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Home International Olympics
Los Angeles 2028 Announces MoU with USOC and City Authorities
Photo: Los Angeles 2028
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been announced between Los Angeles 2028, the United States Olympic Committee and city authorities to define its preparation for hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
If approved, this agreement will "enhance the strong provisions that were developed to protect the City of Los Angeles from financial risk when it was a candidate to host the Games in 2024".
It was announced last week that Los Angeles would bid to host the 2028 rather than the 2024 Olympics following an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
This decision is expected to be officially approved at the IOC Session in Lima on September 13 – where Paris will be also be officially elected as hosts of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The new MoU lays out City Government representation on the Los Angeles 2028 Board of Director and gives the City consent rights over "significant" venue changes within the city.
It also requires Los Angeles 2028 to establish an allocated contingency account of $270 million, up from $250 million, originally required for 2024.
Additional insurance and an independent review of the proposed Games budget, paid for by Bid Committee, is also required.
"My top priorities in this process are to protect Los Angeles taxpayers and create new opportunities for young Angelenos to play sports, and be healthy," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
"This new MoU ensures that our City priorities remain front-and-center in LA 2028's preparations for the Games.
"Under the City's leadership, we can be sure that the up to $160 million, we will receive to fund youth sports programs from LA 2028 will be put to the best, most impactfull use."
Los Angeles is also receiving concessions from the IOC for hosting the later event.
This includes receiving $1.8 billion contribution has the potential to exceed $2 billion according to the evaluation of the Los Angeles Bid Committee when taking into account the estimated value of existing sponsor agreements to be renewed and potential new marketing deals.
Los Angeles 2028 will also be exempt from other payments and will retain the option of selling domestic sponsorship in categories not covered by the IOC.
They will also be allowed to keep all surplus profit that they make.
The MoU also requires the City and LA 2028 to formalize an agreement to support this youth sports programming in the years leading up to the Games.
"The foundation we lay today will strengthen the relationship between our partners, ensuring that the City of Los Angeles has increased protections and expanded management over the next 11 years," added City Council President Herb Wesson.
By Nick Butler
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.
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I am excited to begin this series of "tidbits of me". I hope you find it interesting in hearing a little about my story and what has made me…me. A huge part of who I am is where I came from. I have a big family. I am one child out of nine.
This picture is from a family trip to Washington DC in 1999. I was a Sophomore in high school.
I have five brothers and three sisters to be exact. This is not a blended family or made up of step siblings. We aren't Mormon and we aren't Catholic. (Those are answers to a lot of questions I get when I mention my siblings to new people.) We are just the good old fashion family of nine children from the same two parents. Who, by God's grace, are still married today.
Hearing it that simply and plainly makes me feel like one incredibly blessed girl.
This picture of me with my sweet parents was taken last night.
I am the second oldest. My older brother is 32 (sorry Nathan for spitting that out there ;)), and my youngest brother just turned 16 last month. We are all two years apart, and alternate turning even and odd numbers every other year. This was the year we all turned even numbers (32, 30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18, and 16). Knowing this trick has really helped me keep everyone's ages in check!
Growing up in such a large family was a lot of fun. There was always some kind of commotion and excitement going on. There was never a dull moment. I have fond memories of being at the ballpark all day on Saturdays as we had baseball and softball games literally back to back or overlapping. We went to them all too. It was embedded in us to support one another and go to each other's events. All our extended family lives in Ohio, so it was just us around and we hung on to that. It is still like that today, and I feel so blessed to have that kind of family behind me.
This picture was taken on a family trip to New Orleans in 2002. I was a freshman in college.
We were all homeschooled at one point or another. I was homeschooled first grade through fifth. I have dyslexia, so it was hard for me to learn to read. My mom pulled me out of first grade to give me the attention I needed to learn to read. She had to teach me to read by memorization and then went back and taught the phonetic way. This began our family down the homeschool road.
After studying Hawaii, we created a Hawaiian themed dinner with costumes and decorations.
I loved being homeschooled. We did LOTS of fun activities and outings. This of course, has played a large role in us venturing down the homeschooling our kids road. One of my favorite memories of being homeschooled is of my mom. One day we were driving home and there was a freshly killed raccoon along the road. It was obviously dead, but not squished. We had been studying native American culture and had just seen a private talk about their heritage and ways of skinning. My mom pulled the van (which lets be honest was a 15 passenger van) over and scooped that thing up and brought it home. She read up more on the process and showed us all how to skin a raccoon. No joke. She did it, and the "fur" hung on our wall for several years after. My mom is awesome, and I often think she should be the writer of this blog other than me. So many of my creativeness or boldness in doing different things with my kids stems from her.
*Being in seventh grade, it was not "cool" to get picked up in what looked like a "church" bus. I remember crying when my mom told us she was pregnant with my youngest sibling, Gus. Her steady reaction was "Erica, ok. If you had to get rid of someone, who would it be?" I didn't have an answer. So, from there on, although it was embarrassing at times to get "counted" by your head at stop lights or when you walked into a restaurant, I think my complaining was less. I loved every one of my siblings.
*Every family meal, that we were all sitting around the table, would have about five different conversations going on at once, and every one was a part of them all (at the same time). It was loud, and I would say I am still loud to this day.
*My siblings and I tried to build a tree house out in the backyard, and the "danger" of our invention led my dad to making us a HUGE gorgeous tree house that we played in like every day. I even tried to swing a zip line from it across the yard. That was a complete failed attempt. I'm pretty sure my handle bars shot into the air and almost landed on me when I fell straight to the ground.
*Playing outside for hours on end with my siblings is the stem of so many of my memories. We played hide and seek, made dirt paths in the back yard for our bikes, and even tried digging tunnels across the yard to "hide" in.
*I always shared a room with one of my sisters, and I remember talking way after the door was shut and "good-nights" from our parents were said at night. We also had lots of "girly" fights over the bathroom, which ultimately had my parents take the bathroom door off the hinges for a time. We couldn't bang on the door and yell, if there was no door. There is nothing like having to shower in your bathing suit. Lesson learned.
This was taken at my sister, Annie's, wedding in March 2008.
I could go on and on with memories and things that we did as kids, but I know that would easily lead to a book. We were blessed to grow up close-knit with parents who were devoted to us, and wanted to give us everything that any other kid (from a smaller family) might have.
My dad ran (and still does) his own landscape design company and his hours were flexible. I remember him coming home for lunch, and how often is that the case in any family to have lunches with your dad everyday? We were blessed.
As we have grown up, we are starting to slowly spread out across the country, and that is hard. I remember a few years ago processing with Matt that we were so lucky to all be living in the same town and how it was going to get harder to have everyone together for birthdays and holidays. We are now there as two of my sisters live in different states. Insert: Tear, tear…lump in my throat here.
This was at my brother, Tony's, wedding last fall.
Are you too from a big family? I'd love to hear what your take away is from living and growing up with so many under the same roof.
Thank you so much for reading a little bit about me. Next Monday I will open up a little bit more with information about my Formative Years in becoming an adult, but until then I have some other fun posts planned for this week!
What a lovely post. I loved reading about your family and what it was like in such a big family. I am very close to my brother; I can't imagine what it's like to have 7 other siblings! Thank you for sharing this great story!
hahaha I remember the raccoon!! Peter was so thrilled when Tony showed it to him! great post!!
I had so much fun reading this! Can't believe your mom skinned a raccoon! How funny.
Thanks Erin!! I'll have to ask her where that raccoon is today!!
Erica! I feel like I'm stalking you but somehow I started reading this post. That is so fun that you are one of 9! I am the oldest of 6 and love it! Aren't big families the best? Oh and we had a 12 passenger van…it's what I learned to drive on! We have a lot in common my friend!
girl! i LOVE it! I'm emailing you right now!
I love this!! I'm actually one of eight! And my husband is one of seven!


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Drone wars: origins
Nek Muhammad knew he was being followed.
On a hot day in June 2004, the Pashtun tribesman was lounging inside a mud compound in South Waziristan, speaking by satellite phone to one of the many reporters who regularly interviewed him on how he had fought and humbled Pakistan's army in the country's western mountains. He asked one of his followers about the strange, metallic bird hovering above him.
Less than 24 hours later, a missile tore through the compound, severing. Muhammad's left leg and killing him and several others, including two boys, ages 10 and 16. A Pakistani military spokesman was quick to claim responsibility for the attack, saying that Pakistani forces had fired at the compound.
That was a lie.
Muhammad and his followers had been killed by the C.I.A., the first time it had deployed a Predator drone in Pakistan to carry out a "targeted killing." The target was not a top operative of Al Qaeda, but a Pakistani ally of the Taliban who led a tribal rebellion and was marked by Pakistan as an enemy of the state. In a secret deal, the C.I.A. had agreed to kill him in exchange for access to airspace it had long sought so it could use drones to hunt down its own enemies.
That back-room bargain, described in detail for the first time in interviews with more than a dozen officials in Pakistan and the United States, is critical to understanding the origins of a covert drone war that began under the Bush administration, was embraced and expanded by President Obama, and is now the subject of fierce debate. The deal, a month after a blistering internal report about abuses in the C.I.A.'s network of secret prisons, paved the way for the C.I.A. to change its focus from capturing terrorists to killing them, and helped transform an agency that began as a cold war espionage service into a paramilitary organization.
The C.I.A. has since conducted hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan that have killed thousands of people, Pakistanis and Arabs, militants and civilians alike. While it was not the first country where the United States used drones, it became the laboratory for the targeted killing operations that have come to define a new American way of fighting, blurring the line between soldiers and spies and short-circuiting the normal mechanisms by which the United States as a nation goes to war.
Neither American nor Pakistani officials have ever publicly acknowledged what really happened to Muhammad — details of the strike that killed him, along with those of other secret strikes, are still hidden in classified government databases. But in recent months, calls for transparency from members of Congress and critics on both the right and left have put pressure on Obama and his new C.I.A. director, John O. Brennan, to offer a fuller explanation of the goals and operation of the drone program, and of the agency's role.
Brennan, who began his career at the C.I.A. and over the past four years oversaw an escalation of drone strikes from his office at the White House, has signaled that he hopes to return the agency to its traditional role of intelligence collection and analysis. But with a generation of C.I.A. officers now fully engaged in a new mission, it is an effort that could take years.
Today, even some of the people who were present at the creation of the drone program think the agency should have long given up targeted killings.
Ross Newland, who was a senior official at the C.I.A.'s headquarters in Langley, Va., when the agency was given the authority to kill Qaeda operatives, says he thinks that the agency had grown too comfortable with remote-control killing, and that drones have turned the C.I.A. into the villain in countries like Pakistan, where it should be nurturing relationships in order to gather intelligence.
As he puts it, "This is just not an intelligence mission."
This article is adapted from "The Way of the Knife: The C.I.A., a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth," to be published by Penguin Press on Tuesday.
The full version of this article can be found here.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Color harmony – what do you know about it?
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The 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' actor is rumored to date his female co-star after they exchanged banters on social media.
AceShowbiz - %cTom Holland% is reportedly dating his "Spider-Man: Homecoming" co-star %cZendaya Coleman%. Rumor has it, the Peter Parker depicter and the former Disney star became close after filming the superhero movie last year.
"They started seeing each other while they were filming Spider-Man," a source told PEOPLE. "They've been super careful to keep it private and out of the public eye but they've gone on vacations with each other and try and spend as much time as possible with one another."
Another insider said, "They're both really ambitious and they challenge each other - but, most importantly, they make each other crack up. They seem to have a really similar sense of humor and love joking around together. They have great banter back and forth."
Tom Holland, 21, and Zendaya, 20, did seem to have a close bond. They praised each other on interviews and exchanged banters on Twitter. "I really can't stand him [laughing emojis]," she tweeted in June, to which he replied, "Apart from when you want a part in Spiderman 2 [laughing emojis]." She joked, "Watch yourself, I still have more followers than you right now...tread lightly my friend...tread lightly."
"We are like the best of friends. She's so great and amazing," Holland once gushed about his co-star. "I'm a little worried [about dealing with fame ... but] Zendaya is super famous and she's been through this and I just call her up and say, 'How do I manage being famous?' I'm very glad I have a friend like her."
Spider-Man has a history of bringing on-screen romance to real life. %cTobey Maguire% and %cKirsten Dunst% hooked up after meeting on the set of Sam Raimi's movie. %cAndrew Garfield% and %cEmma Stone% also dated after working together on the reboot "The Amazing Spider-Man".


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Gaming Lobby Has Already Poured Nearly $1 Million Into Push to Legalize Gambling in Texas
Eric Nicholson
Eric Nicholson | December 28, 2012 | 8:33am
The state legislature won't convene for another couple of weeks but, as we've noted previously, the biennial push to legalize gambling in Texas is already well underway. With that push comes the flood of money to grease the legislative machine.
Already, gambling interests have poured in nearly $1 million in advance of the 2013 legislative session, according to the San Antonio Express-News:
Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics, found that gambling interests donated $1.6 million to Texas political action committees and candidates going into the 2010 elections.
TPJ, in a check of reports available for this year, found top gambling PACs from 2010 donated more than $904,000 this cycle. The total included only reports covering up until eight days before the election, so the total is sure to be higher.
According to Let Texans Decide, the Chickasaws and Choctaws, which have Oklahoma casino operations, have given Texas candidates five times as much as they gave Oklahoma candidates since 2008 -- more than $807,000 in Texas compared to nearly $152,000 in Oklahoma. The Chickasaws also have invested in a Grand Prairie track.
Let Texans Decide, backed by Penn National Gaming and the Sam Houston Race Track, is the group spearheading the push to legalize gambling. In recent weeks it's been dropping tidbits of news -- for example about "unchecked crime" at underground game rooms -- to bolster its central argument, which is that Texas is losing billions to surrounding states by continuing to bar gambling. Figures cited by the group predict that legalizing gambling would bring $8.5 billion in economic activity and $1 billion in additional tax revenue.
Those arguments, being trotted out for the umpteenth legislative session, are familiar. So are those in opposition: The revenue estimates are overblown, a repeat of the grand promises that came during the push to allow pari-mutuel betting at horse tracks; that relying on gambling as a revenue source is unconscionably regressive, since it generally attracts poor people; that gaming is a social ill that Texas shouldn't countenance.
The legislature has always sided with the opponents and shows no sign of changing track. Tommy Williams, a Republican state senator from the The Woodlands who chairs the Senate's Finance Committee, told the Express-News there was little chance that any new proposal will pass either chamber, particularly given the freshman class of legislators, who are very conservative. That won't be for lack of trying. Or money.


I am not even looking for them anymore. I just bring 'em up as I accidentally find them. It no longer matters, the specifics, because enough have been shown to be false flags that it's just profligate to waste more brain space on that question. The identifiable bad guys are proxies and patsies and puppets. Yes, they ARE bad, but they are merely the slipping petticoat of the real enemy.


October 21, 2014 September 28, 2017 Leave a Comment on Don't mention the 'C' word!
Normally I try not to mention Christmas until December and with my other half having his birthday at the start of December, Christmas doesn't really start in our home until after then. That being said, with only 64 days until pressie day and the fact that I have now been to two Christmas product launches , I suppose I can talk about it.
A few weeks ago I was invited to the Halloween and Christmas product launch at Lush Braehead. As we arrived we were greeted by the ever friendly Lush staff, given a name badge (a great idea as you quite often only know people by their blog name!) and pointed in the direction of the table of treats provided by none other than Three Sisters Bake!
Lush love an ice-breaker, so we were asked to make a circle and introduce ourselves, our blog, what we blog about and our favourite thing about Crimbo.
Next up were the products! The group I was split into were taken to shower products first. I'm sure everyone will be delighted to know that Snow Fairy is back this year and smells as delicious as ever. Among the other shower products were Hot Toddy, Rose Jam and the Fun Snowman kit which comes with 3 colours of fun – orange, black and white – so you can make your very own snowman. Hot Toddy is the perfect winter scent, with cinnamon leaf oil and fresh ginger it is like Christmas in a bottle. Oh, and it has a bit of gold shimmer through it! Rose Jam (un-surprisingly) has a floral scent, like roses. Sometimes rose smelling products are in danger of smelling like something your gran would wear, Lush have successfully avoided this and Rose Jam is a winner for me.
Still in shower we moved onto soap – I love the soap table, the big slabs of soap look and smell good enough to eat (don't though)! My two favourites were Yog Nog and Reindeer Rock. Yog Nog is a blend of clove bud and ylang ylang essential oils and is dusted with cocoa powder, it smells a little like caramel shortcake. Reindeer Rock is a berry scented soap with little reindeer embossed on it. It is made from dried lingonberry infusion and a mix of bergamot oil and cypress.
We were then taken to the massage bars and shown how to give a hand and arm massage. I was paired with Hailey and we got to pick a massage bar. Hailey picked Soft Coeur (which smells like chocolate) and I picked Snow Fairy Sparkle, after the massage we were given First Snow to put on our arms and hands. First Snow is definitely on my wish list from the Christmas range. Not only does it smell delicious (a blend of sweet orange and lime oil) it is so sparkly and shimmery! Perfect any Christmas night out.
We got demonstrations of the bath bombs and bubble bars, all of which looked and smelled great, and they make your bath water soooo pretty. Holly Golightly and Candy Mountain bubble bars were my favourite. Holly Golightly drew me in with the name (I love Breakfast at Tiffany's) and all the glitter! It has a spicy smell much like Hot Toddy. Candy Mountain makes your bath water pink and it smells oh so good! Another plus point for this is if you stash it in your room (mine is in my dressing room) it means that room will smell lovely until you use it.
As always Lush have done a marvelous job with their Christmas gift sets. I love the look of '12 Days of Christmas' set which is a giant book filled with twelve of the most popular products including Hot Toddy shower gel, celebrate body lotion and a selection of bath bombs, melts and soap. 'Christmas Candy Box' is up there for me too containing Candy Mountain, Rock Star, Butterbear and Snow Fairy.
Clockwise from top left corner: Santa Baby lip tint, Snow Fairy shower gel, 12 Days of Christmas gift box, First Snow sparkling dust, Rose Jam shower gel, Father Christmas bath bomb, Holly Golightly bubble bar, Shooting Star knot-wrap, Christmas Candy Box.
Above I have picked out a few of my favourites, hopefully Santa will be reading this and pop some of these in my stocking!
There are so many great products this year for Christmas, all can be found on the website here.
Oh, and my favourite thing about Christmas is getting to spend time with my family and all the traditions that go along with the festive period. What is everyone else's favourite thing about Christmas?


DUBAI … Power management company Eaton (NYSE:ETN) today announced it has invested $6 million in the development of a new state-of-the-art manufacturing hub and Middle East regional headquarters. The new facility, located in Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA), was officially opened this week by Eaton's Chairman and CEO Alexander M. Cutler at a ceremony attended by its 160 Dubai-based employees. The new regional headquarters will play a central role in driving Eaton's ambitious plan to increase Middle East revenues to $800 million by 2015.
Eaton has operated in the Middle East for more than four decades, contributing to the development of the region's infrastructure with power management solutions that include legacy brands Westinghouse, BILL, MEM, Cutler-Hammer, Powerware and Moeller. The opening of Eaton's new regional headquarters follows the acquisition of Cooper Industries, completed in November 2012, which significantly increased the breadth of the company's electrical product portfolio, globally and across the Middle East.
The combined company has approximately 102,000 employees with 2012 sales of $21.8 billion on a pro forma basis in 175 countries. In the Middle East, Eaton employs more than 300 people in 19 offices across the region. Eaton is growing rapidly in the Middle East, forecasting 18 percent growth in 2013 revenues compared to the previous year.
Eaton's new Middle East headquarters and manufacturing plant covers 86,000 square feet (7,990 square meters) with space available to more than double in size in the future. The new plant will ship low and medium voltage products and assemblies to oil and gas, utility and large infrastructure customers across the region. In addition to manufacturing and assembly, the new facility will house a regional service center that will provide certification programs for consultants and engineers throughout the region.
The Dubai facility will also be home to Eaton's regional front-end and support functions including sales, marketing, human resources, supply chain and finance. A Customer Experience Center will be built to showcase Eaton's heritage and power management solutions.


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Frank Warren blasts Matchroom's 'dubious practice' in Dillian Whyte saga
World Boxing News 29/07/2019
📸 Stacey Verbeek
Frank Warren has revealed his disappointment at the conduct of Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing over the incident involving Dillian Whyte.
The Hall of Fame promoter, a fierce rival of Hearn for a long time now, has questioned the whole saga over Whyte's failed drug test.
Whyte allegedly tested positive for steroids in the build-up, after which the Londoner was eventually cleared to fight by UKAD and the British Board.
Warren firmly believes Hearn and Whyte had a duty of care to inform opponent Oscar Rivas, who eventually found out via the media.
The Queensberry boss believes this isn't the first time there has been such treatment of a boxer. Whilst also remembering how Hearn pushed the Billy Joe Saunders incident during the run-up to facing Demetrius Andrade.
Saunders was eventually stripped of his WBO title.
"People might say I would say all this with being a rival promoter, but I have been in the sport a long time. This isn't the first occasion where Matchroom have been guilty or been accused of dubious practice that could potentially put the safety of boxers at risk," said Warren.
"What we have got now is an about-turn from Hearn. In contrast to his reaction when Billy-Joe Saunders was deemed to have failed a VADA test for using a nasal decongestant whilst out-of-competition, which is permitted by UKAD.
"In the eyes of UKAD and the BBBofC Bill was an innocent party. He had not broken any rule or violated the WADA code, but Hearn, when it suited him and his agenda, vocally supported the stance of the voluntary organisation. He insisted everybody should know about it, resulting in Bill having to vacate his world title.
"Now we have a cloak of secrecy thrown over the whole issue. Furthermore, what have the VADA tests come back with this time. Why has it all been conducted in secret?
"Two young men died so now, more than ever, there is the need for complete transparency. We need to know the results of the B sample as soon as possible for the integrity of sport. Throughout all this, nobody is saying there has not been a positive test here. That being the case what was he doing in the ring?
"The man who was risking his life in opposition surely had the right to know all this and a duty of care has not been upheld. This is the essence of what boxing is about, the safety of boxers."
READ Frank Warren's column in full HERE


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Hello lovelies! I know I accidentally took a bit of a hiatus but rather than getting into all of that I wanted to come to you with an inspirational post about trying new things. This year has been a challenging but wonderful one for me and it's been filled with new things all of which have occurred because I chose to say "Yes!". As you know, I struggle with anxiety and with that comes the fear of the unknown which includes things that I haven't done before and fear I won't be able to do or get through. With prayer and determination, I have done several new things at my own pace this year that I feel super proud of. Let's look over what some of those things are, shall we?
I'm a person who likes to be prepared and made aware of everything that may or may not happen, so when I was first asked to become a Co-Host on a Star Wars Podcast I didn't give my answer straight away. I had to think on it. Knowing that it was the closest I could get to a live recording gave me the terrible feeling of being on stage. I don't know why, but that's what I related it to. Some of the thoughts that went through my head were, "What if I don't know what to say?", "What if I don't sound as intellectual as everyone else?". I had several "What if" questions and was terrified when I first started but now six months later I can tell you it gets easier with each recording. I now look forward to recording with my team each week. We have a blast! If you're interested, you can read more about my Podcasting journey on the post I wrote for my other blog entitled, Podcasting With Anxiety.
This may seem silly to you, but it was a big deal for me simply because of the fact that it meant "change". I debated for a long time about whether or not to change my hairstyle. I finally did it back in May and wrote about my experience. It's been a fun new do to play with but I honestly miss my long hair. The good thing is, hair grows back and it's already grown so much since I've cut it. Overall I think this was a good step I took to get more comfortable with trying something new and I'm glad I did it.
This was HUGE! At almost every company I have worked for I have been offered a management position and always turned it down. One of the reasons was unfortunately because I didn't like what I witnessed on a day-to-day basis as far as how things were handled. Another reason was because it scared the heck out of me. I doubted my abilities to do several tasks even though I consistently showed that I was capable of many of those tasks by stepping up and taking matters into my own hands. But one day an opportunity was so clearly presented to me and I really felt God's hand in the situation. Without almost any hesitation, I said yes! I'm somehow a month into the new position already and it's going really well. I've done things I wasn't sure I would be good at and it feels great! So far, I'm happy and excited to see where it will take me.
I've been to concerts before but probably nothing as big as this. I was worried about many things: How loud it would be, being cold outside, if I'd have problems breathing from people smoking, how late I'd be up, etc. To prepare I ordered two different sets of ear plugs because my ears are super tiny and sensitive to having anything inside them. One pair ended up working better than the other though I did have to take ibuprofen because my ears hurt from having them in so long. I brought a good jacket, a beanie and a scarf to lift up to my face if I smelled anything unpleasant (this worked really well when needed). I ended up being up really late and to prepare for that I drank green tea during the day (before the concert), took extra vitamins at night and I took the day off after the concert and rested all day. I was in bed half of the day because I literally felt like crap but I ended up pulling through without getting sick! In case you couldn't tell, I'm a pretty sensitive being. Anyhow, I am SO happy I chose to go to the concert with my husband. Yes, there were a few times it was a bit loud even with my ear plugs in but it didn't last long and I was able to pull through. Overall, it was a great experience and I loved being able to share that with him. We've listened to Metallica since we were dating so it made it really special to see them play together for the first time and they played all of my favorite songs including "Nothing Else Matters and "Halo on Fire".
Say what!? I still can't believe it and it's coming up so fast! I am stoked to be doing this and thankfully way more excited than I am nervous. I think knowing who I'm going to be talking with really helps and the fact that we're talking about something I am so familiar with is a plus. The hosts who will be interviewing me have been nothing but super kind and accommodating which has really helped with the process of getting there. It's almost showtime! And yes, I will share the link with you once it's live.
There's five new things I have done this year that were totally new for me and that I'm feeling pretty fantastic about. If you've felt scared to try new things as I have (and still do), know that you can make little changes if you want to. You are stronger than you know!
Yayyy for saying yes to things!! I still need to get better at that myself.
A friend asked me to be on a podcast but I had/have the same trepidations as you. Plus I'm not sure if I'd have the time to devote to it. I guest hosted on one once but I barely said a word, haha!
And congratulations on the management position!!
Yay for the talk show too! Can't wait to see that!
As someone who suffers from extreme anxiety, I know what a big deal each those things you have done is. It's awesome that you gave yourself that little push. It builds such great confidence and can motivate you to do other things you thought you were not capable of. This post really encouraged me. I know I'm holding myself back from a few things because I have a fear of how they will turn out, but knowing someone else can do it shows me I can too.


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Q: Read block of data into matlab array I have a data file look like the following
3 1.0 1.4 1.7
2 1.2 1.5
1 1.1
2 1.1 1.2

For each line, the first integer indicates the number of floating numbers in this line.
Now I want to load all the data into a single matlab array, and ignore first column, that is, I want to get a array like this
>>arr = [1.0, 1.4, 1.7, 1.2, 1.5, 1.1, 1.1, 1.2]

if for each line, we have same number of floating numbers, I can simply do it like this
>>arr = load datafile ;
>>arr = arr(:,2:end) ; %ignore the first column
>>arr = arr(:) ;

However, if we have different number of floating numbers in each line, it seems we cannot directly loaded the file into a matrix. Is there any simple way to accomplish this ?
Thank you.

A: First, let's read the numbers as strings:
C = textread('myfile.txt', '%s', 'delimiter', '\n');

The result is a cell-array of strings, so let's apply str2num on each cell to obtain numerical values:
C = cellfun(@str2num, C, 'Uniform', false);

Now let's discard the first element from each cell:
C = cellfun(@(x)x(2:end), C, 'Uniform', false);

Finally, we concatenate all values into one vector:
arr = [C{:}]

This is the complete code:
C = textread('test.txt', '%s', 'delimiter', '\n'); %// Read data
C = cellfun(@str2num, C, 'Uniform', false);        %// Convert to numbers
C = cellfun(@(x)x(2:end), C, 'Uniform', false);    %// Remove first values
arr = [C{:}]

arr =
    1.0000    1.4000    1.7000    1.2000    1.5000    1.1000    1.1000    1.2000

A: An easy way to do this would be to just read the file line by line
fid = fopen('data.txt');
arr = [];
tline = fgetl(fid);
while (tline ~= -1)
    temp = str2num(tline);
    arr = [arr temp(2:end)];
    tline = fgetl(fid);
end

You might also try using the loadcell function, though I didn't try it so I'm not positive it will work for you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The family of Mrs. Carolyn Hall would like to thank you for the many acts of loving-kindness shown to us during our bereavement. Your thoughtfulness is deeply appreciated and will always be remembered.
Aunt Carolyn, You will be truly missed! Thank you for being an inspiration to us all. Love, Lisa and Jonathan.


This 3,381-square-foot pad features "an intricate, hand-laid African St. Laurent and white polished marble slab marble floor" along with a roof deck, a half-moon terrace, and a master en suite that will make you melt. We're talking heated floors and an eight-jet stream shower with a bench. Give us a moment while we daydream.
Now where were we? Oh. Best of all, the Lenox Hill apartment is not far from Silverman's ex-husband (and Cowell's ex-best friend) Andrew Silverman and the 7-year-old son he and Silverman share together. That means plenty of fun-filled, tension-free sleepovers for all, no?


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Home Scandal and Gossip Pennsylvania yoga teacher swept to sea latest Dominican Republic fatality
Pennsylvania yoga teacher swept to sea latest Dominican Republic fatality
Pictured, Slatington, Pennsylvania yoga teacher, Surely Miller.
Surely Miller a Slatington, Pennsylvania woman who'd recently moved to the Dominican Republic with her partner becomes the latest US fatality on the getaway island.
A 42-year-old yoga teacher from Pennsylvania died this week when she was swept out to sea in the Dominican Republic — the eighth American tourist death reported in the country in recent weeks.
Surely Miller's body was recovered Wednesday after she vanished from a beach the day before in Cabarete, Dominican Today reported. Miller's death puts the total body count of Americans traveling and dying in the Dominican Republican in recent weeks up to eight.
The mother of three went out for a swim Tuesday near the coastal province of Puerto Plata before being dragged out to sea by a rip current and carried more than two miles from the coast.
According to the Morning Call, Miller had set out with her partner Karan Bindra at Sosúa beach late Tuesday afternoon before tragedy soon struck.
According to the media outlet, the couple had swapped out of living in Pennsylvania's Slatington to the 'peaceful' allure of the Dominican Republic six months ago. With barely any money they were able to create a growing yoga practice and a new home for them and Miller's three sons.
Pictured Surely Miller and her three children. Image via GoFundme.
Prior to her move, Miller- who is of Dominican heritage – owned a studio named Surely Yoga in Slatington, where she also taught classes that 'aim to help others to intelligently know and heal their bodies,' according to her bio.
'Yoga means life and she credits it with saving her own,' her biography reads. 'In the chaos of life, she nearly lost herself until she reclaimed her strength through yoga.'
Miller's bio notes the yoga instructor previously studying in New York, Miami, Orlando, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Another local studio where she taught, Tribe Yoga, confirmed her death Wednesday in a Facebook post.
'Honoring our beloved friend and teacher Surely Miller tomorrow,' the studio posted, adding that they will hold a class 'dedicated to her beautiful spirit.'
Friends and students also took to social media to mourn the teacher's death.
'Just heartbreaking. Surely Miller was so full of love and life. She will be greatly missed,' Rebecca Olesen wrote on Facebook.
Friends launched a GoFundMe page that will raise money for her three sons, 15-year-old Dylan, 13-year-old Miles and 10-year-old Preston.
'Surely has blessed so many of us with her warm healing touch and the best thing we can do for her now is make sure her children are taken care of,' the page said.
Unlike the other deaths that have occurred on the Caribbean getaway island, Miller's death appears to be the result of freak circumstances and forces of nature unlike other US traveler deaths which continue to involve speculation of untoward human actions.
Hoverboarding Alaska dentist found guilty of unlawful dental acts & Medicaid...


Fundraise for Life Flight whilst having an amazing time!
Participate in this year's Neon Night Walk in Porirua for the chance to save lives whilst having loads of fun.
What's the Neon Night Walk?
A fun fundraising event that has options for all levels of fitness - make a difference for the charity of your choice whilst conquering Colonial Knob 1, 2 or 3 times!!!
The course is a sheltered, off-road track which will be transformed for the night with neon, music and lights.
Dress up, have fun, walk or run!
How do I join Life Flight's team?
Please go to the Neon Night Walk website to sign-up.
Choose Life Flight as your supported charity and then start a fundraising page on Givealittle here.
We challenge you to raise at least $200 (no sweat for an amazing person like you) from friends, family and colleagues.
We look forward to welcoming you to team Life Flight and will send you through information that will help you start your fundraising page and smash your goal.
Sign up now for a glowing good time!


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with every n-gram of words on every web page they index.
Yahoo! and Google have been having a pissing fight about whos index of pages is bigger but let's be conservative and go with Yahoo!'s 20 billion objects of which they claim 19.2 billion of that is web pages. Let's pretend they're lying and that it's only 10 billion pages.
Now, let's be conservative and pretend that, on average a web page has 150 words on a page. That makes, err, 5.71 times 10 to the power of 262 n-grams. Or, in scientific notation 5.71E262.
The average character length of an English word is 5 and the average length (i.e number of words) of an n-gram will be 75 so, assuming 1 byte per character, the average size of an index for a page will be
5.71E262 x 5 x 75 x 1
which equals 2.14E265. To get the size of the index for every page (in Terabytes) we have to do
(1E13 x 2.14E265)/(1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024)
which equals
1.95E266
or, ironically, about 2E66 (also known as 2 undecillion) googolplex Terabytes.
A 1Tb LaCie Big Disk weighs in at about 6.7x1.7x10.6 in, or 120.7 cubic inches (approximately). Given that the volume of the earth in cubic inches is
4/3 x PI x  3963^3 x 5280^3  x 12^3
or 6.62E25 cubic inches, then to have an inverted index for every page we'd need a room the size of 3.55E242 Earths.
Ok, let's try and be a little more sensible and go with only n-grams of three words or less of which there should be 50 x 75 x 150 (1312500 ) on each page. The new average n-gram length would then be 2.
1312500 x 5 x 2 x 1
Which means a measly 1.31E7 bytes index per page and 1.19E8 Terabytes for the whole index.
Of course this will still take up 1.44E10 cubic inches, or to put it another way, 52 million imperial (proper) gallons which is, apparently, approximately the amount of water used in each transit of the Panama canal.
You could probably fake it using Latent Semantic Indexing to get a list of candidate pages and then weed out the ones which a simple grep shows doesn't have the phrase in. It wouldn't be perfect but it would give the illusion of working.
Slightly more doable might be to split the search phrase into n-grams of length=3 and then find all the pages with all those n-grams in and then do the grep. Maybe.
Pesky Real World!
Occasionally I see people complaining that they can't search for "foo bar" in a search engine and only get back pages with that phrase in.
Want to know why? Ok, to have that ability they'd have to have an inverted index with every n-gram of words on every web page they index.
Tags: apparently, conservative, cubic inches, english word, err, foo bar, google, googol, gram, inverted index, ironically, lacie, occasionally, panama canal, scientific notation, terabytes


Home / EDS / Why the water remains cool in earthen pitchers?
Why the water remains cool in earthen pitchers?
The water in pitchers gets evaporated through the pores present in the pitcher body causing the by evaporation. Some heat energy is utilized during the process of evaporation. Since this energy is taken from the water itself, it leads to a lowering of temperature in the remaining amount of water present.
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Use local insights to improve customers' experiences, including by providing free public Wi-Fi.
The Liberal Democrats are also campaigning to replace the broken business rates system with a tax on land values, cutting taxes for businesses by 17% in Folkestone and Hythe.
"With shops closing and too many people losing their jobs, there can be no doubt that our high streets are in crisis. The absolute mess the Tories have made of Brexit bears some of the blame, but the roots of this crisis run far deeper.
"From the rise of online retail to the burden of business rates and local planning failures, people are crying out for solutions. It doesn't need to be this way. People deserve better and Liberal Democrats demand better."
"It is the responsibility of the current Conservative Government to ensure that our businesses are able to thrive, but Ministers in Whitehall are not doing anywhere near enough.
"That is why Liberal Democrats are campaigning to create the environment needed for local businesses to grow and create jobs in Folkestone and Hythe. Our message is clear; every Liberal Democrat elected in May is another voice championing our town centres."
The Liberal Democrat motion - Town Centres Fit for the Future - passed at the party's Spring Conference is below.
Maintain an up-to-date register of assets so that councils and businesses know who owns what property in town centres, building on existing good practice such as the One Public Estate programme - this will help councils formulate better plans for redeveloping town centres, and help businesses use local building stock more efficiently.
Use local insights to improve customers' experiences of visiting town centres, including by (for example) providing free public Wi-Fi, and ensuring that public spaces are well-lit.
Introducing new planning use classes for town centres giving councils the power to discourage "clustering" of certain businesses types.
3. Encouraging businesses to create an industry-led body to help brick-and-mortar retailers adapt to the changing economy - this body should support shops to improve their online offer, help them expand the use of technology on their premises, and encourage them to attract shoppers through offering experiences such as in-store advice, demonstrations, competitions, events and courses.
4. Financing this transformation of town centres by expanding the "Future High Streets Fund" announced in the 2018 Budget, which was only allocated enough money to support 27 areas over five years, far below what is actually needed.
Conference also reaffirms its call on the Government to replace business rates with a Commercial Landowner Levy, removing the disincentive to invest in a business's buildings, plant and machinery, rebalancing the economy and cutting the average business rates bill in over 90% of local authorities.


It's been forever posting. Lots going on with the end of school and Juliet. Ready for summer and a break from the norm. So here goes, this week is a little different because Daniel and I celebrate our 10th anniversary this week and we are celebrating. I LOVE my husband so much and thank God everyday for our wonderful little family.
Turkey, bacon, avocado on onion rolls.
from the "For The Love of Cooking Blog"
Friday and Saturday we will be in town eating at wonderful restaurants.
Sunday we will be going to brunch at Hugo's, I'm so excited about this!!!


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Culture Entertainment
Finch review: This time Tom Hanks' castaway pal is a winning CG robot
Where's Wall-E? An impressive robot joins Hanks for a relatively gentle end-of-the-world on Apple TV Plus now.
Richard Trenholm
Nov. 6, 2021 11:14 a.m. PT
Richard Trenholm Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm is CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture over the past 15 years from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
Tom Hanks is one man and his dog (and their robot) in Finch.
Apple TV Plus
Finch takes us to the end of the world... again. But this familiar trek across the postapocalypse on Apple TV Plus has two unique selling points: Tom Hanks and robots.
Originally titled BIOS, Finch was meant to come out in late 2020. Bought up by Apple and retitled to a less ambiguously pronounced name, Finch is streaming on Apple TV Plus now.
The film opens with a familiar setup. The world has ended and an apparently lone survivor (the titular Finch, played by Hanks) loots a store, tags it with a spray can and heads back to his base where we see the hardscrabble life he's carved for himself. It's something you've seen before in every postapocalypse drama from I Am legend to A Quiet Place to Wall-E.
The film takes on something of its own texture when Hanks jumps into a giant dump truck and storms down the street crunching cars, although that gleefully muscular tone doesn't last. Soft-voiced, shambling and gray-whiskered, Hanks is in Cast Away mode as a mild engineer keeping himself busy with a library of books in a secure silo.
Helmed by Emmy-winning Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik, Finch is a visual treat thanks to a combination of sweeping vistas and clever CGI effects. But it's also a pretty intimate tale that would feel more at home on the streaming screen even if pandemic disruption hadn't pushed it out of a prospective theater release.
When a super-storm threatens Finch's modest underground life, however, the film fires up its second selling point. Comparisons with Wall-E don't just come from its setting in the blasted landscape of a ruined Earth. No, Finch also has cute droids Hanks builds to help navigate life in this solar-flare-ravaged world. These creations culminate in a human-shaped bot named Jeff, designed to join Hanks on a last-ditch road trip. Imagine if Wilson the volleyball had CG legs.
The spindly, jerky robot has an orange dome for a face but bags of personality. An impressive digital creation, Jeff is brought to life in a motion capture performance by Caleb Landry Jones, an actor best known for playing oddball characters in films such as Get Out and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. Jones' performance and the magic of the visual effects team invests Jeff with a charmingly goofy disposition, making an engaging slapstick sidekick for Hanks doing his grumpy but avuncular bit. Jeff is up there with other personality-infused robots in similar films like Netflix's gripping thriller I Am Mother or melancholy '70s sci-fi classic Silent Running (referenced here in the name of one of Hanks' robots).
The best movies on Apple TV Plus
Foundation review: Apple's slow-burn sci-fi epic thinks big, looks great
Best streaming service of 2021: Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu and more
With a dog and a childlike robot piling into a 1984 Fleetwood RV Southwind recreational vehicle, the film hits the road with a freewheelin' almost indie-comedy-drama sensibility. There's an inherent danger in the situation, but the film downplays the menace. The hostile environment is reminiscent of The Martian but with no zombies or mutant biker gangs in pursuit, Finch often feels more like Little Miss Sunshine meets Short Circuit.
It also begins with Hanks crooning American Pie and actually drops Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads when the characters are, wait for it, on the road. At its worst, Finch heads into cloyingly sentimental territory with unfocused emotional reveals and vague life lessons. Still, it's a charming diversion even if it journeys across pretty familiar territory. Tom Hanks and robots, you can't go wrong.
New Movies Coming in 2023 From Marvel, Netflix, DC and More


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Transport & mobility projects
Data & Digital
BYD to supply 379 electric buses to Bogotá
COLOMBIA: Bogotá transport authority TransMilenio has ordered 379 electric buses from BYD, the Chinese supplier announced on November 15.
The first vehicles from what BYD says is its largest order for the Latin American market would be delivered in mid-2020, and would enter revenue service in September.
BYD says that as well as being 60% cheaper to operate than diesel buses, the fleet would eliminate 21 900 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 526 km of PM2·5 pollutant particles in its first year of operation.
Bogotá Regiotram de Occidente contract awarded
COLOMBIA: A contract to design, build and operate the 39·6 km Regiotram de Occidente inter-urban commuter line linking Bogotá with its western suburbs was signed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corp on Janaury 7.
Bogotá metro concessionaire selected
COLOMBIA: The APCA Transmimetro consortium was announced as preferred bidder to build and operate the first phase of the Bogotá metro on October 17. The contract is expected to be signed within 45 days.
BYD wins contract to supply 183 electric buses to Santiago
CHILE: BYD has won a contract to supply 183 battery electric buses to Santiago. Deliveries are due to start in August, and the buses will be operated by Metbus.


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Audio Research SP9
By realspin / April 15, 2017 / amplification / Leave a comment
Back in the United Kingdom of 1987, few audiophiles really noticed the launch Audio Research SP9 – despite it being the company's best selling and arguably most loved heritage product. It was an exceptionally capable – and technically innovative – preamplifier, selling to a British audience that was in thrall to other fashions at the time. Our hi-fi press, if we're honest, didn't do it any favours either – being prone to dismissing American high end hi-fi in the same breath as the motoring press would dismiss US cars. Both seemed needlessly large and ungainly, and frankly not really suitable for our tighter, more confined spaces…
The Audio Research SP9 was a complex, cost-no-object design that had been 'shrunk in the wash' and made more affordable. It was still very expensive when new, but you still didn't have to be Richard Gere to afford one. Here was a taste of one of the finest things in hi-fi life, put just within the reach of audiophiles. It was a superb hybrid transistor/ tube preamplifier with an excellent built-in phono stage, full source switching and tape monitoring, at a price that some could afford. What was not to like?
Even by the late eighties, the company's preamp portfolio was sizeable. Audio Research's David Gordon explains, "the SP8 and SP10 were wonderful preamps, but it was difficult to keep them quiet because of their all-tube design (input-gain-power supplies). It was difficult to source truly low noise tubes, having them remain low noise after a few hundred hours was iffy, and they required maintenance. After a couple of years you could even encounter tube socked noise—they needed to be kept clean. So the hybrid SP11 replaced the all-tube SP10. It was the first preamp from Audio Research that used FETs at the input, and we have used (carefully selected) FETs at the input of every preamplifier, line-stage and phono preamplifier ever since. The extremely low-yield FETs we choose sound wonderful and are incredibly quiet. The SP11 not only offered very high performance, but kept it for a very long time and required virtually no maintenance…"
The SP11 was a special moment for the Minneapolis company, proving popular among well healed audiophiles. Yet it was undeniably expensive, and Audio Research duly decided to trickle-down the technology to a more affordable, single-box chassis. Launched in June 1987, the ($1,695 in its home market) SP9 offered tremendous value, in relative terms. A simplified adaptation of hybrid tube/transistor technology that first appeared in the SP11 two years earlier, the latter was the culmination of numerous experiments. Early ARC preamplifiers had been all-tube, but the company's founder William Z Johnson wanted lower distortion, greater linearity and improved longevity. Two 6DJ8 (6922) tubes – one in the phono section and one in the high level stage – in intermediary gain stages were used, and the result was magic. "The reviews were raves and the SP9 (series) became our best-selling product", remembers Gordon.
Even if it didn't appeal to a minimalist-obsessed UK hi-fi scene at the time, the SP9 was extremely well specified and represented the ultimate in affordable luxury for many hi-fi fans. Weighing 6kg and measuring 480x134x260mm, it was effectively of standard rack mounting size and looked quite 'classic' even when new; it was a stark contrast to the stunning looking, ultra-modern Jacob Jensen-designed Bang & Olufsen 8000 series coming out of Europe at the time! It sported twin tape inputs and outputs with full monitor switching, automatic muting for warmup, voltage drop or interruption (plus switchable manual muting), and a superb moving magnet/moving coil phono stage. Inside the beautifully finished case, a shielded toroidal power transformer quietly did its job, specially located to keep noise down.
The genius of the SP9 was that it didn't sound like a woolly old nineteen fifties preamplifier, yet it didn't sound like a harsh, analytical eighties one either. Rather, it walked a delicate and fine line between the two, adding a good deal of its own charm in the process. It wasn't soft, soggy and euphonic as the tube-haters would characterise thermionic designs, yet it didn't grate on the ear or shout at you as some solid-state designs could. Here was a brilliantly judged compromise and it's no surprise that so many other manufacturers' products belatedly followed in its wake. The SP9 makes music fun; it's viscerally exciting and engaging yet you're never aware you're listening to a tube or a transistor product; it's just very good at what it's supposed to do. Rather like a great luxury car, it doesn't conspicuously draw attention to the way it's made – the sophisticated engineering under the skin – rather, it just lets you enjoy the ride.
Despite the great success of the SP9, it was soon improved. The Mark II version arrived two years later in June 1989, with fourteen different improvements and sixty one component and wire changes. The most notable was the gain reduction on the CD input by 12dB. This was at a time when all 'pre-CD era' preamps and integrated amplifiers struggled to deal with the higher output of the new digital disc spinners. It was a welcome change because it meant an end to wildly differing volume settings, depending on the input selected. Also, low level hum was reduced by between 10 and 20dB, and some overload protection was added to the phono stage, lest a CD player be accidentally connected to it. The company said that the new SP9/II was more of a junior SP14, than an updated baby SP11. The SP15 eventually replaced the SP11 MKII, and the SP14 became a baby SP15, after which the SP9 MKII became the baby SP14. It was a more lucid performer, with superior soundstaging to its already more-than-competent predecessor.
By the time the SP9 MKIII appeared, over seven thousand SP9s had been sold – making it one of the most successful high end products of its generation. The third generation design sold for $2,495, or earlier versions could be updated to its spec ($1,295 for the I, $995 for the II), and included numerous technical improvements. These included the use of M.I.T. capacitors at critical points in the circuitry, additional filter and bypass caps for the power supply, a new input board that reduced point to point wiring and improved grounding. Also, new gold-sleeved tube sockets were fitted for better protection against oxidation and improved voltage regulation was implemented. New 6922 dual triode tubes were fitted. Finally, for good measure a thicker front panel and rack handles were specified. "This offered many improvements in performance, and was our last full-function preamplifier (with both phono and line sections) until 2001, when we introduced the (entry level) SP16 and SP16L (line section only)", notes Gordon.
The good news is that the SP9 was a mature, high end product built by a company that first started manufacturing preamplifiers in 1970 with the SP1 – so had considerable experience of the breed. Although its early designs were all tube, the SP9 was a solid-state hybrid designed with low noise and excellent reliability in mind. Back in the nineteen eighties, one of the reasons given by solid-state fans for not running valve amplifiers was the limited life of tubes, but the SP9 could be used for up to 10,000 hours before needing replacement. Also the particular valve type needed wasn't an especially esoteric version; Audio Research Corporation recommended using its own branded types for best sound. Certainly in use, the SP9 runs relatively cool and doesn't over stress its little glass bottles. It's a great long term ownership proposition.
Audio Research Corporation has produced a great many pre and power amplifiers over the years, but the SP9 stands out as a great do-it-all preamplifier that's beautifully made, easy to use and own, and just about affordable. It was one of those happy quirks of fate when the stars aligned to make a fantastic sounding 'real world' high end design that some of us can still aspire to owning now. Indeed, it's now a superb used bargain, and a great first step into ARC ownership than make well be the beginning of an enduring love affair. Here in Britain, 'previously owned' examples start from around £750, and it's condition and provenance that determines price, not the version. Purists will of course seek out a mint Mark I, but for daily use the SP9/III is the one to go for, offering the best sound and greatest refinement, and it's not necessarily any more expensive to buy, either. Happily, the company services the SP9 even now – although it no longer upgrades earlier models to Mark III spec. Find a good, well cared for example and you'll never look back!
Tags: 1987, Audio Research SP9


Grover Eagle Boy was born to a Dakota family around 1861. In this note, written by someone he talked to, Grover Eagle Boy recalls how he learned to hunt and to participate in warfare. He was about 15 in 1876 when his village on the Little Big Horn River fought against soldiers led by George Armstrong Custer.


Using mechanical, energy recovery and biological recovery technologies, New Earth Solutions provides waste treatment solutions. New Earth helps clients reach and exceed waste treatment targets through designing, building, financing, and operating landfill diversion and recycling solutions and processes. Currently with three mechanical biological treatment facilities, two in-vessel composting facilities, New Earth recently added its first commercial energy recovery scheme as well.
With the generation of low-carbon renewable energy and additional waste treatment developments, New Earth will continue to increase the 450,000 tonnes of waste managed annually. New Earth employs approximately 240 staff spread throughout six operating sites and head office in Dorset. New Earth was a leader in pioneering Advanced Conversion Technology out of its Avonmouth energy recovery facility.


I'll start posting changelogs on the blog instead of the forum for increased visibility. But I'll still create forum threads, like this one, for people who prefer to discuss it here!
It looks really good, honest.
I do have a suggestion, the panel design that's used for the multiplayer, and store dashboards should be different than the ones used in game. They look good in-game because of how small they are. When they're big they look bland. Making them different will also help to visually differentiate between being in and out of a game.
I feel the dark green does not go well with the rest of design. Maybe like the Orange/red or orange colors (warlight colors) would be better?
Yeah, the gradients seem too dramatic for the orders/players panel. Removing them would be fine.
One more thing, the UI for mobile seems to narrow for me to use. If I set the UI to be 1.8, the width of my phone, the information that you see when you join a game (player levels, team names) are blocked out by the colors of the players. Is there a way that you can fix that?
^which phone are you using and what size is the screen?
I agree, I'll change it.
I like that the 'order' tab does not overlap the player names and income anymore, that was a pain.
It also seems to be much less sensitive to scrolling on the game list. I kept entering games by mistake when scrolling before.
This isn't about the app, but can you get the header on forums to not overlap the first two lines of me writing a post? I cannot see what I typed. I am on android chrome browser btw.
nice! now that the primary color scheme is black+gold, wouldnt it be a good idea to try to replace everything that is currently red with gold?
From what I have seen, the new graphics look good!
I love this change. Thanks for listening to the community!
I don't think #A52A2A (top of the forum post reply box) blends with the new color scheme. How about a darker shade like #690404? Would also need to change #B97A7A to something like #A33F3F if you make the first red darker.
I'm not sure if my suggestion is actually an improvement, just something I got after fiddling around on CanvasFlip a little bit. Just think darker reds fit with the gray/brown a bit better.
Im not really a fan of it. I don't really like the grey background with the black points. That looks distracting to me. Also i would prefer the red colour instead of the brown for the head of the postings. Basically it would look more like Warlight, which didn't think is a bad idea, since the colours red and black were and still are this game for me.
<33 thank you so much. The interface has never looked so awesome before!
It's like Warzone turned to night mode. But I really like the look. Maybe you can make the background behind the games completely back? That way it will have the same color as most map backgrounds, which would make it visually attractive.
The website looks really washed out imo. The background-color for thread/mail subjects doesn't feel right. I highly dislike the very dark brown appearance. I'd rather have the original or camouflage colours for them. Table headings, such as in the all forum posts one, don't standout from the rest of the table. I'd also like a solid background-color for table data as well - it looks weird how the black gradient is there.
The website appearance either isn't right in general or I'm not use to it (been here for years).
I really like the new UI when your playing the game. I like that it's a lot cleaner than the old UI. This might have been mentioned somewhere else, but is it possible to have players be listed as AI in the players sidebar like they used to be, the AI (was playername) format, instead of having to click on a name first or go through statistics?
The website looks really good too, but for me there isn't quite enough contrast between the color of the text on the menus and the bar behind it. Also the dark brown header feels off, maybe a red like the color used in the WZ logo?
I haven't been using the Unity Client much, but would it be possible to put a link to the active cards dialog in the cards dialog?
New players are clearly confused about how multiday quickmatch works. Any plans to have it changed?
I wouldn't count on uservoice. Newbies won't vote. They'll just leave.
I think the dark color scheme has two effects. I think the actual games look sharp - I think it would look good if "Orders" and "Players" were in red instead of almost black, but overall the red/black/gray is a good outline for the games, because the maps add a lot of additional color to the screen.
On the flip side, parts of the dashboards and this forum thread are really, really dark. Even if the message headers on this thread were a different red that you could see against the black, it would bring more life to the page.
On the multiplayer dashboard, the gray background behind the game info is much, much better than the tan that made it so hard to read. I'd still love a line between the game info or boxes around them like the flash site had so it's easier to focus on each individual game's info, but it's better. Still not sure why there's no button to go from the multiplayer dashboard to the community dashboard.
It's coming along, good work!
I really love it Fizzy. My only gripe is that the main forum overview could maybe do with a hint of colour. Maybe use the brown such as that on the actual threads to break the black up a bit.
Community-Dashboard and Forum Main Pages like meh, having same background for site and what get's displayed looks bad. Should be more distinct.
I like the way that threads look. The black opaque background (to each post, not the cell pattern in the overall background) looks really nice and helps focus attention onto what matters, the posts. I'm not sure if it's just me, but the transparent look on the main forum is really distracting and hard to look at.
Side note: I like the cell pattern background, but if it could stay off to the sides and not interfere with what I'm trying to read, that would be great.
Edit: I agree that the headers should be used to provide a little bit of color to the forum, but idk if he's want to use the bright red. That might be too close to the old aesthetic.


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The bloodstained rise of global populism
A political movement's violent pursuit of "enemies."
Alfred W. McCoy
SOURCETom Dispatch
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
In 2016, something extraordinary happened in the politics of diverse countries around the world. With surprising speed and simultaneity, a new generation of populist leaders emerged from the margins of nominally democratic nations to win power. In doing so, they gave voice, often in virulent fashion, to public concerns about the social costs of globalization.
Even in societies as disparate as the affluent United States and the impoverished Philippines, similarly violent strains of populist rhetoric carried two unlikely candidates from the political margins to the presidency. On opposite sides of the Pacific, these outsider campaigns were framed by lurid calls for violence and even murder.
As his insurgent crusade gained momentum, billionaire Donald Trump moved beyond his repeated promises to fight Islamic terror with torture and brutal bombing by also advocating the murder of women and children. "The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families," he told Fox News. "They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families."
At the same time, campaigning in the Philippines on a law-and-order program of his own, Rodrigo Duterte, then mayor of a remote provincial city, swore that he would kill drug dealers across the nation, sparing nothing in the way of violent imagery. "If by chance that God will place me [in the presidency]," he promised in launching his campaign, "watch out because the 1,000 [people executed while he was a mayor] will become 100,000. You will see the fish in Manila Bay getting fat. That is where I will dump you."
The rise of these political soulmates and populist strongmen not only resonated deeply in their political cultures, but also reflected global trends that made their bloodstained rhetoric paradigmatic of our present moment. After a post-Cold War quarter-century of globalization, displaced workers around the world began mobilizing angrily to oppose an economic order that had made life so good for transnational corporations and social elites.
Between 1999 and 2011, for instance, Chinese imports had eliminated 2.4 million American jobs, closing furniture manufacturers in North Carolina, factories that produced glass in Ohio, and auto parts and steel companies across the Midwest. As a range of nations worldwide reacted to such realities by imposing a combined 2,100 restrictions on imports to staunch similar job losses, world trade actually started to slow down without a major recession for the first time since 1945.
The bloodstained history of populism
Across Europe, hyper-nationalist right-wing parties like the French National Front, the Alternative for Germany, and the UK Independence Party won over voters by cultivating nativist, especially anti-Islamic, responses to globalization. Simultaneously, a generation of populist demagogues either held, gained, or threatened to take power in democracies around the world: Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Recep Erdogan in Turkey, Donald Trump in the U.S., Narendra Modi in India, Prabowo Subianto in Indonesia, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, among others.
Indian essayist Pankaj Mishra recently summed up their successes this way: "Demagogues are still emerging, in the West and outside it, as the promise of prosperity collides with massive disparities of wealth, power, education, and status." The Philippine economy offered typically grim news on this score. It grew by an impressive 6% annually in the six years before Duterte launched his presidential campaign, even as a staggering 26 million poor Filipinos struggled to survive on a dollar a day. In those years, just 40 elite Filipino families grabbed an estimated 76% of all the wealth this growth produced.
Scholar Michael Lee suggests that a populist leader succeeds by rhetorically defining his or her national community by both its supposedly "shared characteristics" and its inevitable common "enemy," whether Mexican "rapists" or Muslim refugees, much as the Nazis created a powerful sense of national selfhood by excluding certain groups by "blood." In addition, he argues, such movements share the desire for an "apocalyptic confrontation" through a final "mythic battle" as "the vehicle to revolutionary change."
Although scholars like Lee emphasize the ways in which populist demagogues rely on violent rhetoric for their success, they tend to focus less on another crucial aspect of such populists globally: actual violence. These movements might still be in their (relatively) benign phase in the United States and Europe, but in less developed democracies around the world populist leaders haven't hesitated to inscribe their newfound power on the battered bodies of their victims.
For more than a decade, for instance, Russian President Vladimir Putin, a reasonable candidate for sparking this wave of populism, has demonstrated his famously bare-chested version of power politics by ensuring that opponents and critics meet grim ends under "mysterious" circumstances. These include the lethal spritz of polonium 210 that killed Russian secret police defector Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006; the shooting of journalist and Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya outside her Moscow apartment that same year; a dose of rare Himalayan plant poison for banker and Putin nemesis Alexander Perepilichny in London in 2012; a fusillade that felled opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in downtown Moscow in 2015; and four fatal bullets this March for refugee whistleblower Denis Voronenkov on a Kiev sidewalk, which Ukraine has denounced as "an act of state terrorism."
As an Islamist populist, Turkish president Recep Erdogan has projected his power through a bloody repression of, and a new war with, the country's Kurdish minority. He portrays the Kurds as a cancer within the country's body politic whose identity must be extinguished, much as his forebears rid themselves of the Armenians. In addition, since mid-2016, he's overseen a wholesale purge of 50,000 officials, journalists, teachers, and military officers in the aftermath of a failed coup, and in a brutal round of torture and rape filled Turkish prisons to the brim.
In 2014, retired general Prabowo Subianto nearly won Indonesia's presidency with a populist campaign of "strength and order." In fact, Prabowo's military career had long been steeped in such violence. In 1998, when the authoritarian regime of his father-in-law Suharto was at the brink of collapse, Prabowo, then commander of the Kopassus Rangers, staged the kidnapping-disappearance of a dozen student activists, the savage rape of 168 Chinese women (acts meant to incite racial violence), and the burning of 43 shopping malls and 5,109 buildings in Jakarta, the country's capital, that left more than 1,000 dead.
During his first months in power, newly elected Philippine President Duterte waged his highly publicized war on the drug trade in city slums by losing the police and vigilantes nationwide in a campaign already marked, in its first six months, by at least 7,000 extrajudicial killings. The bodies of his victims were regularly dumped on Manila's streets as warnings to others and as down payments on Duterte's promises of a new, orderly country.
And he wasn't the first populist in Asia to take such a path either. In 2003, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra launched his "red shirt" movement as a war on his country's rampant methamphetamine abuse. In just three months under Thaksin's rule, the police carried out 2,275 extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and users, often leaving the bodies where they fell as a twisted tribute to his power.
Such examples of populist political carnage and the likelihood of more to come – including what Donald Trump's presidency might have in store – raise certain questions: Just what dynamics lie behind the urge toward violence that seems to propel such movements? Why does the virulent campaign rhetoric of populist political movements so often morph into actual violence once a populist wins power? And why is that violence invariably aimed at enemies believed to threaten the imagined integrity of the national community?
In their compulsion to "protect" the nation from what are seen as pernicious alien influences, such populist movements are defined by their need for enemies. That need, in turn, infuses them with an almost uncontrollable compulsion for conflict that transcends actual threats or rational political programs.
To give this troubling trend its political due, it's necessary to understand how, at a particular moment in history, global forces have produced a generation of populist leaders with such potential compulsions. And at the moment, there may be no better example to look to than the Philippines.
During its last half-century of bloodstained elections, two populists, Ferdinand Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte, won exceptional power by combining the high politics of diplomacy with the low politics of performative violence, scattering corpses scarred by their signature brutality as if they were so many political pamphlets. A quick look at this history offers us an unsettling glimpse of America's possible political future.
Populism in the Philippines: the Marcos era
Although now remembered mainly as a "kleptocrat" who plundered his country and enriched himself with shameless abandon (epitomized by the discovery that his wife possessed 3,000 pairs of shoes), Ferdinand Marcos was, in fact, a brilliant populist, thoroughly skilled in the symbolic uses of violence.
As his legal term as president came to an end in 1972, Marcos – who, like many populists, saw himself as chosen by destiny to save his people from perdition – used the military to declare martial law. He then jailed 50,000 opponents, including the senators who had blocked his favored legislation and the gossip columnists who had mocked his wife's pretensions.
The first months of his dictatorship actually lacked any official violence. Then, just before dawn on January 15, 1973, Constabulary officers read a presidential execution order and strapped Lim Seng, an overseas Chinese heroin manufacturer, to a post at a Manila military camp. As a battery of press photographers stood by, an eight-man firing squad raised their rifles. Replayed endlessly on television and in movie theaters, the dramatic footage of bullets ripping open the victim's chest was clearly meant to be a vivid display of the new dictator's power, as well as an appeal to his country's ingrained anti-Chinese racism. Lim Seng would be the only victim legally executed in the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship. Extra-judicial killings were another matter, however.
Marcos made clever use of the massive U.S. military bases near Manila to win continuing support for his authoritarian (and increasingly bloody) rule from three successive American administrations, even effectively neutralizing President Jimmy Carter's human rights policy. After a decade of dictatorship, however, the economy began to collapse from a too-heavy dose of "crony capitalism" and the political opposition started to challenge Marcos's self-image as destiny's chosen one.
To either sate or subdue an increasingly restive population, he soon resorted to escalating raw violence. His security squads conducted what were referred to as "salvagings," more than 2,500 of them (or 77% of the 3,257 extrajudicial killings during his 14-year dictatorship). Bodies scarred by torture were regularly abandoned in public plazas or at busy intersections so passers-by could read the transcript of terror in their stigmata. In the capital, Manila, with only 4,000 police for six million residents, the Marcos regime also deputized hundreds of "secret marshals" responsible for more than 30 shoot-on-sight fatalities during May 1985, the program's first month, alone.
Yet the impact of Marcos's version of populist violence proved mutable – effective at the start of martial law when people yearned for order and counterproductive at its close when Filipinos again longed for freedom. That shift in sentiment soon led to his downfall in the first of the dramatic "people power" revolutions that would challenge autocratic regimes from Beijing to Berlin.
Populism in the Philippines: Duterte's violence
Rodrigo Duterte, the son of a provincial governor, initially pursued a career as the mayor of Davao City, a site of endemic violence that left a lasting imprint on his political persona.
In 1984, after the communist New People's Army made Davao its testing ground for urban guerilla warfare, the city's murders soared, doubling to 800, including the assassination of 150 policemen. To check the communists, who took over part of the city, the military mobilized criminals and ex-communists as death squad vigilantes in a lethal counterterror campaign. When I visited Davao in 1987 to investigate death squad killings, that remote southern city already had an unforgettable air of desolation and hopelessness.
It was in this context of rising national and local extrajudicial slaughter that the 33-year old Rodrigo Duterte launched his political career as the elected mayor of Davao City. That was in 1988, the first of seven terms that would keep him in office, on and off, for another 21 years until he won the country's presidency in 2016. His first campaign was hotly contested and he barely beat his rivals, taking only 26% of the vote.
Around 1996, he reportedly mobilized his own vigilante group, the Davao Death Squad. It would be responsible for many of the city's 814 extrajudicial killings over the next decade, as victims were dumped on city streets with faces wrapped bizarrely in packing tape. Duterte himself may have killed one or more of the squad's victims. Apart from liquidating criminals, the Davao Death Squad also conveniently eliminated the mayor's political rivals.
Campaigning for president in 2016, Duterte would proudly point to the killings in Davao City and promise a drug war that would murder 100,000 Filipinos if necessary. In doing so, he was also drawing on historical resonances from the Marcos era that lent some political depth to his violent rhetoric. By specifically praising Marcos, promising to finally bury his body in the National Heroes Cemetery in Manila, and supporting Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for vice president, Duterte identified himself with a political lineage of populist strongmen epitomized by the old dictator at a time when desperate Filipinos were looking for new hope of a decent life.
On taking office, President Duterte promptly started his promised anti-drug campaign and dead bodies became commonplace sights on city streets nationwide, sometimes accompanied by a crude cardboard sign reading "I am a pusher," or simply with their faces wrapped in the by-now trademark packing tape used by the Davao Death Squad. Although Human Rights Watch would declare his drug war a "calamity," a resounding 85% of Filipinos surveyed were "satisfied," apparently seeing each body sprawled on a city street as another testament to the president's promise of order.
At the same time, like Marcos, Duterte deployed a new style of diplomacy as part of his populist reach for unrestrained power. Amid rising tensions in the South China Sea between Beijing and Washington, he improved his country's bargaining position by distancing himself from the Philippines' classic alliance with the United States. At the 2016 ASEAN conference, reacting to Barack Obama's criticism of his drug war, he said bluntly of the American president, "Your mother's a whore."
A month later during a state visit to Beijing, Duterte publicly proclaimed "separation from the United States.'' By setting aside his country's recent slam-dunk win over China at the Court of Arbitration in the Hague in a legal dispute over rival claims in the South China Sea, Duterte came home with $24 billion in Chinese trade deals and a sense that he was helping establish a new world order.
In January, after his police tortured and killed a South Korean businessman on the pretext of a drug bust, he was forced to call a sudden halt to the nationwide killing spree. Like his role model Marcos, however, Duterte's populism seems to contain an insatiable appetite for violence and so it was not long before bodies were once again being dumped on the streets of Manila, pushing the death toll past 8,000.
Success and the strongman
The histories of these Filipino strongmen, past and present, reveal two overlooked aspects of the ill-defined phenomenon of global populism: the role of what might be termed performative violence in projecting domestic strength and a complementary need for diplomatic success to show international influence. How skillfully these critical poles of power are balanced may offer one gauge for speculating about the fate of populist strongmen in disparate parts of the globe.
In Russia's case, Putin's projection of strength through the murder of selected domestic opponents has been matched by unchecked aggression in Georgia and Ukraine – a successful balancing act that has made his country, with its rickety economy the size of Italy's, seem like a great power again and is likely to extend his autocratic rule into the foreseeable future.
In Turkey, Erdogan's harsh repression of ethnic and political enemies has essentially sunk his bid for entry into the European Union, plunged him into an unwinnable war with Kurdish rebels, and complicated his alliance with the United States against Islamic fundamentalism – all potential barriers to his successful bid for unchecked power.
In Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto failed in his critical first step: building a domestic base large enough to sweep him into the presidency, in part because his call for order resonated so discordantly with a public still capable of remembering his earlier bid for power through eerie violence that roiled Jakarta with hundreds of rapes, fires, and deaths.
Without the popular support generated by his local spectacle of violence, President Duterte's de facto abrogation of his country's claims to the South China Sea's rich fishing grounds and oil reserves in his bid for Chinese support risks a popular backlash, a military coup, or both. For the time being, however, Duterte's deft juxtaposition of international maneuvering and local bloodletting has made him a successful Philippine strongman with, as yet, few apparent checks on his power.
While the essential weakness of the Philippine military limits Duterte's outlets for his populist violence to the police killings of poor street drug dealers, Donald Trump faces no such restraints. Should Congress and the courts check the virulence of his domestic attacks on Muslims, Mexicans, or other imagined enemies and should his presidency run into further setbacks like the recent repeal-Obamacare humiliation, he could readily resort to violent military adventures not only in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Libya, but even in Iran, not to speak of North Korea, in a bid to recover his populist aura of overweening power. In this way, unlike any other potential populist politician on the planet, he holds the fate of countless millions in his much-discussed hands.
If populism's need for what scholar Michael Lee calls an "apocalyptic confrontation" and a "mythic battle" proves accurate, it might, in the end, lead the Trump administration's "systemic revolutionaries" far beyond even their most extreme rhetoric into an endlessly escalating cycle of violence against foreign enemies, using whatever weapons are available, whether drones, special operations forces, fighter-bombers, naval armadas, or even nuclear weapons.
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Alfred W. McCoy, a TomDispatch regular, is the Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of the now-classic book The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, which probed the conjuncture of illicit narcotics and covert operations over 50 years. His more recent books include Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation and Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State.
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Philippe Bourbeau
Network for Strategic Analysis (NSA) / Experts / Philippe Bourbeau
Philippe Bourbeau is the first Director of the Graduate School in International Studies at the University Laval. Bourbeau is Chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Immigration and Security and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University Laval. His work adopts a multidisciplinary approach to international issues. He has published articles on the securitization of migration, the power of numbers in global governance, resilience as applied to world politics, the practice approach in international relations, and a multidisciplinary theorization of security. His most recent books include On Resilience, Genealogy, Logics and World Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Security: Dialogue across Disciplines (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and The Securitization of Migration (Routledge, 2013). He holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia. Prior to coming to the University Laval he was Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Migration Studies
Philippe Bourbeau, The Securitization of Migration: A Study of Movement and Order (London : Routledge, 2011).
Philippe Bourbeau, "Moving Forward Together: Logics of the Securitisation Process," Millennium: Journal of International Studies 43:1 (2014): 187-206.
Philippe Bourbeau, "Migration, Resilience and Security: Responses to New Inflows of Asylum Seekers and Migrants," Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 41:12 (2015): 1958-1977.
Philippe Bourbeau & Ryan Caitlin, 2018. "Resilience, Resistance, Infrapolitics and Enmeshment," European Journal of International Relations 24:1 (2017): 221-239.
Philippe Bourbeau & Vuori A. Juha, "Security, Resilience and Desecuritization: Multidirectional Moves and Dynamics," Critical Studies on Security 3:3 (2015): 253-268.
Director, École supérieure d'études internationales (ESEI), University Laval
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