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Trending Buffalo January 9, 2015
(Editor's note: Mixed into a rambling narrative about the current state of affairs in the NFL loaded with historical and pop culture references, Mr. Brutal makes some football picks. Why…
War of 1812 Football Prognostication- Divisional Weekend & National Championship
By Trending Buffalo - January 9, 2015
(Editor's note: Mixed into a rambling narrative about the current state of affairs in the NFL loaded with historical and pop culture references, Mr. Brutal makes some football picks. Why does he call it the "War of 1812 Football Prognostication"? He likes history, he's Canadian, and it probably has something to do with those two facts. That's all we've got.)
4:30 pm Eastern Standard Time
Baltimore Ravens @ NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (-7) 48
Last week we predicted Joe "Mega-Dough" Flacco would come through against the Steelers even though we frowned on his indifferent performance all season. You can't just say he turns it on when it matters, because his poor play going down the stretch could easily have put the Ravens out of the playoffs. Baltimore is here more because of luck & the failure of other teams to win key games.
But Joe's play does seem to rise in the playoffs because he takes the pressure off himself by playing so poorly in the regular season. When people have low expectations he then starts to deliver. He also realizes that the playoffs mean he might make more money through new contracts, bonuses and endorsements since management, fans & sponsors are suckers for recent success, like the last time when he led the Ravens to a Super Bowl title.
With a healthy defense coming into New England, this is the last team The Brain, Brady & Gronk wanted to face. Momentum counts in the onslaught of Ice Ages, receding hairlines, fluorocarbon fueled changes to the climate and NFL teams winning convincingly on Wild Card Weekend.
This could be a cold, hard hitting contest where the Ravens have the balance, the experience, the pass rush, the mojo & the enigmatic King Midas quarterback to beat the Patriots outright, …… who despite their record are still flawed and have been somewhat inconsistent over the last couple of weeks.
Pick: Ravens (+7)
Bob: Ravens +7
Carolina Panthers @ SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (-10) 40
Early weather reports are shocking. There could be precipitation Saturday night in Seattle.
The Seahawks usually play a lot of weather appropriate and raucous theme music to incite their rowdy fans, so don't expect to hear a lot of predictable, limp, weaksauce pop tart sludge like B.J. Thomas singing "Raindrops keep falling on my Head" or Prince squealing the lame narrative of "Purple Rain."
However, due to local prejudice they do tend to play a bit too much tired, low level musicianship grunge music. To throw Carolina off, we have several suggestions that might confuse the Panthers & incite the 12th Man to even greater heights of vocal mayhem.
Suggested Songs about Rain to be played in CenturyLink Field Saturday to incite the fans:
1.) "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" – Bob Dylan
Supposedly written about the Cuban Missile Crisis and its potential apocalyptic aftermath, this song was actually conceived by Mr. Zimmerman weeks before the 1963 showdown. However, the song has mystifying wordplay and a central theme spelled out via the unique Dylan style of vague observational statements delivered through Delphian proclamation. The whole song's chords, words, timber and mood make the listener think something really, really, really bad and serious is about to befall them. Perfect for Panther ears on Saturday night.
2.) "Rain" – Status Quo
The all time Kings of English Boogie Rock deliver a typical 3/4 time signature foot stomper. Played at typical ear-bending volume with chanting fans screaming in tandem it could really annoy & discombobulate Superman's super sensitive hearing.
3.) "Rain" – The Beatles
An under-appreciated gem from the Lennon-McCartney writing team that mesmerizes with off beat atonal harmony and drips with flippant sarcasm and general disdain typical of a John Lennon vocal delivery. The Beatles had so much material for their 1966 "Revolver" album that this gem was left off and released only as the "B" side to the "Paperback Writer" single release.
The song features the first ever use of "Backward Masking" or more correctly "Backmasking" on a commercial recording. A taped part of the song is played backwards through the reel to reel and re-recorded. It is used toward the end of the song as an effect, and foreshadowed much of the innovative recording experiments and methods that the Beatles would bestow upon the world with the future releases of "Sergeant Pepper," "The White album" and "Abbey Road."
Backmasking technique was later blamed by Christian fanatics in the 1970's & early 80's for encouraging young people to commit murder, do drugs and become satanists through listening to suggestive messages delivered to the subconscious. Specific bands cited for hiding subliminal messages through the technique were Led Zepplin, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Blue Oyster Cult, Frank Zappa & Roger Waters.
Of course many of the artists were sued, but they always won in court and many artists started to deliberately put backward messages into their recordings to mock the stupidity of the situation.
The Rain song by the Beatles should be used as a weapon in Seattle because it can unsettle the listener with its opening lines sung with snide indifference by the late John Lennon:
"If the Rain comes, they run and hide their heads,
They might as well be dead!"
4.) "Rain Dance" – The Guess Who
Disgracefully ignored by the totally bogus Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame nomination committee { a group that makes Sports Hall of Fame inconsistencies appear as inconsequential as an Adam Sandler movie or a Sarah Palin brainstorm }
Rain Dance appears to be another cryptic yet upbeat song until it changes mood only two lines in with the dark and abstruse question:
"Where'd you get the gun John?"
….. followed by the somber baritone chorus done in Native American style pentameter,
"Rain Dance, Rain Dance, don't you wanna Rain Dance?
Don't you wanna Rain Dance with me"
….. disturbing on many levels and generally awesome as well as politically correct since lead singer Burton Cummings is 1/4 Metis [ mixed French Canadian & Indian Heritage ].
5.) "Wings Wetted Down" – Blue Oyster Cult
lesser known ditty from their incredible treble happy second album "Tyranny and Mutation." One of the best titled records of all time and one of the strangest and versatile when it came to content and style.
Possibly based around a Pablo Neruda poem, "Wings Wetted Down" is replete with disturbing wolf howls & the sound effects of blood soaked bathtub water sucking down the drain at accelerated speed. Its lyrics revolve around gargoyles, vampires, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse & endless rain pelting hoards of mutants maneuvering for dominance in a Dystopian fantasy world.
All in all, a perfect anthem for the silver, blue & night glow green clad inhabitants of the outdoor Thunderdome.
Normally 10+ points is too big a spread for these Super Bowl Champs to safely cover against a Panther team that plays steady defense and runs a ball control offense. However the definitive confirmation of the loss of star DT Star Lotulelei { 7 tackles & 2 sacks in the game against Atlanta } for the playoffs with a fractured foot offsets the Seahawks' loss of DT Jordan Hill and tips the scales towards a rare Seahawk blowout.
Kryptonite is green, … Seattle is the Emerald City, …. Superman Cam Newton and the Panthers go down badly in Seattle and as prophetically spoken in BOC's "Wings Wetted Down."
"Pursued by an army of birds in the rain……"
…. Could any lyrics be more appropriate?
{ The title of the album "Tyranny & Mutation" does not refer to the first face to face meeting between Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones }
Pick: SEAHAWKS (-10)
Bob: Seahawks -10
Dallas Cowboys @ GREEN BAY PACKERS (-6.5) 53
The Troll Gatekeeper Governor of New Jersey was at it again last Sunday, taking time off from instituting impeded access for Billy Goats Gruff & Jersey taxpayers trying to cross over bridges into New York City. There he was again, sitting in the glorified loge penthouse, soaking up the ambiance, & hoarding most of the oxygen available in Jerry Jones' private box in Dallas.
As the lead up to the 2016 Presidential Election approaches, there is no substrate level to which this lap-banded hobgoblin will not stoop to obtain influence, support & most importantly financing for his run for the Republican Presidential nomination. Of course there is no conflict of interest/influence having Jerry Jones paying for all of Christie's travel expenses including private jets. Certainly the fact that the Governor recently approved a huge Port Authority contract to a company owned by Jones is totally irrelevant.
When the Cowboys won last week, the Chrisinator pulled out his patented, spastic, uncoordinated two handed high five celebration that misfired yet again and ended up with awkward hugs & Buddha belly bumping with the various Jones' relatives, in-laws, shills & Yes Men that occupy that esteemed apartment.
Dressed in his miniature red pullover amidst the Dallas meets Wall Street dress code of navy & white of the other sycophants, the Governor of the Garden State stood out like a red thumb, or rather fat plum opposible digit. He hopped up and down like a top half only clothed Winnie the Pooh Bear challenging the limits of that three sizes too small Christmas sweater to cover his still substantial girth.
The more we see of Chris Christie during these football games, the more he physically emulates a contorted McDonaldland milkshake stealing Grimace monster morphing into an adolescent Jabba the Hut. His desperate kowtowing to the donor people that could make or break his Presidential primary campaign run and his pathetic effort to be accepted by the money class that he worships on National TV probably won't even hurt him in the present political climate.
A lot of people actually buy into this bully's contrived story-line of "Just a regular guy staying true to his principles and cheering for his childhood dream team despite the politically motivated criticism of others."
Of course this game featured one of the most celebrated sleazebag call reversals of all time, and of course it favoured Dallas, allowing the Cowboys a cleaner path to victory. With eight minutes to go, Lions leading 20-17, third down, an obvious pass interference/holding call was mysteriously reversed by an official fifty feet away without any explanation after they had already announced it and marched it off. The crowd cried & booed like the spoiled Texas fair-weather brats they are & Cowboy WR Dez Bryant ran on the field, removed his helmet and pleaded/demanded the referee reverse the call, but this blatant violation was strangely ignored and didn't get the Cowboys the 15 yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct they clearly deserved.
Then predictably, Detroit coach Jim Caldwell who is more conservative than an 17th Century Pilgrim chose to not go for the first down on fourth and less than a yard at midfield. The punter then shanked a 10 yard punt and the rest unfolded like a bad dime novel ending in a Cowboy victory.
On the crucial last drive, fourth down and six, the officials ignored a blatant hold on N. Suh that would have made the Cowboys have to convert a fourth and sixteen. The League admitted the "overlook" on Tuesday, fat lot of good that did for Detroit.
The Lions maybe would have lost anyway & certainly didn't play well in the second half. However, the momentum was obviously stifled by the reversal and nobody believes that if the exact same play had been called on the Lions, that the officials would have dared ever reverse it like they did for the Cowboys.
The malodoriferous stench of the whole affair is nauseating. "America's Team" miraculously advances one step closer to the Super Bowl & the NFL drools over the ratings potential.
Of course when we use the term "stench" when talking about Governor Christie, we are not merely just employing a graphic exaggeration device. Earlier in his career he moved to stop New Jersey state officials from attending sporting events & concerts on the taxpayer dime. He outlawed the established practice of scores of government employees & associates going to the Meadowlands & Prudential Centre Arena to watch games and concerts in the comfort of private boxes.
Everyone was banned from doing so, ……. except of course himself.
Christie & his office still received 40 free tickets & access to private boxes for every game and concert in New Jersey's publicly owned arenas & stadiums. When confronted with the hypocrisy of it all, he explained it was his job to promote the home teams on behalf of the state. This despite the fact he professes to be a lifelong Cowboys fan, so his promotion of the Jets and Giants was just typical insincere politician grandstanding. It was also common knowledge that these tickets were often scalped at a substantial profit.
The other reference to Governor Christie and stench refers to the porcine type.
Earlier in the year, the New Jersey legislature passed a bill by an overwhelming 80% vote to outlaw cruel, cramped undersized cages to raise pigs in. The bill had even larger poll support among New Jersey voters and even a strong majority of farmers. Well, the compassionate conservative Christie vetoed the bill, Why?
Well Iowa has a lot more individual pig farmers than New Jersey, but more importantly several very large agribusiness pork producers. They also are far less compassionate about animal rights and loathe any type of government regulation.
Christie is obviously looking to suck up to the big money in the state to perform well in the upcoming Iowa Caucus. Animal rights, ethics or the wishes of the New Jersey voters be damned.
Iowa has a thing about pigs. Recently, they elected a real intellect to the United States Senate. Republican Jody Ernst ran a campaign showing commercials with her needlessly shooting guns at a range and bragging about how she joyfully castrated hogs as a youth. She then explained that this is what she will do to all the pork in Washington while loud sound effects of squealing pigs played in the background.
Sadly, these commercials contained the most in-depth discussion involving the issues during her whole campaign.
Not wanting to bust a good lucky streak or opportunity to get camera time, Jerry Jones has invited Christie to come to Cheesehead Land on Sunday to watch the game from the visiting owner's box. He will share the experience again with the usual coterie of extended Jones family hopeful heirs, fawning parasites & all the other various snotty divas and lords who were born on third base but believe they hit a triple.
If the Cowboys win, maybe Jerry can avoid injury from lame duck Christie's frightening celebration misfires by taking preventative measures and calming the beast by quickly patting him on the head & rubbing his substantial belly.
This week Jones took to the airwaves and declared that he needed Christie's mojo for the Cowboys to keep winning. He then speculated that the Governor deserved a Super Bowl Ring if Dallas won and that also if the Cowboys won he deserved to become President of the United States because he would have proven he can handle pressure after having to endure so much criticism & pressure for his Cowboy allegiance.
He said this with a straight face.
No wonder singer, entertainer & one time Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Kinky Friedman weighed in with his controversial observation this week. On an ESPN talk show, Friedman observed that the Jones-Christie dynamic is the biggest unrequited latent homosexual relationship involving a public couple since Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
ESPN then cut his microphone and apologized to the audience like the wimps they are.
{ Friedman is definitely not homophobic. He supported gay marriage in the Texas Governor's race because "They have the right to be as miserable as the rest of us." }
Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers had a sore calf even before N. Suh did that little lumberjack log rolling number on his calf two weeks ago, so him sitting out a day of practice this week even after a week off, does raise some eyebrows.
Regardless, there will be frigid cold at Lambeau where the thousands of Packer Owners will be seated outside in the thousands of seats they sit in every week contrasting with the uber capitalist Cowboys' owner & the sleazebag sidekick Governor who will pose for the cameras from their climate controlled, glassed in world.
Dallas hasn't lost on the road and Green Bay hasn't lost at home, so something has to give. It'll be the Cowboys' secondary, even if super sub Matt Flynn has to come in to fill in for a one legged Rodgers.
Pick: PACKERS (-6.5)
Bob: PACKERS -6.5
Indianapolis Colts @ DENVER BRONCOS (-7.5) 54
There is no shortage of news & notoriety involving people called Andrew lately:
1.) There is the Prince Andrew Sex Scandal where billionaires, politicians & even Alan Dershowitz's name have surfaced in an Anglo-American schmozzle with enough legs to make headlines for quite a few more news cycles.
2.) There is Andrew Wiggins, #1 draft pick in the NBA who is quietly improving this season with the Minnesota Timberwolves and making some wonder if General Manager LeBron James trading of him for Kevin Love was a mistake.
{ Fans in Cleveland have every legitimate reason to be concerned. The short term sellout of the Cavaliers by his highness may damage the team more than it was before he returned. There is no guarantee that Love will re-sign, the recent acquisition of J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and the Moscow Mountain, Timofey Mosgov are desperate, short term band aids.
Worst of all, King James himself appears to not be playing with much intensity, sits out games and one can't tell if it is old age, nagging injuries or a lack of will to play hard like his memorable Cavaliers' non-effort in game six of the Eastern final against the Celtics five years ago.
Then a couple weeks ago after the Christmas game against the Miami Heat which Cleveland lost by 10 points, he spoke with Dwayne Wade at mid-court and covered his mouth with his jersey so people & cameras couldn't lip read him. Unfortunately for him, highly sensitive microphones picked up his conversation when he said:
"If this thing here doesn't work out in the next year, I'll just come back to Miami & we'll do it all again." ….. there were no smiles, smirks or any sense of irony between the two, and why would anyone cover their mouth for 30 seconds to have a normal conversation unless they were talking about post game activities involving hookers, drugs or sedition?
3.) Comedian Andrew Dice Clay has actually recently seen a small boost in his classic concert DVD sales.
4.) There are rumours that there will be a "Hot Fuzz" movie sequel which means a return of "The Andes" the worst pair of incompetent homicide detectives since "Thompson and Thompson" in the Tintin books and the two guys who interviewed Matthew McConaughey in "True Detective."
5.) To the surprise of almost nobody, Andrew Luck out dueled Andrew Dalton last week to lead the Colts over the Bengals and on into Denver for this showdown with Peyton Android & the Broncos.
Colts keep it closer than expected thanks to the sheer will of Andrew Luck to show up the washed up, stiff necked legend he replaced In Indianapolis.
Pick: Colts (+7.5)
Bob: Colts +7.5
"So Called" CFP [ College Football Playoff ] National Championship presented by AT&T
{ Jerry Jones' Taj Mahal, Arlington, Texas }
[2] Oregon Ducks (-6.5) vs. [4] OHIO STATE BUCKEYES 75
[13-1] [13-1]
So what is the ethical choice in this game? Urban "Blight" Meyer and his stacked roster of talent that dwarfs all the other teams in the impotent Big X?
{ Really 12, 13, 14 or is it 16? …… who can tell, who can remember the actual number, since you actually have to look it up since they won't rename the damn conference. }
Pope Urban brought his unique approach to recruiting, coaching and mentoring "student athletes" to Columbus, Ohio several years ago & virtually has gone undefeated. They missed out on the championship or bowl games last year due to penalties arising from previous Ohio State transgressions.
This is something Urban Renewal is very familiar with. Since he bailed out of Gainesville, Florida when it appeared a major NCAA investigation was going to blow the manhole cover off that cesspool criminal college of recruiting, academic and felonious behaviour violations. As it turned out, the investigation of the University of Florida petered out, but Meyer explained his running away as necessary for "medical reasons," "stress relief," and to spend more time with his family.
This lasted a couple of months, then he took on a full slate of broadcasting duties for the following year & then midway through that signed on for the far less stressful job of running the Ohio State Buckeye football team.
He must be proud of his Florida legacy. No school has had more "graduates" charged with felonies, epitomized with the sordid O.J. meets Tony Montana antics of former Gator grad & Meyer pupil Aaron Hernandez.
When you say Oregon, you're saying Nike. The founder of that sports product monolith is a graduate of Oregon and he has literally spent billions on improving their sports teams & facilities. Like T. Boone Pickens at Oklahoma State & countless oil barons at Texas, money is no object when it comes to making your school a winner in sports.
Of course, cheering for Oregon brings some guilt too. Phil Knight's Nike empire is built on the backs of child labour in Vietnam, Cambodia, The Philippines, Indonesia and 40 odd other countries that have labour laws that reflect those of mid 19th Century Welsh coal mines. The working conditions of these sweatshops make the workhouse & orphanage in Oliver Twist look like Disneyland. Nike hasn't manufactured an athletic shoe in America for a very long time.
However, Oregon is the emotional & practical play here. No first time team has won the theoretical National Championship since 1994 when Steve Spurrier brought the University of Florida their first title. After that, the same tired usual suspects, culprits, cheaters, bullies & NCAA Apartheid powerhouses have shared the title every year.
Oregon has brought innovation to football offense & former coach Chip Kelly has brought it to the NFL. …. While we can thank Pope Urban for dispatching the even more unlikable ( it is debatable ) Nick "Chuckles" Saban and Alabama's "Payroll Tide" in the last round, we have to believe he will have trouble here with a Duck offense that isn't run by the "Slow to make adjustments at half time" Lane Kiffin ( who is even more despicable than Saban ).
Go Ducks!
Pick: Ducks (-6.5)
Bob: Oregon -6.5
Buffalowar of 1812 football prognostication
← I won't be at work today. I have an interview with the Bills.
Rex and Dez and… Bob! →


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Gli anticorpi anti-ssDNA, anche chiamati anti-DNA denaturato, sono autoanticorpi antinucleo diretti contro il DNA (ssDNA è sigla dell'inglese single stranded DNA), associati a numerose malattie autoimmuni, e in particolare al lupus eritematoso sistemico, dove sono presenti nel 50-60% dei casi.

Risultano presenti anche nelle tiroiditi autoimmuni, nella sclerodermia e nell'epatite autoimmune.

Note

Bibliografia

Voci correlate
Anticorpi anti-dsDNA
Anticorpi antinucleo

Immunologia clinica
Autoanticorpi

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Unseen War
chapter 4: Alice, documenting the strikes
Alice, documenting the strikes
James, uncovering hidden landscapes
James, power in a networked world
Noortje, the myth of information
Safdar, journalism in the tribal belt
Taha, between international media and tribal journalism
Sadaf, the story of FATA
Alice Ross is a reporter at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and runs a team that looks at drone strikes, particularly at off-battlefield locations in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia.
She talks to us about how she and her colleagues collect data from both public domain sources and field investigations, the groundswell of media attention on the drone issue in recent years, and what narratives they have been able to draw from their data about patterns of strikes. She also asks key questions about the legitimacy of a state-sanctioned targeted killing program?
How long have you been working on the issue of drone strikes?
The Bureau started investigating drones in early 2011and I joined the team the same year. We launched the first stage of our data in July, there was another phase in August 2011, and nearly since then we've been tracking drone strikes and running investigations about our findings.
Why did you decide to go into collecting and documenting all this data for drone strikes?
My colleague Chris Woods had been looking at drones as a matter of interest for some time, and he felt that of the available recording organisations there was a lack of emphasis on civilian casualties. We set out to reexamine all of the materials that were available in the public domain, with a specific emphasis on civilian casualties. What we found is that civilian casualties appear to be significantly under-reported in the independent estimates to date. Although the CIA was claiming that this was an exceptionally accurate and surgical weapon that caused almost no civilian casualties, in fact it appeared that hundreds of civilians were dying.
What is the process you use for collecting and documenting drone strikes?
It is a continuous process of adding to our knowledge about the drone strikes. Our starting point will be news reports, tweets, and press clippings, that kind of information. At a later stage many strikes are investigated, for example by field investigations run by news agencies or perhaps investigations runs by NGOs, and our processes continually add to our understanding of strikes. We never look at a particular drone strike and think we know everything there is to know. We will always be open to going back and advising in the light of new information.
What kind of data do you have? What are you looking for? Is it a database?
What we've put together is essentially a list of drone strikes. For each drone strike we record how may casualties are reported to have taken place, how many of those casualties were reported to have been civilians, and how many people are reported to have been injured. We also look at all of the available reports and put together a narrative indicating what's reported to have happened at what time. That narrative can be very unclear - while one source might say a vehicle was hit, another might say a compound was hit. We try very hard not to make a decision about that. We simply say some sources said this, and other sources said that. We also include all of the references, all of the sources that we've used, so people can really look through the material and come to a decision on their own. From those individual strike records, we also put together a tally of the total number killed.
Because in a single strike some reports might say that seven people have been killed and other reports say nine people have been killed, over time you end up with a huge range from a minimum to a maximum number of people killed. Data for Pakistan at the moment will show between 2,500 and 3,500 people killed. So we can't say with certainty what that number is, but we feel it is somewhere in that range based on the reporting we have.
Aside from the news reports, tweets, and NGO reports, there have been a couple of leaks of both Pakistani and US data, and we have reconciled those with our data as well. My colleague Chris Woods obtained a Pakistani document showing their estimates of every single strike, or series of strikes, between 2006 and 2009. So we have included those as well. Our data can take all sorts of forms and it's not what you might conventionally think of as data. It's gleaned from all over the place, then we condense and try to make sense of it.
But there are still major sources of information which are completely inaccessible to us, and they are the CIA's own estimates; the American government's own estimates and accounting of how many people it feels are being killed, its own assessment of individual incidents. They are really the missing piece of the puzzle of the drone campaign, which at the moment are completely secret.
How do you verify and identify disinformation?
is a very, very complicated issue. We work with reports created by credible news organisations, so their verification processes are our verification, if you like. If we are relying on tweets, we will rely on people we are familiar with. There are simple ways to verify tweets..
For official sources, in a way they tend to come with their own pedigree. There are certainly sources we have found to be unreliable in the past, so we keep those ones in a sort of quarantine and won't include them in our references. We try to work with really trusted journalists.
What is the most difficult story you have obtained from that information collection process?
The biggest challenge for us is that there is so much information available on drone strikes that it is essentially a full-time occupation for one member of our team to stay on top of all the material that is coming out. It's a huge challenge simply being able to digest everything that has been put into the public domain. However, information on specific drone strikes can be very vague and sometimes two accounts can be completely contradictory. So we make efforts to return to journalists, to ask them to revisit their notes.
Even when you reconcile those accounts, you can still end up with some incidents where simply very little is known because it has happened in a very far off place, an area that is out of bounds to journalists and to international media. It is dangerous even for local reporters because of the level of militancy in the area. So really the biggest challenge is the lack of information on particular incidents, particularly the lack of information about who is being killed. Often we will have the name of one individual, maybe a militant leader, but he will be one of six or seven people who was killed and we will know nothing at all about the people who have died alongside him. The Bureau has just launched a project called '
Naming the Dead
Featured on our Resources pages, Naming the Dead is a new project aiming to create a comprehensive database of which strikes happened and who was killed.
Naming the Dead' where we are attempting to identify as many people who have been killed as possible - it's really an attempt to address those gaps that exist, where we have an estimate of the number of people who have been reported to have been killed, but more often than not we don't know who they are.
You are also know for your investigations on the ground. How does that work?
We work with press reports and court records and all sorts of documentary evidence as our starting point for investigating drone strikes. However when we feel that there is a pattern, for example strikes that are very problematic or incidents that are of real concern, we will often use field researchers to go and investigate those strikes for us, to come up with an independent account of what is reported to have happened. My colleague Chris, for example, used this technique to investigate reports that drones were attacking rescuers and funerals. We investigated that twice now and both times we have found that drones have been attacking those who are rescuing people from the original drone strikes. To do that, we work with trusted journalists in the tribal areas. In certain instances, we have been able to rule out reports that civilians have been attacked while rescuing people from wreckage. So what we find in our field investigations doesn't always mirror what's is in the initial reporting, but in the majority of cases we have found that it does tend to reflect and add detail to what's already been reported.
Can you tell us more about how your data has been used so far?
The most common use of our data is as source of information for news reports. Every day we will see news reports citing our overall statistics on the drone campaign and in newspapers around the world. We also publish a monthly report which get picked up quite widely by the press. The data is also being used to inform academic reports and studies, for example the report, which was published last year by Stanford and NYU universities. Chris' investigation into attacks on funerals and rescuers was cited by two UN Special Rapporteurs on terrorism and extra-judicial killings as a potential war crime. The UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism has now opened an investigation into drone strikes.
How important is information visualisation in your work?
Visualisation is a very, very important part of communicating, and some of the most powerful work that is being done using our data has been some of the visualisation. There is a visualisation called '' that alone has probably had as many re-tweets and as many hits and visits as some of our larger investigations. It reached people in a very immediate way where words sometimes don't. The real ability of the visualisation is to lay out for people the shape of this campaign, and the numbers of deaths that are reported to have taken place.
Do you let others use your evidence and data?
We work closely with all sorts of other organisations, whether they are researchers, visualisers, students or technology experts who might be putting together different projects. We provide our data to them and it is fascinating to see the types of project that they come up with. For example a developer called Josh Begley came up with a project where he attempted to tweet every drone strike in the last ten years in 24 hours, which ended up taking him several weeks because there were so many drone strikes. That was a project that really captured peoples' imagination, as the project combines information from our data about individual drone strikes with a simple photo of where that strike took place. Again, a photo is an incredibly simple and powerful way of conveying some of the impact of the reality of the strikes.
Can you tell me a bit more about two forms of impact your work has had - on the one hand the impact on actions and decisions in the West, but also the impact when the data goes back to where you gathered it from?
When we first published our data in 2011, there was fairly little media attention in the United Kingdom. There was some media attention in the United States, but it was really quite self-contained. It didn't make a huge impact, but what we have seen over the time that we have been working is that work by us and other organisations has led to a groundswell in the amount of focus on drones. This happened to the extent whereby, even though the drones in Pakistan are a covert CIA program, Barack Obama stood up and made a speech about them in May in which he acknowledged that drones have caused civilian casualties. He acknowledged that there is a difference between the US estimates of civilians casualties and those of independent observers. Those are really important steps that have brought the drone campaign out of this secret form of bombing into something which is a real political issue in the United States. Obviously accompanying that has been a real increase in activism around drones and a real increase in the debate.
One thing that we have seen in Pakistan, particularly since Imran Khan based his presidential campaign on opposition to drones, is a surge of anti-drone sentiment. They have become very hot political issue inside Pakistan. It's hard to gauge exactly what the response is within Pakistan because it is a very diverse culture and a very diverse country.
There have been a number of reports which claim that 90 percent of everyone killed in drone strikes is a civilian, and obviously our work counters that quite firmly. We find that around 20 percent of those killed in drone strikes are civilians. It's very hard to say where our work feeds into this but we do receive a lot of coverage from Pakistani sources, and I think that the overall tracking and quantifying of the harm done by drone strikes gives an evidential base for some of those reports.
Rather than simply documenting in a database, you work like journalists, and journalists are about telling stories. What kind of narratives do you seek out of the evidence you gather?
Over the time that we've been looking at drones we've seen their use change quite considerably, certainly in Pakistan. Civilian casualties have fallen significantly since we started looking at drone strikes. In 2010 at least a hundred civilians were killed in drone strikes, according to the report that we have. So far in 2013 (up to September) we haven't seen a single confirmed drone strike that killed civilians in Pakistan. That is a remarkable change. What we've also seen is that drone strikes have become much less frequent, and when they do strike they tend to kill senior named militants along with a number of other people whose names we might never discover. Drone strikes have also got smaller; each drone strike now kills fewer people on average. Those are important trends and we feel that what they reflect is a more careful targeting practice, and much closer attention to avoiding civilian casualties of the kinds that once took place on a very frequent basis. If you look at drone strikes in 2009, 2010, or during the Bush era, civilians died all the time. That is now a comparative rarity.
Another narrative that you can see over time is the impact on US relationships with Pakistan. For example in 2011 there was a series of events that hit the US relationship with Pakistan very badly - CIA agent Raymond Davis shot two Pakistanis in Lahore, and there was the Osama bin Laden raid of course, then there was a friendly fire incident that killed over twenty Pakistani soldiers. There was also a seven-week pause in drone strikes at the end of 2011, leading into 2012. So you can see how patterns of what is going on in the political sphere will really impact how drones are used.
Those are really important patterns, I feel.
What we have seen is drones being used to target not just senior terrorists, which is the narrative that the US presents, but quite often to target militant groups who are carrying out counterinsurgency over the border in Afghanistan. President Obama himself acknowledged that. In May, he said that this would now wind down as US troops withdraw from Afghanistan. What we are interested to see in the coming months is what the impact of the withdrawal from Afghanistan will be. Will drone strikes slow down completely? US Secretary of State John Kerry went to Pakistan at the beginning of August 2013 and he said that drone strikes will stop very, very soon. That was almost immediately contradicted by his own department, who said that they would never deprive themselves of a weapon or a tool that might prove useful. But I think it's an indication that overall drone strikes are on the wane in Pakistan, that we may have seen the worst of it. Obviously you can never predict that, but the general trend now is for a decline in drone strikes, meaning a decline in deaths.
Is your data telling you anything that would enable you to somehow reconstruct the US list of terrorist names, the disposition matrix, that is alleged to be used? Does it tell you anything about the 'black box' of intelligence gathered and how the decision is made to strike?
The thing is that in the absence of official transparency about the drone strikes, we are stuck trying to piece together a picture afterwards, like doing a jigsaw puzzle from the glass of a broken window or something. You are trying to piece together the clearest picture that you can, but ultimately the most detailed information about the drones, who they are targeting, why they are targeting that individual, what is known about the other individuals who might die alongside them, is all completely secret. So there is very, very little that we can say with confidence about the killing program that is in operation. Although drone strikes in general are in decline, and although we can say that is an improvement, the fact remains that this is a targeted killing program.
These drone strikes are not taking place on a battlefield. The legal framework under which they are taking place remains very, very contested. So even though we can that civilian deaths are falling precipitously, the question then is - is that good enough? Is it acceptable to have what is essentially a targeted killing program? Is this legitimising the practice of targeted killing?
If you were to name the major activist working on trying to reveal the drone programs in a different context, who would that be?
There was a peer research poll recently, which found that of all the types of warfare that they polled, women always opposed war more than men, across different nations and across different forms of war. But on drones the gender gap is greater than on any other weapons platform across almost all countries, and it's remarkable how large the difference is. I wouldn't want to speculate on why that is, but what you do find is that a number of the leading experts and campaigners on drones are women. You've got Hina Shamsi of the ACLU, Naureen Shah at Columbia Law School and now with Amnesty International, Jennifer Gibson and Kat Craig at Reprieve, Medea Benjamin and her colleagues at CodePINK... there is a trend.
Is there any link between the military application of drones and those used as weapons of surveillance? In the sense that they are being sold to the public as safe and good for politics, so everybody likes them...
I think there is a distinction that doesn't get made very often, that drones are used in three main ways. They are used for surveillance certainly, both in the military context and increasingly in civilian applications. Then there are military armed drones used alongside conventional weapons in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya for example. Then there is this third category of covert drone - drones which are used away from the battlefield to kill specific (or sometimes not that specific) individuals or groups who are believed to pose a threat. That is the area that we have studied because it seems to us the most problematic area of the use of drones, because it happens in a legal framework that is certainly open for debate. It happens with no official transparency.
It was eight years into the Pakistani drone campaign, and ten years after the first non-battlefield drone strike, that Obama first acknowledged that drones were being used in that way. So for ten years drone use was a more or less open secret, but it was nonetheless a secret program. It's this covert use of drones that seems to us to be very problematic because there are issues about transparency and accountability. Who takes responsibility if someone's home is destroyed, or if a strike goes wrong and the wrong people are killed or wounded? Is it legitimate to simply kill people with no prior judicial process? It's effectively execution with no due process. These are really, really big important questions. At the moment there are very few nations that have armed drones, but the technology is advancing very fast and these are questions that need to be settled sooner rather than later, because there is a real danger of some very worrying precedents being created.


When my children were growing up I used to tell them that "Experience is a difficult teacher; she gives the test first and the lesson afterwards". I have found frequently throughout my career that I tend to learn the most when I fail. Mistakes are annoying and often embarrassing, however we tend to learn a lot more from them then we do from success.
I've assembled dozens and dozens of HobbyCNC boards. Most without incident. Occasionally a component backwards or missing but generally the product tests out very well. This evening however testing my final board, the A axis motor wasn't turning. The motor current setting was set at 3 Amps (0.42 volts). I could easily move the stepper motor with my fingers.
By chance, I looked at the microstepping jumpers. I test the boards at 1:2 microstepping (J1 installed). But for the A axis on this board, I forgot to put the jumper on J1. As soon as I added the jumper, the A axis started working perfectly.
I wonder if some of my customers might have had problems getting their axes to start turning and the problem might have been something as simple has no jumpers on the microstepping header!? Thanks to this simple mistake I've learned something new that will now go into my debugging FAQs!


Omni TV 2 (channel 14 on Roger's here in torontoland) has posted their listings (now at now at http://www.omnitv.ca/ontario/tv/supercinema/, see below) of "Super Cinema Night" for Sept Oct, Nov and early Dec are now up.
Update: Omni TV 2, in thier "wisdom" changed the url for listing, but kept the old page up!
It's now at http://www.omnitv.ca/ontario/tv/supercinema/. Stupid Rabbit!. Sorry for not catching this sooner.
I've previously blogged their schedule for Spring 2005, Winter 2005, and Fall 2004. This summer they were runing either really bad movies or reshowing from the past 12 months. the next couple of months looks more promising.
All Movies run on Saturday's at 9:00 PM and go for 2 hours till 11:00 PM.
A light weight romantic comedy. Sammy Leung, Stephy Tang Lai-Yun, Ella Koon, Kristal Tin, Yan Ng.
Looks interesing, and could be very good ( based on the IMDBreview). Lee Mi-Yeon (Lee Mi-Yeon), Choi Woo-Jae (Choi Wu-Je), Yoon Ji-Hye (Yun Ji-Hye).
Ack. I'm not a fan a Korean domed romance films.
Sounds like a romantic drama, very worth watching, especially because this is the debut film of Jun Ji-hyun, who has since gone on to star in the 2001 big hit My Sassy Girl (aka "Yeopgijeogin geunyeo" which if/when my sister-in-law returns the dvd I can watch!, a very good – if a little slow moving – romance film with a clever and sweet ending. I had the directors cut, but I don't if that changed the ending or inserted more material. Anyone are to comment? ), which became as massive Asian hit, and eventually became one of the most popular South Korean films among Asian-Americans in the United States. Hey, she has a Wikipedia entry so she must be Big! Park Sin-Yang, Jeon Ji-Hyeon, Jeon Mu-Song, Kim Se-Jun, Kim Young-Ok.
This entry was posted in Asian, Hong Kong & China, Movies, Toronto by Ian. Bookmark the permalink.
Next → Next post: High Park Ski Club starts another year of Fun!


After several months, this has been the best improvement to our entertainment system.
32 of the 314 reviewers have only reviewed this product. While this is more One-Hit Wonders than we'd expect to see, the discrepancy in ratings between the One-Hit Wonders and reviewers who have posted more than one review isn't significant enough to rule out the possibility of it being due to random chance.
32 of the 314 reviewers have had at least one of their past reviews for another product deleted. This is an excessively large percentage of Take-Back Reviewers which may indicate unnatural reviews.
61 of the 314 total reviews for this product use substantial repetitive phrases between them. These reviewers have rated this product an average of 4.5 while reviews without substantial repetitive phrases rated this product an average of 4.1. Based on our statistical modeling, the discrepancy in average rating between these two groups is significant enough to believe that the difference is not due to random chance, and may indicate that there are unnatural reviews.
We counted 314 reviews for this product over the span of 2,140 days, an average of 0.1 reviews per day. If these reviews were created randomly, there would be a 99.9% chance that we would see 2 or fewer reviews on any given day.
In total, we found that 20 reviews were created on just 6 days. Although any days with a larger number of reviews than expected is suspicious, these reviews do not appear to have a significant impact on the overall rating.
29 of the 314 total reviews for this product are unverified purchases. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.
47 of the 314 reviewers have substantial overlapping product review history. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.
4 of the 314 reviewers have reviewed other products for this brand. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.
2 of the 314 total reviews for this product admitted to receiving a free or discounted product in exchange for a review. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.


text:
Hurry up and wait for answers on policies that could impact farm estate plans
Changes to the federal estate tax limit, stepped-up basis and capital gains tax could hurt family farms. But whether such policies will change and, if they do, when that might be are still unknowns.
Erin Ehnle Brown / Grand Vale Creative LLC
By Myron Friesen
Uncertainty can bring anxiety because the unknown is hard to plan for and we don't know if trouble is lurking. With farm estate planning, about the last 10 years have been relatively stable with the federal estate tax limit generally increasing, stepped up basis rules remaining the same and other tax laws generally becoming more favorable. However, based on what has been outlined on the campaign trail by the democratic candidates, things are about to change and it certainly appears that a number of the changes could affect farm families adversely.
At this point, the unknown is wondering which of those proposals will actually become law and when they will become effective. Usually I don't like to spend a lot of time on things we don't know for sure and we cannot control, but I will mention a few of those things for now because many people are asking.
The federal estate tax limit: There have been proposals about reducing the federal estate tax limit from what would be $11.7 million per person for 2021 back to $5.85 million per person, which would represent reverting to the pre-Trump estate tax limit. Basically the federal estate tax limit would be cut in half. So married couples with an estate valued over about $11.7 million could have a federal estate tax problem. With rising land values, combined with strong equipment and grain values, this could propel many estates back into having a federal estate tax problem at a 40% rate.
Stepped-up basis: Stepped-up basis for farm families has long been a valuable tool when land, machinery, grain and livestock all get a new basis at a death. This has allowed the surviving spouse or children to re-depreciate those assets or sell them without tax. Now it seems as though there are two possible ways stepped-up basis may get changed.
The first proposal would be to eliminate stepped-up basis entirely, which initially would not be a taxable event, but it would eliminate the re-depreciation that is very valuable, and it could trigger a significant tax when an asset is sold.
The second version of the proposal is that there would still be stepped-up basis, but the estate of the decedent would have to pay for the stepped-up basis prior to the estate being distributed. This would represent an immediate tax to the estate and could apply to all assets, starting on the first dollar. For example, if you had land with $1,000/acre basis and now it is worth $9,000 per acre, there is $8,000 per acre of gain. If capital gain rates are 30%, that would mean you would have to pay $2,400/acre of capital gains tax prior to estate distribution. It would be as if you sold the asset, even if you didn't sell it and were just transferring it from one generation to the next. That could be very painful for every farm.
Capital gains tax: Speaking of capital gains tax, the proposals include increasing that rate to nearly what the income tax rates are. That could hurt when combined with stepped-up basis changes.
It seems as though these three tax law changes may be the ones that affect farm families the most. Of these three, the stepped-up basis could be the one that hurts the most, followed by the lowering of the estate tax limit, and finally, the capital gains rate change. These three changes could stack up and be double and triple whammies!
How soon will these changes become effective and could they be retro-active? That's a good question, but I fear changes could come sooner rather than later, since it appears as though some of the political checks and balances in the system are no longer in play. Stay alert to how changes could affect your farm. Go to https://www.farmestategps.com to sign up for next free seminar Monday, Feb. 8.
Myron Friesen is the co-owner of Farm Financial Strategies Inc. in Osage, Iowa. He can be contacted at 866-524-3636 or friesen@farmestate.com.
Related Topics: MYRON FRIESENAGRICULTURERURAL LIFE
The author recalls a time when the only thing that really mattered was putting food on the table and sharing it with others.
By Mychal Wilmes
Do our policy leaders have the right outlook to get a farm bill done this year?
Leadership takes honest reflection and thinking about the needs of others, Jenny Schlecht writes. With that in mind, do we have the right leaders to get a new farm bill passed by Sept. 30?
By Jenny Schlecht
5 must-read articles to learn the positive impact of beef past the farm gate
When Katie Pinke directed her daughter to a beef expert in preparation for her speech meet, it made her think about the need for trusted ag sources of information.
By Katie Pinke
Some South American rain mixes up the markets
Weather forecasts were calling for Argentina to see weekend rains and for more rain to fall in the six to 10 day forecast.
By Randy Martinson
Maddock Ranch has a history of success with regenerative grazing and putting marginal land into prairie grass


If you are interested in fashion and enjoy drawing, designing and making, this is the course for you. You do not need to have studied GCSE Textiles or have any sewing skills to join this course. It is not a problem if you cannot use a sewing machine as you will be taught.
Learn how to create fashion illustrations, working drawings, mood boards and design boards.
Research and learn about the history of design and use the results of purposeful research to inform own design ideas.
Develop pattern drafting techniques and pattern cut a capsule collection of 3 garments.
Construct 3 garments from own designs and patterns.
Learn a range of surface decoration techniques.
Design and make fashion accessories and womenswear garments.
Visit the V&A museum and the 'All Saints' flagship store Covent Garden London to research historical and contemporary art, design and fashion.
Visit Armley Mills in Leeds to learn about fabric construction.
You are a designer working for an accessory company. You are given a brief that instructs you to research and develop accessories. You gather research, demonstrating your ability to identify and select appropriate material selected from primary/secondary sources. You will record visually by exploring, experimenting and understanding the use of mark making techniques in 2D and 3D, a range of materials, techniques and processes.
The contemporary All Saints brand is going to develop and launch a new women's wear range for Autumn / Winter, the range will be targeted at a younger audience and have lower price points. You will research historical fashion and styles from the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods. As a freelance designer working for All Saints, your design brief is to design and develop three outfits inspired by your research of historical fashions and styles.
Your task is to pattern cut the garments for the new range for A/W. You will be working to tight lead times and must meet your deadline. You will construct the 3 garments that you have pattern cut and toiled. The lead time for the manufacturing process is 3 months.
GCSE Design & Technology, grade C is required.


Horray! 2 releases in one Blog post!
Unfortunately, it's not because I'm being generous. This release has some peculiarities.
To start off, "Kouryaku Casino Bar" might be a somewhat familiar name to someone who has a full ROM set of some sort..
You might've even seen this title screen before!
Now, this specific ROM dump, what's so different about it? Well, it seems that all I can do with it is play the Roulette game.
There's also an option which returns you to the BIOs, and some… other option. I forget.
Anyway, yeah. Before I was able to do all that, I had to try to boot up the ROM. And there's where I had my problems.
On SNES9X, this game will boot up without sound, and for some reason will not let you play the actual Roulette part (wtf?) so I tried booting the ROM up in BSNES… to no avail. Huh?
Callis told me he dumped it from a memory pack which also had "Game Tora no Ooana Special 2/24" on it. I requested he send me the "full" dump with both their data, and after I got it, I was able to have BSNES boot the data from both the games up successfully.
No, I don't know why. I don't think it makes any sense, either. It just happens! Is there some grand mystery of the Satellaview only Byuu knows? Ah, but I can't be speculating. ^^; Gotta keep moving.
So, yeah, for this double release, the RAR file has both the original dump with the merged ROMs, and the split ROMs. I'd recommend running the merged ROM in BSNES if you actually want to play anything.
Madhatter has shown to me a bit of a revelation about the nature of the Kouryaku Casino Bar downloads! They're apparently quite a bit more special than I initally anticipated!
☆Secret Club construction plans revealed!
A previously locked house of mystery within the "City" opens as a secret club on October 1.
However, the only people that may be admitted are those who have obtained eight pieces of Triforce and who gained the secret club entrance certificate from "BS The Legend of Zelda".


"The Re/Presentation of the Indigenous Caribbean in Literature." The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature. Ed. Cox, James H. and Daniel Heath Justice. Oxford UP, 2014.
"To be Anti-black is to be Anti-indigenous: Reflections on Emancipation." Stabroek News. Georgetown, Guyana. Column. July 28, 2014.
Creole Indigeneity: Between Myth and Nation in the Caribbean. University of Minnesota Press, 2012. Series: First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies.
"The Baptism of Soil: Rooplall Monar and the aesthetics of the kala pani modern." Journal of Caribbean Literatures. 6.3. 2011.


RCEIM is an educational outreach program of the Colorado Chamber Orchestra.
All donations to the Colorado Chamber Orchestra's RCEIM program are tax deductible. We welcome donations of instruments, music, and money for student scholarships.
Payments for the RCEIM program should be made payable to the Colorado Chamber Orchestra (CCO).


text:
US Congress plans tough Iran sanctions if deal fails
Published:Sunday | November 24, 2013 | 5:24 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday they are skeptical that Iran will stick to a new nuclear deal and want Congress to prepare beefed-up economic penalties to hit Tehran if the accord falls apart.
In an early morning announcement, Tehran agreed Sunday to a six-month pause of its nuclear program while diplomats continue talks aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. International observers are set to monitor Iran's nuclear sites and ease about $7 billion of the crippling economic sanctions.
But the announcement, after months of secret face-to-face talks between the United States and Iran, left many U.S. lawmakers deeply doubtful of the most significant agreement between Washington and Tehran after more than three decades of estrangement. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said Sunday he would work with colleagues to have sanctions against Iran ready "should the talks falter or Iran fail to implement or breach the interim agreement."
Such distrust that Iran was negotiating in good faith ran across political parties that are otherwise deeply divided. And ready-to-go sanctions seemed to have rare bipartisan support across both of Congress' chambers.
The House in July passed its latest round of sanctions against Iran with backing from both parties, but the measure stalled in the Senate.
President Barack Obama convinced Senate leadership to hold off consideration of the measure while negotiators pursued an agreement. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada agreed to the request but said his chamber would take up new sanctions in December — with or without an agreement with Iran.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, a member of his party's leadership team, said he was "disappointed" by the deal, which he called disproportional. The New York Democrat said sanctions forced Iran to negotiate and said he plans further discussions with colleagues.
"This agreement makes it more likely that Democrats and Republicans will join together and pass additional sanctions when we return in December," Schumer said.
Aboard the presidential aircraft, deputy White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters traveling to Washington state that new sanctions would undermine the international coalition the United States has built around the talks. Reporters asked Earnest if the president would veto legislation that includes new sanctions and the spokesman would not make a veto threat.
The Senate returns to session on Dec. 9 and lawmakers already were talking about sanctions designed to caution Iran that failure to use the six-month window to reach a deal would only leave Iranians in worse economic straits.
"Congress, I think, will want to make it clear that if Iran does not live up to these commitments, we will not only insist that the sanctions be reapplied, but we will have stronger sanctions against Iran," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.
Added Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.: "There is now an even more urgent need for Congress to increase sanctions until Iran completely abandons its enrichment and reprocessing capabilities."
In the House, the No. 2 Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said the threat of even tougher sanctions could help keep Iranian diplomats at the negotiating table for talks designed to prevent Tehran from being able to produce a nuclear weapon. Hoyer said he supports having the sanctions ready to go in case Iran proves an unreliable negotiating partner.
"It is appropriate that we wait six months to implement those, which will say to the Iranians: 'We need a final deal, and if not a final deal, these tougher sanctions are going to go into place,'" Hoyer said.
Washington has been layering sanctions against Iran since 1987, crippling its economy and putting pressure on the nation's middle class. Many of those economic penalties are set to remain in place during the six-month negotiating window announced Sunday.
But lawmakers seemed to expect talks to collapse, forcing them to restore old sanctions and levy new ones.
"If Iran does not consent to a comprehensive agreement that ensures it cannot acquire a nuclear weapon, there is a broad consensus in Congress to impose even tougher sanctions," said Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
A deep distrust of Iran pervaded Sunday's discussion of the deal.
"We need to be very, very careful with the Iranians," said Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "I don't trust them, I don't think we should trust them. .... Sanctions should always be hanging there because that's what brought Iran to the table in the first place."
Rep. Ed Royce, the California Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Iranians "are capable of cheating."
Republican House Speaker John Boehner, too, said the six-month pause deserves healthy skepticism.
"Iran has a history of obfuscation that demands verification of its activities and places the burden on the regime to prove it is upholding its obligations in good faith while a final deal is pursued," he said.
Rep. Mike Rogers, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House intelligence panel, was more critical of a deal he said aids "the leading nation-state of terror."
"We have just rewarded very bad and dangerous behavior," he said.
During interviews on Sunday, some lawmakers compared the current deal with the 1990s pact that gave North Korea a respite from sanctions if they promised to stop work on their nuclear program.
"We've seen what's happened in North Korea; they now have nuclear weapons. And I don't want to see that happen in Iran," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
Added Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.: "We've trusted the Iranians before, just like the North Koreans, on nuclear issues, and what have we gotten for it?"
Cardin and Corker spoke with "Fox News Sunday." Hoyer was on CBS' "Face the Nation." Engel, Royce and Rogers appeared on CNN's "State of the Union." Chambliss joined ABC's "This Week."


Discussion in 'Conventions and Prop Parties' started by MatrixSpoon, Aug 25, 2018.
As Dragoncon 2018 has just ended, we all are sad.
The 5th Annual RPF meet at Dragoncon in 2018.
to be able to see old friends as well as make new ones.
as well as we hope to meet so many more new friends in the future.
and we will be designing a new custom badge as well.
or bring something that your working on to the meetup.
Please simply post on this forum saying "I'm attending the meetup".
please let us know that you will not be able to attend the meetup.
the 2018 Dragoncon RPF Meet as well as any updates.
Please check back for more info & updates on the meet up.
This first page will have a list of all the updates.
In case you all don't know, Sept 21st 2018 is the last day to buy your ticket / membership for Dragoncon 2019 at the cheapest available rate of $85.00. I thought I would let everyone know. I have included a photo of the cutoff and a link to purchase your membership for next year.
We'll be there. Bought our tickets on Monday before we left. Now waiting on hotel blocks to open up.
I have added your name to the attendees list on the first page, as always we can't wait to see you again.
Wasn't able to make it to the Con the past 2 years, but will definitely be there next year! See y'all there!
Glad to hear that your going to be making it next year, so sorry you missed that last two. Are you going to be attending the meetup?
I have added your name to the attendees list on the first page, as always we can't wait to see you again. Be sure to check back closer to the event for more updates you'll need to respond to.
So whats everyone's opinion on the new site design? Personally I'm not liking it, we lost a lot of different posting abilities and that stinks in my opinion. Also the layout is very plan and bla.
Yeah, they said that "they" were going to update the site, to "catch up" to society and technology. But I feel like they stepped back a few decades. I feel like I had to hear my modem dial up on AOL and then see this site. The site, layout, and colors were so much better on the old site. But that's just my opinion.
This is crap, I clicked the "quote" button and it didn't even add your quote Manhattan to my last post. I'm hating this update more and more that I discover you can't do anything we used to be able to do.
Got mine last week. Cant access The RPF form tapatalk anymore. Anyone else having this issue.
So far not really digging the new site design.
I don't use that, but I'm having a lot of issues with a lot of the things. I personally hate the new update. And from what I'm hearing I'm not the only one.
yeah I don't spend a lot of time on my laptop at home so I read the RPF on my phone cause its just easier. Hopefully they will fix some of this.
Looks like Im building another set of armor for Stephanie. She liked Thumper so much she decided she wants a set. Thats four new cosplays for next year. Luckily two of the four are mostly makeup and regular clothes. thats gives me nine months to source and build. Think I have most everything I need for the armor.
Can you believe next year is the 20th for The Matrix! Man Im getting old fast.
Mike J. and MatrixSpoon like this.
I can't confirm that I'm coming (at all), but I "unpaused" a costume project to start the year and hope to have it ready for DragonCon. The new costume is from CW's Arrowverse. Lots of sewing, leatherworking and prop crafting up ahead, if I want to do it all. I found boots that are pretty close, but didn't buy them yet and instead bought boots that I think suit the cosplay a lot better (they were cheap - waiting for them to arrive from China). I ordered pants & gloves for the costume as well, but I already have fabric for the other parts, so I'll try to make everything else myself. I've done enough research to get started, so now I need to figure out what to make first. I'll probably start a thread on the DC area just to keep my motivation going.
We wish you luck tiga, may the force be with you, I have ideas to work and finally finish a lot of the cosplays I have yet to finish, as well as start new ones. We hope that everything works out for you and and that you'll be able to attend. We still have a good amount of time till the event.
Where exactly is this being held? I must have missed seeing it.


text:
They spent three months training in Dubai. What did they get out of?
Actress Antonina Gerić Dzenesevich has passed away
It has always been said that the iPhone 14 Pro will be deprived of the distinctive notch in the screen in favor of a central hole. However, it has recently been reported that it is not a hole, but holes.
iPhone 14 Pro with two asymmetrical holes in the screen?
Ross Young & Hersp; – & Hersp; Display Industry Analyst – ClaimsApple has yet to finish working on hiding all Face ID sensors under the screen. so & hairsp; – & hairsp; Apart from selfie & hairsp camera; – & hairsp; The plate has another rectangular slot.
According to the leaks, It will look like iPhone 14 Pro To some extent:
If these reports are confirmed, the iPhone 14 Pro will be the first iPhone in history with an asymmetrical front.
This design is controversial, but Apple loves controversy
Apple does not hide the fact that Recognition values more than visible values your products. A peek is enough to tell you're looking at an iPhone.
This is why later iPhones look almost identical for 10 years. That's why Apple has opted for a controversial design and has been sticking with it since 2017, despite the fact that technology has long allowed it to fill every nook and cranny of the screen.
The market is already full of smartphones that have holes in their screens. Round and rectangular. Singles and doubles. However, no smartphone has such a combination that the iPhone 14 Pro is supposed to have, so the new flagship will visually stand out from the crowd.
See also Artificial intelligence improves the models from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. NPCs get a new, truly realistic look
Moreover, there are rumors that there may be something else…
The iPhone 14 will likely be shown for the first time in September.
Tesla gets a patent for laser wipers
It looks like Tesla wants to use lasers instead of standard wipers in the future. I applied for a patent for this solution. The...
Amber RuizSeptember 15, 2021


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JFrog Distribution is an on-premise, centralized platform that lets you provision software release distribution. It is a core part of JFrog Enterprise+, managing Release Bundles and their distribution processes, including release content, permission levels, and target destinations.
Distribution provides a secure and structured platform to distribute release binaries to multiple remote locations and update them as new release versions are produced. As part of the release flow, release bundles are verified by the source destination to ensure that they are signed correctly and safe to use.
Efficient network utilization by optimizing replication, dramatically reducing network load and release bundle synchronization time from source Artifactory to target instance or Edge node.
JFrog Distribution requires an Enterprise+ license.
JFrog Artifactory: all features available with an Enterprise license as well as Access Federation and the ability to work with Artifactory Edge. For more details, please refer to the JFrog Artifactory User Guide.
JFrog Distribution: an on-premise, centralized platform that lets you provision software release distribution. These are described in the sections on this page and its sub-pages.
JFrog Xray: universal analysis of binary software components at any stage of the application lifecycle providing unprecedented visibility into issues lurking in components anywhere in your organization. For more details, please refer to the JFrog Xray User Guide.
For more details, please refer to the JFrog Mission Control User Guide.
Before going into details of how to use JFrog Artifactory Enterprise+, we strongly recommend that you read the JFrog Enterprise+ User Guide which gives a high level view of the complete JFrog Enterprise+ offering and shows how all of its components work together to provide an end-to-end solution for fast release and distribution of binary artifacts.
A release bundle is created by calling the Create Release Bundle REST API endpoint on JFrog Distribution. This call specifies a variety of parameters including the files comprising the release bundle, and different properties associated with it. Since a release bundle is immutable, any file included in a release bundle cannot be deleted from Artifactory. JFrog Distribution collects the required metadata about the artifacts specified in the request (as an AQL query).
In this step, JFrog Distribution queries JFrog Mission Control for details on the distribution target nodes. It then primes the target nodes to receive the distributed packages by providing information about distributed files such as their checksum, and providing a GPG key to validate the authenticity of the bundle as a whole.
In this step, JFrog Distribution invokes the Replicator on Artifactory which distributes files over to the target node by replicating them.
In this step, JFrog Distribution notifies the Edge node that the transaction is complete. In turn, the Edge node validates authenticity of the transferred bundle using the GPG key provided when the transaction started. It then validates the integrity of the transferred files by validating their checksum and hosts them in the correct place as specified in the release bundle.


Hi,my name is Noel Swalling of Adelaide,South Australia.
tised on the 14th June 1801 in Little Baddow, Essex. Edward (1801) married Elizabeth Alger when he was 24.
married Eliza Blanks (a cousin), a daughter of Lazarus (born 1783) an elder brother of Edward (1801)in 1845.
66 and that Edward (1826) died in 1885.
Any new information of changes in situation/work or social life would be appreciated.
Thomas Murphy married Bridget White c. 1790 Borris, County Carlow.
I am trying to gain more information on the Murphy family from Borris (was Idrone) County Carlow.
Ann born 1841,Frances born 1842,Robert jnr.born May 1844, died May -June 1844, and Sophia born 1851.
family migrated to Australia in 1856 on the barque "Eliza" leaving Southampton on 20th May.
and any other family members.
274742 members have posted 65339 journals.


A RARE FIND, over 3,200 sqft on ONE LEVEL sitting on 5.3 acres within 2 miles of LAKE WYLIE. NO HOA to contend with. Home has 4 large bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 20x19.6 living room with a fireplace. A super large 50x20 great room/play room was added in 1999 (1,000 sqft addition to the original structure). The great room leads to an 870sqft deck with a hot tub, awning, and bar area. An adjacent 17x12 built up decking wraps around the front of the above ground pool making the pool easily accessible. The front of the house is serviced by a circular drive leading up to the front door. The concrete circular drive and driveway area in front of the garage can easily accommodate 30 cars. This home is built for entertaining and the sellers have hosted many family gatherings and have thoroughly enjoyed this home. Shopping and grocery stores are within a couple of miles. Charlotte Premium Outlets is 4.7 miles away.
Offered by Capstone Properties, Llc. Copyright 2019 Carolina Multiple Listing Services. All rights reserved.


Equipo Nizkor - Iraqi air strikes against ISIS militants kill 70 insurgents.
Iraq's air force carried out air strikes that killed 70 militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) group in Baghdad and in the Salah-e-din province. Iraq's top commanders have agreed on a plan to drive ISIS militants from the city of Mosul in the Nineveh province, the National Iraqi News Agency reported.
On Thursday, the Iraqi army regained control over the major oil refinery in Baiji located 40 km from Baghdad.
US President Barack Obama said Washington is ready to conduct air strikes against militants in Iraq. The US will also send 300 military advisers to the country.
On June 18, Baghdad asked Washington for air strikes against ISIS militants.
Obama said the US was ready for "targeted and precise military action". However, American troops will not return to Iraq, the president confirmed.


text:
package org.jrgss.api;

import com.badlogic.gdx.Gdx;
import com.badlogic.gdx.audio.Music;
import com.badlogic.gdx.audio.Sound;
import org.jrgss.FileUtil;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * Created by matty on 6/27/14.
 */
public class Audio {

    public static final Object sync = new Object();

    static Music bgm;
    static String bgmFilename;
    static Music bgs;
    static Music me;
    static Sound se;
    static boolean mePlaying = false;

    static Map<String, Sound> se_cache = new HashMap<>();

    public static void bgm_play(String filename) {
        bgm_play(filename, 100, 100, 0);
    }

    public static void bgm_play(String filename, int volume) {
        bgm_play(filename, volume, 100, 0);
    }

    public static void bgm_play(String filename, int volume, int pitch) {
        bgm_play(filename, volume, pitch, 0);
    }

    public synchronized static void bgm_play(String filename, int volume, int pitch, int pos) {
        Gdx.app.log("Audio", "Play BGM "+filename+" @ volume ="+ volume+", pitch ="+pitch+", pos = "+pos);

        if(bgm != null && !bgmFilename.equals(filename)) {
            bgm_stop();
        }
        if(bgm == null) {
            bgm = Gdx.audio.newMusic(FileUtil.loadAudio(filename));
            bgm.setLooping(true);
            bgmFilename = filename;
            if(!mePlaying) {
                synchronized (sync) {
                    bgm.play();
                }
            }
        }
        bgm.setVolume(Math.min(1.0f,volume/100f));

    }

    public static void bgs_play(String filename) {
        bgs_play(filename, 100, 100, 0);
    }

    public static void bgs_play(String filename, int volume) {
        bgs_play(filename, volume, 100, 0);
    }

    public static void bgs_play(String filename, int volume, int pitch) {
        bgs_play(filename, volume, pitch, 0);
    }

    public synchronized static void bgs_play(String filename, int volume, int pitch, int pos) {
        if(bgs != null) {
            bgs_stop();
        }
        Gdx.app.log("Audio", "Play BGS "+filename+" @ volume ="+ volume+", pitch ="+pitch+", pos = "+pos);
        bgs = Gdx.audio.newMusic(FileUtil.loadAudio(filename));
        bgs.setLooping(true);
        bgs.setVolume(volume/100f);
        if(!mePlaying) {
            synchronized (sync) {
                bgs.play();
            }
        }
    }

    public static void me_play(String filename) {
        me_play(filename, 100,100);
    }

    public static void me_play(String filename, int volume) {
        me_play(filename, volume, 100);
    }

    public synchronized static void me_play(String filename, int volume, int pitch) {
        if(bgm != null) {
            bgm.pause();
        }
        me = Gdx.audio.newMusic(FileUtil.loadAudio(filename));
        me.setOnCompletionListener(new Music.OnCompletionListener() {
            @Override
            public void onCompletion(Music music) {
                if(bgm != null) {
                    bgm.play();
                }
                mePlaying = false;
            }
        });
        me.setLooping(false);
        me.setVolume(volume/100f);
        synchronized (sync) {
            me.play();
        }
        mePlaying = true;
    }

    public static void se_play(String filename) {
        se_play(filename, 100, 100);
    }

    public static void se_play(String filename, int volume) {
        se_play(filename, volume, 100);
    }

    public synchronized static void se_play(String filename, int volume, int pitch) {
        Gdx.app.log("Audio", "Play SE "+filename+" @ volume ="+ volume+", pitch ="+pitch);
        Sound se = se_cache.get(filename);
        if(se == null) {
            se = Gdx.audio.newSound(FileUtil.loadAudio(filename));
            se_cache.put(filename, se);
        }
        Audio.se = se;
        synchronized (sync) {
            se.play(volume / 100f, pitch / 100f, 0);
        }

    }

    public static void se_stop() {
        se.stop();
    }

    public static void bgm_fade(int millis) {
        bgm_stop();
    }

    public static void bgm_stop() {
        if(bgm != null) {
            bgm.stop();
            bgm.dispose();
            bgm = null;
        }
    }

    public static int bgm_pos() {
        return 0;
    }

    public static int bgs_pos() {
        return 0;
    }

    public static void bgs_stop() {
        if(bgs != null) {
            bgs.stop();
            bgs.dispose();
            bgs = null;
        }
    }
    public static void me_stop() {}

    public static void bgs_fade(int millis) {}
    public static void me_fade(int millis) {}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


PhotoEffects is a free and fun way to make your photos better. Personalize your photos by adding texts overlays, filters, stickers, borders and scenes. Create fantastic works of art, playful mashups, or funny scenes. It's never been easier to capture life's best moments and share them with... see more PhotoEffects is a free and fun way to make your photos better. Personalize your photos by adding texts overlays, filters, stickers, borders and scenes. Create fantastic works of art, playful mashups, or funny scenes. It's never been easier to capture life's best moments and share them with all of your friends!


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text:
require 'rails/generators'
require 'rails/generators/migration'

module Emotions
  module Generators
    class InstallGenerator < Rails::Generators::Base
      include Rails::Generators::Migration
      source_root File.expand_path('../templates', __FILE__)

      # Implement the required interface for Rails::Generators::Migration.
      # taken from http://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activerecord/lib/generators/active_record.rb
      def self.next_migration_number(dirname)
        if ActiveRecord::Base.timestamped_migrations
          Time.now.utc.strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%S')
        else
          '%.3d'.format(current_migration_number(dirname) + 1)
        end
      end

      def create_migration_file
        migration_template 'migration.rb', 'db/migrate/add_emotions.rb'
      end

      def create_model_file
        template 'model.rb', 'app/models/emotion.rb'
      end
    end
  end
end


text:
Kelek, auch Kellek (arabisch), Pl. aklāt oder kelekāt, war ein Floß, das auf dem Euphrat und Tigris im Irak, Syrien und dem Osten der Türkei seit dem 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr. bis ins 20. Jahrhundert zum Lasttransport diente. Unter einer gitterförmigen Holzplattform sorgten aufgeblasene Schläuche aus Tierhäuten für den Auftrieb.

Geschichte

Flöße aus Tierhäuten sind in Mesopotamien unter dem akkadischen Namen kalakku seit mindestens der zweiten Hälfte des 3. Jahrtausends, der Zeit von König Sargon von Akkad, bekannt. Auf assyrischen Reliefs gibt es Abbildungen. Auf Keilschrifttafeln vom Anfang des 1. Jahrtausends wurden sie als "Floß auf Schläuchen" oder "Schiff aus Grobleder" umschrieben. Das arabische Wort kelek leitet sich von kalakku her und findet sich gelegentlich in Ortsnamen, wo es "Fähre" bedeutet.

Andere Flöße bestanden aus Schilfrohr (akkadisch amû), bezeichnet als "im Wasser schwimmendes Rohr", und den vermutlich größeren Holzflößen ḫallimu (Pl. ḫallimānū), mit denen Bäume, Viehherden und Soldaten befördert wurden.

Der Warentransport auf dem Euphrat und Tigris sowie auf den weit verzweigten Nebenflüssen des Schatt al-Arab geschah überwiegend im regionalen Rahmen. Daneben gelangten auch Güter aus Nordmesopotamien (Dschazīra) und Kleinasien auf den beiden Flüssen ins Land. Im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. berichtete der antike griechische Geschichtsschreiber Herodot über Korbboote, die mit Häuten verkleidet und innen mit Stroh aufgefüllt gewesen seien. Die Beschreibung der Bootsform bezog sich auf die Guffa genannten kreisrunden Korbboote, mit der geschilderten Ladung und Transportroute scheint Herodot aber Kalakkus gemeint zu haben. Die Ladung bestand demnach aus Tonkrügen mit Wein und einem Esel. Die Steuerung flussabwärts sei durch zwei Männer mit Staken erfolgt. Die angegebene Zuladung für die größten Boote von bis zu 5000 Talenten (ein solonisches Talent entsprach 26 Kilogramm) ist wohl übertrieben. Die Boote seien in Armenien gefertigt und, nachdem sie mit ihrer Fracht in Babylonien angekommen waren, in Einzelteile zerlegt worden. Dort wurden die hölzernen Teile verkauft und die Häute auf den mitgebrachten Eseln auf dem Landweg zurücktransportiert.

Wie die Route der Eselskarawanen beim Rückweg verlief, beschreiben altbabylonische Itinerare. Sie waren damals nicht als Reiseführer gedacht, sondern eher buchhalterisch, um eine Geschäftsreise zu dokumentieren. Die Hauptroute begann in Larsa im Süden Mesopotamiens, führte am Euphrat entlang über Babylon zum 60 Kilometer nördlich gelegenen Sippar. Von dort nahm die Karawane den Weg zum Tigris und in dessen Nähe aufwärts bis nach Aššur. Dort ließ man den Fluss hinter sich und durchquerte auf dem Weg nach Westen ein Gebiet, in dem es ausreichend Wasserstellen am Weg gab, und gelangte nach Schubat-Enlin, der Residenz von Šamši-Adad I. (18. Jahrhundert v. Chr.) am Oberlauf des Chabur (heute Tell Leilan). Den Fluss überquerend führte der Weg weiter nach Westen bis zum Oberlauf des Belich und folgte diesem flussabwärts bis zu seiner Einmündung in den Euphrat bei Tuttul. Endstation war Emar wenig oberhalb am Euphrat. Weshalb dieser Umweg in Kauf genommen wurde, ist unklar. Möglicherweise war die direkte Strecke am Euphrat über Mari nicht vor Überfällen sicher.

Keilschrifttafeln aus der Zeit des Fürsten Gudea (21. Jahrhundert v. Chr.) schildern den Bau eines Tempels und die Herkunft der verwendeten Materialien in seiner Hauptstadt Lagaš in Südmesopotamien. Lagaš bezog Waren über seine Hafenstadt Gu'aba am Persischen Golf, aus der Gegend um Kirkuk und aus Gebieten am mittleren Euphrat und Nordsyrien. Basalt kam auf Flößen aus dem Basalla-Gebirge in der Nähe von Zalabiya am Euphrat. Tidanum als Bezugsort für Alabaster dürfte ebenfalls dort gelegen haben. Aus den Amanus-Bergen (Amanos Dağları) wurde Zedernholz bezogen. Aus Urschu (Şanlıurfa) kamen andere Holzarten.

Es waren mehr Flöße auf dem Tigris als auf dem Euphrat unterwegs, weil besonders am Unterlauf des Euphrats im Irak die Gefahr bestand, dass die empfindlichen Häute durch Felsen beschädigt wurden. Hier wurden daher die kleineren Korbboote (Pl. Guffāt) eingesetzt. Ein Problem auf dem Euphrat stellten auch die ständig ihre Lage verändernden Sandbänke dar, die bei Niedrigwasser in den Sommermonaten bis zum Winter hervortraten. Den höchsten Wasserstand hatten die Flüsse im Frühjahr zur Zeit der Schneeschmelze in den Bergen und bis in den Sommer.

Assyrische Reliefs zeigen neben den großen Flößen winzige, durch ein oder zwei Ziegenhäute getragene Plattformen, die einer Person zur Flussüberquerung dienten. Der Behistun-Inschrift, in der über den Achämenidenkönig Dareios I. (549–486) berichtet wird, ist zu entnehmen, dass diese Praxis des Zweistromlandes auch in Persien bekannt war. Im persischen Nationalepos Schāhnāme, das zwischen 977 und 1010 geschrieben wurde, werden Pferde mit Hilfe von an den Seiten festgebundenen, aufgeblasenen Ziegenhäuten über einen Fluss gebracht.

Reisende des 16. Jahrhunderts berichteten von armenischen Bootsleuten auf Flößen. Ausgangspunkt für die Fahrt auf dem Tigris war Diyarbakır. Häufig waren es Kurden und Christen aus dem Nordirak, die noch Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts fast täglich schwer beladen mit Holzstämmen und Getreide in Bagdad ankamen und die Heimreise mit Eseln auf dem Landweg antraten. Im Ersten Weltkrieg wurden militärische Güter auf dem Tigris flussab von Mosul nach Bagdad transportiert. Diese Strecke legten Keleks bei ausreichendem Wasserstand in drei bis vier Tagen zurück. Stromaufwärts war auf Kurzstrecken treideln üblich.

Bauweise
Keleks bestanden aus einem Gerüst aus zusammengebundenen Holzstangen, die auf Reihen von 50 bis 400 aufgeblasenen Schaf- oder Ziegenhäuten befestigt waren. Die Armenier nannten die Schwimmschläuche burdjuk. Bei kleineren Keleks wurde das Gerüst aus Weidenruten oder aus einem anderen biegsamen Material gefertigt. Für den Personentransport wurde der Boden mit einer dicken Lage Schilfgras bedeckt, gelegentlich kamen ein oder zwei aus demselben Material gefertigte Hütten hinzu. Bei den größten neuzeitlichen Keleks waren bis zu 600 Schläuche aus Tierhäuten zusammengebunden, jeder besaß eine Tragfähigkeit von rund 25 Kilogramm. Das Gefährt wurde von zwei Ruderern gesteuert.

Keleks in der Literatur
 In einem in neuaramäischer Sprache verfassten Märchenzyklus versuchen einige Einwohner eines Dorfes in der Geschichte Der Holzhauer und die vierzig Dünnbärte vergeblich vor dem Bösewicht auf einem Kelek den Euphrat hinunter nach Bagdad zu fliehen.
 Im Band Orangen und Datteln von Karl May setzen die mesopotamischen Helden in einem Kelek über den Fluss und im Kapitel Auf dem Tigris des Bandes Im Reich des Silberlöwen I reisen Kara Ben Nemsi und Hadschi Halef Omar auf einem Kelek nach Bagdad.

Literatur
 Horst Klengel: Handel und Händler im alten Orient. Böhlau, Wien / Köln / Graz 1979, ISBN 3-205-00533-3, S. 95 f.
 Hans Kindermann: Kelek. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Band 4, 1978, S. 870

Weblinks

 Thea Naab: Drei Jahre in Mesopotamien. Kommissions-Verlag der Basler Missionsbuchhandlung 1918 Schildert die Reise auf einem Kelek von Diyarbakir nach Mosul

Einzelnachweise

Bootstyp
Babylonien
Sumer


John 11:1-4 "Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
Today's post begins with an admission regarding the parenthetical remark made by the Apostle John in John 11:2 - "It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick." So what is my admission? I had never noticed this little comment until reading through John 11 this past week. I marvel at how often one can read and re-read a familiar passage of the Biblical text, teach on it or preach on it - and still find something new upon a later time of study. John's comment here is designed to help the reader think back to the specific identity of Mary of Bethany. All exceptional writing ought to help the reader connect with lead characters. The inspired text of scripture accomplishes this better than any other piece of literature.
"Luke added some information on the two sisters Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42). This Mary … was the same one who later (see John 12:1–10) poured perfume on the Lord and wiped His feet with her hair. However, John may be assuming that the original readers of his Gospel already had some knowledge of Mary (cf. Mark 14:3–9)."
We've seen how Mary of Bethany wanted to have her life patterned after the Master. In discipleship, we discover that there not only needs to be a willingness to follow Jesus, but also to die to self and pay the price of whatever it takes to follow Him (Luke 9:23-24). John makes reference to Mary's sacrificial act of pouring oil upon Jesus and wiping His feet with her hair (see John 11:2). In John's Gospel, this act is recorded in John 12:1-8, following Jesus' raising of Lazarus. John 12:3 specifically states - "Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." John's specific reference to Mary's act is of such significance that he attaches this act as the chief identity marker of Mary. We find this particular act of Mary of Bethany recorded in the other Gospels.
To release the precious perfume inside the vial, one would simply "snap" the slender neck of the alabaster vessel and pour out its contents. What Mary did cost the equivalency of a year's wages. She was dramatizing her life's desire to pour out her love, at whatever cost. Extravagant? yes! Costly? definitely! Worth it? only one person was worth such devotion: Jesus.
Interestingly enough, not only do the Pharisees respond harshly to Jesus, but also the disciples (see Matthew 26:8)! We can tell by the reaction of the people witnessing this act that its cost was steep - too steep for sentiment and convention. Following Jesus will cost everything - if need be: convention, convenience or even one's life. Mary of Bethany wanted to pattern her life in Jesus footsteps and she was willing to pay the price. But what else can we learn about discipleship from Mary of Bethany's devotion to the Lord Jesus?
"Jesus' word of commendation that her act will be remembered "wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world" (v. 9) evidences his consciousness of an interval of evangelization between his death and return at the end of the age."
1. Pattern one's life in the footsteps of Jesus.
2. Pay whatever price necessary to follow Jesus.
3. Present a testimony that will encourage others to follow Jesus.