Thinking Aloud; The New Anti-Gay Laws and The Nigerian Government.
I am Unashamedly a Christian. I am Unashamedly a Christian. I am Unashamedly a Christian. By the end of the post, you would understand why I had to state that, thrice. Apart from having a relationship with God, I'm also quite opinionated. Yet, when controversial issues spring forth, I hardly say anything these days. I mostly observe and see/hear what others have to say. Even though sometimes people say the most stupid things-because I recently decided to let go of every judgmental streak in me and also because I'm trying, albeit hard to be as objective as possible-I still try to reason from their perspectives. I never want to be biased and judge people by my standards because in some situations, my standards can be pretty high. At the same time, I never want to ignore things that are wrong because of a need to be liberal or a need to conform. Morality and religion out of the way, I'm a bit conservative anyway. So, when President Jonathan passed a bill on homosexuality; a bill that states that a homosexual should go to jail for fourteen years, there was an uproar; mixed reactions from different people. I wasn't too interested, frankly. Some people said the most bizarre things about the law but as far as I was concerned it was none of my business...or so I thought.
I sat down yesterday or maybe stood or laid down, what matters is that a question popped in my head yesterday. If, perhaps randomly, our Policemen go on their usual raid on the streets of Lagos and arrest young men and proceed to take these men to the station. Assuming they get to the station and accuse these men going about their normal lives of homosexuality, how on earth will these men prove that they are in fact heterosexuals? Maybe to further add insult to injury, these unfortunate men are wearing pairs of jeans that are tighter than usual. Just like that, these men will join the other innocent people rotting in prisons and spend fourteen years of their lives in prison. If you know Nigerian police officers very well, you will understand that I was not in the least being dramatic about the scenario I just described. All I am saying is that if you have a brother or cousin or son or uncle, you should be worried about that law. Scratch that, if you live in Nigeria, you should be afraid of that law.
The bible explicitly says homosexuality has always been and will always be just as much of a sin as fornication and adultery. Adultery and fornication, by the way have RUINED lives and WILL continue to ruin lives for decades and centuries to come. Why was a bill not passed against them? You see if Mr. President decides to pass a bill against all three and maybe even lying, stealing, looting government's money and corruption, I'll probably bring down this blog post because well, in that case, I will be the biggest fan of Mr. President. But this whole thing seemed to me like our government is bored. So, anything at all, to get us talking and talking and insulting each other on cyber space as long as we aren't talking about how we haven't had electricity for the past one week. As long as we are not talking about how not a single one of our Universities is top 10 in Africa, talk less of top 50 in the world, the wreckage our education has become. As long as we are not talking about the thousands of girls being trafficked daily and lured into prostitution, PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE ABOUT THE PREMIUM TIMES JOURNALIST THAT WENT UNDERCOVER AS A PROSTITUTE. Once again, dear Nigerians, we all have been distracted and I'm sorry for us.
say NO to gay relationships."
I wanted to reply him but I did not. I can't understand why I felt like the message's underlying message was homosexuality would have been fine if it didn't come from the western world. I wanted to ask him, So if homosexuality wasn't imported, you sef would have been gay abi? But I did not. Quite frankly, I was a bit puzzled too when world leaders were complaining about the anti-gay law. Ah ah, how e take concern these ones now? I know they all say it's about violation of human rights yada yada but I think it's more of you are antagonizing something we approved of. Right? Anyway, we are an independent country and our leaders should be competent enough to make the right decisions and laws for us. Should being the key word. I'm not sure they actually are.
That being said, in light of this new development, my dear girlfriends, I will no longer use words of endearments like darling, boo, love and so on with you during conversations because even though we love each other, I think we can agree that none of us should go to jail. Non? Dear brothers and cousins and uncles please buy your right sizes of jeans trousers, we are now in dangerous times. Also remember to always have girlfriends at every point in time. Whatever you do, remember that fourteen years in a Nigerian prison is equivalent to a death sentence.


Recently, Citrix announced their product GoToMyPC compromised by a sophisticated password attack. GoToMyPC maintains that their own infrastructure wasn't infiltrated, but instead usernames and passwords from other recent security breaches, such as the recent LinkedIN breach, were being systematically used to try to log into GoToMyPC. This is a good example of why security experts recommend using 2FA, or two-factor authentication, and recommend against reusing passwords for multiple online services.
We recommend everyone use the 2-step Verification option for GoToMyPC accounts.
We at Alliance Technologies, LLC take our client's security seriously and are committed to protecting client data. We require all of our employees to have complicated passwords, utilize 2-factor authentication wherever available, have passwords expire at regular intervals, and use unique passwords between services. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions about the security measure we have in place.


• "When you are in the Idea Machine, nothing can stop you. This is where abundance is. This is where seeds are planted. This is where you dip into other dimensions not yet created".
• "True wealth occurs when you don't have to bow down to any gatekeepers—regardless of the money involved. Money is just a by-product. You are out of prison. You are free".
• "The only way to have success is to build the foundation for it".
• "Here's a secret: you don't have to worry about "finding" your passion. You're naturally going to get passionate about what you are good at".
• "'Get Paid, Get Laid, Lose Weight' are the three things people will pay for".
• "Come up with ten ideas you can write newsletters about. They don't have to be in the above three categories".
• "I have never once seen anyone save the increase they received in their salary".
• "Only free time, imagination, creativity, and an ability to disappear will help you deliver value that nobody ever delivered before in the history of humankind".
• "The only skills you need to be an entrepreneur are an ability to fail, an ability to have ideas and to sell those ideas, the courage to execute on those ideas, and to be persistent so even as you fail you learn and move on to the next adventure".
• "Abundance only comes when you are moving along your themes—when you are truly enhancing the lives of the people around you".
• "Ideas are the currency of life. Not money—because money can run out. Money gets depleted until you go broke. But good ideas buy you good experiences, buy you better ideas, buy you better experiences, buy you more time, save your life. Financial wealth is a side effect of the 'runner's high' of your idea muscle".
• "Often the best way to make friends and customers for life is to direct them to a better service or product than yours".
• "When you get in the door, do not sell your product. People make a decision on your product in five seconds. Sell the dream. Build up images of the dream. Give a taste of what the dream is like. Let it linger. Let it weave itself. Let the imagination of the buyer take hold and run with it. The dream has up to infinity in value".
• "Don't do something just for the money. Money is a side effect of persistence. You persist in things you are interested in. Explore your interests. Then persist. Then enjoy all the side effects".
• "Today is the only day I need to think about success. And every successful tomorrow is determined by one thing: having a successful today".
• "Connecting people who can benefit each other is the most useful skill you can have on the entrepreneurial ladder of skills".
• "Choosing yourself right now in how you treat yourself, how you treat the people around you, how you treat your efforts and your loves. Nothing is more important than this".
• "We love our excuses. They are just as much our babies as our ideas are".
• "I don't have the goal, 'do this by X date'. I have a "theme" that I want to have a high quality of life until the day I die".
• "When you have ideas, you'll quickly get freedom. When you get freedom, you'll have the energy to build more ideas, to generate more abundance, to live the life you want to live".
• "Every day give the world at least one more reason to whisper 'thank you' to you. If you can hear that whisper, everything else, every gift in life, becomes expected. You earned it".


text:
Home Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) peter.suber's bookmarks 'I can understand anger against publishers' | Research Information
'I can understand anger against publishers' | Research Information
"I presently see a lot of anger against the big publishers, and think this anger is the biggest challenge right now. Scientists are the publishers' main customers, and they're very dissatisfied with what is going on. There are repeated calls to boycott this or that publisher, which I find somewhat ridiculous because publishers are doing a lot of things that scientists normally don't acknowledge. For example, the whole issue of data storage and indexing and retrieval. This is a lot of work, and scientists seem to think it just comes from nowhere.
Some scientists are trying to do their own things, and in most cases I don't think that's particularly useful. I'm a theoretical physicist, so in my area almost all of the papers are on the arXiv. There are now a few arXiv overlay journals that basically use the data that is stored already on the arXiv, and that means they don't have to worry about how to store the data, and how to make sure that it will remain accessible for the forseeable future. But we're doing science here that we hope will still be used in 100 to 300 years' time, and someone has to think about how to make sure that this data will remain accessible. ..."
https://www.researchinformation.info/analysis-opinion/i-can-understand-anger-against-publishers
oa.new oa.publishers oa.interviews oa.people oa.data oa.physics oa.arxiv oa.overlay oa.gold oa.green oa.preservation oa.repositories oa.journals

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There is nothing like getting a whole bunch of friends together, packing into one of your cars, and heading over to region movie theater to find which of all the new movie releases is going in order to the movie for the night. You can almost hear the groans mixed in alongside the cheers, but even if the movie ends up as a dud, there's nothing greater than getting together with your little motley crew of family.
The problem depends on actually getting at night whole choosing of your movie part in this scenario. People tend to be a little picky about the movies they watch, current prices you face at the box office, no one wants to put money into a bad motion picture. You know there might be a whole other thing when you're getting inside and check out concessions, so even if you aren't 100% down for the movie of choice, anyone decide to with it an individual just don't want the argument. Still, even the democratic vote can cause turmoil. Movie night with your friends is quickly becoming drama central, may need help.
Recommendation Engines on the search engines – At this website point, you're probably convinced that you'll find anything online, and in the true spirit of this statement, you can find a number of movie recommendation engines that will an individual decide on a movie to watch. Each asks for slightly different information of with the end goal of getting you past the decision phase.
Social Interaction and read more Input – A period felt a little out of place at school or at the office because you're not up on the latest movie? It seems as though every one of the cool kids are located in the know regarding really cool movie, but you're for the looking in. If you are after to be an element of the conversation, why not take a shot recorded at a movie that's a little different? Who knows? You might actually dig it.
Let Your Mood Be Your Guide – Depending on mood, you will choose a vastly different movie to look after. Comedies are big for those that need to lessen stress and decompress from the week. Laughter, it seems, is good medicine.
Check Out Kid Reviews – Some of the interesting places appear for online for movie reviews is by checking out websites that feature reviews from kids of all ages. Their honesty and read full article less-than-subtle critiques are refreshing & don't feel heavy with droll humor & pretentiousness.
New movie releases your perfect time to get yourself over inside your local movie theater and possess a bit of any break in the world couple of hours. From now on . if you're bad at choosing a film to away. Today's technology and some slightly outside-the-box thinking may you the ticket to getting you movie-ready.


LIFE, LIFE A book of poetry by Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky, translated by Virginia Rounding. Includes many poems used in Arseny's son's films (Andrei Tarkovsky). With a bibliography of both Arseny and Andrei Tarkovsky, and illustrations from Tarkovsky's movies. FROM THE INTRODUCTION: Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky was was born in June 1907 in Elizavetgrad, later named Kirovograd. He studied at the Academy of Literature in Moscow from 1925 to 1929, and also worked in the editorial office of the journal Gudok. He was well respected as a translator, especially of the Oriental classics, but was little known as a poet for most of his life, being unable to get any of his own work published during the Stalinist era. His poems did not begin to appear in book form until he was over fifty. His son, the film director Andrei Tarkovsky, made extensive use of his father's in some of his films, and certain of his diary entries indicate the esteem in which the poet was held in the Soviet Union towards the end of his life. An entry written after Andrei had given a talk at the Moscow Physical Institute in 1980, for instance, reproduces the following note from a member of the audience: 'An enormous number of people in this hall admire Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky as a great Russian poet. Please convey our respects to him.' One of the few recorded public appearances of Arseny Tarkovsky was at the funeral of Anna Akhmatova; he was one of three writers deputed to accompany her coffin from Domodedovo to Leningrad, and he read both at her funeral in Komarovo and at the first evening held in her memory in Moscow. He died in 1989 and is now beginning to be recognised as one of the many significant Russian poets of the twentieth century. From Ignatyevo Forest' The last leaves' embers in total immolation Rise into the sky; this whole forest Seethes with irritation, just as we did That last year we lived together.


text:
package org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.scheduler.common.fica;

import io.hops.ha.common.TransactionState;
import io.hops.ha.common.TransactionStateImpl;
import io.hops.metadata.yarn.entity.AppSchedulingInfo;
import io.hops.metadata.yarn.entity.Resource;
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience.Private;
import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceStability.Unstable;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ApplicationAttemptId;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Container;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ContainerId;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ContainerStatus;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.NodeId;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Priority;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ResourceRequest;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.RMAuditLogger;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.RMAuditLogger.AuditConstants;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.RMContext;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.recovery.RMStateStore;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.rmcontainer.RMContainer;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.rmcontainer.RMContainerEvent;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.rmcontainer.RMContainerEventType;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.rmcontainer.RMContainerFinishedEvent;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.rmcontainer.RMContainerImpl;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.scheduler.ActiveUsersManager;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.scheduler.Allocation;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.scheduler.NodeType;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.scheduler.Queue;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.scheduler.SchedulerApplicationAttempt;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.util.resource.ResourceCalculator;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.util.resource.Resources;

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

/**
 * Represents an application attempt from the viewpoint of the FIFO or Capacity
 * scheduler.
 */
@Private
@Unstable
public class FiCaSchedulerApp extends SchedulerApplicationAttempt {

  private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(FiCaSchedulerApp.class);

  private final Set<ContainerId> containersToPreempt =
      new HashSet<ContainerId>();
      //TORECOVER but don't seem to be used presently (capacity)

  public FiCaSchedulerApp(ApplicationAttemptId applicationAttemptId,
      String user, Queue queue, ActiveUsersManager activeUsersManager,
      RMContext rmContext) {
    super(applicationAttemptId, user, queue, activeUsersManager, rmContext);
  }

  public void recover(AppSchedulingInfo hopInfo, RMStateStore.RMState state) {
    super.recover(hopInfo, state);
  }

  synchronized public boolean containerCompleted(RMContainer rmContainer,
      ContainerStatus containerStatus, RMContainerEventType event,
      TransactionState transactionState) {

    // Remove from the list of containers
    if (null == liveContainers.remove(rmContainer.getContainerId())) {
      return false;
    }
    if (transactionState != null) {
      ((TransactionStateImpl) transactionState).getSchedulerApplicationInfo()
          .getFiCaSchedulerAppInfo(
              this.appSchedulingInfo.getApplicationAttemptId())
          .setLiveContainersToRemove(rmContainer);
    }
    Container container = rmContainer.getContainer();
    ContainerId containerId = container.getId();

    // Inform the container
    rmContainer.handle(
        new RMContainerFinishedEvent(containerId, containerStatus, event,
            transactionState));
    LOG.info("Completed container: " + rmContainer.getContainerId() +
        " in state: " + rmContainer.getState() + " event:" + event);

    containersToPreempt.remove(rmContainer.getContainerId());

    RMAuditLogger
        .logSuccess(getUser(), AuditConstants.RELEASE_CONTAINER, "SchedulerApp",
            getApplicationId(), containerId);

    // Update usage metrics
    org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource containerResource =
        rmContainer.getContainer().getResource();
    queue.getMetrics()
        .releaseResources(getUser(), 1, containerResource); //TORECOVER
    Resources.subtractFrom(currentConsumption, containerResource);
    //HOP : Update Resources
    if (transactionState != null) {
      ((TransactionStateImpl) transactionState).getSchedulerApplicationInfo()
          .getFiCaSchedulerAppInfo(
              this.appSchedulingInfo.getApplicationAttemptId())
          .toUpdateResource(Resource.CURRENTCONSUMPTION, currentConsumption);
    }
    return true;
  }

  synchronized public RMContainer allocate(NodeType type,
      FiCaSchedulerNode node, Priority priority, ResourceRequest request,
      Container container, TransactionState transactionState) {
    LOG.debug("HOP :: FiCaSchedulerApp.allocate -START");
    if (isStopped) {
      return null;
    }

    // Required sanity check - AM can call 'allocate' to update resource
    // request without locking the scheduler, hence we need to check
    if (getTotalRequiredResources(priority) <= 0) {
      return null;
    }

    // Create RMContainer
    RMContainer rmContainer =
        new RMContainerImpl(container, this.getApplicationAttemptId(),
            node.getNodeID(), appSchedulingInfo.getUser(), this.rmContext,
            transactionState);

    // Add it to allContainers list.
    newlyAllocatedContainers.add(rmContainer);

    LOG.debug("HOP :: AttemptId is " +
        this.appSchedulingInfo.getApplicationAttemptId().toString());
    LOG.debug("HOP :: Size is " + newlyAllocatedContainers.size());

    liveContainers.put(container.getId(), rmContainer);

    if (transactionState != null) {
      ((TransactionStateImpl) transactionState).getSchedulerApplicationInfo()
          .getFiCaSchedulerAppInfo(
              this.appSchedulingInfo.getApplicationAttemptId())
          .setNewlyAllocatedContainersToAdd(rmContainer);
      ((TransactionStateImpl) transactionState).getSchedulerApplicationInfo()
          .getFiCaSchedulerAppInfo(
              this.appSchedulingInfo.getApplicationAttemptId())
          .setLiveContainersToAdd(container.getId(), rmContainer);
    }

    // Update consumption and track allocations
    appSchedulingInfo
        .allocate(type, node, priority, request, container, transactionState);
    Resources.addTo(currentConsumption, container.getResource());
    //HOP : Update Resources
    if (transactionState != null) {
      ((TransactionStateImpl) transactionState).getSchedulerApplicationInfo().
          getFiCaSchedulerAppInfo(
              this.appSchedulingInfo.getApplicationAttemptId()).
          toUpdateResource(Resource.CURRENTCONSUMPTION, currentConsumption);
      ((TransactionStateImpl) transactionState).getSchedulerApplicationInfo().
          getFiCaSchedulerAppInfo(
              this.appSchedulingInfo.getApplicationAttemptId()).
          updateAppInfo(this);
    }
    // Inform the container
    LOG.debug("HOP :: RMContainerEventType.START");
    rmContainer.handle(
        new RMContainerEvent(container.getId(), RMContainerEventType.START,
            transactionState));

    if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
      LOG.debug("allocate: applicationAttemptId=" +
          container.getId().getApplicationAttemptId() + " container=" +
          container.getId() + " host=" + container.getNodeId().getHost() +
          " type=" + type);
    }
    RMAuditLogger
        .logSuccess(getUser(), AuditConstants.ALLOC_CONTAINER, "SchedulerApp",
            getApplicationId(), container.getId());

    return rmContainer;
  }

  public synchronized boolean unreserve(FiCaSchedulerNode node,
      Priority priority, TransactionState transactionState) {
    Map<NodeId, RMContainer> reservedContainers =
        this.reservedContainers.get(priority);

    if (reservedContainers != null) {
      RMContainer reservedContainer =
          reservedContainers.remove(node.getNodeID());

      // unreserve is now triggered in new scenarios (preemption)
      // as a consequence reservedcontainer might be null, adding NP-checks
      if (reservedContainer != null &&
          reservedContainer.getContainer() != null &&
          reservedContainer.getContainer().getResource() != null) {

        if (reservedContainers.isEmpty()) {
          this.reservedContainers.remove(priority);
        }
        // Reset the re-reservation count
        resetReReservations(priority);

        org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource resource =
            reservedContainer.getContainer().getResource();
        Resources.subtractFrom(currentReservation, resource);

        //HOP : Update Resources
        ((TransactionStateImpl) transactionState).getSchedulerApplicationInfo()
            .getFiCaSchedulerAppInfo(
                this.appSchedulingInfo.getApplicationAttemptId())
            .toUpdateResource(Resource.CURRENTRESERVATION, currentReservation);

        LOG.info(
            "Application " + getApplicationId() + " unreserved " + " on node " +
                node + ", currently has " + reservedContainers.size() +
                " at priority " + priority + "; currentReservation " +
                currentReservation);
        return true;
      }
    }
    return false;
  }

  public synchronized float getLocalityWaitFactor(Priority priority,
      int clusterNodes) {
    // Estimate: Required unique resources (i.e. hosts + racks)
    int requiredResources =
        Math.max(this.getResourceRequests(priority).size() - 1, 0);

    // waitFactor can't be more than '1'
    // i.e. no point skipping more than clustersize opportunities
    return Math.min(((float) requiredResources / clusterNodes), 1.0f);
  }

  public synchronized org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource getTotalPendingRequests() {
    org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource ret =
        org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource.newInstance(0, 0);
    for (ResourceRequest rr : appSchedulingInfo.getAllResourceRequests()) {
      // to avoid double counting we count only "ANY" resource requests
      if (ResourceRequest.isAnyLocation(rr.getResourceName())) {
        Resources.addTo(ret,
            Resources.multiply(rr.getCapability(), rr.getNumContainers()));
      }
    }
    return ret;
  }

  public synchronized void addPreemptContainer(ContainerId cont,
      TransactionState transactionState) {
    // ignore already completed containers
    if (liveContainers.containsKey(cont)) {
      containersToPreempt.add(cont);
    }
  }

  /**
   * This method produces an Allocation that includes the current view
   * of the resources that will be allocated to and preempted from this
   * application.
   *
   * @param rc
   * @param clusterResource
   * @param minimumAllocation
   * @return an allocation
   */
  public synchronized Allocation getAllocation(ResourceCalculator rc,
      org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource clusterResource,
      org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource minimumAllocation,
      TransactionState transactionState) {

    Set<ContainerId> currentContPreemption = Collections
        .unmodifiableSet(new HashSet<ContainerId>(containersToPreempt));
    containersToPreempt.clear();
    org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource tot =
        org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource.newInstance(0, 0);
    for (ContainerId c : currentContPreemption) {
      Resources.addTo(tot, liveContainers.get(c).getContainer().getResource());
    }
    int numCont = (int) Math
        .ceil(Resources.divide(rc, clusterResource, tot, minimumAllocation));
    ResourceRequest rr = ResourceRequest
        .newInstance(Priority.UNDEFINED, ResourceRequest.ANY, minimumAllocation,
            numCont);
    ContainersAndNMTokensAllocation allocation =
        pullNewlyAllocatedContainersAndNMTokens(transactionState);
    return new Allocation(allocation.getContainerList(), getHeadroom(), null,
        currentContPreemption, Collections.singletonList(rr),
        allocation.getNMTokenList());
  }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Although, these unprovoked violent outburst decreased in the second year of life.
What's more, the aggressive infant did not show any signs of obvious distress.
What is also interesting, researchers scored the violent toddlers as higher in their tendency to show pleasure. It suggests that they use force as a form of fun interaction, not as a way to vent their anger. Also, provoked and unprovoked aggression showed different developmental trajectories.


My husband and I are extremely happy with Dr. Durando. He is very kind and knowledgeable, and the health of your teeth and gums comes first. He will not try to sell you expensive treatments that you don't need. I switched to him from a dentist who had a fancier office, but she gave me bad advice about my teeth and her staff were constantly trying to sell me things. Dr. Durando gave me excellent advice on correcting my open bite. If you are looking for a dentist, or need a second opinion about your current dentist's treatment, I highly recommend seeing Dr. Durando.


Thoughts for today, #173 …. "Simple, logical request"!!
The basic laws of human stupidity are ancient. The definitive essay on the subject is younger. Called The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, it was published in 1976 by an Italian economist.
Professor Carlo M Cipolla taught at several universities in Italy, and for many years at the University of California, Berkeley. He also wrote books and studies about clocks, guns, monetary policy, depressions, faith, reason, and of course – he being an economist – money. His essay about stupidity encompasses all those other topics, and perhaps all of human experience.
Cipolla wrote out the laws in plain language. They are akin to laws of nature – a seemingly basic characteristic of the universe.
Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons, while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.


text:
January Trivia
February Trivia
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April Trivia
May Trivia
June Trivia
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August Trivia
September Trivia
October Trivia
November Trivia
December Trivia
April 13th History
Click for the April Date
April 13th In Pop Culture History
1204 - Constantinople fell to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade.
1360 - On "Black Monday," a hail storm killed 1,000 English soldiers and 6,000 horses. Edward III, fearing it a sign from God, paused the Hundred Years' War.
1570 - Guy Fawkes was born (died in 1606)
1742 - Handel's Messiah premiered in Dublin, Ireland.
1829 - The Roman Catholic Relief Act gave Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in the UK's Parliament.
1869 - The first US Patent (#88,929) for an air brake was issued to George Westinghouse of Schenectady, N.Y., called an "Improvement in steam-power-brake devices".
1870 - The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded.
1902 - James C. Penney (now Penneys) opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1943 - The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.
April 13, 1953 - The CIA's Project MKUltra began
1957 - #1 Hit April 13, 1957 - June 7, 1957: Elvis Presley - All Shook Up
1959 - #1 Hit April 13, 1959 - May 10, 1959: The Fleetwoods - Come Softly to Me
1968 - #1 Hit April 13, 1968 - May 17, 1968: Bobby Goldsboro - Honey
1970 - An oxygen tank exploded on Apollo13, but everyone survived. It was also the major plot for the 1995 film, Apollo 13.
1974 - Western Union, with NASA and Hughes Aircraft, launched the US' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.
1976 - The United States Treasury Department reintroduced the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note.
1985 - #1 Hit April 13, 1985 - May 10, 1985: USA for Africa - We Are the World
1984 - Friday the 13th: Final Chapter, Iceman and Swing Shift were released in theaters.
1990 - The Gods Must Be Crazy II and Crazy People debuted in theaters.
1991 - #1 Hit April 13, 1991 - April 19, 1991: Londonbeat - I've Been Thinking About You
1994 - Serial Mom was released in theaters.
1997 - Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.
2001 - Bridget Jones's Diary debuted in theaters.
2002 - My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Scorpion King and Murder By Numbers were released in theaters.
2007 - Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film, The Condemned and The Invisible debuted in theaters.
2012 - The Cabin in the Woods and The Three Stooges were released in theaters.
April 13th Celebrity Birthdays
Now You Know...
English Catholic conspirator, Guy Fawkes (1570, d.1606)
3rd President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson (1743, d.1826)
Outlaw, Butch Cassidy (1866)
Scrabble inventor, Alfred Moser Butts (1899)
Actor, Godfrey Kenton (1902)
Actor, Rex Evans (1903)
Musician, Bud Freeman (1906, d.1991)
Writer, Samuel Beckett (1906)
Producer, Roy Winsor (1912)
Actress, Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner (1916, d.2006)
Actor, Howard Keel (1917)
Radio/TV announcer, Phil Tonken (1919, d.2000)
Musician, John LaPorta (1920, d.2004)
Voice-over artist, Ken Nordine (1920)
Actor, Jean Topart (1922, d.2012)
Actor, Don Adams (1923, d.2005)
Director, Stanley Donen (1924)
Actress, Mari Blanchard (1927)
Actor, Maurice Ronet (1927)
Actor, Michael Burchill (1931)
Sesame Street co-creator, Jon Stone (1931, d.1997)
Actress, Shani Wallis (1933)
Musician, Horace Kay (1934)
Actor, Lyle Waggoner (1935)
Actor, Edward Fox (1937)
Actor, Paul Sorvino (1939)
Musician, Lester Chambers (1940)
Musician, Eve Graham (1943)
Musician, Brian Pendleton (1944)
Director, Charles Burnett (1944)
Musician, Jack Casady (1944)
Musician, Lowell George (1945)
Musician, Stacy Johnson (1945)
Actor, Tony Dow (1945)
Actor, Charles Robinson (1945)
Musician, Al Green (1946)
Musician, Roy Loney (1946)
Actress, Amy Robinson (1948)
Musician, Peter Swevel (1948)
Musician, Riff West (1950)
Actor, William Sadler (1950)
Actor, Ron Perlman (1950)
Actor, Terry Lester (1950)
Musician, Max Weinberg (1951)
Musician, Peabo Bryson (1951)
Actor, Peter Davison (1951)
Actor, Erick Avari (1952)
Musician, Jimmy Destri (1954)
Musician, Neils Olsen (1954)
Musician, Louis Johnson (1955)
Comedian, Gary Kroeger (1957)
Actress, Saundra Santiago (1957)
Musician, Wayne Lewis (1957)
Musician, Randy Piper (1958)
Model, Vicki Witt (1959)
Musician, Tammy Stephens (1961)
Actress, Jennifer Rubin (1962)
Musician, Hillel Slovakj (1962, d.1988)
Musician, Bill D'Angelo (1964)
Actress, Page Hannah (1964)
Actress, Caroline Rhea (1964)
Musician, Marc Ford (1966)
Musician, Olga Tanon (1967)
Musician, Harold Pruett (1969)
Actor, Rick Schroder (1970)
Actor, Cory Yothers (1971)
Actress, Dina Korzun (1971)
Musician, Valensia (1971)
Musician, Jeroen Thesseling (1972)
Musician, Aaron Lewis (1972)
Actor, Bokeem Woodbine (1973)
Musician, Lou Bega (1975)
Actor, Jonathan Brandis (1976, d.2003)
Actress, Valentina Cervi (1976)
Actor, Glen Howerton (1976)
Actor, Kyle Howard (1978)
Musician, Chris Sligh (1978)
Model, Sylvie van der Vaart (1978)
Voice actress, Colleen Clinkenbeard (1980)
Actress, Courtney Peldon (1981)
Musician, Nellie McKay (1982)
Musician, Janice Vidal (1982)
Internet star, Brandon Hardesty (1987)
Sean Penn and Robin Wright daughter, Dylan Francis Penn (1991)
John Travolta's son, Jet Travolta (1992)
Actress, Emma Degerstedt (1992)
Actress, Sloane Momsen (1997) A hard thing about a business is minding your own.
I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
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It's not much of a secret anymore that oral health is connected to our overall health. So when you take care of your teeth you are, in essence, investing in your overall health. But outside of the profound health implications of good dental care, we know also that a confident and attractive smile can go a long ways toward improving our day-to-day quality of life.
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To deny ourselves rest is to limit our creativity. At a time when many are worrying about the insidious impact of automation, we are failing in this unique human ability.
The UK has a productivity problem. Germany beats us, as does France. Even siesta-loving Italians get more done than we do. And yet we continue to work longer hours than most of our European counterparts.
Alex Soojung, in his mind-altering book Rest, turns this contradiction on its head. Rest, he tells us, is not in conflict with work; it is one of its most vital ingredients. Working better means working less and resting more. He describes in compelling detail the daily routines of Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens who both worked a maximum of five hours a day to allow ample time for rest.
Music to universal ears, I'm sure. But before we get too carried away, TV watching and internet browsing do not count as rest. Rest comes via sleeping and napping but also – counterintuitively perhaps – through walking, thinking and 'deep play'. It isn't defined purely by the absence of work but must be a deliberate and active choice.
In other words, to deny ourselves rest is to limit our creativity. At a time when many are worrying about the insidious impact of automation, we are failing in this unique human ability.
Focus on creative tasks early in the morning: It may sound like an unnatural formula, but our creative energy is likely to be at its peak first thing in the morning. We are at our most uninhibited, meaning we are more responsive to our imagination, and are less prone to self-distraction. Furthermore, establishing a productive morning routine creates space in the day for rest.
Take an early afternoon walk: About six hours after we wake up, our body's circadian rhythm starts to dip and we're likely to feel drowsy, especially after a busy morning. Take advantage of this tiredness and go for a walk. It will help to relax and divert the mind, allowing under-currents of thought to bubble to the surface.
Engage in something that requires complete concentration but is unrelated to work: If you find yourself stuck for inspiration, take the kind of break that will allow your unconscious mind to keep plugging away. What Soojung describes as 'deep play' is mentally absorbing, and offers a new context in which to use similar skills to those you use in your work, along with much clearer rewards. This might mean playing pool, writing, drawing or doing a Sudoku.
Reacquaint your team with good old-fashioned patience: Author Simon Sinek is worried by the impatience of millennials, who have grown up in a world of instant gratification and been taught to expect and produce results fast. Things of worth often take time, but we all need reassurance that this is okay and to trust in our conscious and unconscious abilities.
Past leaders respected the role of rest in their creative lives, whereas today we treat a 24/7 work culture as the norm. A growing body of evidence shows that all work and no play is damaging productivity. How can you build deliberate downtime into your working day?
Those with 'quiet' qualities are famously good listeners, attentive to people's thoughts and moods, and patient in their understanding and analysis.


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Young Invisible Slaves 2021
Save the Children Italy
Save the Children's 11th edition of the report Little Invisible Slaves, focusing on child victims of trafficking, found the COVID-19 crisis had made victims less visible and traceable as criminal networks shifted their work off the streets.
Children and teenagers were particularly at risk of becoming victims of e-trafficking due to a combination of poverty, the closing of schools, and an increase of time spent online.
The report found that Western and Southern Europe had the highest number of confirmed cases of child trafficking globally, with 4,168 child victims.
In Italy, about 5% of 2,040 trafficking cases that were registered in 2020 involved a child, while about 80% of all cases involved women and girls. Most of the reports of child victims involved sexual exploitation in relation to teenagers from Tunisia (27.5%), followed by Ivory Coast, Guinea and Egypt.
Particularly worrying was the rise in trafficked women with children returned to Italy from other EU countries under the Dublin Regulation which gives powers to transfer refugees and migrants back to the EU nation in which they arrived, Save the Children said. The number of cases involving families rose to 12% last year from 6% in 2016 with most of the women from Nigeria.
Girls and boys, sometimes born out of abuse, witness violence against their often young mothers and could be at risk of violence themselves, or used in blackmail to keep their mothers under control. Some 190 women with 226 children are currently supported in the Italian protection system.
Save the Children runs several programmes for and with victims of trafficking in Italy. The organisation said it is vital to strengthen the collaboration between all involved, from police forces to online service providers and NGOs, and to respond adequately to the growth in online exploitation.
Autodetected language
Young Invisible Slaves 2021 Executive Summary
Piccoli Schiavi Invisibili 2021
Little Invisible Slaves 2022: Trafficking dossier


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As necessary, evacuate the area or building. See the GENERAL BUILDING EVACUATION section of this document.
In the event of a failure of a steam line, evacuate the area by taking exits that avoid the steam leak. Report the problem to Facilities Management at 601.977.7828.
Leave the area to report the gas leak. Call Campus Security at 601.977.7857 by using a cellular phone after evacuating.
DO NOT re-enter the building until cleared to do so by Campus Security or other proper authorities.
If you are trapped, use the emergency phone in the elevator or push the alarm button and wait for help. Alternatively, call Campus Security 601.977.7857 if a mobile phone is available in the elevator. If you discover trapped persons, talk to them and try to keep them calm until an officer or other help arrives.


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Posts About "Jonathan Drouin"
January 17th, 2021 With the 2013 NHL Entry Draft approaching its' eighth-anniversary this offseason, let's look back at the top picks to see how their careers have progressed. So, have the top-10 picks managed to live up to expectations, or have they struggled to establish themselves in the NHL? Note: The 2013 Draft took place at the Prudential...
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June 20th, 2020 Maybe it's just me being tired while editing, but does this article feel a bit choppy? Thanks.
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Islanders Loss Can't Be Pinned on Sorokin Entirely


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Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Failing Tonkin Gulf Test on Ukraine
Exclusive: As the Ukraine crisis worsens, Official Washington fumes only about "Russian aggression" — much as a half century ago, the Tonkin Gulf talk was all about "North Vietnamese aggression." But then and now there were other sides to the story and questions that Congress needed to ask, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
Many current members of Congress, especially progressives, may have envisioned how they would have handled the Tonkin Gulf crisis in 1964. In their imaginations, they would have asked probing questions and treated the dubious assertions from the White House with tough skepticism before voting on whether to give President Lyndon Johnson the authority to go to war in Vietnam.
If they had discovered what CIA and Pentagon insiders already knew that the crucial second North Vietnamese "attack" on U.S. destroyers likely never happened and that the U.S. warships were not on some "routine" patrol but rather supporting a covert attack on North Vietnamese territory today's members of Congress would likely see themselves joining Sens. Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening as the only ones voting no.
President Lyndon Johnson announces "retaliatory" strike against North Vietnam in response to the supposed attacks on U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin on Aug. 4, 1964. (Photo credit: LBJ Library)
Bravery in hindsight is always easy, but things feel quite different when Official Washington is locked in one of its pro-war "group thinks" when all the "important people" from government to the media to think tanks are pounding their chests and talking tough, as they are now on Russia and Ukraine.
Then, if you ask your probing questions and show your tough skepticism, you will have your patriotism, if not your sanity, questioned. You will be "controversialized," "marginalized," "pariahed." You will be called somebody's "apologist," whether it's Ho Chi Minh or Vladimir Putin.
And nobody wants to go through that because here's the truth about Official Washington: if you run with the pack if you stay within the herd you'll be safe. Even if things go terribly wrong even if thousands of American soldiers die along with many, many more foreign civilians you can expect little or no accountability. You will likely keep your job and may well get promoted. But if you stand in the way of the stampede, you'll be trampled.
After all, remember what happened to Morse and Gruening in their next elections. They both lost. As one Washington insider once told me about the U.S. capital's culture, "there's no honor in being right too soon. People just remember that you were out of step and crazy."
So, the choice often is to do the right thing and be crushed or to run with the pack and be safe. But there are moments when even the most craven member of Congress should look for whatever courage he or she has left and behave like a Morse or a Gruening, especially in a case like the Ukraine crisis which has the potential to spin out of control and into a nuclear confrontation.
Though the last Congress already whipped through belligerent resolutions denouncing "Russian aggression" and urging a military response with only five Democrats and five Republicans dissenting members of the new Congress could at least ascertain the facts that have driven the Ukraine conflict. Before the world lurches into a nuclear showdown, it might make a little sense to know what got us here.
The Nuland Phone Call
For instance, Congress could investigate the role of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt in orchestrating the political crisis that led to a violent coup overthrowing Ukraine's constitutionally elected President Viktor Yanukovych a year ago.
What was the significance of the Nuland-Pyatt phone call in early February 2014 in which Nuland exclaimed "Fuck the EU!" and seemed to be handpicking the leaders of a new government? "Yats is the guy," she said referring to her favorite, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, with Pyatt musing about how to "midwife this thing"?
Among other questions that Congress could pose would be: What does U.S. intelligence know about the role of neo-Nazi extremists whose "sotin" militias infiltrated the Maidan protests and escalated the violence against police last February? [See Consortiumnews.com's "NYT Still Pretends No Coup in Ukraine."]
And, what does U.S. intelligence know about the mysterious snipers who brought the crisis to a boil on Feb. 20, 2014, by opening fire on police apparently from positions controlled by the extremist Right Sektor, touching off a violent clash that left scores dead, including police and protesters. [A worthwhile documentary on this mystery is "Maidan Massacre."]
Congress might also seek to determine what was the U.S. government's role over the next two days as three European countries Poland, France and Germany negotiated a deal with Yanukovych on Feb. 21 in which the embattled president agreed to Maidan demands for reducing his powers and accepting early elections to vote him out of office.
Instead of accepting this agreement, which might have averted a civil war, neo-Nazi and other Maidan militants attacked undefended government positions on Feb. 22 and forced officials to flee for their lives. Then, instead of standing by the European deal, the U.S. State Department quickly embraced the coup regime as "legitimate." And, surprise, surprise, Yatsenyuk emerged as the new Prime Minister.
What followed the coup was a Western propaganda barrage to make it appear that the Ukrainian people were fully behind this "regime change" even though many ethnic Russian Ukrainians in the east and south clearly felt disenfranchised by the unconstitutional ouster of their president.
A U.S. congressional inquiry also might ask: Was there any internal U.S. government assessment of the risks involved in allowing Nuland and Pyatt to pursue a "regime change" strategy on Russia's border? If so, did the assessment take into account the likely Russian reaction to having an ally next door overthrown by anti-Russian extremists with the intent to put Ukraine into NATO and potentially bring NATO armaments to Russia's frontyard?
Since the entire crisis has been presented to the American people within an anti-Yanukovyh/anti-Moscow propaganda paradigm both by the U.S. mainstream news media and by the U.S. political/academic elites there has been virtually no serious examination of the U.S. complicity. No one in Official Washington dares say anything but "Russian aggression."
Post-Coup Realities
Beyond the events surrounding the coup a year ago, there were other pivotal moments as this crisis careened out of control. For instance, what does U.S. intelligence know about the public opinion in Crimea prior to the peninsula's vote for secession from Ukraine and reunification with Russia on March 16?
The State Department portrayed the referendum as a "sham" but more objective observers acknowledge that the vote although hasty reflected a broad consensus inside Crimea to bail out of the failed Ukrainian state and rejoin a somewhat more functional Russia, where pensions are about three times higher and have a better chance of being paid.
Then, there was the massacre of ethnic Russians burned alive in Odessa's trade union building on May 2, with neo-Nazi militias again on the front lines. Like other topics that put the U.S.-backed coup regime in a bad light, the Odessa massacre quickly moved off the front pages and there has been little follow-up from international agencies that supposedly care about human rights. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Ukraine's 'Dr. Strangelove' Reality."]
The next major catastrophe associated with the Ukraine crisis was the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17. Again, the State Department rushed to a judgment blaming the ethnic Russian rebels and Russia for the tragedy that killed all 298 people onboard. However, I've been told that some U.S. intelligence analysts had a very different take on who was responsible, finding evidence implicating a rogue element of the Ukrainian government.
However, following the pattern of going silent whenever the Kiev coup regime might look bad, there was a sudden drop-off of interest in the MH-17 case, apparently not wanting to disrupt the usefulness of the earlier anti-Russian propaganda. When a Dutch-led inquiry into the crash issued an interim report last October, there was no indication that the Obama administration had shared its intelligence information. [See Consortiumnews.com's "The Danger of an MH-17 Cold Case."]
There also is little interest from Congress about what the MH-17 evidence shows. Even some progressive members are afraid to ask for a briefing from U.S. intelligence analysts, possibly because the answers might force a decision about whether to blow the whistle on a deception that involved Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior Obama administration officials.
This sort of cowardly misfeasance of duty marks the latest step in a long retreat from the days after the Vietnam War when Congress actually conducted some valuable investigations. In the 1970s, there were historic inquiries into Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal, led by Sen. Sam Ervin, and into CIA intelligence abuses by Sen. Frank Church.
A Downward Spiral
Since then, congressional investigations have become increasingly timid, such as the Iran-Contra and October Surprise investigations led by Rep. Lee Hamilton in the late 1980s and early 1990s, shying away from evidence of impeachable wrongdoing by President Ronald Reagan. Then, in the 1990s, a Republican-controlled Congress obsessed over trivial matters such as President Bill Clinton's personal finances and sex life.
Congressional oversight dysfunction reached a new low when President George W. Bush made baseless claims about Iraq's WMD and Saddam Hussein's intent to share nuclear, chemical and biological weapons with al-Qaeda. Rather than perform any meaningful due diligence, Congress did little more than rubber stamp Bush's claims by authorizing the Iraq War.
Years afterwards, there were slow-moving investigations into the WMD intelligence "failure" and into the torture practices that were used to help fabricate evidence for the fake WMD claims. Those investigations, however, were conducted behind closed doors and did little to educate the broader American public. There apparently wasn't much stomach to call the perpetrators of those abuses before televised hearings.
The only high-profile foreign-affairs hearings that have been held in recent years have been staged by House Republicans on the made-up scandal over an alleged cover-up of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a hot-button issue for the GOP base but essentially a non-story.
Now, the United States is hurtling toward a potential nuclear confrontation with Russia over Ukraine and this congressional ineptness could become an existential threat to the planet. The situation also has disturbing similarities to the Tonkin Gulf situation although arguably much, much more dangerous.
Misleading Americans to War
In 1964, there also was a Democratic president in Lyndon Johnson with Republicans generally to his right demanding a more aggressive military response to fight communism in Vietnam. So, like today with President Barack Obama in the White House and Republicans demanding a tougher line against Russia, there was little reason for Republicans to challenge Johnson when he seized on the Tonkin Gulf incident to justify a ratcheting up of attacks on North Vietnam. Meanwhile, also like today, Democrats weren't eager to undermine a Democratic president.
The result was a lack of oversight regarding the White House's public claims that the North Vietnamese launched an unprovoked attack on U.S. warships on Aug. 4, 1964, even though Pentagon and CIA officials realized very quickly that the initial alarmist reports about torpedoes in the water were almost surely false.
Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1964 was a young Defense Department official, recounts in his 2002 book Secrets how the Tonkin Gulf falsehoods took shape, first with the panicked cables from a U.S. Navy captain relaying confused sonar readings and then with that false storyline presented to the American people.
As Ellsberg describes, President Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara announced retaliatory airstrikes on Aug. 4, 1964, telling "the American public that the North Vietnamese, for the second time in two days, had attacked U.S. warships on 'routine patrol in international waters'; that this was clearly a 'deliberate' pattern of 'naked aggression'; that the evidence for the second attack, like the first, was 'unequivocal'; that the attack had been 'unprovoked'; and that the United States, by responding in order to deter any repetition, intended no wider war."
Ellsberg wrote: "By midnight on the fourth, or within a day or two, I knew that each one of those assurances was false." Yet, the White House made no effort to clarify the false or misleading statements. The falsehoods were left standing for several years while Johnson sharply escalated the war by dispatching a half million soldiers to Vietnam.
In August 1964, the Johnson administration also misled Congress about the facts of the Tonkin Gulf incident. Though not challenging that official story, some key members worried about the broad language in the Tonkin Gulf resolution authorizing the President "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression including the use of armed force."
As Ellsberg noted, Sen. Gaylord Nelson tried to attach an amendment seeking to limit U.S. involvement to military assistance not a direct combat role but that was set aside because of Johnson's concern that it "would weaken the image of unified national support for the president's recent actions."
Ellsberg wrote, "Several senators, including George McGovern, Frank Church, Albert Gore [Sr.], and the Republican John Sherman Cooper, had expressed the same concern as Nelson" but were assured that Johnson had no intention of expanding the war by introducing ground combat forces.
In other words, members of Congress failed to check out the facts and passed the fateful Tonkin Gulf resolution on Aug. 7, 1964. It should be noted, too, that the mainstream U.S. media of 1964 wasn't asking many probing questions either.
Looking back at that history, it's easy for today's members of Congress to think how differently they would have handled that rush to judgment, how they would have demanded to know the details of what the CIA and the Pentagon knew, how they wouldn't let themselves be duped by White House deceptions.
However, a half century later, the U.S. political/media process is back to the Tonkin Gulf moment, accepting propaganda themes as fact and showing no skepticism about the official line. Except today, Official Washington's war fever is not over a remote corner of Southeast Asia but over a country on the border of nuclear-armed Russia.
[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com's "President Gollum's 'Precious' Secrets"; "NYT Whites Out Ukraine's Brownshirts"; and "Nuclear War and Clashing Ukraine Narratives."]
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America's Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry's trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America's Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
Tags: Barack Obama Gulf of Tonkin Lyndon Johnson Robert Parry Russia U.S. Congress Ukraine Vietnam War
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26 comments for "Failing Tonkin Gulf Test on Ukraine"
Robert, once again, great article. However, you continue to hurt your credibility by dismissing reals issues due to, what I can only imagine is, partisan tendencies. Why include the following paragraphs in your article – especially an article calling for Congress to hold the Administration more accountable.
"Then, in the 1990s, a Republican-controlled Congress obsessed over trivial matters such as President Bill Clinton's personal finances and sex life."
Bill Clinton's clear perjury, and the change-by-the-second story from the White House after Benghazi are serious issues. Leaving these weak dismissive paragraphs out of this article would have made it that much more valuable. I could have circulated it via my social networks and other, however, half the audience would ignore it for the reasons stated.
LBJ's official letterhead should have been a dog's hind leg.
The ripened fruits of LBJ's (not so) Great society can be witnessed in every metropolis, city, town and village across the looted plain.
The Bastardization of America.
The combination of a supine, ignorant population and corrupted, co-opted media makes it easy to promote wars based on lies.
It's not an accident that government schools are as piss-poor as they are despite the tsunami of money they spend.
Ann_Falkon
I am sorry if I am far from the article with my comment but let me leave a link here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTToAfxycBw
The video is in Russian – sorry for this.
First you can see mines left in Debaltsevo by Ukrainan troops.
At 1:50 you can see a former base of the Ukrainian troops.
At 2:50 a soldier demostrates a piece of iron from the NATO armour vest. He takes Kalashnikov's gun and shoots. Then he shows the hole. (at 3:10)
At 3:20 you can see the evidence of Europian help to Ukrain. A loaf of bread baked in Poland is demonstrated.
At 3:51 an instruction is shown. Mind it!!! This is the instruction for those who does not speak any English but have to commucate with their bosses. English army commands were translated into Ukrainian – the soldiers had to understand what they had to do.
Then you can see rich trophies.
At 4:43 you can see a man aged 63. He has been for 3 moths at war. His four sons are at the war too. He is dreaming to see his grandchildren soon.
Piotr Berman
Clearly, "opolchenie" (translated as "militia", but the term suggest people who responded to universal mobilization) gets arms, training and quite a few of volunteers from somewhere, and given geographical realities, the chances that it is from Russia and quite high. The righteous indignation would be a bit more convincing if USA and NATO upheld "the principle of territorial integrity" a bit more often. Only a few champion territorial integrity of Ireland, and among more fresh example, NATO is either oblivious or hostile to territorial integrity of Serbia, Syria, Cyprus and Azerbaijan, one could perhaps add Ethiopia. Then there is a mind-boggling case of Moldova (I cannot figure it out, and judging from the flegmatic attitude of NATO, few people can).
Then, is it OK to provide supplies, training, money and volunteers to a rebel movement? Like one in Syria? And mind you, long before the emergence of ISIS, "the democratic Syrian opposition" was a truly terrifying bunch of murderers (of civilians), bigots, brigands etc. Now the most worthy of the bunch will be officially trained and equipped in Turkey, Qatar and Emirates, three strongholds of democracy (Turkey is still formally democratic, but so is Russia, and I would say that Putin pays more attention to democratic forms than Erdogan).
bizarre but unsurprising to see ukranians blame moscow for the sniper attack http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/bombs-at-memorial-in-ukraine-shake-ceasefire-hopes-1.2113137
also strage that they are claiming russian heavy tanks came across the border when last week the photos were shown as fakes and even Francoise Hollande: "We cannot confirm that Russian tanks had entered Ukraine"
Britain and EU 'sleepwalked' into Ukraine crisis, says report
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/britain-and-eu-sleepwalked-into-ukraine-crisis-says-report-1.2111773
Those US politicians who are not willful servants of the those who own the mass media and finance campaign funds are nonetheless fearful of mass media condemnation and inadequate campaign funding. That is ultimately due to control of mass media and election funding by economic concentrations. Individuals also decide what divergence from the oligarchy party line is tenable to maintain social and business relationships, and as the party propaganda line hardens, they abandon all reason for the safety of conformity. This too is due entirely to the control of the basic tools of democracy by money.
Bryan Hemming
A series of reports compiled by the Information Group on Crimes against the Person (IGCP) published under the title: Consolidated Monitoring for 22. February, 2014 – 4. April, 2014 gives a rather different slant on events that took place in and around Maidan Square last spring, as well as around the rest of Ukraine.
Violent crimes including murder, robbery, extortion and beatings by gangs of fascists and other assorted hooligans were daily occurrences. They are logged without hysteria or sensationalism.
What is particularly disturbing is how the protests in Maidan Square, presented by the Western mainstream media as virtual love-ins, were replaced by violent confrontations between various competing factions once night fell, something that didn't reach our TV screens or the front pages of our newspapers.
Though very long at over 70 pages the document shows Victoria Nuland, Geoffrey Pyatt, Catherine Ashton, John Kerry and John McCain have a lot to answer for.
The report can be read here: http://igcp.eu/sites/default/files/monitoringi/igcp.consolidatedmonitoring03.04.2014.pdf
While I think that this whole tragedy was instigated by the U.S., I believe that beginning in August 2014, direct Russian involvement began in the form of advisors, ammunition, weapons, and some combat personnel. This is just as bad for Ukraine as U.S. meddling, though I suppose inevitable given the stakes as seen by Russia.
In other words, a year ago I would have said that there was no basis for American involvement in Ukraine. At present, there might be. This may be exactly what the war party wants. But the Russians are fools to give them that.
Tyler Dan
May I remind you of the Cuba crisis in 1962? It's almost the same now (just the opponents changed their places). Installing a NATO member in its frontyard is as inacceptable to Russia as nukes were back then in USs.
Regarding the involvements: Try for instance to find documentation about "OTPOR", a (mainly) US-financed training institution for installing all the "colored revolutions" lately (so most certainly also the UA revolution)* . You may start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otpor!#Revelation_of_U.S._involvement
But do not trust me or believe in Wikipedia, research for yourself please.
* I saw some videos where OTPOR themselves were proud to have supported these movements, to have been the substantial part in starting them off and making them successful.
Tyler Dan says, "May I remind you of the Cuba crisis in 1962?"
I would think that the recklessness of the U.S. in the missile crisis would have served as a lesson to Russia now, that overreaction to perceived national interests can be self-destructive. Not only did it almost blow up the world, it created a situation in Cuba that greatly diminished U.S. power, beginning the process of splitting the U.S. from Europe and Latin America.
The post you are responding to begins, "While I think that this whole tragedy was instigated by the U.S…." which is entirely consistent with the point you make about U.S. involvement in other coups. In fact, as I posted to Alexey, I did a 20,000 word analysis of the coup in Honduras of 2009 which concluded that there was U.S. involvement at the highest levels. I know how the system works.
Therefore, I do not think you are responding to the post I wrote, but to which side you imagine I am on.
Actually the Cuba missile crisis was also provoked by US aggression, the installation of US nuclear missiles in Turkey. From Cuba's perspective it was provoked by the US invasion attempt, motivated purely by US aggression against socialist economies. It was not an aggression by the USSR.
It is clear that control of US elections and mass media by economic concentrations is the underlying cause of these consistent US aggressions since WWII. Always the US has substituted dictatorships for democracies when it saw social democracy gaining ground, as in Iran, and a dozen countries in Latin America. This does not advance democracy, it is always an attack on democracy on behalf of oligarchy.
The present economic attacks on foreign powers show that economic force is a primary weapon of modern warfare. Those who use that weapon to control US elections and mass media make war upon these United States, the definition of treason in our Constitution. They have destroyed democracy in the US, because we did not have constitutional restricting funding of elections and mass media to registered and limited individual contributions. The oligarchy should be kept in Guantanamo as the traitors they are, the real threat to democracy.
I would ad that the US has been split from Latin America by its secret wars against democracy there, funding the gangsters of oligarchy in their efforts to substitute dictatorships for socialist democracies. These wars are not hard to follow (ten or more years after the fact) in published accounts, but of course are never mentioned in the mass media. They are numerous, well known to the people of Latin America, and are an utter disgrace of the United States. Our leaders have not represented the people of the United States, they have represented greed and its hypocritical rationales and militant opposition to democracy. They are traitors wrapped in the flag.
I should also add that the US has done absolutely nothing the warrant anything other than a split from Latin America. It has contributed essentially nothing to the health and welfare and development of the developing nations, less than one meal per year per capita, just enough to trick the careless into thinking that the US did something. With our endless secret wars against progress there, why on Earth would they not split with the US? Why would anyone suppose that they would see any value in an alliance?
, direct Russian involvement began in the form of advisors, ammunition, weapons, and some combat personnel
confirm please! u have any proof, or u is a next liar?
Alexey say, "confirm please! u have any proof, or u is a next liar?"
Something stated as the author's belief should never be confronted with accusations of lying. To do so simply conveys the impression that the accuser is not conversing in good faith.
I have read widely. I don't just read The New York Times, the Kyiv Post, and other western sources. I also read Fortruss, Cassad, and other rebel sources. And military analysis sites, such as Jane's and Small Wars Journal. Even pro-rebel sites give indications that Russians are helping.
Nothing that will be accepted as proof by those who are determined to deny, but enough to convince any even-handed analysis that there is Russian assistance. As one source I read pointed out, the best evidence of Russian involvement is the effectiveness of the rebel forces. If the rebels were just Ukrainians, then they should be just as inept as the Kiev forces. But they have showed extraordinary skill, foresight, and initiative–not to mention excellent weaponry.
I analyzed the Honduran coup against President Manuel Zelaya, and concluded that there was direct U.S. involvement at the highest levels. It can be seen as a five part series accessible from the last part.
When you can match that quality of analysis, you'll have earned the right to call me to task for expressing an opinion about Russian involvement. But of course to do that you'll have to be a little bit more brave than a poster who won't even link to his own writing.
Charles you must understand there are millions of people in Ukraine who through their blood line are Russians, the east is mostly Russian and many factory's that have supported the Ukrainian economy ( although it's quite a bad economy) , their products being sold mostly in Russia . So of course they are pro Russian , they are good neighbours and they trust in Russia , as we say Trust the Devil you know !! . They will never support the west and this Unrepresenting new illegal government , who are fascists , who have committed war crimes , genocide against its own citizens !! Those that give years of hard work to the country , those in the east know the EU dream is a sham and will only bring problems as it has , so they refuse Kiev and want yo be an independant state or republic , why not makes sense in a country that of very mixed ethenticity . So my point is yes there will be many Russian soldiers in East Ukraine protecting their brothers , sisters , family , friends and also rebelling as what they see as western aggression . Russians are some of the most patriotic and most educated people on this planet , they will not stand anymore for what America is trying to do and good luck to them . It's about time somebody gave the USA a bloody nose and educated the rest if the world as to what's going on . Russia has no history of being an aggressor unlike American , of course some small blemishes , but even the truth behind them distorted by the west to demonise Russia . So yes Russia has involvement in this situation , because it's on their doorstep with what they considered a good allie before . The only reason for the EU and America to have any involvement in Ukraine is to make problems with Russia , it's not for humanity or to help the Ukrainians that's for sure , it purely about power and economics . USA is really stirring a hornets nest and it's making Russia stronger , and other country's are joining , it's going to bite America in the arse and most probably create a world wide nuclear conflict , those in power don't care , they have their secret bunkers and underground city's . It's up to normal people to recognise what's going on and stop the American government interfering with the rest of the world
Nobody denies that there are 'Russians' fighting in Ukraine, just that they are not regular Russian troops. Last August, the Donetsk leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko said that three to four thousand Russian citizens were fighting there. He said that some of those were military men but they were there on leave and in a personal capacity.
The effectiveness of the separatists is partly due to the training they got from Russian volunteers (the Russian military is generally accepted to be much superior to the Ukrainian army).
It's also because the separatists are far more motivated than the Ukrainian soldiers. The separatists all volunteered to fight against what they see as a threat to their Russian identity. Many Ukrainian soldiers, on the other hand, don't see the point of bombing their fellow Ukrainians and they don't like being used to fight wars for whatever extremist government happens to be in power.
The Nato pictures in that Jane's article show nothing that can be identified as Russian. We're just expected to imagine that they show a Russian convoy. It's like all the other allegations of a Russian invasion that don't contain any real evidence.
It's not just Russia and its friends that are denying that Moscow is sending troops and armoury into East Ukraine.
Last week President Hollande of France (a member of NATO and also of the EU which is currently imposing sanctions on Russia) was asked at a press conference in Paris if he knew if Russian tanks had crossed the Ukrainian border:
"I have no confirmation at this stage that there are now Russian tanks in Ukraine. That doesn't mean that they are not there but you are asking me the question if I have been informed about that. The answer is no."
The Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian army, Viktor Muzhenko said last month:
"We have some evidence about individual members of the Russian Armed Forces and citizens of the Russian Federation being a part of the illegal armed groups in combat activities. Currently, we are not engaged in combat operations against the units of the regular Russian army."
sorry 4 double post
The fact that we have forced Russia to intervene in self-defense of its border, however indirectly, does not justify escalation by the provocateur. It does not make the bully boy the victim. Putting the US in the same position, with a superpower engaged militarily on all its borders, he US would not tolerate the aggression and would be taking far more direct defensive action than Russia.
Arnieus
Really?? <>
Like that is an act of war, when there were treaties in place which allowed the protection of Crimea. I can't think of many countries in which the US does not have such involvement. The US has military in places thousands of miles from its borders, "involved" in unseating governments resistant to US dominance. Russia's response to the threat of losing their only warm water port was predictable and reasonable to any competent person. I can only assume it was intentional provocation. It is so reminiscent of FDR's intentional provoking of Japan into Pearl Harbor.
Charles, those are ethnic Russians being killed in eastern Ukraine – what do you expect them to do?
Bob Van Noy
Thank you so much Robert Parry. I just finished watching "JFK, A President Betrayed" and came away thinking that if we could have been privy to President Kennedy's discussion with Ambassador Galbraith, we would have made far better decisions about Vietnam. A false narrative is extremely dangerous and often trumps better judgment. We must keep this true and counter-narrative alive.
Zachary Smith
I've got a 'gut' feeling that something like the Gulf of Tonkin was scheduled for the Black Sea. Not a speck of evidence, mind you, but a nagging feeling all the same.
Snatching the Sevastopol naval base from Russia almost had to be high on the NATO priority list. It's true that Viktor Yanukovych signed a lease extension until 2042, but that could easily be disputed when he was run out of office by the NATO/Nazi coup. (and has been!) At the very least, NATO could claim that Ukraine needed naval protection from the lawless Russians, and started supplying Ukraine with the latest and greatest Navy equipment.
IMO Russia got a break with the Crimea annexation when the Ukraine Nazis got carried away. The Western Corporate Media hardly covered this story at all, and except for this being the first anniversary of the event, I'd have never learned of it either.
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/02/korsun-massacre-anniversary-what-really.html
The people living in Crimea had been quite "blah" about the whole matter until people they knew were terrorized (and tortured/murdered) by the Nazi goons. After that the vote to join Russia was a breeze.
Despite having nailed down Crimea, Russia seems to still be concerned about NATO sneaking into the Black Sea. Why else would the Black Sea Fleet be getting 80 new ships?
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-s-black-sea-fleet-will-get-80-new-warships-to-repel-nato/507682.html
And some of those ships are state-of-the-art submarines.
http://rt.com/news/220983-russia-submarine-tests-nato/
Despite what the link says, I don't believe they're going to the Black Sea to deter NATO surface vessels. Russia has plenty of shore-based missiles and aircraft to do that job. No, I believe the Russians either expect NATO submarines to take up station in the Black Sea — or know they're already there. Modern subs can be loaded with missiles of all types – long-range cruise and ballistic types with nuclear tips. Still an uninformed opinion, but I expect those super-subs have the job of sinking the Western submarines. How good are modern diesel subs?
Sweden Has A Sub That's So Deadly The US Navy Hired It To Play Bad Guy
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/sweden-has-a-sub-thats-so-deadly-the-us-navy-hired-it-t-1649695984
Read how that little sub ran rings around the US Navy during the rental period, then reflect that the new Russian 'black hole' submarines are supposed to be better.
Probably the Imperial West will have to be satisfied with what they can squeeze out of mainland Ukraine.
Peter Dyer
Thank you, from New Zealand, for continuing to swim upstream against the flood of lazy, reckless irresponsible "journalism" re Ukraine and Russia . Most of the American perspective on this issue that makes it here gives me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Even in NZ, which resisted the call to war in Iraq in 2003, it goes mostly unchallenged. Your increasingly rare style of work continues to combine insightful, researched contemporary analysis with indispensable historical background.


It has been a cold dark mid-winter day, the wind is howling hard around Castle Black Hart, the rain lashes against the shutters. It is one of those days where dawn and dusk shook hands at lunchtime, and the cold fingers of night creep into every space and strangle the daylight. The flickering firelight throws dancing shadows on the walls and black shapes grow in the corners and nooks and crannies of the room.
It is a good day to be inside. It is a good day to sit by the fire. It is a good day to think of dark and hidden forces. It is a good day to sit and begin writing The Black Book IV!
Ah! What about those magical stories about giant's and elves that I have written for my grandchildren? They should go in the book as well. And so, The Black book IV began to grow, and here it is.
I hope for three things, firstly that you enjoy reading it, secondly, that you will learn something from it, and thirdly that it will inspire you. If you have already dipped your toe into the waters of Bizarre Magic, I hope it will inspire you to go ahead and dive in. If you are new to this genre of magic, I hope that you will likewise decide to 'give it a go'.
I believe that my routine Regression alone is well worth the cost of this book. Perhaps one day I will manufacture all the props needed and add this to the Black Artefacts website shop.
Black Book IV is packed with content for both the novice and seasoned Bizarre Magic performer.


text:
Q: Pod library not updated I am the owner of a pod library "HDTableDataSource". When I released initial version, it had a bug in code. So I fixed the bug and updated my pod library but it does not update the code.
I fixed the issue in my git push of tag 2.4 and then updated the  pod spec file to refer the tag 2.4. But it still gets the code of older version. I tried agin with tag 2.5 to 2.7 but still it refers to the old code of tag 2.3 of git.
Kindly help me to resolve the issue.

A: After pushing your tag to your repo, have your pushes to cocoapods been successful?
pod trunk push NAME.podspec
Adding --verbose can help troubleshoot problems if the push is failing.
source: https://guides.cocoapods.org/making/making-a-cocoapod.html#release

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I was checking through some post looking for info on side skirts for the convertible. Most of the places I've checked tell Me the skirts don't fit the convertible as body lines don't match. With that being said, who has side skirts for the convertible? Thanks!
It depends on the side skirts. Some will likely fit.
Here some ground effects I took off of a wagon. The side pieces fit my vert fine.
want to go the PT Cruisers of S.E. Michigan Club located near you.
Ask My 02 Red Ride the same question and think about joining our club.
Yep. Mine are a salvage yard find and are original Mopar.
Here's a diagram. I'll post the part number if I can find it.
Are these flexible enough to be able to roll up and put into a box? If so, one of the PTs in the yard a couple of hours away, as of a couple of weeks ago, had the full kit, which appears to be the same as Handy's. You can see it on the purple car. If they are shippable maybe we can work out a deal if you want it.
Well that's too bad. Well shipping them long might be an option too. I have no idea what that might cost though.


We are always seeking reliable and passionate people to join our team. who have excellent people skills, lots of energy and personality.
Passionate about fitness and helping our members achieve their goals.
A fast learner, a team player and no 'ego'.
as the right candidates will be fully trained by us.


Kerala Style Small Single Bedroom Design Ideas 20+ Smart Design Solutions for Small Bedrooms Bedroom Apartment Interior decorating small bedroom on a budget. decorating small bedroom pink. decorating small attic bedroom.
The extraordinary Kerala Style Small Single Bedroom Design Ideas photo above, shared at Saturday, March 17th 2018 10:51:00 AM, by edward, cataloged in Apartment category.


In August 2015, I was lucky enough to visit BC, as part of a Field reconnaissance crew for work. I landed in Canada on the Monday, & was in a 4 seat Cessna on the Tuesday, flying north over the foothills of the Rockies. I arrived in Chetwynd & within two hours, I was heading out to the field.
Unfortunately, I had only packed an overnight change, & so had a pair of trailblazers, a couple of core silver zipped long sleeved tops, & a few pairs of ultra silver trunks.
I spent the next 3 days, wandering around the deep Canadian backwoods, up & down some serious hills & slopes.
To my amazement, the trailblazers stood up to the 3 day assault very well, as did the core silver zipped tops!
My pull on dealer boots did not fair quite as well! Fortunately, I had brought enough pairs of trunks to wash each night & have dry the next day!
That I had to return to the office after 3 days.
On the final afternoon, a colleague & I had to drive almost 40kms through the backwoods on a 4x4 atv, to scout a possible access route. We managed 33kms before we were stopped as the track had been washed away by a flooded creek. We decided to return to base, called in on the satellite phone, & on the way back a black bear crossed our path!


text:
(Black Press Media files)
B.C. records highest ever number of fatal overdoses in May with 170 deaths
That's 11 people dying from illicit drugs every two days
A concerning 170 people died from fatal overdoses in B.C. in May, marking the highest number of deaths in a single month since the crisis was declared in 2016.
That's roughly 11 people every two days, according to BC Coroners Service data released Thursday (June 11).
The spike in fatalities is part of a notable trend in the province as social distancing restrictions due to COVID-19 has pushed drug users indoors.
In March, 113 people died from illicit drugs, followed by a further 118 people in April.
"More British Columbians died of overdose in one month than died in the whole first wave of COVID-19," said Guy Felicella, a peer clinical supervisor with the BC Centre for Substance Use.
"All British Columbians should collectively share our grief and urge action to improve access to safer supply so people can get the help they need."
A total of 554 people have fatally overdosed since the beginning of the year, with 128 lives lost in Vancouver, 72 in Surrey and 49 in Victoria.
Eighty-five per cent of all deaths have occurred indoors.
Most concerning, according to Postmortem toxicology results, is that nearly 20 per cent of the deaths in April and May involved extreme fentanyl concentrations. That's compared to just nine per cent in January 2019 to March 2020.
"The drug supply is unpredictable and highly toxic, and has led to a sustained increase in fatal and non-fatal overdoses from smoking and injection in recent months," said Dr. Jane Buxton, harm reduction lead for the BC Centre for Disease Control.
"COVID-19 has added challenges and people may be feeling more isolated and anxious, but it's important to continue to buddy up, or access local overdose prevention and supervised consumption services during this time."
Dramatic sky in the East Kootenay during weekend storm
Second CN Railway employee dies in B.C. within one month


AUGUSTA, Georgia – Rickie Fowler returned to Augusta National on Monday with the heartbreak of last year's runner-up Masters finish firmly behind him, and brimming with confidence that a breakthrough major win is closer than ever.
Fowler, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, has three runner-up finishes to show from 36 major appearances and as a result finds his name on the list of the best players who have never won one of golf's four blue riband events.
But such talk does not discourage the 30-year-old American, who comes into the year's first major in solid form and among the favourites to claim a Green Jacket.
"Compared to four, five, whatever years ago, yeah, I'm more ready than I've ever been," Fowler told reporters.
"Not saying that I can sit up here and tell you I'm definitely going to go win, but I like my chances.
Last year, Fowler started the final round at Augusta National five shots behind overnight leader Patrick Reed but a sparkling back nine, which included a birdie at the last, saw him card a five-under-par 67.
The strong finish was not enough as Reed managed to hang on for a one-stroke victory but Fowler, after getting over the pain of another near miss, was able to take plenty of positives from his performance.
"The way I executed on the back nine Sunday last year was definitely something I pull from, and it was a lot of fun to be in the mix, birdieing 18, to make Patrick earn it a bit," said Fowler.
"But I was just a little bit too far back, and Patrick put together a strong week of golf.
Fowler's performance at last year's Masters also marked the first time in eight starts at Augusta National that he recorded four par or better rounds.
He has made a strong start to 2019, including a win at the Phoenix Open in February, and is fresh off a share of 17th place at the Valero Texas Open where Fowler said he ticked a lot of boxes when it came to having his golf game where he wanted it.
"Some guys don't like to play (the week) before a major. Sometimes they like to get work in at home with their coach or work on the game and spend time on the driving range," said Fowler.