A RANGE of American media outlets have pledged to stop airing one of Donald Trump's campaign advertisements, declaring it racist.
NBC, CNN and Fox News are among the networks that have refused to continue airing the footage, which features an immigrant convicted of murder.
The advertisement aired on NBC's Sunday Night Football and MSNBC's Morning Joe, and drew a heated online response.
"After further review, we recognise the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible," NBC said in a statement.
Fox News pulled the ad over the weekend "upon further review", said Marianne Gambelli, president of the network's ad sales department.
CNN said it was made "abundantly clear" that the ad was racist and declined to air it when the campaign sought to buy airtime.
The ad, which notes it was sponsored and approved by Mr Trump, was released late last week by the Republican Party, targeting thousands of migrants walking towards the US southern border.
Bracamontes is a twice-deported immigrant from Mexico sentenced to death in California for killing two police officers.
"America cannot allow this invasion," the ad goes on. "The migrant caravan must be stopped. President Trump and his allies will protect our border and keep our families safe.
The President's campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted in defence of the ad, accusing the media outlets of choosing to "stand with those ILLEGALLY IN THIS COUNTRY".
It also said the media is "trying to control what you see and how you think".
The President initially stayed quiet on the polarising response to the ad, but later addressed it when asked about it by a reporter.
His son, Donald Trump Jr, has also complained on Twitter that American media outlets have refused to run the advertisement.
Mr Trump has made immigration a central issue ahead of the midterm vote.
Calling the caravan a "national emergency," he has threatened to deploy as many as 15,000 troops to the border with Mexico. Around 4800 had been deployed as of Monday, the Pentagon said.
With their sights set on reaching the United States, some 5000 Central American migrants, mainly from violence-plagued Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, are expected to converge on Mexico City in the coming days and then continue their northward trek, authorities said.
The first 470 arrived in Mexico City on Sunday and spent the night at a stadium on the capital's east side, where authorities have set up a large camp to host them and provide food and water.
By Monday evening, some 4000 people had arrived at the camp. Another 1000 are expected to arrive by Wednesday, as the fragmented caravan regroups after dispersing across central and eastern Mexico, according to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).
Often travelling in families or with young children, the migrants are sleeping in tents, on the ground or on the cement bleachers of the stadium, in frigid night-time temperatures of around 12C in the high altitude of Mexico City.
Many were nursing colds or mangled feet after a trek of more than 1600km that began on October 13 in the city of San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
"I couldn't sleep. I was cold and coughing all night," said Honduran Karla Membreno, 23, who is making the trek with her husband and sister-in-law.
"(But) we have to be strong. God gives us strength to carry on," she told AFP.
Medical staff were attending to migrants and giving flu shots at impromptu clinics at the stadium.
Other migrants were busy digging through large piles of donated clothing looking for coats, gloves or any other items to fend off the cold.
Two other large groups of Central Americans of between 3000 and 4000 migrants in all are currently making their way across the southern Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, the CNDH said.
Another 3230 Central Americans who were travelling by caravan have requested asylum in Mexico, according to the interior ministry.
The CNDH said it had no evidence of criminals or people who could pose a security risk travelling in the caravan.


Does IBD increase the risk for heart failure?
IBD patients experiencing flares or poorly managed symptoms have a 2.5-fold increased risk of hospitalization for heart failure than non-IBD individuals.
This study supports the increase in cardiac events with active inflammation that has been previously described.
The study used medication and hospital admissions to indicate IBD activity instead of clinical or inflammatory markers. This may have biased the results to flare-specific treatments, such as steroids.
Kristensen SL, Ahlehoff O, Lindhardsen J, et al. Inflammatory bowel disease is associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for heart failure: a Danish Nationwide Cohort study. Circ Heart Fail. 2014 Sep;7(5):717–22.
In this nationwide study, 5,436,647 Danes with neither heart failure nor IBD were included in the cohort beginning January 1, 1997. Databases used were the Civil Person Registration and National Patient Register, and Danish Register of Medicinal Product Statistics. Each person was followed until the first hospitalization for heart failure, death, or December 31, 2011. During the study, 23,681 were diagnosed with IBD (CD: 26.7%) and compared against the non-IBD reference population. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups regarding age, gender ratios, medication and comorbidities pertaining to non-IBD related conditions or diseases.
The average follow-up was 11.8 years and 6.4 years in the reference and IBD populations. Persons with IBD had a 37% increased risk of hospitalization for heart failure compared to the reference population. Importantly, the increased risk of heart failure hospitalization for patients with IBD was only associated with IBD flares (incident rate ratio [IRR] 2.54) and persistent IBD symptoms (IRR 2.73). During remission, patients with IBD had a marginal increased risk of heart failure hospitalization (IRR 1.04).


Has anyone noticed that Iraq, supposedly transformed into an oasis of peace and tranquility by George W. Bush's troop surge, is growing less peaceful and tranquil by the day?
The nation's attention has been riveted by the presidential campaign, with its compelling characters and its edge-of-your-seat story line. Iraq is treated almost as a theoretical issue: What would happen there if Barack Obama became president, as opposed to what would happen if Hillary Clinton became president, as opposed to what would happen if John McCain became president? There has been little debate about what's happening in Iraq right now.
That seems likely to change.
The past several weeks have seen a recrudescence of the kind of horrifying, spectacular violence that the Decider's surge was supposed to have ended.
Last Thursday, two massive bombs hit a shopping district in the Shiite-dominated Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad, killing 68 people and injuring more than 120. That atrocity followed twin car-bomb explosions earlier in the week that killed 24 people and wounded 56 elsewhere in the city.
Yesterday came what was described as the worst attack on U.S. forces in months. According to Iraqi police, a suicide bomber approached an American patrol in Baghdad and detonated his explosives, killing five soldiers and injuring three others. U.S. military officials confirmed the deaths but did not immediately give details of the incident.
Also yesterday, a female suicide bomber in Diyala province blew herself up at the home of a Sunni clan leader who had been cooperating with U.S. forces against al-Qaeda. Sheik Thaeir Ghadhban al-Karkhi was killed, along with his 5-year-old niece, an adult cousin and a security guard.
Two days earlier, in an orchard near the banks of the Diyala River, Iraqi police announced that they had found a mass grave with the decomposed remains of 50 to 100 people, some of them children. It was unclear who the victims were or who had killed them.
When the Bush administration celebrates a 60 percent reduction in overall violence in Iraq, it's easy to forget that this is compared with June 2007, when the sectarian civil war was raging and bombings with scores of victims were a regular occurrence. The surge managed only to reduce the level of violence from apocalyptic to agonizing -- and now even those gains seem to be slipping.
Bush's surge was designed to give the Iraqi government the necessary breathing space for Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to reach vital compromises. President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki showed their gratitude this month by rolling out the red carpet, literally, for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Bush's Middle East policy is designed largely to blunt the influence of Iran, which seeks a dominant role in the region. So it must have been galling to the White House to watch as Ahmadinejad swept into Baghdad in a ceremonial motorcade and toured the city with fanfare. Never one to miss a chance to stick in the needle, Ahmadinejad questioned the motives of those who "visit this country in a stealth manner."
He was referring to the fact that Bush has to fly into Iraq unannounced and can stay for only a few hours. It would be far too dangerous to let citizens know in advance that their liberator was coming to check on their welfare.
So violence seems to be creeping back, the Iraqi government is showcasing its developing friendship with Iran, and -- oh, yes -- these achievements are costing American taxpayers around $12 billion a month, according to a new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes. The authors estimate that by 2017, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost the nation between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion.
The Congressional Budget Office projects a somewhat lower cost, estimating that by 2017 the two wars will have consumed $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion. Still, not what you would call chump change.
I'm not aware of any educated guess at how much it might cost if the occupation of Iraq were to last 100 years, as McCain has suggested.
It is unclear whether the recent increase in violence in Iraq is temporary or the beginning of a new and tragic cycle. It's hard to imagine a return to the level of carnage of a year ago, since by now many of Baghdad's neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed. But all of us -- even the presidential candidates -- had better pay attention.


Intel(R) ICH8 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2830 was added to a Pack, or "favorites" list, by 1840 of our users.
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text:
Q: Inconsistent results with snd_pcm_hw_params_get_channels_min and snd_pcm_hw_params_get_channels_max I am trying to get the minimum and maximum number of channels supported by my device. The results are unexpected and random. They change at each execution. Did I miss something?
// file : capture_nb_chan.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <alsa/asoundlib.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  int err;
  snd_pcm_t             *capture_handle;
  snd_pcm_hw_params_t   *hw_params;
  unsigned int min, max;

  // Open audio device
  if ((err = snd_pcm_open (&capture_handle, "hw:0,0", SND_PCM_STREAM_CAPTURE, 0)) < 0)
    exit (1);

  // Allocate hardware parameters
  if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params_malloc (&hw_params)) < 0)
    exit (1);

  // Initialize parameters
  if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params_any (capture_handle, hw_params)) < 0)
    exit (1);

  // Get min and max number of channels
  err = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_channels_min(hw_params, &min);
  if (err < 0)
    exit (1);
  fprintf(stdout, "Min channels: %u. (%d)\n", min, err);
  err = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_channels_max(hw_params, &max);
  if (err < 0)
    exit (1);
  fprintf(stdout, "Max channels: %u. (%d)\n", max, err);
}

Compile the script with
gcc -o capture_nb_chan capture_nb_chan.c -lasound

Execute it with
./capture_nb_chan

Output is
Min channels: 22031. (2)
Max channels: 681205789. (2)

Output values are random while error code is 2 when it's expected to be 0 or negative according to documentation.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Fowl Play in the Jungle – Chasing Chickens in Nepal
A wild adventure in Nepal's Chitwan jungle on a quest to film The Mother of All Chickens. Listen to the rumble of elephants, screeching birds and a snake charmer.
https://connectedtraveler.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/TheMotherofAllChickens-Nepal.mp3
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn | iHeart Radio | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Deezer| Pandora |
An excerpt from the Audio Book Tales of the Radio Traveler, by Russell Johnson, available on Audible.
I am in Nepal to celebrate my marriage and introduce my new bride Pat to a place I have come to love. I first came here for a cultural heritage conference and the last time on a project for the UN Development Programme. I don't think she knows what she was getting into when she married me, that she would be spending her honeymoon mucking about the jungle on such a lumbering carriage and spending evenings picking leeches off of our ankles, with the parallel goal, this time, of photographing a chicken.
I am feeling my elephant this morning as it rumbles underneath me. On this cool, foggy morning, jungle sounds are tame. No cicada or cricket racket, they've taken the rest of the day off. Little sound except an occasional monkey screech or a short stanza from what Nepalis call the "brain fever" bird. It's song starts with a middle-C whoop and, like a diva gone mad, sails up the scale in a frenetic arpeggio. Mostly, the feel of the sub-audible vibration of the elephant, the rustle of brush. A tiger, perhaps? Or a rhino? Or maybe it is the elusive jungle Red Jungle Fowl, a wildly colorful bird that is said to be the ancestor of the modern-day domestic chicken.
Red Jungle Fowl
This is not my first safari into Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park, on the border with India. I will never tire of returning to a place where I can stand next to a river in a steamy jungle watching rhinos bathe and gaze upon the snow-capped Himalaya in the distance; where I have seen the flash of a tiger in the brush, insects that look like lacquered jewelry, orchids, crocodiles sunning on riverbanks, termite mounds that look like the castles of demented fairies, and a vast buffet of birds – about three hundred species of them – one of which I wish to photograph.
So here I am, jungle junkie, headed out into the tropical tangle with a group of wide-eyed, camera-toting newcomers who seek their first glimpse of the wild rhino and, if lucky, the Royal Bengal Tiger.
My job is to film a chicken.
It is not that the wild jungle pheasant is scarce. It is just that it doesn't sit still. On my last attempt all I captured were a few fleeting frames of a drab female. What I am seeking is a full plumage, testosterone-charged, ready-to-boogie male for a documentary I am doing titled "Chickens". I had already interviewed an ornithologist at Cornell University, a professor of semiology who explained that the chicken was actually a vegetable, a cockfight manager in the Philippines,
and Dick Orkin, the creator and voice of Chicken Man, the 1960s spoof superhero radio serial. Now I was going in search of the primal source, the mother hen, the wild jungle fowl, a pheasant that has been established as being the biological forerunner of the common barnyard chicken.
Riding an elephant can be a jolt. But at least we aren't trotting or galloping. Years ago I rode an express elephant, one enlisted in the service of point-to-point transportation rather than tourism. An elephant trot is guaranteed to rearrange your innards. An elephant gallop will make you backbone feel like a pile driver. Tourist elephants, while nothaving the suspension system of a Rolls, just stroll.
We ride past deeply rutted trees that tigers had used as scratching posts. Tigers and leopards had been spotted several times in the past week. They are not easy to see in the tall grass. Tigers are solitary creatures and a single one may command an area up to eight square miles.
"Scat,"whispers our mahout as he pointed a deposit next to a seriesof paw prints. I resist the temptation to collect a souvenir, fully knowing that might be my closest encounter with the elusive beast.
Our sure-footed elephant climbs down into a swamp. We are second in queue with a wide-angle view of the behind of the beast in front of us. A friend, who had served in the British Navy during World War II, with whom I traveled through this same jungle years earlier, said that elephants relieving themselves in the swamp were like battleships releasing depth charges.
"Rhinos!"
Our driver points.
"You lookin' at me?"
It doesn't take long to spot a rhino in these jungles. They, along with most other forms of wildlife, have been growing in number because of the environmental controls the government has placed on the park. Royal Chitwan was once a private game reserve where Nepal's ruling Rana clan treated the British Royals to tiger hunts. Although hardly a noble endeavor, they did keep the area pristine as their own hunting preserve and it didn't fall victim to the politics and land grabs.
The mother rhino looks curmudgeonly, like a scaly Margaret Thatcher. She snorts and grunts: "You had bloody well keep your distance". The baby, however, manages to look cute. A ton of cute. We follow the pair as they plough through the elephant grass.
Elephants, thick-skinned though they are, are wary of rhinos. Several times I have sat on top of an elephant that has reared back when a rhino threatened to charge.
"Chicken," shouts our mahout.
I reach for my camera and try to steady it. The elephant isn't cooperating, however, turning in the wrong direction (I know as an seasoned elephant-back photographer, they always do this). I crane my neck until it cracks. The jungle fowl crosses the path and disappears into the grass. I get another shaky shot of some tail feathers.
Foiled again.
Back at the lodge, I shower. A couple of leech bites still bleed, leaving some trickles of red running down my leg. An obnoxious guest I had met earlier comes up to me with a spray can.
"Try this". she says as she sprays some gunk on
my leg.
"Stop it!" I say, almost losing my temper at the assault, but easing back and taking a draw from my beer.
"It does stop the bleeding, doesn't it?"
It takes several days for the goo to wear off my leg.
It is late afternoon and I spot some shapes at the corner of the paddock.
"Is it?" I squint. "It is".
I pick up my camera, walk a few yards, get on the ground and start crawling, soldier-style, on my stomach up to a small group of jungle fowl. I aim my camera and make my capture. I had bagged, on video, the chicken from whence all chickens cometh.
Airport Greeter
We leave Chitwan for the tiny airport at Meghauli for a flight back to Kathmandu. I would have loved to drive the route as it cuts through deep canyons and passes through small villages, but we have a schedule to keep. A celebration in Kathmandu. Some old friends and us, the newlyweds. The King and Queen.
The first time I took this drive, in the early 90s, was just after a new road had been completed. I counted eight accidents along the way including a truck that had driven over a ravine, a motorcyclist lying motionless on the pavement next to his machine circled by a group of men who were just looking, and an abandoned VW van that sat in the middle of the road, squished like an accordion. I was told that drivers were not accustomed to speed and had no idea of the driving limits of a new, smooth road through the mountain passes.
Greeting us at the airport entrance is a snake charmer. I tip him a few rupees ensuring a safe flight.
We drive up to what looks like a movie back lot: a few benches, a free-standing wall with a doorway that simply leads to the other side of the wall. There is a field beyond with men playing football. We are instructed to sit down on the benches with our luggage. Then a man walks through the movie set door and asks us to line up with our bags. Another man runs out into field, which doubles as a runway, and cranks a World War II-vintage air raid siren. The soccer players clear the field and siren-man waves his arms shooing two cows away.
We hear the distant drone of an airplane engine.We walk through the doorway, the man takes our tickets and glances briefly at our luggage. Then we circle around theside of the movie set, back to our benches in the "lounge". The Lumbini Airways prop plane bounces and sputters to a landing. Nearby Lumbini is the birthplace of Buddha and I was assuming that the Lord Buddha himself had blessed this two engine puddle-jumper. Up from our seats again and out the door.
We board. Pat flies on business regularly, she even took a few lessons in flight school, but is still a white-knuckled passenger. We both chug down a beer and she sinks her fingernails into my arm, as a tiger would a tree, as our plane lumbers down the field past an audience of footballers and insouciant cattle. The cockpit door swings open and we see the pilot impatiently tapping his feet. We grind higher, clearing some small mountains, over lush terraced farms and rivers, small villages, finally passing over the sprawling outlying slums of Kathmandu.
Russell Johnson is a writer, filmmaker and former broadcaster living in Sonoma, California. He is author of the book and audio book Tales of the Radio Traveler and does a weekly humor podcast, Gone Astray – Russell Johnson available on iTunes, Spotify and most other podcast outlets.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme prvi je studijski album sarajevskog rock sastava Bijelo dugme, koji izlazi u studenom 1974.g. Album snimaju dvadesetak dana u ljubljanskom studiju "Akademik", nakon završene turneje na kojoj su nastupali kao predgrupa "Jugoslavenskoj pop selekciji" Tihomira Asanovića. Materijal na albumu se sastoji od šest skladbi, producent je Vladimir Mihaljek Miha, a objavljuje ga diskografska kuća "Jugoton".

Popis pjesama

A-strana
 "Kad bi bio bijelo dugme"
 "Blues za moju bivšu dragu"

B-strana
 "Ne spavaj mala moja muzika dok svira"
 "Sve ću da ti dam samo da zaigram"
 "Selma - (stihovi: Vlado Dijak)
 "Patim evo deset dana"

Izvođači
 Željko Bebek - vokal
 Goran Bregović - gitara, usna harmonika
 Zoran Redžić - bas gitara
 Ipe Ivandić - bubnjevi
 Vlado Pravdić - orgulje Hammond, sintisajzer Moog, pianino, električni piano

Produkcija
 Producent - Vladimir Mihaljek Miha
 Projekcija - Miro Bevc
 Tekst i glazba - Goran Bregović (skladbe: A1 i B2, B4)
 Fotografija - Boris Dučić

Vanjske poveznice
 discogs.com - Bijelo Dugme - Kad Bi' Bio Bijelo Dugme

Albumi sastava Bijelo dugme
Albumi iz 1974.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Despite popular opinion and myths, there is not as much difference in the psychological strength of the genders and most people believe. Where such opinions develop is often as a result of observing gender behavioural patterns, when certain actions are classed, often incorrectly, as being determined by psychological differences. Indeed behavioural patterns are mainly formed as a result of cultural and historical learning and have no direct connection with our psychological make-up.
It is only when one looks at certain distinct psychological control areas of the human mind that the balance between strengths and weaknesses of the genders can be seen to differ and these relate mainly to certain aspects of physical prowess, aggression and some elements of our nature based related to sexual activities that differences occur.
In relation to physical prowess the male gender tend to be stronger than the female. However, this is not only because of their different physical attributes, being generally stronger in terms of muscle power. It is also related to the higher level of psychological strength that a man can exert over his physical actions. Perhaps this can be said to be connected to the fact that a man psychologically has the confidence to be able push themselves harder and further; a confidence built upon the perception that their physical strength in general will be greater than the female gender.
Aggression is another psychological factor where men can be said to differ from women. Depending upon your viewpoint this can either be considered a female or male strength. It can be classed as a female strength because they are more able to control their aggression and indeed it is more difficult for them to reach an aggressive state. For the male it can be considered strength because they can focus this aggression upon enabling them to achieve a particular goal or objective.
Psychological strength differences of a sexual nature do not simply relate to the act itself, but are also determined by our specific gender differences. With sexual relationships there is no doubt that the female gender is driven more by emotional factors and the man by the physical, which means that one can argue that the female generally are psychologically stronger emotionally. However, it does not follow that the men are psychologically weaker in terms of child care and nurturing. In this situation the psychological strengths between the two genders is simply a matter of balance. In this situation men use different aspects of their psychological strengths than women when dealing with their children. Furthermore, both genders will call upon the same psychological strengths if faced with a situation which requires them to protect the child.
Recent tests carried out by the University of Wisconsin, show that in most other areas, there is virtually no psychological strength differences between the sexes at all, with both genders displaying very similar psychological reactions. This is supported by cultural evidence, which has shown that since the advent of equality of the sexes there is almost no psychological differences between the ways that the two genders approach issues such as childcare, work, sport, politics and other important life issues. Making comparisons is often misleading. In reality nature has designed the two genders to have compatible, but differing psychological strengths, simply to ensure that a suitable balance is achieved in the male/female relationship.


text:
McCann pleased with Halliday deal
Grant McCann says signing a natural right-back was a priority after the capture of Brad Halliday on a two-year deal.
The former Cambridge United man will join Rovers from July 1, and McCann believes he will add a lot to the side.
He said: "Brad is somebody who I have kept a close eye on for the past couple of years, he's an attacking full-back and will add to us.
"He's physically strong and a good size, he is exactly what a modern day right back is all about and will suit the way we play.
"It was a priority signing because we didn't have anybody in that position, I'd like to thank the board and everyone involved for allowing me to get it done."
With the way Rovers play demanding a lot from the full-back areas, the manager says Halliday will fit in well to the system.
He added: "He's come from a good background in terms of coming through at Middlesbrough, he's had a few loans and really kicked on during his time at Cambridge.
He will have to work hard over the course of pre-season to get used to the way we play, but I'm sure it won't take him long to get up to speed.
"We demand a lot from that position, but as we saw last season Danny Andrew was a real asset to us in defence and attack."
Grant McCann