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In an underground tunnel, a metro train speeds along its railway, and continues to head west from Nimbasa City to Anville Town. Despite its ordinary external appearance, it is actually not just a simple underground train. Using a complex computer system which keeps track of the Pokemon battles on board, it is in fact a moving battle facility known as the Battle Subway.
Currently, it is on its trial run, and in one of the cabins, White, the President of the BW Agency, is helping the development team try out the system by fighting against virtual trainers who use real Pokemon. For personal reasons, she is also utilizing the opportunity to train herself and learn more about Pokemon battling.
The Subway Bosses, Ingo and Emmet, who constantly wear a forced-smile kind of expression on their faces, announce the start of the first round, and a virtual Youngster proceeds to send out an Axew. White calls forward her Deerling, whom she nicknamed Jessica, and orders it to attack. However, Axew unleashes a Dragon Rage, and knocks out the flower deer in one hit. White lets out a cry as she rushes to check on Jessica, and the Subway Bosses declare that the challenger has lost once again, which keeps her streak of wins at zero.
White picks Jessica up into her arms, and feels upset about her repeated failure. She remarks that Pokemon battling is harsher than she thought, and wonders how she is ever going to master it. Ingo and Emmet, who reintroduce themselves to the girl since she keeps calling them captains only, tell her not to worry, since learning takes time. They state that the Subway is on its trial run before its official release to the public, and it is essential that they simulate every possible scenario on board. Ingo, accompanied by his Klinklang, remarks that it is the reason they are closely monitoring White's progress, and Emmet, who owns a Durant, comments that so far, this trainer under monitoring seems to feel defeated by not having won even once.
Emmet's words cause White to cringe and sweatdrop, and Ingo states that Emmet has been impolite. The white-attired Subway Boss ignores the remark, and simply grins with staring eyes that he loves battling a lot. He then marches up towards White in a robot-like manner, frightening the girl, and urges her to learn double-battles quickly so that he may battle her at her 20nd consecutive win.
Ingo mechanically walks up to pull Emmet away by the collar, and states that they are about to arrive at a train stop. He informs White that Emmet and himself will return to the control cabin for a while, and tells her to take a rest after healing her Pokemon at the HP restoration machine at the corner. The two men then disappear through the sliding door leading to the control room, and White sweatdrops that they are both extremely weird people who behave like robots. However, if her ultimate task is to battle them, it seems that she still as a long way to go.
The Battle Subway soon comes to a halt upon arrival at a station, and White takes a seat after restoring her Pokemon's health. She thinks to herself that although the Subway Bosses said not to worry, it still seems pretty bad that she couldn't even win a single battle. She feels a sense of defeat, and sends out the three Pokemon she currently has from their Pokeballs: Jessica, a recently caught rookie; Brav, which is borrowed from Black but is slightly too powerful for her to use; and the mysterious Servine, whose real intentions she still has no clue about.
On a deeper thought, White believes that she shouldn't be too hard on herself since she is a rookie just like Jessica, and takes the forelegs of the flower deer into her hands for a loving squeeze. She states that they should treasure this rare chance to have unlimited computer-generated virtual opponents to practice against, and decides to do things step by step.
At that moment, the Subway resumes moving, and soon after it leaves the station, it exits the dark tunnel and continues on an outdoor railway which runs between two ample fields of crops. White gasps that the underground train has gone above ground, and grins to Jessica that it feels surprisingly good to see the sunlight again.
Suddenly, a voice comes on to mutter about something, and White looks over in astonishment to see a young lady with short hair sitting at the other end of the cabin. The lady wears glasses, and appears to be writing something into a notebook with a ball-pen. Bewildered, White wonders to herself who she is, and since when she has been there.
'The tiny but strong Pokémon looked up at its Trainer and saw the seeds of doubt taking root as together they faced their toughest opponent yet. This world doesn't exist just for you. And I'll tell you why… and I'll tell you why… hmm'
The young lady, who is named Shauntal, appears to be stuck in whatever she is doing, and in that instant, locks eyes with White, who is staring at her with uncertainty. The lady immediately squeals that she has been heard, and turns her back to White, exclaiming that it is extremely embarrassing. White wears a sweatdrop on her head, and tries to assure her that it is alright. Shauntal tries to explain that she was just reading out part of a novel that she is writing, and all of a sudden turns around to face White with starry eyes, wanting to know what she thinks of it.
White stutters in her response, and states that the more important question is who Shauntal is, and what she is doing on the train. As far as she knows, Battle Subway is only on its trial run, and there isn't supposed to be anyone else on board apart from the Subway Bosses and herself. Shauntal reveals with a grin that she has snuck onto the train when it stopped at the previous station, and starts swinging White's arms up and down excitedly, stating that she has come for inspiration.
White gets slightly taken aback by Shauntal's eccentric behavior, and doesn't really comprehend what she means by inspiration. Shauntal explains that she is a novelist, and swoons about her love for stories that can move the hearts of different Pokemon and trainers. She states that she has gone far off to distant regions for inspiration, and shows White a memo-book which has notes about a man named Volkner who is an expert in electric type Pokemon. White sees that Shauntal even has a photo of the man, although it is clear from the shot that the young lady forced it upon him.
Shauntal remarks that White should soon be able to read about Volkner's story as it is already in print, but feels embarrassed as she advertises her own work. White, on the other hand, is more concerned about what she should do, and whether or not Ingo and Emmet should be notified of Shauntal's presence.
Suddenly, lightning flashes outside, which is followed by an explosive thunder crash. The Battle Subway screeches to a halt without warning, and White is thrown off her feet with Jessica. Climbing back to her knees, the girl wonders what is going on, and looks out of the window to see that a thunderstorm has all of a sudden begun. Dark clouds fill the sky as bolts of lightning dance across, and heavy rain starts to pour, which whips fiercely at the train as well as the crops around.
Although one would usually find the scene frightful, Shauntal is bizarrely excited. The young lady exclaims that the inspiration she has come for has finally appeared, and to White's horror, starts pulling the slide door open, which causes rain to pour in immediately. White rushes over to stop her, but is quickly astonished by what she sees through the open door.
Hovering about the crop-field are two genie-like creatures who both stay afloat on a cloud, a blue one with one horn and a cable-like tail that is lined with grenades-shaped structures; and a green two-horned one who has a purple tail with yellow swirls on it. Apparently, the two Pokemon are engaged in a battle, and the two-horned genie proceeds to hurl out a tornado forward. The on-horned one retaliates with an electric bolt, and the clash of the attacks ends up diverting the blast towards White.
Fortunately, Servine yanks White away just in time with its vines, and the girl lets out a scream as the lightning bolt narrowly misses her. She cries out for Ingo and Emmet, and wonders if they know that two powerful Pokemon are fighting outside. However, in the captain's cabin, the two Subway Bosses simply think that the lightning has caused the train's automatic safety system to halt its run due to possible danger from travelling in a storm, and even make an announcement via the train's broadcast system, telling the passengers on board, who is essentially White only, that the metro will resume moving once the weather improves.
White is annoyed that the two men are clearly oblivious to what is really going on, and wonders what she should do. Just then, she notices that Shauntal is no longer in the cabin, and jumps with surprise when she finds her standing out in the open on the field watching the two Pokemon fight. She hurries out to warn the novelist of the danger, but the young lady is simply fascinated by what she is seeing, and exclaims that it is a truly remarkable scene when cyclone clashes and fights with lighting. She starts jumping and squealing that it looks even better than she imagined, and White knows that the young lady is not going to hear a word she says.
The girl looks around, and worries that if the ferocious fight goes on, both the metro and the crops in the fields will be wrecked and destroyed. She steals a glance at Jessica, Brav and Servine, and doubts if she has to capacity to stop this. After a moment of thought, she rationalizes that even if she couldn't defeat the two Pokemon, she should at least try to do something, and might be able to get them to leave.
With that, White orders a Leech Seed from Jessica, who shoots out a barrage of seeds onto the two genies. Unfortunately, the two hardly even notice the attack, and both White and Jessica sulk with disappointment. The girl watches as the two powerful forces continue to lash out at each other, and suddenly finds the scene similar to some old folklore she read when she was little. On that thought, she recalls that she actually had a conversion with Black pertaining to this before they parted ways.
Back then, Black mentioned about having possibly met a Pokemon that was described in an old folklore. Following his Gym challenge with Elesa, the rollercoaster car he was stuck had a glitch, and sent him spiraling on a portion of the railway which was outdoors. A heavy downpour was going on at that time, and in the brief moment that he was in the rain, he encountered a one-horned genie-like Pokemon who fried him with a lightning bolt. According to Elesa, it was probably a legendary Pokemon of Unova, Thundurus.
White tries to think back on what Black learnt from Elesa about the folklore, and soon remembers that Thundurus is supposed to have a counterpart called Tornadus. At that moment, Shauntal chimes in, having overheard White's self-muttering, and voices her surprise that White knows about the genies as well. She confirms that the one-horned one is Thundurus, while the two-horned one is Tornadus, and that one must be alert to the weather when the two appear. White listens with astonishment, and Shauntal explains that the two flyers are both strongly influential to the weather. In fact, one can track their whereabouts by looking at weather forecast on the electronic bulletin board at the gates, and it so happens that this day, she learnt from the bulletin boards that both Pokemon will meet right at this location.
Shauntal states that both Thundurus and Tornadus roam freely in Unova, and seldom spend more than 5 minutes at one single location. Therefore, it is extremely rare that both Pokemon would collide at the same spot, which is almost like a moment of miracle. The young lady gets amused by her own quote, and decides to write it down in her memo-book, which causes White to sweatdrop. Shauntal then agrees with White that they must put a stop to the two Pokemon before all the crop-fields are wrecked, and sends out a female Jellicent from her Pokeball.
White is thrilled that Shauntal has decided to help, and the young lady rides on top of Jellicent as she orders it to generate an Energy Ball and Shadow Ball simultaneously. The giant jellyfish charges a green globe of energy in its left tentacle and a black one in its right tentacle, and hurls them out, which both explode right in the faces of Tornadus and Thundurus.
To White's shock, the attacks barely scratch the genies, but end up further infuriating them instead. The two lock arms with each other, and start to wrestle while whipping up powerful tornados and lightning bolts with their tails. The combined storm nearly throws White off her feet, and she cries that the genies' fight has intensified.
She sees that Shauntal has stopped attacking with a calm look, and gets the feeling she isn't really trying to defeat the two Pokemon. Shauntal confirms her suspicion that it is not her intention to beat them. In fact, she isn't aiming to capture them or chase them away either, since neither of those can be accomplished. She remarks that in order to deal with Thundurus and Tornadus, who are both extremely powerful legendary Pokemon, discipline is the only way.
White gets confused by Shauntal's words, and in that instant, a light suddenly shines through the dark clouds and causes them to disperse. Shauntal cries that it has come, and in a matter a seconds, the entire storm disappears, and a similar looking orange cloud-riding genie, who has three horns and a tail that resembles a thick tree branch, materializes in the sky. Its appearance startles Thundurus and Tornadus, and the two immediately stop fighting.
White exclaims in bewilderment that there is a third genie, and Shauntal explains that it is Landorus, who is said to appear whenever the storm caused by Thundurus and Tornadus start to crops and fields. She grins that she plans to base her next novel on these three Pokemon, which is why she has come to witness them in action.
At that moment, Landorus swoops down to seize both Thundurus and Tornadus by the back of their necks, and despite their protest, begins pulling them back up into the clouds. In a flash, the three vanish from sight, and White is amazed that the lightning storm and hurricane have both ceased immediately.
She runs over to join Shauntal, but notices a look of concern on her face. She asks the novelist if everything is alright, and the young lady grins that she should stop calling her that. She formally introduces herself as Shauntal, and upon hearing the name, White finds it extremely familiar. She soon recalls that Black mentions the name in his daily routine declaration, and gasps in surprise that she is actually Shauntal of the Elite 4. The young lady grins with embarrassment that she has been recognized, and White believes that Black would be so excited if he was there.
White then queries if Shauntal actually came help summon Landorus because she knew the clash between Thundurus and Tornadus would be disastrous, but Shauntal immediately denies, and blushes as she squeals that she isn't that heroic. She gives White a friendly push as she tries to hide her embarrassment, but ends up knocking the girl off her feet.
Just then, Ingo and Emmet announce via the broadcast system that the Battle Subway shall resume its course now that the skies have cleared, and Servine picks White up with its vines to bring her back into the cabin. Shauntal puts her collar ribbon back on, and wears a look of worry on her face again as she steps back on the train.
When Landorus, Thundurus and Tornadus returned to the skies, the black clouds vanished with them as the sunlight shone through. However, in the split second that the three genies disappeared, she saw a silhouette hiding in the field toss out three Pokeballs, which trapped and captured them. Shauntal leans against the window as she looks out into the field, and couldn't help but worry if it will foreshadow something ominous
In the Subway's captain cabin, Ingo and Emmet are getting ready to start the train again.
Ingo: Now, Emmet, if you have something to add, please.
With that, the Battle Subway resumes its course towards Anville Town…Thanks To Coronis For Writing this for us
490: VS Thundurus & Tornadus
Volume 47


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Here We Go AgainAfter 30 years of failure, and thanks to the political opportunism of the current commander in chief, the Afghanistan war is still without end or logical purpose.Thanks to the political opportunism of the current commander in chief, the Afghanistan war is still without end or logical purpose.
It is already a 30-year war begun by one Democratic president, and thanks to the political opportunism of the current commander in chief the Afghanistan war is still without end or logical purpose. President Barack Obama's own top national security adviser has stated that there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida members in Afghanistan and that they are not capable of launching attacks. What superheroes they must be, then, to require 100,000 U.S. troops to contain them.
The president handled that absurdity by conflating al-Qaida, which he admitted is holed up in Pakistan, with the Taliban and denying the McChrystal report's basic assumption that the enemy in Afghanistan is local in both origin and focus. Obama stated Tuesday in a speech announcing a major escalation of the war, "It's important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place." But he then cut off any serious consideration of that question with the bald assertion that "we did not ask for this fight."
Of course we did. The Islamic fanatics who seized power in Afghanistan were previously backed by the U.S. as "freedom fighters" in what was once marketed as a bold adventure in Cold War one-upmanship against the Soviets. It was President Jimmy Carter, aided by a young liberal hawk named Richard Holbrooke, now Obama's civilian point man on Afghanistan, who decided to support Muslim fanatics there. Holbrooke began his government service as one of the "Best and the Brightest" in Vietnam and was involved with the rural pacification and Phoenix assassination program in that country, and he is now a big advocate of the counterinsurgency program proposed by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal to once again win the hearts and minds of locals who want none of it.
The current president's military point man, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, served in Carter's National Security Council and knows that Obama is speaking falsely when he asserts it was the Soviet occupation that gave rise to the Muslim insurgency that we abetted. Gates wrote a memoir in 1996 which, as his publisher proclaimed, exposed "Carter's never-before-revealed covert support to Afghan mujahedeen — six months before the Soviets invaded."
Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was asked in a 1998 interview with the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur if he regretted "having given arms and advice to future terrorists," and he answered, "What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?" Brzezinski made that statement three years before the 9/11 attack by those "stirred-up Muslims."
So here we go again, selling firewater to the natives and calling it salvation. We have decided to prop up a hopelessly corrupt Afghan government because, as Obama argued in one of the more disgraceful passages of Tuesday's West Point speech, "although it was marred by fraud, [the recent] election produced a government that is consistent with Afghanistan's laws and constitution."
To suggest that the Afghan government will be in seriously better shape 18 months after 30,000 additional U.S. and perhaps 5,000 more NATO troops are dispatched is bizarrely out of touch with the strategy of the McChrystal report, which calls for American troops to restructure life down to the level of the most forlorn village. Surely the civilian and military supporters of that approach who are cheering Obama on have been giving assurances that he will not be held to such an unrealistically short timeline. Evidence of this was offered in the president's speech when he said of the planned withdrawal of some forces by July of 2011: "Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground. We'll continue to advise and assist Afghanistan's security forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul."
A very long haul indeed, if one checks the experience of Matthew Hoh, the former Marine captain who was credited with being as successful as anyone in implementing the counterinsurgency strategy now in vogue. In his letter of resignation as a foreign service officer in charge of one of the most hotly contested areas, Hoh wrote: "In the course of my five months of service in Afghanistan … I have lost understanding and confidence in the strategic purpose of the United States' presence in Afghanistan. … I have observed that the bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in Kabul."
Maybe they should have given Capt. Hoh the Noble Peace Prize.Wait, before you go…
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subset: commoncrawl


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Is Life Coaching A Therapy?
Life coaching may be similar to therapy or counseling, but there is a profound distinction between these two. Here are some of the relevant differences:
-People who goes to a therapist or a counselor, have problems that they want solved. A person who goes to a life coach has goals or dreams that he/she wants to achieve.
-Therapy is more about resolving the past. Life coaching is more about dealing with the present and the future.
-A therapist helps people with mental illness or dysfunctions while a life coach will help able people become even more successful.
There may be distinctions but there are also a few exceptions. There are some similarities, too, like the solution focused therapy. This method intends to provide the client with a big picture on how to deal with the present and the future, just like with life coaching.
When Do You Need A Life Coach?
If you ever had big dreams but do not know how to get to them, then a life coach is just what you need. A life coach is helpful even for simple personal goals such as sticking to your fitness routine or to your vegetarian diet. Here are other things that a life coach can help you:
1. Shifting to a career that is geared more to your passion and strengths,
2. Finding a life partner,
3. Looking for a better job,
4. Achieving balance between work and life,
5. Making transitions in life
6. Improving relationships,
7. Organizing life,
8. Overcoming fear,
9. Gaining confidence, or
10. Enjoying life and worrying less.
We may be the experts of our lives. We know more about who we are, what we want and where we are headed. But sometimes, even we, the expert, do not recognize what it is that is best for us. We should be able to acknowledge the need for a professional life coach. They are the better experts. They will help you discover that you can be the best that you have always dreamed of. But life coaching will only have powerful and successful results if these three (3) factors are present:
– An intent desire to be able to develop your potential to the fullest;
– A big gap between your current status, where you are, and your intended future, where you want to be; and
– You are willing to cooperate and take action and ready to take responsibility with the results that you are going to achieve.
So don't just dream, because you can truly have a more fulfilling, better and richer life if you seek the help of a life coach!
Post written by Kathleen Martin, Master Certified Coach and CEO of National Coach Academy for life coaches. Her blog has helped thousands of prospective coaches reach their dreams of becoming life coaches and her eBook has sold thousands of copies in just 3 years. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Some of us wake up every morning to find ourselves living in a society where economic opportunity is unfairly distributed, where a narrow social elite is given everything while others endure harsh deprivation. If we live in such a society, every morning our soul yearns for a system better than that we're in.
We might live in a society where discrimination is rife, where government cronies are handed plum benefits, where extractive elites plunder national wealth.
We say we want out of that system. We ask only for a level playing field, for a system that is fair, open, and transparent, a system that practices meritocracy.
The Way the World Went
If what I've just described resonates with you, the good news is the world has your back. The world wants for you what you want for yourself, and indeed more and more of the world has been on that delivery run for now a quarter of a century. Twenty five years ago the Soviet Union collapsed, bringing on what some observers announced as The End of History. The wisdom that emerged was that only liberal democracy and free-market economics remained viable as ways successfully to organize society. What could be fairer, more open, and more transparent than a political system that declared all people equal in the process of selecting a leader – one person, one vote? What could be more meritocratic than a system where whether you succeed or fail is decided by a free market blind to social status, not by some prejudiced official looking over your family connections?
Liberal democracy and free-market economics are both structures that appeal to technologists and designers. In theory they have an apparent emergent intelligence that seem magical to many: You install rules in the system; you turn on the system; you stand back, and you watch it execute to the best outcome possible for the system. If a disturbance perturbs the system, the rules in place allow innovation, flexibility, and adaption, and the system self-stabilizes to a new best outcome.
The US, the UK, and other economies on both sides of the Atlantic to varying degree practice these principles. Indeed, many observers consider that TransAtlantic Axis to be where such principles are held safe, to be passed on to others. Thus, even though membership in the club of successful economies would be open to all, it was there, the TransAtlantic Axis, from which success would unfurl. And, indeed, that happened big-time. By one reckoning, world democracies numbered only 45 in 1970, their number ballooned to 115 by 2010.
Then the World Changed Again
But then history decided it wasn't quite finished with humanity. First, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis struck. From exactly the TransAtlantic Axis, waves of financial collapse lashed outwards until 12 months after, in the wreckage, world financial markets had fallen by US$26tn (half of annual world GDP), an estimated additional 34mn people had been thrown into unemployment, and the world financial system was on the brink of collapse. The orthodoxy of free-market economics morphed into a witch-hunt for those who dared still to suggest that market competition might produce anything other than banks too big to fail (and therefore just too big) or grotesquely unfair distributions of well-being across citizens. All the good things that free-market economics brings – the rich variety of consumer goods, competition that lowers prices, innovation that improves the lives of people – seem to have been forgotten or unjustly dismissed.
But then, for the purposes of this narrative, something even worse happened:
China, the world's largest one-party autocracy, far outside the orbit of the TransAtlantic Axis, will imminently become the world's largest economy, overtaking the US which had held that position for over 140 years. Not just that, but over the last three decades China lifted over 600mn people out of extreme poverty, while inequality in the West got so bad, the income share of the population's top 1% recently reached heights not seen for a century.
Over the course of the Global Financial Crisis many observers had remarked how in their view China grew only because the West imported and therefore when the West underwent austerity, China's economy would be devastated. Yet between 2007 and 2012 it was China that added most to the resuscitation of the global economy, more than 3 times the contribution of the US.
Germany, Europe's most successful economy in this time, continued to grow — even with the collapse of its exports to its European neighbours and to the US, historically its largest export market outside of Europe — precisely by selling to China and the rest of Developing Asia.
In the last 30 years the rise of the East, not just China, has pulled the world's economic centre of gravity 5000km out of its 1980s TransAtlantic moorings, into the Persian Gulf. If growth trajectories continue in the 700 points on Earth used for this calculation then the world's economic centre will soon come to rest on the boundary between India and China, 10 timezones east of the world's traditional pole of economic power.
None of this was supposed to happen. Twenty years ago this year, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world's most influential economist wrote:
"From the perspective of year 2010, current projections of Asian supremacy extrapolated from recent trends may well look almost as silly as 1960s-vintage forecasts of Soviet industrial supremacy did from the perspective of the Brezhnev years."
Yes, by 2010 those economic trends were indeed found to have given inaccurate extrapolation, not from their having been too optimistic, but instead the opposite. They have been too modest.
China and the rest of East Asia of course rely on markets, after a fashion. What they have not done was buy whole-heartedly into the notion that you get economic prosperity only through ballot-box driven electoral democracy. Hugh White, the former senior official in Australia's Department of Defense, said what many were thinking when in September 2013 he considered varied foreign policy stances that might be taken by his then-incoming Prime Minister and concluded:
"Abbott's conservatism also inclines him to be uneasy about modern China. Like many people in the West—and not just conservatives—he finds it uncomfortable that China could grow so quickly and become so powerful despite its authoritarian one-party political system. That challenges his deeply held ideas about the ascendency of democratic principles, which had seemed so decisively validated by the collapse of communism elsewhere in the world."
What Happened?
Wasn't national success only guaranteed by a mix of liberal democracy and free-market economics? Have both planks of the end of history just fallen away? How have Chinese and other Asian systems been able to innovate and to adapt when others, those arguably the more likely to succeed, have instead failed to be as robust?
Make no mistake, China's system has been truly flexible and adaptive. As Eric X. Li reminds us, China is a country that has taken on a dramatic range of innovation: radical land collectivization, the Great Leap Forward; the Cultural Revolution; privatization of farmlands; Deng Xiaoping's market reforms, modernisation, and urbanisation; Jiang Zemin's opening up Chinese Communist Party membership to private businesspeople. High-level official and party leadership posts previously for life have been replaced by those with term limits and mandatory retirement by 70, a sensibility that not even university professors keep, despite the academic profession's insistence on ideas always having to be fresh and innovative.
Obviously, any serious study on such large issues I've described will demand great rigour and considerable detail. Moreover, history from here on out might decide to lurch once again in an unexpected direction. Either way, however, I would shy away from concluding that one system or another is necessarily better than the other. My own hunch is there are multiple pathways to prosperity and success: the evidence, it seems to me, indicates that. Trying to say once and for all that one system is best (or even the least bad) is almost surely foolish. And while it sounds authoritative to pronounce one system or another "not sustainable", it should be apparent to everyone that, simply as a matter of logic, such a statement can never be proven wrong. No system in history has yet been shown to be indefinitely sustainable.
Where this discussion gets somewhere more concrete is instead the following. Too often, "liberal democracy" and "free markets" become simply code and catch-phrase to stand for all the bright shiny things someone wishes to have but does not.
Democracy has, ultimately, meaning far more noble and important than simply, say, access to the ballot box. Instead, what it should stand for is this: Every government, every ruler must be daily insecure. Every government, every ruler must every day understand their power to be built on the shifting sands of the will of their people. And they must daily strive to advance the well-being of those people.
Accountability is all we ask of political leadership. Everything else is just narrative.
By this measure the state in China and other officially autocratic economies throughout Asia are already more democratic than many observers might think. By this same measure many ballot-box electoral democracies fail. Every account we read of how China's leaders desperately need the economy to grow at more than 7% a year, so enough jobs can be generated for their hundreds of millions of new workers, that's not a creaking oligarchy desperately hanging on to power. Well, of course, it might be. But it might also be simply what's called advancing the well-being of one's people.
This does not change how Europe will continue to be the liberal anchor of the world, even as the economic centre shifts East. But it does say alternative internally self-consistent forms of liberalism might emerge in response to different circumstances.
In contrast, however, parts of our current global system carry hypocritical and damaging inconsistencies. While the TransAtlantic Axis seeks to disseminate democratic ideals throughout the world, today's system of global governance built on US benevolent hegemony is itself deeply undemocratic. For the last 50 years our world has chosen as its leader from only among the richest and most powerful of nation states. That leader has not only status and wealth beyond those of all others, it wields unrivalled political influence and military superiority beyond imagination. As leader, it operates with effectively no counterbalance on the international stage.
In brief our current world order is built on the leadership by military and economic power; that world order pays no mind to how well that the global leader serves humanity. US hegemony in the current world order is a system of leadership that is truly and deeply undemocratic.
This is why a simple graph of China's economic overtaking the US or the world's economic centre of gravity hurtling to ten timezones east of Washington DC is so disconcerting to the TransAtlantic political elite. If US hegemony in the current world order will soon have neither economic nor political legitimacy, does that hegemony simply become despotism? Why should it remain?
From a point in the South China Sea, roughly in the same timezone as the world's economic centre of gravity, draw a circle 4000km in radius. This is a tiny circle, comprising only 25mn sq km of land, only one-sixth of the planet's land area. Yet, this circle contains more than half of humanity. If we want to construct a new world order with democratic legitimacy and economic strength, let's begin here, with fresh ideas, and see where that takes us.
(This post also appears on Davos WEF, Global Policy, LSE International Development, and in Chinese here and at Guancha; it is an adaptation of the talk I gave at TEDxKL on Saturday 09 August 2014. It draws on ideas in many debates I have had with Prof M. E. Cox, including that at LSE on Monday 04 August 2014.)


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In this documentary, Paul Cowan delivers unprecedented access to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping, and the determined and often desperate manoeuvres to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC). The film cuts back and forth between the United Nations headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the DRC. We are with the peacekeepers in the 'Crisis Room' as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries. We are with UN troops as the northeast Congo erupts and the future of the DRC, if not all of central Africa, hangs in the balance. As Secretary General Kofi Annan tells the General Assembly at the conclusion of The Peacekeepers: "History is a harsh judge. The world will not forgive us if we do nothing." Whether the world's peacekeeper did enough remains to be seen.
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- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:53 06:07 12:12 15:35 18:11 19:25
Teen pop star Justin Bieber's tumultuous life off-stage landed him in jail for the first time on Thursday when police arrested the singer for drunk driving after he was caught drag racing on a main Miami Beach street in a rented Lamborghini.
The 19-year-old Canadian initially resisted arrest, cursed at police officers and later told them he had consumed alcohol, pot and prescription drugs, police said. Then, changing his demeanor, he grew cooperative and even smiled for his mug shot, coiffed hair perfectly in place.
Justin Bieber appears in court via video feed. (AP)
Dressed in a red prison suit, a silent Bieber heard the charges via video link: driving under the influence, resisting arrest without violence and driving on an expired Georgia license.
A judge set bail at $2,500 and released the "Boyfriend" singer. If convicted, Bieber could face jail time of up to six months, although experts say he will likely get off with a lighter sentence for his first offense.
Bieber's arrest is his most serious run-in with the law during a year in which his problems have ranged from allegations of speeding through his gated community near Los Angeles to a felony investigation into whether he pelted a neighbor's house with eggs.
His once meteoric career has also showed signs of distress. A year ago, he became the youngest artist with five No. 1 albums, but in March he collapsed on a London stage and in December hinted he might be ready to retire after releasing a compilation album and a film about his life.
Just after 4 a.m. EST on Thursday (1000 GMT), officers observed Bieber's yellow Lamborghini alongside another driver in a red Ferrari accelerate from a stop position on a four-lane road in a residential area just a few blocks from the South Beach tourist district, Miami Beach Police Chief Raymond Martinez said.
Justin Bieber leaves the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, Thursday. (AP)
Two SUVs had blocked off the road so the singer could race a friend who was driving the rented Ferrari, police said.
Bieber was driving the sports car 55 to 60 miles per hour (88 to 96 km per hour) in a 30-mile-per-hour (48 kph) zone, Miami Beach police spokeswoman Vivian Hernandez said.
The singer was "a little belligerent, using some choice words," when arrested, Martinez said, but he grew cooperative at the police station.
In the arrest report, an officer said Bieber had bloodshot eyes and alcohol on his breath. The singer told police he was returning from a studio recording session and repeatedly asked why he had been stopped and arrested.
"Why did you stop me?" he asked, according to the report. "Why do you have to search me?"
Bieber later acknowledged that he had taken prescription medicine, had been smoking marijuana and had consumed alcohol, Martinez said.
Representatives for Bieber and his mother, Pattie Mallette, said they had no comment about his arrest.
His friend, identified as R&B singer Khalil Sharieff, was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence. His bail was set at $1,000.
High-powered criminal defense attorney Roy Black, who also has represented radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, actor Kelsey Grammer and Kennedy family member William Kennedy Smith, appeared in court on behalf of both men.
"This hopefully will proceed as any other case," Black said after the hearing.
The police department in the Florida city of Opa-locka is investigating whether two of its officers gave Bieber an unauthorized escort on Monday night after his private jet landed at the local airport, said city spokesman David Chiverton.
He confirmed the city also was looking into whether officers escorted Bieber to the King of Diamonds strip club in Miami Gardens.
"We're investigating whether our police department escorted him there," said Chiverton. "You can have fun in Miami, but not too much fun."
Bieber was later released and escorted from jail by correctional officers. Wearing a hoodie and dark sunglasses, Bieber climbed on top of a waiting SUV to wave to fans.
The teen and children's idol, who has had nearly 50 million followers on Twitter, risks running afoul of his fans' parents. And even his hardcore supporters recognize he may have entered dangerous territory.
"The rough times he is going through, all of his fans have to be here to support him," said Salynn Chiong, 20, as she watched Bieber leaving jail.
She hoped he goes into rehab "and takes a break from the chaos he is living in."
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.


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Our functional and practical buggy accessories keep your pram secure and belongings within arm's reach. Keep your little one dry with our rain cover and when the weather's warmer keep them cool with our cooling mat. Make sure your buggy is also ready with hooks and locks to help with your shopping whilst out and about without breaking your baby's routine.


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Bachelor of Business Administration in Logistics and Supply Chain ManagementFinancials
One of Florida International University's main objectives is to provide you with an affordable, high-quality undergraduate education.
Our tuition ranks among the lowest in the nation and the lowest among our competitors. In fact, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine consistently ranks FIU among the top "100 Best Values in Public Colleges"—and U.S. News & World Report also recognizes FIU as a "best buy" in higher education, ranking our students among the least indebted college students in the nation.


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Oil Spill to Wipe Out Gulf's Sperm Whales?
Just three dead whales could push the Gulf population over the edge, experts say.
If the Gulf of Mexico oil spill kills just three sperm whales, it could seriously endanger the long-term survival of the Gulf's native whale population, scientists say.
Right now between 1,400 and 1,660 sperm whales live year-round in the Gulf of Mexico, making up a distinct population from other Atlantic Ocean groups, in which males make yearly migrations.
All sperm whales are considered endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. But the Gulf of Mexico population is thought to be especially vulnerable due to its relatively small size.
The whales are now at risk from the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill, because they are likely to ingest or inhale toxic crude and noxious oil fumes. (See pictures of the oil seeping into Louisiana marshes.)
"We know there's going to be some [oil] exposure, and we know there's an endangered species. If you put those two thing together, there is reason for concern," said Celine Godard-Codding, an environmental toxicologist at Texas Tech University.
A 2009 stock assessment report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimated that the potential biological removal, or PBR, level for the Gulf of Mexico sperm whale population is three.
That means the whales' long-term survival is at risk if, in addition to natural deaths, three sperm whales a year are killed or removed by human causes.
The loss of a handful of whales each year can impact a population of hundreds, because sperm whales—especially females—require a very long time to reach sexual maturity. Females then give birth to just three or four calves during their entire lifetimes.
"They're like humans. Most of the human population is not going to have six kids at once and do that every year," Godard-Codding said.
"As soon as we get to the level of three deaths caused by human interaction—and this would include the oil spill—that would jeopardize that particular sperm whale population."
Whales May Be Choked, Drowned, and Poisoned
Oil spills can affect sperm whales and other cetaceans, including dolphins, in a number of ways.
For starters, the marine mammals have to surface to breathe, and if they come up through an oil slick, they can suck the toxic substance into their lungs.
Also, the fumes on the surface of the water after a recent spill can be powerful enough to knock out full-grown whales, causing them to drown. (Read an eyewitness account of smelling the Gulf oil spill.)
Finally, the oil can taint the toothed whales' prey—fish and squid—affecting the whales' diets and hurting their chances of raising healthy calves. (See pictures of a sperm whale eating a giant squid.)
"The chemicals in the oil product that move up through the food web are a great concern for us," said Teri Rowles, coordinator of NOAA's marine-mammal health and stranding response program.
Previous studies have shown that at least some of the Gulf of Mexico sperm whales are known to hang around where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was located before it exploded on April 20, triggering the spill.
"Between 2000 and 2005, about 300 [sperm] whales were seen on a consistent basis right in that area," Texas Tech's Godard-Codding said.
Dead Gulf Sperm Whales Hard to Tally
Some experts worry that the Gulf oil spill could be as damaging to sperm whales as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was to killer whales in Alaska's Prince William Sound. (See pictures of oil lingering in Alaska 20 years after Exxon Valdez.)
After the Exxon Valdez disaster, some populations of killer whales were reduced by as much as 40 percent, according to a 2008 study led by marine biologist Craig Matkin of the North Gulf Oceanic Society in Alaska.
Even now, that killer whale population has yet to recover and will likely go extinct in a few decades, Matkin said.
"We lost so many females out of that group that they couldn't catch up again. They still haven't caught up," he said.
If the current oil spill causes more than three Gulf sperm whale deaths this year, it could push that group into the "red zone," Matkin said.
Whether marine mammals are being affected by the Gulf oil spill is unclear. Oil is a suspected factor in the stranding of several coastal bottlenose dolphins (picture), but a firm link has yet to be established, NOAA's Rowles said.
"Deep-diving whales, like sperm whales living away from the shore"—and thus closer to the main body of the oil slick—"certainly have been exposed," she added.
Finding dead or affected whales will be difficult, however, because the animals spend most of their time underwater, and their bodies do not often wash ashore.
"In the aerial surveys that are being performed as part of the cleanup and marine-mammal observations, we are requesting that people report dead floating whales," Rowles said.
"That would be the most likely way we would detect dead sperm whales."


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Public Spaces
From offices and schools to restaurants and transit stations, most of us inhabit dozens of shared spaces every day without giving them much thought.
They're functional places, usually built to accomplish a single purpose.
But what if a space could also change how you feel? What if it could make you happier, healthier or more productive? What if it could alter your behavior in positive ways, just through its design?
A new breed of architects, designers, urban planners and other creative types are reimagining the shared spaces we encounter each day. In their hands, hospitals are becoming more welcoming places that may help patients heal faster. Empty city lots are being transformed into homey public hangouts. Drab offices are becoming playful workspaces that foster creativity and collaboration.
All make you want to linger for a while, perhaps without even knowing why.
As part of our continuing focus on innovation, CNN is showcasing 10 examples of shared spaces – from airports to playgrounds to an experimental village for the homeless – being reborn through inventive design.
These diverse projects all aspire to be more than just passive spaces. They want to improve the lives of those who occupy them. We hope they do.
May we present The CNN 10: Better by Design.
Bad news, introverts: The open-plan office is not going away anytime soon.
The workplaces of the future – and, in many cases, the present – will have fewer high-walled cubicles and private offices.
The good news? Innovative companies with commensurate budgets are creating offices that bring employees together in colorful communal workstations and collaboration areas, making "The Office" look like a monochrome vestige of a bygone era. And, designers are working with companies to maintain private spaces within open offices where employees can drill down on a report or take an important phone call beyond earshot of colleagues.
It's part of the "alone but together" philosophy taking hold in office design, which attempts to balance employee collaboration with privacy in an era when personal space is shrinking, said BNIM CEO and Director of Design Steve McDowell, whose firm has worked on offices for the EPA and Qualcomm.
"We're recognizing the need for the office space to adapt to human needs in different ways than we did in the past," he said.
Taking cues from the tech industry and startup culture, which helped redefine the open office, designers are moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach, said Cindy Allen, editor-in-chief of Interior Design magazine.
"They want their space to create a culture that speaks to what they do, how they treat employees and how they do business," she said.
Amid open floor plans where employees sit at long, shared desks and tables, companies are moving away from sterile conference rooms and embracing retrofitted telephone booths, gondolas, shipping containers and train cabooses as enclaves for privacy.
For Yelp's San Francisco headquarters, architectural design firm Studio O + A created a reception area behind a window marked "General Store," with exposed brick walls, wood furnishings and a vintage cash register. In addition to the requisite tech company game room, employees meet in rooms named for the kinds of businesses Yelp rates (Creperie, Ski Resort, Butcher Shop). Privacy-seekers find refuge in non-functioning telephone booths and breakaway areas with plush furniture, tables and whiteboards.
This 1,100-foot continuous desk snakes through the New York offices of creative agency Barbarian Group. (Courtesy The Barbarian Group)
Other companies customize their workspaces with unique furniture. A continuous, 1,100-foot "superdesk" winds through the New York office of creative agency Barbarian Group, where employees are assigned spaces with desktop computers, phones and cabinets. Architect Clive Wilkinson designed the serpentine structure, which rises in sections to create seating spaces and passageways that open into common areas where "Barbarians" can meet.
"Our goal was to create a sense of community that fosters making, creativity and collaboration," said Sophie Kelly, Barbarian Group's CEO. "The nontraditional setup facilitates social collaboration, while also giving Barbarians their personal space to work productively."
Gone are the sterile white walls and the smell of disinfectant. Gone are the tiny shared rooms with the separating curtain and the incessant hum of fluorescent lighting.
In their place are natural light, healing colors and fresh air. There are gardens on every other floor, and birds chirp through the sound system instead of incomprehensible doctor pages. Private patient rooms have pull-out couches for family or friends to sleep nearby. Wood floors and plush chairs have revitalized barren waiting rooms.
Patient-centered design is at the heart of a new wave of hospitals being built around the world. When you walk in, the designers want you to feel at home.
"People entering a hospital are likely stressed, worried or anxious, whether they're the patient, a family member or loved one," said Anne DiNardo, senior editor of Healthcare Design magazine. "The right hospital design can help improve the experience."
There are several reasons for the shift.
Studies show that nature can be as valuable as medication when it comes to healing. In the early 1980s, Robert Ulrich conducted a study (PDF) with two groups of patients: One group had rooms with windows overlooking a natural scene; the other group had windows facing a brick wall. The group with the better view needed less pain medication, had fewer post-surgical complications and were discharged earlier.
More recent studies (PDF) have duplicated Ulrich's results.
Another reason hospitals are overhauling their design is to improve patient satisfaction. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, medical centers are now being reimbursed based on their performance, instead of per procedure. Keeping patients alive is no longer the only goal.
A rendering of a landscaped terrace at Ohio State University's James Cancer Center. (James Cancer Center/OSU Wexner Medical Center)
So when doctors and architects planned the new OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital Neuroscience Center, set to open in Columbus in 2015, they kept a volleyball -- a replica of Tom Hanks' inanimate friend in "Cast Away" -- in the center of their table to remind them who mattered most as each decision was made.
DiNardo says the right hospital design provides clear paths to help patients and families arrive at their destinations quickly and uses aesthetics that are warm and welcoming rather than cold and institutional.
"All of these elements work together to help reduce patient stress levels and improve their experience," she said, "which ultimately affects their health and well-being."
Say you step off a train in a new city and need to get to your hotel, about a mile away. Most taxi drivers don't want to take people such a short distance. But with your luggage, it's too far to walk.
Someday, there may be a third option: Urban transit systems built around small electric vehicles, or pods, that drive themselves.
Supporters of these driverless pods say they take up less space than cars, cut down on urban noise and produce zero emissions. And they offer more flexibility: Instead of relying on a set schedule, riders can summon these pods for private, individual trips.
Since 2011, a fleet of such pods has been transporting passengers between terminals at London's Heathrow Airport, eliminating more than 50,000 bus trips a year on crowded nearby roads. The Heathrow system runs mostly on elevated tracks.
Now, Milton Keynes, a small city 45 miles northwest of London, wants to be the first in the world to put a network of pods on pedestrian walkways. The vehicles would connect the city's train station with its downtown shopping district a mile away.
Riders can reserve pods using their smartphones. Or they will find a fleet of pods waiting for them outside the railway station or other popular spots, said Geoff Snelson, director of strategy for Milton Keynes Council.
Early designs show a small, stubby vehicle with two seats and a large, plunging windshield. Anticipating unease with driverless vehicles, the project's backers want the pods to look sleek, modern and unthreatening.
"We want people to be curious about using them," Snelson said.
This illustration imagines a row of pods parked outside a destination, waiting for riders. (From Transport Systems Catapult)
British engineering firm RDM Group is working on three prototype pods fitted with autonomous-driving systems from Oxford University's Mobile Robotics Group. To start, they'll have a steering wheel, an accelerator, a brake and a human driver, although future models are expected to be fully autonomous.
Packed with cameras and sensors, the pods will know when to turn and brake to avoid collisions with pedestrians, cyclists or teens on skateboards.
"The focus has to be on safety," said Neil Fulton with Transport Systems Catapult, a British public transit advocacy group.
The city plans to begin testing the two-seater pods in the spring, with the hope of gradually integrating larger models into its transit system by the end of 2015. Other municipalities worldwide are watching Milton Keynes' plans with an eye on adopting similar systems. But first, laws must be drawn up to allow driverless cars on roads in the UK.
"There's huge interest in this," said Fulton. "We're trying a completely new mode of transport."
Imagination Playgrounds have snaking tunnels, platforms and springy mats just like any other playground. The difference is that children construct these features anew each time they play, using a set of big blue blocks, noodles, widgets and doodads.
Schools, neighborhoods and museums worldwide have embraced these portable playgrounds, which incorporate physical, mental and collaborative social activities. In an age when many kids are content to sit inside and play video games for hours on end, offering them a do-it-yourself interactive alternative is a no-brainer for caregivers and educators.
The basic 105-piece set of connectable shapes comes in a wheeled crate at a starting cost of $5,000. Easy to clean with soap and water, the kits are made of thick foam, which makes them safe for rambunctious, collaborative play, indoors or outdoors.
Designer and architect David Rockwell came up with the idea for the sets after the September 11 attacks. When a commission he was working with on a ground zero-related project asked him what the city needed, he thought about his kids' local playground, which had been taken out of commission by the terrorist attacks. After all that destruction and trauma, Rockwell said, kids in the city needed a say in their own environment.
"As I looked around the city, one of the things I felt was interesting to explore was a playground where kids could build their own rules."
He and his team began researching ideas related to "block play" and the European Adventure Playground model, which encourages free-form, imaginative play. Rockwell's group worked with the New York parks department, schools, children and parents to explore several iterations of playgrounds kids could build themselves.
"It became not only problem-solving but community-building, a chance for kids to invent and explore to test ideas," Rockwell said.
The basic set contains 105 connectable shapes, allowing kids to create their own worlds. (Photo courtesy Chris Amaral)
The first portable kit went in to use in July 2008 in Brooklyn at the Brownsville Recreation Center playground. By the end of 2014, there will be 2,675 Imagination Playground sets around the globe, including test sets in Bangladesh and Haiti.
The Rockwell Group points to studies showing that toys that engage children actively and creatively are brain boosters.
"We are helping to build a community — including parents, educators, caregivers, researchers and leaders — united by a belief in the importance of creative free play to help our children grow up happy and healthy."
Where are we? The question pops up in the startling moment when an airplane's wheels hit the runway and jolt dozing travelers awake.
Flight attendants mention the arrival city, local time and temperature, but the words don't quite register. As we deplane via an enclosed jetway, there's no blast of fresh air to tell us where we've landed. Most airports all look the same, with little or no hint of the place that awaits.
But that's not the case at the new terminal at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, which opened in January.
Traditional Indian pavilions and the peacock, the country's national bird, inform the design of the 4.4 million-square-foot complex, which is expected to eventually handle 40 million passengers annually.
"You know you're in Mumbai when you land," said Mark Leininger, associate director at the architecture firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which designed Mumbai's Terminal 2. "And you're not just setting your body clock but your cultural clock."
The Indian tradition of hospitality first appears at the departure areas, which are wide and covered to protect the many family members who often come to drop off or pick up their loved ones in monsoons and heat.
Other cultural references can be found through the terminal. The eye of the peacock's tail feather can be seen in the terminal's grand ceiling and column panels, and custom chandeliers, inspired by the lotus flower, hang throughout the concourses.
Say goodbye to nondescript, anonymous airports with the same newsstands and fast-food chains. Today's airport operators, and the designers they hire, are building terminals that reflect their locations.
This column in the Mumbai airport suggests a peacock, India's national bird. (Courtesy SOM/Robert Polidori )
Countries building new airports want to evoke their nations' spirits through materials, colors and forms, and give travelers positive feelings, Leininger says.
It's not just about high-end design or selling more local trinkets. Air travel is increasingly a stressful experience. People want to adjust to their new surroundings, recover their bags and get on their way.
This movement is not just happening at large international airports in India, Jordan and Qatar. The renovated Jackson Hole Airport, in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park, reopened in 2010 with a Western-themed design featuring wood, stone and glass. The new waiting room for passengers who have cleared security has a fireplace and animal-hide sofas.
"There's enough glass to allow you to get a view of the mountains," said Bill Hooper, who leads the aviation and transportation practice at Gensler, the architectural firm that designed the airport. "We're not going to button you up in some soulless building that keeps you from getting your own bearings."
And the trend does not show any signs of slowing down. The finalists for the next Mexico City airport have been told to reflect the culture in their designs.
Seam me up, Scotty.
Retailers are looking to smooth out the buying process for online consumers, whose numbers are growing. For some, this means applying virtual sizing technology that allows users to try on clothes without actually undressing -- or even leaving home.
The try-on factor is the rub for many would-be online shoppers.
"The big barrier is: How does it actually look on a person, and how does it feel or fit?" said Steve Yankovich, vice president of innovation and new ventures for eBay. The online marketplace acquired PhiSix Fashion Labs in February for an undisclosed amount.
Yankovich says PhiSix's computer graphics technology, set to debut this year, will not only alleviate the "Will it fit?" plight of the online consumer; it will also reduce the number, and cost, of returns for stores.
PhiSix measures the dimensions of a garment and models the actual fabric on a grid so the consumer doesn't have to rely on varying size definitions from different retailers.
Consumers create avatars based on their own measurements. The avatar replicates the fit of clothes in a real shopping environment, simulating how the garment will move and cling to a body in motion.
Online shoppers aren't the only ones getting virtual fitting rooms. Despite the growing digital sector, in-store sales still reign supreme: E-commerce accounted for only 6.2% of total retail sales during the first quarter of 2014, according to the Department of Commerce (PDF).
To accommodate tech-savvy shoppers who prefer to buy in person, companies are looking at a hybrid model of the digital and the old-fashioned.
Engage Production, a creative technology company based in London, has set its sights on enhancing the mall-shopping experience using what it calls Fashion3d software.
Its Virtual Style Pod, utilizing the software, debuted at The Galleria mall in Abu Dhabi in 2013.
The Pod uses body mapping and cloth simulation technology to overlay virtual clothing onto a user's image. It takes about three seconds for the camera to take body measurements, and then the shopper can try on any number of garments without ever getting undressed.
The system works to make simulated images as realistic as possible.
"This means that the virtual fabric is weighted according to the real fabric," says Vanessa Whiteside, Engage's sales and marketing manager. "Denim and wool will not have the same movement that silk would."
The technology also allows shoppers to connect looks to social media to get preliminary "yeas" or "nays" from peers.
Though trying on clothes is simple enough, Whiteside says the software has the added advantage of accelerating the process and allowing the consumer to browse stock from all participating retailers -- not just one -- without physically store-hopping.
From retailers' perspective, the new technology saves space and provides data about consumer behavior.
When Eddy Kaijser and a small group of designers came together to discuss what was missing from their Rotterdam neighborhood, the discussion swirled around comfortable, homey public spaces.
Home is a place where people like to be, where they feel comfortable, said Kaijser, who founded design firm Studio ID Eddy. How could they take that idea outside and open it to everyone?
The discussion sparked the idea for the Urban Living Room, a portable installation that takes meticulously planned living room-style furniture from a mix of designers, covers it in durable, bright blue sealant and drops it into often overlooked places where people could be gathering: large, empty patches of concrete in front of buildings or squares and parks that people usually pass through just to go about their business.
The Urban Living Room is a collaboration between Kaijser and designer Bas Kortmann's Powerboat, a theater group in Rotterdam. It's an example of pop-up public spaces: temporary installations designed to make people reimagine the overgrown, asphalt-covered or simply dull public areas around them.
"You can pop up, people can enjoy it for some time, and then you go away again," Kaijser said. "They will think more about how their environment looks, what can be changed about it."
Projects like the Urban Living Room are also easy to slip into dynamic cities, Kaijser said. It's small – about 12 feet by 21 feet – and simple to set up. Although the designers have long been in talks to install a permanent version in Rotterdam, the temporary version doesn't require all the permits, maintenance or property negotiations that a long-term setup would.
An Urban Living Room installation along the Bosphorus during the 2012 Istanbul Design Bienale. (Courtesy Studio ID Eddy)
But people aren't always sure what to do with a public space that emerges in a matter of hours. Kaijser, who earlier worked on a decorative, temporary green space known as the Flying Grass Carpet, said it can take a little time for people to realize it's not art or private property. Eventually, he said, people will settle in to read the newspaper, chat with strangers or linger over a book.
Kids are often their first, most eager users.
"If there are children around, you have no problem," Kaijser said. "They go for it."
The Urban Living Room first went on display in Rotterdam in summer 2012. Since then, it's been to Istanbul and now Madrid. Kaijser hopes the Urban Living Room and Flying Grass Carpet will make it to the United States.
"You can put it wherever, and people will go," Kaijser said.
Since the Booker T. Washington STEM Academy opened in 2012, the science and math magnet school for kindergarten through fifth grade has drawn a few unexpected comparisons.
"It's like Disneyland," some have told architect Stuart Brodsky, "or Epcot Center."
The Champaign, Illinois, school is "museumlike, exploratory, hands-on," Brodsky said. "People really feel like they've stepped into a different place when they come into this building."
It's a shift from the schools of a few decades ago – the windowless or ultraformal buildings of the past. Brodsky and a team from CannonDesign created the award-winning school design with inspiration from the community. Long before architects stepped in, Champaign residents and educators laid out their hopes for a school that fit the neighborhood and the needs of its underserved children.
Instead of long corridors that cordon off classrooms and age groups, the Booker T. Washington school was designed around central spaces with walls that open wide, enabling teachers and the school's 425 students to share lessons and materials. Natural light pours into the building while geothermal heating and cooling, high-performance lighting and other features keep the 60,300-square-foot building sustainable.
STEM themes are woven into the building, opening paths of inquiry in features that would have been there anyway, said Wendy Watts, the interior designer on the project: There are lights arranged like constellations, math equations on the gymnasium floor, the Fibonacci sequence of numbers in administrators' windows and a human genome pattern in the exterior brick.
Inside, the entire building can accommodate project-based learning in science, technology, engineering and math. There's no computer lab, the architects said, because they want students and teachers to use technology everywhere they go. The heart of the building is a two-story STEM Studio, where students have space and materials to engage in learning out in the open, rather than in an enclosed lab.
"No matter what's happening in that room, every student in that school gets to experience that activity," Brodsky said.
The architects say they were able to incorporate dozens of cutting-edge education ideas because it was a new school with a clear focus. Still, they're optimistic that older schools under renovation could incorporate similar ideas and details, like hand-washing stations in the cafeteria, outdoor gardens or smaller bathrooms meant to minimize opportunities for bullying.
It helps, too, to have an engaged community that's willing to take risks. After all, it wasn't an easy or traditional choice to open up classroom walls, and the designers added plenty of doors, just in case.
But the architects say the tough choices are paying off: In all their visits, they've never seen those doors closed.
Rapid turnover is nothing new in the hit-or-miss restaurant business, where as many as 70% of new spots fail.
In Dallas, there's a restaurant that flips every four months: new chef, new interior design, new artwork on the walls. And the owners couldn't be happier.
Kitchen LTO, which opened in 2013 in the Trinity Groves entertainment district, was created to be a "permanent pop-up restaurant," a single spot where, by design, everything about the place is regularly reworked.
Owner Casie Caldwell, an 11-year food-industry veteran who started and sold a small chain of fast-casual salad restaurants, says she had those failure-rate numbers in mind when she was looking for a new project.
"I thought, 'how could I do something to get people coming back so it doesn't get stale?' " said Caldwell. "What keeps people engaged? What would keep people interested in coming back?"
Then it hit her: People like to check out new restaurants. So give them one several times a year.
As an added twist, customers get to crowdsource the changes. Every four months, restaurant staffers put together two lists of finalists from applications they receive -- one for chefs, the other for artists and designers. Through Kitchen LTO's website and social media accounts, the public votes on a favorite from each.
The restaurant hosts tastings and "voting parties," and the public's choice is binding.
The concept is catching on with diners, who have been packing Kitchen LTO and praising the opportunity to get different dining experiences at a single, convenient spot.
Brooke Egger of Santa Barbara, California, is the restaurant's current chef. She was working in catering and designing a line of chef uniforms when the opportunity arose. The current design is by Bianca Antognelli Art Gallery of Dallas and features the work of five Bolivian artists the gallery represents.
Egger said finding out she won the spot was "a whirlwind of emotion." Kitchen LTO flips in just three days, and Egger had just one to get her kitchen ready. Which is to say, the whirlwind didn't end when she got to Dallas.
The new physical design is an important part of those transitions, Caldwell said.
"We do some really subtle changes, things like changing the linens, which doesn't cost you anything," she said.
"They put new art on the walls, and you wouldn't believe how much it changes the composure of the space. ... You get subtle differences in the experience that make people say, 'Oh, this feels different.' "
Imagine losing your job and the place you call home. You can't get into a shelter and end up on the streets. Soon, you barely remember the person you used to be.
Urban planner Andrew Heben has a better idea.
Heben is the force behind a pioneering "homeless hut village" in Eugene, Oregon, that offers residents more than just a roof and four walls. Opportunity Village Eugene has brought autonomy and a sense of community to 57 people since opening in fall 2013.
Homeless huts have been popping up across the country for years in clusters of four or five. Heben's idea goes a step further, bringing more huts into a single location and forming a neighborhood.
Hailed as a revolutionary approach to dealing with homelessness, Opportunity Village Eugene is a one-acre lot with 25 tiny homes ranging from 60 to 75 square feet. At the center is a 30-foot yurt that covers a communal kitchen and shared restrooms.
"This is a positive dynamic, with people who are in the same situation coming together to live collectively and improve their individual circumstances," Heben said.
Opportunity Village was born out of the Occupy movement in 2011, when protest camps across the country became refuges for the homeless. When Eugene's protest camp shut down, people were forcibly removed and left without shelter.
The city of Eugene donated an acre of land, rent-free, to host the displaced. Building costs of roughly $100,000 came from donors, with another $100,000 in donated materials. Aside from providing the land, there's been no government involvement.
The physical design of the community is not the only key to its success. Opportunity Village is governed by residents, eliminating the need for staff, Heben says. The residents have established community rules, and people who break them are asked to leave. This keeps the village safe and gives tenants the ability make decisions and exercise control over their situation.
A program on-site connects residents with skill-based jobs, and an education program is in the works. Heben's model could offer hope for many of the 600,000 people on the streets (PDF) of the U.S. on any given night. His idea is spreading, with hut communities now open in Olympia, Washington, and Ithaca, New York. Others are in the works in Madison, Wisconsin, and Austin, Texas.
Heben is working on his next project for residents ready to transition to more permanent housing. He has a physical and structural design of a community, and the project is in the fundraising stage on Kickstarter.


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Multiple reports have confirmed that fourth-year Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot himself at the Chiefs' practice facility this morning, allegedly after shooting and killing his girlfriend. According to CBS's Jason La Canfora, Belcher killed himself after speaking with the team's GM and head coach. See updates below.
10:47 a.m.: The full report, with everything we know at the moment, from KCTV in Kansas City:
Police are investigating two deadly shootings Saturday morning that they said are related.
The shootings involve a Chiefs player and his girlfriend.
The first shooting was reported about 8 a.m. at a home near 54th Street and Chrysler Avenue. The second shooting was reported a short time later at a Chiefs practice facility located on the Arrowhead facility.
Officials said the Chiefs player shot and killed his girlfriend and then drove to the practice facility where he shot and killed himself.
It's unknown if people were at Arrowhead or any of its surrounding facilities at the time.
Twitter rumors are flying about who the player is—observers of varying levels of access seem to have settled on a single candidate—but we'll wait to confirm, and will update this post as more information becomes available.
Update, 11:04 a.m.: It looks like the original guesses were correct: CBS's Jason La Canfora is reporting the player in question was Jovan Belcher.
Belcher was a four-year veteran, and had started 44 of the team's 59 games during that span. His player bio is here.
Update, 11:20 a.m.: Belcher may have committed suicide in front of Romeo Crennel and Scott Pioli:
Update, 11:47 a.m.: Recent pictures of Belcher, his girlfriend and their child, uploaded to this Facebook page. The caption reads, "Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours."
There is also a Walmart baby registry for "Kasandra Perkins & Jovan Belcher," set for 9/11/2012, here. The police have not yet named Perkins as the first victim.
Update, 12:02 p.m.: More on Belcher's final moments, from Jason La Canfora:
Update, 12:52 p.m.: An EMT in the discussion below treated Belcher after he put his fist through a window in college.
Update, 1:04 p.m.: This is the Chiefs organization's second murder-suicide of the year. And another reader loosely acquainted with Belcher in college shares some info.
Update, 2:13 p.m.: This report from the Kansas City Star suggests the couple had been arguing after Perkins was out late, attending a Trey Songz concert. The friend quoted in the article says that Belcher and Perkins had been dating for three years, and that "she wasn't aware of any prior physical abuse."
Update, 2:30 p.m.: A couple notes from elsewhere on the site: CBS Sports wrote some weird fantasy advice based on Belcher's death this morning (then hastily removed it), while the NFL told the Panthers to to travel to Kansas City for tomorrow's 1 p.m. game against the Chiefs.
Update, 4:06 p.m.: The Chiefs are playing the Panthers at Arrowhead tomorrow. From an official statement: "After discussions between the league office, Head Coach Romeo Crennel and Chiefs team captains, the Chiefs advised the NFL that it will play tomorrow's game vs. the Carolina Panthers at its originally scheduled time."
Update, 5:00 p.m.: Adam Schefter reports that Chiefs linebackers coach Gary Gibbs was, along with Scott Pioli and Romeo Crennel, with Belcher before he shot himself:
Update, 11:25 a.m., Sunday: See our latest on the Belcher murder-suicide here: "Friend: Jovan Belcher "Was Dazed, Suffering From Short-Term Memory Loss" After Last Game; Alcohol, Pain Medication, Domestic Tensions Played Role In Shootings"


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Is Rosberg faster than Hamilton?
- This topic has 29 replies, 22 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 4 months ago by Shahul.
- AuthorPosts
- 23rd May 2013, 13:09 at 1:09 pm #133180magon4Participant
Overall I think most will agree that Hamilton is the better driver, if you put all the skills together.
I actually have always though Rosberg and Hamilton are more equally matched than it seemed to most, but his form in training sessions and qualifying sessions seems to show that he might just be the faster driver.
I not saying Nico is better or more complete, but it comes as a surprise to me that Hamilton, a known one-fast-lapper and fantastic qualifier, seems to come in second more often than he would like, in direct comparison to his team mate.
What do you think, would you go as far as saying that Rosberg is the faster driver, or is it just the advantage of knowing the team longer? It was also easily dismissed when he beat Schumacher almost every session, because of other factors, but I believe it might be time to start giving Nico some credit, at least concerning pure pace.23rd May 2013, 13:17 at 1:17 pm #236991matt90Participant
He's qualified ahead more often than Rosberg. They do seem closer than expected, but there's definitely nothing suggesting Rosberg is generally faster yet.23rd May 2013, 13:29 at 1:29 pm #236992safeeuropeanhomeParticipant
He's running Hamilton closer than Button ever did at Mclaren on outright pace for sure. I think its too early to compare yet, Hamilton is unlikely to have the car as he wants after only 5 races whereas Nico has been with the team a long time. Ask this question at the end of the season an we'l have a better idea.23rd May 2013, 14:47 at 2:47 pm #236993tmektParticipant
Obviously too early to tell, only five races into the season. They do seem be pretty much equally matched so far but we'll see.
Hamilton has always been a tad overrated (and Rosberg underrated for that matter) in my eyes. He's amazing driver, of course, as any of the current champions on the grid but not the Golden God which some seem to find him. He's had cars that suit his driving style in expense of his team-mates (especially Kovalainen) and the first season of his being what it was probably gave people a wrong picture in relation to what every other rookie has to begin with. I'm almost certain that if you had given the McLaren 2007 car to Vettel, Alonso, Räikkönen, and let's say Kubica they all most likely would've been able to start winning races straight away the same way Hamilton did. (I'm not trying to undermine Hamilton's achievements in any way but this is what I think…take my opinion as what it is: just an opinion)
Like I said though: way too early to say anything about the big picture23rd May 2013, 15:02 at 3:02 pm #236994AnonymousInactive
2 years ago- no!!
Now- YES he is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!24th May 2013, 11:21 at 11:21 am #236995CristianParticipant
A bit difficult to tell at the moment, but I believe so. I've always liked Rosberg more than Hamilton, so i might be a little subjective here, but Nico just seems so be more of a racing driver than Lewis is…I mean, I look to Hamilton and a I see a brand and I look to Rosberg and I see just a driver, a really fast one. Still, Lewis has a title and a lot of wins and podiums and poles and Nico dosen't (yet). I guess we'll see…24th May 2013, 11:28 at 11:28 am #236996safeeuropeanhomeParticipant
I also have to say if Rosberg keeps this pace up in comparison to Lewis then it will revise a lot of people's opinions about how well Schumacher did in his comeback. Particularly last year on raw pace.24th May 2013, 13:19 at 1:19 pm #236997NickParticipant
Agree, in 2012, it was equal in qualifying between MS and Rosberg – 10:10 and where both finished there was 7:3 in MS favour.
MS from year to year had raised his game and now it could turn out that MS of 43's years is equal of LH=27 :)24th May 2013, 16:35 at 4:35 pm #236998Thomas ShelleyParticipant
One would imagine that it takes a little time to become completely used to a new car, such that you can drive truly on the limit. Lewis hasn't quite looked as sharp as he always used to but I do think that soon enough he will start getting the measure of Nico more often than not. I am prepared to be proven wrong though! :)24th May 2013, 19:34 at 7:34 pm #236999MichaelParticipant
It's hard to tell – Rosberg seems to thrive in the Merc if we look at his stint with Schumacher who probably would have liked to have taken a hammer to the Mercs;-) The last few races have shown that the Merc is having issues because all of a sudden for Hamilton it gets faster and other times it's slow even though Hamilton seems to be flooring it and the car should be flying by Ferraris and Renaults alike. It's possible it has setup flaws that are preventing Hamilton from even correcting issues. You fix here, you lose there. 3 years into this, Rosberg may know what to do.
We'll see if Hamilton can bring speed out of the car – if not, then the car's got fundamental performance problems and Merc should probably sit out a season and build a new car or two given the size of their team. I don't think it would make sense to blame Schumacher and Hamilton. It also would not say anything about Rosberg other than he could drive a F1 car that behaved erratically.25th May 2013, 6:15 at 6:15 am #237000KingsharkParticipant
If there's one driver on the current grid who deserves at least one season in a championship winning car, it's Rosberg. He's clearly proven that he is a top driver, but has never had the machinery to fulfill his obvious potential.
I hope that for 2014, Brawn does another 2009 with Mercedes. Nico deserves that opportunity so much more than any other driver on the grid.25th May 2013, 10:30 at 10:30 am #237001Akin AslanParticipant
No I think that hamilton is the faster one but he hasnt really got the hang if the merc. He is often not too happy with the setup and when you watch the onboard vids from when he was at mclaren he had a car which was always pointy, almost no understeer. When you watch this years onboard you can see that he is putting much more lock. He just needs time25th May 2013, 10:47 at 10:47 am #237002Force MaikelParticipant
I would like to say that I think that in qualifying they are evenly matched but when it comes to race pedigree I think Hamilton is the clear winner. That doesn't mean nico isn't a good racer; he's just not like the hamiltons or alonsos of this world.25th May 2013, 11:01 at 11:01 am #237003GeorgeParticipant
Like several people have said, I think it's more down to the car/tyres than anything else. I'm guessing Hamilton is having to drive at less than 100% to preserve the tyres, even over a single lap, something he's obviously not very good at considering his 'I cant go any slower' comments on the radio. It could also be that Hamilton is concentrating more on fixing his tyre problems too, trying different lines etc while Rosberg goes for outright speed.
Having said that, it is a surprise that Rosberg is beating Hamilton, considering Hamilton's record against Button in the last couple years. I always considered Rosberg to be a Button-like driver, I guess on this evidence his one-lap speed is greater though, more like a Raikkonen.25th May 2013, 18:01 at 6:01 pm #237004KingsharkParticipant
Any opinions still shifting after today's qualifying?
It's a disgrace how underrated Rosberg's speed has been throughout his career. People were actually considering Button to be faster than him. At this point last year Jenson was out-qualified by Lewis 6-0. Nico is currently 3-3, and has taken 3 pole positions compared to Lewis' one.
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I have been waiting to post this for a month and a half! At the beginning of December, my local support group had our annual Christmas party. At one of these parties a few years ago, my friend Grady brought a green bean casserole that he made with onions he had fried himself. I don't eat green bean casserole – can't stand the stuff. But these onions were so good I kept picking them off my husband's plate. So, back to the future, I mean present (or recent past). I show up to the party and Grady hands me this sandwich-sized ziploc container. Truthfully, I was a little puzzled at first (all I could see was paper towel). Boy was I excited to open it up and find it full of the fried onions! He had brought me a whole bunch of them, sans casserole! I sneaked a few and then hid the box in my purse, so as to save them from the other party-goers.
I have finally gotten the recipe from him and his wonderful wife, Kitty. So, without further, ado:
1 big honking onion (color of your choice)
3 Large eggs (well beaten)
2 cups Brown Rice GF Flour Mix (with xanthan, or add 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1. Slice onions into strips (or rings), and place in freezer.
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour and seasoning.
3. Dip a small hand full of onions into the eggs and shake off excess.
4. Place onions in flour/seasoning mix. Coat well. Shake off excess.
5. Place onions back into eggs, and shake off excess.
6. Place onions back into flour/seasoning mix. Coat well. Shake off excess.
7. Deep fry @ 375º for approximately 5 minutes. (until golden brown)
8. Place hot onions on paper towel and salt and pepper to taste.
As you can probably guess, Carter kept stealing the onions as I was trying to photograph them. I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words (though his word of choice every time he sees that picture is "MMMMM").