text:
by Paul Lilly — Sunday, July 09, 2017, 10:22 AM EDT
WWE Leak Unmasks Smackdown Of Personal Data For Over 3 Million Wrestling Fans
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has received a black eye for an embarrassing data leak that could have (and should have) been avoided. It was not, however, and as a result personally identifiable information and other private details belonging to over 3 million WWE fans was sitting online unprotected and visible without a password to anyone who knew where to look.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (John O'Neill (jjron))
The lax security was discovered Bob Dyachenko from security Kromtech. In order to view all of that information, all a person had to do was direct their web browser to the appropriate website. Apparently the data was stored in plain text. Information on an Amazon Web Services S3 server, including names, physical addresses, email addresses, earnings, ethnicity, genders, birthdates,and even the ages of any children customers might have (where supplied).
One of the customers affected believes the database containing the leaked info might be tied to the WWE Shop
In attempting to validate the data, Forbes heard from one of the customers affected by the leak that the database was probably from an online WWE store since "the network doesn't require a mobile number." Whether or not that is the case, WWE insists that no payment information was compromised.
"Although no credit card or password information was included, and therefore not at risk, WWE is investigating a vulnerability of a database housed on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has now been secured," WWE said in a statement.
Dyachenko believes the information belonged to one of WWE's many marketing teams, as it included a wealth of social media tracking data, such as posts from both superstars and fans. The leaked data is also the same kind that customers of the WWE Network are asked to provide when subscribing to the video streaming service.
Thumbnail Image Source: Flickr (Miguel Discart)
Tags: security, (NASDAQ:AMZN), amazon web services, wwe


A South Korean cargo vessel, the Stellar Daisy, disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on 31 March.
Two members of the crew were found in a life raft the day after the vessel disappeared, but 22 members of the crew still remain unaccounted for.
The Stellar Daisy is a very large ore carrier, and set out from Brazil on its way to China. A distress signal was broadcast on 31 March when the vessel was approximately 2500km from the coast stating that the vessel was taking in water on its port side and was listing, but the exact location of the Stellar Daisy and fate of the crew remain unknown.
Search operations have been underway since the cargo vessel disappeared, and the Charter has been activated to help these efforts in attempting to locate the vessel and its crew through the use of satellite imagery.


text:
A practical review of adipocere: Key findings, case studies and operational considerations from crime scene to autopsy
Magni, P.A., Lawn, J. and Guareschi, E.E. ORCID: 0000-0001-9883-9872 (2020) A practical review of adipocere: Key findings, case studies and operational considerations from crime scene to autopsy. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 78 . Article 102109.
Link to Published Version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2020.102109
After death, the body begins decomposition, a process that starts with the breakdown of organic matter and typically leads to the complete degradation of a body. Such a process is highly affected by (micro and macro) environmental factors of intrinsic and extrinsic nature.
Adipocere is a substance formed from the decomposition of adipose tissue and represents a disruption to the typical decomposition process.
Such disruption causes decomposition to slow or arrest completely, placing a body into a state of preservation, and causes complications in the estimation of the time since death (Post-Mortem Interval, PMI). While several studies have been performed on the nature, the formation and the degradation of adipocere, there is still no reliable model to assess the PMI of a body exhibiting it. Case studies are an important source to aid pathologists and investigators during a case.
This review presents a summary and an update on the knowledge surrounding the chemistry and the factors affecting adipocere formation and degradation, the timing and the distribution of adipocere throughout a body, and the techniques used to investigate it. Furthermore, a table of the most important case studies involving adipocere since 1950, several images and descriptions of recent cases and operational considerations for the best practice at the crime scene and autopsy are presented to be used as a reference to facilitate forensic professionals in adipocere cases.
Murdoch Affiliation(s):
Medical, Molecular and Forensic Sciences
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd
http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/59347

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Tuesday July 10th sees the start of the 2018 Eurocycles Eurobaby Junior Tour, once again based in the picturesque Co. Clare. There have been some changes made to the stages this year but the first stage remains as an individual time-trial on Tuesday evening with racing continuing until the Sunday with a circuit stage round Ennis itself.
In 2017, Comeragh CC entered two teams in this prestigious event, including two guest riders. With some of those now progressed beyond the junior ranks, we are entering one team this year, comprising of 5 of our own second year juniors who all entered the race last year; the Kenny twins. Jason & Rhys, Ciaran O'Sullivan, Aaron Dillon, and Tomás Walsh.
In the lead up to this momentous event, we will feature an individual rider profile for each of the lads competing and for the support team. Keep an eye here over the next few days.


text:
SGM Radio
SGN Scoops Staff January 15, 2022
SGM Radio is excited to announce a record breaking week with the debut of the Morning
Show with Natalie. We are so thrilled with the response from both fans and artist alike. We'd like to thank the sponsors of the Morning Show, Hometown Roots in Sebastopol, Mississippi, Joe McGee Construction in Lake, Mississippi, Lee's Steakhouse in Sebastopol, Mississippi, and MyPillow. The Morning Show would also like to acknowledge and thank those who became official "Friends" of the Morning Show during our first week. If you would like to become a part of all the buzz about the Morning Show, you can become a sponsor or friend as well.
You can contact the Morning Show at 1-769-240-6886 or email natalie@sgmradio.com Stay tuned. The best is yet to come.
The Morning Show With Natalie


Continuous Integration (CI)- is the principle that code changes are checked into the source code repository in small batches. With each check-in, the build system automatically checks out the latest version of code and goes through the build process. If the code that is checked in breaks the build, our changes get backed out and we get to figure out what caused the breakage.
Continuous Development (CD) – is the principle & practices for how the results of testing are reviewed, and the system automatically makes the decision as to what to do with the build. We run a set of tests if the code passes, the build moves to a staging environment.
This accelerates a transformation in security testing. Security finds itself very much at the same crossroads. We cannot spend hourly on going through the process reconnaissance, scanning, enumerating and exploitation. Instead, security tests need to be automated to make effective software delivery pipeline.
There are many instances used as representatives for working between DevOps and Security. We can easily find a lot of names from Internet such as: DevSecOps, DevOpsSec, Rugged DevOps. Securing DevOps is all about bringing together the design, development, and operational aspects of security into one continuous discipline throughout the software product lifecycle. It's not important how to call it. The key thing is to use it and gain the desired results. Following are tips to build our security automation effectively in DevOps manner.
To be a role of enabler rather than a blocker: If security testing plays its role as a blocker in the traditional environment where a fail identified to stop the progress of software delivery. In DevOps, to be a success, we must be a supporter to help everyone go faster and assert the security quality at the same time. The core principle here is that if we are a blocker, we will be routed around. If we are enabler then we are adding value. A question for the security team is how to make the software development/ testing pipeline go faster and safer?
To Secure software Supply Chain: In this era when the rise of a lot of compliance framework, we add in a certain security control because compliance says we have to. However, we have to look into our software supply chain from start to finish and pinpoint areas where security can add value. A software supply chain security is viewed in different areas.
Secondly, software dependencies – what library, external API our software using? What other layers our software stay on top? What other external systems that our software interacting with or exchange data together. And all these dependencies are meeting a good security level?
Thirdly, in the development stage of software engineering, are we writing security tests? Any practices like OWASP Top 10 we are using?
Next is build process, do we have security acceptance tests that they are covering a certain level of our application areas?
For the deployment stage, what happens to get software into production? Are we securing config and secrets for the application and infrastructure?
Finally, Operation stage, are we under active attack at this very moment? Do we even know what is getting attacked?
Always keep the build process as fast as possible. In Agile and DevOps manner, the build is a skeleton of the whole process. If it gets down or breaks, the team cannot get work done or software released. Adding more security tests must not make the build slow down or taking too much time. Although it's hard to quantitively identify how is too much, if our build takes more time than we make a cup of instant coffee, then we have a problem. A practice that is to keep its progress less than 5 minutes. If we find ourselves in a situation where security testing is taking too long, then we might consider splitting tests into fast tests and slow tests. The fast tests come into the main build job, while slow tests are executed in a parallel build. Most build system can do this, and we are good with using Jenkins to handle this situation at the company.
Don't let our security tests preventing the release. We understand that security testing is to identify security vulnerability problems. So when saying "don't let our security tests preventing the release" sounds like antithetical to our purpose, but security testing is tough to get right, we have to ensure what has been pointed out must be a real vulnerability, not a false positive. Therefore, we should be transparent to developers, communicate with them on the issues found but not breaking the build as a normal test failure would. However, in some cases, we cannot avoid blocking the build such as when sensitive data is exposing to unauthorized persons. We may build a team culture that we decide which tests are labeled as critical and most worth blocking for.
Build a ChatOps to convey the security info effectively. ChatOps is a new operational paradigm work that is happening in the background today is brought into a common chatroom. In a ChatOps environment, the chat client serves as the primary communication channel for ongoing work. Tools that developers and operations managers already use are integrated into a collaborative communication environment to improve ticket tracking and automated incident response. All the popular platforms have webhooks and integration that are easy for us to report with.
Securing DevOps is essential. However, there is no standard defined for it. Even having a chance of a standard developing are small because different organizations are doing things their way, they hardly to agree on common rules or standard. However, it is exactly the spirit of DevOps where is less prescriptive and no standard requirements.


text:
You are here: Home / Contemporary Electoral Politics in Trinidad
Three general elections have taken place in Trinidad in a little more than two years, the most recent in October 2002. The population of Trinidad, about 1.3 million, is divided nearly equally between Afro-Trinidadians and Indo-Trinidadians, who together account for a little over 80 percent of the people: the former are the descendants of slaves brought to the British colony to work on the plantations, while the latter are descendants of indentured laborers (another term, some scholars have argued, for slaves) who, following the abolition of slavery in British territories in the 1830s, were similarly imported as a laboring force. Indians first arrived in Trinidad in 1845: "Arrival Day", which marks the emergence of Indians in Trinidad, is now a national holiday. The remaining 18-20 percent of the population is comprised of mixed races, creoles, Lebanese, Chinese, and whites.
The Indian presence in Trinidad's electoral politics was felt for the first time in 1986 when the ruling party, the People's National Movement (PNM), which had reigned supreme since Trinidad derived its independence from British rule in 1962, lost to a coalition of the United National Congress (UNC), led by the trade unionist Basdeo Panday, and the National Alliance for Reconstruction. The Alliance's A. N. R. Robinson was swept to power, and Basdeo was placed in charge of the Finance Ministry at a critical moment in Trinidad's history when the IMF had called for drastic economic reforms to avert what it described as economic collapse. In 1991, the PNM came back into power, but in 1995 Panday achieved what would have been considered absolutely improbable a decade ago, namely outright electoral triumph. Thus, 150 years after Indians first arrived in Trinidad, an Indo-Trinidadian, whose ancestors came from the plains of north India, ascended to the office of the Prime Minister.
Having served out his five-year term, Panday appeared to have consolidated the UNC's place in Trinidad's politics when he again led the party to victory in late 2000. The UNC captured 19 seats, and the PNM 16 seats; but dissension in the ranks of his party, which deprived Panday of his majority in Parliament less than a year after he was sworn into office for his second term, led him to dissolve Parliament and call for early elections. Among those who quit Panday's cabinet was Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, who stated that he no longer had confidence in his government's ability and will to deal with corruption. Manning and his PNM, which has historically attracted Afro-Trinidadians much as UNC derives most of its constituents from the Indian population, campaigned against corruption in the government; Panday argued that his party was best calculated to lead the oil-rich nation into further prosperity and economic growth. The December 2001 elections, however, resulted in a stalemate: the UNC and the PNM, still led by Patrick Manning, each captured 18 seats in the 36-seat Parliament. The three dissenters from Panday's party, though constituting themselves into a new political party called Team Unity, failed to win any seats.
Following the stalemated election, Panday proposed a power-sharing agreement between the two parties, but his proposal was rejected by Manning. Subsequently Panday and Manning agreed that Arthur Robinson, who had been elevated to the largely ceremonial Presidency in 1997, would choose the head of government, and that new elections would be held at a date agreed upon by the two parties. On 24 December 2001, Robinson chose Manning to form the new government. For the Indian community, puzzled that incumbent Prime Minister Panday should have been overlooked, this was perhaps calculated to revive memories of the domination of Trinidad's politics by those of African descent. Panday declared himself unable to accept Robinson's decision, on the grounds that it had not been made in accordance with the provision of the Constitution. Following a party meeting on 2 January 2002, Panday issued a statement describing the government of Manning as "illegitimate, unconstitutional, contrary to the rule of law". Manning, for his part, issued a statement on January 3 laying claim to the government and denouncing Panday for "disregarding the rule of law" and "engaging in action designed to inflame the minds of followers." "Poor Mr. Panday, I feel sorry for him", Manning said. "Some people have difficulty adjusting to new arrangements. He doesn't realize that he's not the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, that there's a new prime minister and he has difficulty adjusting to that. But I think over time, he will adjust, so let us be patient and kind with him."
Manning had surely spoken too early, since the political stalemate never disappeared, and the country's political business came to a standstill in the absence of a Speaker in the House of Representatives. Manning, consequently, asked for the dissolution of Parliament and asked that the country go to the polls yet again. In the most recent elections, Manning led the PNM to victory with 20 seats. Basdeo Panday, nearly 70 years old, made it known that he would be contemplating retirement from politics, and some UNC leaders are, in the event, certain that the party's fortunes cannot be revived with Panday at the helm of leadership. Allegations of corruption, some concerning Panday's own undisclosed wealth and assets, are thought to have weakened the attraction that voters might previously have had for the UNC. Nonetheless, Pandey took an oath as Leader of the Opposition. It remains to be seen whether the PNM represents only the Afro-Trinidadian party, or whether the country has moved, at least in part, towards surmounting the racial cleavage that has been at the heart of Trinidad's electoral politics.
See also on MANAS:
Indians in the Caribbean (four-part series published in The Hindu, 1995), by Vinay Lal
Articles (The HINDU)
Reflections on the Indian Diaspora.
Freedom in Chains.
At Home in Trinidad.
The Future of the Indians in the Diaspora.


The man came up behind her and yanked her purse from her shoulder so violently that both fell to the ground, West Allis police said.
WEST ALLIS - A grandmother was walking her dog when a man came up behind her and yanked her purse from her shoulder so violently that both of them fell to the ground, West Allis police said.
The purse-snatcher got up and ran away with the purse, police said.
The incident happened shortly before 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 6, on South 84th Street just south of Becher Street, police said. The 63-year-old West Allis woman had been walking with her teenage granddaughter, they said.
Officers were responding to a call about a woman lying on the ground screaming, police said.
The suspect is described as white, in his late 20's to early 30's, approximately 6 feet tall, with black hair and with facial stubble, police said. He was wearing a white shirt, blue jeans and black shoes, they said.
Police are asking the public's help to identify the man in surveillance video. Anyone with information related to this investigation is asked to call Detective Caleb Porter of the West Allis Police Department at 414-302-8076 or remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 414-476-CASH.


text:
Category Five Minutes of Fame
February | 2012
Lee and Miller 2012 Skylark recipients
in Five Minutes of Fame, Welcome to Liad
Science fiction and fantasy authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are pleased to share the news that they are recipients of the 2012 Skylark Award.
Presented by the New England Science Fiction Association at the annual regional science fiction convention Boskone, the Skylark — formally The Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction — is presented to some person, who, in the opinion of the membership, has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late "Doc" Smith well-loved by those who knew him. Given since 1966, previous recipients include Sir Terry Pratchett, George R.R. Martin, Anne McCaffrey, Jane Yolen, and Isaac Asimov.
The Winslow, Maine writers received the award in person at a s...
Necessity's Child Release Day!
in Five Minutes of Fame
Today! is the Official Release Day* for Necessity's Child by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
Final cover Necessity's Child
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Art by David B. Mattingly
If you're new to the Liaden Universe® — or if you're an old-timer who's on the fence about buying a "side book" — you may, if you like, read the first nine chapters, free, right here at the Baen webiste.
Necessity's Child hardcover is available from your favorite bookstore, and also from these fine vendors:
Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore
BN.com
And! in audiobook format from Audible.com
*Yes, yes; I know some of you read it months ago. You may dance, too! No, really; I insist.
January | 2014
Why yes, we do have works eligible for the Hugo Awards
in 2013 Book Tour, Five Minutes of Fame, Publication News, Welcome to Liad, Writing News | No comments
It's silly season in the SF/F world; the season when All the Writers remind All the Readers, and especially those who vote on the Hugo Awards, which of their works are eligible for Hugo consideration.
The 2014 Hugo Awards, for works published in 2013, will be presented at the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, LonCon 3, to be held in London, England, August 14-18, 2014
If you're not sure if you're eligible to nominate and/or vote in the 2014 Hugo Awards, here's the link to the rules.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller published several works in 2013, which are eligible for consideration. They are:
Novel:
Necessity's Child, Baen, February 2013
Trade Secret, Baen, November 2013
Novelette:
"Eleutherios," Baen.com, January 2013
"Moon's Honor," Splinter Universe, February 2013
Boskone schedule for Steve Miller and other updates
in Convention News, Five Minutes of Fame, Interviews, Publication News | No comments
First … coming Friday …
Steve Miller at Boskone*
Bleeding Hearts Fri 18:00 – 18:50, Harbor II
Good vs Evil: The Great Divide Fri 20:00 – 20:50, Burroughs
Autographing with Steve Miller & Charles Stross Sat 11:00 – 11:50, Galleria-Autographing
Writers on Writing: Character Versus Characterization Sat 12:00 – 12:50, Lewis
Reading by Steve Miller Sat 13:00 – 13:25, Griffin
Kaffeeklatsche with Steve Miller Sat 14:00 – 14:50, Galleria-Kaffeeklatsch 1
The Long Series — How We Did It Sat 17:00 – 17:50, Harbor I
Boskone Book Release Sat 19:30 – 21:00 — lots of books new and on the way, including some new Lee & Miller items
Ezines, Fanzines, and Blogs, Oh My! Sun 11:00 – 11:50, Lewis
Reboots: New Chances for Old Stories? Sun...
November | 2014
Lee and Miller's PhilCon Principal Speaker Speech, in its entirety
in Convention News, Five Minutes of Fame | 8 comments
Despite our best efforts, and despite that we practiced beforehand, to be sure that we wouldn't run over our time — we ran over our time at PhilCon, and did not finish delivering our Writer Guest of Honor Speech. Several people asked and/or suggested that we post it on the web, so that it could be read.
Without further ado, here is that speech, complete with stage directions:
Choices: The Creative Conundrum
Guest of Honor Speech
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
PhilCon 2014
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Thank you (intro person's name –) thank you for that welcome. We also need to thank program Czar Hugh Casey, Convention chair Gary Feldbaum, and FILL IN NAMES.
Thank you all for allowing us to stand here today where only a select few from our community have stood in s...
Lee and Miller Hugo Eligible Works 2014
in Five Minutes of Fame | 3 comments
The nice folks at SasQuan have just reminded me that Award Season has opened and that it's time for those who wish to do so to nominate works for the Hugo Awards ballot (more information here).
Below is a list of our eligible works, with links to those that are available for reading on the web, followed by some auctorial commentary.
Works are listed in this format:
TITLE, MONTH OF PUBLICATION, VENUE, WORD COUNT, CATEGORY
Everybody ready?
Here you are:
The author known as Sharon Lee and Steve Miller published three eligible works in 2014.
The Rifle's First Wife, January, Splinter Universe, 13,350, novelette |LINK TO STORY|
Roving Gambler, April, Splinter Universe, 15,432, novelette |LINK TO STORY|
Code of Honor, May, Splinter Universe, 10,805, novelette |LINK TO STORY|
(PLEASE ...
March | 2016
Alliance of Equals eARC
in Five Minutes of Fame, Publication News | 3 comments
The electronic advance reading copy (aka, the one with the (most) mistakes in it) of Alliance of Equals, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the 19th novel-length adventure in the Liaden Universe®!
. . .is now available for sale via download.
Here's your link
I trust you all know what to do.
Art by David Mattingly
List of Eligible Lee&Miller and Lee works 2016
in Five Minutes of Fame | No comments
I see by my inbox that we have now entered SciFi Silly Season. Here, in one handy list, are all eligible Lee and Miller, and Lee, works, published in 2016.
Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, novel, Baen Books, July 2016
"Wise Child," Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, novelette, Baen.com, June 2016
"Friend of a Friend," Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, novelette, Sleeping with the Enemy, Pinbeam Books, July 2016
"Shame the Devil," Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, short story, Alien Artifacts, Zombies Need Brains, August 2016
"The Wolf's Bride," Sharon Lee, novelette, Splinter Universe, January 2016
"Will-o'-the-wisp," Sharon Lee, short story, Splinter Universe, January 2016
And! Lest I forget — which I almost did: Lee and Miller's long-running Liaden Universe® is eligible for the Best ...
May | 2017
Today, from 12 noon until 2 pm EDT, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (that's us!) will be answering all your best questions at Reddit!
We've never done this before, but don't worry, we've brought in expert help:
December | 2017
Block Party and Book Signing
in Five Minutes of Fame, Publication News | No comments
"Block Party," a new Liaden Universe® novelette, has been published to Baen.com. You can read it here.
Also! Lee and Miller will be signing Neogenesis, and talking trash at the Children's Book Cellar, 52 Main Street, Waterville, Maine, on Saturday, January 13, from 1-3:30 pm. Hope to see you there!


Our intrepid philosophical investigator Grant Bartley files a conference report.
The London School of Economics (LSE) is a complex of buildings hidden in the heart of London, sandwiched between Covent Garden, the lawyers' hive of Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the Strand (at the other end of which is Trafalgar Square). The LSE was Karl Popper's university, and in June it played host to a one-day UNESCO-sponsored conference on poverty put together by the Forum for European Philosophy.
The chairwoman started with these statistics: the richest 15% of the world's population control 80% of the world's product, while the poorest 17% together control 0.3%. She then pointed out that the top fifth of the world's population is 300 times richer than the bottom fifth. So typically, if you were to judiciously give away half your wealth to the world's poorest, you could make 150 people twice as well off... Moreover, thirty thousand people a day die of preventable causes – that is, of poverty. We in the rich world evidently have some sort of duty to those with much less than ourselves; but exactly why, who and how? Who caused this situation, and who's responsible for doing something about it? In the chairwoman's words, this conference was organised to consider the terms in which global poverty should be addressed.
The first speaker was the genial Professor Jonathan Glover. He said that the physical distance of the poor from the rich provides us with a defence mechanism to help us deny our moral responsibility. But it's a poor excuse: distance is irrelevant in terms of moral responsibility. It's rather that distance has an anaesthetising effect, contributing to the psychology of inaction. Another excuse for our inactivity is that we see the problem as insoluble or too big. Professor Glover compared responses to on-going poverty with the immediate generous response of the rich world to the Tsunami – a on-off problem requiring a one-off response. There's also a hint of moral supremacism over poverty. The Tsunami could be seen as an act of God or Nature on innocent victims; whereas perhaps there is still a residual feeling that the poor are responsible for their own poverty. It's their responsibility, not ours.
But the poor have humanitarian claims on us – on the basis of a human recognition of other people's suffering – and also claims of justice. Glover claimed that we owe the poor world compensatory justice for instance, as much of the developing world's poverty can be traced to our exploitation, past and present, and our trade protectionism. One example Glover gave was that half the cut flowers bought in British supermarkets come from Kenya, lavishly using up that country's scarce water supplies to grow them: "We are exporting drought" he explained. There are also justice claims on those who have the power to ameliorate suffering simply because they have that power. In fact there should be moral outrage at all the preventable suffering, Glover said, quite reasonably.
He gave the example, also attributed to Peter Singer, that if you were walking along a riverbank and saw a child drowning, you would automatically feel a duty to try to rescue that child. Why should you feel less duty to rescue those dying from poverty, provided you can do something about it – which we all can? Professor David Miller, in a later speech, countered that the drowning child example was not a good analogy when considering our duties towards developing countries. The situation is more like one where there are several people walking along beside a river continually in which many people are drowning. You cannot rescue everyone, so you must be selective; nor are you the only person who could possibly offer help. Plus, a drowning child might not yet be self-responsible (a 'moral agent'), whereas poor adults do have responsibilities to themselves. So the 'duty issue' becomes a question of how responsibility is to be distributed among everyone who has a share in it.
One suggestion Glover extracted from considering our moral duty is that none of us can do everything we possibly could do, but that we should try to "live life at the moral maximum". In the extreme this would mean giving away your wealth and doing good works until you're as poor as the people you're trying to empower. Glover called this "telescopic philanthropy" after a phrase Dickens used to describe Mrs Jellyby, a character in Bleak House who behaved like this. But you are also an 'end', not merely a 'means': you ought to look after yourself as well as others. Also, we have the strongest responsibilities to those closest to us. Imagine saying to your young daughter, "You're not having any birthday presents this year darling, we're giving the money to Oxfam." That would show a distinct lack of responsibility and love. So, with sensible consideration, the 'moral maximum' principle reduces to living as benign a life as is psychologically sustainable to you, so that your morality and good works doesn't drive you to madness. What is 'psychologically sustainable' must be a vague and arbitrary, rather than a sharply-defined and absolute zone. We would also wisely match our charity activity with our skills and aptitudes, "working with the grain of our nature". Academics and thinkers, Glover suggested, may be better employed in consciousness-raising than in fund-raising. Unfortunately, and on the contrary, he thinks that not enough philosophers are engaged with these issues.
Each session was opened to questions from the audience. The first person to stand up and make a point was a representative of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, the organisation behind the Live 8 concerts. She urged perseverance: although a lot had been achieved, still a lot more needs to be done: "Keep pushing!" A later contributor from the floor made the promising suggestion that there should be a global 'poverty awareness day'.
Dr Linda Yueh, an economist, next spoke about China's phenomenal growth, lifting something like 400 million people out of absolute poverty in the last three decades, although inequality is also increasing. (Absolute poverty means a poverty that is life-threatening.) Incomes have been doubling every eight years, compared to about every thirty years in the West. Contrary to received wisdom about development, this growth was not due to foreign aid, investment or trade, but due to internal government policies, such as providing productivity incentives to farmers. Reforms to stimulate economic growth were experimented with locally before wider adoption. Rural industrialisation schemes prevented urbanisation, and rules restricted movement. It was only with the increase in global trade in the 90s that there has been substantial urban poverty, with between 70 and 200 million migrating to coastal export-processing regions, which control three-quarters of GDP.
Providing a contrast with the Chinese case, Professor Jan Breman, a sociologist from Amsterdam, spoke about his field-work in poor rural villages in India. There is no trickle-down effect of wealth here. The poor agricultural workers, "the biggest working class in the world," have been robbed of their common land and live in extreme poverty, with one set of clothes and no possessions, barely able to survive on the equivalent to about fifty cents a day when they can get it (ie not in the monsoon season, and for less than half a year). They're kept out of public view and public thought. Meanwhile the "obscenely rich" land-dispossessing land-owners live in gated communities in the same villages, often with their own water-purification plants. Employers offering low wages gain from keeping the poor in poverty; and land-owners remain secure as long as the poor remain effectively powerless. Breman also said that the jargon of Social Darwinism is coming back in India: 'the poor are inferior, don't support them'. Meanwhile the gap between rich and poor is not just increasing, the rate of increase is accelerating. Market fundamentalism causes this: labour is over-supplied. So what is right ideologically?
Perhaps it was his first-hand experience of this extreme poverty, but I found Prof Breman to be speaking from his heart rather than just intellectually about the effects of poverty, and his words were all the more persuasive for that. Thus a truism such as "their poverty is a problem of distribution, not a problem of being unwilling or unable to work," carried weight and meaning. To him a duty of assistance springs simply from "our basic human equality"; but "we are witnessing the denial of the principle of equality". Breman further said that globalisation is irrational. For example, it has turned Europe into a rich fortress, "but will it be possible to continue to keep out the poor?" He called for good governance at the transnational level – in contrast to national politics always selfishly serving national interests. I agree that such a visionary development would surely mark an increase in maturity for human society.
After lunch there was a debate between a former World Bank representative and a former minister in the Ghanaian government. The man from the World Bank, Professor Paul Collier, was personable and jokey, an impeccable example of middle-class reasonableness and approachability, gently stressing the unfairness of the inequality of wealth across the world. But his gentle personality was unfortunately something of a smokescreen obscuring the logical chicanery of his argument. I mean, he redefined the problem of poverty so that the obvious solution would automatically fit his free market preferences. I hoped I wasn't the only person to spot this manoeuvre.
Professor Collier set up the situation like this: the world can't so simply be divided between the rich and the poor. Instead there's the richest one billion and the developing four billion, then there are the poorest one billion. But the problem of the poorest one billion is not so much that they're in desperate poverty, he claimed: their problem is that compared to the developing four billion, their economies are stagnant, experiencing no growth and remaining in poverty, while the developing rest of the world catches up with us rich. Thus we must facilitate growth of the stagnant economies so that they will not be left behind the rest of the world. The best way to promote economic growth is to stimulate the market economies of these countries. So the problem of the poorest countries is really that they're not doing enough capitalism.
It sounds reasonable. But if you define the problem as a lack of economic growth, then of course the solution is going to be more economic growth! And 'economic growth' is defined here to mean 'growth in markets'. But the main problem of the poorest people is actually not that their economies aren't growing as fast as their neighbours – it's that they're poor: they don't have the resources they need for an adequate standard of living. Professor Glover said earlier that the problem with famine is not the lack of food in the world, but the lack of rights of access to food. So generally, to be poor means not having access to food, clean water, medical care and education, etc. When seeing the problem in this way (ie, as it really is), it's clear that market growth is not the core issue. The poor world needs more hospitals, schools, and infrastructures organised to facilitate access to all necessary resources. But, if the problem is not enough hospitals, the solution should surely be to focus on building more hospitals – not on building more McDonalds, Starbucks or sweatshops. The point is, the problem of poverty is not per se the problem of a lack of economic growth: the problem of poverty is poverty, ie lack of access to resources. The way to finance the change may be to undergo market economic growth; but that is by no means the only possible approach For example, the necessary finance to provide the necessary resources could equally be achieved through (neo-) Keynsian economics, that is, by government investment (John Maynard Keynes was also at LSE). Resource provision could theoretically also be funded through local co-operatives, or with help from charitable, religious or other organisations. The current obsession with promoting a global market growth agenda is frankly irresponsible, I believe, given the high pressure the market economic system is already putting on the environment. And, maybe half the rich world's population don't even like the work they're doing. Why should we want to export this system to others? We shouldn't just let the West's short-term, blunt, biased and bad understanding of economic expediency blind us about the social and ecological implications of our embracing of capitalist economics. In any case, it hasn't been demonstrated that market economic growth is even a good solution.
The former Ghanaian minister, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, said that the poor can be best helped by banking reforms, so that they can afford to borrow to invest in resources. He also made this memorable point: twenty years ago, it cost six bags of Ghanaian cocoa to buy one European car. Now it costs forty bags of cocoa to buy the same car. As he explained it, "poor countries are subsidising the life-styles of the rich by providing them with cheap commodities." Our consumer life-styles are evidently partly responsible for the continuing impoverishment of the developing world. He wanted instead to let Africa export while limiting imports. Aid, on the other hand, is "really an instrument of foreign policy," and "most of it goes into Iraq anyway," he claimed.
When questioned what should be done to most help the Ghanaian economy he said immediately, "End the Green Card lottery." A Green Card is official permission to live and work in the USA, and under the 'lottery' system a number of people are given this Card each year. He explained the process this way: the US government examines what skills it's lacking, such as doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers. It then puts ads in the newspapers of 'target' developing countries, advertising the Green Card lottery, but without explaining the criteria for the choice of who gets the card: everybody is invited to apply. But it's not really a lottery. It's set up to help fulfil the US's predicted economic needs: if more doctors are needed, the Card will be given to doctors. In this way the US systematically extracts intellectual capital from the countries who most desperately need their skilled people to help them develop their infrastructures. And in case we in Europe or elsewhere are feeling smug about not perpetrating this crime, we should consider how much we also are willing to extract skilled workers from developing countries to our benefit and their detriment. How many people working in our hospitals come from countries who desperately need medical skills?
After a break, Professor David Miller and David Mepham focused the discussion on who is responsible for global poverty. Prof Miller made the important distinction between responsibility for causing or perhaps facilitating global poverty (he called this 'outcome responsibility'), and responsibility for dealing with it, ie sorting it out ('remedial responsibility': philosophers love jargon, they think it makes what they say sound official). These two types of responsibility do not necessarily define the same groups of people, but often they are linked: you made the mess, you clear it up. Prof Miller cited the approach of the German philosopher Thomas Pogge. The rich nations are remedially responsible because we are in a large part responsible for causing the mess, through the effects of colonialism, exploitation of resources etc. Domestic economic factors are largely determined by the international situation: so we should redesign the world economic order to stop our exploitation of the poor world, and we should also compensate for the damage we've already done. We also have a deal of remedial responsibility just because we do have the power to change things. All of us in democracies are somewhat implicated by the behaviour of our governments: our votes and voices influence their decisions. By contrast, the poor cannot be remedially responsible for alleviating their own poverty, or they would presumably already be doing so.
David Mepham said that there's not just one model of success. He also asked why there isn't global justice like national justice: the policies of rich countries are a major part of the problem, but why should we be responsible just for 'our' people? This echoed Prof Glover's point about distance being morally irrelevant. Mepham stressed that this is not to detract from the problems caused by indigenous corrupt governments and the people who support them, for example.
Mr Mepham's central point was that we should think more politically. For instance, the caste system in India is "institutionalised discrimination" where the rulers ignore the rights of the poor, keeping them poor: "Rights matter!" Although this is over-simplifying a complex situation, the overall point is still valid: that it's not just about aid and NGOs, but also about trying to change institutions and cultures. His final point I whole-heartedly agree with: that global society should aim to create a global welfare system of minimum entitlement. What else could it mean to be civilized in a globally-connected age? You heard it here first (probably).
Concluding remarks were given by Professor Leif Weiner, who treated us to a condensed history of geo-economics, in which nations experimented with a range of approaches before the capitalist countries with the rule of law solidly out-competed their rivals – so this must be the way ahead… But I'm sure this isn't the whole story. We haven't reached the end of history just yet.
Overall, I was glad to see philosophers engaging with one of the most serious problems of our time, seriously seeking to provide the intellectual foundations which will enable us to press forward in addressing global poverty wisely and well. Tackling global poverty is the responsibility of all of us.
Grant Bartley introduces a meta-revolutionary approach to these and other issues in his 'forthcoming' book The Meta-Revolution. He is Assistant Editor at Philosophy Now.


Hi everyone, I am new to modeling, I feel like that is important to note.
I am building the 1/35 Trumpeter E75 and it has the really thin two part plastic barrel that I do not like..
So I bought a 128mm barrel that matches the barrel from world of tanks (beast).
But the stock gun mantlet is way too small for the new massive gun I want to put in. so I have to scratch build the mantlet.
I am looking for any tips or designs I should consider?
Should I make it look like the game, or more of the tiger ii mantlet just supersized for the bigger gun?
I would go for an upscaled Tiger II mantlet ..


One day, when she was reading a book out loud to her kids, a thought flashed through her mind: Wouldn't it be cool to have a novel about four third graders who time traveled and visited famous people in American history? She had never written a book before, and yet, knew she needed to write this one. Her best friend, Rhody Cohon, came on board to help make the dream come true. From there, BLAST TO THE PAST was born. Eight BLAST books later, new projects continued to come her way, each one more fun and exciting than the next. Now, after ten years and 10,000 hours of writing, she looks back over what she has accomplished and can only say one thing: Wow!
I'm Lucky Prescott, and I'm here to tell you everything there is to know about the things I love most: my town of Miradero, all kinds of horses (especially Spirit), and riding around the frontier with my very best friends! With the help of my PALs, Pru and Abigail, and a few other folks around town, I've put together pages of fun quizzes, yummy recipes, and super-fun games for just for you!
Can you believe Lucky, Pru, and I finally made it to our first Frontier Fillies Jamboree? It's going to be three whole days of riding, bonding, and tons of Fillies traditions! There are badges we can earn, but there's one prize I'm most excited for...the Hungerford Heart. At the end of the Jamboree, everyone votes to give the trophy to the herd of Fillies who best uphold Frontier Fillies values. I KNOW my herd deserves it, but I don't know if we stand a chance. My annoying little brother, Snips, has shown up, and he's about to ruin EVERYTHING!
Explore the world of DreamWorks Animation's Spirit Riding Free with this adventurous new series, written in diary format, featuring the innermost thoughts of the series' main character, Lucky Prescott!
It's the night that all the sixth-graders at Hamilton Middle School have been waiting for: the annual overnight field trip to the local science museum and planetarium. Best friends Nate and Connor come bearing treats and, unknowingly, tricks in the form of a spooky old book called Tales from the Scaremaster. When Nate and Connor crack open the candy to share with their friends, they also crack open the book, and are shocked to find that it writes back. Pretty soon, creepy things start happening at the museum --- ghostly sightings, possessed dioramas that the kids swear are moving, and scary noises and movements at every turn.
Kaitlyn and Noah are arch-enemies at their summer camp, and with good reason. They are rivals in everything, and both are determined to come out on top. But when they suddenly start to see double and it turns out that their camp counselors have doppelgangers running amok, they have to work together to get to the bottom of the strangely replicating counselors and save their camp from the Scaremaster --- who seems to be pulling the strings from inside the pages of his creepy book. Will Kaitlyn and Noah learn that it takes two to outwit the Scaremaster and save their campmates, or will the clones win this round?


As the Rias Coast provides an array of seafood and marine delicacies for Ise Shima in Japan, Ise-Shima at the Miyako Hybrid Hotel in Torrance also provides Southern California's freshest sushi and other exciting Japanese dishes. Enjoy cocktails created by our mixologist at the bar, our inviting atmosphere and our fireplace lounge. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner for your dining pleasure.


People hire personal trainers, life coaches, and image consultants to help them achieve their goals.
Hiring a Professional Organizer is very similar. We help you achieve more productivity, reduce stress, and create a new-found freedom and sense of being in control.
How do I know I need a professional organizer?
Why should I choose to hire a member of a professional association?
Lots of reasons! As a member of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers), we have access to formal training, resources and a network of over 4000 professionals around the world. We are continuously updated on our industry's latest trends and benefit from each other's support and experience through chat boards and support groups.
Furthermore, you will have the peace of mind of knowing that your organizer is committed to professional excellence and adheres to a strict code of ethics.
I am a very private person. Will my session be confidential?
It is natural to feel nervous and vulnerable when inviting a stranger into your personal space. Organizers are aware of the high level of trust placed in them by their clients; and this is why integrity, honesty and confidentiality are guiding principles in our industry. For more information, visit NAPO's code of ethics.
That depends on a number of things: the size and scope of the job, how long the clutter has been accumulating, how motivated you are, how quickly you make decisions, how much time you allow between sessions, how much progress you can make on your own between sessions and whether we're working one-on-one or with a team.
Our initial on-site consultation is always free of charge and without obligations on your part. We offer digressive hourly rates ranging between 60 CHF to 100 CHF per hour. Hands-on organizing sessions are typically booked for a minimum of 3 consecutive hours; while coaching sessions can be shorter. Our hourly hand-on rate includes research and follow-up. For coaching sessions, research and follow-ups will be charged in addition. Travel fee will only apply when traveling over 30 kilometers from Bursinel. In that case, the following will apply: CHF 0.70/km and CHF 60/hour.
Contact us today to inquire about our rates or to schedule your free on-site consultation.
Will I be asked to throw away my things?
Anything you discard will be your decision alone. We wilI never throw anything away without your permission (not even an empty box of cereals). If clutter is a problem in your home, you'll almost certainly need to part with unneeded or unwanted items in order to attain your goals. We will help you identify those items, guide you in your decision-making, and cheer you on as you decide to give up things that no longer have meaning or value for you; but we won't make you get rid of ANYTHING.
I am ashamed of my mess. Should I tidy my home before you come in?
Please don't! To allow us to understand and solution the scope and nature of the situation, it is crucial for us to see the piles of clutter as they habitually appear in your environment. Each pocket of clutter will provide us with valuable clues.
We understand that inviting a stranger into your personal space can be extremely stressful and embarrassing at times. But remember that we are professionals working with passion, compassion, confidentiality and without judgment.
Shouldn't I be able to do it on my own?
Being organized is not an innate ability; it's a set of learned skills!
With knowledge, experience and techniques, a professional organizer can help you perfect your skills by creating organizing systems and solutions that are individually tailored to your specific goals, space and unique processing style.
Everyone at some point in their life is faced with some hard times and finds themselves overwhelmed by their circumstances. Happy or sad, some events in life can cause even the most organized people to loose themselves in clutter or be buried by responsibilities. These are the moments when asking for help is appropriate.
Professional organizers are here to help you take control of your time and surrounding in order to bring back peace to your daily life efficiently and in a timely manner.
My mess doesn't bother me, but my spouse can't stand it. Should I change?
Only you can make the decision to change. Changing 'for' someone else usually doesn't last very long.
However, it is crucial to realize that our most priced and precious possessions in life are our relationships. When bad habits put in jeopardy these very relationships, the risks to pay can be disastrous. In our line of work, it is unfortunately not unusual to come across someone who has lost a contract, a job, a marriage or even a child due to their struggle with chronic disorganization. With this in mind, it is important not to underestimate the impact our 'mess' or bad habits can have on our relationships.
Have you struggled with disorganization most of your life?
Have you tried in vain to get organized by yourself?
Does your level of disorganization interfere with the quality of your life? Or negatively affects your relationships with others?
Is it difficult for you to part with things even though they have outlived their usefulness?
If you have answered « yes » to all 4 questions, there is a chance you might be struggling with chronic disorganization. If you've answered « yes » to one or two of these questions, there might be other situational explanations to your struggle with disorganization.


★ Turkish finance minister Berat Albayrak unveiled a "new economic program" on Thursday, saying the government was aiming to "write a new success story" for the struggling country, reports the Deutsche Welle.
Albayrak, who was placed in charge of the economy by his father-in-law, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, admitted though that the program would lower economic growth substantially, which was now expected to be 3.8 percent in 2018 and 2.3 percent in 2019 -- both revised down from previous forecasts of 5.5 percent.
Greater economic prosperity has been one of the pillars of Erdoğan's popularity in his over 15 years in power, with the country seeing impressive growth rates such as 7.4 percent in 2017.
But economists have repeatedly warned that Turkey's debt-fueled growth push will eventually lead to a potentially dangerous overheating of the economy, with inflation rampant, the currency account deficit widening and doubts over the health of the banking system.
Those problems came to light in August when a diplomatic spat with the United States caused a crash in the value of the lira, sparking fears of a full-blown economic crisis. In August, headline inflation surged to 18 percent, while the Turkish currency lost about 14 percent to the US dollar, taking depreciation to a total of 40 percent in 2018.
Since then, despite a sharp interest rate hike by the Turkish central bank, the country's currency has continued its slide amid skyrocketing inflation. And Turkish businesses are increasingly feeling the pinch.
In related news, finance minister Albayrak was in Germany Friday for talks with German officials, ostensibly for securing financial aid from Germany.
★ Deutsche Welle reports that, Turkey Wealth Fund, the state-backed financial entity which owns nearly half of Turkish Airlines and other stakes in over a dozen large companies, is now headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to the country's Official Gazette.
The value of the fund is estimated at $40 billion, and can be used to maintain pensions and welfare systems in times of crisis or to finance major projects.
Turkey set up the entity after the failed coup attempt in 2016. Within the last two years, the authorities transferred billions of state assets into the fund, including its stakes in Turkish airlines, Turk Telekom, and several major banks. The goal, according to Turkey, was to use it to invest in infrastructure and shore up financial markets.
★ Turkish and Russian presidents met this week to strike out a deal on the Syrian province of Idlib. The province, which is next to the Turkish border, hosts millions of refugees from other parts of Syria.
Syrian army has been conducting an offensive with the support of the Russian air force to retake the province. Turkey has been fearing that the offensive will push the refugees to Turkey. Already straining under the burden of taking care of nearly 4 million Syrian refugees, Turkey has been trying to stop the offensive.
In their meeting Messrs. Erdoğan and Putin agreed to create a demilitarized zone in the rebel controlled enclave. Turkey also agreed to remove the radical Islamist groups from the area.
VOA's Dorian Jones says that Russians are now putting pressure on Turkey to carry out the deal. Whether Turkey can influence the radicals to depart is another matter.
Turkey and the local Syrian rebel groups aligned with it is controlling large areas in northern Syria, which analysts say that Turkey will use as a bargaining chip against Syria, and except it to take back the refugees in Turkey. Control of these areas in Syria also help with Turkey's security.
★ German intelligence is reportedly examining whether to put the Turkish-Islamic umbrella group DITIB under surveillance.
The Turkish-state backed DITIB has been at the center of multiple controversies.
DITIB runs more than 900 mosques tied to the Turkish government's Directorate of Religious Affairs, which provides financing and imams to the mosques.
The possible move against DITIB comes a week before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrives in Germany for an official state visit. During the two-day visit, Erdoğan will officially open DITIB's new central mosque at its headquarters in the western city of Cologne.
Last year, German authorities investigated 19 imams alleged to have acted on the orders of Turkish diplomatic posts to spy on followers of US-based preacher Fethullah Gülen, who Turkey blames for the coup bid in 2016.
For many years, DITIB was a partner in many German government-supported counter-extremism and integration projects. Last month, the German Interior Ministry announced it had stopped funding projects with DITIB.
DITIB is a member of the German Islamic Conference, a body designed to promote dialogue between the state and Muslims living in the country.
If DITIB were placed under German intelligence surveillance, it would have to leave the body.
★ Two years after the 2016 attempted coup that Turkish officials blame on the followers of US-based cleric Gülen, Turkish officials are still arresting people that they think are linked to the group.
The latest is the arrest of around 100 high-ranking officers on active duty which comes shortly after the firing of 15,000 military and police officers.
So far nearly 160,000 people have been arrested, and about the same number of civil servants and military have been fired.
Human rights groups and critics have accused Turkey's President Erdoğan of using state of emergency powers to quash opposition to his rule. Cleric Gülen is rejecting the Turkish allegations. Turkey's request from the US to extradite him is causing major friction between the two countries.
★ Turkey has arrested a 29-year-old Austrian journalist and charged him with membership in an illegal organization, reports the Deutsche Welle.
The journalist Max Zirngast had recently graduated from the Middle East Technical University in the Turkish capital Ankara, where he studied political science and philosophy, according to his lawyer Tamer Doğan.
"Max has no links with any illegal organization," Doğan said, adding the he rejected the charges against him. "He is a journalist working in the scope of the law," the lawyer insisted.
But in the past, the 29-year-old journalist Zirngast had written articles critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and also published articles on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
★ Turkey's international celebrity chef Nusret is coming under attacked by the Venezuelan community in Miami Florida for hosting the Venezuelan president Nicola Maduro while he was visiting Turkey.
Dozens of Venezuelans protested outside Nusret's Miami restaurant on Wednesday, and the videos Nusret posted on Instagram showing the Venezuelan president dining at his Istanbul restaurant were deleted. Online review site Yelp took off the comments section for Nusret's restaurant because of thousands of negative comments that started coming in.
Florida Senator Michael Rubio also criticized the chef on Tuesday.
Rubio tweeted: "I don't know who this weirdo #Saltbae is, but the guy he is so proud to host is not the President of #Venezuela. He is actually the overweight dictator of a nation where 30% of the people eat only once a day & infants are suffering from malnutrition."
When President Maduro returned back to Venezuela, he said "I send greetings from here to our friend Nusret. Comrade, soon I'll return to Istanbul so we can see one another again. Thanks for the gifts."
★ Turkish police detained 24 construction workers for protesting work conditions at the construction site of Istanbul's third airport, reports the daily Cumhuriyet.
The airport is one of President Erdoğan's major projects.
The protesters complained about poor work conditions and numerous deaths during the construction.
New York-based human rights watch Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair Webb said "this is an appalling assault on the right to protest and organize and on the dignity of workers in Turkey".
The airport is due to open on October 29. It will be the largest airport in the world.
★ Speaking of airports, Turkish President got a yet one more jet for himself. The plane, estimated to be $500 million, is stirring indignation among some Turks.
Turkish president says that it is actually a gift from the Emir of Qatar.
Opposition MPs have expressed concern that the president was using taxpayers' money to buy a jet as the country struggles to avert a financial crisis.
★ Ruhi Su, one of Turkey's important folk musicians and also a classical music singer at the State Opera, was commemorated at his tomb on the 33rd anniversary of his death in Istanbul, reports the daily Cumhuriyet.
The Ruhi Su Culture and Arts Association, the Ruhi Su Chorus, International Workers Solidarity Association, friends and students of Ruhi Su participated in the commemoration.
★ The 55th National Competitions for the Turkish films are taken place this year in Istanbul.
The films extend from the premiers of young directors to the latest works of film masters. Among the movies competing for the national competitions are seven films that represent different directions in the Turkish film.
The National Competitions was part of the Antalya Film Festival until two years ago. However, Antalya film Festival organizers decided to discontinue competitions for the national films. Many directors, actors and other film workers protested the decision, when their calls to reinstate the domestic film competition, they decided to organize a separate one.
This year the National Competition will take place between September 30 - October 4.
★ Another film news is about a series of films about schools that Istanbul's Pera Museum will screen.
Named "Where is the Play Yard", the program will show nine films to honor the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the renowned Turkish high school Galatasaray.
Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) by American-Iranian film director, producer, screenwriter and actress Desiree Akhavan.
★ The 8th Malatya International Film Festival that will take place between November 15 and 9, chose for the jury head for the international full length film competition internationally renowned Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
Ceylan will also be a guest at the "Master Class" at the Festival and will share his experience with others in the film industry.
Malatya is a city in southeastern Turkey.
★ Screening of Turkish films as part of the 8th Bodrum Turkish film weeks started across the Aegean Sea on the Greek island of Kos, 3 miles away from Turkish shores.
Bodrum is a city on the Aegean coast in Turkey's southwestern province of Muğla.
The Kos deputy mayor Elias Sfakis spoke at a press conference and said that it was the Bodrum film Turkish film weeks head Cenk Sezgin's idea for many years to start a Turkish films week on the island, and that they were happy to put the his dream into life. Sfakis said that the next step is to have a Greek film Festival in Bodrum.
Following the press conference, the Turkish films "Two Shores Half Love" and "Earth" were shown. The two films directors Nurdan Tümbek and Nebil Özgentürk also joined the screening. Selda Alkor who acted in the first film also was present.
★ The renowned French actor Gerard Depardieu says that he will travel to Turkey in October and meet Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Mr. Depardieu says that he wants to become a Turkish citizen.
In addition to his French citizenship, Mr. Depardieu says that he is also a Russian and Algerian citizen.
★ Istanbul Design Biennial has started on September 22. The Biennial is curated by Jan Boelen, a curator of design, architecture and contemporary art from Belgium.
The theme of this year's biennial is "School of Schools". For six weeks the event will evaluate design and education from different perspectives through exhibitions and activities.
The Istanbul Design Biennial will have 100 exhibitors from different parts of the world. In addition, it will have free talks, workshops, conferences and film screenings to invite the attendees to learn about design and education, question them and discover new thoughts.
★ The 8th Turhan Selçuk Cartoon Competition Awards, was held in the Milas district of Turkey southwestern province of Muğla, reports the daily Cumhuriyet.
Turhan Selçuk, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 87, was born in Milas and was one of Turkey's preeminent cartoonists.
514 cartoonists from 61 different countries participated in the competition with 1847 cartoons.
The winner of the first prize was Zarko Luetic Zar from Croatia.
The Special Prize of the Cumhuriyet Newspaper was won by Verse Naderi from Iran.
The members of the daily Cumhuriyet, Kamil Masaracı, İzel Rozental, Serter Karataban and Eda Oral won the second prize.
Numerous people were present in the ceremony held in the historic Çöllüoğlu Inn. Many government officials, local leaders, Milas Mayor Muhammet Tokat, Muğla's parliamentarian Suat Özcan and even the Garrison Commander were in attendance.
★ Myrleia, A 2700-year-old antique city, is going to be covered with a shopping center soon in Turkey's Northwestern city of Mudanya. According to the mayor of the city, the builder has secured a permit by using a recent law forgiving constructions deemed illegal.
The mayor says that they will take public actions to inform the people about what is taking place, in fact, there may be hunger strikes to draw attention to the action of the builder.
The antique city was uncovered during excavations for foundation work for the shopping center in 2012. The Committee to Protect the Cultural and Natural Heritage for Bursa province decided that the construction could go on but at the basement of the shopping center there should be an open area covered with glass that would show the ruins of the city.
But then a grassroots organization, the Platform for Myrleia, sued the committee in court to stop the construction. Turkey's Council of State, one of the Supreme Court's in Turkey, stopped the court proceedings twice and sent back the dossier back to the court, and the legal proceedings on the matter is still continuing.
★ Another bad news for yet one more archaeological site. The Deştepe mound in in Turkey's western province of Aydin, is being sold after it was repossessed, reports the daily Cumhuriyet.
The mound is a settlement that was occupied from 5000 BCE to 3000 B.C.E. and contains ruins from the Chalcolithic age. When construction of homes around the mound started in 1995, Izmir Second Commission for Protection declared the area a protected archaeological site.
This stopped the construction, however, in December 1996, people interested in continuing the building of homes, tried to build a mosque at the site. There were other attempts to build on the site in later years, which were all stopped.
The court that is overseeing the auction of the repossessed mound, valued it at $20,000 in local currency. The mound covers approximately 200,000 sq. ft. of land.
★ In basketball, Turkey's women national team beat Argentina, 63-37 in Spain for 2018 International Basketball Federation World Cup.
★ Turkish fencer Enver Yildirim won a gold medal at the FIE Satellite tournament in Men's category in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
★ Turkish gymnasts Tutya Yilmaz and Demet Mutlu reached the finals in Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup being held in Hungry.
A fun and relaxing day in the park for everyone.
There will be live music at the event as well!
9:00 PM, Saturday, September 29.
Call us or email trh@turkradio.us for our drawing!


Financial markets continue to expect that the euro zone debt crisis will worsen and despite Greece insisting on Tuesday any restructuring of its debts would be a disaster for the economy, it is likely to happen.
One year ago, Greece was granted an extension of its 110 billion euros ($163 billion) in loans by the EU and the IMF in exchange for deep structural adjustments to its economy. This year the Greek government's debts are expected to hit around 340 billion euros.
Meanwhile, the Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou is still against debt restructuring. While EU and IMF inspectors are in Athens to assess if the government's austerity plans are sufficient He commented that "A restructuring, haircuts on debt, would be a huge mistake for the country.
Despite the minister's view, two German government advisers commented a week ago that a restructuring of the country's debt pile, which is only increasing as Greece's output is contracting, was now inevitable, and markets hold the same view.


text:
It's all about the bridge
Cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge the highlight of a long weekend in San Francisco
Of course we're amped. We're cycling over one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. The wind howls, our grip tightens on the handlebars and we peddle harder. My wife, Kerry, and I and our 16-year-old daughter, Grace, are half-way across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on rented mountain bikes. We'd been told conditions could be fierce, after all, we're 67 metres above the Golden Gate Strait and mid-way on the 2.7-kilometre-long crossing between two chunks of land known for being notorious blustery.
We don't mind.
We wore our jackets and we're high on the experience of traversing this aesthetic beauty and engineering marvel. On a sunny Monday afternoon, the Golden Gate is not only busy with cars, but packed with cyclists and pedestrians commuting in their dedicated lanes. We soak it all in, stop at some of the pull outs to snap photos and admire the views of San Francisco's skyline to the east, Marin County's mountains to the north and west and the choppy waters of the strait below.
We end up in Sausalito, the picturesque town on the ocean seven kilometres north of San Francisco, and reward ourselves with a lunch of pizza and California wine at waterfront Bar Bocce.
After the eats and drinks, we lose interest in further exercise, so we opt for the bike return (what an inspired idea!) in Sausalito and return to San Fran via ferry past the bridge we just conquered and Alcatraz Island.
Keeping up the theme of rolling around on two wheels, the next day we hop Segways with San Francisco Electric Tour Company to zip by the city's greatest hits – Fisherman's Wharf, Embarcadero, Coit Tower and the Municipal Pier to get additional views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
While on the Segways, we spy two restaurants we have to come back to for quintessential San Fran meals.
Bistro Boudin is the elegant second-floor restaurant with San Francisco Bay views that is attached to Boudin Bakery, the founder of San Francisco sourdough bread in Gold Rush-era 1849.
As such, our sourdough-centric meal includes fish tacos on sourdough tortillas and chicken club sandwich on toasted sourdough, finishing with desserts of sourdough upside-down bread pudding and cinnamon-sugar sourdough beignets.
The Franciscan, also at Fisherman's Wharf, has been around since 1957 in a glass building overlooking the bay that resembles a cruise liner. It's famous for fresh Dungeness crab pulled right from the adjacent Pacific, so it's roasted crab in sweet, garlic sauce all round for dinner.
Waiter at the Franciscan
Our digs at the Hilton Union Square are handy for two more San Fran classics.
We have drinks at the 46th-floor Cityscapes bar in the Hilton for panoramic views of the city and bay. A two-block walk away is John's Grill, a San Fran institution since 1908 when it was the first restaurant to open downtown after virtually everything was destroyed in the great earthquake of 1906. Of course, we have to order, and enjoy John's steak, a tender strip loin, with California Cabernet Sauvignon from Kith and Kin.
In between the eating and drinking, we ride the historic and famous Powell-Hyde cable car up and down impossibly steep Nob Hill and Russian Hill.
We nab prime spots hanging off the open-air cable car by its exterior poles.It really is the most fun you can have on a $7 public transit ticket. To be close for the Golden Gate Bridge cycling, we transfer to the Lodge at the Presidio, a former army barracks turned luxe boutique hotel. It's the nearest accommodation to the bridge and our room features a stellar view of the suspension beauty.
Check out SFTravel.com.