top was not easy. He spoke of his first $100,000 cheque - received at the age of 19. \"I came from poverty,\" he pointed out. \"I wasn't listening at that meeting, I just wanted that cheque.\"\nTo reach a point where he has now taken part in the two richest fights in history and banked hundreds of millions of dollars shows genius from a business perspective too.\n\"I look forward to becoming a boxing trainer, helping fighters,\" he said. \"I want to teach fighters about becoming a superstar not just in the ring but outside. It takes a lot of work on the outside to become a megastar.\"\nHe is a megastar and boxing has lost its marquee name again.\nPerhaps this fight illustrates just how hard it will be to find a replacement. If candidates were plentiful, it would never have happened in the first place.\nBoxing purists have their fancied names but the casual fan wants something simple, something they don't have to work to understand amidst the myriad of belts and weight classes.\nThis bout gave them that and the opportunist in Mayweather pounced.\nInside and outside the ring, that opportunistic nature was key for possibly the greatest the game has seen.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nHe has not fought since suffering a crushing IBO light-welterweight world title defeat at the hands of Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas in 2009.\nHatton's only other defeat in his 47-fight career came as a welterweight against Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2007.\n\"I am very upset. It's a very sad day for me. I know it is the right decision though,\" Hatton said.\n\"I've known it was the right thing to do for 18 months to be honest.\n\"It's a bit of a relief to finally do it. It's been hovering over my head for such a long time. I need closure on my career so I can move on with my life.\"\n'The Hitman', as Hatton became known, lost his licence to box in 2010 after allegations of cocaine use.\n\"Hatton's preferred style meant he was prepared to take two punches to land one of his own\"\nRead more\nBut he was allowed to continue working as a promoter, for the likes of former WBC light-middleweight champion Ryan Rhodes and his own brother Matthew.\n\"These last two years have been really frustrating. I hit rock bottom and it almost drove me insane,\" said Hatton.\n\"There's nothing more I love than training for a fight but I have no dreams left now.\"\nAfter turning professional in 1997, Hatton won his first 21 fights before he beat Jon Thaxton on points to become the British light-welterweight champion in 2000.\nThe Manchester fighter then beat Tony Pep to win the WBU light-welterweight title in May 2001 and went on to dominate the light-welterweight division with his most notable victory at that weight coming in 2005 against IBF champion Kostya Tszyu.\nTsyzu was a huge favourite for the fight in Manchester, but Hatton overcame the odds with perhaps his finest performance to defeat the Australian by technical knockout.\nIn 2006, Hatton became a two-weight world champion after he defeated Puerto Rican Luis Collazo to take the WBA welterweight world title, and he followed that victory up by beating Juan Urango to reclaim his IBF light-welterweight title.\nA sensational fourth-round knockout of Jose Luis Castillo in Las Vegas further increased Hatton's popularity and helped set up his fight with Mayweather Jr in December 2007.\nUndeterred by his loss to Mayweather - his first in professional boxing - Hatton split from long-term trainer Billy Graham and returned to the ring with victories over Juan Lazcano and Paulie Malignaggi in 2008 before taking on the world's pound-for-pound best fighter Pacquiao in 2009.\nIt was a bout that proved too much for Hatton, who was knocked down twice in the first round before being knocked out cold in the second.\nAlthough he returned to the gym after the Pacquiao fight and was also linked with several big-name fights, including a rematch with Mayweather Jr, he admitted he had lost his spark.\n\"Nobody loved going into training camp more than me but you need to have the motivation to go through the routine of going out for runs, start dieting and go through the hard slog,\" Hatton told BBC Sport.\n\"After the Pacquiao fight the drive had disappeared and I found it more difficult when I went into camp. I'd gone into the gym at times and did some pads work but nothing came back and that was the moment when it clicked.\n\"I'd like to be remembered as someone who was exciting, always on the front foot and who challenged the best and gave British boxing fans a lot of entertaining nights but it never went to my head and I still remained the same person - Ricky Hatton, world champion but still one of the people.\"\nHatton was stripped of his licence to box at a British Boxing Board of Control [BBBC] hearing in September 2010 and fined £20,000 plus costs after allegations he used cocaine - Hatton said he was \"disgusted\" at himself, and spent time in a rehabilitation clinic.\nDespite his personal troubles, he kept his boxing promoters licence, but has now decided to end his 14-year professional career.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nMayweather, who has won all 47 of his fights, told Pacquiao at a press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday that he was not ready to taste defeat.\nPacquiao had earlier said that he would beat the American for the good of boxing.\nThe Filipino fighter has a record of 57 wins, two draws and five losses.\n\"May 2 - the world stops. Mayweather v Pacquiao is the biggest fight in history,\" Mayweather said.\nThe fight, which has been the subject of on-off contract negotiations over six years, is expected to generate as much as £162m ($250m).\nIn low-key speeches in front of about 700 media, both fighters spent more time talking up the fight than aiming barbs at their opponent.\nMayweather, 38, suggested that his unblemished record may give him a psychological advantage over Pacquiao, claiming that \"if you lose, it is always in your mind\", but also praised the Filipino's camp for making the fight happen.\n\"I have to be thankful that we have all come together as one to give the world what they want to see,\" he added.\nPacquiao, who made several references to his Christian faith in an unremarkable address at the news conference, had tweeted criticism of Mayweather's lavish lifestyle earlier in the day.\n\"Beating Floyd is good for boxing. When athletes have great success, their success goes to their head. That is bad for boxing,\" he wrote.\n\"I'm here to prove that I can easily beat the undefeated.\"\nThe fight is expected to boil down to whether Pacquiao's speed and power can ruffle Mayweather's supreme defensive skills. Pacquiao was in no doubt he could win, referencing his victories over heavier-hitting fighters than Mayweather.\n\"My footwork and hand combinations will be my advantage. I tell you Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito punch hard. This is boxing and its about punches,\" he added on Twitter.\nIt was left to Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach to deliver the usual pre-fight bombast.\n\"We're fighting the best fighter in the world - but we're gonna kick his ass,\" he told the media, drawing smiles from Mayweather.\nEarlier, on the red carpet at a Nokia Theatre venue that is more used to hosting the Emmy television awards, he told BBC Sport why he was confident Pacquiao, 36, could inflict Mayweather's first defeat.\n\"My guy is too fast, he hits too hard. I think Floyd's legs are shot,\" he said.\nHe says he wants to stand and trade more and entertain the fans more, but I don't think that is true. He has to say that.\"\nThe cost of seeing the fight in the person was revealed with ticket prices to range from £1,004 ($1,500) to £5,023 ($7,500).\nHowever, it is widely expected that tickets will never actually go on general sale, with celebrities and connections expected to fill the MGM Grand to capacity.\nIt has been reported that even the well-connected may need to guarantee a certain spend at the venue's casinos to ensure a ringside seat.\nJustin Bieber seems likely to be in attendance. The Canadian pop star, a friend of Mayweather's, made a cameo appearance as the fighters posed of more publicity shots.", "When former five-weight boxing world champion Floyd Mayweather and UFC lightweight title-holder Conor McGregor step into the ring at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on 26 August, some 20,000 people will be in the arena.\nThe scrap for tickets during Monday's release was intense, short-lived and disappointing for the majority. But will anyone be willing to shell out $150,000 (£115,000) to be there?\nTicket resale website StubHub has tickets on sale at that price, with several others at a comparatively cheap $100,000 (£75,000).\nAmerican Mayweather, 40, will come out of retirement to face McGregor in the 29-year-old Irishman's first professional boxing bout.\nMcGregor's lack of experience has led to some criticism of the bout, from which both men are expected to earn as much as $100m (£78.4m).\nUFC president Dana White wanted to avoid a repeat of Mayweather's 2015 bout with Manny Pacquiao, for which many tickets fell into the hands of brokers.\nHis solution was to sell seats through Ticketmaster, with each purchase limited to two tickets, and any transaction only possible with a code issued to Ticketmaster members.\nBut codes - priced at $200 (£153) - were quickly available to buy on Ebay, allowing non-members to access Ticketmaster, where prices ranged from £385-£7,706.\nStubHub is yet to sell any of the tickets listed by users at $150,000, and told BBC Sport $3,265 (£2,500) is the average price at which seats have changed hands.\nThe cheapest ticket available on the site - for a position in the upper tier, in a row yet to be determined - is $1,875 (£1,433).\nSpeaking earlier this week, White said: \"A lot of shady things can go on with tickets, as if they aren't expensive enough.\n\"The fight is making enough money, you don't have to go around and sell the tickets to brokers. Everybody is making enough money - stop.\n\"I wanted everybody to buy their own tickets. I'm buying my own, as are Conor and Floyd.\"\nMayweather Promotions has negotiated a deal to broadcast the fight in 400 cinemas across the US - and organiser Fathom Events told BBC Sport it expects \"sold-out auditoriums\" at an average cost of $40 (£31) a seat.\nIt is estimated the combination of pay-per-view revenue, ticket sales, sponsorship, merchandise sales and receipts from cinema ticket or closed circuit television venues will generate about $600m.\nThe number of pay-per-view buys will prove pivotal in whether the bout becomes the richest of all time.\nMayweather's bout with Pacquiao - regarded as the richest in history, with total revenue of about $623m (£476m) - had 4.6 million buys.", "Before commentating on his first world-title success in November 2007, I remember wandering into the lobby of the hotel in Paris where we were both staying to see Haye lounging around, talking to friends.\nIt was late Saturday afternoon and the biggest occasion of his career at that stage - against the Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck - was just hours away.\nFrank (now Kellie) Maloney, his then promoter, was concerned about Haye's attitude. \"I wish he would just go to his room and relax,\" Frank said to me.\nRest and solitude might have been prescribed for most boxers but Haye never read the copybook.\nIn beating Mormeck, a man who had lost only once in the previous decade, Haye produced one of the greatest wins by a British boxer in a foreign ring.\nTwo years later, he gave away seven stone in weight and made the Russian beanstalk Nikolai Valuev chase shadows in Nuremberg to add a version of the world heavyweight crown to his cruiserweight glories.\nPreviously, only Evander Holyfield had won world titles in both divisions. And Haye won each of his away from home.\nBack then, his ability to revile took root. His comments at news conferences and other promotional events were as disgusting as his ringside analysis was erudite. Social media platforms were unborn or in their infancy but still he got his vulgarity across.\nJudging by his attitude in the build-up to the Tony Bellew fight this weekend, the persona endures. But in attempting to rattle Bellew, Haye himself has lost at least a semblance of control.\nHe complained after Monday's news conference in Liverpool about some of the abuse he was subjected to by the hundreds of Bellew fans in attendance. Having promised to \"cave someone's skull in\", there was little room for objection when the fire was returned.\nThis content will not work on your device, please check Javascript and cookies are enabled or update your browser\nA sub-plot on Saturday is the daunting challenge facing the trainers, both of whom are coming off defeat in a world title fight. Shane McGuigan was in the corner when Carl Frampton was beaten by Leo Santa Cruz in their rematch in January. Dave Coldwell has suffered reverses with Gavin McDonnell and heavyweight David Price in a three-week spell.\nThe careers of McGuigan and Coldwell will continue after Haye and Bellew have departed the scene but the result on Saturday will help shape how they are regarded.\nPart of the trainers' role will be to moderate emotions and limit the red-mist tendencies. But whatever the guidance from the corner, the most important factor relates to how much of Haye the fighter, the calculated practitioner who beat Mormeck and Valuev, remains.\nIn almost five years, Haye has been involved in only two fights, against non-league opposition, lasting a total of less than seven minutes. In the same period, Bellew's log shows 13 fights and 113 rounds.\nFor all that, the fight has the feel of last year's showdown in Las Vegas between Amir Khan and the Mexican Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, when Khan was knocked out savagely in the sixth round.\nWe tried to make a case for the underdog but the evidence against him was overwhelming. And Bellew is quoted at even longer odds than Khan was back then.\nMcGuigan has indicated that Haye might weigh in lighter than Bellew, suggesting an attempt to rekindle the blazes of old. The adage tells us that the last asset a fighter loses is the power of his punch. Perhaps… but he does lose the ability to land it.\nEven so, Haye only has to get it right once. Bellew must get it right all night.\nMomentum is building around a showdown between Khan and WBO world welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. Khan was BBC Radio 5 live's big fight summariser alongside me in Vegas recently when Frampton was outpointed by Santa Cruz.\nThat night, Khan was adamant that his next fight would be a relatively low-key affair because he wanted to test the right hand on which he had surgery after the Alvarez defeat last May.\nBut the money and the prestige of a showdown against Pacquiao make an offer difficult to refuse. I watched them train together in making a documentary about Pacquiao for BBC World Service in 2010. At the time, the Filipino was preparing for a light-middleweight title fight against Mexican Antonio Margarito and Khan was among the sparring partners.\nPacquiao beat Margarito emphatically and Khan went on to outpoint Argentina's Marcos Maidana in Vegas shortly afterwards for one of the most impressive victories of his career.\nMore recently, Pacquiao has recovered from his defeat against Floyd Mayweather almost two years ago to beat Americans Timothy Bradley and Jessie Vargas. At 38, he might well be fading but Pacquiao is still better than most. And those performances since May 2015 serve to endorse the greatness of Mayweather.\nThe critics continue to carp about Mayweather's credentials and a record supposedly padded with carefully-chosen fall-guys. Yet consider what Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto, Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez and Pacquiao have gone on to achieve after losing to him and the arguments descend into nonsense.\nWe launched a new \"5 Live Boxing\" podcast this week, with me and long-time ally Steve Bunce in union. It is 42 years this week since we first appeared together on a junior club show in Streatham, south-east London, at a boxing hotbed called The Cat's Whiskers.\nWe both lost but a lifelong passion was being battered into us. Also on the bill was Sammy Reeson, who 10 years later became the first holder of the British title in the new cruiserweight division.\nAmong my future opponents was Jim McDonnell, who later took the legendary Ghanaian Azumah Nelson into the 12th round of a world title fight and now trains the British world super-middleweight champion James DeGale. Jim beat me on points and never granted me a rematch. Strangely, I never complained.", "The unbeaten Commonwealth super-lightweight champion takes on Mexico's Alfonso Olvera on the undercard of Frampton's WBA featherweight world title defence against Leo Santa Cruz.\n\"He doesn't put any pressure on himself, he just keeps calm,\" said Taylor of Belfast's Frampton.\n\"I'm not getting too excited about it.\"\nTaylor, 26, won Commonwealth Games gold as an amateur in 2014. He followed that by winning the Commonwealth title in only his seventh professional bout, stopping Derby's Dave Ryan in five rounds at Meadowbank last October.\nHe has won fights in Texas and New York since turning pro in July 2015 but the bout against Olvera is his first in the so-called fight capital of the world.\n\"I'm dazzled, star-struck, being here,\" said Taylor, who came through Terry McCormack's Lochend club in Edinburgh.\n\"You have dreams of fighting in Vegas and the MGM Grand, where the likes of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight, when you first turn professional.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\n\"I just never imagined it would be at such an early stage in my career on such a massive undercard.\n\"I'm pinching myself but at the same time I'm relaxed and looking forward to the fight.\n\"Being in the same stable as Carl, seeing his face up on the MGM, gives me massive motivation to be in his position one day, fighting for a world title.\n\"If I dedicate myself like he has done, there's no reason why I can't.\n\"He believes in his own ability. Between training sessions and away from the gym he switches off. I think it's really important, it helps you recover and feel sharper.\"\nTaylor admits to being \"amazed\" at the casinos and hotels and the \"madness\" of the non-stop city and jokes he plans to tackle a 10,000-calorie burger after the fight.\nBefore then, he must conquer Arizona-based Olvera.\n\"He's had 11 fights, he's drawn one, lost two and they were against unbeaten opponents,\" Taylor said of his 27-year-old opponent.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\n\"He can fight and he comes to win so I'm taking it very seriously.\n\"I take every fight seriously, like it could be my last fight. A lot of fighters underestimate opponents and they get beat or get hurt.\"\nTaylor is being touted as a possible opponent for his compatriot Ricky Burns, the WBA world super-lightweight champion.\n\"I feel I am ready to go in with anybody, but it's just about being smart,\" he said.\n\"I need to earn the right to fight Ricky Burns. He's world champion and I've only had seven fights. I've got to climb the ladder.\n\"If I was in against him I'd be confident, but it's not my style to call fighters out. I have massive respect for Ricky Burns. He has put Scottish boxing back on the map.\"\nInterview by Mike Costello.", "Wednesday's final news conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas proved far calmer than any media event in the build-up to what could be the most lucrative fight in boxing history.\nMcGregor, 29, will earn a reported $100m in his boxing debut at the T-Mobile Arena event, prompting speculation future UFC pay days might not keep him with the organisation.\nHe said: \"When this one is done I will have 20 seconds where I relish in victory and then I will be thinking who is next? I will be looking to compete all over the place.\n\"After I get victory I will certainly be looking to compete in both sports. Since I'm the king of the boxing ring and king of the MMA maybe I will make my own hybrid. Then if anyone wants to challenge me they can do it in my octagon.\"\nMayweather cut a refined figure at the MGM event, which was closed to the public. He was seemingly uninterested in exchanging insults, while McGregor had no such qualms, pointing to social media posts his rival has shared of betting slips and stating he thinks Mayweather \"may have a gambling problem\".\nThe undefeated boxer's father - Floyd Sr - told reporters \"a lot\" had been taken away from his son's ability in his two years out of the sport but stressed he still had enough to overcome McGregor.\nBut Mayweather was defiant when telling BBC Sport he was \"going to look good\" as he bids for a 50th win from 50 fights.\n\"I don't miss the hype and this at all. I'd rather be at home watching TV but this is my job,\" said the 40-year-old.\n\"McGregor can say whatever he wants to say, when it comes down to it I can fight. \"Mentally, no athlete in the world is stronger than me.\n\"To be here 21 years I had to take it extremely seriously. You guys think I am not taking it seriously? I am.\"\nIt was announced the winner of a bout many in boxing have rubbished will receive a one-off belt from the World Boxing Council called 'The Money Belt'.\nIt contains 3,360 diamonds, 600 sapphires, 300 emeralds and 1.5kg of solid gold, mounted on alligator leather.\nIt is the latest opulent addition to a fight which could earn $600m (£469m) and which will challenge the record of 4.6 million pay-per-view buys set when Mayweather defeated Manny Pacquiao in 2015.\nStephen Espinoza, the head of the Showtime network, told reporters breaking the record was \"in the realm of possibility\" and stressed a key factor was that the fight will be televised in more than 220 countries, a marked increase on the Mayweather-Pacquiao reach.\n\"If we don't get there, it will be very close,\" he said.\nPotential record pay-per-view income, added to merchandising, ticket sales and sponsorship will deliver McGregor the type of purse which will only prompt further questions as to how UFC can satisfy its main star when he returns.\nHis exact earnings will remain unknown thanks to a non-disclosure agreement signed by both fighters.\nGet the biggest boxing news sent straight to your device. Find out more.\nUFC president Dana White told reporters it was possible the pay day could prompt McGregor to retire, adding \"whatever happens, I'm happy for him\".\n\"When he knocks Floyd out his legacy will be that he is the greatest combat sports star ever,\" White told BBC Sport. \"He will be the biggest star on earth.\"\nWhite also hit back at criticism of the bout, singling out legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum as an \"idiot\" and a \"moron\".\n\"Arum said this is like LeBron James fighting Anthony Joshua,\" added White.\n\"Conor McGregor is a fighter and has done it his whole life. It is not the end of the world or the end of boxing if he knocks Floyd out on Saturday night.\n\"The naysayers will be asking different questions on Sunday morning. This is not a boxing match, it's a fight.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nThe challenger was game but his fellow American, defending his WBC and WBA welterweight titles, was simply too difficult to hit at the MGM Grand.\nMayweather, 38, was awarded the verdict 120-108, 118-110 and 117-111.\nMayweather was adamant it was his last fight, but having equalled Rocky Marciano's career record of 49-0, he might decide to have one more.\n\"My career is over, that's official,\" said five-weight world champion Mayweather, widely regarded as the greatest fighter of his generation.\n\"You've got to know when to hang them up. I'm close to 40 now. There's nothing left to prove in the sport of boxing. Now I just want to spend time with my family.\n\"I am leaving the sport with all my faculties, I'm still sharp and smart. I've accomplished everything in this sport, there's nothing else to accomplish.\"\nThe 32-year-old Berto is a two-time welterweight world champion and came into the fight having lost only three of his 33 professional bouts.\nBut those three defeats came in his previous six contests and pretty much nobody gave him a chance against Mayweather, who was engaging in his 26th world title fight and whose unbeaten streak goes back to 1996.\nThe pattern for the fight, as with so many of Mayweather's previous fights, was set in the opening round, the champion establishing his lightning jab and repeatedly making Berto miss.\nMayweather went on the back foot in the second but Berto was chasing shadows, before the champion came out punching in the third, catching his rival cold with a snapping left hook.\nAfter the first nine minutes of action Berto had barely laid a glove on Mayweather, and Mayweather made the challenger's knees sag with a flashing overhand right with a minute left in the fourth.\nBerto continued to venture forward in the fifth but even when he managed to manoeuvre Mayweather onto the ropes, he was unable to land with any meaningful blows.\nBerto might have done enough to win the sixth and certainly won the seventh, during which he landed with a clubbing left hook.\nMayweather was happy to coast through the eighth, winning it on the back foot while drawing boos from the crowd as he mugged on the ropes.\nA fight broke out towards the end of the ninth, with both men trading blows on the bell, and the rivals were broken apart and warned for trading words in the 10th.\nMayweather looked like he might open up in the 11th, landing with a cute uppercut, but he was showboating again towards the end of the round.\nAnd the fact there were boos ringing around the arena as the final round was drawing to a close rather summed up Mayweather's career - to many he is a genius, but he leaves many more boxing fans cold.\nMayweather made $34m (£22m) for his latest outing but few expect him to fulfil his promise to retire.\nMGM's new arena opens next April and a rematch against Manny Pacquiao, whom Mayweather beat in May in the richest fight in history, or against the winner of Miguel Cotto-Saul Alvarez might prove too tempting to turn down.\nSpeaking in a 45-minute post-fight news conference, Mayweather said: \"I had a game plan from the very beginning. I always knew what I wanted to do - be outspoken, be one of a kind. To be in the sport for 19 years and to be world champion for 18 years, I've had a remarkable career.\n\"It's all about that IQ. I'm 10 steps ahead of any fighter, I take whatever is your best attribute and take that away from you, make you do what you don't want to do.\n\"Every champion - Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Larry Holmes, the list goes on and on - they opened up the doors and paved the way for where I am today and I'm appreciative.\n\"But now the young fighters say, 'We want to be like Mayweather'. It's not cool to take punishment in the ring. I'm not perfect but I strived to be a perfectionist.\"", "Unbeaten Brook defended his IBF world welterweight title on Saturday with a fourth-round victory over Romanian-born Jo Jo Dan in his hometown of Sheffield.\nPromoter Eddie Hearn then called for 28-year-old Brook to fight Bolton's Khan at Wembley in June.\n\"There's a venue available on 13 June,\" Hearn said at the Motorpoint Arena. \"If Amir Khan is watching, give everyone what they want.\"\nHe added: \"He doesn't have an opponent and he is talking about fighting boxers lower than Kell. It's the biggest pay-day available and it's for a world title.\"\nBrook previously said a fight with Khan was \"gone for the year\" and was instead focusing on a meeting the winner of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, who fight on 2 May in Las Vegas.\nBut Brook, fighting for the first time since he was stabbed in the leg while on holiday in Tenerife, said on Saturday he wants to fight Khan, 28, who beat Devon Alexander in his last fight before Christmas.\n\"If you're watching, Amir Khan, then get in here with me. I know you're delicate around the whiskers,\" said Brook.\nReferring to his recent injury, he added: \"I didn't think I would walk again, never mind box again. Now I'm here defending my title.\n\"I've come from a council estate, now I'm world champion. I've come from the bottom and I'm at the top.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nBut despite offers of \"nine-figure\" sums of money, Mayweather, who retired after his 49th successive victory last September, is not planning a comeback.\n\"As of right now, I am out completely,\" said the 38-year-old multiple world champion.\n\"If I do get the itch to come back, it really won't be for the money but I have to get paid. That's why the nickname is Floyd 'Money' Mayweather.\"\nAmerican Mayweather won world titles at five weights and retired with an unblemished record.\nCurrently visiting eight cities in the United Kingdom as part of a speaking tour, he spoke to BBC World Service Sport about his current activities.\nMayweather beat Manny Pacquiao in the most lucrative fight in history in his penultimate bout last May and has ruled out the possibility of a rematch. That's despite Michael Koncz, Pacquiao's business adviser, claiming contact had been made with Mayweather Promotions about the possibility of another fight.\n\"Everything that you guys are hearing that Michael Koncz has said and what [promoter] Bob Arum has said is totally false. Totally false. I haven't spoken to Bob Arum, I haven't spoken to Michael Koncz.\n\"And as far as people keep talking about Mayweather Promotions, I dictate and control what goes on with it. Leonard Ellerbe is the CEO but everything has to go through me and I have to put the green light on any and everything.\"\nMayweather promotes WBC super-middleweight champion Badou Jack and wants him to have a unification fight with Britain's IBF champion James DeGale.\n\"James DeGale is a very, very good fighter and he is solid. I like him. A lot of personality. The ultimate goal is for him and Badou to fight in a unification bout. Do I think that can happen? Absolutely.\n\"He talked to me the other day when I was in Los Angeles at the fights. He said he would like to fight Badou Jack. But everything takes time. Eventually it will happen.\n\"If he continues to win and Badou continues to win, which I truly believe both will, the ultimate goal is to match those two in a super bout, down the line.\"\n\"I really wouldn't want to say the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. You know, I am no longer active. I would like to say the best ever (TBE).\n\"It's not being cocky or arrogant, it's just the proof is in the pudding. I think I have earned the right to call myself TBE. And I have lived up to the name TBE by going out there, day in, day out, when I was active and winning.\n\"Have I have ever took a loss before? Yes. In life. You lose a loved one, that's taking a loss. When your children hurt, that's a loss. When you are sick, that's a loss. But I got to where I got to from a lot of hard work, a very strong team, a smart team that stood behind me.\"\nMayweather beat British world champion Ricky Hatton in a world welterweight title fight in December 2007 and will meet up with the Manchester fighter again in Bolton as part of his tour.\n\"Ricky Hatton was a legendary fighter, a lot of heart, great guy, great person. But in the sport of boxing, a very competitive sport, the best have to fight the best. When Floyd Mayweather faced Ricky Hatton, he was at the top and I was also at the top. He has a great family. Great mother, great father. He is a good guy. But things happen.\"\n\"Life is great. My family has a comfortable life from me going out there and taking chances and taking risks. That was the ultimate goal. My kids will be going to college real soon.\n\"I am very happy that I was able to be a risk-taker. Roll the dice and take chances. Me being in the 12th grade, leaving school, leaving everything behind, leaving my family behind to go out there and do something that I love to do. It paid off in the long run.\"", "After Khan, 28, controlled the early rounds, 27-year-old Alexander offered little until the eighth, when he managed to land a series of hooks.\nBut the clinical Bolton fighter remained in charge, and all three judges scored heavily in his favour.\nAfterwards, Khan reiterated his desire to fight American Floyd Mayweather.\n\"I really believe I've earned my shot against the best boxer in the world and that's Mayweather,\" said Khan.\n\"He is the ideal fight for me. It would be a game of chess, but I would be too skilful. I have the skill and movement to beat him. He will not be able to hurt me.\n\"I feel better now than I did when I was 25. I'm dedicated to the sport and I know there's a few years left in me. I'm going to try and force that fight with Mayweather.\"\nKhan, who has now won 30 of his 33 professional contests, was in complete control as the three judges scored it 119-109, 118-110 and 120-108 in his favour at the MGM Grand.\nAlexander, from St Louis, had won world titles at light-welterweight and welterweight but was outclassed by his fast and more accurate opponent, who retained the lightly-regarded WBC 'silver' welterweight belt.\nUnder the guidance of trainer Virgil Hunter, Khan consistently beat his opponent to the punch with the American taking a large amount of punishment from the jab as he suffered only his third professional defeat in a 29-fight career.\nBefore the fight, Mayweather said he wanted Philippine great Manny Pacquiao to be his next opponent, although that fight has been talked about for many years without it happening.\nNevertheless, Mayweather, unbeaten in 47 bouts and the current holder of the WBC and WBA welterweight and WBC light-middleweight titles, would have been impressed by Khan's near faultless showing.\n\"I trained very hard for this fight,\" added Khan. \"I knew I had to make a statement. It was against a tough, very skilful guy, but it was one of my best performances.\n\"I'm the best boxer and have the quickest hands in the world. I've just turned 28 and I'm getting better and getting quicker, I just had to become smarter. I've got the best jab in the business.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nFormer two-weight world champion Hatton, 34, is back after a three-and-a-half year absence from the ring.\n\"It will be a very emotional night for me,\" said the Manchester boxer at the final pre-fight news conference, which Ukrainian Senchenko did not attend.\n\"I've got so much tension and anger I want to throw at Senchenko.\"\nHatton, who last fought in May 2009, when he was knocked out by Manny Pacquiao in two rounds, added: \"The ring walk is when you've got to hold your nerves together.\n\"It's when you start thinking of your family and what you've been through to get to this point.\n\"And this time I've got a few more things to think about - how I let everyone down, how I can redeem myself.\n\"All these things will go through my head and I've got to keep that tension inside and control it.\n\"In my two biggest fights, against Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather [who beat Hatton in 2007], I messed up by being too aggressive, too over-eager, trying to jump all over them too quickly.\n\"I've got to channel all that fury and anger in a positive way. I can't throw it at Senchenko like I did against Manny Pacquiao, it's got to be controlled, there has to be a game-plan.\"\nIn September, Hatton announced he was coming out of retirement in a bid for \"redemption\" following a period of depression and substance abuse.\nSome critics questioned his motives and whether he could expect to be anything like the fighter he was at his peak but Hatton claimed he would return a better fighter.\n\"The desire is greater now than when I won the world title from Kostya Tszyu in 2005,\" said Hatton, who has 45 wins from 47 professional fights.\nThe general consensus is that three years off never helps anyone, but I'm trying to look at it from a different perspective: if there was a style where you could take three years off and still be relatively successful, I think it would be Ricky Hatton's\nRead more of Paulie Malignaggi's thoughts on Hatton v Senchenko on Friday\n\"You watch me go on Saturday night, I'll really turn the clock back.\"\nHatton said he had not received an explanation as to why Senchenko failed to show up at Thursday's news conference but was unfazed by his absence.\n\"Maybe it's a bit of mind games and it would have been nice to see my opponent before the fight, assess his height, his size, how he's made the weight,\" said Hatton.\n\"But it can wait until the weigh-in, it's really nothing to me.\"\nSenchenko has one defeat from 33 fights as a professional, the 35-year-old losing his WBA welterweight title to American Paulie Malignaggi in April.\nMalignaggi was stopped by Hatton in Las Vegas in 2008, in what was the Englishman's penultimate fight before announcing his retirement.\nAnd while Senchenko's record sounds impressive, the majority of his fights have taken place in his home town of Donetsk and he has fought outside Ukraine on only three occasions, the last in 2006.\nHowever, Hatton's trainer Bob Shannon says Senchenko is no soft touch and will test his charge \"to the limit\".\n\"Senchenko works off the jab, he stands very tall, he's the worst opponent you could have picked really,\" Shannon told BBC Sport.\n\"Ricky knows he's up against it, this guy is really tough, but he will answer all the questions: Has he still got it? Does he still want it? Can he take a punch?\n\"That's why Ricky wanted this fight. I said to him: 'You need to be tested, but not this much.' But Ricky said: 'I've got to prove to myself I've still got it. If I can't beat him, I'm never going to beat the Floyd Mayweathers or Amir Khans.'\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nFloyd Mayweather Jr, regarded - before his retirement - as the world's best pound-for-pound boxer, will fight UFC star Conor McGregor in a light-middleweight boxing contest in Las Vegas on 26 August.\nBut how and why did the fight come about? Does McGregor have a chance? What impact will it have on the sports? And is it all just a money-making circus?\nBBC Sport takes a look at the history and the reaction to the contest.\nWhy is it happening? Quite simply... money, with both fighters expected to earn up to $100m (£78.5m).\nAfter Mayweather gained a convincing points win over Andre Berto in September 2015, the American, who has won world titles at five weights, said: \"My career is over, that's official.\n\"You've got to know when to hang them up. There's nothing left to prove in the sport of boxing, I just want to spend time with my family.\"\nHowever, there was growing interest in a fight between Mayweather and McGregor, after the Irish UFC star went on American chat show Conan and said he would \"most certainly dismantle\" Mayweather.\nTalks between the two camps began in May 2016 and McGregor, who has never boxed professionally or as an amateur, was granted a boxing licence in California last November.\nAfter social media insults flew from both sides, including Mayweather calling McGregor a \"little punk\", the Irishman claimed he had signed a contract for the fight and applied for a Nevada boxing licence, so it could be held in Las Vegas.\nHowever, it was still a shock to both the boxing and UFC worlds when Mayweather, whose nickname is Money, posted a video on social media confirming the fight will happen at the T-Mobile Arena on 26 August.\nLeonard Ellerbe, chief executive of Mayweather Promotions, said: \"There is not one place I go to with Floyd where he doesn't get asked the question: 'Floyd, are you going to fight Conor McGregor?' All Floyd thinks about is fighting Conor McGregor.\"\nMayweather, 40, never entertained the idea of the pair meeting in a UFC event, saying \"a real man fights standing up\". Therefore, a boxing bout was the only outcome.\nBookmakers expect a one-sided contest, with the American as short as 1-12 to win his 50th professional fight, a landmark that would see him overtake legendary boxer Rocky Marciano, who retired after 49 victories.\nHowever, the fight has not been well received by a large number of boxers.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nMexican Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, a two-weight world champion whose only loss in 51 fights came against Mayweather in 2013, called it a \"circus and a joke\", echoing comments from former five-weight world champion Oscar de la Hoya.\n\"It's hurting the sport of boxing,\" added Alvarez. \"It's a big circus and a joke because when a fighter from boxing gets into MMA (mixed martial arts) or a fighter from MMA gets into boxing it's just a big joke. People don't take it seriously.\"\nRicky Hatton, the only British boxer to fight Mayweather - losing in the 10th round of their Las Vegas bout in December 2007 - feels the fight should not count on the American's boxing record.\n\"Conor's the biggest star in UFC and, if he gets whitewashed by Mayweather, which he would, it wouldn't look good on the UFC,\" Hatton told Boxing News.\nBBC Radio 5 live boxing pundit Steve Bunce added: \"No disrespect to Conor McGregor, he is a brilliant self-publicist.\n\"The mixed martial arts people tell me he is fantastic because he is fearless, reckless and that makes him entertaining, but he is a hopeless boxer.\n\"He is a raw novice. Peter McDonagh, who has lost more times than he has won, is the Irish champion at Conor McGregor's weight, and he would beat McGregor in a 10 or 12-round fight. This will be an absolute mismatch.\"\nMcGregor, who at 28 is 12 years younger than Mayweather, has won 21 of his 24 MMA fights, including 18 knockouts, and has received some support from the UFC world.\n\"He has incredible power, a power that nobody else has - I've never seen anyone hit that hard,\" said Russia's Artem Lobov, who has sparred with McGregor.\n\"MMA is so much more demanding on the body - the wrestling, the changing levels, all that takes a lot out of you. Boxing is a breeze for us after MMA.\n\"If you look at Mayweather's fights, he often likes to get into the clinch, but what is a boxer in a clinch against a wrestler, an MMA fighter? Boxers are absolute novices in the clinch.\n\"Get a boxer and get him wrestling for a minute or two - the arms get so heavy, filled with blood, they can't even hold them up any more, they can't box.\"\nUFC president Dana White also believes McGregor's style will cause problems for the American.\n\"Mayweather is 40 years old and he's always had problems with southpaws,\" said White. \"Conor McGregor is 28 and a southpaw. Whenever he hits people, they fall.\"\nAmerican MMA fighter Holly Holm, who ended Ronda Rousey's unbeaten run with a brutal knockout in 2015, thinks McGregor will be able to adapt.\n\"I'm one of those who believes in being able to cross over,\" said Holm. \"Boxing is a whole different world, but Conor really believes in himself, and he's going to put up a good fight.\"\nWhite, for one, is in no doubt.\nHe said: \"It's definitely going to be the biggest fight ever in combat sports history and probably going to be the biggest pay day ever. All sides involved are pretty happy with their deals.\"\nThe T-Mobile Arena holds 20,000 people, so the fighters will be performing live in front of less than a quarter of the 90,000 people who watched Anthony Joshua's thrilling win over Wladimir Klitschko in their world heavyweight title clash at Wembley Stadium in April.\nHowever, the money will come not only from the live gate, but also through international television distribution, sponsorships, closed circuit and merchandise sales.\nWhen Mayweather fought Filipino Manny Pacquiao in May 2015, the fight attracted a record of 4.4 million American pay-per-view sales, with the event generating more than $500m (£392.7m) in gross worldwide receipts.\nTickets will be in extremely short supply. Only 1,000 of 16,500 tickets were put on general sale for the Mayweather v Pacquiao fight at the MGM Grand - and some were then sold online for as much as £94,000. The rest of the tickets went to fighters, sponsors and promoters.\nSuch was the demand, hotels and bars charged people to watch the action on big-screen televisions.\nStephen Espinoza, executive vice-president of American television station Showtime Sports, said fans will pay to watch the McGregor-Mayweather fight because of the novelty.\n\"The sky is the limit,\" he said. \"There is nothing to compare it against. No-one has seen this type of competition in the ring.\n\"We're not only drawing fans from the universe of boxing fans and the universe of MMA fans. We've actually tapped into the audience that really doesn't follow either sport.\"\nSort of. On two high-profile occasions, boxers have tried their luck in the UFC octagon, with one winning and one losing.\nMost recently, in August 2010, James Toney - a three-weight boxing champion who had no MMA experience - took on Randy Couture. It did not last long.\nWithin a minute, Couture had produced a single-leg takedown. He then fired a series of unanswered lefts and rights to Toney's head before the fight was stopped.\nThe other time the worlds of MMA and boxing collided was in June 2009, when boxer Ray Mercer took on former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia.\nAgain, it did not last long - nine seconds in fact.\nMercer, who had fought Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko, caught Sylvia with a crushing right hook with the first punch of the contest, knocking out his opponent.\nIn 1976, Muhammad Ali took part in a 15-round exhibition contest with Japanese professional wrestler Antonio Inoki. The bout - a mix of boxing and wrestling that had little to do with serious sport - ended in a draw.\nMike Costello, BBC Radio 5 live boxing correspondent\nOne of boxing's all-time greats will take on a man who hasn't had a single professional boxing contest and it'll become one of the most talked-about sporting events of 2017.\nMayweather is coming out of retirement at the age of 40 for a fight some have dismissed as a farce and a mismatch. McGregor is 12 years younger and the biggest draw in UFC, the most successful and popular brand in mixed martial arts. Insults have been traded for two years - when they first started, nobody believed for a moment this fight would happen.\nThey both draw huge audiences on pay-per-view TV and the showdown is likely to generate tens of millions of dollars for each man.\nIt's likely to be televised in the United States by Showtime, a cable network and one of the biggest investors in boxing in recent years. Executives there are saying their digital traffic in the past few weeks is leading them to believe this will be nothing short of a monster event and it's been built by the hype generated by these two masters of the art of hype.\nSimon Head, MMA reporter\nTo the uninitiated, Conor McGregor may come across as a brash, overconfident braggart, but a glance at his record tells a completely different story. Underneath the larger-than-life exterior lies a fierce, dedicated competitor who has more often than not backed up his pre-fight talk with big-time performances in the UFC octagon.\nHe successfully predicted his stoppage wins over Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo and Eddie Alvarez in successive UFC title fights. Now he's predicting he'll topple the most skilled boxer in this - or perhaps any - generation. Even by Mystic Mac's own standards, this one is a big ask.\nThe contest itself pitches a combat sport specialist (Mayweather) against a man blessed with one of the most comprehensive skillsets in combat sports (McGregor). The equivalent of a 100m sprinter against a decathlete, if you like. But in those terms, this fight is the 100m. Only a fraction of McGregor's formidable fighting arsenal will be in play here, and that tips the scales significantly in Mayweather's favour.\nAs well as the skills gap in pure boxing terms, there's also the issue of prep time. Conor has the dedication, the intelligence and the belief to walk into the T-Mobile Arena on August 26 as prepared as he possibly can be. But this is the equivalent of writing a PhD thesis without taking the course first. A passing grade is surely just making it to the scorecards, or even just looking competitive.\nBut that won't be enough for McGregor, whose ability to deliver on the big stage is right up there with the best you'll find anywhere in sport. The archetypal man for the big occasion, McGregor performs best when the lights shine brightest.\nMayweather is rightly the unbackable favourite, but McGregor certainly isn't a toothless opponent. Make no mistake, he has the power to trouble Floyd, especially with his left hand. But to hurt Floyd, Conor will have to land clean. In theory, he has 36 minutes to find Mayweather's chin. If he does, we'll see one of the biggest shocks in sporting history.\nBut it wouldn't be a shock to him. He's already predicted it. And he means it, too.\nGet all the latest boxing news sent straight to your device with notifications in the BBC Sport app. Find out more here.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nFormer light-welterweight world champion Khan, 29, has not fought since outpointing Chris Algieri in May 2015.\nBut he has made a jump of two weight divisions to set up a WBC world middleweight title on 7 May, ruling out a meeting with fellow Brit Kell Brook.\n\"I'm going to the lion's den,\" said Khan. \"If I beat him, it will be one of the biggest upsets in boxing.\"\n\"It's Cinco de Mayo as well, the Mexican holiday, so it's going to be crazy,\" he added. \"I think it's brave and I think it's the right thing to do.\"\nKhan said he wanted to fight multiple world champion Floyd Mayweather and seven-weight world champion Manny Pacquiao, but neither fights happened.\nHe added: \"I want to be in the big fights with the big names. Alvarez I think is probably the biggest name in boxing right now.\n\"At first, I thought he was too big for me, but when I studied a few tapes, I thought: 'You know what, I've got a good chance of beating him'.\"\nBolton's Khan has won 31 and lost three of his 34 professional fights but has not won a world title after losing to Lamont Peterson in 2011.\nHe last fought at the MGM Grand in December 2014, beating American Devon Alexander on a unanimous decision.\n\"I've fought in Las Vegas three times, but normally I'm top bill,\" Khan told BBC Sport. \"This time I'm the underdog. That will push me on even more.\n\"People are going to be doubting me, people are thinking it'll be an easy fight for Canelo, but he'll have his hands full.\"\nAlvarez, nicknamed 'Canelo', has lost once and won 46 of his 48 fights. That defeat came against Mayweather in 2013.\nThe fight has been set at a catch-weight of 155lb, eight pounds more than Khan weighed in victory against American Algieri.\nThe usual limit for middleweight is 160lb, but Alvarez's last few fights have had the same weight stipulation.\n\"When I announced that it was going to be Alvarez, everyone was shocked,\" said Khan. \"That's what makes this fight bigger because it was a shock to everyone.\n\"What's going to win the fight for me is my skills and my speed.\n\"I don't think I can out-power Canelo. The only way I can beat him is my speed, skill and my techniques. I think it's a 50-50 fight.\"", "Former five-weight boxing world champion Mayweather will face UFC lightweight title-holder McGregor in 12 rounds under boxing rules in August.\n\"He called black people 'monkeys',\" said the American, 40, during a news conference at Wembley Arena on Friday.\nThen, once the pair entered a boxing ring at the event for the official promotion, Mayweather addressed McGregor as: \"You punk. You faggot. You ho.\"\nThe two men have conducted a series of news conferences in recent days to promote the fight, with stops in Los Angeles and Toronto before the trips to New York and London.\nThe 29-year-old Irishman has attracted criticism for a series of comments during those events and is alleged to have made racist comments during the third stop of the tour in New York on Thursday.\n\"He totally disrespected black women,\" added Mayweather. \"Then he spoke disrespectfully to my mother and he spoke disrespectfully to my daughter.\"\nThe American added on Friday: \"Racism still exists. I'm not going to stoop that low and speak about his like or speak about his child. I'm glad that he just had a healthy child and he has a beautiful family.\"\nResponding to Mayweather at the New York press conference on Thursday, McGregor said: \"I'm a multicultural individual and I don't have any ill feelings towards anyone. I don't even see colour.\"\nThen, speaking to BBC Sport after the London event, he said: \"I know who I am, people around me know who I am. We know his history, but I didn't bring it up. The fight game is ruthless and it's what I expect.\"\nIn 2010, Mayweather made racist and homophobic remarks towards Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao in a video posted on the website Ustream.\nAt the end of the news conference, Mayweather and McGregor took several questions from the media.\nBBC boxing correspondent Mike Costello asked McGregor - who has never boxed as an amateur or professional - how he addresses pundits who say he has no chance of beating Mayweather.\nMcGregor replied: \"I do what I say I'm going to do, by sleeping [Mayweather] inside of four rounds - the same way I silence them every time.\"\nMayweather, who won all 49 of his bouts, was asked how he thought the McGregor fight would affect his legacy in boxing.\n\"In boxing, it's all about taking chances,\" he said. \"In contact sports, it's about taking risks, so if you going to take a risk, take it against the top guys.\"\nBBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent Richard Conway\nThe four-night global promotional tour is over and will reassemble in Las Vegas in the build-up to the contest on 26 August.\nThousands of fans packed Wembley Arena cheering and shouting McGregor's name. Chants of \"pay your taxes\" and \"sit down, shut up\" were continually chanted at Mayweather.\nThis was more pantomime than press conference. But troubling elements of this fight have emerged before the question of its sporting validity is even answered.\nSexist and homophobic language was used continually. The hype and hoopla - what should have been a carnival of over the top bravado - sadly had a misogynistic and backdated overtone.", "Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao was a terrible let-down followed by a crashing hangover, but Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez versus Amir Khan might be the fight that elevates one or both of them into the superstars the sport of boxing needs.\nAfter a slow start, Alvarez-Khan has gained traction on the Vegas Strip as the week has worn on. Friday's weigh-in outside the spanking new T-Mobile Arena was attended by a few thousand Mexicans, already in full swing ahead of Cinco de Mayo weekend, and a small but vocal contingent of Brits.\nOscar de la Hoya has thrown the kitchen sink at the promotion, because he knows what's at stake.\nWhile Mayweather-Pacquiao had a record 4.6 million pay-per-view buys in the United States, both fighters' next bouts (against Andre Berto and Timothy Bradley respectively) pulled in about 400,000 buys each.\nAll those floating fans Mayweather-Pacquiao attracted quickly floated off again, before the two men themselves, the sport's only active household names, hauled their riches into retirement.\nWhether Khan, who is bidding to become Britain's 12th current world champion, has enough ring smarts to take Alvarez to the limit is questionable.\nKhan, 29, is bidding to become only the third former light-welterweight world champion to win a middleweight world title, after De la Hoya and Miguel Cotto. That tells you all you need to know about how difficult it is to do.\nEven Khan doesn't sound too convinced about his chances. The Bolton boxer has claimed he doesn't have the power to hurt Alvarez and admitted he'll need to be the best he's ever been to have a hope.\nAnd that's assuming the champion hasn't improved since winning the WBC belt from Cotto last November.\nAlvarez has had 48 professional fights but is only 25. That makes for a frightening combination of vast experience and learning potential.\nRemarkably, Alvarez turned pro three months after his 15th birthday. Apparently, social services turn a blind eye to boys fighting grown men over in Guadalajara.\nHe'd had 21 fights by the time he was 18 and was only 20 when he outpointed Britain's Matthew Hatton to win the vacant WBC light-middleweight title.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nHatton, the younger brother of British boxing legend Ricky, believes Khan can cause Alvarez problems but will come unstuck in the end.\n\"When I saw Canelo at the weigh-in, I looked him up and down and thought: 'I fancy this',\" Hatton told BBC Sport. \"But on fight night he whipped off his dressing gown and I couldn't believe the size of him, it was like Popeye had been at the spinach.\n\"One thing Amir certainly doesn't lack is self-belief. But jumping up one weight division is difficult enough, jumping up two is a massive ask.\n\"Amir is a lot better with Virgil Hunter as his trainer and is boxing to a game-plan. And he has the speed to cause Canelo trouble. But I just can't see Amir overcoming the size and strength factor and holding him off for 12 rounds.\"\nWhile the match was made at a catch-weight of 155lb, five pounds under the middleweight limit, Alvarez is expected to come in at about 175lb, almost a stone heavier than Khan. Alvarez has been knocking light-middleweights out for fun for the last 10 years, while Khan has been knocked out twice and wobbled on numerous occasions. Furthermore, Alvarez is much more than just a slugger.\nTrue, Mayweather made him look like a club fighter at times when they fought in 2013, but Alvarez has learned from that defeat, as all good boxers do.\nIn his four fights since, he has beaten a future hall-of-famer in Cotto; a slickster in Erislandy Lara; and a couple of punchers in James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo. As such, De la Hoya's repeated assertion that Saturday's fight is all about power versus speed appears to be a crude generalisation.\n\"Canelo is a very smart fighter with good boxing skills,\" Khan told BBC Sport. \"And timing beats speed, so that when I do throw good, fast shots I need to get out of the way as quick as possible.\n\"But Canelo still makes mistakes and he made plenty against Cotto. If he makes the same mistakes against me, I believe I can take advantage. I've got the speed and the movement, he's never faced anyone as slick as me.\"\nThere is speed of movement and there is speed of thought and the latter could be even more important than the former against Alvarez. For his part, Hunter, who was hired by Khan following his knockout defeat by Danny Garcia in 2012, believes his charge has matured into a much more cerebral boxer.\n\"The first thing I had to address was his recklessness,\" said Hunter, who trains Khan at his gym in the San Francisco Bay Area of California and also handles Andre Ward, arguably the best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet.\n\"It was hard to take away things he'd been successful with, but once I convinced him to look a little deeper, it was easy to implement the changes that needed to be made. He now understands boxing on a different level.\n\"He can now fight a very disciplined fight when he has to. But I don't think he's scratched the surface of what he can do. Physically he's a marvel. When he can put the physical and mental together, he could become special.\"\nThe stakes for both fighters are huge. If Alvarez wins and wins in style, he will be anointed the new face of boxing and a clamour for a match with Kazakh knockout artist Gennady Golovkin will reach fever pitch.\nIf Khan wins, it will go down as one of the biggest upsets in boxing history - almost up there with Lloyd Honeyghan's victory over American sensation Don Curry in Las Vegas in 1986 - and cement his place among the British greats.\nIf Khan is still standing heading down the stretch, we could be in for a treat. The sport could have two new superstars and we might get a rematch we can call a super-fight.", "Until the brutal ending, Khan had used his superior speed and movement to frustrate the champion and appeared to be well ahead on points.\nHowever, when Khan lost concentration for a split second the champion knocked him cold with a huge right hand.\nAfterwards, Alvarez said he wanted a unification bout with Gennady Golovkin.\nKhan, 29, jumped two weight divisions to challenge Alvarez and was attempting to become only the third former light-welterweight world champion to win a middleweight world title.\nThe match was made at a catchweight of 155lb, five pounds under the normal middleweight limit. However, Alvarez came into the ring at approximately 175lb and was noticeably bigger than his opponent.\nThe fight was the first at the 20,000-capacity T-Mobile Arena, which was vociferously pro-Alvarez on the Mexican festival of Cinco de Mayo.\nBut the booing and jeering that rained down upon Khan did nothing to cloud his focus.\nKhan probably edged a cagey first round courtesy of a couple of flurries and one well-aimed right cross, although Alvarez did land with a flashing left hook.\nKhan repeatedly made the champion look clumsy in round two, landing with rapier-like combinations before darting out of range. And when Alvarez landed with a juddering left hook, Khan stood up to it and returned fire.\nIt was more of the same in the third, with Alvarez, 25, stalking his prey and finding himself confounded by Khan's blinding hand-speed and volume of punches.\nAt this stage Khan's prediction that speed and movement would trump power looked like it might come true, while he was certainly confounding those critics who said a year of inactivity would blunt his edge.\nKhan unleashed more flashy combinations in the fourth and while none of his punches appeared to be hurting Alvarez, the Englishman appeared to be well ahead on points a third of the way through the contest.\nThere were signs in the fifth Alvarez was beginning to find his range and at the start of the sixth he connected with a hurtful left-right combination.\nAnd when Khan left his left hand dangling soon after, Alvarez exploded an overhand right on his chin, rendering him unconscious before he hit the canvas. Khan was counted out with 23 seconds remaining in the round.\nKhan took a while to come round but finally clambered to his feet minutes later.\n\"I wanted to go out there as a champion, but unfortunately I didn't make it to the end,\" he said. \"This challenge came and it was hard to turn down.\"\nAlvarez improved to 47 wins (33 knockouts), one draw and a sole defeat - by the great American Floyd Mayweather in 2013. Khan now has four defeats from 35 fights, including three by way of knockout.\nBoxing has been searching for new superstars since last year's much-hyped but ultimately disappointing clash between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, since when both men have announced their retirements.\nAnd Alvarez-Khan was widely viewed as an opportunity for one or both of them to become the new face of the sport.\nAlvarez having prevailed, there will be a huge clamour for him to fight WBA and IBF title-holder Golovkin, who was invited into the ring after Saturday's fight.\nThe unbeaten Golovkin, 34, has 32 knockouts from 35 fights but would most likely have to come down in weight to make a fight against Alvarez happen.\nWhether that fight can be made this year or not, Alvarez has already proved himself a worthy successor to Mexican greats such as Julio Cesar Chavez, Ruben Olivares, Salvador Sanchez and Marco Antonio Barrera.\nAs for Khan, he should be applauded for his willingness to take a risk and still has options, the most obvious being a fight against fellow Briton Kell Brook.\nThe cross-Pennine rivals have been circling each other for years, with Khan always claiming Brook does not belong in his company, despite being the IBF welterweight champion.\nBut given the devastating nature of his latest defeat, that is probably not a claim he can continue to make with any credibility.\nAnalysis by Paulie Malignaggi, former welterweight world champion on BBC Radio 5 live\n\"Amir was boxing beautiful; it was a very cerebral fight from him.\n\"Canelo knew he was getting scored on and it was a beautiful performance up until that point. It was a shame that punch came.\n\"It was one of the knockouts of the year. A sensational one-punch knockout.\n\"You almost feel bad for Amir though as he was making you wonder how Canelo was going to break him down.\"", "American Mayweather, 38, outclassed his Philippine rival at the MGM Grand and was awarded a wide unanimous decision.\nPacquiao, 36, said he thought he did enough to win the fight, despite most observers agreeing with the verdict.\n\"Three weeks before the fight I got a tear in my right shoulder,\" he said. \"It got better but it wasn't 100%.\"\nMayweather started the brighter of the two and rocked Pacquiao with a number of right hand counter punches in the early exchanges.\nThe Filipino came back at the American in the fourth round, stunning Mayweather with a left hand and again in the sixth round but was never able to back it up and Mayweather ran out a comfortable winner on the judges scorecards.\nPacquiao said he wanted to have an injection in the shoulder before the fight but the Nevada Athletic Commission refused.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nPacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, claimed he informed the Commission of the injury five days ago and defended the decision not to cancel the fight, the most lucrative in boxing history.\n\"Athletes always fight hurt and we felt the work that was done on the shoulder during training would enable him to use his right hand,\" said Arum.\nCommission chairman Francisco Aguilar said he first knew about the injury two hours before the fight, when Pacquiao's camp requested a doctor sit in his corner, a request that was denied.\nMayweather, meanwhile, said he was carrying injuries to both arms and hands.\n\"If he had come out victorious, I would have shown respect and said he was the better man,\" he said, after adding Pacquiao's WBO welterweight belt to the WBC and WBA titles he already owned.\nMayweather, a five-weight world champion, also criticised those who doubted him, telling them he had made them \"eat their words\".\n\"For years everyone said that I was scared and that I'd lose,\" said Mayweather, who is undefeated in 48 professional fights stretching back 19 years.\n\"I made the non-believers into believers. I was the better man, the smarter fighter - more calculated, more patient. He was applying pressure but not landing many punches and I was just keeping my jab in his face.\"\nMayweather, who said he was presented with a cheque for $100m (£66m) in his dressing room after the fight, also revealed he planned to relinquish his titles and that his final bout in September would be a non-championship fight.\nAs well as the welterweight belts, Mayweather is also the WBC light-middleweight champion.\nAsked if his last fight might be against Britain's Amir Khan, Mayweather replied: \"I'm not thinking about that. All I want to do right now is go home and rest.\"\nMayweather's father and trainer, Floyd Sr, criticised those who booed him before and after the fight.\n\"My son should be treated better,\" said Mayweather Sr. \"I'm not saying it bothers him but if I was in his shoes, it would bother me.\n\"He's paying the price for being honest and for being too good. When these guys are throwing punches and he's making them miss, people call that boring.\n\"They don't know boxing, that's the problem.\"", "The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) says Pacquiao did not declare he had a problem on a pre-fight questionnaire.\nBut he says he was up front about his injury and had agreed a treatment plan.\nTwo people in Nevada have alleged the boxer defrauded ticket buyers, television viewers and gamblers.\nThey have opened lawsuits just hours after the NAC accused Pacquiao of being dishonest.\nIf the Filipino, 36, is found guilty of that charge, the penalty for perjury could be a jail sentence of between one and four years, and a fine of up to $5,000 (£3,305).\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nPacquiao blamed his points defeat to Mayweather on the injury, claiming it stopped him using his right hand properly.\nBut a joint statement released by Team Pacquiao and his promoters, Top Rank, said the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) had been notified about it during the fighter's training camp and on the night of the bout.\nThey added that a Usada doctor sanctioned the use of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory on fight night only for the NAC to refuse it because they were \"unaware\" of the shoulder injury.\nThe statement added: \"This was disappointing since Team Pacquiao had disclosed the injury and treatment to Usada, who approved the treatments and Manny had listed the medication on his pre-fight medical form.\"\nThe NAC says the Pacquiao camp were not \"obligated\" to disclose the injury, but their executive director Bob Bennett said: \"It's not just the fact he didn't fill out the question completely, it's that he wasn't honest.\n\"Two hours before the fight, they wanted a shot that's a painkiller, in essence. That put us in a very precarious position.\"\nThe form Pacquiao signed asked if he had \"any injuries to his shoulders, elbows, or hands that needed evaluation or examination\".\nThe legal disclaimer states that the signatory \"swears, under penalty of perjury, that the above information is true and correct\".\nSurgeon Neal ElAttrache told ESPN the fighter has a \"significant tear\" in his rotator cuff and added the injury was likely to sideline him for between nine and 12 months.\nMayweather, 38, scored a unanimous points victory in the four-belt unification bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the win extending the American's unbeaten record as a professional to 48 fights.\nPacquiao's surgery means any rematch is unlikely, with Mayweather insisting he will retire in September after one more fight.", "Light-heavyweight Cleverly, 30, will make the first defence of the belt he won from Juergen Braehmer, on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather's bout against Conor McGregor in Las Vegas.\nFormer WBC world champion Jack is stepping up from super-middleweight.\n\"He's coming up to my division, we are going to make him pay,\" Cleverly said.\nCleverly, who has three defeats in a 33-fight career, performed his open workout at the MGM Grand on Wednesday. There were rumours among the press at the venue that he was not going to turn up.\nIt was thought he was keen to check on his weight rather than attend the event, perhaps suggesting he has work to do to make the 175lbs limit before Friday's weigh-in.\nWhen he did arrive, the two-time world champion went through a repertoire of shadow boxing and pad work in a ring housed in a busy walkway in the hotel.\nFans lined the ring but when Jack took his turn to workout, he did very little by contrast. The Swedish fighter has lost once in 24 fights and faces Cleverly after a draw at super-middleweight with Great Britain's James DeGale.\n\"Badou does the basics very well, a solid all-round fighter,\" Cleverly added. \"He has a good guard, good defence and is a world-class operator who is consistent.\n\"He's had good wins over big fighters but he doesn't do anything exceptional. So he's a tough fighter but I think his style is suited to mine.\n\"I think he may feel stronger at the weight, and feel as though he has more energy. That extra bit of weight can invigorate you. He may be more confident and stronger. But I'm established at this weight for years and at some point in the fight you will see that difference.\"\nCleverly admits he has been patient in waiting for this fight and claims he turned down a rematch with Braehmer because it lacked \"spice\" and \"risk\".\nHis reward is a bout which is chief support to the Mayweather versus McGregor bout which could become the richest in boxing history and surpass the record for pay-per-view buys.\nGet the biggest boxing news sent straight to your device. Find out more.\nCleverly gave both men credit for \"capturing the imagination of fans,\" but maintains the meeting of a former five-weight world champion and UFC's McGregor, who makes his boxing debut, is a \"fantasy event\".\n\"You're looking at the best ever in Mayweather,\" he added. \"He has mastered the art of boxing, hit and don't get hit. He's been in with the best in the world and they struggled to land a glove.\n\"For a martial artist to come in and hope to land a glove, let alone to become victorious, there's pretty much zero chance. But it's captured the imagination. It's a money spinner and fair play to the guys. I think Floyd in six rounds.\"\nFind out how to get into boxing with our special guide.", "Frampton, 29, faces former champion Santa Cruz in Las Vegas on Saturday, after claiming the Mexican's title in a thrilling fight in New York in July.\nIt will be the Northern Irishman's first fight at the MGM Grand Arena.\n\"I said Carl had the ability to go all the way, and certain people in the game laughed,\" McGuigan told Radio 5 live.\n\"It's childish and frivolous to now laugh at them because it's pointless. We just want to win.\"\nFrampton's points victory in July was the first defeat of Santa Cruz's career, with several publications including Ring Magazine and ESPN naming Frampton as the fighter of 2016.\n\"The pinnacle of the fight game is headlining the strip and that's what Carl is doing,\" said McGuigan, whose son Shane is Frampton's trainer.\nIn the build-up to Frampton's first fight with Santa Cruz, the majority of US boxing pundits backed the Mexican to continue his undefeated career, only for the Belfast fighter to stun the three-weight world champion.\nFrampton and McGuigan both expect Santa Cruz, 28, to be more aggressive this time but think that could work to Frampton's advantage.\n\"Although he's taller than me, I'm going to be the bigger man on the night and he can't bully me,\" said Frampton.\n\"That's where he gets his success, he bullies people, but he can't do that to me. I'm hurting him and making him think twice and he's never been in that position before.\"\nMcGuigan added: \"If Santa Cruz wants to win this fight he's got to put pressure on Carl and he's got to overwhelm him.\n\"But by doing that he's putting himself in the firing zone and I really do think if he does that then Carl will knock him out.\"\nBBC Radio 5 live boxing correspondent Mike Costello\nSanta Cruz is a tricky old opponent. We saw him running Carl Frampton close in the first contest. We should remember one of the three judges scored the contest a draw and it was regarded by many as the fight of the year.\nSanta Cruz showed in that fight the kind of mettle that had earned him world titles in three different weight divisions across his professional career.\nHe's won 11 of his 12 world title fights - the Frampton defeat his only one.\nHe's beaten seven world champions. He's got a typical Mexican style - all-out aggression is what it's based on.\nThis time around he's got his father very much part of the camp. He was in and out last time because he was receiving treatment for cancer. He says that will have a huge difference because his father will have a better game plan as opposed to his brother, who was in his corner last time.\nFrampton says he expects about 5,000 fans to make the trip across the Atlantic to support him, with some fans resorting to extreme lengths to fund their journey.\n\"I know this guy Keith Dallas - he sold his car and bought his wife another car, which wasn't as good, to raise the funds for this trip,\" said Frampton.\n\"This is the stuff they're doing - there's a guy coming from Australia to watch the fight as well. It's not easy to get to Las Vegas, it's expensive and it makes me more appreciative of the effort people are putting in to get out here.\"\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 5 live, boxing journalist Steve Bunce said the build-up to the rematch reminded him of the atmosphere surrounding the fights of British former light-welterweight world champion Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas.\nHatton fought three times at the MGM Grand in his career, beating Paulie Malignaggi there in 2008 and losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao in 2007 and 2009 respectively.\nBunce said: \"I did those Hatton fights. It's one thing having 2,000 or 3,000 people there like Frank Bruno had, like Lennox Lewis had, but to be there for Ricky, the big Ricky fights, everywhere you turned and looked there were British fans. And that's something Carl will get.\"\nExplaining Frampton's decision to move up from super-bantamweight, where he had unified the IBF and WBA titles by beating Briton Scott Quigg, McGuigan said his fighter had reached a point where it was becoming \"miserable\" for him to make the 122lb weight limit.\n\"The comfort at which he makes the weight now and how he can rehydrate and get stronger, he's a beast at 126lbs,\" he added.\nFrampton echoed his manager's view, stating he felt in \"better spirits\" at featherweight, having \"hated\" fight week at super-bantamweight.\n\"It was a slog but now I'm enjoying it more and you're going to see even better performances because of that,\" he said.\n\"I think I can go up another weight too - become a world champion at that weight and I go down as a three-weight world champion, the only ever Irishman to do that, and then you're talking about the hall of fame and that's a big deal.\"\nFrampton said he has no plans \"to go on forever\" and that he \"can't wait\" to retire, to the consternation of his trainer and manager.\n\"When it's time to call it a day, I'll call it a day,\" he said.\n\"My close-knit team will say the same, if they see me sliding or not improving any more then it's time to get out and get out on top.\n\"When it's time to call it a day, I'll be happy to support the next big name coming through - hopefully it's another Belfast lad coming to Las Vegas and I'll be right behind him.\"" ]

[ "Silicon - HyperPhysics Atomic mass ... Silicon is one of the big 8 elements in the Earth's crust, being the second most abundant element at about 27.7% by weight. The silicate minerals make up the vast majority of rocks found on the surface of the Earth. Silicon as a semiconductor is the basis for solid state electronics, with electronic components...", "Elements in the Earth's Crust - Windows to the Universe Nov 13, 2007 ... ... make up the Earth's outer layer, the crust. Together, these 8 elements make up more than 98% of the crust. The 8 most common elements in Earth's crust (by mass): 46.6% Oxygen (O) 27.7% Silicon (Si) 8.1% Aluminum (Al)", "Silicon - Wikipedia Silicon is a chemical element with symbol Si and atomic number 14. A hard and brittle .... Because silicon is an important element in high-technology semiconductor ... Measured by mass, silicon makes up 27.7% of the Earth's crust and is the...", "Silicon - expert written, user friendly element information - Chemicool Silicon accounts for 28% of the weight of Earth's crust. ... of a semiconductor, scientists debated whether the new element should be ... Silicon is the eighth most abundant element in the Universe; it is made in stars with a mass of eight or more Earth ... Two elements, silicon and oxygen, make up almost three-quarters of our...", "silicon (Si) | chemical element | Britannica.com Feb 6, 2015 ... Si a nonmetallic chemical element in the carbon family (Group 14 [IVa] of the periodic table). Silicon makes up 27.7 percent of Earth 's crust; it is the second most ... makes it an extremely important semiconductor (see crystal: Electric .... Forensic anthropologist examining a human skull found in a mass grave..." ]

[ "Elements in the Earth's Crust - Windows to the Universe The 8 most common elements in Earth's crust (by mass): ... Together, the elements oxygen and silicon make up most of the Earth's crust including silicate...", "hydrosphere | Earth science | Britannica.com Water is the most abundant substance at the surface of Earth. ... miles) in Earth's atmosphere and downward to depths on the order of five kilometres in its crust. ... rocks now in existence and about 5 percent of the mass of Earth's crust as a whole. .... distribution of elements (in chemical element: The hydrosphere); volcanic...", "Average Chemical Composition of Earth's Crust, . Hydrosphere, and ... Surprisingly, the crust's most abundant element is oxygen, and it readily combines with the Earth's crust second most ... percentage in both mass and volume.", "Iron & Steel Facts - Uses, Properties, Element Fe, Age, Rust, Cast ... Its chemical symbol is Fe and its atomic number is 26. ... Iron is the 4th most common element in the Earth's crust, making up around 5% of the total (usually...", "Chemistry Flashcards | Quizlet CHEMISTRY---This element makes up about 78% of normal dry air by volume ... no bones about it, Sir Humphry Davy discovered calcium, Ca, Sodium, Na, & this, K ... in the earth's crust & the seventh most abundant in you is this special K.", "Abundance of the chemical elements - Wikipedia The abundance of a chemical element is a measure of the occurrence of the element relative to ... The elements from carbon to iron are relatively more common in the universe ... The crust, mantle, and core of the Earth show evidence of chemical ..... The mass-abundance of the eight most abundant elements in the Earth's...", "Composition of the crust - Chemical elements, Minerals, Rocks More than 90% of the crust is composed of silicate minerals. Silicon and oxygen are the two most common chemical elements in the crust ... Pure silicon oxide is known as mineral quartz which makes up 12% of the ... Iron is actually the single most abundant chemical element in the whole of Earth, .... Width of sample 6 cm.", "Elements | CHEM 101 All matter can be broken down into about 100 different elements. ... listed in the table above account for only 0.49 mass percent of the Earth's crust, oceans, ... If we say the element carbon, we would mean one atom of carbon. ... The element symbol can also be derived from its original Latin or Greek name: ... Tin stannum Sn...", "Elements in the Earth's Crust - Windows to the Universe Newly-Found Rock May Prove Antarctica and North America Were Connected ... Together, the elements oxygen and silicon make up most of the Earth's crust...", "What is the most abundant chemical element found on Earth? - Quora Jun 20, 2016 ... Iron. It's mostly inside the earth in the core, but it is the most common. Oxygen is next ... That's why there is so much more silicon and aluminum in the crust. ... In bulk, by mass, it is composed mostly of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), ... What is the second most abundant element on Earth?", "Minerals, Rocks & Rock Forming Processes Minerals can be classified into several groups according to their chemical composition. ... The elements from Oxygen to Magnesium make up 98.5% of the crust and are .... The name magma applies to silicate melts within the Earth's crust, when .... not give us lots of direct clues as to the source rock composition, we can gain...", "What is the most abundant metal on Earth? | Reference.com ... metal on Earth is aluminum. Aluminum is the third most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and makes up 8 percent of it by parts per. ... Keep Learning ... What are the most common elements on Earth? What is the ... You May Also Like. Q:...", "Composition of the human body - Wikipedia The composition of the human body can be looked at from the point of view of either mass ... Thus, most of the mass of the human body is oxygen, but most of the atoms in ... due to differences in the proportion of fat, muscle and bone in their body. .... Aluminium, the third most common element in the Earth's crust (after oxygen...", "Iron - Wikipedia Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. ..... Iron is by far the most reactive element in its group; it is pyrophoric when...", "What is the outer layer of the Earth called? | Reference.com Overall, the crust makes up very little of the Earth's mass, so the other layers, which are... ... Beneath the mantle is the Earth's outer core, which is a liquid layer of iron, ... the layer of Earth between the crust and the core, depends on its depth.", "2000 - SolPass and its moons appear on February 7 as ... the most common elements in the Earth's crust and the ... Iron is the most common metal in the crust. B. All eight elements are metals. C ... design and construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary .... Builds On: Work with rock formations begins in the second grade SOL and.", "Periodic table of endangered elements - Business Insider Aug 20, 2015 ... Helium, being the second most abundant element in the universe, might seem an ... As the supplies of these metals have struggled to keep up with demand, ... They are also only found in particular regions in the Earth's crust, meaning ... Particularly, in the case of magnets, it's been suggested that magnets...", "Rare earth element - Wikipedia A rare earth element (REE) or rare earth metal (REM), as defined by IUPAC, is one of a set of seventeen chemical ..... Rare earth cerium is actually the 25th most abundant element in Earth's crust, ... This has economic consequences: large ore bodies of the cerium earths are known around the world, and are being exploited.", "What is the most abundant element in the earth's crust? - CliffsNotes Most of the earth's crust, or outer layer, is made up of eight elements. Oxygen tops the list in terms of abundance, with the planet's shell being composed of a.", "Calciumthe essentials [WebElements Periodic Table] Calcium is the fifth most abundant element in the earth's crust and makes up more than 3% of ... It readily forms a white coating of calcium nitride (Ca3N2) in air.", "Hydrogen(H) is a gas, and is the first element on the periodic table. It ... is orderless, colorless, tasteless, and nonmetallic element with the atomic 1, and it's also roughly 75% ... Hydrogen, or H2, is an elemental gas present in a trace amount in earth s atmosphere. ... makes up about 75 percent of the universe's elemental mass. ... our stars but it is rare on Earth and must be made from fossil fuels.", "CHAPTER 10 - STUDY GUIDE - Physical Geography Three main types of rocks can be identified on the Earth's surface: igneous, .... The outer most layer is called the crust and it sits on top of the mantle. ... One interesting property of the crust is that it has the ability to float up and down. ... On average of oceanic crust is 7 km thick and mainly composed of the igneous rock basalt.", "How much pressure does it take to make a diamond from coal ... High pressure and high temperatures in the earth's lower mantle crust are ... A: A diamond is made entirely from carbon, the same element that makes up the...", "Chemistry for Kids: Elements - Iron - Ducksters Kids learn about the element iron and its chemistry including atomic weight, ... Symbol: Fe; Atomic Number: 26; Atomic Weight: 55.845; Classification: Transition metal ... up about 5% of the Earth's crust where it is the fourth most abundant element. ... The most important iron alloys include cast iron, pig iron, wrought iron, and...", "Chemical element - Wikipedia A chemical element or element is a species of atoms having the same number of protons in ... Iron is the most abundant element (by mass) making up Earth, while oxygen is ... The lightest chemical elements are hydrogen and helium, both created by ..... For example, the formula for heavy water may be written D2O instead of...", "Hydrogen - Periodic Table of Elements: Los Alamos National ... Hydrogen is the most abundant of all elements in the universe. ... Hydrogen is estimated to make up more than 90% of all the atoms -- three quarters of the mass ... The lightest of all gases, hydrogen combines with other elements -- sometimes...", "Chemistry Flashcards | Quizlet THE ELEMENTS---The most common of the noble gasses, it's used to fill electric light bulbs .... CHEMISTRY---Around 1630 Jan van Helmont discovered this gas given off .... IT'S ELEMENTAL---It's the second-lightest element ..... most abundant element in the earth's crust & the seventh most abundant in you is this special K.", "Composition of the crust - Chemical elements, Minerals, Rocks Illustrated overview of the most widespread chemical elements, minerals, ... Pure silicon oxide is known as mineral quartz which makes up 12% of the crust. ... Iron is common in lateritic soil and forms rust-colored iron oxide mineral hematite. ... Occurs equally successfully in igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.", "Period 2 element - Wikipedia The period 2 elements are the chemical elements in the second row (or period) of the periodic ..... Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium and oxygen and is the second ... Oxygen forms roughly 21% of the Earth's atmosphere; all of this oxygen is the result of photosynthesis.", "Glossary Term - 10 Most Abundant Elements in the Earth's Crust 10 Most Abundant Compounds<br>in the Earth's Crust Previous Term ... 10 Most Abundant Elements<br>in the Universe. 10 Most ... Oxygen, 46.1%, 461,000.", "Element Abundance in Earth's Crust - HyperPhysics Given the abundance of oxygen and silicon in the crust, it should not be surprising that the most abundant minerals in the earth's crust are the silicates. Although...", "Calcium - Wikipedia Calcium is a chemical element with symbol Ca and atomic number 20. Calcium is a soft gray Group 2 alkaline earth metal, fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust. The ion Ca2+ is also the fifth-most-abundant dissolved ion in seawater by both molarity and mass, after sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfate. .... Dietary calcium supplement is generally not necessary for maintaining bone..." ]

[ "By having a prfessional prepare your taxes they will be able to make sure sto include everything that has to be included this may make it more profitable and also the IRS is less likely to audit you on your taxes if a professional prepares them. \\n\\nThere may be a fee but it is often worth it because you get the most out of your money. The tax professional will make sure that you get everything that you can get (credits and deductions) and if there is an audit you will have a professional there to help you through it. At most professional tax offices (H & R Block) there are also guarentees to the taxes being right and if they are not right they will usually make it right with you (Pay penalties or some of the amount you owe if they were wrong)." ]

[ "If you meet the requirements to file you better file! All you need to do is get your tax documents together and file a 2001 tax return. You can do them yourself or pay a preparer to do them. Don't freak out. If you don't owe them money than you will not have fines and all that stuff, but I would do them cause once they open an audit they can go back for ever. I hope it works out for you", "You will need Adobe Acrobat Professional. Once you save the Illustrator files into PDF format, then you open one of them in Acrobat Pro. Next, go up to DOCUMENT, PAGES, INSERT. There you can navigate to your next PDF document and insert it before or after your current open document. Once you have inserted all of your documents, then you go to FILE and SAVE AS...give the file a new name. VOILA.\\n\\nDon't mistake Acrobat Pro for Acrobat Reader. Reader only allows you to view the files. You will need to purchase Adobe Acrobat Professional to actually write the files and create multi-page documents.", "No, you will owe tax on them unless you have capital losses to balance them. Either way you have to file", "go to the preparer who filed your taxes and he/she should have a file in their offices of it", "Yesssss. they are professional here, but how do you know who is who? This site is new and still experimental, and I know of no others who have professionals answering questions to the public.\\nBut some think that I am just an uneducated dumb old fart so what does this answer matter.", "try www.irs.gov they tell you what tax breaks and changes there are. ALSO if you know someone that does taxes, go to them or use something like turbo tax to file your return", "Do your taxes online. It's relatively fast and relatively cheap. They usually say it's \"free\" to prepare your tax return, but that's the catch: It's free to \"prepare.\" Once you're done preparing, you have the choice to either pay them about $8-20 to file your tax return online or start all over again somewhere else.\\n\\nI filed online the past two years though and I loved it. I was in control of my own taxes, I didn't have to sit and listen to some CPA and I didn't have to pay the CPA's heafty ransom for preparing my taxes as I did it myself. You will generally get any refunds back a lot faster too.\\n\\nIf you want to file your taxes online, go to www.irs.gov and they have a list of sites that do online tax filing, or if you want an easier site to get to, go to www.hrblock.com and they do online taxes as well, that's where I went through.", "They both have there pros and cons. hmmm... If the situation at hand is of the right, shall I say, magnitude and dimension... yes, yes... then particulars do not matter.", "Unless the laws have changed, the parent who files the children first is entitled to receive the beneifits of that filing. Your boyfriend will have to pay what he owes.\\n\\nI know you only asked about him claiming his kids on his taxes. Have you considered your future with this man? It does not sound as if he is rolling in dough. You shouldn't be stressed with sorting out his finances.\\n\\nDo you realize if he dies (God forbid) that his wife and children are the beneficiaries, and you will getting nothing but memories?\\n\\nYou deserve better.", "you can file your state taxes first and then you can file your federal taxes. i typically wait to file my federal return because i typically owe some money, so im in no hurry to give uncle silly my cash.", "If you file the FASFA, there is a selection that states \"have not filed yet\" or something to that nature. I usually file for financial aid before I do my taxes and it works out, even without knowing my tax information. So filing your taxes is not a necessary prerequisite to filing your financial aid. Your school, however, may ask for copies of your taxes when you finally do file.", "lol, I'm with Teri. I would say contact a tax professional in the state that he will be filing and they should have those answers, as state tax laws vary state to state. Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance. :)", "consider filing seperately. The person without an income just won't have to file anything. That'll show that their's only one income. You should probably talk to a tax professional to make sure though.", "If you haven't filed your taxes yet, then there is no return coming to you. You need to file your taxes to get a return, and when you file them, then you will know what to expect back, (or owe the IRS, whatever the case may be).", "I work for walmart and have for 8 years. I love my job. There are pros and cons everywhere you go. I think it's all a matter of the management staff.", "If you had any substancial income. If you worked a job that required you to fill out a W-2 and I-9 then you need to file your taxes. Gambling winnings, child support, allamony, lottery winnings also qualify as income. If you just earned 5 bucks a week doing chores for neighbors then filing taxes isn't necessary. Depending on your circumstances you could be claimed as a dependant on someone else's taxes and not required to file your own. A tax professional can help you there. Or you can go to the IRS website and research whatever more specific questions you have.\\n\\nChild support may not be taxable but you still have to report recieving or giving it out.", "If you are married, you should file as married. It is not a garauntee you will get a huge return whether you file single or married. Depends on your income and how many deductions you have and /or any dependants that you claim. If you and your spouses income is not over a certain amount combined , I think the limit is $80,000, thats together, I think you should still get a good return if you file together. Hope for a big return for you. Make sure a professional does your taxes this year since you are newly married. Go over the return after the process, and next year you should be able to see what to do and what not to do, you can do them on your on if you like.", "If you haven't filed, you should file at your earliest possible convenience. You have three years from the original due date of the return to file a tax return (or amended return) to claim any tax refunds. That means as of right now, you can file your 2004, 2003, and 2002 tax returns and still get a refund. What about 2001 and earlier? You should also file those as well. If your return shows a refund, you won't get that refund check. Sorry. If you owe, penalties and interest will be added.\\n\\nAs a practical matter, you will still need various documents to support your tax return -- such as W2s and mortgage interest statements. Those records are generally kept for 5 to 7 years by the IRS. So you can get copies of your supporting documents if need be.\\n\\nAs for tax collections, the IRS can collect on tax debts for up to 10 years from the date you actually filed a return. If you never filed, they can collect tax debts indefinitely. Just another benefit of filing at your earliest possible convenience.\\n\\nYou can find all the IRS time limits (or \"statute of limitations\" as they are called) from my web site at the link below.\\n\\nAll the best,\\n\\nWilliam Perez\\ntaxes.about.com", "If you are still living together you will have to file MFS (married filing seperately). There are no tax advantages to doing it this way unless he owes back taxes, child support, or cheats on his taxes. I would suggest keeping on your husband and filing together. You cannot file single since you are married. \\n\\nYou could file HOH if you have been seperated for more than six months and are caring 50 % or more for the children.", "Try this website http://www.24hourtaxservices.com/prior_year.html\\n\\nYou will probably have penalties for filing late. You will also need to file state returns for any years you didn't file before. \\n\\nBest yet, you should check with a tax professional. An CPA will be able to help you the most. If you can afford to spend a little more meet with someone in person.", "Yes you have three years from when you file to amend your taxes. You would file a 1040X. You can probably find it on the website www.irs.gov or go to a local H&R Block and have them do a FREE double check challenge. They only charge you if they get you more money back or save you more money on your taxes. If you do it on your own, then the 1040X is what you would file.", "yes it's about a glitch that h and r block did...now there's a lawsuit and everyone who filed taxes through them is entitled to it", "Florida does not charge income tax. you do not have to file for state taxes or city taxes, just federal, but they tax just about everything you see in a store, and much more I'm sure", "What i would do is got to turbotax.com and plug in all the numbers to see what filing status would work best for you all. Thats what my wife and i did because we were in doubt as to what way would be best to file: Married filing jointly or married filing seperately. You dont even really have to file through them and it will still give you a pretty accurate figure as to what you will actually get", "you'll get assessed interest on that 40k you owe the irs, filing and extension does not give you time if you owe, only time to file the return, as the money is due by april 17th no matter what.", "Married Couples Have Multiple Filing Options \\nMarried couples have three filing choices: married filing jointly, married filing separately, or head of household. To qualify for the head of household filing status, you must have lived apart from your spouse for the last six months of the year, have a dependent child living with you, and provide more than half of the support for the household. Filing separately usually results in higher overall taxes. Check with your H&R Block tax professional for adviceWhat's your filing status? It may sound like a simple question, but the correct answer could make a difference in your tax bill.\\n\\nWhat you ultimately have to pay the Internal Revenue Service rests in large part on your filing status. There are five official choices, and the one you pick also determines whether you can take certain tax deductions or credits that could lower your final tax bill. \\n\\nIn some cases, your status can even be the deciding factor in whether you have to file at all. So picking the right one when you file is crucial.\\n\\n1. Single: This applies to never-married, unmarried and divorced taxpayers. You are considered single for the whole year if you were legally single on the last day of the year.\\n\\n2. Married filing jointly: In this case, as with the single status, you are considered married for the whole tax year as long as you were married on the last day of the tax year. And regardless of what your state says about marriage for same-sex couples, federal law -- and therefore the IRS for tax purposes -- considers only a legal union between a man and woman as a marriage. \\n\\nWhen you file jointly, both husband and wife report all their income on one Form 1040. Both filers may be held responsible for any tax (or subsequent penalty and interest) due. This is the case even if only one spouse earned all the income. On the plus side, the married filing jointly option does offer some tax credits that are not available under other filing statuses.\\n\\n3. Married filing separately: Here couples segregate their income, deductions and exemptions and file two individual returns. This might be advisable in cases where, for example, one spouse had large medical expenses. Since these costs must exceed a percentage of the filer's income before they are deductible, using only the eligible spouse's earnings by filing separately might make that deduction threshold more attainable. \\n\\nIn most cases, however, couples find they will generally pay more combined tax on separate returns than they would on a joint return. In some cases, at least one spouse's tax rate ends up higher than it would have been under a joint filing. Also, when a husband and wife file separate returns, they lose some tax credits and deductions they could have taken if they'd filed jointly. \\n\\nUnless you are required to file separately, you should figure your tax both on a joint return and on separate returns. This way you can make sure you are using the method that results in the lowest combined tax. \\n\\n4. Head of household: This status applies to unmarried taxpayers who provided more than half the cost of keeping up a home (for more than six months) for the filer and a qualifying relative. Tax rates for qualified filers usually are more favorable than those in the single or married filing separately categories. Head of household filers also get a larger standard deduction amount than do single filers. In some cases, married persons who have not lived with their spouses may qualify for this status.\\n\\n5. Qualifying widow or widower with a dependent child: You can still file a joint return for the tax year in which your spouse passed away. After that, you might be eligible to file as a qualifying widow or widower.", "Actually, is can be either pro se OR pro per. Pro per is the more common usage and is short for the Latin phrase In Propria Persona.\\n\\nIn California, your ability to amend depends on a number of actors such as how far along the case is and what type of amendment you require. If none of the defendants have appeared in the action, you have the right to file an amended complaint once without court permission. If defendants have responded, then you need court permission and a motion may be necessary.\\n\\nYou might also be talkinga bout a \"doe\" amendment. A \"doe\" defendant is like placeholder used when you do not the names of all of the potentially responsaible parties when the lawsuit is filed, Doe amendments can be filed at almost anytime until they are dismissed by the court. This is usually done at a case management conference when the trial date is set. Adding defendants after their dismissal requires court permission.", "Yes, if you are talking about tax years 2002 and forward. However, you only have until April 15 to file an amended return for 2002.\\n\\nIf you are talking about tax year 2005, then I would wait until next week after the regular filing period to file the amended return, 1040X. Give the IRS time to get the incorrect return in the system before you correct it. Otherwise, you are liable to confuse them and make matters worse.\\n\\nYou will have to wait 8 to 12 weeks for the IRS to finish processing your amended return.", "It's pretty costly depending on your income and refund amount. I once sat through 2 hours of having them do my taxes and they hit me with a $300 bill. The good thing is that you can opt out before they submit it, which is what I did. I then went home and filed on tutbotax.com, I paid about $50 and got the same results as the H&R Block guy. I suggest you try to do it on your own. If it is too difficult, then take it to a professional.", "If the states you lived in deducted state taxes from your check, Yes. When you file this year your tax preparer should know what to do. I had to file for MI but the state I live in now doesn't have a state tax. so next year I only have to file the feds. The tax person has to get the forms for whatever state. You file 1 tax for those 2 states and your current state. Just take your w 2\"s. Make sure you don't have to do City also. MI (Detroit) has a city tax.", "TurboTax worked great for me. With a business and my wife having a seperate job I blew right through it. It covers pretty much everything. But, I guess it may depend on how good you are at keeping your records. For you it's going to be best to file married but filing seperately anyway.", "First what type of computer do you have? For mac there should have a I con for it for a PC go to start, search and Click all files and folders then type in Microsoft Office word." ]

[ "of the SSLC examination held in March 2006 will be announced before May 10 simultaneously at all the examination centres, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti said here on Tuesday.\\n\\nThis was given on the THE HINDU........." ]

[ "He died December 10th, 2005 from complications from his MS.", "http://www.engadget.com/2005/06/17/porn-on-the-psp-now-comes-on-umds/", "try this :\\n\\nhttp://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/06/", "This dam is on the river cauvery in Mysore in Karnataka state, this is am important dam for both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as this is the only river which provides water during the non-mansoon season for the crops.", "Baylor University tuition for 2005-06 school year is $9525 per semester, or 19,050 per year.", "'Babu' Dr Rajendra Prasad (1884-1963).\\nIndia is currently [2005-'06] in the 50th position, among World Economies.", "no but i do know that its the state language of karnataka. i went to a wedding in madikeri a few years ago. india is beautiful.", "http://pcspot.net/2005/11/06/wordpress-image-transload-plugin/", "Do a search on 'podsafe music'.\\nOr check out http://www.ipodarmy.com/2005/06/how-to-find-podsafe-music/", "YES he will, as well as POOORTUGAL.\\n\\nCristiano Ronaldo will play like hell and score like Pelé or Eusébio before him! - Everybody will remember this Competition as the Cristiano Ronaldo's best moment!\\n\\nPROFILE \\nName: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro \\nNationality: Portugal \\nBorn: 1985-02-05 (21 years) \\nCity of Birth: Funchal (Madeira) - Portugal \\nPosition: Forward \\nHeight: 184 cm \\nWeight: 75 kg \\nWeb: http://www.cristiano-ronaldo.com/ \\nClub: Man.United\\n\\nHistorical\\nSeason Team \\n2005/06 Man.United \\n2004/05 Man.United \\n2003/04 Man.United \\n2002/03 Sporting \\n2001/02 Sporting B \\n\\nSeason 2005/2006 \\nCristiano Ronaldo - 12 Goals (0 penalties) \\n \\nNum. Competition Date Stage Game Minute \\n12 Premier League 05/06 2006/03/06 D28 Wigan Ath. 1 - 2 Man.United 73' \\n11 Friendly 2006 2006/03/01 D0 Portugal 3 - 0 A.Saudita 84' \\n10 29' \\n9 Carling Cup 2006/02/26 F Man.United 4 - 0 Wigan Ath. 59' \\n8 Premier League 05/06 2006/02/11 D26 Portsmouth 1 - 3 Man.United 45' \\n7 38' \\n6 Premier League 05/06 2006/02/04 D25 Man.United 4 - 2 Fulham 87' \\n5 14' \\n4 Premier League 05/06 2005/12/31 D20 Man.United 4 - 1 Bolton 90' \\n3 68' \\n2 Premier League 05/06 2005/10/29 D11 Middlesbrough 4 - 1 Man.United 90' \\n1 LC 2005/06 2005/08/09 PreElim3 Man.United 3 - 0 Debrecen 63' \\n \\nCompetition & Goals\\nPremier League: 2005/2006 8 \\nFriendly: 2006 2 \\nCarling Cup: 2005/2006 1 \\nChampions League: 2005/2006 1", "This is the latest info I have. States can change at any time. I have a GA and TN concelled permit myself.\\n\\nAlabama\\nUpdated: 2003-02-06\\nhttp://www.ago.state.al.us/ag_items.cfm?Issue=64 \\n(High confidence)\\n\\nAlaska\\nUpdated: 2005-06-01\\nhttp://www.dps.state.ak.us/PermitsLicensing/achp/Reciprocity.asp\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nArizona\\nUpdated: 2003-09-17\\nsee http://www.dps.state.az.us/ccw/recip.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n Non-resident Permit/License ok \\nArkansas\\nUpdated: 2005-06-21\\nhttp://www.asp.state.ar.us/chl/chl_gen2.html#Recip\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nColorado\\nUpdated: 2003-07-02\\nhttp://cbi.state.co.us/ccw/reciprocity.asp\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nDelaware\\nUpdated: 2005-06-02\\nhttp://www.state.de.us/attgen/main_page/concealedweapons.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nFlorida\\nUpdated: 2005-06-01\\nhttp://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/news/concealed_carry.html\\n(High confidence)\\n Resident Permit/License only \\nGeorgia\\nUpdated: 2005-08-04\\nwww.ganet.org/ago/press/press.cgi?year=2005\\n(High confidence)\\n Non-resident Permit/License ok \\nIdaho\\nUpdated: 2005-06-01\\nhttp://www.isp.state.id.us/patrol/faqs.html\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nIndiana\\nUpdated: 2003-02-07\\nhttp://www.in.gov/isp/faq/index.html\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nKentucky\\nUpdated: 2003-03-13\\nhttp://www.kentuckystatepolice.org/conceal.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nLouisiana\\nUpdated: 2004-09-06\\n\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nMississippi\\nUpdated: 2005-08-21\\nhttp://www.dps.state.ms.us/dps/dps.nsf/Divisions/hp?OpenDocument\\n(High confidence)\\n \\nMissouri\\nUpdated: 2004-02-27\\n\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nMontana\\nUpdated: 2005-06-01\\nhttp://www.doj.state.mt.us/enforcement/concealedweapons.asp\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nNew Hampshire\\nUpdated: 2002-11-30\\nhttp://webster.state.nh.us/safety/nhsp/plupr.html\\n(High confidence)\\n Resident Permit/License only \\nNew Mexico\\nUpdated: 2005-11-30\\n\\n(High confidence)\\n Non-resident Permit/License ok \\nNorth Carolina\\nUpdated: 2005-08-21\\nhttp://www.ncdoj.com/law_enforcement/cle_handguns.jsp\\n(High confidence)\\n \\nNorth Dakota\\nUpdated: 2003-03-16\\nMI recognizes ND resident permit holders only. \\n(High confidence)\\n Resident Permit/License only \\nOhio\\nUpdated: 2005-06-02\\nhttp://www.ag.state.oh.us/web_applications/concealcarry/reciprocity.asp\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nOklahoma\\nUpdated: 2005-06-02\\nhttp://www.osbi.state.ok.us/PublicServices/SDAreciprocity.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nPennsylvania\\nUpdated: 2005-06-01\\nhttp://www.attorneygeneral.gov/cld/firearm_reciprocity.cfm\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nSouth Carolina\\nUpdated: 2005-08-21\\nhttp://www.sled.state.sc.us/default.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n Resident Permit/License only \\nSouth Dakota\\nUpdated: 2005-07-01\\nhttp://www.state.sd.us/sos/Firearms/index.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n Non-resident Permit/License ok \\nTennessee\\nUpdated: 2005-06-02\\nhttp://www.state.tn.us/safety/handgun/reciprocity.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nTexas\\nUpdated: 2005-09-05\\nhttp://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/chl/reciprocity.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n Resident Permit/License only \\nUtah\\nUpdated: 2003-02-06\\nhttp://bci.utah.gov/CFP/CFPFAQ/FAQOther.html\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nVermont\\nUpdated: 2004-09-11\\nsee general notes section of VT page\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nVirginia\\nUpdated: 2004-07-01\\nhttp://www.vsp.state.va.us/cjis_reciprocity.htm\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nWashington\\nUpdated: 2004-11-20\\nhttp://www.atg.wa.gov/firearms/states.shtml\\n(High confidence)\\n Non-resident Permit/License ok \\nWyoming\\nUpdated: 2003-02-06\\nhttp://attorneygeneral.state.wy.us/dci/CWP.html\\n(High confidence)\\n\\nBack to top", "Yes:\\nhttp://www.funponsel.com/blog/archives/2005/08/06/how-to-bypass-windows-genuine-advantage-check-on-windows-xp/", "2004-2005 Golf State Championships\\nMonday, May 9 - Friday, May 13, 2005 \\n\\nConference 5A\\n\\n5A Girls Golf, Final Round Results\\nRoy Kizer Golf Course (Par 71, 5,727 yards) \\n\\nIndividual Results\\nGinny Brown Austin Westlake 67 70 137", "You should add more details ... your field names, table name, database type (e.g. Access, Informix) etc.\\n\\nThe code below assumes your database is MS SQL Server\\n\\nSELECT AmtPaid, Firm_Number AS [Firm#],Payment_Date As DatePaid,Payment_Number As [Payment#]\\nFROM Payments\\nWHERE (DatePaid >= '2005-06-01' AND DatePaid <= '2005-06-10') AND Firm_Number = 1115", "No, the Fifa 06 game does not have the ability to swap players like in FIFA2004 or 2005.In Fifa 06 we cannot swap the players which we like.It depends upon the luck,only sometimes good players like Rooney or Cissee comes in the transfer market.", "IF U GET MORE THAN 60% IN UR 10TH BOARD EXAMS OR GOOD MARKS IN MAIN THE SUBJECTS U CAN PURSUE SCIENCE STREAM\\nEITHER-physics,chemistry,maths with biology\\nOR physics,chemistry,maths and IT\\n\\nTHESE COURSES R ONLY AVAILABLE IN KENDRIYA VIDHAYALAYA SCHOOLS", "\"Banaswadi\" a nearest place in Bangalore,Karnataka.", "The link below details all rates, basically for the tax year 2005/06 (april 6th 2005 - April 5th 2006) the personal allowance was £4895 - you can earn this amount tax free, this year you can earn £5035 tax free", "Most attorneys are member of the state bar (lawyer) association. Search for your state and bar asssociation for the site for your state bar. It normally list their school and when they passed the exam to practice law in your state.", "Go to the government website of http://www.fafsa.ed.gov This is a free website. You can file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2005-2006 or 2006-2007 academic year. If you do the 05-06 fafsa you will need your 2004 income tax return and if you do the 06-07 fafsa you will need your 2005 income tax return. DON'T USE THE FAFSA.COM WEBSITE. They are a for profit company fafsa.ed.gov is FREE.", "According to Apple's Online Store, the ibook does ship with iLife '06. Here is the list from the site, it's the first piece of software noted:\\n\\nMore Software\\nIn addition, the iBook G4 comes with an incredible bundle of software:\\n\\n * - iLife ’06\\n * - iWork ’06 30-day trial\\n * - AppleWorks\\n * - Quicken 2005 for Macintosh\\n * - Nanosaur 2\\n * - Marble Blast Gold\\n * - Apple Hardware Test", "Bar exams are administered on a state by state basis. You should go to the state bar site of the state you are interested in and it should tell you. I believe though, that all states hold one bar exam in February and one in July.", "I am a new agent myself, I passed all my exams the first time through. Keep in mind two things: 1) I studied my butt off for the exam. and 2)Exam reqirements, and laws vary from state to state.", "while the car moves the distance between the eye lens and the book or page increases and the eve has to adjust itself many times this causes strain on the eves which are connected to the brain.that is why som people get a headache.\\nhehe...im in 10th std. so I studied about it.", "You exam results are confidential. The service you are looking for isn't available.", "Shahid Afridi (666621) against Harbhajan Singh Pak v Ind at Lahore in 2005-06\\n\\nKapil Dev (006666) against EE Hemmings Ind v Eng at Lord's in 1990", "The deadline to file taxes is April 15, but that is for income earned in the previous year. For example, April 15, 2006 is the deadline to file taxes for income earned in 2005. If you did not earn income in 2005, then you do not need to file a tax return by 04/15/06.", "Hi,\\n\\nI did the SCJA exam mid 2005 when it first came out. The exam covers just the basics of J2SE and J2EE, and does not require as much technical knowledge as the SCJP exam.\\n\\nI would suggest that you refer to Sun's website for details on the exam (click the certification link). There you can can get details of exactly what you will be tested on.\\n\\nThe links provided by the other answer above will definately help you as there are tutorials, sample papers, etc on those sites.\\n\\nI would advise you to study as though you were going to take the SCJP exam, and do the sample papers on those sites for SCJP.\\n\\nYou might want to check out this site for tutorials, etc: http://www.javacamp.org/index.html", "No there are no online registration available to start up business in India you require some one here either Lawyer or a Chartered Accountant to help you out\\n\\nYou could let me know i could help you.....if it is in the state of karnataka..........", "contact your old school who will ;\\n\\n1- know your results\\n\\n2- know the exam board you used.\\n\\nAnd then contact the exam board who will give you replacement certificates for a small fee. Thats what I did when I threw out my results out by accident :-))\\n\\n\\nHowever you could tell your employer any results. Because they don't care and will never check them up.\\nSometimes I tell empolyers I have french GCSE, just for a laugh!!!! Nobody cares.", "The purposes of a pelvic exam are as follows:\\n To examine your reproductive organs and determine if they are healthy\\n To screen for vaginal infections and sexually transmitted diseases (STD's)\\n To help determine what method of birth control is best for you\\n To check for early signs of cervical cancer, which can be treated and cured if found early\\n \\nPelvic exams and Pap smears may save nearly 16,000 women from dying of cervical cancer this year.\\n\\nPlease go to the website provided. It will explain in detail what to expect. It even gives you tips on how to make the exam more comfortable and what you can do to make sure you get accurate results.\\n\\nhttp://www.ppslr.org/Teenserv/Firstexam.htm", "The last State use of the guillotine in France occurred on September 10th 1977, when Hamida Djandoubi was executed; there should have been another in 1981, but the intended victim, Philippe Maurice, was granted clemency. The death penalty was abolished in France that same year." ]

[ "Taylor Swift gushes over Gomez's new song Swift and Gomez both spoke with Zane Lowe on Apple's Beat 1 radio and discussed the song “Lose You to Love Me.” Swift called the song “the best thing she's ever done,” sharing: “She came over, she played me the video. I'm so proud of her. She's been through so much." ]

[ "['8 Ariel Winter.', '7 Kylie Jenner.', '6 Jennifer Lawrence.', '5 Miley Cyrus.', '4 Sophie Turner.', '3 Selena Gomez.', '2 Taylor Swift.', '1 Kate Middleton.']", "['The Dixie Chicks. YouTube/Taylor Swift. ... ', 'A new cat. YouTube/Taylor Swift. ... ', 'A song called \"Lover\" YouTube/Taylor Swift. ... ', 'A goodbye to the Reputation era. ... ', 'The cowboy boots. ... ', 'Seven suitcases and seven outfits. ... ', 'The \"Look What You Made Me Do\" phone. ... ', 'The snakes.']", "Why Kendall Jenner Was Never Part of Taylor Swift's Girl Squad. In case you didn't know, Taylor Swift has many celebrity friends she's very close with. ... While Swift has become close with many female celebrites over the years, her relationship with Kendall Jenner is one we've questioned continuously.", "Taylor Swift ends Spotify spat. Taylor Swift has made her entire back catalogue available on Spotify, ending a three-year boycott of the streaming service following a row over artist royalties. ... Swift said the decision to return to streaming services was to “thank her fans” for her album 1989 passing 10m sales.", "Taylor Swift Lip-Syncs to Her Own Song at VMA Nominations Party | PEOPLE.com.", "Taylor Swift and Jaime King have been friends since 2014. Here are their pics & all you need to know about her long time best friend, Jaime King. Taylor Swift is not just a music sensation, but also a huge social butterfly. Swift's BFF squad is quite vast.", "Taylor Swift is my hero because she writes songs to make people happy. I consider Taylor my hero because when she wanted to be a singer and many challenges came, she didn't give up. She also makes people happy with her music. ... Swift also cares about kids' learning, so she makes videos to make them want to learn.", "Taylor Swift is worth at least $360 million — see how the pop superstar makes and spends her ever-growing fortune. Taylor Swift's net worth is an estimated $360 million, and she's one of the world's highest-paid celebrities.", "Taylor Swift's 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' Is Reportedly About Jake Gyllenhaal. If you date Taylor Swift, there's a very good chance she's going to write a song about you.", "Following their collaboration with Taylor Swift on her song \"Soon You'll Get Better\" from Swift's seventh studio album Lover, the Dixie Chicks confirmed that they would return to music with a new studio album after a 14-year hiatus.", "Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are friends again! The superstar duo, who recently collaborated on Swift's \"You Need to Calm Down\" music video, had been in a feud for several years, reportedly over backup dancers. However, after Perry extended a (literal) olive branch to T.", "Taylor Swift makes history as most awarded artist of all time at American Music Awards. Swift beat Michael Jackson's record of 24 all-time wins. Taylor Swift just made American Music Awards history.", "It appears Lorde may have mended her friendship with former \"best bud\" Taylor Swift. The New Zealand singer-songwriter famously described her relationship with Swift as \"like having a friend with very specific allergies\" in a 2017 interview with The Guardian. \"There are certain places you can't go together.", "Jake Gyllenhaal was the inspiration for Taylor Swift's \"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together\".", "Andrea Swift was first diagnosed with cancer in 2015. Taylor Swift just revealed her mother has been diagnosed with a brain tumor—while also being treated for cancer. In a new interview with Variety, Taylor, 30, opened up about her mother, Andrea Swift's condition.", "In 2017, after a publication mistakenly reported that she and Swift were on the outs, Lorde tweeted: \"I want to say one more time that Taylor has been there for me in all my dark and light moments these past five years. All of them.\" Since then, however, Swift and Lorde haven't been seen together much.", "Taylor Swift's Parents, Andrea and Scott, Divorced Over a Decade Ago.", "[' Taylor Swift. Photo: @taylorswift/Instagram. In 2015, Taylor Swift bought the famed Samuel Goldwyn Estate for $25 million. ... ', ' Jennifer Aniston. Photo: Office Christmas Party/Paramount Pictures. \"I am so proud of this house. ... ', ' Jennifer Lawrence. Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images. ... ', ' Katy Perry.']", "Stormzy's Vossi Bop beats Taylor Swift's Me to UK number 1.", "“Back to December” Jake Gyllenhaal was the inspiration for Taylor Swift's \"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together\".", "Swift made her acting debut in a 2009 episode of CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a rebellious teenager named Haley Jones. ... Swift made her feature film acting debut in the 2010 ensemble comedy Valentine's Day, playing the ditzy Valley girlfriend of a high school jock, played by ex-boyfriend Taylor Lautner.", "After ending what seemed like one of the longest celeb feuds ever, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift seem to have a little friendship going on. In an interview with Stellar Magazine, Katy made it clear that she and Taylor aren't suddenly best friends. But they do try and keep in contact with their busy schedules.", "Swift won the Emmy for Original Interactive Program for \"AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience,' which is available at the Apple App Store and on Google Play, according to a press release from the Academy. Swift is credited as both the artist and executive producer.", "Taylor Swift – 10 Grammys She is the youngest woman to win Album of the Year twice.", "2. Easter Eggs About Jake Gyllenhaal in Taylor Swift's \"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together\" Music Video. ... In her song \"The Moment I Knew,\" which is reportedly also about Gyllenhaal, Swift sings about crying over a guy when he didn't show up to her 21st birthday party.", "In July 2017, she issued a Twitter statement clarifying comments she made in an interview about Swift's squad. In an interview with Sunrise, many fans thought that Lorde suggested that she and Swift are no longer friends. “Taylor is a dear friend. I love her very much,” Lorde wrote in her Twitter statement.", "Taylor Swift is returning to “The Voice” as a mega mentor in the upcoming 17th season of the NBC singing competition series. The “Blank Space” singer will offer advice to each team of artists as they prepare for the knockout rounds in the show.", "['“See You Again” by Wiz Knalifa ft. Charlie Puth.', '“Sorry” by Justin Bieber.', '“Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars.', '“Blank Space” by Taylor Swift.', '“Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift.', '“Lean On” by Major Lazer & Dj Shake ft. Mo.', '“Hello” by Adele.', '“Roar” by Kary Perry.']", "A single white rose has always been associated with Selena's name. ... In the movie Selena a white rose is thrown to Selena but she doesn't catch it. It is used as a metaphor to show that she died because once it falls she stops singing as if everything that her and the rose have in common is gone.", "Are Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie dating? - Quora. No, Brendon Urie is married to his wife Sarah Urie (née Orzechowski). And are very happy together. And while I don't keep up with Taylor Swift that much, that's more my friend, a simple google search showed me that her current boyfriend is Joe Alwyn.", "['Mumford & Sons.', 'OneRepublic.', 'Shawn Mendes.', 'Taylor Swift.', 'The Lumineers.', 'Andy Grammer.', 'Ben Howard.', 'David Gray.']", "Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a former stockbroker for Merrill Lynch; her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), is a former homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive." ]

[ "Britain is monitoring five planes for radiation in an ever widening probe into the poisoning of a former Russian spy that has heightened tensions with Moscow." ]

[ "Britain gave the all clear on Thursday to one of four aircraft being monitored for radiation in an ever widening probe into the death from poisoning of a former Russian spy that has heightened tensions with Moscow.", "Two BA planes undergo more tests after traces of radiation are found in the probe into an ex-spy's death.", "British Airways said Friday that one of its planes that has been parked at a Moscow airport will fly to London later in the day for a radiation check.", "Traces of a radioactive substance are found on two BA planes at Heathrow during probe into ex-spy's death.", "UK experts probing the death of Alexander Litvinenko have found radioactive traces at 12 locations, a UK minister says.", "British Airways said on Wednesday that \"very low traces\" of radiation had been found on two of its aircraft by police probing the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.", "A probe begins into whether a missile downed an RAF Hercules plane in Iraq, with the loss of up to 15 lives.", "Russian authorities gave the all-clear on Saturday to a Finnair plane after delaying it for five hours for radiation checks, the Finnish carrier said.Comment", "British scientists are monitoring a fourth aircraft for possible radioactive contamination as part of a police probe into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, interior minister John Reid said on Thursday.", "A British investigation into the radiation poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has moved to Moscow, testing Russian authorities' willingness to cooperate with the probe.", "British scientists probing the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko said on Friday a second man had been poisoned by radiation.", "A UK police officer is in Hamburg after radiation is found at addresses connected with a contact of Alexander Litvinenko.", "A UK panel examining radiation risks says official estimates of the dangers to health may be wide of the mark.", "LONDON -- Officials have found traces of radiation on two British Airways jets, and the airline appealed yesterday to tens of thousands of passengers who flew to or from Moscow and other cities to come forward as investigators widened the search for clues into the poisoning death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.", "LONDON, Nov. 29 -- British authorities investigating the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko have discovered low levels of radiation on two British Airways jetliners, prompting the airline to ground the planes and issue warnings to as many as 33,000 passengers who traveled in the past...", "A day after the discovery of radiation on some British Airways jets, more is found at sites around Britain -- and another Kremlin critic is said to have been poisoned", "Investigators looking into the events surrounding the poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko found traces of radiation on two British Airways aircraft.", "The number of sites contaminated in the Russian spy radiation poisoning case has doubled to 12 and is likely to rise again, British Home Secretary John Reid said. He disclosed that two more jetliners have been caught up in the scare -- although one was later given a clean bill of health.", "Refreshing burst of candour in Whitehall Exclusive The UK's MoD, after a sustained campaign of nagging by the Reg defence desk, has revealed how many robot surveillance planes the UK forces will receive under the Watchkeeper programme.…", "Home Secretary John Reid has said the probe into the radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko would extend across Europe as police step up the hunt for the truth behind his death.", "The focus of a police probe into the death of a former Russian spy shifted towards a Mayfair hotel after seven staff tested positive for radiation contamination.", "A Kremlin aide on Thursday renewed Russian pledges to help Britain investigate the death of a former KGB spy in London after British police found traces of radiation on two aircraft that had flown from Moscow.", "A senior UK official is sent to Iraq to investigate why a plane came down with the probable loss of 10 lives.", "British authorities had tested eight people for possible radiation exposure as the investigation into the death of a former Russian spy continued.", "British investigators on Tuesday scoured the wreckage of a military plane that crashed north of Baghdad in a possible missile strike as London released the names of 10 servicemen killed.", "Sept. 14, 2004 -- Most men treated for prostate cancer with surgery or radiation are impotent five years after having surgery or radiation, and a significant percentage have other health-related quality-of", "LONDON -- Thousands of British Airways passengers sought reassurance from the airline on Thursday after police investigating the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko found traces of radiation on two aircraft.", "Inside the UK's most powerful microscope that is enabling researchers to probe individual atoms", "Crabs' urine and changes in snails' sex hormones are helping UK scientists to monitor the environment.", "UK physicists finish a crucial element of a device that will probe the forces that shape our Universe.", "Staying active through moderate walking may help prevent fatigue in men undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer, a UK study shows.", "A international panel set up to monitor a Sri Lankan probe into rights abuses warns it could end in failure." ]

[ "Battle of Lepanto | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia 1787–91 The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League , a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states , decisively defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire in five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece. The Ottoman forces sailing westwards from their naval station in Lepanto (Turkish language: İnebahtı; Greek: Ναύπακτος or Έπαχτος Naupaktos or Épahtos) met the Holy League forces, which had come from Messina , Sicily, where they had previously gathered. The victory of the Holy League prevented the Ottoman Empire expanding further along the European side of the Mediterranean. Lepanto was the last major naval battle in the Mediterranean fought entirely between galleys and has been assigned great symbolic importance by Catholic and other historians. Some assert that Turkish victory could have led to Western Europe being overrun, as had happened to the Byzantine Empire a little more than a century earlier. Contents Edit Depictions of the Ottoman Navy during the battle of Lepanto The Christian coalition had been promoted by Pope Pius V to rescue the Venetian colony of Famagusta , on the island of Cyprus, which was being besieged by the Turks in early 1571 subsequent to the fall of Nicosia and other Venetian possessions in Cyprus in the course of 1570. The banner for the fleet, blessed by the pope, reached the Kingdom of Naples (then ruled by the King of Spain ) on August 14, 1571. There in the Basilica of Santa Chiara it was solemnly consigned to John of Austria , who had been named leader of the coalition after long discussions between the allies. The fleet moved to Sicily and leaving Messina reached (after several stops) the port of Viscardo in Cephalonia , where news arrived of the fall of Famagusta and of the torture inflicted by the Turks on the Venetian commander of the fortress, Marco Antonio Bragadin . On August 1 the Venetians had surrendered after being reassured that they could leave Cyprus freely. However, the Ottoman commander, Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha , who had lost some 52,000 men in the siege[ citation needed ] (including his son), broke his word, imprisoning the Venetians. On 17 August Bragadin was flayed alive and his corpse hung on Mustafa's galley together with the heads of the Venetian commanders, Astorre Baglioni , Alvise Martinengo and Gianantonio Querini. Despite bad weather, the Christian ships sailed south and on October 6 they reached the port of Sami, Cephalonia then also called Val d'Alessandria, where they remained for a while. On 7 October they sailed toward the Gulf of Patras, where they encountered the Ottoman fleet. While neither fleet had immediate strategic resources or objectives in the gulf, both chose to engage. The Ottoman fleet had an express order from the Sultan to fight, and John of Austria found it necessary to attack in order to maintain the integrity of the expedition in the face of personal and political disagreements within the Holy League . [9] Forces The members of the Holy League were Spain (including the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of the Spanish possessions), the Republic of Venice , the Papacy, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Urbino , the Knights Hospitaller and others. Its fleet consisted of 206 galleys and 6 galleasses (large new galleys, invented by the Venetians, which carried substantial artillery ) and was commanded by Don John of Austria , the illegitimate son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire , and half-brother of Philip II of Spain , supported by the Spanish commanders Don Luis de Requesens and Don Álvaro de Bazán , and Genoan commander Gianandrea Doria . Vessels had been contributed by the various Christian states: 109 galleys and 6 galleasses from the Republic of Venice , 56 from the Spanish Empire (32 galleys from the Kingdom of Naples, 14 galleys from Spain, and 10 galleys from the Kingdo" ]

[ "Eleventh Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire Sultan Selim II - YouTube Eleventh Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire Sultan Selim II Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 4, 2014 Selim II (Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثانى Selīm-i sānī, Turkish:II.Selim; 28 May 1524 -- 12 December/15 December 1574), also known as \"Selim the Sot (Mest)\" and as \"Sarı Selim\" (Selim the Blond), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574. He was born in Constantinople a son of Suleiman the Magnificent and his favourite Ukrainian wife, Hürrem Sultan. In 1545, at Konya, he married Nurbanu Sultan, originally named Rachel Nasi (or Kale Katenou), mother of Murad III, who later became the first Valide Sultan who acted as co-regent with the sultan in the Sultanate of Women. After gaining the throne after palace intrigue and fraternal dispute, he succeeded as Sultan on 7 September 1566, According to one source Selim II became the first Sultan devoid of active military interest and willing to abandon power to his ministers, provided he was left free to pursue his orgies and debauches. Therefore, he became known as Selim the Drunkard. His Grand Vizier, Mehmed Sokollu, from what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, controlled much of state affairs, and two years after Selim's accession succeeded in concluding at Constantinople an honourable treaty (17 February 1568) with the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II, whereby the Emperor agreed to pay an annual \"present\" of 30,000 ducats and essentially granted the Ottomans authority in Moldavia and Walachia. Against Russia Selim was less fortunate, and the first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and her future northern rival gave presage of disaster to come. A plan had been prepared in Constantinople for uniting the Volga and Don by a canal, and in the summer of 1569 a large force of Janissaries and cavalry were sent to lay siege to Astrakhan and begin the canal works, while an Ottoman fleet besieged Azov. But a sortie of the garrison of Astrakhan drove back the besiegers; a Russian relief army of 15,000 attacked and scattered the workmen and the Tatar force sent for their protection; and finally, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm. Early in 1570 the ambassadors of Ivan IV of Russia concluded at Constantinople a treaty which restored friendly relations between the Sultan and the Tsar. Expeditions in the Hejaz and Yemen were more successful, but the conquest of Cyprus in 1571, which provided Selim with his favourite vintage, led to the calamitous naval defeat against Spain and Italian states in the Battle of Lepanto in the same year, freeing the Mediterranean Sea from corsairs. The Empire's shattered fleets were soon restored (in just six months; it consisted of about 150 galleys and 8 galleasses) and the Ottomans maintained control of the Mediterranean (1573). In August 1574, months before Selim's death, the Ottomans regained control of Tunisia from Spain who had controlled it since 1572. Marks of decay Scottish historian Lord Kinross, in his The Seeds of Decline, sees the massive outlay for the fleet-rebuilding following the Battle of Lepanto as the start of the Empire's slow decay. Kinross also says that Selim's reputation for drunkenness was solidified in his decision to invade Cyprus rather than supporting the Morisco Revolt (1568--1571) in Granada as well as in the manner of his death; Selim died in the Topkapı Palace after a period of fever brought on when he drunkenly slipped over on the wet floor of an unfinished bath-house, getting a head injury. Category", "Battle of Trafalgar | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies , during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). The battle was the most decisive naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost. The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the previous century and was achieved in part through Nelson's departure from the prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy , which involved engaging an enemy fleet in a single line of battle parallel to the enemy to facilitate signalling in battle and disengagement, and to maximise fields of fire and target areas. Nelson instead divided his smaller force into two columns directed perpendicularly against the larger enemy fleet, with decisive results. Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming one of Britain's greatest war heroes. The commander of the joint French and Spanish forces, Admiral Villeneuve, was captured along with his ship Bucentaure . Spanish Admiral Federico Gravina escaped with the remnant of the fleet and succumbed months later to wounds sustained during the battle. Contents Main article: Trafalgar Campaign In 1805, the First French Empire , under Napoleon Bonaparte , was the dominant military land power on the European continent, while the Royal Navy controlled the seas. During the course of the war, the British imposed a naval blockade on France, which affected trade and kept the French from fully mobilising their own naval resources. Despite several successful evasions of the blockade by the French navy, it failed to inflict a major defeat upon the British. They were able to attack French interests at home and abroad with relative ease. When the Third Coalition declared war on France, after the short-lived Peace of Amiens , Napoleon was determined to invade Britain. To do so, he needed to ensure that the Royal Navy would be unable to disrupt the invasion flotilla , which would require control of the English Channel. The main French fleets were at Brest in Brittany and at Toulon on the Mediterranean coast. Other ports on the French Atlantic coast harboured smaller squadrons . France and Spain were allied, so the Spanish fleet based in Cádiz and Ferrol was also available. The British possessed an experienced and well-trained corps of naval officers. [3] By contrast, most of the best officers in the French navy had either been executed or dismissed from the service during the early part of the French Revolution . As a result, Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was the most competent senior officer available to command Napoleon's Mediterranean fleet. However, Villeneuve had shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm for facing Nelson and the Royal Navy after the French defeat at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Napoleon's naval plan in 1805 was for the French and Spanish fleets in the Mediterranean and Cádiz to break through the blockade and join forces in the Caribbean. They would then return, assist the fleet in Brest to emerge from the blockade, and together clear the English Channel of Royal Navy ships, ensuring a safe passage for the invasion barges. The Caribbean Edit Early in 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson commanded the British fleet blockading Toulon. Unlike William Cornwallis , who maintained a tight grip off Brest with the Channel Fleet, Nelson adopted a loose blockade in the hope of luring the French out for a major battle. However, Villeneuve's fleet successfully evaded Nelson's when the British were blown off station by storms. While Nelson was searching the Mediterranean for him, erroneously s", "Panoramio - Photo of Nafpaktos - On the shady side of the street ... again ! - BEWARE OF AUGUST ! (Please read my post under the photo !) Panoramio is closing. Learn how to back up your data . This is how your name and profile photo will appear on Panoramio if you connect this Google+ account. You cannot switch to a different account later. Learn more . Nafpaktos - On the shady side of the street ... again ! - BEWARE OF AUGUST ! (Please read my post under the photo !) August for Panoramio is normally a bad month ! Bugs & miscellaneous threats are usually installed at the site, counting & statistics are usually broken every first week of this month (remember last year too), but nothing can be repaired ! All decisions about the maintaining of the site are in fact circumventing and every year the site is shrinking ! (C. Theodorou) Naupactus or Nafpaktos (Greek: Ναύπακτος, formerly Έπαχτος; Latin: Naupactus; Italian: Lepanto), is a town and a former municipality in Aetolia-Acarnania, West Greece, Greece. The 1571 Battle of Lepanto, in which the navy of the Ottoman Turks was decisively defeated by a coalition of European Christians, is named for Naupactus under the Italian form of its name. Naupactus is situated on a bay on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, 3 km west of the mouth of the river Mornos. The harbour is accessible only to the smallest craft. It is 9 km northeast of Antirrio, 18 km northeast of Patras, and 35 km east of Messolongi. The name Naupaktos means \"boatyard\", from ναύς (ancient Greek naus, meaning \"ship\") and πηγνύειν (Ancient Greek pêgnuein meaning \"to build\"). It was later Latinized as Naupactus. In the Byzantine period, the name used was the slightly altered form Epachtos (Έπαχτος), while the Venetian term was Lepanto and the Ottoman Turkish İnebahtı. The ancient name was revived in the 19th century. In Greek legend, Naupactus is the place where the Heraclidae built a fleet to invade the Peloponnese. In historical times it belonged to the Ozolian Locrians; but about 455 BC, in spite of a partial resettlement with Locrians of Opus, it fell to the Athenians, who peopled it with Messenian refugees and made it their chief naval station in western Greece during the Peloponnesian war. Two major battles were fought here. In 404 it was restored to the Locrians, who subsequently lost it to the Achaeans, but recovered it through Epaminondas. Philip II of Macedon gave Naupactus to the Aetolians, who held it till 191 BC, when after an obstinate siege it was surrendered to the Romans. It was still flourishing about 170. In 551/2, during the reign of Justinian I, the city was destroyed by an earthquake. The town and its hinterland were hit by an epidemic coming from Italy in 747/8 and almost deserted. From the late 9th century, probably the 880s, it was capital of the Byzantine thema of Nicopolis. At the same time, its bishopric was elevated to a metropolis. During the 9th–10th centuries, the town was an important harbour for the Byzantine navy and a strategic point for communication with the Byzantine possessions in southern Italy. A rebellion of the local populace, which led to the death of the local strategos George, is recorded during the early reign of Constantine VIII (r. 1025–28). In 1040, the town did not take part in the Uprising of Peter Delyan, and although attacked by the rebel army, alone among the towns of the theme of Nicopolis, it resisted successfully. The history of the town over the next two centuries is obscure; during the visit of Benjamin of Tudela, there was a Jewish community of about 100 in the town. Following the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade, it became part of the Despotate of Epirus. Under its metropolitan, John Apokaukos, the see of Naupactus gained in importance and headed the local synod for the southern hald of the Epirote domains. In 1294, the town was ceded to Philip I, Prince of Taranto as part of the dowry of Thamar Angelina Komnene. The ruler of Thessaly, Constantine Doukas, attacked Epirus in the next year and captured Naupactus, but i", "AboutDarwin.com - Beagle Voyage Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty Early H.M.S. Beagle history About the second Beagle Survey The search for a Naturalist Charles Darwin receives a letter Preparing for the adventure of a lifetime How did Charles Darwin end up setting out on a voyage of discovery around the world aboard H.M.S. Beagle? Most descriptions of this turn of events start out with Capt. Robert FitzRoy seeking a naturalist to accompany him on the voyage in the early summer of 1831, but the story actually begins much earlier than this - to a time before Charles Darwin was even born. The emergence of Britain as the uncontested ruler of the seas after the Napoleonic Wars is where our story begins. With this in mind, we turn back to the year 1805, four years before Charles Darwin was born. Ever since the French Revolution of 1789, the nations of Europe had been maneuvering to reestablish the balance of power throughout the continent. German and Austrian forces were invading France on and off since 1795 and Great Britain had maintained economic pressure on France by establishing a trade blockade. France made inroads into northern Italy and Egypt near the turn of the century, but their gains were soon lost. This series of events lead us to October of 1805. The naval fleets of France and Spain tried to gain control of the English Channel in order to facilitate Napoleon's invasion of Britain. The British Navy responded to this threat by sending a fleet of warships under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson to confront the French and Spanish fleets off the coast of Spain. On 20 October the French fleet tried to maneuver to the south, but Nelson caught them off Cape Trafalgar the next day. One of the largest battles in naval history ensued, with Admiral Nelson's fleet of 27 ships going against a fleet of 33 ships (18 French and 15 Spanish). In the end, the French and Spanish fleets were crushed. About 1,500 British seamen were killed or wounded, but not a single British warship was lost. The defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar ended Napoleon's plans to invade England, and the Napoleonic Wars came to a close ten years later at the Battle of Waterloo where the French Army was routed by Anglo-German forces. France surrendered soon after, and Napoleon was exiled to the island of St. Helena where he died in 1821. At the close of the Napoleonic Wars Britain found itself as the only nation with a navy large enough to police the seas, and the focus of the British Navy turned from making war, to making trade safe for their growing empire. This was accomplished in three ways: suppressing piracy, discouraging the slave trade, and charting the oceans. The most important of these was the production of accurate charts and maps of the coastlines and harbors of countries around the world. Capt. Thomas Hurd (Hydrographer of the Navy, 1808-23) outlined those regions of the world that required the most attention, and South America was near the top of his list. The Spanish colonies in South America, having just won their independence from Spain and Portuga", "Crescent and cross : the Battle of Lepanto 1571 (Book, 2003) [WorldCat.org] Publisher description Abstract: \"For much of the last fourteen hundred years the relationship between Christianity and Islam has been extremely troubled. Competition, misunderstanding and fanaticism led to frequent conflicts between those marching under the banners of the two religions, often ferocious in the extreme and studded with atrocities. Yet between these episodes - even at times in the midst of them - Muslims and Christians traded and associated with each other without any inherent animosity.\" \"This book describes an event widely believed to herald the ultimate supremacy of western culture. On the morning of 7 October 1571, at the mouth of a gulf in western Greece, the fleets of the Muslim Ottoman Empire and the Roman Catholic Holy League collided in the last great battle ever to be fought between oared fighting ships. The Battle of Lepanto was the outstanding military event in a sixteenth century marked by constant warfare, and the greatest single battle ever fought between crescent and cross. Many believe that it changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean forever, and turned back a Muslim tide that threatened to engulf Europe.\" \"However, as Hugh Bicheno shows here, the symbolic importance of Lepanto far outweighed its military significance. This timely book is the first major study of the battle ever written in English, and the first for many years in any language. It is enormous in scope, tracing the lines of history that came together at that time and place to explain why an event that barely affected the geopolitical balance in the Mediterranean is regularly counted among the decisive battles of history. Not least, as an illustration of the complex human reality behind an age-old conflict, the story is acutely relevant to the history we are living at present\"-- Reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Tags Add tags for \"Crescent and cross : the Battle of Lepanto 1571\". Be the first. Similar Items a schema:Review ; schema:itemReviewed < http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51965775 > ; # Crescent and cross : the Battle of Lepanto 1571 schema:reviewBody \"\"For much of the last fourteen hundred years the relationship between Christianity and Islam has been extremely troubled. Competition, misunderstanding and fanaticism led to frequent conflicts between those marching under the banners of the two religions, often ferocious in the extreme and studded with atrocities. Yet between these episodes - even at times in the midst of them - Muslims and Christians traded and associated with each other without any inherent animosity.\" \"This book describes an event widely believed to herald the ultimate supremacy of western culture. On the morning of 7 October 1571, at the mouth of a gulf in western Greece, the fleets of the Muslim Ottoman Empire and the Roman Catholic Holy League collided in the last great battle ever to be fought between oared fighting ships. The Battle of Lepanto was the outstanding military event in a sixteenth century marked by constant warfare, and the greatest single battle ever fought between crescent and cross. Many believe that it changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean forever, and turned back a Muslim tide that threatened to engulf Europe.\" \"However, as Hugh Bicheno shows here, the symbolic importance of Lepanto far outweighed its military significance. This timely book is the first major study of the battle ever written in English, and the first for many years in any language. It is enormous in scope, tracing the lines of history that came together at that time and place to explain why an event that barely affected the geopolitical balance in the Mediterranean is regularly counted among the decisive battles of history. Not least, as an illustration of the complex human reality behind an age-old conflict, the story is acutely relevant to the history we are living at present\"--\" ; .", "Salamis - Ancient History Encyclopedia Salamis by Mark Cartwright published on 05 May 2013 With defeat at Thermopylae , the inconclusive naval battle at Artemision, and Xerxes ’ Persian army on the rampage, the Greek city -states faced an unprecedented attack, one which threatened their very existence. The tide would turn, though, in September 480 BCE at the Battle of Salamis in the Saronic Gulf, a naval battle which would rank as one of the greatest and most significant in antiquity. Overcoming superior numbers with daring tactics and sheer determination, the allied Greek forces won a freedom which would allow a never-before-seen period of artistic and cultural endeavour which would form the foundations of Western culture for millennia. Context: The Persian Wars By the first years of the 5th century BCE, Persia , under the rule of Darius (r. 522-486 BCE), was already expanding into mainland Europe and had subjugated Thrace and Macedonia. The next objective was to quell once and for all the collection of potentially troublesome rebel states on the western border of the Empire . In 490 BCE Greek forces led by Athens met the Persians in battle at Marathon and defeated the invaders. The battle would take on mythical status amongst the Greeks, but in reality it was merely the opening overture of a long war with several other battles making up the principal acts. In 486 BCE Xerxes became king, and he invaded first the Cyclades and then the Greek mainland after victory at Thermopylae in August 480 BCE against a token Greek force. At the indecisive naval battle of Artemision (also in August 480 BCE), the Greeks held off the superior numbers of the Persian fleet but were obliged to regroup at Salamis. Remove Ads Advertisement Greece then, lay open to the invaders and Persian forces rampaged through the Greek poleis or city-states, sacking even Athens itself. Some 30 Greek poleis, however, were preparing to fight back and the Battle of Salamis would show Xerxes that Greece, or at least a large chunk of it, was far from being conquered. The Persian Fleet The vast Persian Empire stretched from the Danube to Egypt and from Ionia to Bactria , and Xerxes was able to draw on a huge reserve of resources to amass a huge invasion force. Ariabignes, the son of Darius, commanded the Ionian, Carian, Achaimene, and Egyptian fleets. Cybernis, the king of Xanthos, led the Lycian fleet of 50 ships. Artemisia, the tyrant of Halicarnassus , led the Dorian fleet of 30 ships and other known commanders included Prexaspes, Megabazus, and Achaimenes. Technically, the Persians, and especially the Phoenicians, were better seamen, but as the fleet was drawn from all parts of the Empire, the motivation and communication levels were perhaps less than their opponents who all spoke the same language and who were fighting not only for their own survival but that of their families and their way of life. The Persian fleet significantly outnumbered the Greeks. The exact number of ships in the Persian fleet is not known. Herodotus in his Histories (440-430 BCE) compiles precise lists but these are widely thought to be exaggerated and unreliable. Also, his list is for the Persian fleet which originally sailed to Greek waters and by the time of Salamis, many would have been left to guard ports and supply routes or have been lost in storms (especially at Magnesia) and in the Battle of Artemision a month earlier. Nevertheless, below are his figures for triremes - warships with three banks of oars (note the contributions from conquered or pro-Persian Greek cities ): Dorian 30 Cyclades 17 An alternative source - the writer of Greek tragedy Aeschylus - does seem to support Herodotus in his Persae (472 BCE) where he states that the Persian fleet had 1,207 ships compared to the Greek force of only 310. Accounting for losses incurred in the manner described above it is estimated that perhaps around 500 triremes faced the Greeks at Salamis but there is no scholarly consensus on even an approximate figure. There would also have been many smaller ships such as penteconte", "Caravaggio - Painter - Biography.com Caravaggio Caravaggio, or Michelangelo Merisi, was an Italian painter who is considered one of the fathers of modern painting. IN THESE GROUPS Famous People Born in Italy Synopsis Caravaggio was born as Michelangelo Merisi in Italy around 1571. He was orphaned at age 11 and apprenticed with a painter in Milan. He moved to Rome, where his work became popular for the tenebrism technique he used, which used shadow to emphasize lighter areas. His career, however, was short-lived. Caravaggio killed a man during a brawl and fled Rome. He died not long after, on July 18, 1610. Early Years Caravaggio, whose fiery masterpieces included \"The Death of the Virgin\" and \"David with the Head of Goliath,\" and who inspired generations of artists, was born as Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in 1571 in Italy. The world he arrived in was violent and, at times, unstable. His birth came just a week before the Battle of Lepanto, a bloody conflict in which Turkish invaders were driven out of Christendom. Not much is known about Caravaggio's early family life. His father, Fermo Merisi, was the steward and architect of the marquis of Caravaggio. When Caravaggio was six, the bubonic plague rolled through his life, killing almost everyone in his family, including his father. According to writer Andrew Graham-Dixon, author of the 2011 biography \"Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane,\" the artist's troubled adult years stemmed directly from that traumatic loss of his family. \"He almost seems bound to transgress,\" Dixon writes. \"It's almost like he cannot avoid transgressing. As soon as he's welcomed by authority, welcomed by the pope, welcomed by the Knights of Malta, he has to do something to screw it up. It's almost like a fatal flaw.\" Orphaned, Caravaggio took to the streets and fell in with a group of \"painters and swordsmen who lived by the motto nec spe, nec metu, 'without hope, without fear,'\" wrote an earlier biographer. At the age of 11, Caravaggio relocated to Milan and began apprenticing with the painter Simone Peterzano. In his late teens, perhaps as early as 1588, a penniless Caravaggio moved to Rome. There, to keep himself fed, Caravaggio found work assisting other painters, many of them far less talented than he. But as instability defined his existence, Caravaggio jumped from one job to the next. Sometime around 1595, Caravaggio struck out on his own and started selling his paintings through a dealer. His work soon caught the attention of Cardinal Francesco del Monte, who adored Caravaggio's paintings and quickly set him up in his own house, with room, board and a pension. A prolific painter, Caravaggio was known to work quickly, often starting and completing a painting in just two weeks. By the time he had come under the influence of del Monte, Caravaggio already had 40 works to his name. The lineup included \"Boy with a Basket of Fruit,\" \"The Young Bacchus\" and \"The Music Party.\" Much of Caravaggio's early work featured chubby, pretty young boys done up as angels or lutenists or his favorite saint, John the Baptist. Many of the boys in the paintings are naked or loosely clothed. Caravaggio's only known assistant was a boy named Cecco, who appears in a number of Caravaggio's works and who may have also been his lover. Widening Appeal In 1597, Caravaggio was awarded the commission for the decoration of the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It was an important and daunting assignment, charging the 26-year-old painter with the task of creating three large paintings depicting separate scenes from St. Matthew's life. The three resulting works, \"St. Matthew and the Angel,\" \"The Calling of St. Matthew,\" and \"The Martyrdom of St. Matthew,\" were finished in 1601, and together showed Caravaggio's remarkable range as an artist. But these works also provoked much consternation from the church and public alike. In his execution of the work, Caravaggio eschewed the traditional worshipful depictions of the saints and presented St. Matthew in a far more realistic light. His first", "Millennium Falcon | Wookieepedia | Fandom powered by Wikia ― Han Solo to Lando Calrissian [src] The Falcon leads the starfighter attack during the Battle of Endor . During the Battle of Endor , Lando and Sullustan copilot Nien Nunb flew the Falcon as Gold Leader. After the planetary shield protecting the second Death Star was destroyed, the Falcon and several Alliance fighters entered the battle station through a conduit port and headed towards the reactor core. Space was limited in the conduit tunnels leading to the core and the relatively large Falcon lost its sensor dish when the ship clipped a conduit in the tunnel. Lando was able to pilot the craft into the energy core housing the main reactor, fired upon the reactor, and headed for the exhaust port. The Falcon barely succeeded in outrunning the massive explosion that destroyed the powerful battlestation. Soon afterwards, the Imperial fleet retreated and the galaxy celebrated the death of the Emperor. [10] New Republic Edit On the day after the Battle of Endor, Han Solo and the rebel pilot Shara Bey flew the Millennium Falcon during an attack on an Imperial outpost on the far side of Endor . [14] Several months later, Han Solo and Chewbacca traveled through space on the Millennium Falcon. After receiving intelligence from Imra that the Empire had reduced their presence on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk due to the advances of the New Republic , Solo and Chewie traveled to Warrin Station to rally smugglers and Wookiee exiles for a campaign to liberate Kashyyyk. [11] However, this information turned out to be a trap set by the Empire. Chewie was captured but Han managed to escape on the Falcon. A year later , Solo corresponded with his wife Princess Leia via hologram on the edge of Wild Space . During the conversation, the Falcon came under attack and communication was lost with Leia. In response, Leia dispatched the New Republic starfighter pilot Norra Wexley to rescue her husband. Norra was joined by her son Temmin Wexley , the B1 battle droid Mister Bones , the former Imperial Sinjir Rath Velus , the Devaronian bounty hunter Jas Emari , and the New Republic Special Forces soldier Jom Barell . [15] Norra and her team managed to find Solo and the Falcon on the planet Irudiru . After interrogating the Siniteen prison builder Golas Aram , Solo and his rebel allies traveled on the Falcon and Emari's ship Halo to the Kashyyyk system . They managed to bluff their way through the Imperial blockade by posing as repair crew working at Ashmead's Lock , an automated prison on the far side of Kashyyyk. There, they managed to free Chewbacca and a hundred other prisoners including Norra's husband Brentin Lore Wexley . Norra, Temmin, and the prisoners except Chewbacca then used the Falcon to travel back to the New Republic capital of Chandrila . [15] After learning that the Wookiee uprising was underway and that the Empire was orbitally bombarding Kashyyyk, Leia convinced the Alderaanian pilot Evaan Verlaine to fly her on the Millennium Falcon into the Kashyyyk system to aid her husband and Chewie. Later, she contacted the New Republic Captain Wedge Antilles and convinced him to send his Phantom Squadron there. Wedge contacted Chancellor Mon Mothma who dispatched Admiral Ackbar and his ship Home One to defeat the Imperial fleet. [15] During the brief space skirmish, Leia and Evaan flew circles around the Imperial Star Destroyers. After the Imperials capitulated, Leia landed the Falcon in the hangar of the Star Destroyer Dominion , which her husband Han had captured. Leia used the ship's laser cannons to blast several stormtroopers who were still putting up a fight. After reuniting with her husband, Leia and Solo took the Falcon to Kashyyyk. There, they parted company with Chewbacca before returning to Chandrila. [15] Reappearance", "BBC - History - The Crimean War The Crimean War By Andrew Lambert Last updated 2011-03-29 The Crimean War, famed for the 'Charge of the Light Brigade', would fundamentally alter the balance of power in Europe and set the stage for World War One. On this page Print this page The Vienna Settlement At the end of the Napoleonic wars, the Great Powers assembled in Vienna to restore the European state system – a delicate balance between the various major and minor powers that restrained aggression by the mighty, and upheld the rights of the weak. They hoped to build a permanent peace by suppressing revolutionary republics and upholding stable, orderly monarchies. Despite the divergent aims and ambitions of Russia, Prussia, Austria, Britain and France, a compromise was created, following the brief interruption of Napoleon’s ‘Hundred Days’ and the Battle of Waterloo. Nicholas decided to settle the ‘sick man of Europe’ by carving up the European part of Turkey. After the Treaty of Vienna the great powers enjoyed three decades of peace, years in which industrial, political, economic, social and nationalist pressures were suppressed or deflected. But eventually the Vienna system broke down. The initial problem was the weakness of the Ottoman-Turkish empire, and the opportunities this provided for European interference in support of the Christian populations. The new president of France, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, exploited Turkish weakness to secure concessions for the Catholic church in Palestine, hoping to gain conservative support for his planned coup d’etat. When Tsar Nicholas I of Russia retaliated, sending a mission to recover Greek Orthodox rights, the Turks simply gave way to both parties, and hoped the issue would go away. Having established the Second Empire, (Louis) Napoleon III lost interest, but Nicholas decided to settle the ‘sick man of Europe’ once and for all. Expecting support from Prussia, Austria and Britain, he planned to carve up the European part of Turkey. He was mistaken, neither Britain nor Austria wanted to see Russia controlling the Dardanelles. Sensing an opening for a useful diplomatic success France joined Britain in support of Turkey, which rejected the Tsar’s outrageous terms. Top Road to war Istanbul at sunset © In July 1853, Russia occupied the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Walachia) to pressure Istanbul, but this threatened Austria’s economic lifeline - the Danube. For a ‘sick man’, Turkey proved remarkably dextrous and aggressive. Outwitting Austria, Britain and France, who still favoured a diplomatic settlement, they declared war in October 1853 and attacked the Russians. In late November, the Russian Black Sea fleet annihilated a Turkish squadron at Sinope. Britain, anxious to secure her trade with Turkey and access to India by maintaining the Ottoman regime, saw this as an insult and popular opinion made a vigorous response inevitable. Britain and France demanded that Russia evacuate, setting their ultimatum to expire in late March 1854. The arriviste French empire, for its part, was desperate for military glory and revenge for its defeat at the hands of Russia in 1812. For them, the Ottoman-Turkish empire was incidental. Britain and France demanded that Russia evacuate the Danubian Principalities, setting their ultimatum to expire in late March 1854 - the timing determined by the break up of the Baltic ice fields off Reval where the British hoped to annihilate part of the Russian Baltic fleet. Britain always saw its main instrument for the coercion of Russia to be naval force in the north. After all, Russia’s capital was on the Baltic littoral, close to her other great security concern, Poland. The ultimatum expired and although the harbour at Reval was empty, the powerful Anglo-French fleet nonetheless took command of the Baltic, destroying the key fortress of Bomarsund in August 1854. Top Outbreak of war British troops are cheered as they set off for the Crimea © At the outbreak of war, an allied army of 60,000 was already in Turkey to defend Istanbul. Austria then joined Fr", "The Curious Yarn of Paul's \"Shipwreck\" Journeys with an Apostle – The Final Mission The Curious Yarn of Paul's \"Shipwreck\" All at Sea! Paul's right arm? Wonder of wonders, the Church of St Paul's Shipwreck, Valletta, Malta, claims to possess \"a portion of the right wrist bone\" of the apostle. What the jewelled reliquary actually contains is anybody's guess. This dubious relic is unlikely ever to be subjected to the rigors of scientific examination. Its authenticity was vouched for by the Sacrist to His Holiness Pope Pius VII and several other early 19th century papal worthies. Castaways The ship carrying Paul to Rome encountered two weeks of storms, but the apostle was unconcerned. An angel had assured him that he \"must\" appear before Caesar (Acts 27.24). The insouciant rabbi urged his terrified shipmates to eat and be of \"good cheer.\" Paul (and all 275 others on board) survived shipwreck on Melita. According to the yarn, after a three-month stay on the island, Paul kept his date with destiny by taking another ship bound for Puteoli (near Naples). \"Masters\" of Malta European knights of the Order of St John, ejected from the Holy Land, established themselves on Malta as a military/religious aristocracy under the autocratic rule of the \"Grand Master.\" After the Ottoman defeat at Lepanto in 1571 the Order's usefulness as Christian shock troops was spent. Ambitious and irredeemably avaricious, the knights established Europe's largest slave market, spent a fortune on palaces and fortresses, and introduced the Inquisition. They also introduced a Christian \"tradition\" that the apostle Paul had been shipwrecked on their island. The claim helped the decadent \"warrior-monks\" go on extracting loot from their European patrons for the \"protection of holy places.\" The annual rent for the island paid by the Order to the Spanish crown was one peregrine falcon. St Paul makes landfall – the \"shipwreck\" site? St Paul's Bay, Malta Eschewing the Greek tradition attached to an island in the north Adriatic, the Latin knights, backed by the Pope, chose this bay on the northwest coast of Malta for Paul's landfall. Over the years many other bays have been proposed for the apostle's shipwreck, each supported by special pleas that they \"best fit\" the less than adequate clues in Acts. As late as the 19th century, the wreck site was transferred from the shore to the more picturesque islet of Salmonetta on the edge of the bay. A statue was erected and the name changed to St Paul's Islands (in reality a single island with a low-lying bridging section). It looks appropriate but Paul's ship could not have ran aground on this islet because the survivors would then have had to be rescued from the island! X marks the spot This awful modern church astride the road in St Paul's Bay claims to be built on the very spot where Paul encountered his snake and impressed the locals. Nearby is where St Paul tried his first cheeseburger. Only kidding. Where empires meet Two of the greatest cities of the pre-Roman age were within easy sailing distance of Malta: Carthage (founded by Phoenicians from Tyre in 814 BC); and Syracuse (founded by Greeks from Corinth in 743 BC). After great destruction both cities were rebuilt as provincial capitals within the Roman empire. Contact with Malta must have been frequent and sustained. The Itinerarium Antoninianum lists the island as a port on the Italy-Africa run. Arabs deposed the last of the Byzantine rulers in 870 and the locals adopted many aspects of the invader's culture, including agriculture, Islam and Arabic (the basis of the Malti spoken today). Roger the Norman took the island in 1090 and introduced feudalism. The island passed to Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, who expelled the Muslim population and used the island as a penal colony. Eventually, possession of Malta passed to the Spanish crown. Malta has few natural resources, but with its many deep harbours the island remained strategically important to the world's navies from the time of the Crusades through to the end of World War", "Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War | Understanding Uncertainty Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War Submitted by ims25 on Tue, 07/10/2008 - 5:06pm On 28 March 1854 Britain and France declared war on Russia, and for the next two years British, French, Sardinian, and Turkish troops fought against Russians in the Crimean War. The loss of life in the war was colossal; of 1 650 000 soldiers who began the war (of all nations), 900 000 died. The majority of those who perished did not die from wounds; rather they died from diseases brought about by the terrible living conditions which they suffered. In these notes we review the Crimean War, and the role Florence Nightingale had in highlighting the plight of the soldiers. Siege of Sevastopol Background to the war The Ottoman Empire (1293-1922) was a realm centred on Turkey, which, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, spanned thousands of miles into Africa, Asia, and Europe. The empire declined in the nineteenth century, and as it shrank there was conflict over control of the territory. The Holy Land (modern day Israel) was a region in the Ottoman Empire that had a long history of power struggles. In the 1850s France and Russia vied for authority of the Holy Land, each trying to force their will on the Ottomans who occupied the territory. Their disagreement escalated, and as the threat of Russian interference in the whole Ottoman Empire increased, Britain, Austria, and Prussia became involved to try to maintain stability of the empire. Initial peaceful negotiations failed, and the British and French sided with the Turkish Ottomans in war against the Russians. Major events of the war Most of the conflict in the Crimean War occurred on the Crimean Peninsula, which lies on the southern tip of Ukraine, and projects into the Black Sea. The Crimea was an important military position for the Russians, because their naval fleet could access the Mediterranean Sea from the region. Several of the more significant battles in the Crimean War are described below. The Battle of the Alma (20 September 1854). In the first battle of the Crimean War, British and French forces clashed with Russian forces near the River Alma in the Crimea. The Russians were defeated. Siege of Sevastopol (25 September 1854 to 8 September 1855). Sevastopol is a city in the south of the Crimea, and it was the home of a major fleet of Russian ships. The British, French, and Turkish troops besieged the city for one year before finally capturing it on the 9 September 1855. The Battle of Balaclava (25 October 1854). The Battle of Balaclava is now remembered for the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade which saw British cavalry charge needlessly to their doom under the muddled and misinformed orders of their superiors. Much of the fame of this futile advance is due to a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson entitled 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', which describes the bravery of the cavalry under incompetent command. The Battle of Balaclava involved British, French, Turkish, and Russian armies. It finished inconclusively, although the Russians suffered heavier losses. The Battle of Eupatoria (17 February 1855). A large Russian force attacked the town of Eupatoria in the Crimea, which was occupied by the Turks. The Russians were repelled. The Sea of Azov naval campaign (25 May 1855 to 22 November 1855). British and French war ships attacked Russian ports from the Sea of Azov during a six month period in 1855. The object of these attacks was to intercept Russian communications and supplies. The war ships bombarded the Russian towns repeatedly, but they were met with stubborn resistance, and attempts to land and overthrow the port towns were quashed. Map of Crimea with locations of battles marked. The close of the war The war concluded in February 1856. The Ottoman and Russian Empires agreed to halt military activity on the Black Sea, and all nations agreed to respect the autonomy of the Ottoman Empire. The peace treaty was not to last long though. The balance of power and partnership in Europe was in a s", "AP European History Timeline | Preceden Hundred Years War 1337 - 1453 The Hundred Years' War, a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453, pitted the Kingdom of England against the Valois Capetians for control of the French throne. Each side drew many allies into the fighting. The war had its roots in a dynastic disagreement dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, who became King of England in 1066 while retaining possession of the Duchy of Normandy in France. As the rulers of Normandy and other lands on the continent, the English kings owed feudal homage to the King of France. In 1337, Edward III of England refused to pay homage to Philip VI of France, leading the French King to claim confiscation of Edward's lands in Aquitaine. War of the Roses Fight between the Yorks and Lancasters over the English throne Henry Tudor (Lancaster) won and started the Tudor dynasty. Hapsburg-Valois Wars 1494 - 1559 The Italian Wars, often referred to as the Great Italian Wars or the Great Wars of Italy and sometimes as the Habsburg–Valois Wars or the Renaissance Wars, were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, most of the major states of Western Europe (France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and Scotland) as well as the Ottoman Empire. Originally arising from dynastic disputes over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples, the wars rapidly became a general struggle for power and territory among their various participants, and were marked with an increasing number of alliances, counter-alliances, and betrayals. Treaty of Tordesillas Divided the New World and Asia between Spain and Portugal; enacted by a Spanish pope Sack of Rome 1546 - 1555 Schmalkaldic League was an alliance of Lutheran German princes against Charles V War ended in a truce. Peace of Augsberg- rulers of a German region can choose Catholicism of Lutheranism for their region. Charles was winning at first, but the Henry II of France supported the princes. Peace of Augsburg 1555 Ended the religious civil war between Roman Catholics and Lutherans in the German states Gave each German prince the right to determine the religion of his state, either Roman Catholic or Lutheran Failed to provide for the recognition of Calvinists or other religious groups French Wars of Religion Nobles, towns and provinces are trying to resist centralization Edict of Nantes clarified the religious situation with the Huguenots Dutch War of Independence 1568 - 1648 The Eighty Years' War, or Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648), began as a revolt of the Seventeen Provinces against the political and religious hegemony of Philip II of Spain, the sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands. After the initial stages, Philip II deployed his armies and regained control over most of the rebelling provinces. However, under the leadership of the exiled William of Orange, the northern provinces continued their resistance and managed to oust the Habsburg armies and, in 1581, established the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. The war continued in other areas, although the heartland of the republic was no longer threatened. The war ended in 1648 with the Peace of Münster, when the Dutch Republic was recognised as an independent country. Battle of Lepanto Anglo-Spanish War 1585 - 1604 The Anglo–Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and England that was never formally declared. The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and began with England's military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester in support of the resistance of the States General to Habsburg rule. The English enjoyed major victories at Cádiz in 1587, and over the Spanish Armada in 1588, but gradually lost the initiative after the severe defeats of the English Armada in 1589 and the Drake-Hawkins and Essex-Raleigh expeditions in 1595 and 1597 respectively. Two further Spanish armadas were sent in 1596 and 1597 but were frustrated in their objectives", "First World War.com - Battles - The Battle of Jutland, 1916 What's New Battles - The Battle of Jutland, 1916 The greatest naval battle of the First World War. Jutland had all the ingredients to be a great British naval victory, but in the event the result was much less clear-cut. Sponsored Links The recently appointed commander of the German High Seas Fleet, Reinhard Scheer , had returned to the policy of making sorties against the British coast, confident that his codes were secure, and thus that the main British battle fleet, at Scapa Flow in the north of Scotland could not intervene. However, the British could read German coded messages, and were aware of Scheer's plan. At the end of May, Scheer sortied with the entire High Seas Fleet, expected that the only serious threat he would meet was Admiral Beatty's battle cruiser squadron based on the Forth. Unfortunately for his plan, the Royal Navy knew he was coming, and the Grand Fleet sailed only minutes after the High Seas Fleet. Both fleets sailed in a similar formation, with a scouting squadron of battle cruisers sailing ahead of the main battle fleets. The battle falls into five main phases. The first came when Admiral Beatty, commanding the British battle cruisers encountered their weaker German equivalent under Admiral Hipper , (31 May) and chased them south towards the main German fleet. The second phase saw Beatty flee north, pursued by the German Dreadnoughts. So far, both sides thought the battle was going to plan, although a design flaw led to the destruction of two British battle cruisers. Now, in the third phase the Germans got a nasty surprise. Thinking themselves involved in a chase that would end with the destruction of the British battle cruisers, they found themselves under bombardment from Jellicoe's battle fleet, which they had thought to be too far north to intervene. The heavy British guns quickly forced Scheer to order a retreat, but then Scheer made what could have turned into a grievous error, turning back, possibly hoping to pass behind Jellicoe, and escape into the Baltic. However, Jellicoe had slowed down, and the German fleet found themselves crossing in front of the British fleet, and in ten minutes of gunfire suffered 27 heavy hits while only inflicted two. Once again, Scheer ordered a retreat. Finally, in the last phase of the battle, in a night of intense fighting, the retreat of the German battleships was covered by their lighter ships, while Jellicoe lost time after turning to avoid a potential torpedo attack. The Germans lost one battle cruiser, one pre-Dreadnought, four light cruisers and five destroyers, while the British lost three battle cruisers, four armoured cruisers, and eight destroyers. However, many of the surviving German heavy ships had suffered serious damage, and one result of the battle was to increase the British dominance in heavy ships. Jutland was the last, and largest, of the great battleship battles. Neither submarines or aircraft played any part in the battle, despite the plans of both sides. Never again did battle fleets meet again in such numbers. While the Royal Navy suffered more loses, the battle effectively ended any threat from the High Seas Fleet, which now knew it could not contest control of the North Sea with the Royal Navy. The great fleet which Kaiser Wilhelm II had been obsessed with, and which had done so much to sour relations between Britain and Germany had proved to be a blunted weapon. Despite that, the battle disappointed in Britain, where news of a new Trafalgar had been expected, and the hard fought draw at Jutland was not appreciated until much later, while the Kaiser claimed a German victory. Photographs courtesy of Photos of the Great War website Click here to read the initial official German", "Man of La Mancha (1972) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Man of La Mancha ( 1972 ) PG | The funny story of mad but kind and chivalrous elderly nobleman Don Quixote who, aided by his squire Sancho Panza, fights windmills that are seen as dragons to save prostitute Dulcinea who is seen as a noblewoman. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 31 titles created 04 May 2013 a list of 28 titles created 30 Oct 2013 a list of 38 titles created 05 Nov 2015 a list of 47 titles created 30 Nov 2015 a list of 33 images created 11 months ago Title: Man of La Mancha (1972) 6.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations. See more awards » Photos Edit Storyline This musical version of Don Quixote is framed by an incident allegedly from the life of its author, Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quixote is the mad, aging nobleman who embarrasses his respectable family by his adventures. Backed by his faithful sidekick Sancho Panza, he duels windmills and defends his perfect lady Dulcinea (who is actually a downtrodden whore named Aldonza). Written by Reid Gagle Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren and James Coco dream 'The Impossible Dream' in... See more » Genres: 8 September 1973 (Italy) See more » Also Known As: El hombre de La Mancha See more » Filming Locations: 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)| 4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) Color: Did You Know? Trivia The name \"Dulcinea\" means 'sweetheart'. It is taken from the Spanish word dulce (sweet). See more » Goofs Both the film and stage performances of the play on which it's based depict the elderly Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra as able to use both hands. The real Cervantes had a paralyzed left hand from his wound in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) when he was a 20-something. See more » Quotes Miguel de Cervantes : I'm a poet. The Duke : They're putting people in prison for that? See more » Crazy Credits During the opening credits, we see the animated sails of a windmill, which, with each turn, begin to reveal, and finally become, a sketch of the face of Don Quixote. The camera moves in for an extreme closeup of the facial features, which, as the camera gets close, reveal themselves to be a giant prop in an outdoor stage presentation during a festival. As the opening credits end, the sketch of that prop dissolves into the real item. See more » Connections See more » Frequently Asked Questions (California) – See all my reviews I consider myself somewhat of a movie aficionado, having seen several thousand movies over the past forty years; and I can unequivocably say that \"Man of La Mancha\" is my all-time favorite movie. While some of the familiar criticisms lodged against it are valid, there is still no other movie that can approach its depth or poignancy. I judge a movie by its ability to move me: to make me laugh, to make me cry, to make me think. This movie tackles one of the greatest themes of life: whether to live in a helpful illusion or live in the harshness of reality. Don Quixote's story is the ultimate in human heroism, a tragic man of courage struggling to see and live life, not as it is, but as it should be. His unwavering idealism in the face of all-too-familiar cynicism and skepticism is both foolhardy and inspiring. This movie always leaves me, not with tears trickling, but with great sobbing. I strongly recommend it for both your heart and your head. 43 of 56 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes", "Battle of Navarino - Greek War of Independence Battle of Navarino Greek War of Independence: Battle of Navarino Greek War of Independence: Battle of Navarino Battle of Navarino. Public Domain The Battle of Navarino was fought during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829). Date: Admiral Sir Edward Codrington defeated the Ottomans on October 20, 1827. Fleets & Commanders: 10 ships of the line, 10 frigates, 4 brigs, 2 schooners Ottoman Empire 3 ships of the line, 17 frigates, 30 corvettes, 28 brigs, 5 schooners Battle Summary: Beginning in 1821, the Greek War of Independence began as a rebellion by Greek nationalists against the ruling Ottoman Empire. After six years of fighting, the Greeks appeared to be on the point of collapse as Sultan Mahmud II had begun employing the Western-trained army and navy of his vassal Muhammad Ali of Egypt against the rebels. As incentive, the sultan promised the Peloponnese to Ali's son Ibrahim Pasha if the Greeks were defeated. Arriving in Greece, Ibrahim conducted a brutal scorched earth campaign and initiated programs of ethnic cleansing. The Ottoman treatment of the Greeks aroused the anger of Russia who saw itself as the protector of Orthodox Christians in the Balkans. Due to its location, Russia was unable to directly aid the Greeks except by sending forces through the North Sea and Mediterranean. They were prevented from doing so by the British who initially wished the situation to simply play out. As the conflict continued both Britain and France came under increased pressure to take action as public opinion in both nations heavily favored the Greeks and their rebellion became a cause célèbre. On July 6, 1827, Britain, France, and Russia signed the Treaty of London which called upon the Ottomans to suspend hostilities and grant the Greeks autonomy. Citing a disruption of trade for their involvement in the conflict, the Three Powers included a secret clause in the treaty stating that if the Ottomans did not comply within a month they would send consuls to the Greeks, essentially giving them diplomatic recognition. In addition, the allies instructed their naval squadrons in the Mediterranean to enforce the treaty and prevent supplies and troops from reaching Ottoman forces in Greece. In early August 1827, the main Ottoman fleet departed Alexandria and rendezvoused with other Ottoman forces at Navarino Bay in western Greece on September 8. Four days later, the British naval commander in the Mediterranean, Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, met with Ibrahim and received promises that that offensive operations would cease. These assurances were quickly ignored as the Ottoman fleet twice sortied to support land operations. On both occasions, Codrington intercepted them and fired warning shots, forcing them to turn back. On October 13, Codrington was joined by French and Russian squadrons off Navarino. As Codrington was senior, the other commanders, Admiral Henri de Rigny and Admiral Login Geiden, agreed to serve under his command. Five days later, after failed attempts to contact Ibrahim, Codrington made the decision to enter Navarino Bay with the combined fleet. Prior to entering the bay, Codrington issued strict orders that no ship was to fire unless fired upon. The Ottoman fleet was anchored in three lines forming a crescent, with its smaller ships and fireships on the flanks. As the Allies entered the bay, Ibrahim sent Codrington a note ordering him to withdraw. This was ignored and the allies continued their approach. While passing a fireship on the Ottoman left, the frigate HMS Dartmouth noticed its crew preparing to ignite it. Dartmouth's captain dispatched a boat to tell the Ottomans to cease. This was met by musket fire from the Ottomans which was returned by Dartmouth. As this was occurring, the French flagship, Sirene approached and contributed additional musket fire to the fight. Shortly thereafter, an Ottoman corvette fired on Sirene with its main guns, beginning the battle. As fighting broke out across the bay, the allied fleet moved to engage the Ottoman ships. Aboard his fl", "Battle of Aegospotami, 405 BC Battle of Aegospotami, 405 BC Tweet The battle of Aegospotami (405 BC) was a crushing Athenian defeat that effectively ended the Great Peloponnesian War , leaving the city vulnerable to a siege and naval blockade. The previous year had ended with a major Athenian victory at the battle of the Arginusae Islands, but in the aftermath of this battle six of the eight Athenian generals had been executed for failing to rescue the survivors from twenty-five ships sunk during the battle, and the remaining two had gone into exile. They were replaced by Conon , Adeimantus and Philocles. The Spartans also needed a new commander, Callicratidas, the admiral for 406, having been killed during the battle of the Arginusae Islands . At this time it was against Spartan custom to appoint someone to the same post twice, so Lysander , the popular commander of 405, was officially appointed as second in command to Aracus, but in reality it was Lysander who commanded the fleet. The two sides spent part of the year improving the quality of their fleets, but eventually Lysander decided to move into the Hellespont, partly to try and regain control of a number of cities lost in recent years and partly to try and block the Athenian food supply from the Black Sea. His first success came at Lampsacus, on the Asian shore, which was taken by storm. When the Athenians discovered that Lysander had moved to the Hellespont, they followed with a fleet of 180 ships. They sailed up the Hellespont, and took up a position at Aegospotami, opposite Lampsacus. On the next morning the Athenians put out to sea and formed up in line of battle outside Lampsacus. Lysander refused to come out and fight, and after some time the Athenians returned to their base on the beach at Aegospotami. Lysander sent some of his fastest ships to follow the Athenians and discover their routine. The same pattern was repeated on the next three days. This worried Alcibiades, an Athenian commander in exile for the second time, and he attempted to convince the current Athenian generals to move up the coast to the city of Sestos, where they would have a more secure position. On the fifth day Lysander made his move. Our two sources disagree on the start of the disaster. In Diodorus Siculus the Athenian commander for the day, Philocles, put to sea with thirty triremes, and ordered the rest of his fleet to follow. Some deserters told Lysander, and he decided to take advantage of the split Athenian fleet. The entire Peloponnesian fleet put to sea, defeated Philocles and then attacked the unprepared Athenian fleet. While Lysander was attempting to capture Athenian ships by dragging them out to sea, a Peloponnesian army was landed on the European shore and captured the Athenian fleet. In Xenophon Lysander took advantage of Athenian complacency. The Athenians were forced to travel some way to find food, and had got into the habit of dispersing from their ships at the end of each day's sailing. On this day Lysander sent out his fast ships as normal, but this time prepared the entire fleet for battle. When the scouts saw that the Athenians were beginning to disperse they raised a shield as a symbol. Lysander crossed the Hellespont and fell on the disorganised Athenians. At this point our sources come back together. Conon and nine ships managed to escape from the disaster, but the remaining 170 Athenian ships were all captured. Conon realised that he had lost the war, and sailed into exile on Cyprus. In the aftermath of this disaster the Athenian position crumbled. Byzantium and Chalcedon were the first of a series of Athenian-held cities to surrender to Lysander, and in each case he allowed the garrisons to return to Athens. News of the defeat was carried to Athens on the state trireme 'Paralus'. With their last fleet gone, the Athenians realised that they were about to be besieged by land and sea, and that they might not expect much mercy if they surrendered. The city was soon surrounded by two Peloponnesian armies", "Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar Battle of Trafalgar. Public Domain By Kennedy Hickman Battle of Trafalgar - Conflict & Dates: The Battle of Trafalgar was fought October 21, 1805, during the War of the Third Coalition (1803-1806), which was part of the larger Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Fleets & Commanders 33 ships of the line (18 French, 15 Spanish) Battle of Trafalgar - Napoleon's Plan: As the War of the Third Coalition raged, Napoleon began planning for the invasion of Britain. Success of this operation necessitated control of the English Channel and instructions were issued for Vice Admiral Pierre Villeneuve's fleet at Toulon to elude Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's blockade and rendezvous with Spanish forces in the Caribbean. This united fleet would re-cross the Atlantic, join with French ships at Brest and then take control of the Channel. While Villeneuve succeeded in escaping from Toulon and reaching the Caribbean, the plan began to unravel when he returned to European waters. Pursued by Nelson, whom he feared, Villeneuve suffered a minor defeat at the Battle of Cape Finisterre on July 22, 1805. Having lost two ships of the line to Vice Admiral Robert Calder, Villeneuve put into port at Ferrol, Spain. Ordered by Napoleon to proceed to Brest, Villeneuve instead turned south towards Cadiz to elude the British. With no sign of Villeneuve by late August, Napoleon transferred his invasion force at Boulogne to operations in Germany. While the combined Franco-Spanish fleet was at anchor in Cadiz, Nelson returned to England for a brief rest. Battle of Trafalgar - Preparations for Battle: While Nelson was in England, Admiral William Cornwallis, commanding the Channel Fleet, dispatched 20 ships of the line south for operations off Spain. Learning that Villeneuve was at Cadiz on September 2, Nelson immediately made preparations to join the fleet off Spain with his flagship HMS Victory (104 guns). Reaching Cadiz on September 29, Nelson took command from Calder. Conducting a loose blockade off Cadiz, Nelson's supply situation quickly degraded and five ships of the line were dispatched to Gibraltar. Another was lost when Calder departed for his court martial regarding his actions at Cape Finisterre. In Cadiz, Villeneuve possessed 33 ships of the line, but his crews were short on men and experience. Receiving orders to sail for the Mediterranean on September 16, Villeneuve delayed as many of his officers felt it best to remain in port. The admiral resolved to put to sea on October 18 when he learned that Vice Admiral François Rosily had arrived in Madrid to relieve him. Straggling out of port the next day, the fleet formed into three columns and began sailing southwest towards Gibraltar. That evening, the British were spotted in pursuit and the fleet formed into a single line. Battle of Trafalgar - \"England Expects...\": Following Villeneuve, Nelson led a force of 27 ships of the line and four frigates. Having contemplated the approaching battle for some time, Nelson sought to achieve a decisive victory rather than the typically inconclusive engagement that often occurred in the Age of Sail. To do so, he planned to abandon the standard line of battle and sail directly at the enemy in two columns, one towards the center and the other the rear. These would break the enemy line in half and allow the rear-most ships to be surrounded and destroyed in a \"pell mell\" battle while the enemy van was unable to assist. The disadvantage to these tactics was that his ships would be under fire during the approach to the enemy line. Having thoroughly discussed these plans with his officers in the weeks before the battle, Nelson intended to lead the column striking the enemy center, while Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, aboard HMS Royal Sovereign (100), commanded the second column. Around 6:00 AM on October 21, while northwest of Cape Trafalgar, Nelson gave the order to prepare for battle. Two hours later, Villeneuve ordered his fleet to reverse their course a", "Trafalgar Day October 21st - Commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar By Ben Johnson | Comments Celebrated on October 21st, Trafalgar Day marks the day on which Britain triumphed in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. This historic marine conflict was fought off the Cape of Trafalgar, offshore from Cadiz, Spain, with forces from Spain and France clashing with Britain. The Battle of Trafalgar made Lord Horatio Nelson one of Britain's most famous war heroes. As Admiral in the Navy, he led our British fleet to victory; a fleet then being composed of warships built from wood, powered by sails and armed with cannons along both sides. Nelson first joined the Navy at the age of twelve, experiencing many adventures at sea throughout his life. This left him war-wounded - with only one arm and blind in one eye! But this did not prevent him moving up the ranks and becoming Admiral. As Admiral, he was appreciated by his troops; he took great care of them and in return they showed him great loyalty. The Battle of Trafalgar was his most famous triumph but he was well known and celebrated before that for winning important battles in Egypt, the Caribbean and Denmark. In the time leading up to the battle, there was a feeling of unrest within Britain as an invasion from France (led by Napoleon Bonaparte) was thought to be imminent. Napoleon had conquered much of Europe and it seemed that Britain would be next on the list. Nelson stepped up to take the lead in planning the attack that finally brought down the French Navy. 27 British men of war and 4 frigates met 33 French and Spanish large ships and another 7 frigates. The experienced, well trained and disciplined British forces met the French and Spanish forces that were weaker in contrast in that most of their best officers and leaders had been either executed or dismissed at the beginning of the French Revolution! Initially, the 4 British frigates were used as bait for the Spanish and French sailors; they hovered, keeping watch over the Cadiz harbour while the main force held back 50 miles away and out of sight. By 15th October, Nelson had reinforced his fleet and they were at full strength. Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve on the other hand, commanding the French, was suffering a severe shortage of both men and supplies. But Nelson was forced to send a number of ships to Gibraltar for supplies and then one ship back to Britain with Sir Robert Calder (who had been court-martialed for a lack of aggression in a previous battle), which left the British force depleted and gave Villeneuve a glimpse of hope for his attack. In attack, the British fleet advanced in two lines (with Nelson and Admiral Collingwood in charge) to meet the French and Spanish fleets who set sail from Cadiz. Nelson was aboard The Victory, the leading ship and, being directly in the line of fire, took a bullet in his back from a French sniper. He was taken below the deck to be treated and later died, but died in the knowledge that his fleet was victorious. Nelson's last words, to his Captain of the Victory, Captain Hardy, cannot be agreed on. The dispute is between whether it was \"kiss me, Hardy\" or \"kismet, Hardy\" (kismet meaning fate or destiny). Hardy and Nelson were good friends so the former is a possibility but no one can be sure. The Spanish fleet also lost their Admiral due to the injuries he suffered during the battle, only months later. When news of the triumph reached British shores, bells were rung in churches, personal and community celebrations were held across the country, even the Theatre Royal put on a special performance. Everyone strived to find a connection with the Navy to become a central part of a national victory. The day marks the beginning of an era when Britain held authority within Europe and mastery of the seas. However, merriment was overshadowed by the loss of an heroic and masterful leader, and so, celebrations of victory also celebrate Nelson and commemorate those lost. Now every year, the Sea Cadet Corps lead the Trafalgar Day Parade through Trafalgar Square in London. The cadets,", "Venice view from the Bridge Foscari, to the Bridge Santa Margherita. Gondola Punta e Basilica Salute. Venice ( English /ˈvɛnɪs/ VEN-iss ; Italian : Venezia [veˈnɛttsja] ; Venetian : Venesia) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region . It is situated across a group of 117 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by bridges. [2] These are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture , and artwork. [2] The lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site . [2] In 2009, 270,098 people resided in Venice's comune (the population estimate of 272,000 inhabitants includes the population of the whole Comune of Venezia; of whom around 60,000 [3] live in the historic city of Venice (Centro storico); 176,000 in Terraferma (the mainland), mostly in the large frazioni (roughly equivalent to \"parishes\" or \" wards \" in other countries) of Mestre and Marghera ; and 31,000 on other islands in the lagoon). Together with Padua and Treviso , the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), with a total population of 2,600,000. PATREVE is only a statistical metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. [4] The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC. [5] The city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice . Venice has been known as the \"La Dominante,\" \"Serenissima,\" \"Queen of the Adriatic ,\" \"City of Water,\" \"City of Masks,\" \"City of Bridges,\" \"The Floating City,\" and \"City of Canals.\" The Republic of Venice was a major financial and maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance , and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto , as well as a very important center of commerce (especially silk, grain, and spice ) and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century. [6] This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. [8] It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period . After the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna , the Republic was annexed by the Austrian Empire , until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, following a referendum held as a result of the Third Italian War of Independence . Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi . Etymology The name of the city, deriving from Latin forms Venetia and Venetiae, is most likely taken from \"Venetia et Histria\", the Roman name of Regio X of Roman Italy , but applied to the coastal part of the region that remained under Roman Empire outside of Gothic, Lombard, and Frankish control. The name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti , and called by the Greeks Eneti (Ἐνετοί). The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti , Baltic Veneti , and the Slavic Wends . Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen (\"love\"), so that *wenetoi would mean \"beloved\", \"lovable\", or \"friendly\". A connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color 'sea-blue', is also possible. Supposed connections of Venetia with the Latin verb venire (to come), such as Marin Sanudo 's veni etiam (\"Yet, I have come!\"), the supposed cry of the first refugees to the Venetian lagoon from the mainland, or even with venia (\"forgiveness\") are fanciful . The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia [viˈnɛːdʒa] ; [9] ( Venetian : Venèxia [veˈnɛzja] ; Latin : Venetiae; Slovene : Benetke). History Origins Although no surviving historical records deal directly with the founding of Venice, tradition and t", "BBC - History - British History in depth: The Battle of Trafalgar Print this page Global power The Battle of Trafalgar was to witness both the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's plans to invade Britain, and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson. It was never going to be any ordinary battle, and quickly acquired a heightened, almost magical, reality. ...the Royal Navy annihilated the greatest threat to British security for 200 years ... During the engagement at Trafalgar, on 21 October 1805, the Royal Navy annihilated the greatest threat to British security for 200 years, but lost Britain's national hero in the process. Little wonder the battle transcended the mundane calculation of ships and men, victory and defeat. It guaranteed Britain's control of the oceans, the basis of her global power for over a century. By 1805 Nelson was already a national hero, and considered the ultimate naval commander. His elevated conception of war ensured that every battle he fought was used to solve major strategic problems, and his many successes ensured he was the only contemporary to rival Bonaparte as ultimate exemplar of total war. Nor did Bonaparte disagree - he kept a bust of Nelson in his private quarters. Nelson developed the art of war at sea to the new, terrible form he characterised as 'annihilation' to counter the war effort of Napoleonic France. He did so by taking the command system of Admiral Sir John Jervis, the tough old officer who taught him how to keep a fleet efficient, and melding it with the genius for battle and strategy he developed while serving under Admiral Lord Hood. Nelson used this combination of strategic flair and practical management to help Britain survive the 22 year struggle with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. He understood that invasion by France was the least of Britain's worries - the real threat was the destruction of her global commercial system. Top Defensive strategy HMS 'Victory' - in dry dock in Portsmouth © In 1803 the Peace of Amiens - a temporary armed truce between Britain and France - broke down, and for nearly two years British strategy rested on the defensive, waiting for the French navy to make the first move. Late in 1804, however, Spain joined the war as an ally of France, giving Napoleon the ships he needed to challenge Britain. This was the context of Trafalgar. Napoleon was looking for an opportunity to strike at Britain, without having to fight Nelson and the Royal Navy - while all his attempts to attack British interests were thwarted by expert seamen who countered his every move. Villeneuve's fleet ... was ideally positioned to attack British trading ships or Britain itself. Thus, when Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, Commander of Napoleon's Franco-Spanish fleet bottled up in a safe haven at Toulon, broke out into the Atlantic in early 1805, Nelson chased him all the way to the West Indies in the most daring of all his campaigns. By September 1805, however, Villeneuve's fleet had found shelter at Cadiz, and was ideally positioned to attack British trading ships or Britain itself. It had to be destroyed. Top Battle plan Nelson explains his plan for the forthcoming Battle of Trafalgar © Nelson joined the British fleet off Cadiz in late September. His very presence electrified the men under his command, while his new battle plan, explained at his table on HMS Victory, was key to decisive combat. If the enemy put to sea Nelson wanted to be able to annihilate them completely, ending the need for Britain to stand on the defensive. Nelson's arrival unsettled Admiral Villeneuve, who was already being bullied by Napoleon, who wanted his fleet to support an attack on Naples. Thus under pressure Villeneuve, believing Nelson's fleet to be weaker than his own, put to sea on 19 October. In fact his 33 ships of the line faced 27 British vessels. Nelson anticipated his enemy's every move. At dawn on the 21st the fleets were in visual contact. Nelson's fleet was formed into two columns, for a risky head-on approach that exposed the unarmed bows of his leading ships to the ful", "The Battle of Tsushima, 1905 » NHSA The Battle of Tsushima, 1905 Author Publication June 1980 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved) Editor’s Note: On the night of 8th February 1904, Vice Admiral Togo led the Japanese Combined Fleet against Russian naval units anchored at Port Arthur at the western end of Korea Bay. Caught by surprise the Russian warships were struck down by deadly torpedo attacks. Two battleships and a cruiser suffered heavy damage and had to be beached. The Russo-Japanese war had begun, although it was a week before official declarations were made. This article on the Battle of Tsushima which was fought in the following year is by the Society’s only Japanese member and has been edited. ON THE 30TH AUGUST 1904 Tsar Nicholas II decided to send his Baltic Fleet to the Far East in order to join the Russian Pacific Fleet to annihilate the presumptuous Japanese Navy. Four months earlier the Tsar had been shocked by the report of the tragic loss of the flagship Petropavlosk and the Commander-in-Chief Admiral Makaroff, the most experienced admiral in the Tsarist Navy. Admiral Makaroff had arrived at Port Arthur after the first attack to bolster up the badly demoralized Russian Squadron, but shortly afterwards his flagship was mined and sunk with heavy loss of life. As early as the 2nd May the Tsar had appointed his favourite, Vice Admiral Rojestvensky, to the command of the second Pacific Fleet to be despatched to the Far East. The Fleet however did not sail from Kronstadt until the 9th October 1904 due to long delays in preparation. Later in the wake of the fall of Port Arthur in January 1905 and the complete destruction of the First Pacific Fleet by the Japanese, the Tsar decided to form a Third Pacific Fleet, which sailed from Kronstadt on the 15th February 1905. This Fleet joined the Second Fleet on the 9th May. The combined fleets made up the massive ‘Baltic Fleet’, which was to be engaged with the Japanese Navy at Tsushima. That immense voyage of the Baltic Fleet of 18,000 miles deserves to be told as a modern Odyssey and lasted more than seven months. Vice Admiral Rojestvensky, the expedition’s commander, showed his capacity to lead his great fleet to the Far East through every possible difficulty. His counterpart, Japan’s Vice Admiral Togo, on the other hand, was devoting himself to various preparations, knowing that he was destined to be engaged in a decisive battle with the Baltic Fleet. Admiral Togo’s Preparations First of all Admiral Togo had to destroy the Russian fleet based at Port Arthur. The strength of the Russian First Pacific Fleet was on a par with Togo’s fleet. Therefore, unless Togo destroyed it completely, he would not have any chance of even achieving a draw with the Baltic Fleet. The battle with the fleet of Port Arthur began in February 1904 and finally ended on the 7th December when the Japanese army attacked Port Arthur from the land, took possession of ‘203 Heights’ and sank all the ships in the port by artillery attack. The final victory at Port Arthur only came after various sea battles, one of which was known as the Battle of the Yellow Sea. The destruction of the ships at Port Arthur and the successful naval battles gave Togo the vital foundation required to fight the Baltic Fleet, but was only obtained with painful sacrifice and involved the loss of the battleships Yashima and Hatsuse, both mined on the 15th May 1904. The two battleships lost represented a third of Togo’s modern battleships. Russia had also a squadron in Vladivostok consisting of three armoured cruisers, one light cruiser, one converted cruiser and 17 torpedo boats. This squadron’s operations were very effective and with a total of seven sorties in six months, they sank ten Japanese transports in Japan’s sea lane to Korea and along Japan’s Pacific coast, which were more than distasteful threats to Japan. After repeated but unsuccessful attempts, opportunity came to Vice Admiral Uemura, when he sighted the enemy on the 14th August 1904 at 0425. By 1042 Uemura ran out of all ammunition and", "Valletta | national capital, Malta | Britannica.com national capital, Malta George Borg Olivier Valletta, also spelled Valetta, seaport and capital of Malta , on the northeast coast of the island of Malta. The nucleus of the city is built on the promontory of Mount Sceberras that runs like a tongue into the middle of a bay, which it thus divides into two harbours, Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west. Valletta, Malta. Aerial view of seaport in Valletta, Malta. © Goodshoot/Jupiterimages Harbour area and city of Valletta, Malta. age fotostock/SuperStock Built after the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, which checked the advance of Ottoman power in southern Europe , it was named for Jean Parisot de la Valette , grand master of the order of Hospitallers (Knights of St. John of Jerusalem), and became Malta’s capital in 1570. The Hospitallers were driven out by the French in 1798, and a Maltese revolt against the French garrison led to Valletta’s seizure by the British in 1800. After 1814 the city became a strategic British Mediterranean naval and military base of the first order; it was subjected to severe bombing raids in World War II and was the place where the Italian fleet surrendered to the Allies in 1943. Sunset view of Valletta, Malta. Geoff Tompkinson/GTImage.com (A Britannica Publishing Partner) One of the most-notable buildings in Valletta is St. John’s Co-Cathedral. Formerly a conventual church belonging to the Hospitaller order, this church is outwardly austere but inwardly sumptuous and is now almost equal in rank to the archbishop’s cathedral at Mdina . Built between 1573 and 1578, it was designed by the Maltese architect Gerolamo Cassar. Other buildings by Cassar include the Palace of the Grand Masters (1574; now the residence of the president of the Republic of Malta, the seat of the House of Representatives, and the site of the armoury of the Hospitallers), the Auberge d’Aragon (1571; now home to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs), the Auberge de Provence (1571; now the National Archaeology Museum), and the Castille and León Auberge (1573; now the office of the prime minister). Of the other auberges (lodges built for every langue [nationality] of the Hospitallers), those of France and Auvergne were destroyed in World War II, and that of Italy was heavily damaged. The National Library of Malta was built in the late 18th century, the University of Malta was founded by Pope Clement VIII in 1592, the Manoel Theatre dates from 1731–32, and the National Museum of Fine Arts (opened 1974) is housed in a residence dating from 1571. St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta. © Ralf Siemieniec/Shutterstock.com Courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Masters, Valletta, Malta; designed by Gerolamo Cassar. © Ron Gatepain (A Britannica Publishing Partner) Similar Topics", "The Spanish Armada Museums The Spanish Armada The spectacular but unsuccessful attempt by King Philip II of Spain to invade Elizabethan England in 1588. The Armada is for the English the classic foreign threat to their country and a powerful icon of national identity. The English Fleet gives battle to the Spanish Armada: A Spanish galeas occupies the foreground, an English “race” galleon to her left and right. English ships carry the red cross of St George on a white background: Spanish Armada June to September 1588: click here to buy this picture The previous battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Flodden The next battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Edgehill Battle: The Spanish Armada. Date: June to September 1588. Area of the Armada campaign: The English Channel, the North Sea and the seas around the North and West of Scotland, the Orkneys and the West of Ireland. Combatants in the Armada campaign: The Armada (Spanish for “Fleet”), manned by Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Dutch, Flemings, Irish and English against the English Fleet assisted by the Dutch Fleet. Commanders in the Armada campaign: Spanish commanders were the Duke of Medina Sidonia and the Duke of Parma against the English commanders Lord Howard of Effingham, High Admiral of England, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir Francis Drake, Lord Henry Seymour and Sir William Winter. The Armada June to September 1588: Lord Howard in the Ark attacks San Martin, flagship of the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Both ships carry the red cross on the white background, the crusader symbol and the symbol of St George: click here to buy this picture Size of the navies in the Armada campaign: The Spanish Armada sailed with around 160 ships. The English mobilised up to 200 ships in the Channel. Unknown numbers of Dutch vessels harassed and attacked the Armada and hemmed the Duke of Parma’s forces into their harbour of Dunkirk. Ships, organization, tactics and equipment: The descent of the Spanish Armada on England in 1588 ocurred at a time of profound change in sea warfare. The Spanish represented the old tradition while the English fought with a new design of warship and new tactics. In medieval warfare at sea soldiers added castles to the merchant trading vessel at the front and the rear (fore castle and after castle) and at the top of the mast and fought their fleets as if on land, discharging arrows and handguns, boarding the enemy ships and conducting hand to hand fighting. The ships incorporated by the Spanish in the Armada represented this tradition. The main Spanish vessels were galleons, sailing ships that rode high out of the water with towering fore and after castles from which handheld firearms were discharged; while the crews grappled the enemy ships so that soldiers could board and capture them. Their height and broad beam made these ships awkward to sail. English captains, particularly John Hawkins and Francis Drake, inspired a new form of ship for the Queen’s Navy, the “race ship”, of which around 25 were built. Lower in the water, with a long prow and much reduced fore and after castles, these sleek ships carried more sophisticated forms of rigging, enabling them to sail closer to the wind, making them faster and more manoeuvrable than the Spanish ships. England had no standing army, so her naval vessels were crewed by sailors alone. English fighting ships relied increasingly on gunnery rather than boarding to defeat an enemy. The route of the Spanish Armada in 1588, up the Channel into the North Sea, North About into the Atlantic and down the west coast of Ireland. The map shows the known wrecks of Armada ships. Of the 120 ships in the Armada half were lost many just disappearing. The map shows the sites of the engagements between the Armada and the English Fleet at Eddystone, Portland, Isle of Wight, Calais and Gravelines. Of the Armada’s complement of 30,000 soldiers and sailors 20,000 were lost: map by John Fawkes Initially the English attempted to disable the Armada ships with long range gunfire. This form o", "England Expects: Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar Ancient Britain � Castles � Churches/Cathedrals � Houses/Manors � Museums � Towns � Countryside � London � History & Folklore � Travel Tips Test daily news England Expects: Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar by Dawn Copeman Thanks to ABBA, we all know that in 1815 \"at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender\", yet in Britain the Battle of Trafalgar is the most celebrated of the Napoleonic battles. So why do the British make such a big deal of Trafalgar? Well, firstly, it was at the close of this battle that a national hero, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, died. Secondly, the Battle of Trafalgar secured for Britain supremacy of the seas and ensured that the French could not proceed with their intended invasion of Britain. Yes, you read that right. In 1804 when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French he also drew up plans for an invasion of Britain and assembled his \"Army of England\" at Boulogne. Napoleon tried to invade England on several occasions, but was thwarted each time. The first attempt in February 1804 was abandoned due to a royalist plot against Napoleon. The second planned invasion in summer 1804 was cancelled when Admiral Latouche-Treville, the commander of the French fleet in Toulon, died and had to be replaced with Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve. The third planned invasion early in 1805 failed due to bad weather. It was because of the threat of a French invasion that the 74 Martello Towers that line the South Coast of England -- from Folkestone to Seaford -- were constructed. The towers were built every quarter of a mile except where cliffs protected the coast. They were named after the Tower of Mortella in Corsica which, despite being manned by only 38 men, survived an attack by two ships and a detachment of troops in 1794. Napoleon was determined to invade Britain in 1805, but many of his fleets had been blockaded in their ports by the British fleets. So he tried to lure the British out to the east, which would enable his fleets to escape and converge on Britain. Whilst he was a brilliant military strategist, however, he was no naval man and had no real understanding of naval warfare. He expected his ships to be at specific locations by certain dates and made no allowances for winds or for the British fleet anticipating his moves. Thus in reality his elaborate plans were impractical. Nevertheless Nelson was kept busy throughout most of 1805 chasing the French fleet around the Mediterranean. In fact Nelson had been at sea almost continuously from 1803 to 1805, a mammoth achievement considering the lack of British bases at which to take on supplies. This alone helped to raise Nelson's profile amongst the normal British population, as this letter to Nelson from Hugh Elliot of Naples shows: \"to have kept your ships afloat, your rigging standing, and crews in health and spirits is an effort such as was never realized in former times, nor I doubt, will ever again be repeated by any other admiral. You have protected us for two long years, and you have saved the West Indies.\" Nelson was renowned for ensuring the health and welfare of his men. He insisted that all sailors suck lemons, oranges or limes every day to prevent scurvy -- which is why British sailors were known as limeys. And he was very good at keeping their morale up -- all this despite suffering almost continuously from sea-sickness, an ailment he was determined not to let stand in the way of his naval career. That career was an odd choice for a son of a Norfolk village parson! Horatio Nelson was born on the 29th September 1758 in the village of Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk. He entered the navy in 1770 aged just twelve and progressed quickly through the ranks. He was made admiral in 1797. Nelson paid dearly for his rank: he lost his right eye at Corsica in 1794, suffered an internal rupture at St Vincent in February 1797, lost his right arm at Tenerife in July, and finally suffered a head wound in 1798 during the Battle of the Nile. Some historians believe this head wound caused a mental im", "The Battle of Actium - Sep 02, 31 B.C. - HISTORY.com The Battle of Actium Publisher A+E Networks At the Battle of Actium, off the western coast of Greece, Roman leader Octavian wins a decisive victory against the forces of Roman Mark Antony and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Before their forces suffered final defeat, Antony and Cleopatra broke though the enemy lines and fled to Egypt, where they would commit suicide the following year. With the assassination of Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., Rome fell into civil war. To end the fighting, a coalition–the Second Triumvirate–was formed by three of the strongest belligerents. The triumvirate was made up of Octavian, Caesar’s great-nephew and chosen heir; Mark Antony, a powerful general; and Lepidus, a Roman statesman. The empire was divided among the three, and Antony took up the administration of the eastern provinces. Upon arriving in Asia Minor, he summoned Queen Cleopatra to answer charges that she had aided his enemies. Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt since 51 B.C., had once been Julius Caesar’s lover and had borne him a child, who she named Caesarion, meaning “little Caesar.” Cleopatra sought to seduce Antony as she had Caesar before him, and in 41 B.C. arrived at Tarsus on a magnificent river barge, dressed as Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Successful in her efforts, Antony returned with her to Alexandria, where they spent the winter in debauchery. In 40 B.C., Antony returned to Rome and married Octavian’s sister Octavia in an effort to mend his increasingly strained relationship with Octavian. The triumvirate, however, continued to deteriorate. In 37 B.C. Antony separated from Octavia and traveled to the East, arranging for Cleopatra to join him in Syria. In their time apart, Cleopatra had borne him twins, a son and a daughter. According to Octavian’s propagandists, the lovers were then married, which violated the Roman law restricting Romans from marrying foreigners. Antony’s disastrous military campaign against Parthia in 36 B.C. further reduced his prestige, but in 34 B.C. he was more successful against Armenia. To celebrate the victory, he staged a triumphal procession through the streets of Alexandria, in which Antony and Cleopatra sat on golden thrones, and their children were given imposing royal titles. Many in Rome, spurred on by Octavian, interpreted the spectacle as a sign that Antony intended to deliver the Roman Empire into alien hands. After several more years of tension and propaganda attacks, Octavian declared war against Cleopatra, and therefore Antony, in 31 B.C. Enemies of Octavian rallied to Antony’s side, but Octavian’s brilliant military commanders gained early successes against his forces. On September 2, 31 B.C., their fleets clashed at Actium in Greece. After heavy fighting, Cleopatra broke from the engagement and set course for Egypt with 60 of her ships. Antony then broke through the enemy line and followed her. The disheartened fleet that remained surrendered to Octavian. One week later, Antony’s land forces surrendered. Although they had suffered a decisive defeat, it was nearly a year before Octavian reached Alexandria and again defeated Antony. In the aftermath of the battle, Cleopatra took refuge in the mausoleum she had had built for herself. Antony, informed that Cleopatra was dead, stabbed himself with his sword. Before he died, another messenger arrived, saying Cleopatra still lived. Antony was carried to Cleopatra’s retreat, where he died after bidding her to make her peace with Octavian. When the triumphant Roman arrived, she attempted to seduce him, but he resisted her charms. Rather than fall under Octavian’s domination, Cleopatra committed suicide on August 30, 31 B.C., possibly by means of an asp, a poisonous Egyptian serpent and symbol of divine royalty. Octavian then executed Cleopatra’s son, Caesarion, annexed Egypt into the Roman Empire, and used Cleopatra’s treasure to pay off his veterans. In 27 B.C., Octavian became Augustus, the first and arguably most successful of all Roman emperors. He ruled a peaceful, prospero", "Battle of Midway - World War II - HISTORY.com Battle of Midway A+E Networks Introduction Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. Google This fleet engagement between U.S. and Japanese navies in the north-central Pacific Ocean resulted from Japan’s desire to sink the American aircraft carriers that had escaped destruction at Pearl Harbor . Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, Japanese fleet commander, chose to invade a target relatively close to Pearl Harbor to draw out the American fleet, calculating that when the United States began its counterattack, the Japanese would be prepared to crush them. Instead, an American intelligence breakthrough–the solving of the Japanese fleet codes–enabled Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to understand the exact Japanese plans. Nimitz placed available U.S. carriers in position to surprise the Japanese moving up for their preparatory air strikes on Midway Island itself. Did You Know? Six months before the Battle of Midway, the islands were attacked on December 7, 1941, less than two hours after Pearl Harbor. The intelligence interplay would be critical to the outcome of the battle and began many weeks before the clash of arms. American radio nets in the Pacific picked up various orders Yamamoto had dispatched to prepare his forces for the operation. As early as May 2, messages that were intercepted began to indicate some forthcoming operation, and a key fact, the planned day-of-battle position of the Japanese carriers, would be divulged in a notice sent on May 16. By the time Nimitz had to make final decisions, the Japanese plans and order of battle had been reconstructed in considerable detail. American combat forces took over where intelligence efforts left off. Scouts found the Japanese early in the morning of June 4. Although initial strikes by Midway-based planes were not successful, American carrier-based planes turned the tide. Torpedo bombers became separated from the American dive-bombers and were slaughtered (36 of 42 shot down), but they diverted Japanese defenses just in time for the dive-bombers to arrive; some of them had become lost, and now by luck they found the Japanese. The Japanese carriers were caught while refueling and rearming their planes, making them especially vulnerable. The Americans sank four fleet carriers–the entire strength of the task force–Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu, with 322 aircraft and over five thousand sailors. The Japanese also lost the heavy cruiser Mikuma. American losses included 147 aircraft and more than three hundred seamen. Analysts often point to Japanese aircraft losses at Midway as eliminating the power of the Imperial Navy’s air arm, but in fact about two-thirds of air crews survived. More devastating was the loss of trained mechanics and aircraft ground crews who went down with the ships. Some historians see Midway as the turning point in the Pacific theater of the war, after which Americans rode straight to Tokyo; others view it as a cusp in the war, after which initiative hung in the balance, to swing toward the Allies in the Guadalcanal campaign. Either way, Midway ranks as a truly decisive battle. JOHN PRADOS The Reader’s Companion to Military History. Edited by Robert Cowley and Geoffrey Parker. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Tags", "Hernando de Soto - Explorer - Biography.com Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who participated in the conquests of Central America and Peru and discovered the Mississippi River. IN THESE GROUPS Hernando de Soto - Mini Biography (TV-PG; 3:12) Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who participated in the conquests of Central America and Peru and discovered the Mississippi River. Synopsis Hernando de Soto was born c. 1500 in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. In the early 1530s, while on Francisco Pizarro's expedition, de Soto helped conquer Peru. In 1539 he set out for North America, where he discovered the Mississippi River. De Soto died of fever on May 21, 1542, in Ferriday, Louisiana. In his will, de Soto named Luis de Moscoso Alvarado the new leader of the expedition. Early Life Explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto was born c. 1500 to a noble but poor family in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. He was raised at the family manor. A generous patron named Pedro Arias Dávila funded de Soto's education at the University of Salamanca. De Soto's family hoped he would become a lawyer, but he told his father he would rather explore the West Indies. In accordance with his wish, the young de Soto was invited to join Dávila, governor of Darién, on his 1514 expedition to the West Indies. An excellent horseman, de Soto was appointed captain of a cavalry exploration troop. Setting out from Panama to Nicaragua and later Honduras, de Soto quickly proved his worth as an explorer and trader, reaping large profits through his bold and commanding exchanges with the natives. Conquest of Peru In 1532, explorer Francisco Pizarro made de Soto second in command on Pizarro’s expedition to explore and conquer Peru. While exploring the country's highlands in 1533, de Soto came upon a road leading to Cuzco, the capital of Peru’s Incan Empire. De Soto played a fundamental role in organizing the conquest of Peru, and engaged in a successful battle to capture Cuzco. In 1536 de Soto returned to Spain a wealthy man. His share of the Incan Empire's fortune amounted to no less than 18,000 ounces of gold. De Soto settled into a comfortable life in Seville and married the daughter of his old patron Dávila a year after returning from Peru. Exploring North America Despite having a new wife and home in Spain, de Soto grew restless when he heard stories about Cabeza de Vaca's exploration of Florida and the other Gulf Coast states. Enticed by the riches and fertile land de Vaca had allegedly encountered there, de Soto sold all his belongings and used the money to prepare for an expedition to North America. He assembled a fleet of 10 ships and selected a crew of 700 men based on their fighting prowess. On April 6, 1538, de Soto and his fleet departed Sanlúcar. On their way to the United States, de Soto and his fleet stopped in Cuba. While there, they were delayed by helping the city of Havana recover after the French sacked and burned it. By May 18, 1539, de Soto and his fleet at last set out for Florida. On May 25 they landed at Tampa Bay. For the next three years de Soto and his men explored the southeastern United States, facing ambushes and enslaving natives along the way. After Florida came Georgia and then Alabama. In Alabama, de Soto encountered his worst battle yet, against Indians in Tuscaloosa. Victorious, de Soto and his men next headed westward, serendipitously discovering the mouth of the Mississippi River in the process. De Soto's voyage would, in fact, mark the first time that a European team of explorers had traveled via the Mississippi River. Death After crossing the Mississippi de Soto was struck with fever. He died on May 21, 1542, in Ferriday, Louisiana. Members of his crew sank his body in the river that he had discovered. By that time, almost half of de Soto's men had been taken out by disease or in battle against the Indians. In his will, de Soto named Luis de Moscoso Alvarado the new leader of the expedition. Related Videos Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you se", "The Greek War of Independence 1821 – 1832. History, The Heros and Videos – Hellenic Union.Org The Greek War of Independence 1821 – 1832. History, The Heros and Videos Posted by SitnokGlobal on March 26, 2016 The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution (Greek: Ελληνική Επανάσταση, Elliniki Epanastasi; Ottoman: يونان عصياني Yunan İsyanı Greek Uprising), was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1832 against the Ottoman Empire. The Greeks were later assisted by the Russian Empire, Great Britain, Bourbon France, and several otherEuropean powers, while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, the Eyalets of Egypt, Algeria, Tripolitania, and the Beylik of Tunis. Even several decades before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, most of Greece had come under Ottoman rule. [3] During this time, there were several revolt attempts by Greeks to gain independence from Ottoman control.[4] In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, theDanubian Principalities, and in Constantinople and its surrounding areas. The first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821, the Maniots declared war on the Ottomans. This declaration was the start of a spring of revolutionary actions from other controlled states against the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in open revolt against the Turks and by October 1821, the Greeks under Theodoros Kolokotronis had captured Tripolitsa. The Peloponnesian revolt was quickly followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece, which would soon be suppressed. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea. Tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, who agreed to send his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gain. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and had immediate success: by the end of 1825, most of the Peloponnese was under Egyptian control, and the city of Missolonghi—put under siege by the Turks since April 1825—fell in April 1826. Although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese and Athens had been retaken. Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers, Russia, Britain and France, decided to intervene in the conflict and each nation sent a navy to Greece. Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the allied fleet intercepted the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet at Navarino. The battle began after a tense week-long standoff, ending in the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet. With the help of a French expeditionary force, the Greeks drove the Turks out of the Peloponnese and proceeded to the Ottoman controlled part of central Greece by 1828. As a result of years of negotiation, Greece was finally recognized as an independent nation in the Treaty of Constantinople of May 1832. The Revolution is celebrated by the modern Greek state as a national day on 25 March. THE HEROS The Greek Revolution of 1821 was Greece’s epic struggle for independence. Greek people had been enslaved for many centuries and the revolution was one of the most significant historic events in modern Greek history. The national regeneration struggle was long, unfair, filled with important heroic figures of Hellenism, whose actions marked the Greeks’ national course. Theodoros Kolokotronis (April 3, 1770 – February 4, 1843) Kolokotronis was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) aga", "Gallipoli Campaign 1915 Gallipoli Campaign 1915 See also: Timeline of the Battle of Gallipoli Gallipoli Campaign Part of World War I Gallipoli Campaign, April 1915. Date 25 April 1915 – 9 January 1916 (8 months, 2 weeks and 1 day) Location Gallipoli peninsula, Ottoman Empire Result Decisive Ottoman victory Lord Birdwood Otto Liman von Sanders Mustafa Kemal 16 divisions (final) Ottoman Empire: 315,500[4] 220,000, 59% casualty rate[5] 251,000, 60% casualty rate[6] [show] v t e [show] v t e Theatres of World War I The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı),[7][8][9][10][11][12] took place at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire (now Gelibolu in modern day Turkey) between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, during the First World War. A joint British and French operation was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul (then still referred to as 'Constantinople' by Western nations) and secure a sea route to Russia.[13] The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides. The campaign was considered one of the greatest victories of the Turks and was reflected on as a major failure by the Allies. The Gallipoli campaign resonated profoundly among all nations involved. In Turkey, the battle is perceived as a defining moment in the history of the Turkish people—a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the aging Ottoman Empire was crumbling. The struggle laid the grounds for the Turkish War of Independence and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, himself a commander at Gallipoli. The campaign was the first major battle undertaken by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), and is often considered to mark the birth of national consciousness in both of these countries.[14][15] [16] Anzac Day, 25 April, remains the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in Australia and New Zealand, surpassing Armistice Day/Remembrance Day. Contents [hide] [edit]Decision to attack Sea access to Russia through the Dardanelles The Allies were keen to open an effective supply route to Russia: efforts on the Eastern Front relieved pressure on the Western Front. Germany and Austria-Hungary blocked Russia's land trade routes to Europe, while no easy sea route existed. The White Sea in the north and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Far East were distant from the Eastern Front and often icebound. The Baltic Sea was blocked by the German Kaiserliche Marine. The Black Sea's only entrance was through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, which were controlled by the Ottoman Empire. When the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in October 1914, Russia could no longer be supplied from the Mediterranean Sea. By late 1914 to early 1915 the Western Front in France and Belgium had effectively become a stalemate. A new front was desperately needed.[citation needed] Also, the Allies hoped that an attack on the Ottomans would draw Bulgaria and Greece into the war on the Allied side. A first proposal to attack the Ottoman Empire had been made by the French Minister of Justice Aristide Briand in November 1914, but it was not supported. The British attempt to bribe the Ottoman Empire to join the Allied side was also not successful; their offer of £4 million was trumped by Germany's £5 million.[17] Later in November 1914, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill put forward his first plans for a naval attack on the Dardanelles, based at least in part on what turned out to be erroneous reports regarding Ottoman troop strength. He reasoned that the Royal Navy had a large number of obsolete battleships which could not be used against the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, but which might well be made useful in another theatre. Initially, the attack was to be made by the Royal Navy alone, with only token forces from the army being required for routine occupation tasks. First Sea Lord John Fisher opposed the campaign and instead preferred a direct naval l", "Sir Francis Drake facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Sir Francis Drake COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. Sir Francis Drake The English navigator Sir Francis Drake (ca. 1541-1596) was the first of his countrymen to circumnavigate the globe. His daring exploits at sea helped to establish England's naval supremacy over Spain and other European nations. Francis Drake, the eldest son of a yeoman farmer, was born near Tavistock, Devonshire. His father later became a Calvinist lay preacher and raised his children as staunch Protestants. Young Drake received some education; he learned the rudiments of navigation and seaman-ship early and did some sailing near his home. The Drakes were related to the Hawkins family of Plymouth, well-to-do seamen and shipowners. The Hawkins connection got Drake a place on a 1566 slave-trading expedition to the Cape Verde Islands and the Spanish Main. First Command In 1567 John Hawkins made Drake an officer in a larger slave-trading expedition. Drake ultimately received command of one of Hawkins's ships, the Judith, and accompanied his relative to Africa, Rio de la Hacha, and Santa Marta, where Hawkins disposed of the slaves. The English were caught, however, in the harbor of San Juan de Ulúa by a Spanish fleet that opened fire without warning and destroyed most of their ships. Only Drake's Judith and Hawkins's small vessel escaped to England. Embittered by this, Drake resolved to devote his life to war against Spain. Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain were not at war then, but grievances were steadily mounting. The Queen declined to offend Philip and would not allow Hawkins to go to sea again immediately, but she had no objections to a voyage by the obscure Drake. In 1569 Drake had married Mary Newman of Plymouth, but finding domesticity dull, he departed in 1570 for the Spanish Main with a small crew aboard the 25-ton Susan. He hoped to learn how the Spaniards arranged for shipping Peruvian treasure home, and he felt that the ports of Panama City and Nombre de Dios on the Isthmus of Panama were the key. His 1570 voyage was largely one of reconnaissance during which he made friends with the Cimaroons, who were escaped slaves dwelling out of Spanish reach on the Isthmus and stood ready to help him. During a 1571 expedition he captured Nombre de Dios with Cimaroon help but lost it immediately when, wounded, he had to be carried to safety. After depredations off Cartagena, he intercepted a Spanish gold train near Nombre de Dios and returned to England with the bounty. His arrival embarrassed the Queen, who still hoped for peace with Spain, and Drake evidently received a broad hint to leave the country temporarily. He is known to have served in Ireland with the Earl of Essex, who was trying to crush a rebellion in Ulster. By 1576 relations with Spain had worsened, and Drake returned to England, where a new expedition was being planned in which Elizabeth had a financial share. Drake's main instructions were to sail through the Strait of Magellan and probe for the shores of Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent that many thought began with Tierra del Fuego. Drake received five ships, the largest being the Pelican (later named the Golden Hind), and a crew of about 160. Adventures on the Golden Hind The fleet left Plymouth in December 1577 for the southern Atlantic, stopping at Port San Julián for the Southern Hemisphere winter. Ferdinand Magellan had once crushed a mutiny there, and Drake did the same. He tried and executed Thomas Doughty, an aristocratic member of the expedition, who had intrigued against him in an attempt to foment a rebellion. When Drake passed through the strait and entered the Pacific, only the Golden Hind remained; the other ships had been lost or had parted company. Contrary winds forced him southward, and he perhaps sighted Cape Horn; in any event, he realized that the two oceans came together and that Terra Australis would not be found there. He traveled along the coasts of Chile and Peru, capturing and destroying Spanis", "The Battle of Coral Sea 4-8 May 1942 PROUDLY SPONSORED BY: FOLLOW US: Notice: The appearance of U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Defense, or NASA imagery or art does not constitute an endorsement nor is Cybermodeler Online affiliated with these organizations. The Battle of Coral Sea 4-8 May 1942 By David H. Klaus SBD-3, LTJG Stanley \"Swede\" Vejtasa, VS-5, USS Yorktown Battle of the Coral Sea, May 4th-8th, 1942 (Note: Click on any image to see a larger version) What the Battle Meant to the War Effort The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from May 4th-8th, 1942, was the first naval engagement in history where the opposing ships neither saw nor directly fired on each other. It also marked the end of Allied defensive-only activity, and paved the way for future Allied offensive operations. This was the first of six battles between opposing aircraft carrier forces during the war. This battle resulted from American and Australian naval and air forces thwarting a Japanese amphibious operation intended to capture Port Moresby in New Guinea. A Japanese air base there would have threatened northeastern Australia and strategic sea lanes, possibly forcing Australia out of the war and certainly enhancing the strategic defenses of Japan's oceanic empire and further Japanese expansion into the Pacific. The Japanese scored a tactical victory by sinking the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, heavily damaging the carrier USS Yorktown, and sinking a destroyer and an oiler. Against those losses, the Americans managed to achieve their first substantial kills against the Japanese Navy by sinking the light carrier Shoho and severely damaging the Shokaku, as well as damaging other smaller ships. In truth the battle was an operational and strategic defeat for the Japanese--the first major check on their offensive sweep begun five months earlier at Pearl Harbor. First, the invasion of Port Moresby was thwarted, boosting Allied chances in the bitterly fought New Guinea campaign, and fending off a threat to the supply lines running between the US and Australia. Second, the Japanese were denied the services of their two newest carriers on the eve of the Battle of Midway a month later. Historians have argued whether these two Japanese carriers would have actually been used at Midway; regardless, had these two carriers been available at Midway, things might well have turned out very differently for the Americans. Elsewhere in the War To put the importance and timing of this battle in context, we need to take a quick look at what else was happening in late April - early June 1942: April 23rd was the beginning of the Luftwaffe's air attacks against the British cathedral cities. On May 1st, General Carl Spaatz was designated commander of the Eighth Air Force, which had not yet left for England and was still Stateside at Bolling Field, Washington, DC. On May 4th, US Navy aircraft attacked the Japanese invasion fleet at Tulagi Island, the first shots in what developed into the Battle of the Coral Sea. Corregidor Island in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese invaders on May 6th, ending US resistance in the Philippines. May 7th marked the sinking of the Japanese light carrier Shoho by US Navy dive bombers, while the Japanese sank a US oiler and destroyer, mistaking them for a US carrier and cruiser. US Army Air Force bombers mistakenly attacked US ships, but caused no damage. During the day, the Japanese invasion force headed for Port Moresby turned back towards Rabaul. May 8th was the day the US Navy lost the USS Lexington (much more on this below). May 8th was also the day the Germans began their Crimean offensive in Russia. It was not until five days after the end of Coral Sea combat that the first 8th Air Force bomber squadron, minus its aircraft, reached England (May 13th). June 4th-7th was the pivotal Battle of Midway, which truly turned the tide of the war in the Pacific. The Forces Involved and the Timeline The Japanese campaign included two seaborne invasion forces, the main one aim", "Spanish Armada defeated - Jul 29, 1588 - HISTORY.com Spanish Armada defeated Publisher A+E Networks Off the coast of Gravelines, France, Spain’s so-called “Invincible Armada” is defeated by an English naval force under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake. After eight hours of furious fighting, a change in wind direction prompted the Spanish to break off from the battle and retreat toward the North Sea. Its hopes of invasion crushed, the remnants of the Spanish Armada began a long and difficult journey back to Spain. In the late 1580s, English raids against Spanish commerce and Queen Elizabeth I’s support of the Dutch rebels in the Spanish Netherlands led King Philip II of Spain to plan the conquest of England. Pope Sixtus V gave his blessing to what was called “The Enterprise of England,” which he hoped would bring the Protestant isle back into the fold of Rome. A giant Spanish invasion fleet was completed by 1587, but Sir Francis Drake’s daring raid on the Armada’s supplies in the port of Cadiz delayed the Armada’s departure until May 1588. On May 19, the Invincible Armada set sail from Lisbon on a mission to secure control of the English Channel and transport a Spanish army to the British isle from Flanders. The fleet was under the command of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia and consisted of 130 ships carrying 2,500 guns, 8,000 seamen, and almost 20,000 soldiers. The Spanish ships were slower and less well armed than their English counterparts, but they planned to force boarding actions if the English offered battle, and the superior Spanish infantry would undoubtedly prevail. Delayed by storms that temporarily forced it back to Spain, the Armada did not reach the southern coast of England until July 19. By that time, the British were ready. On July 21, the English navy began bombarding the seven-mile-long line of Spanish ships from a safe distance, taking full advantage of their long-range heavy guns. The Spanish Armada continued to advance during the next few days, but its ranks were thinned by the English assault. On July 27, the Armada anchored in exposed position off Calais, France, and the Spanish army prepared to embark from Flanders. Without control of the Channel, however, their passage to England would be impossible. Just after midnight on July 29, the English sent eight burning ships into the crowded harbor at Calais. The panicked Spanish ships were forced to cut their anchors and sail out to sea to avoid catching fire. The disorganized fleet, completely out of formation, was attacked by the English off Gravelines at dawn. In a decisive battle, the superior English guns won the day, and the devastated Armada was forced to retreat north to Scotland. The English navy pursued the Spanish as far as Scotland and then turned back for want of supplies. Battered by storms and suffering from a dire lack of supplies, the Armada sailed on a hard journey back to Spain around Scotland and Ireland. Some of the damaged ships foundered in the sea while others were driven onto the coast of Ireland and wrecked. By the time the last of the surviving fleet reached Spain in October, half of the original Armada was lost and some 15,000 men had perished. Queen Elizabeth’s decisive defeat of the Invincible Armada made England a world-class power and introduced effective long-range weapons into naval warfare for the first time, ending the era of boarding and close-quarter fighting. Related Videos" ]

[ "After the announcement by Yeti to end its business relationship with the National Rifle Association Foundation, other makers of high-end coolers have come in search of the support of NRA members.\nOne of those competitors is not only catering to NRA members, it’s also offering a donation to the organization itself.\nPelican Coolers, a Virginia-based distributor for Pelican Products, announced Monday via its Facebook page that for every cooler the company sells in April, a $10 donation will be made to the NRA.\nCustomers who order a cooler via the company’s website will also receive one of the company’s 22-ounce thermal tumblers at no charge.\nFor every cooler purchased this month, we’ll donate $10 to the NRA + and give you a FREE 22oz tumbler of your choice…. Posted by Pelican Coolers on Monday, April 23, 2018\nSeveral followers of the Pelican Facebook page chimed in with their appreciation for the company’s offer.\nDo you think Yeti's decision was based on pressure from anti-gun activists? Yes No Continue with Facebook -- or -- Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use You're logged in to Facebook. Click here to log out.\nOther cooler makers have made themselves visible in the wake of the Yeti controversy.\nCliff Walker, owner and CEO of Orca Coolers, went on Facebook Monday to say his company will always support the Second Amendment, and his company will offer a 20 percent discount on cooler purchases through the end of the month.\n“Our roots have always been with the outdoor industry — hunting, fishing, camping and enjoying our tailgates at sporting events,” Walker wrote. “Rest assured, we will continue to support our customers, our constitution and our great country.”\nRTIC Coolers made no mention of Yeti, but was clearly referencing the perceived message of Yeti’s decision by placing an image of the text contained in the Second Amendment on its Facebook page.\nRELATED: Kyle Kashuv Sends Direct Message to Gun-Grabbers with Pro-2nd Amendment Tweet\nThe backlash against Yeti was spawned by a letter sent Friday by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, in which former NRA president Marion Hammer said Yeti informed the organization that the company “will no longer sell products to the NRA Foundation.” Hammer said Yeti did not provide a reason for its decision, and said the company should be “ashamed” of a decision that “isn’t sportsmanlike.”\nMeanwhile, Yeti issued a statement of its own Monday, saying it remains “unwavering” in its commitment to the Second Amendment. It said it was “eliminating a group of outdated discounting programs” and offered an alternative program to the NRA Foundation.\nIt said the April 20 statement from NRA-ILA that claimed Yeti had “declined to do business with the NRA Foundation … and refused to say why” was inaccurate.\nThe Yeti decision sparked a backlash against the company on social media from a number of NRA and Second Amendment supporters, who believed Yeti was bowing to pressure from anti-gun groups who have pressured a number of companies to end business relationships with the NRA.\nWhat do you think? Scroll down to comment below." ]

[ "By Mike Stobbe | Associated Press\nNEW YORK — The new head of the nation’s top public health agency is getting paid nearly twice what his predecessor made and far more than other past directors, government officials confirmed.\nDr. Robert Redfield Jr., 66, has long career as a top HIV researcher, but he had no experience working in public health or managing a public health agency. The U.S. government is paying him $375,000 a year to run the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\nThat’s nearly twice the annual compensation given to Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, who had the job for six months before resigning in January. Her annual pay rate was $197,300.\nRedfield is also making at least $150,000 more a year than any other previous CDC director.\nBy private industry standards, Redfield’s CDC salary is modest for someone with his resume. But his pay is high for the field of government public health.\n“It is an exceptional amount of money for what we’ve seen in the past for (CDC) directors,” said Angela Beck, a University of Michigan researcher who studies public health workforce issues.\nRedfield also making much more than his boss, Alex Azar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Azar’s annual compensation is $199,700, according to a HHS spokesman.\nHe’s also making more than Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, who is paid the same as Azar. And his pay is more than twice that of Dr. Scott Gottlieb, head of the Food and Drug Administration, who makes $155,500.\nRedfield is being paid under a salary program called Title 42, which was established to attract health scientists with rare and critical skills to government work.\nThe CDC, with about 12,000 employees, has had hundreds of Title 42 scientists on its staff at a time, according to a 2012 report by the U.S. General Accountability Office. The NIH has had thousands.\nThe jobs filled by Azar, Gottlieb and Collins are not eligible for salaries under Title 42; their salaries are set by law.\nIt is unusual to use Title 42 to recruit a CDC director. Fitzgerald was not paid under that program. Nor was her predecessor, Dr. Tom Frieden, whose compensation was $219,700 just before he left the job in January 2016.\nRedfield, who has not been doing media interviews since taking the CDC job, did take a substantial pay cut in joining the federal government. His base salary was about $650,000 at the University of Maryland about a year ago, according to publicly available databases. He made about $757,000 between January 2017 and March 2018, plus a $70,000 bonus, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.\nIn contrast, Fitzgerald got a pay bump when she went to the CDC. She had a $175,000 annual salary as the head of Georgia’s health department when she took the CDC job last summer, according to Georgia salary records.\nAn earlier Trump administration appointee, she was embroiled in unresolved financial conflicts and left the agency after six months on the job.\nRelated Articles Berlin protesters have message for Amazon CEO Bezos\nWhite House stands behind embattled VA nominee Jackson\nWhy Louisiana lawmakers are fighting bestiality law\nNRA supporters are blowing up Yeti coolers. Yeti says it’s all a big mistake.\nUnder investigation for sexual harassment, California Assemblywoman faces new controversies Last week, Redfield released a statement saying he has met HHS ethics guidelines concerning potential conflicts of interest. He said he signed over his share of future patent licensing fees or royalty payments from his inventions to the University of Maryland; divested certain stock holdings; and began the process of assigning all book royalty rights from a textbook to his co-author.\nCDC and HHS officials did not immediately provide a copy of his ethics agreement.", "The day after Stephen Paddock killed 58 people, and injured almost 500 others in Las Vegas, news emerged that the National Rifle Association had postponed a political ad buy in Virginia, meant to help sway voters in that state’s governor’s race. This response seems to mirror how they responded to previous tragedies–stay very quiet.\nadvertisement\nBut only temporarily. Because, if the aggressive tone of its most recent ad campaign is any indication, the Las Vegas shootings won’t keep the organization quiet for very long. On Thursday, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to blame the organization’s opponents for politicizing the tragedy. “This Hollywood crowd makes billions a year, every single day, teaching gun irresponsibility to the American public,” said LaPierre. “The hypocrisy is beyond belief. They criticize me for saying people ought to be able to protect themselves from murders, rapists, and robbers, and then they make billions depicting every night those same situations. The hypocrisy coming out of Hollywood is beyond belief. The American public doesn’t buy into it.” A week after the mass shooting in Sandy Hook, in which 20 children and six adults were killed in an elementary school Newtown, Connecticut, LaPierre sent a series of e-mails to members warning them that anti-gun forces were going to use it to “ban your guns” and “destroy the Second Amendment.” He also held a news conference in which he said, once again, that the media, movies, and video games were more to blame for the violence than guns. Over the last 40 years, the NRA has transformed itself from a largely non-political organization into one of the most powerful in Washington, D.C. And the bulk of its influence isn’t financial. As James Surowiecki wrote in The New Yorker in 2015, the NRA’s annual lobbying budget is around $3 million, or about a 15th of what the National Association of Realtors spends. The N.R.A.’s biggest asset is actually the voice of its members. UCLA law professor Adam Winkler told Surowiecki, “N.R.A. members are politically engaged and politically active. They call and write elected officials, they show up to vote, and they vote based on the gun issue.” To mobilize that passionate membership, over the last four decades, the NRA has used its advertising to change how many Americans see the Second Amendment–from a militia-based policy to one intently focused on individual gun ownership–and a relentlessly aggressive message that American gun rights are under threat. Behind every ad is one ad agency, Oklahoma City’s Ackerman McQueen, which over the last few decades has entrenched itself within the organization, and provided the public face and message of the NRA, one that aligns perfectly with President Trump and his voter’s brand of patriotism. This excellent 2013 Washington Post feature examined some of the dark arts of advertising involved in the relationship between the agency and the NRA.\nadvertisement\nRecently, an NRA ad featuring conservative TV personality host Dana Loesch launched a storm across social media, with many opponents accusing the organization of provoking fear, and even violence. Hard to believe it’s from the same organization that helped draft the first federal gun controls in 1934’s National Firearms Act, and 1938’s Gun Control Act. That spot is from a year-long campaign called “Freedom’s Safest Place,” that included a repositioning of the brand’s video content as “NRA TV.” It’s a strategy that positions the organization as an alternative news outlet in a time of growing mistrust of mainstream media news sources, particularly among the NRA’s base. To get a sense of how we got here, let’s take a look back at the NRA’s evolution through 40 years of advertising. In 1977, a group of conservative libertarians, led by Harlon Carter, took over the leadership of the NRA, and began publicizing the threat to gun rights by focusing on hunters. They favored an interpretation of the Second Amendment that emphasized individual, not just militia, rights to bear arms. It’s a view that well-known conservative, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger called “one of the greatest pieces of fraud—I repeat the word ‘fraud’—on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime,” in a 1991 interview.\nadvertisement\nThe early 1980s saw the organization move to expand its membership by touting its diversity, the ads featured celebrities, kids, and people of various ethnicities under the banner “I’m the NRA.” In 1987, the NRA launched its first campaign focused on crime, using the same fear-mongering tone that the Republican Party used to help George H.W. Bush defeat Michael Dukakis with ads like “Willie Horton.” Here are a few of the headlines featured in the NRA’s print ads at that time: “Should you shoot a rapist before he cuts your throat?” “If you’re attacked on your porch, do you want your neighbors to be opposed to gun ownership or members of the NRA?” “Why can’t a policeman be there when you need him? . . . If police can’t protect you, who will?”\nadvertisement\nEven at the time, The Washington Post called the ads, “madly twisted.” In the early 90s, the NRA evolved its Us vs. Them theme, portraying the government as a 1984-like threat to individual freedoms. During the 1992 election, Bill Clinton campaigned against George H.W. Bush by pushing both the Brady Bill, which tightened restrictions on handgun sales, and a national ban on assault rifles. The NRA reacted by warning against an encroaching police state. The organization was soon personally targeting Clinton, calling out the President’s supposedly soft views and voting record on guns. By 1997, Charlton Heston was leading the charge in positioning the government as a grave threat to Second Amendment.\nadvertisement\nFast-forward to the year after Sandy Hook, as President Obama introduced proposals looking to ban automatic weapons, limit magazines to 10 bullets, have universal background checks for all firearms buyers, and increase scrutiny of mental health patients, the NRA’s LaPierre said to get ready for the “fight of the century.” Part of that was this 2013 ad, which led many to accuse the NRA of unjustly bringing President Obama’s kids into the fight. White House spokesperson Jay Carney called the spot “repugnant and cowardly.” By March 2016, just a couple of months before the organization would officially endorse presidential candidate Donald Trump, it went into full Make America Great Again mode with its new “Freedom’s Safest Place” campaign. This spot stars musician Charlie Daniels telling the “ayatollahs in Iran” that they haven’t met the real America yet. Soon after, the campaign trained its sights on Hillary Clinton with this spot starring Mark Geist, the security team member who served in Benghazi and later wrote 13 Hours, criticizing Secretary Clinton’s record.\nadvertisement\nAs the election drew near, in September 2016, the NRA once again aimed its ire at Hillary Clinton. More recently, as protests erupted across the country against police brutality and discrimination, the NRA has scolded those who dare criticize law enforcement. In this spot, which aired in late September, a Navy SEAL vet wades into the NFL player protests debate. The ad isn’t specifically about guns at all, instead it positions the kneeling issue as being anti-military.\nadvertisement\nAnd today we have NRA TV. The branded content channel features 34 different series, with hosts who engage in political, social, and cultural debate. There are talk radio-style shows, reality format series that profile people who “don’t seek the spotlight, but deserve it,” and Armed & Fabulous, featuring members of the NRA’s Women’s Leadership Forum. This latest iteration of NRA advertising sees it join the likes of Fox News and Breitbart, positioning itself as both a source of news and entertainment that aligns and advances its outlook and agenda. A place to present its views as fact, and any opposition as #fakenews. In addition to LaPierre’s appearance on Hannity, the NRA’s chief lobbyist Chris Cox also issued a statement on Thursday. It included the oft-repeated mantra around gun control’s lack of proven efficacy. “Banning guns from law-abiding Americans based on the criminal act of a madman will do nothing to prevent future attacks. This is a fact that has been proven time and again in countries across the world.” Obviously he forgot about Australia, which passed much stricter gun laws after a 1996 mass shooting that killed 35 people and injured 23. Since then, the number of shootings in which five or more people were killed went from 13 in the 18-year period before 1996 to zero. Between 1995 and 2006, gun-related homicides dropped by 59% and gun-related suicides were down by 65%.\nadvertisement", "Broward County Sheriff’s Office deputies hid outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while a gunman went on a shooting rampage inside, according to a Coral Springs Police report released Tuesday.\nOne unnamed deputy even thought he knew where inside the school the shooter was, but remained outside the building, according to the report obtained by the Miami Herald.\nThe information sheds new light on the police response to the worst school shooting in Florida history — deemed botched after school resource officer Scot Peterson never entered the freshman building where gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people.\n“As I was advancing on foot through the chain-link fence, I was advised by an unknown BSO Deputy taking cover behind a tree, ‘he is on the third floor,” wrote Coral Springs officer Bryan Wilkins.\nNRA supporters blow up Yeti coolers after end of discount program\nBSO deputies didn’t immediately try to locate Cruz or aid his victims, despite being trained to to confront active shooters without delay, the report said, the Miami Herald reported.\nAt least three other BSO deputies were on the scene as gunshots rang out, but couldn’t pinpoint the shooter’s location.\nStudents were led out of Marjory stoneman Douglas High School after a gunman entered the freshman building with an AR-15 and shot 17 people. (Joe Raedle)\nBroward Sheriff Scott Israel condemned Peterson’s response to the shooting, saying he was “sick to my stomach” the deputy didn’t enter the building.\nWilkins described the scene at which he arrived.\nNRA opposed bill that may have taken Waffle House shooter's guns\n“I saw approximately four Broward County Sheriff’s Office vehicles parked [on the road outside the school] ... with their personnel taking up exterior positions behind their vehicles,” Wilkins said, according to the Miami Herald. “I drove up just west of the campus building 1200, exited my vehicle, grabbed my AR-15 rifle and donned on my tactical/medical gear,” he wrote in the report.\nThere he encountered the BSO deputy taking cover behind a tree who had a sense of the shooter’s location.\nWilkins then approached the building with Coral Springs Detective Gil Monzon and an “unknown BSO deputy.”\nRemembering the victims of the Florida high school massacre\nThey found bullet holes in the building’s windows and doors.\nCalif. man used assault rifle to kill kids in schoolyard in 1989\nCruz had fled the building by the time they entered, leaving dead bodies in his wake.\n“The corridor was smoky and smelled of gunpowder and blood,” Wilkins wrote in his report.\nPeterson, who resigned, remains the subject of a pending internal affairs investigation.\nSign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!", "Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and man … Shannon Watts will find ANY WAY to blame the NRA and Dana Loesch (who she has blocked) for any and every evil thing that happens in America.\nNo guns were involved in the violence that took place on Saturday in Charlottesville but lookie here:\n.@NRA lobbyist who hasn't denounced armed neo-Nazis in Charlottesville claims this ad is about fact checking: https://t.co/wSATHaUhJR pic.twitter.com/VXkpqUwvnH — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) August 14, 2017\nYou’d think with how much time Shannon spends stalking Dana’s timeline that she would know she HAD denounced and condemned what happened in Charlottesville.\nNot to mention we didn’t see any neo-Nazis strolling around with guns during the rally.\nYou built this, America, by allowing @NRA lobbyists to write our nation's gun laws. Open carry is legal in 45 states with little regulation. https://t.co/jn0QEBUq1l — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) August 14, 2017\nLobbyists wrote the Second Amendment? Who knew?\nThis woman is seriously certifiable.\nLord, save us from people who think only the police should have guns. Supporters of a literal police state, eesh. https://t.co/VkzkRkOl9W — Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) August 14, 2017\nScary stuff indeed.\nNRA drafted the Bill of Rights? — 🐨 (@PixyMisa) August 14, 2017\nHeh.\nEveryone on this thread seems to think they can go in a store, buy a gun for $7, & wave it in the air 5 min later.https://t.co/qytOcn4SIx — Chris Seay (@ChrisSeay104) August 14, 2017\n$7? Psh … you can get one of those guns that goes ‘pew pew pew’ for $2.99 at Wawa.\nNote to any Leftist reading this ^ that’s a joke.\nDo you volunteer or get paid to lie re 2nd Amendment? You're not one to complain about lobbyists while seeking to subvert Bill of Rights #2A — Mayer Fertig (@MayerFertig) August 14, 2017\nHope she earned a big ol’ paycheck for this one because even for her it was a stretch blaming Charlottesville on guns.\nBut she managed to do it.\nRelated:\nBOOM: Dana Loesch hands Hillary toadie his ARSE for blaming her and NRA for #Charlottesville\nGet a GRIP: LUNACHICK Patricia Arquette comes unglued, compares tweep to ISIS over meme", "Net income for the first quarter rose to $60.1 million at Dick’s Sporting Goods, up from the same quarter the year before, when it were $58.2 million. Sales were also up, increasing 4.6% to $1.91 billion.\nThe financial results are being closely watched in the gun community because of Dick’s strong stance in the gun debate. After the Parkland, Fla., shooting, the retailer announced it would remove assault weapons from its Field & Stream stores and stop selling guns and ammunition to people under 21.\nThe results indicate that, at least so far, the threatened boycotts by the gun community and actions by gun manufacturers to isolate Dick’s didn’t have an effect on the retailer’s financial picture.\nIn the first quarter, the company opened eight new Dick’s Sporting Goods stores. As of May 5, 2018, according to the release, the company operated 724 Dick’s Sporting Goods stores in 47 states, 94 Golf Galaxy stores in 32 states, and 35 Field & Stream stores in 16 states. Adjusted for the calendar shift due to the 53rd week in 2017, consolidated same store sales decreased 2.5% on a 13-week to 13-week comparable basis, the company reported.\nThe lines between business and politics have blurred in the past few years, as more companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association, or stopped selling particular guns or accessories. There has been a corresponding backlash from companies in the gun business, or business owners that feel an alliance to the community.\nThe moves on both sides have intensified since the Parkland, Fla., shooting. After Dick’s announced its self-imposed limitations, which included not selling high-capacity magazines, two gun-makers, Illinois-based Springfield Armory and Connecticut-based O.F. Ossberg & Sons had both announced they would, respectively, sever ties with Dick’s and not accept orders from the company, according to the NRA’s web site.\nThe NRA-ILA ran an article about the news under the headline: “Hard Times for Dick's as Second Amendment Supporters Respond to Company’s Anti-Gun Bent.”\nWhat is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that Dick’s has inserted itself into a tight spot from which it might not emerge unscathed, if it manages to survive at all. Its business with Second Amendment supporters in particular may well grind to a halt.\nMossberg said it would stop accepting orders from Dick’s in response to the fact that Dick’s had hired a Second Amendment lobbyist.\nOther companies that reacted after Parkland have faced a backlash, too. United Airlines’ CEO was questioned about its decision to end a discount program for NRA members at the company’s annual meeting this week. Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said the decision was reached largely in response to a United pilot’s daughter who was killed in the massacre, according to Reuters.", "Kroger will no longer sell guns to anyone under 21 at the stores it owns, becoming the third major retailer this week to put restrictions in place that are stronger than federal laws. The moves by Dick's Sporting Goods and Walmart — and retribution on Delta by lawmakers — emphasizes the pressure companies are facing to take a stand.\nThe nation's largest grocery chain has sold guns from 44 of its Fred Meyer stores in the West, but said Thursday that since a mass shooting last month at a Florida high school that killed 17 people, it's become clear that gun retail outlets must go beyond what current U.S. laws requires.\n\"In response to the tragic events in Parkland and elsewhere, we've taken a hard look at our policies and procedures for firearm sales,\" Kroger Co. said in a release.\nThe change comes one day after Walmart and Dick's Sporting Goods, both prominent gun sellers, tightened their company policies, and also a day after students returned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, for the first time since the shooting there.\nCompanies like Dick's had already changed gun-sale policies in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, but the Parkland shooting has opened a fissure between a portion of corporate America and organizations like the National Rifle Association.\nMetLife, Hertz and Delta Air Lines and other major U.S. corporations have already cut ties with the National Rifle Association, and at some political risk. Georgia lawmakers passed a bill Thursday that effectively punishes Delta Air Lines for cutting ties with the NRA, following through on Republican vows to deny a tax break worth an estimated $38 million for the company after it ended discounts for NRA members in the wake of the most recent school massacre.\nOne industry analyst said after the announcement from Dick's, and strong words from its CEO about the need for change, that other retailers that devote a small percentage of their business to hunting will probably follow suit.\n\"It is a risky game but you can't please everyone,\" said Joseph Feldman, a senior managing director at Telsey Advisory Group.\nThe announcements from Walmart and Dick's so far have drawn hundreds of thousands of responses on social media for and against the moves, from those who pledged to buy more from one company to campaigns urging people to thank the companies for their decisions to those who vowed never to buy from them again.\nOther companies have tried to stay out of the debate. Some gun sellers haven't responded to requests for comment, including Bass Pro Shops, which owns Cabela's, or Camping World Holdings, which owns Gander Outdoors. The Outdoor Industry Association hasn't responded to requests for comment. L.L. Bean also didn't respond to a message Thursday.\nBesides major chains, guns are also bought from gun shows, local stores and from online stores.\n\"If large retailers, like Dick's, reduce their exposure to guns, it could impact gun manufacturers,\" says Maksim Soshkin, a senior analyst at IBISWorld. \"Manufacturers could see a decrease in sales or have to find new avenues to sell their product.\"\nAmerican Outdoor Brands, which owns Smith & Wesson, said Thursday it expects gun sales to be more or less flat for the next year to 18 months. The company's third-quarter results and fourth-quarter forecasts were much weaker than Wall Street expected, and its stock fell 19 percent in aftermarket trading, while Sturm, Ruger fell 9 percent.\nKroger, based in Cincinnati, said it has been tweaking some of its gun departments as it renovates stores due to softer demand from customers. The company ended sales of assault-style rifles at Fred Meyer several years ago in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It will extend that ban to Alaska, where customers could get such guns via special order.\nThe NRA, which also didn't respond to request for comment Thursday, has pushed back on calls for raising age limits for guns or restricting the sale of assault-style weapons.\nCould a person between the ages of 18 and 21 challenge the companies over the new policies and argue that they are discrimination based on age? Some experts say retailers can set age restrictions without violating the Second Amendment.\nLos Angeles-based attorney Angela Reddock-Wright, who focuses on workplace discrimination disputes, said anti-discrimination laws mostly protect people 40 and older from being fired based on their age. Mike Glassman, who chairs the employment law group at the Cincinnati-based firm Dinsmore & Shohl, said the Second Amendment \"only limits the government and not private entities.\"\n___\nAP Business Writers Marley Jay and Anne D'Innocenzio contributed to this report.", "Like today, the late 1960s was a time when America’s social fabric seemed to be unraveling. As various American cities suffered race riots, first responders were shot at by snipers. Gun battles raged between black radicals and police. In April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was martyred by a career criminal who bought his deer rifle at a sporting goods store. Two months later, Robert F. Kennedy was murdered in a crowd by a gunman with a .22-caliber pistol.\nBut didn’t Americans have a right to own firearms? This very question was raised starkly on May 2, 1967 in Sacramento, California. That day, California Gov. Ronald Reagan was hosting a picnic for eighth-graders on the lawn of the state capitol when 30 heavily armed black activists showed up. Led by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, they were members of the militant Black Panther Party. Seale read a manifesto denouncing a pending gun control measure being considered by California’s legislature as a racist attempt to abrogate the constitutional rights of citizens to bear arms.\nThe measure would make it unlawful to carry loaded weapons in public and it was indeed aimed at curtailing the “Black Panther Police Patrols.” When Seale finished reading, he said to the group, “All right, brothers, come on. We’re going inside.” In so doing, the Panthers helped set in motion a series of events that would alter the nation’s gun debate and, in time, radicalize the National Rifle Association. Or perhaps put the NRA in touch with its own historic roots.\nThe school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 14 children and three teachers dead galvanized the political consciences of high school students in Broward County and around the country, most of whom have focused on stricter gun laws as their answer to this tragedy. Good on them. The more obvious failures at Stoneman Douglas High School were breakdowns in law enforcement, but a new measure rammed through Florida’s legislature takes aim in both directions. The bill that Gov. Rick Scott signed Friday raises the firearms purchase age to 21, requires a three-day waiting period, bans bump stocks, gives law enforcement more leeway in seizing weapons from those deemed a threat, and provides funding to train and arm some educators.\nScott, a Republican preparing to run for the Senate has termed it “a step in the right direction.” His measured approach stands in glaring contrast to that of another governor, Democrat Dan Malloy of Connecticut. Malloy, as he has in the past, used a tragedy to denounce the NRA as “a terrorist organization.”\nThis language has become a liberal talking point. There are others. Claude Taylor, a former Clinton White House aide, online gossip and “bomb thrower” (his description), has been renting billboards across the country asserting, “The NRA is a terrorist organization.”\nIn Kentucky, another member of the “resistance” hijacked a billboard overlooking Interstate 65 and wrote “Kill the NRA.” Meanwhile, liberal Media Matters produced a hit piece, “23 Reasons Why the NRA Is Racist.” The last one simply points out that the NRA supported Donald Trump in 2016.\nEverything else in American politics cleaves along strict partisan lines these days, so why not guns? Hate speech is on the menu, too, along with the usual barrage of fake news from both sides. (My favorite example of misinformation came from a black conservative named Candace Owens. She told a Fox News panel, “I happen to fall into the window of people who knows my history … and I know that the NRA was started as a civil rights organization training black Americans to arm themselves and to defend themselves against the KKK.”)\nWell, not hardly, but at least Owens didn’t call on Democrats to be murdered. Nor did she assert on Twitter, as did a bevy of Hollywood types, that Republicans who won’t buck the NRA have “blood on their hands.”\nMy guess is that such tactics will backfire. Contrary to its critics’ contention that the “gun lobby” exists to make money for firearms manufacturers, the NRA is better understood as a membership organization with between 4 million and 5 million Americans who assert a constitutional right to protect themselves by force of arms.\nGov. Malloy is correct in saying that the NRA has changed mightily since he was an Eagle Scout who took an NRA-certified safety course on his .22 rifle. It was, during his boyhood, a largely apolitical (and bipartisan) organization of sportsmen and hunters. It gradually morphed into something else, but not without reason.\nThe day after Bobby Kennedy was shot, Congress passed the long-debated Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Later that year, the Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed and signed into law by President Johnson. It banned interstate shipments of guns between unlicensed dealers; denied felons and those adjudicated as mentally ill access to guns; and curbed the importation of surplus military arms. The NRA leadership didn’t put up much of a fight to these laws, but many of its rank-and-file members thought they should have. By the time Democrats passed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act in 1993 or the so-called Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, fierce NRA opposition was part of the political landscape.\nGun rights advocates arrived at the same conclusion the Black Panthers had a generation earlier. Fashioning itself as a sportsmen’s club might have been good marketing, but there isn’t a Constitutional amendment protecting deer hunting. What the Second Amendment contemplates is resisting organized oppression — from a foreign power, or perhaps a government on these shores that has gone off the rails.\nRelated Articles Tillerson was undercutting Trump’s message of strength on North Korea\nCalifornia’s high-speed gravy train is running on empty\nSouthern California needs a better marketing strategy\nFrankly, we don’t give a damn about the political rhetoric\nDon’t blame Silicon Valley for Theranos’ fraud, blame Washington, DC That’s what inspired the formation of the NRA in 1871. The out-of-control government they had in mind was the Confederacy. Still stung by Johnny Reb’s superior proficiency with his musket, two former Union Army officers started the NRA to give New York militiamen firearms training. Their effort was about to peter out when Democratic presidential nominee Winfield Hancock narrowly lost the 1880 presidential race to Republican James A. Garfield.\nInstead of moving into the White House, Hancock, a hero of Gettysburg, did what Charlton Heston would do a century later: use the power of his celebrity to revive a moribund NRA. He became the organization’s president.\nPersonally, I don’t spend too much time thinking about the Second Amendment, let alone defending it. I have a full-time task trying to protect the First Amendment from threats ranging from the thought police patrolling America’s college campuses to Vladimir Putin’s online trolls trying to wreak havoc in U.S. elections.\nBut somewhere in my attic is an old pump-action .22 rifle. Once owned by my grandfather, it’s more an heirloom than a weapon: I don’t have ammunition for it. However, if the governor of my state called me a terrorist, I’d think about buying some. I know what the government does with terrorists. It kills or imprisons them. If a prominent local activist called me a racist for even possessing it or if a billboard appeared in my neighborhood calling for my death, I might also acquire some bigger guns.\nGun control activists, in other words, would do well to keep in mind President Garfield’s admonition. “Of course I deprecate war,” he once said, “but if it is brought to my door, the bringer will find me at home.”\nCarl M. Cannon is executive editor and Washington Bureau chief of RealClearPolitics", "Now that the president of the United States has finally discovered something known as racism, we can all sit back, confident that the violence in Charlottesville will be addressed. But the folks breathing a deep sigh of relief aren’t the few remaining establishment Republicans who are giving Trump ‘one more chance.’ It’s our friends in Fairfax, a.k.a., the NRA. Anyone who believes there’s no connection between the resurgence of far-right activity and recent NRA messaging shares a brain with my mother-in-law, and she’s been in the cemetery for more than ten years. How has the NRA aligned itself with the alt-right, alt-white crowd? On the issue of terrorism, in particular terrorist violence within our own midst.\nAccording to what we know about James Fields so far, this 20-year-old graduated high school, was briefly in the Army but washed out of basic training and sent home. If he had a job, it didn’t interfere with the time he needed to drive from Ohio to Charlottesville at some point before the attack occurred.\nBut what if instead of using his car to attack the crowd, our young white supremacist had pulled out a gun, let’s say a Glock like the type Jared Loughner used to shoot Gabby Giffords and nineteen others in Tucson or the AR-15 that Adam Lanza used to mow down 26 adults and school kids at Sandy Hook? Trump or no Trump, I suspect the public reaction would have been intense, because the death toll probably would have been much higher than just 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who associates and friends described as being committed to equality and “very strong.” I can just see Trump getting back up there and blustering about supporting 2nd Amendment “rights.” Yea, right.\nThe NRA has been promoting the idea of armed citizens for a long time, but what was initially a strategy based on the idea of using a gun for protection against crime has now morphed into a more generic argument about the value of carrying a firearm in response to the threat of a terrorist attack. At the 2015 annual meeting, Wayne-o Lapierre told the faithful that ‘terror cells’ were operating in all major American cities and a major terrorist attack was soon going to take place. He’s recently honed the message a bit in order to take pot-shots at the continued resistance to his buddy Donald Trump; now Wayne-o claims the biggest threat is from something called the “leftist movement” which is “angry, militant and willing to engage in criminal violence to get what they want.”\nBut it wasn’t a member of this militant antifa who committed the horrendous act of violence in Charlottesville, it was someone who identified with the alt-right, alt-white groups who are 100-percent behind Trump’s efforts to “make America great.” In fact, a number of the neo-Nazis were wearing red MAGA hats during the Charlottesville march, no doubt they bought them for $2.26 (marked down from $3.33) on eBay, free shipping when you buy.\nIn his recent remarks about left-wing violence and terrorism that I quoted above, Wayne-o mentioned that “multiple police officers” were hospitalized during Trump’s inauguration because of injuries suffered at the hands of the left-wing mob. It turns out that all four officers were treated and released; two were hit by “something” thrown from the crowd, a third was because he fell off his bicycle and the fourth because another cop sprayed him with mace. Want to compare those injuries to what James Fields did with his car?", "Parents of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, have joined forces to create a super PAC with the goal of defeating politicians who have the support and backing of the National Rifle Association.\nThe group is made up of parents who lost their children in the deadly shooting at the school on February 14 and those who saw their children come home but are upset that this happened in their school, as well as community members from Parkland who may not necessarily be linked to Stoneman Douglas but are concerned about what happened there.\nAccording to the organizers of the Families vs. Assault Rifles PAC, the goal behind putting up money against candidates who receive funding from the NRA is to elect candidates to Congress who endorse a bill to ban assault weapons.\n“The ultimate goal is to amend the National Firearms Act of 1934 by adding just a paragraph or two or whatever it takes to ban assault weapons and also ban the more dangerous accessories of assault weapons, such as high capacity magazines and bump stocks,” said Jeff Kasky, the father of two Parkland students who survived the massacre and who is part of the group behind the PAC. “But we know to get to that very simple goal, we have to take the NRA out of our politics.”\n“Most Americans agree that there needs to be some common-sense gun reform. Why don’t we have it?” Kasky said. “The party in power is being controlled by the NRA.”\nThe PAC was registered earlier this month, and without yet engaging in a publicity effort, Kasky said, it is already receiving thousands of inquiries from people who want to chip in or help the cause.\nMatt Gohd, the political director of the PAC, told CNN the plan is allocate the money raised to targeted federal races that are competitive and where there are candidates who are not willing to forgo NRA support or will not support the amendment to the National Firearms Act that the group is proposing.\n“We’re not about confronting the Second Amendment; we’re not taking away your handgun or rifle or shotgun. We’re just looking to take out and restrict the ownership of the civilian equivalent of an M-16,” Gohd said.\nTo start off, the group is focusing on grass-roots fundraising and is asking for $17 donations from individuals. The figure represents the number of victims who were murdered in the Parkland shooting. Down the road, the group has mega-donors who are pledging large contributions, according to Gohd.\n“Every time something like what happened in Parkland occurs, one would think that would precipitate some type of action, but all it does is it gets the politicians to say now is not the time, thoughts and prayers, let’s not politicize, over and over and over again,” Kasky said. “That is going to change.”\nThe-CNN-Wire™ & © 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.", "By BEN NADLER and R.J. RICO\nATLANTA — Pro-gun Georgia lawmakers scored a political victory Thursday over Delta Air Lines, making good on Republican threats to deny the company a hefty tax break after it cut ties with the National Rifle Association in the wake of the deadly shooting at a Florida high school.\nThe state House and Senate within hours of each other passed a sweeping tax bill that Republicans had amended to strip out a sales tax exemption on jet fuel. Atlanta-based Delta would have been the prime beneficiary of the tax break, which would have been worth an estimated $38 million.\nThe political battle at the Georgia Capitol was the latest in a renewed debate over gun control and school safety after the Feb. 14 shooting. GOP Gov. Nathan Deal criticized the Delta controversy as an “unbecoming squabble” but said he would sign the broader tax measure in whatever form it passed.\nThe Senate’s presiding officer is Republican Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who vowed Monday to stop any tax break that would benefit Delta — sparking a showdown at the state Capitol between gun-rights supporters and one of Georgia’s largest private employers.\nThe Delta provision barely came up in either legislative chamber during debate on the underlying tax bill, designed in part to reimburse Georgia taxpayers for $5.2 billion in extra state revenues expected in the next five years because of the recent federal tax changes approved by Congress.\nA day after Deal blamed election-year posturing for Delta debate, Cagle took a softer tone in celebrating victory Thursday.\n“Obviously the political environment does sometimes get a little testy, but in the end, it’s all about the product,” said Cagle, who is running this year to succeed the term-limited governor. “And the product we have today is something that all of us can be very proud of.”\nEven as Deal sought Wednesday to minimize potential damage to Georgia’s business-friendly reputation, the GOP-dominated Senate Rules Committee chopped from the broader tax bill a provision to lift the state sales tax on jet fuel.\nRank-and-file Republicans in the Senate stood by Cagle’s threat to squash the jet fuel perk, which he announced Monday with a tweet that said: “Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back.”\nThe chamber took up the full tax bill Thursday with a 34-15 vote to prohibit amendments, blocking any efforts to restore the Delta tax break. No Republicans opposed the parliamentary move.\nThe tax bill had previously passed the state House before the Delta-NRA controversy erupted, with the jet fuel exemption intact. But the House quickly approved the Senate’s version Thursday with a 135-24 vote.\n“It’s been strenuous,” said GOP Sen. Michael Williams of Cumming, another candidate for governor. “We’ve been attacked by the media, we’ve been attacked by the left. Big corporate has gone after us. And we’ve stayed strong. We’ve even stayed strong against our own governor.”\nAmong Democrats voting against the tax bill was Sen. Nikema Williams of Atlanta, who applauded companies that have taken swift actions on guns after the Florida shootings. She said Delta’s decision to end its NRA discounts swayed her to support the jet fuel tax break.\n“The small steps that Delta and Dick’s Sporting Goods are taking, to take a stand and say enough is enough, is what we all need to be doing as adults,” the Democratic lawmaker said. “We’re the leaders of this state and we need to be coming together for solutions, not bullying corporations who are trying to do the right thing.”\nDick’s Sporting Goods had previously announced it would no longer sell assault-style weapons like the one used in the Florida shooting.\nDeal, serving his last year in office, said he plans to sign the broader tax bill, even if it’s without the airline tax break he had pushed for. Deal said he will pursue exempting jet fuel from sales taxes separately.\nThat could be a tough sell with GOP leaders in the legislature. Though he refrained Thursday from further fiery rhetoric on Delta, Cagle showed no softening of his opposition to the jet fuel exemption.\n“I think everyone knows my position on this issue, so I don’t see any wiggle room, no,” Cagle told reporters.\nDelta’s decision to stop offering NRA members discounted fares was announced in the wake of the deadly Valentine’s Day shooting at a Florida high school. The airline employs 33,000 workers in Georgia. Its busy Atlanta hub has made Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport the busiest in the world.\nDeal has said the broader tax bill “represents one of the single largest income tax reforms in the history of our state.” It would cut the top income tax rate for individuals and businesses from 6 to 5.75 percent in 2019, with the option for legislators to further cut it to 5.5 percent in 2020. It also doubles the standard deduction for all filers.", "My first reaction was the same as Jim Geraghty : Go ahead and make my day.\nThe newest star in the New York Times editorial board firmament is Bret Stephens, a former member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. Yesterday, he went full gun-grabber in an op-ed in the Nation's Newspaper of Record, calling for a repeal of the Second Amendment as the headline. This matters, because more than any other single voice, the New York Times dictates the boundaries of the Ruling Class's national political discussion. Its attitudes are then spread throughout the rest of the legacy media.\nCall me crazy, but I think Stephens' proposal is a giant bear trap for liberals and Democrats.\nWe haven't amended the Constitution since 1992, when we decreed any law affecting Congressional salaries cannot take effect until the next election – i.e., banning members of Congress from voting themselves a pay increase. We've never repealed a part of the Bill of Rights. And that's just what Stephens is urging Democrats to openly embrace, promise, and campaign on.\nCan you picture some Democratic candidate supporting the repeal of the Second Amendment? The attack ads would declare: \"John Smith thinks the U.S. Constitution gives you have too many rights . . . and he wants to cut the Bill of Rights by ten percent!\"\nOr even better: \"If John Smith doesn't think you deserve your Second Amendment rights . . . how many more of your Constitutional rights does he want to take away?\"\nIf the Democrats made a sustained push for a Constitutional amendment repealing the right to bear arms, Republicans would never have to worry about getting out the vote again. NRA membership would explode. Pro-gun Democrats would switch parties. Portions of key groups within the party could recoil, no pun intended. According to the most recent Pew Research Center survey, 32 percent of African-Americans say either they or someone else in their household owns a gun.\nThe most incendiary Republican accusation of Democrats – that they don't really care about the Constitution, that they just want ever-expanding government power and the authority to micro-manage every little decision in your life – would be largely verified in many American minds.\nGeorge Neumayr and David Harsanyi join Gerraghty in thoroughly debunking the false and misleading data and reasoning used by Stephens. Howie Carr brought up some of Stephens's recent history:\nFunny, but less than 15 months ago, Stephens was tweeting out: \"Prediction: In two years Europeans will clamor for their own 2nd Amendment.\" But that was then, and this is now, post-Las Vegas, and if there's one thing \"conservatives\" in The New York Times must do, it's to attack anything that deplorables support, even if it's the Bill of Rights.\nSean Hannity devoted a portion of his Fox News show's opening to attacking Stephens. Start at 4:23:\nStephens, however, avers a longer-term strategy:\nRepealing the Amendment may seem like political Mission Impossible today, but in the era of same-sex marriage it's worth recalling that most great causes begin as improbable ones.\nHe is, in other words, breaching the first line, speaking the formerly unutterable as a respectable member of the elite. And he is historically correct. This is indeed how his \"great causes\" such as transgenderism gain purchase and inevitable victory. He may see himself as a brave first voice in the media that will someday be credited as helping along a great cause that eventually triumphed, as gun violence disappeared from America.\nHe's dreaming, if that's what he really secretly fantasizes. This could be a disaster for the Dems, and the way they work, the fanatics get to drive the political agenda. They show up at candidate forums and demand fealty to their demands and doctrines. They are organized. So expect a lot of pressure, Dems.\nA number of my friends who were fans of Stephens in his earlier years at the WSJ are shocked and puzzled at his political devolution. I am not. Stephens, over time, socialized himself into the dominant media culture of Manhattan, even while at the Journal. His wife is a music critic for the New York Times, after all.\nAt the Times, he has moved rapidly left. It is a basic process of socialization into a work culture. When people come into an organization, they adapt the values of their group environment over time. Or else they become outcasts or isolates. This is how all groups work. Back when sociologists were concerned with real things, George Homans explained how this works in detail, with examples. It is all but forgotten in sociology, but it is the basis for Harvard Business School's training of executives on how to manage groups of people.", "Photo by ElRepho385 / iStock / Getty Images Plus; St. George News\nOPINION — America is home to approximately 300 million firearms. One study suggests that 78 percent of Americans do not own a gun; 19 percent of Americans own half of all firearms; and, three percent of Americans own the other half.\nThe Vegas shooter was in possession of 42 guns, bringing 23 of them to the hotel with him. Understand there is no correlation between owning a lot of guns and being a mass murderer, even if mass murderers sometimes own a lot of guns.\nIn fact, it seems there is no way to predict when a gun owner will pack up a bunch of guns, book a hotel room overlooking an outdoor mass celebration, break out the windows of the hotel room and start firing away on a crowd of innocent people.\nSo, if we cannot reasonably predict who will misuse a firearm, what is the purpose of gun control? Obviously, the purpose cannot be to stop a person from randomly killing a bunch of random people.\nPerhaps it is justified to reduce the odds of a random shooter killing random people? But what mathematical equation do we use to reduce the odds without getting rid of guns altogether? And is that mathematical equation based on some general theory of gun control? Let me save you some trouble, no, no and no.\nGun control advocates may be well intended but their logic is juvenile and their suggested remedies half-baked. For so many advocates, the solution is complete confiscation of guns. They often argue that confiscation is not their goal but, fact is, that’s what they believe if they believe that confiscating one gun from an otherwise law-abiding citizen makes a difference.\nIf one confiscation makes a difference, complete confiscation must solve the problem. That is the logic behind gun control.\nRegular people know instinctively that this thinking is flawed. Whether you like the bumper sticker or not, guns do not kill people, people kill people. A gun is an inanimate object. It only becomes animated when used by a human being. This is why gun ownership rises to the level of a right in a nation founded upon three pillars of the Second Amendment: A personal sense of wellbeing, private property and a healthy distrust of government.\nHere is the dilemma: A gun represents exponentially more safety throughout society than it does death. For every Vegas shooter there are millions of other Americans for whom guns do not equal death.\nLet’s flip the script to really flesh out the meaning of gun control. Why do we have gun regulations at all? If the misuse of a firearm is due to mental illness, the opposite of mental wellbeing, why control guns at all? Why not just control the use of guns by mentally ill people? Again, if people kill people, why not regulate people? In this case, you cannot buy a gun if you are mentally ill just the same as you cannot drive a car if you suffer from dementia.\nIn the latter example, we’re not going to ban cars, we would be regulating the people looking to use them.\nIf that is what gun control means, every rational person is in favor of gun control. And, if not, those otherwise rational people must be irrational on this point for other reasons, such as partisan politics or rigid ideology. The National Rifle Association (NRA) does not need to spend a nickel to defend gun ownership. The NRA needs to spend money to help rational people understand why irrational people should or should not be allowed to own guns.\nMentally ill people have rights but owning a gun is not one of them. So President Trump’s action to lift the ban from gun ownership by mentally ill people does not make any sense. Nor does the NRA’s defense of the order.\nThe NRA needs to help the rest of us understand where we can properly draw the line for gun ownership. The Second Amendment is safe in the hands of reasonable people. That is not the issue. The real debate is over what regulations make sense.\nIt just announced its support for prohibitions on “bump stocks” that turn guns into automatic weapons. Good for them, but why? Why is that restriction okay but others are not? That is the real debate for gun advocates. And conservatives cannot be afraid of that debate. It’s an honest debate.\nIf gun control means general confiscation or repealing the Second Amendment, most Americans do not believe in gun control. But if gun control really means “people control,” specifically crazy people control, most Americans would agree. I would agree.\nI’m Paul Mero. Thanks for listening.\nPaul Mero is an opinion columnist for St. George News. The opinions stated in this article are his own and may not be representative of St. George News.\nEmail: [email protected]\nTwitter: @STGnews", "Because only BOTS would ever disagree with the stupid things Michael Ian Black says about guns and the NRA.\nThis guy.\nSerious question: Have any journalists looked into whether NRA uses a bot army? Accounts like the one below mirror exactly the ones exposed as Russian during election. I get inundated with similar every time I tweet about guns. https://t.co/53C1Xz6A3w — Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) December 8, 2017\nSerious question.\nHe wants journos to look into whether or not the NRA uses a bot army because some low-follower account said he was sh*tty at football.\nUh-oh NRA, he’s onto you.\n*dying*\nTo be fair, everything you’ve ever said about guns was dumb as hell.\nPlease ask follow-up questions if you’re worried I might be a Russian. — Cousin Eddie (@MetricButtload) December 11, 2017\nNo, they don’t. — Phil (@philthatremains) December 11, 2017\nWhy would journalists waste their time? Neither they nor you will ever change the 2nd amendment, prevent citizens from owning firearms or prevent people from challenging you about it in twitter — Rugged Indivisualist (@RIndivisualist) December 11, 2017\nBecause Michael Ian Black is super important and stuff.\n*snort*\nAre you projecting AGAIN? — Harry Gato (@harrygato) December 11, 2017\nMikey, I’m not a bot, nor am I a member of the NRA. Just a man who believes in the Founders intent of Individual Rights and Freedom. #guncontrol is statist trash — TheFakePundit (@jumpinjonnydee) December 9, 2017\nLook at this crap:\nYes. It's a bot. I'm pretty sure the NRA uses a bot army. — It doesn't even have to be in Russia, it could be right here in the US. If you find more, let me know and I'll gladly help you look into it. — Amanda Blount (@amandablount2) December 8, 2017\nI’m sure it’s domestic. I’m going to post a tweet and you can watch my timeline. It will take a little while for them to pour in, but you’ll see a bunch of cagey accounts responding. — Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) December 8, 2017\nHA HA HA. Yes, there’s a giant, domestic bot army out there just waiting for Michael to say really stupid stuff so they can make fun of him.\nBeep beep boop.\nRelated:\nPERFECT! Trump tweet to Chelsea Handler in 2012 may be the REAL reason she hates him so much", "Tomi Lahren: I'm So Sick of Celebs, Elitists Looking Down on Gun Owners\nAuthorities Looking for 'Mystery Woman' Seen With Las Vegas Gunman\nJudge Jeanine Pirro believes that gunman Stephen Paddock must have had help in committing the Las Vegas massacre.\nOn \"Fox & Friends\" this morning, Judge Jeanine said she doesn't believe that Paddock spent years stockpiling weapons and plotting and no one noticed.\n\"Look, there are always telltales,\" she said, pointing to the level of detail and precision in the attack. \"He had help. There's no question in my mind. ... This is not just one guy. This is too vast for one guy.\"\nShe noted that investigators have said they are looking for a \"mystery woman\" who was seen with Paddock in the days before the attack.\nShe said they could use that information to try and convince Paddock's longtime girlfriend, Marilou Danley, to give up any information that she might be withholding.\n\"Cut the ties, baby. We got somebody here we need to know more about,\" she said.\nWatch more above.\nDana Loesch: Monsters Exist and Millions of Americans Want to Protect Themselves\nNancy Sinatra: 'Murderous Members of NRA Should Face Firing Squad'\nLas Vegas Attack Victim Who Stood for Trumps: 'I Just Wanted to Show Them Respect'\n'You'll Find Out': Trump Again Teases About a 'Calm Before the Storm'", "WASHINGTON (AP) — On the day that gunfire shattered the morning calm of suburban Washington, dozens of family members of those killed by past gun violence had gathered in the capital to lobby against Republican-backed legislation to make it easier to buy gun silencers.\nThe lobbying effort and a related hearing were canceled in the aftermath of the shooting. But gun control advocates aren’t going far.\nThey’re plodding ahead, hopeful for action but pragmatic enough to know that the latest shooting doesn’t dramatically alter the dynamics of their uphill battle.\n“Anytime there’s a tragedy, it just once again amplifies the problem with gun violence in our country,” said Lucy McBath, whose son, Jordan Davis, was shot to death four years ago in a dispute over loud music.\nAdvertisement\nWednesday’s shooting at a congressional baseball practice marked the first high-profile test of Trump-era gun politics: Republican control of Congress and the White House has all but eliminated talk of tightening federal gun laws. President Donald Trump won election in part by making clear his opposition to new restrictions on gun purchases.\nGun control advocates, already on the defensive, insist they’re not abandoning their efforts in Congress or state legislatures. But after Wednesday’s shooting of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and several others, they did not immediately land on a new strategy to challenge Trump and the Republican-led Congress.\n“It is frustrating. These kinds of tragedies happen every single day,” said McBath. “Americans should be able to play baseball and dance in a nightclub or attend religious services without the fear of being gunned down. Americans can do better and we deserve better.”\nAs gun control advocates eyed the challenging political reality, the powerful National Rifle Association made clear it was not backing off.\nNRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch praised the Capitol Hill police, saying that “good guys with guns kept this from getting worse.” She said the organization would continue pushing for gun-friendly legislation at the state and federal level, arguing that new gun-control measures are not the answer.\n“Evil is real, evil exists and it makes no sense that the good cannot protect themselves against evil,” said Loesch. “Those policies have failed where they have been implemented.”\nEchoing those sentiments, the Republicans who control Washington dug in.\nTrump ally Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., who has a permit to carry a gun, vowed to keep his weapon close: “On a rare occasion I’d have my gun in the glove box or something, but it’s going to be in my pocket from this day forward,” Collins told a Buffalo ABC affiliate.\nRep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., argued that tougher gun laws aren’t the answer. He noted the shooter had a criminal record and was from Illinois, which already has strict gun laws, “yet he was still able to access a firearm somehow.”\nThe shooter was identified as James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old home inspector from Illinois who had several minor run-ins with the law in recent years and belonged to a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party.” Officers in Scalise’s security detail wounded Hodgkinson, who was taken into custody and later died.\nMany gun control groups spent the immediate aftermath of the shooting privately contemplating their strategy. Most decided to proceed with caution, issuing public statements that avoided the gun control debate altogether.\n“This shooting is an attack on all who serve and on all who participate in our democracy,” said former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the only other member of Congress shot in the last four decades. Giffords said in a statement that she was “heartbroken” for Scalise and the other victims.\nA group connected to the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre said the latest shooting showed that “more conversations are needed.”\n“This is not about more guns, which we know would not have prevented this event in spite of the presence of Congressman Scalise’s armed detail,” said the group Sandy Hook Promise. “This is about prevention and education, about knowing the signs of someone who might commit an act of violence and how to stop it from happening in the first place.”\nThey’re pushing ahead in a harsh environment.\nTrump, who has offered strong support for the NRA, appeared at the group’s convention in April and told members: “The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end.”\nIn one early sign of the new pro-gun environment, Congress in February passed a resolution to block a rule that would have kept guns out of the hands of certain people with mental disorders. Trump quickly signed it.\nGun control groups hope to defeat an NRA-backed effort to enact a national “concealed-carry reciprocity” law that would require all states to recognize other states’ concealed carry permits. They helped beat back such proposals in Congress repeatedly during Obama’s presidency, but face a far steeper challenge in the Trump era.\nIn the face of it all, McBath said simply: “I have hope.”\n___\nAP writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.", "'The Hypocrisy is Beyond Belief': NRA CEO Rips Hollywood's Gun Control Push\n'Do You Blame Knives' For Stabbings?: Watters Rips NYT Columnist's Call for 2nd Amendment Repeal\nIn her newest Final Thoughts commentary, Tomi Lahren weighs in on the gun control push from the left in response to the Las Vegas massacre...\nI don’t know about you, but I am pretty sick and tired of hearing these liberal entertainers - many of whom have never bought, touched, or shot a firearm - lecture the rest of us on our Second Amendment rights.\nThose injured at the Route 91 Harvest Festival weren’t even out of surgery before the rich and famous mixed their crocodile tears with their anti-gun BS in an effort to shame law-abiding gun owners.Pretty typical narrative from a group of people who will use any tragedy as a means to advance their war on guns, gun owners and the Constitution.\nHere’s a Constitution lesson for ya: “shall not be infringed” means “shall not be infringed.” It doesn’t mean there’s an exception if Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah, Kim Kardashian or Lady Gaga see fit. Got it?\nThe Second Amendment was brought to us courtesy of our Founding Fathers for those who aren’t wealthy or fortunate enough to be surrounded by gated communities, body guards or armed security detail.\nI’m so sick of these elitists looking down on gun owners as if we're just a bunch of rednecks who don’t deserve the right to protect and defend ourselves, our families and our property. No, that’s not how this thing works. It’s not up to Jimmy Kimmel, Whoopi Goldberg, J.K. Rowling or any of these loud mouths to decide what kind of gun I need or don’t need and how many.\nAnd Democrats, be honest, you’re not looking for common sense reform, you just want to get the ball rolling on your ultimate goal. It’s not that gun owners and Second Amendment supporters aren’t open to discussion or reasonable legislation. That’s not it. The issue we have is with the gradual chipping away of our rights. It starts with limited capacity magazines, then AR-15s, then bump stocks - until the Democrats get what they really want, our gun rights and our Second Amendment stripped away. Sorry, that’s not gonna happen.\nSo go ahead and lecture and and shame us all you want but if you think psychos, lunatics or terrorists will be stopped by your gun control measures or gun-free zones you’re either blissfully ignorant or living in La La Land. Take away our rights and the only ones left with guns will be terrorists, criminals and lunatics.\nKeep your paws off our guns, our God, and our glory.\nThose are my Final Thoughts. From Los Angeles, God bless and take care.\nSee all of Tomi's Final Thoughts, exclusively on Fox News Insider and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.\nTomi Lahren: Las Vegas Victims Were Americans, Not Democrats or Republicans\nTomi Lahren Takes on Michelle Obama's Criticism of Female Trump Voters\nTomi Lahren: The Left Is Putting Hatred of Trump Above What's Good for the Country", "The National Rifle Association made its first comments about the Las Vegas massacre on Thursday night when its chief lobbyist, Chris W. Cox, spoke to Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on his prime time program, Tucker Carlson Tonight. In the interview, which lasted about seven minutes, Cox said that the best way to keep people safe from mass shootings like the one that took place in Las Vegas on Sunday night — in which 59 were killed at a country music festival — was to loosen, not strengthen, gun laws.\n\"Right now, the American people are looking for answers. But the American people are also looking for their Second Amendment. They're looking for Congress to respect the Second Amendment,\" Cox said. He added that it was imperative for Congress to “pass reforms like national right-to-carry reciprocity.\"\nNationwide right-to-carry reciprocity is the NRA’s “top legislative priority,” explains Dan Friedman of The Trace, a news organization that covers issues relating to guns. Right-to-carry reciprocity would mandate “every state to accept the permits of the other 49, regardless of differences in standards for who is eligible to bring a hidden gun into public spaces,” Friedman writes. That would effectively dilute the stringent laws of states like California and New York. Cox did not explain how that would have prevented the shooting in Las Vegas, or how it will otherwise make people safer.\nCox also showed little sympathy for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting, all of whom were attending country music concert. This was a striking departure from the collective mourning Republican leaders have urged. If anything, Cox wanted Fox News viewers to pity the NRA, which he said was being unfairly blamed for the shooting. “They blame the one organization whose members don't commit the crimes.\" He did not acknowledge the organization’s decades-long effort to weaken gun laws around the nation.\nCarlson, who brands himself a fearless truth-teller, spared Cox from the kind of tough questioning with which he has confronted liberal college students, feminists and Black Lives Matter activists. For the most part, he listened with something approaching reverence, letting Cox recite his talking points.\nThose talking points included the assertion that “this distraction of gun control does nothing to keep people safe.” But as the nonpartisan fact-checking organization PolitiFact found in 2015, “States with laws that restrict guns do tend to have lower death rates.” And as the news organization Vox noted earlier this week, the United States has 16 times as many gun deaths as Germany. This year, 11,809 Americans have been killed by guns.\nAlthough Cox said that there “needs to be an honest conversation,” that conversation presumably does not include any of the facts above, nor any broader arguments that guns have become a pestilence upon the American body politic. His version of honesty involved casting blame on “gratuitous violence out of Hollywood” and “prescription drugs,” presumably of the psychoactive variety. Some conspiracy theorists believe that Las Vegas killer Stephen C. Paddock went on his rampage because of an adverse reaction to anti-anxiety medication. There is no merit to this charge.\nScreen Shot 2017-10-06 at 12 More\nFox News\nCox also alluded to President Obama’s supposed inability “to keep people safe” during his eight years in office. That seemed to suggest that Obama, with the help of congressional Democrats, somehow created the conditions that have fostered an increase in mass shootings. Further discussion of this assertion would have been welcome but did not take place, because Carlson declined to ask Cox any probing question. Perhaps this would have been different if Cox were a green energy advocate or a community organizer.\nThe NRA has already posted a press release on its site touting Cox’s appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, suggesting that the organization was pleased with interview.\nNear the end of the segment, Cox said that “expanding the rights” to bear arms is the solution the nation needs.“That's what the American people want,” Cox said. “And that's what the National Rifle Association wants.\"\nCarlson let that stand.\nRelated Articles", "Calls for strict gun control after mass shootings overlook how regulations have been used to disarm people of colour.\nGun control is again at the forefront of US public discourse following the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday that left 59 people dead and more than 500 wounded.\nStephen Paddock, 64, had stockpiled 23 firearms in his 32nd-floor room, many with legal \"bump stocks\" that served to convert the guns into fully automatic weapons.\nThese upgrades allowed him to wreak havoc on the 22,000 concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival for nine to 11 minutes, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said on Tuesday.\nThe mass shooting was the deadliest of its kind in the last seven decades.\nOPINION: Mass murder in America - A deadly pantomime\nThe calls for increased gun control have grown louder as the victims are mourned, even from the historically pro-gun country music community.\nBut the country's history reveals a dark side to gun control.\nThe implementation of stricter gun laws has always been marred by accusations of racism.\nIn many cases, regulations were specifically introduced in response to people of colour exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms.\nComplex history\nGun ownership is part of the fabric that makes up US identity, with the right to bear arms found in the Constitution's Second Amendment, adopted in 1791. But racism in gun laws predates the founding of the nation.\nA century earlier, the colony of Virginia had laws prohibiting slaves from owning guns.\nAfter being emancipated as a result of the Civil War (1861-1865), southern states passed laws known as the \"Black Codes\", which disarmed and economically disabled African Americans in order to sustain enforcing white supremacy.\nSaul Cornell, a professor at Fordham University and researcher who focuses on the history of gun control, said, \"the story is very complex\".\n\"Saying gun laws are always racist is just false,\" he told Al Jazeera. \"Saying that gun laws have never been racist is also just wrong.\"\nEven in the case of laws that are \"race neutral\", meaning they apply to everyone, there are examples of biased enforcement, Cornell explained.\nMany point to laws passed in the turbulent 1960s, when Black nationalist groups took up arms to defend their communities, as examples of racist implementation.\nThe leftist Black Panther Party (BPP), whose members carried weapons to guard against police brutality, \"invaded\" the California capitol building in Sacramento in 1967.\nCalifornia's then-Governor Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford Act shortly after that, prohibiting open carry of weapons in public places.\nThe following year would see the passing of the Gun Control Act of 1968, signed by then-President Richard Nixon. That law banned \"Saturday Night Specials\", cheaply-made handguns associated with crime in minority communities, as well as barring felons, the mentally ill and others from owning firearms.\n'Great concern'\nBoth of these laws were passed by Republicans and supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA), the most powerful anti-regulation gun lobby group in the US.\nToday, such groups lead the charge to abolish gun restrictions.\nThere is \"irony\" in the fact that right-wing politicians and the NRA were \"definitely in favour of gun control when there was great concern among white Americans\", Clayborne Carson, a Stanford University professor and historian who has devoted his professional life to the study of civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King, Jr, told Al Jazeera.\nThe NRA changed policies in the 1970s, adopting its anti-gun control stance. The organisation has continued advocating for gun owners, though many have criticised the NRA for failing to speak for armed African Americans.\nSaying gun laws are always racist is just false. Saying that gun laws have never been racist is also just wrong. Saul Cornell, Fordham University\nGun ownership activists have taken to \"open carry\" demonstrations, during which the mostly white activists march in public spaces while carrying assault rifles, in recent years.\nIn 2013, a group of armed men from Open Carry Texas \"trapped\" four pro-gun control women inside a restaurant in Dallas.\nCarson said that \"few black people would survive very long\" if they conducted similar protests in situations where they were likely to be confronted by police.\nThe silence of the NRA following the 2016 murder of 32-year-old Philando Castile after he clearly disclosed that he had a licensed firearm to Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez during a routine traffic stop, hammered the point home for many African American gun owners.\nOutcry from grassroots organisers prompted the NRA to issue a statement, calling the events in Minnesota \"troubling\" and saying it \"proudly supports the right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms for defence of themselves and others regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation\".\nCarson said it is \"clear that the notion of openly carrying weapons is a new dimension of gun ownership that is explicitly and increasingly available to white Americans but implicitly denied to black Americans\".\nRise of African American gun ownership\nNonetheless, African American gun ownership is on the rise today.\n\"Throughout much of American history gun control was a method for keeping Blacks and Hispanics, 'in their place' for lack of a better expression,\" Tiffany Ware of the Brown Girls Project (BGP), an initiative that aims to encourage and inspire black women and teaches them to responsibly own and use firearms, told Al Jazeera.\nFor many, the near-daily news of another black person killed by police has been motivation to exercise their Second Amendment rights.\nThe Guardian newspaper's The Counted database found that African Americans, who make up around 12 percent of the country's population, constituted almost a quarter of the 1,092 killed by police in 2016.\nThe US has experienced a noticeable increase in hate crimes in the months following the election of Donald Trump.\nWare said that \"increasingly blatant racism\" in the US under the Trump administration is another motivating factor.\n\"It's driven by fear and a need to protect those that we love,\" Ware said.\nWith this in mind, BGP began hosting workshops on self-defence, gun ownership and laws for Black women.\n\"We are the organisers of our families. We have to be prepared,\" Ware added.\nThe complicated relationship between the African American community and gun control makes it difficult to imagine new controls, the BGP's Ware said.\nWhen asked what responsible limits would look like, she responded: \"I really don't know. It seems to me that it's not the people who own firearms legally that are the problem.\"\nWare said she isn't against new controls and being a gun owner doesn't form an important part of her identity. Motherhood, her community and career, among other aspects, come first.\nBut systemic biases in the US must be dealt with, she said. Until then, she will continue carrying a weapon.\n\"The system is rotten with bias towards people of colour … With the knowledge and power that I have with a gun on my hip, I am a protector.\"\nSource: Al Jazeera News", "WASHINGTON — In its first public statement since the deadliest shooting in modern American history, the National Rifle Association on Thursday called for new regulations on bump stocks that rapidly accelerate a weapons' rate of fire.\n\"The National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law,\" the NRA's chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, and its chief lobbyist, Chris Cox, said in a statement.\nPlay Facebook\nTwitter\nEmbed Republicans Open Door to 'Bump Stop' Regulation 1:37 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog\n\"The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,\" the statement continued.\nIt was an unusual and potentially game-changing move for an organization that has made a habit of opposing any and all new restrictions on gun rights, and one likely to increase momentum on Capitol Hill for legislative action to crack down on bump stocks, especially among Republicans.\nAt the White House shortly after the NRA issued its statement, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that President Donald Trump is aware that Congress wants to take a look at bump stocks.\n\"We’d like to be a part of that conversation,\" she said. \"We’re open to that moving forward.\"\nA dozen bump stocks were found in the shooter's hotel room after Sunday's massacre in Las Vegas, leading some top Republicans who are generally hostile to gun restrictions to call for congressional action on the devices.\nModerate Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida announced Thursday that he's working on a bipartisan bill to ban bump stocks with Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachussets, a rising star in his party.\n“For the first time in decades, there is growing bipartisan consensus for firearm reform, a polarizing issue that has deeply divided Republicans and Democrats,” Curbelo said in a statement.\nAnd a number of other key GOP lawmakers, including the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, are also looking into the issue.\nPlay Facebook\nTwitter\nEmbed White House 'Certainly Open' to Gun Bump Stock Legislation 0:46 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog\nStill, the carefully worded NRA statement stops short of calling for legislation, instead endorsing new federal regulations through the ATF and blaming the Obama administration for approving the sale of bump stocks in the first place.\nThe ATF has already concluded bump stocks do not violate current law, Special Agent in Charge Jill Snyder told reporters in Las Vegas on Tuesday. And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a leading gun control advocate, said Thursday that only new legislation could close what she called a \"loop hole.\"\nIn 2013, the ATF told Congress its hands were tied on the devices. \"Stocks of this type are not subject to the provisions of Federal firearms statutes. Therefore, ATF does not have the authority to restrict their lawful possession, use, or transfer,\" the agency's assistant director wrote in a letter to Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo.\nThe NRA statement also criticized some lawmakers for pushing for gun control in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.\n\"Unfortunately, the first response from some politicians has been to call for more gun control. Banning guns from law-abiding Americans based on the criminal act of a madman will do nothing to prevent future attacks,\" LaPierre and Cox said.\nAnd they used the statement to reiterate their desire that Congress pass a bill to make concealed carry weapons permits valid across state lines.\nMeanwhile, Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun safety group run by former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, is working on a separate framework with the goal of attracting bipartisan support.\nUnlike bills already introduced by Democrats in the House and Senate that would criminalize the possession of bump stocks, the proposal would regulate existing devices by making them subject to the same strict law that covers machine guns and would ban their future manufacture.\n\"This really balances what we’re trying to do in the name of public safety while recognizing the political reality that we’re in,\" said Rob Lloyd, the director of government affairs at Americans for Responsible Solutions.", "Ohio’s “America First” congressional candidate, State Rep. Christina Hagan (R), who is running in the state’s 16th district against the Republican establishment, says she will promote a plan once in Congress to “stop sending our dollars overseas.”\nHagen would instead use the money saved to pay retired and armed American veterans and law enforcement officers to guard and protect U.S. schools.\nDuring an interview with Breitbart News’s Political Editor Matt Boyle and Deputy Political Editor Amanda House on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday, Hagan said her plan to protect American schoolchildren following the Parkland High School shooting did not involve “stripping law-abiding citizens of their rights” to bear arms.\nInstead, Hagan said she would push a plan that brings American taxpayer money back to the U.S. to fund armed retired service members and police officers at schools across the country.\nHagan, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), told Breitbart News:\nSo we’ve actually put forth a policy idea that we would champion when getting into the federal legislature and it has nothing to do with stripping law-abiding citizens of their rights. [Americans’] Second Amendment rights should be absolutely upheld and protected to the very extent that they’re not breaking them. [Emphasis added] As it looks to the future, we need to have an ‘Americans First’ priority. We need to take dollars that we’re sending all over the world to fund other countries to do incredibly silly things like train cashiers in Wal-Marts and take those dollars back to the United States and invest them in our schools. I mean we can have an ‘American First’ agenda by bringing veterans, by bringing law enforcement and having armed security resource officers in our school systems. [Emphasis added] We just saw a few weeks ago — and there was very little media attention on it — in Maryland, an armed security resource officer who mitigated an armed shooter right out of the gate. So we just need to have the right people that are positioned to put country above self in with our children and that is the solution. The solution isn’t a massive amount of heightened security, you know making our children feel frightened to go to school, but to protect them and have the right people trained to protect them in that environment. And it’s not a crazy idea. American dollars should be spent on Americans’ safety and security, and if the national security threat is having an armed gunman in our school rooms, then we need to put our children first and stop sending our dollars overseas. [Emphasis added]\nI’m Christina Hagan. I’m running for US Congress. I’m a proud gun owner. I’m a proud member of the @NRA. I’m endorsed by the NRA. I am the NRA. #2a #MAGA 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/d5hw8FMhRu — Christina Hagan (@RepHagan) April 10, 2018\nThe most recent omnibus spending bill funds a slew of overseas and foreign initiatives using American taxpayer money. For example, the spending bill funds border security in the Middle East for countries like Jordan, Iraq, and Syria.\nMeanwhile, the spending bill did not only not fund a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, as Trump has requested, but it specifically blocked the funding of a wall, as Breitbart News reported. Hagan told Breitbart News that she would not only push for a border wall on the southern border, but would also support legislation like the Trump-endorsed RAISE Act that would cut legal immigration levels in half and boost wages for American workers.\n“We can’t allow terrorists to come into this country on a Diversity Visa Lottery, it is absolutely ludicrous that we would put our American citizens in harm’s way,” Hagan said.\nHagan’s primary opponent, Anthony Gonzalez, has received the backing of the GOP establishment, including Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). If elected, Hagan, 29-years-old, would be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.\nListen to Hagan’s full interview here:\nBreitbart News Sunday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern.\nJohn Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.", "Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is one of the most outspoken proponents of gun control. She’s quick to blame Republicans for EVERYTHING related to “gun violence.”\nFeinstein was quick to say Republicans continually block the Center for Disease Control from treating gun violence as a public health problem. Except there’s just one problem….the CDC did a study on gun violence back in 2013.\nThe CDC researches ALL leading causes of death in America EXCEPT for gun violence. It’s ridiculous that Republicans have blocked the CDC from treating gun violence as a public health problem since 1996. We MUST allow the CDC to do its job properly! https://t.co/mOPEG8lIaN — Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) March 19, 2018\nAnd NRA Spokeswoman Dana Loesch wasn’t going to let the Senator forget that she was down right WRONG.\nThis was done under the previous Democrat president, Senator. Here are the results: https://t.co/X8pfrLKAKE https://t.co/01HgpKXjq6 — Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 20, 2018\nWhen dementia sets in the memory is the first thing to go — Tom Johnson (@TomJohnson1369) March 20, 2018\nMaybe it’s a sign that Feinstein should just, oh, you know, retire?\nTell the CDC to come up with a vaccine for liberalism and shootings will drop faster than Bill Clinton's pants around an intern. — Jim Serwan (@jimserwan) March 20, 2018\nTonight’s Twitter trolling award goes to…JIM SERWAN!\nNothing to read here Democratic Socialist … This report is full of facts, and y'all don't comprehend facts. #MAGA #NRA — Stephen Rodwell Sr. (@srod409) March 20, 2018\nLiberals comprehend emotions over facts.\nWikipedia states the CDC as a source for its statistics on gun violence. Diane is a piece of furniture that needs to go. https://t.co/C0ATEt5gJA — Seth Fuller ⛳️🏌 (@sfuller94) March 20, 2018\nThat’s definitely an understatement.\nDo leftist lose IQ Points every time they screw up Gun Rights and the 2nd Amendment? Cause after 40 years, this lady has hit negative IQ numbers. — Ian (@BOER_Warrior) March 20, 2018\nBUUUURRRNNN.", "They’ll make the NRA’s dreams come true!\nThe Grand Prospect Hall in Park Slope — known for its ubiquitous commercials on NY1 with the tag line, “We’ll make your dreams come true” — has stepped in to host a controversial NRA fundraiser that was too hot for Coney Island.\n​​\nThat’s right — left-leaning Park Slope is hosting a gun show.\nsee also Staten Island NRA fundraiser canceled A planned fundraiser for the NRA on Staten Island has...\nThe Second-Annual Brooklyn Friends of the NRA fundraiser and gun raffle was planned for Coney Island icon Gargiulo’s on April 12 as The Post first reported, but the seaside catering hall decided not to pull the trigger after it came under fire for hosting the event on the heels of the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last month.\nA separate NRA event slated for Staten Island’s The Vanderbilt was also cancelled amid backlash.\nBut now Grand Prospect Hall is quietly taking over hosting duties.\n“We will not be advertising so we need everyone to try to encourage friends to join us in this fight to keep both our first and second amendments alive,” reads an email the NRA group sent to ticket-holders that was shared with The Post. “It would also nice gesture to contact The Grand Prospect Hall and thank them in advance for standing with us.”\nThe news left Park Slopers shell-shocked — especially Stoneman Douglas alumna Claire McCue.\n“It’s surprising also an event that has already been chased out of Coney Island, Staten Island and for them to be successful and have an event here [Park Slope] in my backyard is just something I don’t understand,” an emotional McCue told The Post.\n“I am an alumna of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, class of 1993, a Park Slope resident, mother to a young daughter about to start public school, and wife to a NYC first responder so this event has disturbed me on many levels,” she said. “I do not want any money raised in my neighborhood to go to anyone lobbying on behalf of the NRA or any of the NRA efforts.”\nFumed 67-year-old Sloper Celeste Haynes: “The NRA is out of control and they shouldn’t be anywhere near these nice, liberal people in Park Slope.”\nCritics flooded the catering hall’s Facebook and Yelp pages with messages urging it to cancel the event, and a woman who identified herself as a sales director said she could not comment.\n“Getting a lot of phone calls and totally overwhelmed, we don’t know much,” she said, refusing to give a name.\nA flyer for the event circulated when Gargiulo’s was hosting promised $50 raffle tickets for prizes such as the “2018 Gun of the Year Set” — which includes the gold-plated Kimber engraved with the words “Defending Freedom,” a Silver Stag hunting knife and the BB gun — as well as a Henry Lever Action Shotgun with “second Amendment engraving” and a Weatherby Vanguard Camilla Women’s Rifle emblazoned with an NRA seal.\nAssemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, whose district includes the century-old catering hall, said the NRA has a right to host fundraisers, but said it must take the gun raffle off the menu.\n“Listen im not a fan of the organization,” she told The Post. “What I object to in particular is the raffle. I would rather no place in Brooklyn have a raffle for the NRA.”\nSimon introduced legislation last Wednesday that would ban the raffling of firearms throughout the state.\nA person who answered the phone at Grand Prospect Hall said she did not know whether there would be a raffle and referred questions to owner Michael Halkias, who did not respond to several requests for comment.", "WASHINGTON — On the day that gunfire shattered the morning calm of suburban Washington, dozens of family members of those killed by past gun violence had gathered in the capital to lobby against Republican-backed legislation to make it easier to buy gun silencers.\nThe lobbying effort and a related hearing were cancelled in the aftermath of the shooting. But gun control advocates aren't going far.\nThey're plodding ahead, hopeful for action but pragmatic enough to know that the latest shooting doesn't dramatically alter the dynamics of their uphill battle.\n\"Anytime there's a tragedy, it just once again amplifies the problem with gun violence in our country,\" said Lucy McBath, whose son, Jordan Davis, was shot to death four years ago in a dispute over loud music.\nWednesday's shooting at a congressional baseball practice marked the first high-profile test of Trump-era gun politics: Republican control of Congress and the White House has all but eliminated talk of tightening federal gun laws. President Donald Trump won election in part by making clear his opposition to new restrictions on gun purchases.\nGun control advocates, already on the defensive, insist they're not abandoning their efforts in Congress or state legislatures. But after Wednesday's shooting of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and several others, they did not immediately land on a new strategy to challenge Trump and the Republican-led Congress.\n\"It is frustrating. These kinds of tragedies happen every single day,\" said McBath. \"Americans should be able to play baseball and dance in a nightclub or attend religious services without the fear of being gunned down. Americans can do better and we deserve better.\"\nAs gun control advocates eyed the challenging political reality, the powerful National Rifle Association made clear it was not backing off.\nNRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch praised the Capitol Hill police, saying that \"good guys with guns kept this from getting worse.\" She said the organization would continue pushing for gun-friendly legislation at the state and federal level, arguing that new gun-control measures are not the answer.\n\"Evil is real, evil exists and it makes no sense that the good cannot protect themselves against evil,\" said Loesch. \"Those policies have failed where they have been implemented.\"\nEchoing those sentiments, the Republicans who control Washington dug in.\nTrump ally Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., who has a permit to carry a gun, vowed to keep his weapon close: \"On a rare occasion I'd have my gun in the glove box or something, but it's going to be in my pocket from this day forward,\" Collins told a Buffalo ABC affiliate.\nRep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., argued that tougher gun laws aren't the answer. He noted the shooter had a criminal record and was from Illinois, which already has strict gun laws, \"yet he was still able to access a firearm somehow.\"\nThe shooter was identified as James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old home inspector from Illinois who had several minor run-ins with the law in recent years and belonged to a Facebook group called \"Terminate the Republican Party.\" Officers in Scalise's security detail wounded Hodgkinson, who was taken into custody and later died.\nMany gun control groups spent the immediate aftermath of the shooting privately contemplating their strategy. Most decided to proceed with caution, issuing public statements that avoided the gun control debate altogether.\n\"This shooting is an attack on all who serve and on all who participate in our democracy,\" said former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the only other member of Congress shot in the last four decades. Giffords said in a statement that she was \"heartbroken\" for Scalise and the other victims.\nA group connected to the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre said the latest shooting showed that \"more conversations are needed.\"\n\"This is not about more guns, which we know would not have prevented this event in spite of the presence of Congressman Scalise's armed detail,\" said the group Sandy Hook Promise. \"This is about prevention and education, about knowing the signs of someone who might commit an act of violence and how to stop it from happening in the first place.\"\nThey're pushing ahead in a harsh environment.\nTrump, who has offered strong support for the NRA, appeared at the group's convention in April and told members: \"The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end.\"\nIn one early sign of the new pro-gun environment, Congress in February passed a resolution to block a rule that would have kept guns out of the hands of certain people with mental disorders. Trump quickly signed it.\nGun control groups hope to defeat an NRA-backed effort to enact a national \"concealed-carry reciprocity\" law that would require all states to recognize other states' concealed carry permits. They helped beat back such proposals in Congress repeatedly during Obama's presidency, but face a far steeper challenge in the Trump era.\nIn the face of it all, McBath said simply: \"I have hope.\"\n___", "I wonder how many of the local students who participated in last week’s walkout realized they were part of a national movement sponsored by a group that is already in trouble for its leader’s affinity for anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan and celebrating Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Liberatian Army and a cop killer on the FBI’s most wanted list?\nWomen’s March Youth Empower cleverly disguised the gun-control protest as a “tribute for the 17 victims of the Parkland, Fla, shooting.” But the staged events were clearly intended to put pressure on Congress and state legislators to further the agenda to ban firearms.\nWe were all told the walkouts were not political but organizers then said they were intended to show how “the United States has exported gun violence through imperialist foreign policy to destabilize other nations.” Racism and police brutality were also thrown in. Super political.\nI’m sure students gathered outside The Dalles High School on March 14 were pure of spirit and heart in their quest to feel safe and secure in classes. Unfortunately, their walk-out on the same day as the national gun control protest divided this community as it did the rest of the U.S.\nFacebook postings on the Chronicle page generated the same divisive rhetoric heard on the national stage.\nIn Washington, D.C., Leftist politicians Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders joined one of the youth demonstrations against the Second Amendment. Of course, the politicians were protected by heavily armed guards because the elite don’t intend to live by the same rules they seek to impose upon us, which is exactly the problem.\nThe walkouts were strongly supported by MoveOn.org (George Soros), Michael Bloomberg’s gun control organizations.\nAt least the Women’s March didn’t ask kids to wear the obscene hats of the anti-Trump protests they organized last year.\nDid our students realize the irony of exercising their First Amendment right to demand that the rest of us give up our constitutional right to own firearms to defend ourselves and our families?\nDid they contemplate the chaos that would befall this nation if everyone began cherry-picking the U.S. Constitution and trashing the parts they didn’t like?\nI wonder if the school would have supported the walkout if a group of students wanted to gather outside to pray for the Parkland victims? How about if students wanted to leave campus and gather on the sidewalk to show support for their Second Amendment rights?\nHere are some facts about why demands for a ban on “assault weapons” will not work:\n• Over 90 percent of public mass shootings take place in “gun-free zones” where civilians are not permitted to carry firearms.\n• Six out of every 10 mass public shootings are carried out by handguns alone, while only one in 10 is committed with a rifle alone.\n• The average age of mass public shooters is 34, which means that increasing the minimum age for purchasing firearms would not target the main perpetrators.\nInstead of furthering the agenda of statists to gut the constitution, students and authorities should be concerned about the one thing that every school shooter in recent history had in common: mental illness. Mass shootings are being carried out by a predictable pool of people.\nThe Parkland deaths can be directly tied to the malfeasance of adults in local law enforcement in Florida and the FBI for ignoring numerous warnings about the killer’s intentions.\nAll students and their parents have a right to demand that authorities act when anyone begins making bizarre and threatening statements that allude to some type of violence.\nOn an ironic note, the walk-outs are having the same effort as other anti-gun protests: Membership in the NRA and other gun groups is surging. Millions take their Second Amendment rights very seriously.\n— RaeLynn Ricarte", "A Republican Rhode Island lawmaker was forced to apologize after getting into a Twitter spat with outspoken Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez and calling her a 'dummy.'\nBut in making his amends to the high school student, state Rep. Mike Chippendale said he won't apologize for 'zealously defending' the Second Amendment.\nGonzalez has emerged as a prominent gun control activist after surviving a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14 that left 17 people dead.\nSorry, not sorry: Rep. Mike Chippendale (left) said he was sorry for calling Emma Gonzalez a 'dummy,' but said he would not apologize for 'zealously defending' the Second Amendment\nChippendale lashed out at the Parkland survivor after she pointed to the fact that the man who helped stop the Waffle House attack in Nashville Sunday was unarmed\nOn Monday, she sent out a series of tweets concerning the shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville the day before, which killed four people and injured four others.\n'He was white and he used an AR-15,' Gonzalez said of the suspected shooter, 29-year-old Travis Reinking. 'The @NRA is about to say this man had mental health issues, so that the rest of us will get scared of anyone with poor mental health and buy a gun in preemptive defense so that gun sales increase.'\nShe went on: 'Shootings don’t just happen in schools, they happen everywhere in America, and now one has happened in Waffle House. You can donate all the shooting shelters to schools that you want, but at the end of the day, we can’t build our world out of Kevlar - someone is making Mad Money off that.\nFour people were killed and four others were injured when a man armed with an AR-15 stormed into this Waffle House and opened fire\nSuspect Travis Reinking was captured after a 24-hour manhunt (left). Reinking appeared in court to face murder charges on Monday (right)\nHero: James Shaw Jr (pictured during a press conference) was unarmed when he wrested the AR-15 from the gunman's hands, putting an end to the bloodshed\n'The local police say a man at the scene wrestled his gun away - looks like you don’t need to arm a teacher (or a resource officer) to stop a shooting. There goes the sales pitch for @SmithWessonCorp.'\nChippendale responded on Monday to Gonzalez's comment pertaining to the heroic actions of James Shaw Jr, who was unarmed when he wrested the AR-15 from the gunman's hands, putting an end to the carnage.\nReinking escaped on foot from the restaurant and was captured naked in the woods 24 hours later.\nChippendale said in his reply to Gonzalez that the ensuing manhunt might have been avoided if Shaw had a gun, and 'the entire region wouldn't be on lockdown ... dummy.' He later deleted the tweet, but not before it was retweeted and disseminated by others.\nChippendale is a town chairman for Republican Allan Fung's gubernatorial campaign. A campaign spokesman called the tweet disappointing and said Chippendale was asked to apologize.\n'Yesterday it was inappropriate for me to call someone a dummy on Twitter, and I’m sorry that I did — but I will not apologize for zealously defending the 2nd Amendment,' Chippendale stated on Tuesday.\nIndependent gubernatorial candidate Joe Trillo accused Fung of 'throwing his people under the bus.'\nTrillo, a former Republican lawmaker, said it's an example of 'political correctness rearing its ugly head.'\nChippendale said Fung addressed his mistake appropriately.\nThe Democratic Governors Association said Fung should remove Chippendale from his campaign to show he doesn’t condone insulting a mass shooting survivor.", "In the wake of one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history, the National Rifle Association turned to a familiar tactic: pointing the finger at Hollywood for promoting a culture of violence. But at its museum in Fairfax, Virginia, the gun rights advocacy group continues to celebrate the very firearms that it has accused the movie industry of using to glorify gun violence and make billions of dollars\nThe “Hollywood Guns” exhibit, in the National Firearms Museum’s William B. Ruger Gallery, “spotlights 125 firearms that have thrilled moviegoers for generations,” according to the NRA’s website.\nAmong the weapons on display are the Smith and Wesson revolver used by Clint Eastwood in the films “Dirty Harry” and “Magnum Force”, the suppressed shotgun of Javier Bardem’s character in “No Country for Old Men”, a submachine gun used by Bruce Willis in “Die Hard”, and Captain Jack Sparrow’s flintlock pistol from “Pirates of the Caribbean”. There are also guns from “Pulp Fiction”, “Reservoir Dogs”, “The Departed” and a number of westerns, including “3:10 to Yuma” and “True Grit”.\n“These guns have never before been seen together, and probably never will again,” museum director Jim Supica is quoted as saying on the exhibit’s website.\nWarner Bros. via Getty Images American actor Clint Eastwood points his pistol in a still from the film \"Dirty Harry\".\nA second exhibit of Hollywood weaponry can be found at the NRA National Sporting Arms Museum at the Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, Missouri. The pair of exhibits debuted as “Reel Guns of Reel Heroes” in 2002, according to an NRA blog post. The collection at the Virginia museum has been a permanent fixture since 2010. New guns were added to the collection as recently as October 2016.\nThat the NRA showcases such items is neither new nor surprising. But given comments by the association’s leadership, it’s hard not to question that if by maintaining such exhibits the NRA isn’t guilty of the same glorification for which it has skewered the film industry.\nIn December 2012, about a week after a gunman murdered 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre held a press conference and did what the group so-often does. He called for more guns. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” he said, while calling for armed guards at every school in the nation.\nHe took no responsibility for the role the NRA might play in deadly shootings by encouraging the nation to be flooded with more weapons and working to sink numerous efforts to pass gun control legislation. Instead, he has consistently pinned mass killings on seemingly everything else — video games, Hollywood and the media.\n“Then there’s the blood-soaked slasher films like ‘American Psycho’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’ that are aired like propaganda loops on ‘Splatterdays’ and every day,” he said during his 2012 press conference, adding that “fantasizing about killing people” is the “filthiest form of pornography.”\nThe NRA took the same approach on Thursday, nearly a week after 59 people were killed and hundreds more were injured by a gunman at a country music festival in Las Vegas.\n“The NRA spends millions of dollars every year teaching safe and responsible gun ownership, and Hollywood makes billions promoting and glorifying gun violence,” Chris Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. “And then the same hypocrites come in and suggest we’re to blame for this.”\nLaPierre echoed that same message in a separate interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “This Hollywood crowd makes billions ... teaching gun irresponsibility to the American public,” he said. “The hypocrisy is beyond belief. They criticize me for saying people ought to be able to protect themselves from murderers, rapists and robbers, and then they make billions depicting every night those same situations.”\nIn a 2013 report entitled “Bloody Reel,” gun control advocate Tom Diaz documented how the NRA and gun industry “exploit images of guns in extremely violent movies to sell the increasingly lethal military-style guns that define today’s civilian gun market.” He wrote, “it would be hard to find a more hypocritical statement” that the one made by LaPierre against Hollywood in the wake of Sandy Hook.\n“The fact is that neither movies nor video games, nor any other of the wondrous excuses the NRA can dream up are the cause of America’s gun violence epidemic,” Diaz wrote in the report. “Guns are.”\nThe NRA did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on Friday.\nThe National Firearms Museum highlighted its Hollywood firearms exhibit in a 2010 promotional video. In it, museum senior curator Phil Schreier encourages viewers to “come by and visit this sequel and come see a true blockbuster here in Fairfax, where all the stars of the silver screen have descended into these galleries and are represented by some of the firearms that we’ve fallen in love with in our youth and our adulthood, wishing that we too could be like our matinee idols.”\nThe video was deleted from the NRA’s YouTube channel, but not before being archived by Media Matters for America.\nSeveral other videos about the the NRA’s Hollywood collection remain online. In one, Schreier shows off the MP5 submachine gun from “Die Hard”. In another, Jim Supica, the museum’s manager, demonstrates shooting both blank and live rounds from the same type of gun.\n“Here to kick ass and chew gum,” Supica says before unloading a magazine of blanks at large jars filled with bubble gum, a reference to a line from the 1988 film “They Live”.", "DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Brushed aside by the Republican-controlled Congress, gun control advocates have shifted much of their campaign for tighter firearms laws to the states — and they've chalked up some modest, unexpected successes.\nRepublican governors in Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and New Jersey all have signed bills this year tightening access to guns. At the same time, efforts to loosen restrictions have failed in several states where Republicans are in control.\nFor gun control advocates — and for some Republican strategists, too — these developments expose revealing limits to what some had felt was the virtually unlimited influence of the gun lobby. Some GOP state officials have shown a willingness to break ranks — largely on incremental steps — tacking closer to overall public opinion about a need for some curbs on gun purchases, broader background checks and limits on where guns can be carried. Hoping it's at least a mini-trend, gun control advocates say they plan to exploit newly fertile ground in the wake of the Las Vegas shootings.\nEven the NRA, aware of rising emotions after Las Vegas, called on the government Thursday to review whether special devices such as the Nevada shooter used should be subject to further regulation.\nPresident Donald Trump waved off the first quick demands for tighter restrictions after Las Vegas. But there is growing support among Republicans, even House Speaker Paul Ryan, for restricting \"bump stocks\" like the shooter in Las Vegas apparently used to effectively convert semi-automatic rifles into fully automated weapons.\nThere are still plenty of divisions within GOP ranks, but this marks the first time Republicans have even opened the door slightly to gun legislation.\n\"The Second Amendment is being misinterpreted by many of the gun advocates,\" said South Dakota Republican state Sen. Art Rusch, who opposed a bill this year allowing gun owners to carry firearms without a permit. \"It was never meant to mean you can carry guns everywhere.\"\nSouth Dakota, with its spacious rural hunting areas, and pro-gun Texas were among heavily Republican states where \"permit-less carry\" bills failed this year\nTo be sure, efforts to soften rather than harden gun laws have continued, too, advanced by Republicans' control of a majority of legislatures and 35 governor's offices. The National Rifle Association successfully this year pressed for fewer restrictions on concealed firearms, greater access to guns in schools and on college campuses and new stand-your-ground legislation, which says a person can use force rather than flee from a deadly situation, in more than a dozen states.\nIn Iowa, for example, officials adopted a sweeping package of gun measures, including a stand-your-ground provision, allowing guns in the Capitol and removing sawed-off shotguns from the state's offensive weapons list.\nBut the dozens of new restrictions and failed efforts to loosen gun access in GOP-controlled states are notable — particularly when compared to the hard line followed by most Republicans in Washington. Gun control measures have been essentially off the table in Congress since a bipartisan deal to expand background checks — forged in the wake of the killing of 26 people, including 20 elementary school children, in Newtown, Conn. — failed in 2013. President Donald Trump has declared himself an ardent backer of gun rights and has moved to roll back some of the executive actions President Barack Obama took to tighten access.\nA Gallup survey in January found that 55 percent of Americans said laws governing firearms sales should be made stricter, 34 percent said they were fine as is and 10 percent said they should be loosened. The partisan divide on the question has widened. Gallup found last month more than three quarters of Democrats believe gun laws should be stricter, up from 60 percent in 2001, while barely a third of Republicans felt the same way, down from 45 percent in 2001.\nIn addition to South Dakota and Texas, advocates lobbied against permit-less carry in 22 states, including Republican-heavy Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Utah. Just two states adopted the practice — North Dakota and New Hampshire.\nAmong the groups working at the state-level is Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, formed after the Connecticut shooting and now allied with billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety. More than 250 members, wearing their trademark red T-shirts, flooded the Texas Capitol in Austin in January, asking lawmakers face-to-face to oppose legislation that would allow any lawful gun owner to carry a loaded weapon anywhere. The bill died without a vote.\nThe group's founder, Shannon Watts, says state lawmakers can be more accessible and open to one-on-one discussion than members of Congress in Washington.\n\"There are relationships between lawmakers and activists,\" she said.\nHer group is planning to make its biggest political campaign push in 2018 with contributions for like-minded candidates and against opponents. In light of the Las Vegas killings, it has also launched a text message campaign against the NRA.\nThe NRA knows it's there and has its own message.\n\"Despite an unprecedented level of spending by anti-gun, New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the majority of Americans support the Second Amendment and reject his extreme gun-control agenda,\" NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said.\nGrass-roots lobbying may be more effective in making change at the state level, but veteran GOP strategist Charlie Black says that doesn't mean the NRA is being outflanked in states where gun-control advocates tout gains.\n\"The restrictions enacted in those states are relatively minor,\" Black said. \"The NRA is generally very strong in the states.\"\nIndeed, two Democratic lawmakers in Colorado who muscled measures limiting ammunition magazines and expanding background checks to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper's desk were recalled from office after a campaign by gun rights activists. Hickenlooper was only narrowly re-elected in 2014.\nIn some states, like Nevada, gun control advocates have mixed record.\nIn Nevada, Gov. Brian Sandoval this year signed legislation tightening gun restrictions for domestic violence offenders. But he vetoed a bill in 2013 requiring background checks for most gun sales, which would have closed a loophole in federal law. He also opposed a ballot initiative, passed in November, that would have required the same. The measure has not gone into effect because state and federal officials have disagreed about how to carry it out.\nThe result is a patchwork of laws that can make any restrictions difficult to enforce.\nNew York, for example, has some of the nation's toughest gun laws, noted Democratic former New York Rep. Steve Israel, a supporter of tighter gun laws. \"But what good is it when you can run a gun from Georgia up to the Bronx.\"\n___\nAP correspondent Bill Barrow reported from Atlanta. AP correspondent Joe Danborn in Denver contributed to this report.", "The head of the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm said Thursday that “gun control is a failed policy” and it’s time to have a broader conversation about the underlying problem of mass shootings — namely the role Hollywood has played by fetishizing firearms.\n″The NRA spends millions of dollars every year teaching safe and responsible gun ownership, and Hollywood makes billions promoting and glorifying gun violence,” Chris Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. “And then the same hypocrites come in and suggest we’re to blame for this.”\nCox of course was referring to the massacre Sunday night in Las Vegas, in which a lone gunman rained bullets down onto a country music festival, killing at least 58 people and injuring hundreds more before turning the gun on himself. The shooter’s arsenal included 12 firearms outfitted with bump fire stocks, devices that effectively allow a semi-automatic weapon to function as a fully automatic one does.\nIn an out-of-character move for the NRA, on Thursday — following several days of silence — the group issued a statement in which it acknowledged such devices “should be subject to additional regulations.”\nEchoing a statement he and NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre had made earlier in the day, Cox told Fox News it was the Obama administration that approved the sale of bump fire stocks, and called on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to “do their job.”\n“We didn’t talk about banning anything,” he told Carlson. “We talked about ATF going back and reviewing whether these are in compliance with federal law.”\nAlong with pointing the finger at the Obama administration, ATF and Hollywood, Cox questioned whether prescription drugs are influencing gun violence.\n“Allow good, honest people the ability to defend themselves. Pass reforms like National Right to Carry Reciprocity.” –@ChrisCoxNRA #2A #NRA pic.twitter.com/9un5x1lcNs — NRATV (@NRATV) October 6, 2017\nAsked by Carlson what has changed since they were children to allow for an increase in deadly shootings, Cox said: “That’s a conversation that’s happening at dinner tables and in living rooms all over the country. I’m sure it’s happened in yours, it’s certainly happened in mine. And I don’t know the answer. And I think we need to look at the broader conversation, and have a broader conversation, about a violent culture, about what has happened with gratuitous violence out of Hollywood, what’s happened with prescription drugs.”\nLike the rest of the country, the NRA is looking for answers, Cox said. And while the gun rights advocacy group wants “to be part of a constructive conversation,” that conversation must include respecting the rights of law-abiding citizens and allowing them to protect themselves, he said.\n“We’re focused on keeping Congress out of Second Amendment freedoms, keeping Congress focused on expanding the rights of law-abiding people to protect themselves and their families,” he said.\nIn a separate interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday night, LaPierre touted the money the NRA spends teaching gun safety, and bashed Hollywood and the “elites” in Washington, D.C.\n“This Hollywood crowd makes billions … teaching gun irresponsibility to the American public,” he said. “The hypocrisy is beyond belief. They criticize me for saying people ought to be able to protect themselves from murderers, rapists and robbers, and then they make billions depicting every night those same situations.”\nLike Cox, LaPierre said the NRA had suggested the ATF take a second look at bump fire stocks, but stressed he and Cox “didn’t say ban” and “didn’t say confiscate.” He added that tightening gun laws would not prove effective at stopping shootings like the one in Las Vegas.\nWayne LaPierre: “This Hollywood crowd makes billions…teaching gun irresponsibility to the American public. The hypocrisy is beyond belief” pic.twitter.com/svw37zG7mU — Fox News (@FoxNews) October 6, 2017\n“If legislation worked, Boston massacre wouldn’t have happened, San Bernardino — where California has every gun law on the books — that wouldn’t have happened,” La Pierre said. “In Paris, where they have complete gun bans, that wouldn’t have happened. Brussels. All over the world, where the people are disarmed, these monsters, these bad guys, go about their business. They could care less about what laws are on the books.”\nHUFFINGTON POST\nWhat Is a Bump Stock\nand How Does It Work?\nTwelve of the rifles the gunman in the Las Vegas mass shooting had in his 32nd-floor hotel room were each modified with a “bump stock,” an attachment that enables a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster.\nThe National Rifle Association announced on Thursday that it would support tighter restrictions on such devices.\nA “bump stock” replaces a rifle’s standard stock, which is the part held against the shoulder. It frees the weapon to slide back and forth rapidly, harnessing the energy from the kickback shooters feel when the weapon fires.\nThe stock “bumps” back and forth between the shooter’s shoulder and trigger finger, causing the rifle to rapidly fire again and again. The shooter holds his or her trigger finger in place, while maintaining forward pressure on the barrel and backward pressure on the pistol grip while firing.\nThe bump stock is not banned under federal law even though it allows a weapon to fire at nearly the rate of a machine gun without technically converting it to a fully automatic firearm. (It is illegal for private citizens to possess fully automatic firearms manufactured after May 19, 1986; ownership of earlier models requires a federal license.)\n“The classification of these devices depends on whether they mechanically alter the function of the firearm to fire fully automatic,” Jill Snyder, a special agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said at a news conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “Bump-fire stocks, while simulating automatic fire, do not actually alter the firearm to fire automatically, making them legal under current federal law.”\nAnalysis of video posted on social media suggests that the gunman used rifles with rapid-fire capabilities", "Scot Peterson, the armed officer on duty at the Florida school where a shooter killed 17 people, never went inside to engage the gunman. He has been placed under investigation, police announced Thursday.\nThe Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a gunman armed with an AR-15 style assault rifle has reignited national debate over gun laws and school safety, including proposals by President Donald Trump to arm teachers.\nDuring the Florida school shooting, Peterson took up a position viewing the western entrance of the building, which was under attack for more than four minutes, but \"he never went in,\" Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a Thursday news conference. The shooting lasted about six minutes.\nPeterson was suspended without pay and placed under investigation then chose to resign, Israel said. When asked what Peterson should have done, Israel said the deputy should have \"went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.\"\nThe sheriff said he was \"devastated, sick to my stomach. There are no words. I mean these families lost their children. I've been to the funerals. I've been to the vigils. There are no words.\"\nThe suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, has been jailed on 17 counts of murder and has admitted the attack. Defense attorneys, state records and people who knew him indicate that he displayed behavioral troubles for years. He owned a collection of weapons.\nPoliticians under pressure to tighten gun laws in response to the mass shooting floated various plans Thursday.\nU.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said a visit to Stoneman Douglas prompted him to change his stance on large capacity magazines. The Republican insisted he is willing to rethink his past opposition on gun proposals if there is information the policies would prevent mass shootings.\n\"If we are going to infringe on the Second Amendment, it has to be a policy that will work,\" Rubio said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.\nState Sen. Bill Galvano, who is helping craft a bill in response to the shooting deaths, said an idea gaining traction is a program that would allow local sheriffs to deputize someone at a school to carry a gun on campus.\nGalvano insisted the idea is not the same as arming teachers. He said the program would be optional and the deputized person would have to be trained by local law-enforcement agencies.\nFlorida Senate President Joe Negron said both chambers are working on the legislation in response to the Parkland shootings. He said a final draft should be available \"early next week at the latest.\"\nWhat won't be considered is a ban on assault-style rifles.\nThat falls short of reform demanded by students who converged on Florida's Capitol to take their concerns to state lawmakers Wednesday. Outside the building, many protesters complained that lawmakers were not serious about gun control and said that in future elections they would oppose any legislator who accepts campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association.\nA day after an emotional meeting with survivors and their families, Trump tweeted his strongest stance yet on gun control. He said he would endorse strengthening background checks, banning \"bump stock\" style devices and raising the minimum age to 21 for buying certain rifles.\nAt a conference of conservative activists Thursday near Washington, Vice President Mike Pence said the administration would make school safety \"our top national priority\" after the shooting at the school in Parkland, Florida.\nCalling school shootings \"evil in our time,\" Pence exhorted those in positions of authority \"to find a way to come together with American solutions.\"\nIt was a markedly different tone than that deployed on stage minutes earlier by NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre, who delivered an unbowed defense of gun ownership and lashed out at Democrats — saying they are using the tragedy for \"political gain.\"\n\"They hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom,\" LaPierre said.\nAs the 50th anniversary of her father's assassination approaches, the daughter of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said limiting gun access is long overdue. Speaking at The King Center in Atlanta, the Rev. Bernice King said tragedy \"gives us an opportunity to lay aside for a moment our differences and really look at how we can come together as humanity and move forward with these injustices and these evils that continue to beset us.\"\nThe survivors of the shooting have vowed to continue their activism, including a \"March for Our Lives\" in Washington next month, which King says she'll attend.\nAt a funeral for slain football coach Aaron Feis, retired school groundskeeper Dave Tagliavia said he thinks the students mean what they say and won't back down.\n\"I think if changes are going to be made, these kids are going to do it. They've got fire in their eyes,\" he said.\nHundreds gathered in Parkland to remember Feis, 37, an assistant football coach and security guard gunned down while helping students to safety during the mass shooting\nJoe LaGuardia, who attended high school with Feis at Stoneman Douglas, described him as \"one of the greatest people I have ever known.\"\nOn Thursday, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson gave Rubio credit for being the only Republican to attend a televised town hall Wednesday night held in the aftermath of the school shooting and criticized Republican Gov. Rick Scott for not showing up.\n\"I commended (Rubio) for being there. He had the guts to be there when Governor Scott did not,\" Nelson told a group of Democratic state senators.\nScott is likely to challenge Nelson as he seeks a fourth term in the Senate this November. Nelson questioned Scott's commitment to make meaningful change after the shooting.\nRepublican legislative leaders in Florida say they will consider legislation that will likely call for raising the age limit to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21 and increasing funding for mental health programs and school resource officers, the police assigned to specific schools. Legislators may also enact a waiting period for rifle purchases.", "National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action executive director Chris W. Cox speaks during the leadership forum at the National Rifle Association's annual convention Friday, May 3, 2013 in Houston. (Photo: Steve Ueckert, AP)\nWASHINGTON —Facing intense public pressure, the National Rifle Association is starting to talk about the types of gun violence restraining orders it would support after years of opposing them.\nThe orders, also known as \"extreme risk protection orders,\" allow a court to temporarily restrict individuals' access to firearms when they exhibit \"red flags\" that they are a danger to themselves or others. Such “red flag” laws have received additional attention following the Valentine’s Day mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.\nThe NRA has fought \"red flag\" legislation in at least 17 states as \"anti-gun.\" But in a recent NRATV video, the group’s top lobbyist, said Congress should provide funding for states to adopt “risk protection orders.”\n“This can help prevent violent behavior before it turns into a tragedy,” Chris Cox said.\nGun-control advocates say it's unclear whether the comments represent a new opening to pass legislation — especially given the NRA's history of resistance to such laws.\nIn August, the NRA offered what appeared to be blanket opposition to gun violence restraining orders, saying on its website that they diminish due process and have \"obvious potential for abuse.\"\nEarlier this month, the NRA helped defeat a “red flag” law in Utah. And on Friday, the association urged its members to lobby against legislation in Maryland because it \"lacks basic due process protections and is ripe for abuse.\"\n\"The NRA fought red flag laws for years,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “If they’re serious about supporting them now, they’ll signal as much to their lobbyists in the 22 states where red flag bills are currently pending.\"\nSen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, \"It’s one thing to put out videos attempting to sound reasonable – it’s quite another to actually support and help pass life-saving legislation.”\nNRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker insisted the NRA hasn’t changed positions.\n“None of the pieces of legislation that have been introduced have included adequate due process so we’ve opposed them,” she said. “Our position has always been dangerous people should not have access to firearms.”\nIndeed, the NRA's support for such measures hinges on a multitude of requirements, which the association says are key to protecting Second Amendment rights and due process.\nOn Friday, NRA posted the lengthy list of conditions for a process it can support on its YouTube channel, beneath the Cox video. Among them:\n— Criminal penalties for those who bring “false or frivolous” charges.\n— A determination by a judge, by “clear and convincing evidence,” that the person poses a significant risk of danger.\n— A requirement that a judge determine whether the person meets the standard for involuntary commitment.\n— If the order is granted, the individual should receive community-based mental health treatment.\n“To be effective and constitutional, they should have strong due process protections and require that the person get treatment,” Cox says in the video.\nRead more: Some officials wanted Florida school shooting suspect forcibly committed in 2016\nHouse passes school safety bill as students protest inaction on gun violence\nBaker, the NRA spokeswoman, couldn’t point to a federal or state bill that the organization supports, but she said, “We’re confident that there will be a bill introduced that provides adequate due process while ensuring that people who are a danger to themselves or others don’t have access to firearms.”\nThe NRA statements coincide with student protests across the country against congressional inaction on gun violence. Last Wednesday, thousands of students staged “National Walkout Day” events, marking the one-month anniversary of the shooting deaths of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, was long-known to law enforcement as troubled.\n“My observation here is that the man did everything but take an ad out in the paper, ‘I'm going to kill somebody,’” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said at a Wednesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.\nAfter the shooting, Florida became the sixth state to pass a red flag law. (The NRA sued the state of Florida to block part of the law but didn't take a position on the red flag provision.) Several other states introduced versions of “red flag” bills in response to the shooting.\nPresident Trump, as part of his response to the shooting, called on all states to adopt extreme risk protection orders and directed the Department of Justice to provide technical assistance to states that want to implement the orders.\nIn Congress, other bills are pending and some are forthcoming.\nA House bill would give states incentives to allow family members or law enforcement to get court orders to temporarily stop dangerous individuals from purchasing or possessing a gun. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., sponsored the Senate version of the bill – and took Cox’s statement as a sign of support.\n“Now there can be no excuse from Republicans to oppose our legislation,” she said in a statement.\nHowever, Baker said Feinstein’s bill doesn’t offer “meaningful due process,” uses a low evidentiary standard and doesn’t require the individual seek treatment.\nGraham and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., proposed legislation to create an extreme risk protection order process for federal court. Baker said their bill is “not workable.” The NRA opposes efforts to create a federal law tasking federal agents with seizing firearms in federal court, according to the YouTube post.\nBlumenthal said federal law is critical to ensure protection through a national safety net, since many states won't adopt red flag laws \"over gun lobby opposition.\"\n“The NRA wants a Catch-22: oppose a federal statute, supposedly relying on the states, and then oppose state laws, as it has consistently done,\" Blumenthal said.\nRead or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2FML9qv", "WASHINGTON — Did the National Rifle Association just shake lose the partisan logjam on guns or send the debate to an eventual dead end?\nAs momentum grows on Capitol Hill to ban bump stocks, the rapid-fire gun modifications tied to the Las Vegas shooting, lawmakers are facing two paths to action — regulation or legislation.\nThe future of bump stocks may be decided by which course officials take.\nPlay Facebook\nTwitter\nEmbed Republicans Open Door to 'Bump Stop' Regulation 1:37 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog\nThe NRA is hoping to head off new legislation by calling on the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms to strengthen regulations on bump stocks through \"the existing federal gun laws,\" as executive NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said on Fox News Thursday night.\n\"If legislation worked, (the) Boston massacre wouldn’t have happened. San Bernardino, where California has every gun law on the books, that wouldn’t have happened,” LaPierre said.\nPresident Donald Trump stands with National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, right, and Chris W. Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action as he arrives for the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum on April 28, 2017 in Atlanta. Evan Vucci / AP\nBut gun control advocates, rather than praising the NRA's support for new restrictions, are dismissing it as meaningless lip service.\n\"We reject and oppose the NRA response,\" said Peter Ambler, the executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions, the group started by former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords. \"What the NRA is trying to do is a very typical tactic from them. Obfuscate, delay…try and bury it.\"\nCritics say the problem with the NRA's approach to bump stocks is that regulators have already concluded several times that \"ATF does not have the authority to restrict their lawful possession, use, or transfer,\" as the agency wrote in a 2013 letter to Congress.\nThe National Firearms Act, which regulates automatic weapons (called machine guns in the law), mechanically rather than by how rapidly they shoot. \"The term 'machine gun' means any weapon which shoots...automatically more than one shot...by a single function of the trigger,” the law states.\nBut bump stocks leave the mechanics of a gun untouched and the trigger is still technically activated on each shot, just at a much faster rate than is humanly possible without the modifications.\nThat leaves the ATF with little choice but to deem bump stocks legal under current law, said David Chipman, a former ATF agent.\n\"It’s a case where technology has overwhelmed the law,\" said Chipman, who now works for Americans for Responsible Solution.\nSome experts said the ATF is unlikely to change its ruling. The agency is under constant pressure from congressional gun-rights advocates, who regularly threaten to cut funding and have refused to confirm a director for years-long stretches. The agency has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since 2015.\n\"You have to understand how cautious ATF is,\" said Chipman, who spent 25 years at the agency. \"They’re not an organization that has the political backing to be aggressive in their rulings. It’s just, keep your head down....that’s the culture.\"\nThat’s why even a growing number of Republicans have said the only way to deal with bump stocks is through new laws.\nRep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., listens during the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on \"An Examination of FEMA's Limited Role in Local Land Use Development Decisions\" on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call via AP file\n\"It’s very clear to everyone here by now that this is a blatant circumvention of existing law,\" Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., who is pushing a bipartisan bill in the House, said on MSNBC Friday.\n\"To those who are saying we should just change the regulation, ATF should just change their interpretation — If they agree that these devices should be illegal, then lets codify it,\" he added. \"Let's turn that into law so that a future ATF cannot reinterpret the legislation.\"", "Ironic as it may be, it was a mere coincidence that the Las Vegas massacre that killed 58 people and injured more than 500 at a country-music concert, happened on the day the globally known father of nonviolence, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was born – Oct. 2. Which may explain why Indian-Americans have the 2nd Amendment and gun rights on their minds days after the dust settled and as the investigation continues into the motives of the killer, and questions surface on whether he was a lone gunman like the one who killed Gandhi on Jan. 30, 1948, or massacred the 6 Indian-Americans at a Wisconsin gurdwara in 2012.\nNews India Times spoke to a number of Indian-Americans who agreed it was time the community actively and visibly entered the grassroots debate over gun ownership despite its small size but legitimate stakeholder status affected by policy choices at the national level.\n“We have always hotly debated on India and immigration issues, but not on issues that impact American lives,” one of them told News India Times not wanting to be identified, but echoing the general sentiment. While they have pronounced on this issue in the past, both as victims and as a member of the general public, the enormity of Las Vegas engendered emotional reactions, but nevertheless reactions that called for common sense to prevail.\nPuneet Ahluwalia, the 10th District representative on the Virginia Republican State Central Committee, says the issue of gun ownership and gun regulations is a common-sense debate that cannot derail the right to bear arms guaranteed under the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution.\nAhluwalia owns a gun and he believes people should own one to protect themselves. “Guns are an important part of our lives and we should have them. But regulations should be there,” he told News IndiaTimes. “Things like Las Vegas disturb our American way of life,” he says, describing the killer Stephen Paddock, 64, as an “insane” man. People have described Las Vegas differently depending on their political beliefs, as domestic terrorism or the act of a mentally ill man.\n“Its a common sense debate, and that includes background checks, and restricting semi-automatic or automatic guns to the armed forces,” says Ahluwalia. “We may say ‘we’re gonna take guns away …’ but how? What about the guns on the streets of Chicago or Washington, D.C.?” he questions, his voice rising with emotion.\nIndian-American retail shop-owners and convenience store-owners would agree with the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. They keep guns to protect themselves and their stores around the country, and are among the folk that daily face dangers merely from their choice of livelihood.\nSuhag Shukla, legal counsel and co-founder of Hindu American Foundation found that out back in 2013 after the Sandy Hook massacre when 26 children and teachers were killed by a single shooter in Connecticut, and the faith community came together to urge President Obama to push for gun control legislation.\n“It’s an emotional issue in the mainstream and also within the Indian-American community there are differences of opinion,” said Shukla. When HAF was involved in developing a response, Shukla remembers,”Retail store-owners said to us, ‘Listen, you don’t know what its like to be in the line of fire,’.”\nAt the other end of the spectrum is Dr. Vivek Murthy, who years before he became the U.S. Surgeon General, described gun violence as an epidemic and a “health issue.” It almost lost him the nomination for Surgeon General of the United States. After he was confirmed as Surgeon General, Murthy doubled down calling gun violence a “public health epidemic.”\n“The statements I’ve made in the past about gun violence being a public health issue, I stand by those comments because they’re a fact,” he told The Washington Post after taking office in December 2014. “They’re a fact that nearly every medical professional who’s ever cared for a patient can attest to.”\nScope of Issue\nAccording to a Pew Research Center study, findings of which were released June 22, about 33 percent of Americans say they own guns; four-in-ten Americans say they either own a gun themselves or live in a household with guns; and 48% say they grew up in a household with guns, and at least two-thirds of adults say they’ve lived in a household with a gun at some point in their lives. Roughly seven-in-ten – including 55% of those who have never personally owned a gun – say they have fired a gun at some point.\nFrom all accounts, this is a mainstream issue not easily shoved to the backburner, especially for Indian-Americans who have been victims of mass violence like the Aug. 5, 2012, attack on the Oak Creek gurdwara in Wisconsin; or even this Feb. 22 killing of a techie in Olathe, Kansas. Or going further back to Sept. 15, 2001, when an Indian-American in Arizona became the first victim of post-9/11 backlash.\nThe Pew study also revealed that Americans see many factors as playing a role in gun violence. Among all adults, 86% say the ease with which people can illegally obtain guns contributes a great deal or a fair amount to gun violence; 60% point to the ease with which people can legally obtain guns. On the other side of the coin, a significant share of Americans (44%) say they personally know someone who has been shot, either accidentally or intentionally.\nIn the face of such numbers, Indian-Americans, being among the most highly educated, and among the highest-earning group in the country, could contribute to the debate. Virtually all those that News India Times spoke to dwelt on the daily gun violence that happens in the streets of Chicago and Washington, D.C., even as they are horrified by the Las Vegas massacre.\nCommon Sense\nTheir views mirror those of Americans for Responsible Solutions, an organization co-founded by Capt. Mark Kelly, husband of former Congresswoman Garry Giffords who survived a brain injury caused by a mass murderer while holding a public meeting.\nThe ARS in a survey released this April, found that 80 percent of gun owners support requiring a background check on all gun sales, including those sold online or at gun shows, while just 16 percent oppose them. 86 percent of gun owners support prohibiting anyone convicted of stalking or domestic abuse from buying a gun, and 85 percent of gun owners support prohibiting those on the federal terror watch list or no-fly lists from buying a gun. Furthermore, the survey found 73 percent of gun owners are more likely to support a candidate who supports background checks for all gun purchases, and 66 percent are more likely to support a candidate who supports gun violence prevention policies.\nThat puts the five Indian-Americans in Congress on the side of gun regulation, and mirroring the views most of the community holds. While gun-regulation is a highly divisive and politically partisan issue, it could be surmised that an overwhelming majority of Indian-Americans who happen to be Democrats, are for stricter gun-ownership regulations.\nRep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, the first Indian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives, said “Gun violence in this country is a public health crisis and we must do everything we can to address it,” mirroring the views of Dr. Murthy. ” “With rights come responsibilities: the responsibility to close the loopholes in who sells and gets guns,” Jayapal said, adding other protections for children and lowe-income families.\n“Guns are the third-leading cause of death for children in America. Our kids and communities deserve better,” tweeted Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California. “No community should have to fear going to the movies, a concert, or dropping their child off at school,” said Rep. Ami Bera. ” In the wake of this tragedy, I hope we’ll all be able to take the time to look for the helpers and that each of us, in our own way, will seek to help our nation heal, move forward, and work to prevent similar tragedies.”In the wake of this tragedy, I hope we’ll all be able to take the time to look for the helpers and that each of us, in our own way, will seek to help our nation heal, move forward, and work to prevent similar tragedies,” Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said in a statement.\nSen. Kamala Harris, D-California, joined Sen. Dianne Feinstein Oct. 5, on legislation that would ban gun bump stocks, which were used by the gunman in Las Vegas, to turn his rifle into a quick-firing assault weapon. “Banning bump stocks is just common sense,” Harris said in a Facebook post. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle may favor this resolution as a stop-gap measure after Las Vegas and to bring around more constituents to their side.\nHimsa & Ahimsa\nThe various faith groups that make up the Indian-American community are also for “common-sense” regulations on gun selling and ownership.\nFollowing the 2013 Sandy Hook tragedy, the Hindu American Foundation outlined wrote to President Obama in a Jan. 9 2013 “Hindus affirm the inherent divinity of all beings and recognize that for the welfare of society, a balance is required between one’s individual rights, such as the desire to own a gun, and one’s responsibility to society, which may suffer as a result of gun violence,” HAF said. It talked of the ahimsa and himsa as part of every-day life and recommended some measures to counter gun violence.\nShukla put the onus on Congress to stop partisan politics and truly represent their constituents, a majority of whom she said, wanted stricter gun ownership laws. “There’s no question guns amplify the ability to do violence. Why would a civilian need a military-style weapon,” she questioned in her interview with News India Times. “If they are not able to come together for reasonable gun control, then Democracy on that front seems dead,” Shukla asserted.\n“We have taken a stand since Oak Creek and Sandy Hook and every tragedy that has hit — that gun ownership and control has to be revisited,” Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, and co-founder of the National Sikh Campaign told News India Times. “You can have 2nd Amendment rights, but in a common sense way,” he said, such as background checks, adequate resources for mental health services. As a faith community, we have a responsibility to speak on this. We feel it is our moral duty to be the voice of conscience and the rights of those affected,” he added.\nIt is not clear however, if the Las Vegas massacre is the “tipping point” for getting those common sense regulations, Singh said. “It’s like the smoking issue,” in some ways, where there was a point at which people began to see the dangers. “Advocacy groups have to step up their game,” Singh opined, asserting, “It’s no longer a recreation (to own and use guns), but an epidemic.”\n“Las Vegas is an incident of domestic terrorism,” said Anju Bhargava, who said she was speaking in her personal capacity and not as a representative of the community service group Hindu Seva Communities, or her present occupation. Bhargava was on the White House Inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (2009 – 2010) during the Obama presidency. Her views on guns, Bhargava said, were shaped by growing up in India despite having lived longer in the U.S. “I can’t get my head around owning guns. But in this country we have to come to terms that there will be guns. But one has to make enough change to moderate the harm,” Bhargava said. “Just like when Hindus get stuck with ‘parampara’, we have to re-evaluate tradition in the U.S. and re-evaluate and see the Constitution as a living document,” Bhargava contended, referring to the 2nd Amendment.\nHowever, Judge R.K. Sandill of the 127th District Court in Harris County, Texas, says the 2nd Amendment is an integral part of American life, as one of the 20 amendments to the Bill of Rights. “It is one of those rights we will forever have. The question is how to deal with that right,” Sandill told News India Times. “Just as you are not allowed to yell “fire” in a crowded place to cause harm to others.” Living in Texas has made him relatively immune to the gun-owning culture and he understands if people from some other states that do not allow open-carrying may feel threatened or concerned. But he knows several Indian-Americans who own guns and use them for recreational purposes. People coming from India, he said, quickly acclimatize to this different culture, he believes.\nThe 2nd Amendment “is reflective of our history and was meant to protect us against government tyranny,” Sandill said, “But the issue is with assault rifles etc. I don’t see a reason to have assault rifles.” Like Shukla, he believes the issue has to be left to legislators. First elected in 2008, Judge Sandill launched his campaign this August, for a seat on the Texas Supreme Court come November 2018.\n“We have always worried about the tyranny of the majority, but is this a tyranny of the minority?” Sandill asks metaphorically." ]

[ "Platelet transfusion. Side effects can include allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis, infection, and lung injury. Bacterial infections are relatively more common with platelets as they are stored at warmer temperatures. Platelets can be gotten either from whole blood or by apheresis. They keep for up to five to seven days." ]

[ "RITUXAN can cause serious side effects that can lead to death, including: Infusion reactions. Infusion reactions are the most common side effect of RITUXAN treatment. Serious infusion reactions can happen during your infusion or within 24 hours after your infusion of RITUXAN.", "EMPLICITI may cause serious side effects, including: Infusion reactions. Infusion reactions can happen during your infusion or within 24 hours after your infusion of EMPLICITI.", "The side effects of methotrexate and their severity depend on how much of the drug is given. In other words, high doses may produce more severe side effects. In some cases leucovorin infusion (see leucovorin) may be given 24 hours after methotrexate to lessen the side effects of methotrexate. The following side effects are common (occurring in greater than 30%) for patients taking methotrexate: Low blood counts. Your white and red blood cells and platelets may temporarily decrease.", "Platelet Count Decreased. Platelet count decreased has been reported by people with death, sepsis, pancytopenia, thrombocytopenia, fatigue (latest reports from 97,938 Platelet count decreased patients). 38,816 people reported to have side effects when taking Gabapentin.", "Despite the short half-life of adenosine, 10.6% of the side effects occurred not with the infusion of Adenoscan but several hours after the infusion terminated. Also, 8.4% of the side effects that began coincident with the infusion persisted for up to 24 hours after the infusion was complete. In many cases, it is not possible to know whether these late adverse events are the result of Adenoscan infusion.", "1 Campath is given in a vein through a tube. 2 This is called an I.V. infusion. 3 An I.V. infusion of Campath may cause side effects such as low blood pressure, shaking, fever, shortness of breath, chills, and rash. 4 Your healthcare professional may give you medicine before Campath to lower the chance of these side effects.", "A serious but rare side effect of rituximab is potential for a severe infusion reaction, typically with the first infusion (during infusion or within 30-120 minutes of infusion). You will be given medication prior to the infusion to decrease this reaction and monitored carefully during the infusion.", "The first infusion had few side effects. Within 3 days I felt great except for sinusitis, sore throat and tooth sensitivity. 2nd infusion two weeks later I had severe fatigue and muscle pain for 4 days and felt good again. 3rd infusion I am still experiencing severe chronic fatigue 10 days later.", "Elevated platelets: Introduction. Elevated platelets: A measure of the amount platelets in the blood. See detailed information below for a list of 14 causes of Elevated platelets, Symptom Checker, including diseases and drug side effect causes. Causes of Elevated platelets:", "Thrombocytopenia refers to abnormally low levels of platelets that prevent bleeding and can affect cancer patients as a side effect of chemotherapy. Thrombocytopenia refers to abnormally low levels of platelets that prevent bleeding and can affect cancer patients as a side effect of chemotherapy.", "A serious but rare Rituxan side effect is potential for a severe infusion reaction, typically with the first infusion (during infusion or within 30-120 minutes of infusion). You will be given medication prior to the infusion to decrease this reaction and monitored carefully during the infusion.", "The most common side effects with IV infusions of GAMMAGARD LIQUID Treatment, observed in ≥5% of the study subjects in the clinical trial, are shown below.", "Resolved Question: how long do side effects last after having iron infusion. had infusion last thursday...extreme fatigue, itching, leg cramps, nausea and joint pain.itching has subsided but all other effects are still with me. Submitted: 3 years ago.ow long do side effects last after having iron infusion. had infusion last thursday...extreme fatigue, itching, leg cramps, nausea and joint pain. itching has subsided but all other effects are still with me.", "Fever is the most common side effect in people receiving blood transfusions. It might be associated with nausea, chills, headache or breathing problems. This symptom is not a severe one and it usually takes just acetaminophen tablet to solve the problem.", "• The doctor/nurse will put a small IV drip in your arm/hand through which iron is given. • If you experience any side effects, inform staff immediately/ ring your bell. After the iron infusion Sometimes side effects can start one to two days after the infusion and include headache, mild fever, joint and muscle aches.These generally settle down by themselves over the next few days. They are more common with ‘total dose’ infusions of iron polymaltose. If you experience any side effects, inform staff immediately/ ring your bell. After the iron infusion Sometimes side effects can start one to two days after the infusion and include headache, mild fever, joint and muscle aches. These generally settle down by themselves over the next few days.", "signs of an infusion reaction, a life-threatening condition that can occur within a few hours after receiving a dose of Herceptin. Symptoms include fever, chills, trouble breathing or swallowing, light-headedness, fainting, dizziness, chest pain, headache, nausea, vomiting, weakness, rash, hives, itching or pain.", "Re: IV Iron Infusion Side Effects I just finished with 12 wks of Iv Iron Infusions..and have my apt with Hematologist tomorrow morning to see how many more I need. I never had any side effects.", "Single vs Multiple Infusions. The researchers note that although previous research has shown improvement in depressive symptoms with a single infusion of ketamine, side effects during treatment are common.", "The most common side effects of RITUXAN are infusion reactions, chills, infections, body aches, tiredness, and low white blood cells. Other side effects with RITUXAN include: aching joints during or within hours of receiving an infusion, more frequent upper respiratory tract infection.", "A high platelet count (more than 450x109/L), ‘thrombocytosis’, is due to overproduction of platelets by the bone marrow which can be caused by certain bone marrow disorders or might simply be a side-effect of another condition (reactive thrombocytosis). high platelet count (more than 450x109/L), ‘thrombocytosis’, is due to overproduction of platelets by the bone marrow which can be caused by certain bone marrow disorders or might simply be a side-effect of another condition (reactive thrombocytosis).", "Or it can be a side effect of taking certain medications. It affects both children and adults. Thrombocytopenia may be mild and cause few signs or symptoms. In rare cases, the number of platelets may be so low that dangerous internal bleeding occurs. Treatment options are available. 1 Symptoms.", "Drug allergies and side effects. Side effects of PTU are rare, and may range from rash, itching, or hives, to more severe conditions such as agranulocytosis (the white blood cell count decreases or disappears, leading to increased risk of infection). Agranulocytosis is estimated to occur in ~1:400 patients.", " You will be given REMICADE through a needle placed in a vein (IV or. intravenous infusion) in your arm.  Your doctor may decide to give you medicine before starting the REMICADE. infusion to prevent or lessen side effects. You will be given REMICADE through a needle placed in a vein (IV or. intravenous infusion) in your arm.  Your doctor may decide to give you medicine before starting the REMICADE. infusion to prevent or lessen side effects.", "Rituxan can cause serious side effects that can lead to death, including: 1 Infusion Reactions: Infusion reactions are the most common side effect of Rituxan treatment. 2 Severe Skin and Mouth Reactions: painful sores or ulcers on your skin, lips, or in your mouth; blisters, peeling skin, rash, or pustules.", "Undesirable effects from IVIG occur in less than 5% of patients. The most common adverse effects occur soon after infusions and can include headache, flushing, chills, myalgia, wheezing, tachycardia, lower back pain, nausea, and hypotension.", "Increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Effects on blood platelets, cells that help your blood to clot normally – Most NSAIDs have some effect on blood platelets. When platelet function is reduced, it takes longer for your blood to clot. While this effect can be bad for some, it can be beneficial for others.", "Applies to norepinephrine: parenteral injection Side effects include: May cause headache, anxiety, arrhythmias, bradycardia, respiratory difficulty, ischemic injury, or extravasation at the infusion site.", "Most patients do not have any side effects from blood transfusions. A small number may experience: Fever and chills; Mild allergic reaction, such as hives and itching; If you have had these side effects with transfusions before, you will get medicine before your transfusion to help prevent any reaction.", "The following side effects are common (occurring in greater than 30%) for patients taking carmustine: 1 Nausea and vomiting, usually within 2-4 hours of infusion, lasting for about 4-6 hours. Anti-nausea medication is given prior to infusion to prevent or decrease this side effect. 2 Facial flushing(see skin problems).", "Your doctor has prescribed an iron infusion for you. through an intravenous (IV) tube into a vein in your arm. need the iron infusion. The iron infusion takes about 2 to 4 hours. before the infusion, which may take up to 1 hour. given to help possible side effects from receiving an iron infusion.", "When platelet levels fall too low, patients are given a transfusion of platelets to replenish their supply and prevent life-threatening hemorrhages. Patients who have had a bone marrow transplant or who are being treated for leukemia may require daily platelet transfusions for several weeks.", " Severe side effects (eg a serious allergic reaction) are rare. You will be closely monitored for any signs of these during (and for at least 30 minutes after) the infusion by nursing staff. Day of the iron infusion  Have your breakfast/lunch.You do not need to fast for an iron infusion. Severe side effects (eg a serious allergic reaction) are rare. You will be closely monitored for any signs of these during (and for at least 30 minutes after) the infusion by nursing staff. Day of the iron infusion  Have your breakfast/lunch." ]