The Syracuse Crunch is on the very edge of the Calder Cup playoffs. As of this morning, their magic number for clinching a playoff berth was 4. That number could be lowered to zero if things play out right tonight. According to the AHL's most recent Playoff Primer, the Crunch could clinch a berth tonight if one of the following two scenarios play out:

(a) a regulation or overtime win vs. Binghamton AND an Albany loss (reg/OT/SO) vs. Manchester

OR

(b) a shootout win vs. Binghamton AND an Albany regulation loss vs. Manchester.

Once Syracuse clinches, their next order of business will be to remain atop of the AHL's Northeast Division, something the Crunch has managed to do for the last several weeks. The Crunch is currently 7 points ahead of second-place Hartford, a team Syracuse will play on Friday. As long as that gap stays open, Syracuse will be sitting pretty in one of the top three spots in their Eastern Conference, and will have home ice for the first round of the playoffs.

As the first round is a best-of-three, home ice is pretty important, especially to a Syracuse team that has made a living out of winning in the Onondaga County War Memorial this season. Two seasons ago, the Crunch had home ice for the first round the playoffs, and swept the Portland Pirates to move onto the second round. That season, Syracuse wasn't nearly as proficient and comfortable in the War Memorial as they have been this season. Syracuse could definitely get a leg up in the playoffs with home ice advantage for at least the first round.

Thankfully for the offensively-strapped Crunch, help is on the way. Last week, the Lightning brought Bradyen Point to the Crunch after signing him to an entry-level contract. This week, they've signed another forward who has the potential to jump into the mix immediately and assist Syracuse: Matthew Peca.

Peca was signed by the Lightning to a two-year, two-way contract. He was also signed to an amateur try-out contract (ATO) with the Syracuse Crunch, where he will remain for the remainder of the Crunch's season. It's been reported that Peca will wear number 22 in Syracuse. It is not yet clear whether he will be available for tonight's contest against Binghamton.

Peca has spent the past four years playing for the Quinnipiac University Bobcats, and was recently touted by the New Haven Register as "the best player to ever come through the Hamden campus." Although currently on the small side-Peca is 5-foot-8, 155-pounds-he reportedly doesn't let his size get in the way of playing big. He played in 157 career NCAA games with Quinnipiac, registering 42 goals and 143 points.

His point totals, however, only tell half the story. According to the Register, Peca brings with him a lot of good hockey sense, energy, and an innate desire to sacrifice his body in order to get the win:

But his knack for doing the little things endeared Peca to teammates. Just a shade over 160 pounds, he never shied away from contact in the corners. He was outstanding on face-offs; took countless double-shifts on the penalty kill; devoured minutes in tight games. And his enthusiasm for throwing himself in front of opposing slap shots seemed borderline maniacal.

Peca's signing gives Crunch fans a reason to be optimistic about their forward depth, even without the likes of Vadislav Namestnikov. This is especially helpful since the Crunch's defense is still looking thin while Slater Koekkoek, Luke Witkowski and Nikita Nesterov remain with Tampa. With the AHL playoffs right around the corner for Syracuse, Peca definitely has the chance to jump in and make a difference right away.


The Tudeh Party of Iran, Iran’s communist party, has issued an appeal for “solidarity action with the working people of Iran campaigning for peace and progress” and with the broad Iranian progressive and democratic movement.

Since early January, the party’s Feb. 21 message says, the Ahmadinejad regime “has embarked upon a new wave of repressive measures designed to suffocate the opposition forces demanding a return to the ideals of the 1979 revolution in Iran: democracy, human rights and social justice.”

Thousands of people have been arrested, nearly 100 protesters have been killed either by government security forces during protest demonstrations or under torture in detention centers, and 11 detainees have been condemned to execution, the Tudeh appeal says.

Among those arrested are activists and leaders of Iran’s student movement, trade union movement, women’s movement and well known academics and progressive writers and journalists.

“International solidarity with these victims of suppression in Iran is of vital importance,” the Tudeh Party says. “International pressure on the Iranian regime, to oblige it to abide by the internationally accepted norms and conventions governing treatment of peaceful political protest, needs to be maintained.”

The appeal urges messages to the Iranian government supporting the following demands of communist, left, progressive and democratic organization around the world:

* The Iranian government to abide by the UN Charter and the Universal Convention on Human Rights.

* All death sentences to be commuted to terms of imprisonment decided in a court of law convened in accordance with the laws of natural justice and in which the accused have full access to defense lawyers and are able to defend themselves.

* All those detained to be protected from torture or other ill treatment, to be allowed access to their families, lawyers and any necessary medical treatment, and for them to be brought before a judge without delay so that they may challenge the lawfulness of their detention.

* Anyone held solely for their participation in protest demonstrations or for expressing their views to be released immediately and unconditionally.

* The authorities in Iran to ensure that their policing of any further demonstrations meets international policing standards, including a ban on the use of firearms and other lethal weapons

* An impartial investigation be conducted into the deaths of all those killed.

“The situation is very desperate and the need for international solidarity is great,” the appeal concludes.

The Tudeh Party (Party of the Masses) has a decades-long history of struggle against the shah’s dictatorship and the current theocratic Islamic regime, and has had a mass following with wide support among Iranian trade unionists, intellectuals and artists and others. During that time it has faced vicious persecution, with many of its leaders and members executed under both regimes, and has been forced to work underground and in exile.

Photo: A blood-stained protestor in Iran, June 17, 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/arasmus/ / CC BY 2.0


Vue2 Redux

Vue bindings for for Redux in only 1.06 kB. ⏭

Installation

npm install vue2-redux --save

Setup in project

import Vue from " vue " ; import { VueRedux } from " vue2-redux " ; import App from " ./components/App.vue " ; import Store from " ./store " ; Vue . use ( VueRedux ( Store ) ) ; new Vue ( { el : " #app " , render : h => h ( App ) } ) ;

Using in a component

< template > < div id = " app " > < div v-if = " !username " > Please enter your username </ div > < div v-else > Your username is: {{ username }} </ div > < input @ keyup = " handleUsernameChange " type = " text " /> </ div > </ template > < script > import { connect } from ' vue2-redux ' import { updateUsername } from ' ../actions/User ' const component = { name : " app-container " , methods : { handleUsernameChange ( { target : { value } } ) { this . updateUsername ( value ) } } } const mapState = state => ( { username : state . User . username } ) const mapDispatch = dispatch => ( { updateUsername : nextUsername => dispatch ( updateUsername ( nextUsername ) ) } ) export default connect ( mapState , mapDispatch ) ( component ) </ script >

Special note

This WILL NOT work if your .babelrc has:

{ " presets " : [ [ " env " ] , { " modules " : false } ] }

This MUST BE changed to:


Dear Audi,

We’re very much looking forward to welcoming you to the Formula E paddock as a full works team, although the world of racing will indeed be a poorer place without your marvellous prototype machines.

Since 1999, you have pushed the boundaries of what we believed to be possible when it came to motor racing. You bucked the trend by switching to diesel power at Le Mans in 2006 – and won. You did it again by becoming the first manufacturer to win Le Mans with a hybrid in 2012. Since the dawn of the new millennium, you’ve won Le Mans 13 times out a possible 17; you’ve won the WEC title twice since its formation (in 2012 and 2013).

You haven’t just thought outside the box. You’ve deconstructred it, redesigned it, and repackaged our expectactions and our emotions in a way not seen since a Swedish company decided to get into shelves and wardrobes.

I’m 21 years old: to me, Audi hasn’t just raced at Le Mans: Audi has been Le Mans. To me, Le Mans without Audi is like F1 without Bernie (it’ll happen one day but not today, never today).

One of my most memorable experiences in racing came in 2013, when I first ventured to the Circuit de la Sarthe. My friends and I climbed up the bank so we were overlooking the straight following the Porsche Curves. We watched the cars stream past. The one that really stood out to me was the Audi R18 e-tron quattro. “It sounds like a spaceship,” I said, breathtaken. It looked like one, too. And it travelled just as fast. In fact, take that vehicle to some of the less-trod places of this world (or Chatham) and people really would think it’s from another planet.

It is sensory experiences such as these that stick with motorsport fans; it isn’t just me whose adulthood and career will be shaped by the experience of witnessing that clever creation for the first time. The WEC landscape without you will be like Egypt short of the pyramids, China without its great wall and London without its most famous clocktower chiming throughout the day.

Through all of your success, you have acted with dignity, courage and grace. Everything about your racing involvement at Le Mans and in WEC has exuded class and excellence. To have bowed out of the top tier of sportscar racing with a one-two finish in Bahrain, executed crisply and commandingly, was no less than you deserved.

With the weight of recent history in mind, we’re proud that you will be moving forwards in Formula E. The all-electric series has been the epitome of alternative thinking when it comes to motorsport and automotive development through its infancy, so we think you might quite like it here. It is our hope that your legions of WEC fans may do too. Sure, you’ve dipped your toes in the water with your connections with the ABT Schaeffler team, but the new commitment you’re making is a game changer. You’ve already thrived in the sphere of competition against other mighty manufacturers; taking on the likes of Renault, Jaguar, BMW and maybe even Mercedes in Formula E is a challenge we know you will relish.

In the early days of Formula E, a recurring question at press conferences was: “Do you think Formula E will overtake F1 or WEC?” (or similar). But that question betrays a significant degree of ignorance about people in general and about racing fans in particular. Variety is good, as a rule of thumb. When it comes to motor racing fans, it’s simple: if you love racing, you love racing, in whatever form it may take. A fan may follow one category more than another but, essentially, we want all motorsport to flourish so that we have as diverse a palette of racing as the diverse nature of the audiences eagerly watching. Your move from WEC to Formula E is not a sign of times shifting. Instead, it’s proof of your raison d’être: to innovate. If all you wanted to do was win, you’d remain in your comfort zone in the WEC but that’s not the Audi way.

A team may be referred to as a single entity but it is not, of course. It is a collection of people, and those people have invested years of time, emotion and effort into your WEC adventure. Some of them we know through our Formula E work, gents such as Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval and Allan McNish. We know they’ll miss the furnace of endurace racing with you; we’re confident that, as Formula E matures and moves forward, its own special brand of spectacle, technical innovation and down-to-the-wire racing will create many more storylines for you and those who, together, form the broader Audi identity.

Thank you for so many wonderful years of thinking differently. We sincerely hope that Le Mans has not lost the magnificence of four rings whistling around its hallowed paths forever. In the meantime, we stand ready and waiting to welcome you to a new racing chapter, and we look forward to travelling the world with you as part of Formula E.

Luke Smith


It looks like Kevin Durant will have his wingman back at full strength when the Oklahoma City Thunder's 2013-14 campaign kicks off. That's right: KD expects Russell Westbrook to hit the ground running after offseason surgery to repair a torn meniscus, per HoopsHype:

Durant spoke to the media at a promotional event in Barcelona, and you can tell by his apparel that he understands the importance of getting off to a fast start.

Yep, the T-shirt says "the time is now," which is an appropriate slogan for the Thunder as they look to seize the moment by making another run to the NBA Finals.

Durant knows how tough such a sprint would be without Westbrook; he struggled mightily after his running mate went down during the postseason. The Houston Rockets doubled up their defensive attention on Durant, and Thunder head coach Scott Brooks didn't have any answers (or any semblance of an offensive game plan).

OKC needs Westbrook to be at his best in order to compete against the NBA's elite teams. When he's relentlessly attacking the rim and pushing the pace, the Thunder are too athletic for most opponents to handle.

But the league saw how toothless the Thunder were without him.

According to Royce Young of CBS, Westbrook opted to have his meniscus completely repaired, rather than risk returning too soon after a less severe "clean-up" procedure. The typical time frame for surgeries like the one he underwent April 27 is about three months, so it's hardly a surprise that Westbrook will be ready to roll by Oct. 30.

Plus, the Vine he posted June 15 should have clued everyone in to the fact that he was getting healthy in a hurry.

Fortunately, Westbrook never got too bummed out about his injury. Maybe his upbeat attitude helped hasten the healing.

In fact, the OKC guard got himself into shape so quickly that he had plenty of time to squeeze in other activities during his summer break.

So, by the time the regular season rolls around, it appears that Westbrook will be fully healthy. Of course, it also looks like he's going to have a few more outside-the-box fashion ideas.

Based on what we've seen from him to this point, I guess that qualifies as a mixed blessing.


Economics Minister and Habayit Hayehudi Minister Naftali Bennett slammed the U.S. State Department response to the Jewish nation-state bill, saying the U.S. shouldn't intervene in Israel's internal issues, as politicians from Israel's right also came out in criticism.

"I say to the Americans that the affairs of the State of Israel - we will manage [ourselves]," Bennett told Army Radio, according to Israel National News.

"At the end it is our problem," he said. "This is an internal issue and I think that no one has the right to intervene with it."

The U.S. State Department said Monday evening that it expected Israel to "stick to its democratic principles," in its first response to the Jewish nation-state bill approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet a day earlier.

"Israel is a Jewish and democratic state and all its citizens should enjoy equal rights. We expect Israel to stick to its democratic principles," the State Department said.

Though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the U.S. statement by assuring that Israel is a "model democracy," and that's how it will remain, other politicians on the Israeli right responded vehemently.

"We can keep the foundations of democracy even without the help of the partner over the ocean," Coalition whip and Likud MK Zeev Elkin said following the U.S. response, according to Yisrael Hayom.

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Elkin, who initiated the most extreme version of the bill, said that he would expect the U.S. to encourage Israel to adopt the American customs of swearing allegiance to the flag and singing the national anthem at schools.

"When this democratic American tradition is adopted in East Jerusalem, in Taibeh and in Wadi Ara, then we'll have a real foundation for a joint discussion of the necessity of the Jewish nation-state bill," he said.

MK Moshe Feiglin, also from the Likud, told Army Radio on Monday that "the intervention of the State Department in crucial questions of the State of Israel is a grave and unbelievable thing."

Aside for giving preference to Israel's Jewish identity rather than its democratic character, Elkin's bill would abolish Arabic’s status as one of Israel’s official languages and mandate construction of new Jewish communities without requiring similar construction for Arabs.

The controversial bill was approved by the cabinet on Sunday, and was supposed to come for a Knesset vote on Tuesday, the next legislative step. However, the head of Israel's government coalition decided on Monday to postpone the Knesset vote. Nevertheless, Netanyahu said on Monday that he was "determined" to have it passed, with or without his political partners' agreement.


London is a more “Islamic” city than many in Muslim countries, a leading Islamic scholar has claimed.

Maulana Syed Ali Raza Rizvi, a Shia cleric, said he feels “more Islamic” in Britain due to the country’s multicultural policies and his freedom to practice his faith.

Speaking at the annual Benedict XVI lecture alongside Cardinal Vincent Nichols — the most senior Catholic bishop in England and Wales — and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the cleric claimed Islam was about “love and justice” but Muslim leaders were failing to show this.

The Telegraph quotes him as saying: “I feel that London has more Islamic values than many of the Muslim countries put together.

“There are many different communities living together in peace and harmony, giving respect to the others and loving others and that is what Islam is all about – and unfortunately [much] of the Muslim political leadership has failed to provide that.

“I feel more Islamic living here because I can easily practise my faith and give respect to all other members of the community belonging to different faiths and not even belonging to a faith, to anything.

“Because that is what Islam is all about, respecting and giving to others. If in one line I could say what Islam is all about, it is all about love and justice.”

However, Chief Rabbi Mirvis also said at the lecture that minorities should be required to pass the so-called “Tebbit Test” – the idea floated by former Conservative Cabinet Minister Norman Tebbit that the true loyalties of ethnic minorities can be determined by which national cricket team they support.

“Minorities are responsible to maintain their own traditions, to be proud of their background, loyal to their faiths, and at the same time to be proud members of their countries,” he said.

“In a nutshell, minorities need to pass the Norman Tebbit test. This is something which, thankfully, Jewish communities across the globe have almost always done, and we’re proud of the fact that we can pass that test within British society today.”

Earlier this year, figures showed that London’s population had reached a record high, despite large numbers of people moving away from the city.

The UK capital’s population is growing by around 100,000 a year, mainly due to immigration, with the city’s demographics changing rapidly as white Britons move out.

According to the 2011 Census, 620,000 white Britons moved out of London over the previous decade, including a third of all white residents in the borough of Barking and Dagenham.


NV Energy fights to keep rooftop solar from cutting into its profit

The future of solar energy in Nevada is at stake in a furious battle that likely won’t be resolved as the 2015 state legislative session nears an end next month.

Solar advocates, Nevada businesses and solar industry reps are pushing for more rooftop solar, saying it’s unfair to force consumers to remain chained to the grid and warning that the state could lose thousands of jobs if it doesn’t adapt. State utility NV Energy claims more household solar means increased prices for traditional customers who can’t or won’t install solar panels on their houses or businesses.

It comes down to money for both sides It’s all about dollars for both the solar industry and NV Energy. The utility says ratepayers will be charged an additional $8 million for every percentage point the net metering cap increases. Rooftop solar customers receive a credit worth about 7 cents per kilowatt-hour for powering their homes and the grid with solar electricity. That credit is an incentive to go solar, but it’s also a means for consuming less power from NV Energy, biting into the company’s profit. The solar industry says a tariff and locked-in cap rate will kill the majority of the 6,000 jobs the industry brought to Nevada over the past five years and will limit consumer choice. Early in the legislative session, NV Energy unloaded a team of lobbyists to squelch any attempt to raise the cap. Solar followed with its own lobbying effort, congregating with a consortium of gaming and tech interests. The battle heated up after a bill draft to raise the cap to 10 percent died without a single public hearing or vote. Solar advocates met with lawmakers and the governor — whose outside advisers lobby for NV Energy — but had little success. Now, as time winds down in the session, only one solution is on the table — a punt. Republican Sen. Patricia Farley’s amendment to a building codes bill would allow the Public Utilities Commission to raise the solar cap and to impose up to three tariffs on net metering customers. The eleventh-hour measure was the only way to save the solar industry this session, Farley said. “It gave the solar industry a vehicle to start a discussion,” Farley said. The amendment cleared the Senate and is moving through the Assembly. The compromise is not ideal for companies such as SolarCity and Sunrun, which lease solar panels to customers who participate in net metering. Industry officials say proposed fees could hurt business by discouraging people from participating in a net metering program. Rooftop customers — who pay bills to both the utility and solar companies — pay about 20 percent less for solar than conventional energy, and the fees, industry leaders say, could bite into their cost savings. Adding fees and restricting the cap would be a big win for Berkshire Hathaway Energy and one of its few net metering successes nationally. Berkshire failed to impose caps in Utah and Washington. Arizona instituted a $5 to $7 net metering charge for homeowners. A fee is pending in Wisconsin. Colorado has no cap and no fees. In other words, utility companies in more than 40 states have unsuccessfully fought to eliminate net metering or impose fees.

Much of the fight revolves around Nevada’s cap on net metering, an arrangement by which people with rooftop solar can sell extra power they generate back to the grid. Nevada is likely to hit its limit as early as this summer, solar advocates say, which will make it less advantageous for homeowners to tap the enormous solar energy potential of Southern Nevada.

The Legislature seems to have sided with NV Energy. On May 17, it passed a solar bill that failed to raise the cap but gave Nevada’s regulatory Public Utilities Commission the ability to levy new fees on net metering customers who come online after the cap is hit. The new fees seem intended to protect NV Energy’s income from what the company has characterized as an unfair subsidy at the expense of nonsolar ratepayers.

While NV Energy, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, battles to keep the cap in place, it’s also fighting on another front. A consortium of casinos and businesses is looking to leave NV Energy’s grid and start generating their own power, saying they’re being placed at a competitive disadvantage because they’re paying more for energy than their business rivals in nearby states. The state Public Utilities Commission has said it would charge hefty fees — $27 million in the case of Las Vegas data center Switch — to let industrial ratepayers leave the system.

Meanwhile, the utility is facing another threat in the form of technological advances. Tesla’s Powerwall unit, a relatively cheap storage battery that can charge up on solar power, can help business operators and homeowners reduce their reliance on the grid — or, for the very wealthy, leave it altogether.

How the regulated monopoly came to be

In exchange for building power plants, power lines, distribution networks and maintaining electrical systems, Nevada, like many states, gives public utilities an authorized rate of return. Here, that rate is about 8 percent, authorized by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission. NV Energy’s net income in 2014 was about $354 million, according to Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s SEC filings.

NV Energy did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Giving a utility a regulated monopoly over generating and providing power is a compromise. The utility gets a guaranteed profit and in return gives access to everyone who needs it and ensures capacity for all users. It’s the commission that holds the utilities to the bargain, said Stephen Brown, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV.

“The utility doesn’t have an incentive to operate in the community interest,” Brown said. “That doesn’t mean they don’t, but that’s not their economic incentive. We’re relying on the utility commission to make sure that the utility operates in the public interest.”

More rooftop solar production means more competition for NV Energy.

The way competition disrupts the energy industry parallels the shift in the telecommunications industry, said Steven Weissman, director of the energy program at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment.

“It started with one monopoly utility and a black rotary dial phone in everybody’s home,” said Weissman, referring to AT&T and its monopoly on the U.S. telephone system until its breakup in 1984.

By 1996, Weissman said, Congress forced companies to provide competitors access to infrastructure. And the emergence of mobile phone technology made the fight over access to landline infrastructure obsolete.

“Now you have a whole generation of people who decide not to get a landline,” Weissman said. “If the phone companies were able to gain anything by resisting opening their networks to competitive providers, it was something of only limited duration. They didn’t create something that preserved their business model long-term.”

The way AT&T and its descendents adapted to the loss of their monopoly was to spread into the broadband and mobile sectors, but big electric utilities have been comparatively slow to adapt to competition from new ways of producing power.

“What utilities are doing is instinctively looking for ways to take this pesky new technology and bat it away,” Weissman said.

Some companies want to produce their own power, but quitting the grid comes at a cost

A group of Nevada companies wants to break from NV Energy and stop paying the utility for energy. Instead, the companies want to start generating and purchasing their own power and quit the grid.

The group calls itself the Nevada Coalition to Protect Ratepayers and includes Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, solar companies SolarCity and Sunrun, and Switch.

The utilities commission ruled this month that Switch would have to pay $27 million to leave the grid. Switch has asserted it should pay about $18 million.

Borenstein said exit fees weren’t unjustified.

“I’m sympathetic to the Public Utilities Commission’s view,” Borenstein said. “I would be suspicious of numbers utilities put out, but I don’t think it should be free for customers to just walk away … (They) built the grid to support customers, and there’s all these sunk costs. There may be stranded assets for which costs have to be recovered. When you leave, you have to bear some of those costs.”

Yet the combination of limits on net metering programs and high exit fees seems to leave companies squeezed in the middle. Switch has said its energy costs in Nevada are 30 percent higher than competitors’ in nearby states.

Some energy companies elsewhere are adapting to new technology and demands for clean energy and more distributed generation. In California, public utility Southern California Edison is testing how to integrate Tesla Powerwall users, both residential and commercial, with its grid. The utility is performing test runs with a small number of Powerwall users to see if the batteries can, in aggregate, be helpful to Edison’s grid needs.

“The idea would be: How could a residential storage unit be used to help the grid?” said Kevin Payne, the utility’s senior vice president for customer service. “We could take power (from battery units) when necessary or inject power when it would be helpful to do that.”

Payne said the ability to control a customer’s energy requirements or regulate the way customers pump power back into the grid could be a significant resource for the utility if battery storage users increase.

In contrast to NV Energy’s resistance to distributed generation, Payne said Southern California Edison is adapting its vision for its power grid to incorporate new technological advances its customers might use.

“The grid of the future is going to need to be upgraded and modernized,” Payne said. “Today … power flows from the top to the bottom. Going forward, the grid is going to have different characteristics: generation, solar or other, batteries, demand response. It’s going to require upgrades to the grid to see what’s happening and manage the two-way flow of power.”

Arguments for and against legislative changes to solar

Some say an increase in rooftop solar production would cause the traditional grid to collapse, others say solar would help meet power needs and help the state reach alternative energy mandates.

Senate Bill 374, passed May 17, states that once the net metering cap is hit, new net metering customers will have to pay an additional tariff, to be determined by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission. That means anyone who installs a solar system on a roof after the cap is hit will pay higher rates to use and sell solar energy than net metering customers do now, though how much higher remains unclear.

A bill proposed this year to raise the cap from 3 percent to 10 percent never passed. State Sen. Patricia Farley discussed an amendment to SB374 that would pass authority over the cap to the utilities commission, but the amendment wasn’t included in the final version of the bill.

Solar industry representatives say the cap must be raised to allow for consumer choice and more industry jobs.

“(People’s) consumer choices are driving the growth of a home-grown industry,” said Will Craven, a spokesperson for SolarCity, a solar power system provider and installer. “Rooftop solar jobs by definition must happen in-state.”

Several solar advocates point to a study commissioned by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission as proving net metering benefits all customers — those who generate energy and traditional customers.

What the state’s study, released last year, actually said was that it’s probably a wash. Net metering probably won’t ultimately cost non-participants more. Distributed generation may be more expensive than building large utility-scale solar plants, but Nevada is required to source 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025, and power from net metering customers may offset the cost of buying renewable power or building more renewable energy plants.

Many experts question whether distributed generation is the most cost-effective route for the state to invest in clean energy. Severin Borenstein, a University of California, Berkeley economist who specializes in energy regulation and energy markets, said neither solar industry advocates nor the public utility are being honest about real costs.

With distributed generation, Borenstein said, “You lose the economies of scale. And the economies of scale are really large. The economics overall pretty clearly favor grid-scale generation, both wind and solar.”

Borenstein said the way net metering is structured is indeed a subsidy.

“You’re basically giving them (net metering customers) retail price credit for putting power into the grid,” Borenstein said. “If (the credit for power) were at wholesale rates, it wouldn’t be a subsidy.”

Proper rate design — crafting fees to reflect the true costs and benefits of individual solar power generation — is key to fairness, Borenstein said.

“Utilities say if you keep installing solar, the grid’s going to collapse and we’re going to go out of business,” Borenstein said. “There really isn’t much chance of that, and we should be a having a discussion about that, whether that’s the best way to put in renewables. Instead, you get politicians who are either boosting utilities or playing to the residential photovoltaic advocates with all this free consumer choice stuff. It’s not true consumer choice if you can just fall back on the grid and the rates don’t reflect the cost.”

But in the fight between the utility and solar industry advocates, experts say, a real public discussion of the costs of distributed generation versus utility-scale clean power from solar and wind plants is being lost.

What is net metering?

The solar energy policy fight in Nevada revolves around a net metering cap, a limit on the amount of solar power that can be bought back from people or institutions with renewable energy systems.

If a home or business generates more power from the sun than it uses in a month, NV Energy will buy the extra at retail power rates and give the customer a credit, the net of their power usage and power production. That means a homeowner with solar panels may be able to run his or her house largely on solar energy during the day and resell what he or she doesn’t use to the grid, seeing real reductions in energy costs.

But there’s a limit on the amount of net metering the state allows, and solar advocates and solar industry companies say Nevada will hit the existing cap this year, perhaps as early as late summer. The cap is set at 3 percent of the utility’s peak capacity, or 225 megawatts.


Whether they know it or not, major advertisers are subsidizing online movie piracy, accelerating a trend in which illicit video streaming is eclipsing illegal P2P file sharing and downloading of copyrighted material.

That's according to an upcoming study commissioned by Digital Citizens Alliance, a nonprofit organization with the stated goal of making the Internet a safer place. The study is a follow-up to a February 2014 report that pegged the collective annual revenue of the nearly 600 illegal movie sharing sites it sampled at $227 million.

According to Variety, the report reveals that video streaming was the only piracy category to post annual revenue growth, even though the number of large streaming sites dropped by half from the previous year.

The bigger culprits are the legitimate online ad networks.

Speaking at last week’s Digital Entertainment World conference, DCA Executive Director Tom Galvin cited the high CPM rates (cost per 1000 impressions) associated with video ads as the primary reason for this spike in revenue. Most of that income came from major brands placing video advertising on those infringing streaming sites.

Why this matters: Consumers are all too often blamed for movie piracy, but one of the key takeaways from this report is that consumers aren’t the primary revenue source for these illegal streaming sites. The bigger culprits are the legitimate online ad networks that place video ads on those sites, and the companies whose ads wind up there.

Pampers, Tide, and Esurance were among the brands we saw advertised on the pirate site pictured above, and brands don't get more mainstream than that. While it could be argued that major companies such as these are relying on middlemen to place their ads, ignorance of whose pockets their advertising dollars are ending in up is no excuse.

Last year, the DCA estimated that even some of the smaller pirate sites it looked at were collecting as much as $100 thousand a year from advertisements. Because those sites are paying zero dollars for the movies they’re streaming, the vast majority of that revenue goes directly to their bottom lines. Hollywood should also look to the bankers and payment processors between the ad networks and the pirate sites, who are taking their own slices of this illegitimate pie.

Finally, Hollywood should take their customer's preferences into account. If people want to watch movies at home, why force them to find illicit ways of doing it? Make it easy, make it legal, and make some money!

This story, "This pirated movie brought to you by Pampers" was originally published by TechHive .


10 ESSENTIAL RULES FOR BEING A GENTLEMAN IN 2015 Connor Doyle and Alice Gregg

Man was not intended to live like a bear or a hermit; being a gentleman is about etiquette and decorum. What hasn’t changed in over a century is that a gentleman knows how to behave toward other people.

We, the people of gentlemanliness, have collaborated to bring you the ultimate guide for being a modern gentleman in the year 2015. We’ve analyzed past works, such as A Gentleman’s Guide to Etiquette by Cecil B. Hartley, studied the cultures of our modern society, and taken into account the views and opinions of both women and men. This is the result.

1. IT’S NOT RUDE TO PAY FOR FOOD

As part of modern etiquette when dining with a lady, you are both expected to do the “check dance” (regardless of who invited who), even if she doesn’t want to dance. But only accept her offer to pay for half if you sense she’d be genuinely uncomfortable otherwise. A gentleman respects women’s equality, but wishes to pay for the meal as a sign of appreciation.

2. PUT DOWN YOUR PHONE

True, pretty much our entire lives are on our phones - but when you’re with someone else, devote your time and energy to being present and engaged with them, instead of with your device. All of your feeds can wait to hear about how your friend was chased down the street by someone dressed as a horse.

3. SAVE YOUR INNER LAWYER FOR THE COURTROOM

A gentleman understands the freedom of expression and thought, allowing others the entitlement of their own ideas. Even if convinced that your opponent is utterly wrong, graciously decline further engagement or dexterously turn the conversation - do not obstinately defend your own opinion until you become angry. You don’t see The Hulk invited to soirees.

4. DRESS LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING

Dressing well is a form of good manners. Don’t settle for shirts with baggy waists, too short sleeves, or too tight collars. From a hiking trip to a keynote speech, a true gent always knows how to look good. Unless you actually find a store with clothes that actually fit off the rack, go custom. People will notice. Life’s too short for bad shirts: awesome shirts here and special offer here.

5. SO YOU THINK YOU CAN’T DANCE?

A true gent doesn’t stand idle, observing from a corner: you can probably already see the problem with this… creepy. Take a class and embrace your inner Fred Astaire. Dancing, much like life, is about courage and hopefully having fun - and remember, elaborate flamboyant arm movements disguise a lack of footwork.

6. LEARN HOW TO CONVERSE

Two year olds can have one word conversations. A gentleman should be engaged, thoughtful, and captivating. But do not steal the spotlight from others. Many people enjoy talking about themselves, so stay engaged, yet do more of the listening - and when they tell you some grandiose anecdote, let them have their moment. Don’t be a one-upper.

7. TO COFFEE OR NOT TO COFFEE

If the date has gone well, she might invite you up for coffee - or down; dating women who live in basement apartments is perfectly acceptable. The rule is if you’re not planning on calling her again or think that you might view her differently for having coffee on the first date, then do politely turn down the invitation. Do the right thing.

8. WATCH YOUR (DAMN) MOUTH

Endeavour to find words that express your ideas eloquently. A gentleman does not require offensive language to speak; for those who use words such as “gay”, “retarded”, or “ghetto” to describe something in a negative light not only adhere to stereotypes, but also show a lack of vocabulary and intellect. Cut back on that Hatorade. It’s a resentful beverage that too many fools drink.

9. KEEP THE CLASSICS

Chivalry is dead. Common courtesy is not. Some rules to being a gentleman will never change and should always be followed. The two biggest of which are opening/holding the door for other people and giving up your seat when there are no more seats, both in this order: an older lady, an older man, a lady.

10. BE A GOOD PERSON

This is everything else and it should be self explanatory, but we’ll go ahead and help you a bit more anyway. Be compassionate and show respect towards everyone. Don’t belittle or take advantage of others, ignore stereotypes, and understand that people from all walks of life are equal. It’s what we do that defines us. That, and really nice shirts.


Garry Monk took over Middlesbrough after parting ways with Leeds United

New Middlesbrough manager Garry Monk has announced a new five-man backroom team.

Ex-England striker James Beattie and former Swansea City coach David Adams have been hired as first-team coaches while Darryl Flahavan has been named goalkeeping coach, having worked alongside Monk at Leeds United last season.

In addition, Sean Rush joins the club as head of physical performance, while Ryan Needs comes in as head of performance analysis.

All five new members of the coaching staff have previously worked with Monk at Swansea City and Leeds United.

"It's important as a manager that you build staff around you to work with you to deliver what is needed to be delivered," said Monk.

"We have great experience together as a group - we've worked together for a good period - and they have a good understanding of what I expect and how we work together.

"As you go through your career, you're consistently looking to refine and improve things and we're all on that journey together.

"The guys have the skill sets that we need to be able to cover all bases and there's also the importance of being able to rely on them with the responsibilities they will have."


We caught up with Luka "perkZ" Perković, Gamer2's midlaner, to learn something about him now that he qualified for LCS. Although he's still in high school, perkZ showed us you always have a chance to do what you love and is an inspiration to lots of us.

Image courtesy of gamepedia.com

Hi Luka, thank you for participating in this interview. Tell us something little about yourself.

perkZ: Hello, my name is Luka Perković and I'm playing League of Legends for 3 and a half years. I qualified for LCS two months ago but I'm still attending high school in Zagreb.

Regardless your age, could you say that you are living your dream? Where do you see yourself in the future?

perkZ: I wouldn't say that this is my dream, but it's definitely something I enjoy doing. In near future, I can see myself playing professionally, yet later on I wish to go to college.

How do you manage to harmonize school, League of Legends and social life?

perkZ: I organize my time well, but I spend most of it playing League of Legends.

Since you live far away from your teammates, is it hard to maintain a friendly relationship with them?

perkZ: From my point of view, if you're having fun with people over the internet, you will be having fun with them in real life too. I never had any troubles with my teammates and I don't think I will in the future.

You are currently living in Zagreb, Croatia, where you were born. What do you think of competitive scene in Croatia? Do Croatians accept eSports with the same enthusiasm like most of the world?

perkZ: Esports scene is not yet developed in Croatia and I think there aren't enough professional players here for the country to develop soon.

Do you plan to move somewhere because of League of Legends anytime soon?

perkZ: I will be moving to Berlin this January.

Do you have your parents support about moving out so young to professionally play a game?

perkZ: Yes, I have my parent’s full support.

Image courtesy of Luka Perković (twitter.com)

In your opinion, which champions are best for mid lane in current meta?

perkZ: Kassadin, Ryze, Azir and Lulu.

Do you think that the upcoming season changes will drastically affect the gameplay?

perkZ: I'm not yet sure if they will, but I do hope so.

Against which midlaner do you think you have a great chance to win, and against which one to lose?

perkZ: I wouldn't like to talk about my chances against some midlaners and about their skills, but I'm mostly looking forward to play against Nukeduck and Febiven.

And for the last question, tell us, who was your greatest support through your journey to eSports scene? Would you like to thank someone?

perkZ: My greatest support through my whole journey was Joe "InnerFlame" Elouassi, current manager of Team Dignitas.

Thank you, Luka. We wish you all the best in your upcoming matches.


To President Donald Trump, backing out of the Paris deal was a message to the rest of the world that the United States would not be held to terms he doesn't like in international deals. | AP Photo Trump supporters revel in Paris exit Bannon's fingerprints on decision to leave climate agreement, a decision supporters say is broadly supported outside Washington.

President Donald Trump's decision to leave the Paris climate agreement received a similar reaction to his travel ban: international scorn, widespread protests and condemnations from groups and business executives who often stay quiet.

To Matt Ames, though, it was a reason to celebrate — and he is helping plan a rally near the White House to celebrate Trump on Saturday.

Story Continued Below

"The thinking is there is very strong sentiment within the party in favor of the president's decision yesterday on Paris Accord," said Ames, the chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Party in Virginia. "We want to go make some noise and tell him how much we appreciate it. There seemed to be a tug-of-war, and it didn't appear it was going to happen."

Withdrawal from the accord, like the travel ban, was spearheaded internally by Steve Bannon, the president's chief strategist. But White House officials, advisers and others close to the president say Bannon's job of convincing Trump is easier because the president has a natural tendency to take the same path as he — and that while Bannon irked the president with his behavior in the West Wing, Trump has never left him ideologically.

While the president often crows about Gary Cohn's success at Goldman Sachs, and may talk to his daughter, Ivanka Trump, more than anyone, Trump often gravitates toward the Bannon modus. Bannon supporters note enthusiastically that the so-called moderates in the West Wing don't have much luck getting their way.

It is less about his friendship with Bannon — who didn't respond to a request for comment — or his personal opinion of him on any given day, advisers and aides say. The combative chief strategist has repeatedly told Trump his base is solid, that liberals will never love him, the large crowds voted for him for a reason — and that he will be rewarded for keeping campaign promises. He reminds him of his populist credo and the large crowds at rallies.

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Bannon has reminded other White House aides that the travel ban is far more popular "than the media will ever say," according to one person who has spoken to him. He has teamed up with Trump in criticizing the news media.

In interviews with Trump supporters and Republicans across the country, the Paris climate agreement news looked far different than it did in Washington, a fact that Bannon reminded the president of, according to a senior White House aide.

Jenny Beth Martin, the head of the Tea Party Patriots, enthusiastically supported the move. She said her group viewed leaving the Paris agreement as a “part of a larger ‘make America Great Again’ platform that necessitates putting America first.”

And Trump supporters said backing for the move was widespread outside of Washington.

"I was in the Midwest yesterday, in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan," said Ken Blackwell, who headed domestic policy on Trump's transition. "It played very well. It was exceptionally Trumpian. It was a very good day for him."

Among Democrats and some Republicans, the move was seen as short-sighted and horrific. Nicaragua and Syria are the only other nations not in the climate accord. The United States' allies could see a damaging signal on how serious climate change is. It gives other countries — like China — the ability to lead over the United States. And some see Bannon as he is portrayed on "Saturday Night Live": the "Grim Reaper" ruining the United States.

"It's sending the planet spiraling in an awful direction," said Bill Burton, a former Obama aide. "You're killing off innovation and you're saying in a time of crisis, we need to lean on other countries."

To Trump, it was a message to send to the rest of the world that the United States would not be held to terms he doesn't like in international deals. And it was a good way to heap scorn on climate change — which is proven by science but a flash-point among Republicans -- while talking about creating new jobs for blue-collar workers.

"Pittsburgh, not Paris -- he couldn't have said it better," Ames, the Virginia Republican, said. "That line really really resonated with a lot of people."

Burton, the Democratic strategist, said Trump's move works for him "from a brand perspective" because it's about sticking it to the establishment. He also said Democrats may struggle to tie the move to everyday Americans — and he believed it would ultimately could prove less consequential than other decisions.

"But at some point, you have to find ways to put points on the board that appeal past your core base. He has shown himself completely inept at doing that so far," he said. "If you keep doing things that are broadly unpopular, it weighs on you."

After the travel ban, Bannon told others he relished seeing the protests on TV. Bannon has told friends he "doesn't give a shit about" the Grim Reaper portrayal on "Saturday Night Live," in the words of one person who has spoken to him.

More protests are likely to come tomorrow when Trump's supporters line up outside the White House for a campaign-style rally.

The president, however, did not enjoy the protests last time. And he may be watching TV, too.


North Dakota was the great exception to the Great Recession.

The only area in the country that saw both a widespread significant increase in household incomes and a significant decrease in poverty rates over the past five years was North Dakota, specifically Western North Dakota, according to 2012 data the U.S. Census Bureau released and mapped out on Thursday.

Median household incomes in more than half the counties in the state, including most on the western side, where oil production is booming, are higher today than before the recession began in 2007, and they’re also higher in objective monetary terms than most of the rest of the country. Household incomes are also up in South Dakota. Western North Dakota’s oil patch is one of the few places that not only weathered the Great Recession, but thrived. See the full version of this map.

Over the past five years, since 2007, 62 percent of all counties in North Dakota saw increases in their median household incomes, and 33 percent in South Dakota saw increases.

“One could say that these two states represented nearly 50 percent of all counties which showed a statistically significant increase in median household income,” the bureau finds.

By contrast, of the other 3,000-plus counties nationwide, just 56 had a similar “statistically significant increase” in household incomes. Of all the counties that had a significant change in income levels, 89 percent saw declines.

Western North Dakota is one of the few areas outside of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions that has counties with household incomes above the national average, which was $51,371 in 2012. Western North Dakota was also one of the few areas where the poverty rate decreased over the past five years, to be well below the national average of 15.9 percent.

The Census Bureau doesn’t say what is causing North Dakota to stand out as it clearly does in its maps. But the oil boom that’s taken over the western part of the state — and is having ripple effects throughout the region and the rest of the U.S. — is indisputably a huge economic driver.


Nothing riles up fans more than other fans shaming them for not being good, loyal fans. Or for people to claim that they have some special monopoly on being good fans. But given that riling people up is part of our #Brand here at HBT, we usually pass on the results of that annual survey which purports to measure such things.

Brand Keys, a consulting firm or marketing firm or something, puts the list together by somehow measuring the “four emotional drivers” of fan loyalty, which are (1) Pure Entertainment; (2) Authenticity; (3) Fan Bonding; and (4) History and tradition. These are mixed in a pot with things like overall league and team rankings, viewership and merchandise sales and then this comes out like so. So basically, there’s no way to dispute their findings. We can just argue about them.

Top 5 Teams for the most loyal fans this year, with last year’s rankings in parentheses:

1. St. Louis Cardinals (#1)

2. Los Angeles Dodgers (#3)

3. San Francisco Giants (#2)

4 Detroit Tigers (#4)

5. Washington Nationals (#5)

The bottom five with last year’s rankings in parenthesis:

30. Seattle Mariners (#25)

29. Arizona Diamondbacks (#29)

28. Colorado Rockies (#28)

27. San Diego Padres (#24)

26. Houston Astros (#30)

Worth noting that the Phillies led the list for “most loyal” on Opening Day 2011, which I think was probably the height of Philly fan enthusiasm. I don’t think enthusiasm and loyalty is the same thing, though. Most Philly fans I know are still loyal to their team. They’re just realistic that they suck. Same in reverse for the Mets, who used to — heck, maybe still do — have a singularly neurotic and pessimistic fan base but no one can doubt their loyalty. Indeed, if you’re not loyal you don’t allow yourself to be emotionally connected to the bad stuff enough to let it bother you. That makes the “fan bonding” and “entertainment” parts of this thing suspect. You can be a loyal fan even if your team has been hostile to you and is more misery inducing than entertaining.

And of course, all of this assumes that “loyalty” is an unequivocally great thing anyway. You don’t get a reserved spot in heaven, get your karma reduced or get holes punched in some sort of cosmic rewards card just for being loyal to your team. I know the whole Sports is Everything Industrial Complex has convinced people that loyalty is everything, but it’s actually pretty silly.

If you’re the sort of fan who watches the sports team you like up to the point they entertain you and make it worth your time and then tune out when the balance is off you’re not a better or worse person. If you put yourself through the ringer for them, no matter the situation, you’re neither of those things either. Let sports be your thing in your own way and don’t listen to people who would tell you different.

Follow @craigcalcaterra


Each week Bob and Ivey take a trip Beyond the Wall to discuss HBO's 'Game of Thrones' from the perspective of fans of the books. If you've not read the books, tread lightly, as there are spoilers everywhere, sweet summer child. This week, we make several bold predictions about what will happen in season two.

Well, sports fans, it all comes down to this. Sunday marks the highly anticipated premiere for the second season Game of Thrones. For the past several weeks, Bob and I have been previewing the upcoming season, which will follow George R. R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings. We’ve looked back at the first season, talked about the casting of the new roles, previewed our most anticipated moments and discussed areas where we expected the series to deviate from the source material.

This week, we have several bold predictions for what we believe the second season might bring. As usual, a spoiler alert is in effect, as we will obviously be discussing events in Clash, and might look ahead to events beyond the second book.

Ivey:

Let me kick things off; in the first season, Peter Dinklage had a breakout performance as Tyrion Lannister. Fans of the book have almost universally been fans of the Imp of Casterly Rock, but I believe Dinklage’s performance endeared him to television viewers even more (to the tune of an Emmy win for Supporting Actor). This season, I expect Davos Seaworth will be the breakout character. The first time I read through A Song of Ice and Fire, I never really connected with the Onion Knight. I expect things to be different on screen.

Bob:

Hmm. You could be right. I always liked Davos. There’s something about a rough around the edges ex-pirate, but I’m not sure he’s going to be the story. My money is on Brienne. She’s the ultimate underdog up against so much hardship and yet she always struggles on. Add to that the fact that she is a bit of a badass and I think she’s going to be the one folks are talking about around the water cooler.

Ivey:

Perhaps; I’m just not sure Brienne will have enough story this season for that to happen. If we’re talking about seasons three and four, then I think she (and her companion on that journey) will have to be the favorites.

Bob:

We’ll have to see.

I think one thing that is going to disappoint fans is Dany’s story this year. If the show follows the book, there just isn’t a lot for Dany to do. She had a lot of story in season one. Yes, there’s going to be a fantastic scene in the House of the Undying, but her story doesn’t really pick up again until book three. Perhaps the writers will prove me wrong, but Dany kicking around Qarth with her little baby dragons is going to be a little dull, methinks.

Ivey:

I couldn’t agree with you more — though I’d extend that prediction beyond just this season, but that is a conversation for another column. Though, as we’ve discussed, I am really looking forward to the House of the Undying.

While Dany’s story might be lacking in the novel, Melisandre’s is decidedly not. I know you’re really looking forward to her boat trip with Davos, however I have a feeling that Melisandre will be far less interesting in the series than she is on the written page. Sometimes the mystery is lost when you pull a certain scene or character out of one’s imagination and puts it on the screen. Such will be the case with the red priestess.

Bob:

It’s entirely possible. From the look of the character, it appears that she is going to be a little toned down. I’m expecting a character that is more mysterious and less intimidating and sinister. In the book, with the struggle between Davos and Melisandre, she came across as wicked and powerful. My guess is that for most of the season (until she starts summoning up some shadows), she will be more of a quiet mystery. Whether that means she’s less interesting or not … I’m not sure.

I think one character that is going to get more interesting this season is Robb. He wasn’t even a POV character in A Clash of Kings so most of his story was told through the yes of others. I think that with the story of his and Jeyne’s romance at the forefront, along with his leadership as King of the North, he’s going to come out of this season with more fans than he had in the book.

Ivey:

I think so, too. I’m not sure Robb was ever as well loved by ASOIF fans as his father was, but I think that is something that has changed on-screen. The decisions Robb makes this season, specifically regarding Jeyne, obviously have major effects down the road. I’m glad we’ll get a chance to see that play out, instead of only hearing about it after the fact.

Another character I think fans will appreciate less this year is Bran. Let’s face it, brave-faced as he might have been last season, he was still a bit of a whiney brat (though less so than the lion’s share of his siblings). If it hadn’t been for the tragedy he experienced in the series premiere, I’m not sure fans would have tolerated him at all. Considering the changes he experiences this season – or at least become more obvious – aren’t something I think fans will be expecting, I’m not sure how much they’ll like it. At least, that was my reaction as a reader. What do you think?

Bob:

I’m not really sure. I could see it going either way. I think that because of the situation, he’s going to be forced to grow up a little and be less of a whiner. Bran’s story has always struck me as one of the very long arcs in the books and it’s going to be interesting to see that translate to the screen. I think that we probably won’t see a whole lot of the young Stark this year and when we do it will be concentrated on the three-eyed crow plot, which I have always found interesting. People like giant wolves, dude.

Ivey:

Well, I’ve seen some of the second season, and I have to admit I didn’t hate how they conceptualized Bran’s … dreams.

We did get a little more negative than I’d expected; any last minute words of positivity?

Bob:

It’s still one of the best shows on TV. This is all nitpicking, my friend. I can’t wait for the new season to start!

Ivey:

Indeed … nitpicking is often about as useful as nipples on a breastplate, but it can be fun.

We’ll see you back here next week as we discuss episode one, “The North Remembers.”

Photo Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO


It's well-known that the more adorable and charismatic of the endangered animals get most of the funding. That doesn't mean the cute animals, like the iconic panda, aren't worth saving, but it leaves a lot of the less photogenic but just as important animals out in the cold. Who's interested in saving the Brazilian bald-faced tamarin, which looks like a cross between a rabid monkey and a bat? Or the Komodo dragon, a 10-foot-long murderous lizard that's the embodiment of just about every childhood nightmare you ever had?

That's where the Ugly Animal Preservation Society comes in. It's an awareness campaign that uses comedy to bring attention to animals like the pig-nosed frog, pictured above, which may otherwise have trouble getting funding. The UAPS holds live events, where a combination of London comics and scientists discuss one ugly endangered animal of their choice. At the end of the show, the audience votes to decide which of those animals will become the mascot for each individual chapter of the UAPS. They don't seem to be directly donating money; instead, the aim is to raise awareness, with the hopes that it will eventually lead to donations elsewhere.


Samsung Releases Galaxy Tab S to Compete with iPad Air?

Samsung has always been focused on building the ultimate experience for smartphone and tablet users. On the day of

2014 World Cup opening ceremony, Samsung also officially released its first flagship tablet - Samsung Galaxy Tab S.

The core technology inside is the Super AMOLED (Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) instead of traditional LCD(Liquid Crystal Display) that used by most of tablets including iPad Air. With super-high 2560 x 1600 resolution,

Tab S provides straight-up gorgeous display to let HD video look great. Make no mistake: The key selling point of

Samsung Galaxy Tab S is the highest resolution up till now to compete with iPad Air.

Besides its Super AMOLED, what else breakthroughs does Galaxy Tab S produce compared with iPad Air?

Read on, DVDSmith will bring you a full range of comparative analysis.

No matter which one is your preference, Samsung Galaxy Tab S or Apple iPad Air would be a good choice for you to enjoy great entertainment experience. But it makes sense that Galaxy Tab S pays more attention on display (size, resolution, type) and battery life from the above comparison, which provide you with more marvelous visual treat.

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OTTAWA—Chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand says Canada’s outdated voting process has reached a tipping point and must be modernized to meet the needs and expectations of voters. Mayrand says the Canada Elections Act is based on the way elections were conducted in the 19th century, when communication with the regions was limited, oversight was minimal and election administration was local.

Marc Mayrand wants to take Canada's " rigid and slow" voting system into the 21st century. ( Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS )

As a result, he says the process is entirely manual, rigid and slow. In last fall’s election, he says the cumbersome procedures resulted in long lineups at advance polls. Mayrand is recommending a number of reforms to bring the process into the 21st century.

Article Continued Below

For instance, he says voter information cards should include bar codes that can be electronically checked as soon as voters show up at polling stations, rather than forcing voters to wait in line for a poll worker at a specific table to strike their name off a paper list.


Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) made a startling misstatement on the Senate floor Friday, amid a heated debate on funding women’s health services — a key sticking point for Republicans and Democrats struggling to pass a budget that would keep the federal government from shutting down.

“You don’t have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your blood pressure or your cholesterol checked,” he said. “If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”

Shocking as that might sound, it’s patently false. In fact, the opposite is true: More than 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does has nothing to do with abortion.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is one of the nation’s top non-profit organizations. In 2009, according to PPFA’s figures, 96 percent of its activities were dedicated to one of the following: cancer screenings; STD or STI testing; counseling and education; or pregnancy testing and prevention.

Thanks to all of this, one in five American women have a much better shot at preventing unwanted pregnancies or catching a life-threatening disease before it becomes critical.

In fact, the vast majority of PPFA’s reproductive health efforts are dedicated toward preventing unwanted pregnancies.

To this effect, independent research shows that each year PPFA plays a role in preventing over 2 million unwanted pregnancies and stopping over 800,000 women from getting abortions, saving public agencies billions of dollars in the process. The group says that only three percent of their patients request abortion services.

Figures show the PPFA is ten times more likely to help prevent an abortion than carry one out.

Additionally, PPFA volunteers reportedly distributed educational materials on reproductive health to over 1.9 million people in 2009. They were also a key bulwark in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases, carrying out nearly 4 million tests that year.

Despite this, misinformation as to what PPFA actually does remains rife among many Republicans.

Confronted by questions from Raw Story, one legislator in South Dakota — Republican state Sen. Al Novstrup, the key sponsor of that state’s recently passed abortion restrictions — appeared to be under the impression that PPFA was a profit-making venture with a “financial incentive” to carry out as many abortions as possible.

Sen. Kyl, it would seem, is about on that same page.

Funding for PPFA was a key sticking point for Republicans and Democrats on Friday as they struggled to pass a budget that would keep the federal government running.

Republicans in the House, who recently passed a budget that cut virtually all domestic programs and left defense spending untouched, insist on ending support for PPFA. Democrats have conceded to a wide cross-section of their proposed cuts, but insist that womens’ health services are not negotiable.

Most services provided by PPFA are significantly more expensive when purchased from the private sector.

Critics have suggested that the refusal to fund PPFA is actually a back-door scheme to funnel additional money into private health providers, which would be the last resort for most PPFA patients who lack health insurance. Republicans insist, however, that they are morally opposed to public funds going toward abortions. Public funding of abortions, however, has been repeatedly banned at the federal level. Public funds for abortion are only provided through Medicaid, and only in cases of rape or incest.

If the two parties cannot agree on a budget by midnight tonight, over 800,000 public workers will be temporarily displaced and many active duty combat troops will not receive their paychecks.

This video is from C-SPAN, broadcast Friday, April 8, 2011, as snipped by ThinkProgress.


Diabetes treatment may reduce breast cancer risk in women by lowering mammographic density, according to research. Mammographic density is a strong risk factor for breast cancer, and any form of diabetes treatment has been found to lower it. Previous research has found a link between diabetes and mammographic density, but this is the first time when diabetes treatment like insulin has been studied in this context.

The study looked at 5,644 women who received mammographic screening between 1993 and 2001. Associate professor Dr. Zorana Jovanovic Andersen reported, “Women with diabetes were less likely to have mixed or dense breasts, as opposed to fatty ones, both before and after adjustment for other factors such as being overweight.”

Similar associations were seen among 44 women who had controlled diabetes solely by diet and 62 diabetics who took oral medications. Women who used insulin injections were found to have increased odds of mixed or dense breasts.

Dr. Andersen added, “Diabetes is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, but the exact mechanisms which bring this about are still unclear. One of the characteristics of cancer cells is their ability to grow rapidly and uncontrollably, and to resist the programmed death that occurs in non-cancer cells. Therefore, growth factors are critical to cancer development and progression. We know that insulin is an important growth factor for all body tissues, and even if we do not know exactly how it affects the development of cancer cells, it is also highly plausible that it increases breast density.”

“Our study looked solely at the effect of insulin on breast density. Now we would like to extend our research by following up these women for breast cancer and observing the effect of different diabetes treatments on breast cancer risk. If we find a relationship, we need to examine whether a high [mammographic density] is responsible, or whether other factors are involved,” said Dr. Andersen.

The researchers intend to conduct a larger scale study on mammographic density data and link it to specific insulin treatments from the Danish Prescription Registry.

Dr. Andersen concluded, “Denmark is fortunate to have such a large MD data set, which, through the DCH study group, can be linked to many different issues that may influence health outcomes. The possibility of analyzing such detailed information in a coherent group means that we have the ability to undertake additional studies in order to further investigate the relationships between breast density and other risk factors for breast cancer. In the meantime, we would urge all women, both with diabetes and without, to take measures to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer through simple lifestyle changes, such as avoiding obesity, reducing alcohol consumption, and exercising.”

Connection between diabetes and breast cancer

Controlling glucose levels in diabetes is important as uncontrolled glucose levels can cause damage to the blood vessels and the circulatory system, resulting in kidney failure, lower limb amputations, and even vision loss. Although this may not seem as if it is associated with breast cancer, in fact, it has been reported that there are higher rates of breast cancer among diabetics than those without diabetes.

Fifty years ago, it was first reported that breast cancer was most common in type 1 diabetes, but recent research has shown a more specific link between type 2 diabetes and breast cancer.

Postmenopausal women over the age of 50 with type 2 diabetes have been found to have a 20 to 27 percent higher risk of breast cancer. Although the link between the two isn’t as clear, it is speculated that the damage caused by uncontrolled glucose levels and inflammation can contribute to breast cancer. Additionally, type 2 diabetes and breast cancer share many common risk factors, including being overweight or obese, and lacking exercise and physical activity, to name a few.

Furthermore, it has been observed that women with type 2 diabetes and breast cancer have a 50 percent higher risk of death. It is then even more important to manage your diabetes to not only reduce your risk of breast cancer, but to avoid worsened complications of the condition.

Related Reading:

Type 2 diabetes in women increases heart attack and stroke risk, intense activity may lower risk

Type 2 diabetes in women increases heart attack and stroke risk, but intense activity may help lower the risk. Women, compared to men, have double the risk of having a heart attack or stroke if they have type 2 diabetes. The findings suggest that additional intense activity could help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Continue reading…

Gestational diabetes can develop into type 2 diabetes after pregnancy

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that only occurs during a woman’s pregnancy, although data shows that it can turn into type 2 diabetes after a person gives birth. Your body needs glucose for energy, but too much glucose in the blood is not good for the baby. If you have blood sugar that is too high then you have diabetes. Gestational diabetes is typically diagnosed during the late stages of pregnancy. Continue reading…

Sources:

https://www.ecco-org.eu/Global/News/EBCC/EBCC10-PR/2016/03/Diabetes-treatment-can-reduce-mammographic-density-an-important-risk-factor-for-breast-cancer

http://ww5.komen.org/KomenPerspectives/Diabetes-and-Breast-Cancer.html


Kaboom! Controlled explosions in the legs of this silicone 'soft robot' make it leap higher than 30 times its own height.

Researchers led by George Whitesides, a chemist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have engineered a three-legged silicone device that is powered by combustion — previously used only in hard systems such as diesel engines.

The soft robot has in each of its legs a channel with a soft valve at the end. Methane and oxygen gases are fed into this channel in a ratio of one part methane to two parts oxygen. The computer that controls how much gas is let in also controls a high-voltage cable connected to electrodes in each leg.

When the computer sparks the electrodes, the methane and oxygen explode, turning into carbon dioxide and water — and releasing a lot of energy. The downward force from the explosion makes the robot jump — higher than 30 centimetres so far, although the researchers say the range has been limited by the height of the testing chamber. The soft valve is crucial, says Robert Shepherd, a study co-author and engineer at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It closes in response to high pressure, thus making the pressure even higher, and then it opens after the explosion to let the exhaust gases out.

Soft robots are lighter and simpler than hard systems, and they are relatively inexpensive to produce — but they have previously been limited to compressed-air power, owing to the high heat generated in combustion reactions. “The key discovery is that this material can work at these high temperatures,” says Shepherd. The robot has withstood more than 30 consecutive explosive jumps so far. The results were published this week in Angewandte Chemie1.

The researchers hope that a developed version of their device could be used for search-and-rescue operations, leaping and cartwheeling its way over any obstacles that might block its path.


After months of controversy, Spike Lee’s new film Chi-Raq finally hits theaters today. It’s a dud. A squandered opportunity. There’s a reckoning to be had in Chicago, and a serious examination to be done about the pervasiveness of gun violence here, but this movie is not it. Billed as a satire and based on the Greek comedy Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Chi-Raq is a brazenly opportunistic film, glomming onto current events with sickening desperation, simultaneously overwrought and underwhelming.

The plot summary in brief: After a series of escalating violent acts between two rival gangs—the Spartans and the Trojans—result in the shooting of a little girl, a young woman named Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris), girlfriend of Spartan gang leader Chi-Raq (Nick Cannon), initiates a sex strike in the hopes that it will curb the city’s violence. In the film, Lysistrata’s strike is marked with a motto: “I will deny all rights of access or entrance,"which she repeats to her legion of women. The film’s posters, however, put it more succinctly: “No Peace, No Piece.”

Chi-Raq is both a satire and late period Spike Lee and, ultimately, a mess. There are glimpses of that signature Lee stamp—direct camera addresses, gorgeous cinematography (Wicker Park has never looked so good), and moving performances from Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, and (surprisingly!) John Cusack. But there is so much more that doesn’t work, from the haphazardly enforced rhyming verse throughout to the jarring nods at every hot button black subject du jour (mass incarceration! Sandra Bland! The Prison-Industrial Complex!). It’s a well-known fact—one trumpeted by Lee himself—that the film was shot in six weeks and Lee scrambled to release it in time for Oscar consideration. The rushing shows.

It’s hard not to come away from the movie feeling as though it’s a gross oversimplification of Chicago’s ails. Both Lee and his co-writer, Kevin Willmott, who originally came up with the concept of a modern revamping of Lysistrata, freely admit that the film was not originally supposed to be set in Chicago. That changed because of social media (read more about that here).

In Chicago’s Q&A with Lee, he claims to have done his research. And sure, he frontloads the movie with grim stats about the violence in the city. The 500 murders in 2012, the contested claim that there have been more murders in Chicago than in Iraq. But from then on, the depictions of gang culture appear to stem directly from bad, outdated movies and TV shows about gang life. They resemble nothing of the overwhelmingly young, decentralized nature of the gangs that proliferate in Chicago today. The fact that the film’s two central gang leaders (itself a dated concept in Chicago, when there are hundreds of splintered gangs who rule over one block or one street) are played by Nick Cannon, age 35, and Wesley Snipes, age 53, is just wildly inaccurate. (Let’s ignore, forever, the utter absurdity of Snipes’s Cyclops, from his bizarre, staccato laugh, to his bejeweled eye patch, to any character context whatsoever.) As Chicago has reported, the average age of both victims and perpetrators in Chicago is really young—a shocking number are under the age of 30.

What’s been so surprising—if not infuriating— about early critical reactions to the film is just how laudatory so many reviews have been. The cream of that strange crop: New York Times film critic Mahnola Dargis’s critic’s pick review. She not only calls Chi-Raq the best work Lee has done in years, but writes this travesty promptly circulated around local Internet circles and rightly mocked: “Set in contemporary Chicago, where sidewalks are washed with blood, and human hearts beat to the rhythm of gunfire…” Why is there such reticence on the part of critics to really address the film’s awfulness? As if taking on Chicago gun violence means Lee should be offered a carte blanche. The tropes the film traffics in means it could have been set anywhere. That Lee chose Chicago seems like a desperate attempt on his part to cash in on the city’s unflattering national spotlight.

Lee says he wants this movie to save lives. But if it has no basis in the reality of the city, how can it?

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One of the most common sights following any major storm is a large number of houses with blue tarps pinned to their roofs. That was certainly true in Houston after Hurricane Harvey, and in Florida after Irma rolled through. But images from Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria are almost blue-roof-free. That’s not because the hurricane didn’t leave plenty of damaged homes — with winds speeds over 150 mph when it made landfall, Maria was a monster storm that ripped shingles from homes that met even the most stringent hurricane standards.

So why are images from Puerto Rico so lacking in that post-disaster blue?

After Hurricane Maria damaged tens of thousands of homes in Puerto Rico, a newly created Florida company with an unproven record won more than $30 million in contracts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide emergency tarps and plastic sheeting for repairs.

Just as the contract to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid was awarded to a two-man firm in Montana that didn’t even have an office, FEMA awarded the contract for supplying tarps and similar post-disaster materials to the Florida firm Bronze Star.

Only neither of the brothers behind the company had the supplies they were selling, or experience in acquiring them, or knowledge of delivering them. And if the name has you wondering, neither of them actually has a Bronze Star.

“My brother and I, we are both veterans, so we just came up with a name to do business,” Kayon Jones said. “We’re not saying we have a Bronze Star or anything.”

Somehow the proposal from Bronze Star beat out eight other bids for tarps and plastic sheeting. But not a single item was delivered before FEMA finally cancelled the contracts on November 6. Which means that since September 20, homes on Puerto Rico have been picking up even more rain damage as they waited for these supplies.


Massachusetts Lawmaker Who Tipped Illegals Off to ICE Raids Says She’s Not Sorry

As reported earlier — Massachusetts State Representative, Michelle Dubois took to Facebook to warn illegal aliens that ICE would be doing raids in the community of Brockton on Wednesday, March 29th.

Ms. DuBois even gave specific instructions to illegal aliens to stay inside ‘don’t go out on the street’ and if there was a knock on the door, not to answer the door.

Michelle DuBois told CBS Local she is not sorry for her illegal stunt:

“Passing information along that is already all over the community not only lets the people I represent know what is happening. It lets ICE know that everyone in Brockton is aware of their intended raid if there was one,” DuBois said, reading a statement aloud. Asked whether she thought the post could be construed as obstructing justice, she replied, “No, I don’t.” DuBois also said she did not see a problem with disseminating a rumor and admitted, she did not contact ICE before doing so.

They need to start locking up a few of these criminals.

This lawmaker is out of control.


This is going to be a series of posts that talk about what I learned from the Django Dash. I think it’s a really fun competetion that is also a great learning experience. I hope that this series catch on, and other people write about some of the things that they learned in the Django Dash.

What I learned¶

The thing that I learned about during my dash project was the awesomeness that is Gunicorn. It is an awesome HTTP server that I think has really solved the “how do I deploy Django” problem.

Here are the steps involved in deploying a site using the gunicorn:

pip install gunicorn

Add ‘gunicorn’ to your installed apps

./manage.py run_gunicorn -b 127.0.0.1:1337 –daemon

It really is that simple. Gunicorn is the fastest way to having a production ready web server serving your site that I’ve found in the Django realm. However, Gunicorn by itself isn’t production ready. It is recommended to deploy something in front of it. We used Nginx, which is another super simple web server.

Here is basically the simplest possible configuration of nginx that will work for your gunicorn backend server.

server { listen 80 ; server_name example . com ; access_log / var / log / nginx / example . log ; location / { proxy_pass http : // 127.0 . 0.1 : 1337 ; } }

After you restart Nginx, you should be able to hit your server at port 80 and have it be serving your Django web app. This allowed us to get our application into production during the dash in about 10 minutes, which was a great time saver.

I’d be curious if people have had any trouble with Gunicorn in deployment, because as far as I’ve seen its production ready. As a “first Django deployment” set up I think it’s hard to beat. I’ve also noticed that is uses significantly less RAM than an Apache/mod_wsgi set up (I know this can be configured away, but by default it’s much better). This is great for the memory constrained deployment platforms a lot of us are running on.


The best story about Jürgen Klopp’s reputation in Germany dates back to 2008 when, as Mainz manager, he was under consideration to take over at Hamburg, subject to an intensive, secret period of scrutiny by the club, who had him observed at training, on match-day and in his life outside football.

Of the many details that were reported back to Hamburg, the fact Klopp often wore ripped jeans struck the club’s board as posing a serious question about his suitability. In the end, they gave the job to Martin Jol. For Klopp, who joined Borussia Dortmund months later, the story served as a useful reminder in driving the perception that he was a figure who belonged outside the establishment.

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The owners of Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group, will have no such concerns when they move to close a deal with their new manager over the next few days. Klopp, at 48, has a pedigree as good as any manager to come into the Premier League since Louis van Gaal and he has nurtured the reputation of a maverick and an outsider at Dortmund, where he often defeated the mighty Bayern Munich.

In the past, he has publicly compared Munich to the villain in a James Bond movie, while casting Dortmund as the force for good. He also compared Bayern’s approach to China’s theft of Germany’s manufacturing industry’s best ideas. “Bayern go about football in the same way that the Chinese go about industry,” he said in 2013. “They look at what others do and then they copy it, with more resources and more money.”

Put it this way, if Jose Mourinho, for example, goes for the putative new Liverpool manager in one Friday lunchtime press conference, then he can certainly expect a robust response. Klopp has a confidence and an ego to match the biggest that currently call the Premier League home. The question is, what effect he can have on Liverpool?

He inherited a Dortmund team that finished 13th in the Bundesliga in 2008 and took them to two league titles in 2011 and 2012, as well as the cup double the second year. They reached the Champions League final in 2013 but then, after another second-place Bundesliga finish in 2014, they dropped like a stone. Bottom in February, they finished seventh last season, the same as Liverpool, albeit with a much inferior points-to-games average than the English club – 1.35 against 1.63.

Along the way, Klopp fought against a dominant club in Bayern, with the resources to sign his best players. The underdog status will be no different with Liverpool, except that instead of one club with more financial clout than Dortmund, there are four who can outgun Klopp’s new club. How he approaches that challenge will be intriguing.

Speaking to those who know Klopp well, it is his capacity to motivate players that stands out as his greatest strength. He is big on the pre-match speech, on making good players give great performances. He likes the emotion of the occasion and he uses that to his own players’ benefit. He is not against taking on journalists in press conferences.

Tactically, the best Dortmund teams were about hard-running, high-pressing and an energy that overwhelmed their opponents. Even in Klopp’s last season, when it was falling apart in the Bundesliga, they still succeeded in giving Arsenal a comprehensive Champions League chasing in September. He is a manager with one key philosophy and while Dortmund’s style was so formidable for so long, it was also perceived as a weakness.

While there was not one key reason why Dortmund fell apart last season, the problems associated with maintaining that style of football was cited. Another was that the players had simply heard Klopp’s speeches too many times. His power to inspire them had waned and, without that, there was not much left.

His Bosnian assistant, Zeljko Buvac, a team-mate from his playing days at Mainz, is a certainty to follow Klopp to Anfield. He regards Buvac as his “brains” and the co-architect of Dortmund’s style of play. That said, Klopp was regarded as the best pundit on German television when it came to tactical analysis during his stint for broadcaster ZDF during the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. He was only manager of Mainz then, yet his ability to explain strategy simply made him a first choice above more famous names.

Dortmund’s player recruitment was a collegiate effort, led by the technical director Michael Zorc, regarded as one of the best in the business. Once players were acquired, it was Klopp’s confidence that helped develop some of them into the stars they became. He encouraged the potential of Lukasz Piszczek at full-back, when he had previously been a mediocre striker for most of his time at Hertha Berlin. He also took a chance on Robert Lewandowski.

Since his departure from Dortmund, the new manager, Thomas Tuchel, has tried to introduce more than one way of playing as an alternative to the high-octane style that Klopp preached. That style was cited in some quarters as unsustainable, with a tendency for them to tire late on in games, as they did in losing the 2013 Champions League final. Their start to the current season has been remarkable, unbeaten until they ran into Bayern Munich this weekend and lost 5-1.

Either way, Liverpool are not recruiting a manager who has a track record of making quiet progress. Klopp is an impact coach, a man with a big personality who will seek to establish himself quickly in the minds of his players and in those of the English football public. At least, that is what he did at Dortmund – and the effect, culminating in one three-year period between 2010 and 2013, was impressive.

His mentor was the late Wolfgang Frank, a former player and manager of relative obscurity who was Klopp’s manager at Mainz in the 1990s. Frank was known for his original, unconventional approach, which made an impression on the young Klopp. At a club that has spent more than 25 years trying to return to the top of English football, there is a platform to do things differently.

Liverpool cannot afford to be unreceptive to new ideas as they try to break the top four. Klopp proved himself the master of that innovation at Dortmund and the question he will have to ask himself at Liverpool is whether that will work once more or if a new approach is required to solve a very old problem.

Chelsea’s statement of intent couldn’t be clearer, Jose

“He has the squad with which to do it.” Just nine words, but a sting in the tail to the statement of support that Chelsea offered Jose Mourinho. Roman Abramovich has given his manager the public support he asked for, but made it clear he has the resources at his disposal to, as the statement puts it, “turn this season around”. These statements are not issued lightly and their composition is very carefully considered. Mourinho knows what is required of him and the next club statement reflecting on his performance – if there is another – is not so likely to be good news.

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