text:
U.S. Implementing 1st-Ever Airplane Emission Rules; Critics Say They're Ineffective
A Southwest Airlines flight takes off as United Airlines planes sit parked on a runway at Denver International Airport in April.
The U.S. is regulating greenhouse gas emissions from commercial aircraft for the first time. But critics are saying the rules will be ineffective.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday the rules are being finalized after first being made public in July.
The rules — modeled after international standards — require aircraft manufacturers to use fuel-efficient engines that release less heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
They require all new aircraft sold to commercial airlines to meet the requirements by 2028. The EPA acknowledges many already do.
EPA is not projecting emissions reductions as a result of the rules, according to Reuters. The agency also does not believe the rules "will cause manufacturers to make technical improvements to their airplanes that would not have occurred" already.
The rules, when proposed, helped the U.S. avoid a lawsuit that would have compelled the government to regulate aircraft emissions anyway, according to the New York Times.
Commercial aircraft make up about 3% of the country's overall greenhouse gas emissions, and before the reduction in travel caused by the pandemic their share was growing. Unlike other industries, aircraft emissions have not been regulated until now.
Airlines for America, an industry advocacy group, applauded the new standards in July when they were first proposed. Nancy Young, environmental affairs vice president, said in a statement the rules are "good for our industry, for our country and for the world."
Boeing, one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial aircraft, said the rules would be a "major step forward for protecting the environment and supporting sustainable growth of commercial aviation and the United States economy."
Environmentalists say the move largely maintains the status quo — doing nothing in the fight against climate change.
And 11 U.S. states agreed. They urged the Environmental Protection Agency in October to strengthen the emissions standards, saying they would do little — if anything — to reduce overall emissions.
Environmental Defense Fund international counsel Annie Petsonk called it a "do-nothing rule."
"This rule is especially infuriating because there are effective ways for the aviation industry to modernize and decarbonize," said Liz Jones, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute, in a statement Monday. "What we desperately need are technology-forcing standards to get the industry on track."
Jones called for President-elect Joe Biden to implement stricter environmental aviation regulations when his administration takes office.
"This is another industry handout," Jones said, "from an administration that's hell-bent on hamstringing efforts to tackle the climate crisis and maintain a livable planet."
See stories by Reese Oxner


text:
package com.timsedam;

import org.kie.api.KieServices;
import org.kie.api.runtime.KieContainer;
import org.kie.api.runtime.KieSession;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@ComponentScan
public class SiemCentarApplication extends SpringBootServletInitializer {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		SpringApplication.run(SiemCentarApplication.class, args);
	}

	@Bean
	public KieContainer kieContainer() {
		return KieServices.Factory.get().getKieClasspathContainer();
	}

	@Bean
	public KieSession kieSession(@Autowired KieContainer kieContainer) {
		return kieContainer.newKieSession("session");
	}

	/*
	@Bean
	public KieSession kieSession2(@Autowired KieContainer kieContainer) {
		return kieContainer.newKieSession("session2");
	}*/

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Luckily, this is an eminently solvable problem. Each state has the power to act on behalf of our nation's military families. We simply need the will to do it. That's why, in February, Jill Biden and I issued a nationwide call through our Joining Forces initiative, asking all 50 states to pass legislation by 2014 to help make it easier for military spouses to obtain new professional licenses when they move. Since then, the number of states that have enacted measures to solve this problem has grown from 11 to 23.
Governors and legislators in these states have worked together across the aisle, because supporting our military families is something we can all agree on. They're coming up with solutions that work for their states. They're helping military spouses get to work while they complete any remaining state-specific requirements. And they're doing it all without lowering their professional standards one bit – they're simply finding ways to account for the realities of military life.
So we've come a long way. But we're not finished yet. There are still 27 states that have not yet enacted measures to address this issue. So I want to ask for your help. Talk to leaders in your community. Make your voice heard. Do your part to make this issue a priority.
That's what it's going to take to get this done. And make no mistake – we must get this done. We owe it to our troops and military families. They have done so much for all of us. Whenever our country has called, they've answered.
So on this issue – and so many others – we can show them how much we appreciate their service and their sacrifice. We can give back in real, meaningful ways. And together, we can serve our men and women in uniform and their families as well as they have served us.


text:
Buffalo Sabres 2014 NHL Draft preview
By Jason Chen
Photo: Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was selected eighth overall in the 2013 NHL Draft. Ristolainen was one of two first round picks the Sabres had in 2013. (courtesy of Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)
The Buffalo Sabres' horrendous start to the 2013-14 season was the clear signal that the team needed to make drastic changes. Ted Nolan replaced Ron Rolston as head coach early in the season, and Darcy Regier was fired after 16 years with the team after a few disappointing seasons and a spotty draft record.
In January, Tim Murray was hired as the new general manager to turn the organization around. Coming from a scouting background, Murray has been tasked with finding and fostering young talent to turn them into winners.
The future for the Sabres is quite bright. Though their top prospects have had their ups and downs, some of it can be attributed to poor decisions made by the previous management. The Sabres are not expected to compete for a playoff spot in the near future, which means the team will continue to add to their pile of young talent.
Top 10 Prospects:
1. Rasmus Ristolainen, D
2. Mikhail Grigorenko, C
3. Nikita Zadorov, D
4. Mark Pysyk, D
5. Jake McCabe, D
6. Joel Armia, RW
7. Johan Larsson, F
8. JT Compher, C
9. Chad Ruhwedel, D
10. Daniel Catenacci, LW
Team Needs
Quite frankly, the Sabres biggest need at the moment is patience. Most of the team's key veterans have left the organization, and it is possible the Sabres will start the 2013-14 season without a single player over 30 years old. Impending free agents Henrik Tallinder, Zenon Konopka, and John Scott are unlikely to be retained, while Ville Leino is scheduled to be bought out and Christian Ehrhoff's future with the team is in doubt. The organization has one of the deepest pools of talent in the league, but they seem to lack a strong mentorship group to foster that talent.
Once the Sabres' top prospects become full-fledged NHL players, such as the recently graduated Zemgus Girgensons, it is in the organization's best interest to keep the system well stocked so it can provide a constant flow of talent. The future is unpredictable, and even under new general manager Murray, there is a reasonable expectation that some of the prospects will not pan out for various reasons.
With Rasmus Ristolainen and Mark Pysyk settled in the pros, and Nikita Zadorov and Jake McCabe joining them fulltime in the near future, the Sabres will most likely lean towards drafting forwards at the draft. Mikhail Grigorenko and Joel Armia are still getting comfortable in North America, while Nick Baptiste, JT Compher, and Hudson Fasching are a few years away from making an impact on the Sabres.
Organizational Strengths
The organization's greatest strength is its depth of talent at every single position. Buffalo may have traded Ryan Miller reluctantly, but they were able to sleep soundly at night afterwards knowing that top Swedish goalie Linus Ullmark, farm team goalies Nathan Lieuwen and Andrey Makarov, as well as Cal Petersen at Notre Dame, all have the potential to contribute in the NHL.
Behind Ristolainen, Zadorov, Pysyk, and McCabe, the Sabres also have Chad Ruhwdel, who averaged over half-a-point per game in the AHL, and Anthony Florentino at Providence College.
The Sabres also have a deep crop of forwards, ranging from the talented Grigorenko to utility forward Johan Larsson to power forward Justin Bailey. It is a versatile mix, but how their pro careers will pan out remains to be seen.
Organizational Weaknesses
The Sabres have done a good job of adding size to the system, but only on the wings and on defense. Grigorenko is an intriguing package of size and skill at 6'3, but it is not in his nature to play a physical style. Girgensons may be the closest to anything resembling a power center, and he stands just 6'1 while top center Tyler Ennis is generously listed at 5'9. All three are good skaters and the lack of size down the middle may be of little consequence in the Eastern Conference, but looking far ahead, the Sabres may need bigger players to compete with the tougher Western Conference teams.
Skating is not a general weakness among the Sabres prospects, but drafting players who are strong, agile and able to move freely around the ice could help the team establish its identity as a fast and skilled team. Teams prize speed and mobility, and the better the Sabres can get at moving up and down the ice with efficiency, the better off they will be.
Draft Tendencies
The Sabres went through some lean drafting years under Regier, but the 2012 and 2013 drafts have proven to be quite fruitful. It was rare for Regier to strike out on first round picks, with the last two misfires in 2005 with Marek Zagrapan and 2006 with Dennis Persson. Regier did not venture out to Europe very often, and the Saskatchewan-born executive leaned towards the WHL and OHL.
This being Tim Murray's first GM job in the NHL, he enters the 2014 draft as a relative unknown. He certainly has the strong hockey bloodlines to show for it, being the nephew of Ottawa GM Bryan Murray and Adirondack Phantoms head coach Terry Murray, but has the added pressure of having a top five pick in his first ever draft.
Over the past seven seasons, Murray has served as the assistant GM for the Sens and spent another seven seasons prior as Binghamton's GM. He certainly comes from a scouting background, previously serving as scout for the Rangers, Panthers, and Red Wings, along with a three-year stint as Anaheim's Director of Player Personnel.
The Sens have always been known to have a good feel for European prospects and often draft out of their own backyard in the OHL. Rarely did they draft players from the QMJHL and it is likely that trend will continue in Buffalo under Murray.
The Sabres own eight picks in 2014. They will select at: 2, 31, 39, 49, 61, 121, 151, and 181.
The 39th and 49th picks were acquired from Minnesota in separate deals. The 39th pick, originally a Jets pick, was acquired in exchange for Matt Moulson, while the 49th pick was acquired in 2013 for Jason Pominville.
The Sabres' own third round pick, 91st overall, was sent to Minnesota as part of the Pominville trade, which was later traded to Edmonton for Ilya Bryzgalov.
The Blues will not re-sign Ryan Miller, but if they trade him before he becomes a free agent, the Sabres will still get their first round pick, 21st overall. If the Sabres do indeed receive the Blues' first round pick, the 39th and 61st picks will go to the Blues.
Hockey's Future Staff Mock Draft Results:
2. Sam Reinhart, C, Kootenay Ice (WHL)
Assuming that Aaron Ekblad goes first overall, the first forward off the board will be Reinhart. The Sabres have had a big leadership void since Chris Drury and Danny Briere departed, opting to split the leadership duties. When Steve Ott and Thomas Vanek were traded, the 'C' was vacated without a clear successor. A captain for the Ice, Reinhart is a contributor with or without the puck and manages to perform his best during crunch time. He sees the ice well and often makes the right play, but what really separates him from Sam Bennett are his leadership abilities. Leon Draisaitl brings a great mix of size and skill, but Reinhart is more likely to wear a letter some day.
Follow Jason Chen on Twitter via @jasonchen16

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Notepad++ is fantastic for learning developers. But after a while you may want to use Visual Studio Code, PHPStorm, etc.
Wouldn't IDEs be more useful for newcomers as they point out errors?
IDE's have so many features and can be confusing to absolute beginners. Just a code editor can be a good start.
Confusing if you setup wrongly (on average I have to create new intellij projects 4 times when I want to try out new gradle compile targets).
Very helpful if you already have a template.
InspectorGadget and Nathaniel Fredericks like this.
I would recommend Atom because it can link to github. And it's free. It's similar to notepads++ and features a lot of different of coding languages and it can color the part of a code it recognizes.
features a lot of different of coding languages and it can color the part of a code it recognizes.
Basically every editor except Windows Notepad have syntax highlighting.
corytortoise and InspectorGadget like this.
Yes, this is true. But I would recommend Atom or if not that, anything really that's is designed for coding.
I just use the default notepad..
The default notepad that comes with windows.
Will be the best and always the best.
Inb4 noobs complain "why can't I only make one word bold in notepad?"


text:
Defence Line of Amsterdam
The Defence Line of Amsterdam is a circular series of fortifications around Amsterdam. The line is 135 km long and consists of 42 forts and 4 batteries. The defence line was built between 1880 and 1914 at a distance of between 15 and 20 kilometres from Amsterdam. This kept the capital out of range of any enemy canons. The area outside the line could be flooded in times of emergency, thanks to a sophisticated system of locks. The line served as the 'National Reduit', the final refuge for government and army. It is a unique monument of defensive and hydraulic engineering technology, but was never put into full use. The Defence Line of Amsterdam was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996.
Sylvia Beliën
beliens@noord-holland.nl
www.stellingvanamsterdam.nl
www.stelling-amsterdam.nl
Pampus Fort Island Visitor Centre
The ferry departs from the Herengracht in the fortified town of Muiden opposite to house number 33
info@pampus.nl


text:
Intelligence, International, Iraq, Middle East, Russia, United Nations, VIPS Memos
Clapper's Credibility
November 14, 2018 • 68 Comments
Former DNI James Clapper had his own words read back to him by Ray McGovern, exposing his role in justifying the Iraq invasion based on fraudulent intelligence.
Clapper Admits Gross Intelligence Failure
on Iraq WMDs But Still Escapes Justice
Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper's key role in helping the Cheney/Bush administration "justify" war on Iraq with fraudulent intelligence was exposed on Tuesday at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. His own words were quoted back to him from his memoir "Facts and Fears: Hard Truths From a Life in Intelligence." Hard truths, indeed.
Clapper was appointed Director of National Intelligence by President Barack Obama in June 2010, almost certainly at the prompting of Obama's intelligence confidant and Clapper friend John Brennan, later director of the CIA. Despite Clapper's performance on Iraq, he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Obama even allowed Clapper to keep his job for three and a half more years after he admitted that he had lied under oath to that same Senate about the extent of eavesdropping on Americans by the National Security Agency (NSA). He is now a security analyst for CNN.
In his book, Clapper finally places the blame for the consequential fraud (he calls it "the failure") to find the (non-existent) WMD "where it belongs — squarely on the shoulders of the administration members who were pushing a narrative of a rogue WMD program in Iraq and on the intelligence officers, including me, who were so eager to help that we found what wasn't really there." (emphasis added) .
Clapper: After WMD failure, promoted by Obama. (White House Photo by Pete Souza)
So at the event on Tuesday I stood up and asked him about that. It was easy, given the background Clapper himself provides in his book, such as:
"The White House aimed to justify why an invasion of and regime change in Iraq were necessary, with a public narrative that condemned its continued development of weapons of mass destruction [and] its support to al-Qaida (for which the Intelligence Community had no evidence)."
What Clapper chokes on — and avoids saying — is that U.S. intelligence had no evidence of WMD either. Indeed, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had put him in charge of the agency responsible for analyzing imagery of all kinds — photographic, radar, infrared, and multispectral — precisely so that the absence of evidence from our multi-billion-dollar intelligence collection satellites could be hidden, in order not to impede the planned attack on Iraq. That's why, as Clapper now admits, he had to find "what wasn't really there."
Members of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) who have employed Clapper under contract, or otherwise known his work, caution that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. So, to be fair, there is an outside chance that Rumsfeld persuaded him to be guided by the (in)famous Rumsfeld dictum: "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
But the consequences are the same: a war of aggression with millions dead and wounded; continuing bedlam in the area; and no one — high or low — held accountable. Hold your breath and add Joe Biden awarding the "Liberty Medal" to George W. Bush on Veteran's Day.
'Shocked'
Clapper writes:
"… we heard that Vice President Cheney was pushing the Pentagon for intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, and then the order came down to NIMA [the National Imagery and Mapping Agency] to find (emphasis in original) the WMD sites. We set to work, analyzing imagery to eventually identify, with varying degrees of confidence, more than 950 sites where we assessed there might be WMDs or a WMD connection. We drew on all of NIMA's skill sets … and it was all wrong."
"To support his [Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 5, 2003] speech, NIMA (which Clapper headed) had gone through the difficult process of declassifying satellite images of trucks arriving at WMD sites just ahead of the weapons inspectors to move materials before they could be found, and my team also produced computer-generated images of trucks fitted out as 'mobile production facilities used to make biological agents.' Those images, possibly more than any other substantiation he presented, carried the day with the international community and Americans alike."
"[For] the invasion of Iraq on March 20, six weeks after Powell's speech, NIMA … prepared a prioritized list of our suspect [WMD] sites with specific locations. … Using this information, they [the fourteen-hundred-member international Iraq Survey Group] went from site to site but found almost nothing. We were shocked. … The trucks we had identified as "mobile production facilities for biological agents" were in fact used to pasteurize and transport milk."
McGovern questions Clapper at Carnegie Endowment in Washington on Tuesday. (Alli McCracken)
As for those mischievous trucks allegedly used "to move materials before they could be found," as Scott Ritter, former chief UN weapons inspector for Iraq, has pointed out, they were clearly decontamination vehicles. UN inspectors had visited the site in question. It was an ammunition bunker, and the decontamination vehicle was a water truck used to keep the dust levels down because of the sensitive fuses located in the bunker. These were known facts but Clapper chose to ignore them.
Nor did he give up easily, before he could resist no longer and admit, as he writes, that "it was all wrong." In late October 2003, Clapper briefed Washington media on his latest guesses as to what really happened to the (notional) WMD. The Washington Times's Bill Getz wrote a long article replete with detailed quotes from Clapper, starting with: "Iraqi military officers destroyed or hid chemical, biological and nuclear weapons goods in the weeks before the war, the nation's top satellite spy director said yesterday. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said vehicle traffic photographed by U.S. spy satellites indicated that material and documents related to the arms programs were shipped to Syria."
In his book, Clapper refers to that briefing and says he conceded "we'd made some assumptions we shouldn't have … " and admitted that "I was still baffled that no WMD sites had been discovered. I mentioned that in the days before the invasion started, we saw a lot of cars and trucks fleeing the country into Syria. … I probably should have clarified what a stretch it would be" to suggest the WMD had been transported to Syria." Well, yes, that would have prevented further embarrassment.
During the Q and A I was sorely tempted to quote Hans Blix, the then head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, who on June 23, 2003 quipped to the Council on Foreign Relations, "It's sort of puzzling that you can have 100 percent confidence about WMD existence, but zero certainty about where they are." But that would have brought loud boos from the docile audience at Carnegie, and gotten me off on the wrong foot.
Instead, I cited to Clapper his most grievous offense against the profession of intelligence analysis — his inordinate eagerness to please whatever superiors he was working for at the time, and give them the information they lusted after to "justify" things like war.
I observed that exactly two years ago, the Obamas and Clintons were desperate to blame Trump's victory on Russian interference. And so, I asked, was this a repeat performance? Had Clapper snapped to and again "found what really wasn't there?" This, I emphasized, was the conclusion of VIPS, including two former Technical Directors at NSA.
From 'WMD" to 'Russian Hacking'
I noted that after Clapper had briefed President Obama on January 5, 2017 on the evidence-impoverished "Intelligence Community Assessment" alleging that Russian President Putin had personally ordered the "Russian hacking," Obama seems not to have been persuaded. I asked Clapper why the President told a press conference on January 18, 2017 that the conclusions of the intelligence community regarding how "Russian hacking" of Democratic National Committee emails had gotten to WikiLeaks were "inconclusive." Clapper said he could not explain why the President said that.
Travel tip for Clapper: do not travel abroad to any country bold enough to invoke the principle of universal jurisdiction which includes the duty to arrest those suspected of war crimes when their home country fails to do so. Your mentor Donald Rumsfeld had a close brush with this international form of Lady Justice in October 2007, when he abruptly fled Paris upon learning that the Paris Prosecutor had been served a formal complaint against him for authorizing torture. The complaint noted that authorities in the U.S. and Iraq had failed to launch any independent investigation into Rumsfeld's responsibility, and also noted that the U.S. had refused to join the International Criminal Court, which might have had more routine jurisdiction.
Former President George W. Bush, too, had a close call in February 2011. When Bush heard that criminal complaints had been lodged against him in Switzerland, he decided not to take any chances and abruptly nixed longstanding plans to address a Jewish charity dinner in Geneva. Thus, both Rumsfeld and Bush were spared the humiliation that befell Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who had been head of Chile's military dictatorship from 1973 to 1990. While on a trip to the United Kingdom in 1998, Pinochet was arrested on a Spanish judicial warrant and was held under house arrest until 2000.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. Among his duties as a CIA analyst was chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing/briefing the President's Daily Brief. He is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Tags: Barack Obama Donald Rumsfeld George W. Bush Hans Blix Iraq James Clapper Ray McGovern WMD
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68 comments for "Clapper's Credibility"
Mild - Ly- Facetious
From Norman Mailer's 1996 book, "The Harlot's Ghost" : "Sometimes I think our future existence will depend on whether we can keep false information from proliferating too rapidly. If our power to verify the facts does not keep pace, then distortions of information will eventually choke us." …
Those are prescient words from his book brought back to life in this commentary from Ray McGovern.
There are many known acts of subterfuge by our gov't that've been swallowed / whole cloth by a trustful, unsuspicious/naive or, gullible American citizenry living everyday lives of succeeding or surviving // \\ parenting or chasing an education.
The realization that our gov't does not operate FOR THE PEOPLE, as advertised, must be recognized in this piece from a true humanitarian, McGovern.
Where lies the disagreement between his seeming "approval" of Trump, vis-a-vis the Russia probe and my personal total
DISSAPPROVAL of Trump, the avowed Nationalist… ?
Mailer's 'fictional' "The Harlots Ghost" is a full-of-wonder template for the intrigues of 21st century Cataclysmic Violence Against Civilians brought on by – the falsified/ Saudi Supplied, World Trade Center implosion — which OPENED THE FLOODGATES for
The Brutal Assault upon the Nation and PEOPLE of Iraq — A NATION AND PEOPLE VIOLENTLY THRONE INTO DISARRAY and DISCOMBOBULATION only because UNITED STATES OIL COMPANIES OBSESSED TO OWN & CONTROL IRAC'S OIL. … and
DICK CHANEY, (an oil company chief) was a prominent insider (along with the ex-CIA overseer George HW Bush) in this plot to overthrow and execute former USA Employee, Saddam Hussain — because U S oil company Chaney conspired with US oil companies for total control of Iraq Land Oil Deposits.
"Clapper's Credibility Collapses"
— just as Colin Powell's credibility collapsed after the "Yellow Cake " nuclear material from Niger bull-spit evaporated ,Right?
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
But Russian collaboration in CYBERNETICS with Republican Harlotry ought not to be confused with the Right Wing "patriotism" of those who align with BORIS YELKIN-IST Russian Sell-Outs — of whom, Putin is not . …
Four Books i suggest to be parsed in this order:
The Lessons of History , –Will & Ariel Durant
The Anglo-American Establishment –Carroll Quigley
Understanding Special Operations — David T. Ratcliffe
Secret Wars Against The Jews ( for informative content) — John Loftus/Mark Aarons
mildlyfacetious / "welcome to my world "
timfrom
The sound quality is lousy on the video clip. I can't make out a word he's saying. Did the mike have a coat over it or something?
When did this perjurer before Congress have any credibility? The guys a professional liar.
Mild -ly Facetious
The guy is a professional liar,and
a member of The Establishment
"The Anglo-American Establishment"
Copyright 1981/ Books in Focus, Inc,
Vallejo D
No shit. I saw the video of Clapper perjuring himself to the US Congress on national television, bald-face lying about the NSA clocking our emails.
I wouldn't believe Clapper if he the sky is blue and grass is green. EPIC liar.
PS: Erstwhile national security state "friend" actually had the nerve to claim that "Clapper lied to protect you." As if. My bet is that ONLY people on the planet who didn't know about the NSA's grotesque criminal were the American taxpayers.
RECALL THIS EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENT — from the GW Bush administration…
There was, however, one valuable insight. In a soon-to-be-infamous passage, the writer, Ron Suskind, recounted a conversation between himself and an unnamed senior adviser to the president:
The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernable reality."
I nodded and murmured something about Enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off.
"That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create reality. And while you are studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we'll act again creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
That quote was from Karl Rove aka "Turd Blossom".
Anonymot
Clapper and Brennan were simply neo-fascist stand-ins for Cheney and Rumsfeld. They were the voice of the Deep State Mindset and turned those ideas into action. As standard issue, high level bureaucrats they became more than just counsel to the decision makers, they made the decisions. Those decisions were so inept and corrupt that now they would like to recast their images – and follow the Clinton/Obama footsteps to fortunes via books, speeches, Board members and consultants.
They and the many of their ilk in DC should join the others qualified for orange striped suits, but there's no one left with the clout and integrity to lock them up.
Mild -ly - Facetious
Anonymot , Yes!
Here Is A Sequence of books for those who reside in chosen darkness:
"The Lessons of History" by Will & Edith Durant – c. 1968
"The Anglo-American Establishment" by Carroll Quigley – c. 1981
"Understanding Special Operations" by David T. Ratcliffe – c. 1989 / 99
" The Secret War Against The Jews" by John Loftus and Mark Aarons c. 1994
Douglas Baker
Thanks Ray. The clap merry-go-round in Washington, D.C., with V.D. assaulting brain integrity has been long playing there with James Clapper another hand in, in favor of the continuation of those that direct the United States' war on world from Afghanistan to Syria, staying the course of firing up the world as though Northern California's Camp fire sooting up much of the state with air borne particulate matter and leaving death and destruction in its wake.
VallejoD
The Clap. Indeed! Lol.
JRGJRG
All this is fine, except it dares not touch the still taboo subject among these "professionals" of how all of this started getting justified in the first place when America attacked itself on September 11, 2001 in New York City and Washington in the most sophisticated and flawed false flag attack in history, murdering thousands of its own citizens Operation Northwoods style, blaming it on 19 Saudi hijackers with box cutters, the most grandiose of all conspiracy theory, the official 911 story.
The incriminating evidence of what happened that day in 2001 is now absolutely overwhelming, but still too incredible and controversial for even these esteemed folks to come to grips with. If we're going to take a shower and clean all this excrement off ourselves, let's do it thoroughly.
In fact, wait! Let's ask the really important question of Clapper.
What was he doing and where was he on 9/11, the "New Pearl Harbor," and what was his role in the coverup and transformation of the CIA in the ensuing years?
Why doesn't Ray ask him about that?
Clapper still has credibility? Oh, that must be amongst the willfully ignorant corporate media and the uncritical public who follow them.
Richard Orberson
Clapper is a notorious liar who will go down in the annals of time as the biggest liar in the U. S. Intelligence Community's history. Every word that Clapper says in public about his interactions with President Trump is a separate crime.
facts of the matter is…nearly everyone in the upper US gov is a war criminal and a human rights violator…but the USA so soundly in the hands of the zionist ignores its mass murdering criminals if it serves the tribes interests
GKJames
(1) One needn't be a Clapper fan to say that he was merely a cog in a body politic that (a) lives and breathes using military force to "solve" geopolitical problems; and (b) has always been driven by the national myth of American exceptionalism and the American love of war. The only issue ever is the story Americans tell themselves as to why a particular assault on some benighted country that can't meaningfully shoot back is justified. But for that, there are countless clever people in the corridors of power and the Infotainment Complex always eager to spread mendacity for fun and profit. Sure, hang Clapper, but if justice is what you're after, you'd quickly run out of rope and wood.
(2) What doesn't compute: Clapper is quoted as saying that he and cohort "were so eager to help that [they] found what wasn't really there". That's followed by: "Rumsfeld put him in charge … so that the absence of evidence could be hidden…. Clapper now admits [that] he had to find 'what wasn't really there'". While Rumsfeld's intent was exactly that, i.e., to prevent a narrative that he and Cheney had contrived, that's not the same as Rumsfeld's explicitly instructing Clapper et al to do that. Further, it mischaracterizes Clapper's admission. He doesn't admit that "he had to find" what wasn't there (which would suggest prior intent). What he does admit is that the eagerness to please the chain of command resulted in "finding" what didn't exist. One is fraud, the other group-think; two very different propositions. The latter, of course, has been the hallmark of US foreign policy for decades, though the polite (but accurate) word for it is "consensus". Everybody's in on it: the public, Congress, the press, and even the judiciary. By and large, it's who Americans are.
(3) Does this really equate the WMD fiasco with the alleged "desperate [attempt] to blame Trump's victory on Russian interference"? Yes, Clapper was present in 2003 and 2016. But that's a thin reed. First, no reasonable person says that Russian interference was the only reason that Clinton lost. Second, to focus on what was said in January 2017 ignores the US government's notifying various state officials DURING THE CAMPAIGN in 2016, of Russian hacking attempts. If, as is commonly said, the Administration was convinced that Clinton would win, how could hacking alerts to the states have been part of an effort to explain away an election defeat that hadn't happened yet, and which wasn't ever expected to happen? And, third, as with WMDs, Clapper wasn't out there on his own. While there were, unsurprisingly, different views among intelligence officials as to the extent of the Russian role, there was broad agreement that there had been one. Once again, fraud vs. group-think.
I think there is a big difference between "group think" and inventing and cherry picking intelligence to fit policy objectives. I believe there is ample evidence of fraud. The "dodgy dossier" and the yellow cake uranium that led to Plame being exposed as a CIA operative are two examples that come immediately to mind. "Sexed up" intelligence is beyond groupthink. It is the promoting of lies and the deliberate elimination of any counter narrative in order to justify an unjust war.
The same could be said of the "all 17 intelligence agencies" statement about RussiaGate that was completely debunked but remained the propaganda line. It was way more than "groupthink". It was a lie. It is part of "full spectrum dominance".
I do agree that "Clapper wasn't out there on his own". He is part of a team with an agenda, and in a just world they'd all be in prison.
It wasn't "mistaken" intelligence, or "groupthink". You are trying to put lipstick on a pig.
Fraud is easy to allege, hard to prove. In the case of Iraq, it's important to accept that virtually everyone — the Administration, the press, the public, security agencies in multiple countries, and even UN inspectors (before the inspections, obviously) — ASSUMED that Saddam had WMDs. That assumption wasn't irrational; it was based on Saddam's prior behavior. No question, the Administration wanted to invade Iraq and the presumed-to-exist WMDs were the rationale. It was only when evidence appeared that the case for it wasn't rock-solid that Cheney et al went to work. (The open question is whether they began to have their own doubts or whether it never occurred to them, given their obsession.) But there is zero evidence that anyone was asked to conclude that Saddam had WMDs even though the Americans KNEW that there weren't any. That's where the group-think and weak-kneed obeisance to political brawlers like Cheney come in. All he had to do was bark, and everyone fell in line, not because they knew there were no WMDs, but because they weren't sure … but the boss certainly was.
In that environment, what we saw from Clapper and his analysts wasn't fraud but weakness of character, not to mention poor-quality analysis. And maybe that gets to the bigger question to which there appears to be an allergy: Shouting Fraud! effectively shuts down the conversation. After all, once you've done that, there's not much else to say; these guys all lied and death and destruction followed. But what if the answer is just as likely that the national security state created by Truman has grown into something uncontrollable, beyond legitimate oversight by the people it's supposed to serve? What if the people in that business aren't all that clever, let alone principled? After all, the CIA is headed by a torture aficionada and we haven't heard peep from the employee base, let alone the Congress that confirmed her. That entire ecosystem has been permitted to flourish without adult supervision for decades. Whenever someone asks, "that's classified". What do you do when Americans as a whole are perfectly fine with that?
Sam F
But fraud from the top was shown very well by Bamford in his book Pretext For War. Where discredited evidence was retained by intel agencies, as in the Iraq War II case, traitors like the zionist Wolfowitz simply installed known zionist warmongers Perl, Feith, and Wurmser into "stovepipe" offices at CIA, DIA, NSA to send the known-bad "evidence" to Rumsfeld & Cheney.
They seem to conveniently classify anything that could prove illegality such as fraud, or in the case of the JFK assassination, something much worse. They use tools such as redaction and classification not only to protect "national security", but to cover up their crimes.
"But what if the answer is just as likely that the national security state created by Truman has grown into something uncontrollable, beyond legitimate oversight by the people it's supposed to serve?"
I believe this is very much the case, but that doesn't preclude fraud as part of their toolkit. The people at the top of the illegalities are clever enough to use those less sharp (like Clapper) for their evil purposes, and if necessary, to play the fall guy. And although the Intelligence Agencies are supposed to serve "We the People", they are actually serving unfettered Global Capitalism and the .1% that are trying to rule the world. This has been the case from its onset.
Furthermore, I am an American, and I am definitely NOT FINE with the misuse of classification and redaction to cover up crimes. The way to fix the "entire ecosystem" is to start to demand it by prosecuting known liars like James Clapper, and to break up the MSM monopoly so people get REAL news again, and wake people up until they refuse to support the two party system.
(1) Assuming you could find a DOJ willing to prosecute and a specific statute on which to bring charges, the chance of conviction is zero because the required fraudulent intent can't be proved beyond reasonable doubt. All the defendant would have to say is, We thought WMDs were there but it turned out we were wrong. Besides, the lawyers said it's all legal. And if you went after Clapper only, he'd argue (successfully) that it was a highly selective prosecution. (2) If you're going to create a whole new category of criminal liability for incompetence and/or toadyism and careerism, Langley corridors would quickly empty. It's certainly one way to reduce the federal workforce. (3) The intelligence agencies ARE serving "We the People". There isn't anything they do that doesn't have the blessing of duly elected representatives in Congress. (4) That you, yourself, are "NOT FINE" overlooks the reality that your perspective gets routinely outvoted, though not because of "evil" or "fraud". A Clapper behind bars would do zero to change that. Why? Because most Americans ARE fine with the status quo. That's not a function of news (fake or real); Americans are drowning in information. Like all good service providers, the media are giving their customers exactly what they want to hear.
GK-
(1) It is you who is "assuming" that fraud could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. What if evidence was presented that showed that they didn't really think there were WMD's, but were consciously lying to justify an invasion. I agree that it would be nearly impossible to find a DOJ willing to prosecute within our corrupted government, but if we could get a 3rd party president to sign on to the ICC, we could ship a bunch of evil warmongers off to the Hague. (2) As already discussed, I don't buy the representation of their actions as mere "toadyism". (3) As shown by many studies, our duly elected representatives serve lobbyists and the .1%, not "We the People". Here's one from Princeton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig (4) From your earlier post: "What do you do when Americans as a whole are perfectly fine with that?" Since I am part of the "whole", your statement is obviously false. And Americans are drowning in MISinformation from our MSM, and that is a big part of the problem. And please provide evidence that most Americans are fine with the status quo. Stating that I get routinely outvoted when many Americans see their choice as between a lesser of two evils, and our MSM keeps exposure of third party viewpoints to a minimum, is an obvious obfuscation.
I will second Skip on that.
The groupthink of careerists is not "who Americans are."
"Broad agreement" on an obvious fraud is a group lie.
What Clapper did was fraud. What went on in his head was group-think. The two are by no means incompatible. The man admits to outright fabrication-
"my team also produced computer-generated images of trucks fitted out as 'mobile production facilities used to make biological agents.' Those images, possibly more than any other substantiation he presented, carried the day with the international community and Americans alike."
He knew exactly what he was doing.
Well done Ray, challenging those responsible for international war crimes is a necessity if the world is to be fundamentally changed for the better. Illegal wars & the catastrophic consequences for nation states & their citizens has to be answerable in a war crimes tribunal. This should include both governments & corporate entities that elicit profits from doing so.
wootendw
"Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said vehicle traffic photographed by U.S. spy satellites indicated that material and documents related to the arms programs were shipped to Syria…"
Syria and Iraq became bitter enemies in 1982 when Syria backed Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. Syria even sent troops to fight AGAINST Saddam during the first Iraq War. Syria and Iraq did not restore diplomatic relations until after Saddam was captured. The idea that Saddam would send WMDs (if he had them) to Syria is ludicrous.
Cheney wanted to steal the oil. Bush wanted to fulfill prophecy & make Jesus Rapture him away from his problems. Neither plan worked.
Our big shots never suffer for their crimes against humanity. Occasionally a Lt. Calley will get a year in jail for a massacre, but that's it.
bostonblackie
Calley was placed under house arrest at Fort Benning, where he served three and a half years.
That's like less than 2.5 days served per each defenseless My Lai villager slaughtered, massacred, in cold blood.
What kind of justice is that? Who gets away with murder that way?
Helen Marshall
While serving in an embassy in 2003, the junior officer in my office was chatting with the long-time local employee, after viewing the Powell Shuck and Jive. One said to the other, "the US calls North Korea part of the 'Axis of Evil' but doesn't attack it because there is clear evidence that it has WMD including nukes." And the other said "yes, and that's why the US is going to invade Iraq because we know they don't." QED
Love this comment!
Taras 77
Thanks, Ray, for an excellent article!
You are one of few who are calling out these treasonous bastards. I am still .waiting for at least some of them to do the perp walk, maybe in the presence of war widows, their children, and maimed war veterans.
Chris Fogarty
Clapper played the central role in deceiving America into abandoning the republic and becoming the genocidal empire now terrorizing Planet Earth. If it is too late; if the criminals have permanent control of our government, there won't be a cleansing Nuremberg Tribunal, and our once-great USA will continue along its course of death and destruction until it destroys itself.
Where are our patriots? If any exist, now is the time for a new Nuremberg.
The genocidal empire goes back to 1950 the Korean War.
How about 1945 and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Keep going. Further back than that.
How about the Spanish American War, justified by the false flag blowing up of the Maine in Havana Harbor, which led to the four-year genocidal war against Filipino rebels and the war against the Cubans?
How about the 19th Century genocide of Native Americans? What was that justified by, except for lust for conquest of territory and racism?
How about America's role with other western colonial powers in the 1900 Boxer Rebellion in China.
The list of American violations of international law is too long to restate here, in the hundreds.
The only way out of this moral dilemma is to turn a new page in history in a new administration, hold our war criminals in the dock, and make amends under international law, and keep them, somehow without sacrificing national jurisdiction or security. America has to be reformed as an honest broker of peace instead of the world's leading pariah terrorist state.
How about slavery? America was founded on genocide and slavery!
I think Ray is being a little overly optimistic about Clapper being travel restricted. Universal Jurisdiction is for the small fry. Even with Bush and Rumsfeld, their changing travel plans was probably more about possible "bad press" than actual prosecution. Maybe down the road, when the USA collapse is more obvious to our "vassals" and they start to go their own way, such a thing could happen. Even then, we've got tons of armaments, and a notoriously itchy trigger finger.
My hope is that the two party system collapses and a Green Party candidate gets elected president. He or she could then sign us on to the ICC, and let the prosecutions begin. I know it's delusional, but a guy's gotta dream.
It occurs to me that even given Cheney's infamous 1% doctrine, these no-goodniks couldn't even scratch together enough of a true story to pass that low bar. So they invented, to put it mildly, plausible scenarios, cranked-up the catapults of propaganda and flung them in our faces via the self-absorbed, self-induced, money grubbing fake patriots of mass media.
But, geez, Ray, it's not as if we didn't already know about fixing facts around the policy, resignations of career operatives because of politicizing intelligence, reports of Scott Ritter, plus the smarmy lying faces & voices of all the main actors in the Cheney-Rumsfeld generated mass hysteria. I doubt these types of reveals, though appreciatively confirming what we already know, will change very many minds now. After all, the most effective war this cabal has managed to wage has been against their own people.
Perhaps when these highfalutin traitors, treasonous to their oaths to protect the founding principles they swore to preserve, at last shuffle off their mortal coils, future generations will gain the necessary perspective to dismiss these infamous liars with the contempt they deserve. But that's just wishful thinking because by then the incidents that cranked-up this never-ending war likely will be the least of their worries.
In the meantime, the fact that this boiled egghead continues to spew his Claptrap on a major media channel tells you all you need to know about how deeply the poison of the Bush-Cheney era has seeped into the body politic and continues to eat away at what remains of the foundations while the military-media-government-corporate complex metastasizes.
Ray knows that the well-informed know much of the story, and likely writes to bring us the Clapper memoir confession and summarize for the less informed.
I am always glad to see confirmation in such matters, however, for people who work to inform themselves and think critically, there are no real surprises to be discovered about the invasion of Iraq.
It could be clearly seen as a fraud at the time because there were a number of experts, experts not working for the American government, who in effect told us then that it was a fraud.
What the whole experience with Iraq reveals is a couple of profound truths about imperial America, truths that are quite unpleasant and yet seem to remain lost to the general public.
One, lying and manipulation are virtually work-a-day activities in Washington. They go on at all levels of the government, from the President through all of the various experts and agency heads who in theory hold their jobs to inform the President and others of the truth in making decisions.
Indeed, these experts and agency heads actually work more like party members from George Orwell's Oceania in 1984, party members whose job it is to constantly rewrite history, making adjustments in the words and pictures of old periodicals and books to conform with the Big Brother's latest pronouncements and turns in policy.
America has an entire industry devoted to manufacturing truth, something the rather feeble term "fake news" weakly tries to capture.
The public's reaction to officials and agencies in Washington ought to be quite different than it generally is. It should be a presumption that they are not telling the truth, that they are tailoring a story to fit a policy. It sounds extreme to say so, but it truly is not in view of recent history.
We are all watching actors in a costly play used to support already-determined destructive policies.
Two, the press lies, and it lies almost constantly in support of government's decided policies. You simply cannot trust the American press on such matters, and the biggest names in the press – the New York Times or Washington Post or CBS or NBC – are the biggest liars because they put the weight of their general prestige into the balance to tip it.
Their fortunes and interests are too closely bound to government to be in the least trusted for objective journalism. Journalism just does not exist in America on the big stuff.
This support is not just done on special occasions like the run-up to the illegal invasion of Iraq but consistently in the affairs of state. We see it today in everything from "Russia-gate" to the Western-induced horrors of Syria. Russia-gate is almost laughable, although few Americans laugh, but a matter like Syria, with more than half a million dead and terrible privations, isn't laughable, yet no effort is made to explain the truth and bring this monstrous project – the work equally of Republicans and Democrats – to an end.
Three, while virtually all informed people know that Israel's influence in Washington is inordinate and inappropriate, many still do not realize that the entire horror of Iraq, just like the horror today of Syria, reflects the interests and demands of Israel.
George Bush made a rarely-noticed, when Ariel Sharon was lobbying him to attack other Middle Eastern countries following the Iraq invasion, along the lines of, "Geez, what does the guy want? I invaded Iraq for him, didn't I?"
Well, today, pretty much all of the countries that Sharon thought should be attacked have indeed been attacked by the United States and its associates in one fashion or another – covertly, as in Syria, or overtly, as in Libya. And we are all witnessing the ground being prepared for Iran.
It has been a genuinely terrifying period, the last decade and a half or so. War after war with huge numbers of innocents killed, vast damages inflicted, and armies of unfortunate refugees created. All of it completely unnecessary. All of it devoid of ethics or principles beyond the principle of "might makes right."
It simply cannot be distinguished, except by order of magnitude, from the grisly work of Europe's fascist governments of the 1930s and '40s.
All the discussions we read or see from America about truth in journalism, about truth in government, and about founding principles are pretty much distraction and noise, meaningless noise. The realities of what America is doing in the world make it so.
tpmco
It seems to me that showing up the blatant lies of the Iraq affair, while laudable, doesn't really get us anywhere. The guilty are never and will never be brought to account for their heinous crimes and some of the past villains are still lying, scheming, and brining about war, terror and horror today.
If the white helmets in Syria, the lies about Libya, the West engineered coupé in The Ukraine, Yemen, etc, aren't all tactics from the same play book used by the criminal cabals of the Iraq time, then we are blind. These days, the liars in the deep state, an expression which encapsulates everything from Intel to think tanks, don't even try to tell plausible lies, they just say anything and MSM cheers them on. Anyone challenging the MSM/government/deep state etc are just ridiculed and called conspiracy theorists, no matter how obvious and ludicrous the lies are.
In fact "showing up the blatant lies of the Iraq affair" informs others, to whom the MSM can no longer cheer on liars, nor ridicule truth. Truth telling, like contemplation, is essential before the point of action.
I remember a woman reporter saying the reason we invaded Iraq was because Sadam Husien had put a bounty on the Bush family for running him out of qwait. This was a personal revenge to take out Husien before he had a chance at the Bush's. Any way the reporter was silenced very quickly. I personally believe the allegation.
You have my complete and total respect Mr. McGovern. That was beautiful! Thank you.
F. G. Sanford
"We drew on all of NIMA's skill sets … and it was all wrong."
Every time I hear the term, "skill sets", I recall a military colleague who observed, "We say skill sets so we don't have to say morons." They used to say, "The military doesn't pay you to think." Now they say, "We have skill sets." It's a euphemism for robotized automatons who perform specific standardized tasks based on idealized training requirements which evolve from whatever the latest abstract military doctrine happens to be. And, they come up with new ones all the time.
"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." This is a phrase Rumsfeld borrowed directly – and I'm not making this up – from the UFO community. It was apparently first uttered by Carl Sagan, and then co-opted by people like Stanton Friedman. He's the guy who claims we recovered alien bodies from flying saucers at Roswell, New Mexico. The scientific antidote to the "absence of evidence" argument is, of course, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." Simply put, absence of evidence really just means "no evidence". A hypothesis based on "no evidence" constitutes magical thinking.
It's probably worth going to Youtube and looking up a clip called "Stephen Gets a Straight Answer Out of Donald Rumsfeld". He admits to Colbert that, "If it was true, we wouldn't call it intelligence." Frankly, Clapper's gravest sin is heading up a science-based agency like NIMA, but failing to come to the same conclusion as General Albert Stubblebine. People who analyze reconnaissance imagery are supposed to be able to distinguish explosive ordnance damage from other factors. But, I guess Newtonian Physics is "old school" to this new generation of magical thinkers and avant-garde intelligence analysts.
Part of the problem of "intelligence" is its reliance upon images that show a lot of detail but without any definite meaning, and upon guesses to keep managers and politicians happy. So "expert assessments" that milk trucks in aerial photos might be WMD labs became agency "confidence" and then politician certainties, never verified.
When suspect evidence was retained by intel agencies, as in the Iraq War II case, traitors like the zionist Wolfowitz simply installed known zionist warmongers Perl, Feith, and Wurmser into "stovepipe" offices at CIA, DIA, NSA to send the non-evidence to Rumsfeld. See Bamford's Pretext For War.
Gen Dau
Thank you, Ray, for a very good article that treats Clapper objectively and not as a demi-god, as most of the MSM and the Democratic establishment does. It is totally unacceptable for a government official, current or former, to answer "I don't know." That is the hideout of irresponsible scoundrels. Questioners should be allowed to ask follow-up questions such as, "If you didn't know, did you try to think about why the President's opinion on this very important question was different from yours? Is simply not knowing acceptable for an intel officer, especially one in a leadership position?" I look forward to your further reports and analyses.
Thanks also to the editors for returning at least the main text to a readable font. But why not go whole hog and make reading everything a pleasure again? Putting the headlines in a hard-to-read and distracting font is especially unfortunate, since some casual visitors to Consortium News may be turned off by the headlines and skip reading the very important articles attached to the headlines.
You are right, my friend.
Mark A Goldman
According to my calculations (admittedly simplistic), the world has past the point of peak oil and in aggregate cannot produce enogh oil to meet present and future demand and that may very well be why the US is doing its best to destroy or damage as many economies in the world as it can…even if it has to go to war to do it. Once it becomes well established that we are past peak oil no telling what our financial markets will look like. Would appreciate hearing from someone who has more expertise than I have. https://www.gpln.com
anon4d2s
Why are you trying to change the subject? Please desist.
Mark A. Goldman
I'm offering you the, or a, motive of why the deep state is pursuing the agendas we see unfolding, which is to say, the crimes, the lies, the treason that the likes of Clapper, Bush, Obama, Clinton and others are pursuing to cover up their reaction to their own fears. Of course 9/11, the false flag coup and smoking gun that proves my point is still the big elephant in the room and will eventually bring us down if the truth is never released from its chains.
I didn't change the subject. I'm offering you an answer as to the motive of why so many officials are willing to trash the Constitution in order to accomplish their insane agendas. It's all about money and power and the terrified Deep State fear of facing the blowback from the lies that have been propagated by the government and media regarding just about everything. Here's another place you might want to look in addition to my website: https://youtu.be/CDpE-30ilBY It's not just about oil. But this is where the rubber's going to meet the road. This is about what's going to hit the fan at any moment… and in the absence of the Truth, we are all going to face this unprepared. 9/11 is still the smoking gun. It not just a few liars and cheats we're talking about.
I didn't change the subject. The purpose of the search for WMD was to misdirect the public's attention away from the real purpose of the invasion which was to gain control of Iraq's oil reserves primarily. Misdirection is primary skill used by those in power and very effectively.
On my website you might want to review what I wrote here: "Why the Economy Can't Recover" https://www.gpln.com/audacityofhope.htm
Skip Edwards
Thanks, as always, go out to Ray for his continued bravery in speaking truth to power. I remember years ago when David McMichaels, Ex-CIA, gave a talk at Ft Lewis College in Durango, CO, about Ronnie Reagan's corruption in what the US was doing to the elected government in Nicaragua. Thanks to both of these men for trying to inform us all about the corruption so rampant in our government. This is further proof that Trump is only a small pimple on top of the infectous boil that is our government.
Hurray for Ray McGovern! A beautiful and superbly-planned confrontation. We are lucky that Clapper admitted these things in his memoir, but we needed you to bring that out in public with full and well-selected information. You are truly a gem, whom I hope someday to meet.
An astounding revelation of systematic delusion in secret agencies.
But until now my best source on the Iraq fake WMD has been Bamford's Pretext For War, in which he establishes that zionist DefSec Wolfowitz appointed three known zionist operatives Perl, Wurmser, and Feith to "stovepipe" known-bad info to Rumsfeld et al. Does the memoir shed any light there, and does your information agree?
Spies lie constantly, they have no respect for the truth. To trust a spy is a sign of dangerous gullibility. Spies are simply criminals for hire.
Yes, I also hope our replies will be in a more civil and less reader-hostile font. The same font as the article text would be fine.
dfnslblty
I would offer that spies do not lie ~ they gather information.
Spy masters do lie ~ they prevaricate to fit the needs of their masters.
Tomonthebeach
To paraphrase in a way that emphasizes the deja vu. Trump lies constantly, he has no respect for the truth. To trust Trump is a sign of dangerous gullibility. Trump is simply a crook for hire, and it would seem that Putin writes the checks.
Gosh, you fooled everyone so easily with standard Dem zionist drivel!
Why not admit that every US politician is bought, including Dems?
Don't forget to supply your unique evidence of Russian tampering.
Mild-ly - Facetious
as does Colin Powell's U.N.BULL Spit Yellow Cake propaganda/
all that's required is a Sales Pitch to everyday striving citizens into
how a brutal strain of aristocrat have come to rule america
and how you must delve into the Back-Stories of, for example,
GHW Bush CIA connection and his presents in Dallas, 1963
credibility collapses abound under weight of 'what really happened'
after Chaney convened summit of oil executives just PRIOR to 9/11?


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As a big time Washington Nationals fan, I've been watching Bryce Harper play here in D.C. since he was first brought up to the majors at the age of 19. As you might therefore imagine, I've been closely following his free agency this fall.
It was due to this hardball diligence that I recently noticed a small sports page news item that intersects with the types of topics we like to discuss here. A couple weeks ago, Harper declared he was going on a social media fast. He even ironically (oxymoronically?) introduced a hash tag for his effort: #teamnoscroll.
I applaud Harper for his public step back from social media, especially during a period of intense scrutiny where checking the latest buzz would only increase his anxiety.
But reading about #teamnoscroll prompted an interesting thought: Why aren't more superstar athletes permanently disengaged from social media?
At the elite level, athletes differentiate themselves by maximizing every physical and cognitive advantage (for more on this, see Ben Bergeron's Chasing Excellence). Superstars become superstars, in large part, because they pair once in a generation gifts with relentless training.
There's a reason Lebron James spends $1.5 million dollars a year on his off-season training: the return on investment is worth it.
But then there's social media. These services create cognitive drag by subjecting you to a compulsive mix of drama and distraction. If you're famous, this drag is even more pronounced.
For the average user, this reality might prove a nuisance, but for athletes performing at the top levels of their sports, the result could be the difference between a solid career and the hall of fame; a 5-year $25 million dollar deal, and a 10-year $350 million deal.
And yet, many of the same athletes that measure their food on a scale are somehow fine scrolling on a whim.
In my role as an author who writes about focus, I've had the opportunity to discuss deep work with front office professional sports types. The general sense I'm getting is that pro teams are becoming increasingly wary about the impact of technology on cognitive fitness.
Some have told me that it's the sports agents who are exacerbating this problem by encouraging their clients to "build their brand" through social media. I have a hard time believing this is true because it's self-defeating. I can't imagine that star agents like Scott Boras, with his binders full of advanced analytics breaking down every contribution of his clients, would be blind to the extra edge provided by an unusually focused mind.
I wouldn't be surprised, in other words, if we start to see more of a systematic move away from social media by top figures in sports as the full impact of this technology is better understood.
To make this more concrete: few things would make me happier than to see much less of Bryce Harper on Instagram, and many more years of his ferocious swing here at Nats Park.
As a part of "building their brands," I always thought that most athletes and entertainers have a millenial on their staff to be their social media person. Essentially, all that contact that the public thinks they're getting with their favorite celebrity is actually someone that their managers hired and manage as part of an overall strategy. Even quitting social media during free agency can be used to draw more mystery and attention to a player. Call me a cynic…..
It still doesn't change the potential mental impact of the athlete following their own brand on social media.
I tend to agree, Hannah. The same strategy is followed by many heads of states as well. They do have a team that handles these things. Surely they are aware of the importance of a focused mind, so all these peripheral things get outsourced.
Cal, do you think the same when it comes to musicians?
Agreed, but do you maintain any kind of social media account that your fans can interact with? Because the question of whether to use the mobile app, versus whether to maintain any account at all, seem separate.
I've never had the apps on my phone, but I'm thinking of creating a social media page.
I can see athletes and entertainers in general on social media. After all, it's a platform, potentially more powerful than TV. I agree with the idea that "branding" is done on the field (who cares about an amazing social media personality if his BA is constantly below the Mendoza Line) , but it's probably true that social media might help in drive up sales and so on. After all, part of the Moneyball experience demonstrated that some players were overpaid due to external factors such as hot girlfriends or look.
Hey Cal! I know this is not the right article but i absolutely need to ask this! Im in high school and i need urgent help as grinding tons of problems isnt getting me anywhere and im getting Cs in 12th grade!
How do you study for a discipline like English,where everything is about interpreting a text that you read for the first time,to use grammar rules and write essays?
And also,when studying for maths, the 1st step is to try to understand in depth the concept and then only solve example problems,with the solution beneath them and not grind through thousands of problems where you only get the solution,not the solving process right?
Dan – have you read his two books aimed at students (HS and College)? "Deep Work" will also be useful – at least to an extent.
As for English, I strongly suggest that you analyze what you read while you're reading it. Ask yourself questions, then write down your thoughts. Pay attention to the author's language choices; after a while you'll write better than anyone else. Stephen King's "On Writing" might also help a bit.
Yes I did read both books but im having doubts about its effectiveness.
Should I do that on tjhe english tests? Or while in class? Like in class the teacher reads some texts of certain authors and we take notes on what she says like "this line is a metaphor".
And take notes of those thoughts in form of QEC?
This is the 'deep' work you need on the fundamentals.
With English, I would suggest clearly defining the actual problem you are having. It is very different if you have spelling problems vs don't have a broad enough vocabulary (too many words you don't really know) vs don't know a catalog of labelled techniques (eg symbolism, analogies, simile) vs not using enough quotes to back up your thesis.
English, once so defined, can then be again a deep learning skill.
I was wondering if you were aware of the Clemson Football team's 7-year tradition of a player-led in-season social media ban? It's something I've always thought was an excellent idea considering the comments, analysis, and opinions that fly around during the season, and the other pressures faced in school and athletics at that level. It also correlates nicely with their current rise to elite program status. Of course. there are other factors in their success, but I suspect the reason the players keep voting for it is that they can appreciate the benefits.
Hey Cal! Great article man! I'm wondering if you can cover celebrities or musicians whom are not using social and are getting great results from making that decision? Most millenials are following their idols through instagram, twitter and snapchat. However, there are some celebrities who do not have social media accounts, like Jennifer Lawrence and Daniel Radcliffe, and are thriving in their careers.
You might be interested in Matthew Stafford QB for the Detroit Lions, who doesn't have any social media accounts.
I would suspect that for most top performing athletes they would have extremely strict training regimes which are being micromanaged by at least one coach, if not a team of coaches.
Especially if it's not a team sport, like swimming or tennis, where you're going to be basically one-on-one with trainers for long periods of your day.
In these environments I imagine the opportunity to be 'distracted' by social media, at least during training hours is kept to a minimum.
The important question is what are the long term effects of extended social media use during personal time (and break time), and is this enough to explain a significant proportion of the difference between 5-year $25M contracts and 10-year $350M contracts?
How much the does the attention robbing effect spill into in-game performance?
It would be very interesting to see the contrast between this and the knowledge worker environment where individuals have constant, unimpeded, access to digital technology during work and personal hours.
Consider further then that contrast between the many 'open office' cultures which encourage and sometimes enforce these distractions, against the elite level athletes where, despite marketing strategies, the focus during training would still be on training (and focus).
Building the brand is the benefit of the individual and raising their image. This will subsequently increase their earning income from sponsorship.
You yourself do this by writing blog posts, you could spend this time reading and writing another book but you know building your brand helps sell books.
This happens quite a bit with my sport. I train Judo and some of my partners are on their phones scrolling through Instagram feeds whenever there is a break. Sometimes they would take more time than needed, and so I would be there waiting for them to get my sparring in. It wastes important time for sparring, drilling, or working on a new technique.
Lebron James has also done a social media blackout during the playoffs in the past few years.
When you have 1.4m followers on instagram and 1m followers on twitter, you sell A LOT of advertising on a lot of money. These social media accounts become an asset, a source of income. Celebrities, in their short time as celebrities, make all the money they can. In terms of advertising, sponsorship and exposure, social media are just the new media. Nevertheless, I do not think that they hire someone to handle this accounts, which is really detrimental to their focus and what makes them celebrities in the first place.
Ask yourself how one gets to the point where they have at least 1 million followers on Twitter.
It's because they're famous for their exploits on TV, Movies, Music, Sport, Modelling or who they're dating or married to. The social media thing then profits off that.
If I take myself as an example, I can't think of any reason why 1 million people would want to follow me on Instagram.
If however I was going to be starring in as a lead character in the upcoming Avengers 4 movie, then suddenly get a million followers would be a lot easier.
Should I quite Whatsapp too? It's hard for me to decide to quite it because I use it to communicate with real family and friends.
The only danger with WhatsApp is checking it too frequently. Otherwise it's absolutely fine. Set yourself a schedule. Check WhatsApp at 08:00, 13:00 and 18:00. Otherwise ignore it. Switch it off. Here's the overall simply thing that people with smartphones need to do —>.Disconnect from the internet for the vast majority of the day. Connect to the internet only when you want to quickly check on something important. I can get my phone online with 2 swipes and a tap. If it's that quick, why the hell do I need it connected to the internet CONSTANTLY?
I've always been puzzled at the fact that many star professional athletes eat junk food (https://www.stack.com/a/pro-athletes-horrible-diets). For example, Marshawn Lynch is a five time Pro Bowler, and is famous for his love of skittles. So it seems to me that there are many low hanging fruits to be plucked in the field of professional sports. In which case, I'm not surprised by the fact that the low hanging fruit of quitting social media isn't usually plucked.
I'm no economist, but here's my attempt at explaining it. Efficiency follows from 1) huge rewards and 2) many actors. For example, in the stock market, the reward for a 1% edge is huge, and there are many, many people in the market. So if there is a stock that is mispriced, given how many people there are, someone is going to pluck that opportunity. But in the NFL for instance, there are only 1696 players, so maybe that isn't enough.
I agree that for an athlete to be the best in the world requires complete focus and undivided concentration. Sebastian Vettel was the youngest F1 world champion when he won for the first time, and went on to win 4 world championships. Despite being young he has never had a social media presence, and has never allowed the media to intrude into his private life. Any F1 fan knows very well who he is. Max Verstappen, on the other hand, the youngest F1 driver to be given a seat at age 17 and who advanced to a top team in only his second season, does have a social media presence, but he stated in an interview that he doesn't participate in it and has other people read and reply to his fan's messages. Both approaches work to avoid the distractions of social media.
Hey Cal! This isnt related to the article,but it is related to studying and a bit to your books like how to be a highschool superstar and how to be a straight a student.
I can do active recall. I do it for everything ranging from maths to biology and now im getting good grades thanks to your methods.
And also in Portuguese. Its a non technical course and i can recall everything for it.
But the problem is punctuation, the structure of answers and the structure of the essay i need to write for tests/exams. My ideias are clear but the structure is weak,the punctuation is all over and wrong,etc. How can I improve that? Because according to my teacher I could have an A if the structure was good,but i end up getting only an C because i cant link my ideias well and can't structure the essay and the answers.
Hey, I just wanted to point out that Harper is a Latter-day Saint (sometimes called Mormons) and that they have been instructed recently to take fasts from social media.


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text:
Q: How to flatten nest Json data with json_normalize I'm trying to import JSON data to Dataframe via json_normalize but cannot get it to work.
My data:
a key is same as c1 key
[
  {
    "a": "A1",
    "b": "B1",
    "c": [
      {
        "c1": "C111",
        "c2": "C121",
        "c3": ["C1131","C1132"]
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "a": "A2",
    "b": "B2",
    "c": [
      {
        "c1": "C211",
        "c2": "C212",
        "c3": ["C2131","C2132"]
      },
      {
        "c1": "C221",
        "c2": "C222",
        "c3": ["C2231"]
      }
    ]
  }
]

I want to make a DataFrame like
           a     c1(a)      c2                    c3
0         A1      C111    C121     ["C1131","C1132"]
1         A2      C211    C212     ["C2131","C2132"]
2         A2      C221    C222             ["C2231"]

When I use json_normalize it shows ValueError:
entity_df = json_normalize(data, 'c', 'a')

ValueError: Conflicting metadata name a, need distinguishing prefix

How should I change the json_normalize parameters?
Any help will be appreciated.

A: you can try:
from collections import defaultdict

norm_data = defaultdict(list)
for item in data:
    for element in item['c']:
        norm_data['a'].append(item['a'])
        for k, v in element.items():
            if k in {'a', 'c1'}:
                norm_data['c1(a)'].append(v)
            else:
                norm_data[k].append(v)

pd.DataFrame(norm_data)

A: If you have already gone through the pain of obscuring your real data, make the mock data having the same features as the real one as well.
Assuming you have this JSON:
json_data =\
[{'a': 'A1',
  'b': 'B1',
  'c': [{'a': 'C111', 'c2': 'C121', 'c3': ['C1131', 'C1132']}]},
 {'a': 'A2',
  'b': 'B2',
  'c': [{'a': 'C211', 'c2': 'C212', 'c3': ['C2131', 'C2132']},
   {'a': 'C221', 'c2': 'C222', 'c3': ['C2231']}]}]

You only need one line of code to extract it:
pd.json_normalize(json_data, 'c', ['a', 'b'], record_prefix='data.')

Result:
  data.a data.c2         data.c3   a   b
0   C111    C121  [C1131, C1132]  A1  B1
1   C211    C212  [C2131, C2132]  A2  B2
2   C221    C222         [C2231]  A2  B2

The record_prefix='data.' is what the ValueError: Conflicting metadata name a, need distinguishing prefix error message meant.

A: data = [
  {
    "a": "A1",
    "b": "B1",
    "c": [
      {
        "c1": "C111",
        "c2": "C121",
        "c3": ["C1131","C1132"]
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "a": "A2",
    "b": "B2",
    "c": [
      {
        "c1": "C211",
        "c2": "C212",
        "c3": ["C2131","C2132"]
      },
      {
        "c1": "C221",
        "c2": "C222",
        "c3": ["C2231"]
      }
    ]
  }
]
pd.io.json.json_normalize(data,"c", ['a', 'b',])

Output:
    c1      c2      c3              a   b
0   C111    C121    [C1131, C1132]  A1  B1
1   C211    C212    [C2131, C2132]  A2  B2
2   C221    C222    [C2231]         A2  B2

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Role of Mammography Combined with Ultrasonography in Evaluation of Breast Lump
Subita Lalchan, Madan Thapa, Prakash Sharma, Sumiran Shrestha, Subash K.C., Mahesh Pathak, Merina Gyawali, P.K. Tiwari
AJPHR Home
Vol. 3, No. 5A, 2015, pp 95-98. doi: 10.12691/ajphr-3-5A-20 | Research Article
Subita Lalchan1, , Madan Thapa2, Prakash Sharma1, Sumiran Shrestha1, Subash K.C.1, Mahesh Pathak1, Merina Gyawali1, P.K. Tiwari1
1Department of Radiodiagnosis & Imaging, Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal
2Department of Radiodiagnosis & Imaging, Gandaki Medical College, Pokhara, Nepal
4. Discussions
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
Breast cancer is one of the major health problems in the world. Specially, in developing countries like ours, it is a major problem as patients present late in hospital. Hence, early diagnosis is important to reduce morbidity and mortality due to breast cancer. Mammography and Ultrasonography are two important imaging techniques to detect breast pathology. This study has been done to evaluate the role of mammography independently and mammography combined with Ultrasonography to diagnose breast lesions. This study was a prospective study conducted in Radiology department of Manipal Teaching Hospital for a period of 18 months. Total of 91 patients of more than 30 years presenting with breast lump were included in study. Mammography was performed in all cases followed by Ultrasonography. Findings were noted according to Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BIRADS). FNAC was done for all lumps with or without USG guidance and correlated with imaging findings. Mean age is our study was 44 +/- 7.6 years. Maximum number of patients presenting with breast lump was in the age group of 41-50 years (52.7 %). Benign lump was seen in 74.7 % of patients and malignant lump was seen in 25.3 % of patients. Sensitivity and specificity of mammography in differentiating benign from malignant lesions were 90.9 % and 92.7 % respectively. Mammogram was inconclusive in 15.4 % of patients of age group less than 50 years. Sensitivity and specificity of mammography combined with USG increased to 95.65 % and 95.58 % respectively. Combined USG and mammography has high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing breast lesions. Hence, these two imaging modalities should be combined for evaluating breast pathology, especially in younger patients with dense breast.
Keywords: Breast lump, Mammography, Ultrasonography
Subita Lalchan, Madan Thapa, Prakash Sharma, Sumiran Shrestha, Subash K.C., Mahesh Pathak, Merina Gyawali, P.K. Tiwari. Role of Mammography Combined with Ultrasonography in Evaluation of Breast Lump. American Journal of Public Health Research. Vol. 3, No. 5A, 2015, pp 95-98. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajphr/3/5A/20
Lalchan, Subita, et al. "Role of Mammography Combined with Ultrasonography in Evaluation of Breast Lump." American Journal of Public Health Research 3.5A (2015): 95-98.
Lalchan, S. , Thapa, M. , Sharma, P. , Shrestha, S. , K.C., S. , Pathak, M. , Gyawali, M. , & Tiwari, P. (2015). Role of Mammography Combined with Ultrasonography in Evaluation of Breast Lump. American Journal of Public Health Research, 3(5A), 95-98.
Lalchan, Subita, Madan Thapa, Prakash Sharma, Sumiran Shrestha, Subash K.C., Mahesh Pathak, Merina Gyawali, and P.K. Tiwari. "Role of Mammography Combined with Ultrasonography in Evaluation of Breast Lump." American Journal of Public Health Research 3, no. 5A (2015): 95-98.
At a glance: Figures
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Breast lump is one of the commonest complaints with which patients present in breast clinics. These patients require proper evaluation and management. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in Nepal [1]. It accounts for 6% of all cancer cases in Nepal [2].
Breast cancer detection in its earliest stage is the main goal of imaging in breast. Mammography and USG followed by FNAC/ biopsy is the standard method for diagnosing a breast lump. Incidence of death due to breast cancer can be reduced by 30 % by routine screening with mammography as it can detect subtle architectural distortion and micro calcifications before lesion becomes palpable [3, 4]. Though mammography is considered gold standard for screening and detecting breast cancer, it has some false negative cases especially in patients with dense breast. Hence, USG is useful in such patients with dense breast when mammography is not able to detect lesion [5]. USG also helps in differentiating cystic and solid lesions. This study has been conducted to evaluate the role of mammography and mammography in combination with USG for diagnosing breast lumps.
This was a prospective study conducted in radiology department of Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara during a period of 18 months from September 2013 to March 2015. Patients presenting to department of radiology for mammography with complaints of breast lump were included in the study.
Mammography was performed on all cases. Standard views i.e. Cranio-Caudal and Medio-lateral-oblique views of both the breasts were obtained on a dedicated mammography unit (3000 Nova, Mammomat /Siemens). Additional views or spot compression views were obtained as and when necessary. Mammograms were assessed and interpreted by a radiologist according to the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS); as BI-RADS 0 (Incomplete), 1 (Negative), 2 (Benign Finding), 3 (Probably Benign- short term follow up required), 4 (Suspicious for malignancy) and 5 (Highly suggestive of malignancy).This was followed by breast ultrasound performed using high-resolution ultrasound machine (Logiq P3/ GE) with linear array probe at 7.5 MHz. Ultrasound of both breasts and axillary region was done by a radiologist. On combining mammography and USG findings; final score was given according to BIRADS. Findings were considered benign if score was 2 or 3 and malignant if score was 4 or 5.
FNAC was done in all cases with or without ultrasound guidance depending upon the size and location of the lesion. All slides were stained with MGG stain and PAP stain and reported by a pathologist. When inconclusive report was obtained in FNAC, result of excisional biopsy was followed up. Hence final diagnosis was done on the basis of FNAC/Biopsy findings.
1. Patients presenting with breast lump
2. Age > 30 years
3. Patients who agreed to give consent
1. Age < 30 years
2. Pregnant lady
3. Lactating lady
4. Patients who refused to give consent
5. Male patients
2.3. Ethical Clearance & Consent of Patients
Prior ethical clearance was obtained from Institutional Ethical Committee and informed written consent was obtained from patient or their attendants in all the cases.
2.4. Sample Size
Total of 91 patients presenting to radiology department during a period of 18 months from September 2013 to March 2015 were included in study.
2.5. Statistical Analysis
The data were tabulated and results were analyzed by using SPSS 16 software.
There were total 91 cases in the cohort, out of them benign lump was seen in 74.7 % of patients and malignant lump was seen in 25.3 % of patients. Usually malignant lesion is seen in mammogram as high density radio-opaque lesion with irregular margin (Figure 1).
Table 1. Showing distribution of cases according to age group
Larger image(png format)
Tables index
Veiw figure
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Distribution of cases according to age group is depicted in Table 1.
Veiw figureFigures index
View larger figure in new window
Figure 1. High density radio-opaque lesion with irregular margin suggestive of malignant lesion (BIRADS 5) with right axillary lymphadenopathy
Mean age is our study was 44 +/- 7.6 years. Maximum age of patient was 70 years and minimum was 31 years. Maximum number of patients presenting with breast lump was in the age group of 41-50 years (52.7 %)
Results of mammography according to BIRADS score is given in Table 2.
Table 2. Showing BIRADS scoring by mammography
View previous table
Mammogram was inconclusive in 14 patients (15.4 %). Mammogram was inconclusive in 22.58 % of patients of age group of 31-40 years and in 14.58 % of patients in age group of 41-50 years. None of the mammogram was reported inconclusive in women of more than 50 years of age. This findings show that mammography is more valuable in older patients in whom fatty breast is found, whereas in young patient with dense breast, mammography needs to be combined with some other imaging modality like USG.
Result of breast lesions as per mammography is depicted in Table 3.
Table 3. Showing Pattern of Breast Lesions
Mammography diagnosed 58.24 % of cases as benign lesions and 26.37 % as malignant.
Correlation between mammography and FNAC/ Biopsy diagnosis is shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Showing correlation between FNAC/ Biopsy diagnosis and mammography
Sensitivity and specificity of mammography in differentiating malignant from benign lesions were 90.9 % and 92.7 % respectively. Positive predictive value was 83.33 % and Negative predictive value was 96.22 %. Malignant cases were designated as true positive. True positive cases were 25.9 %. Benign cases were designated as true negative (66.2 %).
Findings of breast lesions on combining results of mammography and USG are as shown in Table 5.
Table 5. Showing results of mammography combined with USG
Mammography with adjunct USG diagnosed 72.5 % of cases as benign lesions and 27.5 % as malignant.
Table 6. Showing co-relation between FNAC/ Biopsy results and combined mammography and USG
Correlation between FNAC/Biopsy diagnosis and combined mammography with USG is shown in Table 6.
Sensitivity and specificity of mammography combined with USG increased to 95.65 % and 95.58 % respectively in differentiating benign from malignant lesions. Positive predictive value was 88 % and Negative predictive value was 98.48 %. True positive cases were 24.17 % and true negative cases were 71.42 %.
Comparison of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of mammography and mammography combined with Ultrasonography is shown in Table 7.
Table 7. Showing comparison between mammography and combined mammography and ultrasonography in diagnosis of breast lump
Sensitivity of mammography increased from 90.9% to 95.65%. on combining mammography with Ultrasonography. Similarly, specificity increased from 92.7% to 95.58% on combining mammography with Ultrasonography.
The role of mammography in patients with palpable breast lumps is to rule out malignancy for any palpable abnormality and to avoid further intervention. It helps in detecting mass with malignant features earlier along with screening for synchronous lesions in the ipsilateral and contra-lateral breast.
Sensitivity and specificity of mammography in differentiating benign from malignant lesions were 90.9 % and 92.7 % respectively in present study. Similar results were seen in other studies as well. Duijm et al [6] found that diagnostic mammography had a sensitivity of 92.0% and a specificity of 97.7%. Eltahir et al.[7] obtained similar results of 93.2% sensitivity and 96.7% specificity for symptomatic women. Flobbe et al. [8] found sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 98% for diagnostic mammography.
A significant number of patients with breast carcinoma may be missed by diagnostic mammogram especially in young patients with dense breast tissue. Sensitivity of mammography in detecting breast cancer declines significantly with increasing breast density. False negative rate of mammography in evaluation of palpable breast lump has been reported high, estimated between 4% & 12% [9, 10]. In our study, false negative rate was 2.6 % which is less. This lower value in our study could have been due to exclusion of cases classified as inconclusive (BIRADS 0) according to mammography. USG can be combined with mammography to increase sensitivity and specificity. Our study confirms the higher combined sensitivity and specificity for ultrasonography and mammography for diagnosis of breast masses. Sensitivity and specificity of mammography combined with USG increased to 95.65 % and 95.58 % respectively in present study. In a study by Zonderland et al [11] including 4,811 mammograms with supplementary ultrasonography, sensitivity increased significantly from approximately 83% to 91%. Similarly, Shetty et al. found sensitivity and specificity for a combined mammography and sonography to be 100% and 80.1% respectively [12]. Multiple studies have shown that the false negative rate varies from 0% to 2.6% for a combined mammographic and sonographic evaluation [10, 13, 14]. In our present study, false negative rate for combined mammography and USG was 1.09 %. Hence, combined mammography and USG is superior to mammography only in evaluation of breast lumps.
Benign lesions of the breast are more common than malignant ones. Commonest age group for breast lesions ranges from 41-50 years. About 15.4 % of cases were reported as inconclusive by mammography due to dense breast parenchyma in patients of <50 years. Hence, combined imaging modalities of mammography and USG plays an important role in diagnosing and characterizing palpable breast lesions, especially in younger patients with dense breast. Thus, combined imaging helps in avoidance of unnecessary surgical procedures.
USG: Ultrasonography
FNAC: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology
BIRADS: Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System
The authors declare that there is no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and /or publication of this article.
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
[1] Pradhananga KK, Baral M, Shrestha BM, Multi-institution hospital-based cancer incidence data for Nepal: an initial report, Asian Pac J cancer Prev, 2009, 10:259-62.
In article  PubMed
[2] Singh YP, Sayami P, Managament of breast cancer in Nepal, J Nepal Med Assoc, 2009, 48:252-7.
[3] Morris KT, Vetto JT, Petty JK, Lum SS, Schmidt WA, Toth-Fejel S, et al. A new score for the evaluation of palpable breast masses in women under age 40. Am J Surg 2002; 184:346-7.
[4] Berg WA, Gutierrez L, Aiver MSN, Carter WB, Bhargavan W, Lewis RS, Ioffe OB. Diagnostic Accuracy of mammography, Clinical Examination, US, and MR Imaging in Preoperative Assessment of Breast Cancer1. Radiology, 2004, 233:830-849.
In article  View Article PubMed
[5] Donegan WL. Evaluation of a palpable breast mass. N Engl J Med. 1992; 327:937-942.
[6] Duijm LE, Guit GL, Zaat JO, Koomen AR, Willebrand D. Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of breast imaging in the detection of cancer. Br J Cancer. 1997; 76(3):377-81.
[7] Eltahir A, Jibril JA, Squair J, Heys SD, Ah-See AK, Needham G, et al, The accuracy of "one-stop" diagnosis for 1,110 patients presenting to a symptomatic breast clinic, J R Coll Surg Edinb, 1999 Aug, 44(4):226-30.
[8] Flobbe K, van der Linden ES, Kessels AG, van Engelshoven JM, Diagnostic value of radiological breast imaging in a non screening population, Int J Cancer, 2001 May 15;92(4):616-8.
[9] Dennis MA, Parker SH, Klaus AJ, Stavros AT, Kaske TI, Clark SB. "Breast Biopsy Avoidance: The Value of Normal Mammograms and Normal Sonograms in the Setting of a Palpable Lump. Radiology. 2001; 2(1): 186-191.
[10] Weinstein SP, Conant EF, Orel ER, Zucker- man JA, Czerniecki B and Lawton TJ. "Retrospective Review of palpable breast lesions after Negative Mammography and Ultrasonography,'' Journal of Women's Imaging. 2000;2; 15-18.
[11] Zonderland HM, Coerkamp EG, Hermans J, et al, Diagnosis of breast cancer. Contribution of US as an adjunct to mammography, Radiology 1999; 213:413-22.
[12] Shetty MK, Shah YP, Sharman RS. Prospective evaluation of the value of combined mammographic and Sonographic assessment in patients with palpable abnormalities, J Ultrasound Med 200; 22(3):263-268.
[13] Soo MS, Rosen El, Baker JA, Vo TT, Boyd BA, Negative predictive value of Sonography with mammography in patients with palpable breast lesions. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2001; 177:1167-1170.
[14] Moy L, Slantez PJ, Moore R, et al, Specificity of mammography and US in the evaluation of a palpable abnormality, Radiology. 2002; 225:176-181.


text:
Q: How to share class library between Xamarin and Asp.net core? Is there any way I can reference to some type of class library on Asp.net core and Xamarin at the same time? I want to use some core code in Web API and on phone app.
PS. It looks like PCL doesn't work for me.

A: PCL is working fine. You can select Profile111 which includes Android, iOS and ASP.NET Core beside others as shown in image: