The trip to Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Chile by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in May this year sought to follow up on the planned cooperation between China and CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) announced in January of the same year. This plan’s main goals are to increase bilateral trade to $500 billion and the inflow of Chinese direct investments to the region to $250 billion until 2025.

The two objectives are linked, since China expects that the bilateral trade will grow if it invests in Latin American infrastructure. This strategy has also been used to bolster China’s economic relations with countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Railways, roadways, ports, and airports have been built or revamped to enable Beijing to buy raw materials and sell its manufactures around the world more cheaply and easily.

The investments promised by Li Keqing during his trip to South America are largely in line with this strategy. The flagship project is a $10 billion railroad between Brazil and Peru that will connect the Atlantic and Pacific ports. The railroad will make it easier and cheaper to export of soybeans, beef, and ore from the Brazilian hinterlands. Currently, these exports must first reach Brazilian ports in Pará or Maranhão, and then traverse the Panama Canal to reach the Pacific and China.

In Colombia, China promised to modernize the port of Buenaventura, the country’s second most important harbor, and pledged to build a 600 km highway linking central Colombia with the Venezuela border. The road is supposed to cross the region of Orinoquía – rich in agriculture, cattle, oil, and minerals. China and Colombia also pledged to negotiate a bilateral free trade agreement.

These announcements join a long list of projects in South American logistics proposed by China in recent years. Examples include the construction of a port in Suriname, which will also get a railway and a road connecting Paramaribo with Manaus to facilitate the export of Brazilian minerals; the expansion of Venezuela’s Palúa port, in the Orinoco delta, as a vital complement to the investments announced in Colombia; the overhaul of the Chilean port of Desierto to export iron ore from the Atacama mines; and the expansion of the San Antonio West port in Argentina, to enable the export of agricultural goods cultivated in lands administered by the Chinese themselves.

During his visit to Chile, Li Keqiang signed a series of financial agreements that will also be important for China’s strategy of binding Latin American commerce with its own economy. A currency swap arrangement worth 22 billion yuan (approximately $3.5 billion) was announced, together with the establishment of a yuan clearing bank in Chile, which would be the first in South America. Both initiatives seek to reduce the use of the U.S. dollar in bilateral trade, restricting U.S. influence over their commercial dynamic. China and Chile also agreed to expand their bilateral free trade agreement, which was signed in 2005.

Of course, some of these proposals probably will not materialize, but the strategy behind them reveal China’s intentions. Beijing seeks to deepen its ties with South America and its investments are essentially oriented towards transporting commodities to coastal areas, connecting ports to mines and farmlands from the region’s hinterlands. This is what has historically always been done in South America. China may be trying to update the model of cooperation, but it is up to the South American countries themselves to effectively use the export revenues and the Chinese investments to avoid the deindustrialization that has occurred in the past.

Meanwhile, a significant shift in regional dynamics looks likely. There is a clear will on China’s part to redirect South American production to the Pacific. That will economically benefit the countries located in coastal areas. Keqiang visited three countries that have that characteristic (Peru, Chile, Colombia) and which are articulated in the Pacific Alliance. This trade bloc seeks to facilitate trade and external financial flows, making it easier for China to develop its presence in the region, and contrasts with the more protectionist Mercosur, which is led by Brazil and Argentina. For South American countries facing the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea (most of them members of Mercosur), China seeks to create transoceanic links to reach the Pacific, such as the Brazil–Peru railway or even the Nicaragua Canal.

This scenario suggests an especially important challenge for Brazil (but also for the other countries of the region) concerning South American regional integration and its domestic economy. It will be necessary to devise a national and regional project that mitigates the negative effects of investments from China (or indeed any other country), considering that “(…) the promotion of infrastructure focused on economic and commercial development does not guarantee that it will be useful for geopolitical and strategic objectives of a State of region, since it may be conditioned by private or external interests” (Jaeger, 2014, p. 87, authors’ translation). Doubtless, these investments will increase inter-regional trade between South America and China (or East Asia) as a whole, but that by itself does not assure intra-regional development and integration.

There will certainly be social, environmental, and deindustrializing impacts. However, South American countries need to develop strategies and establish rules to enable more effective use of the resources coming from Beijing in the defense of their interests. Infrastructure investments will not modernize local economies or guarantee regional integration on their own, but they could be very helpful if long-term development policies are in place and if the investments are used as leverage in bargaining with the U.S., the EU, or China itself. In fact, ECLAC affirms that the logistics infrastructure that China provides could well stimulate intra-regional trade and the formation of regional value chains. It is up to South America states to use Chinese investments for their own development goals and deepening regional integration.

Bruno Gomes Guimarães is a researcher at the South American Institute for Policy and Strategy (ISAPE). Diogo Ives is an MA candidate in Political Science at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).


The City of Boca Raton gave Jozy Altidore the hero’s welcome he deserved on Friday, July 18th at the Waterstone Resort & Marina.

“He is our hometown hero,” Mayor Susan Haynie said. “He has achieved so much in his sport and that certainly deserves acclaim from the community. We are all very thrilled and honored of him carrying the name of Boca Raton as his hometown.”

Altidore, the 2013 Futbol de Primera Player of the Year and the 2013 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year, was honored by Haynie and the City of Boca with his own day, Jozy Altidore Day.

“The first I heard of this it was incredible,” Altidore said. “It’s such a prestigious city in Boca Raton. I’m so happy to be here and represent the soccer team.”

At a young age it was evident that Altidore had a natural talent as he would toy with children at the local parks. Josef Schulz, a longtime youth coach in Boca Raton, took note of Altidore when he was 8 years old while Altidore was playing a pickup game at Boca’s South County Regional Park and Schultz was amazed.

“Schulz played a very pivotal role for me in my career in a time where soccer wasn’t so big here in the States,” says a grateful Altidore of what Schulz did for him.

As a middle school student at Loggers’ Run Middle School, Altidore harnessed his craft and after only one year he moved to Boca Raton Prep on a soccer scholarship.

Altidore, who currently holds the record for most goals by an American overseas with 39, is set to rejoin his club Sunderland AFC late next week to begin preparing for the start of the 2014 English Premier League season.

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The sight of Hakeem Nicks gently running routes with his teammates early in Thursday’s practice allowed the Giants to move closer to becoming whole on offense. Nicks is a huge piece of the puzzle and his return from a broken foot is on schedule.

He won’t play tonight, though, leaving the Giants with Victor Cruz as the only proven receiver to take the field against his favorite team to dominate, the Jets. Once Nicks is back for good, he and Cruz command the two starting spots and the search continues for the third receiver needed to really get Eli Manning’s passing attack cranked up.

“Well, I think there are a number of guys,’’ Manning said. “I don’t know if there’s just one guy right now.’’ A number of guys and not one guy right now are euphemisms for “No one has seized the opportunity yet.’’

Though Mario Manningham struggled for much of last season, he always presented a threat to opposing defenses and if some slouch was lined up against him, Manningham could make him pay in a big way. Manningham is now with the 49ers and to this point none of the candidates looking to fill his role have shown enough to claim the job.

Domenik Hixon, coming back from two knee surgeries, is the most consistent of the bunch, but he was held out of the preseason opener with a slight hamstring issue. Jerrel Jernigan, a second-round pick last year, was impressive early in camp, but didn’t catch a pass last week in Jacksonville. Rookie Rueben Randle already has gained the trust of Manning and the coaching staff as a sure-handed, natural pass-catcher, but he’s still learning the nuances of route-running. Ramses Barden, as usual, had his moments in camp, and managed one catch last week for 14 yards. But he hasn’t been able to maintain any positive momentum.

If one of these receivers is going to emerge from the pack, he hasn’t done so yet.

“It’s been a little bit of everyone,’’ Cruz said. “Ramses had a great training camp, Jerrel Jernigan had a great training camp, Rueben Randle did some good things. It’s going to be tough for these coaches. I’m glad I’m not a coach or anybody working up top because it’s going to be tough to pick one of those guys or even two of those guys to be our third or fourth receiver. They’re all talented and all good players.’’

Those are the supportive words of a teammate, but Manning is more discerning. He demands a great deal from his targets, and if they deviate from the script or fail to make the proper read, it doesn’t sit well with the franchise quarterback.

“These preseason games are big, when you see them against live action, against good corners, see their releases, and see if they’re doing a good job getting open,’’ Manning said. “So, it’s always a good problem to have as a quarterback, have a number of receivers who can come in and play well for you.’’

Of course, it’s not known whether Manning truly does have a number of receivers who can play well or just a bunch of receivers who can play, but perhaps not very well.

“Well, I think some guys do some things better than others,’’ Manning said. “So, I think that’s why you usually carry six receivers, so you can put guys in certain spots, have them do what they do best.’’

Hixon must be considered the favorite to occupy the No. 3 spot at the start of the season, at least until Randle is ready.

“[Hixon’s] played very well, and done a great job,’’ Manning said. “So, I’m excited about having him back, because he’s played in games and he’s played well for us in the past.’’


Oceans are the cradle of life on Earth. Giving life a birth date, though, is complicated as we’re still discovering traces of bacteria older than all those we found so far. For now, we think that the oldest one lived at least 3.5 billion years ago, so around one billion years after Earth’s formation. This theory is based on prints that bacteria left on soft mud that turned into rock with time. It is nearly impossible to preserve a bacterium as a “fossil” since they are extremely fragile.

Image: Anomalocaris painting. Reconstruction of what this early predator must have looked like. Image by UNE photos (Creative Commons).

Bacteria are unicellular organisms (their bodies are constituted of only one cell, while the human body is formed by thousands of billions of cells…) and for long, we didn’t find anything between the old bacteria prints and the oldest fossils with shells and skeletons that lived 540 million years ago.

A fossil is the remains of a long dead organism that was buried in mud which transformed into rock (or sediment) over time. Soon, by physical destruction by the mud and the water flow or by decomposition by bacteria, only the skeleton or the shell of the original animal remains. That’s what you can see at the museum, once they’ve been discovered and extracted from the rock.

We know from these fossils that a large amount of species have lived on Earth in the last 600 million years, in the ocean and later (since around 400 million years ago) on the continents, and that their sizes and shapes were very different to one another. In the last few decades, we even discovered a new type of fossils…

In some rare environments, the mud that buries dead organisms can be so fine and the water flow so weak that they don’t harm the remains, and the shape of the skin of the organism can print on the mud and be preserved that way. This is how we could find the Ediacaran fauna in Australia.

In this sort of environment we made an extraordinary discovery: fossils of animals (not bacteria) so old (around 560 million years ago) that they didn’t have any hard parts in their bodies. No shells, no teeth, not a single bone. But these were not the most disturbing characteristic of their anatomy. Their perfect state of preservation allowed palaeontologists to notice another component of modern animals missing: the mouth. Not a single specimen of this strange zoo had any orifice, and we suppose they were able to absorb nutrients from the seawater directly through their skin.

Palaeontologists discovered organisms with the strangest shapes, frozen in time and preserved in this extremely smooth mud turned into rock. Dozens of new fossil species were described and a new extreme limit of the appearance of multicellular organisms (in opposition to unicellular organisms like bacteria) was defined.

But it was just the start of a new series of astonishing discoveries. At Burgess (Canada), new and slightly younger species were found that lived around 540 million years ago, during the Cambrian era. Unlike Ediacara, all species from this fauna had shells (or “exoskeletons”; skeletons outside the organism, unlike humans or other vertebrates but just like molluscs and arthropods). Amongst them, an impressive specimen of the species Anomalocaris presented another major difference with older organisms: it had teeth, and those of a predator. Overall, the Burgess fauna presented a huge amount of different species compared to Ediacara, and we call this rapid increase in the biodiversity the “Cambrian Explosion“. 20 or 30 million years may seem a lot of time, but when dealing with evolution, it’s really not a lot. But for some reason, at this time, life on Earth had rapidly evolved.

Ediacara was important because it was the first time we found multicellular organisms ageing before skeletogenesis (creation of skeleton and other hard parts). Burgess was also important because it was the oldest fauna we found with hard parts. But these two faunas combined made another major discovery: the start of predation. During the Ediacaran era, no organisms had teeth or even mouth, so they were clearly not carnivorous. Anomalocaris was an obvious proof of predation during the time the Burgess rocks were deposited. Because of this, we talk about the “Ediacaran paradise“, when Nature was at peace, without fight for survival.

When we look at other species of Burgess fauna, several produced spines on their back, probably as a defence mechanism against predators like Anomalocaris. This led to the conclusion that hard parts were initially synthesized in order to protect the organism against aggressive species.

Another possible explanation of skeletogenesis is also proposed and focuses on chemistry mechanisms. As the seawater chemistry changed, maintaining an appropriate level of acidity in the organisms became more problematic. Synthesizing shells would have allowed the organism to store acidic molecules from their soft tissues to reach the proper equilibrium. But this doesn’t explain by itself the presence of spines and teeth…

The truth is probably somewhere between the two theories. But anyway, something major happened to living species between 560 and 540 million years ago. Something that changed the shape and the behaviour of all life on Earth, forever.

Vincent Mouchi

Ph.D. student, Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin

If you want to know more about this topic and have more details on these extraordinary organisms, I would suggest you to read the book “Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History” by the palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould.

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RIGBY -- A reserve officer for Rigby Police has died, months after he was badly burned in a crash in Utah, the department confirmed.

Bill Gray, who also worked as a truck driver, was driving an 18-wheeler when he was struck head-on by a suspect fleeing from Utah State Patrol July 26.

The other driver was killed in the collision. Gray was rushed to the University of Utah Burn Center in critical condition, with burns over 46 percent of his body.

He died from his injuries Monday after nearly two months in the hospital, Rigby Police said.

MORE: Rigby reserve officer critical after Utah crash

In a Facebook post, the department wrote that Gray would be remembered as "a man of selfless service," always ready to help others in his community.

"Bill was truly the best of mankind. Always willing to help, always willing to go the extra mile," Rigby Police posted. "Bill was a big man, with a bigger heart. Everything about him was generous and kind."

The department recounted a time when he used his personal ATV to plow a path for local children to get to school during the heavy winter, saving them from having to walk into the street to get around the built-up snow.

"Bill always had a funny story to bring about a laugh. He always did the good thing," the department posted. "This world would be better off with more Bill Grays, and this world is truly darker without his light."

RELATED: Viral video highlights patient privacy laws

Gray's accident sparked a nationwide debate after a nurse caring for him at the University of Utah Burn Center was arrested after she refused to allow a a Salt Lake City Police detective to draw his blood without a warrant.

Nurse Alex Wubbels explained to the officer that Gray could not consent to the blood draw because he was unconscious. Detective Jeff Payne's body camera captured footage of him roughly grabbing Wubbels and physically pulling her out of the hospital as she wept and screamed for help.

The video drew widespread outrage, culminating in the hospital changing its rules to not allow police to speak with nurses and staff.

Rigby Police Chief Sam Tower thanked the nurse "for standing firm, and protecting Officer Gray's rights as a patient and victim.”

A GoFundMe account has set up to pay for Gray's hospital bills is still nearly $7,000 short of its goal.

Copyright 2017 KTVB


Welcome to the BUFFY PHENOMENON Identifying the best Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans love to argue about which episodes are their best. Some believe that "Becoming, Parts 1 and 2" are the greatest episodes. Others believe that "Once More, with Feeling," "Hush," and "The Body" are the greatest. There are even fans who love "Doublemeat Palace."

Like its sister site, The Phi-Phenomenon, the Buffy Phenomenon studies lists that people make. Instead of studying lists of the greatest films of all time to create the definitive best film list, the Buffy Phenomenon studies lists of the greatest episodes to create the definitive best (and worst) episode list. The episodes are listed by rank, alphabetically, by writer, by director, and by season. This site also lists the episodes that polarize fans and episodes that fans have largely forgotten as well as streaks of great and weak episodes.

This site also tries to figure out what makes an episode great or weak. It looks at the extent to which the quality of an episode may be affected by the when the episode aired, the episode's writer and director, and the relative prominance or absence of major characters in that episode.

Finally, this site has found that Buffy fans do not agree on everything. There are at least two different tastes in Buffy episodes. Users can now see how fans differ in how they rank episodes. Users can also see how fans differ in how when the episode aired, major characters, writers, and directors may affect the quality of an episode.

WARNING!! —This site contains spoilers. Most pages give episode titles for all 144 episodes, indicate how good each of these episodes are, and indicate who wrote and directed each episode. The Characters Ranked page also mentions characters who do not appear until season 7 and discusses the presence or absence of major characters in seventh season episodes, and the Seasons Ranked page describes all seven seasons.

If you have any questions or comments, you can write this site at .

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all characters are the property of 20th Century Fox, Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon, UPN, WB, and a whole bunch of other entities that are not affiliated with this site. All opinions on this site are either that of the Webmaster or from a compilation of the opinions of various people, most of whom are not affiliated with the aforementioned entities.

All contents on this site that are not owned by the above entities © 2003-2016.

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Vulcan survivor's guilt: Why J.J. Abrams should make Mr. Spock the hero of the new "Star Trek" franchise May 23, 2013 | May Contain Spoilers

In J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the “Star Trek” universe, Spock is a burdened soul. As in Gene Roddenberry’s original series, he is the only child of a human mother and Vulcan father — by birth, a man of two worlds and an outcast. But Abrams and his co-writers give him a fascinating additional burden: Midway through the first movie, Spock’s home planet of Vulcan is destroyed by a Romulan villain, Nero. The enormous implosion claims the lives of the planet’s indigenous population as well as Spock’s mother. Cosmic and personal tragedies converge: not only does Spock lose his mom — his heretofore beacon of humanity — he and his Vulcan kinsmen become stateless nomads. Even at his most vulnerable, though, Spock controls his emotions, and lets logic dictate his actions, declaring his race to be an endangered species.

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The destruction of Vulcan, one of the most crucial planets in the "Star Trek" legendarium, should be at the core of J.J. Abrams’ films. It is the single development that most distinguishes the original TV and movie series from Abrams’ reboot, an event so boldly imagined that it marks the filmmakers’ new, blank canvas with a hideous dark stain. And yet for the most part, the new films draw around the stain, not treating it quite as an afterthought, but not engaging with it as fully as they ought to.

I believe they should engage with it — that in fact they should put it at the heart of the new franchise. It has an imaginative power comparable to the destruction of Alderaan in "Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope," which gave 1970s children apocalyptic nightmares, though not intentionally: "Star Wars" creator George Lucas treated the Death Star's annihilation of a world as the cause of space-nausea and never mentioned it again, much less weighed down the adopted Alderaanian Leia Organa with the psychological freight of its absence.

In contrast, Abrams and his collaborators have woven mentions of Vulcan’s death into the plot of the second film, "Star Trek Into Darkness," in ways that, however tossed-off and limited, reinforce the superiority of "Star Trek" to "Star Wars" as popular art; they could, and should, build these references out and embellish them, because they're solid enough to give the entire franchise an a narrative anchor that it thus far has lacked.

"As if millions of voices cried out in terror..."

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That present-tense experience of grief is palpable even though the new "Star Trek" series hasn’t placed it at the heart of its stories. Why not formalize the focus, and see what results? I believe the new “Star Trek” franchise would be a greater, more powerful, more moving accomplishment if it stopped obsessing over the maturation of the impetuous James T. Kirk — an amusing but too-familiar arc, one that many adventure series have already portrayed — and redirected its energy toward exploring the psychology of the post-Vulcan Mr. Spock, the rightful lead in this rebooted franchise. That Abrams seems already to be headed in that direction, however fitfully, suggests that on some level he has already accepted this truth, although he hasn’t yet embraced it as enthusiastically as I believe he should.

At the end of “The Wrath of Khan,” the second film in the original “Star Trek” series, Captain Kirk eulogizes Spock by declaring, “Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human.”

This anthropocentrism has always been evident in “Star Trek,” and, even though it betrays a superficially Earth-bound and reactionary nature, the statement echoes the deeper, secular, Bertrand Russell-style humanism of "Star Trek." As such, the “human soul” of Spock that Kirk laments is that of a universal adherent of the Golden Rule. This maxim has always governed Spock, whose strict dedication to Aristotelian logic was, for all intents and purposes, a gimmick. Given the choice, the character always opted for doing the Right Thing, even if it led to self-sacrifice.

In the reboot universe, J.J. Abrams could have amplified these central tenets of the character. With their planet gone, Spock and the remaining Vulcans are left without a home. “Star Trek” has built up this race as wise and philosophical, a people whose existence is based around knowledge, around reading and thinking and remembering. The total obliteration of the Vulcans’ home planet is the razing of the Great Library of Alexandria, the Fall of Babylon, the Sack of Rome and the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all rolled into one.

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How would a catastrophe this immense affect the Federation? Are there tenets of the Vulcan culture that are irredeemably lost in time? What sort of effect does this have in the Federation’s balance of power?

There is a more immediate analogue, too, namely the destruction of Vulcan as the “Star Trek” equivalent of the Holocaust. The event turns the Vulcan race into an intergalactic Jewish diaspora consisting entirely of survivors.

This is powerful stuff, and potentially fruitful. Abrams’ “Trek” films have been criticized for shifting the original series’ focus away from exploration and onto political and military intrigue, but this needn’t necessarily represent a betrayal of what the original stood for. The destruction of Vulcan could let Abrams formalize an interest that’s already evident to anyone who’s seen “Star Trek” and “Star Trek Into Darkness,” and let the new series look at many of the classic "Star Trek" philosophical and moral issues through a fresh prism.

Among the questions such a refocused series could explore: Who preserves the memory of Vulcan? Would a new, post-Vulcan society of Vulcan survivors have fascist overtones, defending the racially “pure” against the unwanted attentions of the mixed-blood portion of society? Perhaps the surviving Vulcans have split into political factions akin to those seen within so many majority-minority societies. They may also be squabbling about how best to relate to the "majority" society they've been forced to become a part of; their arguments could echo the ones that happened within Native American and African-American society in the 1960s and '70s, which were torn between trying to change the United States' majority culture to make it more hospitable, versus standing apart from it or actively attacking it. The aftershocks of Vulcan's end also raise the question of whether a civilization can be a proper civilization without a homeland, or a home world. That there's a fleeting reference in "Star Trek Into Darkness" to New Vulcan -- presumably this universe's Vulcan version of Israel? -- suggests that Abrams and his cowriters have already been thinking about it.

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It's all quite fraught -- a powderkeg of identity politics that people would avoid at cocktail parties for fear of ruining the evening. Where would Spock, a racially “impure” Vulcan, find himself in all of this? He would probably be an assimilationist, committed to integrating Vulcan identity into the patchwork of galactic civilization, otherwise why would he have committed himself to Starfleet, or the Federation itself? This commitment would already be present given what we know about Spock's "half-breed" psychology, but the destruction of Vulcan would magnify those feelings and give his actions even greater urgency.

But not every Vulcan would agree with Spock. There would probably be separatist elements, perhaps with a militant mentality. Some would have dedicated themselves to wiping out the Romulans as revenge for Vulcan’s death, notwithstanding counter-arguments that Nero, the man responsible for Vulcan's destruction, was just a "bad apple," not representative of the Romulans as a race. And of course the Vulcans that wanted revenge against the Romulans wouldn’t call it “revenge.” They’d come up with some “logical” euphemism. But that would be their true motivation, and it’s something Spock would have to contend with in his role as a half-Vulcan Starfleet officer, a man who’s under constant pressure to be A Credit to his Race.

Mr. Spock, your destiny is calling

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Isn’t it plausible that by giving his younger self information that he would otherwise not be privy to, old Spock actually changes the future? We know that the universe of "Star Trek" has a relativist approach to time, not determinist. By implying a future friendship, could the old Spock be actually affecting — perhaps even dooming — that bond? Heisenberg’s uncertainty principal would suggest so. How would Spock, now the true hero of "Star Trek," deal with such a dilemma?

This line of argument also suggests a more fundamental difference between classic "Trek" and the reboot. In the original version, destiny does not play a part. The ship is called Enterprise, and is the vessel to uncover hitherto unknown possibilities. The reboot errs strictly on the side of destiny. The crew of the Enterprise is destined to be together; Kirk and Spock are destined to be best friends; the Enterprise is destined to encounter Khan. But if all these conceits, previously established in the original Trek universe, are destined to happen, how, then, would they be affected by the destruction of Vulcan? And how would Spock, as the real hero of this incarnation of "Star Trek," surmount these personal, philosophical, and physical challenges?

These are logical questions with potentially fascinating answers.

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“No, that kind of stock I don’t buy. They are usually very, very expensive. A lot of people like to buy expensive stocks like that, but I do not,” said Rogers, a widely followed investor who has published several books on investing, co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros, and more recently is the creator of the Rogers Global Resources Equity Index.

Reports suggest Facebook could file its papers for an initial public offering on Wednesday, one that could be the largest Internet offering ever, with the social media giant hoping to raise upwards of $10 billion. Such an IPO would value the company at more than $100 billion.

Rogers told CNBC that the timing of an IPO this week would be a smart move by Facebook.

“It’s been demonstrated many, many times before that sellers are usually smarter than the buyers, and they usually know when the best time to sell is, and Facebook is doing it,” he said.

However, he said he would be interested in broader technology stocks, but is currently short the sector.

“I am interested in technology in some shape or form, but I can’t imagine buying any of them. They are a bit hot these days and they have been for two or three months, so that’s why I am short. I don’t buy high-priced stocks,” Rogers said.

US Public ‘Saps’

Turning to the broader US economy, Rogers said the United States looks and feels better because the government is throwing money at it.


Continued use of drones a barrier to global peace, says Ramsey Clark.

KARACHI: Former Attorney General of United States of America Ramsey Clark on Monday urged the Pakistani media to be more forthright in preaching “the criminality of US drones”.

Speaking as chief guest at an award ceremony of the Pakistan American Democratic Forum, Clark stated that the US should cease using this ‘vicious’ technology, adding that the use of drones is primarily a US innovation in warfare and their use is a violation of all international laws.

The former US attorney general went on to say that there will be no peace on earth with the looming threat of drone attacks from one country to another.

‘Free Afia Siddiqui’

Earlier, Ramsey Clark said that he came to Pakistan after 20 years with a singular purpose of raising his voice over the injustice meted to Dr Afia Siddiqui.

“She was kidnapped from your country. It should not have happened, should not be allowed to happen, she lost her youngest child in the kidnapping bid, and was tried and convicted for no fault” he said.

Ramsey Clark categorized Afia Siddiqui’s case as “tragic” and “outrageous”, and stressed the importance of her release and return to Pakistan.

The former US Attorney General cut short a meeting with the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry at the Karachi Registry of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to attend this award ceremony at Karachi Press Club.

Dr Fouzia Siddiqui of the Dr Afia Movement in her brief address thanked Karachi-based journalists for their support in the movement for the release of Dr Afia Siddiqui. She attributed the release of Dr Afia’s daughter and son from US captivity to the efforts made by the journalists of Karachi who, she said, duly highlighted the plight of Dr Afia’s family.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2012.

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Less than a week after CBS let the cat out of the bag on its own iPad HTML5 tests, more media companies appear to boarding the HTML5 video train. Video services company Brightcove announced Monday morning that it will support HTML5 for its customers, offering "high quality, interactive, and advertising-supported Web video experiences for HTML5-compatible devices." Two major Brightcove clients, the New York Times and Time Inc., are participating launch partners, meaning that these two sources will have the option of ditching Flash in some cases in order to be more iPad compatible.

Brightcove's announcement comes just days before the iPad launch, and the company makes no attempt to hide the fact that this is a major reason for the HTML5 support. More than 1,000 Brightcove customers will be able to "easily expand the reach of their online video initiatives to popular consumer devices including the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch," wrote the company. Brightcove currently provides support for device detection, playlist rendering, and playback of H.264 content, but plans to add support for customization, advertising, analytics, social sharing, and other features over the next year.

With such major names as the New York Times and Time on board, it's pretty clear that media companies aren't holding out hope that Apple and Adobe will kiss and make up. Like CBS, it's likely that they'll keep using Flash on their normal websites while allowing iPhone OS devices to access the HTML5 versions of the videos—at least for a while. The remaining questions are when can we expect Hulu to hop on the HTML5 train, and will Netflix reconsider its stance on bringing its own streaming videos (via Silverlight) to the iPad?


'Twitter is a playground and the website is the office," says Reverend Stuart Campbell, when asked whether he is a wind-up merchant.

Campbell is the founder of Wings Over Scotland, a controversial pro-independence site that gets an astonishing 4.5 million page views a month.

Born in Stirling, he moved to Bath in 1991 for a job at a computer magazine and became a notorious reviewer of video games. He has lived in Somerset ever since.

The 46-year-old is also a long-term supporter of Scottish independence, but the issue only became pressing for him when the SNP's landslide Holyrood victory in 2011 made a referendum a certainty.

Wings, known for its abrasive take on Scottish politics - one Tory MSP was described as "fat troughing scum" - was started six months after Alex Salmond's historic victory.

"I was looking around for Scottish politics websites to follow ... and they weren't doing the job," he explains, sitting in a friend's house in Keynsham, outside Bath. "It became fairly rapidly obvious that nobody was doing the thing that I thought needed to be done."

Other than giving readers what he describes as the "facts" about independence, Wings also attempts to shine a light on newspapers' alleged bias.

In a podcast interview last year, Campbell said he wanted to "shame" the mainstream press and ensure newspapers did their job in a "more even-handed way".

Does he think newspapers have a duty to be even-handed? "No is the short answer. They don't have a duty to. I think they should be."

Newspaper stories, I say, are required to be accurate, not even-handed. Surely you are asking something of newspapers that they were never set up to deliver?

"They are perfectly at liberty to do that [not being even-handed] but if they're going to do that then they should expect that we will highlight that." Would he be sad if the Daily Mail closed? "No." How about The Scotsman? "No."

Like Guido Fawkes and the US-based Drudge report, Wings is an internet phenomenon: on top of 4.5 million page views, 250,000 unique users visit the site every month. Campbell works around 14 hours a day on the site and is the poster boy for a certain type of online independence campaigner.

And yet, Yes Scotland - the official campaign group for independence -won't touch Wings with a barge pole. Yes recently ordered a local group to stop distributing leaflets that endorsed the website.

A senior Yes figure told the Sunday Herald that the reason for this distance can be summed up in one word: Hillsborough.

In September 2012, an independent panel confirmed that policing failures, not Liverpool fans, were to blame for a crush that led to the deaths of 96 people.

But on the day after the panel issued its findings, Campbell wrote a piece that pointed the finger squarely at Liverpool fans: "The police's mendacious attempts to blame the fans for being drunk, late or ticketless were red herrings. The reality is much simpler, and required no lying - the fans were to blame because they, alone, were the ones who pushed and thereby caused the crush."

Campbell now says of the article: "Some people are upset at some of my personal views. I struggle to see what conceivable relevance they [his views] are. I stand absolutely by the stuff that I've written about Hillsborough."

But the panel said a lack of police control was to blame, not Liverpool fans.

"The inquiry has a very specific definition of blame. Listen, this isn't something that I particularly want to get into here. As I say, it's nothing to do with Scottish politics."

It's the reason people in Yes won't deal with him: "The bottom line is I don't particularly care if people don't want to be associated with us."

Does he regret publishing it? "No. As far as I am concerned, it is true." However, it would be wrong to say that Yes Scotland has had absolutely no contact with Campbell.

Asked whether he had ever spoken to Yes chief executive Blair Jenkins, Campbell said: "I have spoken to Blair on a number of occasions."

When was the last time? "I'm not particularly sure I want to reveal that."

Wings has also attracted money, with fundraisers reeling in nearly £150,000 from supporters.

As a result, Wings registered as a referendum campaigner, which means the source of donations over £7500 has to be declared.

The website received a £10,000 donation from a supporter, but this has not shown up on the register. He says the £10,000 will be spent after the referendum, which falls outwith the rules.

So who is the donor?

"It was somebody who did appear on the Electoral Commission's list of donors that was published the other week," he says. Campbell declines to name the donor, but he rules out tycoon Brian Souter and lottery winners Colin and Chris Weir.

Looking ahead to September 18, the Wings founder says he has "no idea" what the result will be.

However, he worries about the effect of a No vote: "The psychological damage to Scotland as a whole will be enormous."

One remaining mystery is Campbell's use of the word "Rev" before his name.

He does not have a university qualification, but he says he became a reverend in the 1990s.

Does he do weddings? "I have not done weddings."

Funerals? "No."

Does he believe in God? "Things evolve."

He says he uses Rev because a stalker used to edit his Wikipedia page in a way that directed people to a different Stuart Campbell who was a murderer.

Campbell is an IT-literate troublemaker who has a long history of winding people up. A combination of the referendum, the internet and an edgy electorate has given him the perfect canvas.


The Football Association has announced that Alan Wiley will replace Merseyside official Mike Dean as referee for the FA Cup final between Liverpool and West Ham next month.

The 45-year-old Wiley took charge of this season's Carling Cup final between Manchester United and Wigan and replaces Dean due to the FA's policy of not using officials who come from the same area as one of the teams in question. "The decision was taken following Liverpool's semi-final victory on Saturday," read an FA statement, contradicting an FA spokesman's earlier claim that, "he's [Dean] been appointed, and that's not going to change."

The statement continuted: "We have complete faith in Mike Dean's refereeing ability, integrity and impartiality. However, given the huge interest in all aspects of the FA Cup final, the fact that he is from the Wirral might lead to comment and debate which would place him under undue additional pressure.

"The decision has been taken with the best interests of Mike Dean and the competition in mind. At the age of 37, Mike Dean is still young enough to referee a future FA Cup final." The final will be held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on May 13.


Pony is a new programming language described on their site as "an open-source, object-oriented, actor-model, capabilities-secure, high performance programming language."

It has some interesting features and is different enough to existing popular programming languages to make it a nice diversion to experiment with. Some features include:

lightweight actor based concurrency with M:N threading, mapping multiple language level threads to operating system threads.

strong static typing with generics

data-race free. The type system ensures at compile time that a concurrent program can never have data races.

deadlock free. There are no locking mechanisms exposed to the user so there are no deadlocks.

capabilities exposed to the type system to allow compile time enforcing of such things as objects that have no other references to it, immutable values, reference values, etc.

lightweight C FFI

This post is an outline of my initial experiments with the languages including pitfalls to be aware of.

Installing

Pony can be installed from git and run from the build directory:

$ git clone https://github.com/CausalityLtd/ponyc $ cd ponyc $ make config=release $ export PATH=`pwd`/build/release:$PATH $ ponyc --help

Run tests with:

$ make config=release test

Some of the Pony standard packages dynamically load shared libraries. If they're not installed this will be reflected in build failures during the tests. The required libraries on a Linux based machine are openssl and pcre2-8 . To build Pony itself llvm version 3.6 needs to be installed. There is an llvm37 branch on github that works on Linux but is awaiting some llvm37 fixes before it is merged into master .

Pony can be installed in a default location, or using prefix to install it somewhere else:

$ make config=release prefix=/home/user/pony install

One catch is that running ponyc requires it to find the Pony runtime library libponyrt.a for linking purposes. This might not be found if installed somewhere that it doesn't expect. This can be resolved by setting the environment variable LIBRARY_PATH to the directory where libponyrt.a resides. I had to do this for the Nix Pony package.

Compiling Pony programs

A basic "Hello World" application looks like:

actor Main new create(env: Env) => env.out.print("hello world")

Place this in a main.pony file in a directory and compile:

$ mkdir hello $ cat >hello/main.pony actor Main new create(env: Env) => env.out.print("hello world") $ ponyc hello $ ./hello1 hello world

ponyc requires a directory as an argument and it compiles the *.pony files in that directory. It generates an executable based on the directory name, with a number appended if needed to prevent a name clash with the directory. The program starts executing by creating a Main actor and passing it an Env object allowing access to command line arguments, standard input/output, etc. The Main actor can then create other actors or do whatever required for program execution.

Actors

Actors are the method of concurrency in Pony. An actor is like a normal object in that it can have state and methods. It can also have behaviours . A behaviour is a method that when called is executed asynchronously. It returns immediately and is queued to be run on an actor local queue. When the actor has nothing to do (not running an existing method or behaviour) it will pop the oldest queued behaviour and run that. An actor can only run one behaviour at a time - this means there needs to be no locking within the behaviour since access to actor local state is serialized. For this reason it's useful to think of an actor as a unit of sequential execution. Parallelism is achieved by utilising multiple actors.

To compare the difference between a standard object and an actor I'll use the following program:

class Logger let _env: Env let _prefix: String new create(env: Env, prefix: String) => _env = env _prefix = prefix fun log(msg: String, delay: U32) => @sleep[I32](delay) _env.out.print(_prefix + ": " + msg) actor Main new create(env: Env) => let l1 = Logger.create(env, "logger 1") let l2 = Logger.create(env, "logger 2") l1.log("one", 3) l2.log("two", 1) l1.log("three", 3) l2.log("four", 1)

This creates a class called Logger that on construction takes an Env to use to output log messages and a string prefix to prepend to a message. It has a log method that will log a message to standard output after sleeping for a number of seconds given by delay . The unusual syntax for the sleep call is the syntax for calling the sleep C function using the Pony FFI. I'll cover this later.

The Main actor creates two loggers and logs twice to each one with a different delay. As a standard object using class is not asynchronous running this will result in a delay of three seconds, outputting the first log line, a delay of one second, outputting the second line, a delay of three seconds, outputting the third line and finally a delay of one second, outputting the final line. Everything happens on the single Pony thread that runs the Main actor's create constructor. Pony runs this on a single operating system thread. Total elapsed time is the sum of the delays.

Compile and build with:

$ mkdir clogger $ cat >clogger/main.pony ..contents of program above... $ ponyc clogger $ time ./clogger1 logger 1: one logger 2: two logger 1: three logger 2: four real 0m8.093s user 0m0.116s sys 0m0.132s

Changing the Logger class to an actor and making the log method a behaviour will result in the logging happen asynchronously. The changes are:

actor Logger let _env: Env let _prefix: String new create(env: Env, prefix: String) => _env = env _prefix = prefix be log(msg: String, delay: U32) => @sleep[I32](delay) _env.out.print(_prefix + ": " + msg)

Nothing else in the program changes. I've just changed class to actor and fun to be . Now when the Main actor calls log it will add the behaviour call to the actor's queue and immediately return. Each Logger instance is running in its own Pony thread and will be mapped to an operating system thread if possible. On a multiple core machine this should mean each actor's behaviour is running on a different core.

Compiling and running gives:

$ mkdir alogger $ cat >alogger/main.pony ..contents of program above... $ ponyc alogger $ time ./alogger1 logger 2: two logger 2: four logger 1: one logger 1: three real 0m6.113s user 0m0.164s sys 0m0.084s

Notice that the total elapsed time is now six seconds. This is the sum of the delays in the calls to log in the first Logger instance. The second instance is running on another OS thread so executes in parallel. Each log call immediately returns and is queued to run. The delays on the second Logger instance are shorter so they appear first. They two log calls on the second Logger run sequentially as behaviours on a single actor instance are executed in order. The log calls for the first Logger instance run after their delay, again sequentially for the calls within that actor.

Capabilities

Pony uses reference capabilities to allow safe concurrent access to objects. In practice this means annotating types with a tag to indicate how 'sharable' an object is. For data to be passed to another actor it must be safe for that actor to use without data races. Reference capabilities allow enforcing this at compile time. There are defaults for most types so you don't need to annotate everything. Notice that none of the examples I've done so far use any capability annotations. I'll go through a few examples here but won't be exhaustive. The Pony tutorial has coverage of the combinations and defaults.

val and ref

A val capability is for value types. They are immutable and therefore anyone can read from them at any time. val objects can be passed to actors and used concurrently. Primitives like U32 are val by default. This is why none of the primitive arguments to behaviours in the previous examples needed annotation.

A ref capability is for references to mutable data structures. They can be read from and written to and have multiple aliases to it. You can't share these with other actors as that would potentially cause data races. Classes are ref by default.

This is an example of passing a val to another actor:

actor Doer be do1(n: U32) => None actor Main new create(env: Env) => let a = Doer.create() let n: U32 = 5 a.do1(n)

As U32 is a primitive it defaults to a val reference capability. It is immutable and can be read by anyone at any time so this compiles without problem. This example fails to compile however:

class Foo let n: U32 = 5 actor Doer be do1(n: Foo) => None actor Main new create(env: Env) => let a = Doer.create() let b = Foo.create() a.do1(b)

The error is:

main.pony:5:13: this parameter must be sendable (iso, val or tag) be do1(n: Foo) => ^

class defaults to the ref capability which can be read, written and aliased. It can't be used to send to another actor as there's no guarantee that it won't be modifed by any other object holding a reference to it. The iso and tag capabilities mentioned in the error message are other capability types.

iso is for single references to data structures that can be read and written too. The type system guarantees that only one reference exists to the object. It is short for 'isolated'.

tag is for identification only. Objects of capability tag cannot be read from or written too. They can only be used for object identity or, if they are an Actor, calling behaviours on them. Actors default to tag capabilities. Calling behaviours is safe as behaviour running is serialized for the actor instance and they don't return data.

To get the previous example to work we can force the Foo object to be of type val if it can be immutable:

class Foo let n: U32 = 5 actor Doer be do1(n: Foo val) => None actor Main new create(env: Env) => let a = Doer.create() let b: Foo val = Foo.create() a.do1(b)

ref and iso

Let's modify the example so we can change the value of the Foo object to demonstrate moving a mutable reference from one actor to another:

class Foo var n: U32 = 5 fun ref set(m: U32) => n = m fun print(env: Env) => env.out.print(n.string()) actor Doer be do1(env:Env, n: Foo iso) => n.print(env) actor Main new create(env: Env) => let a = Doer.create() let b = Foo.create() a.do1(env, b)

In this example the do1 behaviour now requires an iso reference capability. As mentioned previously, iso means only one reference to the object exists therefore it is safe to read and write. But where we create the instance of Foo we have a reference to it in the variable b . Passing it as an argument to do1 effectively aliases it. The compile time error is:

main.pony:18:16: argument not a subtype of parameter a.do1(env, b) ^ main.pony:11:19: parameter type: Foo iso be do1(env:Env, n: Foo iso) => main.pony:18:16: argument type: Foo iso! a.do1(env, b) ^

This error states that do1 requires a Foo iso parameter whereas it is being passed a Foo iso! . The ! at the end means that it is an alias to another variable. Even though class objects are ref by default, Pony has inferred the capability for b as iso as we didn't declare a type for b and we are passing it to a function that wants an iso . However as it has an alias it can't be used as an iso therefore it's an error.

One way of avoiding the aliasing is to pass the result of the create call directly:

actor Main new create(env: Env) => let a = Doer.create() a.do1(env, Foo.create())

There is no alias here so it compiles fine.

If we do want to have an initial reference to it, say to set a value first, we can tell the type system that we are consuming the existing reference and will no longer use it. This is what the consume keyword is for:

actor Main new create(env: Env) => let a = Doer.create() let b = Foo.create() b.set(42) a.do1(env, consume b) // b.set(0)

This now compiles. Uncommenting out the use of b after the do1 call will be a compile error as we've consumed b and it no longer exists. In this case the error owuld be:

main.pony:20:5: can't use a consumed local in an expression b.set(0) ^ main.pony:20:6: invalid left hand side b.set(0)

consume is more often used for passing iso objects around. To pass it to another object you need to consume the existing reference to it. This becomes problematic if you are consuming a field of an object. Modifying the example so that the Foo is stored as a field of Main shows the problem:

actor Main var b: Foo iso = Foo.create() new create(env: Env) => let a = Doer.create() b.set(42) a.do1(env, consume b)

The error is:

main.pony:20:16: consume must take 'this', a local, or a parameter a.do1(env, consume b) ^

b can't be consumed as it's a field of Main . It can't be left consumed - it must have a valid Foo iso object stored in it. In Pony assignment returns the old value of the variable being assigned too. This allows assigning a new value to the field and returning the old value in one operation and avoiding leaving the field in an invalid state:

new create(env: Env) => let a = Doer.create() b.set(42) a.do1(env, b = Foo.create())

b gets a new value of a new instance of Foo and do1 gets passed the old value.

There's a lot more to capabilities and the capabilities section of the tutorial covers a lot. Although there are sane defaults it feels like that 'capability tutorials' will be the Pony equivalent of 'Monad tutorials' in other languages for a while. When I first was learning ATS I spent a lot of time floundering with function annotations to get things to compile, trying random changes, until I learnt how it worked. I'm probably at that stage with capabilities at the moment and I hope it becomes clearer as I write more Pony programs.

Pattern Matching

Pony has many of the concepts of most modern functional programming languages. Matching on values is allowed:

let x: U32 = 2 match x | 1 => "one" | 2 => "two" else "3" end

Union types with capturing:

type Data is (U32 | String | None) .... match x | None => "None" | 1 => "one" | let u: U32 => "A number that is not one: " + u.string() | let s: String => "A string: " + s end

Enumerations are a bit verbose in that you have to use primitive to define each variant of the enumeration first:

primitive Red primitive Blue primitive Green type Colour is (Red | Blue | Green) ... let x: Colour = Red match x | Red => "Red" | Blue => "Blue" | Green => "Green" end

C FFI

Pony has an easy to use C FFI. I showed an example of this previously:

@sleep[I32](delay)

The @ signifies that this is a C FFI function call. The type in the backets is the return type of the C function call. The types of the arguments must match what the actual C function expects. Errors here will crash the program. Pony allows specifying the type of an FFI function in advance so argument types are checked. For sleep it would be:

use @sleep[I32](n: U32) ... @sleep(10)

Note that it's no longer necessary to specify the return type at the call point as it's already been defined in the declaration.

If the C function is part of a library already linked into the Pony executable then there is no need use a statement to define the library file to link against. sleep is part of libc so it isn't needed. In the cases where you need to link against a specific library then the use statement is used in this manner:

use "lib:foo"

The addressof keyword is used to pass pointers to C code. It can be used for passing out parameters of primitives types:

var n: U32 = 0 @dosomething[None](addressof n) env.out.print("Result: " + n.string())

Callbacks

The FFI allows passing Pony functions to C for the C code to later call back. The syntax for this looks like:

let foo = Foo.create() @callmeback[None](addressof foo.method, foo)

Calling C code example

A working example for the following C function in a cbffi.c file:

void do_callback(void (*func)(void* this, char* s), void* this) { func(this, "hello world"); }

The Pony code to use this is:

use "lib:cbffi" class Foo let prefix: String let env: Env new create(e: Env, p: String) => prefix = p env = e fun display(msg: Pointer[U8]) => env.out.print(prefix + ":" + String.copy_cstring(msg)) actor Main new create(env: Env) => let foo = Foo.create(env, "From Pony") @do_callback[None](addressof foo.display, foo)

Note that the display function takes a Pointer[U8] as an argument. Pointer[U8] is a generic type with U8 being the parameter. In this case it is the C string that the C function passes. Pony String types are an object with fields so C doesn't pass it directly. The String type has a couple of constructor functions that take Pointer[U8] as input and return a Pony String - the one used here, copy_cstring , makes a copy of the C string passed in.

Compile with:

$ mkdir cb $ cat >cb/main.pony ...Pony code... $ cat >cb/cbffi.c ...C code... $ gcc -fPIC -shared -o libcbffi.so cb/cbffi.c $ LIBRARY_PATH=. ponyc cb $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./cb1 From Pony:hello world

Here LIBRARY_PATH is set to find the shared library during compiling and linking. To run the generated executable LD_LIBRARY_PATH is used to find the shared library at runtime.

It's also possible to link against static C libraries:

$ rm libcbffi.so $ gcc -c -o libcbffi.o cb/cbffi.c $ ar -q libcbffi.a libcbffi.o $ LIBRARY_PATH=. ponyc cb $ ./cb1 From Pony:hello world

Things to look out for

While writing Pony code I came across a couple of things to be aware of. Each actor has their own garbage collector but it runs only between behaviour calls. If a behaviour runs for a long time, never calling another actor behaviour, then it can be a while before garbage is collected. An example of where this can happen is a simple Main actor where everything is done in the default constructor and never calls another actor. Benchmarks can be an example here. No GC will occur and you can get an OOM (Out of Memory) situation.

Another is that there is no backpressure handling for behaviour calls on an actor. The message queues are unbounded so if a producer sends messages to an actor at a faster rate than it processes them then it will eventually OOM. This can occur if you have the message sender tied to an external process. For example a TCP listener that uses sockets and translates the data to a message to an actor. If the external users of the TCP interface (a webserver for example) are sending data faster than the actor handling the messages then OOM will occur. Slides from the Pony developers indicates that backpressure is on their radar to look at.

As usual with a new programming language there is a lack of libraries and library documentation. Expect to look through the Pony source code to find examples of how to do things. The tutorial is great though - even though parts are incomplete - and is on github.

There is a --docs command line argument that can be used to parse docstrings in Pony libraries and produce documentation in markdown format. For example:

$ cd packages $ ponyc --docs collections $ ls collections-docs/

Conclusion

This has only been a quick overview of some features of Pony. There's more too it. Some places to get more Pony information:


An overtaxed bullpen forced the Rockies into a slew of moves Wednesday, as they optioned first-baseman Wilin Rosario to Triple-A Albuquerque to make room for relief pitcher John Axford.

Right-hander Scott Oberg was also recalled to the Rockies, while LaTroy Hawkins was placed on the disabled list with a biceps injury.

Rosario will play every day for the Isotopes at first base. The Rockies sent him down to make room for Axford. Several short outings from their starting pitching staff in recent games put pressure on the Rockies’ bullpen, and they need relief reinforcement.

Rosario was not happy about the move.

“I don’t feel good,” Rosario said. “I’d be lying to you if I said that. I need to be here. I’m playing at a big-league level.”

Rosario, who was converted from starting catcher into a back-up first baseman in the offseason, is hitting .357 with three doubles in 14 at-bats this season.

“I feel really good swinging,” Rosario said. “It’s something I can do, is hit. Whether they play me here or not play me every day, when I get an opportunity, the time that I do get, I play well. I give the team a chance to win.”

The Rockies on Monday got just two innings from starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa, then five more from Tyler Matzek on Tuesday — both losses to the Padres at Coors Field. Their relief corps took on too much work in too short a span.

So the Rockies will move forward with an eight-man bullpen.

“Our hands were tied on this one,” manager Walt Weiss said. “It was really the only possible move we could make… The bullpen is what needs protecting at the moment.”

Axford returns from the restricted list after missing 10 days while caring for his 2-year-old son, who is recovering from a rattlesnake bite. His son, Jameson, returned home Wednesday exactly one month after he was rushed to a Phoenix-area hospital. He’s since been moved to Denver and is using a wheelchair while his foot recovers from the bite.

“I’ve kept myself prepared and game-ready this entire time,” Axford said.

Oberg will return after he was optioned to Triple-A on Monday. He allowed three home runs against the Dodgers in inning Sunday in a 7-0 loss.

Hawkins, the team’s former closer, pitched one scoreless inning Tuesday. But a lingering bicep injury forced him to the 15-day DL.

“This gives him some time to recover,” Weiss said.

Looking ahead

Padres’ Tyson Ross (1-0, 4.08 ERA) at Rockies’ Jordan Lyles (1-1, 3.50), 1:10 p.m. Thursday, no TV; 850 AM

Through three turns of the rotation, Lyles has been the Rockies’ best pitcher in the early going. His ERA doesn’t match Eddie Butler or Tyler Matzek. But he stays in games, throwing six innings each game so far. In his best outing — in a 6-5 loss to the Cubs in Denver — Lyles allowed just one run and struck out three. He’s 5-1 all time at Coors Field with a 4.70 ERA. But he’s just 1-3 with a 6.30 ERA against the Padres.

Friday: Giants’ Chris Heston (2-1, 0.87 ERA) at Rockies’ Eddie Butler (1-1, 2.25), 6:40 p.m., ROOT

Saturday: Giants’ Tim Hudson (0-2, 3.93) at Rockies’ Jorge De La Rosa (0-1, 31.50), 6:10 p.m., ROOT

Sunday: Giants’ Tim Lincecum (1-1, 2.00) at Rockies’ Tyler Matzek (1-0, 2.40), 2:10 p.m., ROOT

Nick Groke, The Denver Post


Harry and Leia and the BBC Proms (Picture: Getty Images)

Harry Potter, Princess Leia, E.T. and Indiana Jones will be joining the BBC Proms for the first time in 2017 as part of a celebration of John Williams’ 85th birthday.

Netflix has changed The Notebook’s ending and people are really, really angry

The BBC Concert Orchestra will pay tribute to the award-winning and iconic film composer John Williams with a selection of his most famous film scores, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Jaws.

‘Will people come dressed as Star Wars characters? I’d be really disappointed if they don’t,’ said Proms director David Pickard after the news was revealed.

Luke, Leia, and Han (Picture: Disney)

Performances during the annual classical music festival will also for the first time take place outside of London, with three performances planned in Hull, the 2017 City Of Culture.

‘I thought it was important, most specifically this year, to mark Hull as a City of Culture,’ said David.

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‘I was also looking to expand the initiative we took last year of taking some Proms out of the Albert Hall.’

The BBC Proms (Picture: BBC/: Mark Allan)

Elsewhere the festival will 100 years since the births of Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie with a concert starring vocalist Dianne Reeves and trumpeter James Morrison.

Ella Fitzgerland (Picture: BBC)

The music of jazz giant Charles Mingus will be celebrated by conductor Jules Buckley, while BBC Radio 2 presenter Clare Teal returns with bandleaders Guy Barker and Winston Rollins for a concert celebrating big band legends including Duke Ellington, and Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra pay tribute to the legendary Stax/Volt Revue, credited for its championing of Southern and Memphis soul music.

MORE: BBC Proms presenter Katie Derham is Strictly Come Dancing’s fifth contestant

MORE: Expect thunderous applause for Joseph Calleja at the BBC Proms


The Monday Morning Quarterback | A quick analysis of important economic data released over the past week

U.S. Snapshot

The government shutdown weighed heavily on the minds of consumers as the confidence index dropped from 80.2 in September to 71.2 in October. The index now stands below levels reached a year ago.

National retail sales for September declined 0.1% from last month, but, are 3.2% above a year ago. This is a sign of weakness going into the Christmas season.

Sales of light vehicles and trucks fell a sharp 5.2% in September following a 1.9% rise in August. The drop was led by domestic trucks, down 7.5%. Domestic cars were down 5.1%. Import autos were down only 1.8%.

Consumer prices were up 0.2% in September vs. August and now stand a modest 1.2% over a year ago. This is good news and bad news. The bad news is that the modest increases are below the Fed target of 2.0% and reflect very weak domestic demand.

Growth in industrial production topped expectations in September. But, it was all about atypically cool weather. Manufacturing was still flat. Overall, industrial production was up 0.6% following a rise of 0.4% in August. The gain was primarily due to a surge in utilities as cool weather boosted utility demand.

Capacity utilization rose to 78.3% from 77.9% in September. While this is an improvement, it is still below the 80% that has historically been associated with increases in plant spending.

According to the Institute for Supply Management, manufacturing expanded in October for the fifth consecutive month and the overall economy grew for the 53rd consecutive month.

Pending home sales declined for the fourth consecutive month in September as higher mortgage interest rates and higher home prices curbed buying power. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward looking indicator based on contract signings, fell 5.6% to 101.6 in September from a downwardly revised 107.6 in August. The index is at the lowest level since December 2012.

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, home prices continued to climb nationally. Both the 10 and 20-city indices were up 12.8% over a year ago and 1.3% in August vs. July.

Arizona Snapshot

According to data compiled by Fletcher Wilcox and the Cromford Report, it appears the major disruptions in the Greater Phoenix home market is near an end. September foreclosure starts were below 2006 levels. Auctioned properties were the lowest since 2006. Short sales were the lowest since 2007. Virtually every indicator of disruption was down significantly.

According to CBRE, the Greater Phoenix office market continues to improve. For all three quarters of 2013 reported, absorptions significantly exceeded change in inventory. Thus, vacancy rates are down 1.7 percentage points over the last year. While vacancies are still very high by historic standards, they are moving in the right direction. The same is true in retail markets where vacancies are down 0.8 percentage points over the past year and are approaching 10%. Industrial markets are more mixed as change in inventory for the first three quarters of the year exceeded absorption by over 1 million square feet.


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Something notable took place on the streets of London after the attack on Westminster Bridge which was carried out by Khalid Masood.

The usual picture has been that after a major terrorist attack, there is a corresponding significant peak and rise in anti-Muslim hatred. After Westminster, we did not see what was expected and there was no major peak in anti-Muslim hatred picked up across the country. If there was, our work within Tell MAMA would have immediately been alerted to this.

This raises some interesting questions. What was there about this terrible incident that did not create major ramifications for cohesion and policing within our country? What was done on this occassion to reduce possible impacts on communities and which also impacted on the frequency of anti-Muslim hate crime incidents across the country – with no major peak after what was a major terrorist incident? This is the first major terrorist incident in the last 3 years where there has not been a significant rise and peak in anti-Muslim hatred.

We understand that some groups put out messages asking people to significantly change behaviour patterns on the assumption of a major anti-Muslim backlash. We believe that such advice, (given no large scale backlash after the Westminster terrorist murders), was counter-productive and was not borne out with evidence on this occassion. Such advice may also impact heavily on the confidence of the more vulnerable in communities and we ask that agencies reflect on the messaging that they put out.

What we can say though is that the capital still remains resilient against major community divisions and that the lives of Londoners as whole were not significanty impacted upon because of the terrorist attack. There are times when we can feel a sense of hope and the last week provides us with a real window of hope. London truly is a great city.


Somalia had every reason to succeed: an advantageous geographical situation, oil, ores and only one religion and one language for the whole territory; a rare phenomenon in Africa. Somalia could have been a great power in the region. But the reality is completely different: famine, wars, lootings, piracy, bomb attacks. How did this country sink? Why has there been no Somali government for approximately twenty years? Which scandals stand behind those pirates who hijack our ships? In this new chapter of our series “Understanding the Muslim World”, Mohamed Hassan explains for us why and how imperialist forces have applied in Somalia a chaos theory.

How did piracy develop in Somalia? Who are those pirates?

Since 1990, there has been no government in Somalia. The country is in the hands of warlords. European and Asiatic ships took advantage of this chaotic situation and fished along the Somali coast without a license or respect for elementary rules. They did not observe the quotas in force in their own country to protect the species and they used fishing techniques –even bombs!- that created huge damages to the wealth of the Somali seas.

That’s not all! Taking also advantage of this lack of any political authority, European companies, with the help of the mafia, dumped nuclear wastes offshore Somali coasts. Europe knew of this but turned a blind eye as that solution presented a practical and economical advantage for the nuclear waste management. Yet, the 2005 Tsunami brought a big part of these wastes into the Somali lands. Unfamiliar diseases appeared for the first time among the population. This is the context in which the piracy mainly developed. Somali fishermen, who had primitive fishing techniques, were no more able to work. So they decided to protect themselves and their seas. This is exactly what the United States did during the civilian war against the British (1756-1763): with no naval forces, President George Washington made a deal with pirates to protect the wealth of the American seas.

No Somali state for almost twenty years! How is that possible?

This is the result of an American strategy. In 1990, the country was bruised by conflicts, famine and lootings; the state collapsed. Facing this situation, the United States, who discovered oil in Somalia a few years ago, launched Operation Restore Hope in 1992. For the first time, US marines intervened in Africa to take control of a country. It was also the first time that a military invasion was launched in the name of humanitarian interference.

The famous rice bag exhibited on a Somali beach by Bernard Kouchner?

Yes, everybody remembers those pictures carefully showcased. But the real reasons were strategic. An US State Department report recommended indeed that the United States must stay the lonely global superpower after the Soviet Bloc collapse. To reach that goal, the report advocated to occupy a hegemonic position in Africa, which enjoys a vast amount of raw materials.

However, Restore Hope will be a failure. There was even that Hollywood movie “Black Hawk Down”, with those poor G.I.’s “attacked by the bad Somali rebels”…

US soldiers were indeed defeated by a Somali nationalist resistance. Since then, American policy was to keep Somalia without any real government, even to balkanize it. This is the old British strategy, already applied in many places: setting weak and divided states in order to better rule them. That is why there has been no Somali state for almost twenty years. The United States has implemented a chaos theory in order to stop any Somali reconciliation and keep the country divided.

In Sudan, due to the civilian war, Exxon has had to leave the country after having discovered oil. So isn’t letting Somalia plunge into chaos contrary to American interests, which cannot exploit the discovered oil?

Oil exploitation is not their priority. The United States know that the reserves are there but doesn’t need it immediately. Two elements are much more important in its strategy. First, prevent the competitors from negotiating with a rich and powerful Somali state. If you consider Sudan, the comparison is interesting. The oil that the American companies discovered there thirty years ago, Sudan is selling it today to China. The same thing could happen in Somalia. When he was president of the transition government, Abdullah Yusuf went to China although he was supported by the United States. US mass media had strongly criticized that visit. The fact is that United States have no guarantee on that point: if a Somali government is established tomorrow, whatever is its political color, it could probably adopt a strategy independent of United States and trade with China. Western imperialists do not want a strong and unified Somali state. The second goal pursued by this chaos theory is linked to the geographical location of Somalia, which is strategic for both European and American imperialists.

Why is it strategic?

The issue is the control of the Indian Ocean. Look at the map. As mentioned, western powers have an important share of the responsibility in the Somali piracy development. But instead of telling the truth and paying compensation for what they did, those powers criminalize the phenomena in order to justify their position in the region. Under the pretext of fighting the piracy, NATO is positioning its navy in the Indian Ocean.

Source: Wikipeda

What is the real goal?

To control the economic development of the emerging powers, mainly India and China. Half of the world’s container traffic and 70% of the total traffic of petroleum products passes through the Indian Ocean. From that strategic point of view, Somalia is a very important place: the country has the longest coast of Africa (3.300 km) and faces the Arabian Gulf and the Straight of Hormuz, two key points of the region economy. Moreover, if a pacific response is brought to the Somali problem, relations between African in one hand, and India and China on the other hand, could develop through the Indian Ocean. Those American competitors could then have influence in that African area. Mozambique, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Zanzibar, South Africa etc. All those countries connected to the Indian Ocean could gain easy access to the Asian market and develop fruitful economic relationship. Nelson Mandela, when he was president of South Africa, had mentioned the need of an Indian Ocean revolution, with new economic relationships. The United States and Europe do not want this project. That is why they prefer to keep Somalia unstable..

You say that the United States does not want Somali reconciliation. But what are the roots of the Somali divisions?

In order to understand this chaotic situation, we must delve into Somali history. This country had been divided by colonial powers. In 1959, Somalia gained independence through the fusion of the Italian colony in the South, and the British colony in the North. But Somalis were also living in some parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The new Somali state adopted a star on its flag, each branch representing one part of the historical Somalia. The message behind that symbol: “Two Somalias have been united, but three are still colonized”.

Facing the legitimacy of those claims, the British – who controlled Kenya-, organized a referendum in the Kenyan area claimed by Somalia. 87% of the population, composed mainly of Somali ethnics, voted for the Somali unity. When the results were published, Jomo Kenyatta, a Kenyan nationalist leader, threatened the British to throw the colonists out if they gave a part of the territory up to Somalia. So Great Britain decided not to take the referendum into account, and today an important Somali community is still living in Kenya. You must understand that those colonial borders were a real disaster in the Somali case. The border issue was besides the object of an important debate among the African continent.

What was the issue of that debate?

In the sixties, as many African countries became independent, there was a debate between what we called the Monrovia and the Casablanca groups. This later, including among others Morocco and Somalia, resolved that the borders inherited from colonialism be discussed. For them, those boundaries had no legitimacy. But most of the African countries and their borders are colonialism products. Finally, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the ancestor of the current African Union, closed the debate by decreeing that the borders were indisputable: going back over those boundaries would provoke civilian wars everywhere on the continent. Later, one of the OAU architects, the Tanzanian Julius Nyerere, confessed that this decision was the best but that he regretted the Somali outcome.

What will be the impact of the colonial divisions on Somalia?

They will create strains with neighboring countries. During those years when Somalia advocated for revising the borders, Ethiopia became a US imperialism bastion. The United States had also military bases in Kenya and Eritrea. At this moment, Somalia, a young pastoral democracy, wished to build its own army. The goal was to not appear weak in front of the armed neighbors, to support Somali movements in Ethiopia and even to regain by force, if necessary, some territories. But the western forces were opposed to the creation of a Somali army.

So Somalia had tense relations with its neighbors. Was it not reasonable to be opposed to this Somali army project? It would have provoked wars, wouldn’t it?

The West did not care about conflicts between Africans but its own interests. The United States and Great Britain were providing and training militaries in Ethiopia, Kenya and Eritrea. Those countries were still under the yoke of very repressive feudal systems. But they were also neocolonial regimes devoted to Western interests. On the other hand, the power in place in Somalia was more democratic and independent. So the West had no interest in providing for a country that could escape its control.

As a consequence, Somalia decided to turn to the Soviet Union. This frightened the Western forces that feared Soviet influence stretching in to Africa. Those fears became more important with the 1969 putsch.

What do you mean?

Socialist ideas were spread in the country. An important Somali community was indeed living in Aden in South Yemen. However, this is where Britain used to exile persons it considered dangerous in India: communists, nationalists and so on. They used to be arrested and sent to Aden where nationalist and revolutionary ideas quickly developed and affected later both Yemenites and Somalis. Under the influence of civilians with Marxist ideas, a coup d’état was led by officers in 1969 and Siad Barre took power in Somalia.

What were the reasons of that coup d’état?

The Somali government was corrupted. He had however the cards in hand to erect the country to the great regional power rank: a strategic position, only one language, one religion and many common cultural elements. This is fairly rare in Africa. But, by missing the economical development of the country, this government has created a context favorable to divisions among clans. Under the pretext of doing politics, Somali elites become divided. Everyone created his own political party, without any real program, and recruited voters among the existing clans. This increased the divisions and turned out to be totally useless. A democracy in a liberal type was in fact unsuitable for Somalia: there were at once 63 political parties for a three million population country! And the government was even not able to adopt an official script, which was creating serious troubles in the administration. Education was weak. Bureaucracy, police and army were, however, established. This later will play a key role in the progressive coup d’état.

“Progressive”! With the army?

The army was the only organized institution in Somalia. As a repressive apparatus, it was supposed to protect the so-called civilian government and the elite. But for many Somalis coming from different families and areas, the army was also an exchange place where there were no borders, no tribalism, no clan divisions. This is how Marxist ideas from Aden circulated among the army. So the coup d’état was led by officers who were most of all nationalist. They did not have a good knowledge of socialism but they had sympathy for those ideas. Moreover, they knew what was happening in Vietnam, and that fed anti-imperialist feelings. The civilians, who knew Marx and Lenin’s teachings lacked a mass political party, supported the coup d’état and become the advisers of the officers who took power.

What changes did the Somali coup d’état bring about?

One important positive aspect: the new government quickly adopted an official script. Likewise, the Soviet Union and China were helping Somalia. The students and the population mobilized themselves. Education and social conditions were enhanced. The years that followed the coup d’état were in fact the best ones that Somalia never knew. That is, until 1977.

What happened?

Somalia, which has been divided by colonial forces, attacked Ethiopia to get the territory of Ogaden back. Ogaden was mainly populated by Somalis. At this time however, Ethiopia was itself a socialist state supported by the Soviets. This country had been led for a long time by Emperor Selassie. But in the seventies, there was an important mobilization to overthrow him. The students’ movement, in which I personally participated, made four major demands. First, to nonviolently and democratically resolve tensions with Eritrea. Secondly, to establish a land reform that would distribute the lands to the peasants. Thirdly, to establish the principle of equality among the nationalities; Ethiopia was a multinational country led by elite who did not represent the diversity. Fourthly, to abolish the feudal system and to establish a democratic state. As in Somalia, the army was the only organized institution in Ethiopia and the civilians joined the officers to overthrow Selassie in 1974.

How did two socialist states, each supported by the Soviet Union, enter conflict?

After the Ethiopian revolution, a delegation including Soviet Union, Cuba and South Yemen organized a round table with Ethiopia and Somalia in order to resolve their contradiction. Castro went to Addis Abeba and Mogadishu. To him, Somali claims were justified. Finally, the Ethiopian delegation agreed to seriously seriously its Somali neighbor’s demands. The two countries made an agreement stipulating that no provocation should happen as long as no decision has been taken. Things seemed to start well but Somalia did not honor the agreement…

Two days after the Ethiopian delegation returned to its country, Henry Kissinger, a former Nixon Secretary of State, turned up to Mogadishu. Kissinger was representing an unofficial organization: the Safari Club that was among others including Shah’s Iran, Mobutu’s Congo, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and French and Pakistani intelligence services. The objective of that organization was to fight against the Soviet infiltration in the Gulf and in Africa. Under the Safari Club pressures and help promises, Siad Barre committed a disastrous strategic mistake of attacking Ethiopia.

What were the consequences of that war?

Soviets left the region. Somalia, still led by Siad Barre, integrated the neocolonial network of the imperialist forces. The country had been seriously damaged by the conflict and the World Bank and the IFM were in charge of “rebuilding” it. This has aggravated infighting among Somali bourgeoisie. Each regional elite wanted to have its own market. They made the divisions among the clans’ worst and contributed to the progressive dislocation of their country up to Siad Barre’s fall in 1990. Since that, any head of state succeeded to him.

But, thirty years after the Ogaden war, the opposite scenario happened: Ethiopia was supported by the United States to attack Somalia…

Yes, as I said, since the Restore Hope failure, United States has preferred to keep Somalia in chaos. However, in 2006, a spontaneous movement developed under the Islamic courts to fight against the local warlords and bring unity to the country. It was a kind of Intifada. In order to stop this movement from rebuilding Somalia, United States decided suddenly to support the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) after having refused to recognize it before. In fact, they realized that their project of a Somalia without effective state was no more possible: a movement – furthermore Islamic!- was about to lead to a national reconciliation. In order to sabotage the Somali unity, United States decided to support the TFG. But this later was lacking any social basis and an army. So the Ethiopian troops, commanded by Washington, attacked Mogadishu to overthrow the Islamic courts.

Did it work?

No, the Ethiopian army was defeated and had to leave Somalia. On their side, the Islamic courts were dispersed in several movements that still control a big part of the country today. As for Abdulla Yusuf’s transitional government, he collapsed and United States replaced it by Sheik Sharif, the former Islamic Court spokesman.

So Sheik Sharif has passed to “the other camp”?

He used to be the Islamic courts spokesman because he is a good orator. But he has no political knowledge. He has no idea what imperialism or nationalism are. That is why western powers took him back. He was the Islamic court’s weak link. Today he chairs a fake government, created in Djibouti. This government has no social base or authority in Somalia. It only exists on the international level because the imperialist forces support it.

In Afghanistan, the United States said they were ready to negotiate with Taliban. Why don’t they look for discussing with the Islamic groups in Somalia?

Because those groups want to take the foreign occupier over and to allow a national reconciliation for the Somali people. As a result, the United States wants to break those groups: a reconciliation, through the Islamic movement or through the TFG, is not in the interests of the imperialist forces. They just want chaos. The problem is that today, this chaos reached Ethiopia too, which is very weak since the 2007 aggression. A nationalist resistance movement came to the light over there to fight against the pro-imperialist government of Addis Ababa. With their chaos theory, United States had in fact created troubles in the whole region. And now, they took it out on Eritrea.

Why?

This little country leads an independent national policy. Eritrea also has a vision for the whole region: the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia) do not need foreign powers’ interference; its wealth should allow it to establish new economical relationship on the basis of mutual respect. According to Eritrea, the region must get it together and its members must be able to discuss about their problems. Of course, this policy frightens United States that fears that other countries follow that example. So they accuse Eritrea of sending weapons to Somalia and instigating troubles in Ethiopia.

Isn’t Eritrea sending weapons in Somalia?

Not even a bullet! This is a pure propaganda as they did against Syria about the Iraqi resistance. Eritrea’s vision catches up with the project of Indian Ocean revolution that we spoke about before. The western powers do not want of that and wish to bring Eritrea back to the circle of the neocolonial states under control, such as Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda.

Are there no terrorist in Somalia?

Imperialist powers have always labeled as terrorists the people who fight for their right. Irishmen were terrorists until they signed an agreement. Abbas was a terrorist. Now, he is a friend.

But we heard about Al Qaeda in Somalia?

Al Qaeda is everywhere, from Belgium to Australia! That invisible Al Qaeda is a logo designed to justify to the public opinion military operations. If United States say to their citizens and soldiers: “We are going to send our troops into the Indian Ocean in order to probably fight against China”, people would be afraid of course. But if you tell them that it is just about fighting piracy and Al Qaeda, it won’t be a problem. The real goal is however different. It consists in setting forces in the Indian Ocean region that will be the theater of major conflicts in the coming years. This is what we will analyze in the next chapter…

Mohamed Hassan is a geopolitics and Arab world specialist. Born in Addis Abeba (Ethiopia), he participated in student movements on the occasion of the socialist revolution of 1974 in his country. He studied political science in Egypt before specializing in public administration in Brussels. As a diplomat for his country of origin, he worked in Washington, Beijing and Brussels. Co-writer of L’Irak sous occupation (EPO, 2003), he has also contributed to books about Arab nationalism, Islamic movements and Flemish nationalism. He is one of the best contemporary experts on the Arab and Muslim world.

Understanding the Muslim World with Mohamed Hassan – Previous chapters:

Yemen: USA are fighting against democracy, not against Al-Qaeda

What should Ahmadinejad do to get the Nobel Price?

Afghanistan – Pakistan: the black hole of the empire

The Darfur crisis: blood, hunger and oil

“Gaza is a normal place with normal people”

How can we explain the success of Hamas ?

To examine the subject in depth, Mohamed Hassan recommends the following publications:

Mohamed Omar, The Road to Zero: Somalia’s Self-Destruction, Haan Publishing,1993

Babu, Abdul, Rahman Mohamed. African Socialism or Socialist Africa? Londres, Zed Press, 1981, 190 p.

Hersi, Ali Abdirahman, The Arab factor in Somali history : the origins and the development of Arab enterprise and cultural influences in the Somali Peninsula, Thesis–University of California, Los Angeles, 1977

Michel Caraël, La ruine du pansomalisme, in Le Monde diplomatique, octobre 1982

Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror,

John K. Cooley, Unholy wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, Pluto Press, 2000

John Drysdale, Whatever Happened to Somalia?, Haan Publishing, 1994

Translation review: Fausto Giudice


Susan Collins dismisses Palin presidential bid

By Rachel Weiner

On Tuesday, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) made headlines for saying Sarah Palin cost Republicans the Senate. (Some analysis of that claim here.) Now Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is throwing cold water on the idea of a Palin 2012 run. She told the Kennebec Journal:

"I think she likes being a celebrity commentator for Fox and a speaker and being able to provide for her family," Collins said. "I think that life appeals to her. It's a lot easier to charge people up than to actually govern."

Collins also argues that moderates like herself will still have power in the new Congress. She says that as soon as he won, Senator-elect Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) called her up to say, "I can't wait to join your Mod Squad."


Skip Holtz has scored his second big win against his alma mater in less than a calendar year.

The South Florida coach will add former Notre Dame defensive end Aaron Lynch to the Bulls' roster in 2012, the school announced Monday.

"With Aaron originally being from Florida, we're very familiar with the kind of player he is," Holtz said in a news release. "Aaron had a great freshman season at Notre Dame and we're excited to welcome him into the Bulls family."

The Irish announced April 13 that Lynch would transfer at the end of the spring semester. Lynch, a Cape Coral, Fla., native, earned freshman All-American honors in 2011, recording team bests of 5.5 sacks and 14 quarterback hurries, in addition to 33 tackles, seven tackles for loss and a forced fumble. He played in 12 games and started six.

Barring a waiver from the NCAA to play immediately, Lynch will have to sit out the 2012 season.

Lynch's first college game was the Sept. 3 opener against USF, which upset the Irish, 23-20, in South Bend, Ind.

With former Notre Dame and current New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck in town over the weekend to serve as an honorary captain for the Irish's spring game, Lynch's mother, Alice, posted a message to Tuck on Twitter asking him to talk Lynch into staying at Notre Dame. It proved to be too little, too late, as the 6-foot-6, 270-pound Lynch is heading home to Florida.

Holtz, the Bulls' coach, is the son of ESPN analyst and former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz.