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According to sources close to the situation, several Groupon board members have been seriously discussing making major leadership changes at the Chicago-based daily deals company, including bringing in a more experienced CEO to take over for co-founder Andrew Mason.
The board of Groupon has a regularly scheduled meeting later this week; sources said such management issues are likely to be discussed there, due to increasing frustration by some directors about the novice CEO's performance so far.
To be clear, a move to replace Mason is not likely to happen immediately, if at all. And, in any case, any changes are likely to be done with his involvement. In addition, Mason also has support on the eight-member board — director and former AOL exec Ted Leonsis has always been a key mentor to him, for example.
But it has become obvious over the last months that a substantive rift has been developing between Groupon's key players.
That has centered on Mason's co-founder and Groupon executive chairman, Eric Lefkofsky, and board member and co-founder Brad Keywell. They, as well as several other directors, have been urging Mason to be more aggressive and public about the company's turnaround efforts, sources said.
"The question is not whether Andrew is a good guy, but whether Groupon needs an Eric Schmidt," said one person close to the situation, referring to the former Google CEO who was brought in to work closely with the company's two founders. "And there's been a lot more pressure now on the board to consider this seriously."
The thoughtful and affable Mason — who has been the heart and soul of Groupon's quirky culture and innovative product strategy — has indeed sometimes seemed to be in over his head in terms of leadership once the stakes got higher and the pressure increased after its IPO was announced last June.
While the company's struggles have been well known for a while now, discussions about Mason's tenure as CEO have increased as its stock has dropped precipitously. That has prompted its directors and management to seek to find a way to get the company on more stable footing as a business and, perhaps more importantly, with investors.
That has included the promotion of former Amazon exec Kal Raman to COO recently to give Mason more support. Raman is now, in effect, in charge of many operational aspects of the company, although not product, marketing or technology.
Another bright light recently has been a major investment by Tiger Global Management, a well-regarded hedge fund and private equity firm, which bought up close to 10 percent of Groupon. The move sent its shares up 24 percent in the last week, to $3.88, with a $2.5 billion valuation.
But that's still 85 percent below its public offering price a year ago, and a far cry from the hype around the company when it exploded on the scene several years ago. Once the darling of the start-up space, with its innovative new social e-commerce model and lightning-fast growth, Groupon attracted huge funding from a panoply of top-tier Silicon Valley investors.
With that came a stunning $6 billion acquisition offer from Google and, later, an even huger valuation of more than $10 billion.
All that goodwill changed immediately after the company announced its IPO last June, with continued controversy around everything from Groupon's accounting to management turmoil to its business model to rocky relations with merchants.
Via: All Things D


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For your 2020 Happy Howloween reading pleasure, I've delved into my research notes for a little werewolf lore I discovered while writing my paranormal romance, Ilona's Wolf.
When I was a kid, werewolves were villains of horror movies, not heroes in romance novels, so why the change? I wonder if it has something to do with restoring wolves to wild areas, like Yellowstone Park, and the resulting awareness of these beautiful, magnificent animals.
Yes, they are predators, but they have proven immensely useful in controlling the deer population and in some areas the ecosystem has benefited from the re-introduction of the wolves.
But back in the Middle Ages and earlier, people were terrified of wolves and of the idea that some humans could transform themselves into wolves and attack. Hence, the popularity of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, inspiration for Ilona's Wolf. Wolves were hunted relentlessly in Europe and to extinction in the British Isles.
Some of the ancient beliefs about werewolves are…
Lycanthropy is the term for transforming from man to wolf and it dates back to Roman times, probably no surprise since the brothers who supposedly founded Rome, Romulus and Remus, were said to have been suckled by a she-wolf, a lupa, as babes.
During the Middle Ages, people believed that witches practiced lycanthropy. Alternately, witches were charges with riding werwolves during their rituals, and thus were werewolves associated with magic, a fact I took advantage of in Ilona's Wolf.
We've all heard of the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, but did you know there were also werewolf hunts in the same time period? In France, there were over 30,000 cases of supposed werewolves. Some were executed; others confined due to insanity. For more information and possible real causes of werewolf-like symptoms, see http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/werewolf5.htm.
Werewolf means "man-wolf" though there are varying theories of the evolution of the term. In Old English, the word wer(e) meant man and not in the general, human sense. In Norse, the term varg had two meanings: a wolf or a godless man. Each country had a different term. In France, werewolves are loup-garou; in Spanish hombre lobo; and in Italy lupo mannaro. And there are many others.
In the Middle Ages, people believed that the werewolf's hair grew inward and the skin reversed during transformation. Talk about itching under the skin! I don't think I'd like that.
Werewolves are known to have superior strength, nocturnal vision and a preternatural sense of smell, just like real canines. In addition, thanks to the transformations undergone, they are immune from aging, and thus nearly immortal, except when in their more vulnerable human form. My hero, Sir Rolf, usually shifts into wolf form when danger threatens.
The notion that werewolves transform at the full moon is attributed to medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury, and is now an almost immutable fact of werewolf lore. I chose to ignore it for my book in favor of letting my hero shift at will. (Much more useful, plot-wise.)
Princess Ilona is rescued by a wolf that transforms into a handsome, naked man. Cursed by an evil wizard, Rolf was trapped in wolf form until he tasted the blood of a royal. Now he must escort the princess on a hazardous journey to the castle. Passion flares between them, but both know there is no future for a princess and a werewolf. Or is there… in a world where magic and passion combine?
If you're looking for a hot read on for Halloween night, this story is for you!
Only 99 cents at: Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon Canada, and Amazon UK.
Also available at: iBooks, Kobo and Smashwords.
Note: The sequel, Tova's Dragon, is also available for 99 cents at Amazon:
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07635W1SR
AU: https://www.amazon.au/dp/B07635W1SR/
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07635W1SR/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07635W1SR/
Wishing you a safe, socially distanced, Covid-19-free Halloween!
Lyndi Lamont

subset: commoncrawl


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The taking of the Princessa a Spanish Man of War, April 8, 1740, by his Majesties Ships the Lenox, Kent and Oxford
By Peter Monamy (Collections of the National Maritime Museum) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
In 1758 Robert Kelly, a Jamaican in the Royal Navy, endured an adventure that included capture by the French, imprisonment, escape and resulted in him fetching up in London penniless and alone.
Robert was the son of Ann Rose, sister of Mary Johnston Rose, mentioned here before. His uncle was Denis Kelly of Jamaica and Lisduff in Ireland, and his father was therefore one of Denis Kelly's brothers – Edmund, Darcy, Charles or John, all of whom lived in Jamaica between about 1710 and 1740. Sadly gaps in the parish registers mean it has not been possible to establish which one was the father of Robert nor exactly when he was born, although it is likely this was in the 1730s making John Kelly the most likely candidate for his father since the other three all died between 1728 and 1731.
By 1757 Robert was a Master at Arms on board the Oxford, a man of war in the Royal Navy when the ship was paid off at Plymouth. He was promised a place on another ship, but having heard nothing decided to make his way to London on board a merchant ship in order to contact the Admiralty directly. The condition of the roads was generally so bad that travel by sea would normally have been the quicker route.
Somewhere in the English Channel the ship was captured by a French privateer and all on board were taken to Bayonne in France where Robert was imprisoned. The ship in question may have been either The Africa or The Venice, both of which were reported in the Leeds Intelligencer of Tuesday 15th March 1757 as having been captured by Bayonne privateers.
Another report refers to Bayonne as harbouring over thirty such privateering vessels. These were privately owned vessels licenced by Letters of Marque to prey upon ships of an opposing country, and whose master and crew hoped to make their fortune taking rich prizes. As such they aimed to capture a ship rather than engage with it or sink it. Sale of the captured goods and ransom of any important prisoners added to their income.
Robert was not wealthy, nor was there anyone who would have paid a ransom for him but by a stroke of luck after eight months in prison he was able to escape and made his way across the border to Spain, having by now lost everything he had. Somehow he found himself a ship, probably working his passage, and eventually arrived back in London expecting to be able to make contact with his uncle Denis Kelly. Disaster struck again, for he discovered that his uncle had died in an accident in Ireland the previous December when an eagle had attacked the horse of the chaise he was travelling in causing it to be overturned.
Robert now found himself at the Ship Ale House in Buckingham Court, Charing Cross, with the promise of a ship from Admiral Forbes and a lodging bill he could not pay. Unless he could discharge the debt he would be prevented from taking up the warrant from Admiral Forbes and would be destitute and deprived of all means of earning a living.
We know all this because Robert then wrote to the only person he could think of who might be able to help – Rose Fuller for whom his aunt Mary Johnston Rose had been housekeeper for many years, and who he had last seen sixteen years previously.
There is no account of what happened next, but I am inclined to think that Rose Fuller did come to the rescue – for one thing the letter from Robert Kelly is among his personal papers (East Sussex Record Office ref: ESRO SAS-RF/19/167). Also there are Admiralty records for a Robert Kelly who was a gunner in the navy between 1779 and 1783, although that may of course be another Robert Kelly.
It was a great pity that Denis Kelly, erstwhile Chief Justice of Jamaica, did not live to learn of his nephew Robert's resourcefulness which was in stark contrast to the behaviour of his brother Edmund's legitimate son Henry Kelly (who died in January 1745 aged nineteen). Henry was packed off back to Jamaica by Thomas Beckford in December 1740, his behaviour in England having been thoroughly reprehensible.
Having put him on board the Ashted, Beckford wrote to Denis Kelly, who was then still in Jamaica:
I am very much concerned that he should have made no better use of the Education You have been at the expense of for him, and wish you may be able to turn his mind to better Principles; No advice would do him any service here, and had he stayed, I should have expected to have found him in some Gaol, for some Crime or other. Mr Corkran, who I understood had married a Gentlewoman who was his Relation, was so good to invite him to his house, a little way from the Town, on purpose to divert him, and keep him from Ill Company, as well as to give him good advice, but he gave him the Slip, and Carried away two books which he sold.
(National Library of Ireland, Westport Papers, MS 40,910/5(5) ).
Henry Kellys' behaviour was relatively extreme, but the lot of small children of the colonists was not always a happy one. Sent to England for the sake of their health and to obtain an education, they often lacked both love and supervision, boys in particular were often subjected to regular beatings at school. It is probably not surprising that some of them went wild.
I'd love to know what happened to Robert Kelly in the end, but as with so many of those we encounter in old letters and documents, we glimpse a moment in their lives and then they fade from view.


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My cousin lives in Boston and I was worried that he was somehow affected by the attacks. It immediately brought me back to 9/11 and the memory of how powerless I felt watching the Twin Towers fall. Luckily, my cousin was fine. But it wasn't true for others. The grief of losing family and friends is unbearable.
Deliberate attacks against civilians by individuals or armed groups are always human rights abuses. Amnesty International condemns the attacks in Boston in the strongest terms. The victims have a right to remedy, including to see those responsible brought to justice in a fair trial that respects human rights and reaffirms the rule of law.
The Obama administration is right to prosecute the suspect in criminal court and ignore those calling for denial of human rights and civil liberties. The trial must be fair, the suspect must be treated humanely and we must not let fear-mongering and discrimination flourish. We all want justice and security, but there's a right way and a wrong way to go about it.


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December 4, 2012
Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising
The president's office and the Curtin Companies are offering the Excellence in Undergraduate Advising award. An honorarium of $2,500 is provided with this award. The award will be presented at a reception sponsored by the president's office for all of the recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence.
Each dean may nominate up to two individuals from his or her college. Because Veterinary Medicine students are not considered undergraduates, advisers from the College of Veterinary Medicine are not eligible for this award. Students, staff and faculty may submit the names of potential nominees to the appropriate department head or dean. Department heads may forward nomination materials to the dean.
Each nomination packet should include:
- A letter of nomination;
- Letters of recommendation from two undergraduate students whom the nominee has advised, additional letters will not be considered. It is suggested that nominees also include copies of their advising evaluations from students. These can be obtained by the nominee by contacting Mike Lynch's office at 785-532-7305;
- A letter of recommendation from the department head or appropriated supervisor that details why the nominee is deserving of this award and describes the scope of the nominee's advising responsibilities;
- A letter of recommendation from at least one other faculty member;
- A brief description by the nominee of his or her advising philosophy (one-page limit).
Nomination packets must be received by the office of the provost by 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 1, 2013. An advisory committee will review the nominations and may choose to conduct short interviews with some of the nominees before making its recommendation to the provost. Attached is information about the criteria to be used in the review of the nominations and the nomination process. Please submit all nomination materials electronically in PDF format to Gail Zeak at email@example.com.
This universitywide award for advising enables us to showcase those who are dedicated to providing quality advising to our undergraduates. Please nominate individuals from your college who are actively involved in this endeavor. To ensure student and staff involvement, please inform student and staff councils in your college that they may nominate qualified individuals for this award.
Criteria for the Selection of Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising
The advisory committee will evaluate nominations on the evidence of effective advising qualities that distinguish the nominee as an outstanding adviser. Such evidence may include, but is not limited to:
- Availability to advisees
- Appropriate referral activity
- Use of appropriate information sources
- Monitoring of student progress toward academic and career goals
- Mastery of institutional regulations, policies, and procedures
- Ability to engage in developmental advising (career and life planning) versus simply course scheduling
Nomination Procedure
The nomination procedure will include:
- Provision of information about the award to various groups.
- The request for nominations will be sent to deans and departments heads, with each dean allowed to nominate up to two individuals from his or her college.
- An advertisement will be placed in the Collegian informing students that they may submit nominations for this award, and they should contact the Office of the Dean of their college to obtain the nomination information.
- To ensure student and staff involvement, please inform student and staff councils in your college that they may nominate qualified individuals for this award.
- The advisory committee will review all of the nominations, and may choose to conduct short interviews (less than 30 minutes) with some of the nominees, before making their recommendation.
The letters of recommendation should specifically identify effective strategies or approaches that the nominee has incorporated into his or her advising duties.


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From our Lightweight Aluminium Architecture and comprehensive system of airbags, to our Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), a Jaguar is designed to help protect you on every journey. While the very latest innovations in vehicle security provide you with added peace of mind.
Innovations in occupant protection include: "soft landing" technology, which detects the size and weight of the front seat passengers and adjusts airbag contact accordingly; anti-whiplash systems, which move the head restraints forward to support the neck in the event of a collision; and our InControl Protect system, which can automatically send out an SOS Emergency Call to bring relevant services to your exact location in the event of a critical situation.
When it comes to active safety, which minimises the risk of accidents occurring in the first place, our cars are equipped with some of the most cutting-edge features. Features like Blind Spot Monitor: a system that uses radar sensors to alert the driver to any vehicle hidden in the blind spot.
To ensure maximum security for your Jaguar, every vehicle is constantly protected by an alarm and engine immobiliser. And on some models, our InControl Secure system can detect any illegal movement of your vehicle and liaise with the authorities to pinpoint its exact location.
We've developed a range of intuitive technologies to improve your driving experience, making it safer, smoother and more enjoyable.


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In the last few days we've learned that Iran has released political prisoners and that its new president and President Obama have written each other. Also suggesting a thaw in the relationship, both leaders expressed a desire to resolve their countries' dispute over Iran's nuclear program. These seeming overtures come as President Hassan Rouhani prepares to fly to New York to address the U.N.
Amid all these positive signs, in New York the U.S. government is preparing to seize a skyscraper built by the Shah of Iran, and now, say American officials, secretly owned by the Iranian regime. Going after Iran's financial assets is a key part of the U.S. strategy aimed at getting Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
MONTAGNE: A man who was central in developing the U.S. capability to target the finances of countries it deems rogue states, is Juan Zarate. He recently joined us of that effort, the subject of his book, "Treasury's War: The Unleashing Of A New Era Of Financial Warfare." We invited Zarate back to walk us through this latest salvo.
Welcome back to the program.
JUAN ZARATE: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So, this building is said to be secretly owned by Iran. Prosecutors say the owner was operating as a front for the government of Iran. But it has been associated with Iran since the 1970s, so why is the government going after it now? And would that be because it has just worked out - the secret arrangements?
ZARATE: Well, I think what has happened is that over the last 10 years, there was greater scrutiny over Iranian institutions - in particular, banks. And what tied this property to the Iranian bank, most clearly, was the fact that the proceeds and the ownership links back to Bank Melli, one of the immigrating banks subject to U.S. pressure. This is part of the constriction campaign against Iranian financial institutions. And Bank Melli has been associated with and accused of engaging in proliferation finance, terrorist financing.
So this property, in some ways, us a result of that greater scrutiny by prosecutors, as well as the Treasury Department, to go after Iranian financing.
MONTAGNE: A lot of discussion in these past few weeks about Syria, Iran's neighbor, and enforcing a red line against the use of weapons of mass destruction. How powerful do you think a message, say, about a red line and possible military action is compared with economic pressure, like seizing an entire 36 story building in the middle of Manhattan?
ZARATE: Well, I think this has great symbolism and it's symbolic of the financial pressure in the campaign of U.S. has waged against Iran; something the Iranians have called the Hidden War. And I think it is, frankly, more tangible to the Iranians because it has affected their economy; the value of their currency, the rial, and has been a major source of tension and irritation internally for the Iranians. So much so that the new president, Rouhani, has made it a goal to relieve that pressure and to improve the Iranian economy.
So, in many ways, the financial pressure that we've been putting on the Iranians, I think, has been more tangible and perhaps more effective than symbolic red lines or threats.
MONTAGNE: Well, now that new president, Hassan Rouhani, we now know that President Obama and Rouhani have exchanged letters since he took office. Does the seizure of this building - will this affect this potentially warmer relationship between the U.S. and Iran?
ZARATE: Well, financial tools are one tool in the toolkit to try to exert leverage and power. And I think, in this case, they have worked quite effectively to not only get the attention of Iranians, but the slow elements of their nuclear program. And one of the calculations the U.S. government has to make now is whether or not to continue to apply financial pressure against the Iranians.
The Obama administration, when it came in, lightened the pressure and stopped some of the elements of the financial campaign. And I think one of the elements of potential negotiations with Iran is how much do we let up on squeezing the Iranian economy. And if this is any signal, the suggestion is that we are not going to and certainly will be looking to use this financial pressure to gain leverage at the negotiating the table.
MONTAGNE: Thanks very much for joining us.
ZARATE: My pleasure, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Juan Zarate is a former White House and Treasury Department official. His new book is called "Treasury's War."
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Magician Michael Grandinetti mystifies and astonishes audiences with his sleight of hand and mastery of illusion. But when he initial steps onto the stage, it's his smile that grabs the attention. "The first thing… that an audience notices is your smile; it's what really connects you as a person to them," Michael told an interviewer.
He attributes his audience-pleasing smile to several years of orthodontic treatment as a teenager to straighten his misaligned teeth, plus a lifetime of good oral care. "I'm so thankful that I did it," he said about wearing orthodontic braces. "It was so beneficial. And… looking at the path I've chosen, it was life-changing."
Orthodontics — the dental sub-specialty focused on treating malocclusions (literally "bad bites") — can indeed make life-changing improvements. Properly positioned teeth are integral to the aesthetics of any smile, and a smile that's pleasing to look at boosts confidence and self-esteem and makes a terrific first impression. Studies have even linked to having an attractive smile with greater professional success.
There can also be functional benefits such as improved biting/chewing and speech, and reduced strain on the jaw muscles and joints. Additionally, well-aligned teeth are easier to clean and less likely to trap food particles that can lead to decay.
The Science Behind the Magic
There are more options than ever for correcting bites, but all capitalize on the fact that teeth are suspended in individual jawbone sockets by elastic periodontal ligaments that enable them to move. Orthodontic appliances (commonly called braces or clear aligners) place light, controlled forces on teeth in a calculated fashion to move them into their new desired alignment.
The "gold standard" in orthodontic treatment remains the orthodontic band for posterior (back) teeth and the bonded bracket for front teeth. Thin, flexible wires threaded through the brackets create the light forces needed for repositioning. Traditionally the brackets have been made of metal, but for those concerned about the aesthetics, they can also be made out of a clear material. Lingual braces, which are bonded to the back of teeth instead of the front, are other less visible options. The most discrete appliance is the removable clear aligner, which consists of a progression of custom-made clear trays that reposition teeth incrementally.
How's that for a disappearing act?!
If you would like more information about orthodontic treatment please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about the subject by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article "The Magic of Orthodontics."


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Showing Collections: 1 - 1 of 1
Stetson Kennedy papers
Identifier: L1979-37
Kennedy's career as an author began in the 1930s when he worked as both a writer and an editor on the Federal Writers Project guide to Florida. The Papers, 1933-1981, of Stetson Kennedy comprise correspondence; subject files on various organizations, individuals, and ideas; typescripts of articles written by Kennedy; newsclippings; press releases; bulletins and fliers; pamphlets; periodicals; and photographs. Anyone interested in primary source material on the pioneering struggles to...
Found in:
Special Collections


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Purchase conditions
Please note that by buying digital or printed music sheets at our e-shop you are not obtaining the license for public performance(s) of the piece(s). You must get a license from the collective copyright management association in your country. We kindly remind you that usage of music and other intellectual property without license is a violation of applicable law.
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For digital goods purchased directly from us you will get the downloadable link via email. For shipping (physical) goods purchased directly from us we use the Lithuanian Postal Services. Your final shipping charge will be calculated depending on the total weight of your purchase and zone of your delivery address.


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Link to these retailers for great savings on your Christmas gifts.
Hadley Court - Interior Design Blog
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Link to these retailers for great savings on your Christmas gifts.
Leslie Hendrix Wood is the founding editor of the luxury lifestyle and design blog, Hadley Court and an has her own interior design firm, Leslie Hendrix Wood Interiors in Midland, Texas.
Leslie received her undergraduate degree in business. She worked briefly in banking and returned to school to earn her MBA.
Upon graduation, she moved to Washington D.C. to work on a Presidential campaign and received a Presidential appointment to a position in International Trade.
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In 2014, she is, in addition to blogging, beginning to build the family friendly luxury lifestyle brand: HADLEY COURT, based on her values of Gracious Living, Timeless Design and Family Traditions.


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Rapper Kanye West donated $150,000 to a memorial fundraising site for a security guard shotby an officer in his hometown Chicago.
West gave through the GoFundMe page made to raise money for the funeral of Jemel Roberson, 26, far exceeding the goal. Bart Jackson, a representative for GoFundMe, confirmed the contribution.
"Sadly, Jemel's life was tragically and unexpectedly cut short this morning as he tried to save others from senseless violence," the page creator wrote on behalf of Roberson's mother.
How he was killed
Roberson was shot by an officer from Midlothian, Illinios while detaining a gunman outside of Manny's Blue Room Lounge where he worked, according to a federal lawsuit. Witnesses said the alleged gunman returned to the bar after security asked him and several drunken men to leave, CNN affiliate WGN reported.
The responding officer fatally shot Roberson in his side, after giving him "multiple verbal commands to drop the gun and get on the ground," according to a statement filed by Illinois State Police, citing witnesses.
Roberson's mother, Beatrice Roberson, sued for more than $1 million, listing the unnamed responding officer and the village of Midlothian as defendants.
Outrage following the killing
Many have expressed outrage and concerns of alleged racial bias in this latest instance of police killing a black man.
US Sen. Corey Booker, D-New Jersey, tweeted, "Words can't begin to describe my horror and outrage."
US Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, called the shooting "heartbreaking."
Actress Gabrielle Union also tweeted, saying that Roberson was brave and that "his life was snatched."
"My baby lost his father, his hero" Avontae Boose, the mother of Roberson's son, told CNN affiliate WLS. "Jemel loved his babies so much."


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Low-cost clubs haven't traditionally been big on group exercise, what inspired Fitness Hut to take a different approach?
Having previously worked in Portugal with my business partners for a number of years at Holmes Place Iberia, we knew that people here really 'get' group exercise, perhaps more than any other market in Europe where I've worked. Group fitness has always had a huge uptake in Portugal, particularly the further south you go. As a result, there's a really strong recognition of the LES MILLS brand and people are really loyal to it, so we offer the full range of live classes and our members can't get enough.
What's been the outcome of your focus on group exercise?
We're now the biggest operator in the country, with 30 sites and another 11 opening in 2018. To give you a flavour of our sites, a typical Fitness Hut charges €20-30 per month and has 4,500 members. It usually covers 1,800m2 and within this include three group exercise studios, each averaging 120m2. The result is that our classes are regularly at capacity and 40 per cent of club attendances are driven by group exercise, which is unheard of for a low-cost operator.
And what led you to add virtual fitness into the mix?
We took up Virtual in 2014 – we've always positioned ourselves as trend-setters, who keep ahead of the curve and embrace technology. This has proved particularly appealing to young people. Our clubs are mega-busy and our classes are pretty much always full, so I was looking for a solution that would help spread demand, support off-peak optimisation and ensure members aren't disappointed if an instructor can't make a class.
What was the response from members?
It's been interesting – there was resistance from members and instructors at first. They were concerned we were looking to cut costs and scale back on things like live classes that mark us out as a premium low-cost operator. But it quickly became clear this wasn't the case and people saw that we were actually enhancing our group exercise offering. We consider 30 people to be a successful live class, whereas I'd count 4 or 5 as a successful virtual class because that's 5 people using a space which otherwise would be empty. That said, we have some virtual classes that regularly have 15 or 20 people in them, which is incredible. I never would have thought that would happen, but it's a phenomenon in some clubs.
Which virtual programs do you currently offer?
We only had BODYPUMP™ initially as we thought that the other generic off-the-shelf virtual options were enough to supplement this. But they weren't really moving the needle, so we decided to add RPM™ and immediately uptake shot through the roof. We started adding more and have never really looked back. We now offer a broad range of LES MILLS Virtual content – BODYPUMP, RPM, CXWORX ™, BODYATTACK ™, SH'BAM™.
Which types of members are drawn to virtual classes?
We find the LES MILLS Virtual classes appeal to a broad range of people, particularly younger members. Some people – expats and international students – like the fact the classes are taught in English. Others are deliberately choosing virtual because they're new to exercise and want to ease into the classes. A lot of these people will then go on to start taking part in the live classes. The classes are also very popular because members know exactly what they're getting and it's being taught by one of the top instructors in the world.
What's been the impact of virtual on your business?
We've been able to double the amount of group exercise opportunities for our members – we offer 80-90 lives classes in a club each week and 80 virtual. We don't measure virtual attendance in the same way as live classes on our booking platform because we want to make it as frictionless and accessible as possible, so people can just walk in the studio if they want. On a broader level, our retention, member acquisition and other core metrics have been steadily improving over the last few years, and group exercise has certainly played a part in this.
What's the difference between LES MILLS Virtual content and the other options available to operators?
The quality of Les Mills is miles ahead of all of the offerings on a virtual platform. You've got the world's best instructors teaching you, so you know you're going to get a great workout experience every time. The content is regularly updated as well to keep it fresh, so it's a very strong proposition for members.
Les Mills Virtual classes are exciting, cinematic-quality versions of live classes. You get chart-topping music and instruction from the world's best talent – creating unparalleled virtual experiences. This, combined with the lighting and sound in a studio mean you are getting as close to a live experience as possible. Classes are updated quarterly to stay fresh and there's a wide range of Les Mills programs to ensure you have plenty to choose from.
Transform your club with Virtual
Want to learn more about LES MILLS Virtual can drive new memberships for your club?
Discover Here


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Here are the Sprouts deals for the week.
If you shop on Wednesday only they have an overlapping ad – so get 2 weeks of deals in one day.
You can see the deals that run through May 7th and the deals that run May 7th-May 14th below
Plus you can get more Sprouts coupons here. Most stores will allow you to use one store coupon and one manufacturer coupon on the same item.


text: PUBLISHED BY A SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE AND No offence can justly be taken for this new labour; nothing prejudicing any other man's Archbishop Parker's Preface to the Bishops' Bible. FROM THE LONDON EDITION. BOSTON: PRINTED BY THOMAS B. WAIT AND COMPANY, COURT-STREET, FOR W. WELLS. ........... INTRODUCTION. SECTION I ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND DESIGN OF THE WORK. In the year 1791, a Society was formed in London, the professed design of which was to promote religious knowledge and the practice of virtue by the distribution of books. Of this Society, from its first origin, it has always been a principal object to publish an Improved Version of the Holy Scriptures, and particularly of the New Testament. With this view, a deputation of the Society was commissioned about twelve years ago to wait upon the late pious and learned Gilbert Wakefield, to request his permission to republish and to circulate his new and accurate Translation of the New Testament at the expense of the Society; to which that gentleman most readily expressed his assent, and at the same time promised to revise his translation with great care, and to give it to the Society in its most perfect state. It appeared, however, in the sequel, that the engagement, into which he had entered with his bookseller upon the publication of his second edition, precluded him from fulfilling his promise to the Society till that edition was disposed of. In the mean time those unfortunate events took place, which are but too well known to the public; and, to the great and irreparable loss of religion and literature, the life of that eminent scholar was closed in the midst of its career. After the decease of Mr. Wakefield, it being found impracticable to make use of his Translation, the design for some time lay dormant, till it was resumed by another Society in the West of England, which was formed upon the same principles with the Society in London. This effort proved abortive in consequence of the sudden and much lamented removal of that active, zealous, and persevering advocate of pure and uncorrupted christianity, the late reverend and learned Timothy Kenrick of Exeter. The design, however, of publishing an Improved Version of the New Testament was never totally abandoned: and it was resumed with great unanimity and spirit at the annual meeting of the London |


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A record 107,500 people reach Yemen in 2012 after risky sea crossing
A record 107,500 people reach Yemen in 2012 after risky sea crossing
GENEVA, January 15 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency announced on Tuesday that some 107,500 African refugees and migrants made the perilous sea journey from the Horn of Africa to Yemen in 2012, the largest such influx since UNHCR began compiling these statistics in 2006. The previous record high was in 2011, when more than 103,000 people arrived in Yemen on smugglers' boats.
Some 84,000, or more than 80 per cent, of the arrivals were Ethiopian nationals, while Somali refugees constituted the rest. Many migrants use Yemen as a transit stop en route to states in the Persian Gulf.
Despite economic and security difficulties last year, Yemen continued to receive and host a record number of people fleeing the Horn of Africa in search of safety, protection and better economic conditions. All Somali arrivals are automatically recognized as refugees by Yemeni authorities.
UNHCR conducts refugee status determination for Ethiopians and other nationalities seeking asylum in Yemen. A very low percentage of Ethiopian arrivals decide to seek asylum, either due to a lack of awareness and access to asylum mechanisms or because they do not meet the criteria to be recognized as refugees. However, for the vast majority of Ethiopian migrants protection space is nearly non-existent and they are often extremely vulnerable.
In Yemen, staff from UNHCR and its local partners conduct daily patrols along the Gulf of Aden coast to provide assistance to all new arrivals that pass through strategically positioned reception and transit centres. However, there are substantial difficulties in responding to the various protection risks that new arrivals face in transit and upon arrival in Yemen.
Boats crossing to Yemen are often overcrowded and smugglers, in order to avoid the Yemeni coastguard, sometimes force the passengers into the water, often far from the shore and in stormy weather. UNHCR estimates that at least 100 people have drowned or gone missing while trying to cross the Gulf of Aden or the Red Sea in 2012.
New arrivals are at risk of exploitation, violence and sexual abuse. The situation is particularly difficult along the Red Sea coast, where Yemeni smugglers and traffickers are often waiting to receive new arrivals. Traffickers mainly target Ethiopians looking to travel onwards to Persian Gulf states.
Conflict and instability in the north and south of the country has curbed the ability of Yemeni authorities to address trafficking. In 2012, there was a proliferation in smuggling and trafficking and a significant increase in reported cases of violence and abuse perpetrated against new arrivals. The increased presence of armed gangs of smugglers and traffickers is an additional risk to aid workers.
"The continually growing mixed migration movement from the Horn of Africa is an issue affecting the region beyond Yemen," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said in Geneva on Tuesday. "We welcome the decision of the authorities in [the Yemen capital] Sana'a to host a regional conference this year with UNHCR as part of wider efforts to develop a strategy to manage the flow of mixed migrants, and prevent and reduce smuggling and trafficking in the region."
Yemen is a historic transit hub for migrants and stands out in the region for its hospitality towards refugees. The country currently hosts more than 236,000 refugees, virtually all of them of Somali origin. There are also more than 300,000 internally displaced Yemeni civilians in the north due to recurring conflict since 2004.
Meanwhile, in the south, more than 100,000 internally displaced people have returned to their areas of origin in Abyan governorate as the conflict subsided and conditions improved. UNHCR has been advocating with the government and international community to ensure the sustainability of these returns.
On December 30, the UN refugee agency airlifted emergency relief items to Aden, including blankets, plastic sheets and sleeping mats for the returnees. The aid and further assistance arriving by sea will help some 30,000 vulnerable Yemeni families.


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Another (sort of) rare event plug here on 1WineDude.com - I don't do these plugs too often, so when I do, it's because I think that the event is really going to be cool. And in this case, I think the cool potential is very high: I personally know the two people selecting and pouring wine at the event, and they definitely know their wine (not to mention that they're also really splendid people).
The fabulous Teikoku restaurant (where I recently covered an event featuring the wines of Penns Woods Winery) is hosting a wine tasting event this coming Thursday, July 3 2008.
I will be there - so if you're attending, drop me a line and stop by to say hello.
Thursday July 3, 2008 - 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Newtown Square
Join us for an evening of Wine On The Deck with former sommelier and wine educator, Matthew Esser from Shiffrin Selections and wine educator and consultant, Heather Wright from Cellar Door Imports.
We will be featuring some new, off the beaten path pours, along with small bites from Executive Chef Takao Iinuma to compliment them.
$30 per person all inclusive
Space is limited, reserve now


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The summer of 2018 was intense: deadly wildfires, persistent drought, killer floods and record-breaking heat. Although scientists exercise great care before linking individual weather events to climate change, the rise in global temperatures caused by human activities has been found to increase the severity, likelihood and duration of such conditions.
Globally, 2018 is on pace to be the fourth-hottest year on record. Only 2015, 2016 and 2017 were hotter. The Paris climate agreement aims to hold temperature rise below 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius, but if humankind carries on its business-as-usual approach to climate change, there's a 93 percent chance we're barreling toward a world that is 4 degrees Celsius warmer by the end of the century, a potentially catastrophic level of warming.
A warning and a reckoning
In 1992, 1,700 scientists around the world issued a chilling "warning to humanity." The infamous letter declared that humans were on a "collision course" with the natural world if they did not rein in their environmentally damaging activities.
Such apocalyptic thinking might be easy to mock, and not entirely helpful in inspiring political action if end times are nigh. In 2017, however, more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries co-signed their names to an updated — and even bleaker — version of the 1992 manifesto.
The latest version, titled "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice," asserts that most of the environmental challenges raised in the original letter — i.e., depletion of freshwater sources, overfishing, plummeting biodiversity, unsustainable human population growth — remain unsolved and are "getting far worse."
"Especially troubling is the current trajectory of potentially catastrophic climate change due to rising [greenhouse gases] from burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and agricultural production — particularly from farming ruminants for meat consumption," the paper states.
"Moreover," the authors wrote, "We have unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years, wherein many current life forms could be annihilated or at least committed to extinction by the end of this century."
But they stressed that, "Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is running out."
More recently, President Trump's own administration released on November 23 the 1,600-page Fourth National Climate Assessment, a quadrennial report compiled by 13 federal agencies. This report paints a particularly grim picture, including more frequent droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme weather, declining crop yields, the rise of disease-carrying insects and rising seas — all of which could reduce U.S. gross domestic product by a tenth by the end of the century.
So what we saw this summer? Unless humanity gets its act together, we can expect much worse to come. Here's a peek into our climate-addled future.
1. Species extinction
The Amazon, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, could lose about 70 percent of its plant and amphibian species and more than 60 percent of its birds, mammals and reptile species from unchecked climate change, according to a 2018 study by the University of East Anglia, the James Cook University and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which analyzed the impact of climate change on nearly 80,000 species of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians inhabiting the WWF's 35 "Priority Places" for conservation.
The study's most alarming projection was for the Miombo Woodlands in central and Southern Africa, one of the priority places most vulnerable to climate change. If global temperatures rose 4.5 degrees Celsius, the researchers projected the loss of 90 percent of amphibians and 80 percent or more of plants, birds, mammals and reptiles.
This incredible loss of biodiversity affects humans, too. "This is not simply about the disappearance of certain species from particular places, but about profound changes to ecosystems that provide vital services to hundreds of millions of people," the authors warned.
2. Food insecurity and nutritional deficiencies
While climate change could actually benefit colder parts of the world with longer growing seasons, tropical and subtropical regions in Africa, South America, India and Europe could lose vast chunks of arable land. For coastal countries, rising seas could inundate farming land and drinking water with salt.
Staple crops such as wheat, rice, maize and soybeans, which provide two-thirds of the world's caloric intake, are sensitive to temperature and precipitation and to rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. A sweeping 2017 study showed that every degree-Celsius of warming will reduce average global yields of wheat by 6 percent, rice by 3.2 percent, maize by 7.4 percent and soybeans by 3.1 percent.
What's more, according to a recent paper, carbon dioxide levels expected by 2050 will make staple crops such as rice and wheat less nutritious. This could result in 175 million people becoming zinc deficient (which can cause a wide array of health impacts, including impaired growth and immune function and impotence) and 122 million people becoming protein deficient (which can cause edema, fat accumulation in liver cells, loss of muscle mass and in children, stunted growth). Additionally, the researchers found that more than 1 billion women and children could lose a large portion of their dietary iron intake, putting them at increased risk of anemia and other diseases.
3. Farewell to coastal cities and island nations
Unless we cut heat-trapping greenhouse gases, scientists predict sea levels could rise up to three feet by 2100, according to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment report.
This could bring high tides and surges from strong storms, and be devastating for the millions of people living in coastal areas. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a report earlier this year that predicted parts of Miami, New York City and San Francisco could flood every day by 2100, under a sea-level rise scenario of three feet.
Entire countries could also be swallowed by the sea due to global warming. Kiribati, a nation consisting of 33 atolls and reef islands in the South Pacific, is expected to be one of the first.
Kiribati won't be alone. At least eight islands have already disappeared into the Pacific Ocean due to rising sea levels since 2016, and an April study said that most coral atolls will be uninhabitable by the mid-21st century.
4. Social conflict and mass migration
In 2017, New York Magazine Deputy Editor David Wallace-Wells wrote an alarming and widely read essay called "The Uninhabitable Earth" that focused almost entirely on worst-case climate scenarios. He discussed that, with diminished resources and increased migration caused by flooding, "social conflict could more than double this century."
The article's scientific merit has been fiercely debated, but the World Bank did conclude in March 2018 that water scarcity, crop failure and rising sea levels could displace 143 million people by 2050. The report focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America, which represent 55 percent of the developing world's population. Unsurprisingly, the poorest and most climate-vulnerable areas will be hardest hit.
5. Lethal heat
Today, around 30 percent of the global population suffers deadly levels of heat and humidity for at least 20 days a year, a 2017 analysis showed. If emissions continue increasing at current rates, the researchers suggested 74 percent of the global population — three in four people — will experience more than 20 days of lethal heat waves.
"Our attitude towards the environment has been so reckless that we are running out of good choices for the future," Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the study's lead author, told National Geographic.
"For heatwaves, our options are now between bad or terrible," he added. "Many people around the world are already paying the ultimate price of heatwaves."
6. Surging wildfires
The Camp Fire, which burned more than 150,000 acres in Butte County in November, was the deadliest and most destructive fire in California's history, killing at least 85 people. The Mendocino Complex Fire, which started in July and torched roughly 300,000 acres in Northern California, was the largest fire in the state's modern history. The second-largest was 2017's Thomas Fire, which burned 281,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
But the Golden State's fires will only get worse, according to California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment released by the governor's office in August. If greenhouse gases continue rising, large fires that burn more than 25,000 acres will increase by 50 percent by the end of the century, and the volume of acres that will be burned by wildfires in an average year will increase by 77 percent, the report said.
"Higher spring and summer temperatures and earlier spring snowmelt typically cause soils to be drier for longer, increasing the likelihood of drought and a longer wildfire season, particularly in the western United States," The Union of Concerned Scientists explained in a blog post.
"These hot, dry conditions also increase the likelihood that wildfires will be more intense and long-burning once they are started by lightning strikes or human error."
7. Hurricanes: more frequent, more intense
It's not currently clear if changes in climate directly led to 2017's major hurricanes, including Harvey, Irma, Maria and Ophelia. What we do know is this: Moist air over warm ocean water is hurricane fuel.
"Everything in the atmosphere now is impacted by the fact that it's warmer than it's ever been," CNN Senior Meteorologist Brandon Miller said. "There's more water vapor in the atmosphere. The ocean is warmer. And all of that really only pushes the impact in one direction, and that is worse: higher surge in storms, higher rainfall in storms."
NOAA concluded this June that, "It is likely that greenhouse warming will cause hurricanes in the coming century to be more intense globally and have higher rainfall rates than present-day hurricanes."
8. Melted polar ice and permafrost
The Arctic is warming at a rate twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and continued loss of ice and snow cover "will cause big changes to ocean currents, to circulation of the atmosphere, to fisheries and especially to the air temperature, which will warm up because there isn't any ice cooling the surface anymore," Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge, told Public Radio International. "That will have an effect, for instance, on air currents over Greenland, which will increase the melt rate of the Greenland ice sheet."
Not only that, frozen Arctic soil — or permafrost — is starting to melt, causing the release of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It's said that the permafrost holds 1.8 trillion tons of carbon, more than twice as much as is currently suspended in the Earth's atmosphere. Wadhams explained that the fear is that the permafrost will melt in "one rapid go." If that happens, "The amount of methane that comes out will be a huge pulse, and that would have a detectable climate change, maybe 0.6 of a degree. . . . So, it would be just a big jerk to the global climate."
9. The spread of pathogens
Disturbingly, permafrost is full of pathogens, and its melting could unleash once-frozen bacteria and viruses, The Atlantic reported. In 2016, dozens of people were hospitalized and a 12-year-old boy died after an outbreak of anthrax in Siberia. More than 2,000 reindeer were also infected. Anthrax hadn't been seen in the region for 75 years. The cause? Scientists suggested that a heat wave thawed a reindeer carcass that was infected with the disease decades ago, according to NPR.
While we shouldn't get too frightened about Earth's once-frozen pathogens wiping us out (yet), the warming planet has also widened the geographic ranges of ticks, mosquitoes and other organisms that carry disease.
"We now have dengue in southern parts of Texas," George C. Stewart, McKee Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and chair of the department of veterinary pathobiology at the University of Missouri, told Scientific American. "Malaria is seen at higher elevations and latitudes as temperatures climb. And the cholera agent, Vibrio cholerae, replicates better at higher temperatures."
10. Dead corals
As the world's largest carbon sink, our oceans bear the brunt of climate change. But the more carbon it absorbs (about 22 million tons a day), the more acidic the waters become. This could put a whole host of marine life at risk, including coral reef ecosystems, the thousands of species that depend on them and the estimated 1 billion people around the globe who rely on healthy reefs for sustenance and income. According to Science, "Researchers predict that with increasing levels of acidification, most coral reefs will be gradually dissolving away by the end of the century."
These climate predictions are worst-case scenarios, but there are many more dangers to consider in our warming world. A report recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change found "evidence for 467 pathways by which human health, water, food, economy, infrastructure and security have been recently impacted by climate hazards such as warming, heatwaves, precipitation, drought, floods, fires, storms, sea-level rise and changes in natural land cover and ocean chemistry."
Half a degree matters
Since the 19th century, the Earth has warmed by 1 degree Celsius. Now, a major IPCC special report released in October warns that even just a half-degree more of warming could be disastrous. "Every extra bit of warming matters, especially since warming of 1.5ºC or higher increases the risk associated with long-lasting or irreversible changes, such as the loss of some ecosystems," said Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chair of IPCC Working Group II.
The panel said that "limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to 2°C could go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society."
With President Trump saying he doesn't believe his own administration's climate report, that sustainable and equitable society remains a distant dream.
Lorraine Chow is a freelance writer and reporter based in South Carolina.


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Thank you for visiting EcosoGood, our environmentally friendly eco shop and for doing your bit to help reduce unnecessary waste and for helping to save our planet 🙂
It is estimated that over 4 billion toothbrushes are sold each year.
When they have reached the end of their life cycle they are simply thrown away and end up in landfill, or worse, in the sea.
The vast majority of these are made from polypropylene plastic and nylon that will not break down over time.
So every single toothbrush you have ever owned is probably still out there……..somewhere……
That is why these enviromentally friendly bamboo toothbrush and travel case sets are so great.
They are made from bamboo, a natural and sustainable wood that grows fast and when they are discarded they quickly decompose.
The toothbrushes are 17.5cm long with the bristles measuring 12mm long.
When they need replacing, simply remove the bristles (which are non biodegradable) with pliers and compost the shaft.
These toothbrushes have red bristles which are of a medium soft softness.
The case measures 23cm long and 3cm wide


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Kids fall in love with a story: it is their innocent equivalent of volcanic passion. They hear the tale from a parent, or their older siblings read a "young adult" book — read it over and over, because each new visit is like reconnecting with an old friend whose life is more fraught and much cooler than theirs.
Then somebody makes a movie version, which may be either the story's final validation or its dead end. Faced with this huge, demanding fan base, the adaptors of a popular novel loved by the young must balance fidelity with innovation. Change nothing in the transfer of the literary to the cinematic and risk boring or baffling the general audience. Change too much and the book's fans will cry betrayal. It's not their old friend, looking better than ever, but a clone with a Hollywood smile.
The filmmakers entrusted with the Harry Potter and Twilight books managed to please both constituencies. Can The Hunger Games, in the movie version directed by Gary Ross, successfully navigate the crossing from page to screen? Our answer: Eh. As the film's king baddie, President Snow (Donald Sutherland), warns, "A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous." We advise acolytes of The Hunger Games, and newcomers too, to bring only a little hope to this long (2 hours and 22 minutes), pedestrian film.
For the six of you who have somehow avoided Lionsgate's wizardly worldwide media blitz, The Hunger Games is the first volume of Suzanne Collins's trilogy set in Panem, a North American dystopia perhaps a hundred years in the future. In the Capital city, the foppish tyrants who run Panem stage an annual Hunger Games, a kind of Survivor Thunderdome Olympics that lasts a few weeks and is mandatory TV viewing for all citizens, Twenty-four children, two from each Panem District, are chosen at random and forced to kill each other off until only one, the Victor, remains, to be rewarded with a life of plenty. The Games' slogan — "And may the odds be ever in your favor" — twists the Jedi "May the Force be with you" into a sick joke: the odds are 23 to 1 that a Tribute will end up dead.
In the dirt-poor coal-mining region called District 12, the sturdy 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen supports her cherished younger sister Primrose and their wan mother by foraging furtively for game; named for the flower sagittaria, also known as arrowhead, she is an expert archer. When Primrose's name is drawn to be the District's female Tribute, Katniss volunteers to go instead and leave behind her beau Gale. The boy chosen from District 12 is the callow but stalwart Peeta Mellark, a baker's son who carries a secret torch for Katniss.
Back in the freshet of the Hunger Games phenomenon in 2009, our Lev Grossman called the first two books "a killer cocktail of Logan's Run, Lord of the Flies, The Running Man, reality TV and the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur." He might have added The Truman Show (for the TV cameras hidden throughout the forest environment to catch every pursuit and fatality), Oliver Twist (for the children forced by adults into criminal behavior), Romeo and Juliet (for the poison that two lovers plan to take) and, centrally, Richard Connell's 1924 story "The Most Dangerous Game," whose scenario of a mad Cossack trapping humans on his Caribbean island and hunting them down like big game has inspired a couple dozen Hollywood films.
(READ: Lev Grossman on The Hunger Games and Catching Fire)
The movie of The Hunger Games, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss and Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, might be expected to err on the side of fidelity, since Collins served as executive producer and helped write the screenplay. Most of the book's set pieces are here: the fateful drawing of names by District 12 "Escort" Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks); the hazing-mentoring of Katniss and Peeta by Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), a Victor long since in his cups; the contestants' televised chats with smarmy Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), which proceed like a Miss America pageant if it were shown on Bravo; Katniss's interview with her prospective patrons, whom she startled by one-upping William Tell and shooting an arrow out of a roast pig's mouth; and the grueling ordeal of the Games in the woods, where the deaths mount from arrow, harpoon, machete and genetically altered wasps — "tracker-jackers."
On this killing field, Katniss and Peeta must decide whether to kill each other and win or form a wary alliance and risk dying together — for, according to the inflexible rules, only one can survive. Except that Collins is cavalier with her caveats. Now she changes the rules. Nope, changing back again. Oops, changing back to the first change. By the end, narrative twists seem like authorial dithering.
Ross, who directed young Tobey Maguire in Pleasantville (a dystopian fantasy set in the past) and Seabiscuit, shows a similar skill with the 21-year-old Lawrence, who earned an Oscar nomination in another sylvan tale of dread, Winter's Bone. No wafer-thin waif like Twilight's Kristen Stewart, Lawrence can be a giddy motormouth in interviews (as she was on Tuesday with David Letterman), but her screen persona in Winter's Bone and The Burning Plain, and as Raven-Mystique in X-Men: First Class, is sullen, stolid, slablike. She could be the heroine of one of Robert Bresson's French epics of minimalist misery — his Joan of Arc or Mouchette — and that makes her close to ideal as the too-tough-to-cry Katniss.
Hutcherson, the kid in Journey to the Center of the Earth and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, has to play Peeta as the softer of the two lead characters. In any other action film he'd be the sensitive fellow whom the real hero risks his life to save. Maybe he'll make a stronger impression in the films that are sure to be made from the later books in the trilogy.
The novel, narrated by Katniss, visualizes District 12 as a Dorothea Lange photo-montage of Appalachian poverty, and the Capital city in District 1 as a Tea Party member's horrified vision of downtown Manhattan night life in the swinging '70s. The movie tries to capture some of that wretched excess: the outré couture and coiffure of the one-percenters defines their decadence. Effie is done up like a Lewis Carroll's Red Queen time-traveling to Louis XIV's court; the beard of Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley) is as artfully manicured as the flames painted on a clown car. Think Fellini, but with less brio.
That's the movie's problem: it's better at grim than gaudy, but not masterly at either. Katniss, in the flaming red dress she wears to the Games' opening, may be "the girl on fire," but the film rarely combusts. Ross doesn't dare have too much fun with the ruling vultures — their excesses might seem, ugh, appealing — and good actors like Tucci and Toby Jones (as Caesar's color commentator) have trouble locating the right tone, of precision within flamboyance. Only Banks triumphs; she plays Effie with a delicately deranged comic grace; she can turn a simple word like "room" into a tweeting, polysyllabic melody.
The film springs fitfully to life when the Games begin. Ross's support team — 69 propmakers and five second-unit directors, including Oscar-winning auteur Steven Soderbergh — makes the giant arena a forest to die in. Amandla Sternberg adds underage winsomeness as Rue, Katniss's ally and mascot; and the scene in which our heroine uses her archery skills to blow up a pile of booty (another arrow through a piece of fruit sets off the land mines) is smartly managed. But Ross lacks the action-director's skill of lending heft to violent activity while hewing to PG-13 guidelines. The movie flinches when death nears; there's no kick to the kills.
(READ: Is The Hunger Games Too Dark for Kids?)
Collins didn't have to worry about a movie rating when she sat down to write The Hunger Games. Though meant for teen readers, the novel vibrates with a relentless passion that put the reader inside Katniss's mind and guts. The reading experience could be rated R — not for the gore, and not for the sex (there is none), but for the ferocity of the prose. But that was a book; this is a movie, a commodity aiming for a billion-dollar worldwide gross. What Ross has created is a dutiful spectacle — as if his name had been drawn at random, and the job were not the chance of a lifetime but a slog to the death.
Put it another way: If they made books out of movies, this Hunger Games would never see print.
LIST: The All-TIME 100 Movies


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We are hungry for love and need others. Let this truth in. Accepting your inherent dependence brings you into harmony with the way life is.
The post Accept Dependence first appeared on Dr. Rick Hanson.
The post Accept Dependence appeared first on Dr. Rick Hanson.
Dr. Rick joins Forrest on this episode of the Being Well Podcast for a deep dive into harnessing our natural generativity. How can we become more productive and creative, experience greater satisfaction, and lean into our biological drives to get more of what we want out of life?
They explore what a drive is, our natural drive states, and what we can learn from models of motivation like self-determination theory, before moving on to what we can do if generativity doesn't come naturally to us. Rick and Forrest share how we can lean into enjoyable experiences, feel more competent and autonomous, and learn to brave experiences of failure. The second half of the episode focuses on psychological tools that help us activate, enjoy, and hang out in generative states more often.
You can watch this episode on YouTube.
Register for Rick's Yearly Program! The Foundations of Well-Being 2.0 is a year-long, science-backed journey through developing 12 key inner strengths like compassion, mindfulness, confidence, motivation, and courage. It's Rick's flagship program, and if you like Being Well you'll probably love it. Visit FWBProgram.com to learn more, and get 20% off with coupon code BeingWell20.
Key Topics:
0:00: Introduction
1:10: Rick's ability to stay generative.
3:25: Motivation, aggression, and our interdependence with others
12:10: A theoretical framework for generative drive
14:50: The process of making something as a form of healing
19:30: Confidence, autonomy, and relatedness
23:55: The way we think of ourselves
28:10: Agency, and what we can and cannot influence
34:30: Comfort with aggression
40:55: Work ethic, the role of passion and enjoyment, and finding your why
47:45: Competency and flow
50:55: Having positive associations with effort
57:10: Enriching vs. absorbing our experience
1:01:30: The little things that make a big difference
1:04:30: Recap
Support the Podcast
We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the Being Well podcast, follow this link.
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The post Being Well Podcast: Harnessing Your Generativity: The Secret to Productivity, Creativity, and Consistency first appeared on Dr. Rick Hanson.
The post Being Well Podcast: Harnessing Your Generativity: The Secret to Productivity, Creativity, and Consistency appeared first on Dr. Rick Hanson.


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We were shocked, shocked to see a photo taken by The Washington Post's Melina Mara of Sen. John McCain playing poker on his phone during Tuesday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing about whether to take military action against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
The Arizona Republican and 2008 GOP presidential nominee later tweeted:
"Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing — worst of all I lost!"
He also told CNN that "as much as I like to and always listen in rapt attention constantly [to] remarks of my colleagues over a three and a half hour period, occasionally I get a little bored. ... But the worst thing about it is I lost thousands of dollars in this game."
Fake dollars, he quickly added.
McCain, of course, is known for his sense of humor, his sharp tongue and his flashes of temper. Perhaps he's a natural for "Angry Birds?"
Speaking of which, his hometown Arizona Republic recently touted the "10 best free smartphone games, apps."
"Angry Birds" made that list.
Meanwhile, as you might suspect if you've read this far, the "news" that McCain was playing poker on his phone while other senators were probably saying things he'd heard many times doesn't strike us as terribly surprising. It does make us wonder, though, how many Two-Way readers have done the same sort of thing.
We should note that etiquette experts, including some who work for the federal government, suggest that cell phones "should be off or silent during meetings" and that one should avoid "reading under the table."
On much more serious notes, McCain explained to NPR on Tuesday why he supports striking Syria (from the air; not with "boots on the ground"). There's word today that he isn't in favor of the resolution worked out by the Foreign Relations Committee in support of military action because it puts too many limits on what can be done.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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EXPLAINER: Ethereum is ditching its 'miners.' Why?
Sep 15, 2022, 1:22 AM | Updated: 3:36 pm
(AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A complex software change to the cryptocurrency ethereum holds the potential to dramatically reduce its energy consumption — and resulting climate-related pollution. But the transition known as "the merge" is not going to do the trick by itself.
With the change enacted late Wednesday, ethereum — the world's second most valuable cryptocurrency after bitcoin — has effectively eliminated the energy-intensive task of "mining" new coins on its blockchain. Mining requires enormous computing power, which translates to huge energy consumption and, in many areas, greater greenhouse gas emissions at older power plants.
By itself, however, the ethereum change won't eliminate crypto's expected environmental impact, although it's expected to help a great deal. The backers of bitcoin have so far shown little interest in doing away with mining.
Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money secured via encryption in a publicly viewable and purportedly unalterable way. Using these currencies, people can make direct financial transactions without any need for a bank or other financial intermediaries.
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Primarily, the software update eliminates the need for miners. Where ethereum previously set miners against each other to solve complex cryptographic puzzles and win new coin as rewards, it now requires parties who want to help validate transactions to put some skin in the game by "staking" a certain amount of ether, the ethereum coin.
Parties from this pool are randomly chosen to validate a block of transactions; a wider group of ether holders will then check their work. Successful validators get paid a reward in ether that is generally proportional to the size of their stake and the length of time they've held it.
The ethereum merge many not sound like much, but it could have dramatic effects. Alex de Vries, an economist and founder of the Digiconomist consultancy that focuses on the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies, calculates the shift will result in energy savings of between 99% and 99.99% for ethereum. (De Vries emphasizes that his work has not yet been peer reviewed.)
"It's a really small change to the code that's going to have a very big impact on environmental sustainability," he said. Prior to the merge, ethereum was doing up to 900 billion calculations per second that are now not needed anymore.
According to his calculations, ethereum was responsible for about 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. If he's correct, these will now be drastically reduced.
On the other hand, bitcoin's energy usage and greenhouse gas emission is significantly larger than ethereum's — and there doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm for moving away from bitcoin mining.
Ethereum's merge was long planned and involved years of preparation by its developer teams, said Lena Klaassen, co-founder of the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute, a German company that specializes in measuring crypto environmental impacts. "Such ambitions never existed for Bitcoin and thus I don't expect that Bitcoin will transition" away from mining any time soon, she said.
AP reporter Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this article.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Oct 08, 2022, 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM PDT
Anaheim, 607 S Harbor Blvd, Anaheim, CA 92805, USA
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Our thoughts, we are told, create things. So where are your thoughts directed right now? Are they focused on where you are going, where you've been or where you are? Maybe some beliefs have been created along the way that no longer serve your journey progression.
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