As a melee assassin, the Butcher has eye watering damage, powerful sustain and an awesome charge for engaging in fights. In many ways he plays similarly to Thrall, and as one of my favourite Heroes in Heroes of the Storm, The Butcher often surpasses his Orc counterpart in certain compositions. With two powerful Heroic abilities and unrivalled healing (Butcher's Brand is amazing), he's incredibly strong.
Like many melee assassins, The Butcher requires clever play as diving too deep, too early, will see him die quickly. Despite that, if you can master your positioning and when to dive the enemy - whether the front or back line - he's more than capable of carrying you and your team to the finish line.
The only drawback to The Butcher is the need to obtain meat stacks in order to maximize his damage. Failure to participate in team fights, or dying too much, will see his damage potential severely limited. Effective rotations, joining in with fights to secure kills, while roaming effectively can ensure The Butcher gets up to speed incredibly quickly.
Amazing damage thanks to his trait.
Fresh Meat (Trait) - Fresh Meat allows The Butcher to increase his attack damage for every droplet of blood he collects. As a quest talent, the aim over the course of a match is to obtain 200 stacks of Fresh Meat. Once you have, you'll gain 25% increased attack speed and then have the opportunity to continue to collect Fresh Meat from fallen Heroes. What's particularly interesting about this trait is that minions provide very little (only 1 stack each), while enemy Heroes provide 25. Unsurprisingly, the incentive is on The Butcher to kill enemy players in order to complete his Trait quickly, before then further increasing your "capped" Fresh Meat past 200. With 10 Fresh Meat lost on every death, you don't want to die often. Fortunately, once you've completed your quest, you won't lose any more meat on death.
Hamstring (Q) – This is your primary ability, as well as your source of waveclear. Due to the relatively low mana cost and very low cooldown, you shouldn't be afraid to spam Hamstring. It's worth noting however that it does function as a reset on your basic attack, meaning your maximum damage will come by using this ability right after a basic attack. Of course, this can be easier said than done sometimes, so don't go too far out of your way to attempt this.
Butcher's Brand (W) – As your only form of sustain/survivability, proper use of Butcher's Brand is extremely important. You can use it on a minion to heal up in lane, but during team fights, it's critical to choose your target carefully. Make sure you're applying the Brand to an enemy Hero that doesn't have an easy way to escape, or a way to prevent you from getting to them. This will ensure you can stay healthy during the fight and continued attacks against the same target refresh its duration. If you can, try not to use Butcher's Brand straight away as you'll gain little benefit from topping up a full health bar. If possible, use it when you expect to be placed under pressure so that you can begin to heal early.
Ruthless Onslaught (E) – This is your engage tool, and it's undoubtedly a powerful one. If you're using it during a team fight, make sure your allies are going in with you, or else you'll quickly be focused down. Given that this is a targeted ability, and you're Unstoppable while charging, there's nothing that can prevent you from reaching your target. Just watch how the game paths you, as it will always choose the shortest distance. If the enemy blinks away, or anything else happens that makes the pathing unfavorable, be ready to press E again to cancel the ability. It's also worth noting that any enemy players you choose to Onslaught to have an indicator above their heads. This usually allows for the enemy team to prepare some counterplay.
Lamb to the Slaughter (R) – If there is a single priority target on the enemy team that your team absolutely has to get to, Lamb to the Slaughter can be an excellent choice. When attached, the hitching post will completely immobilize your target for 3 seconds (while silencing them!). Not only is the duration enormous, but it pretty much gaurentees that whoever you catch is going to die. Used on a Support Hero, it can turn any fight instantly. The only downside to Lamb to the Slaughter is the fact it has a slight delay before erupting from the ground (1 second), and players can move while tethered (only slightly). This does mean that even if you do grab a player, others can still stand between you and them.
Furnace Blast (R) – If you're able to land it, the damage of this Heroic is absolutely massive. That said, the trick is actually hitting multiple targets with it due to the 3 second delay. Being able to use it in conjunction with Ruthless Onslaught can help with that, as can charging up before blinking in with Bolt of the Storm (if you choose to go with that Talent.) If you choose Furnace Blast over Lamb to the Slaughter, try to avoid team fighting when it's on cooldown, as a lot of your power will be tied to this choice of Heroic abilities. Be sure that you engage an enemy with Onslaught and only near the point of impact - taking account of the 3 second cast time - should you cast Furnace Blast.
Against a basic attack heavy composition, Block is invaluable. Reducing damage from 2 basic attacks by 75%, it will save your life and significantly improve your sustain in any team fight.
Variable: Invigoration is a good alternative if you need sustain and poke, rather than mitigation. The mana return (50% of the cost) if you hit a Hero, combined with a 1 second cooldown reduction, works well on Battlegrounds such as Cursed Hollow where you need to constantly disrupt.
The Butcher relies almost entirely on Ruthless Onslaught so having its cooldown reduced by 33% upon impact with a target allows you to use it again after a very short space of time. Unrelenting Pursuit also allows you to switching targets quickly during a team fight due to it reducing the skill cooldown so much.
Insatiable Blade increases The Butchers movement speed when facing an enemy affected by the brand. It provides some much needed mobility (25% movement speed) when hunting players down and a ridiculous amount of sustain.
Variable: The Butcher is very squishy and once he dives into combat, he's often the first target players will seek to kill. Gaining a Spell Shield that reduces all incoming ability damage by 50% for 2.5 seconds, upon impact of Onslaught, and thanks to Meat Shield, is amazing. It's huge survivability and combined with Block, allows you to withstand lots of damage.
Lamb to the Slaughter is an amazing Heroic simply because it locks down a single target for 3 seconds, while silencing them. Not only can The Butcher pretty much gaurentee a kill from it, but if placed well you can take down the enemies Support in an instant.
The Butcher is all about basic attacks, so gaining a 15% increase on your next three after using Hamstring is huge. If you're maximum meat stacks and when level 20 (thank you, Nexus Blades!) you deal so much damage. Brutal Strike is amazing.
Variable: Taking Savage Charge is a good alternative as it allows you to make maximum use of Ruthless Onslaught and its reduced cooldown. Dealing damage based on someones maximum health is amazing, even more so when it's 10%.
Due to how CC heavy some enemy Heroes are (Uther/Brightwing/Jaina) taking Enraged is an excellent way of further increasing your survivability. Although it only activates at 50% health, it triggers fairly often to the point where you'll have 15% damage mitigation at almost every team fight. The 40% attack speed bonus also makes you absolutely terrifying.
Nexus Blades provides s a 20% boost to your damage output and your basic attacks slow targets that you hit. I've been hitting players for over 600 per basic attack thanks to this talent and it's especially eye-watering with Blood Frenzy.
Variable: It's likely you'll often be focused as The Butcher so Bolt of the Storm is a brilliant variable for escaping when you're under pressure.
These Hero Threat Levels (1 being lowest threat and 10 being highest threat) are to help you determine which enemy Heroes can give you a headache. For the Heroes listed here, take extra care as they're particularly dangerous for The Butcher.
Brightwing: Her Polymorph, Iceblock and Emerald Wind can ensure she locks you down easily in team fights. Of course she'll never kill you, but she massively neuters your potential.
Jaina: Although you can Ruthless Onslaught onto her, she'll quickly slow you and use Blizzard on herself. If she has Ring of Frost, she'll use that too (in an emergency). The best you can do is try to burst her as quickly as possible, with Lamb to the Slaughter if possible.
Kael'Thas: Gravity Lapse, eye watering damage and Pyroblast can be a real headache for The Butcher. Fortunately his Gravity Lapse doesn't last long and if you have Butcher's Brand, you can catch up to him.
Tychus: His grenade can knock you back, he deals loads of damage from his Trait and his mobility from Overkill can cause you real problems.
Tracer: You can't use Ruthless Onslaught against her due to her Blink and Recall while she moves so quickly you'll never - ever - get near her. She's impossible to fight against as Butcher.
This list of tips and tricks are just a handful of things we think will help your The Butcher play. We'll continue to add to the list as required and if you have any tips you'd like to share, let us know in the comments below and we'll place them here.
1. It's imperative that you maximize your Trait as quickly as possible. 200 stacks of Fresh Meat might sound a lot, but it's only 8 hero kills. It really doesn't take very long if you join in on every team fight, right from the start.
2. As noted above, don't just stay in one lane. Roam from the moment the match starts. This'll allow you to secure kills and Fresh Meat from minion waves for super-quick completion of your Trait.
3. ALWAYS be in team-fights. Even if you're low health, hang back and if your team does secure a kill, waltz in and pick-up the free 25 stacks of Fresh Meat.
4. If you die, head straight back to lane to recover your 10 lost Fresh Meat, but still prioritize team fighting (you may end up earning more Fresh Meat than you lost).
5. When you've completed your Trait, you still need to be joining every team fight. Enemy Heroes still drop Fresh Meat when they die, allowing you to stack infinitely past the 200 barrier.
6. Hamstring has a short range, but it's your best and only form of poke. Use it to soften a minion wave, disrupt an Objective or to slow enemies when you're retreating.
7. Use of Hamstring will cause The Butcher to immediately use a basic attack. This allows for an instant one-two punch of Hamstring > Basic Attack that no hero can avoid if you're in range.
8. Butcher's Brand provides incredible sustain 1 on 1 and with the exception of Arthas, allows you to go toe to toe with just about any Hero as long as you can land your Basic Attacks.
9. Clever players will allow The Butcher, when fighting 1 on 1, to use Butcher's Brand on them before walking backwards. This can result in you missing out on healing a large portion of your health. Only use Butcher's Brand against a target you can gaurentee multiple hits on (even if that's a Warrior that's next to you, rather than a high value target).
10. Remember that basic attacks against a Branded Hero heals The Butcher for double (where as it's a normal amount against minions or mercs).
11. Onslaught can be used against minions - this can sometimes save your life as you can cast it on a minion to zip past enemies that might be coming to attack you.
12. Onslaught has a clear "tell". Only use it when diving will likely result in a kill. If you dive too early, too deep, you'll die.
13. Onslaught makes The Butcher Unstoppable. If you're rooted, use Onslaught to free yourself.
14. Remember that when you use Onslaught, The Butcher not only runs incredibly fast but also paths the shorted route to the target. If that route doesn't look safe, or will send you the wrong way, quickly cancel the skill again by pressing E.
15. Try to position yourself so that you can use Onslaught to reach a squishy target during a team fight. Be sure that once you reach that target, you've got a clear exit and are in range of your healer.
16. You have no reliable escape as The Butcher. Key to survival is through talent or only using Onslaught when you know a fight will go in your favor.
17. The Butcher is amazing at taking camps, even early game, because of Butcher's Brand. Make use of this potential.
18. Drafting The Butcher is a very bad idea vs a stun heavy or mobile team. Try to pick him late in the draft.
19. When using Lamb to the Slaughter, use it on a high value player. It will always grab the nearest Hero to the post itself. Aim while charging with Onslaught.
20. Despite being Silenced, players can still move when locked down by Lamb to the Slaughter. Use Hamstring to slow their movement while they're trapped.


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The Casualties – amerykańska grupa punkowa z Nowego Jorku, założona w 1990 r.

Grupa opisuje swoją muzykę jako "hardcore punk rock, który może powstać tylko w Nowym Jorku".

Zespół deklaruje przywiązanie do pierwotnych idei muzyki punk, ale przez część krytyków oceniane jest to jako wtórnie wykorzystywanie utartych schematów. Muzycy wyjaśniają, że celowo odwołują się w warstwie muzycznej, przekazu światopoglądowego i swojego wizerunku scenicznego do klasycznego obrazu ruchu punk ponieważ "w świecie, w którym za punk uznaje się takich wykonawców jak Avril Lavigne, czy Good Charlotte, warto przypomnieć ludziom na czym to naprawdę polega".

Zespół siedmiokrotnie wystąpił w Polsce: 16 maja 2004 w Łodzi w klubie "Dekompresja" zagrał wspólnie z grupami Abaddon i Bulbulators, 14 stycznia 2007 w Gdyni w klubie "Ucho" – ten koncert odbył się w ramach trasy "Under Attack" European Tour, oraz 10 stycznia 2010 we Wrocławiu w klubie "Alibi". 21 listopada 2012 zespół zagrał koncert w Krakowie w klubie "Kwadrat". W 2015 zagrali dwa koncerty w Polsce; 5 października w warszawskiej ''Progresji'' i 6 października w klubie ''Alibi'', który znajduje się we Wrocławiu. W roku 2019 zespół wystąpił w dniu 1 sierpnia na małej scenie festiwalu Pol'and'Rock Festival (dawniej Przystanek Woodstock).

Skład
Aktualnie zespół tworzą:
 David Rodriguez – wokalista (od 2017)
 Rick Lopez – gitara basowa (od 1999)
 Jake Kolatis – gitara prowadząca (od 1993)
 Marc "Meggers" Eggers – perkusja (od 1995)

Z zespołem występowali również:
 Jorge Herrera – wokalista (1990–2017)
Colin – wokalista (1990–1994)
 Hank – gitara basowa (1990–1992)
 Fred – gitara prowadząca (1992–1993)
 Marie – gitara basowa (1992–1993)
 Mike – gitara basowa (1993–1997)
 Jon – gitara basowa (1997–1999)
 Yureesh – perkusja (1990–1994)
 Shawn – perkusja (1993–1994)
 Mehdi – gitara basowa (1999)

Dyskografia
Albumy studyjne:
 1997 For The Punx
 1998 Underground Army
 2000 Stay Out Of Order
 2001 The Early Years: 1990–1995
 2001 Die Hards
 2004 On The Front Line
 2005 En La Lina De En Frente
 2006 Under Attack
 2007 Made in N.Y.C.
 2009 We Are All We Have
 2012 Resistance
 2016 Chaos Sound
EPki:
 1992 40 Oz. Casualty
 1993 Drinking Is Our Way Of Life
 2000 Who's In Control?

Linki zewnętrzne
 Oficjalna strona zespołu

Przypisy

Casualties, The

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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HomePoliticsQuestionnaire Response from Ian Gilyeat
Questionnaire Response from Ian Gilyeat
Ian Gilyeat, running as an Independent candidate for the US Senate seat from Arizona, has provided the Unofficial View with his answers to our questionnaire. Thank you, Mr. Gilyeat.
Q: What is your plan to secure the US / Mexico border?
Answer: My plan is the same one that has existed since the country was founded – the Federal Government has an obligation to protect the property, lives and individual freedom of its citizens.
As a U.S. Senator my job would be to persuade other Senators, Congressman and the President to fulfill this responsibility – one that has been abdicated today. In order to fulfill the obligation to protect our citizens a military force must be deployed across the southern and northern borders.
In the absence of Federal action, each State retains the right and obligation to protect its own citizens. This is not a question about immigration policy it is a question of national security and states security. The Governor of Arizona and other state Governor's have an obligation to protect their citizens and they have a duty to "provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union…and repel Invasions". This militia is separate from the National Guard and must be under authority and direction of the Governor.
If the Federal Government won't defend its citizens then Arizona can organize and deploy their own military force, under direction of the Governor in order to repel invasions.
The Senate has an obligation to represent the States. If the Governor of Arizona organizes and deploys a military force along the southern border I will defend and support her/his Constitutional right to do so.
For more detail see On Immigration
Q: In your opinion, what is needed to stimulate the economy?
Answer: The obligation to stimulate the economy rests with each individual and business. It is not the responsibility of the Government to create jobs. In order to stimulate the economy we must do the following:
Cut spending
Cut regulations
Simplify and cut taxes
Cut the money supply, strengthen the dollar and reestablish the gold standard
Cut the national debt and lower the national debt limit
Cut artificially inflated labor costs
Repeal "ObamaCare" and establish free market competition in healthcare
Reestablish legal immigration
Restore States powers by repealing the 17th Amendment
For more detail see: here
Q: Many polls show that 50-60% of Americans are unhappy with the passage of the health care bill last March. If given the opportunity, would you vote to have it repealed?
Answer: Yes – I am in favor of repealing the health care bill commonly known as "ObamaCare".
Q: What does the phrase "life, (personal) liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" mean to you?
Answer: It means I am individually and personally responsible for me. I am accountable to God for my actions. I have an opportunity and an obligation to care for my family, friends and neighbors according to the dictates of my own conscience. I can worship how, where or what I may. I have the right to protect my life, my property and my individual freedom.
It means I live in a country with a written Constitution that guarantees to me and all other citizens these basic God given rights to pursue life, liberty and happiness in a manner of my own making.
Q: According to the US Constitution, powers not explicitly delegated to the Federal Government by that document are reserved to the States or to the People. How deeply should the Federal Government be involved in the lives of individual Americans?
Answer: The Constitution is clear – the enumerated powers of the Federal Government are limited.
We are far from the path the Founding Fathers envisioned when the Constitution was created. We are a collection of States united to insure domestic tranquility, common defense, and to secure the blessings of liberty. Very simply – the Federal Government should have limited involvement in our lives.
Q: If elected in November, what proposed legislation should we the public look for from you?
Answer: If elected, my objective is less government not more. You should expect me to say no on more government and to submit bills that repeal legislation, cut expenses and eliminate programs.
Q: In your opinion, what is the most critical issue facing our country today?
Answer: Unprincipled, self-serving government leaders. We have too many representatives that do not understand the Constitution, fail to abide by its principles and are eager to line their own pockets through legalized plunder.
Thank you, very much, Mr. Gilyeat for your time and your detailed responses. Mr. Gilyeat's answers are unaltered and are presented as we received them, apart from a typo fix and some added html formatting for presentation in this venue.
You can learn more about Ian Gilyeat and read more of his views at electiangilyeat.com
Responses from other candidates may still come in. Subscribe to our RSS Feed to be notified when they are posted.
Tags:Arizona Senate Race, Ian Gilyeat, Illigal Immigration, independent candidates, Obama Care, US deficit, Where are the jobs
A Gun to a Knife Fight
Briar Patch
Seriously "The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. The amendment supersedes Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which Senators were elected by state legislatures. It also alters the procedure for filling vacancies in the Senate, to be consistent with the method of election. It was adopted on April 8, 1913."
So who is going to fill them then those who are serving the legislature already? A great old boys network coming back – I think NOT
Nah. Local and state aren't nearly as hrfmaul. Just a few Blue states are going to go bankrupt. Just a few cities. Texas, for instance, has to have a semi-balanced budget every year. (They still do lots and lots of hrfmaul stuff, but it's like comparing Chairman Mao to, say, Martha Stewart.)I really think the low-hanging fruit is on the Fed's tree.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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A Collective Term For Animals In The Environment Is Called Creating a Culture of Solidarity, Encounter and Relationship In Laudato Si by Pope Francis
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Creating a Culture of Solidarity, Encounter and Relationship In Laudato Si by Pope Francis
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In Aathi, Gift of Green, writer Sara Joseph says, "An unprecedented environmental awareness is rising in our midst today. Pro environmental awareness sponsored in particular by feminist and Dalit activist groups and many others… now challenge us to engage with environmental issues urgently"( Joseph 5). The unchecked human invasion over nature in the name of development has made the green planet sapless. "Greenness", the symbol of spontaneity of life is far disappearing as the human species adds more comfort to their lives, thus leaving other species to suffer the ramifications. The flawed structure of economic advancement and perverted models of development have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment.
It is true that authentic human development has a moral character. The environmental problems are indeed a result of unchecked human activity. So concerning the global environmental deterioration, attention has to be paid to the ethical spiritual roots of environmental problems, which require that we look for solutions not only in technology but a change in the attitude of humanity; otherwise it would be like treating the symptoms when the far more urgent ailments are not diagnosed.
Concerning the ethical spiritual roots of environmentalism, the element of religion has a lead role. So instead of dealing with ecological crisis in the language of biology and economics, which is the secular and scientific approach, there is the need of a spiritual language with a definite moral tone."The universal interconnectedness and independence of all phenomena and the intrinsically dynamic nature of reality are recurrent in the mystical thought of many different religious traditions"(Capra 330). Prominent religions that are caught up in the traditional dogma of anthropocentrism have been apathetic to the spirituality of environmentalism.
The objective of this study is to find the changing course of Catholic Church in its praxis of environmental discourse with the publishing of Laudati Si, "Praise be to you", an encyclical by Pope Francis, the head of Catholic Church, which is the prominent section of the christianfold. The encyclical letter which is part of the church's social teaching, provides a concrete foundation for the ethical and spiritual aspects of the ecology and its preservation. Francis in his second encyclical letter underlines the need for an ecospirituality with its roots firm on religious environmentalism. Francis in Laudato Si, when lamenting pollution, climate change and an overall decline in "culture of life" is blowing a clarion call for 'the greening of the religion". Given the universal nature of our common home, Francis makes it clear that the encyclical is addressed to not only members of the Church but is a vehicle to "enter into dialogue" with all people who are "united by the same concern" [L S 3, 7].
The document looks to St. Francis of Assisi and St. Bonaventure, as well as St. Thomas Aquinas, but also to Eastern Christian traditions. It even quotes a Sufi Mystic. Twentieth-century thinkers Teilhard de Chardin and Romano Guardini deserve special mention. The reader is also struck by the many references to secular documents such as the Rio Declaration from 1992 and the 2000 Earth Charter are referred to as well. "Francis through his ecosophia unites and converges the knowledge spheres of the religious and secular for a constructive environmentalism"(Naluparayil 29)
The prominent religion of the western world, Christianity, in the course of its time has incorporated many strains of anthropocentrism. Though anthropocentric theorization is not intrinsic to Christian theology, theological discourse on man and nature unfortunately progressed in the theory of dominion; dominance of men over nature that took cues from the famous dominion passage in the book of the Genesis. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it, and hold sway over the fish of the sea and foul of the heavens and every beast that crawls upon the earth".
Passages from the bible such as these were taken of the context and subjected to isolated interpretation by the propagators of "human dominance" to establish their view. Also in Genesis it is seen that man named all the animals, thus establishing his dominance over them. So many prominent figures from the western scholarship believed that God planned and created everything explicitly for Man's benefit and rule: no item in the physical creation had any purpose but to serve man's interests.
But this "dominance" was never meant to be tyrannical. The phrase "subdue the Earth" (means to destroy ) is by no means plausible inference to unleash powers of destruction. There are instances in history wherein the verses had been misread and distorted, rather than assimilating the spirit of what they were supposed to mean. Nonetheless, in creation narrative, God pronounces the result of each day's work as "good" even before Man is created. The correct understanding of this dominance is given in Genesis 2:15, which says Adam and Eve were put into the Garden "to dress and keep it".
There are instances in which the huge burden of guilt, regarding environmental destruction is put solely on religion. In human history, the marriage of scientific theory and technology has been the dogma of man's mastery over nature. To address the environmental conservation theorists of deep ecology do not identify scientific reparations as the absolute cure, but the remedy must also be essentially religious.
It is here that "Laudato Si" gains prominence, because it blows the clarion call to the occidental realization of Christian scholarship to incorporate the theology of nature. It is infact an urge from Francis to the Christian consciousness of the time for a collaboration movement towards conservation of nature. The present context of the ecological crisis and the concomitant bio-geological change demands an urgent, comprehensive response in order to restore the integral functioning of the Earth's processes. Since the ecological crisis is deeply rooted in a mechanistic and reductionist worldview and a spirituality of alienation from the Earth, Laudato Si attempts to develop a functional and ecological spirituality.
Deep Ecologist Marti Kheel distinguishes between anthropocentrism and androcentrism: "The anthropocentric worldview perceives humans as the centre or apex of the natural world, the androcentric analysis suggest that this worldview is unique to men"(Kheel129). It is this anthropocentric theory established by androcentrism that Francis challenges in Laudato Si. The encyclical thus becomes a direct attack on the western notions of anthropocentrism, because in the western discourses on humanity and nature, humanity given title position has subdued nature.
It is a sad irony that the destruction of the natural world appears to be proceeding apace with the construction of moral theories. Unable to trust or draw upon a felt sense of connection most environmental theorists endorse reason as the sole guide in our dealings with the natural world. Carol P. Christ writes " I share the conviction that the crisis that threatens the destruction of the Earth is not only social, political, economic and technological, but is at root spiritual."
On religion transforming into spirituality, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam writes,
"Religion has two components-theology and spirituality. Even though Theology is unique to all religions, the spiritual component is unique to every religion, the spiritual component spreads the value to be inculcated by human beings for promoting a good human life and welfare of the society, while pursuing the material life". (34)
"Deep ecological awareness seems to provide the ideal philosophical and spiritual basis for an ecological lifestyle and for environmental activism"(Capra 141).Therefore the preservation of the Earth requires a profound shift in consciousness.: formulation of a spiritual view that revere the profound connection of all beings in the web of life and a rethinking of the relation of both humanity and divinity to nature. This is what Laudato Si aims at. Here an attempt is made to explore some of the aspects of ecospirituality discussed in the encyclical letter.
In this article the term "ecosophy" is used in its broadest sense, to describe current biocentrist attempts to revise our relationship to the environment, and to modify our current construction of the environment. In short, "ecosophy" describes an ecologically informed approach to nature and literature, an approach which questions the hegemony of anthropocentric constructions of environment. Ecosophical thinking has already begun to exert an influence upon the way literary texts are created, interpreted, and taught. Ecosophical critiques of the humanities' relative unresponsiveness to environmental issues are being amplified, and there is a greater acknowledgment of the need for environmental education throughout the humanities.
Laudato Si is giving a new outline for the ecosophy in the frame of theosophy. This ecosophy is in no way a discourse on the scholastic theological interpretations, but a proposition of theosophy as against platonic dualism and medieval Christian dualism. It is after a comprehensive introduction, the encyclical divides into six chapters, each examining different aspects of the rupture between humans and creation and the prospects for healing this relationship.
The first chapter, "What Is Happening to Our Common Home", looks at the various symptoms of environmental degradation. The impacts of climate change are considered alongside issues of the depletion of freshwater and loss of biodiversity. There is no substantial discussion of the science of global warming; instead, it simply points to the overwhelming consensus concerning the negative impact of carbon-intensive economies on the natural world and human life: "Caring for ecosystems demands farsightedness, since no one looking for quick and easy profit is truly interested in their preservation" [36].
The encyclical firmly posits that a truly ecological approach is also inherently social – an approach that simultaneously hears the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. The social and environmental impacts of mining are cited as a prime example of this. In many places within the text, Francis lauds the achievements of the environmental movement, while at the same time, he critiques elements within it. He forthrightly dismisses the idea that population growth is to blame for environmental damage; such a suggestion is often a way of refusing to reduce overconsumption by the affluent. Later on, the encyclical states that abortion can never be viewed as a justification for the protection of nature.
The second chapter, "The Gospel of Creation", considers the world the way that God intended it. The chapter surveys the rich scriptural traditions to show that there is no biblical justification for "a tyrannical anthropocentrism unconcerned for other creatures." [68]. Likewise, there is no room for misanthropic versions of environmentalism since reverence for nature is only authentic if we have compassion for fellow humans. A person who is truly concerned about the trafficking of endangered species is automatically concerned with the trafficking of humans.
The third chapter, "The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis", examines the twin notions of what it calls the "technocratic paradigm" and a "modern anthropocentrism" borne out of a view that sees nature as a mere given, devoid of any spiritual or transcendental value. These notions have led to the misplaced ideas that the earth's resources are infinite and that economic growth and technology alone can solve global hunger and poverty. In reality, however, a purely materialistic view of reality has not only resulted in disregard for the environment, but also undermined the worth of a human life, especially those forms viewed as having little or no utility – human embryos, the poor, or people with disabilities.
At the heart of consumerist and profit-driven economic ideologies is a wrong-footed idea of dominion. The result is exploitation, and a throwaway attitude towards nature and human life itself. The encyclical calls for a bold cultural revolution in our attitude to development and progress. It puts it rather bluntly: "Nobody is suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow down and look at reality in a different way, to appropriate the positive and sustainable progress which has been made, but also to recover the values and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of grandeur." [114].
In the fourth chapter, "Integral Ecology", the encyclical charts a path to recapture awareness of the interconnectedness of creation. To do so, it is essential to appreciate the impact of environmental degradation on "cultural ecology", such as those social networks and ways of life which are bound up with the environment in which communities are placed. The experience of indigenous peoples is specifically referred to in this regard.
The fifth chapter, "Lines of Approach and Action", sets out various international collective actions needed. It highlights the imperative to switch from fossil fuels to renewables, with the use of government subsidies where appropriate. It identifies the need for international agreements and legislation not only in relation to climate change but also biodiversity and the oceans. Carbon credits are criticized as "an expedient which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors." [171].
The sixth chapter, "Ecological Education and Spirituality", shifts attention to the individual believer, families and communities, and invites them to make a difference in small but tangible ways. Consumer choices, the cultivation of ecological virtues such as reducing wastefulness, and environmental education for the young are explained as practical steps leading to a deeper, spiritual "ecological conversion" through which the follower of Christ recognizes the true worth of all created entities. The statement "God created the world, writing into it an order and a dynamism that human beings have no right to ignore" [221] stands in the hallowed natural law tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas that every creature has in its nature an end, a telos, which humans should respect and honor. The intrinsic value of non-humans is noted when the encyclical states that the "ultimate purpose of other creatures is not to be found in us" but rather in the Risen Christ who embraces all things [83].
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#Creating #Culture #Solidarity #Encounter #Relationship #Laudato #Pope #Francis
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The unit of capacitance in the meter-kilogram-second system equal to the capacitance of a capacitor having an equal and opposite charge of 1 coulomb on each plate and a potential difference of 1 volt between the plates. See Table at measurement.
A unit used to measure electric capacitance. A capacitor in which a charge of one coulomb can produce a difference of one volt between its two storage plates has a capacitance of one farad.
A unit of capacitance. A conductor has a capacitance of one farad if a charge of one coulomb changes its potential by one volt.
Organisee a l'auditorium Aissa-Messaoudi de la radio algerienne, dans le cadre de la celebration du dix-huitieme anniversaire de la creation de la radio culturelle, une rencontre sur l'importance des memoires dans l'ecriture de l'Histoire a permis, a Mohand-Arezki Ferad, historien, d'intervenir autour de la naissance, du role et de l'importance des memoires dans l'ecriture de l'Histoire.
The mosque in the Vazrozhdentsi quarter in Kardzhali will be the most expensive public building in the entire district, the Trud daily reported citing Ferad Said, a member of the mosque board in the southern city.
Black Belt (juniors): 1 Elyas Yasine, Mohammed Janahi, 3 Ferad Yasine & Ali Mansor.


text:
Q: Concavity/ Convexity of power means function? Let $a_i > 0$ forall $1 \leq i \leq n$ and let $M(x) :=  \big(\frac{\sum_{i = 1}^n a_i^x}{n} \big)^{\frac{1}{x}}$ be the power means function. It is well known that the power means function is non-decreasing.
I am interested in the concavity properties of $M(x)$ but checking if $M''(x) \geq 0$ seems to be too difficult.
I was able to compute $M''(x)$. Let $M(x) = f(x)^{\frac{1}{x}}$ where $f(x) = \frac{\sum_{i=1}^n a_i^x}{n}$. Then I was able to find:
$$
\frac{M''(x) f^2(x)}{\big(\frac{M(x)}{x^4} \big)} = (xff' - f \ln f)^2 + x^3(ff'' - f'^2) - 2x(xff' - f^2 \ln f)
 $$
where $'$ denotes derivative and number denotes powers. Checking the sign of $M''(x)$ is equivalent to the checking the sign of the RHS. This terms seem too hard to check for positivity. Can anyone help? I know for a fact that $M(x)$ is convex and concave on different intervals, but I can't find these intervals. Can anyone help?

A: All this is complicated.

Too complicated $-$ consider alone $M''(x)=\ldots\;$
And paired with the resulting nescience, this excludes a canonical answer.
It is known that

*

*if $n=2$ and $a_1\neq a_2$, then $M(x)$ possesses one inflection point (not necessarily at $x=0$). On the left of it, $M(x)$ is convex. And concave to the right of it.
See Nam & Minh: "Proof for a Conjecture on General means"
(J of Inequalities in Pure & Applied Math., Vol. 9, 2008)

*if $n=3$, then more inflection points may pop up.
A concrete instance having three inflection points (albeit in the weighted context) was proposed by Grant Keady , cf the first paragraph on page 2 of "Conjecture on General means"
(J of Inequalities in Pure & Applied Math., Vol. 7, 2006).

The questions are as intriguing as old, you may also
read H. Shniad, published 73 years ago
(Bulletin Amer. Math. Soc. 54, pp 770$-$776, 1948).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A large portion of today was spent project managing. There are 2 more people on board who will be helping with the 3D work down the line. I had to find some options to keep everything organized.
For the rest of the day, I conceptualized a giant sloth enemy.
I uploaded an earlier copy of picture elsewhere and got some good feedback. It looked like a fuzzy bear before, but I'm reworking parts of it to look more giant sloth-like. I'm not quite there yet, but it is an improvement.
Not much to say. Just a more detailed look at the second playable character for Dinosaurs with Guns.
First up, we have the Heavy. Again from Team Fortress 2, it just seemed like a the next natural model to sculpt after the Medic.
Second, I sketched out a concept for how the combo system might work in Dinosaurs with Guns. I want the player to be able to choose 2 swappable weapons and an explosive device to combo enemies for XP bonuses. For a bit of clarification, the dinosaur doing the attacking switched from a shotgun to a machine gun in panel G.
I've been trying to think of what I could possibly show for the work I did in code tonight, but since I didn't get a working build yet, there's nothing to see. This is all new to me , so it's taking a while. I guess you'll just have to take my word that I put a lot of time into getting a basic side scrolling camera system setup, and hope I get something visual tomorrow.
A prototype is simply a model in which something larger is based. Rapid prototyping in the art sense is producing as many ideas, drawings, models, etc as possible in a short amount of time. It's brainstorming with visuals. In the context of video games, prototyping is a small snippet of what a game has the potential to be and often contains as many of the key gameplay elements as time will allow. The average consumer's exposure to games is most often in the beta, and release stages. It is a rare occurrence when alpha builds are even presented. A prototype precedes all of these; it is an interactive concept.
Game development companies keep the consumer in the dark for most of production for a reason: things change frequently and drastically. Very few games end the same way they start. When a new idea is conceived, a small team (or sometimes multiple teams, depending on the size of the company) will spend a variable amount of time prototyping the overall feel of the game. They're usually not much to look at, as they're meant for internal eyes only.
Platinum Games, developers of Bayonetta released a video of what their over-the-top action game looked like after just 1 month of development.
It's very rough and only focuses on the gameplay. After many more months of work, the final product was a significantly improved visually, but you can see the core game was there from the beginning.
This is what I hope to accomplish with Dinosaurs with Guns. I'm going to be trying something rather drastic by releasing the game in its prototype stage to get some crucial feedback for my first stand-alone game effort. As a prototype, the game will not be refined. It will be playable, but the likelihood of graphical glitches, bugs in the gameplay and system incompatibility are strong, and I want to make this very clear now. This should, in no way, be viewed on the same level as a demo. Building games is very difficult and time consuming. As an artist, I will be putting a lot of my time into making the game look good. As an avid gamer, I will be ensuring the game plays well on top of looking good.
Independent developers and smaller companies can use prototype builds to sell their game to publishers and investors, somebody who will help pay for the development costs to release a full product, and I'm looking to do just that. I would like to bring Dinosaurs into full production down the line, but the success of the prototype will help determine the likelihood of that goal.
Expect me to iterate the prototype status for Dinosaurs again and again. It is by far the most crucial piece of information I can share to put the game on the correct playing field.
A more detailed design on the Tyrannosaurus character. I'm happy with the way this turned out, and it should be safe to start working on a model sheet to begin the process of converting him to 3D.
Some color/texture concepts for Distinctions.
Eh, I think I'm just going to post things as they get finished with a minimum update every Sunday for the duration Dinosaurs with Guns.
Here is the finished style sheet from yesterday.
I'll probably start working on some more detailed character designs and references tomorrow.
Some more progress on the style sheet from Wednesday. It's not finished yet, but it should be there tomorrow night. I'll start some more concept work over the course of the week and update it all next Sunday.
Also, I started putting together some information on the DWG project in the top navigation bar of this page. I'll update the project information as I go along.
Wooh. One more crunch week in the books. It's just unfortunate that this one ends in the middle of the week, so it feels like a bit of a fizzle. I got a lot done this week, regardless.
I usually work my day job fairly late on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so the time to crunch tonight is less than I would prefer. I have some progress on another style sheet for Dinosaurs with Guns. This one is a bit more action-oriented.
This is a pretty good start to how I want the first playable area to look.
Dinosaurs with Guns – Style Sheet.
A center design was picked, and now some variations on the outside gear.


My wife and I wanted something different. We decided that taking vacations to places that offer "amusements, attractions, and fun for the entire family" along with, perhaps, long lines, high prices, plenty of junk food, babies and buggies, is just not for us. We also feel that we have "been there and done that" in terms of rum-soaked "adult" beach resorts with lots of pop music and plump, pushy party animals. We've even been on cruises that felt like a combination of these two kinds of vacations. For our most recent adventure, we were looking for a healthy, eco-friendly alternative- a way to stay in shape and hone a skill, and also maybe a chance to get some continuing education in our fields. Since we love to travel to distant places but hate having to turn right around and come back, and we had been eyeing Costa Rica, we decided to do an "immersion" trip that would last a lot longer and really give us a taste of that country. And since my wife is a Massage Therapist and I'm a Landscape Architect, and we've both been enjoying Yoga for a while, we decided that a Yoga-teacher training retreat at an "Eco-Resort" was just the thing for us.
What is it? Let's assume you've heard of Yoga, the meditative mind-body discipline and gentle exercise/stretching program that originated in India and has been around for over a thousand years. If you are new to Yoga, you might wish to experience an "immersion" training that will get you set you on a new and more consistent practice path. My wife and I had tried a variety of classes and videos- each had a different focus and we did not feel that we were learning any particular system, so we wanted to get more settled on one. If you have been practicing Yoga for a while, you might simply be ready to take your personal practice to a much higher level by learning a lot more about the anatomy and philosophy of Yoga, in addition to many new poses. If you are already teaching Yoga to others, you might wish to add value to your classes by bringing in new ideas, new poses, and new information for your students.
What better way to immerse yourself in a healthful, relaxing exercise program, pick up a new skill, and get away from it all for a long tropical vacation than to commit to a four-week yoga teacher certification class in a beautiful, eco-friendly place like the Central American country of Costa Rica? You already know that Costa Rica is one of the premier vacation destinations in the world, with a warm climate, glorious golden sand beaches, friendly people, lush jungle preserves, plentiful wildlife, and a stable democracy. But did you know that Costa Rica has high-end resorts that cater to the health-conscious traveler with gourmet, organic meals and a variety of fitness programs?
Some of these resorts offer Yoga classes, but one, Anamaya Eco-Resort and Conference Center, high on a cliff overlooking Montezuma, a little town at the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast, offers several unusual types of retreats. Among these are Surfing, Aerial Acrobatics, Thai Massage and Yoga Teacher Training, ranging from one to several weeks in length. You don't have to take any classes at Anamaya- if rooms are available, you can reserve for a night or a week, and relax by the pool overlooking the Pacific. However, for the Yoga teacher training, the entire resort is booked for the class and the entire experience is focused on Yoga. Anamaya's Yoga retreats are taught by world-class teachers from all over the globe, and offer a variety of specialized programs for students of Yoga. The 200-hour teacher training program qualifies students for a Yoga Alliance teaching certificate.
Anamaya is a lovely resort. The food is wonderful- fresh high-quality Costa Rican coffee at breakfast, organic, locally-grown, chef-prepared gourmet meals three times a day, fresh local fruit snacks twice daily, filtered water and a selection of organic teas available anytime. The clean, modern, beautifully-decorated accommodations are comfortable and charming, ranging from individual air-conditioned cabinas with decks and bathrooms, to dorm-style rooms with multiple beds and shared bath. These spaces are laid out on a four acre site and arrayed down the steep hillside, with twisting steps and gravel paths radiating from the main building situated at the center of the hilltop. The views from every window, porch, deck and walkway are spectacular, and the landscaping is a gorgeous profusion of tropical plants mixed with kitchen herb gardens and fruit trees. The main building is a large, high-ceilinged house with huge windows, marble floored dining room and kitchenette, a "living room" with little private sitting spaces, a ground-floor bathroom with outdoor shower under a spreading hibiscus, and upstairs dorm rooms. Most of the rooms look out onto the huge covered yoga deck facing the ocean. The tiled zero-edge pool is to one side of the deck, with a waterfall spilling from the hot-tub above it. The four-person infrared dry sauna is below the pool, with its own deck. There is another deck with table and chairs outside and a few steps away from the dining space, situated on top of the nearest cabina. Out front and to one side of the tree-shaded arrival area is the little office building, and off in another direction are more cabinas with their own porches and decks- each one in a different style.
The resort's kitchen, laundry, and other service facilities, as well as a separate massage space with its own deck, are located beneath the office and a couple of the nearest cabinas. Additional seating nooks, hammocks, and private spaces are scattered around the gardens, and along the access drive is the resort's maintenance shop. The staff at Anamaya include chefs, cooks, dining room, cleaning, grounds maintenance and office personnel.
An eco-resort is an "eco-resort" because of its sustainable practices and policies toward life and the planet on which life depends. These practices include use of organic and locally-grown food, some of which is produced onsite without pesticides or herbicides, using reclaimed and recycled kitchen waste, and recaptured rain and wastewater. Other sustainable, or "green" practices include the non-chlorinated salt-water pools, using non-toxic cleaning products, limiting landscape maintenance and watering to a minimum, minimizing hard-surface pavements like concrete, instead using rain-pervious gravel drives and walks, and having no pets so that the local monkeys, coatis, armadillos and iguanas can roam freely around the grounds.
Excursions and activities available in Costa Rica include the well-known jungle preserve and zip-line canopy tours, scuba and snorkeling, surfing and beach-combing, horseback riding, and exploring canyons and climbing waterfalls. Waterfalls and zip-lines are a two-minute walk downhill from Anamaya, and the quaint town of Montezuma, where we went to sample local food and crafts such as artisanal leather and silver work, is just down the dirt road from the resort. We sampled the snorkeling and beach-combing, and those who tried the horseback riding and surfing excursions, and the tours of the local gardens and nature preserves, were thrilled with their choices. We also participated in a "karma" day beach clean-up where we hiked to a section of the beach and picked up the usual assortment of plastic litter for a couple of hours as a way of giving back to the community. Even this activity had its special aspect, as we enjoyed refreshing coconut water from freshly picked coconuts on the beach.
A full description of the resort, the local environment, all the lovely people we met, the daily routine, and all the beautiful sights and sounds we experienced in Costa Rica and at our resort would take many more pages, but a brief description of the Yoga Teacher Training experience might be in order. The classes included Philosophy of Yoga, Anatomy, Meditation, and Yoga Principles, plus a special section on Thai Massage. We spent hours each day in yoga workouts, learning the principles of muscular activation and joint support, correct postures and bodily alignments, and methodology of teaching Yoga to others. Much of our time was spent in actual practice teaching with partners, small groups, and the whole class, under the watchful eyes of our instructors. The instructors themselves, one from New York City and one from Copenhagen, Denmark, were highly experienced teachers who each has had their own practice for many years and has studied with many advanced yoga masters around the world. With a combination of skill and gentle compassion, they led us through vigorous workouts as well as meditations up to an hour in length, and demonstrated amazing flexibility and strength in advanced Yoga poses as well as the basics necessary to acquire these skills in our own practices. We also had various activities aimed at exploring our own experiences and personalities with the goal of developing an understanding of other people. As a group, we rapidly achieved a high level of trust and experienced an extraordinary level of personal bonding, which enabled us to work and live together for a month with virtually no friction or discomfort. This may have been the best part of the whole experience-gaining so many new friends from around the world despite language, cultural and age differences.
While such a retreat is obviously not for everybody, I would highly recommend this combination of healthy living, exercise, and learning to anyone who would like to experience a profound and intense personal growth and an amazing vacation in a very special part of the world in which we live.


text:
Pakistan bans Bollywood as Kashmir crisis escalates
PAKISTAN has escalated the growing crisis in Kashmir by banning Bollywood films from its cinemas and suspending a train service to India.
Islamabad's railways minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad declared the Friendship Express service suspended from today, making the announcement while passengers were waiting to board a train in Lahore.
The news comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed the region had been stripped of its autonomy to liberate it from 'terrorism and separatism' in a televised address to the nation today. 'Friends, I have full belief that we will be able to free Jammu and Kashmir from terrorism and separatism under this system,' Modi said. Indian authorities imposed a communications blackout on Kashmir for a fourth straight day today, stopping India's media from being able to report what is happening in the disputed region after the government revoked its special status.
The unprecedented clampdown is prompting criticism from an increasing number of Indian media organisations and senior editors, though some also support Modi's government - saying the curbs were important for national security.
Editors at newspapers and television stations say that in many cases it has been days since they have heard from their correspondents based in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir. They don't even know whether they are safe.
There is virtually no information coming out of most of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.
Journalists who are communicating in some way say they are only able to report from a very small part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, mainly a few blocks in the summer capital Srinigar. If they try and go outside that area they face layer upon layer of security checkpoints at which they are often turned back.
An adviser to Pakistani PM Imran Khan had proclaimed earlier 'no Indian cinema will be screened in any Pakistani cinema. Drama, films and Indian content of this kind will be completely banned in Pakistan.'
Pakistan has already downgraded its diplomatic ties with India in an angry backlash after New Delhi imposed direct rule over Kashmir on Monday. However, Pakistan's government insisted it is 'not looking at the military option' despite the escalating feud. 'Pakistan is looking at political, diplomatic and legal options,' foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a news conference in Islamabad.
India has detained hundreds of people and put Kashmir politicians under house arrest in a strict security clampdown this week.
University professors, business leaders and activists were among the 560 people taken to makeshift detention centres, some during midnight raids.
Politicians including former state ministers and lawmakers have been held at their homes, regional leaders said.
Kashmir also remained under a communications blackout today with mobile networks and internet services suspended.
India is enforcing the curfew to suppress unrest in the region after stripping Kashmir of its special constitutional status on Monday.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, and rebels have been fighting Indian rule in the portion it administers for decades. Last night the old quarter of Srinagar, Kashmir's largest city, was locked down with policemen in riot gear deployed every few metres, and barbed-wire checkpoints every few hundred yards. Thousands of paramilitary police have been deployed in Srinagar, schools shut and roads and neighbourhoods barricaded. A petition that challenges the lockdown has been filed in India's top court. Experts warn that the valley is likely to erupt in anger at the government's shock unilateral move once the restrictions are lifted, which could come as soon as the Muslim festival of Eid on Monday.
'You can't hold a state under curfew forever,' said Iltija Javed, daughter of detained former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
'I'm sure people in the valley are not going to take this lying down.' In response to India's action, Pakistan on Wednesday said it would downgrade its diplomatic ties with New Delhi, expel the Indian ambassador and suspend trade. Pakistan said it would ask the United Nations to pressure India to reverse its decision, which saw Kashmir downgraded from a state to two separate territories.
Hitting back, India's foreign ministry said that 'the recent developments pertaining to [Kashmir] are entirely the internal affair of India.
'Seeking to interfere in that jurisdiction by invoking an alarmist vision of the region will never succeed,' officials said.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence over control of Kashmir.
Young Pakistani doctors, paramedics and nurses chant anti-India slogans as they take part in a protest in their home country +7 Young Pakistani doctors, paramedics and nurses chant anti-India slogans as they take part in a protest in their home country There is a long-running insurgency against Indian rule in Jammu-Kashmir which has seen an estimated 70,000 people, mostly civilians, killed in attacks since 1989.
Only six months ago the two countries appeared on the brink of war over Kashmir in one of the region's biggest flashpoints.
Tensions escalated alarmingly after a massive suicide bombing killed 40 Indian troops in Kashmir on February 14, with the attack claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group.
Twelve days later Indian warplanes launched a strike inside undisputed Pakistani territory, claiming to have hit a militant camp.
A furious Islamabad denied the raids had caused any damage, but a day later launched its own incursion across the Line of Control.
That sparked a dogfight which ended in both countries claiming they had shot down each other's warplanes, and the capture of an Indian pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman. Tensions calmed after Pakistan's PM Imran Khan announced the pilot would be released in a 'peace gesture'.
In New Delhi the announcement of the experienced pilot's release was seen as a diplomatic victory, but India warned that its military remained on 'heightened' alert.


GEORGETOWN, DE – The 2018 Northeast dirt-track Modified opener has gotten more lucrative.
Jeff Brown's Chesapeake Paving of Salisbury, Md., sweetened the pot for the season-opening Melvin L. Joseph Memorial weekend March 16-17 at Georgetown Speedway.
The two-day program includes the 50th race in Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series (STSS) Fueled By Sunoco history on Saturday, as the 49-lap big-block/small-block event kicks off the eight-race STSS Velocita-USA South Region.
Thanks to the Chesapeake Paving support, Saturday's Melvin L. Joseph Memorial 49 will pay $6,949 to the winner: the largest dirt Modified payout since the speedway reopened under BD Motorsports Media LLC management in 2016.
Friday night's small-block Modified 30-lap event has also benefited! The winner's share has increased to $4,049 for the preliminary program.
Georgetown's season opener kicks off the richest season in STSS history thanks to the new partnership with Sunoco and Insinger Performance.
Should a driver win both the STSS Halmar International North Region and Velocita-USA South Region, they will be eligible for a $25,000 Sunoco/Insinger cash bonus!
Should a driver win the STSS Halmar International North Region or Velocita-USA South Region, they will be eligible for a $10,000 Sunoco/Insinger cash bonus!
Friday's (March 16) program will be headlined by the $4,049-to-win small-block Modified feature, plus RUSH Crate Late Models battling for $1,049 to win in the season's first RUSH point race, Delmarva Chargers, Delaware Super Trucks and open Modified practice for Saturday's STSS event.
On Saturday (March 17), the STSS Modifieds battle for the $6,949 winner's share plus the first-ever STSS-sanctioned L&J Sheet Metal Crate 602 Sportsman tour event ($1,049 to win) and feature-only programs for Delmarva Chargers, Delaware Super Trucks, Southern Delaware Vintage Cars and Little Lincolns.
Visit the official Georgetown Speedway website – www.thegeorgetownspeedway.com – for complete times and pricing information.


A lot will depend on the ages of your party members, a lot on what types of rides they like — thrilling coasters or sedate rides, for example. Get a sense of what the rides are like by checking out the sections on each of the theme parks. We also have photos of the ride vehicles, as well as some information for folks who are not "one size fits all." And don't forget to leave time for visiting with the characters!
Before you go, verify age limits for children's activities, and remember: some sites may close unexpectedly, or have limited hours due to weather or other factors. If you're a U.S. citizen, visit the U.S. Department of State website for information on required documentation, vaccinations, health and safety concerns, currency restrictions and more.
The Dominican Republic is an ideal beach getaway, with resorts and all-inclusive properties starting as cheap as $100 a night. Punta Cana is a popular destination for beach and golf lovers, and its airport is also the best connected in the Caribbean, with flights to and from 26 countries.


I read on Doctor of Credit the other day that the bonus for the Amex EveryDay card has been increased from 10,000 all the way up to 25,000 points!! I have written about the Amex EveryDay card before. It's the "basic" card for American Express and comes in 2 varieties: Amex EveryDay and Amex EveryDay Preferred.
If I just signed up for the EveryDay card, can I get the increased bonus?
If you have recently signed up for the Amex EveryDay card, and only got the "regular" 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus, you might have luck calling or chatting in with American Express to see if they will either match the bonus or give you bonus points.
American Express is reportedly a little more stingy with matching signup bonuses than some other banks, but I saw reports of people receiving 5K or 10K bonuses for asking. Can't hurt to try asking!
Can I get this increased bonus if I already have the Amex EveryDay Preferred card?
The good news is that the Amex EveryDay and Amex EveryDay Preferred cards are DIFFERENT cards, so you can still get the bonus on the Amex EveryDay card if you have the Amex EveryDay Preferred card.
Note that you are only allowed 4 active credit cards with American Express, so if you already have 4, you may need to cancel one before being approved. Authorized user cards and charge cards do NOT count towards the 4 card limit.
I'm definitely signing up Carolyn for one – she currently has the Amex EveryDay Preferred and I'll want to cancel / downgrade that to the Amex EveryDay card to avoid paying the $95 annual fee when it's due.
In Chrome Incognito this morning, I was only seeing the 15,000 Point offer (still higher than normal!) but when I opened up Internet Explorer, I was able to get the Amex EveryDay 25,000 point offer on the first try.
The Amex EveryDay card is a great card to have to keep your Membership Rewards open if/when you have a Platinum or other premium Amex card that you want to cancel to avoid paying an annual fee. If you don't have an Amex card that gives Membership Rewards, they'll expire.
"Amazing"? Maybe you have a different understanding of that word than I. With 50,000 point/mile offerings pretty standard and 100,000+ bonuses not all that unusual, 25,000 points barely qualifies as 'decent'. And the only reason it would even qualify as 'decent' in this case is maybe because it's a no-annual fee card and also the usual bonus for it is so dismally pathetic to begin with.
Sorry, don't want to be too critical but I'm starting to get annoyed with the increasing volume of all these blogs competing for attention by using almost deceptively over-the top click-bait language. Too much such hyperbole ("Wolf!!") will only hurt the trust you've earned from your readers.
Chris – I can see that side of things. Where I was coming from was the fact that with Amex, if you're going to get a card, you better get the best signup bonus available, since you can only get the bonus once per lifetime. So in this case, the regular bonus is 10,000, so a 25,000 point bonus is 150% more than normal (hence the "AMAZING!").
This is a great offer. I hope that it sticks around. I'm already working on minimum spend for 3 other cards otherwise I would hop on this. Too many recent great deals recently.
Does this language apply to having ANY other AMEX card?
My wife got this card at 10K less than 30 days ago. AMEX is being very miserly and refusing to match this offer for her.
My dad had same experience. Tried by online chat they refused. Would not offer any extra points.
Showed up as 25k for me when using incognito. I clicked on "View All Cards" from the special offer screen and scrolled down and the PRG was also showing the 50k with $1,000/3 months special offer for those that missed it a few months back.
Is there no minimum spend on either of these cards?
There is never an annual fee for this card.


BRUNSWICK — A group of residents is suing the town after unsuccessfully petitioning the Town Council to create a park at 946 Mere Point Road.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland claims councilors failed to follow the Town Charter, which obligates them to send the decision to referendum.
The council voted 7-2 to dismiss the petition Feb. 6, with many councilors citing the town attorney's opinion that petitioners failed to follow a legal mechanism in the charter.
The lawsuit surprised councilors, who were unaware of it before petitioner Robert Baskett notified them during the public comment period of the Feb. 21 council meeting. Baskett also handed Town Manager John Eldridge a copy of the lawsuit.
The news, however, did not stop the council from authorizing terms of the sale of the property, which they voted 5-4 to sell last September.
Attorney David Lourie filed the complaint on behalf of the nonprofit Brunswick Citizens for Collaborative Government.
Petitioner Sockna Dice on Wednesday said the group raised funds for initial legal fees in one day last week.
"Now we feel it's not just an issue of the park, but the council stonewalling citizen input," she said.
The court filing argues the petition followed a legal path defined in the charter, and that a decision for or against a park satisfies the definition of a "police power" ordinance. Therefore, it argues, the council had a legal obligation to enact the ordinance or send it to referendum.
The complaint also alleges council prejudice against the petition.
"The majority of the Town Council was prejudiced against the proposed ordinance, taking offense at the effort to effectively overrule the Town Council's order to sell the Mere Point property, although the Town Council never considered or voted on any motion to make the property at 946 Mere Point Road a park," the filing states.
Town attorney Stephen Langsdorf disagreed with the record of events and the argument.
After reviewing the filing Wednesday, Langsdorf said the content omits "essential facts" and parts of the record, and "doesn't highlight the provisions of the charter" that lack a channel for citizen petitions to overturn council executive actions.
It does not mention, for example, that the petitions were issued with a warning from Langsdorf that the council would not be legally obligated to respond.
"That's an important fact that they did not identify," he said.
The record matters, Langsdorf said, because a judge will ultimately review the history to determine whether the council acted improperly.
Neither Council Chairwoman Alison Harris nor Town Manager John Eldridge said they could respond to the petition Tuesday, and were openly perplexed as to why they were not notified in advance of the meeting.
"I'm not surprised by the substance, I'm surprised by how they went about it," Harris said, referring to the petitioners' prior threat to pursue legal action.
Dice the group deliberately decided not to tell anyone about the lawsuit until Tuesday's meeting. She said they were concerned the council would bring its lawyer and create a "proxy court of law" during the meeting.
"We didn't mean to be disrespectful of the council, we just thought it would be pointless," she said.
The lawsuit does not seek to stay council action, although the document requests a stipulation that the town notify any potential buyer of the property that it is the subject of a court case.
Langsdorf said he will object to that stipulation.
"There's nothing about this lawsuit that prevents the Town Council from moving forward with the sale," he said.
Councilors authorized allowing the town manager to oversee the sale. The council must approve the listing and sale price.
A motion by Councilor Sarah Brayman for the town to retain a 25-foot strip of land on the south side of the property to create access for shellfish harvesters failed 4-4, with Councilor Dan Harris absent.
The council also decided against placing an easement for clammers on the property.
A group of residents is suing the town of Brunswick after the Town Council dismissed a petition to turn the property at 946 Mere Point Road, pictured here from the water, into a park.


Never before has the term "Crazy Eights" been more suitable. Already recognized as America's two most famous multiple-babies-mamas, Octomom Nadya Suleman and "Jon & Kate Plus 8" star Kate Gosselin have recently seen their tabloid sagas converge for the first time, and as one might expect, things got ugly. Rather than their respective litters of children being the issue, however, Suleman and Gosselin reportedly traded barbs over an entirely different issue: plastic surgery.
It's hard to imagine that the Octomom, plastic surgery diva as she's generally known to be, would take issue with anyone, let alone a fellow 'tuplet bearer, for exploring the benefits of cosmetic surgery. However, that's exactly what Nadya Suleman did in a recent interview with Radar Online, claiming that Kate Gosselin "cheated" by undergoing plastic surgery after giving birth to her septuplets. Insert your pot calling the kettle black comments here.
For those lucky enough not to recognize the irony, Suleman's plastic surgery was a hot topic in the press for weeks following her first public appearances after giving birth to octuplets (bringing her grand total of kids to 14). Not only did photo comparisons reveal a likely lip augmentation procedure, cheek implants, rhinoplasty, and possible breast augmentation, but the combination of these procedures left many wondering if Suleman was consciously attempting to turn herself into actress Angelina Jolie; a noted fan of babies in her own right.
Even now, Octomom's plastic surgery generates a lot of conversation, as many critics wonder if Suleman's expenditure of cash on cosmetic surgery, rather than her kids, indicates a serious mental issue that might make her an unfit mother. Irony upon ironies, Kate Gosselin herself has been one of these critics. When originally asked about the Octomom this past February, Gosselin indicated she was concerned for Suleman's mental health and ability to care for her 14 kids effectively by herself. Mind you, this was before Gosselin's own obsessive-complusive tendencies became fodder for similar criticism, and long before her husband Jon's extramarital activities put her marriage on the rocks and "Jon and Kate Plus 8" at the top of the ratings.
In any case, it took a few months for the Octomom to actually see the video of Kate's comments (given on the Dr. Phil Show), and once she did, it was time to fire back. Suleman vs Gosselin was on. The Octomom aggressively defended her own parenting skills while turning the attack back on Kate, accusing Gosselin of being "desperate for attention." Again, pots and kettles will say what they will, but the strangest part of the feud still has to be Suleman's plastic surgery barbs. It makes one wonder whether those who question the Octomom's psychological state might be on to something, because Suleman clearly saw nothing odd about setting her sights on Kate Gosselin's plastic surgery procedures. For someone who was mercilessly hounded for her own operations and those painstakingly crafted Angelina Jolie lips, Octomom apparently had a short memory.
Bickering aside, Gosselin's plastic surgery and Octomom's plastic surgery both showcase a new trend for recent mothers, and not just moms who've birthed a soccer squad. Cosmetic surgery is a very common way for mothers to quickly and effectively regain their figure after that arduous nine months. When handled rationally by a board certified plastic surgeon, a "Mommy Makeover" can work wonders. When taken to extremes, as in Octomom's apparent Angelina Jolie fixation, things might not go as smoothly. As far as we're concerned, though, the lesson should be not to use reality stars like Nadya Suleman and Kate Gosselin as examples to follow when it comes to plastic surgery… or anything else for that matter.


The usually mild-mannered Murphy almost sounded as biting as former Gov. Chris Christie was during his 8-year run at the Statehouse.
He then started ripping into Trump, who is seeking $5.7 billion in funding from Congress for a wall along the Mexico border to step illegal immigration. Democratic lawmakers — who control the U.S. House — have refused to grant him the money. That impasse has led to the shutdown.
He stressed that the shutdown is needlessly hurting hundreds of thousands of federal workers when there are "very reasonable people" from both political parties who have "genuinely good ideas" about how to improve border security without having to resort to a wall.