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Georgian Senators Introduce a Bill to Promote Legal Sports Betting
02-02 2023 casino news
A number of Georgia senators have banded together to introduce a fresh bill to legalize sports betting. The crucial point is that if Senate Bill 57 receives approval in the legislature, a constitutional modification would not be required. Because a public vote would not be required, legal sports bet
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…and looking after yourself at the same time.
You have to stop using.
You're going to kill yourself if you keep using.
Your using is killing me.
Your using is tearing apart the family.
First of all, none of the above is actionable for the user. They are trapped in a cycle and probably can't even bring themselves to care about many of the consequences you are stating.
The truth of the matter is, you have very little verbal control over a user. Things that you say will have very little control over them, even if they are sober when you say them.
As such, it may well be the case that the behaviour of this individual triggers unpleasant feelings in you such as anger, exasperation, irritation, and depression. It would not be unusual if they have become violent or aggressive towards you on occasions. If you are to motivate this person to seek help, you must do your best to stand back from these feelings. I recognize that this is very easy for me to say, whilst being very hard for you to do. However, you must do your best if you wish to maximize your chances of success in convincing the person to seek help.
The healthiest decision you can make is for yourself. That decision is, for you to be healthier in terms of your relationship to the user. There is nothing you can say that will make someone magically stop using.
However, there are several things you can do. Some of what you can do involves verbalising your intentions to a user. Your intentions, not verbalising demands for them to change their behavior. Merely what you intend to do, given their behaviour and/or their using. At the same time you can help the user to help themselves.
People Nearly Always Need to Make Decisions For Themselves. This is not just related to alcoholism or drug use, but is generally true in life. Someone is much more likely to want to do something if they feel it has been their own decision, rather than an 'order' from someone-else, or that they have to do it just to keep someone else happy.
* Never directly disagree with them – rather walk away if you are about to.
* Do not pretend that you do agree with them either.
* In general, avoid making statements of fact.
* Do ask open-ended questions (questions which deliver a response other than a simple yes or no) if you can. Closed questions (requiring a yes or no answer) are still much better than making statements.
* Keep in mind the idea that you are going to let the resistance wash over you. You are not going to become resistant or defensive yourself in response to the person's statements, but you are not going to give in to them either – you are going to go along with them.
User: I've got a stinking headache this morning.
Helper: Well you shouldn't drink so much then.
Helper: I mean that you need to stop using.
Helper: Is it a bad one?
User: I think I'd better take the day off work.
User: They said it could be a disciplinary next time, didn't they?
User: Too many days sick.
Helper: Do you think you've taken too many days sick?
This kind of response has completely avoided talking about alcohol, and has generally avoided saying anything that could be construed by the user as a criticism. If the conversation ends here, then the user is more likely than not to leave the conversation thinking: "Have I taken too many days sick?" This would be a first step in the right direction towards contemplation of the possibility that too many days sick might be related to using too much. This has been achieved through an empathic response, and the use of questions rather than statements.
Note also that although the helper demonstrated concern, they did not say anything to the effect that it didn't matter about taking time off work. This is an important balance to achieve–demonstrating empathy whilst not letting the person off the hook either.
If someone is going to make changes to their using behaviour, they must first accept that it is their responsibility to make these changes and no-one else's if this is to occur. Others may support and advise, but it is the person with the problem that has to take the ultimate responsibility for actually making those changes. This applies to most situations in life.
If the using is causing problems, then these problems are ALWAYS the responsibility of the person that lifts the bottle towards their mouth. In fact, if that person is to make real progress in sorting out their life, then they should really start to take responsibility for ALL the problems in their life, whether or not these are directly related to using.
So your behaviour may need to be modified to encourage the user to take responsibility. Don't help; Don't hinder. This means you don't reward or excuse behaviour caused by drinking or drug taking. Don't clean up after the user if they are incontinent or vomit. Don't phone in sick for them, but, don't stop them phoning in sick. Don't go out and buy alcohol for a drinker, and don't give money to an addict.
It is vital that you avoid giving any advice until the person indicates that they are ready to be receptive to this. In other words, your user will have already indicated that they accept that they at least might have a problem, by the time you use these tactics.
If you deliver advice before the person has indicated a willingness to listen, then your advice will do worse than fall on deaf ears. It is only likely to push the user further into denial – to listen to your advice before they have reached their own conclusion that they might have a problem, would be to accept that they do have a problem before they have done so.
You may have been in this situation for a long time and seen no change. At some point, you may have to examine your relationship. Ask yourself this gut-wrenching question: Is my intention to continue in this relationship with them regardless of whether or not they continue to drink or use drugs?
If you don't intend to continue associating with this person, then set a limit. This limit is for your sanity, not theirs. For example, if you don't get help by the end of this month, I'm walking away from the relationship. This is a firm limit with actionable consequences. Don't make this type of threat unless you fully intend to follow through with it though.
Decide what your limits are, then discuss them with the user. Your limit might not be I'm leaving, but rather, I'm not bailing you out of jail any more or I'm not going to be around you when you're drunk/high or something similar. Your limit is not a punitive consequence–instead, it is a limit you are imposing to save your own sanity. Don't make it about them. It's about you staying healthy. The limit you set should directly reduce the amount of chaos you have to experience due to their using.
Make your intentions clear, and be prepared to follow through with them. Don't make threats that you don't have full intention of carrying out if necessary.
Isn't there some other way to change someone's behavior?
No, there isn't. Consider the following thought experiment: Say you enjoy taking walks in the park every day. The weather is nice, it's good exercise, and you have plenty of extra time for these walks. But then someone in your life demands that you stop taking these daily walks. You resist. Conflict ensues. You think to yourself, I should be able to keep taking my walk every day if I want to.
That is the exact same reaction that the user has when you tell them to stop using. But, you say, Using is so bad for them, and it's destroying their life. My walks are healthy for me. That doesn't matter. Just because you think you know what is best for someone doesn't make a bit a difference. It all has to do with a little something called free will. You wouldn't let someone else control you….so what makes you think you can control someone else?
Alcoholism and Drug addiction is not logical. Therefore, the user will not listen to reason. They will not hear your well planned arguments about why they should seek help and live a better life. You can promise them the world and it won't matter. They are trapped. They are stuck. They cannot hear your arguments until they are ready, which may be too late for your relationship. However, there is always hope; and, using the right approach can help you move the user towards accepting responsibility quicker.
Acknowledgements to many sources who helped shape this article, especially Dr. Bruce Trathen of dryoutnow.com.


To be considered for the BSCS tuition assistance, you must complete registration (including payment of fees) for the upcoming school year.
FACTS Grant & Aid Assessment will be conducting the financial need analysis for Blessed Sacrament Church's tuition assisstance. Families applying for financial aid will need to complete an application and submit the necessary supporting documentation to FACTS Grant & Aid Assessment by the required March deadline. Applicants can apply online by clicking here.


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Q: Number of ways to put less balls in more boxes, Consider the simple problem of placing four coloured balls: red, blue, green and white in 15 boxes. What are the numbers of distinct ways in which the balls can be placed in these
boxes if each box can hold only one ball? Also, write the generalized formula of this
numerical result.
I am rather not sure, whether to do it with simple permutation, or I need something else. The generalized formula bit confuses me as well.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Feroponera is a monotypic Afrotropical genus of ants in the subfamily Ponerinae containing the single species Feroponera ferox. The genus is known only from a few specimen collected from an unoccupied termitary in Cameroon.

References

External links

Endemic fauna of Cameroon
Ponerinae
Monotypic ant genera
Hymenoptera of Africa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Isabel Kaif is a talented and inspired young actress who has done some very brilliant films. She has another close connection with the big screen, through her sister, the Bollywood diva – ' Katrina Kaif'. Isabel was born on 22nd March 1986 to the loving couple Mohammed Kaif and Susanna Turquotte.
This model and actress is now in pursuance of course in acting at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, trying to polish up her acting skills. Even though she hasn't done a Bollywood film, she has been seen to be preparing for it extensively. She is doing some short films in preparation for it.
She was seen to undertake projects such as Coming Home. This short film was her first project, which she did alongside with ' Harshvardhan Kapoor', the son of never aging Bollywood Star ' Anil Kapoor'. The short movie was directed by 'Steven Roy'. "Coming Home" was able to provide her with a great exposure to the cinema industry, making her better and ready to tackle the big budget Bollywood films.
Another project that she undertook was Dr.Cabbie. This was a Canadian romantic comedy film, in which Isabel played the role of 'Simone'. She was able to complete the project playing alongside with many prominent stars such as ' Kunal Nayyar', ' Vinay Virmani', ' Adrianne Palicki' and several others. "Dr.Cabbie" was directed by the famous director ' Jean Francois Pouliot' and co-produced by one of the most eminent personas of the Bollywood cinema industry ' Salman Khan'.
The film revolves around an Indian doctor who migrates to Canada but is forced to become a taxi driver there. He turns the odds in favor for himself by treating his patients in the taxi itself. The film has also bagged an award in the Canadian Screen Awards. Isabel was fortunate to play the role opposite to Vinay Virmani.
Another project that was done brilliantly by her was Summum Bonum. This movie was released in the year 2014. The film directed by 'Matias Penachino' revolves around the lives of two brothers. Isabel played the role of Emma. Isabel Kaif has been seen to take up any opportunity to polish up her already innate acting talents, marveling her spectators every time.
With the amount of work she is doing, one can be sure as to how much acting means to her. It is this passion in her that drives her to keep on going and going until she has reached the pinnacle. The movies that she has completed will surely help her to make a grand appearance to the Bollywood film industry.
Isabel Kaif is an English actress and model. She was born as Marie Isabel Turquotte but later took on her father's last name. Her parents are both British. Her father, Mohammed Kaif, left the family when Isabel was very young. Her mother, Suzanne (also spelt as Susanna), is a charity worker. They got divorced when Kaif was very young. Her father was never around, and her mother raised her and her siblings, all by herself.
Since her mother worked for charity organizations all over the world, the family had to move a lot. Isabel was born in Hong Kong but has since stayed in China, Japan, France, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium and Hawaii, before finally moving to London. She, along with her siblings, was home-schooled by tutors.
Kaif said that she had always wanted to be a dancer. She started modeling when she was only fourteen. However, after taking an acting course at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, she wanted to give Cinema a shot. She had minor roles in the films "Summer Bonum "and "Coming Home". She has also worked as an Assistant Director.
In 2012, she stated in an interview at the Indian Film Festival held at Los Angeles that she was producing a feature film in New York. So far details of it are not known. She is the younger sister of the famous Bollywood actress, Katrina Kaif. According to several rumors, Isabel had asked her elder sister to help her make her debut in the Hindi Film Industry, and Katrina was willing to help.
Katrina was said to have approached actor and producer 'Salman Khan', and director ' Karan Johar' to help launch her sister. However, Isabel was unable to make her debut in Bollywood, owing to the intense competition in the industry. Katrina later denied the rumors.
Isabel had her big break in acting when she got cast in the Canadian film Dr. Cabbie, produced by Salman Khan and directed by the French director 'Jean Francois Pouliot'. The film also stars 'Vinay Virmani', 'Adrianne Palicki', and actor 'Kunal Nayyar', who is best known for playing Raj Koorthrapali on 'The Big Bang Theory'.
The story deals with Deepak (Virmani), a doctor trained in India, who immigrates to Canada. Unable to get a job there, he becomes a taxi driver. Kaif plays Simone, the girlfriend of Tony (Nayyar), another cab driver and Deepak's friend. Kaif described her character as a headstrong, tough chick. To promote the film, Kaif attended the Miss India Canada pageant held in Toronto.
Isabel considers her elder sister Katrina as her inspiration. She says that Katrina is always supportive and encourages her. On the best piece of advice she's got from her sister, Isabel says that her sister always encouraged her to be hardworking and perseverant.


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Стаття є списком літературних подій та публікацій у 1677 році.

П'єси
 «Федра» — трагедія французького драматурга Жана Расіна.

Народились
 23 серпня — Марі Анна Дубле, французька письменниця, господиня літературного салону (померла в 1771).

Померли
 21 лютого — Бенедикт Спіноза, голландський філософ (народився в 1632).
 9 липня — Анґелус Сілезіус (Йоганнес Шеффлер), німецький поет, містик (народився в 1624).

Література за роками
1677


text:
Lupita Nyong'o's Is The World's Most Beautiful Woman
MDS Dev Team
We had a feeling this would be no contest: Lupita Nyong'o is People's Most Beautiful Woman in the World!
It's no surprise since the screen and style star had everyone doing a double take throughout awards season, starting with her ruby red Ralph Lauren and culminating in her Prada Nairobi blue and Oscar gold. She's also the third African American to land the coveted cover, joining the like of Halle Berry and Beyoncé. Funny thing is, Nyong'o never dreamed she would receive this year's title. "It was exciting and just a major, major compliment," she told the glossy. "I was happy for all the girls who would see me on [it] and feel a little more seen."
She's spoken openly about learning to love her own beauty outside of society's standards, but it doesn't mean she was afraid to experiment. Along with her rainbow of matching shadows and lippies, her hair has also undergone major transformations, including shaving it all off! "It was very strange and very cold!" she laughed. "It was scary but I like to dare myself."
Though Lancôme's latest leading lady regularly plays with color, she feels her most beautiful without a stitch of makeup on. Her explanation? "Happiness is the most important thing," she said. Excuse us while we do a happy dance!
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes
Dutee ChandCreditCreditSohrab Hura/Magnum, for The New York Times
By Ruth Padawer
One day in June 2014, Dutee Chand was cooling down after a set of 200-meter sprints when she received a call from the director of the Athletics Federation of India, asking her to meet him in Delhi. Chand, then 18 and one of India's fastest runners, was preparing for the coming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, her first big international event as an adult. Earlier that month, Chand won gold in both the 200-meter sprint and the 4-by-400-meter relay at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Taipei, Taiwan, so her hopes for Scotland were high.
Chand was raised in Gopalpur, a rural village in eastern India with only intermittent electricity. The family home was a small mud hut, with no running water or toilet. Her parents, weavers who earned less than $8 a week laboring on a government-issued loom, were illiterate. They had not imagined a different life for their seven children, but Chand had other ideas. Now, as she took the five-hour bus ride to Delhi from a training center in Punjab, she thought about her impending move to Bangalore for a new training program. She wondered if she would make friends, and how she'd manage there without her beloved coach, who had long been by her side, strategizing about how best to run each race and joking to help her relax whenever she was nervous. She thought little of the meeting in Delhi, because she assumed it was for a doping test.
But when Chand arrived in Delhi, she says, she was sent to a clinic to meet a doctor from the Athletics Federation of India — the Indian affiliate of the International Association of Athletics Federations (I.A.A.F.), which governs track and field. He told her he would forgo the usual urine and blood tests because no nurse was available, and would order an ultrasound instead. That confused Chand, but when she asked him about it, she recalls, he said it was routine.
Chand had no idea that her extraordinary showing in Taipei and at a national championship earlier that month had prompted competitors and coaches to tell the federation that her physique seemed suspiciously masculine: Her muscles were too pronounced, her stride was too impressive for someone who was only five feet tall. The doctor would later deny that the ultrasound was a response to those reports, saying he ordered the scan only because Chand had previously complained of chronic abdominal pain. She contends she never had any such pain.
Three days after the ultrasound, the federation sent a letter titled "Subject: Gender Verification Issue" to the Indian government's sports authority. "It has been brought to the notice of the undersigned that there are definite doubts regarding the gender of an Athlete Ms. Dutee Chand," the letter read. It also noted that in the past, such cases "have brought embarrassment to the fair name of sports in India." The letter requested the authorities perform a "gender verification test" on Chand.
Shortly after, Chand says, she was sent to a private hospital in Bangalore, where a curt woman drew her blood to measure her level of natural testosterone, though Chand had no idea that was what was being measured. Chand also underwent a chromosome analysis, an M.R.I. and a gynecological exam that she found mortifying. To evaluate the effects of high testosterone, the international athletic association's protocol involves measuring and palpating the clitoris, vagina and labia, as well as evaluating breast size and pubic hair scored on an illustrated five-grade scale.
The tests were meant to identify competitors whose chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, reproductive organs or secondary sex characteristics don't develop or align in the typical way. The word "hermaphrodite" is considered stigmatizing, so physicians and advocates instead use the term "intersex" or refer to the condition as D.S.D., which stands for either a disorder or a difference of sex development. Estimates of the number of intersex people vary widely, ranging from one in 5,000 to one in 60, because experts dispute which of the myriad conditions to include and how to tally them accurately. Some intersex women, for instance, have XX chromosomes and ovaries, but because of a genetic quirk are born with ambiguous genitalia, neither male nor female. Others have XY chromosomes and undescended testes, but a mutation affecting a key enzyme makes them appear female at birth; they're raised as girls, though at puberty, rising testosterone levels spur a deeper voice, an elongated clitoris and increased muscle mass. Still other intersex women have XY chromosomes and internal testes but appear female their whole lives, developing rounded hips and breasts, because their cells are insensitive to testosterone. They, like others, may never know their sex development was unusual, unless they're tested for infertility — or to compete in world-class sports.
When Chand's results came in a few days later, the doctor said her "male hormone" levels were too high, meaning she produced more androgens, mostly testosterone, than most women did. The typical female range is roughly 1.0 to 3.3 nanomoles of testosterone per liter of blood, about one-tenth that of typical males. Chand's level is not publicly known, but it was above the 10-nanomoles-per-liter threshold that the I.A.A.F. set for female competitors because that level is within the "male range." As a result, officials said, she could no longer race.
In the two years since, Chand has been at the center of a legal case that contests not only her disqualification but also the international policy her lawyers say discriminates against athletes with atypical sex development. For Chand, who had never heard the words "testosterone" or "intersex," it has been a slow and painful education. When she was first told she was being barred because of her testosterone level, she didn't understand anything the officials were saying. "I said, 'What have I done that is wrong?' " she told me by phone in May through a Hindi translator. "Then the media got my phone number and started calling me and asking about an androgen test, and I had no idea what an androgen test was. The media asked, 'Did you have a gender test?' And I said, 'What is a gender test?' "
No governing body has so tenaciously tried to determine who counts as a woman for the purpose of sports as the I.A.A.F. and the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.). Those two influential organizations have spent a half-century vigorously policing gender boundaries. Their rationale for decades was to catch male athletes masquerading as women, though they never once discovered an impostor. Instead, the athletes snagged in those efforts have been intersex women — scores of them.
The treatment of female athletes, and intersex women in particular, has a long and sordid history. For centuries, sport was the exclusive province of males, the competitive arena where masculinity was cultivated and proven. Sport endowed men with the physical and psychological strength that "manhood" required. As women in the late 19th century encroached on explicitly male domains — sport, education, paid labor — many in society became increasingly anxious; if a woman's place wasn't immutable, maybe a man's role, and the power it entailed, were not secure either.
Well into the 20th century, women were discouraged from participating in sports. Some medical experts claimed that vigorous exercise would damage women's reproductive capacity and their fragile emotional state and would make them muscular, "mannish" and unattractive to men. Critics fretted that athletics would unbind women from femininity's modesty and self-restraint.
As women athletes' strength and confidence grew, some observers began to wonder if fast, powerful athletes could even be women. In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the runners Stella Walsh of Poland and Helen Stephens of the United States were rumored to be male impostors because of their remarkable athleticism, "male-like" muscles and angular faces. After Stephens narrowly beat Walsh in the 100-meter dash and posted a world record, Stephens was publicly accused of being a man, by Walsh or Polish journalists — accounts vary. German Olympics officials had examined Stephens's genitals before the event and declared her female. Four decades later, in an unexpected twist, an autopsy of Walsh revealed she had ambiguous genitalia.
In 1938, the gender of an athlete was again in dispute. The German high-jumper Dora Ratjen, a former fourth-place Olympian who won a gold medal at the European Athletics Championship, was suddenly identified as male, prompting Germany to quietly return the medal. When Ratjen's case became public years later — he claimed that the Nazis pressured him to pose as a woman for three years — it validated the growing anxiety about gender fraud in athletics. But in 2009, the magazine Der Spiegel investigated medical and police records and found Ratjen had been born with ambiguous genitals but, at the midwife's suggestion, was raised as a girl, dressed in girls' clothes and sent to girls' schools. Dora lived as a female until two years after the 1936 Olympics, when police were alerted to a train traveler in women's clothes who looked suspiciously masculine. With relief so apparent that the police noted it in their report, Ratjen told them that despite his parents' claims, he had long suspected he was male. A police physician examined him and agreed, but reported that Ratjen's genitals were atypical. Ratjen changed his first name from Dora to Heinrich. But those details were unknown until recently, so for decades, Ratjen was considered a gender cheat.
By the mid-1940s, international sports administrators began requiring female competitors to bring medical "femininity certificates" to verify their sex. In the 1950s, many Olympics officials were so uneasy about women's participation that Prince Franz Josef of Liechtenstein, a member of the International Olympic Committee, spoke for many when he said he wanted to "be spared the unesthetic spectacle of women trying to look and act like men," writes Susan K. Cahn, a history professor at the University at Buffalo, in her book "Coming On Strong: Gender and Sexuality in 20th-Century Women's Sports." Others were particularly bothered by women in track and field because of the strained expressions on their faces during competition. Such female exertion violated the white middle-class ideal of femininity, as did the athletes' "masculinized" physiques, prompting Olympic leaders to consider eliminating those events for women.
In 1952, the Soviet Union joined the Olympics, stunning the world with the success and brawn of its female athletes. That year, women accounted for 23 of the Soviet Union's 71 medals, compared with eight of America's 76 medals. As the Olympics became another front in the Cold War, rumors spread in the 1960s that Eastern-bloc female athletes were men who bound their genitals to rake in more wins.
Though those claims were never substantiated, in 1966 international sports officials decided they couldn't trust individual nations to certify femininity, and instead implemented a mandatory genital check of every woman competing at international games. In some cases, this involved what came to be called the "nude parade," as each woman appeared, underpants down, before a panel of doctors; in others, it involved women's lying on their backs and pulling their knees to their chest for closer inspection. Several Soviet women who had dominated international athletics abruptly dropped out, cementing popular conviction that the Soviets had been tricking authorities. (More recently, some researchers have speculated that those athletes may have been intersex.)
Amid complaints about the genital checks, the I.A.A.F. and the I.O.C. introduced a new "gender verification" strategy in the late '60s: a chromosome test. Officials considered that a more dignified, objective way to root out not only impostors but also intersex athletes, who, Olympic officials said, needed to be barred to ensure fair play. Ewa Klobukowska, a Polish sprinter, was among the first to be ousted because of that test; she was reportedly found to have both XX and XXY chromosomes. An editorial in the I.O.C. magazine in 1968 insisted the chromosome test "indicates quite definitely the sex of a person," but many geneticists and endocrinologists disagreed, pointing out that sex was determined by a confluence of genetic, hormonal and physiological factors, not any one alone. Relying on science to arbitrate the male-female divide in sports is fruitless, they said, because science could not draw a line that nature itself refused to draw. They also argued that the tests discriminated against those whose anomalies provided little or no competitive edge and traumatized women who had spent their whole lives certain they were female, only to be told they were not female enough to participate.
Dora Ratjen in 1937.CreditUllstein Bild via Getty Images
One of those competitors was Maria José Martínez Patiño, a 24-year-old Spanish hurdler who was to run at the 1985 World University Games in Japan. The night before the race, a team official told her that her chromosome test results were abnormal. A more detailed investigation showed that although the outside of her body was fully female, Patiño had XY chromosomes and internal testes. But because of a genetic mutation, her cells completely resisted the testosterone she produced, so her body actually had access to less testosterone than a typical woman. Just before the Spanish national championships began, Spanish athletic officials told her she should feign an injury and withdraw from athletics permanently and without fuss. She refused. Instead, she ran the 60-meter hurdles and won, at which point someone leaked her test results to the press. Patiño was thrown off the national team, expelled from the athletes' residence and denied her scholarship. Her boyfriend and many friends and fellow athletes abandoned her. Her medals and records were revoked.
Patiño became the first athlete to formally protest the chromosome test and to argue that disqualification was unjustified. After nearly three years, the I.A.A.F. agreed that without being able to use testosterone, her body had no advantage, and it reinstated Patiño. But by then, her hopes for making the Olympics were dashed.
Dutee Chand was only 4 when she started running, tagging along with her sister, Saraswati, a competitive runner who liked to practice sprints along the local Brahmani River. Saraswati found training boring, so she recruited Dutee, 10 years her junior, to keep her company. For years, Dutee ran in bare feet — even on the village's mud-and-pebble streets — because she had to protect the only shoes she owned: flimsy rubber flip-flops that she knew her parents could not afford to replace.
When Dutee was about 7, her parents pressed her to stop running and learn to weave instead. But Saraswati argued that with Dutee's speed, she could earn more as a sprinter. Saraswati, who has since become a police officer, reminded her parents of the benefits her own running had brought to the family. Once the district government realized Saraswati's athletic potential, she, like other athletes, was given meat and chicken and eggs, food her family had not been able to afford. And she reminded them of the prize money she brought home whenever she did well in marathons. They agreed to let Dutee run.
Not long after, Saraswati used a string to measure Dutee's foot and took a bus to the nearest city, about 60 miles away, to find an affordable pair of sturdy sneakers for her sister. The ride took three hours, frequently picking up passengers carrying goats or chickens and large bundles. When Saraswati gave Dutee the sneakers the next morning, Saraswati told me over the phone through a translator, Dutee yelped. "She asked me what can happen if she runs wholeheartedly. She asked if she would go abroad like me, and said she had never sat in a bus or a train, and asked where the money will come from for her to go abroad. I said that 'if, with these shoes, you run well, you will be sent abroad from the money that will come to you, and not just that, but you'll also get a tracksuit. So run!' "
In 2006, 10-year-old Dutee was accepted into a state-sponsored sports program more than two hours from the family's home. Food, lodging and training were covered. She missed home but appreciated the dorm's electricity, running water and indoor toilets. And she was happy she could send prize money to her parents.
Stella Walsh and Helen Stephens
Stephens, right, narrowly beat Walsh in the 100-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics. Both were rumored to be male impostors.
CreditBettmann/Getty Images
Ewa Klobukowska
After a chromosomal test, her three world records were annulled.
CreditEd Lacey/Popperfoto/Getty Images
Maria Patiño
The first athlete to protest the tests. Her reinstatement came too late for her career.
CreditEFE Agency
Santhi Soundarajan
Stripped of a medal won at the Asian Games, the humiliated Indian runner attempted suicide.
CreditLuke Walker/Getty Images
After her sex-test results were leaked, the I.A.A.F. faced human rights complaints and heavy criticism.
CreditToshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images
That same year, though Dutee didn't know it, a catastrophe was unfolding for another Indian sprinter. Santhi Soundarajan, a 25-year-old from southern India, finished second in the 800 meters at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, all the more impressive given her roots as a member of India's impoverished "untouchable" caste. The previous decade, the I.O.C. and I.A.A.F. yielded to pressure by the medical and scientific community and stopped sex-testing every female athlete. But the groups retained the right to test an athlete's chromosomes when questions about her sex arose and to follow that with a hormone test, a gynecological exam and a psychological evaluation.
In Soundarajan's case, the media noted that she wasn't just fast; she also had a deep voice and a flat chest. The day after Soundarajan's race, the Athletics Federation of India drew her blood and examined her body. Some of her results were leaked to the media. Shortly after, Soundarajan was watching TV when she saw a news report that she had "failed" a sex test. Rejected by the local sports federations, stripped of her silver medal, tormented by ongoing scrutiny and unbearably embarrassed, she attempted suicide, reportedly by swallowing poison.
As Chand began competing in national athletics, another runner from a poor rural village, this time in South Africa, burst onto the international athletic stage. When Caster Semenya blew by her opponents in the 800-meter race at the 2009 African Junior Championships, her performance raised suspicions. Shortly after, sports officials tested her as she prepared for the World Athletics Championship. Unconcerned — she assumed the investigation was for doping — Semenya won gold again. Almost immediately, the fact that Semenya had been sex-tested was leaked to the press. Instead of attending what is normally the celebratory news conference, Semenya went into hiding. The I.A.A.F. spokesman Nick Davies announced that if Semenya was an impostor, she could be stripped of her medal. He added: "However, if it's a natural thing, and the athlete has always thought she's a woman or been a woman, it's not exactly cheating."
Fellow athletes, the press and commenters on social media scrutinized Semenya's body and made much of her supposed gender transgressions: her muscular physique, her deep voice, her flexed-biceps pose, her unshaved armpits, the long shorts she ran in instead of bikini shorts, in addition to her extraordinary speed. A story on Time magazine's website was headlined "Could This Women's World Champ Be a Man?" One of Semenya's competitors, Elisa Cusma of Italy, who came in sixth, said: "These kind of people should not run with us. For me, she is not a woman. She is a man." The Russian star runner Mariya Savinova reportedly sneered, "Just look at her." (The World Anti-Doping Agency would later accuse Savinova of using performance-enhancing drugs and recommend a lifetime ban.) The I.A.A.F. general secretary, Pierre Weiss, said of Semenya, "She is a woman, but maybe not 100 percent." Unlike India, South Africa filed a human rights complaint with the United Nations arguing that the I.A.A.F.'s testing of Semenya was "both sexist and racist." Semenya herself would later write in a statement, "I have been subjected to unwarranted and invasive scrutiny of the most intimate and private details of my being."
After nearly a year of negotiations (the details of which are not public) the I.A.A.F. cleared Semenya to run in 2010, and she went on to win the silver medal in the 2012 Olympics. She will be running in Rio. But the federation still faced condemnation over leaks, public smears and the very idea of a sex test. The I.A.A.F. maintained it was obliged to protect female athletes from having "to compete against athletes with hormone-related performance advantages commonly associated with men." In 2011, the association announced that it would abandon all references to "gender verification" or "gender policy." Instead, it would institute a test for "hyperandrogenism" (high testosterone) when there are "reasonable grounds for believing" that a woman may have the condition. Women whose testosterone level was "within the male range" would be barred. There were two exceptions: If a woman like Maria Patiño was resistant to testosterone's effects — or if a woman reduced her testosterone. This entails having her undescended testes surgically removed or taking hormone-suppressing drugs.
Not long after the policy went into effect, sports officials referred four female athletes from "rural or mountainous regions of developing countries" to a French hospital to reduce their high testosterone, according to a 2013 article in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The authors, many of whom were physicians who treated the women, describe telling them that leaving in their internal testes "carries no health risk," but that removing them would allow the athletes to resume competition, though possibly hurt their performance. The women, who were between 18 and 21, agreed to the procedure. The physicians treating them also recommended surgically reducing their large clitorises to make them look more typical. The article doesn't mention whether they told their patients that altering their clitorises might impair sexual sensation, but it does say the women agreed to that surgery too.
Dutee Chand, left, at practice in Hyderabad, India.CreditSohrab Hura/Magnum, for The New York Times
Chand was unaware of any controversy surrounding Semenya or other intersex athletes. Her gender concerns were much more immediate: She saw other 15-year-old girls becoming curvier and heard them talk about getting their periods. She asked her mother why her body wasn't doing the same thing, and trusted her answer: Chand's body would change when it was good and ready.
In 2012, Chand advanced to a national-level athletic training program, which in addition to food and lodging provided a stipend. At 16, she also became a national champion in the under-18 category, winning the 100 meters in 11.8 seconds. The next year, she won gold in the 100 meters and the 200 meters. In June 2014, she won gold yet again at the Asian championships in Taipei.
Not long after that, she received the call to go to Delhi and was tested. After her results came in, officials told her she could return to the national team only if she reduced her testosterone level — and that she wouldn't be allowed to compete for a year. The particulars of her results were not made public, but the media learned, and announced, that Chand had "failed" a "gender test" and wasn't a "normal" woman. For days, Chand cried inconsolably and refused to eat or drink. "Some in the news were saying I was a boy, and some said that maybe I was a transsexual," Chand told me. "I felt naked. I am a human being, but I felt I was an animal. I wondered how I would live with so much humiliation."
As news spread that Chand had been dropped from the national team, advocates encouraged her to fight back. Payoshni Mitra, an Indian researcher with a doctorate in gender issues in sport who had advocated on behalf of other intersex athletes, suggested Chand send a letter to the Athletics Federation of India, requesting her disqualification be reversed. "I have not doped or cheated," Chand said in Hindi, and Mitra, who would become Chand's government-appointed adviser, translated to English. "I am unable to understand why I am asked to fix my body in a certain way simply for participation as a woman. I was born a woman, reared up as a woman, I identify as a woman and I believe I should be allowed to compete with other women, many of whom are either taller than me or come from more privileged backgrounds, things that most certainly give them an edge over me."
Mitra and others also urged Chand to take her case to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport — the Supreme Court for sports disputes — arguing that the I.A.A.F.'s testosterone policy was discriminatory and should be rescinded. She agreed. Over four days in March 2015, a three-judge panel heard Chand's appeal, as a total of 16 witnesses, including scientists, sports officials and athletes, testified.
Female athletes, intersex and not, wondered just how this case would affect their lives. At the hearing, Paula Radcliffe, the British runner who holds the women's world record for the marathon, testified for the I.A.A.F., saying elevated testosterone levels "make the competition unequal in a way greater than simple natural talent and dedication." She added, "The concern remains that their bodies respond in different, stronger ways to training and racing than women with normal testosterone levels, and that this renders the competition fundamentally unfair."
1998, Veronica Brenner | The Canadian skier's ''femininity card'' from the Nagano games, which certifies her XX chromosomes.CreditJessica Tang for The New York Times
Madeleine Pape, a 2008 Olympian from Australia, testified for Chand. Pape lost to Caster Semenya in the 2009 World Championships, Semenya's last race before her sex-test results were made public. Pape had heard runners complain that Semenya was a man or had male-like advantages, and she was angry that Semenya seemed to win so easily. "At the time, I felt that people like Caster shouldn't be allowed to compete," Pape told me. But in 2012, Pape began work on a sociology Ph.D. focusing on women in sport. "With my running days behind me, I had the space to think more critically about all that," she says. "Until that point, I had no idea that the science of sex differences is extremely contested and has shifted over time, as have the regulations in sports, which change but don't improve as they try to get at the same questions."
Just what role testosterone plays in improving athletic performance is still being debated. At the hearing, both sides agreed that synthetic testosterone — doping with anabolic steroids — does ramp up performance, helping male and female athletes jump higher and run faster. But they disagreed vehemently about whether the body's own testosterone has the same effect.
I.A.A.F. witnesses testified that logic suggests that natural testosterone is likely to work the way its synthetic twin does. They pointed to decades of I.A.A.F. and I.O.C. testing showing that a disproportionate number of elite female athletes, particularly in track and field, have XY chromosomes; by their estimates, the presence of the Y chromosome in this group is more than 140 times higher than it is among the general female population. Surely, witnesses for the I.A.A.F. argued, that overrepresentation indicated that natural testosterone has an outsize influence on athletic prowess.
Chand's witnesses countered that even if natural testosterone turns out to play a role in improving performance, testosterone alone can't explain the overrepresentation of intersex elite athletes; after all, many of those XY female athletes had low testosterone or had cells that lacked androgen receptors. At the Atlanta Games in 1996, one of the few times the I.O.C. allowed detailed intersex-related data to be released, seven of the eight women who were found to have a Y chromosome turned out to be androgen insensitive: Their bodies couldn't use the testosterone they made. Some geneticists speculate that the overrepresentation might be because of a gene on the Y chromosome that increases stature; height is clearly beneficial in several sports, though that certainly isn't a factor for Chand.
In court, the I.A.A.F. acknowledged that men's natural testosterone levels, no matter how high, were not regulated; the rationale, it said, was that there was no evidence that men with exceptionally high testosterone have a competitive advantage. Pressed by Chand's lawyer, the I.A.A.F. also conceded that no research had actually proved that unusually high levels of natural testosterone lead to unusually impressive sports performance in women either. Nor has any study proved that natural testosterone in the "male range" provides women with a competitive advantage commensurate with the 10 to 12 percent advantage that elite male athletes typically have over elite female athletes in comparable events. In fact, the I.A.A.F.'s own witnesses estimated the performance advantage of women with high testosterone to be between 1 and 3 percent, and the court played down the 3 percent figure, because it was based on limited, unpublished data.
Chand's witnesses also pointed out that researchers had identified more than 200 biological abnormalities that offer specific competitive advantages, among them increased aerobic capacity, resistance to fatigue, exceptionally long limbs, flexible joints, large hands and feet and increased numbers of fast-twitch muscle fibers — all of which make the idea of a level playing field illusory, and not one of which is regulated if it is innate.
Chand, with her longtime coach, Nagapuri Ramesh, working to qualify for Rio.CreditSohrab Hura/Magnum, for The New York Times
Bruce Kidd, a former long-distance Olympic runner, told me in May that Olympians themselves sometimes joke that they're all freaks of nature, with one or another genetic abnormality that makes them great at what they do. Kidd, a Canadian who has long pushed for gender equity in sports, noted that there are also many external variables that influence performance: access to excellent coaching, training facilities, healthy nutrition and so on. "If athletic officials really want to address the significant factors affecting advantage, they should require all athletes to live in the same place, in the same level of wealth, with access to the same resources," he says. "Boy, oh, boy, there are so many unfair advantages many Olympians have, starting with who their parents are."
But the I.A.A.F. argued that testosterone is different from other factors, because it is responsible for the performance gap between the sexes. That gap is the very reason sports is divided by sex, the I.A.A.F. says, so regulating testosterone is therefore justified.
Chand's hearing, though, was about more than just testosterone. Implicitly, it questioned the decades of relentless scrutiny of female athletes — especially the most successful ones. Veronica Brenner, a Canadian who won a silver medal in freestyle skiing in 2002, told me she first learned that female Olympians had to pass a sex test when she arrived at the '98 Games in Nagano, Japan. "I said: 'Are you kidding?' I'd been competing my whole life, and my gender has never been questioned!" Brenner's test confirmed that she had XX chromosomes, and she was given what was commonly called a "femininity card" to prove she was the gender she claimed to be. But she was irked that despite the many advances of female athletes in the last half-century, powerful male athletes are celebrated and powerful female ones are suspect. "We'd hear comments all the time: 'She's really strong — she must be part guy.' "
Other critics see testosterone testing as simply the old "gender verification," the latest effort to keep out women who don't adhere to gender norms or have a standard female body. Katrina Karkazis, a bioethicist at Stanford University who is a leader of the international campaign against banning intersex athletes and who testified in Chand's case, says that if an athlete's androgen test shows she has high testosterone, she must undergo the same gynecological exam that has existed for decades. "The rationale behind the I.A.A.F.'s 'hyperandrogenism regulation' is to make it sound more scientifically justifiable and less discriminatory, but nothing in those exams has changed from the old policy except the name," she says. "It's still based on very rigid binary ideas about sex and gender."
Critics of the I.A.A.F. policy argue that if sports officials were truly concerned about fairness, they would quit policing a handful of women with naturally high testosterone and instead rigorously investigate athletes suspected of taking drugs that indisputably enhance performance. They note that in the last year, the I.A.A.F. has faced bribery and blackmail charges and widespread allegations that it intentionally ignored hundreds of suspicious blood tests.
Stéphane Bermon, an I.A.A.F. witness who took part in the efforts to identify females with high testosterone, acknowledged that doping was a significant threat to fairness but said that didn't negate the need to also regulate the participation of women with naturally high testosterone who may have an advantage. He offered an analogy: "Air pollution, like tobacco smoking, contributes to lung cancer, but one should never have to choose between these two before implementing prevention measures," he wrote in an email. "As a governing body, I.A.A.F. has to do its best to ensure a level playing field. ... These two topics are different but can lead to the same consequence, which is the impossibility for a dedicated athlete to compete and succeed against an opponent who benefits from an unfair advantage."
Dutee ChandCreditSohrab Hura/Magnum, for The New York Times
Last July, the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued its ruling in Dutee Chand's case. The three-judge panel concluded that although natural testosterone may play some role in athleticism, just what that role is, and how influential it is, remains unknown. As a result, the judges said that the I.A.A.F.'s policy was not justified by current scientific research: "While the evidence indicates that higher levels of naturally occurring testosterone may increase athletic performance, the Panel is not satisfied that the degree of that advantage is more significant than the advantage derived from the numerous other variables which the parties acknowledge also affect female athletic performance: for example, nutrition, access to specialist training facilities and coaching and other genetic and biological variations."
The judges concluded that requiring women like Chand to change their bodies in order to compete was unjustifiably discriminatory. The panel suspended the policy until July 2017 to give the I.A.A.F. time to prove that the degree of competitive advantage conferred by naturally high testosterone in women was comparable to men's advantage. If the I.A.A.F. doesn't supply that evidence, the court said, the regulation "shall be declared void." It was the first time the court had ever overruled a sport-governing body's entire policy.
Chand was thrilled. "This wasn't just about me," she said, "but about all women like me, who come from difficult backgrounds. It is mostly people from poor backgrounds who come into running — people who know they will get food, housing, a job, if they run well. Richer people can pay their way to become doctors, engineers; poor people don't even know about their own medical challenges."
Chand hoped that the ruling would prompt the I.O.C. to suspend its testosterone policy, too, so she would be eligible to try to qualify for the Rio Games. After all, the I.O.C. policy — which also called on national Olympic committees to "investigate any perceived deviation in sex characteristics" — was based on the same science that the court deemed inadequate.
In November 2015, the I.O.C. established new parameters for dealing with gender. But it never actually addressed whether it would suspend its testosterone policy, as the I.A.A.F. was forced to do. That ambiguity left intersex athletes in limbo. Finally, in late February, the I.O.C. said it would not regulate women's natural testosterone levels "until the issues of the case are resolved." It urged the I.A.A.F. to come up with the evidence by the court's deadline so the suspended policy could be resurrected. It also said that to avoid discrimination, high-testosterone women who are ineligible to compete against women should be eligible to compete against men.
Advocates for intersex women were dismayed. "It's ridiculous," says Payoshni Mitra, the Indian researcher. "They say the policy is not for testing gender — but saying that a hyperandrogenic woman can compete as a man, not a woman, inherently means they think she really is a man, not a woman. It brings back the debate around an athlete's gender, publicly humiliating her in the process." Emmanuelle Moreau, head of media relations for the I.O.C., disagreed, writing in an email, "It is a question of eligibility, not gender or (biological) sex."
A separate section of the I.O.C. gender guidelines addressed a different group of atypical women (and atypical men): transgender athletes. Unlike the intersex section, the transgender section stresses the importance of human rights, nondiscrimination and inclusion. It eschews most of the I.O.C.'s former requirements, including that trans competitors have their ovaries or testicles removed and undergo surgery so their external genitalia matches their gender identity. In the new guidelines, female-to-male athletes face no restrictions of any kind; male-to-female athletes have some restrictions, including suppressing their testosterone levels below the typical male range. And once they've declared their gender as female, they can't change it again for four years if they want to compete in sports.
Reactions among trans advocates ran the gamut. Many trans advocates viewed the liberalized regulations as a victory. But some transwomen athletes who long ago had their testicles removed (and as a result, make virtually no testosterone) were unhappy with the policy; they argued that lifting the surgery requirement gave transwomen who still had testosterone-producing testicles an unfair advantage over transwomen who didn't. And still other advocates said that requiring transwomen to suppress their testosterone below 10 nanomoles is premised on the very same claim about testosterone that the court rejected — that naturally made testosterone is the primary cause of men's competitive advantage over women.
Without evidence that "male range" testosterone levels really do provide that advantage, some say it's premature to base a policy on speculation — especially one that requires people to transform their bodies. In May, the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sports, which manages the country's antidoping program and recommends ethics standards, issued trans-related guidelines for all Canadian sports organizations. The statement says policies that regulate eligibility, like those related to hormones, should be backed by defensible science. It adds, "There is simply not the evidence to suggest whether, or to what degree, hormone levels consistently confer competitive advantage." And yet it's hard to imagine that many female athletes would easily accept the idea of competing against transwomen athletes without those regulations in place.
Those debates are far from Chand's thoughts. Her focus now is on making the most of the window the ruling provides: allowing her to try to qualify for next month's Olympics without having to change her body. In the miserable months after her test results were revealed, Chand's training time and concentration were interrupted, and her hope of ever competing seemed out of reach. Once the ruling was issued, though, she returned to the Indian national team, and intensified her training for the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the 400-meter relay. In addition to working out six hours a day, she tries to relax with naps and Facebook. She has made frequent trips to nations holding qualifying competitions. In May, she competed in India, China and Taiwan; in June, in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. She has until July 11 to meet the I.O.C. time requirement.
She is painfully aware that if she doesn't make this summer's Olympics, she may not have another chance. The I.A.A.F. may still come up with evidence that satisfies the court and would exclude women like her from competing without altering their bodies. Chand's best shot to qualify for Rio is in the 100 meters, which she must complete in 11.32 seconds or less. She remains one-hundredth of a second short.
Note: On June 25, Dutee Chand qualified for the Rio Olympics, running the 100 meters in 11.30 seconds in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and breaking a national record for India. Later that day, she posted an even faster time of 11.24 seconds. She will be the first Indian woman to run the 100 meters in the Olympics since 1980.
Ruth Padawer is a contributing writer for the magazine.
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Some people travel to see the sites. Others, like us, go pretty much exclusively for the food. But while the list of culinary destinations around the globe is endless, there are certain places that really are all about eating. Here are nine trips every foodie needs to have on her bucket list.
Thsi piece originally appeared on PureWow.
Freshly made crepes, flaky croissants and piping-hot baguettes--no trip to Paris is complete without a daily dose of treats from the city's spread of chic cafés, patisseries and bakeries. Order a buckwheat galette with andouillette, ham, cheese and egg from the crepe stand at the Marché Président Wilson. Next up, baguettes, which you'll take with you on your bike ride to the Tuileries. Atthe boulangerie Poilâne, the bread is still baked in an antique wood-fired oven just downstairs. For dinner, you don't want to miss the lamb shoulder—with a bottle of wine, of course—at Au Passage.
In 2014, Noma was named the best restaurant in the world, and its chef René Redzepi became something of a food god. You'll be hard-pressed to get a table here, but luckily, the Danish capital has much more to offer in the way of culinary treats. If pickled herring is too fishy for your taste, try a smørrebrød (the fancy Danish word for an open-faced sandwich) from Aamanns instead. We suggest the pork rillett with thyme, mustard, pickled squash and gooseberries. Wash it all down with a few brews from the world-famous Mikkeller Bar.


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$4.8bn investment deal signed in South Korea - Daily News Egypt
Egypt $4.8bn investment deal signed in South Korea
$4.8bn investment deal signed in South Korea
Petrochemical plant will be constructed in Ain Sokhna and is expected to create 20,000 jobs during construction and a further 20,000 jobs to operate the plant once built
Joel Gulhane December 17, 2013 2 Comments
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmy meets Speaker of South Korean Parliament Kang Chang-hee during his visit to Seoul
(Photo handout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Egypt and South Korea signed a contract on Tuesday morning to construct a petrochemical plant in Egypt, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says will include $4.8bn of investment and create tens of thousands of jobs during construction and operation.
The petrochemical plant will be constructed in Ain Sokhna and is expected to create 20,000 jobs during construction and a further 20,000 jobs to operate the plant once built. South Korea is contributing approximately 30% of the total cost of the project, which is being "implemented by an international consortium led by [South] Korean company SK Engineering & Construction."
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmy oversaw the signing ceremony of the contract during the second leg of his tour of Asia. The minister met with his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se on Tuesday to discuss relations between their two countries. The ministers "agreed on the importance of joint action in order to further develop and deepen these relations in various fields, political, economic, trade and tourism."
Yun emphasised the importance of South Korea's trade and economic relationship with Egypt, adding that South Korean investments in Egypt will increase as stability returns to Egypt, according to the ministry statement.
Fahmy also met with the speaker of the South Korean Parliament and they discussed issues relating to the Middle East, including the Syrian conflict and the upcoming Geneva 2 conference, the ongoing Israel-Palestinian final status negotiations and Egypt's efforts to create a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Fahmy was also given a presentation of the security and political situation on the Korean peninsula.
During his time in Seoul, Fahmy met with African and Arab ambassadors to discuss issues relating to Africa and the Arab World. He stressed to them that Egypt's current foreign is designed to "maximise its national interests and confirm the independence of its policy decisions."
Seoul is the second stop on a six day tour of Asia; he had previously visited China and is expected to end his tour in Japan, returning to Egypt on Friday.
This article has been corrected to show the investment figure to be $4.8bn, where previously it showed $4.8m
Topics: africa arab world Asia china Daily News Egypt DNE Egypt Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmy News Seoul South Korea
Joel Gulhane
Joel Gulhane is a journalist with an interest in Egyptian and regional politics. Follow him on Twitter @jgulhane
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https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/12/17/4-8m-investment-deal-signed-in-south-korea/
December 17, 2013 Breaking News


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They burned books in the hallways. I could smell it, the pain, the anger, the protest as the words scurried out of the open windows, sucked out into the great, black yonder by the treacherous summer wind.
I had expected more of Nature. After all, She had suffered enough over the millennia, as Man chewed Her up and spat Her out. But no, here She was, aiding the destroyers of the only beautiful thing that we had managed to create without destroying Her.
But. Maybe that was the point.
Helping Man wreak his own destruction.


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Ubisoft Forums > Assassin's Creed > Assassin's Creed - General Discussions > "If there was someone else, you would have sent him long ago."
View Full Version : "If there was someone else, you would have sent him long ago."
DreamerM
Altair is currently the only Grand Master Assassin in the clan.
That is why he has a missing finger. We know from Ubi's earlier statements that the finger was amputated in what Jade called a "pretty traumatic" intitiation ritual. Well, if loosing a finger was an initiation, why only Altair?
It must have been something only Master Assassins did, a sort of final connection to the clan. It was the "wedding ring" finger after all, and sacrificing it for the sake of being a more efficient weapon is not something anyone does lightly.
Sometimes the Informants refer to Altair as "Grand Master" which must have been his title before the icky incident with Robert.
And most telling of all, Al Mualim did not kill him. Granted, he used the incident to turn his "Best Man" into his personal tool, but at the same time...if he's the only Master they currently have, then killing him for ANY reason would have seriously weakened their clan. Any others attempting to reach that level would have had no-one to learn from.
Altair is far from a perfect tool. Volatle, unpredictable, and possessed of too much self-confidence and too much inconvenient, irrepressible curiosity, as well as an unexpected moral code. But Al Mualim didn't have anyone else nearly as able. It was a trade-off.
the_assassin_07
I really wanted to know all of this...
Seriously I don't even get what the main point of this thread is about...
AirRon_2K7
Other than the information, you really didn't present a point for the topic <_<... you sorta wrapped it up already XD
But a good (if already known) read nonetheless.
spazzoo1025
yah we already sort of knew all that stuff, is there an actual question or opinion you wanna bring up?
Yeah lol. He probably won't even reply..
jcody
I actually think there are those that are above altair.
In soloman's temple at the beginning of the game, Malik was dressed identical to altair, now here's the fun part - his ring finger is missing as well, while he has his left arm anyways.
He later became a bureau leader (due to the fact that two-armed assassin's are superior i guess.. he can no longer fight efficiently)
The bureau leaders wear black robes like al mualim. My guess is that the "black robe over the white robe and red sash" are even higher up than altair. No doubt malik was promoted for his sacrafice and retrieving the piece of eden alone.
Just my guess from the game context, i am not sure of any of this.
Kid_Phazon
But Altair was still HIS superior.
Originally posted by Kid_Phazon:
who's? and when?
He was malik's superior in soloman's temple, but don't you think he was rewarded a higher rank due to retriving the piece of eden hence the black robe like al mualum?
Xthe_assassinX
Possible, since Altair needs permission from the bureau leader to assassinate someone. Well not really permission, but they give him that feather thing to get their blood on. Kind of like they are higher up than him because they are allowing him to go and do it after he gets the information. They might also be just regular assassins who can't do their job anymore because they are too old or something. I know one of them has no arm, Malik, then there is a really old one, I think there are two of them, and then the guy who wants Altairs nuts, I think he is in damascus, but I'm not sure.
Originally posted by Xthe_assassinX:
Thats just like letting him acsess the target, so I don't think he's a higher rank than Altair. And wouldn't Al Mualum's word override Maliks?
Al mualim even says himself that Altair must get permission from malik/rafik/other guy. They must be satisfied with his investigation for him to recieve permission and the feather.
The question is, is this just a result of altair being stripped of his rank? Perhaps, but i still think the black robe signifies something..
What was the position called again?
Which one? Altair's? Was Grand master right?
No Maliks position.
Altair didn't NEED to report to buroughs before his disgrace. If you recall, when Al Mualim told him he couldn't begin his missions without permission from them, his reaction was "What Nonsense is this?" He's clearly not used to answering to them, or anyone really, besides Al Mualim himself.
It's not inconsievable that Malik was a Grand Master, but the loss of his arm would be the end of his curreer as an effective operative. Not only would it attract attention in a crowd (something no Assassin can afford) but he can't fight or climb anymore.
I think his appointment as a Souk burough leader was sort of a retirement for him. He's still respected and inhabits a lofty place where the younger Assassins can benefit from his judgment and be useful to the clan. But he can't be a Grand Master anymore.
It's not inconsievable that Malik was a Grand Master, but the loss of his arm would be the end of his curreer as an effective operative. Not only would it attract attention in a crowd (something no Assassin can afford) but he can't fight or climb anymore. Yeah, considering his left arm was cut off. Although he did say he could fight(last Mem Block)because his sword wielding arm was still strong.
Originally posted by jcody:
i still think the black robe signifies something..
Probably that that leader is Al Mualim's representative. The young Assassins associate that black robe with an authority that must be obeyed.
It also means this person is not an active operative. Al Mualim himself does not go on missions, and Malik filled the role after his arm effectively ended his Assassin curreer. It's probably a common retirement position in the clan: sedentary, but respected, authoritative and very important.
Yeah, considering his left arm was cut off. Although he did say he could fight(last Mem Block)because his sword wielding arm was still strong.
True, it wouldn't make him COMPLETELY unable to fight. However, it would affect his balance and reflexes (he's going to try and REACT as if he still has another arm there to steady him, even though he doesn't), and it'd make Parkour almost impossible.
When I replay the very first part of the game, I'll check to see if Malik and Bro have missing fingers...
Malik's brother has his finger. He's just ..like a noob assassin.
Skaevola
In the manual (or maybe the strat guide, I don't remember which), it says that Malik was the only one providing Altair with competition. I'll bet they were the only Grand Masters, until Malik got his arm lopped off.
Also, I was under the impression that Grand master was THE highest rank of assassin, except for the leader himself (who apparently has never actually assassinated anyone; Al Mualim has all ten fingers). I figure that bereau leaders aren't actually assassins, just assassins' assistants. After all, they never assassinate anyone. So you can't really be promoted from assassin to bereau leader, you wouldn't be an assassin anymore, right?
So Malik wasn't PROMOTED per se, just transferred to a different area, where he could still be helpful.
Originally posted by Wingf00t:
It's the stratagy guide that gives a rough bio of Malik, basically stating that he and Altair have been at odds for a long time, providing each other with healthy competition since way back.
Something in the relatively recent past must have happened to place Altair ahead of Malik: he seems pretty sure of his superiority when he orders the head-long attack on the templars.
Pr0metheus 1962
Originally posted by DreamerM:
We know from Ubi's earlier statements that the finger was amputated in what Jade called a "pretty traumatic" intitiation ritual. Well, if loosing a finger was an initiation, why only Altair?
If that's what Ubi says, then I think they've messed up. It's about the stupidest idea ever. I mean it kinda makes you easy to spot. I doubt the Assassins would have used such a ritual because it makes it virtually impossible for the amputee to do his job. It would be like stamping 'KGB' on every Russian spy's forehead - pointless and completely counterproductive.
Originally posted by Beeryus:
If that's what Ubi says, then I think they've messed up. It's about the stupidest idea ever. I mean it kinda makes you easy to spot.
Thus why it would be something ONLY inflicted on Masters who, presumably, are formidable enough to handle a potential exposure. Sacrificing their flesh, blood, bone, and even anonimity to be better weapons for the Clan.
Besides, it's only a liability if the other guys know what it means, and there's no evidence that the Guards do.
AhoyTheFatMan
hu r all the sketchy guys running around in black robes ova white robes?? ... according 2 wot sum of u r saying, and wot is sed on the game...
these black robed men must b bureau ppl lkn 4 info. (this is based on wot altair says to malik+co [going amongst the cities ppl looking 4 info])
ja??
I've never seen people looking like that in the game...
Originally posted by AhoyTheFatMan:
Please, PLEASE...just stop typing.
schoolboytom
firstly to an earlier point the position of the people in the bureau is called a 'Rafique'.......
The people in the black i imagine are assassins but maybe not on a task..... maybe they where the robe to disguise their white robes?
Or perhaps all the people wearing th black robes are rafiques....... yes no?
You see you don't see many of the black robe assassins in the actual city..... and when he says looking for information form the people, i think the people who look for the information are just like the informants that help you in a mission.
I think Altair was the best assassin around at that time..... and Malik was one of his friend sin which he trained with who was at a similar standard to the standard that Altair was at before his demotion
Rafiques are rafiques. i think they are retired assassins.
The people in black are civilians, family members of ladies I've saved who in turn provide human shields when I need them.
That depends on the city. The vigilantes differ from city to city.
True. Doesn't change that they are not officially associated with the Assassins in any way: they owe Altair a personal favor which is why they'll jump in front of swords for ya.
What? I'm not talking about vigilanties..
I'm talking about ASSASSIN's that wear the black robe over the normal assassin attire.
You mean the Rafiqs in the Assassin Buroughs? They wear black because Al Mualim does, and they're his stand-ins in that situation.
I'm talking about ASSASSIN's that wear the black robe over the normal assassin attire. And how do yo know they have a uniform under?
Because you can see it. You can see the red sash, brown belt, white robe. It's an open black robe.
The vigilanties are not assassins. They are friends/husbands of the people you save.
Yes, these are the people i am talking about (among others)
I think the black robe may have a signifigant meaning of "rank." Of course that is WHY they wear black. And, that is why it is safe to assume they are above the assassins, because they are adorned the same way as the leader of the assassin's, it is safe to assume it means something in terms of rank.
Malik also makes an offhand comment about how he judges rank "not by the bars on one's robe" but by actions.
Question is, how "uniform" can a clandestine group of political killers really afford to be?

quote:

Originally posted by jcody:
I'm talking about ASSASSIN's that wear the black robe over the normal assassin attire. And how do yo know they have a uniform under?

And where did you see them?
Random guys walking around masyaf, bureau leaders, and al mualim himself all wear what i am talking about. Just walk around masyaf in the crowds.
j3peaz
about the ranking system: the assassins are like a community, and each person(assassins) has a position within the community.
e.i. altair performs the assassins, informers gather information, the bureau leaders are representatives of al mualim and act kinda like a hotel
all members of the assassin society have a different purpose.
and as for a missing finger being conspicuous, it was not uncommon for missing limbs or other body parts. think about it, they didnt have any advanced medicine, maybe something to numb pain, crude anti-biotic, etc. However a missing arm would stand out more than a missing finger.


We are experiencing an extremely high volume of calls. Do not worry if you have not received your Census materials. You will not be fined if you complete your Census after Census night. Try calling again after August 10 when we expect call volumes to reduce.
It would appear the ABS has been inundated with emails and phone calls from paranoid Aussies who can't complete their Census for whatever reason. As we explained previous article, these fines are only used by the Bureau as a last resort; it's not like a late fee.
Has anyone completed their Census yet? Did anything stump or surprise you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Many people I spoke to didn't know they could complete the Census online before today.
Aaaahahaha and there site is down.
Still down... looks like it might be tomorrow for me!
I did mine at 6:30PM and it was fine.
How complete my census form?
So much for the assurances that there's plenty of capacity for people to fill in their census tonight. What a joke! Think the people who devised this on line system should be fined $180 a day until they get this right! Better to go back to the paper system at everyone's doorstep with collection. At least there's more of a chance of us getting this monolithic joke over and done with.
Knew that this stupid website would crash. Idiots who thought that 23 million people could fill in their census at once in the same night!


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Canada-EU counter-terror data exchange is illegal, says top EU judge
The opinion of the attorney general of the Court of Justice of the EU is not binding on the court
Peter Sayer (IDG News Service)
An agreement to send Canadian authorities passenger name record (PNR) data for flights from the European Union cannot be entered into in its current form, a top European Union judge has said.
That's because parts of the draft agreement are incompatible with EU citizens' fundamental privacy rights, according to Paolo Mengozzi, Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU, in a legal opinion issued Thursday.
His opinion, on a case brought by the European Parliament, is only advisory, and it still remains for the CJEU to make a final ruling on the matter.
But if the court follows his advice, it could disrupt the European Commission's plans for a new directive on the sharing of PNR data among EU member states and with other countries.
The agreement, which the EU and Canada began negotiating in 2010, concerns the transfer of PNR data to Canadian authorities for the purpose of combatting terrorism and other serious transnational crime. The passenger name records concerned contain 19 categories of information, covering the passenger's identity, nationality, address, contact details of the person making the reservation, payment information such as the number of the credit card used to reserve the flight, luggage details, and additional services requested concerning health problems, mobility, or dietary requirements. This might allow authorities to infer information about passengers' ethnic origin or religious beliefs.
The European Parliament refused to give its approval to the deal following its signature by the Council of the EU in 2014, preferring first to seek the opinion of the CJEU on its compatibility with EU laws on privacy and the protection of personal data.
In his opinion, Advocate General Mengozzi found five articles of the agreement incompatible with the provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights on the right to respect for private and family life, and the right to protection of personal data.
Those articles allow Canada to:
- process PNR data for reasons other than the agreement's public security objectives of preventing and detecting terrorist offenses and serious transnational crime;
- process, use and retain sensitive data;
- make unnecessary disclosures of the information;
- keep the data for up to five years for pretty much any reason, whether or not connected to the prevention of terrorism or serious crime, and
- transfer the data to a third country without being able to prevent that transfer to yet other countries.
Mengozzi identified 11 changes to the agreement needed in order to make it compatible with the charter, including:
- clearly defining the data to be transferred, and excluding sensitive data from the definition;
- exhaustively listing the offenses that constitute serious transnational crime, and
- informing EU member states when information about one of their citizens is passed on to other agencies.
His opinion was greeted with a mixture of delight and dismay.
Timothy Kirkhope MEP, Justice and Home Affairs spokesman of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, described the opinion as irresponsible and said: "Given the level of the threat you have to ask what planet some of these lawyers live on. Law enforcement authorities all say we are continually playing catch-up on information flow and analysis, and the CJEU now risks setting back our efforts even further."
But Joe McNamee, Executive Director of lobby group European Digital Rights, agreed with the advocate general's disapproval of the deal. "Once again, the European Court is confirming that the European Commission has failed to understand the law. The European Commission has -- again -- failed in its basic function as the 'guardian of the treaties,'" he said.
If the full court follows Mengozzi's advice, then the data sharing agreement may not enter into force until those amendments are made. The opinions of the court's advocates general are not binding, but the court follows them in the majority of cases.


I most often am asked as a New York DWI Attorney how to obtain a hardship license once you have been charged with DWI. In New York, if you are charged with a DWI or DUI, you will go in front of a judge. At the time that you go in front of the judge for the very first time, if your blood alcohol content is a .08 or more or if you refuse to take a breath test, the judge will suspend your privileges. If you do refuse to take a breath test, you are not eligible for a hardship license. However, if you do blow a .08 or more, you are eligible for a hardship license. A hardship license is not given by the Department of Motor Vehicles. It is only handed out by the judge. Ordinarily the process is to ask the judge to put the case on for a few days later in order for a hardship hearing. The purpose of the hardship hearing is to determine whether the judge will give you a hardship license based on financial hardship.
In the more rural areas of New York State, it is very difficult to get from one's home to their work without using their motor vehicles. There is not very much mass transit, buses, or subways. Therefore, someone might have to hire a car or a driver or in these cases a taxi cab or maybe an uber. That can be very expensive. Everybody is on their own income and it's fixed to some extent, of course. If you can prove to the court that based on your income it would be a financial hardship for you to essentially hire a driver, then the court would grant you a hardship license.
However, in the City of New York, getting a hardship license is a little more difficult due to the advent of copious mass transit. If you live in Brooklyn and you have to go to Washington Heights, there are buses and subways, which would not create, in most cases, a financial hardship. Remember, a financial hardship is not that it's going to take you longer; it's that while it might be a hardship, it's not a financial hardship. These are things that should be discussed with your New York DWI Attorney before you go in front of the judge.
Have you been arrested for DWI in New York and looking to obtain a hardship license? Contact experienced New York DWI Attorney Carl Spector to defend you.


Our state-of-the art computing suite helps us to inspire our pupils to learn the skills and knowledge they will come across in the digital world and how to use the technology in their daily life safely.
Here are some links to websites that should help you and your child stay safe online.
CEOP is a command of the National Crime Agency and is dedicated to tackling the sexual abuse and exploitation of children and young people. CEOP helps children and young people under the age of 18 who have been forced or manipulated into taking part, or are being pressured to take part, in sexual activity of any kind. This can be both online and offline. The CEOP Safety Centre offers information and advice for children and young people, parents and carers and professionals. You can visit the CEOP Safety Centre and make a report directly to CEOP by clicking the Click CEOP button.
Online bullying or other online concerns should not be reported to CEOP and children and young people should be directed to speak to an adult they trust, and/or referred to Childline, if they would like to speak to someone about how they are feeling.
Here is a link to the e-safety newsletters provided by Hertfordshire County Council.