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Microsoft-backed facial recognition firm rethinks its role in Hong Kong
Amid the mass demonstrations in the special administrative region, AnyVision is reconsidering business plans there. But the firm continues to defend the use of its technology by the Israeli army at West Bank checkpoints.
By DJ Pangburn long Read
When Microsoft's M12 venture fund announced its investment in Israeli face recognition company AnyVision in June, the deal was temporarily held up as the startup sought to determine whether its products adhered to Microsoft's tough AI ethics standards. After all, facial recognition technology has become a locus of controversy in recent years, raising privacy and civil rights concerns due to its use by law enforcement and governments around the world. After a few weeks, the company said that all of its investors, including Microsoft, were satisfied that the company was a "tool for good," according to Bloomberg.
But in mid-July, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli army has been using AnyVision's face recognition technology at West Bank army checkpoints for entry into the country, as well as deeper in the Palestinian-controlled region. Now, privacy groups are criticizing Microsoft for its support of AnyVision, which is also linked to the Hong Kong, Macau, and Russian governments.
A spokesperson for the startup told Fast Company that its face recognition technology has never been sold and is not currently in use in Hong Kong, where widespread protests against the government have incensed the police and increased tensions with China. However, AnyVision recently advertised an opening for a Hong Kong-based "Regional Sales Manager" on its website, a position that would entail establishing and managing partnerships in Hong Kong and Macau (another special administrative region of China). AnyVision has since removed the Hong Kong job posting from its company careers page. A job ad for a Technical Service Manager in Macau, a position that would help maintain existing accounts and find new ones, is still up on the website. And Global Sources, a Hong Kong-based business-to-business media company that facilitates high-volume trade between China and the world, features an AnyVision CCTV product, the Artificial Intelligence Super WDR Indoor Box Camera, on its website.
The tensions in Hong Kong have thrown a wrench into AnyVision's business plans for the region, including Macau. While Macau, a mecca for legal gambling and coastal tourism, has a high degree of autonomy, much like neighboring Hong Kong, China has exerted more control in the two decades since assuming administrative control of the region from Portugal. AnyVision's spokesperson added that the reevaluation of the sales position is currently ongoing, both in Hong Kong and Macau. When asked about criticism over AnyVision's role in Israel, a spokesperson for Microsoft declined comment, referring questions to AnyVision.
The spokesperson also claims that recent reporting on the use of its facial recognition technology at West Bank border crossings has been misleading. The company doesn't see its products, installed at biometric gates between Palestine and Israel, as a surveillance tool or as a violation of human rights.
"AnyVision's facial recognition systems at border crossings work in the same way and for the same purposes as they do in airports, for example," the company says. "For commuters and others who want to simply cross country borders, facial recognition drastically decreases wait times at border crossings. The other advantage is that they provide an unbiased safeguard at the border to detect and deter persons who have committed unlawful activities."
Over 40 countries are clients of AnyVision, but the spokesperson would not disclose any of its clients because their privacy is the company's top priority. They did say that the company's facial recognition technology is installed at hundreds of sites worldwide.
But AnyVision's technology has raised concerns among civil liberties advocates, including Shankar Narayan, director of the Technology and Liberty Project at the ACLU of Washington. He says that its face surveillance product Better Tomorrow includes affect analysis capabilities, which can detect emotions, among other things, for threats by individuals on watch lists. AnyVision also offers two other products—Insights, which can track shoppers at retail stores, and Sesame, a facial recognition product for things like mobile ID authentication and data encryption.
"Essentially, their technology is designed to turn us into a surveillance society with these AI-based judgments impacting our lives in ways that we have very little control over," says Narayan. "The additional cause for concern is that [AnyVision products] are, I understand, being used by the Israeli government, and they have connections with the Hong Kong and Russian governments as well," according to Forbes's Thomas Brewster.
Narayan says AnyVision's presence in the West Bank, and its connections with Hong Kong and Macau, raise questions about the ethical use of facial recognition, and whether Microsoft's ethics committee approved the West Bank installations.
"AnyVision agreed to comply with Microsoft's facial recognition principles, and that commitment is backed-up by verification mechanisms which we are discussing with them," an M12 spokesperson told Fast Company.
[Screenshot: AnyVision]
The ethics of face recognition technology
In a July 2018 blog post, Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote publicly about concerns over facial recognition. In it, he called for government regulation, as well as a proactive tech industry approach to make sure that the technology is used responsibly and ethically.
"Facial recognition technology raises issues that go to the heart of fundamental human rights protections like privacy and freedom of expression," Smith wrote. "These issues heighten responsibility for tech companies that create these products. In our view, they also call for thoughtful government regulation and for the development of norms around acceptable uses."
Six months later, Smith published another post on the Microsoft blog, again championing corporate responsibility and government regulation of face recognition. He called on tech companies to address machine bias in face recognition, but also address people's privacy, and to prevent mass surveillance by governments that would encroach on democratic freedoms. And while Smith also said the world wouldn't be best served by a "commercial race to the bottom," Microsoft's investment in AnyVision seems to be quite part of that race, where they are, to use Smith's own words, choosing "market success" over "social responsibility."
But Smith's thoughts on the ethics of face recognition didn't just appear ex nihilo. Narayan says that Smith's posts on face recognition are partly due to the ACLU and its coalition of racial justice, faith, and civil, human, and immigrants' rights groups, which have engaged Microsoft on the issue.
"We actually had a meeting with a dozen Microsoft leaders and a dozen members of our coalition, and we engaged with them fairly consistently over the ethics of face surveillance and AI over the last year and a half, and they actually told us that the Brad Smith post was accelerated and put out there because of the meeting with them," says Narayan. "The posts contained a lot of great rhetoric, but what this demonstrates, I think, is that there is a significant gap between action and verbiage."
That is to say, big tech companies like Microsoft and Google realized they had to—at least publicly—acknowledge the need for tough regulation of facial recognition technology. It seemed to be a starting point, says Narayan. But behind closed doors, Microsoft's real vision emerged, he claims. After the blog posts and the engagement with ACLU Washington and its coalition, Narayan says that Microsoft lobbied in Washington State's legislature for a bill that was more permissive.
"The bill legitimized virtually all public and private face surveillance. At the same time, they put a lot of resources into killing a face surveillance moratorium bill that we and others brought forward."
Under the bill it supported, Microsoft would maintain control over the data, as well as over how the technology is rolled out. As ACLU Washington saw it, the regulations had no teeth.
"The only thing that the bill disallowed—because it's actually easier to talk about that—is that you couldn't follow people over a period of time using face surveillance without a warrant," says Narayan. "You could train it on a protest, you could use it to look out into an intersection just to see what it can see, you could set one up next to a mosque, but as long as you weren't following a particular person over time, you were fine."
Despite enlisting a great deal of lobbying power to advance its interests in face recognition and the control of user data, Microsoft's data privacy bill was defeated.
AnyVision's other big tech investors
But Microsoft isn't AnyVision's only big tech partner. In 2018, chipmaker Qualcomm announced a Series A investment in AnyVision—funding that AnyVision says will further its efforts to "expand into other industries and develop new AI applications that transform how the world connects, computes and communicates."
The German engineering and technology company Bosch also invested in AnyVision in 2018. Its 9 percent stake in the company includes a sales and technology partnership. Nvidia, which designs graphics processing units for the gaming and professional markets, as well as chip units for mobile devices, is an official partner on Nvidia's Metropolis intelligent video analytics platform. This techno-jargon may at first seem innocuous, but Nvidia Metropolis is being marketed as the AI-enabled "lifeblood" for future smart cities. Nvidia, which selected AnyVision as the facial recognition engine for its AI smart-city platform, refused to comment on AnyVision's use in the West Bank, as well as its ties to Hong Kong, Macau, and Russia.
Unlike Microsoft, which has an AI ethics committee, and which has commented on facial recognition, little is known about the positions of Bosch, Qualcomm, and Nvidia on face recognition and AI ethics. Alissa Cleland, the spokesperson for Bosch in North America, told Fast Company that "person- and object-recognition software enhances the security of individuals" and is used to prevent criminal offenses. "Bosch in its values feels a strong responsibility to ensure that its products are used properly," said Cleland, who declined comment on AnyVision's installations in the West Bank and its ties to Hong Kong, Macau, and Russia.
Qualcomm, which invested in Hong Kong-based face recognition company SenseTime in 2017, did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Nvidia is also a partner with SenseTime for its Metropolis smart city platform.
Affect analysis—tech that reads emotions
AnyVision's desire to sell multiple face recognition products makes sense from a business standpoint. If a company builds FR technology, it is likely they will want to get it into multiple markets. And with many big tech firms and other FR companies racing for market share, AnyVision's diversification is no great surprise. That said, AnyVision's wide range of facial surveillance is troubling to privacy activists.
"With AnyVision, in particular, I do think the parameters of the specific things they are building are particular causes of concern," says Narayan. He points to AnyVision's affect analysis technology, which can read emotions to determine if someone is a threat, as deeply concerning. Narayan sees affect analysis as building on the long-discredited pseudoscience of whether one can read the parameters of an individual's face or other characteristics, like skull size, to determine a person's intelligence or dangerousness. Studies have shown that affect analysis is also biased in face recognition systems: It is less accurate with people of color and other groups.
Anyvision's Insights product can give supermarkets and other retail stores insights like identifying frequent shoppers or measuring "gaze estimation," which determines what people are looking at. In the future, products like Insights could expand into many other retail stores, and customers will have no choice but to be tracked by this surveillance technology.
"It's going to be more pervasive, and AnyVision is trying to accelerate that trend," says Narayan. "All of these different aspects of what AnyVision technology is designed to do are significant concerns, and then layer over that who AnyVision is selling to—not only the Israel government but Hong Kong and Russia as well. If Microsoft were serious about technology with ethics, then perhaps these kinds of transactions would receive more scrutiny."
The machines are watching
On August 6, AnyVision published a post on the company blog titled "Ethical and Responsible AI at Anyvision," in which it laid out its position on privacy, ethics, algorithmic bias, and regulation. The company claims it doesn't collect or share user data and does not capture face images. Instead, the company writes, the data they capture is rendered using "mathematical vectors that act as secure cryptography, preventing identity hacking even if data is stolen." AnyVision also notes that it will soon announce an AI Ethics Advisory Board comprised of "external experts both inside and outside" the field.
"Powerful technology like facial recognition has the ability to be misused when guidelines are not put in place," the company states. "We have invested millions of dollars to ensure our technology not only complies with, but exceeds, local laws and regulations concerning privacy (such as GDPR) and are in favor of regulation where none currently exists. We have supported the proposed facial recognition legislation in the U.S. Senate and will continue to advocate for regulations in geographies where we do business."
In a March 14 blog post, AnyVision announced its support for a U.S. Senate bill sponsored by Senators Roy Blunt and Brian Schatz that would prohibit commercial companies using facial recognition technology from collecting and sharing user data without consent from users.
Microsoft also enthusiastically endorsed the bill. "Facial recognition technology creates many new benefits for society and should continue to be developed," said Smith. "Its use, however, needs to be regulated to protect against acts of bias and discrimination, preserve consumer privacy, and uphold our basic democratic freedoms. Senators Blunt and Schatz's bill has started an important conversation in Congress about the responsible use of this technology. We're encouraged by their efforts, applaud their leadership and look forward to working with them to develop balanced policy."
It's uncertain if the bill will pass. But, if it does, AnyVision, its investors, and other face surveillance companies will be able to get their products to market without much fuss, as long as a third party tests for machine bias, and commercial clients post a sign telling customers the machines are watching.
Amid a renewal of tech activism, it's unclear how Microsoft employees feel about the investment. A representative for the Tech Workers Coalition says that the group hasn't heard from any Microsoft employees about AnyVision. But Narayan of ACLU Washington says that he has heard from Microsoft employees who are opposed to AnyVision's face recognition installations in the West Bank.
"I think the people who are working on the inside in all of these large tech companies, they didn't become tech workers to help support repressive regimes or usher in the surveillance states," says Narayan. "That's why one major component for tech accountability is the tech worker themselves. . . . I expect you are going to see a response to face surveillance, but I don't know if it will be on AnyVision in particular."
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces did not return a request for comment.
DJ Pangburn is a writer and editor with bylines at Vice, Motherboard, Creators, Dazed & Confused and The Quietus. He's also a pataphysician, psychogeographer and filmmaker.

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The view from the mountaintop
Date: Jan. 20, 2003
From: The Austin American-Statesman (TX)
Publisher: The Austin American-Statesman
Length: 733 words
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At the close of the last speech of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. might have had a glimpse of his destiny. He had come to Memphis in April 1968 to support to a strike by the city's sanitation workers, who were demanding better pay and working conditions. The night before his life ended, King took note of a storm passing through Memphis and reflected on his own mortality.
"Well, I don't know what will happen now," King told his audience. "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."
Haunting words from a haunted time.
For those who recall firsthand the civil rights era and King, memories are vivid. In many parts of the richest and most powerful nation on the Earth, outdoor privies were still in use. There was a newly minted law against discrimination in employment, accommodation and transportation, but resistance to it was stout. Soldiers were dying in Vietnam and civil rights soldiers were dying in the old Confederacy.
The Civil War continued in the United States, north and south, and even in the ranks of a military that was engaged in a shooting war. For those who recall firsthand the era, it was a different world.
The paint on the "whites only" signs has only recently begun to fade. In that world we knew only 34 years ago, Trent Lott would never have suffered a moment's discomfort, much less disapproval, for a post-dated endorsement of Strom Thurmond's segregationist presidential candidacy. No apology would have been demanded, and even if there had been, there was no Black Entertainment Television network on which to offer it.
These days, "Colored jokes" are frowned upon by polite society. A politician can get in trouble over past transgressions, such as voting against adoption of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. People even criticize Tiger Woods for not using his influence to aid gender integration at Augusta National, the site of the Masters golf tournament.
You can't help but wonder sometimes if this was the other side that King saw from the mountaintop.
Could he have seen a time when even the Texas Supreme Court would have had two African Americans serve on it?
Could King have pictured a land where African Americans were beginning to climb out of the poverty that had held them hostage for so long? The most recent U.S. Census figures showed African American fortunes and educational achievement levels rising to record numbers.
Some people of both races are going to find that hard to believe. Because for all the facts and figures, there are strongly rooted perceptions. Race is such an emotional subject that you'll never convince an unsuccessful job applicant -- white or black -- that race didn't play a factor in rejection.
Blacks are still rejected for home loans in higher numbers than the whites or Hispanics with whom they can now share a restaurant. It also is difficult to ignore the phenomenon of resegregated schools and neighborhoods. That resegregation is real, whether a result of economics or will or both.
It is equally difficult to ignore the disparate numbers of African Americans caught in the criminal justice system's revolving doors.
Despite the long way we have come down the mountain, we still have a long way to go. Despite King's eloquent plea for a world where character counts more than color, we spend a lot of time talking about race matters because race still matters.
For all we know, this is the promised land. But it doesn't mean that the promised land would suffer from work to improve it. It behooves all of us, black and white, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and gentile to realize that a promise means nothing if not fulfilled.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2003 The Austin American-Statesman
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BROWN BULLHEAD
Ameiurus nebulosus
Species overview: The brown bullhead is the most widely distributed bullhead, found across North Carolina in suitable habitat. It is native to Atlantic and Gulf Coast watersheds, from eastern Canada to Alabama. It was also originally found in the Great Lakes system, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi River watershed. It has also been widely introduced. Its species name "nebulosus" means "clouded," referring to the fish's mottled sides.
Identification: An 18-inch and three-pound brown bullhead is a trophy, and is near the size maximum of the species. Brown bullheads average 12 to 15 inches. The upper part of the head, back and sides are dark to light yellow-brown or olive-brown, shading to grayish white or yellowish white on the belly. The sides have brown or black mottling. The brown bullhead's chin barbels are dark, grayish black, but may have whitish color at the base. These help to distinguish the brown bullhead from the black bullhead, which is known from a few northwestern Pennsylvania counties. The black bullhead's chin barbels are all black. The brown bullhead's caudal fin is square-tipped, or slightly rounded. Its strong pectoral fin spines have five to eight sawlike teeth on their rear edges. The anal fin has 18 to 24 rays, usually 22 or 23.
Habits: Brown bullheads live in several habitat types, but they are found mostly in ponds and the bays of larger lakes, and in slow-moving sections and pools of warmwater streams. They are bottom-dwellers, usually living over soft mud or muck, where there is plenty of underwater vegetation. Brown bullheads can sometimes be found as deep as 40 feet. They are tolerant of very warm water temperatures, high carbon dioxide and low oxygen levels, and levels of pollution that other fish cannot tolerate.
Life history: Brown bullheads spawn in late spring, May to June, when water temperatures reach 70 degrees. Both males and females participate in nest construction, which can be a shallow saucer on the bottom mud or sand, or among roots of aquatic plants, near the protection of stumps, rocks or downed trees. Nests can also be excavated holes or natural burrows. Spawning can also occur under sunken boards and logs, and in hollow stumps. The water depth for spawning ranges from six inches to several feet. The nests are usually around the shoreline or in coves, or in the mouth of a creek.
Brown bullheads usually spawn in the daytime. Their courtship includes the male and female caressing each other with their barbels. They spawn beside each other, but facing in the opposite direction. The females produce from 2,000 to 13,000 cream-colored, mucous-covered eggs. Sometimes one or both parents eat some of the eggs. Both male and female brown bullheads cooperate in protecting the nest, eggs and young. The parents fan and stir the eggs with their fins, aerating them. The parents have also been seen to take the eggs into their mouths, presumably cleaning them, and to blow the eggs back into the nest again. Hatched brown bullheads are pitch-black and may be mistaken for tadpoles. One or both parents shepherd the loose ball of fry for several weeks, until the young are about one inch long.
Like other catfish, brown bullheads are active mostly at night, when their sensitive barbels help them find food in the darkness. They are omnivorous bottom-feeders and eat a wide variety of plant and animal material, including aquatic insects and larvae, worms, minnows and other small fish, crayfish, snails, freshwater clams and even algae. Brown bullheads are able to exist on atmospheric air for a time. They can remain alive for hours if kept moist when they are out of the water.


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From certainly one of our such a lot universally prominent poets: a beneficiant choice from his 5 acclaimed books of poetry, and an excellent workforce of recent poems.
From the outset, Brad Leithauser has displayed a venturesome flavor for quirky styles, cutting edge designs sprung free from conventional types. In The Oldest notice for sunrise, we stumble upon a sonnet in one-syllable strains ("Post-Coitum Tristesse"), a clanging rhyme-mad tribute to the song of Tin Pan Alley ("A stable List"), elaborate buried rhyme schemes ("In Minako Wada's House"), autobiography spun via parodies of Frost and Keats and Omar Khayyám ("Two summer season Jobs").
In a brand new poem, "Earlier," the poet investigates one of those paradox: what's the oldest notice for dawn in any language? The pursuit finally descends into the roots of speech, the genesis of paintings. "Earlier" is a part of a series dedicated to prehistoric subject matters: the cave work of Altamira, the disappearance of the Neanderthals, the poet's trip along with his teenage daughter to excavate a triceratops skeleton in Montana . . .
the writer of six novels besides, Leithauser no longer strangely brings to his verse an inherent ability for compelling narrative: a fateful romantic come across on a streetcar ("1944: pink Heart"); the enchanting arrival of tv in a quiet Detroit local ("Not Lunar Exactly"); boys heedlessly, joyfully bidding everlasting farewell to a liked sister ("Emigrant's Story").
Jonathan Safran Foer has lengthy had a keenness for the paintings of the twentieth-century American assemblage artist Joseph Cornell. encouraged through Cornell's avian-themed bins, and suspecting that they'd be equally inspiring to others, Foer started to write letters. The responses he obtained from luminaries of yankee writing have been not anything wanting amazing.
For the 1st time, the huge canon of the poetry of Ted Hughes - winner of the Whitbread and ahead Prizes and previous Poet Laureate - jointly in one book. The accrued Poems spans fifty years of labor, from Hawk within the Rain to the best-selling Birthday Letters. it is also the total texts of such seminal courses as Crow and stories from Ovid in addition to these kid's poems that Hughes felt crossed over into grownup poetry.
"Harrison's poems prevail at the foundation of an open center and a still-ravenous urge for food for all times. "—The Texas ObserverThe identify lifeless Man's glide is electrified through a strategy utilized by swimmers to preserve power whilst exhausted, to relaxation up for the lengthy swim to shore. In his fourteenth quantity of poetry, Jim Harrison provides willing information of actual pains, delights within the wildlife, and displays on humanity's tentative position in a universe full of 90 billion galaxies.


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Nissan Play of the Tournament
'We showed our skills and played with freedom' – Gaby Lewis
Ire v NZ, WT20I, reaction
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Ireland seek improvement from bowlers, while New Zealand debutants revel in record-breaking start.
Ireland may have lost the one-off Twenty20 International against New Zealand, but the side showed their skills and played with freedom, Gaby Lewis, the Ireland Women batter, said.
Lewis, 17, top scored for her side with a 45-ball 61, her maiden T20I fifty, in Dublin on Wednesday, 6 June.
"Obviously it was important to get a good start for the series," said Lewis after the match. "It was great to put on a good start with the bat and I really think we showed off our skills and played with the freedom we talked about before the match."
She added that it was Ireland's bowling that needed improvement as the teams go on to play three one-day internationals. "Hopefully, we can improve our bowling. We know how we want to bowl, it's just a case of executing our skills. We hope to master that by the end of the series."
.@lewis_gaby's innings of 61 runs from 45 balls was her first international half-century. Well done Gaby! #BackingGreen pic.twitter.com/g9JoBtuGIs
— Ireland Women's Cricket Team (@IrishWomensCric) June 6, 2018
Lewis also praised the opposition, saying: "The New Zealand side are full of class batters and are a pleasure to watch."
Ireland posted 136/8 from their 20 overs – their third-highest total in the format. However, New Zealand's debutants Bernadine Bezuidenhout and Jess Watkin stole the show.
Bezuidenhout, the wicket-keeper, claimed five dismissals, equalling the record for most dismissals.
Both Bernadine Bezuidenhout and Jess Watkin shone on their T20I debut
Then, Suzie Bates and Watkin, the openers, chased down the total without any fuss in just 11 overs. Bates, the captain, smashed a 29-ball 63 while Watkin made a blistering 77 from 38.
Their association of 142 runs is the fifth highest in women's T20I history and a New Zealand Women record for any wicket.
"It went pretty well," said Watkin of her debut. "It was good to get out there and have a win. First of all, I was pretty caught up about Suzie, that is someone I think I was looking forward to.
"And yes, nerves. I was pretty nervous facing the first ball."
What a day out at the YMCA in Dublin.
Let's hear from the stars of the show 🎙🎥#IREvNZ #NorthernTour pic.twitter.com/oPgFlxUBP8
— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) June 6, 2018
The New Zealand top-scorer said she didn't realise when reached her maiden T20I fifty.
"It kind of snuck up on me, like pretty quick," she gushed. "I didn't really know and then Suzie gave me a handshake and I was like 'I will raise my bat a little bit'. So, yeah, I didn't really know that."
Bezuidenhout too was happy after her record. "It was so good to get out on the field with the likes of Watkin and the White Ferns with such a good experience.
"A bit nervous, I must say. My hands were a little bit hard. But yeah, it was a great experience."
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text:
Prosecutor Trnka will not pay for his misstep
The General Prosecutor's Office failed to rule on time in the disciplinary proceedings against him.
Dobroslav Trnka (Source: Sme)
Ex-general prosecutor, Dobroslav Trnka, will not be punished for his actions in the Glance House case, despite the decisions of two disciplinary committees that he should be punished and stripped of his position as prosecutor for the General Prosecutor's Office.
The General Prosecutor's Office silently closed the assessment of the steps he took in the case this August, arguing that it is time barred, the Sme daily reported.
Originally, Trnka was to be disciplined for breaking the block placed by the Special Prosecutor's Office in 2012 on the transfer of the Glance House apartment complex in Bernolákovo (close to Bratislava) from its original developers to the Gapeja company, which has links to his crony, Marian Kočner.
If the original decisions of the two committees were carried out, he would also not be allowed to work as a lawyer, as a prosecutor who has been disciplined in this way can no longer work in advocacy, Sme wrote.
Twisted ways of justice
Disciplinary committees have twice ruled that Trnka should be punished but after his appeals, the Bratislava Regional Court has ordered that the case be re-started from the very beginning and that the General Prosecutor's Office did not come to its decision by the legal deadline of two years, which elapsed in August.
Current General Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár said that he does not identify himself with the result itself, but alleged that he was unable to speed the course of the proceedings.
Read also:Controversial Dobroslav Trnka remains prosecutorRead more
Trnka has thus escaped punishment, Sme wrote, adding that disciplinary proceedings fall under the organisation and inspection department where both Trnka and Kočner's brother-in-law, Juraj Bartošek, work.
Special Prosecutor Dušan Kováčik has refused to comment on whether he would check into the work of his subordinates and their potential bias in Kočner's case.
GPO keeps verdict secret
The General Prosecutor's Office did not make public its August decision that the case was time-barred. It even kept silent about it when Sme asked about the Glance House scandal after the August session of the disciplinary committee. The verdict is not even mentioned in the list of decisions for that month – allegedly due to an administrative flaw.
"There is a typo in the date of the decision, when the year 2017 was originally stated but then, a corrected decision was issued," spokesperson for the General Prosecutor's Office, Andrea Predajňová, told Sme.
Sad ending for ordinary people
Read also:Court refuted fraud claims in Glance House caseRead more
The Glance House case was concluded at the Regional Court in Bratislava on October 11. It found that the developers of the apartment block, the Čížs, a married couple, were innocent. In the past the Special Prosecutor's Office charged them with fraud and Trnka expressed his conviction that they would be sentenced.
The end of the case still does not ensure that the ordinary people who paid advance payments for flats in Glance House will get their money back. The building is no longer blocked but it is now part of the bankruptcy proceedings of two entities, the Gapeja company and the OTP bank. Administrators of the bankruptcy proceedings must either agree on what happens with Glance House, or there will be court proceedings.
"If the building comes to the OTP bank we will get at least some money; I hope for at least half of the amount we paid in advance," František Horváth who represents the damaged potential tenants told Sme.
Theme: Corruption & scandals
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Persepolis je francouzsko-americký kreslený film íránské režisérky Marjane Satrapi a francouzského režiséra Vincenta Parronauda z roku 2007, natočený na motivy stejnojmenného autobiografického komiksu Marjane Satrapi, v němž popisuje svůj život v Íránu a v Rakousku, včetně událostí a epoch jako svržení posledního šáha Muhammada Rezy Pahlavího (Íránská islámská revoluce), nástupu islámské teokratické diktatury, začátku Irácko-íránské války či situace na přelomu 80. a 90. let. Film byl úspěšný u diváků i kritiků – získal mimo jiné Cenu poroty na Filmovém festivalu v Cannes roku 2007. Na úspěchu se podílela i hudba různých autorů. Většina filmu je černobílá.

Děj
Děj začíná v na pařížském letišti Orly. Marjane tam přichází připomenout si svůj přílet z Íránu. Usedá na lavičku v letištní hale, kde se ponoří do vzpomínek, v nichž bude celý film ubíhat. Začínají v Teheránu roku 1979, během Íránské islámské revoluce. Režim šáha Muhammada Rezy Pahlavího uvěznil množství jeho odpůrců, včetně Marjanina strýce z otcovy strany, její rodina to tedy vítá a připojuje s k protestům. Malá Marjane je revolucí nadšená a nesmírně obdivuje svého z vězení propuštěného strýce. Po nadšení však přichází deziluze – přichází islámská krutovláda, Marjanin strýc je opět uvězněn, tisíce disidentů jsou popraveny, jsou zavedeny přísné islámské zákony, které přesně nařizují styl oblékání (závoj) či přísně zakazují nemanželský sex, konzumaci alkoholu či západní hudbu. Školu ovládá islámská propaganda. Marjane má v režimu problémy – pohádá se se svojí učitelkou náboženství kvůli lžím, které tvrdí o současné vládě, načerno shání západní hudbu, za svoje oblečení (bunda s vlastnoručním pravopisně chybným nápisem "Punk is not ded", odznak s obrázkem Michaela Jacksona) je málem odvedena mravnostní policií, její rodina je zastavena při jízdě autem a prohledá jejich byt. Navíc zuří irácko-íránská válka, a tak Marjanini rodiče se rozhodnou, že musí z Íránu pryč. Odlétá do Rakouska, kde má bydlet v bytě u známých jejich rodičů. Ten však musí "z důvodu nedostatečné kapacity" opustit a stěhuje se do domova, který spravují jeptišky. Začíná pozvolna rozumět německy, do země dorazila s nulovou znalostí tohoto jazyka. Nachází si první rakouské přátele, spolek výstředních odpadlíků, se kterými bere drogy. Pohádá se s jeptiškami, které spravují její ubytovnu, a opět se stěhuje, tentokrát do podnájmu k podivnínské učitelce filosofie v důchodu. Nachází si nové přátele – partu "anarchistů", s nimiž jezdí na výlety do lesů. Navazuje první milostný vztah – Fernarda. Ten ji však oznámí, že je homosexuál a ona ho v tom měla utvrdit. Brzy má nového přítele – Marcuse, s kterým se rozejde poté, co ho in flagranti nachytá s jinou dívkou. Když ji bláznivá majitelka domu, v němž bydlí, obviní z krádeže brože, ve vzteku odchází z jejího domu. Rychle střídá bydlení – bydlí například s homosexuály a nakonec skončí na ulici. Hluboko podchlazenou ji převezou do nemocnice. Marjane telefonuje rodičům a dohodne se s nimi, že se vrátí do Íránu. Tam už skončila válka, země je poškozená, režim jen mírně povolil oproti svému začátku. Marjane se znovu setkává s rodiči, babičkou, starými přáteli. Znovu studuje a znovu má spory s vyučujícími. Několikrát ji na ulici zadrží strážci morálky. Vdává se, ale po roce zjišťuje, že byl sňatek omyl a rozvádí se. Zúčastní se večírku u své přítelkyně, kam vtrhne mravnostní policie. Dívky ukrývají alkohol a chlapci, kteří s nimi byli, se utíkají schovat do podkroví, protože společný večírek obou pohlaví by byl pro mravnostní policisty nepřijatelný. Chlapci jsou však nalezeni a při útěku přes střechy se při pádu zabije jeden z Marjaniných přátel. Marjane znovu odchází ze země a její rodiče ji přikazují, aby se už nevrátila – Írán není místo pro ni. Naposledy vidí svoji babičku. Odlétá do Francie, kde příběh končí.

Externí odkazy

 Oficiální stránky filmu Persepolis (anglicky)

Francouzské animované filmy
Americké animované filmy
Filmy Marjane Satrapiové
Filmy z roku 2007
Filmy podle komiksů
Filmy studia Sony Pictures Classics
Držitelé Césara pro nejlepší filmový debut
Filmy studia The Kennedy/Marshall Company

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Donald Trump ordered to pay $2M to charity to settle Trump Foundation lawsuit
New York State Team
ALBANY – A state judge has ordered President Donald Trump to pay $2 million to charity to settle a lawsuit accusing him and his family of illegally mismanaging his charitable foundation.
State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla of Manhattan issued her decision Thursday, faulting Trump for allowing his 2016 presidential campaign to orchestrate a televised fundraiser in Des Moines for the Trump Foundation, which then distributed $2.8 million to veterans charities that were also chosen by the campaign.
Trump and then-New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood reached a deal last year that saw the Trump family agree to dissolve the Trump Foundation and distribute its remaining $1.8 million in assets to a variety of charities, including the Army Relief Fund and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
But the two sides couldn't reach consensus on penalties for the Iowa fundraiser, leaving it up to Scarpulla to order Trump to pay an additional $2 million to the same charities.
"Mr. Trump's fiduciary duty breaches included allowing his campaign to orchestrate the Fundraiser, allowing his campaign, instead of the Foundation, to direct distribution of the Funds, and using the Fundraiser and distribution of the Funds to further Mr. Trump's political campaign," Scarpulla wrote in her decision Thursday.
Trump blasted the decision in a lengthy statement posted Thursday on Twitter, calling the litigation "politically motivated harassment."
"All they found was incredibly effective philanthropy and some small technical violations," Trump said.
In a separate statement, Trump attorney Alan Futerfas said the Trump Foundation was pleased with the decision.
Trump Foundation lawsuit first filed in June 2018
Underwood, a Democrat, first filed a lawsuit against Trump, his three eldest children and the Trump Foundation — which was registered in New York — in June 2018.
The lawsuit accused the Trump family of a wide variety of mismanagement, including using the charity to advance his self interests and boost his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
A large part of the suit focused on the Iowa fundraiser, which Trump held as counter-programming to a Republican presidential debate he chose to skip.
Trump's campaign staff organized the event and directed where the funds went. When Trump issued enlarged checks to the veterans organizations, they had his "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan on the bottom.
New York law prohibits charities from participating in political events.
The lawsuit also accused the Trump Foundation board of being largely nonexistent, failing to hold a meeting since 1999 and allowing Trump himself to determine when and where contributions were made.
Several times, the foundation paid six-figure sums to other foundations to settle legal issues at Mar-a-Lago and Trump's other clubs in violation of state and federal law.
Settlement reached in December, but issues remained
The two sides reached an agreement in December to settle many of the lawsuits claims, in large part by agreeing to dissolve the Trump Foundation, despite Trump previously vowing he wouldn't settle the case.
After further negotiation, the state and Trump agreed to allow Scarpulla to decide the remaining issues surrounding the Iowa fundraiser.
The Attorney General's Office, now led by Attorney General Letitia James, had been pushing for Trump to pay an additional $2.8 million to settle the Iowa claims and more for punitive damages.
But Scarpulla declined to award the full amount, instead ordering Trump to pay $2 million because the money raised from the Iowa fundraiser did ultimately go to veterans charities.
The money will go to eight different charities: Army Emergency Relief, Children's Aid Society, City Meals-on-Wheels, Give an Hour, Martha's Table, United Negro College Fund, United Way of Capital Area and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, according to the settlement.
In his statement, Trump's attorney criticized the lawsuit as being "politically motivated" and praised Scarpulla for rejecting the Attorney General's push for additional damages.
"We are pleased that the Court, in rejecting the Attorney General's frivolous request for statutory penalties, interest and other damages, recognized that every penny ever raised by the Trump Foundation has gone to help those most in need," Futerfas said. "Now that this matter is concluded, the Trump Foundation is proud to make this additional contribution."
James said the judge's decision and her office's lawsuit show "no one is above the law — not a businessman, not a candidate for office, and not even the President of the United States."
"The court's decision, together with the settlements we negotiated, are a major victory in our efforts to protect charitable assets and hold accountable those who would abuse charities for personal gain," James wrote.
JCAMPBELL1@gannett.com
More:Donald J. Trump Foundation to dissolve in deal with New York AG
More:President Trump joins critics of New York's end to cash bail, which will free inmates Jan. 1
More:5 takeaways from New York's Trump Foundation lawsuit


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What Future For America's Small Cities?
Review: Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town, by Brian Alexander; Janesville: An American Story, by Amy Goldstein; Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America, by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows; Building a Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change is Reshaping America, by Quint Studer
By Alan Mallach -
Baltimore, Maryland. Photo by Doug Kerr, via flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
It is hardly a coincidence that these four books, all of which look at the challenges facing America's small cities and towns, have appeared more or less simultaneously during the past year. While they were all in the works before the 2016 presidential election, the increasing visibility of the opioid epidemic, followed by Trump's victory, which was secured by his unexpected success in a handful of Rustbelt states, have made a lot of people sit up and take notice of places that were previously largely off the media radar. We now have these books, which not only offer something of a window on what is—or is not—going on in these places, but may also offer some useful pointers for practitioners, particularly but not exclusively those working in the types of place the authors describe.
What do we mean, though, by small cities, and what are their challenges? There are hundreds of small cities in the United States, places between, say, 25,000 and 100,000 or 150,000 people. While they run the social and economic gamut from rich to poor, from thriving to moribund, many are struggling, particularly places like Trenton, New Jersey or Youngstown, Ohio which were once bustling manufacturing centers, but are still trying today to figure out how to cope with the blows of deindustrialization, out-migration and the still-lasting effects of the Great Recession.
Some are real cities, with tall downtown buildings, state universities and hospitals, while others are really overgrown small towns. In contrast to the much-heralded success stories coming out of larger cities like Pittsburgh or Baltimore, few have seen sustained revival. Numbering in the hundreds, those places form an archipelago of mingled revival and distress which – although most heavily concentrated in the industrial Midwest – stretches from coast to coast.
But these cities are not an undifferentiated collection of interchangeable urban parts. Each one has its own character and history, its civic culture, and its own collection of human beings working to make their community a better place. At the same time, these cities are not free agents; they are intensely vulnerable to the forces of change operating at the national and global levels, from the inexorable pressures of demographic and social change to decisions made in Washington, Wall Street, or the corporate boardrooms of (the metaphorical) Detroit.
All of this makes the story of America's small cities a difficult one to write about. The ideal book should not only capture the distinctive flavor and human reality of the place or places it describes, but should also show how that reality fits into the larger picture of our economic and political life today, help the reader understand the underlying forces that have all but undone these cities' proud industrial heritage, and finally, provide some critical perspective on what is being done or can be done to reinvent, as it were, these cities for the twenty-first century. That is a tall order.
Predictably, no one book captures everything. In many respects, though, the two books that each tell the story of a single place come closest, although neither offers much in the way of suggestions about what can be done moving forward. Brian Alexander, who depicts the gradual unravelling of Lancaster, Ohio; and Amy Goldstein, who portrays what happened in Janesville, Wisconsin after the GM plant closed, both vividly describe the change in these two cities by following the fortunes of a small band of people and families who become, to the reader, the voice of their community over time. Alexander, though—who grew up in Lancaster—gives the reader a far more visceral feeling for the place and its people than does Goldstein, a gifted Washington Post reporter who remains, despite her efforts, an outsider.
Both authors tell their story well, but Alexander also gets what lies behind Lancaster's decline and the evisceration of the town's flagship manufacturer, iconic glassmaker Anchor Hocking. While the story of the predatory lenders that victimized millions of homeowners and home buyers with subprime mortgages in the late 1990s and early 2000s, sending neighborhoods across the United States into a tailspin from which many have never recovered, is well known, far fewer people are aware of the similar practices that played a crucial part in the gutting of American industry during the same period.
A bit of history: While the decline of heavy industry in places like Pittsburgh and Youngstown in the 1970s was largely driven by global trends, including rising energy costs, overproduction and increased international competition in an era of relative economic stagnation, factory jobs in the United States leveled off fairly quickly, and stayed reasonably stable through the 1980s and most of the 1990s. Starting around 1998, though, they plummeted. From that point until they stabilized around 2010, the United States lost over 6 million manufacturing jobs, or roughly one out of every three factory jobs in the country. For the record, eight years later we've gained back only about 1 million of those jobs.
There's no question that some of those jobs would have been lost under any likely scenario. Some factories were obsolete and unproductive, some were off-shored, and in others, changing manufacturing processes meant that fewer workers were needed to make the same amount of stuff. But few people have shown how the process worked by which Wall Street firms, variously known as corporate raiders, venture capitalists, private equity funds, or leveraged buyout specialists, systematically turned company after company into piggybanks, milking them for unconscionable fees while loading them with ever-larger amounts of debt, collecting the profits while saddling the companies with unsustainable repayment burdens, ultimately destroying firms that without those burdens would have still been able to make a competitive product at a reasonable profit.
This story shares uncanny parallels with the subprime mortgage story, about how predatory capitalism untethered by effective regulation systematically undermined not only our neighborhoods, but our livelihoods and the communities that depended on them. I'm not suggesting that this was the only factor in the collapse of manufacturing in the 1990s and 2000s, but its contribution, if that's the right word, needs to be better understood.
This is the story that Alexander gets, brilliantly dissecting how Anchor Hocking became the victim of the predatory capital game, passed like a hot potato from one investor to another, its various parts spun off and increasingly loaded with debt. Once the city's mainstay employer, it still exists after going through two rounds of bankruptcy, but as a shadow of its former self, employing only 900 or so people instead of the 5,000 who once worked there.
Both Alexander and Goldstein capture another important part of their cities' story, which, as with the role of predatory capital, is not always appreciated, but is even more fundamental to understanding what is going on in these cities, as well as in American society more broadly, today.
Both authors follow something of a cross-section of each city's society: bank managers, corporate executives, social service providers, struggling factory workers, and, for Alexander, sensitively portrayed drifters and strung-out drug users. As time passes, one sees not only how different the lives of the executives and managers are from the others, but how, as the factories close and the union locals disintegrate, the initial gap between the two groups widens into a chasm, as even the way each group looks at the same community becomes radically different.
Losing factories in a place like Janesville or Lancaster was about far more than losing well-paying blue collar jobs. The factories were about identity, about solidarity, and about a social contract. Those jobs meant that factory workers were part of the middle class, that their kids could go to college, and that they had a stake in the community as real as that of the president of the local bank. In Lancaster, when Anchor Hocking was locally-owned, it was even more than that, as line workers and managers bent elbows in the same downtown taverns, and workers' sons would go off to college and come back home to become managers. All that disappeared.
Both authors describe the progression of social fragmentation, although Goldstein zooms in on it more directly. In a powerful chapter near the end of the book entitled "Glass More than Half Full", she depicts a gathering of the town's leadership a few years after the closing of the GM plant. The event featured the unveiling of a promotional video entitled "The Crabby Bloggers" which she describes as "juxtapos[ing] upbeat statistics about Janesville's economy with a cartoon that features furious typing and grumbling by blogging nay-sayers," and culminated in a rapturous standing ovation for Janesville's own Congressman Paul Ryan and his platitudes about the community's "we're in it together" spirit. And at the end, she portrays Bob Borremans, director of the county Job Center, walking away, "wondering on this optimism-drenched night whether Paul will ever come to glimpse the Janesville he knows."
Yes, in some respects Janesville's economy has revived. Unemployment is low – mostly thanks to local workers commuting to jobs all over southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois – and Dollar General has opened a distribution center just out of town. But the social contract has been broken, and it's not clear whether the people who gathered at the Holiday Inn Express to listen to Paul Ryan even understand that, let alone have any ideas about how to fix it. Indeed, as Americans increasingly retreat into their tribes, it seems they not only have difficulty hearing one another but even in remembering that there's someone other than themselves out there.
When one turns from these two books to the one by James and Deborah Fallows, the reader enters a different, sunnier world. The authors want to change the national conversation; as James Fallows (the book is written in alternating sections by the two authors) writes, "despite the economic crises of the preceding decade and the social tensions of which every American is aware, most parts of the United States have been doing better, in most ways, than most Americans realize." In the course of their travels, the Fallows touch down in a lot of different places. These places come in many shapes and sizes, but a lot of them, like Erie and Allentown, Pennsylvania, or Duluth, Minnesota, fall squarely into the small city basket.
I've read and gained insight from James Fallows' reporting for many years; while I was not familiar before with Deborah Fallows, she too is a fine writer, and, I discovered, author of an entertaining and edifying book on the Chinese language entitled Dreaming in Chinese. Their well-written and informative book is, in fact, up to a point a useful corrective. It reminds one that there is a counter-story to the egregious dysfunction of our national politics and society, and that a lot of good things are happening in small towns and cities across the United States. It also brings home one of the most fundamental points about change: it doesn't trickle down from the federal government, but emerges locally, through local effort and through broadly-based local coalitions. Their stories about local action are worth reading and sometimes inspiring, although after a while they tend to blur; was that great project I read about half an hour ago in Sioux City or San Bernardino?
At the same time, the Fallows share the tunnel vision of their tribe, the tribe of highly mobile, well-educated professionals with sophisticated tastes. They are a thoughtful and concerned pair, to be sure, but still very much products of their tribe. As such, they gravitate time after time to the tribal symbols of revival and success: riverwalks, art galleries, bike paths and brewpubs. James Fallows writes, "a city on the way back will have at least one craft brewery, maybe more, and probably some small distilleries, too." Perhaps, but on the way back for whom, though?
That is a little unfair to the Fallows. They do spend quite a bit of time visiting schools and community colleges, and talking to people about immigrant integration, and they recognize the importance of all three to the future of the cities and towns they visit. The sections where they talk about these issues, how Dodge City's schools are helping to integrate the city's Latino immigrants, or how the Kepler Neighborhood School in Fresno connects its children to the community – and the community to them – are the book's best pages. At the same time, although many people in many of the cities the Fallows visited share the despair and frustration of their counterparts in Lancaster and Janesville, you would never be able to tell that from this book. It may have something to do with spending so much time in craft breweries.
After three books that described things, I turned to Quint Studer's book with some hopes and expectations. Finally, I thought, a nuts & bolts book that actually tells one how to do it. If only it were true. Quint Studer is by all accounts an admirable individual, a multimillionaire health care executive who decided about 15 years ago to spend a lot of his energy and a lot of his money revitalizing the downtown of Pensacola, his adopted Florida panhandle community. Despite the title, though, his book turns out not to be about reshaping America, or even about reshaping Pensacola, but about reshaping downtown Pensacola. As such, it offers some insights into how his efforts helped realize the potential of the city's downtown, including some good down-home ideas about where to start and about getting people to work together, but little more.
What I found most interesting about Studer's book, though, is how it ultimately intersects with what the Fallows are also saying, in that he clearly came to realize – as he was engaged in downtown revitalization – that something was missing from the picture, and that that 'something' was education, or more broadly, developing local human capital. While his ideas about how to do so are too general to be of much use (focus on pre-K, teach kids the skillsets of the future, and so forth) and lack the granularity of his ideas about putting together a downtown revitalization agenda, his recognition of how fundamental human capital is to any real community-building process is a lesson that community development practitioners should take to heart.
I'm not suggesting that affordable housing developers and CDCs necessarily should drop everything they're doing and focus on improving their local schools (although in some cases, that might not be a bad idea), but I would argue that any affordable housing developer or CDC who is not at some level engaged in supporting better schools, or more effective workforce development, for the children and adults of the communities where they work, is shortchanging their community.
In the final analysis, the plight of America's small once-industrial cities is a daunting one. While some, like Lowell, Massachusetts, Lancaster, Pennsylvania or, for that matter, Pensacola, Florida can build on their proximity to big cities like Boston or regional assets like Amish country or Florida beaches, many lack that luxury. Neither Lancaster nor Janesville has found the way out, and despite the Fallows' implicit prescription, copying the big-city brewpub and bike path playbook and building the amenities that will attract Richard Florida's Creative Class doesn't get you that far when the underlying economic engines—particularly the big research universities and medical centers—aren't there. In the end, I'm not sure there is always an answer.
Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town, by Brian Alexander. Macmillan, 2017, 336 pp., $26.99 hardcover.
Janesville: An American Story, by Amy Goldstein. Simon and Schuster, 2018, 368 pp., $16.00 softcover.
Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America, by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows. Pantheon, 2018, 432 pp., $28.99 hardcover.
Building a Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change is Reshaping America, by Quint Studer. Be The Bulb Publishing, 2018, $24.95 softcover.
Foreclosure & Financial Crisis
Alan Mallach
Alan Mallach, senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress and the National Housing Institute, is the author of many works on housing and planning, including Bringing Buildings Back, A Decent Home, and Inclusionary Housing in International Perspective. He served as director of housing and economic development for Trenton, New Jersey, from 1990 to 1999, and teaches in the City and Regional Planning program at Pratt Institute.
Housing Organizing in the Year of the Pandemic
Stop Talking About the Racial Wealth Gap


text:
Wilmington Mayor puts curfew into effect after unruly ending to Monday protests
Updated: Jun. 2, 2020 at 5:16 AM EDT
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Late Monday evening, protests in downtown Wilmington began escalating leading to a curfew going into effect at 11:30 p.m.
Mayor Bill Saffo put a curfew in effect until 6:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, after a mostly peaceful protest became unruly before midnight resulting in several arrests.
After conferring with law enforcement, Saffo instituted a curfew starting at 11:30 p.m. Monday night. New Hanover County Sheriff's Office deputies showed up in riot gear to clear the streets, after reports of people in the crowd throwing rocks, bottles and fireworks at law enforcement.
Sheriff Ed McMahon said his deputies dispersed tear gas around themselves when a crowd of people began moving toward them. The sheriff said the gas was not fired toward anyone in the crowd of protestors.
Demonstrators gathered for a third day of protests in Wilmington to mark the death of George Floyd, the African-American man seen on video shouting "I can't breathe' while a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer kneeled on his neck. It began on the steps of City Hall late in the afternoon and grew in size throughout the evening with police officers and sheriff's deputies monitoring the activity. After sundown, the group marched from Third Street to Market Street and eventually made its way back to the courthouse steps, chanting George Floyd's name along with 'No Justice, No Peace' and 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot', a reference to the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Curfew put into effect after peaceful protests turned unruly(WECT)
The group obtained a permit for Monday's event, working to prove that it could be done peacefully. McMahon said many members of the group that organized the protest had left the scene when the problems began.
"Overall, until about the last hour, it was a successful, in my opinion, demonstration and people got to express their feelings in an orderly and lawful manner," Sheriff McMahon said. He added that the number of arrests were fewer than law enforcement officers made when a protest Sunday escalated and resulted in several businesses being damaged.


text:
Pine and Washington to the Rescue on Unstoppable
on movies, posters, trailers on Monday, November 08, 2010
Denzel Washington and Chris Pine team up in the upcoming action-thriller "Unstoppable" directed by Tony Scott. Washington and Pine play train engineers whose lives are put at risk in an attempt to stop an unmanned long freight train carrying combustible liquids and poisonous gas enough to wipe out an entire city.
Based on actual events, the story centers on an experienced train engineer, Frank Barnes (Washington) who's about to be laid off as part of company cutbacks while Chris Pine plays Will Gordon, the newbie conductor hired to replace him.
Chris Pine who starred in the blockbuster movie "Star Trek" likens both movies in a recent interview with MTV. "It ("Unstoppable") also has the genetic code of the summer tentpole movie. It's fun and action-packed. And it's got some really interesting, complex characters to kind of anchor the whole thing. And Tony always talked about how the movie was like a train. Once it gets going, it just does not stop," Pine shares.
"Unstoppable" opens November 12 in theaters nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.


text:
Induction of the Cpx envelope stress pathway contributes to Escherichia coli tolerance to antimicrobial peptides
First insights into the entry process of hyperthermophilic archaeal viruses
Publication	: Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology
Immunology taught by human genetics
Publié sur Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology - 03 Oct 2013
Casanova JL, Abel L, Quintana-Murci L
Cold Spring Harb. Symp. Quant. Biol. 2013;78:157-72
Human genetic studies are rarely conducted for immunological purposes. Instead, they are typically driven by medical and evolutionary goals, such as understanding the predisposition or resistance to infectious or inflammatory diseases, the pathogenesis of such diseases, and human evolution in the context of the long-standing relationships between humans and their commensal and environmental microbes. However, the dissection of these experiments of Nature has also led to major immunological advances. In this review, we draw on some of the immunological lessons learned in the three branches of human molecular genetics most relevant to immunology: clinical genetics, epidemiological genetics, and evolutionary genetics. We argue that human genetics has become a new frontier not only for timely studies of specific features of human immunity, but also for defining general principles of immunity. These studies teach us about immunity as it occurs under "natural" conditions, through the transition from the almost complete wilderness that existed worldwide until about a century ago to the current unevenly distributed medically shaped environment. Hygiene, vaccines, antibiotics, and surgery have considerably decreased the burden of infection, but these interventions have been available only recently, so have yet to have a major impact on patterns of genomic diversity, making it possible to carry out unbiased evolutionary studies at the population level. Clinical genetic studies of childhood phenotypes have not been blurred by modern medicine either. Instead, medical advances have actually facilitated such studies, by making it possible for children with life-threatening infections to survive. In addition, the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases have increased life expectancy at birth from ∼20 yr to ∼80 yr, providing unique opportunities to study the genetic basis of immunological phenomena against which there is no natural counterselection, such as reactivation and secondary infectious diseases and breakdown of self-tolerance manifesting as autoimmunity, in populations of adult and aging patients. Recently developed deep sequencing and stem cell technologies are of unprecedented power, and their application to human genetics is opening up exciting and timely possibilities for young immunologists seeking uncharted waters to explore.
Publié le: 03 Oct 2013


There is the misconception that the Real estate agent should be in control of the home buying transaction to the extent that they handle it all for you. Sometimes they are dual agent and also want to pick YOUR home inspector out for you... What a way to ensure they make a sale and get thier money. Pretty crooked if you ask me.
Of course this is under the guise of..."we are a full service agency..." "Oh let me handle that... you have enough to worry about...."
They will often direct the Inspector privately: "don't kill the deal"
Translation: I am trying to get the money and run, so i want you to pretend the defects are not so bad, or to ignore them all together. "
These are the same agents who will whisper soothing lies in your ear so the inspector can't hear. Right after the inspector finds a defect in the home that is a cause of concern, the sidle up to you and try to " keep it in perspective" by minimizing the danger, convincing you " it probably won't happen" Yeah they play wild and loose with YOUR HEALTH AND FAMILY SAFETY.
They will sell you anything they can, always justifying and minimizing any problem as fine, not a big deal, easy to fix, blah blah blah.
OR should i say, live in?


Selenium locators allow us to access HTML elements from a web page like text boxes, labels, hyperlinks, radio buttons, checkboxes etc. Check types of locators as you know while writing scripts for automation testing we inserting some input data in the application and verify the results.
These are the most useful locators when writing script, in this post we will discuss it one by one.
ID is a well-known locator in Selenium WebDriver, ID gives a unique identity to the element. It helps while writing scripts where multiple choices are existing.
Unlike ID, Name locator can be useful if ID locator is missing but make sure that every time name attribute cannot be unique.
Link Text locator is used to click on any anchor text. Make sure that anchor text (Link Text) should not be duplicated.
Partial Link Text Locator is like Link Text Locator only difference is we can write "Partial Link Text" instead of full link text.
Tag Name locator mostly used for Check Boxes and Dropdown list.
ClassName locator can be used if class name available. If you are using rest of locators there is a chance of duplication.
These are the types of locators which helps to make automation scripts easy. I hope you will use these types of locators in your work.
2. Click on inspect tool then select any element on the web page to check element's property.
« What are the Software Development Models?


A member of staff will be available to answer any and all questions you have relating to photography. If you are requesting assistance with a particular camera, lens, or accessory, please be sure to bring it with you so that we may best explain it to you.
The open question and answer will be on Saturday, February 16th at 10am. Registeration is preferred.


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The only way is up…for your business!
We offer up to 4K RAW aerial video and high resolution stills from up to 400 feet in the sky. We are fully qualified, licensed and insured UAV (drone) pilots with 4 years experience. Our clients include Pinewood Studios, the BBC, Channel 4, and the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London.
Aerial footage of your town, city or business can only enhance people's perception and interest in what you are promoting. Just about anything and anywhere looks great from the sky.
It is only since the rise in popularity of cameras on UAV's (or drones) that we have started to see our surroundings in a totally different way. Civilian aeroplanes and helicopters are never allowed to fly below a certain height. However, all of us look out of the plane window during take off and landing because we can see things so clearly, easily and differently.
That same feeling can be applied to just about any business or area that we film. From between 10 and 400 feet we can give your clients something to Wow! at with a new, aerial promotional video.
Note: The video above was my first draft of this project expecting the client to make changes. They didn't.
Have a look at the video reel below, it is one of our first videos back in 2015 when we upgraded our UAV. Think about how this style of aerial video can really push your town, city or business forward with a unique and beautiful looking style.
Note: Click full screen in the bottom right of the video for a larger view.
If you are interested, there is a lot to discuss. Firstly with regards to permissions, safety checks, pre and on-site surveys and so on. Then there is your vision for the kind of promotional video you want so please get in touch.
We can help to really promote your land, property, business etc.
Please note there are also a number of restrictions set out by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) that need to be discussed and adhered to. Prices are on request as each job is unique with a bespoke plan and storyboard.
We are Dorset based but work anywhere in the UK and abroad. Please contact us using the details below and we can discuss your project in more detail.


JOB In His Backyard at Pipe Jamie O'Brien offers an inside look at the wave that he calls home in his fifth GoPro Challenge Hawaii entry.
Kelly Slater topped the field of Hawaiians, hungry QS athletes and fellow CT surfers in true champion form to claim his first victory since the 2014 Volcom Pipe Pro. El niño delivered some of the best conditions ever seen for an event at Pipe, allowing Slater to flex his talent at the famed North Shore proving ground. Slater's victory, however, was not enough to overshadow standout performances from Jamie O'Brien, Makai McNamara, Bruce Irons and more throughout the three day event.


text:
from pptx import Presentation
from pptx.util import Inches
import io
from os.path import join as opj
import os

__all__ = ['BasicPresentation']

""" (text, fig, table) """
layouts = {(True, True, True):0,
           (True, True, False):1,
           (True, False, True):2,
           (True, False, False):3,
           (False, True, False):4,
           (False, False, True):5}

"""TODO:
    - Add title slide with date, name and title"""

class BasicPresentation():
    def __init__(self, filename):
        """Create a basic slide deck.
        Note: Figures should be

              6.5" x 6" (W x H) w/o a table
              6.5" x 3.5" w/ table
              12.5" x 6" alone

              or will need resizing"""
        self.filename = filename
        try:
            self.prs = Presentation(opj(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'basic_pptx.pptx'))
        except NameError:
            self.prs = Presentation()

    def add_slide(self, title=None, text=None, figure=None, table=None):
        lo = (not text is None, not figure is None, not table is None)
        slide = self.prs.slides.add_slide(self.prs.slide_layouts[layouts[lo]])

        if not title is None:
            title_shape = slide.shapes.title.text = title

        if not text is None:
            body_shape = slide.shapes.placeholders[1].text_frame.text = text[0]
            for t in text[1:]:
                p = slide.shapes.placeholders[1].text_frame.add_paragraph()
                p.text = t
                p.level = 0

        if not figure is None:
            streamio = io.BytesIO()
            figure.savefig(streamio, format='png', dpi=200)
            streamio.seek(0)
            # pic = slide.shapes.add_picture(streamio, Inches(5), Inches(0.5))
            pic = slide.shapes.placeholders[10].insert_picture(streamio)
        if not table is None:
            tab = slide.shapes.placeholders[11].insert_table(table.shape[0] + 1, table.shape[1]).table
            """tab = slide.shapes.add_table(table.shape[0] + 1, table.shape[1],
                                         left=Inches(1),
                                         top=Inches(4),
                                         width=Inches(6),
                                         height=Inches(4)).table"""
            for j in range(table.shape[1]):
                if type(table.columns[j]) is tuple:
                    col = '|'.join([str(c) for c in table.columns[j]])
                else:
                    col = str(table.columns[j])
                tab.cell(0, j).text = col

            for i in range(table.shape[0]):
                for j in range(table.shape[1]):
                    tab.cell(i + 1, j).text = str(table.values[i, j])
    def save(self):
        self.prs.save(self.filename)

def test_basic():
    import pandas as pd
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    import numpy as np
    from fg_shared import _git

    df = pd.DataFrame({'dude':np.arange(5), 'yo':np.linspace(4, 5, 5)})

    bp = BasicPresentation(opj(_git, 'test.pptx'))

    figh = plt.figure(figsize=(13, 7))
    plt.plot(np.random.randn(50), np.random.rand(50), 'o', alpha=0.5)
    bp.add_slide(title='Dude, title!',
                 text=['Bullet 1', 'Bullet 2', 'Bullet 3'],
                 table=df,
                 figure=figh)

    bp.add_slide(title='Dude, title!',
                 text=['Bullet 1', 'Bullet 2', 'Bullet 3'])
    bp.add_slide(title='Dude, title!',
                 text=['Bullet 1', 'Bullet 2', 'Bullet 3'],
                 table=df)

    figh = plt.figure(figsize=(6.5, 6))
    plt.plot(np.random.randn(50), np.random.rand(50), 'o', alpha=0.5)
    bp.add_slide(title='Dude, title!',
                 text=['Bullet 1', 'Bullet 2', 'Bullet 3'],
                 figure=figh)

    figh = plt.figure(figsize=(12.5, 6))
    plt.plot(np.random.randn(50), np.random.rand(50), 'o', alpha=0.5)
    bp.add_slide(title='Dude, title!',
                 figure=figh)
    bp.add_slide(title='Dude, title!',
                 table=df)
    bp.save()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The first stellar intensity interferometry experiment in decades!
How to calibrate red clump stars as standard candles using a hierarchical probabilistic model.
When it zips past the Galactic Center black hole in 2018, how would a possible binarity of the star S0-2 affect the detectability of its relativistic motion?
How an exoplanet's transits reveal starspots on HAT-P-11.
How frequent are black hole mergers in the centers of galaxies?


At first it doesn't seems like we will be needing the Quicktime player. There're many alternatives like the opensource VLC player. But unfortunately it's not that simple. Quicktime also comes with many video codecs that us video editors need to process our clips. One very populair codec is the H.264, which is being used as the number one standard for recording and publishing video. Fortunate Adobe has implemented this and many other codecs in their installation.
But why worry then? Well, some codecs aren't supported by default within Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects. Those are the Apple Proress, Animation and DNxHD. Some codecs that we do wish to have. Especially Apple proress and it's an industry standard.
I did some searches and came across a very easy solution. It seems like the QuickTime player is the only security problem. So if there's a way to delete the player but keep the codecs we'll be fine. And thanks to a program called "QuickTime Lite" it is. After uninstalling QuickTime from your Windows Machine, you can download and install QuickTime Lite (link can be found bellow the video).


Photo Caption: Joe Garcia (center), resident of Little Village, community leader and Chief of Staff to Senator Martin Sandoval (D-11), marched alongside CeaseFire members and others, in support of "Peace in the Streets". "Public Safety is a priority to Senator Sandoval," said Garcia. "Way too many innocent people have been killed due to gang violence and enough is enough." Senator Sandoval represents the 11th Senate District, which includes the neighborhoods of Brighton Park, Clearing, Gage Park, Garfield Ridge, Little Village, West Lawn, and West Cook municipalities of Bedford Park, Burbank, Cicero, Forest View, Lyons, McCook, Stickney, Summit and Riverside.