text:
First California, then Missouri ...
The slippery slopes get ... more slippery: Earlier this month Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder held a press conference to expose the backdoor gun registration operation in Missouri . Kinder accused the Missouri Department of Revenue of working with the Department of Homeland Security to install new hardware and software to obtain data on Missouri citizens and transfer this information to DHS and unnamed third parties. The last state senator to use his subpoena power was then state senator now Governor Jay Nixon. The Department of Revenue denied the claims. Yesterday, Missouri state Senator Kurt Shaefer subpoenaed the the Missouri Department of Revenue to produce all documents between the Department of Revenue and any federal agency, including but not limited to, the Department of Homeland Security or FEMA, regarding driver's license and ID information of Missouri citizens. Senator Shaefer said this about the suspected privacy abuses, "This is one of the most appalling ab
Slippery slopes? Nah, it's that damn paranoid Libertarian imagination
Because nobody is going to ever use de facto gun registration information to confiscate weapons> Of course not: In 2011, the ATF issued a memo that declared that it is illegal for anyone with a medical-marijuana card to possess a gun or ammunition.
Americans to continue fighting and dying in Afghanistan till 2024
For what, exactly? All you folks who continue to support this administration despite its foreign policy, please explain to me precisely how this is in America's best interests. I'm waiting (and American troops will be dying) to hear it.
A special feeding place for the troll who thinks I'm Satan
This thread. You're now done everywhere else. And since it is your very own thread, Troll, I thought I'd grace it with one of my favorite magazine covers of all time (Alan Frazetta, 1972). This is your little spot under the bridge, Troll. From everywhere else, you're banned.
Some honesty about Common Core standards
In the wake of the rush to adopt Common Core standards nationwide (which beautifully mirrors the standards movement of the early 1990s), Delaware held a major event this past weekend. Four things you should know about the Common Core standards: 1. They've been adopted before they were even completed. I guess we had to adopt the standards before we could know what's in them . 2. They remain very controversial among education researchers and subject matter experts (since there are no social studies standards yet [see Nr. 1 above] I can only examine the English/Language Arts standards that overlap Social Studies, because it is in that field that I am a subject matter expert. They are bad. I will do a detailed analysis soon. 3. They are not going to work as advertised because they are too extensive, and they are delusional in the expectations of teacher time and the realities of student preparation for them. 4. Even the people who wrote them are already hedging the
Always read the article all the way to the end
It is no secret that Washington is the most pro-abortion rights state in the country. So I guess it would be no surprise to find the Washington legislature attempting to force all health insurers to provide abortion coverage : With 21 states having adopted bans or severe restrictions on insurance companies from paying for abortions, Washington is alone in seriously considering legislation mandating the opposite. The Reproductive Parity Act, as supporters call it, would require insurers in Washington state who cover maternity care — which all insurers must do — to also pay for abortions. OK, we could argue this one from a pro-abortion/anti-abortion point of view, or from an Obamacare/free market point of view, or ... But wait, why argue the point at all, since this is what you find in one of the last paragraphs of the story: At present, all major insurers in Washington state cover abortions, and Cody, the bill's sponsor, said she knows of no carrier with plans to change. I
Ultimately, GOP pundits are right that Libertarian foreign policy views are a deal-breaker
I have friends in the Campaign for Liberty, friends among the Tea Partiers, and friends who insist that they are "small-l" libertarians who stay in the two-party system so as not to be marginalized. I respect them, often make common cause with them on civil liberties issues, but I firmly believe that if they think they are going to take over the Republican Party and remake it along more libertarian lines, they are simply ... wrong. I used to believe that the sticking point would be an obsession with regulating other people's morality, that the GOP could not give up wanting to be between the sheets, inside women's vaginas, and sniffing out pot smoke. Ironically, there is a growing trend to change approach on many of these issues. Generationally, young conservatives don't really care about marriage equality like their parents did, may be opposed to abortion on theological grounds but aren't picketing the clinics any more, and a lot of them really (at least
You have to remember that the same people who told us Obamacare would lead to lower health care costs ...
... are the ones telling us now that more gun control will reduce violence in American society. Three years after Obamacare became law, Investors Business Daily uses reports primarily from the General Accounting Office to discover (surprise! surprise!) they were completely wrong about cost containment. The middle class will pay up to $800 billion in new taxes, 7-20 million people will lose their current coverage, premiums will continue to skyrocket, the deficit will go up, and the plan as designed will still leave 30 million Americans uninsured. Funny, you don't actually hear them talking about what a great deal it is any more, do you?
Bad news: Big Brother has discovered Bitcoin
Excellent story here .
Delaware NAACP endorses marriage equality
The comedy and tragedy of FBI instant background checks
So much debate in Delaware over the propriety of FBI instant background checks for virtually all gun purchases ... ... and so little information about the background check system. This is critical because proponents of such checks have a belief that expanding them will dramatically improve public safety by limiting those who can possess guns, while opponents (including me) see an even greater unconstitutional police state in the making. So I went to the source: the Government Accounting Office's July 2012 report on FBI Background Checks. What I discovered (and I am not through parsing it) is that the system is bizarre mixture of Charlie Chaplin and Big Brother. For example: The GAO report erroneously lists Delaware as ALREADY requiring background checks for ALL gun purchases, including private transactions. Either the agency was psychic, knowing already in mid-2012 that HB 35 will be enacted into law, or just inept. But it certainly makes me wonder how far I can tru
Headline of the Day
Congress is getting involved in protecting Earth from asteroids. We're doomed.
Will "illegal" guns become the new form of "civil disobedience"?
I'm not talking about criminals here, people who intend to use their firearms for stick-ups, or terrorizing former spouses, or for mass killings. I'm talking about the 99.something % of all the gun owners who have never contemplated much less committed a violent act with their weapons. These are the gun owners who believe, that, as it has already happened in California , the required records for universal background checks will inevitably become the basis for de facto gun registration and, ultimately, confiscation--as thousands of weapons have already been confiscated (and mostly destroyed) in that state: Other states may lack confiscation programs because they don't track purchases as closely as California, which requires most weapons sales go through a licensed dealer and be reported. (Oops, that does sound a bit like HB 35, doesn't it?) What happens if they simply ignore the impending Delaware law requiring universal background checks for private arms transactio
I don't usually contribute to a cause after watching a video, but ...
... three reasons prompted me to do so here: 1) My friend Michael Munger knows who these guys are and assures me they are legit. 2) It's a great idea! 3) For Libertarians it is exactly what we philosophize about: private action changing the world without the State's involvement.
The ULTIMATE conspiracy theory
This WILL be worth the 7 minutes of your life it will take to watch it. How Darth Vader conspired with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia to destroy the Death Star:
If GOP Exec John Fluharty is for marriage equality ...
... then there is no excuse left for it not to pass this year in Delaware: Purchase Image The executive director of the Delaware Republican Party says he supports efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in the state, a position that's at odds with many in his own party. John Fluharty, who took the GOP director job after the last election, declared his support for marriage equality in an interview after attending a fundraiser last week for the group leading efforts to pass legislation legalizing gay marriage in the state. Important to note that the Libertarian Party of Delaware has been way out front of not just the GOP, but also many, many Dems.
Proof that given a chance, the State will regulate ... anything
China Bans Reincarnation Without Government Permission
Bloggers now much closer to being pirates in UK
pandora and I have often described bloggers (at least in Delaware) as "pirates." That outlaw status may soon be very apropos in the UK as Parliament (stung by the phone-hacking scandal) has just passed new laws impinging on press freedom that could eventually take down even bloggers. (Note to pandora: since Tyler is not posting here on any regular basis, this blog qualifies as a "one-man show," and would theoretically be exempt from joining the state news regulator. But Delawareliberal, on the other hand, would qualify far more quickly.) Of course, there is no guarantee that everything that happens in the UK will find its way to our shores, but there is generally no shortage of people advocating such causes.
If you have a child playing sports, read this
Concussions in school athletics are a big deal. I know this from personal experience: my daughter has had three concussions (not all sports-related) since last May, and is only now returning to play. She experienced months of headaches, inability to concentrate, sensitivity to light, and compromised balance. She missed over 60 days of school since last May. We were fortunate enough to receive treatment through Dr. Vince Schaller's concussion network in New Castle County and the Sports Medicine Center at Temple through Dr. Peter Torg. But Alexis is still on three meds to keep the headaches from returning, regularize her sleep patterns, and assist with her balance. All of the docs (including the Temple neurologist we saw on consult) tell us she will be dealing with the headaches until she is 19 or 20 (she is 17 now). The major concussion that started this all was a fluke: she is a soccer keeper and in ten years of play at that position had never been hit in the
I would have bet money I'd never have agreed with the government of Pakistan on much of anything ...
... but I would have lost: Officials have revealed that Islamabad has insisted that increased reliance on drone strikes for combat operations may cause serious harm to global peace and stability. When the head of the United Nations team investigating civilian impact of drone use travelled to Pakistan last week, Ben Emmerson was not only conveyed Islamabad's strong opposition but was also told that the use of pilotless aircraft must be discouraged. A senior foreign ministry official told The Express Tribune that Islamabad was making all efforts to develop consensus at the UN against the unilateral drone use for counter-terrorism operations in any country. "The drone technology is now very common and if its unilateral use is not discouraged, it will set a dangerous precedent," said the official requesting anonymity. The official was part of Pakistan's team which had briefed Emmerson on the implications of the continued US drone attacks in the tribal areas of the country.
Gee? Who would have seen a sudden spike in domestic drone sales coming?
You gotta wonder: "The sky's going to be dark with these things," said Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired, who started the hobbyist Web site DIY Drones and now runs a company, 3D Robotics, that sells unmanned aerial vehicles and equipment. He says it is selling about as many drones every calendar quarter — about 7,500 — as the United States military flies in total. And, guess what? Senator Patrick Leahy just figured out that domestic drones could be a problem: Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the committee, said this year: "This fast-emerging technology is cheap and could pose a significant threat to the privacy and civil liberties of millions of Americans. It is another example of a fast-changing policy area on which we need to focus to make sure that modern technology is not used to erode Americans' right to privacy." I'm super impressed. That only puts Pat about what--five, six years behind the curve?
Which fiction and reality meet ....
And, of course, the ultimate merger of fact and fiction ...
IRS: Obamacare taxes will also hit your pets ...
... if they use any of the same medical devices used by humans. Hard to believe? Not really.
President Barack "Skynet" Obama and the height of hypocrisy
Wow! And they actually said this with a straight face: (Reuters) - President Barack Obama , who vastly expanded U.S. drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas under the cloak of secrecy, is now openly seeking to influence global guidelines for their use as China and other countries pursue their own drone programs. The United States was the first to use unmanned aircraft fitted with missiles to kill militant suspects in the years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. But other countries are catching up. China's interest in unmanned aerial vehicles was displayed in November at an air show . According to state-run newspaper Global Times, China had considered conducting its first drone strike to kill a suspect in the 2011 murder of 13 Chinese sailors, but authorities decided they wanted the man alive so they could put him on trial. "People say what's going to happen when the Chinese and the Russians get this technology? Th
Must Read (especially for women)
Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams But I warn you: it is creepy but absolutely necessary to read in order to protect yourself.
Benjamin Franklin was right
When representing American commercial interests in London during the 1760s, various English politicians and merchants approached Franklin to ask him how they could more effectively tax the colonial sugar/molasses and rum trade. Franklin would chuckle and explain to them that what they were asking was essentially impossible, because every penny they succeeded in extracting in taxes from American shippers, merchants, and distillers would be taken back from them in the form of higher prices charged to English buyers. Franklin's logic is apropos to the concept of taxation removing surplus energy from a system. (I first encountered this concept in the work on Manuel de Landa , but I do not know if it is original to him or not.) Essentially, if a large non-linear system (like the Atlantic trade in the 18th century) is producing a large enough energy surplus (which means that the level of profit is such that it does not distort the system's balance), governments can successfully
Cyprus savings theft by EU: The first time ....
... but certainly not destined to be the last: European finance ministers have agreed an £8.7bn bailout for Cyprus which includes all Cypriot bank customers handing over up to 10% of their savings. Cyprus becomes the fifth country after Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain to turn to the eurozone for financial help amid the region's debt crisis, but also faces a possible run on its banks as depositors try to avoid losing up to 10% of their savings. The savers, half of whom are thought to be Russian, will raise almost €6bn. It is the first time a bailout has included such a measure. A question for the students: how safe are you and yours when not just your government, but an international association can take your stuff without you having any recourse?
Just the headlines should tell you that much of what the Obama administration is doing is illegal
Appeals Court Rejects CIA Secrecy on Drones FBI surveillance tool is ruled unconstitutional UN Official: US Drone War in Pakistan is Illegal So I guess I'm left to wonder why virtually no Democrats and damn few Republicans actually get what appears to be true to the judiciary and to most observers abroad: this administration's foreign policy is roughly comparable (in terms of brazen illegality) to President Nixon's secret wars in Cambodia and Laos.
The expansion of libertarianism into the mainstream ...
... is not something I personally would have chosen to occur inside the Republican Party, but there it is. NYT today has a long piece on how libertarian non-interventionist foreign policy ideas are causing a major rift in the GOP: WASHINGTON — For more than three decades, the Republican Party brand has been deeply tied to a worldview in which the aggressive use of American power abroad is both a policy imperative and a political advantage. Now, a new generation of Republicans like Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is turning inward, questioning the approach that reached its fullest expression after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and signaling a willingness to pare back the military budgets that made it all possible. Put this together with Senator Rob Portman's crystallization of the Republican inner angst over marriage equality, and you begin to see the remaking of the GOP (for the third time in about 20 years).
Not only is Fox News correct this time, but I'n thrilled they got it
Conservatism cannot survive a libertarian takeover
Oh great. The same minds that gave us Race to the Top are now being entrusted with even bigger challenges
What's your reward for saddling Delaware schools with Race to the Top? How about the cabinet-level position atop the Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, where you have even greater scope to bring bad policy-making skills into play where they really count? From the Governor's press release (via Delawareliberal) : Jennifer Ranji served as Educational Policy Advisor in the Office of Governor Markell from September 2009 to July 2012. She was the lead staff person on Race to the Top and Early Childhood Race to the Top initiatives and played a leading role in developing the Governor's education policy agenda... Probably the next thing we will see is data coaches to train foster parents on how better to manage their children.
President Obama: at least I'm not as bad as Dick Cheney on drones
You know that your position sucks when this is the best you can offer as a defense.
Senator Rob Portman comes out for marriage equality
At first blush I thought it was cynical, Rob Portman suddenly discovering that same-sex marriage is something to be supported right after his son came out of the closet, but then I read his own words . Their son announcing his sexuality sent Portman and his wife not into denial, but introspection, and the Senator did not flinch from acknowledging what he found. I am particularly impressed with his reasoning as a Christian and a conservative: I wrestled with how to reconcile my Christian faith with my desire for Will to have the same opportunities to pursue happiness and fulfillment as his brother and sister. Ultimately, it came down to the Bible's overarching themes of love and compassion and my belief that we are all children of God. Well-intentioned people can disagree on the question of marriage for gay couples, and maintaining religious freedom is as important as pursuing civil marriage rights. For example, I believe that no law should force religious institutions to per
You really do need to care about how the sausage is made
Witness what even the News Journal called "a debacle" yesterday when Representatives Rebecca Walker and Helen Keeley decided that, despite legions of people signed up to testify for and against a bail modification bill, even limiting participants to 60 seconds was too much lip-service to the concept of citizen input: Rep. Jeff Spiegelman had seen enough, noting that lawmakers had only minutes earlier been handed a thick booklet of information about the bill and had no time to do their "due diligence.' He called for a tabling of the bill so a full and fair hearing could be held. Keeley objected, urging members to send the legislation to the full House with the promise that differences would be ironed out before she called for a full vote. Yep, Walker calls for a hearing the same day that HB 35 is up for public comment and is then surprised to find herself in trouble. Keeley decides that committee members neither need to read their materials nor hear from citizens before v
Delaware Police Chiefs stand up for the State's power to execute people
There's really not a more accurate way to put it. Yesterday our state's Police Chief's Council came out against the repeal of the death penalty , seeming aggrieved that anyone would even have the stones to raise the issue. My first reaction was wonder exactly when the people we hire to run our police forces got the idea that while in uniform they had the right (they'd say "responsibility") to lobby publicly for or against the laws that they are sworn to enforce. Think about it for a moment. When the debate raged over women in combat, or gays in the military, service members not called to testify before Congress knew that they had no authority to stand up and speak as representatives of the military for or against the question. Think about the people who criticized (in some cases rightly so, in other cases by whining about it) the teachers in Wisconsin who spent school days protesting the governor, or--in Delaware's case--the teachers who trooped t
The Drug War in Delaware ... and Will McVay
It is educational to note that both the News Journal and the State News have expended more coverage on Will McVay's arrest this week than they did on any of his political campaigns. One would have to ask why this is. The answer, I think, are pretty self-evident from the story itself. First, Will is a Libertarian and had been an LPD party official. Of course, the LPD is so statistically small, reporters tell me (just over 800 folks registered in the party and just over 8,000 voting for at least one Libertarian in 2012) that it doesn't merit coverage in the normal run of things. I can even recall one reporter advising me to have our candidates "do something dramatic" if they wanted coverage. I guess this was dramatic enough to suit them. But, second, I think that the charges proffered by the State probably figured into the mix. After all, Will has been charged with: Possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, drug dealing and possession of
Good news for marriage equality momentum
Colorado approves civil unions. It's another step.
It's not good news, but it is Libertarian news
Will McVay arrested on weapon and drug charges. I'm not going to comment further till I know more, but I think everybody should remember that--as with Tyler Nixon's case--things are not always what they seem to be at first blush. That said, anybody who wants to take their free shot in the comments section, have at it.
Remember "Close Encounters"?
We are not alone. And our neighbors are brown.
Here's where a sequester might be useful
If it cut the funds for idiocy like this: New York City to send out health inspectors armed with 17-ounce cups to make sure eateries aren't selling oversized sugary beverages
Today's New Journal makes it clear: our laws are only for you and me ...
... and not for ex-cops, politicians, or bankers ... So Delaware is having (sort of--most of the real talking as usual will be done behind closed doors) a debate on gun control. Mayor Dennis Williams (a former Wilmington cop) has a concealed carry permit, and has used it even in Legislative Hall. You see, state legislators are exempt from the rules that keep other people from carrying weapons there. Ironically, Pete Schwarzkopf, who is shepherding through legislation in HB 35 that will dramatically curtail your rights with regard to firearms, has no trouble with Mayor Williams' concealed carry: While saying there may be a loophole for state lawmakers because the screening policy pertains to "visitors," Schwartzkopf said he was fine with Williams keeping the gun in his office. A former state trooper, Schwartzkopf said he does not carry a gun anymore and believes Capitol Police provide adequate security for lawmakers. Still, he did not want to judge Williams for carryin
Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn favors retaining some larger capacity magazines for home defense
Gun control conversations are ... interesting. Recently, Libertarian Greg Callaway wrote to Lt. Gov. Matt Denn expressing his opposition to proposed new gun control legislation . Most of the answer (which you can read here) is fairly typical politico-speak. But then Denn talks about magazine restrictions, which leads to one oxymoron and one really interesting point. First, the oxymoron: There is now strong statistical evidence that responsible regulation of large capacity gun magazines does reduce the number of those magazines used by criminals. A study published this year of Virginia law enforcement data showed that following the implementation of the 1994 federal restrictions on large capacity magazines, the percentage of criminals' guns confiscated during arrests which had those magazines dropped by half. When the ban expired, the percentage of criminals' guns with high capacity magazines increased all the way back up to the levels seen before the federal law. OK, leaving
An act of local journalistic malpractice regarding the Shroud of Turin
Not politics, but religion this time. There is a local showing of a replica of the Shroud of Turin on display at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Wilmington. (I will hold off giggling about the use of the phrase "Vatican-approved replica" of an item whose authenticity has never been proven.) Many are queuing up to see the replica of the supposed shroud in which Jesus was buried, and they are in full (replica) religious ecstasy, apparently: "The shroud itself is 14 feet long, in a glassed encasement that's 3 feet wide and raised up at an angle," says parishioner Jerry Dawson, who is also a member of the Knights of Columbus who are helping organize the event. "You are moved when you see it, but when you listen to the DVD that explains the history of the shroud and the science of the shroud, then you really do understand that it's the garment that Jesus was buried in." I don't have any particular problem with Mr. Dawson holding the belief that this IS the bu
USAF moves back in time ... to 1984
Not content with suppressing current information, the US Air Force has now (on orders from the administration, one suspects) begun revising the past with regard to our drone strikes : As scrutiny and debate over the use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) by the American military increased last month, the Air Force reversed a policy of sharing the number of airstrikes launched from RPAs in Afghanistan and quietly scrubbed those statistics from previous releases kept on their website. Last October, Air Force Central Command started tallying weapons releases from RPAs, broken down into monthly updates. At the time, AFCENT spokeswoman Capt. Kim Bender said the numbers would be put out every month as part of a service effort to "provide more detailed information on RPA ops in Afghanistan." The Air Force maintained that policy for the statistics reports for November, December and January. But the February numbers, released March 7, contained empty space where the box of RPA statis
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


From the authors of the beloved Knit Your Own Dog series comes an ingenious kit that contains everything you need to make your own knitted pooch, including yarn, needles, stuffing, and accessories in one handy box.
The knitted dog is an ideal pet. There's no feeding, barking, walking, or vet bills, and it will live forever! It's no wonder, then, that when Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne introduced the concept of the knitted dog with their first book, Knit Your Own Dog, it was an instant success. They've since followed up with a line of Knit Your Own books, including Knit Your Own Dog: The Second Litter; Knit Your Own Cat; and Knit Your Own Zoo.
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Knit Your Own Dog Kits for beagle, golden retriever, and dachshund are perfect gifts for knitters, dog lovers, or dog-loving knitters!


text:
Life History of the Common Palmfly
Life History of the Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra agina)
Genus: Elymnias Hübner, 1818
Species: hypermnestra Linnaeus, 1763
Subspecies: agina Fruhstorfer, 1902
Caterpillar Local Host Plants: Ptychosperma macarthurii (Arecaceae, common name: MacArthur Palm), Cocos nucifera (Arecaceae, common name: Coconut), Dypsis lutescens (Arecaceae, common name: Yellow Cane Palm), Caryota mitis (Arecaceae, common name: Fish Tail Palm).
A Common Palmfly perching on a cluster of flowers.
Termens of both wings are prominently scalloped. The hindwing is more strongly toothed at vein 4. Above, the wings are dark brown. On the forewing, there is a series of pale bluish submarginal spots, becoming larger in subapical area and then smaller again along the costal border. In the male, the subapical spots are closer to the apex than in the female. The hindwing is reddish brown with rather pale postdiscal spots. Underneath, the wings are strongly mottled brown. At the apex of the forewing, there is a `thumb-print' (a triangular area in a lighter shade) of varying prominence among specimens. A white spot can be found in the centre of the costa on the hindwing, but this can be absent or inconspicuous in certain specimens.
A Common Palmfly perching on a blade of palm frond.
A Common Palmfly found napping on the stem of a tree.
Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour: The Common Palmfly is the most widespread species of its genus in the Indo-Australian region. Locally, it is also a rather common species with widespread occurrence across multiple habitats. Typically the adults are shade-loving, and usually sighted flying along the edge of vegetated area and in the vicinity of a clump of palm trees. The adults have the habit of puddling and visiting flowers for mineral and energy intakes.
A newly eclosed Common Palmfly
A Common Palmfly visiting flowers.
The early stages of the Common Palmfly is polyphagous and feed on the leaves of a number of host plants in the Arecaceae (Palmae) family. Thus far, four of them are fully identified and listed above.
Host plant: MacArthur Palm.
A mating pair of the Common Palmfly (female on the left).
The eggs of the Common Palmfly are laid singly on a leaf blade of the host palm tree, typically on the underside. Each egg is almost spherical with a slightly protruding top (diameter: 1.3-1.4mm). The egg is initially white when freshly hatched but turns yellow on the following day. The surface is faintly and irregularly reticulated.
Two views of an egg of the Common Palmfly.
Two views of a one-day old egg of the Common Palmfly.
Two views of a mature egg of the Common Palmfly. Note the clearly visible head and body setae of the caterpillar.
The egg takes about 4 days to hatch. The young caterpillar emerges by eating away part of the egg shell. The rest of the egg shell becomes the first meal for the newly hatched, which has a length of about 3mm. Its cylindrical body is pale yellowish. The large head capsule is black in color and has three pairs of prominent protuberances lining the perimeter with the apical pair being the largest and longest. Each protuberance ends with a thick setae bearing a transparent droplet at its tip. Rows of fine setae, also bearing terminal droplets, run along the length of the body dorso-laterally and laterally. A pair of long pale-yellow processes occur at the posterior end of the body, each of which ends with a drop-bearing black setae.
Two views of a newly hatched caterpillar near the empty egg shell, length: 3mm.
Once the newly hatched moves on to feed on the young leaves, its body starts to take on a green undertone. Several contrasting bands, yellow in color and of varying widths, adorn the body surface dorsally and laterally. This instar lasts 3 days with the length reaching up to 6mm.
Two views of 1st instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length:5.5mm.
A Common Palmfly caterpillar just before its moult to the 2nd instar (top), and soon after the moult (bottom).
The body of the 2nd instar caterpillar is similarly marked as in the late 1st instar. The most obvious change is in the head capsule where the three pairs of protuberances becomes longer and the setae they bear shorter. The apical pair also takes on a few short side branches. Small pale yellow patches appear laterally and apically on the head capsule. The pair of anal processes are longer proportionately and mostly black in coloration. Numerous short fine setae cover the body surface. Of the several yellowish bands running lengthwise, the dorso-lateral pair running up to the upperside of the anal processes becomes the most prominent of all. This instar lasts about 4 days with the body length reaching up to 10.5mm before the moult to the 3rd instar.
Head capsules: 1st instar (left) and 2nd instar (right).
Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, length: 8.5mm
The 3rd instar caterpillar is similar in appearance to the 2nd instar caterpillar with the only obvious change being in the appearance of the head capsule. Now the ground colour of the head capsule is yellow except for two lateral reddish brown patches running vertically from the apical pair of protuberances, which are also reddish brown in color. The other protuberances turn yellowish with their short terminal setae still brown to black in color. This instar takes about 4 days to complete with body length reaching about 16-17mm.
A Common Palmfly caterpillar just before its moult to the 3rd instar (top), and soon after the moult (bottom).
Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, length: 12.5mm.
Retaining very much the same body features from the earlier two instars, the 4th instar caterpillar distinguishes itself in having proportionally longer apical protuberances on the head capsule and the anal processes being mostly yellowish to pinkish in coloration. This instar lasts 3.5 to 4 days with the body length reaching about 26mm.
A Common Palmfly caterpillar just before its moult to the 4th instar (top), and soon after the moult (bottom).
Head capsules: 3rd instar (left) and 4th instar (right).
Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, length: 26mm.
The 5th and final instar brings about another change in the appearance of the head capsule. Now white patches cover the frontal and middle area, stretching up into the apical protuberances. The long and slender anal processes are mostly pinkish in coloration.
Head capsule of the 5th instar caterpillar.
The 5th instar lasts for 3.5-4 days, and the body length reaches up to 40mm. On the last day, the caterpillar ceases feeding, its body becomes shortened but with essentially no change in body color. It wanders around in search of a pupation site. Typically it comes to a halt on the underside of leaf blade where the caterpillar spins a silk pad to which it attaches its claspers and then rests in a head-down posture.
Pre-pupatory larva at three time points. Left: early stage; middle: mid-way, right: late stage with the onset of pupation only minutes away.
The pupation event of a Common Palmfly caterpillar.
Pupation takes place 1 day after the caterpillar assumes the haed-down posture. The green pupa has yellowish strips running on the dorsum of the thorax, dorso-laterally and laterally on the abdomen and the leading edges of the wing case. These yellow strips are outlined in pink. The pupa also has a pair of short cephalic horns, and its dorsum is angled at the thorax. Length of pupae: 22-23mm.
Two views of a pupa of the Common Palmfly.
Two views of a mature pupa of the Common Palmfly.
After about 6-6.5 days of development, the pupal skin turns translucent as the development within the pupal case comes to an end. The pupa is mostly black at this point. The following day, the adult butterfly emerges from the pupal case. It then perches on the pupal case or nearby to expand and dry its wings before taking its first flight.
A newly eclosed Common Palmfly drying its wings on its pupal case.
A newly eclosed Common Palmfly.
A Photographic Monograph on Hong Kong Butterflies, Volume 1, Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society.
Text by Horace Tan, Photos by Anthony Wong, Federick Ho and Horace Tan
Butterfly of the Month - November 2010
Tawny Palmfly (Elymnias panthera panthera)
The winds have shifted and now the prevailing winds are coming from a North-Easterly direction, usually bringing heavy rains to many parts of South-East Asia. The monsoon months traditionally brings closure to many activities in nature areas in Malaysia, where the national parks and nature reserves are closed for the safety of visitors. I recall being shown the flood level at Endau-Rompin National Park in Malaysia, where the debris from a recent flood clearly indicated the water line before the water receded. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that the debris line was about two-thirds up a line of trees that was about 15m high!
The 11th month of the year, November always brings happy anticipation of the Christmas holiday season. Indeed, cheery and glittering decorations are already up in many shopping malls in Singapore. In multi-cultural Singapore, November 2010 also saw the celebration of Deepavali and Hari Raya Haji by the Hindu and Muslim communities respectively.
This month, we feature a relatively 'plain-Jane' butterfly, the Tawny Palmfly (Elymnias panthera panthera). The English common name of the butterfly is rather curious, as "tawny" often refers to a "warm sandy colour" which the species displays very little of. Perhaps the pale buff submarginal border on the upperside of the hindwing is distinctive enough to give the butterfly a 'tawny' descriptor.
Another unique feature of this species is its scientific name. It is one of only a handful of butterfly species to share the name of mammals and in this case, a specific genus of the big cats, Panthera. A rather interesting reference, since the butterfly bears no resemblance in any way to the famous carnivorous and predatory cats.
The Tawny Palmfly is a forest denizen, where it skulks close to the forest floor in well-shaded localities. It is usually very skittish and flies off the moment it senses any movement towards it. The species is best observed when feeding on the ripened fruits of the Singapore Rhododendron (Melastoma malabathricum) - when it is less skittish and allows an observer to move in closer to it.
It doesn't fly rapidly but displays an erratic flight when flying around, searching for food sources or moving around its preferred habitats. Very often, it stops and perches on the upper surfaces of leaves with its wings folded upright. In the field, we have, thus far, not encountered an individual sunbathing with its wings opened flat before.
The Tawny Palmfly is dark brown above and the hindwing has a pale buff border bearing a series of white-centred black submarginal spots. The underside bears the usual reddish-brown striations of the genus Elymnias (collectively called the Palmflies) which helps to camouflage the butterfly when settled amongst the forest litter.
The female of this species makes an interesting audible clicking sound with its hindwings when it flutters about its host plant laying eggs. The caterpillar of this species feeds on a variety of palms found in the forests.
Although it is a species that is primarily found in forested areas, and in particular, in habitats where various species of Palmae grow, it has also been observed with regularity at urban parks and gardens as well. Sometimes it flies in the company of its closely related species, the Common Palmfly.
Text by Khew SK : Photos by James Chia, Chng CK, Federick Ho, Khew SK, Koh Cher Hern, Loke PF, Bobby Mun, Ellen Tan & Anthony Wong
Life History of the Plain Tiger
Life History of the Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus chrysippus)
Genus: Danaus Kluk, 1802
Species: chrysippus Linnaeus, 1758
Subspecies: chrysippus Linnaeus, 1758
Caterpillar Local Host Plant: Calotropis gigantea (Asclepiadaceae, common name: Giant Milkweed), Asclepias curassavica (Asclepiadaceae, common name: Blood Flower).
A Plain Tiger found visiting a flower.
Above, the forewings are orangey brown with a series of white spots in a broad black apical border. The hindwings have a narrow dark border and a few black spots featured at both the cell edge and end-cell. In form chrysippus, the hindwings are orangy brown, but in form alcippoides, the hindwings are almost white throughout. The male has a subtornal brand on the hindwing just below vein 3. Underneath, the wings are similarly marked as per the upperside but with apical border orangy brown on the forewing, and wing margins marked with a series of prominent and white marginal spots.
A Plain Tiger form chrysippus sunbathing on a fern frond.
A Plain Tiger form alcippoides displaying its upperside.
Plain Tiger adults imbibing fluid/sap from parts of two different plants.
Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour: Both forms of the Plain Tiger can be found in Singapore with form alcippoides being the more common of the two. This species is typically found where its host plants are cultivated. Such locations include HortPark, butterfly trails, butterfly gardens in schools and housing estates and even certain park connectors. The adults typically visits flowers in the vicinity of its host plant and has a fondness for sap exuded by Crotalaria spp.
A Plain Tiger perching on a fern frond in a closed-wing pose.
A newly eclosed Plain Tiger
Caterpillars of Plain Tiger feed on leaves of its host plants, Giant Milkweed and Blood Flower, both of the Asclepiadaceae family (the Milkweed family).
Local host plants for the Plain Tiger: Giant Milkweed (left) and Blood Flower (right).
A mating pair of Plain Tiger.
The eggs of the Plain Tiger are laid singly on the leaf of the host plant, typically on the underside. The milky white egg is shaped somewhat like a bullet-head (diameter: 0.95mm, height: 1.3mm). The egg surface is ribbed with ridges running longitudinally. The micropyle sits atop.
A mother Plain Tiger ovipositing on its host plant.
Two views of an egg of the Plain Tiger.
The egg takes about 2.5-3 days to hatch. The young caterpillar emerges by eating away part of the egg shell. The rest of the egg shell becomes the first meal for the newly hatched, which has a length of about 2.2mm. Its cylindrical body is mostly white with a yellowish undertone, and has a fair number of short fine setae. The large head capsule is black in color and there is a small black patch at the posterior end. A pair of short sub-dorsal protuberances can be found on each of the following four segments: 1st and 2nd thoracic segments, 2nd and 8th abdominal segments. Of these, the prothoracic pair is black in color and the remaining pairs in orangey brown. The thoracic legs and prolegs are all black in color.
Two views of a newly hatched caterpillar, length: 2.2mm.
Once the newly hatched moves on to feed on leaf lamina over the next few hours, its body starts to take on a green undertone. The growth is rather rapid with the body length doubling to about 4.5mm in 1.5 day, and after just 1.5 to 2 days from hatching, it moults to the 2nd instar. Towards the final hours of the 1st instar, the last three pairs of protuberances turn dark brown and pairs of oval-shaped yellow spots appear on the dorsum from the 2nd thoracic segment to the 8th abdominal segment.
Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, length: 3.5mm.
Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length:4.3mm.
The body of the 2nd instar caterpillar is whitish in ground color. One obvious change is the lengthening of those black protuberances on the 2nd thoracic segment, 2nd and 8th abdominal segments The pair of protuberances on the 1st thoracic segment remains subdued in size. A diffused yellow band runs sub-spiracularly. The subdorsal paired yellow spots are embedded in dark patches which extend laterally to the subspiracular yellow band. Noteworthy is that there is only one (rather than two) elongated yellow dorsal spot on the 9th abdominal segment. The black head capsule now has a triangular white patch on the frons and a prominent white arch. This instar lasts only 1 to 1.5 days with the body length reaching 9mm before the moult to the 3rd instar.
Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 5.7mm
Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 8.5mm
The 3rd instar caterpillar is similar in appearance to the 2nd instar caterpillar, One obvious change is in the three pairs of processes which are proportionately longer. The head capsule also has an outer white arch at the rear periphery. This instar takes about 1-1.5 days to complete with body length reaching about 12mm.
3rd instar caterpillar, newly moulted, length: 8.5mm
3rd instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 12mm.
Retaining very much the same body features from the previous instar, the 4th instar caterpillar distinguishes itself in having proportionately longer processes, with the mesothoracic pair the longest and having a strong tendency to flex forward. This instar lasts 2 days with the body length reaching about 21mm.
4th instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 21mm.
A group of Plain Tiger caterpillars defoliating a Blood Flower plant.
The 5th and final instar appears similar to the previous two instars but again with proportionately longer and filamentous processes, particularly so for the mesothoracic pair. All six processes now have a crimson coloration at the basal portion.
Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 26mm.
The 5th instar lasts for 2-3 days, and the body length reaches up to 42mm. On the last day, the caterpillar ceases feeding, and its body becomes shortened and decolorized, most notably in the yellow and crimson coloration. It wanders around in search of a pupation site. Typically it comes to a halt on a branch/stem or a leaf underside, where the caterpillar spins a silk pad from which it soon hangs vertically to take on the pre-pupatory pose.
Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, a atypical whiter form.
A pre-pupatory larva of the Plain Tiger.
Pupation takes place about 0.75 days after the caterpillar assumes the hanging posture. The barrel-shaped pupa suspends itself from the silk pad with no supporting silk girdle. The pupa could be green, pink even white in coloration. It has a median transverse line marked with a series of black spots and an outer series of yellow spots. Length of pupae: 19-20mm.
The pupation event of a Plain Tiger caterpillar.
Two views of a pupa of the Plain Tiger, green form.
Two views of a pupa of the Plain Tiger, white/pink form.
Two views of a mature pupa of the Plain Tiger.
After about 5 days of development, the pupal skin turns translucent as the development within the pupal case comes to an end. The prominent white spots on the forewing upperside also become discernible. The following day, the adult butterfly emerges from the pupal case.
The eclosion event of a Plain Tiger butterfly.
A newly eclosed Plain Tiger drying its wings on its pupal case.
Text by Horace Tan, Photos by Liyana Zolpakar, Tan Ke-Yang, Mark Wong, Anthony Wong and Horace Tan
Posted by Horace at 12:05 PM 15 comments


Crafted after the actual belt handmade by Reggie Parks & worn by the Ultimate Warrior, the WWE Blue Winged Eagle Championship Adult Size Replica Belt is an exact-scale replica of the classic 1990's version with the Legends "W" logo that measures 4 feet 2 inches long and weighs 5 pounds. The strap is made of our new and improved simulated leather, and the center medallion measures 9 inches high.
These plates were crafted with a tremendous amount of detail in them. The plates on these belts are created using advanced computer imaging technology to create the most accurate plates we have ever made!
Every detail on these replica championship titles are deeper and clearer than ever before.
1st Side Plate: 5.04" x 3.5"


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Q: How to make qr codes generated by steeve:jquery-qrcode package downloadable I have a Meteor project where each user has a profile page and they have their own qr code linking to that page.  I would like to make the qr code that I've generated for them using steeve:jquery-qrcode downloadable in either a jpg or png format (both if possible).
How would I accomplish this?  (i.e. make it downloadable from the client)
At the moment I just display the qr code on the user's page using the following code on the page:
<template name="profile">

    Username:   {{username}}

    {{#with profile}}
        Profile name: {{firstName}} {{lastName}}
    {{/with}}

</template>

And here's the JS on the client:
Template.profile.onRendered(function () {
  console.log(this.data.qrUrl);
  $('#qrblock').qrcode({text: this.data.profile.qrUrl});
});

Edit:  Would this some be easier to achieve by using an img element instead of a div element?

A: I referenced following link: Download a Html5 canvas element as an image with the file extension with Javascript
Download Drawing

Place this link anywhere on your view. It should download an image as png file.
As for browser compatibility issue, IE and Safari doesn't support download attribute yet. Here is a link about download attribute.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Republican Senator Thinks Social Security Responsible For Heroin Addiction
By Zachary Siegel 11/11/15
Sen. Tom Cotton seems to think there's a correlation between our current heroin crisis and the popular 70-year-old social program.
Social theorists do not know why the United States is seeing addiction, suicide, and drug overdose occurring in obscene numbers, but freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) submits too many people relying on Social Security disability is the main driver.
During a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation on Monday, Cotton put forth his theory, which hinges on two associations: 1) communities with high percentages of Social Security disability are seeing a population decline; 2) communities where there are few benefiting from Social Security have seen population increase.
"It's hard to say what came first or caused the other: population decline or increased disability usage," Cotton argues. Indeed, the causal arrows could go either way. "Or maybe," he postured, "economic stagnation caused both. Regardless, there seems to be at least at the county and regional level something like a disability tipping point."
Cotton went on to explain what he meant by a disability tipping point. "When a county hits a certain level of disability usage, disability becomes a norm," he said. "It becomes an acceptable way of life and alternative source of income to a good paying full-time job as opposed to a last resort safety net program to deal with catastrophic injury and illness."
Princeton economist Anne Case, who recently co-authored a shocking mortality report on the working class with her husband and Nobel laureate Angus Deaton, told The Fix, "It was once the case that with a high school degree a person could find a 'good' job, with benefits and job security. Many of those jobs are gone, and aren't expected to return any time soon."
Cotton does not address this fact, that communities who rely on Social Security just to get by, are lacking in the "good paying full-time jobs" of which he speaks.
While ignoring the dire social conditions these communities are experiencing, he argues the inevitable results from too much government assistance. "The population continues to fall and a downward spiral kicks in, driving once thriving communities into further decline."
"Not only that," he notes, "but once this spiral begins, communities could begin to suffer other social plagues as well, such as heroin or meth addiction and associated crime."
Cotton has a plan that will surely cure the social plagues facing broken communities: introduce legislation that would force non-permanently disabled people who are not ready to return to work to reapply for disability benefits.
"These reforms won't solve all the problems of Social Security disability," he concluded, "but they will address one of the most urgent crises in the program, and the one, perhaps, most corrosive to affected communities."
Sen. Tom Cotton
drug overdoses
dumb politicians
Zachary Siegel
Zachary Siegel is a freelance journalist specializing in science, health and drug policy. His reporting has also appeared in Slate, The Daily Beast, Salon, Huffington Post, among others. He writes often about addiction, sometimes drawing from his own experience. You can find out more about Zachary on Linkedin or follow him on Twitter.


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The Fix definitely wants its readers to submit authentic CARY ROBERT ERICKSON reviews, if you had a real-life experience as their client, or know a person who has. If you've gone to CARY ROBERT ERICKSON in Centralia, Washington you are encouraged to share details about your experience, as long as you do not break confidentiality.
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If you are the business owner or an authorized representative of CARY ROBERT ERICKSON, you may contact us to resolve problematic or false information, but we ask that you not write, copy, paste, or otherwise contribute promotional material about your own place of business (or the business that employs you).


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Falkenbergs Idrottsklubb, FIK, är Falkenbergs enda friidrottsklubb, grundad 13 juni 1901. Klubben hade ursprungligen allmän idrott, gymnastik och fotboll på programmet. De första tävlingarna hölls i apotekare Humblas trädgård och löptävlingarna på Storgatan. Följande år flyttades tävlingsverksamheten till Vallarna, där klubben under några år hade en liten stuga. Gymnastikträningen bedrevs vintertid i Gamla Kyrkan.

År 1905 var FIK en av de tre föreningar som på IFK Halmstad initiativ bildade Hallands Idrottsförbund.

När Falkenbergs Manliga Gymnastikförening år 1915 gick upp i FIK bytte klubben namn till Falkenbergs Gymnastik och Idrottsklubb (FGIK). År 1920 gick även Falkenbergs Kvinnliga Gymnastiksällskap upp i FIK. Klubben återtog det ursprungliga namnet 1930. Under åren haft FIK haft många fler idrotter på programmet: handboll, orientering, skidor och bowling. Dessa har senare bildat egna föreningar och på så vis har FIK bidragit till utvecklingen av idrotten i Falkenberg. Fotbollssektionen bröt sig ur år 1928 och bildade Falkenbergs FF och den sista sektionen som bildade en egen förening var orienteringen år 1982. FIK bedrev under 30 år simskola vid Skrea Strand. År 1960 tog kommunen över den verksamheten.

Man håller sedan 1921 till på Falkenbergs IP.

Klubben har haft flera friidrottare på riksnivå. Mest meriterad är trestegshopparen Erik "Spänst" Svensson, som tävlade för klubben under 1930-talet. Han vann OS-silver i tresteg 1932 och hade svenska rekorden i tresteg 1932-1948 och i längdhopp 1934-1959. Övriga svenska mästare är Hilding Edgar Nilsson i höjdhopp u.a. 1922; Olga Månsson i längdhopp u.a.1934,1935 och 1936; Solveig Nilsson (Gustavsson) i spjut 1935, 1936 och 1937 samt trekamp 1939 och 1940 samt Ingrid Hansson-Olsson i höjdhopp 1937 och längdhopp 1938. Olga Månsson och Ingrid Hansson hade också svenska rekorden i sina grenar.

Sedan 1982 arrangerar man även kvartsmaran Falkenbergs stadslopp.

Källor

Fotnoter

Externa länkar
Officiell webbplats
FIK protokollsbok från 1901
FIK tävlingsprotokoll från 1902
FIK Jubileumsskrift 1901-2001
FIK Jubileumsskrift 1906-1956
Några fakta från Falkenbergs Idrottsklubb 75 år 1901-1976

Sportklubbar i Falkenbergs kommun
Friidrottsklubbar i Sverige
Sportklubbar bildade 1901
Sport i Falkenberg

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Lifestyle / Entertainment
Adele latest celebrity to speak out following death of George Floyd
Adele (Yui Mok/PA)
Adele has become the latest celebrity to condemn police violence against black people following the death of George Floyd.
Protesters have taken to the streets in cities around the world – including London, New York and Los Angeles – amid fury over Mr Floyd's death after a white Minneapolis police officer held his knee on his neck for several minutes.
Adele shared a picture of Mr Floyd and called for the movement against police violence not to get "disheartened, hijacked or manipulated right now".
George Floyd's murder has sent shockwaves around the world, there are countless others that haven't. Protests and marches are happening all over the globe simultaneously and only gaining momentum. So be righteously angered but be focused! Keep listening, keep asking and keep learning! It's important we don't get disheartened, hijacked or manipulated right now. This is about systematic racism, this is about police violence and it's about inequality. And this isn't only about America! Racism is alive and well everywhere. I wholeheartedly stand in solidarity with the fight for freedom, liberation and justice ♥ #blacklivesmatter #georgefloyd #saytheirnames
A post shared by Adele (@adele) on Jun 1, 2020 at 12:49pm PDT
She wrote on Instagram: "George Floyd's murder has sent shockwaves around the world, there are countless others that haven't. Protests and marches are happening all over the globe simultaneously and only gaining momentum.
"So be righteously angered but be focused! Keep listening, keep asking and keep learning!
"It's important we don't get disheartened, hijacked or manipulated right now. This is about systematic racism, this is about police violence and it's about inequality. And this isn't only about America! Racism is alive and well everywhere.
"I wholeheartedly stand in solidarity with the fight for freedom, liberation and justice."
Adele added the hashtags #blacklivesmatter, #georgefloyd and #saytheirnames.
The US has been home to the worst clashes, with demonstrators battling police in cities across the country. Looting has broken out while curfews have been imposed in a bid to quell the trouble.
British star John Boyega said he does not want to "work in fear" when he is in the US as he addressed the unrest.
The Star Wars actor said he has "family and friends there who could be any one of the victims of things that don't change".
Emily Ratajkowski, Halsey and Anna Kendrick were among the stars joining the protests in Los Angeles, while Ariana Grande has also spoken out.
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have donated more than £160,000 to a civil rights organisation in response to the protests while Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have previously pledged money to help pay for the bail of arrested protesters.
Dawn French reacts to criticism over The Vicar Of Dibley's BLM scene
Pope Francis backs George Floyd protests and hits out at coronavirus sceptics
John Boyega says father was stopped by police as he returned from church
Police in George Floyd case to face trial together in Minneapolis


text:
Weekly SportsChumpdate featuring Plaxico Burress, Usain Bolt, John Calipari, Gloria Estefan and the Wild Card races
Memo to those vacationing in New York: leave your piece at home. Former New York Giant wide receiver and Super Bowl champion Plaxico Burress was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of an unlicensed firearm. He'll likely serve at least 20 of those 24 months. The penalty may seem excessive when compared to Michael Vick, who served two years for running an illegal dog ring, and Donte Stallworth, who was imprisoned 24 days for killing someone while drunken driving, but New York's gun laws are the strictest in the union. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was adamant that the state not make an exception for Burress simply because he won them a Super Bowl. With the Vick, Burress and Stallworth cases finally reaching resolution, Commissioner Roger Goodell likely can't wait for the season to start so we can discuss final scores instead of final verdicts. Commissioner, neither can we.
The aptly named Usain Bolt has done it again. He's breaking records at a Phelpsian pace and doing so without the bong photos. In Berlin this week, on the same track where Jesse Owens represented the US in the 1936 Olympic Games, Jamaican-born sprinter shattered the 200 meter world record, finishing in 19.19 seconds and breaking his own world record by .11 seconds. Days earlier, he set the world record in the 100m, finishing in 9.58 seconds. To put things in perspective, Owens ran the 100 meter dash in 10.3 seconds. Somewhere, Jesse would be proud.
In Memphis, basketball coach John Calipari has left the building. Unfortunately for University of Memphis fans, so have the school's 38 victories in 2007-2008. The NCAA has charged Memphis with suiting up an ineligible player. Allegedly, their former freshman phenom, Derrick Rose, had a family member take his SAT exams to ensure academic eligibility. Athletic Director R.C. Johnson pledged there were no deliberate violations and has appealed the charges. This marks the second time a John Calipari coached team has been stripped of its Final Four appearance. His 1995-96 UMass Minutemen were penalized when Marcus Camby admitted taking money from an agent. Both Rose and Camby were top NBA draft picks, Rose going first in 2008 and Camby drafted second in 1997. Memphis will be forced to return all revenue from their Final Four run that season. Several hundred miles away, Calipari, who makes over $4 million at the University of Kentucky, and Rose, who makes over $5 million dollars with the Chicago Bulls, go unpunished. All's fair in love and recruiting violations. Calipari won the Naismith National Coach of the Year those same seasons. In the future, the Naismith board of selectors may want to choose their winners more wisely or at least place a Bonds-like asterisk next to those two.
They don't call it the wild card for nothing. With only forty games remaining in baseball's regular season, wild card races are heating up in both American and National Leagues. Many teams have distanced themselves from the pack. The Cardinals, Phillies, Angels and Yankees all hold healthy leads in their respective divisions. In the NL, the Rockies, Giants, Braves, Marlins and Cubs are all fighting for the lone wild card spot. In the AL, the Red Sox, Rangers, Ray, Mariners and White Sox compete for the other. Meanwhile, the New York Mets and the second highest payroll in baseball are under .500 and might not be relevant again until Plaxico Burress is a free man.
Come on shake your body, baby, do that conga. Venus and Serena Williams are now partial owners of the Miami Dolphins. The Williams sisters, who could not find an NFL team to invest in in their hometown of Los Angeles, join Jimmy Buffett, Marc Anthony and Gloria Estefan as the most recent celebrities to own a piece of the South Florida franchise. No word on whether the sisters will soon tour with Miami Sound Machine.
This entry was posted in Diamond, Hardwood, Pigskin and tagged Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Donte Stallworth, Gloria Estefan, Jesse Owens, John Calipari, Marcus Camby, Memphis Tigers, Miami Dolphins, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Vick, MLB, NBA, New York Giants, NFL, Plaxico Burress, Serena Williams, SportsChumpdate, Usain Bolt, Venus Williams by Chris Humpherys. Bookmark the permalink.
11 thoughts on "Weekly SportsChumpdate featuring Plaxico Burress, Usain Bolt, John Calipari, Gloria Estefan and the Wild Card races"
Frank on August 23, 2009 at 10:11 am said:
Question Chris —
If Kentucky wins the NCAA Basketball Tournament, should the fans wait about three years to celebrate just to make sure the title is legit?
Bringing in a weasel like Calipari is just perfect for Kentucky.
Go Billy D! Go Gators!
Chris Humpherys on August 23, 2009 at 8:07 pm said:
Ya know what, Frank? That is an EXCELLENT point.
My buddy, Brotha E, mentioned in an email that a zebra doesn't change his stripes. I think he meant to say that a leopard doesn't change his spots but his point is well taken.
The real question is… does the UK brass care if Calipari cheats to land the best talent? And how close will the NCAA be watching him and his new program in the future?
Gene H on August 23, 2009 at 9:47 pm said:
I was in Memphis last year for most of the season and the Tiger's title run. My bro-in-law is an alum there. All those Tiger fans loved Coach Cal. They knew he wasn't above board but they put winning above integrity.
The Tiger's latest frosh phenom from Pennsylvania, that was one and done last year will come back to bite their program on the ass too. Cal hired one of that kid's brothers as an 'assistant', etc.
How bad do you want to win, Kentucky?
Chris Humpherys on August 23, 2009 at 10:09 pm said:
Han, as always, thanks for the feedback.
I'm not sure how I'd feel if Billy D had been accused of any sort of violations. His run of back to back national championships was nothing short of magical for any Gator basketball fan.
I remember when Eddie Fogler accused Donovan of wrongdoing, only to fall into total obscurity.
Memphis has a proud basketball program. It'll be interesting to see what happens there in years to come.
As will Kentucky's.
Alan Parkins on August 24, 2009 at 12:53 pm said:
The Caribbean ancestry and heritage at this moment is great. With Bolt doing the sprint double. And then in the women's 100m we had a 1-2 there. I'd say it was a good day to be proud of the Jamaican heritage.
Two years for Plax. Now that'll mean , he'll have to serve a minimum of 21 months to be considered for early release. WTF wasn't Miami Dade DA Katherine Fernandez-Rundle on her game when it came to Stallworth down in Miami ? The civil suit settlement shouldn't have at all had a bearing on the criminal case to begin with. As it was a completely separate matter.
There's nothing proud about Memphis' program ! Calipari is a friggin' a_s and his demeanor bears that out ! Who's to say the same thing won't happen with the Wildcats' program ? Or are you being really that naive ?
I'm not counting out your <a href="http://redsox.mlb.com/"Red Sox yet ! But the fat lady is waiting in the wings getting ready to do her aria . So what gives ? The standings as they are , make the next forty games of vital importance for all of the teams with a whiff of making the playoffs. The Rays need consistency , pitching and series' wins more than anything else. The same can be said of my beloved Florida Marlins .
How comes Ricky Martin isn't part of that cadre of celebrity minority owners ? Inquiring minds need to know. Or is that Stephen Ross (principal owner) is scared of alienating some of the fan base ? LOL,LOL,LOL !!! Let me know when Shakira wants in ? Her hips don't lie at all do they ?
Here's the link to her latest She Wolf . Make sure you've got enough Kleenex in close proximity to wipe all of that extra bodily fluids that you may well secrete. You can't blame a brutha' for tryin' LOL, LOL ,LOL !!!!
Alan Parkins
I would imagine the island has to extremely excited about their boy. As they should be.
Not sure on Plax v Stallworth but Stallworth caught a break he didn't have Bloomberg against him.
Re: UK, read my response to Frank's post.
The Yanks are ridiculous right now. Aside from the Saturday game, they made a mockery of the Bosox.
Michael Beasley checks himself into psych rehab?
Doesn't sound good.
Alan Parkins on August 24, 2009 at 1:41 pm said:
I for one wouldn't trust anyone within the Wildcats' athletics department at present. If Calipari can assert himself and continue to corral players and use his own personal friends to mislead others . Then there's no reason to believe why he won't continue to operate under the same modus operandi . Afterall who's going to stop him ? The NCAA ? Those as_holes couldn't find their own sphincters if they were given a map and a compass to guide them to begin with !
When pressed as to why Rose or whomever took the SAT up in Detroit when the player was allegedly residing in Illinois at the time. He refused to comment. Now we come to find out that an agent who's a close personal friend of his lives in the ares where all of this is said to have taken place. So what do you think ? Coincidence ?
Collegiate athletics is rife with all of this and absolutely no one now is above reproach ! . And yes ,that includes Coach K !
If I'm a UK fan, I'm certainly skeptical right now. Although they ran Tubby out of town so they generally have no sense anyway.
Uh oh… here's comes the horde from CatsPaws.
I'd like to know all the stuff that goes on in the NCAA that we DON'T know about.
The NCAA makes the likes of Opus Dei and The Klu Klux Klan seem like relics of the past when it comes to secrecy. Never-mind the fact that there's an apparent bias there, when it comes to dealing with certain programs and how they mete out punishment. There's never been any transparency there whatsoever ! It's a complete joke !
You're not suggesting that a program like Kentucky gets preferential treatment, are you, Al?


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Have Insiders Been Selling First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Shares?
Simply Wall St. December 13, 2018
We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
Do Insider Transactions Matter?
Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock on the market. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.
We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. For example, a Colombia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own company's stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'.
View our latest analysis for First Merchants
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At First Merchants
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by Michael Marhenke for US$1.3m worth of shares, at about US$49.21 per share. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of US$39.02. They might be selling for a variety of reasons, but it's hard to argue this is a bullish sign. We usually pause to reflect on the potential that a stock has a high valuation, if insiders have been selling at around the current price.
In the last twelve months insiders purchased 3.77k shares for US$162k. But they sold 49.37k for US$2.4m. All up, insiders sold more shares in First Merchants than they bought, over the last year. The average sell price was around US$48.13. It's not ideal to see that insiders have sold at around the current price. Since insiders sell for many reasons, we wouldn't put too much weight on it. The chart below shows insider transactions over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
NasdaqGS:FRME Insider Trading December 13th 18
If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).
Insiders at First Merchants Have Sold Stock Recently
Over the last three months, we've seen notably more insider selling, than insider buying, at First Merchants. We note Michael Marhenke cashed in US$1.3m worth of shares. On the other hand we note insiders bought US$13k worth of shares. We don't view these transactions as a positive sign.
Does First Merchants Boast High Insider Ownership?
I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. It's great to see that First Merchants insiders own 1.2% of the company, worth about US$23m. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.
What Might The Insider Transactions At First Merchants Tell Us?
The stark truth for First Merchants is that there has been more insider selling than insider buying in the last three months. Despite some insider buying, the longer term picture doesn't make us feel much more positive. But it is good to see that First Merchants is growing earnings. While insiders do own shares, they don't own a heap, and they have been selling. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.
If you would prefer to check out another company — one with potentially superior financials — then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.


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Was the Use of a Bomb Disposal Robot to Kill the Dallas Shooting Suspect the First Drone Strike in the US?
July 8, 2016 by Scott J Grunewald 3D PrintingEditorials / OpinionsRobotics
Before the shooting started, the protest was going well, and the police even posed for pictures and shared them on social media.
The hastily assembled Black Lives Matter protest held in downtown Dallas yesterday was a textbook example of how a protest should be handled. It was peaceful, focused, well-organized and the Dallas Police Department, widely considered one of the more progressive in the country, were supportive and non-threatening. Throughout the protest the police presence was subdued, and officers even took pictures with protesters and posted positive and supportive messages on social media. In total about 1000 protesters and about 100 police officers were gathered together, and just as the event was ending, gunmen began to open fire on the quickly dispersing crowd.
By all accounts the Dallas Police Department is a model of what our modern police departments should be. They embrace their community, encourage multi-cultural hiring and stress de-escalation community policing techniques. In the face of increasing tensions between many minority communities and the police, Dallas cut theirs in half. They pioneered many community policing techniques that are now used as models for the country, and they cut excessive-force complaints against officers from 147 in 2009 to 13 in 2015. There are probably only a handful of police departments that would be considered less likely to be the victims of an attack of this magnitude, especially as retaliation for police brutality. And that makes this attack, somehow, even more horrific.
Dallas Police officers take cover while under fire.
As if being fired on wouldn't be terrifying enough, the Dallas Police quickly realized that protesters weren't the targets; they were. Within a horrifyingly short amount of time, the gunmen had murdered 5 officers, and a total of 12 officers had been shot as well as 2 protesters who were fleeing the scene. The next few hours were marked by confusion as dozens of protesters found themselves trapped while they waited for the all clear, and officers continued to trade fire with a suspect. Around midnight, according to the Dallas Police, the last suspect was pinned down in a parking garage at El Centro College.
An un-named victim of the Dallas shootings is treated on the scene by paramedics.
I don't think there was much doubt about the suspect's guilt, and he made his motives in the killings abundantly clear while the police were attempting to talk to him into surrendering. This was a retaliation for the murder of two black men, in entirely different states, over the previous two days, a gesture that I feel comfortable saying was entirely unwelcome by everyone outraged by those senseless killings. When the Dallas Police were unable to subdue the suspect, and the officers felt that continuing the firefight would only put more of their officers at risk, they made a decision to send a bomb disposal robot into the garage and detonate a charge near the gunman, killing him. There is no doubt in my mind that the choice to end the standoff in this manner wasn't an easy one, and doing so most likely saved lives.
"We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was…other options would have exposed our officers to great danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb," said Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown.
A Northrop Grumman Andros bomb disposing robot.
There is no blame to be placed upon anyone except the murderers who chose to open fire on the innocent, both police officers and protesters alike. I have no sympathy for the gunmen; all that I have to go around is being given to the families of the officers who died or those who are currently struggling to survive their injuries. This tragedy is the horrifically inevitable result of a virtually unacknowledged arms race between the police and criminals in this country that has been going on for years, and last night it was just escalated. According to experts, this appears to be the first domestic use of an unmanned robot, effectively a "ground drone," to kill an American citizen, and I'm not sure that I can feel anything other than dread for what that means for us as a nation.
According to Popular Science, the bomb disposal robot that was used to kill the shooter last night was either a Northrop Grumman Andros F6A or a F6B. While this was a device that was created to save lives, not take them, the ease with which it was used to kill someone is chilling. The robot was equipped with a gripper arm that is intended to be used to remove explosive devices from areas where they can cause harm, and its articulated tracks and pneumatic wheels were designed to allow it to move steadily and swiftly, even over rocky or uneven terrain. It was a device designed and built to save lives, and instead it was fitted with an explosive device and sent into a building to kill someone.
It is easy, and probably reassuring, to tell ourselves that these were extraordinary circumstances and are unlikely to be repeated. But that is something that we as a nation have been telling ourselves for years. After each horrific crime committed with firearms in this country we all tell ourselves the same thing. We told ourselves that just a few weeks ago in the wake of Orlando, and we told ourselves that a few years ago in the wake of Sandy Hook. It stretches all the way back to the 1990's, when two bank robbers with military grade body armor and automatic weapons overwhelmed the LAPD with superior firepower. We've been telling ourselves that it was just extraordinary circumstances for so long that we've barely noticed the ongoing escalation of the arms race in this country. Police departments now have their own automatic rifles, and they have tanks, and they have body armor. They are virtually indistinguishable from a military force at this point, and last night they just used a robot to kill a man.
Currently, our military uses highly advanced, unmanned Predator drones to make precision attacks against our enemies. The drone pilots fly them as if they were playing a video game, and as drone technology improves, so does our country's drone program. Drone technology, albeit outdated at this point, that was originally used in military situations has already found itself in the service of police departments. They use them to monitor traffic, they use them to patrol our country's borders and they use them in surveillance situations. How long until those drones are equipped with tasers? How long until they are equipped with tear gas? How long until they are equipped with sonic, crowd-dispersing weapons? And how long until they are equipped with the same missiles that our military Predator drones are currently equipped with?
A US military Predator drone.
And an even more pressing question, especially in the wake of using a robot to deliver a bomb last night, is how long before inexpensive, commercial drones are used by the same madmen who use automatic guns now to deliver explosives to their victims? How long before homemade pipe bombs are flown into large crowds with cheap drones that can be purchased at Walmart or from Amazon – drones that can be directed with inexpensive RC technology and a GoPro mounted underneath them? How long until someone uses a desktop 3D printer to modify existing drone technology to transform it from a fun toy into a weapon of violence? We know it is possible; we've already seen drones that industrious makers have equipped with firearms and flamethrowers.
Military or police? Can you even tell the difference anymore?
I'm sure there will be more than a few of you reading this who feel like I'm overselling what happened last night, or perhaps letting my imagination run wild. But I ask you to really look back at the history of gun violence in this country, especially the last few decades, and tell me that each side hasn't escalated the levels of violence in response to the other. Gun manufacturers are making some of the most advanced firearms technology available to the general public, and in response the police have invested in their own advanced weapons. They have invested in an ever growing list of technology that was previously only available to the military, but now is available to almost every police officer in the country.
I'm not willing, or even in the position, to apply any blame to anyone. I feel nothing but pain and profound sadness over the violence that happened in Dallas last night. I have nothing but sympathy for the gunman's victims, and the officers who made the difficult choice to end his life. But last night the police used technology, originally developed for the military, to deliver a bomb to a man in order to kill him. It isn't that I believe there were better options available to the police; I am in absolutely no position to make that determination. But I can't escape the feeling that something changed last night, something that all of us should acknowledge. There are always going to be extraordinary circumstances, but are we really okay with there always being an extraordinary response? Last night the functional equivalent of a drone was used on American soil to kill an American citizen, and at the very least we need to think about what that means, and we need to ask ourselves if we're really okay with that. Discuss further over in the Bomb Disposal Robot in Dallas forum at 3DPB.com.
Tagged with: Andros F6A • Andros F6B • black lives matter • BLM • bomb squad robot • Dallas shooting • drones • military drones • Northrop Grumman • police protests • Popular Science • Predator drone


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Reuters SG
BRIEF-Lian Beng Group Posts Q3 Profit Attributable S$3.6 Mln
12 April 2019, 6:25 am
April 12 (Reuters) - Lian Beng Group Ltd:
* Q3 REVENUE S$91 MILLION VERSUS S$90.6 MILLION
* Q3 PROFIT ATTRIBUTABLE S$3.6 MILLION VERSUS S$8.1 MILLION Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
You can now see Pakistan's iconic truck art on airplanes
Pakistan's ornate truck paintings will now take to the skies.
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) Applauds NIH Revised Stance on Ivermectin for COVID-19
TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Institutes (NIH) has issued a new statement on the use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19. Previously, it recommended against this treatment, but now states that its Panel "has determined that there are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19." The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) notes that there are now 49 ivermectin studies summarized on c19study.com, 100 percent of which show favorable results. In contrast, there are very few studies of the antibody cocktails now being used under an Emergency Use Authorization.NIH concludes from its current analysis that "results from adequately powered, well-designed, and well-conducted clinical trials are needed to provide further guidance on the role of ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19."The NIH may be responding to requests related to the testimony strongly favoring ivermectin in a Dec 8 Senate hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. While awaiting further studies, patients are dying, AAPS points out. More than a billion doses of this very safe drug have been administered since 1981. Yet many medical facilities and many physicians refuse to prescribe it for COVID-19, citing NIH guidance."Perhaps with this change, patients won't need a court order to get a lifesaving drug," stated AAPS executive director Jane Orient, M.D. A patient in Buffalo, who was dying on a ventilator, had a dramatic turnaround when family members persuaded an intensive care doctor to prescribe ivermectin. But doctors refused to allow further doses when her condition declined. State Supreme Court Judge Henry A. Nowak ordered the drug to be re-started, and the patient again improved."Once a drug is approved, it may be lawfully used for new indications, and at least 20 percent of prescriptions are for 'off-label' uses," Dr. Orient stated. "To have a doctor withdraw a drug that appears to be saving a patient's life, because a federal bureaucracy thinks it hasn't been studied enough for that use, is shocking to those who believe in the traditional ethic of Hippocrates."The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has represented physicians in all specialties nationwide since 1943. It provides information on early home treatment for COVID-19. Its motto is omnia pro aegroto (everything for the patient).Contact: Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, janeorientmd@gmail.com
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) jumped headfirst into the credit card business when it partnered with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to create the Apple Card, which has been referred to as the most successful credit card launch ever. Now, the bank is doubling down, announcing a new partnership with General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) to develop new and innovative credit card products.
The Best Snow Shovels for Clearing Driveways and Sidewalks
Shoveling snow can be a pain. These tools will make it easier.
Shares of electric-car charging network operator Blink Charging (NASDAQ: BLNK) collapsed today, falling 9.2% by 1:30 p.m. EST, and for reasons having nothing to do with its business. It was the company's CEO who seems to have shot Blink in the foot. Yesterday after close of trading, CEO Michael Farkas filed a Form SC 13D/A with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he advised that on Jan. 12 -- a date when Blink shares closed at more than $52 -- he sold 540,000 shares of common stock at just $41 each.
Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino has tested positive for Covid-19, the French champions said Friday, just two weeks after taking up his job.


Autumn in Vermont is a time of color and transformation. Leaves are burnished copper and gold, orchard apples redden in the sun, and bright yellow buses awaken to remind us that school has begun once again. For many families, autumn's transition means seeing their child leave the nest for college or that first "real job." With mingled tears and joy, we embrace these transitions. But after the boxes are packed and driven away, what do you do with that now empty bedroom?
If your family life is turning from one season to the next, why not imitate autumn and add color to your transformation? Whether you want to transform a bedroom into an office, library, craft room, or other space, we can assist you in everything from repaints to full renovations. You can rely on our experienced paint crews and carpenters to repurpose those unused spaces and help your home give you its full potential.
Have you always wanted to start your own home business? When working from home, it's important to have dedicated work space.
Is your book collection randomly spread throughout your house? If you have an unused room, why not have your own personal library? Our color consultants can help you find the best colors for a warm, inviting reading nook and our carpenters can build you customized shelves to take full advantage of the room.
Perhaps you would like a dedicated craft room for all your artistic endeavors? Or maybe you require a recreation room for that pool table you always wanted but, until now, lacked the room?
With all of your hobbies and interests, there is no reason for an empty nest to stay empty. Your home is yearning to live up to its full potential and every unused room is a blank canvas. Regardless of how you wish to use your new-found space, Luxbrush can help you bring your vision to light.