{"text": " 25 \u2018I\u2019m just borrowing Leonard,\u201d says Jim Kay as he carries a skeleton from the dining room into his studio. 35 Kay\u2019s world, ostensibly a small Victorian house on a quiet street in Kettering, is in fact a realm as fully imagined as that of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 19 Spread across the hedge outside the house is a large spider\u2019s web with a healthy-looking inhabitant. 19 Kay has been feeding it flies, because he knows he\u2019ll want to draw it later. 24 On the stairs, stuffed chickens peck at invisible seeds; the living room is governed by silk-feathered crows and one-eyed porcelain dolls. 15 In the studio, clocks are set to the time in Narnia and Mordor. 34 Kay is the uncommonly gifted illustrator of A Monster Calls, the dark, award-winning children\u2019s book written by Patrick Ness, and of an elaborate glossy pop-up book about bugs. 35 More recently, he produced haunting monochrome drawings for a collection of stories about the First World War, and did some concept work for the television production of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. 48 Now that A Monster Calls is being turned into a film starring Liam Neeson, Kay is helping the film-makers, the monster being based very much on his own gigantic, creaking creation \u2013 one of the most spectacularly imagined nightmares in children\u2019s literature. 42 Still, no one was more surprised than Kay when JK Rowling\u2019s publishers asked him to illustrate not one but all seven of the Harry Potter books, for glorious new large-scale editions, over the next seven years. 19 \u201cI\u2019d not really drawn children,\u201d he says quietly, as if still stunned. 40 \u201cAnd I\u2019m not known for a cheerful style of illustration.\u201d Then there was the fact that the Harry Potter films had already visualised that universe so fully \u2013 why do it again, he wondered. 10 And, of course, there was the pressure. 80 As Kay puts it: \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be known as the person who ruins the most popular children\u2019s book in history.\u201d\n\nBut after almost two years of work, seven days a week, Kay\u2019s illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone is a triumph \u2013 a book so alive it seems to jump, explode and slither out of your hands as you read. 29 Rowling has given it her public seal of approval: \u201cSeeing Jim Kay\u2019s illustrations moved me profoundly,\u201d she wrote for the dust jacket. 33 \u201cI love his interpretation of Harry Potter\u2019s world, and I feel honoured and grateful he has lent his talent to it.\u201d She also wrote to Kay privately. 27 \u201cShe sent a really lovely letter, and that\u2019s the first time it hit me that this was real,\u201d he says. 19 \u201cImagine you\u2019re a vicar and you find a Post-it note from God on your fridge. 19 It was like that.\u201d\n\nKay is genial, agile and occasionally as bashful as a young boy. 32 He often holds his forehead and grins in embarrassment as he looks back over his work, and he describes almost every illustrative technique as having emerged from anxiety or failure. 53 The happy accidents in A Monster Calls came about because he was too scared to draw (he thought the manuscript so wonderful it shouldn\u2019t be illustrated at all) and some of the ink splotches he\u2019d made by printing with old breadboards looked like hedgerows or trees. 28 As he shows me some of the work stored in his studio, he points out that most of his preparatory sketches for Harry Potter have gone. 17 Not long ago, he says, he took a full carload to the rubbish dump. 52 Though Kay claims he hasn\u2019t yet arrived at a style \u2013 meaning that one day, when he stops trying to do new things all the time, work might get a little bit easier \u2013 there is a telltale love of creatures in his rendering of Harry Potter. 33 Owls take centre stage \u2013 magnificent clawed or droopy eyed, they all have character \u2013 and there are exceptional pages from a textbook on trolls and a guide to dragon eggs. 17 The dog with three noses is rendered as if it were a much-loved and oft-drawn pet. 32 A vivid green toad, keys with bright wings and a few hilariously expressive chessmen based on the 12th-century Lewis set are all full of Kay\u2019s personality and humour. 40 But it\u2019s true that he uses a wide range of techniques, from Ralph Steadman-like splats to Holbein-esque portraits to ghostly watercoloured landscapes, richly textured backgrounds and gnarly, impacted details that are all his own. 17 Kay pulls out of a drawer an early sketch for his phenomenally finicky Diagon Alley panorama. 22 Drawing it, he says, \u201cwas almost like knitting \u2013 you start at one end and move along\u201d. 6 But others were much trickier. 36 The Astronomy Tower was a building he could never get right \u2013 at first he thought perhaps a serpent could pierce the tower, but he still couldn\u2019t detach himself enough from reality. 50 \u201cI had this note for a while that said, \u2018It\u2019s fantasy, stupid.\u2019 Because I kept bringing everything back down to physics and logistics and you don\u2019t need to do that because it\u2019s supported by magic, you know. 36 It took a long time to get rid of that \u2013 it\u2019s so ingrained.\u201d\n\nDraco Malfoy Credit: Jim Kay/Bloomsbury\n\nKay says that behind every final drawing, there are several attempts. 52 \u201cI was drawing a hand for book two,\u201d he says, \u201cand I realised I\u2019d done 14, 15 attempts at this hand.\u201d And even when he\u2019s happy with the drawing, he adds layers of colour and detail in separate sheets. 23 \u201cIt\u2019s partly because I had a terrible crash of confidence while I was doing it,\u201d he says. 53 \u201cOnce I started drawing something, I was convinced I was going to ruin it, so I\u2019d go on to a separate sheet, and another sheet, and another sheet\u2026 So I\u2019d have 10 different bits where ordinarily you should have this nice finished painting. 12 But I got really bad shakes when I was doing this. 10 I think because of the size of the project. 21 It\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve worked on a project where everyone knows what the story is. 12 Ordinarily you\u2019re working on something that\u2019s unpublished. 26 And the enormity of it\u2026 I had to change the way I work, because I couldn\u2019t paint the way I used to. 23 When I get my confidence back, I\u2019ll start painting in one go and it\u2019ll be much quicker. 26 But it\u2019s shot at the moment.\u201d\n\nSome of Kay\u2019s work can be quite fraught, either through intricacy or density. 11 That\u2019s part of what gives it its strength. 35 I suggest to him that if you tried to translate the temperament in the illustrations to the person behind them, you might find a lot of energy, or a lot of worry. 5 He laughs, shyly. 28 \u201cWell, I was diagnosed with various\u2026 problems, yes\u2026 so that might be a reason for it,\u201d he says, before censoring himself. 28 But this density of the drawings, I persist: is it a symptom of, or a solution to, whatever\u2019s in his head? 17 \u201cIt would be therapy if it went right more often,\u201d he says sombrely. 21 \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t, so it can actually be the catalyst for it being a difficult day. 25 It\u2019s quite antagonistic.\u201d He adds that his old university lecturer used to advise him to try things outside his comfort zone. 19 He tends to do that anyway, but the Harry Potter project has taken it one step further. 17 \u201cThis is like wearing nettle pants standing on a prickly mat,\u201d he says. 26 A panel from 'A Monster Calls', 2011 Credit: Jim Kay\n\nKay was born in a small town in Derbyshire in 1974. 13 He is one of four children, whose father worked in insurance. 32 His grandfather loved to draw \u2013 a sketch of the Pink Panther drawn by the six-year-old Kay at his grandfather\u2019s side is pinned to the wall of his studio. 30 But what he mostly remembers, when asked about his background as an illustrator, is all the acting he and his siblings were encouraged to do as children. 20 \u201cBecause we were studying drama we were exposed to a huge variety of literature,\u201d he says. 29 Stories, more than pictures, were planted in his head \u2013 and it\u2019s his imagination rather than his technical skill that makes him an illustrator. 13 \u201cPeople confuse the craft with the art,\u201d he says. 38 \u201cI\u2019ve been to schools where children at a very young age discount the idea that they could be an artist or an illustrator because at that age they can\u2019t draw particularly well. 16 And yet their ideas are fantastic.\u201d\n\nKay did, however, draw wildlife constantly. 33 He describes David Attenborough as \u201ca third parent\u201d, and still now will have Attenborough\u2019s documentaries playing in the background while he\u2019s working in the studio. 28 As a child, he\u2019d cover huge sheets of paper in detailed coral reefs: \u201cI\u2019d start in one corner really small. 15 I realised the smaller I drew the more I could fit on the paper. 8 My friend used to draw alongside me. 27 We\u2019d cover these sheets of paper with intricate things.\u201d Even now, he says, \u201clandscapes are like self-portraits, for me. 64 There\u2019s more of who I am in drawing trees and the natural world than there is in drawing people.\u201d\n\nRon Weasley Credit: Jim Kay/Bloomsbury\n\nAlthough he studied illustration at university, and worked as an illustrator for a brief period (his first job was for the now defunct Soroptimist Weekly), Kay struggled to make a living. 14 So he gave up, and drew nothing at all for 10 years. 12 \u201cIt\u2019s my great regret,\u201d he says. 18 Instead, he took jobs stocktaking carpets, packing calendars, filing medical records in a hospital. 23 That led to a job in the archive at the Tate gallery, where he looked after the papers of British artists. 27 He realised he\u2019d always read about artists through the words of others, and this was the first time he was formulating opinions first-hand. 15 \u201cI remember going through Stanley Spencer\u2019s correspondence,\u201d he says. 4 \u201cBeautiful letters. 30 You get this insight into artists\u2019 lives.\u201d From there, he was hired as a curator of the illustrations collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. 23 And although this suited him, given his long-standing love of botany, none of the curatorial or archival work involved drawing. 37 One day, he was talking to a friend, criticising some artist or other, and his friend said: \u201cWell, at least they\u2019re trying.\u201d He realised she was right. 27 Shortly after that, the director of the Riverside Gallery in Richmond, who had seen some of his old work, offered Kay an exhibition. 17 Though he hadn\u2019t picked up a pencil in a decade, Kay said yes. 34 \u201cDon\u2019t ever try and fill two rooms of a gallery when you\u2019re living in a tiny flat in Twickenham and working full-time,\u201d he advises, grinning. 55 \u201cI had to frame everything myself because I had no money \u2013 I made the frames, cut the glass\u2026 It was a nightmare.\u201d He showed ominous collotype illustrations (a raven, a crocodile) for a story that existed only in his mind, and built strange models and automata. 18 A worm embedded in a giant book popped out at visitors in response to a motion sensor. 17 It turned out to be the most highly attended show in that gallery\u2019s history. 34 Thanks to his partner, Louise Clark, whom he met 13 years ago when she was a librarian at the Tate, he was able to make the leap back into illustration. 18 \u201cThe only way I could start was because my partner supported me,\u201d he says. 34 That first year, he worked 360 days out of 365, yet when he filed his tax return he realised that his profits from illustration came to less than \u00a31 per day. 17 While he illustrated A Monster Calls, he took a part-time job at Paperchase in Edinburgh. 21 \u201cApparently JK Rowling used to go into that Paperchase,\u201d he says, though he never saw her. 21 Clark, who is as serene as Kay is wired, has made us an orange and chocolate madeira cake. 23 She now works at home as well, making hats, among other things, in a small, neat study upstairs. 23 She helps Kay too, and in their home it\u2019s hard to delineate where his imagination ends and hers begins. 29 There\u2019s something about the house that seems not so much decorated as narrated, each object pulled from a story that doesn\u2019t actually exist. 43 (Kay once showed some sketches to a publisher, who lighted upon his cat and rat characters Scribble and Smudge and said: \u201cI bet there\u2019s a funny story behind those two.\u201d There wasn\u2019t.) 18 Hogwarts Credit: Jim Kay/Bloomsbury\n\nClark is also the model for Professor McGonagall in the new book. 31 Kay had to age her artificially \u2013 her real hair is ringleted and blonde rather than a harsh grey \u2013 but it was helpful to have her as a basis. 12 \u201cWe\u2019re quite isolated here,\u201d Kay says. 7 \u201cI use mirrors a lot. 8 I don\u2019t know any children. 9 This book forced me to interact with people. 47 I needed young models that I could refer to over seven years.\u201d\n\nBy the time he came to illustrate the books, he\u2019d forgotten how he\u2019d imagined the characters when he first read The Philosopher\u2019s Stone, years ago. 40 The film actors had supplanted them in his mind, but once he went back to the books, he found that he could make his own interpretation separate, though there are enough resonances not to upset fans. 9 He looked for real-life models wherever he could. 21 Hagrid is, in part, an old biker who lives in Kettering, with the eyes of Winston Churchill. 17 He was the first character Kay drew, and he set the viewpoint for the rest. 26 \u201cI see a lot of children\u2019s books where the eye level is set at an adult\u2019s,\u201d Kay explains. 16 \u201cWhich I find odd, because children see the world from a lower perspective. 16 It\u2019s nice drawing giants because it reminds you of being a child again. 20 The illustration of Hagrid is that perspective, looking up.\u201d\n\nMr Dursley is based on the local butcher. 9 Hermione is based on Kay\u2019s niece. 48 Harry was a boy he spotted swinging from the bars on the London Underground, and Kay had two stops to introduce himself to the boy\u2019s mother and persuade him to pose for him \u2013 for a book whose subject he could not yet disclose. 31 Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley both came from a school in Burford, to which he\u2019d been invited by a pupil who\u2019d loved A Monster Calls. 35 Hagrid flies through the sky Credit: Jim Kay/Bloomsbury\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll be honest,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve properly looked at people. 34 I\u2019ve never appreciated how varied we all are before.\u201d He looked round the school, and round another one he visited in Corby, and was astonished by the children. 18 \u201cI mean, even at the same age there can be two or three feet difference. 22 I just wanted to draw them all the time.\u201d\n\nHe couldn\u2019t draw them all the time, though. 33 He couldn\u2019t even get any of them to sit for long enough to draw them from life \u2013 that, he reasoned, was too much to ask of children. 29 So he took photographs of them, in the positions he needed according to his preparatory sketches, and altered their features to fit Rowling\u2019s descriptions. 6 It wasn\u2019t easy. 12 \u201cChildren are mercilessly unforgiving to draw,\u201d he says. 22 \u201cIf you put a single line wrong on a child, you age them by about five or 10 years. 54 One under the eye and they look like an adult.\u201d\n\nTracking the way in which the characters age over seven years is not something he wants to risk faking \u2013 already, in six months, the slight boy who became Malfoy has developed an athletic build and grown taller than Kay. 34 But when he met them, Kay couldn\u2019t tell the children what the project was, so there was no way to ask them to commit to a seven-year modelling arrangement. 4 Now they know. 17 Listening to Kay speak, you might think some uncertainty would be traceable in his work. 5 It isn\u2019t. 9 The result is fearless, exuberant and focused. 11 But that won\u2019t prevent him from feeling anxious. 16 \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how worried I am,\u201d he says. 39 \u201cIt\u2019s so public, Harry Potter.\u201d But then, he thinks, if it doesn\u2019t work this time, \u201cwe\u2019ve got six more books to get it right\u201d. 23 Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone: the Illustrated Edition is published by Bloomsbury on October 6, priced \u00a330. 18 To order your copy for \u00a324 with free p&p call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk"} {"text": " 19 Author's Note- This is a story for my friend Hana's birthday, Momoxtoshiro here on FF. 36 If you haven't read any of her stories you are missing out and you need to go read her stories, especially Gold which is one of the greatest stories I've ever read. 34 Also thank you to my friends Elfenlied1012 and LazyKatze for helping me edit this story, I looked over this story a lot hoping to make it good enough for Hana to read. 9 Hope you guys enjoy and Happy birthday Hana! 21 She had done this so many times before, she couldn't count how many times she had done this. 8 So why was it so difficult now? 28 The wooden chair Weiss sat in suddenly felt uncomfortable, the wood digging into her back, from the top of her spine to her lower back. 19 Her white cardigan suddenly felt more constricting and itchy on her, the jeans she wore more limiting. 29 Adjusting herself, Weiss looked back at the laptop sitting in front of her, the large oak desk it sat on imposing but fitting for the surroundings. 32 She was in the study where she always went when she needed to get work done, the walls and floor were made of dark wood polished to a high sheen. 31 Bookcases filled with all sorts of novels lined two of the wall, Weiss sat with her back to the door; the desk was pushed against the opposite wall. 27 A frustrated sigh passed her lips as Weiss looked from the currently blank document to the bottom right corner of her laptop to check the time. 3 2:47?! 16 she thought in panic, double checking the time before slumping in her seat dejectedly. 41 Weiss had been staring at her computer for nearly thirty minutes now and she hadn't written a single word, each passing minute had only frustrated her more and made it less likely for her to actually start writing. 45 Her hands started idly fiddling with a pen while her leg bounced up and down as Weiss continued to stare at the screen, a vague hope that inspiration would strike her if she just eyed the blank white of the document long enough. 35 When another five minutes passed and words still had failed to appear on the page Weiss groaned in irritation, her eyes started roaming the room to find a source of inspiration or ideas. 35 The stapler, printer, and laptop case all proved ineffectual at giving Weiss any creative spark, her eyes continued scanning the familiar room before settling on her favorite object in the room. 29 A small picture frame sat propped up next to her laptop, the border of the frame was an intricate design of interweaving vines that surrounded the picture. 31 Weiss reached over and picked the frame up, a smile upturning the corners of her lips as she looked down at the snapshot of one of her favorite moments. 20 She was smiling, a broad smile that reached her mist blue eyes as she looked into the camera. 11 The reason for her smile was sitting next to her. 25 A girl with bright silver eyes was laughing in the picture, one of her arms around Weiss' neck in a side hug. 14 They were sitting on a picnic blanket with a basket next to them. 8 How long ago was that picture taken? 4 Who took it? 19 Weiss wondered idly, her thumb gently running over the face of the other girl in the picture. 32 Having lost track of time as Weiss got lost in her memories, eyes still looking at the picture but unfocused, seeing something else from a different time and place. 20 She didn't hear the soft click of the door knob turning or the soft muffled footfalls behind her. 27 It was only when the picture was taken from her hands and set back on the desk did she realize someone else was in the room. 14 Before Weiss could turn around her eyes were covered by two soft hands. 5 \"Guess who?\" 21 a singsong voice asked from behind her, Weiss smile faltered as she felt a blush rising to her cheeks. 7 \"C-could it be Ruby?\" 23 she stammered, trying to keep her voice calm despite the feeling in her chest, a mixture of nerves and happiness. 25 The hands were moved from her eyes down until the arms were wrapped around her in a hug that served to deepen her blush. 4 \"Correct!\" 18 the red haired girl cheered as she nuzzled her face into the side of Weiss' neck. 39 \"R-Ruby, you're late,\" Weiss tried to put a serious tone in her voice but couldn't fully manage it, having the other girl so close to her made that task nearly impossible. 15 Ruby stopped nuzzling Weiss neck and set her chin on her partner's shoulder. 16 Looking up at her face with her wide silver eyes like two brightly polished coins. 18 \"I'm sorry Weiss,\" she apologized, a puppy dog look on her face. 24 \"Honestly, how are you late to a meeting when we live together, and the meeting is in our house?\" 17 Weiss inquired, regaining her composure slightly now that the other girl wasn't nuzzling her. 30 \"Well I decided to go out for a walk and I decided to stop and get this,\" Ruby said turning Weiss' chair with a flourish. 20 On top of the bookcase to her right was a vase of flowers that hadn't been there before. 19 \"Ruby,\" Weiss breathed out as she stood up and walked slowly over to the vase. 12 Ruby stood behind her with a wide smile on her face. 20 Weiss looked over the flowers, taking in the smell and pure white color of the freshly cut flowers. 26 \"White roses,\" Ruby informed her, arms wrapping around Weiss' waist loosely as she kissed the back of Weiss' head. 18 The flush on Weiss' face darkened at the contact How long had she been dating Ruby? 10 Yet still she blushed uncontrollably around the taller girl. 23 \"I also got you something else,\" Ruby murmured, lazily lifting one arm up and pointing beyond the vase. 18 Weiss looked past the beautiful flowers and saw a cardboard cup holder with two drinks in it. 15 \"Caramel Latte with extra whipped cream just the way you like it.\" 36 \"You're always spoiling me, Ruby,\" Weiss answered as she grabbed one of the cups and took a sip, recoiling when she was met with an overwhelmingly sweet chocolate taste. 47 \"I think this is yours,\" Weiss said holding the drink over her shoulder so Ruby could take it\n\n\"Oops, sorry, should've marked them,\" was the apologetic reply Weiss got as the cup was taken from her hand. 8 Grabbing the other cup, she smiled. 5 \"Really though Ruby? 10 How much sugar did you put in there?\" 10 Weiss questioned, taking a sip of her drink. 15 It was a much less sweet taste, exactly the way she liked it. 18 \"Uhh, I don't know like two packets maybe six packets,\" Ruby mumbled. 31 Weiss just shook her head as she gently pulled out of Ruby's embrace to grab the vase of flowers and walk back to the desk, taking a seat. 44 \"You're going to get diabetes if you keep drowning everything in sugar,\" Weiss scolded lightly, setting her drink and the vase of flowers down next to the picture frame as she finally was able to look at Ruby. 25 The redhead was taller than her by several inches, but as much as Weiss would complain about it, she secretly loved it. 10 Especially at night when they cuddled together to sleep. 28 Ruby had short black hair that she dyed red at the tips; the color contrasted nicely in with the girl's pale complexion and silver eyes. 21 Her partner was wearing a light blue jacket that belonged to Weiss with a black shirt underneath it and jeans. 20 Her steps were muffled because she had taken her shoes off before coming in leaving her in just socks. 12 \"So what have you gotten written so far honey?\" 28 Ruby asked as she stepped up to Weiss, looking past her and at the computer screen, setting her own drink down next to Weiss'. 17 This can't be good, my face shouldn't be this red, Weiss thought. 26 A mixture of embarrassment that she hadn't written anything and that same feeling whenever Ruby called her an affectionate pet name colored her face. 21 \"Errrr\u2026.nothing,\" Weiss admitted, hiding her face in her hands, mortified at her lack of productivity. 7 \"Hey, no big deal. 7 We all get in slumps sometimes! 31 That's why we work together,\" Ruby cheered as she lifted Weiss' face out of her hands, cupping the girl's cheeks at the same time. 15 Before she could say anything Ruby brought their lips together in a sweet kiss. 22 The taste heightened partially from the nature of the kiss and partially from the lingering taste of Ruby's hot chocolate. 20 It was a little upsetting when Ruby broke the kiss and looked at her\n\n\"Are you alright Weiss? 28 Your face is really red,\" Ruby asked noticing Weiss' reddened face and the minute she did Weiss felt her face heat up even further. 22 \"It-it's nothing,\" Weiss stammered as Ruby placed her lips against Weiss' forehead to gauge her temperature. 32 The white haired writer made a little squeaking noise at this action, Ruby quickly pulled back to make sure Weiss was okay and saw the look she was giving her. 24 The realization of why her girlfriend's face was so red slowly dawned on Ruby and a mischievous glint shined in her eyes. 13 \"Tell me Weiss, does your face feel warm here?\" 19 Ruby asked as she gave Weiss a peck on the cheek, another squeak escaped Weiss' lips. 6 \"How about here?\" 23 she teased again as she started peppering Weiss' face with kisses, each kiss accompanied by a squeaking noise from Weiss. 5 \"Ru-Ruby stop!\" 7 Weiss squealed as she started giggling. 13 \"Weiss, tell me, does this improve the situation?\" 19 Ruby asked as her fingers started gently running up and down Weiss' sides, tickling the girl. 23 Weiss could barely get a breath in between the giggles her face was burning red now and her eyes were squeezed shut. 4 \"Ru-Ru-Ruby!\" 21 She stuttered out between her laughter, twisting in the chair to try and escape Ruby's fingers and lips. 57 But however she moved Ruby would just continue her assault, fingers finding whatever opening they could as the her girlfriend continually peppered Weiss in kisses.. Weiss twisted back to face her attacker and grabbed Ruby's hands and pulled her closer so the other girl stumbled and ended up sitting on Weiss' lap. 14 Weiss didn't think her blush could get any darker at that point. 29 \"You're so adorable when you get embarrassed Weiss, I love you,\" Ruby quietly murmured as she adjusted herself so they were both comfortable. 20 Looks like I was wrong, Weiss thought to herself as she buried her face in Ruby's collar. 30 \"I love you too Ruby,\" she answered, slightly muffled into Ruby's collar as she listened to the beat of the other girl's heart. 46 \"As much fun as it is to tease you we should probably get started writing,\" Ruby said, running her hands through Weiss' long white hair before standing up and pulling out an identical chair and sitting next to her girlfriend. 23 Weiss took a deep breath to calm herself and hopefully dispel the red tinge on her face and slow her fluttering heart. 16 Everytime I'm with her, I get like this, Weiss said to herself. 26 Weiss thought back to how they had met, both of them were authors though when they had meant neither of them had published anything. 17 They had met each other in a coffee shop, the favorite dwelling of aspiring writers. 41 The two of them had their faces buried in laptops as they worked, Ruby had been sitting by the trashcan so when Weiss went to throw her empty cup away she had glanced at the girl's computer screen. 30 She didn't know what had possessed her to do that but she was instantly captivated by the girl's writing, everything about it just spoke to Weiss. 24 She was too nervous then to talk to this mysterious girl and had retreated back to her computer, occasionally glancing at Ruby. 28 Weiss went back everyday, sat in the same seat across from the mystery girl and everyday failed to work up the courage to talk to her. 20 She didn't have a name for her but Weiss had fallen in love with this girl's writing. 25 One day Weiss was about to work the courage up when Ruby had come over to sit by her instead of her usual spot. 34 This girl had struck up a conversation and nervously Weiss talked to her, unsure of how to respond to this woman whom was equal parts beautiful and talented in Weiss' eyes. 21 They continued to talk until Ruby noticed the story Weiss was writing and suggested they work together on a novel. 19 Weiss flushed a brilliant crimson at that suggestion, not thinking herself good enough to work with Ruby. 18 The redhead coaxed Weiss into accepting the idea and they collaborated together, meeting everyday to work. 31 Nearly a year later they had written their book, it was a minor success but on the day of the release Weiss had stammered out her feelings for Ruby. 28 That was two years ago and they were still dating and now working on their next book, something that they wanted to be a major success. 6 \"Earth to Weiss?\" 17 Ruby called out while snapping her fingers in Weiss' general direction to get her attention. 11 \"Whaa- oh sorry, I was just thinking.\" 5 \"About what?\" 24 \"Well... How we met and how much I love your writing,\" Weiss confessed softly, embarrassed at her admission. 21 Ruby grinned like a fool at Weiss' words and leaned over to give her another kiss on the cheek. 11 \"I love your writing too,\" Ruby replied. 38 Weiss' blush turned a dark scarlet at this, but before she could respond how it was nowhere near Ruby's the other girl pulled out her own laptop and set it next to Weiss'. 11 \"I was thinking this book should have dragons!\" 17 Ruby chirped, writing the word in bold and underline at the top of her document. 21 Weiss chuckled as she copied the word onto her document as well, albeit not as prominent as Ruby's. 27 \"We can have dragons, though I think we should think of a plot first,\"\n\n\"Alright, a plot with dragons!\" 14 \"You're a dork Ruby,\" Weiss teased the other girl. 28 \"You're a dork, too,\" Ruby shot back as she gave Weiss' cheek a poke, eliciting another squeak from the girl. 7 \"Alright, enough with that. 6 Let's get writing!\" 25 Weiss exclaimed, not wanting the other girl to tease her more and prompting Ruby to throw her arms in the air in excitement. 7 \"Let's get writing!\" 19 Ruby cried, they both looked at each other for a moment before they both burst into laughter. 22 Weiss leaned against Ruby as the red haired girl mirrored the action, both of them laughing loudly at their antics. 8 Both of them thinking the same thing. 31 They were both dorks, but they were each other's dorks and that was what was important to both of them, the fact that they had each other."} {"text": " 18 OK, I finally got around to reading Douglas Holtz-Eakin\u2019s op-ed on health care reform. 24 It\u2019s much worse than I thought; time to scratch Holtz-Eakin off my shrinking list of reasonable, reasonably honest conservatives. 5 How bad is it? 6 Holtz-Eakin declares that\n\nGimmick No. 12 1 is the way the bill front-loads revenues and backloads spending. 43 That is, the taxes and fees it calls for are set to begin immediately, but its new subsidies would be deferred so that the first 10 years of revenue would be used to pay for only 6 years of spending. 15 I think that\u2019s what is technically known as a \u201clie\u201d. 14 Holtz-Eakin, of all people, knows how to read a CBO report. 33 So he\u2019s perfectly capable of looking at the actual report (pdf) and seeing that the revenues, like the costs, are minimal for the first four years. 26 Here\u2019s the chart:\n\nCBO\n\nHis implication that there\u2019s funny business going on is totally false, and he knows it. 50 Wait, it gets worse: Holtz-Eakin implies that there are hidden, delayed costs:\n\nConsider, too, the fate of the $70 billion in premiums expected to be raised in the first 10 years for the legislation\u2019s new long-term health care insurance program. 38 This money is counted as deficit reduction, but the benefits it is intended to finance are assumed not to materialize in the first 10 years, so they appear nowhere in the cost of the legislation. 66 Claims that the plan is window-dressed to look good in its first decade only to go sour later might sound plausible \u2013 except for the fact that the CBO projects bigger deficit-reduction in the second decade of the reform than in the first decade, something that wouldn\u2019t happen if lots of costs were being hidden by being pushed off into the future. 14 That said, we do learn something important from Holtz-Eakin\u2019s article. 43 If this is the best critique a conservative budget wonk can come up with \u2013 if deliberately misrepresenting how the legislation works is the only way to make it seem irresponsible \u2013 then the bill must be pretty sound in fiscal terms."} {"text": " 40 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch Gabriel Gatehouse's television report from Bukavu\n\nRwandan support for rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo may be more widespread than previously believed, the BBC has found. 24 Kigali has already rejected UN accusations that it is backing the M23 rebel group which recently captured the strategic eastern city of Goma. 21 Two ex-rebel fighters told the BBC they were offered money from Rwanda to set up a new front further south. 14 More than 500,000 people have fled seven months of fighting in the east. 33 Rwanda has previously backed armed groups in eastern DR Congo as a way of fighting Hutu militias who fled there after Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which some 800,000 people died. 22 The M23, who like Rwanda's leaders are mostly ethnic Tutsis, has also denied it is funded by Rwanda. 89 'Co-ordination order'\n\nLess than 20 years since the genocide, that apocalyptic event continues to a large extent to inform the Rwandan government's world view, from its intolerance of dissent at home, to its desire to exert some control over the chaos on its western border Fighters reveal Rwanda's Congo meddling\n\nBBC East Africa correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse spoke to two former rebel fighters in Bukavu, which lies on the southern tip of Lake Kivu, some 200km (125 miles) from Goma. 36 They were from DR Congo's minority Tutsi ethnic group and said they had joined the rebel Congolese Movement for Change in July to fight for a better life for the people of the east. 21 They had spent several months in the bush fighting the army, thinking they were part of a home-grown movement. 44 \"Then our chairman of this movement came with a delegation of the government of Rwanda, saying that the movement has been changed, we have to follow the instructions of the Rwanda government,\" Capt Okra Rudahirwa told the BBC. 34 He said he and his men were given monthly supplies of cash - sometimes as much as $20,000 (\u00a312,500) dollars, with which they bought food, uniforms and medicines. 34 His commander, Col Besftriend Ndozi, told the BBC they were also put in contact with a senior M23 commander, a Col Manzi, who urged them to co-ordinate their efforts. 34 Image caption Ex-rebel Bestfriend Ndozi said their orders were to 'demoralise the government'\n\n\"Manzi told us that the Rwandan army had given him the authority to support us and to command us. 31 He ordered us to continue our fight, just as M23 were doing in the north, so that together we would demoralise the government,\" Col Ndozi said. 18 The men said they decided to abandon the fight once they realised the scale of Rwandan involvement. 11 The Rwandan government has declined to comment on the allegations. 30 But many of the details of this account, including dates and names of intermediaries, tally with separate research carried out by the UN, our correspondent says. 22 A recent report by UN experts said the M23's de facto chain of command culminated with Rwanda's defence minister. 10 It also accused neighbouring Uganda of aiding the rebels. 21 Kampala has denied the allegations and has been mediating over the last week following the M23's capture of Goma. 26 Its military commander, Sultani Makenga, has said he will withdraw his forces to a 20km buffer zone around Goma in the coming days. 30 The group mutinied from the army in April, saying it was because a 2009 deal to end a previous uprising by a Tutsi militia had not been fulfilled."} {"text": " 50 Soldering Surface Mount Resistors\n\n(and other small packages like capacitors, MELFs, DPAKs, SOTs, etc)\n\nThe basic steps for soldering most of these components are: add flux to the board, tack one pin of the component and then solder the other side. 12 The picture below outlines these steps; more details follow below. 30 The basic steps for soldering surface mount chips (a 1206 resistor is shown): flux the board, tack the component and then solder the other side. 28 A quick word about the packages: The resistive element is the colored side of a resistor, so it should face up to help dissipate heat. 18 1206 refers to the dimensions of its shape: 120 thousandths of an inch by 60 thousandths. 9 603's are 60x30 thousandths and so on. 31 add flux to the board: For larger components, like this 1206 resistor, you might not need flux if you melt flux cored solder directly on the pad. 33 For smaller chips, however, oftentimes tinning the pad with wire solder will result in too much solder--a light touch with a tinned tip is all that's required. 25 In this case, extra flux is needed because no active flux would be left in the solder that's on the tinned tip. 14 Flux becomes active and quickly gets used up on the hot iron tip. 18 add a small amount of solder to one pad: Again, very little solder is needed. 20 Touching the pad with a tinned tip will provide all that's needed for 603 and 402 sized chips. 26 If you're attaching a DPAK or SOT (small outline transistor), tin the largest pad (usually the heat sink) first. 30 Tacking a smaller pin first will work, too, but you're more likely to reheat all the pins when you heat up the larger heat sink later. 7 The first pad with solder added. 28 tack one side:Using tweezers, lightly press down on the resistor and touch the junction between the chip and pad with a clean iron tip. 9 You should feel the resistor drop into place. 15 Ideally it would lay completely flat, but this isn't an absolute requirement. 29 One side of a 1206 resistor tacked add solder to the other side:Rotate the board and add a small amount of solder to the other side. 25 To do this, hold the tip so that it touches both the component and pad, and then lightly touch it with solder. 32 I like to add more flux to the 2nd side sometimes before this, but if you're going to melt solder directly from the wire, it's not necessary. 31 For smaller packages, add a small drop of solder on the end of a clean iron tip first, and then touch the tip to the component and pad. 9 This will help avoid adding to much solder. 30 Adding a small drop of solder to the end of a clean tip touch up the first side: If necessary, add more solder to the first side. 21 finished result:The most important thing is that the solder looks like it adhered or clung to the metal. 14 There should be a smooth fillet or ramp connecting the pad and resistor. 32 A large blob of solder may work, but it's hard to tell whether the blob is just sitting on the joint, or has actually bonded with the metal. 9 The shininess of the joint is less critical. 28 Lead-free solder won't be shiny at all, and some types of flux in lead-bearing solder will result in duller joints that are still perfectly fine. 23 An ideal 1206 solder joint\n\nThese same steps can be used to solder just about any package with only a few pins. 8 Other references and guides:\n\nRelated Products:"} {"text": " 37 PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) -- Former West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara says he was impressed with Chris Gayle\u2019s leadership of the Jamaica Tallawahs during the recent Caribbean Premier league T20 tournament. 22 Gayle led Tallawahs to a commanding seven wicket victory over the Guyana Amazon Warriors to win the inaugural event last month. 25 Lara says he wants Gayle, himself a former Windies captain, to be a leader in the West Indies dressing room as well. 41 \u201cWhat I must say though is that he has gained a lot of respect from me for his victory with the Tallawahs,\u201d said Lara who is considered as one of the greatest batsmen of the modern era. 47 \u201cThe way he led the team I am almost sure that his strike rate was nowhere near some of his other teammates but the responsibility rests on his shoulders and the way he handled it was tremendous and that says something about the individual\u201d. 28 Gayle batted responsibly to finish unbeaten on 47 off 48 balls in the finals against Warriors and shared in an unbeaten 62 run partnership with Andre Russell. 37 \u201cHopefully we can get that contribution that he has made as a leader with the Jamaican team in the Twenty20 tournament as one of the leaders in the West Indies team,\u201d said Lara. 72 \u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily have to be the leader in the team or the captain of the team but as long as you are one of the senior players on the team you can have great effect on the entire way the team performs.\u201d\n\nMeantime, the former Windies batting legend appears to have some reservations about having separate West Indies captains for different forms of the game. 22 The issue has been a subject of ongoing debate that the Trinidadian batsman says is not the \u201cperfect situation\u201d. 28 Currently Darren Sammy captains the Caribbean team in Test matches and One-day internationals, while Dwayne Bravo took over from Sammy as One-day international skipper this year. 42 \u201cIf that is the option at the present time so be it, but it should not affect how a team performs,\u201d said Lara who topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing records. 19 \u201cIdeally you would like to have someone who can handle all three forms of the game\u201d."} {"text": " 27 The street artist Shepard Fairey and The Associated Press have settled their long-running legal battle over the well-known \u201cHope\u201d campaign poster of Barack Obama. 64 Mr. Fairey, who sued The Associated Press in 2009 as it began to accuse him of copyright infringement for using one of its photographs as the basis for the poster, said that he did not appropriate any copyrightable material and that his use of the photograph, which showed Mr. Obama looking up pensively, constituted fair use under copyright law. 12 Last year Mr. Fairey admitted that he had misstated which A.P. 35 photo he had used for the Obama image and that he had submitted false images and deleted others to conceal his actions, leading to a criminal investigation in addition to the civil case. 38 Mr. Fairey originally said that he had used a photograph from an April 27, 2006, event at the National Press Club in Washington, where Mr. Obama was seated next to the actor George Clooney. 24 Instead, the photograph he used was from the same event, but was a solo image of Mr. Obama\u2019s head. 11 The photograph was taken by Mannie Garcia for The A.P. 12 Mr. Fairey said that he had initially believed that The A.P. 18 was wrong about which photo he had used, but later realized that the agency was right. 16 Advertisement Continue reading the main story\n\nIn settling the civil lawsuit, \u201cThe A.P. 19 and Mr. Fairey have agreed that neither side surrenders its view of the law,\u201d The A.P. 7 said in a statement on Wednesday. 3 \u201cMr. 11 Fairey has agreed that he will not use another A.P. 12 photo in his work without obtaining a license from The A.P. 49 The two sides have also agreed to work together going forward with the \u2018Hope\u2019 image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the \u2018Hope\u2019 image and to collaborate on a series of images that Fairey will create based on A.P. 21 photographs.\u201d The statement added that the two sides had agreed to \u201cfinancial terms that will remain confidential.\u201d"} {"text": " 5 She\u2019s baaaaaack. 25 Like a bad penny, Ally Sheedy is set to return to Psych for Season 7 \u2014 and not for any garden-variety episode either. 27 TVLine has confirmed that the onetime Brat Packer will reprise her role as criminal mastermind/serial killer Yang in the USA Network series\u2019 two-hour musical episode. 13 RELATED | Psych Exclusive: Look Who\u2019s Crushing on Gus! 38 Sheedy\u2019s latest encore was being kept under wraps \u2014 that is, until Psych star Dul\u00e9 Hill shared a photo of her on set via Twitter, with the hashtags #AllySheedy and #PsychMusical. 13 RELATED | Psych @ Comic-Con: Fantastic Season 7 \u2014 and Beyond! 9 \u2014 Scoop, and a Major Character Death? 49 Rocky Horror Picture Show alum Barry Bostwick recently signed up to play a Santa Barbara theater owner in the singing-and-dancing event; Brooke Lyons (2 Broke Girls) and Anthony Rapp (Rent) will be on (jazz) hand for the special, as well. 40 And, in keeping with the series\u2019 affection for all things Breakfast Clubby, Anthony Michael Hall is set to show up in Season 7 \u2014 though not necessarily during the musical \u2014 as an oddball police consultant."} {"text": " 52 While reporting about Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May hasn't seemed to quit over the last 12 months, the fact that the Top Gear trio were not together and filming episodes of the world's most popular automotive television show made 2012 a dull year for fans. 28 The good news now is that, as promised, the gang is back together for 2013 and box-fresh episodes of the BBC series are coming soon. 35 Very soon.According to ApplauseStore.com, the website that Top Gear uses to sell tickets to the live filmings of the show, the next new episode is set to be shot on January 23. 47 Typically Top Gear has been filmed live one week before the air date, meaning the next new episode should probably hit the airwaves on January 27.We can't say exactly which cars or what sort of hair-brained hilarity will crop up in the newest episodes. 54 It does seem like Jezza, The Hampster and Captain Slow will be doing a feature about driving supercars in the USA at some point this season \u2013 but we can say that we'll be planted in front of the flat-screen, tuned in and ready for the fun to begin anew."} {"text": " 23 Police have confirmed that a suspicious death in the city's Carlington neighbourhood Monday is the city's seventh homicide of 2016. 9 An autopsy on the victim is expected today. 11 The man's body had been undiscovered for several days. 20 Officers were called to 1400 Lepage Avenue, an Ottawa Community Housing building, at around 3:40 p.m. Monday. 51 Police say they're investigating discovery of body as \"suspicious death\" pic.twitter.com/t6rmsch5CU \u2014@hill_johnstone\n\nLater that night, the Ottawa Police Service's major crimes unit confirmed they were treating the death as a homicide. 14 Police said a neighbour found the man's body inside the apartment building. 17 No other details have been released so far, including the man's name and age. 9 Police have been unable to confirm his identify. 14 Anyone with information can contact the major crimes unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 2 5493."} {"text": " 137 \u201cIn the middle of two wars and in the middle of this giant security threat,\u201d Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said Sunday on \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on NBC, \u201cwhy would we want to get into this debate?\u201d\n\nStill, it is undeniable that a variety of 21st-century forces \u2014 a new generation in the military, a change in climate at the top levels of the Pentagon, pressure on the president from a critical interest group, even Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand\u2019s anticipated Democratic primary battle in New York \u2014 converged to begin repeal of a 1993 law that has led to the discharge of more than 13,000 gay men and lesbians, including desperately needed Arabic translators. 43 As Mr. Gates told Mr. Obama last year, it was no longer a question of if the ban would be repealed, but when, said the meeting participant, who declined to be named to discuss internal White House deliberations. 58 In the 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Obama regularly pledged to repeal \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell,\u201d but in his first year in office he refused to set a timetable and said so little publicly about the issue that gay rights leaders, an important constituency, grew increasingly angry. 25 Pentagon officials, who were busy withdrawing forces from Iraq and escalating the war in Afghanistan, were pleased that the president was stalling. 71 In April, Mr. Gates told reporters that he and the president wanted to push the issue \u201cdown the road a bit.\u201d\n\nIn New York, Ms. Gillibrand, a former House member from a conservative upstate district who had just been appointed to the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, was moving to the left on several issues in anticipation of a primary this year. 28 Photo\n\nIn June she met with Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and an Arabic linguist and infantry officer in Iraq in 2006 and 2007. 20 Lieutenant Choi is facing a discharge for announcing to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC in March that he was gay. 37 Advertisement Continue reading the main story\n\n\u201cThis policy asked him to lie every day, and it was antithetical to everything he had learned in the military,\u201d Ms. Gillibrand said in an interview. 43 In July she tried and failed to introduce a bill for an 18-month moratorium on discharges and instead said she asked Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who leads the Armed Services Committee, to hold a hearing on the issue. 43 Since then, Ms. Gillibrand has frequently told reporters that Harold E. Ford Jr., a former five-term Democratic congressman from Tennessee who is weighing a run for her seat, voted twice in favor of legislation to make same-sex marriage illegal. 11 (Mr. Ford says he has changed his mind.) 20 Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. 4 Invalid email address. 3 Please re-enter. 9 You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. 19 Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. 7 You may opt-out at any time. 19 You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. 5 Thank you for subscribing. 5 An error has occurred. 5 Please try again later. 7 View all New York Times newsletters. 46 Despite Ms. Gillibrand\u2019s efforts, little happened on the issue over the summer, although Mr. Gates asked his legal counsel to determine if the Pentagon could avoid a discharge if a service member\u2019s sexual orientation was revealed by someone else. 25 \u201cIf somebody is outed by a third party, does that force us to take action?\u201d he asked in late June. 86 By September, when any hearings would have been subsumed by the intense deliberations at the White House and Pentagon about escalating the war in Afghanistan, there was a small but telling sign of change: an article in Admiral Mullen\u2019s military journal, Joint Force Quarterly, called \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d a failure and said no evidence supported the claim that allowing openly gay men and lesbians to serve would undercut unit cohesion. 40 In December, after the Afghanistan debate was over and Mr. Obama had announced the deployment of 30,000 more troops, Admiral Mullen convened a small group to prepare for what would finally be Mr. Levin\u2019s hearings. 5 There was hardly unanimity. 41 Although Pentagon officials were of the view that the younger rank and file did not care much about serving with openly gay service members, Gen. James T. Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, had major reservations. 18 But as a practical matter, the military would follow the orders of the commander in chief. 35 Polls now show that a majority of Americans support openly gay service \u2014 a majority did not in 1993 \u2014 but there have been no recent broad surveys of the 1.4 million active-duty personnel. 50 A 2008 census by The Military Times of predominantly Republican and largely older subscribers found that 58 percent opposed to efforts to repeal the policy; in 2006, a poll by Zogby International of 545 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans found that three-quarters were comfortable around gay service members. 72 At the White House, Mr. Obama decided at a meeting shortly before Christmas to use his State of the Union address to reaffirm his support for repealing \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell.\u201d A White House official said that Mr. Obama\u2019s call for repeal stayed through six drafts of the speech, despite reports of internal battles over how far he should go. 18 As Tuesday\u2019s hearing approaches, no one is predicting that the issue will be easy. 70 Aaron Belkin, the director of the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a research group that focuses on repealing \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell,\u201d said he expected Mr. Gates to announce on Tuesday that the Pentagon would end discharges based on third-party accusations, but also that it would move slowly, which Mr. Belkin opposes. 46 Advertisement Continue reading the main story\n\n\u201cBy signaling that integration is a complicated, fragile process and slow-rolling it over a number of years, you give obstructionists in the military the chance to stir up trouble in their units,\u201d he said."} {"text": " 39 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted a live video of him and Rachel Rubin, the head of social virtual reality at Facebook, showing off how to use Facebook Spaces, the company\u2019s virtual reality platform. 49 It\u2019s not really clear the point of this platform, except that it\u2019s sort of like Google Hangouts, Skype, or any other video-chat program, except that instead of seeing who you\u2019re talking to, you see their cartoon avatar. 52 You can change the background of the world you\u2019re chatting in (which the company calls \u201cteleporting\u201d to somewhere else), and to show off this functionality, Zuckerberg and Rubin headed to Puerto Rico, which is still reeling from the effects of hurricane Maria. 26 Three weeks after it hit, roughly 85% of the island remains without power, and 40% of the population without drinkable water. 39 From inside Facebook\u2019s Frank Gehry-designed headquarters in Menlo Park, California, the two decided to \u201ccheck out this interesting 360 video,\u201d as Zuckerberg described it, of the devastation in Puerto Rico. 46 Zuckerberg then awkwardly narrates his way through the video, commenting that \u201cone of the things that\u2019s really magical about virtual reality is you can get the feeling that you\u2019re really in a place.\u201d\n\nBut he wasn\u2019t. 22 He was watching a grainy video while strapped to VR headset of people struggling to rebuilding an utterly demolished US territory. 44 The overwhelming majority of people in Puerto Rico, if they even had a VR headset, would not have been able to watch Zuckerberg\u2019s virtual tour, given that next to no one has access to the internet right now. 30 \u201cIt really feels like we\u2019re in Puerto Rico, and it\u2019s obviously a tough place to get to right now,\u201d Zuckerberg added. 46 While the video was presumably intended to raise awareness for the damage in Puerto Rico (as well as tease that Facebook will be having its fourth-annual developer conference for VR on Wednesday, Oculus Connect), it came off as a tone-deaf exercise. 48 The smile on Zuckerberg\u2019s cartoon avatar as he spoke of the devastation and the work his company has done to help Puerto Ricans check in with loved ones, and to aid in reconnecting the US territory, completely undercut the gravity of the situation. 37 The internet was quick to criticize the PR stunt, as well as defend what Facebook has done for the region\u2014the company has donated $1.5 million to relief funds on top of its connectivity efforts. 49 Facebook wasn\u2019t immediately available to discuss why it chose touring Puerto Rico as the way to highlight Facebook Spaces\u2014a tool that mainly seems to be just another way to connect with friends\u2014or what exactly the company has done to help reconnect the island to the internet. 32 After touring Puerto Rico\u2019s destruction, Zuckerberg and Rubin decided it would be fun to jump to the Moon, and brought along Zuckerberg\u2019s dog, Beast. 28 Update: Zuckerberg seems to have realized that his VR livestream might have been perceived as offensive by some people in the comments section below the video:"} {"text": " 44 November 6, 2017 - Democrat Has 9-Point Likely Voter Lead In Virginia, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Big Gender And Racial Gaps\n\nPDF format\n\nAdditional Trend Information\n\nSample and Methodology detail\n\nWith yawning gender and racial gaps, Democratic Lt. Gov. 31 Ralph Northam holds a 51 - 42 percent likely voter lead over Republican Ed Gillespie in the Virginia governor's race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. 7 Libertarian Cliff Hyra has 3 percent. 29 Today's result compares to a 53 - 36 percent likely voter lead for Northam in an October 30 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. 17 Non-white likely voters back the Democrat 71 - 20 percent, with 4 percent for Hyra. 16 White voters back the Republican 50 - 44 percent, with 3 percent for Hyra. 13 Women back Northam 61- 33 percent, with 1 percent for Hyra. 14 Men back Gillespie 52 - 40 percent, with 5 percent for Hyra. 20 Independent voters are divided with 46 percent for Northam, 42 percent for Gillespie and 6 percent for Hyra. 16 Democrats back Northam 96 - 3 percent, with less than 1 percent for Hyra. 16 Republicans back Gillespie 92 - 5 percent, with less than 2 percent for Hyra. 10 \"Republican Ed Gillespie is closing Democratic Lt. Gov. 26 Ralph Northam's lead, but Gillespie still has a ways to go and only 24 hours to get there,\" said Peter A. 10 Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. 19 \"A good sign for Gillespie is that in the last two weeks he has cut Lt Gov. 18 Northam's 14-point lead among independents, the key bloc of voters, to a statistical tie. 29 But any hopes that the Republicans have for victory will require their candidate to accomplish the Herculean task of making up a deep, 28-point deficit among women. 30 From October 29 - November 5, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,056 Virginia likely voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points, including the design effect. 8 Live interviewers call landlines and cell phones. 49 The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys nationwide, and statewide polls in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado as a public service and for research. 18 Visit poll.qu.edu or www.facebook.com/quinnipiacpoll Call (203) 582-5201, or follow us on Twitter @QuinnipiacPoll. 2 1. 36 If the election for Governor were being held today, and the candidates were Ralph Northam the Democrat, Ed Gillespie the Republican, and Cliff Hyra the Libertarian, for whom would you vote? 28 (If undecided) As of today, do you lean more toward Ralph Northam the Democrat, Ed Gillespie the Republican or Cliff Hyra the Libertarian?"} {"text": " 25 Libby Phelps Alvarez was raised as a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, a vitriolic group founded by her grandfather, Fred Phelps. 33 Famed for picketing funerals of soldiers with anti-gay signs, the Topeka, Kan.,-based organization, with its estimated 70 members, has become infamous for its extremist hate speech. 47 Four years ago, Alvarez, now 30, left the church \u2014 and she is now supporting Planting Peace, a nonprofit that recently bought a house across from her old church and painted it with gay-pride-themed rainbow stripes and titled it the Equality House. 63 Alvarez plans to work with the group\u2019s founder, Aaron Jackson, on a new anti-bullying initiative \u2014 as far as one can come from a childhood of waving signs reading, \u201cGod hates f - gs.\u201d A physical therapist, she lives with her husband, Logan, in Lawrence, Kan., close to her hometown. 11 She tells The Post\u2019s Sara Stewart her story. 29 I\u2019m sitting in the living room of the Topeka rainbow house, looking out across the street at the church that used to be my home. 6 I\u2019m so close. 7 And I\u2019m really nervous. 10 I don\u2019t want anyone to see me. 10 I don\u2019t want to disappoint my parents. 10 But I like hanging out with the guys here. 10 I\u2019ve been here a few times now. 18 I like how open they are, and how I can have conversations with them about anything. 26 Growing up, I would always be afraid of getting things wrong, afraid of what my family would think of me if I did. 39 PHOTOS: \u2018I LEFT MY FAMILY\u2019S GAY BASHING CULT\u2019\n\nI knew what the rainbow colors meant when I first saw the house \u2014 I\u2019ve picketed gay pride parades before, after all. 13 I don\u2019t quite know what I think about it all. 12 It\u2019s not like I want everyone to be gay. 9 But I think everyone should be treated equally. 12 This is not the kind of teaching I grew up with. 14 My grandfather, Fred Phelps, is the founder of Westboro Baptist Church. 12 Gramps, as I called him, is a Southern gentleman. 9 You just want to be in his orbit. 14 He\u2019s always very sweet with Gran, always gives her kisses. 26 But with Gramps and my dad \u2014 Fred Phelps Jr. \u2014 the only way to get their love and affection was to talk about hell. 27 I remember sitting by the pool in the backyard when I was young, writing in my pink notebook about hell and the descriptions of it. 19 Gramps came up to me and kissed me on the forehead and said, \u201cI love you. 4 I love you. 10 I love you.\u201d Three times in a row. 28 He would make me poached eggs for breakfast, and then we\u2019d sit around and he would talk about the sermon for the upcoming week. 26 It was always about how \u201cf - gs are dooming the nation.\u201d\n\nThere are about 70 people in the church, mostly family. 14 We had about 10 houses in the neighborhood, and a communal backyard. 14 Gramps and Gran live in the house that\u2019s also the church. 15 In the old days, Gramps was a Democrat and a civil rights lawyer. 9 He ran for governor in the \u201980s. 16 I remember driving around in his red truck in parades, throwing candy and stuff. 10 We would have these big barbecues in the backyard. 11 Al Gore came to my house for a fund-raiser once. 26 When I was 8, Gramps went to nearby Gage Park with two of my cousins, who were about a year younger than me. 8 This park was known for homosexual gatherings. 30 When he came back, he said these men started propositioning the boys \u2014 though you know, I\u2019ve never actually asked my cousins whether that happened. 11 Gramps went to the city council meeting and wrote letters. 16 And the next thing you know, we all started picketing, every single weekend. 10 Eventually it became every day, no matter what. 6 Afternoon pickets and evening pickets. 19 Because you\u2019re doing God\u2019s work, telling everyone they\u2019re going to hell. 11 The whole family talks about homosexuality, every single day. 13 And it\u2019s always about how homosexuals are dooming the world. 20 They talk about fornication and divorce, remarriage and adultery, but the main thing is the homosexual lifestyle. 10 It wasn\u2019t a personal hatred toward anybody. 11 We were taught that we were doing a loving thing. 25 Either you are one or you\u2019re enabling one, and so everybody \u2014 except the Westboro people \u2014 is going to hell. 9 Church was on Sundays, for an hour. 15 All the women had to wear head-coverings, because women are seen as submissive. 7 Gramps would always do the sermon. 10 He was so good at it, so intense. 25 He would talk about topical things that were going on, and it would always come back to homosexuality, nearly every single time. 25 We weren\u2019t allowed to celebrate any holidays at all, because they\u2019re all too pagan, even Easter and Christmas. 17 We could only celebrate birthdays, so those have always been a big deal for me. 21 We went to public school, but we weren\u2019t allowed to go to dances or anything like that. 8 We were mostly friends with each other. 10 You weren\u2019t supposed to date, obviously. 22 Gramps would preach about that: \u201cIf I hear of any of my grandkids going around having sex with anyone . 1 . 21 .\u201d\n\nThe picketing was a social thing for us \u2014 it was a way we would see our cousins. 20 We would just call each other, like, \u201cYou going to the 5 o\u2019clock picket? 3 Me too. 16 I\u2019ll see you there.\u201d We would use it to go on vacations. 12 You go, you picket, you do some fun stuff. 31 I have a picture of me in Hawaii with two signs: \u201cGod hates f - gs\u201d and \u201cGod hates Hawaii.\u201d Why does he hate Hawaii? 7 Because we wanted to go there! 14 When 9/11 happened, I heard it on the radio in the car. 9 I was actually driving over to the church. 4 It was jaw-dropping. 8 I thought, \u201cOh my God. 27 I can\u2019t believe that happened.\u201d And then I get to the house and everyone was celebrating, like, \u201cThis is awesome! 31 God is punishing this nation!\u201d So I had to change, and be like, \u201cOh, OK, that\u2019s awesome.\u201d So I did. 7 That\u2019s what I thought. 22 Around 2007, my cousin Megan and I would go to a rec center at a nearby university to play volleyball. 17 And this guy Blake came up to us and asked if he could hit with us. 10 He seemed really personable and outgoing, really nice. 10 He didn\u2019t say anything about being gay. 16 But I\u2019ve been around homosexuals my whole life, just from picketing them. 9 His mannerisms made me think he might be. 28 Afterward, I looked at Megan and said, \u201cDo you think he\u2019s a f - g?\u201d We didn\u2019t know. 30 Blake told me later that his friends, and the people at the rec center, were saying, \u201cDo you know who you\u2019re playing with? 17 You\u2019re playing with those Phelpses!\u201d But he kept hanging out with us. 22 One time he was driving down 17th Street in Topeka, and he saw me and Megan picketing with some people. 20 And he honked and waved at me, and I said, \u201cHey!\u201d and smiled back. 4 It was confusing. 18 In 2008, I graduated from University of Kansas Medical Center with a doctorate of physical therapy. 14 I had been living at home the whole time I was in school. 11 One of my first patients was this guy named Logan. 30 When he came in, I thought, \u201cWhoa, he\u2019s cute.\u201d I didn\u2019t say anything, because I\u2019m very professional! 12 But also it wasn\u2019t like it was a possibility. 18 If anybody in the church even thought you were lusting after somebody, that was a sin. 7 But I didn\u2019t lust. 14 I just thought he was cute, and I kept it to myself. 21 Then in 2009, my mom and dad, my sister Sara and me took a trip to Puerto Rico. 35 We weren\u2019t allowed to picket there, but we went anyway \u2014 we took a whole bunch of photos, including one of me and Sara in our bikinis at the beach. 25 When we got back, Gramps said to me, \u201cI haven\u2019t had a picture of you guys in a while. 21 Can I get one?\u201d I thought that was the best one, so I gave it to him. 5 And he liked it. 20 He was like, \u201cYou guys look like models!\u201d He always said that kind of stuff. 29 So I didn\u2019t think anything of it until my cousin Megan called me on the phone and said, \u201cWhy were you wearing a bikini? 17 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s appropriate.\u201d And I stuck up for myself. 12 I said, \u201cYou\u2019ve worn a bikini before. 9 We used to be able to wear them. 9 And now it\u2019s against the rules? 31 It wasn\u2019t like I was trying to pick up a guy or anything.\u201d\n\nThen my Aunt Shirley called and said, \u201cCan you come down here? 26 A few of us want to talk to you.\u201d I showed up, and 30 church members had filled up the big game room. 10 Like a show was being put on or something. 23 And they started in: The initial issue was the bikini, but the bigger problem was the way I was reacting. 8 Because I had stood up for myself. 6 I wanted to throw up. 7 It was the most intense thing. 20 Because I\u2019m thinking, I better shape up or I\u2019m going to go to hell. 26 Then I heard Marge, who\u2019s my other aunt, in the other room saying, \u201cShe\u2019s too far gone. 16 There\u2019s no hope for her.\u201d\n\nThat was on Wednesday, March 11. 9 On Friday the 13th I left for good. 11 It was a really hard decision for me to leave. 20 But things were just getting more and more extreme in the church \u2014 like praying for people to die. 6 Nobody knew I was leaving. 13 My mom and dad were on an out of town picketing trip. 10 And my sister was out of town, too. 11 I didn\u2019t tell anybody else in the family. 9 It was in the middle of the day. 39 My boss and two other people from work came to my family\u2019s house and helped me pack up my stuff and I went to my boss\u2019 place, where I lived for a few months. 13 Blake was one of the first people I saw after I left. 9 Not because of him being gay or anything. 9 He was just always really nice to me. 47 And I remember talking to him and him saying, \u201cSo what do you think about gay people now?\u201d\n\nAnd I said, \u201cI still think it\u2019s wrong!\u201d Because when I first left, I did think that. 14 That was the first time he\u2019d asked me anything like that. 14 And he said, \u201cOh,\u201d and kind of looked down. 20 I\u2019m pretty sure he thought I would tell him he was going to hell if he was. 51 Soon after I\u2019d left, Shirley sent an e-mail saying, \u201cYour mom and dad and sister want no further communication with you.\u201d I learned later that my mom had called the clinic where I work on Friday, not knowing I\u2019d moved out. 14 That was the only time she\u2019s ever tried to contact me. 14 One of the first things I did after leaving was get a haircut. 58 Women can\u2019t cut their hair in the church, because of First Corinthians 11:14: \u201cIf a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering.\u201d You shouldn\u2019t cut it off because you\u2019re cutting your glory off. 7 The whole time I was nervous. 9 I was like, \u201cOh my God. 29 I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m doing this.\u201d\n\nWhen I first left, I thought that I was going to die driving on the highway. 28 When I first got on an airplane, I thought it was going to crash and I was going to die, because God hated me now. 5 I still get scared. 19 A few months after leaving, I was shopping downtown and recognized Logan, my cute former patient. 52 I was like, \u201cHey, I know who you are.\u201d\n\nWe started dating and early on I asked him, \u201cDo you know who Fred Phelps is?\u201d And he said maybe he\u2019d heard the name, but he didn\u2019t really know. 23 And I said, \u201cWell, I\u2019m his granddaughter.\u201d I told him to go home and research it. 13 The next time I saw him, he told me he had. 8 And then there was a long pause. 9 I was like, \u201cJust say it. 32 Whatever you\u2019re going to say, just say it.\u201d He said, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter to me.\u201d That my past didn\u2019t matter. 9 And he liked me for who I was. 15 Because I didn\u2019t do it anymore, he didn\u2019t care. 22 We dated for about two years and then we got married in Cozumel, Mexico, on July 9, 2011. 15 Three of my cousins who\u2019d left the church came to the wedding. 11 I was sad, because I wanted my parents there. 19 My mom and grandma had given me these rings when I was younger, and I wore those. 11 The one from my grandma had four birthstones on it. 8 I walked down the aisle by myself. 10 I didn\u2019t want anybody to walk me. 41 I felt lonely \u2014 everybody wants their dad to walk them down the aisle \u2014 and I could have asked a cousin, but I figured, I\u2019ll be a strong independent woman and do this by myself. 12 We\u2019re happily married but my past still haunts me. 13 A few months ago, I was having a really stressful night. 6 I had a little breakdown. 14 I went to Blake\u2019s house, and we went driving around. 11 I was just telling him everything, spilling my guts. 33 And then in the middle of all this I said, \u201cBlake, would you just tell me that you\u2019re gay?\u201d That\u2019s just my personality. 5 I\u2019m nosy. 9 I could tell he was hesitant to say. 10 He was living with a guy at the time. 4 He finally did. 6 And I just started laughing. 22 He said, \u201cI knew you\u2019d be fine with it and you\u2019d still be my friend. 19 But what I was afraid of is that you might tell me I\u2019m going to hell. 20 And I don\u2019t want to be told that.\u201d\n\nBut I didn\u2019t tell him that. 36 The day before Easter I took my little cousin to Topeka because I thought she would like to see this colorful house I\u2019d heard about, right across the street from the church. 21 I drove over the long way, so I wouldn\u2019t have to pass all my families\u2019 houses. 5 I was really nervous. 4 I was shaking. 9 I didn\u2019t want to get out. 40 The first time I got that close, I was like, \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m doing this.\u201d But I walked up and I sat there on the porch for a little bit. 24 A tall man with dark hair came out of the house and introduced himself as Aaron Jackson, the founder of Planting Peace. 13 Immediately I was intrigued and we made a plan to have dinner. 27 Over the meal with Aaron and his associates, Davis Hammet and Rob Gisser, they told me about their plan to start an anti-bullying program. 12 Aaron asked if I\u2019d be a part of it. 15 I don\u2019t know if I want to give a speech or anything! 14 But I don\u2019t believe in people bullying people for any reason. 8 So we\u2019re talking about it. 21 When I was in the rainbow house last week, I saw my parents go by on their daily walk. 10 I hadn\u2019t seen them in four years. 16 And I couldn\u2019t go to them, couldn\u2019t talk to them. 7 It wouldn\u2019t be productive. 11 I just watched them walk by and I started crying. 18 My dad will see this story, because he\u2019s the one who weeds through press. 19 And if he thinks it\u2019s worth forwarding on, he\u2019ll forward it to everybody. 34 And then someone will be like, \u201cShe\u2019s following her lusts, she\u2019s going to hell.\u201d\n\nBut I want to tell my parents that I love them. 12 And I want to say that my parents were good parents. 13 I don\u2019t know if they would ever leave the church. 24 But my cousin Megan left a few months ago and she\u2019s one of the last people that I would have thought. 14 And now her sister Grace and my sister Sara have left, too. 7 So it\u2019s a possibility. 5 My parents could leave. 6 I would want them to. 7 Then I can see them again. 19 In the meantime, I hope I can help some of my young relatives when they get older. 16 That\u2019s my main goal, why I want to stick around in Kansas. 28 I want my cousins and my nieces and nephews to see that the world isn\u2019t mean and hateful and evil and full of vicious people. 23 We were told there\u2019s going to be heartache and sorrow and disease and sadness in the world outside the church. 8 And there is sadness at some points. 10 But overall, it\u2019s a fun adventure. 22 I don\u2019t really think my personality has changed much, but I think my ideas on life have changed. 21 When I had first left, if I would see a homosexual couple, I would scrunch up my nose. 22 Then it got to where I still thought it was wrong, but I wouldn\u2019t say or do anything. 17 And now it\u2019s to the point where it doesn\u2019t matter to me. 11 I don\u2019t really care if somebody is gay. 11 I know that I want to be good to people. 6 I still believe in God. 10 I just think that he\u2019s more forgiving. 20 Ultimately I don\u2019t think I have the right to say who is going to heaven or hell. 24 I think I\u2019ve always felt this way, but until now I didn\u2019t have the courage to say it. 3 sstewart@nypost.com"} {"text": " 22 Migrating a MacPorts installation\n\nA MacPorts installation is designed to work with a particular operating system and a particular hardware architecture. 26 Problems may occur after major system changes, such as:\n\nmajor operating system upgrades (e.g., from 10.9 Mavericks to 10.10 Yosemite). 11 architecture migrations (e.g., from PowerPC to Intel). 16 migrations from one computer to another\n\nPlease follow this procedure to ensure a smooth transition. 12 (This isn't necessary if you only upgrade Xcode.) 31 Migration procedure\n\nMigration Assistant\n\nIf you are going to use the Migration Assistant to copy files and/or settings from an old computer to a new one, do so now. 30 Install the latest version of Xcode and the Xcode command line tools\n\nAfter a major system change, update the development tools by \u200binstalling the latest version of Xcode. 12 Open the Xcode application once after installation and follow any prompts. 15 Install the command line tools package as well (run xcode-select --install ). 28 Reinstall MacPorts base\n\nAfter updating the development tools, install the base MacPorts system for your new platform, either from the appropriate installer or from source. 52 Update macports.conf: If your macports.conf (typically at /opt/local/etc/macports/macports.conf ) contains uncommented settings for universal_archs or build_arch , you will likely want to update them, since unlike earlier OS versions, the compiler on Snow Leopard and later will build for x86_64 by default on systems that support it. 27 The default values will be fine for almost all users, so unless you know you need something different, just comment out these two lines. 13 Several other settings in macports.conf have changed their defaults over the years. 21 Take a moment to compare each line of your macports.conf with the corresponding line in macports.conf.default in the same directory. 27 Unless you know a reason why a line in your settings file should be different from the defaults, adopt the line from the defaults file. 63 Reinstall ports Save the list of installed ports: port -qv installed > myports.txt (optional) Save the list of requested ports: port echo requested | cut -d ' ' -f 1 > requested.txt Uninstall all installed ports: sudo port -f uninstall installed Clean any partially-completed builds: sudo rm -rf /opt/local/var/macports/build/* Download and execute the restore_ports script. 32 (If you installed MacPorts from source and used a custom prefix, then you'll need to use the -p option when you run restore_ports.tcl; see ./restore_ports.tcl -h .) 31 curl --location --remote-name https://github.com/macports/macports-contrib/raw/master/restore_ports/restore_ports.tcl chmod +x restore_ports.tcl sudo ./restore_ports.tcl myports.txt Note: ports that are not available on your new platform will be skipped without error. 33 (optional) Restore requested status: If you saved the list of requested ports, you can now restore the requested flags for your newly installed ports to their former states. 39 sudo port unsetrequested installed xargs sudo port setrequested < requested.txt Warning: if a port in requested.txt was not installed in the previous step, the iterative setrequested will terminate, leaving some ports still marked as not-requested. 15 Edit requested.txt to remove any ports that were not installed and repeat this step. 14 Double check your desired ports are set as requested with port echo requested . 17 Troubleshooting\n\nThough it is now quite well-tested, the restore_ports script may fail in some cases. 18 One known issue is that the script will fail if there are conflicting ports in the list. 19 It's possible to have conflicting ports installed provided at most one of the conflicting set is active. 26 If the script fails for this reason, you can delete one of the conflicting ports from myports.txt and then simply run the script again. 16 You may need to do this multiple times if there are multiple conflicting ports listed. 67 In the worst case, you can reinstall your ports manually by browsing myports.txt and installing the ports one by one, remembering to specify the appropriate variants:\n\nsudo port install portname +variant1 +variant2 \u2026\n\nNote that if you have specified variants which are not the default, you may need to install ports in an order other than the alphabetical order recorded in myports.txt . 32 You may skip explicitly installing ports that you did not request as long as they are not using non-default variants, since they will be installed as dependencies of other ports. 21 If things go really wrong, don't forget that you can always \u200buninstall MacPorts entirely before manually reinstalling ports. 19 Another potential problem is that the restore_ports.tcl command may fail with a Too many open files error message. 16 Under macOS Sierra, the default shell has a default ulimit of 256 open files. 24 The solution is to restore the ports with a slightly modified command:\n\nsudo bash -c \"ulimit -n 4096; ./restore_ports.tcl myports.txt\""} {"text": " 24 Professional entertainer Donald Trump suggested during a nationally televised Republican debate that vaccines cause autism, a theory that has been massively discredited. 7 \"Autism has become an epidemic. 22 Twenty-five years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics, not even close,\" Trump said. 21 \"I am totally in favor of vaccines but I want smaller doses over a longer period of time.\" 42 Trump related the story of an employee's \"beautiful child [who] went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.\" 25 All states require certain immunizations in order for children to be admitted to public schools, with limited exceptions for religious or health reasons. 18 Some parents worry vaccines cause autism, a theory supported by less than a shred of evidence. 20 Some other parents favor slowing the schedule of immunizations to reduce the risk of autism, another unsupported theory. 62 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains the risk of delaying immunizations: \"Some vaccine-preventable diseases remain common in the United States, and children may be exposed to these diseases during the time they are not protected by vaccines, placing them at risk for a serious case of the disease that might cause hospitalization or death.\" 21 Skipping or delaying vaccinations also weakens herd immunity, which protects people who are too young to have been immunized. 15 Moderator Jake Tapper invited Dr. Ben Carson to weigh in on Trump's analysis. 7 Carson declined to contradict Trump directly. 26 \"The fact of the matter is, we have extremely well-documented proof that there is no autism associated with vaccinations,\" Carson said. 22 \"But it is true that we are probably giving way too many in too short a period of time.\" 12 Rand Paul also joined Trump's call for spacing out vaccines. 18 \"I'm all for vaccines, but i'm also for freedom,\" Paul said. 15 \"I'm also a little concerned about how they're bunched up.\" 29 In a September 2011 Republican debate, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) falsely claimed a link between vaccines and neurological problems, and it tanked her campaign. 10 Read the latest updates on the GOP debate here. 4 Also on HuffPost:"} {"text": " 4 Sen. Elizabeth Warren. 60 Scott Eisen/Getty Images Randal Quarles, President Donald Trump's nominee for Federal Reserve Vice Chair of Regulation, a position created after the financial crisis, took a lot of heat from Senator Elizabeth Warren in a hearing Thursday for what she described as \"a 30-year career spinning through the revolving door in the private sector.\" 41 Quarles, a former Wall Street lawyer and Treasury official, was visibly shaken as Warren dug into him with all the details of his career that appeared to go against the role he's now tasked to take on. 10 With characteristic swagger, Warren didn't hold back. 41 \"After the 2008 crisis, Congress put the Fed in charge of supervising the biggest banks and created a new position, the vice chair for regulation, that was supposed to lead that effort,\" Warren said. 31 \"That means if you're confirmed to this position Mr. Quarles, you'll have more influence than any other person over the regulation of the big banks.\" 44 \"Given that enormous power, the number one thing we need from the Fed's vice chair for supervision is a demonstrated willingness to stand up to the interests of the big banks that threaten the financial institutions,\" she continued. 30 \"But when I look at your 30 year career spinning through the revolving door in the private sector Mr. Quarles, I just don't see it.\" 8 And the attack didn't stop there. 36 \"You've got 15 years representing big banks at a New York law firm working on some of the mergers that created the too-big-to-fail banks that we have today,\" Warren pointed out. 62 \"You have two stints at the Treasury Department including shortly before the 2008 crisis where you insisted the banks were well capitalized enough to survive a housing downturn \u2014 it turns out they weren't \u2014 and more than a decade in private equity and investment management where you've argued repeatedly for weaker rules for the biggest banks.\" 3 Her conclusion? 20 \"That's not a track record that should give Americans a whole lot of confidence in you.\" 34 To Warren's credit, Quarles written testimony, while short, did indicate he intends to be a loyal soldier to Trump's mandate to roll back post-crisis regulations known as Dodd-Frank. 35 \"As with any complex undertaking, after the first wave of reform, and with the benefit of experience and reflection, some refinements will undoubtedly be in order,\" he said. 33 Pressed for more details, Quarles echoed a long-standing Wall Street talking point that banks should get to know more details about the Fed's bank stress tests than are currently divulged. 24 Regulators and finance experts this would make the tests even more like a take-home exam, allowing too-big-to-fail banks to game the results."} {"text": " 11 Update: Added Golden Cards to the list of rewards. 5 Confirmed during technical difficulties! 5 The Arena\n\nThe Arena? 12 The Forge has been renamed to The Arena to avoid confusion. 15 In play-testing, players were confused why there was no crafting in the Forge. 12 The Arena requires players to pay their way into the mode. 30 You may use in-game currency (Gold), or real money (IRL Gold)\n\nPlayers will have to pick between three heroes when they enter The Arena. 14 Hero picks are randomized, so you might not get what you want. 16 Rewards\n\nPlayers will be given a Novice key at the beginning of their Arena run. 21 The key will be upgraded each time that you win a duel, all the way up to Grand Master. 24 The rewards unlocked in the chest at the end of the Arena run will be increased based on the quality of the key. 18 Retiring early in The Arena will still allow you to unlock the rewards that you have earned. 40 Confirmed rewards for The Arena include\n\nPacks of Cards\n\nGold Coins (In-game currency)\n\nArcane Dust (Card crafting material)\n\nGolden Cards\n\nDeckbuilding\n\nDecks in The Arena consist of 30 cards, much like the regular gamemode. 18 There are no restrictions on the amount of any one card you may insert into your deck. 6 Great news for Deathwing lovers. 19 Players choose one card per turn, out of three randomized cards, to insert into their deck. 26 Each turn in The Arena will first determine a card rarity and then randomize 3 cards of that rarity that are eligible for deck insertion. 18 Your deck expires at the end of your Arena run and is not able to be saved. 32 Ben and Eric's Amazing Mage Arena Deck\n\nAlthough we didn't get to see in it action much, Ben and Eric expertly crafted a Mage deck in the Arena. 18 We've got the contents of their deck available on our deckbuilder for you to check out. 23 Game Changes\n\nSome changes were visible during the livestream, and we'll have our database updated once we get the client. 21 Fireball's mana cost was reduced to 4, from 5.\n\nmana cost was reduced to 4, from 5. 13 Shadowstep also reduces the mana cost of the card returned by two. 12 also reduces the mana cost of the card returned by two. 7 Valeera Sanguinar received a graphical update. 62 Video on Demand\n\nEric and Ben vs Uther the Lightbringer\n\nEric and Ben vs Valeera Sanguinar\n\nArena Rewards Preview\n\nThe Building of Eric and Ben's Mage Arena Deck\n\nFireside Chat Episode 6 - Arena Discussion, Mage Cards, Art Contest Winner\n\nWe'll be live at 1pm PDT on the HearthPwn Twitch channel with another episode of Fireside Chat. 19 Come and join us while we discuss what we've seen today and going through the Mage Cards. 30 Initially we were going to be discussing the Hunter, but we've decided a change of plans was needed after we saw the Mage during The Arena preview."} {"text": " 9 Today is a very special day for us. 30 Not only we finally figured out how to make a website, but we also would like to announce the latest addition to our StarCraft II roster, dPix.Patience! 13 We all know that Jo \u201cPatience\u201d Ji Hyun loves Switzerland. 45 Not only because the he is passionate about cows; it also seems that the fresh air from the Alps gave him the necessary inspiration and skill to crush all his opponents at the 41 Summer Invitational, held earlier this year in Lausanne. 21 Back in 2013, he also made a very strong impression by reaching the 3rd spot at the DreamHack Winter. 15 Before joining Dead Pixels, Patience played for Alien Invasion, Azubu and Prime. 12 You can follow dPix.Patience on his Twitter and his Facebook page. 24 I am very happy to welcome the talented protoss, the cutest sc2 players (searching swedish love) and finally my friend. 3 Moutz DEADPIXELS CEO"} {"text": " 48 BEIJING \u2014 A Chinese-born professor at an Australian university who has often criticized Beijing\u2019s crackdown on political dissent has been barred from leaving China and is being questioned by state security officers as a suspected threat to national security, his lawyer said on Sunday. 42 The confinement of Feng Chongyi, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, or U.T.S., unfolded over the weekend while China\u2019s premier, Li Keqiang, visited Australia to promote deeper trade and diplomatic ties. 10 Professor Feng\u2019s case could cloud those ties. 17 The lawyer, Chen Jinxue, said Professor Feng had not been arrested or formally charged. 57 The professor has been staying in a hotel in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, and has been repeatedly questioned by national security officers after being stopped by entry-exit checkpoint officials on Friday and Saturday from taking flights back to Australia, Mr. Chen said from Guangzhou, where he was accompanying Professor Feng. 34 \u201cHe\u2019s been told he\u2019s suspected of involvement in a threat to national security,\u201d Mr. Chen said by telephone, adding that Professor Feng declined to comment."} {"text": " 43 At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Diane Bryant, Executive VP of Data Center Group, announced that the Intel Silicon Photonics is now available in high-volume production and is being shipped in the form of 100G optional transceivers. 58 The products Intel Silicon Photonics 100G PSM4 (Parallel Single Mode fiber 4-lane) and Intel Silicon Photonics 100G CWDM4 (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing 4-lane) are small form-factor, high speed, and low power consumption products, targeted for use in data communications applications, in particular for switch-to-switch optical interconnects in data centers. 97 Image Source: itpeernetwork.intel.com/\n\nIntel in its Intel in its official blog states,\n\n\u201cThe announcement marks a major milestone; the commercialization and high-volume deployment of silicon photonics has been anticipated by the industry for years, with optical networking vendors and operators looking towards the day when we would see the integration of optics onto silicon CMOS technology, with all the scale and manufacturing capability that it brings.\u201d\n\nIntel informs us that in cloud data centers across the world, the demand for connectivity is rising quickly, especially machine-to-machine traffic. 21 Hence, the network is not able to keep up with the data computing or growth along with storage performance. 49 Hence, in order to scale bandwidth and remove the constraints, cloud services are currently looking for different ways to achieve higher-speed connectivity which is possible through copper wires, while at the same time using less power, with the most cost effective technology and implementation. 22 Hence, this is where the Intel Silicon Photonics will go on to revolutionize the data center, states the company. 26 The company states,\n\n\u201cIntel Silicon Photonics combines the manufacturing scale and capability of silicon with the power of light onto a single chip. 36 It allows us to build silicon-based components that can transmit and receive optical signals, moving large amounts of information at 100 gigabit-per-second over long distances of up to several kilometers on fiber optic cables. 75 Today, these products are already being deployed to connect switches to switches in large data centers; in the future, as bandwidth to the server increases, the optical network will connect servers, displacing the copper interconnects that are increasingly limited in reach as bandwidth goes up.\u201d\n\nIntel informs us that on the switch side, 100G will now go on to give way to 400G within a few years. 49 The density requirements will go on to push the front-plate pluggable optics to on-board optics, to integrate with switch ASIC, as electrical I/O bandwidth and density becomes unable to support the total switch bandwidth and density becomes unable to support the total switch bandwidth and radix. 32 However, Intel\u2019s Silicon Photonics is quite uniquely positioned so as to enable and lead this particular development, as the most flexible and compact optical integration platform available. 39 Intel in the blog post states,\n\n\u201cTo get there, we expect to see increases of up to 100x in bandwidth density (Gbps/mm2) and improvements by up to 3x in power consumption per Gbps1. 51 The announcement today at IDF marks the beginning of this; more than announcing a product, we are celebrating the maturity and readiness of a technology platform that offers the density, bandwidth, reach, and cost required for future data centers and their optical connectivity needs.\u201d"} {"text": " 25 Anyone new to this blog or geophysics in archaeology is recommended to read the material on the \u201cGeophysical survey in archaeology\u201d page. 15 Firstly, many apologies for the time it has taken to write this report. 13 The data were quite complex, and the day job comes first. 19 This is a monster blog post, so make a cup of tea and settle back somewhere comfy! 24 Last year CAGG teamed-up with local groups to undertake some survey at the Roman \u2018small town\u2019 of Durobrivae, near Peterborough. 21 If you have ever driven on the A1(M) past Peterborough you would have passed by the site. 18 Our aim was simply to determine which geophysical survey techniques would give good results at this site. 8 The answer was: all of them! 21 A short note on the results has just been published in the International Society for Archaeological Prospection\u2018s newsletter. 20 We decided to add to our original survey by undertaking another three days work from 4th to 6th November. 20 Unfortunately, it decided to rain in the morning of the first day and so we lost some time. 36 We had enough helpers to run the mag, two Earth Resistance meters (the Welwyn Archaeological Society\u2018s and UCL\u2018s) and the Mal\u00e5 GPR we had on loan from SEAHA. 23 A small group of us returned on 26th November to expand the magnetometry survey and undertake a topographic survey using the dGPS. 14 The first three figures just show how much we have done so far. 27 In the following post I am going to firstly discuss the western block of data, and then the eastern block over \u201cthe tumulus\u201d. 16 Last year we completed a 80m x 360m transect of mag data across the town. 16 We also completed two blocks of GPR data, one 80\u00d780, and one 80x40m. 25 This year we wanted to fill in the gap between those two blocks so surveyed another 80x40m block giving us one contiguous 80x160m survey. 28 Unfortunately, matching GPR grids is quite difficult, especially when there is a year between when they were collected, and therefore quite different ground conditions. 26 I did, however, manage to produce some \u201cOK\u201d time slices by applying a zero-mean traverse to each line of GPR data. 20 Hopefully, I will be able to create better slices in future, but these will do for now. 23 I also noticed that Larry Conyers had produced a much clearer plot of the temple by using a much thicker time slice. 8 I usually aim for 3ns thick slices. 8 Larry, however, used 8ns slices. 16 Here I have compromised by using 5 1/4 ns slices with a 50% overlap. 2 Fig. 12 4 is a composite of 12 slices starting at the surface. 25 Apart from Ermine Street cutting across the top right hand corner, the first three slices are not really showing anything much of interest. 12 Let us now look at the individual slices in more detail. 24 In Figure 5, left, we can see the temple (A) starting to show as an area of lower reflections. 29 Larry Conyers was able to demonstrate that the interior of the temple building was clear of rubble, and thus there is little to reflect the radar waves. 23 In slice 5 on the right, we can see a linear feature (B) to the west of the temple. 25 This lines up perfectly with a strongly magnetic feature and is therefore a narrow cut feature like a ditch or possibly a wall foundation. 22 There are faint hints of buildings with robbed-out walls at C and D, showing as light areas of low reflections. 16 Similarly, at E, we can see some of the buildings alongside Ermine Street. 25 In Figure 6, left, at A, we can see one of the minor side roads off Ermine street starting to show. 31 The building at B is still visible (just), and we are can start to see a wall parallel to the linear feature we saw previously (Fig. 5 5, B). 18 This suggests to me that we are dealing with a cut feature rather than a robbed wall. 6 Slightly deeper, in Fig. 15 6, right, at D we can see more buildings alongside Ermine Street. 11 The square building at E is now showing more clearly. 15 The large building at G is beginning to show quite clearly at this depth. 31 I am puzzled, however, that the road coming from the east seems to end in a sharp angle at F, as though something has cut through it. 3 In Fig. 21 7, left, at A we can now see the building to the north of the temple very well. 16 It would appear the walls have been robbed but some of the floors left intact. 18 At B, the large building to the east of the temple is showing very clearly now. 22 The wall along the west side of the temenos of the temple (C) is showing clearly at this depth. 24 Starting to show, but more clearly in the next depth slice at D, is a long wall running across the site. 15 There seems to be an almost entrance-like feature in it at the western end. 8 Skipping a slice and moving to No. 4 11 (Fig. 21 8, left), we can see the wall to the west of the emple at A very clearly. 14 The possible floor of the building to the north at B still shows. 26 In the deepest slice I have generated, we have a curious series of curved features at C. I have no idea what these are. 16 Answers on a postcard, please, to\u2026\n\nFigure 9 shows the Earth Resistance survey. 19 We added a single line of grids on the eastern edge of the block we did last year. 11 There is a strange speckly effect in the new strip. 13 This block of grids we did with WAS\u2019s TRCIA meter. 37 The resistance values were very high, and the meter had to keep swapping range which, apart from slowing us down in the field, may be the cause of the rather odd looking results. 21 The main result in the new strip is the high-resistance line running WSW to ENE which is probably a road. 17 A comparison with Stephen Upex\u2019s transcription from aerial photographs is quite informative (Fig. 3 10). 14 Some of the details between the aerials and the geophysics agree quite well. 11 The temple itself, and the temenos are pretty good. 6 What about the circular shrine? 16 I reprocessed the GPR data from just that section using 6.5ns thick slices this time. 25 I have produced an image of slice 6 (16.04 to 22.49ns) in the variety of palettes offered by GPR Slice (Fig. 3 11). 12 The building to the north of the temenos shows quite well. 23 There are hints of a circular structure just to the north of the main temple building lying underneath a robbed rectangular building. 16 The circular feature shows quite well in the last palette, and the antepenultimate one. 18 The rectangular building is clearer in the second slice where black is showing areas of low reflections. 21 There is clearly a great deal which can be teased out of this data, but let us move on! 18 The second area we surveyed was over the so-called tumulus towards the western side of the town. 20 The mound showed quite nicely last year when the evening mist rolled in on the last day (Fig. 3 12). 12 Our aim was to survey the mound using all three techniques. 21 Unfortunately, the half day we lost to rain resulted in not covering quite as much ground as we hoped. 20 The mag results were especially interesting, hence our return to expand the survey area a few weeks later. 7 Figure 13 shows the magnetometry results. 12 Ermine Street and the minor road running off it show well. 7 The town wall also shows clearly. 42 The zig-zag look to the wall is not \u201cstagger\u201d in the usual sense of the odometer being incorrect, but a result of the cart going up and down a steepish slope resulting in the sensors not being vertical. 28 There are indications of more long, thin buildings coming off Ermine Street at right angles, and plenty of other pits, ditches and other features. 20 The really curious aspect though, is the empty space in the middle, under the \u201ctumulus\u201d. 28 This seems to have a polygonal linear feature around it, showing as a magnetic positive and therefore either a cut feature, or a brick-built wall. 20 To the east / south-east of the tumulus is a largely open area, somewhat fan shaped in appearance. 4 How very curious. 32 I wanted to check the relationship between the results and the topography so I undertook a topographic survey with the dGPS taking readings every six paces (just under 5m). 7 This differs from using the UAV. 25 The GPS survey will give us a digital terrain model (DTM) which is the actual surface, but at a cruder resolution. 36 The UAV will give us a digital surface model (DSM) which gives the surface and thus maps the tops of stinging nettle patches and so on, but at a much higher resolution. 6 We saw this at Darrowfield. 27 Neither method is better than the other, it depends on ones aims, but using the UAV is certainly very much quicker in the field! 18 As can be seen from Figure 14, the tumulus shows as an elongated feature running SW-NE. 13 My guess is that this shape is a result of plough damage. 9 How does this relate to the mag results? 20 In Figure 15 I have overlain the mag data on the topography, and then made it partially transparent. 18 As can be seen, the mound is smack in the middle of the polygonal magnetic feature. 13 The Earth Resistance survey adds a little to the picture (Fig. 3 16). 22 The resistance data shows little in the way of positive features apart from an area of high readings towards the south. 19 There does seem to be a oval of low resistance readings, normally indicative of a ditch-like feature. 26 There are faint hints of this in the mag data, but they are obscured by other magnetic features running up to the polygonal feature. 35 If the ultimate origin of the \u201ctumulus\u201d is a prehistoric burial mound, perhaps the res survey is showing us the outer ditch surviving, in part, below the Roman levels? 2 Fig. 12 17 shows the resistance survey with contours from the topo survey. 9 We managed three 40x40m blocks of GPR data. 21 Unfortunately, the GPR had a glitch in the second grid resulting in a single line of very high values. 9 This glitch caused some problems in the processing. 21 I have tried to get rid of them, but the line still shows, especially in the lower slices. 2 Fig. 8 18 shows the composite of 16 slices. 7 Surprisingly little shows in this survey. 40 The two main features are the rectangular building which shows from slice 5 onwards, and the general lack of anything much under the tumulus part from some general reflections suggesting some hard material (stones, rubble?) 4 under the mound. 10 Let us look at slice 6 in more detail. 12 The building towards the south of the image is fairly clear. 10 I wonder if it might be a bath house? 37 The area of higher reflections under the mound have faint hints of straight lines and rectangles, but this only shows in this one slice and my guess is that these are fortuitous rather than archaeology. 10 How does the GPR data relate to the topography? 7 As can be seen from Fig. 21 20, the higher reflections do not lie below the main part of the mound but slightly to one side. 13 The building lies outside the polygonal feature seen in the mag data. 8 A slightly deeper time slice (Fig. 13 21) shows the strip buildings along Ermine Street starting to show. 16 They appear to be missing their back walls which might be one impact of ploughing. 44 I made a crude interpretation map in Google Earth by marking the polygonal feature from the mag data, the building from the GPR data, and, with some guess work, the outer feature from the Earth Resistance data (Fig. 3 22). 33 It is impossible from the data to tell if the outer feature from the res survey goes under or around the building, so I may have been a bit generous there. 5 So what is it? 23 One possible interpretation could be that we have a prehistoric feature with a mound and a ditch, presumably a round barrow. 9 The ditch silts up before the Roman occupation. 20 The mound is then fenced off and kept completely clear of structures or negative features like ditches and pits. 19 A building is constructed to the south of this mound, and a viewing area to the east. 38 Stephen Upex, solely on the basis of the aerial imagery, suggested that the feature was prehistoric, and re-used as either a amphitheatre in the Roman period or a small castle in the medieval period. 25 With the new data, I think we can rule out the castle (unless it was much more substantial at that date). 33 Although the phrase \u201critual\u201d is greatly over-used in archaeology, maybe in this case we are looking at an earlier mound which continued to be venerated into the Roman period? 8 Baths are often associated with religious sites. 17 At this stage, this is purely guesswork at the end of a long blog post. 10 This feature is, really fascinating and quite enigmatic. 15 Extending the earth Resistance and GPR surveys would, obviously, be very helpful. 13 The landscape around Durobrivae is fascinating from an archaeological point of view. 29 The nearby Roman fort is only known from aerial photographs, and just across the river and the Nene Valley Railway lies the site of Castor (Fig. 9 23) with its huge Roman building complex. 38 Last, but not least, many thanks to all those who helped push the mag and the GPR, and who aerated the grass with the resistance frame, or flew UAVs to map the topography. 29 Although the site is a long way for all of CAGGs volunteers, the site is both stunning and intriguing and, I think, worth the effort. 11 We hope to return to collect some more data soon. 1 Advertisements"} {"text": " 50 UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - With international sanctions squeezing Iran, the Islamic Republic is seeking to expand its banking foothold in the Caucasus nation of Armenia to make up for difficulties in countries it used to rely on to do business, according to diplomats and documents. 29 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan (C) walks with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) during an official welcoming ceremony in Yerevan December 23, 2011. 60 REUTERS/Tigran Mehrabyan/PanARMENIAN Photo/Handout\n\nIran\u2019s growing interest in its neighbor Armenia, a mountainous, landlocked country of about 3.3 million people, comes at a time of rising international isolation for Tehran and increasing scrutiny by Western governments and intelligence agencies of Iranian banking ties worldwide as they attempt to stifle the country\u2019s nuclear program. 41 The most recent example is British bank Standard Chartered (STAN.L), which has been in the spotlight due to U.S. charges that it hid from U.S. regulators and shareholders some $250 billion of transactions tied to Iran. 65 An expanded local-currency foothold in a neighbor like Armenia, a former Soviet republic which has close trade ties to Iran and is working hard to forge closer links to the European Union, could make it easier for Tehran to obfuscate payments to and from foreign clients and deceive Western intelligence agencies trying to prevent it from expanding its nuclear and missile programs. 9 Armenian officials denied illicit banking links to Iran. 32 The country\u2019s central bank issued a press release in response to this article, stating that it requires all banks to scrutinize their transactions to avoid dubious financial exchanges. 42 \u201cThe Central Bank of Armenia will follow its supervision over the behavior and transactions of all financial institutions and their customers in ... Armenia, in order to safeguard its financial system from any destabilizing effects,\u201d it said. 56 While the four rounds of U.N. sanctions remain limited, with only two Iran banks blacklisted by the Security Council, the United States and European Union have implemented much tougher restrictions, sanctioning dozens of banks and other firms and making it increasingly difficult for Tehran to conduct business in U.S. dollars and euros. 43 A U.N. panel of experts that monitors compliance with the sanctions against Tehran recently submitted a report to the U.N. Security Council\u2019s Iran sanctions committee that concluded Iran was constantly searching for ways to skirt restrictions on its banking sector. 23 \u201cOne state bordering Iran informed the Panel of requests from Iran to open new financial institutions,\u201d the report said. 41 \u201cThe requests were not pursued apparently because of that country\u2019s burdensome legislation.\u201d\n\nSeveral U.N. diplomats familiar with the panel\u2019s work confirmed that the unnamed state was Armenia, where Iran already has banking ties. 39 Despite Armenia\u2019s denials of illegal banking arrangements, Iran has not given up trying to expand in the country, the diplomats said, and U.S. officials have repeatedly cautioned Armenian colleagues to tighten financial controls. 32 REPORTS AND DENIALS\n\nIran\u2019s trade with Armenia, including an oil pipeline that Armenian news reports say should be finished in 2014, requires some form of cross-border banking. 26 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran\u2019s annual trade with Armenia is around $1 billion, according to Iranian news reports. 40 Engaging in transactions with Iranian banks is not a violation of international sanctions as long as it is not linked to Iran\u2019s nuclear or missile programs or companies or individuals under U.S., EU or U.N. sanctions. 14 Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and refuses to shut it down. 7 It says the sanctions are illegal. 29 But Washington has made clear to governments around the world that trading with Iranian firms that are sanctioned by the United States could lead to a U.S. blacklisting. 38 A Western intelligence report shown to Reuters, and dated May 2012, said that Iran was searching for \u201cconvenient\u201d locations to develop alternative banking relationships away from spy agencies and other international monitoring bodies. 15 It said an expanded presence in Armenia was one of Iran\u2019s goals. 55 \u201cThe Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has been operating for years to establish and develop concealed infrastructures to enable Iran to continue trading with foreign countries, particularly in countries convenient for Iranian activity, such as the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Turkey,\u201d the report said. 44 \u201cThe increasing pressure on the banks in some of these countries has forced CBI economists to seek financial alternatives in countries that do not work according to the dictates of the West,\u201d it said, naming Armenia as a target. 49 In addition to Turkey and UAE, diplomats say Iran has been trying to develop financial channels elsewhere to avoid sanctions, focusing on countries like Malaysia, China, India, Brazil and, according to a report in the New York Times last weekend, Iraq. 33 \n\nIran has used Iraqi banks to move large amounts of cash into the international banking system, prompting private U.S. protests to Baghdad, the Times reported. 45 Regarding Armenia, the Western intelligence report cited Armenian bank ACBA Credit Agricole Bank, a full-service institution that does business with individuals and companies and had some $574 million in assets last year, as one of Iran\u2019s principal targets. 42 A Western U.N. diplomat who closely follows the sanctions on Tehran confirmed that ACBA was \u201ca bank that has come up in connection with Iran.\u201d He declined to provide details of any potentially illicit ACBA transactions linked to Iran. 24 Ashot Osipyan, chairman of the Union of Armenia\u2019s Banks, said it was impossible ACBA had any ties with Iran. 15 \u201cArmenian banks are financing only Armenia\u2019s economy,\u201d he said. 18 ACBA Chief Executive Officer Stepan Gishian was similarly categorical in his denial of helping Iran skirt sanctions. 13 \u201cWe finance exclusively the economy of Armenia,\u201d he said. 11 \u201cWe don\u2019t have any relationship with Iran. 24 We never have, we don\u2019t now and furthermore we don\u2019t plan on becoming a channel for financing Iran. 67 What you\u2019re saying is complete nonsense.\u201d\n\nThe central bank statement said that \u201cbanks in the Republic of Armenia, including \u2018ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank\u2019 CJSC, hold no correspondent accounts with banks and financial institutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran.\u201d\n\nWashington recently raised its concerns with Armenian officials about the possibility that Iran could exploit Armenia to bypass sanctions. 26 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the issue with President Serzh Sargsyan during a June meeting in Yerevan, a senior State Department official said. 12 The precise content of the discussions and the outcome were unclear. 45 CLAMP DOWN\n\nDiplomats and intelligence officials told Reuters that Turkey and the UAE remain Iran\u2019s principal banking connections, while China and India are becoming areas of concern as Tehran now finds it difficult to conduct transactions in U.S. dollars and euros. 16 As a result, it has turned increasingly to doing business in less-traceable local currencies. 16 But Turkey and the UAE, they say, are not as welcoming these days. 43 The two countries are under intense pressure from Washington and the European Union to clamp down on illicit Iranian commerce connected to a nuclear program that the Western powers and their allies suspect is for producing weapons - a charge Iran denies. 28 Another bank that has long concerned Western powers is the Armenian branch of Iran\u2019s Bank Mellat, which has been under U.S. sanctions since 2007. 31 While Mellat is not under U.N. sanctions, the Security Council cited it as a problematic bank in the text of its fourth sanctions resolution, passed in June 2010. 33 \u201cOver the last seven years, Bank Mellat has facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions for Iranian nuclear, missile, and defense entities,\u201d the resolution said. 39 Mellat is still functioning in Yerevan, though its activities have drastically decreased due to U.S. and EU sanctions, according to Arakel Meliksetyan, deputy head of the financial intelligence unit at Armenia\u2019s central bank. 35 The central bank statement said that Mellat\u2019s Armenian assets decreased more than 50 percent from $88 million to $40 million between December 31, 2010 and July 1, 2012. 26 Mellat is cut off from the U.S., European and other financial markets and has virtually no business with other Armenian banks, Meliksetyan said. 29 Since it was disconnected from the SWIFT system earlier this year, Mellat Armenia is no longer able to send or receive international wire transfers, he added. 28 He said the bank\u2019s small customers were mainly Iranians doing business in Armenia, Armenians exporting to Iran, Iranians with Armenian backgrounds and students. 33 The Mellat Armenian branch\u2019s website (www.mellatbank.am) has photos of a brightly lit, ordinary-looking bank with the words \u201cAccuracy, Courtesy, Efficiency\u201d at the top. 20 It lists two men with Iranian names as the general manager and deputy general manager and gives a P.O. 5 box for an address. 12 Reuters contacted the bank for responses to questions about its activities. 22 After initially agreeing to a face-to-face discussion, the officials said they wanted written questions and have not provided further comment. 12 Turkey was in a similar position to Armenia\u2019s once. 15 Reuters reported in 2010 that Turkey was becoming a safe haven for Iranian banks. 31 In response to heavy U.S. pressure to cut banking ties with Tehran, Western envoys say, Turkish banks have become much more cautious about doing business with Iranian clients. 40 Related Coverage U.S. allows NGOs to transfer earthquake aid money to Iran\n\nU.S. concerns about Armenia\u2019s commitment to implementing sanctions against Iranian banks are not new, according to previously secret U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks. 55 A May 2007 cable from the U.S. embassy in Yerevan, entitled \u201cArmenia Slow To Implement Bank Sepah Asset Freeze,\u201d said that Sepah, an Iranian bank which has been under U.N. sanctions since March 2007, maintained correspondent accounts with the Armenian branch of Mellat in breach of U.N. restrictions. 53 Another cable from 2008 made clear Washington was still worried: \u201cPoloff (Political Office) requested that the Armenian MFA (ministry of foreign affairs) advise the Central Bank of Armenia to employ extra vigilance in monitoring the financial transaction of the Iranian owned Bank Mellat in Yerevan.\u201d"} {"text": " 42 Budget 2014: Food banks concerned welfare cuts could lead to rise in demand\n\nUpdated\n\nFoodbank Australia says it is concerned about how it will source extra food to meet a possible increase in demand if changes to welfare go ahead. 26 Food bank charities in the United Kingdom have reported thousands more people turning to them for help since welfare reforms were introduced there in 2013. 21 Foodbank Australia says the welfare changes outlined in this week's federal budget could see a similar situation occur locally. 27 Gerry Andersen, the CEO of Foodbank New South Wales, says the organisation was already expecting to see an increase in demand in coming years. 14 \"In the next three years our estimate is our demand will double. 34 \"So we'll go from around about 5,000 tonnes in this financial year, which finishes at the end of June, in three years time to that being 10,000 tonnes.\" 23 However, he says there are now fears the welfare changes could see the increase in demand supersede what has been predicted. 23 Mr Andersen says families are already under pressure because of the \"general toughness of the economy\" and higher petrol prices. 42 \"The thing that our survey showed was that it's the lower income families who are affected, these people are still working, but they just don't have quite enough money to go around,\" he said. 50 The budget has proposed a range of measures including cuts to family benefits which would save the Government $1.9 billion, changes to how young people access the dole, at a saving of $1.3 billion and $450 million of savings in changes to the pension. 15 It also includes plans to introduce a fuel excise and $7 GP co-payments. 38 The Trussell Trust, UK's largest food bank network, says it has seen a 163 per cent rise in the number of people accessing its services since the introduction of welfare reforms there in 2013. 14 It says more people are being referred to its services than ever before. 27 The Trussell Trust's chairman Chris Mould says half of the referrals to food banks in 2013/14 were as a result of benefit delays or changes. 27 \"In the last year we've seen things get worse, rather than better, for many people on low incomes,\" he said. 13 \"It's been extremely tough for a lot of people.\" 30 Welfare reforms in the UK have included sanctioning payments if certain conditions are not met, capping benefits and cutting social housing allowances if people have a spare room. 27 Dennis Curran from Loaves and Fishes, another food bank charity in the UK, told the Scottish Parliament Welfare Reform Committee more people are struggling. 24 \"We've got people with children and they are walking three and four miles to get to us,\" he said. 43 \"We got a phone call just the other day from a social work department [saying] 'Can you give us food for a family that they don't need to cook because they have no money for their electricity'. 26 \"We don\u2019t need to have meetings to decide whether benefit cuts have got something to do with the rise in food banks. 10 My seven-year-old grandson could tell you they have.\" 35 Mr Andersen from Foodbank New South Wales says a new warehouse is going to be built in the state, three times larger than the one currently being used, to meet rising demand. 16 All states in Australia, other than Tasmania, are already facing increases in demand. 11 Mr Andersen says low income earners are facing tough decisions. 38 \"Food has become a discretionary spend because they still need to pay their electricity, they still need to put petrol in their car, to be able to get to work and all those things. 18 \"Unfortunately it's put pressure on the children and the parents trying to feed those kids. 34 \"We've got evidence that about 2 million Australians need our help every year, but half of those are kids and that's a pretty daunting task,\" he said. 20 With the possibility of an even greater demand for food, Mr Andersen says there are concerns about supplies. 17 \"Our biggest concern is to be sure we can get enough of the right food. 61 \"The model that Foodbank was founded on in 1992, which was 22 years ago, was that we would rescue food from the major manufacturers and retailers that might be a bit close to best before date or might have the wrong packaging or it might be a discontinued line or slightly damaged packaging,\" he said. 33 \"But that model to a major degree has matured and Foodbank Australia gets some minimal funding from Kevin Andrews' department and we use that to source food from the manufacturers. 31 \"Somebody will donate some wheat and somebody will convert that into flour, that flour is then converted into pasta or weet-bix or one of those types of products. 41 \"But we're not getting anywhere near enough of the food, so that's one of our worries as to how we're going to be able to fund that future growth to have enough food available.\" 31 Dr John Falzon, CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council, is also concerned Australia could see a similar situation to that reported in the UK. 16 \"People are being called upon to make absolutely impossible choices,\" he said. 24 \"The choice between putting a meal on the table and being able to fund a child's school excursion the next day. 22 Or a choice between paying the rent and paying the electricity bill so that you can heat your home in winter. 25 \"These are not the kind of choices that people should be faced with in a rich and prosperous nation such as Australia.\" 20 He says the St Vincent de Paul Society is also expecting to see an increase demand for its services. 13 Topics: charities-and-community-organisations, community-and-society, budget, australia, united-kingdom\n\nFirst posted"} {"text": " 59 When the latest Treasury International Capital data was released yesterday, many were quick to conclude that not only had China's selling of US Treasury ceased, but that with the addition of $7 billion in US government paper, China's latest total holdings of $1270.3 billion were the highest since May of 2014. 25 And if one was merely looking at the \"China\" line item in the major foreign holders table, that would be correct. 60 However, as we have shown before, when looking at China's Treasury holdings, one also has to add the \"Belgian\" Treasuries, which is where China had been anonymously engaging in a record buying spree via the local Euroclear, starting in late 2013, which however concluded with a bang in early 2015. 32 This is what we said last month:\n\n\"Belgium\" is, or rather, was a front for China: either SAFE, CIC, or the PBOC itself. 60 That Belgium's holdings, after soaring as high as $381 billion a year ago, have since tumbled as China has dumped the bulk of its Euroclear custody holdings, and that once this number is back to its historical level of around $170-$180 billion, \"Belgium\" will again be just Belgium. 46 China's foreign reserves plunged concurrently and this was offset by a the biggest quarterly drop in Chinese pro-forma treasury holdings, which dropped by a record $72 billion in the month of March, and a record $113 billion for the quarter. 84 It wasn't precisely clear just why China, which had historically used UK-based offshore banks to transact in US paper in addition to the mainland, would pick Belgium (and Euroclear) or why it chose to hide its transactions in such a crude way, however the recent acceleration in capital outflow from China manifesting in a plunge in Chinese forex reserves, coupled with a record monthly liquidation in total Chinese holdings, exposed just where China was trading. 26 So with the benefit of the TIC data, we know that China's Treasury liquidation has not only not stopped, but has continued. 31 Enter, once again, Belgium, only this time it is not a \"mystery\" buyer behind the small central European country's holdings, but a seller. 55 As the chart below shows, after a record $92.5 billion drop in March, \"Belgium\" sold another $24 billion in April, and another $26 billion last month, bringing the total liquidation to a whopping $142.5 billion for the months of March, April and May. 49 This means that after adding mainland China's token increase of $7 billion in May after a $40 billion increase the two months prior, net of Belgium's liquidation, China has sold a record $96 billion in Treasurys in the last three months. 76 Just to confirm that one should add the dramatic changes in \"Belgium\" holdings to mainland China Treasury, here is a chart overlaying China's Forex reserves, which as we learned today had dramatically increased by 600 tons of gold, but more importantly forex reserves declined to $3.693 trillion, a drop of $17 billion from $3.711 trillion the month before, and the lowest since September 2013! 48 Putting all of this together, it reveals that China has already dumped a record total $107 billion in US Treasurys in 2015 to offset what is now quite clear capital flight from the mainland, and the most aggressive attempt to keep the Renminbi stable."} {"text": " 27 The primary limitation of composite keys is that you can only query efficiently by known components of the composite key in the order they are serialized. 17 Because of this limitation I find it easiest to think of your key like a funnel. 32 Start with the piece of data you always need to partition on, and narrow it down to the more specific data that you don\u2019t often need to distinguish. 37 [\u2026]\n\nAs a caveat to this process, keep in mind that HBase partitions its data across region servers based on the same lexicographic ordering that gets us the behavior we\u2019re exploiting. 35 If your reads/writes are heavily concentrated into a few values for the first (or first few) components of your key, you will end up with poorly distributed load across region servers. 17 HBase functions best when the distribution of reads/writes is uniform across all potential row key values. 21 While a perfectly uniform distribution might be impossible, this should still be a consideration when constructing a composite key."} {"text": " 67 Crytek dropping multiple studios in wake of pay troubles Developer will focus close all but Frankfurt and Kiev locations, focus on 'premium IPs' and CryEngine\n\nCompanies in this article Crytek\n\nCrytek has finally spoken out following a week of reports concerning missed salaries and multiple departures, revealing that it will cut loose several of its development teams in order to streamline its business. 26 A statement reveals the company plans to \"refocus on its core strengths\" by concentrating on development in its Frankfurt headquarters and Kiev studio. 25 All others branches - including studios in Budapest, Sofia, Seoul, Shanghai and Istanbul - \"will not remain within Crytek\". 40 It it not clear whether this means the studios will be closed or sold, but Crytek's management has apparently \"put plans into action to secure jobs and to ensure a smooth transition and stable future\". 33 Those that remain at Crytek will either continue to work on the firm's \"premium IPs\", referring to Crysis and perhaps Ryse: Son of Rome, or CryEngine. 36 The firm said the games development toolset will \"remain a core pillar\" of Crytek's strategy \"with enterprise licensees and indie developers alike continuing to be served by regular engine updates\". 37 The news follows multiple reports that Crytek has The news follows multiple reports that Crytek has struggled to pay its employees for up to six months - a situation the firm found itself back in 2014 . 29 Back then, a licensing deal with Amazon rescued the firm from further financial turmoil, but it appears more drastic steps have been required this time around. 44 Crytek co-founder and managing director Avni Yerli said: \"Undergoing such transitions is far from easy, and we'd like to sincerely thank each and every staff member - past and present - for their hard work and commitment to Crytek. 36 \"These changes are part of the essential steps we are taking to ensure Crytek is a healthy and sustainable business moving forward that can continue to attract and nurture our industry's top talent. 12 The reasons for this have been communicated internally along the way. 54 \"Our focus now lies entirely on the core strengths that have always defined Crytek - world-class developers, state-of-the-art technology and innovative game development, and we believe that going through this challenging process will make us a more agile, viable, and attractive studio, primed for future success.\""} {"text": " 25 But before the new mobile OS arrives the question many have is:\n\n\"What will differentiate the platform from iOS and Android?\" 18 One answer according Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Joe Belfiore is,\n\n\"Continuum\" for phone. 27 Critics argue that projecting the small screen of a phone to a larger display to mimic a desktop environment has been tried and has failed before. 9 They offer the Motorola Atrix as an example. 24 They've concluded that the factors that contributed to the failure of the Atrix will also lead to the eventual failure of Continuum. 24 If Motorola's Atrix represented the full scope of Microsoft's position with this similar technology, I'd be a critic too. 8 However, that is not the case. 8 Allow me to project a bigger picture. 21 We will look at: Technology\n\nIndustry Position\n\nTiming\n\nTechnically Speaking Let's first take a look at the technology. 22 In a nutshell, both Microsoft and Motorola promised to combine the functionality of multiple devices within the context of one. 24 With the added support of peripherals, both companies promised that their particular approaches could essentially turn your pocketable smartphone into a PC. 12 The Motorola Atrix was released four years ago in Q1 2011. 31 The device ran Android 2.2 (Froyo) though the newer Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) had been available for approximately two months by the time the Atrix was released. 11 We'll hit on that fragmentation bit in a bit. 6 Motorola's approach was simple. 9 It was essentially a plug and play proposition. 40 A user could plop his/her Atrix into a proprietary Motorola desktop ($129) or laptop ($499) dock and his/her phone screen and apps would display as larger versions of themselves on the new display. 24 Unfortunately, there was no coding within the mobile apps to make them function more like desktop apps once on a larger screen. 17 They remained just phone apps, behaving as phone apps on a \"non-phone\" display. 15 This particular dilemma is at the core of similar attempts at this one-device-for-all-scenarios solutions. 9 The Asus Padphone suffers from the same fate. 9 Microsoft's Continuum has a remedy for this. 26 At its core To understand the differences between Microsoft's approach and that of its competitors, we must understand a fundamental aspect of Continuum. 16 Continuum is not simply a feature that Microsoft is implementing on a single hardware device. 30 As I shared in \"Highs and Lows Part V: Continuum\", it is an ideology governing how Microsoft is approaching the transient nature of modern computing. 36 By way of a synergistic OS and hardware combination that can conform to a user's needs, Continuum is an ecosystem-wide platform solution that currently supports hybrid Windows devices and Windows 10 Mobile phones. 21 The new category of devices that Nadella alluded to in his \"7/10/14\" memo may also benefit from Continuum. 15 So what is the remedy for the app dilemma faced by Microsoft's competitors? 5 Universal apps of course. 26 Microsoft's pioneering efforts to create a single OS core for all Windows devices has established a bridge that successfully conveys apps across form factors. 27 Though there is some code tweaking required to tailor apps for each form factor, the dream of coding once for all devices has been realized. 33 Windows 10 empowers developers to code a single app that is optimized to work as users would expect with a mouse and keyboard (shortcuts and all) for the desktop environment. 11 Plus it maintains the small touch environment of a phone. 25 Additionally Continuum enabled Windows phones can connect wirelessly to a keyboard and mouse, and with a Miracast set-up, to a larger display. 28 Microsoft will also provide a hub currently dubbed the 'Munchkin' (unconfirmed $99 price) that will have numerous ports to facilitate a wired connection. 34 Because Continuum is a platform capability of Windows 10 rather than simply a device feature, Microsoft's OEM partners will be capable of creating similar hubs to accompany their Windows 10 phones. 12 Acer's recently announced Jade Primo and hub are an example. 14 The open competition among OEMs will help keep Continuum accessory costs in check. 8 Unlike Motorola's expensive sole proprietor solution. 15 Moreover, Microsoft's solution allows for a smartphone to power two screens simultaneously. 24 That means a parent can wirelessly project a video to a larger screen for junior while dad triages emails on his Windows phone. 7 The Atrix was incapable of this. 13 Power position The technology is just the first piece of this puzzle. 16 The unique industry position of each of these firms is the second profoundly critical component. 34 First, Motorola as a single OEM (among many), simply using and contractually constrained by Google's version of Android, had little power over the OS beyond skinning it. 16 They weren't even using the most recent version of the OS at the time. 27 Thus, though Motorola created hardware designed with the flexibility to conform to various scenarios, they couldn't modify the OS to do the same. 15 Android at its core was not designed to reshape to fit diverse form factors. 23 Additionally, in 2011 the fragmentation that still plagues the Android platform upon which the Atrix was built was even more profound. 11 By contrast, Microsoft controls the Windows 10 operating system. 16 As such the company has deliberately designed Continuum as a fundamental component of the OS. 22 Any Windows 10 device (phone/tablet) with the proper hardware will, therefore, have the ability to use Continuum. 24 Microsoft will also manufacture Continuum enabled hardware and has many OEM partners (and is courting others) who will do the same. 43 The sheer scope of Microsoft's position in the industry to promote and support Continuum through partnerships, first party device production and full control of the OS dwarves the minuscule impact Motorola's Atrix had on the industry four years ago. 31 Many of Microsoft's 1.5 billion PC users are upgrading to Windows 10 which at its core erases the barriers between the PC and the mobile versions of the OS. 8 This decision is a powerful power play. 22 With the support of OEM partners, Microsoft has the resources to bring Continuum to the broad base of Windows users. 11 If that fails or succeeds is yet to be seen. 43 The point here is that since Motorola's efforts to \"converge\" devices was not something built into the core of Android (as it is with Windows) their impact on the industry and its chances for success were negligible. 26 Additionally, the Atrix, which was only sold through ATT in the US (though available in other regions), had limited distribution. 10 Now Microsoft is no stranger to limited carrier support. 44 However, the fact that Continuum is a platform-wide capability that will have the benefit of multiple OEM partners, and the additional distribution channels of Microsoft retail ensures that Continuum enabled phones will be more widely distributed than the Atrix ever was. 10 Timing is everything The Atrix failed for many reasons. 4 The main reason? 6 The world wasn't ready. 23 When the Atrix launched in Q1 2011, we were about four years into the iPhone initiated a new age of smartphones. 14 At that time, the market was dominated by devices under 5 inches. 15 In late 2011, however, hints of a new age began to emerge. 29 The \"huge\" 4.7\" display of the HTC Titan and the even more \"titanic\" dimensions of the 5.3\" Samsung Galaxy Note dominated headlines. 18 These phones that were pushing the size envelope were also pushing the industry into its next chapter. 26 In the years that followed, a Samsung led charge provoked OEMs to produce ever larger phones that teased at the dimensions of small tablets. 16 We now exist in an industry where the new norm is 5\" plus phablets. 19 Phablet being the word created to describe the combination of a phone + tablet our smartphones have become. 28 Take note, these larger devices are not just bigger phones existing in the same type of consumer space that was the reality from 2007 - 2011. 17 During that time frame, consumers saw their devices as \"phones\" with added capabilities. 28 Steve Jobs' (who is credited with heralding in the age of the smartphone), 2007 introduction of the first iPhone, corroborates this notion. 14 \"...an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator.\" 34 - Jobs 2007\n\nDevices under 5 inches, which were the norm for that period, fit well within a paradigm where users still saw greater use case scenarios for larger computing devices. 32 With the advent and widespread acceptance of powerful 5\" \u2013 6\" phablets, computing activities previously reserved for PC's and tablets have now shifted comfortably to the smartphone. 32 Phablet's are routinely used for web surfing, gaming, listening to music, watching videos, banking, emailing, chatting, video and picture editing and much more. 18 Take note that those computing activities were added to the things inherently baked into a mobile platform. 23 Thus creating a merger of formally PC/tablet use case scenarios with the mobile environment of the phablets many of us now own. 6 Computing is indeed increasingly mobile. 26 The industry has flowed organically into a place, a particular paradigm, where people are very comfortable using their smartphones/phablets as a composite device. 4 It happened naturally. 19 The pent up demand for the larger iPhones that saw record sales is additional evidence to this reality. 31 As smartphones continue to bear the load our tablets and PCs historically bore, they may continue this natural progression from our primary computing device toward our only computing device. 26 Both the technological and human components of the industry are meeting at a crux where a convergence of computing modalities is becoming the accepted norm. 28 The time is right The 4\" Motorola Atrix did not exist in a consumer space that had evolved to the point of near single device dependency. 24 A space where PC's and tablet sales are on the decline and smartphones are heavily relied upon for more advanced computing needs. 22 This is the space into which Microsoft has introduced Continuum, the Windows 10 OS, and the universal app platform. 28 Microsoft is the only tech company to have designed an ecosystem platform that will support devices that are that all-in-one solution the industry seems to be headed. 16 Consequently, Continuum achieves what Motorola's Atrix (and similar solutions) could not. 19 It benefits from a universal app platform where apps are optimized for both a phone and desktop environment. 26 It is a core component of the OS and ecosystem platform that OEM partners can take advantage of by building Windows 10 phones and peripherals. 26 Industries, businesses, and municipalities can be key partners in supporting the third party support infrastructure for Windows 10 devices (hubs/docking stations). 10 By contrast, the Atrix suffered from the following. 11 Phone apps that were not optimized for a larger display. 13 Motorola did not control the software platform essential to support the hardware. 22 Motorola was a single OEM offering a single device rather than a provider of a platform capable of supporting an industry. 10 Accessories required for the Atrix were proprietary and expensive. 6 The Atrix had limited distribution. 6 Wrap-up Critics may be right. 4 Continuum may fail. 15 But if so it won't be for the same reasons the Atrix failed. 20 Motorola's approach was that of a feature specific to a device that was part of a larger ecosystem. 19 Microsoft's approach is a platform play that will power a diversity of devices across an entire ecosystem."} {"text": " 43 A heated confrontation between PGA Tour veteran Robert Allenby and his caddie during Thursday's first round of the Canadian Open led to a contentious midround split, with Allenby having a fan jump in to caddie for his last nine holes. 29 Allenby and his caddie, Mick Middlemo, had a discussion before his fourth shot on the par-5 13th at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Canada. 28 According to Golf.com, Allenby had wanted a 7-iron, but the discussion focused on the 8-iron for the shot, which was about 150 yards out. 45 Editor's Picks Tom Fraser becomes PGA caddie for a day ESPN's Johnette Howard tracks down Tom Fraser, the principal at an adult school for prison inmates who stepped in to carry the bag after the Australian pro clashed with his caddie. 13 Allenby's shot fell short of the hole and into a creek. 5 He tripled the hole. 31 Allenby, who finished the round with an 81, recounted the confrontation that followed to ScoreGolf.com:\n\n\"I said to him, 'You know this happens every week. 14 This has happened for like the last three or four or five months. 23 We keep making bad mistakes, and you're not helping me in these circumstances,'\" said Allenby, 44. 10 \"And he just lost the plot at me. 10 He just told me I could go eff myself. 13 \"And I said, 'Look, you need to slow down. 7 I mean just calm down.' 23 And then he just got right in my face as if he wanted to just beat me up,\" he said. 21 \"I said, 'Stop being a such and such and calm down and get back into the game.' 23 And he just got even closer and closer, and I just said, 'That's it, you're sacked.' 14 I said, 'I will never have you caddie ever again.' 48 And we never spoke for the rest of the (first nine), and when we got to 18 we walked off, and he said some smartass remark to me, and I said, 'You don't deserve to be caddying out there.' 19 And he just got right in my face and threatened me, so I said, 'Go.' 5 So he left.\" 20 While Middlemo confirmed most of Allenby's remarks, he disputed the initial conversation that led to the dispute. 11 \"I just wished it had never gone this far. 20 But he is again using the media to make himself look like the victim,\" Middlemo told ESPN.com. 24 \"The discussion was only about waiting for the wind to die down and hit the 8-iron; the 7-iron was never discussed. 3 Not once. 13 He came up 10 meters short of the front of the green. 1 ... 6 He hit a bad shot. 18 Robert Allenby withdrew from the Canadian Open after a 9-over 81 and a confrontation with his caddie. 26 Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images\n\n\"He said, 'I can't believe this fat c--t,' loud enough for everyone to hear. 17 There's a lot as a caddie I can take but a personal attack like that. 1 ... 18 If this was an office in any country in the world, that would be considered bullying. 1 ... 36 I can take it if you call me the worst caddie in the world, tell me I'm horrible at picking clubs, but there's a line you just can't cross.\" 16 Middlemo told GolfChannel.com that it was Allenby who lost his cool and became verbally abusive. 26 \"I said, 'Look, if you want someone to abuse, get someone out of the parking lot,'\" Middlemo said. 20 \"He said, 'I'm going to get a caddie banned for life on this tour.' 15 And I asked if it was me, and he said, 'Yes.' 5 That was it.\" 16 Middlemo is the fourth caddie to walk off during a round while working for Allenby. 35 After Middlemo walked off the course, Allenby carried his own bag to the 18th green to speak with officials, and according to Golf.com, that's when a fan offered his services. 26 Allenby said yes to the fan, Tom Fraser, a 61-year-old local school principal, allowing him to caddie for the last nine holes. 22 Allenby birded the first hole with Fraser on the bag but later had four straight bogeys, finishing with a 43. 11 Allenby withdrew from the tournament, finishing at 9 over. 17 \"He did a great job,\" Allenby said of Fraser, according to ScoreGolf.com. 8 \"He did everything he was told. 6 He was a nice guy. 10 I'm really thankful that he helped me out. 19 It was nice to have someone friendly on the bag who didn't want to threaten me.\" 15 A source who was walking with the group verified Middlemo's version to ESPN.com. 15 PGA Tour official Steve Cartman has spoken to multiple parties who witnessed the events. 15 Earlier this year, Allenby was involved in a strange off-course incident in Hawaii. 27 In January, after missing the cut at the Sony Open, Allenby said he was robbed and beaten and needed help from a homeless woman. 24 \"You think ... that happens in the movie, not real life,\" Allenby told The Associated Press at the time. 10 \"I'm just happy to be alive.\" 26 Allenby posted a photo on his Facebook account showing a facial injury that he said came from being thrown in the trunk of a car. 27 \"I don't know what they hit me with between the eyeballs, whether a fist or a baseball bat,\" he said then. 9 \"Whatever it was, it hurts.\" 27 Allenby returned to play later in January, saying he had \"no memory\" of what happened for over two hours that night in Hawaii. 15 Allenby has missed the cut nine times and now withdrawn twice since that incident. 9 ESPN.com's Michael Collins contributed to this report."} {"text": " 9 The reason is simple: People feed them. 24 Monkeys are the living representatives of the cherished Hindu god Hanuman, and Hindu tradition calls for feeding monkeys on Tuesdays and Saturdays. 28 Dr. Tyagi expressed impatience with residents who feed the monkeys one day, then complain to the city when the monkeys steal their clothes on another day. 51 Dr. Tyagi\u2019s agency has asked the city\u2019s wildlife agency for help, but wildlife officials claim that the monkeys \u2014 a scourge of the city for years as urbanization has encroached on their original habitat \u2014 are no longer wild and are thus not their responsibility. 29 \u201cThis problem will never be solved\u201d as long as Hindus feed monkeys regularly, said R. M. Shukla, the city\u2019s chief wildlife warden. 57 \u201cWe\u2019ve issued many ads asking people not to feed monkeys in public places.\u201d\n\nIn 2007, a Delhi deputy mayor died when he fell from his terrace after being attacked by monkeys, a widely publicized episode that spurred the city to step up its efforts to move monkeys to safer environments. 5 Yet such attacks continue. 24 This month a 14-year-old girl was seriously injured when she fell from the roof of a five-story residential building after monkeys pursued her. 40 \u201cMonkeys do commonly bite people, and their bite wounds can be extensive,\u201d Anthony S. Fauci , director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., wrote in an e-mail. 44 \u201cThey are smart enough to often attack the face of the person.\u201d\n\nPhoto\n\nWhile monkey bites can lead to rabies or a fatal form of the herpes virus, documented cases are \u201cclose to nonexistent,\u201d Dr. Fauci wrote. 10 Skin bacterial infections from bites are common, however. 6 They are treatable with antibiotics . 29 Advertisement Continue reading the main story\n\nStories abound in Delhi of monkeys\u2019 entering homes, ripping out wiring, stealing clothes and biting those who surprise them. 37 They treat the Indian Parliament building as a playground, have invaded the prime minister\u2019s office and Defense Ministry, sometimes ride buses and subway trains, and chase diplomats from their well-tended gardens . 19 Roopi Saran, a Delhi resident, has seen monkeys steal candy from the hands of her children. 19 And tribes of monkeys often take over her yard, preventing her and her children from venturing outside. 20 Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. 4 Invalid email address. 3 Please re-enter. 9 You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. 19 Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. 7 You may opt-out at any time. 19 You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. 5 Thank you for subscribing. 5 An error has occurred. 5 Please try again later. 7 View all New York Times newsletters. 36 \u201cSo we sit inside our house like caged animals, like we\u2019re the ones in the zoo and they\u2019re the owners outside looking at us,\u201d Ms. Saran said. 27 With the city\u2019s trapping program a failure, some residents are getting a bigger monkey, a langur, to urinate around their homes. 15 The acrid smell of the urine scares the smaller rhesus monkeys away for weeks. 23 But the odor is no bouquet for humans, either, and as soon as it disappears, the rhesus monkeys return. 41 Amar Singh, a langur handler, was sitting across the street recently from one of his langurs in Delhi\u2019s diplomatic neighborhood while his monkey systematically stripped the leaves off a tree in the yard of well-tended home. 26 The langur, a large monkey with a black face dramatically framed by white fur, was tied to a pole with a six-foot leash. 47 Mr. Singh cautioned against getting anywhere near the animal because \u201ca langur\u2019s slap is so hard, it can send its target back by five feet.\u201d\n\nMr. Singh said that he had 65 langurs urinating on prominent homes and buildings throughout Delhi. 22 He and his partners feed and walk each monkey during the day, but they remain tied to their posts overnight. 8 He charges about $200 a month. 13 Dr. Tyagi said langurs simply pushed rhesus monkeys to ransack adjoining homes. 19 The city started out seven years ago paying monkey catchers $5 for every rhesus monkey they caught. 17 It raised the price to $9 four years ago, and now pays $12. 16 \u201cDespite offering this rate, there are few monkey catchers,\u201d he said. 21 Years of trapping, using cages baited with fruit and nuts, have taught the monkeys to avoid the traps. 30 For a time, the city hired highly professional trapping teams from the south of India, but even they have stopped coming to Delhi, Dr. Tyagi said. 30 Himachal Pradesh, a northern Indian state, issued permits to kill monkeys that destroyed crops, but the practice spurred protests and is not being considered in Delhi. 30 Trapped monkeys are brought to a sanctuary in the south of Delhi, but residents who live near the sanctuary say their lives have been ruined by the influx. 21 Monkeys easily scale the sanctuary\u2019s walls and often find their way back to Delhi\u2019s central neighborhoods. 39 Kali, who lives in a small hut near the sanctuary and goes by only one name, said her young daughter and niece had both been bitten twice, requiring trips to the hospital and expensive vaccinations . 18 After being attacked while bathing, she now asks her husband to stand guard when she washes. 20 And for a poor family like hers, the monkeys are a constant threat in more ways than one. 19 Advertisement Continue reading the main story\n\n\u201cI give them my leftovers like roti,\u201d she said. 11 \u201cBut then they ran away with my onions.\u201d"} {"text": " 35 Senator Carr, who has a Malaysian-born wife, said he respected Lady Thatcher for the boldness of her political leadership, but \"100 other things I would pick arguments with her''. 41 \"Astonished\": Bob Carr Credit:AFP 'I recall one conversation I had with her in her retirement where she said something that was unabashedly racist,'' he told ABC television late on Tuesday from China. 52 ''She warned Australia - talking to me with Helena [his wife] standing not far away - against Asian immigration, saying that if we allowed too much of it we'd see the natives of the land, the European settlers, overtaken by migrants,'' he added. 12 Senator Carr said: ''I couldn't believe it.'' 56 ''It reminded me that despite, yes, her greatness on those big questions, the role of the state, the evil nature of the communist totalitarianism, there was an old-fashioned quality to her that was entirely out of touch and probably explained why her party removed her in the early '90s.'' 8 Out of touch: Baroness Margaret Thatcher. 29 Credit:AP Senator Carr, a former premier of New South Wales, said Lady Thatcher used the Pacific island nation of Fiji to illustrate her point. 13 ''I remember one thing she said as part of that conversation. 11 She said, 'you will end up like Fiji'. 44 ''She said, 'I like Sydney but you can't allow the migrants' - and in context she meant Asian migration - 'to take over, otherwise you will end up like Fiji where the Indian migrants have taken over'. 18 ''I was so astonished I don't think I could think of an appropriate reply.'' 44 She said, 'I like Sydney but you can't allow the migrants' - and in context she meant Asian migration - 'to take over, otherwise you will end up like Fiji where the Indian migrants have taken over'. 22 Ms Bishop, who is the opposition spokeswoman on foreign affairs, said Senator Carr's comments were \"graceless\". 42 \u2018\u2018His decision to make these claims after her death is a crude attempt to slur the reputation of one of the 20th century\u2019s most outstanding leaders,\u2019\u2019 Ms Bishop said in a statement on Wednesday. 33 However, a spokesman for Senator Carr said on Wednesday that the Foreign Minister's comments should be looked at in the context of his other comments about Lady Thatcher's career. 23 During the interview, Senator Carr said he respected the former prime minister for the \"boldness of her political leadership\". 35 Senior Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz also hit out at Tasmanian Labor government minister David O'Bryne for comments he made on Twitter, in which he called Lady Thatcher a \"war criminal\". 22 Senator Abetz said the state MP's \"vile\" comments danced on the grave of the former British prime minister. 21 Mr O'Bryne defended his actions, and said he was entitled to debate his personal views on forums like Twitter. 14 \"No death should be celebrated,\" he said in a statement. 19 \"I've recognised and respected that Margaret Thatcher's death is a sad occasion for her family. 15 \"I've also expressed my fierce opposition to Mrs Thatcher's repugnant policies. 15 Is that kind of free speech not allowed after someone has passed away?\" 36 Lady Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister and longest-serving premier of the 20th century, was a divisive figure, with critics saying she destroyed millions of lives with her free-market economic policies. 29 Her supporters have called her the greatest British leader since Winston Churchill and tributes have flowed from world leaders, who hailed her role in bringing down communism. 35 On Tuesday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard praised Lady Thatcher, who was 87, saying she had ''changed history for women'' by opening the door to females taking high-powered leadership roles. 39 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will lead mourners at Lady Thatcher's funeral next week, the first time the monarch will have attended the ceremony of one of her former prime ministers since Churchill died in 1965. 14 AFP, with Andrew Darby and Judith Ireland\n\nFollow the National Times on Twitter"} {"text": " 19 Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer made things pretty clear Monday during his weekly press conference: J.T. 22 Barrett has had his fair share of opportunities this season to earn back his job as the Buckeyes\u2019 starting quarterback. 22 Up until Saturday\u2019s 38-10 win over Penn State, though, Barrett hadn\u2019t really seized the moment. 28 \u201c[Barrett] certainly had an opportunity earlier in the year and did not do it; same thing with training camp,\u201d Meyer said. 34 \u201cAnyone who watched the game the last two weeks, he gets in \u2014 and I think we\u2019re doing a good job calling things that he\u2019s good at. 35 \u201cI see the same thing that you see.\u201d\n\nWhat many saw Saturday night was an Ohio State offense that struggled a bit with Cardale Jones at quarterback flourish with Barrett behind center. 37 It\u2019s prompted many to wonder \u2014 again \u2014 if Meyer and his staff would consider making a change eight weeks into the season, despite the fact the Buckeyes are still undefeated at 7-0. 12 Meyer did not make a formal announcement regarding the situation Monday. 22 \u201cI have not had a chance to sit down with the quarterbacks formally and review everything,\u201d he said. 38 \u201cI\u2019ll address that at a later date.\u201d\n\nThings on Saturday were especially effective in the run game as Ohio State totaled 315 yards on the ground against a very formidable Penn State defense. 26 Barrett gained 102 of those yards and scored a pair of touchdowns while running back Ezekiel Elliott racked up 153 yards and an additional score. 28 Barrett was particularly efficient running the read-option with Elliott \u2014 an element the Buckeyes simply don\u2019t have when they use Jones at the quarterback spot. 48 Barrett had been used the previous week \u2014 a 49-28 win over Maryland \u2014 as Ohio State\u2019s red zone quarterback after the Buckeyes rated statistically as one of the worst teams in the country in that department through the first five weeks of the season. 21 Ohio State was 6 for 6 in the red zone against the Terrapins with all six trips resulting in touchdowns. 26 The Buckeyes turned five of six red zone chances into touchdowns Saturday against the Nittany Lions with Barrett at the helm of all of those. 33 But he also replaced Jones in the third quarter at quarterback when the team wasn\u2019t inside the Penn State 20-yard line after Jones finished just 9-of-15 passing for 84 yards. 11 Barrett seemed to provide Ohio State with a much-needed spark. 3 \u201cJ.T. 3 is J.T. 12 to me; I don\u2019t think anything has changed. 25 I think he\u2019s always been the same person since he stepped on campus Day 1,\u201d left tackle Taylor Decker said. 15 \u201cHe\u2019s handled his business all the same, very mature guy. 14 Not a lot of guys come into the program and are like that. 36 He\u2019s just a special type of person and those are the kind of performances we expect out of him.\u201d\n\nPrevious relief appearances didn\u2019t go so well for Barrett, though. 38 He was ineffective in his replacements of Jones against Hawai\u2019i and Northern Illinois, then Jones performed adequately enough against Indiana and Maryland to somewhat quiet the chatter of a change for the time being. 35 But after another lackluster performance against Penn State on Saturday, talk has ramped up again in Columbus and Meyer is at least considering a move to go with Barrett as the full-time guy. 24 \u201cFor us, it\u2019s more or less the offense has to be efficient,\u201d left guard Billy Price said. 39 \u201cWhoever that person may be, it\u2019s all about efficiency and making sure that we utilize and score in the red zone and take care of the ball, don\u2019t turn it over. 49 \u201cWhoever that person may be, that\u2019s who we want in there.\u201d\n\nMeyer did admit he has an idea in his mind of who he\u2019s going to go with, but he\u2019s just not ready to publicly reveal things yet. 65 \u201cI have an idea [of who will start],\u201d Meyer said, \u201cbut I want to make sure I visit with everybody and make sure we\u2019re doing the right thing.\u201d\n\nThe Ohio State coach has repeatedly said he won\u2019t make a change until Barrett \u201cbeats out\u201d Jones and earns the job back. 14 With two high-level players, that\u2019s just the way things operate. 18 And up until Saturday night, Barrett hadn\u2019t done that in Meyer\u2019s mind. 16 Barrett\u2019s performance against Penn State, however, was his biggest statement yet. 7 The college football world is waiting. 2 Again."} {"text": " 20 Tom Holland has accidentally revealed that the upcoming \u201cSpider-Man\u201d solo movies from Sony are actually a trilogy. 28 In a video interview with French outlet AlloCin\u00e9 that appears on Facebook, Holland let slip that two additional \u201cSpider-Man\u201d films are in the works. 26 \u201cThere is still a lot of room for Peter Parker and Spider-Man especially to grow in the next two movies,\u201d he said. 10 (Watch it here at the 8:10 mark.) 27 When a reporter checked in with Holland on whether what the actor had just said was breaking news, he responded, \u201cSorry, Marvel. 45 Whoops.\u201d\n\nHolland added: \u201c[Spider-Man is] definitely not the finished article by the end of \u2018Spider-Man: Homecoming\u2019 and I really look forward to exploring the different ways he can grow up and go through puberty I guess. 24 It\u2019s going to be an exciting couple of movies\u2026 Yeah, there\u2019ll be \u2018Spider-Man\u2019 2 and 3. 22 It won\u2019t be \u2018Homecoming\u2019 2 and 3.\u201d\n\nREAD MORE See Tom Holland's latest POWER MOVE. 24 PowerRank: 3498\n\nWhile we knew Holland has a six-picture deal, a solo trilogy has yet to be officially announced by Sony. 27 \u201cHomecoming\u201d will skip the backstory of how Parker gets his powers, a story that was highlighted in the previous \u201cSpider-Man\u201d incarnations. 32 Spidey (Holland) tries to go back to his daily routine after \u201cCaptain America: Civil War,\u201d but is distracted by thoughts of wanting to prove himself. 17 That\u2019s when the film\u2019s villain appears, threatening everyone Peter Parker loves. 20 \u201cSpider-Man: Homecoming\u201d also stars Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, and Tony Revolori. 10 \u201cSpider-Man: Homecoming\u201d hits theaters July 7. 13 Sony did not immediately respond to TheWrap\u2019s request for comment."} {"text": " 14 The European Union\u2019s dwindling democratic legitimacy is an acute political challenge. 19 Trust in EU institutions is declining even in countries where the union once had high levels of support. 10 Populist parties are rising and turning against the EU. 32 To restore its legitimacy, the EU needs to respond to public apathy and anger with emotional intelligence and to offer solutions that feel relevant to people outside the Brussels bubble. 20 How the EU Disappoints\n\nTo ordinary citizens, EU institutions appear distant, elitist, and difficult to understand. 19 The euro crisis has reinforced the trend toward EU-level technocratic solutions at the cost of democratic political deliberations. 32 The EU has more accountability mechanisms than other levels of government in Europe, but the complexity of the system makes the union seem even more obscure and distant to citizens. 17 Many of the great achievements of European integration benefit individuals and businesses that are already successful. 21 The vulnerable parts of society see the EU as a threat to the remaining protective functions of the welfare state. 13 Giving more powers to the European Parliament cannot solve the problem. 17 Parliamentary elections consist of parallel campaigns in each EU country that are dominated by national politics. 18 As long as that persists, the European Parliament cannot fully connect citizens to the EU. 21 Ways the EU Can Rebuild Trust\n\nHeather Grabbe Heather Grabbe is the director of the Open Society European Policy Institute. 8 Upgrade technology to enable greater citizen participation. 21 The European Parliament needs to connect with citizens through cyberspace to put itself at the heart of transnational public debates. 23 EU institutions could interact with national parliaments more systematically and engage directly with local and regional public assemblies by using Internet-based technologies. 21 Citizens would engage more if they knew about opportunities for direct and web-based participation and had access to deliberative mechanisms. 15 Provide more ways for citizens to have their grievances addressed at the EU level. 36 The protection of individuals\u2019 rights at the EU level has become much stronger in recent years, but the public is largely unaware of these efforts and sees rights as mainly applying to minorities. 22 The EU should widen access to justice and ensure more consistent protection of fundamental rights\u2014and better explain these opportunities to citizens. 44 Stefan Lehne Lehne is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, where his research focuses on the post\u2013Lisbon Treaty development of the European Union\u2019s foreign policy, with a specific focus on relations between the EU and member states. 23 @StefanLehne\n\nDeliver more security and better living standards to citizens, especially to the people who feel left behind by globalization. 24 If the EU became associated with safety nets for citizens, not just austerity and fiscal discipline, it would enjoy greater support. 21 Well-targeted, EU-level schemes to ensure job opportunities and minimum unemployment insurance would go a long way toward reassuring citizens. 43 How the Citizen Experiences EU Democracy Today\n\nIn 2014, well over half of the European Union\u2019s (EU\u2019s) citizens found the European Parliament (EP) elections so boring and irrelevant that they stayed at home. 41 One in four of those who did bother to vote chose populist and anti-EU parties.1 The EP\u2019s election slogan was \u201cthis time it\u2019s different.\u201d To citizens, it felt like more of the same. 11 Politicians in Europe are out of touch with the voters. 24 The critical component\u2014how citizens experience democracy at the EU level\u2014is not considered often enough in debates about the EU\u2019s democratic future. 10 Disappointing experiences have driven voters to anger or apathy. 21 Proposals for reforming the EU should be judged by whether they affect the experience of democracy as felt by citizens. 19 To restore its legitimacy, the EU needs to respond to that anger and apathy with emotional intelligence. 21 Proposals for reforming the EU should be judged by whether they affect the experience of democracy as felt by citizens. 13 Consider the experiences of five Europeans from very different walks of life. 9 Alekos the Pensioner\n\nImagine your name is Alekos. 25 A pensioner in Athens, you don\u2019t trust the Greek government, which has cut your pension to below the poverty line. 17 You hear stories that politicians have been colluding with banks to divert taxes to pay bonuses. 35 To you, national politicians are self-serving members of a privileged class who capture the gains of globalization for themselves and their business cronies and give jobs to their children instead of ordinary people. 37 You used to trust the EU more, but after the euro crisis it seems to be an anonymous, distant, and out-of-control power that can ruin your life without your even having a say. 24 Your grandson persuaded you to vote for the radical-left Syriza party in the European Parliament election because it promised to save your pension. 12 Nathalie the Store Clerk\n\nImagine your life is Nathalie\u2019s. 26 As a checkout operator in a supermarket in the French city of Lille, your access to power in Brussels seems a million miles away. 31 Your former job in the steelworks administration has been permanently moved to China, and EU-funded retraining programs you\u2019ve participated in don\u2019t lead to job offers. 22 You voted for the far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, because it promised to protect French jobs. 19 Dimitar the Young Blogger\n\nImagine you are Dimitar, a blogger in Bulgaria\u2019s capital, Sofia. 28 At thirty years old, you still live with your parents, and your main concern is to constrain the excesses of the most corrupt national politicians. 32 Before 2007, you had hoped that joining the EU would stop rich businessmen from driving through red lights in the city and end the gangland shootings outside your apartment building. 24 After Bulgaria\u2019s accession, you were glad to see new motorways and bridges with plaques thanking the European Regional Development Fund. 30 You join public protests against graft, but the EU doesn\u2019t seem to offer you any way of calling corrupt politicians to account beyond your blog posts. 27 Although you had hoped EU membership would change the system, the EU appears to offer more money and power to those who already had both. 20 You didn\u2019t bother to vote in the EP elections, along with two-thirds of your fellow Bulgarians. 28 Katarina the Factory Worker\n\nImagine you are a Roma woman, Katarina, with a job plucking chickens in a factory in the Slovak city of Ko\u0161ice. 28 You are supporting an extended family of ten with your wages, so you dare not complain about the sexist and racist behavior of the factory owner. 30 A Roma activist told you about EU funding for education and health services to help your community, but you don\u2019t know how to find out more. 13 You were offered \u20ac10 to vote for a protofascist party, Smer. 25 You have heard members of the party ranting about Roma, but you took the money because your children need shoes for the winter. 13 Helmut the Businessman\n\nImagine you\u2019re living Helmut\u2019s life. 21 As a German-born entrepreneur, you run your own catering company in the Netherlands and travel all around northern Europe. 29 You are very angry about stories you read in Bild that your taxes have been used to subsidize Greeks who apparently retired when they were fifty years old. 30 You got a notice in the mail that you could vote in the Netherlands as a German citizen, but it just seemed too complicated and irrelevant to bother. 21 Flaws in the System\n\nAll of these individual Europeans have experienced frustrations about democracy, no matter their socioeconomic status. 18 They find local and national politics annoying and unresponsive to their needs, hopes, and fears. 30 The EU should be able to help them, in theory; but in practice it seems faraway, top-down, technocratic, obscure, unfair, and unaccountable. 19 Some of these problems are perceptions that are not matched by reality, but others are very real. 37 A look at what has driven EU voters to anger or apathy highlights innovations that would improve how the EU touches citizens\u2019 daily lives and the many ways in which individuals interact with EU-level politics. 22 Some of the EU\u2019s flaws can be remedied, but others are intrinsic to the design of European integration. 12 The EU does not have the democratic polity of a nation-state. 17 The disconnect from direct democracy is to a large extent hardwired into systems of supranational governance. 23 Any institution that was created to forge consensus among governments will necessarily be at one remove from the people who elect them. 18 When national leaders make decisions collectively, they inevitably seem unfair in different ways to different voters. 30 When the French and the Dutch rejected the proposed European constitution in 2005, they made it clear that the democratic disconnect cannot be remedied through constitutional changes. 42 Treaty change is necessary to reform those institutions in ways that would generate greater trust, but trust has declined so much already that even treaty change designed to enhance democratic participation would not pass a referendum in several member states. 33 The euro crisis has made the democratic disconnect more than a theoretical issue for millions of citizens because they have experienced the negative economic impact of EU-level decisions in their daily lives. 24 They feel angry about decisions, such as austerity measures, that they consider to be unfair, harsh, or overly burdensome. 22 They have not experienced much on the positive side to counterbalance all the bad news from the EU about the crisis. 38 Politicians and institutions should become more emotionally intelligent about how they engage citizens\u2014not just by showing that they sympathize, but by making incremental changes that enhance the benefits of European integration as experienced by ordinary people. 31 Usually defenders of the EU argue that it has already delivered great benefits to all its citizens for more than half a century through peace, stability, and prosperity. 8 This is a huge and important truth. 22 But these gains are taken for granted now; they can no longer sustain popular support for a top-heavy political system. 11 The EU has problems with both input and output legitimacy. 42 Politicians and institutions should become more emotionally intelligent about how they engage citizens\u2014not just by showing that they sympathize, but by making incremental changes, however small, that enhance the benefits of European integration as experienced by ordinary people. 18 If voters truly felt that politicians took them seriously, their confidence in the system would rise. 24 They need to feel their voice is heard on issues they care about and to see personal and individual benefits from European integration. 26 Individual Europeans today expect better quality of service, more responsiveness to their needs from the private and public sectors, and obvious personal gains. 29 They also expect more direct involvement in the European project than their grandparents had when it began in the 1950s, and are less deferential than older generations. 11 These sophisticated consumers want a more user-friendly experience of politics. 11 But politicians and institutions have not caught up with them. 23 Much has been written about the EU\u2019s democratic legitimacy in terms of law, political theory, and public policy. 11 This paper considers how it feels to the individual citizen. 31 The first step toward meeting voters is to understand them\u2014to make EU citizens\u2019 problems real instead of theoretical\u2014and then to forge solutions relevant for people outside the Brussels bubble. 43 How Political Disconnection Feels to the Citizen\n\nFaraway\n\nFor people who are not connected to the EU elite, especially those who mistrust their national leaders already, the need for a supranational layer over all the European governments is not self-evident. 12 Identity is still primarily national, and so is political legitimacy. 39 Only 46 percent of Europeans feel attached to the EU, whereas 52 percent feel no such connection; by contrast, 87 percent feel attached to their town or city, and 91 percent to their country. 50 European identity exists, but it is weak: only 9 percent identify themselves primarily as European, whereas 87 percent give their nationality as their primary identification.2\n\nThis is not surprising after hundreds of years of nation-state building in Europe, compared to sixty years of European integration. 8 But time is not the only factor. 12 Heterogeneity also affects how warm and fuzzy people feel about Europe. 29 Its diverse cultures, histories, and lifestyles are Europe\u2019s wealth, but in many places that diversity does not generate a sense of belonging together. 16 The three dozen languages used in the European media also make EU-level politics seem faraway. 28 News is reported in silos because the press coverage is in different languages, and there is no pan-European newspaper for millions to read the same stories. 17 Identification with the union is strongest in countries with weak national identity or dysfunctional central institutions. 31 If individuals\u2014Bulgarians or Italians, for example\u2014don\u2019t trust their own national elite, they might prefer it if faceless bureaucrats in Brussels constrain the excesses of that elite. 31 Yet in the past five years, support for the EU has fallen most dramatically in Italy\u2014mainly because the euro crisis forced austerity measures on Rome that caused unpopular reforms. 25 Opposition has grown for a different reason in the United Kingdom, where much of the national press has bashed the EU for decades. 22 Many UK citizens have the impression that anything gained at the EU level is a loss of autonomy for their country. 16 But the institutions in Brussels seem distant and foreign to many other Europeans, too. 23 Attempts to build a European identity through the traditional means used in nation-states, like common flags and anthems, have failed. 25 What Nathalie the checkout clerk sees of EU summits on the French evening news does not give her a sense of ownership and inclusion. 32 Pictures of ministers in expensive suits arriving at shiny buildings in chauffeured cars to negotiate with similarly privileged politicians don\u2019t make her feel represented and part of the debate. 23 Brussels seems a million miles away from her daily life, even though it\u2019s just up the motorway from Lille. 17 When EU institutions impose painful measures, many Europeans ask themselves why they need to exist. 18 They are not accepted features of the political space in the way that national political institutions are. 43 Alekos might get very angry with his national government for closing down hospitals because of austerity efforts, and he might want to \u201cthrow the bastards out.\u201d But he doesn\u2019t question the need for a national Greek government. 27 By contrast, if an individual is angry about EU-imposed measures, he or she might reject the entire EU project\u2014from its treaties to its institutions. 33 The crises in representative democracy at the national and EU levels concern the same issues\u2014frustrations about globalization and the growing incapacity of states to ensure jobs, public services, and welfare. 9 But those frustrations are expressed in different ways. 34 Wholesale rejection of the union is gaining popular support because in many countries, the EU is perceived as an amplifier of globalization and a symbol of those states\u2019 loss of power. 33 The crises in representative democracy at the national and EU levels concern the same issues\u2014frustrations about globalization and the growing incapacity of states to ensure jobs, public services, and welfare. 9 But those frustrations are expressed in different ways. 29 For Europeans who want to regain control of their national destiny, there might still be hope that national leaders can help\u2014so they protest outside the national parliament. 29 The EU seems so faceless and remote that its citizens don\u2019t believe they have any say there\u2014despite the union\u2019s elaborate system of multilevel representation. 28 Brussels-based institutions seem like part of the reason why individual countries are at the mercy of international markets rather than the means to defend ways of life. 10 Top-Down\n\nThis distance is partly the result of design. 37 The officials and politicians who work in the institutions in Brussels inevitably live further removed from what is happening in European societies than national and regional politicians do because of the way the system was built. 8 European integration was created through elitist decisionmaking. 12 High-level bureaucrats and politicians started the process with little public discussion. 29 Postwar governments in the 1950s and 1960s had less public involvement than today\u2019s governments, and negotiations between countries were the preserve of the political elite. 35 The culture in EU institutions still bears traces of the 1950s mentality: top-down, inflexible, process-oriented, and based on the assumption that Brussels knows best what is in the European interest. 30 EU officials were created as a \u201cpriestly caste\u201d of elite technocratic functionaries who were encouraged to forget their own nationalities and commit themselves to the European cause. 22 The EU was set up to foster European integration by building projects around long-term goals to which its member states agreed. 32 These projects were always intended to be largely isolated from the vicissitudes of national politics so officials could work on them consistently over many years and through many changes of government. 22 The officials were never supposed to be as responsive to political change in one country or another as their national counterparts. 50 The European Commission, which initiates all EU legislation and oversees its enforcement, is modeled on the traditional French system of administration: very hierarchical and staffed by a merit-based elite, who enter through a tough competition and then stay in the institution throughout their working lives. 26 The founding belief is that insiders should be loyal to their institution above all, with expertise in administration rather than a particular policy area. 27 The center of the EU political system is the community of law, which inevitably involves institutional rigidity, technical expertise, and incomprehensibility to outsiders. 32 These characteristics can earn the public\u2019s respect for institutions\u2014for example, constitutional courts are held in high esteem by the public in Germany and Ireland\u2014but they are not user-friendly. 25 The law is also inherently top-down: it constrains rather than enables, and it is authoritarian because it requires the enforcement of rules. 24 Individuals may know that their government has to enforce the law, but they can still resent the ensuing reduction in personal freedom. 13 When that restriction comes from outside their country, the resentment grows. 31 The European Parliament was created in part to bring the EU closer to the citizens, initially as an assembly of national parliamentarians and then directly elected members from 1979. 14 But this democratic innovation and others did not occur because of popular demand. 15 Rather, they were imposed from above by governments that envisaged an eventual federation. 29 This is the opposite of the modern idea of participatory policymaking through deliberative processes and flexible institutions that are open to new management methods and expertise from outside. 23 Many EU-level policymakers\u2019 understanding of the daily social reality felt by individuals in different parts of Europe is broad-brushstroke at best. 24 They might meet checkout clerks like Nathalie when buying a sandwich, but they seldom meet Katarina or Alekos in their daily lives. 17 Unfair\n\nIn their daily lives, many European citizens do not perceive the benefits of integration. 22 The EU does not fail to deliver benefits\u2014they are just asymmetrical and only become apparent over a long period of time. 29 Moreover, the costs of integration and liberalization tend to be felt acutely by the losers, whereas the widespread gains are not as perceptible to the beneficiaries. 26 The media reports on closing factories and angry fishermen, but rarely on the slow gains in overall prosperity that have resulted from more trade. 27 The costs of integration and liberalization tend to be felt acutely by the losers, whereas the widespread gains are not as perceptible to the beneficiaries. 29 The heart of the European project is opening markets and opportunities, and that provides very tangible benefits directly to individual citizens, not mediated by their governments. 141 Since the single market and Schengen area were created, people have enjoyed passport-free borders (40 percent say they have benefited from this), diminishing roaming fees (over 25 percent), cheaper flights (25 percent), more consumer rights (19 percent), medical assistance when travelling abroad (12 percent), as well as more possibilities to live or work in another EU country (10 percent) or study in one (8 percent).3\n\nMany of the gains from European integration go to people who are already equipped to take advantage of them\u2014those who are already more mobile, cosmopolitan, and employable and have resources such as education, city residence, and managerial or professional work experience.4\n\nTrade deals benefit the well organized and economically powerful. 48 Big business has always done well from the abolition of trade barriers, but smaller enterprises like Helmut\u2019s complain about the amount of resources it takes to adhere to harmonized regulations and standards\u2014even though they benefit from the rules being the same in 28 countries. 18 What little protection the vulnerable have is provided through national social security programs, not the EU. 21 From the start, the EU has tried to provide buffers to certain groups that were losing out from modernization. 24 But the few workers that had always benefited from direct EU subsidies\u2014the farmers and fishermen\u2014now account for a dwindling proportion of the population. 48 The EU also created policies and funding to assist the poorer parts of society through the Structural Funds and specifically the Cohesion Fund, which was designed to help Greece, Portugal, and Spain catch up with the richer members after they joined in the 1980s. 25 These funds have financed a huge network of motorways and much other public infrastructure across the poorer and more remote regions of the EU. 54 However, this money is not economically significant compensation for those who are losing out from globalization, as it accounts for less than half a percent of the EU\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP).5\n\nThe EU offers special opportunities for the young who are doing well at school. 37 The Erasmus program has given 3 million Europeans the chance to study abroad, no doubt widening their perspectives, enhancing their life skills, and introducing them to friends and future colleagues in other countries. 6 It is a great achievement. 35 Yet, the program has benefited only 6 percent of the EU population over thirty years, according to the European Commission, and many students without parental support cannot afford to participate. 40 Dimitar the blogger\u2019s parents helped pay his rent so he could go to Poland on an Erasmus scholarship, but Katarina the factory worker\u2019s family could not even afford to help her finish secondary school. 20 To the individual, the EU\u2019s claim to safeguard the famous European social model looks extremely flimsy. 50 Much of the economic pain that citizens feel seems to have been imposed by the EU as a result of its fiscal disciplines, but it is not responsible for giving out the pensions, unemployment benefits, or housing that help those who are suffering from international competition. 24 When Nathalie in the supermarket hears about a trade deal with the United States, she worries that more jobs will leave Lille. 14 Since the euro crisis, the costs have been acute and highly visible. 40 The austerity policies imposed to reduce public debt and pay for bank bailouts caused massive disruptions, from cuts in social programs to mass redundancies of public sector workers, and drastically limited the protective powers of the state. 31 Governments could not cushion the effects of economic interdependence by providing pensions and social security to those who lost out from the disruption of adjustment because their budgets were constrained. 30 In debtor countries especially, the burden fell unfairly on those who could not protect themselves by moving their savings abroad or finding a job in a creditor country. 12 This exacerbated the asymmetry of gains and losses from European integration. 39 To escape the crisis, Alekos\u2019s neighbors moved to Bavaria to join their son, who is a roofer there; but Alekos\u2019s son lacks the qualifications needed to get a job outside Greece. 25 All this mirrors the larger effects of globalization, which tends to benefit disproportionately the stronger in society rather than the poor and vulnerable. 35 The crisis has made the downsides of interdependence much more visible to individuals, and all the costs seemed to flow from euro membership\u2014even though the problems had started long before the financial turmoil. 13 No wonder people have started voting in record numbers for anti-EU populists. 18 Technocratic\n\nThe EU\u2019s modus operandi is also out of touch with today\u2019s realities. 44 The method for European integration invented in the 1950s by Jean Monnet, one of the EU\u2019s founding fathers, was to turn political disagreements into technical issues that could be resolved through extended negotiations among expert representatives of various interests. 18 In the EU\u2019s DNA are managerial approaches to problems rather than open debates about them. 18 Accordingly, the political drama that provides public entertainment and elicits the interest of voters is missing. 8 European integration is a terrible spectator sport. 38 The EU lacks a public arena for open clashes of interests with champions duking it out, and the political personalities are not photogenic celebrities\u2014which is why colorful populists do well when compared to the gray technocrats. 9 The fun is missing from the political contest. 16 This decisionmaking system is designed not to highlight who lost and won in the end. 9 The union is the grandest of grand coalitions. 15 All players must have prizes so they can praise decisions in their press releases. 18 To eliminate barriers to trade and build a common market, it is essential to harmonize regulations. 30 The basis of EU-level decisions about how to do this is deliberately kept below the political radar, because otherwise it would be impossible to make the necessary compromises. 17 Already in the 1990s, the permissive consensus that had allowed technocratic solutions was breaking down. 30 Popular resistance to the EU\u2019s approach began to grow as the technocrats moved into policy areas that were politically sensitive, such as border control and visas. 19 There was insufficient public support to create the political union that would have made the euro work properly. 25 Publics began to reject new treaties in referendums\u2014Denmark in 1992, France and the Netherlands in 2005, and Ireland in 2001 and 2007. 48 The EU found solutions, either by adding protocols and opt-outs to the treaties on sensitive issues that rendered them acceptable to particular countries, or by reducing the level of ambition by turning the rejected European constitution into a series of amendments under the Lisbon Treaty. 13 The tendency toward technocratic solutions was greatly reinforced during the euro crisis. 36 The clash of interests between creditor and debtor countries created a political blockage that could only be overcome through technocratic solutions such as the de facto extension of the European Central Bank\u2019s mandate. 21 Political leaders outsourced decisions and resource management to the single EU institution that has no real accountability to any parliament. 66 Andrew Moravcsik, a Princeton professor of EU politics, argued that the political salience of the union was low because it was not responsible for the policies the public really cares about, such as health, education, and pensions, which national governments provide.6But in the eyes of the individual, the EU\u2019s salience grew massively during the euro crisis. 23 Creditor countries demanded EU rules on budgetary discipline that caused massive cuts in funding for hospitals, schools, and social security. 17 The union became no longer just a gray, technocratic institution that was boring but unthreatening. 14 The Monnet strategy of keeping European integration below the political radar is over. 22 Obscure\n\nThe EU\u2019s political visibility may have increased, but that does not mean it has become more accessible. 17 Indeed, EU-level governance has reached a level of complexity beyond that of any national government. 26 It is designed as a system of multilevel governance that takes into account the many interests across the EU and has ample checks and balances. 24 It is a giant compromise-forging machine, and the institutions are supposed to give everyone a say, from regional governments to consumers. 44 The system is often accused of being unaccountable, but in fact it has many accountability mechanisms\u2014they are just built into a complex web of institutional procedures and requirements rather than into a public forum where voters can see the restraints on power. 8 Accountability has become the enemy of comprehensibility. 23 The myth of the overweening, faceless bureaucracy that wields enormous power outside the control of national governments is just that\u2014a myth. 23 As the guardian of the EU\u2019s treaties, the European Commission monitors how national governments implement and enforce EU law. 34 The commission, in turn, is overseen by the European Parliament, which can throw out the whole commission, as it did in 1997, and holds hearings for individual commissioners. 18 The presidents of the European Commission and European Council both have to report to the EP regularly. 13 The European Court of Auditors rigorously examines how the EU manages money. 10 The European Anti-Fraud Office investigates misuse of EU funds. 14 The European ombudsman can call EU institutions to account when individual citizens complain. 26 The negative side effect of all these mechanisms is that they make EU policymaking more obscure, hard to understand, inefficient, and sclerotic. 49 Overall, the EU institutions\u2019 integrity system is stronger than that in some member states, as Transparency International recently concluded in a detailed report.7 But it is very hard for an individual outside the institutions to experience this accountability because it happens within the Brussels bubble. 26 The EU\u2019s political system has many accountability mechanisms\u2014but they are built into a complex web of institutional checks rather than a public forum. 36 Most people who are not paid to understand the EU give up quickly on the 170,000-page body of EU law known as the acquis and the thick glossary of technical jargon needed to understand it. 40 Dimitar was an intelligent, motivated student of European integration at the College of Europe in Natolin, but his eyes glazed over when he tried to understand the process of comitology through which the commission implements its powers. 35 He got the impression that only insiders or well-resourced and organized interest groups could understand and play the game, and he began to suspect that they were manipulating it for their own benefit. 22 Leaks from institutions are common, and information is easy to obtain\u2014but only if you know where to look for it. 43 Lobbyists are well known in the corridors of power in every capital city; but in Brussels, you cannot even know which corridor to go down unless you already know the game well enough to ascertain who is deciding what. 28 Stakeholders have to be very well organized and have money to invest in gaining specialist knowledge and networks if they want to be heard in the EU. 9 Backroom dealing increases the opacity of the system. 20 The pressure to handle EU legislation more efficiently and speedily has reduced the transparency of negotiations between the institutions. 18 For example, the trialogue procedure is becoming the default method of bringing all the interests together. 68 In 2013 alone, representatives from the European Commission, Council of Ministers (officially, the Council of the European Union), and European Parliament met approximately 1,000 times to thrash out disagreements on proposed legislation after their institutions had decided their respective positions.8 However, these trialogues are informal meetings and happen behind closed doors, with no public access and no minutes taken. 25 Helmut has no way of finding out who made the decision about the new labeling of food additives that has disrupted his catering supplies. 12 The commission usually gets the blame for being obscure and unaccountable. 9 But in fact, it is relatively transparent. 26 Four other institutions have accountability deficits: the Council of Ministers, the European Council, the European Central Bank, and the European Parliament. 23 The Council of Ministers is much more political than the commission, but the member states are highly secretive about their negotiations. 25 Once an agreement is reached, each minister gives a press conference in his or her language, and the interpretations can vary widely. 15 The ministers do the same when they report to national parliamentarians about the agreement. 19 The same problem afflicts the European Council, where prime ministers and presidents fight entirely behind closed doors. 31 Only a minority of European Council decisions are ever put to a formal vote, with most made by consensus, so outsiders cannot know which governments lost out. 29 Each minister can then issue a press statement in his or her native language to spin the decision as a good one for his or her home country. 26 Helmut trusts Angela Merkel on the whole, but he switches television channels when he sees a report on the European Council is coming up. 20 During the euro crisis, the European Council was the black box where the most important decisions were made. 11 This was necessary for emergency firefighting to save the currency. 25 Many decisions were made in the middle of the night to avoid an attack from the financial markets once they opened in the morning. 18 Only heads of state and government could commit the sums of money that would convince the markets. 36 Journalists and commentators could not follow the deals or make them public until much later, and both members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and national parliamentarians were consulted after decisions were made. 11 Public discussion of these steps with far-reaching consequences never happened. 27 If you are a Greek pensioner like Alekos or a German taxpayer like Helmut, you may still be wondering what your government really agreed to. 7 These tactics set a dangerous precedent. 26 The legacy of the euro crisis is a new method of deal making among leaders that excludes other branches of government and is not transparent. 34 The outcome was to privilege the executive branch, and within it the small circle of advisers and officials around the prime minister, president, or chancellor, depending on the country. 11 The normal institutional processes of checks and balances were suspended. 13 Most member states were marginalized as the large creditor countries took charge. 17 They gave press conferences and debriefed national parliaments, but only after decisions had been made. 19 Nobody outside the process really knows what happened between the leaders, who gave 28 different press reports. 28 The euro crisis coincided with the appointment of a full-time president of the European Council, who has a staff and agenda, which further strengthens intergovernmentalism. 35 The first officeholder was a modest Belgian, Herman Van Rompuy, who was very skilled at forging deals, so he played the role of facilitator rather than trying to rival the leaders. 29 The heads of state and government grabbed power collectively and deepened the impression that the EU process was not democratic, especially without public consultation about key decisions. 40 It laid bare the reality of power distribution in today\u2019s EU: the member states have gained power and the commission has lost it, and the large creditor countries are evidently in charge on economic matters. 29 This created an accountability problem for the many European voters who chose their national leaders and then watched them having to submit to decisions imposed by larger countries. 21 The entire European Economic and Monetary Union also has a persistent accountability deficit that the euro crisis made very public. 35 The European Central Bank\u2019s independence in setting monetary policy is the cornerstone of eurozone management, but many of the innovations introduced as emergency measures to save the euro lack accountability mechanisms. 40 The roles of the European Central Bank and commission have expanded greatly in financial regulation, which has been necessary to ensure a more responsible financial sector that does not impose enormous bailout costs on taxpayers and depositors again. 24 But the importance of their roles and the huge implications of their decisions mean that reports to the European Parliament are not enough. 15 There is now an intense debate among experts on how to remedy this deficit. 36 But if you are a pensioner who lost savings like Alekos, or a taxpayer stung by higher rates like Helmut, you do not feel reassured that the EU can avoid another such crisis. 8 Finally, there is the European Parliament. 26 Although the EU has relied on increased parliamentary powers as a source of democratic legitimacy, the EP has its own array of accountability problems. 7 The Silver Bullet of Parliamentary Democracy? 29 Three strategies for the EU\u2019s future dominate the debate: more of the same, get rid of the whole thing, and fast-forward to federalism. 13 None of them is emotionally intelligent in addressing the grievances of voters. 48 According to the more-of-the-same approach, the new normal in EU business after the euro crisis is for European institutions to continue promoting the community-based approach while member states quietly make more intergovernmental deals on controversial issues such as euro-area governance, justice, and home affairs. 54 The member states are taking power quietly by deciding matters that fall in the European Council\u2019s black box, or making agreements outside of EU treaties, for example the Pr\u00fcm Decision that enables police cooperation between EU states and the Fiscal Compact aimed at stabilizing the Economic and Monetary Union. 23 In a globalized world of many competing economic powers, a retreat behind national borders would hasten Europe\u2019s decline dramatically. 23 This strategy has a limited shelf life because European citizens\u2019 trust is diminishing and divisions between member states are getting worse. 31 The frictions between member states and the institutions will continue to grow as national politicians find they cannot win public support for the EU policies they know are essential. 19 The EU can no longer be an elite-driven project because the public has woken up to its salience. 23 The anti-EU populist school claims that democracy can only be saved by returning all powers to the nation-state and abolishing the euro. 23 France\u2019s Marine Le Pen, Britain\u2019s Nigel Farage, and the Netherlands\u2019 Geert Wilders lead this charge. 12 This strategy would be immensely harmful to the interests of Europeans. 23 In a globalized world of many competing economic powers, a retreat behind national borders would hasten Europe\u2019s decline dramatically. 19 There can be no return to the security and growth of the 1950s as evoked by populist parties. 31 And there is little discussion of the enormous costs to citizens of rolling back the single market, reintroducing border controls between all EU members, or reversing trade liberalization. 18 Mainstream politicians are failing to explain how much Europeans\u2019 prosperity and quality of life would decline. 13 Many leaders are running after the Euroskeptics instead of refuting their arguments. 60 Former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, German politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit, German philosopher J\u00fcrgen Habermas, and others have tried to keep the federalist flame alive by proposing a rapid move toward a federal constitution for the EU or at least for the eurozone.9 They support the transfer of major economic and political powers to the European level. 17 The commission would turn into a government, elected by and accountable to the European Parliament. 40 This should come about\u2014they argue\u2014through the election of a constituent assembly, the product of which would be submitted to a referendum in all the member states, allowing only those who say yes to join the federal union. 42 The federal model for the EU cannot win public support in the foreseeable future because the union has reached a size and level of heterogeneity that makes it impossible for people to trust a unified government for the whole continent. 22 When the EU had only six members at the start, this looked possible\u2014although France never really bought into the idea. 8 But now the union is too diverse. 37 Moreover, the crisis has made people more conservative, as well as more mistrustful of political institutions in general, so the zeitgeist is against any kind of great leap forward into a federal future. 37 Although the idea of a European federation now has few supporters in the member states, the logic of federalism is still alive and well in the constant expansion of the European Parliament\u2019s powers. 30 Since the 1990s, every treaty change has resulted in increasing the EP\u2019s powers, to the point where today it has more than some national parliaments. 34 The EP is a co-legislator on most EU law, it has strong budgetary responsibilities, its assent is required for ratification of treaties, and it has to approve each new commission. 29 The EP\u2019s greater clout has attracted the attention of business and nongovernmental organization (NGO) lobbies, and to a more limited extent the media. 13 But it still has much less appeal to voters than national parliaments. 28 While the EP\u2019s powers have increased, popular support for European integration, trust in EU institutions, and participation in EP elections have dwindled. 18 The EP still manifestly fails to deliver on its key mission of connecting the EU with voters. 16 One problem is that in a key respect the EP is not European at all. 18 MEPs are selected by national parties whose primary focus is maintaining or winning control over national institutions. 15 These parties put much less money and effort into EP campaigns than national ones. 19 Mainstream parties invariably deploy their top guns in national elections where the stakes for them are much higher. 24 Only populist parties that have limited chances at home sometimes send their leaders to the EP (like Farage and Le Pen). 24 European seats can be good platforms for rising young stars, but more often they are rewards for long-serving politicians past their prime. 17 Frequently, only the first one or two candidates on the party list are known figures. 23 Most MEPs have little visibility even during election campaigns and then vanish from the national political scene for the next five years. 15 With few exceptions, political careers are made and lost on the national level. 16 Only a few MEPs manage to leverage their role to gain a domestic political following. 12 It is hard to stand out as one of 751 parliamentarians. 17 MEPs are also not responsible for the stability of a government, while national parliamentarians are. 56 When a voter asks for help with a personal problem, a member of a national parliament can request a meeting with a minister or ask a question of the prime minister; MEPs work in a more diffuse system of power, so it is hard for them to show personal agency to voters. 20 Paradoxically, some MEPs have a huge influence on EU legislation\u2014more than even most national parliamentarians on national legislation. 43 But voters cannot see the effectiveness of good MEPs because they work on legislative procedures that are a complex interplay between Council of Ministers, European Parliament, and European Commission\u2014through the baffling system of committees, amendments, and trialogues. 10 This makes parliament\u2019s role difficult to comprehend. 19 EP debates are more accessible and public than those of the council; they are recorded and webcast. 15 But they rarely generate interest beyond the Brussels bubble because the issues are complicated. 52 In addition, the EP fails to connect with voters because it functions through coalitions of mainstream party groups, encompassing the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, and Liberals.10 These broad alliances determine the composition of the parliament\u2019s machinery\u2014the Bureau, Conference of Committee Chairs, and rapporteurs. 11 And they are instrumental in putting together key substantive deals. 32 The only real division in the EP is between a pro-integration majority that promotes further deepening of the EU and an anti-EU opposition that wants to halt or even reverse integration. 22 It is difficult for individual voters to discern significant differences between the large coalitions on policy issues that affect their lives. 58 The language the groups use is very similar (and seems abstract and remote to Alekos and Nathalie), and they mostly seem to argue about institutional interests rather than economic policy choices.11\n\nThe increased numbers of populist, anti-EU MEPs who won seats in the 2014 elections have driven the mainstream parties even closer together. 61 The election of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the commission, based on a grand coalition made up of the European People\u2019s Party (EPP), the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), has further reinforced this tendency. 22 Rather than making the commission more politically connected, this new method might make the European Parliament less transparent and accountable. 19 The grand coalition ensures that this highly complex institution can still function despite a number of potential disruptors. 28 But this carries a big price in terms of dynamism and transparency: the most crucial deals are happening behind closed doors, between the dominant parties. 23 The EP regularly criticizes the council for wheeling and dealing in secret, but its own modus operandi is not that different. 68 For the first time, in 2013 the main party groups proposed their candidates for European Commission president (known by the German term Spitzenkandidaten), but this innovation did not stir up a large-scale public debate or increase overall turnout.12 The change was intended to personalize the election and give voters a stronger sense that their choice can affect the future development of the union. 31 The hope was that the new procedure would trigger a broad public debate on the union\u2019s future, mobilize the citizens, and strengthen turnout in the election. 7 Most of these expectations went unmet. 36 Despite the candidates\u2019 efforts to hold televised debates and public meetings, the concept only gained traction in a couple of member states, and the majority of voters were never aware of it. 11 The election campaigns remained primarily national\u2014and turnout did not improve. 13 The EP turned into a forceful lobbying organization on its own behalf. 20 Most of its members are convinced of the importance of the body and keen to enhance its role further. 28 But while the EP has become a powerful institution, national parties continue to consider EP elections as second-order elections and as a sideshow of national politics. 5 This may be inevitable. 19 For national parties, the question of who will sit in the next government will always come first. 30 Voters\u2019 choices are motivated by feelings about their national governments more than the performance of the EU or individual MEPs and the decisions made at the European level. 35 And even in this regard the results are misleading, as voters tend to use these elections to let off steam and vote for parties they wouldn\u2019t support in a national election. 22 People also still look to their local and national politicians to represent their interests\u2014in the world and at the EU level. 29 Angry Greeks like Alekos who wanted to protest against austerity measures imposed in the eurozone did so in Syntagma Square in Athens, not in Berlin or Brussels. 22 Voters feel closest to political leaders who speak their language and know their society, whether they are trustworthy or not. 25 So those voters look to national leaders for representation at the EU level, and MEPs will only ever be secondary agents of representation. 28 As a result of this separation between the European and the national level, the vital feedback loop between the voter and the elected has been broken. 21 The EP has become a powerful institution, but its power is not matched by a corresponding level of responsibility. 18 Because EP elections are de facto national elections, MEPs are not held accountable for their performance. 24 More Satisfying Experiences of Democracy\n\nThe European Parliament cannot offer a panacea for what is wrong with democracy in the EU today. 22 In fact, there is no one method that can overcome the current legitimacy crisis and reconcile citizens with European integration. 24 In the present political climate, any grand scheme will probably fail for lack of agreement among member states and insufficient popular support. 22 The European Parliament has become a powerful institution, but its power is not matched by a corresponding level of responsibility. 8 But the EU still needs to try. 27 And the best way to start resolving the EU\u2019s democracy problems is to consider what remedies would improve how European democracy feels to citizens. 9 This is not just a matter of communication. 34 While the democratic experience would be enhanced if citizens felt more involved and consulted, the more critical gauge would be whether they saw tangible benefits of European integration in their daily lives. 28 What would address the concerns of ordinary citizens is an incremental approach made up of a broad array of measures at multiple levels and in different fields. 47 This would include efforts to open up communication flows and facilitate participation; steps to improve the EU\u2019s output and make it more relevant to people who have so far benefited least; and better ways of offering individuals redress for grievances and injustices. 20 A number of key improvements would touch the daily lives of people in very different parts of European society. 12 These steps would not require any large-scale transfer of national sovereignty. 17 Most of these ideas would not require treaty change, and many could be implemented rapidly. 44 How to Make the EP More Accessible and Connected\n\nGet MEPs Into Cyberspace\n\nCyberspace can help narrow the distance between the EU and the individual, provide arenas for interaction, and ensure access to more information about what EU institutions are doing. 33 New technologies offer many ways for individuals to get involved in EU politics\u2014but MEPs have to go where the traffic is rather than assume voters will automatically go to their Twitter accounts. 17 They should engage in online debates where they take place and build their audience from there. 33 New technologies offer many ways for individuals to get involved in EU politics\u2014but MEPs have to go where the traffic is rather than assume voters will automatically go to their Twitter accounts. 20 Some MEPs have had great success in using Twitter to interest younger voters in the EU\u2019s work. 30 Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake sent out her election manifesto in ten tweets and has taken up issues related to digital freedoms that interest a large proportion of the under-forty-year-olds. 29 Schaake even crowd-sourced comments on her EP report, \u201cA Digital Freedom Strategy in EU Foreign Policy.\u201d13\n\nIn Sofia, Dimitar follows Schaake on Twitter. 38 A wired MEP who tweets daily about real issues in real time makes the EU much more relevant for him than citizens\u2019 summits in Brussels that he cannot reach or advertising campaigns with general slogans. 21 A positive move in 2014 was the live webcast of the parliamentary hearings of the candidates to be European commissioners. 22 That gave citizens all over the EU a chance to follow the discussions and to contribute their own comments via Twitter. 23 The parliament even had a live Twitter stream displayed in the chamber, giving the participants views from outside the Brussels bubble. 48 Turn the EP Into the Focal Point for Transnational Public Debate\n\nSome MEPs are developing solid expertise and a public profile on new EU agenda items that do not involve clear right/left divides, such as climate change, intellectual property, data protection, and surveillance. 25 These are issues that no country can solve alone and about which public debate is needed, not just lobbying by industry and NGOs. 21 The EP can turn itself into the primary forum for broad public debate across many countries on these crucial issues. 47 In recent years, the EP has stirred up political drama and won cheers from the public by voting down proposals on sharing personal data with the United States through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and with airline passenger name records. 17 The EP also rejected favoring copyright holders over consumers when it declined the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. 20 MEPs signaled strong support for limits on bankers\u2019 bonuses, an issue about which many voters are angry. 21 The next hot topic for EP debate is likely to be TTIP, the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. 28 There is a danger of populism and simplistic dismissal of such complex issues, but at least the debate is about policies that citizens really worry about. 20 How to Reach Citizens Through National and Regional Institutions\n\nThe spheres of national and European politics are now one. 31 Mass communication, globalization, and the euro crisis have shown how much EU projects affect the space available for policymaking at the national level, from budgets to borders. 21 In the other direction, national policies on migration and social security benefits directly affect the rest of the EU. 26 Refugees arriving by boat in Lampedusa affect Berlin and poverty in Ia\u0219i affects domestic politics in Birmingham because people can freely move between EU countries. 36 The future of Europe can be called into question by the Greek parliament voting down a key measure, and rising Euroskeptism in Finland can increase unemployment in Spain if the Finns block a bailout. 18 It is impossible to tackle the problems in one sphere without considering the implications for the other. 14 Solutions to the democracy crisis also have to integrate better the two spheres. 32 At every level of government, citizens are going to mistrust institutions that they feel do not represent them and in which their participation is limited to voting every few years. 20 The individual\u2019s experience with the political system therefore has to be at the center of new measures. 23 If anybody can counter rising anti-EU sentiment and reconnect voters with Europe, it will not be EU functionaries or even MEPs. 15 This task can only be accomplished by national politicians who take the EU seriously. 31 Give a Higher Profile to Parliamentary Scrutiny Committees\n\nThe basic mechanisms for connecting EU business to national politics exist, but they need to be developed further and implemented better. 36 In parallel with the rise of the EP, national parliaments have gained more power in EU business, although this has been uneven across the member states and has depended on their parliamentary traditions. 37 Parliamentary EU scrutiny committees have become very powerful in some countries, even controlling their governments\u2019 positions in the Council of Ministers.14 The most ambitious such mechanisms exist in Denmark, Finland, and Germany. 31 For instance, before going to the Council of Ministers, Danish ministers have to present their position to the Folketing committee on European policy, which has binding powers. 24 The German Bundestag has increased its role in European affairs after the German constitutional court ruled that it should have greater oversight powers. 29 Scrutiny committees could use their powers to generate a more lively democratic debate about the EU in all member states by reaching out to the press and public. 32 They could follow the good examples in Berlin, Copenhagen, and Helsinki of explaining EU business to voters more directly, for example, on animal rights and climate change. 27 They could open up their scrutiny process by inviting journalists to take part and encouraging public input on their deliberations through social media and other forums. 23 In his daily newspaper, Helmut reads more comments from German parliamentarians about EU legislation now that they are more directly engaged. 59 Give National Parliaments the Right to Suggest EU-Level Action\n\nThe Lisbon Treaty introduced an early-warning mechanism whereby national parliaments can indicate whether a commission proposal constitutes a breach of the subsidiarity principle, which states that the EU will not act unless it is more effective than action taken at a national, regional, or local level. 19 The existing mechanism has only negative power at present; it is a brake to stop unpopular measures. 22 If one-third of national parliaments submit this kind of objection, the commission must review the proposal\u2014known as a yellow card. 23 If a simple majority of national parliaments object, then the council and European Parliament can reject the proposal immediately\u2014an orange card. 18 This power could be made positive by allowing parliaments to introduce ideas for the commission to consider. 22 Invite MEPs to Address National Parliaments\n\nThe EU has made attempts to build stronger connections between the EP and national parliaments. 26 The Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs (better known as COSAC) was created in 1989 to bring national parliamentarians into EU-level deliberations. 23 But it has failed to attract the best and brightest national parliamentarians, and its complex processes do not offer real power. 23 A simpler and better innovation would be to give an MEP the right to speak in his or her own national parliament. 29 They are few enough that they would not take up excessive speaking time, and they could provide information and debate EU business with their national counterparts directly. 19 Even better would be if the 28 commissioners addressed national parliaments on their areas of responsibility more often. 19 The scrutiny committees could organize a hearing with each commissioner at least once during his or her term. 33 Give National Parliamentarians a Role in Eurozone Oversight\n\nThe eurozone has become very salient to voters and has institutions of its own, yet it lacks direct parliamentary accountability to its members. 38 A way to provide this would be to establish a committee of representatives from national parliaments of the eurozone countries to hold hearings with the president of the Eurogroup and the head of the European Stability Mechanism. 20 The committee could also issue reports on how well the eurozone\u2019s governance and regulatory mechanisms are functioning. 25 Create New Mechanisms to Involve Regional and Local Authorities in EU Decisionmaking\n\nThere are more than 300 regions and 90,000 municipalities in the EU. 75 These local governments are closer and more familiar to citizens, who trust them more than national and EU institutions.15 Yet a clear majority feels that the regional and municipal levels are insufficiently taken into account when decisions on EU policy are made.16\n\nThe body set up to consider local concerns at the EU level, the Committee of the Regions, cannot do its job because it does not have decisionmaking powers. 19 It is composed of regional dignitaries who are important in their locality but have little influence in Brussels. 34 Less than a quarter of EU citizens are even aware of the existence of this forum.17\n\nInstead of bringing regional officials to Brussels, the EU needs to bring Brussels to the regions. 12 Local and regional bodies need to debate EU issues at home. 12 The forces of regionalism are growing in several parts of Europe. 26 The 2014 Scottish independence referendum stirred up interest in devolving greater powers to regions in other parts of the UK as well as the EU. 38 In coming years, widespread debates about decentralization and new constitutional settlements are likely in the UK and Spain, while Italy and Belgium already have ongoing national discussions about the relationships between their centers and regions. 18 Instead of bringing regional officials to Brussels, the EU needs to bring Brussels to the regions. 12 Local and regional bodies need to debate EU issues at home. 40 In the past, the EU was popular in regions with a strong identity because it seemed to offer an umbrella solution that allowed those regions to assert their identity and enjoy new forms of representation through multilevel governance. 24 However, the euro crisis led to new rules for fiscal discipline at the national level, which centralized decisionmaking on economic policies. 25 European Union institutions need to engage directly at the regional and local levels, both to hear local concerns and offer participation in decisionmaking. 38 For example, the commission is using its representative offices in member states to promote dialogue among stakeholders about new budgetary rules at the EU level, and these offices could engage national actors on other issues. 16 National authorities could involve regional representatives and mayors more systematically when forming their EU positions. 24 These representatives have more daily contact with the grass roots and could play an important role bridging the EU institutions and the population. 27 If Nathalie or Helmut could talk about their concerns with local officials they know and trust, they might have a different opinion of the EU. 38 How to Involve Citizens Directly\n\nAlekos the Greek pensioner and Dimitar the media-savvy Bulgarian don\u2019t feel that politicians of any kind speak for them at the EU level\u2014or even talk about them and their concerns. 9 They want to make their own voices heard. 14 The EU should offer them more opportunities to do so through citizen engagement. 17 EU institutions need to stop treating public participation as a one-way communications problem and an afterthought. 14 Participation should be built into the design of EU policies and institutional procedures. 23 In the age of instant feedback, it is no longer enough to have a boring website that presents information in Eurospeak. 25 People who comment on products and get answers from companies online expect to see real interaction with the political institutions for which they pay. 26 Helmut has posted angry comments about poor hotel service on TripAdvisor, and Dimitar has complained to the world about a faulty kettle on Amazon. 40 Because they are accustomed to these kinds of public forums that allow instant feedback, they expect to have more opportunities to express their views on hormone-treated beef from the United States when the EU is negotiating trade deals. 23 In the age of instant feedback, it is no longer enough to have a boring website that presents information in Eurospeak. 25 People who comment on products and get answers from companies online expect to see real interaction with the political institutions for which they pay. 28 The EU has recently started experimenting with mass mobilization mechanisms\u2014and found that their effectiveness is limited when they are cumbersome and open to manipulation by organized interests. 13 The Lisbon Treaty introduced the European Citizens\u2019 Initiative (ECI). 53 If 1 million citizens from at least one-quarter of EU member states sign a proposal inviting the European Commission to bring forward proposals for legal acts in areas where the commission has the power to do so, the commission has to examine the proposal and decide how to act on it. 23 The commission has refused to register many of the proposed ECIs, saying they fall outside of the EU\u2019s powers. 41 Three initiatives collected over 1 million signatures of support, but only the proposal on the right to water made it to the final stage, got a public hearing, and received an official response from the European Commission. 14 Both technical and political obstacles have prevented initiatives from moving through the system. 36 On the technical side, for example, each member state sets its own criteria to verify the collected signatures, and the barriers to participation are higher for some EU citizens than for others. 56 In some cases, the level of personal detail required deters citizens from declaring support for politically sensitive initiatives, such as \u201cStop TTIP.\u201d18\n\nThe ECI procedure is so cumbersome, with different rules in the various member states, that only well-organized interests have the means and capacity to use it. 23 And ultimately, it is not very strong, because the commission is not obligated to act on any of the initiatives. 21 The EU\u2019s traditional culture of negotiating behind closed doors contrasts badly with the interactive culture of online debate. 15 The EU could take immediate action to simplify the rules for citizens\u2019 initiatives. 15 But the crucial concept is real feedback on issues, rather than token consultation. 21 The EU\u2019s traditional culture of negotiating behind closed doors contrasts badly with the interactive culture of online debate. 51 Citizens\u2019 consultations have great potential to provide a direct experience of European democracy, and the new commission could show its emotional intelligence by organizing deliberative polls on key issues.19\n\nStrengthen and Publicize the Right to Petition\n\nFor the individual, another existing tool\u2014petitions\u2014might be more useful than ECIs. 39 Every European can send a petition to the European Parliament to complain about how the application of EU law is directly affecting him or her or to ask the EP to adopt a position on a specific matter. 13 He or she can do this as an individual or with others. 14 But this mechanism is little known and needs wider publicity by civil society. 40 If a Bulgarian NGO helped Dimitar submit a high-profile petition about the misapplication of EU data-protection laws and received press attention with an effective advocacy strategy, that would encourage other citizens to send evidence to the petitions committee. 25 Invest in Deliberative Mechanisms\n\nOpening up existing consultation practices to more of civil society and allowing direct participation by citizens might hold more promise. 23 The EU\u2019s diverse population needs many different approaches, but the spaces for inclusive discussion are few and far between. 12 Lobbying has become a massive growth industry in Brussels and Strasbourg. 22 While the industry is dominated by business interests, civil society organizations are also more actively involved in the decision-shaping process. 22 This has enhanced transparency and public accountability, and on some issues it has even triggered a genuine transnational public debate. 38 But many of these civil society actors are \u201cassociations of associations\u201d or expert organizations that are distant from the grass roots, so lobbying has not yet led to significantly increased levels of popular participation. 45 This process should be opened up to a wider range of actors in the member states, and it should facilitate the direct involvement of citizens.20 The European Commission and Parliament should invest more in web-based and other deliberative forums to discuss major initiatives. 11 Commissioners could even cite opinions posted online in their speeches. 42 For example, the growing skepticism about TTIP is partly the result of the widespread impression that the negotiations are only accessible to big business interests and that the opinions of consumers on food standards and environmental protections count for little. 36 The European Commission has responded by setting up a decent website on TTIP that explains the issues and offers various channels for dialogue and feedback.21 However, this is the exception rather than the rule. 21 The European Commission could also organize regular deliberative polls on meta-policies such as those related to regulations and fundamental rights. 12 Katarina has never been asked for her opinion by any politician. 43 If the EU held a poll in Slovakia on discrimination and how to prevent it, Katarina and her neighbors could speak directly with non-Roma people in Ko\u0161ice about the problems Roma face in housing, employment, education, and healthcare. 8 That would help generate new policy solutions. 28 Moreover, the opportunity for Roma and non-Roma citizens to meet and discuss as equals how to improve public services could foster greater understanding within Slovak society. 31 How to Provide Justice for Individuals, Empowerment for Citizens\n\nThe rule of law at the EU level is about more than settling disputes between the institutions and member states. 25 It is an essential check on governmental power because it offers individuals ways of redressing injustices done to them through EU policies and rules. 41 The EU should compensate for the bias toward the executive branch in its decisionmaking, not only by strengthening the involvement of parliaments, but also by creating more opportunities for individual Europeans to hold their national authorities to account. 27 For individuals to feel more empowered at the EU level, these mechanisms should prioritize redress for the biggest grievances: corruption and abuse of power. 14 The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union was a big improvement. 24 Previously, only a lawyer capable of sifting through judgments of the European Court of Justice could understand what rights an individual had. 14 The charter brought all the rights together into one document in understandable language. 25 The new commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, has put his first vice president, Frans Timmermans, in charge of implementing the charter. 27 Timmermans\u2019s challenge is that the charter has created expectations that cannot be fulfilled at present because the document\u2019s scope is limited. 19 It can only be applied to EU bodies and to national governments when they are implementing union law. 33 Thousands of people write to the commission about abuses of their rights every year, but their problems usually result from national governments implementing national law so the charter does not apply. 15 This adds to people\u2019s frustrations about what the EU does for them. 33 Make It Easier for Individuals to Access the European Courts\n\nEU citizens have a highly developed system of law that gives them recourse to two different court systems at the continental level. 59 They can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (which is part of the Council of Europe, a separate institution from the EU that includes non-EU members such as Turkey and Russia) and also, in a more limited way, to the EU\u2019s own Court of Justice in Luxembourg. 40 As the next step to further improve individuals\u2019 ability to seek redress for violations of their rights, the EU should join the European Convention on Human Rights, a step that was promised in the Lisbon Treaty. 16 Some progress toward membership has been made, but the process is moving very slowly. 24 When the convention is in force, an individual will be able to bring a case against the EU to the Strasbourg court. 35 At that point, it would make sense for the two courts to agree that Strasbourg judges will pause proceedings and ask their counterparts in Luxembourg to give opinions on points of EU law. 10 This will help make the application of law consistent. 30 In the longer term, it might make sense to enable EU citizens to bring points of EU law that affect human rights to the Court of Justice directly. 14 This is currently prohibited by Article 51 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. 36 Individuals usually have to take a case to a national court first, and that court has the discretion to ask the Court of Justice for its interpretation of the rules if they are ambiguous. 15 To allow citizens direct access would multiply the caseload and require a far-reaching overhaul. 21 However, it would be worthwhile if it offered citizens a clearer and more effective system for safeguarding their rights. 25 The EU could also create a special chamber comprising judges from both European courts to rule on areas of law covered by both institutions. 18 This could eventually lead to the integration of the two systems for the protection of human rights. 16 In theory, Alekos could challenge the conditions imposed by the bailout package for Greece. 30 The European Council agreed to the package, and it was implemented by the troika, which comprises the commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund. 31 The charter might not apply to the decision itself because it was made outside the treaties, but it should apply to the EU\u2019s implementation of the decision. 43 Allow Public Interest Action on Human Rights\n\nThe EU could also make the conditions under which an individual can take a case to the European Court of Justice more generous by allowing public interest actions on human rights violations under EU law. 26 Organizations with special interest or expertise would be able to seek a judicial review of an EU law that violates the Charter of Fundamental Rights. 34 For example, a flawed EU directive that governs the retention of data was passed eight years ago, but it was challenged in a court case for the first time in 2014. 27 If an organization could have brought a public interest action directly to the court, this legislation could have been challenged much sooner and improved faster. 27 When Helmut flies to Spain, his personal details are retained by the airline in a way that violates his right to privacy under the charter. 45 The airline gives the Spanish government personal data on everyone on Helmut\u2019s flight, whether or not they are a terrorist suspect, and there is no guarantee that the government will protect the details or that it will not misuse them. 37 If Helmut had access to the Court of Justice, he could go to a consumer organization and ask for it to raise a public interest challenge to the Passenger Name Record Directive under the charter. 37 The organization could argue that the airline cannot retain his personal details and get a ruling from Luxembourg that would force the commission to propose a new directive that better protects the right to privacy. 44 Make Infringement Proceedings More Transparent\n\nThe commission\u2019s role as guardian of the Lisbon Treaty and its right to take to court member states that violate EU law is one of the most important pillars of rule of law in the EU. 15 However, the commission is currently rather secretive about its actions in this area. 24 There is a website that lists the legislation at issue and the country concerned, but not what actions the commission is taking. 24 If the commission were more transparent about these infringement proceedings, concerned citizens would better understand what is being done on their behalf. 33 Katarina suffered discrimination when her factory manager took away the permanent contracts for all Roma workers and replaced them with temporary ones but didn\u2019t do the same to non-Roma workers. 20 She tried to complain to a local court, but the registrar refused her claim because she is Roma. 26 A local Roma rights NGO took up her case and asked the commission to sue Slovakia for failing to properly implement the Race Equality Directive. 28 But Katarina hears nothing for several years while the commission is in dialogue with the Slovak government, and she loses heart that she can seek redress. 32 If the commission were more transparent, the NGO would be able to monitor the progress of the case and take it to Strasbourg instead if the commission failed to act. 47 A Fairer EU Through Security and Better Living Standards\n\nThe most effective way to reconcile the citizen with both national and European levels of government is to offer measures that will deliver more security and better living standards, particularly in light of the euro crisis. 28 Focusing efforts at the EU level on policies and funding that benefit the parts of society that have lost out from globalization would address the fairness deficit. 28 Better than any other measure, this would also reduce the appeal of populist claims that nation-states should turn away from the EU and become more protectionist. 12 Broad appeals for a \u201csocial Europe\u201d are not enough. 22 The EU needs to come up with specific remedies that benefit people who are excluded from big business and political elites. 35 This is made more difficult by the fact that most of the powers in this area remain at the national level, which is unlikely to change given the prevailing mood in the EU. 17 Still, the EU should make significantly more of an effort to coordinate and harmonize action. 35 Implement the Youth Guarantee More Ambitiously\n\nA sign that European leaders are becoming aware of the urgency of tackling the social fallout from the euro crisis is the Youth Employment Package launched in 2012. 56 At the heart of this scheme is the idea of the Youth Guarantee, which is meant to ensure that all people up to the age of twenty-five receive a quality job offer, opportunities to continue education, an apprenticeship, or a traineeship within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. 30 The EU has mobilized \u20ac6 billion (almost $7.5 billion) from its budget to support the effort, but a large part of the money remains unspent. 9 Governments need to implement this initiative more actively. 11 Nathalie is made redundant when her supermarket introduces self-service checkouts. 17 But within four months, EU funding provides her with a traineeship to become a florist. 57 Move Ahead With the European Unemployment Insurance Scheme\n\nThe ambitious idea of creating a European unemployment insurance scheme has been widely discussed as a way to improve the functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union.22 Supplementing existing national systems, such a scheme would provide assistance in cases of increased unemployment that result from asymmetric shocks. 26 It would function as an automatic stabilizer, and by upholding demand in crisis situations, it would enhance the resilience of the monetary union. 9 And its significance would go well beyond economics. 51 As a European safety net for the national safety nets, the European unemployment insurance system would strengthen the EU\u2019s social dimension, demonstrate solidarity among member states, and\u2014most importantly\u2014benefit the most economically vulnerable parts of society that often feel excluded from the gains of European integration. 20 The proposal is still far from being accepted by the member states, and it would require treaty change. 14 But given its economic and political potential, it merits being pursued energetically. 38 When Nathalie feels that the EU offers her a safety net in the event that she loses her job, she is less convinced by Marine Le Pen\u2019s claim that the EU destroys French jobs. 35 Make It Easier to Work in Other EU Countries\n\nOnly one in ten Europeans has worked in another European country, although the economic effects have been largely positive according to national finance ministries. 25 However, press reports of a small number of people from poorer EU countries claiming welfare benefits in richer countries have caused a backlash. 23 Mobility is an essential component of a single currency area not just in economic terms but also in psychological and social terms. 36 For more than 100 million people who have gained European citizenship since 2004 because their countries joined the EU, the ability to move across national borders is a central part of their EU experience. 27 It is more tangible to them than any other benefit offered by EU membership, and does not depend on their national politicians to deliver it. 13 Mobility provides individual workers with a vital safeguard in an open economy. 35 If worse comes to worst, individuals can go to other EU countries to earn enough to feed themselves and their families, as many young Latvians and Lithuanians did during the euro crisis. 31 Moreover, in the absence of fiscal transfers across the eurozone, the EU has to allow workers to move to maintain balance among areas of high and low employment. 26 To try to restrict this benefit would be a public relations disaster for the EU and nonsensical for the single market and single currency area. 19 To enhance labor mobility would help people looking for employment and improve the functioning of the European economy. 91 The EU should address factors that limit labor mobility in Europe identified by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, including the fact that supplemental pension rights cannot be moved from country to country, insufficient information about job vacancies in other countries, the difficulties of getting other governments to recognize job qualifications, and exclusionary housing market policies.23 A big contribution could be made by the new Erasmus Plus program that funds mobility schemes not just for university students but also for vocational education and training. 33 Between 2014 and 2020, up to 730,000 vocational students can benefit from this program.24\n\nConclusion\n\nEuropeans should improve what they have, not reject the EU completely because it is flawed. 30 The debate between those for and those against the EU is based on false dichotomies: either the EU deserves uncritical support, or it is hopeless and doomed. 4 Neither is true. 9 The EU has many flaws and needs reform. 32 But to attempt a major institutional overhaul of the EU now, on the tail end of a huge internal crisis and while facing major external challenges, would be unwise. 21 Instead, step-by-step improvements should pave the way to building public support gradually by changing how citizens experience the EU. 17 Europeans should improve what they have, not reject the EU completely because it is flawed. 21 Giving the European Parliament more powers will not be a silver bullet that brings more democracy to this complicated polity. 26 And the innovations of the Spitzenkandidaten and a grand coalition in the European Parliament could make the institutions feel more remote and elitist to citizens. 32 Attempts to replicate national models of democracy at the EU level could achieve the opposite of their aims because the structure of the EU is fundamentally different from a national democracy. 35 The EU\u2019s greatest weakness is the constant ebbing of public support, so any remedies need to be emotionally intelligent\u2014they need to be felt positively by ordinary citizens in their daily lives. 18 Individuals need to see the EU adding value by compensating for the shortcomings of their national governments. 24 The greatest value of European integration is that it helps national governments move beyond short-term mind-sets, vested interests, and disjointed policies. 31 For the average voter, that means the EU tackles long-term problems like combating climate change, overcoming special interests through fair application of regulations, and countering security threats. 44 The vital elements of a strategy that would meet the specific conditions of a supranational polity and improve people\u2019s experience of the union are stronger engagement and outreach to link EU-level decisionmaking with the many areas of democratic life in Europe. 21 The European Parliament needs to connect with citizens through cyberspace to turn itself into the locus of transnational public debates. 11 It also needs to interact with national parliaments more systematically. 20 The rise of regionalism is an opportunity for the EU to engage directly with local and subnational public assemblies. 14 But the most satisfying experiences of democracy are those that citizens themselves enjoy. 22 The EU should greatly expand the opportunities for direct, individual participation, rather than continuing to rely on representative bodies. 23 The broader crisis of representative democracy across Europe makes it impossible for the EU to continue using umbrella organizations based in Brussels. 16 Instead, it needs to create deliberative mechanisms and Internet-based engagement for many more citizens. 19 The EU could do a lot more to show that it is fair and protects individuals\u2019 rights. 29 Protections at the EU level have become much stronger over time, but the public is largely unaware of them or sees them as mainly applying to minorities. 23 The EU should widen access to justice and guarantee more consistent protection of fundamental rights\u2014and ensure that citizens better understand these opportunities. 36 No remedy to the EU\u2019s many ills will work unless the union delivers better and fairer benefits to citizens, especially to the people who feel left behind by globalization and cosmopolitan politics. 28 One of the features of twenty-first-century life that most distresses European citizens is the sense of lost security\u2014employment, pensions, and the welfare state more broadly. 26 If the EU became associated with safety nets for citizens, not just austerity and fiscal discipline, it would enjoy much greater popular support. 23 The provision of social security in general has to stay at the national level because countries have different cultures and social contracts. 27 However, well-targeted, pan-European schemes at the EU level that provide job opportunities and minimum unemployment insurance would go a long way in reassuring citizens. 9 The utilitarian case for the EU is strong. 25 Now it needs to be put in emotionally intelligent terms that are relevant to Helmut, Nathalie, Alekos, Katarina, and Dimitar. 5 Notes\n\n1 See www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2014-results/en/election-results-2014.html. 8 2 Standard Eurobarometer 80, Autumn 2013. 11 3 All figures from Standard Eurobarometer 80, Autumn 2013. 11 4 All figures from Standard Eurobarometer 80, Autumn 2013. 6 5 See http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3930297/6309576/KS-EI-14-001-EN-N.pdf/4797faef-6250-4c65-b897-01c210c3242a. 28 6 Andrew Moravcsik, The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power From Messina to Maastricht (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998). 14 7 Transparency International, The European Union Integrity System, 2014, www.transparencyinternational.eu/focus_areas/eu-integrity-study. 40 8 Report by Benjamin Fox in EU Observer, April 4, 2014: \u201cSecret EU Lawmaking: The Triumph of the Trialogue.\u201d\n\n9 See, for example, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Guy Verhofstadt, For Europe! 17 Manifesto for a Postnational Revolution in Europe (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2012). 33 10 Daniela Kietz and Nicolai von Ondarza, \u201cDas neue Machtgefuege im Europ\u00e4ischen Parlament\u201d (The New Power Stucture in the European Parliament), SWP-Aktuell 47, July 2014. 47 11 See, for example, the language used by other political groups in endorsing Jean-Claude Juncker\u2019s nomination: \u201cVerhofstadt: Votes of Liberals and Democrats Are Key to Confirmation of Juncker,\u201d ALDE Group, July 15, 2014, www.alde.eu/nc/press/press-and-release-news/press-release/article/verhofstadt-votes-of-liberals-and-democrats-are-key-to-confirmation-of-juncker-43268. 34 12 Heather Grabbe and Stefan Lehne, The 2014 European Elections: Why a Partisan Commission President Would Be Bad for the EU (London: Center for European Reform, 2013). 19 13 Marietje Schaake, \u201cDigital Freedom Priority in EU Foreign Policy,\u201d November 2012, www.marietjeschaake.eu/2012/11/digital-freedom-priority-in-eu-foreign-policy. 27 14 Thomas Winzen, \u201cNational Parliamentary Control of European Union Affairs: A Cross-National and Longitudinal Comparison,\u201d West European Politics 35, no. 7 3 (2012): 657\u201372. 8 15 Special Eurobarometer 307, February 2009. 3 16 Ibid. 3 17 Ibid. 14 18 Carsten Berg and Janice Thomson, eds., An ECI That Works! 23 Learning From the First Two Years of the European Citizens\u2019 Initiative, ECI Campaign, Alfter, Germany, March 2014. 21 19 See the useful proposals in Stephen Boucher, \u201cIf Citizens Have a Voice, Who\u2019s Listening? 26 Lessons From Recent Citizen Consultation Experiments for the European Union,\u201d EPIN Papers, Center for European Policy Studies, June 12, 2009. 23 20 Jens Steffek, \u201cCivil Society, Participation and Deliberative Democracy in the European Union,\u201d E-International Relations, 2014. 8 21 See the TTIP website: www.ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip. 33 22 For an overview of the arguments about how this might work, see Laszlo Andor et al., \u201cDesigning a European Unemployment Insurance Scheme,\u201d Intereconomics 49, no. 8 4 (July/August 2014), www.ceps.eu/system/files/u153872/184-203-Forum.pdf. 16 23 OECD, \u201cEconomic Survey: European Union,\u201d OECD Publications, 2012. 9 24 Erasmus+ Programme Guide, http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/documents/erasmus-plus-programme-guide_en.pdf."} {"text": " 24 by Brett Stevens on February 28, 2011\n\nThe problem of democracy\n\nby Alain de Benoist\n\n103 pages, Arktos, $27. 22 In an acrimonious and unstable political season it is refreshing to find a book as level-headed as The Problem of Democracy. 32 This short, dense tome bucks the modern trend of taking a \u201cstrong thesis\u201d and arguing it like a machine that makes cocktail-party conversation littered with high culture trinkets. 42 Instead, de Benoist takes an academic approach \u2014 analysis, historical context, and structured argument \u2014 and applies it within a conversation that more resembles engineers discussing the workings of a machine than the airy gesticulations of half-drunken hipsters. 26 As a result, this book is universally accessible provided that the reader is able to apply critical thinking skills to follow a complex argument. 50 de Benoist approaches democracy without cynicism and in effect suggests we understand it before we adopt it or critique it; in developing our understanding, he dissects and re-assembles our notion of democracy, making his thesis as much about what democracy is not as what it is. 39 However, in recognizing what it is, he walks us through the possibilities in order to suggest but not heavy-handedly repeat a radical thesis: democracy functions only when paired with an organic cultural concept like nationalism. 38 In this, he distills the essence of New Right thinking, which is a distrust of bureaucratic society and free markets and a preference for natural leadership and natural law, or adaptivity to our environment. 20 One central aspect of de Benoist\u2019s thinking is that democracy and liberalism should be viewed as separate. 30 He points out that democracy can be compatible with a range of government types, including totalitarianism and aristocracy, but that liberalism ultimately trumps democracy and absorbs it. 42 The two are opposites because liberalism is ultimately individualism, or a type of genteel anarchy:\n\nThe \u2018people\u2019s state,\u2019 which is the genuine democratic state, should therefore not be confused with the liberal state. 12 Democracy is first and foremost a \u2018-cracy,\u2019 i.e. 12 a form of power; as such, it implies authority. 17 Liberalism is a doctrine concerned with the limitation of power and based on suspicion of authority. 36 Democracy is a form of government and political action; liberalism, an ideology for the restriction of all government, which devalues politics in such a way as to make it dependent upon economics. 16 Democracy is based on popular sovereignty; liberalism, on the rights of the individual. 94 (45)\n\nThis conclusion emerges after many citations and inspections of democracy as an ancient concept that persists in the modern time, but which has been twisted by our modern notions such that it hovers between a \u201cliberal democracy\u201d (in Fukuyama\u2019s terms) which is a quasi-anarchistic liberal state with a veneer of democracy, and a true democratic state, which is a participatory authoritarian state in which power is delegated on behalf of the nation as a whole through the people to its leaders. 36 In de Benoist\u2019s analysis, individualist states are doomed to failure because at any moment any individual can sabotage the political process by objecting to any part of the law as personally inconvenient. 38 In contrast to individualist states, holistic states act on behalf of the nation as a people and concept, and so are willing to endure personal inconvenience and sacrifice so the larger concept of nation survives. 22 By adopting a \u2018holistic\u2019 approach, Rousseau does not hesitate to define the people as a veritable collective organism. 66 Speaking of the social contract, he writes, \u2018This act of association creates a moral and collective body made up of as many members as the assembly has voices, and which receives from this act its unity, its common self, its life and its will.\u2019 This idea is reminiscent of the Roman allegory for the limbs and the stomach. 29 Against the \u2018universalist\u2019 optimism of his day, Rousseau has the merit of having posited that each nation is driven by its own particular general will. 43 (55)\n\nHis point is to show that in individualist states, the sheer number of different directions guarantees no direction will be taken, and thus that government becomes a raw numbers game in which the lowest common denominator thrives. 37 \u201cThe crucial idea behind democracy is not that it is the majority which decides, but rather that it is the appointment of leaders by those government, which constitutes the true foundation of legitimacy. 48 In other words, it is the people who are sovereign, not numbers.\u201d (52)\n\nThat concept dovetails with another de Benoist concern which radiates through the new right, which is of the managerial and bureaucratic state operating in a perpetual default behavior. 113 When we rid ourselves of culture, and then of unpopular ideas, we cannot pick a direction, so keep going in a straight line, which hands power over to the technicians, the marketers, the writers of government pamphlets and industry \u201cexperts.\u201d\n\nHe dissects the nature of democracy through the age-old conflict of representation, which occurs in his terms as either \u201ccommission\u201d or \u201cembodiment.\u201d In a commission-oriented state, representatives are actors who act out the demands of the people; in an embodiment-oriented state, representatives are delegated by the people to carry out the will of the people. 19 In his view, the confusion over this issue leads to the modern liberal democracy: a polyarchy. 46 As de Benoist explains it, the conflict between majority and minority groups in a democracy leads it to view representation itself as a type of participation, and thus to drift toward not just pluralism of opinion, but pluralism of entrenched interest groups. 86 We should not confuse pluralism of values, which is a sign of the break-up of society (since, while values only have meaning in respect to other values, they cannot all have equal footing), with the pluralism of opinions, which is a natural consequence of human diversity.\u201d (71)\n\nThis thesis is bold and intriguing because it goes where few dare go, which is to apply critical thinking to deconstruct our notion of democracy itself. 35 Too often, like other modern terms such as freedom, diversity and justice, the term \u201cdemocracy\u201d is bandied about like a brand name, without ever being defined or questions. 33 de Benoist very sensibly does not question it, but demands it be clarified, and in doing so shows how classical democracy and modern liberal democracy are going in separate directions. 61 Writing in clear and simple language in an extraordinarily fluid translations, he extensively cites other sources and thinkers, pulling from each a few sentences distilling their thought on the topic, thus giving us a broad view of historical thought on the matter in a similar method to the one used by Aldous Huxley in his philosophical writings. 42 de Benoist guides us through this maze of seemingly conflicting ideas and knits them into a singular narrative that is not so much judgmental as it is a process of elimination, removing incompatible notions and stitching together what is left. 57 In this context, one should not underestimate the importance of the genuine phenomenon of national and folk consciousness, by means of which the collective representations of a desirable socio-political order are linked to a shared vision, comprised of a feeling of belonging that presents each person with imperatives transcending particular rivalries and tensions. 26 (41)\n\nAlthough this book will be good reading for those who oppose democracy, it is most relevant to those who defend democracy. 37 In it unfolds a playbook for the pitfalls and triumphs of democracy in a form that shows what can and cannot coexist with democracy without over time dissolving it through the compromise of contradictory beliefs. 46 The Problem of Democracy culminates in a post-face that summarizes the major points made in its previous hundred pages, giving us ten radical theses that guide the adoption of democracy and our contemplation of how to modify it to fit a more ideal government. 53 de Benoist\u2019s outstanding contribution is his notion that the organic state must guide democracy, or it will fall into a bureaucracy of narrow-sighted \u201cexperts,\u201d and by writing this as clearly as he does he provides a groundwork for any understanding of democracy in the modern age. 11 You can find this book on Amazon for $29. 27 Tags: Alain de Benoist, Books, democracy, egalitarianism, nationalism, new right\n\nPlease enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus."} {"text": " 37 The Hispanic-dominated Los Angeles Unified School District Board has decided it is better to let failing students graduate with D grades rather than deny them a diploma because of their poor grades in college prep classes. 40 The board unanimously agreed on Tuesday that students with a D grade in so-called A-G courses, which are required for entry to the University of California and California State University systems, could graduate and earn their diploma. 16 The Daily News reported that 51 percent of incoming seniors are behind on the courses. 49 Although she voted for the change, board member Tamar Galatzan was worried about the board\u2019s action, asserting, \u201cI am worried we are setting students up for failure because this district hasn\u2019t gotten its act together,\u201d according to SCPR. 42 [LAUSD Lowers Standards To Let 22,000 Failing Students Graduate, Some As Old As 22, by William Bigelow, Breitbart, June 10, 2015]\n\nOne of those stories where you have to laugh to keep from crying. 13 Here's the classic mistake of saying the schools are to blame. 19 But as Robert Weissberg titled one of his books, \"Bad Students, Not Bad Schools.\" 23 73.7 percent of the high schools students in the LA school system are Hispanic, and the dropout rate is 17 percent. 10 This is more or less what you would expect. 44 As is always worth always pointing out, if you separate student performance by race on the 2009 Pisa Reading tests, European-Americans are actually doing quite well compared to the rest of the world, even in the \"government schools.\" 12 Indeed, European-Americans are actually outperforming every White nation except Finland. 24 The only groups measured on the test European-Americans are losing to are Shanghai-China, Korea, Hong Kong-China, Singapore... and Asian-Americans. 20 Funny how those institutionally racist standardized tests designed to perpetuate white supremacy keep ending up with Asians on top. 22 But LA is now dominated by what the late Lee Kuan Yew referred to as \"immigration from the fruit-pickers.\" 14 And as he warned, \"You won't get very far!\" 29 Of course, this isn't stopping the people in charge of the school system in LA from bragging about the demographics of their Third World school system. 63 As Breitbart chronicles,\n\nIn 2014 during the first wave of illegal aliens from Central America, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy told the Los Angeles Times, \u201c\u201dWe welcome the new youth with open arms in LAUSD.\u201d Students unable or unwilling to speak English increased from 142,457 to 146,794 after the border surge, according to the LA Times. 11 That\u2019s roughly 23 percent of all student enrolled. 21 Who could have expected importing Central American peasants who don't speak English would lead to a failing school system?"} {"text": " 11 Don't look now, but someone is watching you. 21 Maybe it's the shabbily dressed drifter you ran into in home appliances as you shopped the local department store. 24 Or, maybe it's the dozen or so video cameras that are bolted to the wall at various points throughout the store. 5 Don't be alarmed. 23 The shabby guy isn't there to take your wallet and the man behind the camera isn't \"Big Brother.\" 8 They only are observing your shopping behavior. 20 It's all part of a move by some retailers to track customers as they move through their stores. 17 Traffic pattern\n\nGeorganne Bender is a retail consultant and co-founder of consulting firm Kizer and Bender. 28 Bender, along with her business partner, Rich Kizer, frequently advises store owners on how to create a store layout that is easy to navigate. 19 She says it's a mistake for retailers simply to place products in their store in random order. 9 This diagram shows customer movement around a store. 24 The darkest shading (black) indicates the lowest traffic, reaching into the furthest corners of the store and crossing the aisles. 39 The lightest shading shows the highest traffic \u2014 from yellow at the front door through red and lavender to the right of the door and down the main aisle to blue down the principal aisles among the shelves. 24 Heat maps such as this are specialized and expensive and are used primarily for pilot stores or where stores are testing new ideas. 15 \"Good retailers absolutely do not leave merchandising to chance,\" she said. 18 \"It's something that they're thinking about and it's something that evolves every day. 11 And it's not something that customers dictate to them. 6 It's vice versa.\" 11 Retail cartographers\n\nHow can a store map its traffic patterns? 10 Industry leaders say there are a variety of methods. 55 \"The most efficient way is to put an observer in to note the patterns of people \u2014 the way that people enter the store and go through \u2014 on a sampling basis,\" said Eugene Fram, a marketing professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology's Philip Saunders College of Business. 16 Some companies offer a more high-tech approach when it comes to mapping customer traffic patterns. 35 David Smyth is vice president of sales and operations for Experian FootFall, a company that uses strategically placed video cameras to record customers' actions, develop headcounts and map traffic routes accordingly. 26 \"What you're trying to do is look for hot and cold spots \u2014 areas of high density of traffic,\" Smyth said. 24 Once the current traffic pattern has been identified, Smyth says retailers can try modifying the layout of their store to increase sales. 26 Warren Brown is director of marketing for IntelliVid Corp., another company that uses cameras and video intelligence software to gauge traffic patterns for retailers. 34 \"What we find folks typically want to do with the video intelligence is use it to really diagnose why things are selling and why they are not selling,\" Brown said. 8 \"How effective is a new display? 9 We do that in a couple of ways. 16 One is relating the traffic by that end cap to the overall store traffic.\" 25 Brown explained that if 1,000 people came into a store on a given day, maybe 200 of them passed by that end cap. 27 Brown's software allows retailers to know how many people got close enough to the end cap to pick up a displayed item from that shelf. 24 Further, the software lets retailers analyze how many of the 200 who passed that endcap stopped and lingered in front of it. 19 Traffic laws\n\nConsumers on foot, like drivers of motor vehicles, adhere to certain rules or patterns. 11 It helps to identify these rules when designing a store. 17 Customers on foot, like drivers of motor vehicles, adhere to certain rules or patterns. 11 It helps to identify these rules when designing a store. 33 For example, research conducted by noted industry expert Paco Underhill has suggested that, when given a choice, the vast majority of consumers will turn right after entering a store. 21 That research was explained in detail in Underhill's book, \"Why We Buy, The Science of Shopping. 22 \"Other research points to a psychological barrier that exists approximately 15 feet within the front door of a box retailer. 30 Dubbed \"the decompression zone,\" in this space it is rare for an ad or product to catch the eye of entering consumers, according to Bender. 36 \"We were in a store last week where they had a pretty jam-packed decompression zone, including this sign where they talked about how they were this national award-winning store,\" she said. 70 When Bender and the store owner counted the number of people who stopped to look the sign and other things in that area, the owner realized that, although they had many wonderful things there, the sales on those products were not good, people were not signing up for programs advertised there, nor were they even reading the signs \u2014 because they never saw them. 46 The area just beyond the decompression zone, on the other hand, is a prime location for what Bender calls \"speed bumps\" \u2014 hot products and cool displays that get the customer's attention and slow down their movement through the store. 29 Beyond that, the Rochester Institute of Technology's Fram says stores should take a lesson from the culture and create store layouts that facilitate a quick traverse. 17 \"The other view is that people live time-compressed lifestyles these days,\" Fram said. 26 \"They're busy with their jobs, their families, their friends and they want the retail experience to be as quick as possible. 29 So that calls for a traffic pattern that allows you to get through the store most quickly because you don't want to frustrate the time-compressed customer.\" 45 He says big-box grocery stores such as Meijer learned this lesson when, instead of making the consumer walk all the way to the back of the store for milk, it created a refrigerated shelf for milk near the front of the store. 31 Traffic penalties\n\nJust as drivers can face serious penalties if they disregard traffic regulations, retailers who don't pay attention to shoppers' traffic patterns can wind up suffering. 17 Brown says retailers who don't identify and act on shopper behavior ultimately will lose dollars. 26 \"The risk is that you say sales are down, but you don't know the right lever to pull,\" he said. 35 \"So you end up either taking too long to figure out which lever to pull or consistently pulling the wrong ones, and as a result, losing sales and losing market.\" 26 Bender agrees, adding that the store that has identified its traffic patterns is a store that can respond quickly to changes in customer behavior. 30 \"When you get a blueprint like that, you have a discipline and you know that you need to change the speed bumps at least every two weeks. 9 You need to change your end caps monthly. 13 You need to change your lifestyle displays at least once a month. 16 You need to change your windows at least once a month,\" she said. 26 \"So it sort of holds your feet to the fire and you know you have deadlines and when you have to change things.\""} {"text": " 52 This post was co-authored with H\u00e5vard Halland, Economist at the World Bank\n\nIn recent decades, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have been using their natural-resources as collateral to access sources of finance for investment, countervailing the barriers they face when accessing conventional bank lending and capital markets. 21 Depending on whom you ask, such financing models have been alternately vilified and sanctified in the global development debate. 16 In an effort to not be categorical, we say here that it all depends. 30 As we noted in a recent Economic Premise Note, the best way to understand resource-backed financing models is to assess them based on their structural characteristics and context. 36 Mind the Investment Finance Gap\n\nIn these times of diminishing availability of private long-term finance and reduced aid flows, LDCs are looking for alternatives to maintain and increase financing to build and upgrade infrastructure. 51 Many of the LDCs that lack access to capital markets are also rich in natural resources, and as a result of resource-related investments have in fact been receiving more Foreign Direct Investment than other more advanced developing countries as a share of gross domestic product (Figure 1). 31 FDI to Africa has quintupled since the turn of the millennium, from US$10 billion in 2000 to US$50 billion in 2012 (UNCTAD 2013). 36 So, one may ask, what kind of financing opportunities could result for infrastructure from the combination of natural resource abundance, governments' lack of capital market access, and weak governance environments? 9 As it turns out, quite a few. 19 Investors with a stomach for risk have invented financing models that provide these countries with a competitive edge. 20 Additionally, LDCs are seeking to become more proactive with regard to productive investment of rents generated from extractives. 28 Angola: A Testing Ground for Resource-backed Financial Innovation\n\nAn unlikely candidate for financial innovation, Angola initially pioneered resource-backed models later refined in London and Beijing. 30 In the 1980s and 90s, Angola's government had abundant promising or producing oil fields, and an expensive war to fund against Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebels. 12 At the same time, its creditworthiness was at rock bottom. 37 Standard Chartered Bank, soon to be followed by several other Western banks, saw this as a business opportunity, and offered Angola an arrangement whereby loans were to be guaranteed by future oil revenues. 23 By the end of the war in 2002, the Angolan government had taken out 48 oil-backed loans (Brautigam 2011). 17 Once the war was over, the devastated country needed rebuilding: enter China Exim Bank. 41 In 2004, China Exim, in association with Chinese oil and construction companies, made a $1 billion offer to rebuild railways, roads and power plants in exchange for extraction rights to Angola's offshore oil fields. 40 Under this and similar Resources for Infrastructure (RfI) arrangements, a loan for current infrastructure construction is securitized against the net present value of a future revenue stream from oil or mineral extraction, adjusted for risk. 39 Loan tranches are paid directly to the construction company to cover construction costs, while the oil or mining company makes the down payments to the financing institution, frequently with a lag of a decade or more. 33 The RfI financing model was later used in several other African countries, predominantly by Chinese banks, but recently also by a Korean consortium led by Korea Exim Bank in DRC. 44 Back-of-the-envelope estimates based on publically available information indicate that the value of signed RfI contracts in Africa to be at least US$40 billion, most likely higher, although it is unclear how many of these contracts have been fully implemented. 47 In parallel, and recognizing the need for macroeconomic and fiscal buffers against highly volatile resource revenue flows, several countries have recently established, or are in the process of establishing sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) funded from oil, gas and mining revenues. 25 Several of these new SWFs have defined or are considering mandates that go beyond stabilization and intergenerational savings to fund investment in national infrastructure. 33 Examples include the newly established Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, and its Nigeria Infrastructure Fund, as well as the Fundo Soberano de Angola, and a number of others under consideration. 35 Moving beyond the Resource Curse\n\nThere are major benefits of resource-backed financing models, such as resource-backed loans and RfI, to democratically elected governments, or even nondemocratic ones that need popular legitimacy. 28 They allow these governments to provide a return to citizens while in office, and long before the extractive project is generating revenue or turning a profit. 50 Additionally, RfI ensures that extracted resources are offset by the accumulation of a productive capital asset, rather than going to increased consumption, as has frequently happened in weak governance environments with signing bonuses and royalty revenues, or worse, disappear into private foreign bank accounts. 48 If there is a perception that an SWF is likely to be raided by the next government in power, the current government may prefer the earmarking of funds to investment implicit in RfI, rather than saving in a SWF beyond what is necessary for stabilization. 9 The risks of resource-backed financing are nevertheless substantial. 32 Resource-backed loans, as well as possible future resource-backed bond structures, may in weak governance contexts mortgage the nation's subsoil wealth without much productive investment to show for it. 29 RfI can only bring full benefits if the government has the will and capacity to credibly negotiate the RfI contract based on proper valuation and competitive tendering processes. 23 Infrastructure projects must be properly assessed, selected, monitored and maintained, and macro-fiscal stability and debt sustainability must be ensured. 37 Failure to build capacity on the government side, and implement transparency, will likely result in low-quality, high-cost, badly selected, and poorly maintained infrastructure projects (Canuto and Cavallari, 2012). 36 When it comes to domestic investment by SWFs, the main risks arise from the double role of the government as the owner of the fund as well as ultimately being responsible for its investments. 13 While these risks can be managed they cannot be completely eliminated. 10 At the same time, potential advantages do exist. 31 Taking advantage of the long-term horizon, a domestic SWF is in a position to offer a range of instruments to share risk and make potentially attractive projects commercially bankable. 30 To minimize risk and maximize opportunities, domestic investments need to be screened primarily on the basis of financial returns, and crowding in rather than displacing private investors. 38 Further, parliamentary oversight must be ensured by approval of the domestic investment envelope through the budget process, and the full independence of investment decisions must be ensured by applying accepted global standards for corporate governance. 45 Partnerships with foreign SWFs or investment funds, with the home SWF as a minority investor would serve to reduce moral hazard problems, in addition to opening up investment decisions to external evaluation and adding to the expertise at the fund's disposal. 41 The bottom line here is that the success and failure of the much-debated resource-backed financing models will be determined not on the basis of categorical assessments of each model as \"good\" or \"bad\" for development outcomes. 26 Instead, their deployment will vary in different country and institutional contexts, and on the institutional and procedural safeguards established to ensure proper governance. 8 In the end, it all depends! 32 Follow the latest from Otaviano Canuto at twitter.com/OCanuto and keep up with the World Bank's efforts to help countries fight poverty and close gaps in income and opportunity at twitter.com/WBPoverty."} {"text": " 75 No drug company executives, employees have ever been held personally responsible for criminal behavior\n\nThe fat cats that have yet to be personally tried for criminal behavior\n\n(NaturalNews) Many medical professionals and members of the general public are losing faith in the credibility of the clinical trial and drug approval process, and rightfully so in light of all the corporate corruption and criminal behavior that has recently come to light. 82 Two new papers published in the(NEJM) suggest that drug industry corruption is so pervasive nowadays that even the most rigorously-conducted studies and trials are not being taken seriously by many doctors.Over the past three years,on the planet has been convicted of some kind of criminal behavior, whether it is fudging drug safety data; pushing drugs for off-label uses; bribing doctors and medical professionals to prescribe dangerous drugs; or conducting fraudulent clinical trials. 28 Collectively, these companies have been forced to pay roughlyfor these and other crimes, which have apparently become a normal part of their corporate operating procedures. 41 \"In all, 26 companies, including eight of the 10 top players in the global industry, have been found to be acting dishonestly,\" writes Jeremy Laurance for the U.K.'sabout Big Pharma's culture of corruption. 29 \"The scale of the wrongdoing, revealed for the first time, has undermined public and professional trust in the industry and is holding back clinical progress. 46 \"Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), for instance, was recently fined $3 billion for bribing doctors, lying to the U.S.(FDA), illegally marketing and promoting drugs, and falsifying clinical trial data ( https://www.naturalnews.com/036417_Glaxo_Merck_fraud.html ). 39 Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, and many other major players have also been convicted in recent years of similar wrongdoing, and faced similar fines.The real shocker in all this; however, is the fact that. 68 Though millions of people have been injured or killed by these drug companies' illegal activities, the only penalties the industry has ever had to face are relatively measly criminal fines that amount to practically nothing in the greater scheme of things.According to Kevin Outterson, a lawyer from, these criminal fines, as large as they might seem to the average person, are. 26 As we pointed out before, such fines are now considered to be just another \"cost of doing business\" to many drug companies . 27 As Outterson puts it, these fines will do little, if anything, to actually deter such illegal activity from taking place in the future. 26 \"Companies might well view such fines as a quite small percentage of their global revenue,\" Outterson is quoted as saying by the. 13 \"If so, little has been done to change the system. 16 The government merely recoups a portion of the financial fruit of firms' past misdeeds. 21 \"The following list of links identifies drug company executives that have never been held personally responsible for corporate crimes:"} {"text": " 85 BUSINESS\n\n(Samsung Display)\n\nSamsung Display\u2019s principal engineer said Tuesday foldable phones may not be commercialized until 2019 as bezel-free display currently sells well and the foldable display still has technical challenges to be addressed.There have been wide speculations in the market that Samsung may unveil its foldable phones that can both work as smartphones and tablets sometime this year or next year.\u201cBecause the bezel-free display currently sells well, we still have enough time to develop foldable display. 156 The technology is expected to be mature around 2019,\u201d said Kim Tae-woong, Samsung Display\u2019s principal engineer, at the Display TechSalon held in Seoul.Chung Won-seok, an analyst at HI Investment and Securities, gave the same outlook during the seminar, saying, \u201cSamsung Display is expected to commercialize foldable phones in 2019 because the company does not need to sell the new hardware because it is already enjoying 20 percent of operating profits with bezel-free display.\u201cWhen the demand for bezel-free handsets slows down, Samsung will unveil the foldable display as the next card.\u201dKim told The Korea Herald after the conference that the company\u2019s foldable display in fact still has some technical challenges to be improved.Samsung Display said single foldable phones are likely to be unveiled first before multi-foldable (both sides) phones are introduced.By Shin Ji-hye ( shinjh@heraldcorp.com"} {"text": " 27 **TL;DR:** We\u2019ve identified the cause of this bug, and it\u2019s unique to Aurelion Sol. 15 We\u2019ll be implementing a fix on 6.18 (the Worlds patch). 7 Read on for all the details. 33 Yesterday during the NA LCS Semifinals between CLG and TSM, a game had to be remade due to a player seeing a Aurelion Sol's passive missile in the wrong place. 35 Aurelion Sol's passive has the longest lasting missiles in League's history by quite a large margin, and they exposed a set of technical limitations we had never hit before with missiles. 24 Most pertinent: this is the first time a missile is defining its motion around a unit that does not share its visibility. 33 Previous missiles that moved based on another unit, like Ahri's Fox-Fire, share visibility with their owner - you only see the missile if you see the unit as well. 38 In order to cope with this new problem, we put in some handling where the client is sent positional information about Aurelion Sol if one of his missiles is in vision but he himself is not. 16 This allows the missiles to represent their movement without having to fully reveal the champion. 36 However, there is a small time gap between the client gaining visibility of the missile and when it receives this positional information, and that gap is what ultimately led to Sunday's remake. 120 A brief timeline, based on [Twitch's VOD](https://www.twitch.tv/nalcs1/v/84923932): - 10:29 game time (43:38 video) - Aurelion Sol's passive spotted over wall by ward at blue buff - 10:31 game time - Aurelion Sol and his passive fully leave TSM's vision - Aurelion Sol remains out of TSM's vision until: - 11:06 game time - Aurelion Sol's passive spotted in mid lane by Rek'Sai For a few frames at game time 11:06, TSM Bjergsen's client displayed one of Aurelion Sol's passive missiles at the position it would have been if Aurelion was at his last known position - game time 10:31. 39 It had received the information saying that the missile should be made visible, but had not yet received an update on where the champion was, so it showed the missile relative to his last known position. 11 This Aurelion Sol defect has been present since he shipped. 22 We had some code in place to mitigate effects of this nature for him, but they were clearly not enough. 25 In the affected game, the circumstances were such that a player's decision making was negatively affected, and lead to a remake. 21 We are fixing the issue by preventing the client from showing these missiles in the absence of accurate positional information. 22 This fix will be a part of the 6.18 patch cycle, which is the patch Worlds will be played on. 8 Regards, ~Riot Penrif\n\nTitle\n\nBody Cancel\n\nSave"} {"text": " 33 Members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church were at Texas A&M University to deliver a message to Aggies, but A&M students had a message of their own. 29 Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has been described as a hate group, and have been denounced by the Baptist World Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention. 20 Members of WBC set up with picket signs and music near the Memorial Student Center around 7:30 a.m. Monday. 21 Steve Drain, a member of WBC said they were protesting because students at the university have been fed lies. 21 \"Their moral compasses have been broken by their parents, their teachers and their preachers,\" said Drain. 40 \"From the time they were born, they were taught lies such as God loves everybody, and it's okay to be gay, and it's okay to divorce your wife and remarry another one.\" 17 The protesters from WBC were met by dozens of students with a message of their own. 33 Many of whom carried signs with phrases like \"Peace, Love and Gig em',\"God hates no one,\" and \"All you need is love.\" 24 Texas A&M Senior Meg Hale said the only way to fight against the WBC message of hate, is with love. 29 \"I'm in love with my Aggies, that we brought love and peace, and are doing this in a nice way,\" said Hale. 7 \"Love is the answer.\" 20 A short distance away at Simpson Drill Field, around 100 Aggies showed up for an impromptu Yell Practice. 28 Organizer Elyssa De Caprio said the practice was meant to celebrate the birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as distract from the WBC protest. 27 \"Their message is just one of pure hate, and it's not something we want people to listen to,\" said De Caprio. 10 Members of WBC are known for their controversial messages. 19 According to their website, they believe America will be punished for its acceptance of the gay lifestyle. 24 They also believe tragedies, such as the deaths of American soldiers, are linked to God's punishment to an evil nation. 21 Because of that, members of the group have often set up protests at funerals for members of the military. 38 Even so, Aggie Junior and Army Veteran Alexander Coll, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, said he proudly fought for their rights to protest, and wouldn't hesitate to do so again. 25 \"I'm glad we live in a country where people can come out here and use their constitutional rights,\" said Coll. 23 Texas A&M student Pierce Robson said WBC's message has nothing to do with the true meaning of the Bible. 30 \"This is literally a platform for them to spew this kind of incendiary, cherry-picked hate speech that is taken completely out of context,\" said Robson. 28 The WBC members travelled to Houston after their protest at Texas A&M to protest Mayor Anise Parker and her recent attempts to subpoena church records."} {"text": " 41 The catastrophic service outage at Glasgow City Council's data centre, caused after its IT systems servers were taken down by a fire suppressant accidentally going off, is continuing to cause widespread havoc for staff and the public. 21 The embarrassing blunder was caused by a faulty air conditioning unit setting off its fire suppressant system on Tuesday morning. 19 A spokesman said the suppressant system released a \"powerful blast of gas\" which shook the building. 54 A source told The Register that the malfunction caused damage to various equipment, including its IBM storage array, which hosts the data for many of the council\u2019s systems \u2013 including the Microsoft Exchange email system, the social work client database, and the council tax and benefits systems. 20 \"So essentially business at the council has ground to a halt,\" the source told us today. 33 \"Until late yesterday afternoon many of the contact centre services were also unavailable due to the part of the Cisco phone system that hosts the contact centre experiencing a malfunction.\" 44 He added: \"Many staff cannot even log in to their PCs as their computer cannot log in to the network - a particular problem in schools, as all primary schools login to servers in that data centre.\" 21 \"Perhaps more problematic is the fact that there was no backup provision at all for the majority of systems. 25 In fact, one of the only systems that is still working is the financial SAP system, which was only recently replaced.\" 16 The council said on its Twitter feed today: \"Our email system is down. 18 If you have emailed us since yesterday morning we have been unable to deal with it.\" 17 It also tweeted: \"We\u2019re still experiencing problems with our main switchboard number. 16 You can use http://www.glasgow.gov.uk to make payments, report faults, etc.\" 24 A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said it was not true that business had ground to a halt a result of the incident. 30 \"It is important to note that staff at the council who deliver critical services to the public are still able to do so successfully,\" he said. 22 \"All our data was backed up and the business continuity plans in place meant those services were manually delivered.\" 1 \u00ae"} {"text": " 37 Santa Claus (1959) -***\u00bd Rene Cardona\u2019s Santa Claus will make a lot more sense if you understand that Santa doesn\u2019t figure in traditional Mexican Christmas lore. 7 And really, why should he? 37 Santa Claus, like his cousins and ancestors, Sinterklaas, Father Christmas, Grandfather Frost, Tomte, and the Christmas Goat, is an outgrowth of Northern European folklore related to pagan mid-winter festivals. 56 In a land of harsh and ecologically unproductive winters, the solstice marks the bottoming out of a potentially deadly season; as the shortest day of the year, it\u2019s like a promise from the cosmos that winter will stop getting worse, and that the spring thaw is on its way. 42 Consequently, Europe\u2019s pre-Christian solstice holidays almost invariably involved gift-giving as a token of faith in the coming end of winter scarcity, and it was natural for that spirit of generosity to find personification in some supernatural character. 62 When Christianity co-opted the heathen solstice celebrations and redefined them as a birthday party for Jesus, it was similarly natural to co-opt the accompanying magical gift-givers by associating them with a theologically acceptable figure like St. Nicholas of Myra (a 4th-century bishop and signatory of the original Nicene Creed, legendary for stealthy acts of generosity) or St. 21 Basil the Great (an early Christian theologian who lavished most of his huge family inheritance on the poor). 35 It was not Northern Europeans who colonized Mexico, however, and the ceremonial god-eating practiced by the Aztecs on the winter solstice bore little resemblance to the Germanic Yule or the Roman Saturnalia. 42 Christmas in Mexico therefore took a very different form, and while gift-giving was part of the mix, it traditionally happened on January 6th, in commemoration of the tribute paid to the Christ-child by the magi from the east. 26 Mind you, that was all before modern mass media turned American pop culture into one of the most powerful social forces in the world. 36 By the 1950\u2019s, gringo Christmas had begun to take root among the cosmopolitans of Mexico City, even if it took much longer to affect practices in the rest of the country. 37 However, American Christmas traditions made their inroads in a very fragmentary way\u2014 Coca-Cola advertisements featuring the image of Santa Claus, references to Santa or his attributes in popular songs, that sort of thing. 32 Mexicans, in other words, had discovered the idea of Santa Claus, but they understood him only a little better than Americans today understand the Day of the Dead. 34 Still, the appeal of Santa Claus for children was unmistakable, and Mexican filmmakers in the late 1950\u2019s were very much in the market for things that appealed to kids. 44 The catalyst for the sudden, intense interest in kiddie flicks was Rene Cardona\u2019s Tom Thumb, which had rather unexpectedly become a runaway hit in 1957, even to the extent of attracting attention from distributors north of the border. 28 Cardona had made Tom Thumb outside of his usual partnership with producer Guillermo Calderon, and Calderon was understandably eager to have him try again within it. 15 Meanwhile, Calderon and Cardona had lately enjoyed a different sort of unexpected boon. 29 Florida-based entrepreneur K. Gordon Murray had not only learned of their work, but had been sufficiently impressed by it to become a reliable importer of their films. 28 We\u2019re not talking about a huge amount of money changing hands, of course, but American chump change went a lot further in Mexico. 23 With Murray onboard, it made sense to start thinking about transnational marketability, and suddenly a synergy seemed to present itself. 47 Mexican kids newly exposed to Santa Claus; American kids newly exposed to Mexican fantasy films\u2014 didn\u2019t that add up to two countries\u2019 worth of children whom Cardona, Calderon, and Murray could interest in a Mexican fantasy film about Santa Claus? 24 There\u2019s something touchingly na\u00efve about that plan, and much the same could be said of the resulting movie, too. 38 But na\u00efve or not, Santa Claus was an enormous hit on its home turf, playing for seven weeks in an era of thrice-weekly program changes, and it made Murray a decent profit, too. 38 In its first American go-round, Santa Claus played only in a few carefully chosen venues, but its performance was such that Murray would recirculate it on a wider basis every December for years to come. 48 The success of Santa Claus in the US actually interests me more than the reception it got in its native land, because American children (unlike their Mexican counterparts) were intimately familiar with Santa, and Cardona\u2019s version of him is intensely weird. 19 The story that Cardona and co-writer Adolfo Torres Portillo built around him, meanwhile, is weirder still. 47 To begin with, this Santa Claus (Jose Elias Moreno, from Night of the Bloody Apes and The She-Wolf) doesn\u2019t live at the North Pole; he lives in a magic castle in outer space, orbiting above the North Pole. 17 Instead of elves, his Toyland factory is staffed by children from all over the world. 67 If we can judge by some of the things said by their apparent leader, a little Mexican boy named Pedro (Cesareo Quezadas, of Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters), these children have no knowledge of how things are done on Earth, which would have to mean that they were, like, changeling abductees or something. 29 The reindeer who pull Santa\u2019s sleigh are not living animals, but creepy-as-hell automata whose animatronic laughter could freeze the blood of an Ozian flying monkey. 49 And he has as his roommates none other than Merlin the magician (Armando Arriola, from The Phantom of the Red House and The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales) and Vulcan the smith-god (Angel Di Stefani, of The Panther Women and The Aztec Mummy). 46 They\u2019re the ones who outfit Santa with the magical paraphernalia that enables him to reverse-burglarize everybody\u2019s houses on Christmas Eve: the sleeping powder, the flower of invisibility, the universal key that gains him access to houses without chimneys. 21 I assume that Merlin and Vulcan also constructed the devices whereby Santa keeps tabs on the naughty and the nice. 28 Forget making a list and checking it twice\u2014 in this modern age, the benign totalitarianism of Good St. Nick requires the very latest in magical technology! 37 Santa\u2019s observatory is equipped with an all-seeing telescope, an all-hearing passive sonar array, and a global-range dream-peeper, all linked up to a talking computer even more terrifying than those fucking reindeer. 28 Santa has something else, too, that we don\u2019t normally think of here in el Norte\u2014 enemies, and extremely powerful enemies at that. 22 When you look closely at it, Santa\u2019s job description basically makes him the truant officer of the cosmos. 36 By punishing bad behavior and rewarding good with his annual toy giveaway, he helps police the morality of children who lack the sophistication to do what\u2019s right simply because it is right. 9 Who could object to that, you ask? 4 How about Satan? 27 For centuries now, Santa Claus has been leading ethically malleable children out of damnation, and the Prince of Darkness is thoroughly sick of it. 8 This Christmas is going to be different. 55 This Christmas, Lucifer is sending his minion, Pitch (House of Terror\u2019s Jose Luis Aguirre), to Earth on a mission to tempt each and every child personally, with the object of producing an outpouring of juvenile evil the likes of which the mortal world has never seen! 43 Obviously this would be a long and unwieldy movie if we had to watch Pitch tempting all the world\u2019s kids, so we\u2019ll be limiting our give-a-fucks to just five, all of them residing in Mexico City. 27 One of these is Lupita (Lupita Quezadas, Cesareo\u2019s real-life sister), whose parents are too poor to buy her any toys. 30 Another is a rich boy (Antonio Diaz Conde Jr.) who has all the material possessions any kid could want, but is chronically starved for parental affection. 37 The rest are three beastly little brothers (your guess as to who plays them is as good as mine) who have yet to meet a Deadly Sin that they can\u2019t get behind. 26 (Just wait \u2018til they find out about Lust in a few years\u2026) Naturally, the latter trio are easy prey for Pitch. 20 In fact, the devil will actually figure out how to make them aid him in his anti-Santa activities. 18 You see, Pitch has made a connection that seems to have eluded his master thus far. 35 Santa\u2019s usefulness to the forces of cosmic good stems from his gift-giving to children who obey their elders, and his denial of gifts to those who don\u2019t, right? 38 So doesn\u2019t it follow that if Pitch can prevent Santa from rewarding the good, then the whole scheme will be discredited, and evil will win the hearts of a sullen and disaffected generation? 36 Leave it to the filmmakers of an arch-Catholic nation to parse the theological implications of Santa Claus in a matinee kiddie flick, and to make it look effortless while they\u2019re at it. 36 Of all the mind-blowing things about this shoddy, silly, occasionally horrifying, frequently nit-witted trifle, that\u2019s the one that makes me spend the longest time picking up the post-mindblow pieces. 36 Cardona and Portillo\u2019s Santa Claus may be just barely recognizable as our Santa Claus, but he makes eerily perfect sense in the context of Mexico\u2019s far less pagan Christmas traditions. 39 We gringos may marvel at the notion of Santa vs. Satan, but the logic is weirdly irresistible when you detach the character of Santa Claus from the folklore that limits him to embodying holiday generosity and cheer. 16 After all, who else but the Devil would naturally stand opposed to Saint Nicholas? 25 Similarly irresistible, on close examination, is the logic behind many of the new attributes that the screenwriters have invented for Santa Claus. 18 Most figures of folklore have powers or abilities that go unquestioned by people brought up with them. 34 Americans raised with Santa might never think to ask how he does his work in such total secrecy, or how he acquires his knowledge of who\u2019s been bad or good. 25 An outsider, though, is likely to wonder exactly such things, and to consider \u201cHe just does\u201d an unsatisfactory answer. 71 Thus in Santa Claus we have sleeping powder, a flower of invisibility, and a magic key; we have panoptic sensory apparatus to monitor the deeds, words, and even dreams of all the world\u2019s children; and we have auxiliary figures who could create such things for Santa, in case his own skill as a toymaker seems not quite equal to the task. 26 Of course, none of that does anything to change the impression of overwhelming screwiness that Santa Claus will almost certainly make with American viewers. 13 I mean, the movie has a dance number set in Hell. 18 It opens with a seemingly endless musical tour of Santa\u2019s outer space child labor sweatshop. 45 Lupita, under Pitch\u2019s influence, has one of the most authentically nightmarish movie nightmares I can ever recall having seen, in which a chorus line of huge, menacing, Janus-headed dolls try to badger her into becoming a thief. 32 The production design for Santa\u2019s castle has much the same unsettling mix of cuteness and wrongness that famously characterized \u201cPee Wee\u2019s Playhouse\u201d 30 years later. 26 And throughout, there are all the myriad ways, both great and small, that this is simply not the Santa Claus we know. 24 It\u2019s an uncanny effect that is all the more disturbing because the filmmakers didn\u2019t set out to create it. 6 Home Alphabetical Index Chronological Index Contact"} {"text": " 20 Quick, somebody check on Alan Wolfe, the super-respected, 73-year-old sociologist and political scientist at Boston College. 19 Call him up on his Jitterbug phone and make sure he hasn't had a stroke or something. 30 His June 15 piece at Reuters, \"Why libertarianism is closer to Stalinism than you think,\" reads like the work of somebody undergoing severe brain trauma. 21 \"Libertarianism has a complicated history, and it is by and large a sordid one,\" charges Wolfe. 47 It is \"a secular substitute for religion, complete with its own conception of the city of God, a utopia of pure laissez-faire and the city of man, a place where envy and short-sightedness hinder creative geniuses from carrying out their visions.\" 24 I'd call him the Hitler of Hyperbole, but that seems, I don't know, a tad over the top. 13 Sort of like equating a live-and-let-live philosophy such as libertarianism to Stalinism. 7 Which I confess it totally is. 34 Except for the gulags, the mass murders, the forced relocations, the belief in statism, a demonstrably insane economic policy\u2014I'm probably forgetting one or two other points of similarity. 62 Predictably, Wolfe disinters the corpse of Ayn Rand and insists not only was the Atlas Shrugged author \"an authoritarian at heart\" but that she remains the beating heart of an intellectual, philosophical, and cultural movement that includes a fistful of Nobel Prize winners (Friedman, Buchanan, Smith, Hayek, Vargas Llosa, etc. 48 ); thinkers such as Robert Nozick and Camille Paglia; businessmen such as Whole Foods' John Mackey, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Overstock's Patrick Byrne; and creative types ranging from Rose Wilder Lane to the creators of South Park to Vince Vaughn. 6 Sound the alarum, folks! 19 Team America: World Police and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story are running on Comedy Central again! 28 Ultimately, it's the specter of Rand Paul, son of Ron (who \"adhered to such radical positions as abolishing the Federal Reserve\"! 22 ), that's making Wolfe tear through his Depends like Stalin through his former revolutionary comrades in the late '30s. 20 Libertarianism now has a certain freshness because it seems to cross the otherwise impregnable line between right and left. 41 Sharply reducing the role of government in American life, libertarianism\u2019s primary objective, appeals to conservatives because it offers an end to Obamacare, Social Security and other programs that transfer public money to the less well-off. 17 Yet it also attracts liberal voters who ardently oppose invasions of privacy and bloated defense spending. 12 Paul\u2019s appeal doesn\u2019t stop there, however. 22 He understands that the GOP base is getting older and whiter \u2014 which bodes badly for the party\u2019s future. 7 He is reaching out to minorities. 21 By attacking his party\u2019s attempts to restrict the vote, Paul could attract many African-American and Latino voters. 33 He has also appealed to younger voters by calling for less restrictive drug laws, for example, and speaking at college campuses, where older Republicans have been loathe to appear. 21 Let's be clear: Libertarianism doesn't seem to cross lines between the right and left in contemporary America. 56 It ignores them with impunity, which is one of the reasons why libertarians can embrace, say, transgenders in a way that drives the right insane while also standing up for the rights of Indiana pizza shop owners not to cater a hypothetical gay wedding reception (which drives the left batty). 56 Looking over the wreckage of these first 15 years of the 21st century, where the federal government was run first by awful conservative Republicans and then by equally awful liberal Democrats, only a true believer in ideological stasis like Wolfe could be mumbling a variation on \"Keep Calm and Carry On.\" 39 As Matt Welch and I argued in The Declaration of Independents, we live in a world of dizzying possibilities and innovation where people are gaining more and more ability to pursue their dreams as they define them. 21 The last redoubts of failure and sclerosis\u2014education, health care, and retirement\u2014are those most under the control of government. 37 Add to that the erection of warfare-surveillance state that is heartily funded and supported by the two major parties and, well, nobody should be surprised that libertarianism is ascendant, especially among younger Americans. 21 It offers a hopeful, inclusive, idealistic alternative to the world of ashes in which they have been raised. 43 If you're wondering where Wolfe ends up in his piece, he concludes in an intellectual funnel cloud that unlike liberalism and conservatism, libertarianism is a rigid ideology that cannot compromise in any way, shape, or form. 30 Where Republicans and Democrats will (thankfully) agree to increase spending on both social welfare and defense, a truly principled libertarian wouldn't and hence would fail. 9 Which is good, because libertarianism is bad. 17 And Rand Paul isn't really libertarian, so he won't get the nomination anyway. 26 Because nobody really likes libertarianism, which is why it's dangerous that it seems to be getting so popular, know what I mean? 35 Then there's this:\n\nThe good news is that if Paul were to win the Republican nomination, libertarianism\u2019s unfitness for the modern world would be revealed for all to see. 24 The bad news is that the poison of its extremism would enter into the body politic, perhaps never to be fully ejected. 53 Reading this sort of piece makes me feel sad for the centrist-liberal public intellectual, who must be experiencing that sinking feeling that happens when your entire life's work and political philosophy comes a cropper not because they weren't tried but precisely they were tried again and again and again. 89 After decades of expounding the need for, among other things, a literal Return to Greatness in the guise of national campaigns to advance his particular predilections when it comes to politics and culture, Wolfe is now forced to live in a historical moment when, gag, libertarians doth bestride the narrow world like pint-sized Colossi, arguing that America should invade fewer countries, lock up fewer non-violent criminals, and give fewer tax dollars to billion-dollar corporations and super-wealthy individuals via government handouts. 3 The horror. 33 Among the many ways Wolfe is wrong: He errs in thinking that libertarianism is a set of distinct policy proposals, all of which must be adhered to in all instances. 21 As I'm fond of saying, libertarian is best understood as an adjective, an attitude, a temperament. 33 Do you agree that individuals should be given more choices when it comes to making decisions about where to live, how to work, whom to love, what to eat? 34 All things being equal, do you trust not just yourself but your neighbors and especially people you don't even know to come to voluntary arrangements based in respect and mutual benefits? 58 Like Seinfeld's George Costanza convinced of his jerk-store comeback, Wolfe drops what he doubtless thinks is a rhetorical A-bomb part way through his wretched essay: \"Truly principled libertarians believe that government should refrain from telling women what to do with their bodies, but should there be no regulation of medical procedures?\" 4 Well, no. 57 Even in the absence of, say, a government-run Food and Drug Administration or medical-procedure board, there would be all sorts of certifying agencies, insurance companies, reputational proxies, grading services, and more to give consumers all sorts of information about the efficacy and safety of whatever you could dream up. 21 That world is, of course, already growing up all around us, on everything from Amazon to Uber. 29 If Wolfe could only take a deep breath or two, he might realize that libertarianism isn't the Stalinism-lite system he's cracked it up to be. 38 To the contrary, it's profoundly liberating and humane set of beliefs that are flourishing precisely because the old ways of maintaining control and power are fading like the worst excesses of the old Soviet Union."} {"text": " 14 Hillary Clinton\u2019s road to the Democratic presidential nomination just got rockier. 53 If Clinton loses the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary as many are predicting\u2014due to Bernie Sanders\u2019 surging supporters in Iowa and rising poll numbers in New Hampshire\u2014then the nation\u2019s third Democratic contest, in Nevada, becomes even more critical to show she is back on her feet. 49 Advertisement:\n\nBut news from Nevada, the third state to vote and the West\u2019s first state to hold a presidential nominating event, are showing the odds are not stacking up in her favor, even though she had a 20-point lead in Christmas polling. 38 One of Nevada\u2019s biggest and most politically active unions, Las Vegas Culinary Workers Union Local 226, has opted not to make an endorsement in the party\u2019s 2016 caucuses on February 20. 21 The union's executive board adopted a resolution saying they would focus on mobilizing members for the November election instead. 29 \"In Nevada specifically, the Culinary Union is going to spend the next six months building our strength for the general election,\" their statement said. 13 \"We will register 10,000 more of our union members to vote. 24 In addition, we will remove the barriers for 2,500 of our members to become citizens and register to vote this year.\" 20 \"We will work with our entire membership to be ready to mobilize in November,\" it continued. 35 \"No organization in Nevada represents more Latinos or more African Americans, and as we did in 2008 and 2012, we will turn out tens of thousands of people to vote.\" 19 The union officials also said that it was too early in the process to take sides with candidates. 20 \"During this preparation phase, we will not be endorsing in the Presidential Primary,\" they said. 46 \"Any local endorsing in the primary will be weighing the candidates\u2019 positions on the key economic justice issues for our union: Supporting the right to organize unions, committing to comprehensive immigration reform, and fighting for good healthcare for all.\" 39 Advertisement:\n\nNo matter how you parse it, this is not what the 2016 Clinton campaign wanted to hear, which is perhaps why it has dispatched former President Bill Clinton to Nevada for events on Thursday. 41 The non-endorsement is not exactly a surprise, given a long history of frayed relations between the Clintons, the Nevada Democratic Party and Culinary union members dating to 2008, when the union endorsed Barack Obama before the primary. 45 \u201cIndeed, the \u201908 hangover, when the Culinary embraced Barack Obama and the Clintons went ballistic (Bill even called then-MGM Chairman Kirk Kerkorian to complain about casino caucus sites), appears not to have healed,\u201d wroteRalston Reports. 35 \u201cThere is bad blood there, made worse by Clinton beating the Culinary in the caucus (but then losing the delegate fight).\u201d\n\nActually, it was worse than that. 22 In 2008, the Democratic Party created special caucus sites at major Las Vegas casinos so workers could break and participate. 49 The party was so pro-Clinton, however, that this reporter witnessedparty officials trying to block some casino workers from attending: they said the casino sites were reserved for people who were working that day, not for people who had taken the day off to caucus. 15 That was the most overt polling place voter suppression incident Alternet witnessed in 2008. 11 Advertisement:\n\nThe pro-Hillary chicanery didn\u2019t stop there. 33 When the party announced the results of the 2008 caucus, it declared Clinton the winner\u2014which the national media duly reported\u2014based on the number of people voting for her in caucus sessions. 19 But that was a ruse, because that\u2019s not how Nevada chooses its Democratic Convention delegates. 25 It awards more delegates to lower-population rural areas and fewer delegates to higher-population urban areas, a formula that Obama used to his advantage. 46 Ralston said \u201cthe union still has troops to make the difference down the road, and its leaders may think there is no upside in endorsing now.\u201d In fact, the statement issued by the union's leaders made essentially that same point. 24 \"UNITE HERE International Union takes very seriously our commitment to be active participants in the 2016 Presidential election,\" it said. 28 \"We will deliver our strongholds to a candidate who stands against hostile and divisive racist attacks and stands for economic, racial and social justice.\" 22 Advertisement:\n\nMeanwhile, Hillary Clinton\u2019s Nevada worries don\u2019t end with the big union\u2019s non-endorsement. 40 She may have been leading Sanders by more than 20 points in Christmas week polling, but the campaign said to be nervous about Nevada\u2019s same-day voter registration, which could let Sanders supporters swamp the caucuses. 21 On the other hand, the Sanders campaign will have to be watching how the pro-Clinton state party conducts itself. 44 No matter who gets the winning headline after Feb. 20's caucuses, the state\u2019s delegate allocation processmoves ahead to county-level meetings in April and a state convention in May where votes are taken before finally awarding its national convention delegates."} {"text": " 41 Marc Mayrand, Canada\u2019s chief electoral officer, is wrapping up his mandate by offering his thoughts on hot-button topics like electoral reform, referendums, and his post-election recommendations, which are currently being studied in committee. 14 His last day in the office will be Dec. 28 of this year. 56 He has submitted his final report to Parliament, and sat before both the House Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and the Special Committee on Electoral Reform to offer his insight into the many ongoing discussions about the state of Canada\u2019s electoral system. 22 Mr. Mayrand has had a long and exciting, if not controversial, tenure as Canada\u2019s chief electoral officer. 20 He was first appointed to the position at the beginning of 2007, under former prime minister Stephen Harper. 38 In 2014, roughly a year and a half before the election that would see Mr. Harper and his Conservatives undergo a tough defeat to the incoming majority Liberal government, the Fair Elections Act was introduced. 20 Mr. Mayrand was in good company in his outspoken opposition to the bill, which was officially deemed C-23. 24 However, he was one person who found himself subject to public and personal attacks from Mr. Harper\u2019s team of MPs. 49 Asked if that was one of the greater challenges of his mandate, Mr. Mayrand replied that it was \u201cone piece.\u201d\n\nElection days themselves were his focus, he said, which is perhaps why he appears so committed to improving the process bit-by-bit each round. 28 Mr. Mayrand sat down with The Hill Times last week to hash out some of the more pressing matters crossing his desk before he leaves his post. 27 On electoral reform:\n\nFirst and foremost, electoral reform is the phrase on everyone\u2019s lips when considering Canada\u2019s current electoral framework. 10 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) 20 made a point of promising that the last election would be the last one under the current first-past-the-post system. 15 Since then, he appears to have taken a step back from that promise. 31 He suggested in a French interview with Le Devoir that there seems to be less of an appetite for electoral reform amongst Canadians now that the Liberals are in power. 17 When asked if he thought government should update the current system, Mr. Mayrand remained objective. 12 \u201cIt certainly needs to be modernized,\u201d he said. 41 But, he stressed that his job as an officer of Parliament is to inform Parliamentarians, \u201cgive them the tools they need for their consideration.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo far, Elections Canada has not taken an active role. 46 We\u2019ll see with the report, and particularly with legislation, what exactly are the ramifications of proposed reform.\u201d\n\nHe said he himself did not prefer one system over another, saying they all had their advantages and disadvantages, first-past-the-post included. 48 On a referendum:\n\nThe head of Elections Canada was a little more open about discussing the challenges and potential flaws if a referendum were to be called on electoral reform, pointing out that the Referendum Act has not been updated since the early \u201990s. 23 \u201cThe rules that would govern the Referendum Act could come as somewhat of a shock to Canadians,\u201d he said. 22 For example, political financing rules are very different under the Referendum Act than they are under the Canada Elections Act. 36 The \u2018yay\u2019 and \u2018nay\u2019 camps of the referendum would have no limit to contributions, meaning corporations would be able to fund one side or another, depending on their interests. 27 If there were to be a referendum, Mr. Mayrand said his office would need at least six months\u2019 notice to set it all up. 24 He has also said the office would need a minimum of two years\u2019 notice of electoral reform to work out any kinks. 31 According to that timeline, the latest a referendum could be held, and have electoral reform still implemented in time for the next election, would be March 2017. 26 On the Fair Elections Act:\n\nMr. Mayrand spoke out about the potential consequences of the Conservatives\u2019 2014 Fair Elections Act at the time. 22 He was then harshly criticised by the Harper government, and accused by Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont. 26 ), then the minister of state for democratic reform, of only criticizing the bill because he wanted a bigger budget for his office. 42 Mr. Mayrand said he had never gone through anything like the controversy over Bill C-23 \u201cas publicly as I have in this context.\u201d\n\n\u201cI guess you have to learn to develop a thick skin,\u201d he said. 26 \u201cWe have a role to play, and we have a legislation to administer, that sets out our mandate, and our responsibility. 32 Our duty first, is to the rule of law.\u201d\n\nGenerally, he avoided getting into how it felt to be publicly bashed by Mr. Poilievre on a personal level. 63 He said he has always tried his \u201cbest to inform Parliamentarians of the consequences of some of the proposed legislation, leaving it up to them to decide what was the better course of action.\u201d\n\nBut at the end of the day, he said, shrugging his shoulders, \u201cit\u2019s for Parliament to determine the policy. 37 It\u2019s for Elections Canada to administer that policy as voted by Parliament.\u201d\n\nOn what he wants his successor to know:\n\n\u201cCanada is a large and diverse country,\u201d he said. 34 \u201cI think conceptually, it\u2019s nice to say that, but it hits home when you start trying to deliver a service in 20,000 points of service across the country. 8 It has a geography that is daunting. 20 Reaching out to each and every elector is a constant challenge, so don\u2019t underestimate that challenge. 29 Don\u2019t take it for granted.\u201d\n\nMr. Mayrand said at the end of the day, for him, not much else matters except election day. 18 He remembers all three that he oversaw \u201cvividly.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll elections have their background stories. 11 [The last election] was a very successful one. 13 It was a historical election, and the longest in modern history. 5 The highest spending cap. 18 Very significantly, it was the first time we had voting on a Sunday at advance polls. 40 Also, probably I believe, the most expensive election, but the most important thing at the end of the day was the turnout,\u201d he said, which increased seven per cent from the previous election. 31 On trends in the coming years:\n\nModernizing the electoral process, and bringing it into the 21st century is the next step for Elections Canada, says Mr. Mayrand. 14 \u201cWe need to be more attuned to the broader trends in society. 17 Canadians are technologically savvy, our electoral process is not, in their point of view. 37 Canadians are ever-more mobile, and again, we have a process that links individuals to particular geographic points, which is hard to reconcile with the busy life of many Canadians,\u201d he said. 12 Then, there is Canada\u2019s aging population to consider. 27 \u201cElection after election\u2026we have more seniors who are homebound, who have voted all their life, but [are] now facing some limitations. 36 We need to find ways to continue to service them.\u201d\n\nIf he could choose from the broad range of issues outlined in his recommendations, Mr. Mayrand said improving accessibility would top the list. 24 \u201cI see very little reason in this day and age why a blind person could not vote, independently, and secretly. 37 I think it is something that can be addressed, should be addressed, and hopefully Parliament will support.\u201d\n\nHis successor, whomever that may be, will have their work cut out for them. 80 Mr. Mayrand addressed those issues in his last report to Parliament, titled, An Electoral Framework for the 21st Century: Recommendations from the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada Following the 42nd General Election, and while he appeared before the PROC committee on several occasions to discuss his recommendations, he won\u2019t be in office to see the recommendations addressed in a report to Parliament from the committee, and then through legislation after that. 28 \u201cI\u2019m taking a long holiday,\u201d he said with a smile, when asked what his plans for the new year will be. 19 He wants to go south of the border, at least, and will likely be entering retirement. 14 (If he does anything, it won\u2019t be full time. 21 \u201cI\u2019m not planning another career, my wife would not allow it,\u201d he joked.) 21 That said, he\u2019ll always keep one eye turned towards the goings-on of Canada\u2019s electoral system. 21 \u201cYou can leave Elections Canada, I\u2019m not sure Elections Canada leaves you,\u201d he said. 25 Plus, he\u2019ll be able to participate in the electoral process by voting again, something the CEO is prevented from doing. 3 cnash@hilltimes.com"} {"text": " 15 Does Donald Trump\u2019s beautiful wife make you want to vote against him? 9 Would it help if she were completely naked? 29 This year\u2019s Republican primary contest has seen some pretty weird stuff, but the latest anti-Donald Trump ad campaign is in a league of its own. 7 And not in a good way. 34 The anti-Trump GOP super PAC Make America Awesome does some excellent work, generally affecting a \u201chappy warrior\u201d ethos of relishing the political fight without taking any of it too seriously. 15 But the group\u2019s latest ad campaign is a swing and a miss. 22 Make America Awesome produced a series of Facebook ads targeting Mormon voters ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Utah Republican presidential caucus. 10 (The state is about 60 percent Mormon.) 22 The ads assume Mormons will be repulsed by Trump\u2019s pro-choice record, his unelectability \u2014 and his naked wife. 16 Mrs. Trump is the lovely Melania, who has had a pretty decent modeling career. 11 In 2000, she posed nude for British GQ magazine. 22 The Make America Awesome ad reproduces the nude photo with the text \u201cMeet Melania Trump, your next first lady. 16 Or you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.\u201d\n\nWhat\u2019s wrong with this? 6 Let us count the ways. 22 A dirty move against a candidate\u2019s family member: Spouses are noncombatants unless they\u2019re wearing a uniform. 22 There are times when family members of candidates grab the mic and hit the campaign trail for their husbands or wives. 17 And, of course, there are occasions when a candidate\u2019s spouse talks policy. 19 But the idea that a 16-year-old nude photo of a leading candidate\u2019s wife is fair game? 4 Nonsense on stilts. 24 Rank hypocrisy: C\u2019mon \u2014 What\u2019s the most common complaint you hear about Trump, especially from the right? 3 His temperament. 25 That is, he\u2019s vulgar, he\u2019s uncouth, he isn\u2019t (despite his famous pronouncements) classy. 13 That he would downgrade the dignity of the office of the president. 11 You can\u2019t have it both ways, guys. 19 Either you think Trump contributes to the erosion of political discourse in America or you don\u2019t. 15 But don\u2019t criticize him for stooping low and then stoop lower yourself. 14 Make America Awesome isn\u2019t the first to fall into this trap. 31 When the GOP\u2019s initial anti-Trump strategy of hoping and praying he fades failed, the next idea was to hit Trump hard \u2014 go right at his core. 25 Marco Rubio, easily the most uplifting, made-for-TV (as opposed to made-for-reality-TV) candidate in the race, stepped into the ring. 10 Some of Rubio\u2019s attacks were direct hits. 17 \u201cHe is a con artist,\u201d Rubio said at a February rally in Dallas. 48 \u201cHe runs on this idea he is fighting for the little guy, but he has spent his entire career sticking it to the little guy.\u201d\n\nBut others were cringeworthy \u2014 if not in the heat of the moment, then at least in retrospect. 25 He suggested Trump wet his pants at one debate, made fun of his looks, needled him about the size of his hands. 22 (Trump was far from innocent here, repeatedly calling Rubio \u201clittle Marco\u201d and claiming Rubio was sweaty.) 9 Rubio, to his great credit, understood. 27 \u201cMy kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn\u2019t,\u201d he told MSNBC. 9 There\u2019s another element to the hypocrisy. 12 The GOP is supposed to be the party of family values. 12 Of treating marriage as an institution worthy of honor and discretion. 19 However much you may think Trump violates this precept, two wrongs don\u2019t make a right. 26 The low regard the ad shows for religious voters: I grew up in Lakewood, NJ, home of a yuuuge ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. 21 Though I wasn\u2019t Haredi myself, I had (and have) friends and family in that community. 26 And I can\u2019t imagine the strictly religious Jews believing that sending them pictures of naked women is an appeal to their better angels. 10 In fact, I\u2019d think the opposite. 5 Maybe Mormons are different. 4 I hope not. 12 We\u2019re told the ads were targeted to Mormon women. 19 As if that excuses the insult to the voter that\u2019s at the core of this message. 16 Anyway, this is the Internet, where naked images of famous women go viral. 20 Plus, the ad was basically a rip-off of a notorious CNN news segment from a few weeks ago. 15 People keep saying this election is a battle for the survival of the GOP. 2 Maybe. 23 But if this is how the party of faith and family values fights for its life, it\u2019s dead already."} {"text": " 6 When is scholarship not scholarship? 22 When it's not carefully reviewed for every aspect, including the integrity of the underlying data used to draw conclusions. 33 For several years now, we've been hearing conservatives around the world insist austerity is the road back to prosperity -- because the smart guys in the think tanks say so. 15 Now it turns out those smart guys aren't as smart as they thought. 28 Republicans based their austerity claims on a study known as Reinhart-Rogoff, which drew the conclusion that debt exceeding 90 percent of GDP leads to economic slowdowns. 21 Other researchers sought to challenge the conclusions and were given access to Reinhart-Rogoff's raw data, contained in spreadsheets. 18 Their conclusions:\n\nIn a new paper, \"Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? 29 A Critique of Reinhart and Rogoff,\" Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Pollin of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst successfully replicate the results. 27 After trying to replicate the Reinhart-Rogoff results and failing, they reached out to Reinhart and Rogoff and they were willing to share their data spreadhseet. 6 This allowed Herndon et al. 12 to see how how Reinhart and Rogoff's data was constructed. 9 They find that three main issues stand out. 15 First, Reinhart and Rogoff selectively exclude years of high debt and average growth. 12 Second, they use a debatable method to weight the countries. 17 Third, there also appears to be a coding error that excludes high-debt and average-growth countries. 20 All three bias in favor of their result, and without them you don't get their controversial result. 31 The coding error might be forgivable, but not when combined with the other two factors, and especially not when the combination of the three yields a false result. 26 Imagine a polling company excluding entire swaths of the population in order to deliver favorable polling results to the candidate paying them for the poll. 4 Oh, wait. 28 The excluded data is critical:\n\nHerndon-Ash-Pollin find that they exclude Australia (1946-1950), New Zealand (1946-1949), and Canada (1946-1950). 13 This has consequences, as these countries have high-debt and solid growth. 14 Canada had debt-to-GDP over 90 percent during this period and 3 percent growth. 11 New Zealand had a debt/GDP over 90 percent from 1946-1951. 16 If you use the average growth rate across all those years it is 2.58 percent. 21 If you only use the last year, as Reinhart-Rogoff does, it has a growth rate of -7.6 percent. 14 That's a big difference, especially considering how they weigh the countries. 29 Basically they left out the countries that would actually give a true result and destroy forever the claim that growth slows when debt exceeds 90 percent of GDP. 3 How Republican. 5 Let the pileon begin! 40 Jared Bernstein:\n\nAs I\u2019ve written many times, riffing off of Bivens and Irons for one, if you mush everything together they way they do, you\u2019re likely to get the causality backwards. 21 You\u2019ll convince yourself that higher debt leads to slower growth when it\u2019s more often the opposite. 43 Certainly in the US case, the most progress we\u2019ve made against our debt ratios have been in periods of fast growth (and the biggest increases have been in periods of recession, slow growth, or war). 48 ThinkProgress:\n\nIn short, the central argument in support of austerity \u2014 cited by MSNBC\u2019s Joe Scarborough, the New York Times\u2019 David Brooks, and multiple times by House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) \u2014 is now defunct. 14 Paul Krugman:\n\nIf true, this is embarrassing and worse for R-R. 33 But the really guilty parties here are all the people who seized on a disputed research result, knowing nothing about the research, because it said what they wanted to hear. 56 And more Krugman on Tuesday, where he questions motives:\n\nI was going to post something sort of kind of defending Reinhart-Rogoff in the wake of the new revelations \u2014 not their results, which I never believed, nor their failure to carefully test their results for robustness, but rather their motives. 13 But their response to the new critique is really, really bad. 34 Dean Baker:\n\nIf facts mattered in economic policy debates, this should be the cause for a major reassessment of the deficit reduction policies being pursued in the United States and elsewhere. 19 It should also cause reporters to be a bit slower to accept such sweeping claims at face value. 12 Rogoff and Reinhart insist these errors don't change the conclusion. 27 Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times:\n\nIn their response, R & R don't directly address the UMass critique that their math was erroneous. 25 Instead, they argue that since the critique also finds lower economic growth in high-debt situations, the new findings are no big deal. 33 The point, however, is that the corrected figures don't show anything like a break point in economic growth at the 90% ratio, which Rogoff and Reinhart cited. 18 R & R also point readers to a 2012 paper that they say validated their original findings. 12 That paper, however, is more nebulous than they suggest. 33 In it they found lower growth in high-debt-ratio conditions, but it also acknowledged that the high debt was associated with other growth-reducing conditions, including wars, banking crises and depressions. 13 If that sounds like the developed world in 2008-2013, no kidding. 38 That underscores what has been one of the most frequent critiques of the original paper: Even if high debt/GDP ratios are associated with low growth, what's the evidence that the former causes the latter? 32 It's been widely pointed out that it's just as likely, even more likely, that low growth drives higher government debt, rather than the other way around. 3 Facts matter? 12 See, that's why the journalists accept these sweeping claims. 33 Thanks to Fox News and the unending grind of propaganda spinners, facts matter less than perception, which is why I'm not optimistic the debate will change any time soon."} {"text": " 50 Notice:\n\nThis version introduces API changes which require API users to make modifications to their code, as detailed here:If you are using the Nxt API, do NOT upgrade to the 1.6 branch without reviewing and if necessary modifying your calls to the affected APIs. 77 However, keep in mind that while upgrade to 1.6 is optional, upgrade to 1.7 (which is expected very soon) will be mandatory, and you can prepare for that by starting the migration to 1.6 without delay now.If you are a new user of Nxt, or existing user only running Nxt on your desktop, and have no idea what API is, ignore the above notice and proceed installing 1.6.2. 55 It is currently our latest stable release, and is recommended for all new users.-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----Hash: SHA512Release 1.6.2sha256:954125b60578120dc32fac774eb923efe65ff046f31b1c8f29eab94349850ee3 nxt-client-1.6.2.zipsha256:6e7c77bd601783779aef72cd42ea04086698e7e921abf49aedb4ab9dab513427 nxt-client-1.6.2.jarThe exe and jar packages must have a digital signature by \"Stichting NXT\".Change log:The 1.6 series is no longer considered experimental. 32 If upgrading from 1.5.15or earlier, see the 1.6.0e and 1.6.1e changelogs for other important changesin 1.6.The account ledger now uses transaction id as event id for all events exceptblock generation. 18 To apply this change, the account ledger table will beautomatically truncated on upgrade to this release. 20 Users who desire torestore the deleted past account ledger entries should run a full rescan fromthe API test page. 30 Note that account ledger records are only kept for 30000blocks by default.Added currency transfers history page to the Monetary System UI.Added generate hallmark dialog to facilitate hallmarking your node. 37 The hostfield is pre-populated with the external node address as detected by UPnP.Note that when using dynamic IP address you should set up and use a dynamicDNS hostname instead of the numeric IP for the hallmark. 34 And when using anon-default port, the host field should be filled as host:port.Added \"clear results\" link in the ShapeShift My Exchanges section, to allowclearing past transaction history. 59 As this history data is being retrievedfrom the ShapeShift servers, it allows correlating Nxt accounts previouslyused for exchange transactions with the current user IP address and with eachother, thus clearing history after no longer needed is important for the userprivacy.Funding a new account using ShapeShift now relies on the ShapeShift sendamountAPI which provides better conversion rate. 95 The user first specifies theamount of NXT to receive, the dialog then presents a deposit address for thesource currency which the user needs to fund with the exact amount within 10minutes.Added ledger tab to the account info dialog.Added includeAssetInfo or includeCurrencyInfo parameters, default false, tothe getAccountAssets, getAccountCurrencies, getAccountExchangeRequests,getExpectedAssetTransfers, and getExpectedCurrencyTransfers APIs.Tabs are now sorted mostly alphabetically on the API test page.Added nxt.hideErrorDetails property, default false, to allow suppressing nodespecific configuration details in error messages returned to peers.Increased default prunable lifetime setting to 90 days. 35 Minimum enforced isstill 2 weeks.The UPnP connection timeouts are now also configurable in nxt.properties.Updated Bouncy Castle library to version 1.53, Jetty to version 9.3.5, IzPackinstaller to 5.0.5, and weupnp to 0.1.4. 29 Make sure to delete the old libfolder if unpacking over a previous installation.-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----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6NJp-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----"} {"text": " 15 Gage Skidmore\n\nTed Cruz ran as the candidate of social conservatism and he lost. 11 Like Mike Huckabee in 2008 and Rick Santorum in 2012. 6 So what else is new? 19 What else is new is that Huckabee and Santorum lost to the anointed candidate of the Republican establishment. 27 Sure they won the Iowa caucuses and hunks of the South, but by springtime the rest of GOP Nation had pretty much fallen into line. 18 Cruz couldn\u2019t even make his social conservative candidacy work the year the establishment fell apart. 29 Except for his home state of Texas, he was shut out of the old Confederacy by a New Yorker who barely mentioned the social issues or religion. 35 In most of the primaries and caucuses Cruz won, it was because he was the most right-wing, not because he was the paladin of anti-abortionism, traditional marriage, and religious liberty. 24 Inside the big tent of Southern evangelicalism, what the altar call of nativist nationalism that got them to hit the sawdust trail. 29 Iowa and Kansas \u2014 which went for Cruz as they had for Huckabee and Santorum \u2014 are the last bastions of what passes for the religious right today. 7 Elsewhere, Republicans are moving on. 25 When your best shot at a social wedge issue is transgender restrooms, you should realize it\u2019s time to move on too. 14 Ted Cruz, caught in a Beltway time warp, didn\u2019t."} {"text": " 12 By David Brin\n\nEven conservatives now admit that conservatism has changed. 49 Take the Ronald Reagan who Republican activists idolize in abstract; in real life he raised taxes, increased regulations, signed environmental laws, and (worst of all) negotiated countless compromise give-and-take, pragmatic measures in tandem with a Congress run by the other party. 26 As did Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley, giants who argued with genteel courtesy and who revered both knowledge and intellect, especially science. 34 Even the most fervid Tea Party aficionado would avow that today\u2019s GOP has little room for such things\u2014as Goldwater and Buckley themselves proclaimed, to their dismay, before they died. 21 In this analysis, I\u2019d like to focus on one of the directions that conservatism has gone a-wandering. 31 But note first: I\u2019ll try to do this without taking a single position that could fairly be called even slightly left-of center\u2014by the old standards at least. 15 My entire critique will be from what used to be a completely conservative perspective. 16 You\u2019ll know this by the historical figure whom I cite above all others. 44 It begins provocatively, with prominent online commentator John Robb, who offers a simple and clearly-correct explanation for the gross mismanagement of the U.S. economy in the first decade of the 21st Century\u2014an appraisal that seems both tragically on-target and stunningly ironic. 30 Ironic in ways I plan to elaborate\u2014and I expect you\u2019ll not look at the hoary old \u201cleft-vs-right\u201d axis in the same way, ever again. 42 For starters, Robb shows that the patron saints of modern libertarianism and conservatism\u2014 including Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek \u2014were right in their core message, proving that today\u2019s peculiarly myopic libertarians and conservatives are wrong in theirs. 25 The Smithian Fundamental\n\nIn order to grasp that apparent contradiction, let\u2019s start by asking: what did Smith and Hayek say? 19 No, it wasn\u2019t \u201claissez-faire\u201d or social darwinism or extolling the virtues of greed. 30 Though both men praised private enterprise and market initiative, they did not share today\u2019s idolatry of personal and family wealth as the fundamental sacrament of economics. 66 Those who most-frequently bandy Smith\u2019s name appear never to have cracked open a page of \u201cThe Wealth of Nations\u201d or \u2018The Theory of Moral Sentiments.\u201d\n\nRather, Adam Smith essentially founded our modern phase of the Western Enlightenment by anchoring a central postulate\u2014one that Pericles and Locke discussed earlier, and that others, like Hayek, later embellished. 11 The postulate that human beings are supreme rationalizers and self-deceivers. 44 Moreover, across 4,000 years we\u2019ve seen that whenever a small group of men become powerful enough to control an economy and command-allocate its resources, they will do so according to biased perceptions, in-group delusions and fatally limited knowledge. 29 Whether they do the normal oligarchic thing\u2014cheating for self-interest\u2014or else sincerely try to \u201callocate for the good of all,\u201d they will generally do it badly. 29 As a blatant recent example, Robb cites the collapse of the Soviet Union:\n\nThe reason for this failure was that the Soviets relied on central planning. 25 A system of economic governance where small group of people \u2014 in the Soviet Unions case bureaucrats \u2014 had all the decision making power. 8 They decided what was spent and where. 11 Even with copious amount of information, they decided badly. 6 Why did they decide badly? 19 The massive economy of a modern superstate is too complex for a small group of people to manage. 4 Too much data. 4 Too many uncertainties. 5 Too many moving parts. 30 Indeed, the transformation of modern China from a Maoist calamity to a mercantilist success story began with their abandonment of nit-picking central planning in favor of capitalist-style enterprise. 47 Of course, the Chinese ruling caste retained overall control, \u201cguiding\u201d categories of credit and investment while executing a grand mercantilist strategy, the same process that Japan accomplished masterfully, during its own rapid primary and secondary phases of export-driven economic development. 33 Alas, for Japan, (but as a few of us forecast in the 1980s), national development eventually hits a tertiary phase when simple-minded, predatory mercantilism breaks down. 32 If history and human nature are any guide, the Chinese will hit the same \u201cwall\u201d when economic complexity surpasses the ability of any planner-elite to comprehend or manage. 16 For all his faults\u2014and the many ways he\u2019s misinterpreted\u2014Friedrich Hayek understood this well. 21 He showed how an obsession with Guided Allocation of Resources (GAR) eventually turns skilled planners into smug blunderers. 22 Now this barrier can shift, as computers and sophisticated models let rulers extend their period of competence a bit longer. 81 (It helps, apparently, that nearly all of the top Chinese leaders began their careers as engineers, responsible for actual goods, infrastructure or services, not as lawyers, politicians or \u201cbusiness majors.\u201d) Still, however you look at it, there is no way that the old ruling principle of GAR that held in 99% of human societies could possibly work in a tertiary economy as intricate as the United States. 23 As Robb continues:\n\nThe only way to manage an economy as complex as this is to allow massively parallel decision making. 48 A huge number of economically empowered people making small decisions, that in aggregate, are able to process more data, get better data (by being closer to the problem), and apply more brainpower to weighing alternatives than any centralized decision making group. 27 Now all of this may sound surprisingly well\u2026 \u201clibertarian\u201d\u2026 given that both Robb and I are highly critical of today\u2019s right! 33 But bear with us, because what\u2019s at issue is a fundamental conflation and betrayal of the very essence of libertarian and conservative fundamentals \u2026 The ultimate irony and hypocrisy. 35 What Robb describes here is the central discovery, not only of Smith and Locke, but of Benjamin Franklin and the American framers\u2026 as well as Galileo and the founders of modern science. 36 Ever since civilization began, nearly all societies were dominated by centralized oligarchies, priesthoods or hierarchies who ruled on policy, resource-allocation and Truth for 4,000 years of general incompetence mixed with brutal oppression. 33 Today, by sharp contrast, all three of the Enlightenment\u2019s great arenas \u2014 democracy, markets and science \u2014 feature a revolutionary structure that broke with the oligarchic past. 13 The old, arrogant, top-down approach was replaced with something else. 15 Something that great Pericles described 2,000 years earlier, during the brief Athenian Renaissance. 11 That something is the most creative force in the universe. 16 The principle that propels evolution, in nature, and that brought humanity into existence. 3 It is\u2014Competition. 17 Elsewhere I\u2019ve called the Enlightenment\u2019s principal tool Reciprocal Accountability (RA). 47 But it really is just another way to say \u201cget everybody competing.\u201d By dividing and separating power and\u2014more importantly\u2014empowering the majority with education, health, rights and knowledge, we enabled vast numbers of people to participate in markets, democracy and science. 12 This has had twin effects, never seen in earlier cultures. 28 It means everybody can find out when a person stumbles onto something cool, better or right, even if that person came from a poor background. 30 It allows us to hold each other accountable for things that are wrong, worse or uncool, even when the bad idea comes at us from someone mighty. 22 Never perfectly implemented, this reciprocally competitive system nevertheless dealt far better than any predecessor with that problem of human delusion. 18 None of us can see and correct all our own errors, past a cloud of rationalizations. 10 But when RA is healthy, then criticism flows. 16 And others (your opponents) will happily point out your errors, for you. 4 What a deal! 14 And I\u2019m sure you\u2019re happy to return the favor. 3 The result? 22 An Enlightenment Civilization fostered by Smith, Locke, Franklin etc., but propelled by tens of millions of eager participants. 51 Inarguably the most successful of all time, cutting through countless foolish notions that held sway for millennia\u2014like the assumption that your potential is predetermined by who your father was\u2014while unleashing creativity, knowledge, freedom, and positive-sum wealth to a degree that surpassed all other societies, combined. 44 Even the most worrisome outcomes of success, like overpopulation, wealth stratification and environmental degradation, come accompanied by good news\u2014 the fact that so many of us are aware, involved, reciprocally critical, and eager to innovate better ways. 17 Lip Service to Wisdom\n\nSo, what\u2019s that irony I spoke of, earlier? 22 How does this central principle turn around and bite today\u2019s libertarians and conservatives, proving many of them fools? 20 Clearly, everything I\u2019ve said, so far, ought to make a libertarian or conservative happy! 45 Indeed, my nonfiction book The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom, is all about how open information flows can empower reciprocal accountability and competition, the things that make democracy and markets and science great. 21 (There have never been humans more inherently competitive than scientists; try talking to one, some time.) 7 So where\u2019s the problem? 14 The problem is that it\u2019s all lip service on the right! 43 Those who most-loudly proclaim Faith In Blind Markets (FIBM) are generally also those proclaiming idolatry of private property as a pure, platonic essence, a tenet to be clutched with religious tenacity, as it was in feudal societies. 15 Obdurate, they refuse to see that they are conflating two very different things. 26 Get Evonomics in your inbox\n\nPrivate property\u2014as Adam Smith made clear\u2014is a means for encouraging the thing he really wanted: fair and open competition. 38 Indeed, the propertarian reforms that Peru instituted under the guidance of Hernando de Soto, vesting the poor in the land they had always farmed, resulted in a boom that delighted both libertarians and socialists. 13 Safe and secure property rights are a boon\u2026 up to a point. 24 But anyone who actually reads Adam Smith also knows that he went on and on about that \u201cfair and open\u201d part! 11 Especially how excessive disparities of wealth and income destroy competition. 44 Unlike today\u2019s conservatives, who grew up in a post-WWII flattened social order without major wealth-castes, Smith lived immersed in class-rooted oligarchy, of the kind that ruined markets, freedom and science across nearly 99% of human history. 21 He knew the real enemy, first hand and denounced it in terms that he never used for mere bureaucrats. 37 When today\u2019s libertarians praise the creative power of competition, then ignore the unlimited propertarianism that poisoned it across the ages, we are witnessing historical myopia and dogmatic illogic, of staggering magnitude. 59 The Irony of Faith in Blind Markets\n\nWhen Adam Smith gets over-simplified into a religious caricature, what you get is \u201cfaith in blind markets\u201d\u2014or FIBM\u2014a dogma that proclaims the state should have no role in guiding economic affairs, in picking winners of losers, or interfering in the maneuvers or behavior of capitalists. 12 Like many caricatures, it is based on some core wisdom. 23 As Robb points out, the failure of Leninism shows how state meddling can become addictive, excessive, meddlesome and unwise. 44 There is no way that 100,000 civil servants, no matter how well-educated, trained, experienced, honest and well-intentioned, can have enough information, insight or modeling clarity to replace the market\u2019s hundreds of millions of knowing players. 18 Guided Allocation of Resources (GAR) has at least four millennia of failures to answer for. 55 But in rejecting one set of knowledge-limited meddlers\u2014100,000 civil servants\u2014libertarians and conservatives seem bent on ignoring market manipulation by 5,000 or so aristocratic golf buddies, who appoint each other to company boards in order to vote each other titanic \u201ccompensation packages\u201d while trading insider information and conspiring together to eliminate competition. 22 Lords who are not subject to inherent limits, like each bureaucrat must face, or rules of disclosure or accountability. 17 Lords who (whether it is legal or not) collude and share the same delusions. 13 Um\u2026 in what way is this kind of market \u201cblind\u201d? 18 True, you have gelded the civil servants who Smith praised as a counter-balancing force against oligarchy. 16 But the 5,000 golf buddies\u2014despite their free market rhetoric\u2014aren\u2019t doing FIBM at all! 5 They reverting to GAR. 26 To guided allocation, only in much smaller numbers, operating according to oligarchic principles of ferocious self-interest that go back at least to Nineveh. 56 If you want to explore this further, including how the notions of \u201callocation\u201d and \u201cfaith in blind markets\u201d get weirdly reversed, and how Smith and Hayek are betrayed by the people who tout them the most, see my article: Guided Allocation vs. Markets: An Ancient Struggle. 9 Hence, at last, the supreme irony. 37 Those who claim most-fervent dedication to the guiding principle of our Enlightenment: competition, reciprocal accountability and enterprise\u2014our neighbors who call themselves conservative or libertarian\u2014have been talked into conflating that principle with something entirely different. 9 Idolatry of private wealth, sacred and limitless. 15 A dogmatic-religious devotion that reaches its culmination in the hypnotic cantos of Ayn Rand. 41 Or in the Norquist pledge to cut taxes on the rich under all circumstances\u2014during war or peace, in fat years or lean\u2014without limit and despite the failure of any Supply Side predictions ever, ever, ever coming true. 32 An idolatry that leads, inevitably to the ruination of all competition and restoration of the traditional human social order that ruled our ancestors going back to cuneiform tablets \u2014 Feudalism. 13 Growing past the \u201cleft-right axis\u201d\n\nLet\u2019s be clear. 27 Every aspect of my argument, today, was from the perspective of an admirer of Adam Smith, of market enterprise, science and freedom. 8 It has been a paean to competition. 15 Not a single argument even referred to socialist or left-wing parts of the spectrum. 9 Sure, I hinted that some liberal endeavors\u2014e.g. 28 mass education, civil rights, child nutrition and national infrastructure etc.\u2014 empowered greater numbers of citizens to join the fair and open process of Smithian competition. 11 It\u2019s a truth we can discuss another time. 22 But then, Adam Smith was called \u201cthe first liberal\u201d and liberalism isn\u2019t \u201clefty\u201d anyway. 2 No. 19 This indictment of today\u2019s right was made entirely from the core postulates of the libertarian right. 32 Indeed, what Robb points out\u2014and that I elaborated here\u2014is a reason for sincere libertarians and conservatives to awaken and rebel against the hijacking of their movements by an old enemy. 13 This is an internal matter, a cancer within libertarianism and conservatism. 26 If there are still honest-smart men and women within those old and noble traditions, they should think carefully, observe and diagnose the illness. 6 They should face the contradiction. 4 Discuss the conflation. 15 And then do as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and many others have done\u2026. 12 Choose the miracle of creative competition over an idolatry of cash. 5 They should stand up. 3 11 December 2015"} {"text": " 25 Image zoom Jordan Strauss/Invision for Walgreens/AP\n\nLamar Odom has checked himself into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, two sources confirm to PEOPLE. 25 \u201cHe realized he needs help,\u201d a source says of the NBA free agent and husband of reality star Khlo\u00e9 Kardashian Odom. 27 Odom\u2019s drug use had been causing trouble in the couple\u2019s marriage, though Kardashian has been focused on getting her husband help. 10 Late last week, Odom was arrested for DUI. 28 PHOTOS: Khlo\u00e9 Kardashian & Lamar Odom: Their Marriage Ups and Downs\n\nThe basketball player, 32, has admitted to drug use in the past. 22 He violated NBA drug policies twice in eight months back in 2001, and spoke in 2003 of his marijuana use. 29 \u201cI just couldn\u2019t control myself in L.A. \u2026 the lifestyle that I was living and the things I had access to,\u201d he said. 25 Odom\u2019s father struggled with heroin addiction, and Odom once wondered if he was \u201cfighting my father\u2019s demons.\u201d"} {"text": " 36 2012 was a year filled with sequels a reboots, but even from this sea of numbered titles there emerged a series of well-realized and compelling characters, many of whom ended up as villains. 14 These were the characters that stood out to us most over the year. 11 Far Cry 3: Vaas\n\nJust look at those eyes. 36 Michael Mando's performance as Vaas was one that reminded us of Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning Joker in the best of ways, but which dripped with a unique, island-flavored menace all its own. 21 It was this character's savage unpredictability which made him threatening, and that made him all the more memorable. 30 Assassin's Creed 3: Haytham\n\nWhat can we say about Haytham without ruining the experience of playing through Assassin's Creed 3's story for the first time? 5 Almost nothing, really. 37 Ubisoft did a great job of hiding the character from the world outside of their own development teams, and the resulting twists and turns concerning him are made all the more satisfying for that fact. 33 Just know that it was Haytham's cadence, his sharp wit and well-toned disregard for all human life which didn't serve him, that made him such a memorable character. 19 And if you haven't played through to the conlucison of the game yet, do so now. 16 Haytham's arc with Connor is one of the more satisfying stories in video games. 21 Note: Since Ubisoft really couldn't acknowledge Haytham's existence in media, we have no screenshots of him. 13 Have a picture of Connor stalking around with a giant club instead. 16 Borderlands 2: Handsome Jack\n\nNow here's a guy we just loved to hate. 28 The smarmy, annoying, self-absorbed and ultimately psychotic Handsome Jack was by the end of Borderlands 2 someone who players really just wanted to see dead. 17 And that hatred made the conclusion of the game all the more satisfying to play out. 11 And the winner is...\n\nFar Cry 3: Vaas! 28 Vaas was nothing short of a spectacular character, and it was his presence which cemented Far Cry 3 as one of the best shooters in years. 43 Mando's performance has been so acclaimed that the actor has even taking to acting the part on his YouTube channel, and for good reason; games could learn a lot from the way that this menace was written and acted."} {"text": " 22 It is with great pleasure that we want to announce the new name for what was briefly known as QGIS mobile. 6 Please welcome QField for QGIS\u2122! 36 After long thinking about various names and variants including QGIS mobile, QTouch, OPENGIS.ch QGIS mobile, QWork, and many more, we felt that QField represents best what we want to archive. 12 A field data capture and management app fully compatible with QGIS\u2122. 17 QField allows you to take your QGIS projects out of the office for effective field work. 14 By maintaining QGIS\u2019 styling and edit widgets QField greatly reduces preparation time. 18 QField is an Open Source project led by OPENGIS.ch LLC with the whole development happening on Github. 28 Currently we are running an invite-only alpha testing but as soon as the app will have a bit more functionality we will widen up the testers group. 33 QField will be released for free on the Playstore with the possibility of donating to the project via paypal (preferred) or by buying the QField for QGIS Karma edition app. 23 Another way to greatly help the project is, if you need a specific feature, contact us to sponsor its development. 92 QField is built from ground up to be touch oriented and easy to use outside and follows the following paradigm:\n\n\u25cf GPS centric\n\n\u25cf QGIS desktop compatible\n\n\u25cf Fully working when offline\n\n\u25cf Synchronization capabilities\n\n\u25cf Project preparation on desktop\n\n\u25cf Few and large buttons\n\n\u25cf Switchable use paradigm (Display, Digitizing, Measuring, Inspection,\u2026)\n\nQField is built using Qt5, QtQuick 2 (both are supported and suggested by Qt) and OpenGL so it is future proof and it spearheads QGIS towards Qt5. 19 For feature requests, please contact us\n\nFor bug reports contact us or better file an issue on Github"} {"text": " 44 Troubling allegations of hazing and even racist abuse at the San Francisco Fire Academy have emerged as the city is shelling out a $100,000 a day in overtime to account for a significant shortage of firefighters, NBC Bay Area has learned. 5 Jaxon Van Derbeken investigates. 52 (Published Friday, July 15, 2016)\n\nTroubling allegations of hazing and even racist abuse at the San Francisco Fire Academy have emerged as the city is shelling out $100,000 a day in overtime to account for a significant shortage of firefighters, NBC Bay Area has learned. 36 Currently, some 54 firefighter recruits are undergoing training at the Division of Training to join the ranks of 1,500 firefighters in the city \u2013 250 firefighters short of the department\u2019s authorized strength. 47 The city is paying $100,000 a day \u2013 accounting for $25,000 per firefighter per year \u2013 to meet voter approved staffing levels at the city\u2019s firehouses, based on the latest available data from the San Francisco city Controller\u2019s Office. 40 The dropout rate of the academy, meanwhile, has been running about 10 percent to 20 percent per class since 2010, according to figures provided by the department and taken from the Fire Commission\u2019s website. 14 That rate translates into fewer firefighters to fill the widening gap in staffing. 23 So far this year, more firefighters have been ordered to work overtime than all of 2014, fire department statistics show. 17 As of June, the department ordered 1,447 overtime shifts as compared to 1,313 last year. 25 If the current trend is reflected for the entire year, the city would have ordered nearly 3,000 overtime shifts \u2013 the most ever. 27 The current head of training, Jeff Columbini, says the academy is a rigorous proving ground for those who want to come to the rescue. 54 While he said he could not respond to allegations of misconduct dating to before he arrived earlier this year, he says there are new ethical standards in place since he took command that will assure that the most capable recruits make it through a training process that is both fair and humane. 8 \u201cDo we run a rigorous academy? 6 Absolutely,\u201d he says. 53 \u201cI think the city and county and the people who live in this city and county put it on my shoulders to make sure that happens.\u201d\n\nOne thing for sure, there is no shortage of prospects, with a waiting list of some 4,000 people who want the job. 43 Still, some ex-recruits who were at the top of the list of prospects say that once they made it in, the apparent goal of some instructors at the academy is not to train them, but get them to flunk. 31 \u201cI thought I was targeted,\u201d said Brian Sullivan, who said he was forced to drop out of the academy last year amid a torrent of abuse. 9 \u201cI thought I was public enemy no. 20 1\u201d\n\nSullivan claims that he was singled out for abuse because his father had served on the department. 27 He is not the only ex recruit to make that accusation \u2013 other former recruits say they trainers are particularly hard on \u201clegacy\u201d candidates. 49 One of those legacy recruits, Aziz Aineb, tells NBC Bay Area that he believes he was targeted because his brother \u2013 already on the department \u2013 helped a fellow firefighter who won a $175,000 settlement in 2014 against the city for abuse at the academy. 15 Aineb himself is now suing the department after he failed the academy in 2014. 21 He alleges that his instructors subjected him to racist taunts and abuse in retaliation for his brother\u2019s testimony. 11 But still other recruits recall seemingly bizarre tales of abuse. 25 One alleged this year that he was forced to eat an ice cream treat even after telling the instructor that he was lactose intolerant. 9 The department says it is reviewing the matter. 28 Another alleged that in 2014, he was forced to go into a \u201cwet room\u201d where he was blasted with water from a circulating nozzle. 23 An internal probe obtained by NBC Bay Area found insufficient evidence to support the allegation that anyone was ordered into the room. 16 That same report concluded that going into the room was not sanctioned under department policy. 22 It labeled anyone who did actually venture into the room as a \u201ccuriosity seeker\u201d who volunteered to be doused. 25 The persistent abuse allegations \u2013 three dozen over the last decade \u2013 are unacceptable to the head of the San Francisco Black Firefighters Association. 26 \u201cThat\u2019s not the fire department I joined,\u201d the union\u2019s president, Kevin Smith, told NBC Bay Area. 34 \u201cWe just can\u2019t sit by as these kids keep getting dismissed over and over.\u201d\n\nSome of the methods used at the academy, Smith says, are not justifiable. 25 He cited the so-called Amazing Race, where teams of four compete to fulfill tasks in \u201cturnouts\u201d\u2014heavy canvas coats and pants. 55 The current head of training for the department, Columbini, defends the race as a \u201cpart of our physical training\u2019\u2019 that measures \u201cphysical parts of the job.\u201d\n\nBut former recruit Sullivan said working out in heavy canvas turnouts in the hot sun for hours left him with scars. 28 He said he was shocked one day when he took off the turnouts to find burn marks on his legs and body and an apparently infected abscess. 17 In the end, he said, he left the academy rather than endure the abuse. 26 Smith, who has fielded several complaints about the Amazing Race since it started about three years ago, says the whole ordeal is pointless. 75 \u201cAll this running and stuff -- we just don\u2019t do that in turnouts -- I don\u2019t see how it relates to the job.\u201d\n\nIn fact, a 2014 internal fire department review obtained by NBC Bay Area concluded that the Amazing Race concept had not been developed with any input from fitness or training experts and had not been sanctioned by authorities with the National Fire Protection Association. 15 Smith says he has seen findings from one training expert who criticized the race. 11 Columbini said he was not aware of such a report. 19 At least with the race, some former recruits say, they know there can be clear results. 27 That\u2019s not true, they say, for how the department judges key tests, including how they handle heavy ladders and tie knots. 33 Smith said he pushed and go the fire department to videotape key tests, but is frustrated that recruits are barred from reviewing the very tapes that were supposed to assure fairness. 13 The head of training believes just taping the tests amounts to transparency. 20 \u201cAt this time the department is not showing those tapes,\u201d Columbini said in a recent interview. 43 \u201cBut I think we are being transparent in that we are now documenting by film, the tests.\u201d\n\nMeanwhile, sources say that state fire training authorities recently told San Francisco officials that such reviews are standard to assure fairness. 22 The department might allow recruits to see the tapes, Columbini says, if there is a consensus on the value. 30 \u201cIt\u2019s a thing we could talk about \u2013 if command staff felt in favor of that, you know, we can talk about it.\u201d"} {"text": " 54 As forecasted by Forrester, the total sales of B2B E-Commerce will exceed $1 trillion and account for 12% of all B2B sales in the US by 2020.Recent years, more manufacturers and wholesalers are looking for the right B2B E-Commerce platform that will provide them with the best shopping experience. 42 Actually, B2B customers expect the same intuitive shopping experience they obtained from B2C shopping and it would be much more important to them since they are placing large quantities of goods, high value orders with a much higher risk. 27 The first step is finding the B2B e-commerce platform that best fits your industry, whether you\u2019re in fashion, food and commodity industry. 23 For example: if you are selling industrial products on Amazon, it will be odd if your product click is high. 27 Go to JumoreGlobal.com, it\u2019s the wise choice if you are in industrial products, machinery, chemical, coal\u2026 and other commodities industries. 29 Once you\u2019ve found the platform that\u2019s right for you, you could start to create a personal shopping experience for each customer and visitor. 36 Here are some tips to make sure the experience you create for customers is tailored to their specific needs:\n\n1.Order History\n\nBuyers are used to place order on the items list their order history. 22 Your B2B storefront should offer customers the ability to edit their orders \u2013 update quantities, change shipping addresses and more. 13 2.Customer-oriented Pricing\n\nCustomers would be happy to see their own negotiated prices. 25 Look into the best-selling products to see pricing flexibility, offer special discounts and promote popular product of the month for certain customer groups. 18 3.Personalized Product Group Setting\n\nCreate customized product group is crucial for increase the possibility of customer searching. 32 Also, customers are delighted to see your online shop set the product groups based on their preferences which help them save a lot of time in filtering other unfavorable products. 21 4.Search Capabilities\n\nIn this age of instant gratification, sifting through web pages and products is simply not an option. 25 Set up navigation filters with your product categories and most common attributes so customers can find the products they\u2019re looking for quickly. 24 Implement a search bar with \u201cauto complete\u201d functionality to allow buyers to hone in on products whose name they already know. 17 5.Brand Promotion\n\nAlways remember, you are not only selling your products but also your brand. 36 You should personalize your shop via editing your brand logo, latest photo, add your own name or use a good-looking template in other words\u2026\u2026In other words, making B2B e-commerce shop uniquely yours. 28 6.Diverse Pricing Strategy\n\nCross-sell and upsell are two major methods for suppliers to induce buyers to purchase additional products or pay the same product with extra money. 24 It\u2019s the battle of consumer psychology based on the algorithm of the platform to analyze buyer\u2019s previous purchase history. 28 However, in B2B e-commerce platform especially in commodity industry, the unstable pricing would bring uncertainty to buyers, be cautious when using those pricing strategies. 35 7.My Favorites\n\nMy Favorites function enables buyers to quickly and easily mark their favorable items to a list that they may purchases in a near future, all at the click of a button. 21 My Favorites can improve order efficiency by providing a way for buyers to organize the items they are interested in. 15 The buyer can create different favorites list which can be renamed based on content. 19 Worthy Membership Package\n\nYou would probably consider to be a paid member after joining one platform for months. 20 Paid membership packages offered by different platforms are all claim that they can remarkably boost users\u2019 sales volume. 28 You\u2019d better carefully select the package offer the benefits of what you need and avoid to waste of money on an expensive but comprehensive package. 33 If you are bothered to access to more buyers, you should choose a membership package specifically focusing on connecting you with other platform users like the Premium Membership launched by JumoreGlobal.com. 16 To summarize, B2B e-commerce has become a vital sales channel for suppliers and buyers. 28 Optimizing the platform to best accommodate users, increases convenience, decreases order errors, improves customer service, and increases conversion\u2026 which translate into increased sales."} {"text": " 35 (PHOTO: Public domain)\n\nListen:\n\nLISTEN\n\nUniversity of Arizona officials say they want to continue a study of medical marijuana for post-traumatic stress disorder, despite recently dismissing the lead researcher. 16 But the nonprofit in charge of the research says it might move the study elsewhere. 38 The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has announced that if the UA doesn't renew Sue Sisley as the head the research, it will take the study to either Northern Arizona University or Arizona State University. 53 \"We are not interested in working with other principal investigators that the university might propose to us, because they haven't done the hard work for four years, like Sue has, to make the study happen,\" said Rick Doblin, executive director and founder of MAPS. 28 After not renewing Sisley's contract earlier this month, the UA has said it wants to continue research on the effects medical marijuana has on PTSD. 40 Chris Sigurdson, senior associate VP at the UA Relations Office, said the UA will present MAPS with a replacement for Sisley, and said he hopes MAPS will approve the recommendation and keep the study in Tucson. 48 \"We've selected a faculty member in the College of Medicine, who has an extensive clinical trial experience and a record of scientific publications, and he is also done clinical trials with controlled substances and with veterans who have PTSD,\" Sigurdson said. 38 But Doblin said Sisley is the right person to head the research not only because of her more than 15 years experience, but also the relationship she has with the Arizona veteran and PTSD patient communities. 39 An online petition authored by Iraq veteran and PTSD, medical marijuana advocate Ricardo Pereyda has gathered more than 74,000 signatures of veterans, PTSD patients and others demanding for Sisley to be reinstated as the lead researcher. 16 Sisley has also appealed her dismissal, and the UA has until mid-August to answer. 52 \"We will know at that point whether she'll have a chance to get her job back or whether they are going to simply deny the appeal, at which point we'll just take it elsewhere,\" said Brad Burge, director of communications and marketing at MAPS. 61 If the study does get transferred to another university, MAPS and Sisley would have to resubmit requests to the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Service, the Public Health Service and either one of the university's institutional review boards, among other entities that had already given Sisley's study a green light. 15 However, Doblin said he expects that process to move quicker than last time. 27 What's stalled the study is the National Institute on Drug Abuse's delay in handing over the marijuana that will be used in the trials. 18 Both Doblin and Burge said they don't expect to see it until January or maybe later. 30 By then, he said MAPS is confident it will have a location where the trials can be conducted, which will involve about 70 veterans and PTSD patients. 25 What Doblin said concerns him is whether the Arizona Board of Regents will allow Sisley to work at one of the other state universities. 22 But an ABOR spokesperson said the regents would not have a problem with other institutions hiring Sisley, according to Doblin. 21 \"But what they say in public and what they do may be two different things,\" Doblin said. 31 Regarding her appeal, Sisley has said she suspects the UA will deny it, and if that is the case, she plans to take it to federal court. 11 Sigurdson said the UA cannot comment on that matter. 7 Updated as of 4:27 p.m. July 24"} {"text": " 9 Well, who could have ever predicted this? 34 As soon as it was announced that EA was again nominated for Consumerist's Worst Company in America bracket, it was almost certain they'd win just like they did last year. 8 And they have won, yet again. 22 This time they beat out Bank of America for the crown, while Ticketmaster and Comcast rounded out the final four. 4 Is it deserved? 2 No. 10 If we're being honest, it's not. 35 There are dozens of companies that are technically, legitimately, actually worse than EA in terms of how much harm they directly cause people, and many of them are on this list. 10 Rather, Consumerist's poll doesn't gauge this. 20 Instead, it's a measure of how annoyed the internet is with a certain brand at the moment. 23 For as long as this contest is about that, EA is sure to be victorious unless they make some major changes. 28 Links from a hundred gaming sites and countless threads on forums like /v/, NeoGAF and Reddit all but ensured EA's victory here from day one. 20 It was never going to be close, and EA won this year with 78% of the vote. 37 There are simply not enough equivalent communities on the internet where people go to complain about Bank of America's fee structures or United's carry-on bag policies en masse, except of course Consumerist itself. 22 EA could see their future in the tea leaves this time around, and began to fight the PR war early. 10 The result was a quasi-apology from COO Peter Moore. 41 Sure, he said things like the company \"made plenty of mistakes\" and that they \"owe gamers a better performance,\" but it's the rest of what he said that only angered the public more. 23 He chalked up the company's performance in the poll to those convinced that SimCity's always-on requirement is for DRM reasons. 18 It isn't, he says, but no one, fans or press, believe that. 42 He also says that people are upset about who EA chose for the cover of Madden, and they've also been nominated as Worst Company because hate groups are upset that they include gay and lesbian characters in their games. 55 The press all simultaneously pushed back against this piece (our own Erik Kain did a great job of it), but Consumerist itself came out and declared that no one writing in to nominate EA for Worst Company ever even mentioned Madden's cover or EA's support of the gay community. 6 What are the real issues? 22 Well, the same ones that came up last year, though EA has only doubled down on many of them. 22 There's always-on DRM, which caused the SimCity launch to be one of the biggest gaming disasters in recent memory. 30 EA will never convince players that requiring an internet connection for the game was mandatory for the game to work, because that sentence simply doesn't make sense. 49 Games have had offline and online modes for eons, and forcing a game to only be played online is either A) a shrewd DRM decision or B) a poorly designed way for a game to function, especially one many people want to play alone. 11 Microtransactions are another avenue where EA has drawn fan ire. 22 They first said they wanted all their games to include microtransactions, even titles that already cost $60 up front. 36 They later backtracked on that statement, saying they wanted all mobile games to have them, but that didn't stop them from putting them into fully priced games like Dead Space 3 anyway. 5 The list goes on. 49 Star Wars: The Old Republic was a disaster of titanic proportions, losing EA millions (if not hundreds of millions) and causing fans to blame them for causing Bioware to fumble a concept that should have been a slam dunk, a Star Wars MMO. 20 Eventually, CEO John Riccitiello stepped down after all these controversies resulted in rather terrible numbers for the company. 17 But can you say a company is \"the worst\" just because they perform badly? 10 No, but that's not the issue here. 24 It's this constant, public perception that EA is refusing to take responsibility for their own failures and mistreatment of their customers. 33 Sure, Peter Moore has the right to go to bat for his company, but that \"apology\" post perfectly encapsulated everything wrong with the public's perception of EA. 35 The claim that SimCity is always on not for DRM reasons simply sounds like a lie to everyone playing the game (or not playing, depending on the state of the internet). 29 And to say that they're winning a poll like this because of upset Madden fans or homophobia is ridiculous, and Consumerist's response backed that up. 7 EA needs solutions, not excuses. 44 They are not the worst company in America, nor are they evil, but their brand has been so tarnished by so many of these seemingly anti-consumer policies that they're stuck in running joke status among fans and the press alike. 23 Perception is reality, and simply arguing your point of view isn't going to be enough to change people's minds. 9 No, the contest isn't remotely unbiased. 20 No, people don't actually think you're doing more harm to the world than BP or BoA. 15 But this is a real problem and it needs to be treated as such. 8 The problem is that EA is stuck. 31 Policies like DRM, microtransactions and attempting to emulate their competitor's hits are what got them in this mess, but they see it as the only way out. 14 DRM prevents piracy, so that's more money saved in their eyes. 7 Microtransactions are effort free cash generators. 18 Closely emulating a successful game is a guaranteed way to sell at least a few extra copies. 29 EA has to feel like if they stop doing any of these, they'll lose out on these revenue sources, and everyone will still dislike them. 5 So what to do? 9 There's no easy answer for EA here. 24 Yes, there are simple things they could stop doing in order to win a few fans back and show they're learning. 11 Ensure their games can be played offline if need be. 11 Don't shoehorn in microtransactions when they're not required. 4 And so on. 12 But mostly, a game company needs good games to thrive. 48 No, it is in no way easy to create a game that's a hit on the scale of World of Warcraft or Call of Duty, but producing titles like The Old Republic or Battlefield/Medal of Honor that seem like mere imitators isn't enough. 31 They see a future in mobile, but if they start looking at Zynga as a company whose practices they should emulate, that's going down a dark path. 15 I don't know how EA will respond to their win this time around. 11 Will they shrug it off like they did last year? 12 Will they continue to make excuses like we saw last week? 25 Or will they own up, look us in the eye and simply say \"we will do better,\" and mean it? 16 No blame shifting, no excuses, just...tangible change we can all see. 35 EA is responsible for many of my favorite games, and despite the criticism I level at them, I want them to be around making these titles for a long time to come. 27 I hope they understand the areas in which they need to change, because only then will I stop having to write articles like this one. 13 Follow me on Twitter here and subscribe to my Forbes blog here."} {"text": " 11 It\u2019s tough out there for video game heroes. 16 Often they must deal with failures a hundred times before they finally win the game. 11 Maybe that\u2019s why we love them so much. 20 But of the great pantheon of video game heroes, which ones are the most fun to play as? 2 10. 34 The Prince\n\nHe may have only starred in one hit game (Katamari Damacy), but he showed a unique and potentially unstoppable power: He can roll up the entire universe. 20 He does this to cover up the mistakes of his more important father, the King of All Cosmos. 35 While those are impressive feats, we may have seen the last of him, as his creator, Keita Takahashi, has an intense dislike of creating video games as a corporate endeavor. 2 9. 26 Master Chief\n\nStar of the hit Halo franchise, he has wasted more Elites of the Covenant than any Spartan super-soldier, dead or alive. 22 While he\u2019s not quite at the level of Doomguy, he does have more successful games under his belt. 26 His star is tied to the Xbox One, though, and even he may not be able to save it from turning into gruel. 2 8. 22 Samus Aran\n\nIf it weren\u2019t for Samus, we wouldn\u2019t have half of the Metroidvania platformer type. 24 Her ability to coolly explore any alien territory\u2014and fight off anything that came at her\u2014made her equal parts Indiana Jones and Snake Plissken. 29 She would be higher on this list if it weren\u2019t for Other M, which has for the time being shattered her credibility as a character. 5 She deserves better.#! 2 7. 4 Doomguy (a.k.a. 37 The Doom Marine)\n\nWhen you\u2019re pitted alone against overwhelming odds, and there\u2019s only one clear path forward, the Doomguy is the one you want to be in control of. 29 The ur-silent protagonist, many have tried to imitate him, but few have measured up despite him not being in a good game for nearly 20 years. 24 Besides, it\u2019s really hard to top someone who destroyed Hell without supernatural powers, something not even Spawn could claim. 2 6. 24 Sonic the Hedgehog\n\nSega never really had a bigger character than Sonic the Hedgehog, not that he didn\u2019t earn it. 26 Unique games in their own right, Sonic\u2019s sheer speed tested players\u2019 limits and were a novel, exciting approach to platformers. 26 Sonic hasn\u2019t really made a strong transition to 3D, but he does have a legion of fans, god bless \u2018em. 2 5. 26 Ryu\n\nIt\u2019s not hard to be on the roster of a fighting game series for every single installment (just ask Yoshimitsu). 23 What separates the wheat from the chaff is longevity and fame, and aside from Guile, Ryu has it in spades. 24 He\u2019s also inarguably the face of the Street Fighter franchise, as well as the originator of a few iconic moves. 16 Now, if only the games he were in were actually fun to watch\u2026\n\n4. 10 Solid Snake\n\nSnake\u2019s rise has been remarkable. 26 A protagonist who specializes in (mostly) avoiding direct confrontation, his adventures have gotten improbably more complex and convoluted as time goes on. 33 Frankly, if you\u2019re being sent into a situation where you can\u2019t trust anyone, there\u2019s nobody you want to be controlling more than Solid Snake. 24 (Note: We\u2019re not counting Metal Gear Solid 3 because no, that is not Solid Snake.)#! 2 3. 2 Mega Man"} {"text": " 43 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Robert Purcell from Metropolitan Fire Brigade: \"There was total devastation\"\n\nAn Australian family of five has been left homeless after a hoverboard given as a Christmas gift sparked a fire. 25 Fire crews said the popular electrical product was charging in a girl's bedroom in the Melbourne suburb of Strathmore when the blaze started. 13 Local media said the girl saw sparks coming out of the hoverboard. 23 Metropolitan Fire Brigade Acting Commander Phil Smith said the family was lucky to escape unhurt, but the home was severely damaged. 26 \"It overheated for some reason and caught fire and no one saw it till it was too late,\" Acting Commander Smith said. 51 Image copyright @MFB_NEWS Image caption The charred remains of the offending hoverboard\n\nImage copyright MFB Media Image caption Firefighters said power boards may have altered the current flow to charging devices\n\n\"In this case the family was fortunate to be able to get out of the house.\" 14 He said it served as a warning not to leave charging items unattended. 25 Last year UK consumer protection agency National Trading Standards found that 88% of the self-balancing boards they examined could explode or catch fire."} {"text": " 33 Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 is almost upon the masses and has entered the public test universe for those that are willing to test the release before it\u2019s ready for prime-time. 39 It\u2019s promising to give us a real sense of MMO adventure by letting groups of friends and corporations with larger multi-crewed ships that are modeled in game to get together and play cooperatively to accomplish something. 27 It\u2019s a lofty goal considering the design challenges that Cloud Imperium Games wants to address to make it unique among cooperative space simulators games. 30 But already, even in the Public Test Universe, it already looks to be shaping up to be a very compelling upgrade before Star Marine is finally released. 20 But are the improvements enough in 2.0 to bring more interest and help provide positive arguments against the naysayers? 13 The majesty of space is perhaps finally being captured in Star Citizen. 15 The visual upgrades to ships and the station itself are nothing short of staggering. 25 Oddly, some of the ships, the Constellation ship in particular, have been reduced to be able to provide for better performance. 19 That doesn\u2019t mean they look any less magnificent, just that they\u2019re now optimized. 20 But this is more about the player experience than any upgrade in graphics, that\u2019s the focus. 18 Even better is that more ships are now able to be flown in universe with this update. 24 The Scythe, for example, is available to fly, and the Retaliator is now modeled, though not ready to fly. 11 And there is a lot that\u2019s been added. 46 Before this update you could only really enjoy dog-fighting in Arena Commander, racing through some rather difficult and open courses in the Murray Cup, practicing your flying skills in free-flight mode or trying your hand against the Vanduul in the Vanduul Swarm mode. 26 Despite obvious bugs that could crop up, it was fun and engaging, but was very limiting in just how much fun it was. 40 Of course you could hand around your hanger and then head on up to Area 18, ArcCorp, but that too was just a showpiece of what\u2019s to come, a placeholder to placate the naysayers. 23 Granted, it\u2019s a great placeholder for the fans, as it allowed us all to interact with each other. 16 But all of those features available just isn\u2019t enough to get everyone interested. 21 Sure, the physics are fantastic, CryEngine is in good form and it\u2019s a challenging enough experience. 24 But for a representation of something that\u2019s supposed to be massive in scope, it just doesn\u2019t do that. 41 It\u2019s hard to show people your own excitement (granted, I\u2019m excited and very much a fan of this project, but still skeptical) when there\u2019s only a very limited demo available. 32 Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 is in the PTU, and it expands the scope by many orders of magnitude despite only adding just a few limited yet exciting things to explore. 26 Firstly there;s the possibility of some of the most exciting and pertinent features, the ability to perform missions together in one ship. 10 Multi-crew is here and it\u2019s quite nice. 3 Exciting even. 25 Take your Constellation, or whatever big ship, out to perform just the mission that was shown off in the demo at Gamescom. 25 Wake up to some more fantastically composed music by Pedro Macedo Camacho, enter the main portion of the station and choose your ship. 21 Maybe the Cutlass will be good, it has room for a few others, and a lot of firepower. 42 Exit out into landing pad, in frozen zero-G space and walk out to your ship, all the while enjoying a terrifying yet exquisite backdrop of a slowly spinning planet and a space station rotating ever so slowly before you. 20 There are more cubic-kilometers to explore in this new area than all of this blue-green planet we live on. 20 It\u2019s fascinating, and you can travel quickly between places by jumping, faster than light travel. 16 But even just flying around and exploring the station and the overall vastness before you. 19 But once the novelty of the big space wears off, there\u2019s far more to do. 3 Much more. 18 Exploring is only the tip of the iceberg, and a good preview of things to come. 16 This is the beginning of what we\u2019re to expect from the final game. 31 The feeling of being one small part of a vast universe with an almost infinite amount of things to do, and being able to do them with your friends. 21 So then, the question is whether or not this is a great representation of the dream of Star Citizen. 40 And while it is far from complete, and isn\u2019t quite out to all backers and owners of any game packages, but it is far more of an example of what Chris Roberts wants to achieve. 29 It\u2019s no longer a multiplayer shooter, but more of a cooperative MMO with better graphics and a more gorgeous backdrop than you\u2019d expect. 25 This is more akin to playing a pre-alpha or a prototype than it is actually even playing an alpha, let alone a beta. 34 It\u2019s certainly very functional and playable, with a tremendous more to do in-universe, not to mention more to look at, but it\u2019s not without its caveats. 14 But sometimes helping improve something and actually testing something is worth the experience. 21 Reporting bugs and seeing what you\u2019ve reported get fixed in the next update is an oddly satisfying feeling. 14 But overall this is a positive improvement that shows great progress being made. 8 This is what Star Citizen is about. 30 It may only be a small preview of the entire vision, but it\u2019s an explicit move towards the direction they\u2019ve said they were headed. 45 It\u2019s not perfect, but as a preview of a game that\u2019s not even close to being done, it\u2019s more stable and has more fun and pertinent things to do than a lot of more complete games. 20 As an alpha, it\u2019s better equipped to provide an entertaining time than a lot of games. 26 But as an alpha, it\u2019s still not quite in a position to completely reconcile the doubts in the minds of so many. 23 It\u2019s an alpha, it\u2019s not complete, it\u2019s impossible to achieve that goal, right? 26 It\u2019s still progress, and shows the direction that Star Citizen is headed, regardless of what people may or may not think. 15 I personally enjoy it, and I believe that many more do as well. 4 Are you convinced?"}