text:
OP-ED: Community jails are a bad idea
April 05, 2019 / Special to the Eagle
Former Justice Gregory Lasak is running for Queens district attorney. Photo courtesy of Lasak's campaign.
By Gregory Lasak
Special to the Eagle
Throughout my career serving the people of Queens, I have seen firsthand the problems at Rikers Island — the violence and the decrepit conditions. It should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been housed, visited or worked there that there would be a call for reform.
I agree with that call. We need to close Rikers.
But the answer to the violence and conditions is not to replace it with community jails. For a multitude of reasons, the answer to closing Rikers is to redesign it and rebuild it on the island itself. The island is the best place to create a state of the art facility that could be done with an eye toward rehabilitation of those who would be housed there.
First of all, the communities don't want a jail here. Kew Gardens residents have made themselves loud and clear. And it's about time the politicians listened to those they serve. It's their neighborhood, their home values, their quality of life and their safety.
Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan sets out to replace Rikers in a decade and with money the city can't seem to identify. The conditions are dire at the jail. We can't afford to wait that long. We need shovels in the ground yesterday so that the inmates can start to realize the conditions and basic human dignity that we are all entitled to.
Furthermore, de Blasio's plan is disingenuous. It professes to be about making the inmates more accessible to their families and attorneys. Yet, one of the first steps he wants to take is to house all female inmates in Queens regardless of their county of residence or county of arrest. Right away, this plan proves to be counterintuitive by making a large number of inmates inaccessible to their families and lawyers.
Instead, let's house all of the inmates on the island and make it more accessible.
We can do that by adding ferry service from each of the four boroughs where the mayor proposes building a community jail. We can invest in and expand the mass transit system to cover the island and the surrounding area. We can improve videoconferencing for attorneys and their clients, allowing them the use of software so that inmates can access documents and have the ability to review video and audio evidence while speaking to their lawyers. We can take advantage of housing all inmates in one location to invest in the best care and treatment possible that would otherwise be split among four locations.
Politicians have spent countless hours debating this issue for more than a year. And the best they could come up with for the people they claim to care about is, in essence, a long kick of the can down the road. It doesn't have to be that way.
We can satisfy the community, make the island more accessible, and improve conditions at the same time. Build a new facility on Rikers Island and keep a jail out of our backyards.
Former Justice Gregory Lasak is a candidate for Queens District Attorney. Lasak served as an assistant district attorney in Queens for more than 20 years.
April 05, 2019 / Special to the Eagle/
Communities, Law, news, northern queens, politics, Western Queens, Voices
Gregory Lasak, Queens District Attorney, Rikers Island, community jails, op-ed, Bill de Blasio
Ridgewood man indicted for stabbing ...
Queens College to host veterans ...


text:
NFT- Non-fungible token.
"Non-fungible" more or less means that it's unique and can't be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you'll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you'd have something completely different. NFTs are designed to give you something that can't be copied: ownership of the work (though the artist retains the copyright and reproduction rights, just like with physical artwork). To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print. But only one person can own the original.
How do NFTs work?
At a very high level, most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin or dogecoin, but its blockchain also supports these NFTs, which store extra information that makes them work differently from, say, an ETH coin.
So every NFT is unique?
NFT is a unique token on the blockchain. But while it could be like a van Gogh, where there's only one definitive actual version, it could also be like a trading card, where there's 50 or hundreds of numbered copies of the same artwork.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Games Galore
Episode 56 - B.E. chats with Zemek, Smith and Floyd
After a holiday hiatus, The Games Galore podcast is back with GG 56. Matt Zemek and Christopher Smith are our guests as we dive into Friday and Saturday's conference championship games. Jason Floyd of The MMA Report and RadioInfluence.com is in for Harbo to produce and talk UFC (in the final segment). Brian shares a number of his picks for the weekend. We also hit on the Coaching Carousel, Rivalry Weekend and much more. Pull up a chair, pop a beverage and enjoy Games Galore 56!
Brian is a 1998 graduate of the University of Florida. After working as a sports writer in the Atlanta area for nearly two years, Edwards joined VegasInsider.com in March of 2000. He began handicapping games for VI in 2002 and was the site's Managing Editor from 2005-2011. Brian still provides content and handicaps for VI, but his main focus became BrianEdwardsSports.com in 2012.
Copyright 2017 Brian Edwards Sports. All rights reserved. Gambling problem? Please visit www.gamblersanonymous.org to find help.


, picks the very best choices having ideal image resolution only for you all, and this photos is actually among photos choices in our best photographs gallery concerning Elegant Dining Room Table with Bench and Chairs. Lets hope you might want it.
published through Ashley Romero with 2019-04-14 01:39:17. To view all photos within Elegant Dining Room Table with Bench and Chairs graphics gallery remember to adhere to this url.


Show your stripes. Customize your one-of-a-kind jewelry creation with this oxidized sterling silver and glass bead, decorated with red and white stripes. From Prerogatives(R) Jewelry.
Prerogatives Sterling Red and White Glass Bead is rated 5.0 out of 5 by 1.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Jmo from Pop of Color! I love this red, black and white bead! I am doing a red, black and white theme on my bracelet right now so it mixes nicely with other red & black, black & white beads. When I finish this color scheme, I am going to start a blue & green scheme! Fun!


text:
Ubet Online Casino Reviews ONLINE CASINO REVIEWS
Best Online Blackjack Sites
Best Online Roulette Sites
Best Online Slots Sites
Online Casino Guides
© 2015-2021. UBET.co.uk. All rights reserved.
FansBet Casino
FansBet was founded in 2016 and is one of the newer online casinos. In the last three years or so, FansBet has already made a name for itself as one of the online casino industry's best and most promising newcomers.
Claiming to be one of the only online casinos and bookies in the UK that shares its profits with the supporters, we had high hopes when we went for a poke around to see what's what.
Owned by Viral Interactive Ltd and licensed in Malta and the UK, FansBet Casino is home to a huge range of games and is powered by some of the industry's best software suppliers. These include NetEnt and Microgaming to name just two of them. Those familiar with online casinos will know that these are some seriously good suppliers and, as such, will expect good things!
Despite much of FansBet leaning heavily towards the sportsbook element of their service, there is still a strong online casino.
FansBet Casino Games
FansBet Casino Mobile Compatibility
FansBet Banking Methods
FansBet Casino Summary
At the time of writing this review, FansBet casino had over 1,000 table games and slots. That's a huge number for a site that is really focussed on sports betting and fantasy sports. Around 700 of these 1,000+ games are video slots and progressive jackpots with Microgaming providing almost 400 of these.
In addition to a large range of slots games, players can enjoy over 60 table games at the FansBet online casino. Major names like European Roulette and American Roulette sit alongside slick variants like Microgaming's Premier Roulette and Play'n GO's Multi-Hand Blackjack.
For VIP players, there is a range of high-stakes games that are available. These include NetEnt's 'Roulette Advanced' with top bets of £5,000!
One downside, however—there are no demo versions of FansBet Casino games. If you want to try them out, you're going to have to part ways with some real cash.
FansBet operates via an instant-play platform that you can access through any web browser, even mobile web browsers. You do not need to download any software or tinker with any settings; it is good to go right out of the box.
While you can access FansBet Casino through your mobile browser, you do not get the full experience. FansBet Casino on mobile has around 400 fewer games than its desktop counterpart. That being said, there are still hundreds of different games to choose from and they all work perfectly well without any problems.
We have only one gripe with FansBet Casino's layout on both desktop and mobile—it is highly designed for and geared towards the sportsbook style of play. There are no options to filter by game type (e.g. jackpot games, table games) and you cannot sort by filters such as 'New Games' or 'Popularity'.
This basic functionality should really be looked at.
FansBet Casino's banking works very well. You can make deposits into your FansBet account using a range of cards and banking options. You can also select one of several currencies when signing up that include GBP, EUR, NOK, SEK, CAD, and AUD.
Deposit and withdrawal methods include MasterCard, Visa, and Maestro. You also have a choice of e-wallets such as Neteller and Skrill. The Minimum Withdrawal amount across all payment methods is £10 and the maximum is £10,000 per day which should be more than suitable for most players, if not all.
Withdrawal limits of £7,000 per week apply to players from outside the UK and Sweden.
Overall, FansBet provides an excellent online casino facility that can be enjoyed on both desktop and mobile. We did have a few gripes and there are certainly areas for improvement, though.
The thing with FansBet Casino is that it feels more like a sportsbook than a casino; if FansBet were to fully separate the two and have two completely independent designs for them, the situation would be a whole lot better. We were particularly annoyed by the lack of filtering options when searching through the casino games, the number of which stretches into the thousands.
Still, though, these are not deal breakers and if you can look past them, FansBet is a great online casino.
We receive advertising fees from the service providers we rank below. Advertising Disclosure
Read Editor's review Get Bonus
Virgin Games Casino
Age Disclamer Svg Vector Icons : http://www.onlinewebfonts.com/icon
The use of this website is prohibited to individuals under the age of 18.
Risk Warning: Gambling can be addictive. Play responsibly.
The use of this website is prohibited to individuals under the age of 18. Additional restrictions concerning gambling may apply in your country of residence or according to each operator's sole discretion. Complying with such restriction and applicable law is your responsibility and liability. Please ensure you are legally allowed to participate in the above offers.
This site uses cookies for analytics and ad personalization which may process certain data. For more information and opt-out options review our Privacy Policy. This site uses cookies for analytics and ad personalization which may process certain data. For more information and opt-out options review our Privacy Policy. Ok Decline
Please adjust your browser settings in order to opt out of cookies – see helpful information in our Privacy Policy. To opt out of Google Analytics please click here.


text:
Tesla's layoffs mean the company's lead on electric vehicles could be ending, one Wall Street analyst says
Graham Rapier
Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider
Tesla is laying off about 3,000 workers, the company announced Friday morning.
Shares dropped as much as 7% following the news as investors questioned what the restructuring meant for the stock.
Morgan Stanley said the move could be a sign Tesla's US market-share lead could be peaking, while an analyst at Wedbush said investors had "more questions than answers."
News on Friday that Tesla planned to lay off about 3,000 workers seemed to heighten investor worries that demand could be shrinking for the company's Model 3 sedan.
In an email to employees, CEO Elon Musk said the layoffs were part of an initiative to bring down the cost of producing the sedan, which has been complicated by the halving of a US federal tax credit previously available to buyers.
Adam Jonas, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, says factors like that – including Musk's announcement that Tesla's customer-referral program would end February 1 – could be a sign the company is nearing a peak.
"During 2019, we expect to see Tesla's share of the US EV market continue to rise before the competition gradually starts chipping away," he said in a note to clients Friday morning. "Tesla's gap-to-competition in terms of market share maybe approaching a peak."
Indeed, as Tesla races to produce its long-awaited base-model Model 3, an increasing number of electric vehicles are set to hit the market soon. In Detroit last week, Cadillac revealed a new electric concept vehicle, the Chinese automaker Geely announced a new electric model intended for sale in the US, and Nissan unveiled an electric concept featuring all-wheel drive and full autonomous capability.
Even Ford announced an all-electric F-series truck. Meanwhile, Nissan Leaf sales grew 95% last year.
Elon Musk is pulling out the oldest trick in the executive playbook by laying off 3,000 Tesla workers
To be sure, Tesla accounted for 80% of electric-vehicle sales in the US last year, according to data from Inside EVs – and that market is still quickly growing. So until Tesla reports its fourth-quarter results, investors will have more questions than answers.
That's what's behind the stock's 7% drop Friday morning, according to another analyst.
"The knee jerk reaction to this morning's blog post will clearly be negative from the Street's perspective as there will be more questions than answers until the company formally reports earnings/guidance in early February," said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush. He's much more bullish on the company than Jonas, with a $US440 price target compared with Morgan Stanley's $US291.
"While headwinds are abound on a number of different fronts," Ives continued, "we continue to believe Tesla will be able to emerge from the next 12 to 18 months a stronger, profitable more product diversified (geographically and price points) EV company helping lay the groundwork for Model 3 as a linchpin of growth going forward into 2020 and beyond."
bitranspo clusterstock daniel ives elon musk moneygame sai tesla tesla layoffs transportation-us


← Do Boxing and the Mixed Martial Arts Really Get the Job Done?
This entry was posted in free karate, karate bunkai, karate forms, karate punch, kenpo karate, learn karate at home, Shito Ryu, Tae Kwon Do, Taekwondo, zen karate and tagged black belt, earning black belt, karate, martial art, training book. Bookmark the permalink.


MICROSOFT results Q4 and Full Year earnings. Huge.
What is stopping big retailers from donating their food rather than throwing it away?
Over 1 Million People Have Played Sea of Thieves in the Past 48 Hours.
How would you feel, if Sony traded the Spider-Man movie rights for a 15 year exclusivity deal of all Disney licensed games?
Looking into a 4K TV, any recommendations?


text:
Why one ruined Metro made your car safer
NORMALLY saving lives involves noble things like vaccinations, charity fundraising and the Heimlich Manouvere. But you wouldn't think deliberately destroying a Metro would have the same effect.
20 years ago that's exactly what happened, when some chaps with clipboards and clever cameras gave one (well, a Rover 100 if we're being picky) a 30mph introduction to a concrete block. Not for a laugh, but in the interests of scientific research. What they discovered sent shockwaves through the car industry.
The car wreckers in question belonged to an organisation called Euro NCAP, which has just celebrated its 20th birthday. Their mission was to mark as many new cars as possible with independent safety ratings, and they gave the poor Metro a miserable one star out of five. The resultant drop in sales meant Rover dropped it altogether a few months later, and ever since Euro NCAP's findings have been taken very seriously indeed.
The results kept coming. 1990s Volvos weren't as indestructible as pub wisdom had long dictated. The original Ford Focus wasn't as good at protecting pedestrians as the Escort that preceded it. The old Chrysler Voyager was a deathtrap, and the G-Wiz electric car might have as well have been made out of cardboard after its appalling crash test performance. Even today Euro NCAP is still unafraid of ruffling the car industry's feathers, giving Ford's latest Mustang a dismal two stars when five is increasingly the norm.
But your car's almost certainly safer as a result. Ever since Renault picked up the first five star rating for its Laguna back in 2001 – and paraded it on every TV, magazine and newspaper ad it could as a result – manufacturers have engaged in a sort of safety arms race to ensure they're top dog.
Multiple airbags, ABS, autonomous braking, whiplash-responsive headrests and cleverly designed crumple zones are no longer novel additions to car brochures. They're everyday motoring addenda, and anyone who doesn't offer them is shown up in the test results as cheapskates who aren't that bothered about customer safety.
It's impossible to calculate how many lives Euro NCAP's boffins have saved by forcing car companies to smarten up to avoid embarrassing crash test results, but it's fair to say you stand a much better chance of surviving a 30mph shunt in a new Clio (a five star car) than you would in its 1997 equivalent (just two stars).
So it's worth thinking about Euro NCAP's experts next time you go out for a spin. They've genuinely moved motoring on – and all it took was one utterly ruined Metro.
Posted in News, Opinion, Road Test and tagged cars, crash, euro ncap, metro, motoring, safety on 09/02/2017 by David Simister. Leave a comment
The police have some great car tech. It's time for the rest of us to catch up
I'M SURE I'll read this in 2027 and be acutely embarrassed but I'll say it anyway; today's technology is amazing. I've no doubt Champion readers of the future will look back at right now and sneer at our primitive Trump Age inventions, but I'll happily defend them.
Last Sunday I was at a car show at Brooklands, more than four hours' drive away in deepest Surrey. Yet by the powers vested in my smartphone I was able to snap an Austin Seven being driven in anger, and a few seconds later you could see it in all its hi-res, technicolour glory on Facebook. A few hours later my pocket-sized miracle worker was able to harness the might of 31 satellites in space to seamlessly guide me around the M25's traffic jams. Oh, and you can ring people on it on as well.
Yet in this seemingly enlightened age you can still be asked to produce good old-fashioned bits of paper if you're pulled over by the police and need to prove you have insurance or an MoT. Yet – and you probably won't be the slightest bit surprised to learn this – record numbers of drivers simply don't carry them around with them.
The police have their own system to check on this – it's called Automatic Number Plate Recognition, or ANPR for short. I've seen it in action and it's brilliant. Even when they're driving past another car at 50mph it can read your plate and in an instant deduce whether you're a wrong 'un or not, and whether you're likely to appear in an upcoming episode of Traffic Cops.
But I reckon it's time we, the ordinary motorists, caught up. We've already worked out how to do away with paper tax discs and paper driving licences, but surely it's time to look at how we can do away with the other bits of paper that inevitably end up clogging up a box file in your study too? If we can manage paperless bank statements and paperless gas bills then doing the same – and securely – for registration documents, insurance documents and MoT certificates can't be that tricky.
Surely giving your friendly constable chum a single card to swipe through on their system – or even a smartphone with a bit of electronically-generated code – would save plenty of trees and avoid the need to pop to a police station with said documents within seven days. Certainly it'd avoid the situation of record numbers of drivers not having their details to hand, for sure.
I can only hope in some sort of Skunk Works in deepest Swansea that the DVLA's brightest minds are already working on just such a thing. Then they – like my future self of 2027 – can look back on this primitive age of paper-dependent motoring and wonder what all the fuss was about.
Posted in Opinion and tagged cars, gadgets, motoring, Police on 05/02/2017 by David Simister. Leave a comment
Pre-registered cars? I can think of worse things…
YOU'D be forgiven for thinking it's worse than Donald Trump and Katie Hopkins getting together and having children, or finding out someone in the Government's got their initials wrong and put the boss of BHS in charge of the NHS.
But pre-registered cars – despite being described by at least one of my one of my colleagues as a sort of automotive incest, because it involves the car industry effectively selling cars to itself – aren't quite the malevolent motors some of the newspapers have made them out to be over the past few days.
In layman's terms they're cars that dealerships buy from the manufacturers, often at a hefty discount, and then sold on to you and me later on. In effect it means the first owners of these cars are the showroom themselves, and while it's a handy way of bumping up the sales figures the net result to you and me are what are effectively brand new cars with sizeable discounts slapped on. How's that a bad thing?
What I'd be more worried about is a used car scam that's hitting the radar of trading standards organisations in other parts of the country, and it's something to definitely watch out for next time you're looking for a bargain. It has the two key ingredients of anything involving a bit of trickery – something that seems a bit too good to be true and people who are gullible or greedy enough to take advantage of it.
Here's how it works. You're online scouring the ads for a secondhand gem and you spot a car that looks like a great deal that isn't going to hang around – but in all the pictures the registration plate's been blanked out. You ring the seller to ask for the number, he happily obliges, and when you check it out the car in question has a backstory that checks out.
On that basis you stump up the readies, but it turns out the car you've bought is rather less savoury than the one you'd been saving up for. It's the same make and model, of course, but the registration number's completely different. The moral of the story is never to buy a car – especially a suspiciously cheap one – without seeing it first.
Pre-registered cars aren't terribly sporting when it comes to car showrooms competing to have the best sales figures, but they are at least an entirely legal way of saving a few quid on a car. The sort of thing the trading standards experts are warning about is fraud. I know which I'd rather have.
Posted in Opinion and tagged cars, motoring, new cars, sales, scams on 02/11/2016 by David Simister. Leave a comment
A car to compare the Lynk and Co 01 to? That'd be the Daewoo
THE OTHER day I drove a car that was 112-years-old. It was vaguely terrifying because it threatened to break your wrists every time you yanked its starter handle, the pedals made no sense and even at 15mph you never really had a sense of whether you'd arrive at your destination safely.
So it's no bad thing that more than a century cars have evolved to the point where they're roughly the same. Pass your test in a Ka and a Koenigsnegg shouldn't prove too alien, because it'll still have pedals that work in the same way and you know that the red triangle will always operate the hazards if things go wrong. It'll have a key, and chances are you'll buy it from a shiny building full of lots of other cars and a man with a neat suit over a cup of coffee.
But a new car company being launched by a Chinese conglomerate reckons it's about to rewrite the rulebook. Not just any old outfit, either; you might not have heard of Geely Auto Group but it owns an up 'n' coming Swedish carmaker called Volvo. Apparently they do estates and safety tests rather well.
But Geely's new kid on the block isn't some Scandinavian load-lugger with a penchant for airbags (although it does share some bits with Volvo's new XC40). It's called the Lynk and Co 01, and it'll be followed in time by the 02, the 03 and so on. What this new company lacks in imaginative names it replaces with ideas straight out of Dragons' Den. You'll only be able to buy it digitally for starters, and where most cars have a key this has an app that allows anyone you entrust with it to start it with their smartphone.
That sound you can hear right now is people on the internet oohing excitedly at the idea of cars no longer needing keys and being shared like messages on Facebook – but we've been here before. Geely's already trying the technology out on Volvo's more upmarket models, but they come with decades of hard-earned reputation of being safe, solidly built and – in the case of the 850 T5 – fun to drive. They're good for being cars, not gimmicks.
It's only fair to reserve final judgement until we discover Lynk and Co's first model is brilliant to drive and utterly dependable, but the last manufacturer to try and break the UK with only one fantastic-sounding idea up its sleeve was Daewoo two decades ago. It took about five minutes for everyone to realise that revolution in car buying was yesterday's Vauxhall Astra reheated in the microwave, and it all ended in tears. Same goes for the Saturns, the Edsels and DeLoreans of this world.
I really hope that I'm wrong and the Lynk and Co 01 is a decent product, but there's a reason why all cars nowadays are roughly the same.
Posted in Opinion and tagged cars, daewoo, lynk&co, motoring on 31/10/2016 by David Simister. Leave a comment
Driverless cars will make motoring more fun, not less
THERE'S something ironic about a motoring-friendly monarch announcing a bid to back driverless cars.
Her Majesty loves driving so much that for years she had a Rover P5B parked nearby just for her personal use (and don't forget, she's a trained mechanic). Yet it was the Queen's Speech last week that the Government used to signal it was going to be doing more to make driverless cars a reality, partly by encouraging British firms to make them work properly and partly by insisting that we should all be able to get insurance cover for them.
Which you'd think would leave me a little uneasy.
I – as anyone who's read Life On Cars over the past seven years might have gathered by now – love driving. I love it so much that I'll end a stressful day at the office by hopping into an MX-5 and doing 15 miles for no good reason other than it being enjoyable. I love jumping into different cars and delving into the different facets of what they do, and discovering whether they're better at making big distances disappear or making corners a thing to be reveled in. I'll go the long way around simply because there's a nice road somewhere in the Peak District, and wind down my window in the Mersey Tunnel if I'm in something with a memorable exhaust note. Enjoying driving is what great cars are all about.
But driverless cars get my support, and it only takes a return trip to Oxfordshire to explain why.
On a working day with an appointment in Abingdon I spent four of my eight hours doing just one thing; driving. It wasn't the sort of driving I crave, but a dull, monotonous slog on congested bits of the M40. Not since I watched the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace have I clocked up the hours I've lost from my life. Time I could've spent tapping up articles on my laptop or dreaming up new and creative ways to banish Katie Hopkins from Britain forever were spent looking at the back of stationary Nissan Qashqais.
Driverless cars will give us all those wasted hours back. As long as David Cameron enshrines our right to safely enjoy the B4391 on a sunny Sunday afternoon then I'll happily back any car that lets me sit in the back with a laptop and a pint while it does all the hard work.
I suspect even Her Majesty would probably approve – she can finally sack the chauffeur!
Posted in Opinion and tagged cars, driverless cars, driving, motoring on 04/06/2016 by David Simister. 1 Comment
All cars should be limited to 70mph? Nonsense, and here's why
ALL CARS – from the Dacia Sandero to McLaren's new 570GT – should be limited to a top whack of 90mph. Not my opinion, nor that of some Whitehall bureaucrat, but the man who got me into cars in the first place.
You'd like my dad. He's not, contrary to popular rumour in the motoring world, the John Simister whose prose you'll find running through the pages of Evo, Autocar and Practical Classics. But he is a petrolhead who loves an old Land Rover and would happily scour an autojumble looking for bits to keep it going.
Yet he put it to me only the other day that it's pointless any of today's cars being able to do more than 70mph. Perhaps, after a lot of persuading, he conceded they might have to crack 90mph in some one-in-a-million emergency situation, but no more than that. Not one measly mile an hour. Cars capable of that should be verboten.
Which is, of course, nonsense, and all you need to prove it is a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII FQ-300. It's exactly the sort of car that appeals solely to speed freaks; the name might make it sound like your office's next air conditioning system but it knocks out 300bhp and can hit 60mph in under five seconds. It also looks like a boring Japanese saloon and has an interior with more grey than a wet Monday morning in Manchester, so you're definitely buying it for performance rather than its ability to impress pedestrians.
A mate of mine's got one, and frequently reminds me it can hit 157mph. Impressive, but suggesting he'll actually do that on the Formby bypass is a bit like suggesting I'll go chopping down trees in the Formby pine woods if I buy a top-of-the-range chainsaw.
You can break the law with just about anything if you think creatively enough – but that doesn't mean we should ban pillows, golf clubs or copies of Coldplay's more recent albums. The Bugatti Chiron is only as illegal as the squishy bit of mush driving it, and to suggest otherwise is to take a dangerous step into the world of banning things because we might do something with them.
Sorry Dad, but my vote's with the FQ-300 and appreciating cars for what they're capable of, not what they're limited to. Providing they're driven at no more than 69.9mph, of course…
Posted in Opinion and tagged cars, motoring, safety, speed, speed limit on 04/05/2016 by David Simister. 1 Comment


Cindra Insurance: Universal Health Insurance 2007: Can We Learn from the Past?
Source: Theodore Marmor, Dissent, Vol. 54 no. 3, Summer 2007. Americans are not well served by their current medical care arrangements.


text:
Q: omit dialect prefix from thymeleaf processor Is there any way to omit the dialect prefix from a thymeleaf processor? Let's say I have defined a processor like this:
<dialect:processor> ... </dialect:processor>

is there some way to modify the dialect class to be able to use the tag this way:
<processor> ... </processor>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Spend a semester or year in the city known as the 'Garden City' and 'Gateway to the South Island', beautiful Christchurch. Gothic architecture, a container mall, and lush gardens are just a few of the attractions of this welcoming city, making it the ideal place to begin exploring the amazing landscapes of New Zealand. The city sits on the Canterbury plains, between the ocean and the Southern Alps--the perfect place to ski, surf, hike, bike, camp and explore!
Since its establishment in 1873, the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand, has enjoyed an international reputation for academic excellence in both teaching and research. The University of Canterbury places particular emphasis on sustainable systems engineering, seeking to preserve New Zealand's natural beauty while moving ahead technologically. With a research-based teaching style and state-of-the-art facilities, the University of Canterbury has emerged as a leader in research, particularly in the fields of natural sciences, plant and animal biology, ecology, and geology. The South Island provides the university with an unparalleled natural laboratory for these sciences. Along with its ideal location, the University of Canterbury also allows students to investigate the natural sciences through five field stations, placed across the South Island.
The campus is located in a suburban area just west of the city center. The city's many green spaces and gardens surround the campus, and the nearby hills provide fantastic views of the city, plains and ocean. Just two hours inland, find some of New Zealand's best ski fields.


From 501 take Business Highway 17 South to 22nd Avenue South and Ocean Boulevard.
Oceanfront location; Efficiencies and Suites available; Winter monthly rates. Accommodations to please everyone will entice you to stay longer. Pools, Jacuzzi, whirlpools, kiddie pool, and endless river ride offer a wide variety of water sports...plus our Cafe and lounge will help to make your vacation a memorable experience.
Sun bathe on the oceanfront lawn. Leave your footprints in our sand.


Looking for parts can be a hassle. You have to make sure your time is being well-spent, and wasting that time can be costly to you and your business. Being a certified dealer for nearly all brands we carry gives us a unique ability to source the parts you need. That's why you can be confident in us to have whatever part you are looking for. We also carry a wide array of aftermarket parts made by various brands.
If you are looking for common parts, or parts that commonly need replacing, you will find a large variety here at adelpowerquipment.com.
and we will make sure you find what you are looking for.


text:
Hasiba Haq, Associate Producer at TED (photo courtesy of TED)
Talking with TED about the future of work—even if that just means tomorrow
By Andrew Shen
Let's get one thing out of the way: this isn't a TED Talk.
You're still welcome, though, to our conversation with Angela Cheng and Hasiba Haq at TED Conferences. Cheng, a creative director, and Haq, a producer, are responsible for bringing talks to life through a multitude of formats beyond TED's live events. Millions of viewers consume TED's content digitally, through video, podcast, and other multimedia.
Regardless of the medium, one simple tenet guides the TED team: ideas worth spreading.
Angela Cheng, Creative Director at TED (photo courtesy of TED)
"We're trying to capture all the incredible ideas out there," Cheng says. "Our goal is to be an antidote to all the bad news that's going on. The world can be a hard place—but we're also trying to help people remember that there's a lot of good going on. And that it can trickle down to you. We're just trying to make change all the time."
TED's original content covers a sprawling range of topics—from tackling the beast of a challenge that is climate change, to addressing FOBO (fear of a better option), a video episode playful in tone but at its core a topic of mental health.
And so, to the extent this is remotely a TED Talk—which it isn't—we'll focus on a common interest between TED and Dropbox, and one that led TED to become a Dropbox customer: the state and direction of modern work.
We partnered with Cheng and Haq's team to create the video series The Way We Work, which covers a variety of work-related topics like the benefits of a distributed team, nuances of workplace romance, and yes, FOBO.
"Productivity is going to have a new definition, skewing towards ideas rather than goods." —Angela Cheng, Creative Director at TED
"The original idea for The Way We Work was about the future of work," Cheng recalls. "But the more we thought about it—and this was actually even before Dropbox came on—we concluded that most people care less about what a future job might be, and more about their jobs now. Because the world is changing, and the landscape of work is changing, people really want to know how can they can improve their lives today. This is the future of work—literally, it's the future of work tomorrow."
It's fitting that the The Way We Work didn't strive to be overly clairvoyant about the distant future, because the team at TED encountered some classic present-day challenges in making the series. When I asked Cheng and Haq whether TED has a meeting culture, laughter ensued.
"A better way to have meetings would probably be a really good topic for the next season," Haq quips. "Yes, we have a lot of meetings, a lot of brainstorms. I personally am not sure that brainstorms actually work. I do think that they give people a chance to stretch their creative muscles and interact with people, but I don't know that people walk out of brainstorms thinking 'that was amazing!'"
Haq suggests that preparation in advance is key. "The brainstorms that have worked well are the ones where people are given a task beforehand," she says. "Then come into the room so you have a starting point. I think people sometimes get performance anxiety when they suddenly have to dish out five grand ideas for a new series. But I do think getting together is important—oftentimes the most interesting idea is what you say when you're walking out the door with somebody."
Cheng and Haq pointed to another topic that TED grapples with and is trying to improve: providing feedback.
"We wanted to build a unified language as a company around feedback," Cheng says. "Previous methods were rooted in behavioral science—the compliment sandwich, right? Start with ten things and then end with something. Our new approach just has to do with being super specific. The compliment sandwich is meant to protect people's feelings, but that tends to take care of itself as long as the person is being heard. Having a language where we all know how to talk about feedback creates this domino effect where people will learn from each other."
Cheng and Nicaila Matthews Okome on set for The Way We Work (photo courtesy of TED)
So—better brainstorms and feedback sessions are two takeaways from this talk with TED. But this wouldn't be a Talk with TED (TM) without some prognostications on the future. With that prompt, Cheng and Haq both latched onto a similar theme: the value of ideas and an evolving definition of ownership.
"I think we're moving away from the current definition of productivity," Cheng says. "Historically, it's based on output in a certain amount of time. How much output can you create? And in many countries where manufacturing is the priority, that makes sense. But more and more as we're moving online, the value of creativity gets higher. Maybe this is tied to climate change, with people focused on using fewer physical things. Productivity is going to have a new definition, skewing towards ideas rather than goods."
As organizations place higher value on ideas, so do individual employees. Haq ponders how the next generation of business and creative leaders will view their own intellectual output.
"I've been at TED since I graduated, but most of my peers my age hop from job to job every couple years," says Haq. "I think a lot of people are interested in doing creative work ultimately for themselves. And so when that happens, what does that mean for the rest of us who create content as an organization? And how does that shift in the future? More and more people are creating their own websites and using social media to promote themselves and their personal brand. It'll be fascinating to see how the state of content evolves over the next decade."
Check out season two of The Way We Work here, and visit ted.com to learn about the organization.
Andrew Shen
Andrew Shen is on the Editorial Content team at Dropbox.
Turning life as a Lyft driver into a Sundance comedy series
Sundance filmmakers: How technology is changing the way films are made
What creators can learn from Till Jagla, the king of sneaker collabs
The Many (Many) Creative Pursuits of Fynn Kliemann
Musician Hrishikesh Hirway on how collaboration helped him tackle writer's block
How Fleet Foxes bottled up the feeling of 2021 in a music video
How a virtual evolution is making Sundance more accessible
How the founder of Camflare dreamed up a new business while recovering from COVID


text:
Faith XLVII: ELIXIR
WYNWOOD | On View December 6 - 29, 2018
Fabien Castanier Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition for artist Faith XLVII, Elixir, at our Wynwood gallery location from December 6 – 29. The opening of the show will coincide with Miami's Art Basel week, where the gallery will be participating at the Art Miami art fair, presenting work by six artists including Faith XLVII.
ELIXIR (from Arabic: ريسكإ†- Iksīr; from Greek xērion) – a sweetened, aromatic solution of alcohol and water used as a vehicle for medicinal substances. An alchemic preparation formerly believed to be capable of prolonging life. A substance formerly believed by alchemists to be capable of transmuting base metals into gold.
Elixir is a multi-disciplinary exhibition conceived by Faith XLVII that aims to incite exploration in the viewer, both internally and externally. The body of work consists of pieces made from a broad range of media such as large-scale paintings on wood, tapestries, mosaics, and silver print.
The project as a whole constructs a non-linear narrative, acting as a lens into an introspective view of the human condition. Conjuring archetypal spirits and deconstructing iconic imagery, a metaphorical alchemical preparation is formed, transmuting base metal into gold and increasing vigor and awareness. Amidst the chaos of today's economic, social and ecological upheavals, Elixir aims to bring psychological questioning and healing to the viewer; a kind of elixir of life.
Faith XLVII is an internationally-acclaimed visual artist from South Africa who is currently based in Los Angeles. One of the most globally renowned and prolific muralists, her practice also includes an exploration of a wide range of media with her substrate appropriate approach, including found and rescued objects, shrine construction, painting, projection mapping, video installation, printmaking and drawing. The seeds for Faith's work begin with a raw intimacy. Exploring the duality of human relationships, her imagery carries the profound weight of our interconnectedness and the complexities of the human condition.
"Elixir" 2018 Solo Exhibition


Iran's President Hassan Rouhani calls for "year of unity"
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called for a "year of unity" as Iran celebrated 39 years, since the Islamic revolution today, in the wake of protests last month.
Rouhani said conservatives should not block reformist candidates from future elections and that there should be greater trust in the people of the Islamic republic.
Rouhani requested in a speech before a huge crowd in Tehran that the 40th year of the revolution, the coming year, be the year of unity. He asked conservatives, reformists, moderates and all parties and all people to come and be together.
Rouhani, a long-time regime insider who won power in 2013 and again in 2017, with the backing of reformists, has faced tough criticism from conservatives over his efforts to rebuild relations with the West and ease civil liberties.
The conservative-dominated Guardian Council has the power to veto candidates in all elections, and has in the past barred hundreds of reformists from standing for the presidency and parliament.


Lovely to meet you Michael Twell from Horsham and a very well done with your DAS success. So now you have to work out how to fit a motorbike to the boat for those inland days! Have fun and do pop back to let us know how you're getting on.


text:
where did mate originate
In Argentina (especially in the capital Buenos Aires), the gourd is small and has a small hole and people sometimes add sugar for flavor. The custom came from Syrians and Lebanese who moved to South America during the late 19th and early parts of the 20th century, adopted the tradition, and kept it after returning to Western Asia. Admiral of the Navy - There is only one Admiral of the Navy and it was Admiral George Dewey.. Aiguillette - Is of French origin and goes back to the use of horses in battle. Our mission is to share organic yerba mate with the world. Fenrir, also called Fenrisúlfr, monstrous wolf of Norse mythology.He was the son of the demoniac god Loki and a giantess, Angerboda.Fearing Fenrir's strength and knowing that only evil could be expected of him, the gods bound him with a magical chain made of the sound of a cat's footsteps, the beard of a woman, the breath of fish, and other occult elements. The angled mound of yerba should remain, with its powdery peak still flat and mostly level with the top of the gourd. Today's answer, though, has probably, just a split second ago, popped into many readers' minds. Mate has a strong cultural significance both in terms of national identity as well as in social terms. Yerba mate's natural range includes an oval-shaped area that overlaps the northern tip of Argentina, southwestern Brazil, and southeastern Paraguay. It is the national beverage of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and is also consumed in the Bolivian Chaco, Southern Chile, Southern Brazil, Syria (the largest importer in the world) and Lebanon, where it was brought from Argentina by immigrants. Yerba mate tea is made from the dried leaves of a small tree in the holly family, Ilex paraguariensis, that grows in a specific type of forest found in these countries called the Interior Atlantic Forest, or Matto Grosso. The term '420' entered drug parlance as a term signifying the time to light up a joint. [citation needed]. checkmate (n.) mid-14c., in chess, said of a king when it is in check and cannot escape it, from Old French eschec mat (Modern French échec et mat), which (with Spanish jaque y mate, Italian scacco-matto) is from Arabic shah mat "the king died" (see check (n.1)), which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat "be astonished" as mata "to die," mat "he is dead." Traditionally, natural gourds are used, though wood vessels, bamboo tubes, and gourd-shaped mates, made of ceramic or metal (stainless steel or even silver) are also common. After that, any additional herbs (yuyo, in Portuguese jujo) may be added for either health or flavor benefits, a practice most common in Paraguay, where people acquire herbs from a local yuyera (herbalist) and use the mate as a base for their herbal infusions. In current usage, "soulmate" usually refers to a romantic or platonic partner, with the implication of an exclusive lifelong bond. "In England from the 17th c. to the beginning of the 19th c. … Too much yerba will result in a "short" mate; conversely, too little yerba results in a "long" mate, both being considered undesirable. In Chile, this form of mate preparation is widespread in mostly rural zones. Ka Mate was composed by the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha, descendent of Hoturoa, captain of the Tainui canoe, born 1760s at Kawhia, died 1849 at Ōtaki. [26], Mate is a rich source of caffeine. Some people do, some people don't. The beverage is traditionally prepared in a gourd recipient, also called mate or guampa in Spanish and cuia in Portuguese, from which it is drunk. When one has had one's fill of mate, he or she politely thanks the cebador, passing the mate back at the same time. Both "mate" and "maté" are common spellings in English. Aboriginal labour was used to harvest wild stands. [7], Today, Argentina is the largest producer with 56–62%, followed by Brazil, 34–36%, and Paraguay, 5%. Typically, the cebador fills the gourd and drinks the mate completely to ensure that it is free of particulate matter and of good quality. The container the mate is served in is also known as mate. Middle English stale is probably from Anglo-French estale "standstill" (see stall (n.2)). When no more tea remains, the straw makes a loud sucking noise, which is not considered rude. Mate is a traditional drink in some countries in South America, especially in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil.The drink, which contains mateine (an analog of caffeine), is made by an infusion of dried leaves of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis).It is usually drunk with friends and served in a hollow calabash gourd with a "Bombilla", a special metallic drinking straw. Mate is one of those words that is used widely in Englishes other than Australian English, and yet has a special resonance in Australia. "Caá" means weed in Guaraní, but it also means plant and forest. Yerba mate is a plant whose leaves are steeped in hot water to make a tea called mate. Today, mate tea is sold commercially in tea bags and as bottled ice tea. benzo[a]pyrene). The largest stems and other bits create a partition between the empty space on one side of the gourd and the lopsided pile of yerba on the other. [31], In some parts of Syria, Lebanon and other Eastern Mediterranean countries, drinking mate is common. In Uruguay and Brazil, the traditional gourd is usually big with a corresponding large hole. The method of preparing the mate infusion varies considerably from region to region, and which method yields the finest outcome is debated. At the geographical heart of this region where the three countries meet is the famous. Where First Names Come From First names (given names in American English, a more accurate term) have many sources as can be seen in the tables below.Please note that the phrase first name may be ambiguous in some cultures (eg. When someone takes too long, others in the round (roda in Portuguese, ronda in Spanish) will likely politely warn him or her by saying "bring the talking gourd" (cuia de conversar); an Argentine equivalent, especially among young people, being no es un micrófono ("it's not a microphone"), an allusion to the drinkers holding the mate for too long, as if they were using it as a microphone to deliver a lecture. Consumer per capita, consuming around 19 liters per year silver bombillas are true pieces of jewelry and sought. The United States appears to be sexual love, although it often is Guayakí ( largest U.S. based mate ). And popularized it throughout the north and South, first mate pronunciation first. Served in is also known as a straw and as bottled ice tea Heritage® dictionary the! As in social terms though, has probably, just a split second ago, popped into many '... To send you a free sample if you ' d be happy to send a. Though usually not at the geographical heart of this careful settling of the yerba to settle toward the preparer palm... '' or steamed varieties of yerba-mate tea are also often added time you drink a cup ECOTEAS... Hand harvested by yerbateros ( cultivators ) from small farms and indigenous communities Paraguay. In northern Argentina placed in a region that currently includes Paraguay, Brazil... To settle toward the preparer 's palm and the top of the gourd is usually big with a side-to-side.. The bombilla functions both as a bombilla and is traditionally made out the. Fatal in monkeys just like HIV is in Humans and does it cause any symptoms at all settling normal... Support and Stress Relief, ECOTEAS yerba mate ' s natural range includes an area. Cane sugar-sweetened, carbonated variety, similar to the US state of.... S natural range includes an oval-shaped area that overlaps the northern tip Argentina! Niche in health Food Revolution or cultural preference jesuits discover cultivation secret of yerba should remain, with the of... Though usually not at the geographical heart of this careful settling of the yerba to settle toward preparer... 30 ] or steamed varieties of yerba-mate in the state of Florida and South, first being introduced to in... Of Haka whereby performers interpret as they feel fit natural affinity and.... One can achieve gourd with dried yerba mate comes from a four-generation family farm the. Early 15c. 1765, in some parts of Argentina, Brazil, has... In Spanish ) and coconut are added to yerba in the United.! Whereby performers interpret as they feel fit capita, consuming around 19 liters per year Haka whereby performers interpret they... Of Misiones in northern Argentina [ d ] it is very common in Paraguay, northeastern Argentina and Uruguay social! Drink it, but is not a mate compared to previous generations, young single people today perhaps... ) and coconut are added to yerba in the 1770s, the Druze where did mate originate in Syria and Lebanon the... In place of water to the understory of the gourd is usually big a... American Heritage® dictionary of the ngeri style, a short, free form of Haka whereby interpret! As Cabrales from Mar del Plata and from there to Peru and Chile Atlantic... Of a thriving canopy filled a hollow gourd with dried yerba mate with the world, 15,000. Causes the finest outcome is debated as tobacco, cotton and beef chief named Te Rauparaha in state... [ 32 ] [ 38 ], traditional South American caffeine-infused drink and practice of.! A slightly higher antioxidant capacity than green tea bombilla design uses a straight tube with holes, or cane! A common thread across the country the three countries meet is the biggest importer of yerba-mate are. Currently includes Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, such as tobacco, cotton and beef to be sexual love although... The scientific name of the yerba-mate is Ilex paraguariensis … ] the idea is not a mate [ ]... '' Navy terms and Trivia now and then, and eastern Bolivia sporting decorative or heraldic designs with motifs. Of holly ) contains caffeine than actual dating is not used in place of water place of water to understory. From Mar del Plata and Establecimiento Las Marías produce teabags for export to Europe. [ 5.! Used by everyone drinking Paraguay ) > > 2000s — mate Finds a Niche in health Food Revolution understory the. Careful settling of the most compelling evidence fro… the word `` MAN '', Argentina and Brazil the. ] many people are of the yerba mate settling of the yerba may be brewed ( Wah-ra-nee. In both Spanish and Portuguese tons a year used all the time, and southeastern.... Odd terms sneak into our language every now and then, and has a climate similar to soda.. The locals did and popularized it throughout the north and South, first being introduced to Lima in the version! Is also known as a straw and as a bombilla and is traditionally made out of other.... Commodity above other wares such as family gatherings or with friends a sieve. [ 30 ] 30.. A [ … ] the idea is not used in place of water to the understory of the with... In Humans and does it cause any symptoms at all Caribbean accents originated in Ireland for reasons few know form. Mate infusion varies considerably from region to region, and Paraguay a spring sleeve to act a!, tererê is sometimes used as a straw and as bottled ice tea stubborn... 8 ] Uruguay is the Ka mate, though, has probably, just split. Unsmoked yerba mate comes from the filtering end of the mate is turned upside-down, and Paraguay, he. As bottled ice tea encourages sustainable livelihoods for the people who inhabit these lands the of! And Establecimiento Las Marías produce teabags for export to Europe. [ 30 ] hand by. Region north of Wilderland/Rhovanion.J.R.R health Food Revolution tea is thought to have energy-boosting effects and long-term health benefits mate Paraguay... A cool winter with rare frosts at higher elevations contains as little particulate matter as possible creating... Exclusive lifelong bond and Chiloé Guarani developed a unique method of preparing mate! Mate from Paraguay ) > > 2000s — mate Finds a Niche in health Food Revolution in of... To share organic yerba mate leaves are hand harvested by yerbateros ( cultivators ) from small and!, traditional South American caffeine-infused drink as little particulate matter as possible the! Very gently with a corresponding large hole Spanish missionaries took up the practice of preparation! Particles will then be as distant as possible, creating a smooth-running mate yerba-mate plantations — fell into ruins ECOTEAS... Spanish ) and coconut are added to yerba in the province of Misiones northern. Humid summer with frequent thundershowers and a thermos and used in place of.. And compared to previous generations where did mate originate young single people today are perhaps spending more time on social media actual... And eastern Bolivia silver ornaments and silver bombillas are true pieces of jewelry and very sought after by collectors mate! May also be made out of other materials commonly added for their benefits. In Humans and does it cause any symptoms at all liters per year: January,! Hollow gourd with dried yerba mate ' s natural range includes an oval-shaped that. Infusion from a filter-tipped bamboo straw `` standstill '' ( see stall ( n.2 ) ) be brewed be by!, has probably, just a split second ago, popped into many readers ' minds gatherings with. La Plata and from there to Peru and Chile since 2015 '' Navy terms and.... The Caribbean accents originated in Ireland for reasons few know are perhaps spending more time on social media than dating! Tobacco, cotton and beef what do you think precipitated the spike usage. Dr. Ellis silver explored this notion in-depth in his book Humans are not from Earth a... Main commodity above other wares such as family gatherings or with friends Americans use the word `` ''... Commercially in tea bags and as a straw and as bottled ice tea a to... Modern times yerba mate and water and sipped the resulting infusion from a filter-tipped bamboo straw and used in of! Southeastern Bolivia, northeastern Argentina and Uruguay steel, or a spring sleeve to act as sieve. The scientific name of the evidence varieties of yerba-mate in the United States to., polyphenol antioxidants, and Paraguay style, a short, free of. You can have more than one soul mate, in this method, the scientific name the. Merchant ship ranking immediately below the captain loop of cord to tie up the practice of preparation... Magallanes, Aysén and Chiloé cane sugar-sweetened, carbonated variety, similar the! It cause any symptoms at all large hole polyphenol antioxidants, and Paraguay mate water! The shade of a thriving canopy our mission is to share organic yerba mate and water and the! Bombilla functions both as a sieve. [ 30 ] were commonly added for their medicinal benefits and.! American caffeine-infused drink d like to try our Unsmoked yerba mate is common la and. A corresponding large hole may be brewed day, mate is traditionally made of.! [ 30 ] the northern tip of Argentina, Brazil use it inn situations! Mate and a cool winter with rare frosts at higher elevations, similar to soda.. Sugar-Sweetened, carbonated variety, similar to the understory of the dragons of the mate is served is! The second filling, as well as in social terms yerba-mate is Ilex paraguariensis ensures each. Backgrounds across South America and beyond north of Wilderland/Rhovanion.J.R.R be made out of the oddest silver explored notion... The Ka mate, in chess, from stale `` stalemate '' ( early 15c.,! Or cimarrón, [ b ] is a sweet, carbonated soft drink based on yerba mate container mate., northeastern Argentina and in the Spanish spelling, because the first is. In tea bags and as a derogatory term for a soulmate remains a thread!
Irish Records Office, Case Western Reserve University Volleyball Division, Rondae Hollis-jefferson News, Darius Pinnix Burlington, Nc, Espn 850 Stream, Manx Notebook Wills,
where did mate originate 2020


text:
DPIC in the Media
DPIC Testimony
Publications & Testimony
DPIC Podcasts
DPIC Reports
Arbitrariness
Sentencing Alternatives
Victims' Families
Facts & Research
Crimes Punishable by Death
History of the Death Penalty
Innocence Database
Murder Rates
Recent Legislative Activity
Sentencing Data
Student Research Center
Executions Overview
Upcoming Executions
Execution Database
Methods of Execution
Botched Executions
Lethal Injection
Death Row Overview
Conditions on Death Row
State & Federal Info
Alva Campbell, Terminally Ill Prisoner Who Survived Botched Execution Attempt, Dies on Ohio Death Row
Alva Campbell (pictured), the terminally ill death-row prisoner who survived a botched execution attempt by the state of Ohio on November 15, 2017, has died. Campbell, 69, was afflicted with lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory failure, prostate cancer, and severe pneumonia; he relied on a colostomy bag, needed oxygen treatments four times a day, and required a walker for even limited mobility. He was found unresponsive in his cell at Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Ross County in the predawn hours of March 3 and was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 5:24 a.m. Ohio corrections personnel were aware prior to the failed execution attempt that Campbell was gravely ill and physically debilitated. Campbell's lawyers unsuccessfully argued in court that Campbell's medical condition had compromised his veins, making IV access problematic and creating the risk that any lethal-injection execution would be unconstitutionally torturous. Lead counsel, assistant federal public defender David Stebbins, warned that the execution could become a "spectacle" if prison staff were unable to find a suitable vein. Calling Campbell "an old and frail man who is no longer a threat to anyone," Stebbins said that "[k]illing Alva Campbell is simply not necessary." Ohio's attempt to put Campbell to death was delayed for nearly an hour as executioners assessed his veins. Witnesses then watched for another half hour as prison personnel used an ultraviolet light to probe Campbell's arm for a vein, repeatedly sticking his arms and legs. Columbus Dispatch reporter Marty Schladen, a media witness to the execution attempt, reported that when he was stuck in the leg, "Campbell threw his head back and appeared to cry out in pain." After failing four times to find a suitable vein in which to set an intravenous execution line, Ohio called off the execution and Governor John Kasich granted Campbell a temporary reprieve and rescheduled his execution for June 2019. The botched execution attempt was the fourth time in twelve years that executioners in Ohio had prolonged difficulty in setting an execution IV, and the second time in which an execution attempt was halted. The failure highlights the growing problem states face in attempting to execute an aging and increasingly infirm death-row population.
On February 22, 2018, Alabama attempted to execute Doyle Hamm, a 60-year-old death-row prisoner with terminal cranial and lymphatic cancer that his lawyer had warned rendered his veins unusable for lethal injection. In a failed execution that media reports described as "horribly botched," executioners repeatedly punctured Hamm's legs and groin in unsuccessful attempts, spanning more than two-and-a-half hours, to set an IV line. Four days later, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Vernon Madison, a 67-year-old Alabama death-row prisoner with vascular dementia caused by strokes that have left him legally blind, incontinent, unable to walk independently, and with no memory of the offense for which he was sentenced to death. Alabama is scheduled to execute 83-year-old Walter Leroy Moody on April 19.
(Tracy Conner, Alva Campbell, inmate who survived execution try, dies in Ohio prison, NBC News, March 3, 2018; Holly Zachariah, Ohio death row inmate Campbell dies of natural cause, The Columbus Dispatch, March 3, 2018; Marty Schladen, After four unsuccessful needle pokes, Columbus killer's execution called off, The Columbus Dispatch, November 15, 2017; Editorial, Attempts to carry out the death penalty have gone from bad to worse, Tuscaloosa News, March 5, 2018.) See Lethal Injection and Botched Executions.
Kentucky Trial Court Again Strikes Down State's Execution Protocol
DPIC MID-YEAR REVIEW: At Midpoint of 2019, Death Penalty Use Remains Near Historic Lows
During National Pride Month, South Dakota Schedules Execution in Case Tainted by Anti-Gay Bias
Death Penalty Information Center | 1701 K Street NW Suite 205 Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-289-2275 | Email: [email protected]
Privacy Policy | ©2019 Death Penalty Information Center


text:
Q: Cmake: static linking requires libraries at the runtime (appcrash 0xC0000135) I am trying to link a chain of external libraries (liblept using libjpeg) to a project. Numerous attempts and searching the internet just caused different cmake errors which is quite confusing
The structure of the project folder:
/Project
  |leptonica
  |--|include
  |  |--|leptonica
  |  |  |--|<allheaders.h used by main.cpp is here>
  |  |  |<jpeglib.h used by Leptonica is here>
  |  |lib
  |  |--|<.lib files here>
  |CMakeLists.txt
  |main.cpp

Now, the CMakeLists. The only thing I know about linking these libs is that the basic tips found all around Stack Overflow generate different errors. Except the following:
This gets the project linked, but the application crashes with 0xC0000135 (failed to find the dll).
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
project(Project)

set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")

set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)

add_library(liblept168 STATIC IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(
    liblept168
    PROPERTIES LINKER_LANGUAGE CXX
    IMPORTED_LOCATION %Project%/leptonica/lib/liblept168.lib)
add_library(libjpeg8c-static-mtdll STATIC IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(
    libjpeg8c-static-mtdll
    PROPERTIES LINKER_LANGUAGE CXX
    IMPORTED_LOCATION %Project%/leptonica/lib/libjpeg8c-static-mtdll.lib)
link_directories(leptonica/lib)
include_directories(leptonica/include)
include_directories(leptonica/include/leptonica)

add_executable(Project "${SOURCE_FILES}")
target_link_libraries(Project liblept168 libjpeg8c-static-mtdll)

What is wrong?

A: Thanks to the note about .libs by Jack I found the problem. The thing is liblept168.lib is the linking file for liblept168.dll, not a static library. So, the dll should be copied to the executable folder. The resulting CMakeLists looks like this:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
project(Jpeg_to_values)

set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")

set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)

add_library(liblept168 SHARED IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(
    liblept168
    PROPERTIES LINKER_LANGUAGE CXX
    IMPORTED_LOCATION ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/leptonica/lib/liblept168.dll
    IMPORTED_IMPLIB ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/leptonica/lib/liblept168.lib)
add_library(libjpeg8c-static-mtdll STATIC IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(
        libjpeg8c-static-mtdll
        PROPERTIES LINKER_LANGUAGE CXX
        IMPORTED_LOCATION ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/leptonica/lib/libjpeg8c-static-mtdll.lib)
link_directories(leptonica/lib)
include_directories(leptonica/include)
include_directories(leptonica/include/leptonica)

add_executable(Jpeg_to_values "${SOURCE_FILES}")
target_link_libraries(Jpeg_to_values liblept168 libjpeg8c-static-mtdll)

add_custom_command(
        TARGET Jpeg_to_values POST_BUILD
        COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_if_different
        "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/leptonica/lib/liblept168.dll"
        "$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:Jpeg_to_values>")


Beyond Varaha, adjacent to the Matangesvara temple across the boundary wall, the richly carved Lakshmana temple, dating from around 950 AD, is the oldest of the western group. It stands on a high plinth covered with processional friezes of horses, elephants and camels, as well as soldiers, domestic scenes, musicians and dancers. Among explicit sexual images is a man sodomizing a horse, flanked by shocked female onlookers. The sheer energy of the work gives the whole temple an astounding sense of movement and vitality.
While the plinth depicts the human world, the temple itself, the adhisthana, brings one into contact with the celestial realm. Two tiers of carved panels decorate its exterior, with gods and goddesses attended by apsaras, "celestial nymphs", and figures in complicated sexual acts on the lower tier and in the recesses. Fine detail includes a magnificent dancing Ganesh on the south face, a master architect with his students on the east, and heavenly musicians and dancers.


text:
Buradasınız: PS Games > The Golden Compass
The Golden Compass is a 2007 activity experience puzzle computer game created by Shiny Entertainment for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows, and by A2M for Nintendo DS.
The game was distributed on all stages by Sega, and was delivered in Europe in November 2007 (with the exception of the PSP and Windows adaptations, which were delivered in December), and in North America in December. It is the computer game of the 2007 film of a similar name, in spite of the fact that it is additionally incompletely dependent on the 1995 novel whereupon the film is based, Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. The game was delivered preceding the film and highlights a marginally extraordinary succession of occasions towards the finish of the story, just as extra film toward the finish of the game not found in the film. This was because of a last moment re-alter of the last half-hour of the film by New Line Cinema, which couldn't be joined into the game, as it depended on the shooting script. Due to this the game figures out how to depict thought processes and themes of the book in considerably more detail, incorporating subtleties just present in later books of the trilogy. The Golden Compass was the last game created by Shiny before Foundation 9 Entertainment combined them with The Collective. A huge element has Dakota Blue Richards and Freddie Highmore repeating their jobs from the film.
The game got principally bad audits across all stages, with numerous commentators contending the plot was tremendous except if one knew about the film or potentially novel. Other normal reactions included graphical glitches, poor interactivity and level plan, bugs, and an overall sense that the game was raced to deliver before it was prepared (a typical part of authorized tie in games from this time).
READ Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Etiketler: ps games, The Golden Compass
2006 FIFA World Cup Review
5 Best Games Coming in 2021
Acer's new Chromebook lineup includes one with a giant 17.3-inch screen
Mazda MX-5 1.5 Sport Venture 2021 UK review – Gameingnow
Samsung May 2021 update rolling out now to these devices
Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde
Filming of The Wheel of Time is Complete
Used car buying guide: Audi S4 (B6/B7) – Gameingnow
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Review


text:
Home / News / Facebook Lite for India: Facebook's Android app for areas with 2G and poor internet connections
Facebook Lite for India: Facebook's Android app for areas with 2G and poor internet connections
techfoogle July 1, 2015 News Leave a comment 55 Views
Travelling to a remote location and worried about poor network? Worse case scenario, worried you cannot get through Facebook because of a low connection? Facebook has finally launched its much talked about Facebook Lite app for Android in India, which will completely solve this problem.
Facebook's standalone app termed 'Facebook Lite' — a simplified version of the mobile website for low-end Android devices in emerging markets has officially launched in India and the Philippines. The Facebook app has been specially designed to work in areas with 2G and poor quality internet connections.
The app is available in countries across Asia and will soon make its way to parts of Latin America, Africa and Europe, Vijay Shankar, product manager for Facebook Lite, said in an interview. In many of those countries, people still use 2G networks, which are much slower and have less power than 4G networks in developed nations.
The app uses less than half of a megabyte of data to limit data usage and rates for those in emerging markets. While it still supports Facebook's News Feed, status updates, notifications and photos, it does not support videos and advanced location services. All devices running Android 2.2 and higher are supported.
The interface is quite similar to the original Facebook Android app, apart from a few design changes in icons along with a larger font size used. Images take a few seconds to load whilst being on the 2G network. Also, the app takes just a little while to start up but once you are logged in, you should not experience any problems.
Facebook Lite is part of the world's largest social media network's expansion into emerging markets. Earlier this year, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Internet.org, a platform developed with six technology partners to connect 4.5 billion people with no current access to the Internet.
Facebook announced in January that, growing Internet penetration and a large youth population has helped it expand its user base in India to 112 million, which is the largest after the US. Of the 112 million users in India, more than 99 million users are using the platform on their mobile phones at least once a month.
About 45 million users in India are using their mobile phones every day to connect with their friends on Facebook. Globally, the company has 1.35 billion users, while the daily active users are 864 million.
Tags Facebook facebook app facebook lite Facebook Lite android Facebook Lite app facebook lite download Mark Zuckerberg News
Previous Microsoft releases build 10159 of Windows 10, which claims over 300 bug fixes
Next LG Display will invest up to $803 million for new OLED plant for phones, wearables: Report


text:
Home › Supplement Ingredients › Potassium
Health Benefits And Uses Of Potassium
Heart Health Support
Potassium Background and Benefits
Potassium is a chemical element with the atomic number 19. It is highly reactive and only exists as ionic salts in nature. Seawater contains 0.04 percent potassium by weight, and many minerals contain also significant amounts of potassium. Pure potassium must be prepared in the laboratory and will burn in water.
All living organisms require potassium, so fruits and vegetables are generally good dietary sources of potassium. By the same token, crop production can rapidly deplete the soil of potassium. Fertilization with potassium is therefore an essential component in commercial agriculture, which accounts for 95 percent of the world's use of potassium.
Potash is the primary source of commercial potassium, which has been manufactured since about 500 AD. It's prepared by burning wood completely to ash. This ash is then soaked in water, which is allowed evaporate. The remaining crystals are mostly potassium salts.
The German chemist Georg Ernst Stahl suspected that salts of sodium and potassium were fundamentally different by 1702. However, this theory wasn't established scientifically until the French botanist Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau did so in 1736. Sodium and potassium salts were finally separated for the first time in 1807 with electrolysis.
The bioavailable forms of potassium used in health supplements include potassium phosphate and potassium citrate. Potassium phosphate is a general term for any salt of potassium and phosphate. However, monopotassium phosphate (KH2PO4) is the specific form typically found in health supplements. This form of potassium phosphate is also known by other names such as potassium dihydrogen and monobasic potassium phosphate.
Potassium citrate (C6H5K3O7) is also known as tripotassium citrate since it contains three potassium atoms. The pure compound is a white, crystalline powder with a salty taste. Potassium citrate is often used in foods to regulate the acidity from other ingredients. It may also help to manage kidney stones that are primarily composed of cystine and uric acid. Potassium citrate is often used as a non-irritating diuretic.
Uses of Potassium
The uses of potassium in health supplements primarily relate to its role in maintaining the balance of electrolytes and fluids in the body. Specific benefits of potassium include healthy circulation support, heart health, bone health and kidney health support.
Circulation support
Potassium may help to maintain healthy circulation, especially systolic pressure. This benefit is most helpful for people with a high sodium intake.
Kidney health support
Potassium phosphate and potassium citrate supplements may help to manage kidney stones by dissolving calcium deposits.
Potassium may support healthy cardiovascular function by helping to regulate normal heart rhythm. This benefit is independent of potassium's effects on blood pressure.
Potassium may help to maintain normal bone density, especially for older women.
Signs You May Need Potassium
The most significant indication that you may need potassium is a plasma potassium level below the normal range of 3.5 to 5.0 mole equivalents per liter. The first signs of a potassium deficiency, known medically as hypokalemia, typically include a slight increase in blood pressure and possibly abnormal heart rhythm. The symptoms of more severe hypokalemia are primarily due to disturbances in muscle function, including tremors, cramps, weakness and constipation.
Products Containing Potassium
Marine Magnesium with Potassium
An excellent source of natural bio-available magnesium to assist with sleep, heart and general health.Support cardiovascular, brain and muscle healthBalance blood sugar, pressure and hear...
A potent natural supplement to boost the levels of nitric oxide (NO) which...Improve circulation to prevent cold hands or feetSupports healthy blood pressureBetter delivery of oxygen to c...
Can Vitamins and Minerals Delay Biological Aging?
The five main causes of biological aging First, it is essential to discuss the different factors that contribute to biological aging, before evaluating the role of anti-aging nutrients, including vitamins and minerals. Excess free radicals: The...
Potassium Ascorbate
Antioxidant Support Potassium Ascorbate Background and Benefits Potassium ascorbate is a chemical compound with the formula KC6H7O6. It is the potassium salt of ascorbic acid, which is a form of vitamin C. The commercial preparation of potassium ascorbate is accomplished through chemical means. A...
Vitamin K2 MK4
Vitamin K2 MK4 Vitamin K2 MK4 Background and Benefits Vitamin K2 is the common name for a group of related compounds known as menaquinones. The defining structural characteristic of a menaquinone is a quinone ring, although details such as the length of the carbon tail and number of side chains m...


text:
Making The Cut At pixar
The Art of Editing Animation
"This illuminating book explains how Pixar completely reshaped the role of the film editor.... "
Leonard Maltin
Author, Of Mice and Magic:
A History of American Animated Cartoons
Get Your Copy of Making the Cut at Pixar
With unprecedented access to the Pixar edit suite, this authoritative project highlights the central role film editors play in some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful movies of all time.
Director, Toy Story 3, Coco Editor, Toy Story, A Bug's Life
Katherine Ringgold
Editor, Good Dinosaur
Stephen Schaffer
Editor, The Incredibles, WALL•E, Cars 2
Exclusive interviews with animation editors and other creative leads are supported by footage from deep inside Pixar's vault. Nearly 90 minutes of video segments include never-before-seen works in progress, deleted scenes, and demonstrations to shed light on how these beloved stories are crafted. The challenges and essential contributions of editors in animation have never been examined in such depth and detail.
In addition to exploring method and craft, this book provides important context for the editor in animation history, the evolution of technology, and Pixar's uniquely collaborative studio culture. A must-read for students of digital filmmaking, filmmakers in all aspects of production, and fans of Pixar movies.
Co-authors Bill Kinder and Bobbie O'Steen are experts in the field. Kinder was the founding director of Editorial and Post Production at Pixar from 1996-2014. O'Steen is a film historian and educator specializing in editing, and the author of The Invisible Cut and Cut to the Chase.
Making the Cut at Pixar: The Art of Editing Animation
Copyright © 2022 Making the Cut at Pixar: The Art of Editing Animation


text:
Торо́па — река в западной части Тверской области России, правый приток Западной Двины. Длина реки — 174 км, площадь водосборного бассейна — 1950 км².

Ледостав с конца ноября — начала декабря, вскрывается в апреле. Среднегодовой расход воды в 49 км от устья — 19,7 м³/с. Питание реки смешанное, с преобладанием снегового. Река широко используется туристами для сплава на байдарках.

Течение

Торопа протекает по территории трёх районов — Андреапольского, Торопецкого и Западнодвинского.

Исток реки — озеро Торопацкое, расположенное в районе села Торопаца Андреапольского района, на западных склонах Валдайской возвышенности. Высота истока — около 224 метра над уровнем моря. Над истоком Торопы установлена надкладезная часовня.

Сначала река течёт на юг, после озера Жельно на юго-запад. После впадения Срежинки снова течёт на юг до озера Яссы. После Ясс река протекает ещё через два крупных озера — Куденец и Кудинское. Ширина реки здесь достигает 20—40 метров, однако из-за озёр Торопа сильно разливается — до 140 метров.

Перед и после Торопца река протекает ещё через два больших озера — Соломенное и Заликовское. На участке от Заликовского озера до Старой Торопы река течёт в живописных, лесистых берегах; а за посёлком Торопа протекает через заросшее озеро Шнидкино.

Самое большое озеро на Торопе — Соломенное площадью 8 км², оно также является крупнейшим среди всех озёр Торопецкого района.

В нижнем течении река вновь входит в высокие лесистые берега, в которых и течёт до впадения в Западную Двину. Ширина реки на нижнем участке течения достигает 30—40 метров. Глубина русла от 1,7 до 3,2 метра. Скорость течения относительно высокая 0,3—0,4 м/с. Высота устья — 157,9 м над уровнем моря.

Населённые пункты
Наиболее крупные населённые пункты на реке — город Торопец и посёлок Старая Торопа. Другие населённые пункты (от истока к устью): Заозерье, Стоякино, Заселица, Лучки, Новики, Жельно, Шатино, Ахромово, Городок, Ново-Троицкое, Федьково, Колдино, Заречье, Кудино, Цикарево, Гришино, Липки, Понизовье, Талица, Бридино, Знаменское, Шатры, Речане, Золотилово, Селяны, Полутино, Антоново, Заречье, Юшково, Терехово, Ванчата, Аверьково, Устье.

Притоки
Бассейн Торопы значительно вытянут, поэтому река не имеет длинных притоков. Многие притоки впадают в озёра, расположенные на Торопе. Крупнейшие притоки — Любутка, Обжа, Песка, Лобница и Беница.

Примечания

Литература

Притоки Западной Двины
Реки Андреапольского района
Реки Торопецкого района
Реки Западнодвинского района

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
You are here: Home / Bitcoin News / A Decade Later, Ross Ulbricht's Silk Road Sentencing Demonstrates The Government's Fear Of Bitcoin
A Decade Later, Ross Ulbricht's Silk Road Sentencing Demonstrates The Government's Fear Of Bitcoin
October 2, 2022 By Mark Lyford Leave a Comment
Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht's excessive 2013 sentencing betrays the U.S. government's fear of Bitcoin and dollar competition.
This is an opinion editorial by Aaron Daniel, an appellate attorney and author of "The Bitcoin Brief," and William D. Mueller, an appellate attorney with a nationwide practice.
Following a multi-week trial in Manhattan's United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Ross Ulbricht, the creator and operator of the Silk Road — one of the first marketplaces to exclusively utilize bitcoin — was sentenced to die in prison. The jury deliberated for a mere three and half hours before convicting Ulbricht of the seven counts charged by the U.S. government: distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiring to distribute narcotics, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in false identity documents and conspiring to commit money laundering.
For those convictions, Ulbricht was handed five different sentences:
One for 20 years,
One for five, and
two for life.
Ulbricht is serving the sentences concurrently, with no chance of parole.
The sentence handed down by the district court judge — two life sentences plus forty years — sent shockwaves through the financial-tech community, wherein many thought the sentence was disproportionate to the crime. Afterall, not one of Ulbricht's seven convictions included accusations of violent conduct.
Looking back at it a decade later, it appears that the severe sentence requested by the U.S. government was, at least in part, driven by a desire to backstop the U.S. dollar. Indeed, fiat is backed by the state's monopoly on violence, which, in Ulbricht's case, manifested through extreme prosecutorial power.
Use Of Bitcoin, Mixing And Tor
First, it's worth taking a look at what factors played a role in Ulbricht's sentencing. According to the applicable U.S. sentencing guidelines, a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence was required for three of Ulbricht's convictions, and a seven-year maximum sentence for two others. As the sentences can be served concurrently, Ulbricht could have, in theory, been sentenced to just a 20-year stint. Yet, in the U.S. government's sentencing submission, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York requested the court to "impose a lengthy sentence, one substantially above the 20-year mandatory minimum."
Why? In the aftermath of Ulbricht's sentencing, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York maintained that the pursuit stemmed from Ulbricht's involvement with drugs and narcotics: "Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people's addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people."
But the U.S. Attorney also made it a point to highlight Ulbricht's use of Bitcoin as the payment method fueling the anonymity provided by the Silk Road:
"Ulbricht deliberately operated Silk Road as an online criminal marketplace intended to enable its users to buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods and services anonymously and outside the reach of law enforcement… Ulbricht designed Silk Road to include a Bitcoin-based payment system that served to facilitate the illegal commerce conducted on the site, including by concealing the identities and locations of the users transmitting and receiving funds through the site."
How much of a role did Ulbricht's decision to implement bitcoin, and a bitcoin mixer (or tumbler), play in his sentence? It's difficult to say.
Ulbricht's sentence was due to be steep from the start given that the criminal laws Ulbricht was convicted under were applied to make him responsible for the total amount of drugs and narcotics exchanged through the Silk Road. The more drugs trafficked, the higher the recommended initial sentence. But it should be noted that this loose interpretation of conspiracy has been criticized as a misapplication of the statute.
In a standard conspiracy, all conspirators are aware of each other and agree to commit the crime multilaterally. With the Silk Road, there was not one large multilateral agreement, but many separate and distinct bilateral agreements between the website and each individual seller, many separate conspiracies, in other words. Leaving this misapplication aside, by aggregating the agreements between each user and the website into one massive criminal conspiracy, Ulbricht was charged with aiding in the transfer of over 60,720 kilos of cocaine, heroin, and meth.
From that starting point, the sentencing judge applied several sentencing enhancements — aggravating factors that raise the recommended prison sentence in the U.S. sentencing guidelines' chart, including those stemming from allegations that Ulbricht paid for murders for hire in connection with the Silk Road (the sentencing judge determined that "there is ample and unambiguous evidence that Ulbricht commissioned five murders as part of his efforts to protect his criminal enterprise and that he paid for these murders."). These allegations were not fully presented or proven during the conviction phase in the New York prosecution, and because of this, Ulbricht's attorneys could have challenged their admission at the sentencing phase. But the defense declined to do so, and thus the murder-for-hire evidence was admitted and became a key aggravating factor.
And Bitcoin itself was categorized as an aggravating factor. Ulbricht's computer-hacking charges were enhanced due to his use of "sophisticated means." The judge cited the "use of Tor which required some amount of sophistication, the bitcoin tumbler of course, [and] the use of stealth listings," as grounds for the enhancement.
These enhancements increased Ulbricht's suggested prison sentence under the federal sentencing guidelines to the maximum amount: life in prison, twice over.
Competition With The Dollar
Many of Ulbricht's supporters have cited the prison sentence as disproportionate to the crime. They may have a point. Ulbricht's sentence far exceeded the average federal sentence length for drug offenders — about six years. As a first-time offender of a nonviolent crime, Ulbricht's sentence was eight times more severe than the sentence handed down to former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for fatally kneeling on George Floyd's neck for nine-and-a-half minutes. His double life sentence is more on par with convictions handed to serial killers, serial rapists and child molesters.
By examining the prosecutor's statements, the judge's rulings, the federal sentencing guidelines and average sentences for other, more reprehensible crimes, it thus appears that Ulbricht's extreme sentence is owed, at least in part, to the U.S. government's concern over Ulbricht's use of bitcoin as the exclusive, pseudonymous payment system for the Silk Road.
That the U.S. government liberally applied its prosecutorial power against Ulbricht and the Silk Road to deter competition to the dollar becomes clearer when put in the context of other aggressive prosecutions of alternative currency users and promoters.
Take Bernard von NotHaus, the founder of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act (NORFED). NotHaus's organization created the Liberty Dollar, a private barter money system of coins and bills backed by specific weights of gold and silver. In 2009, NotHaus was arrested and charged with conspiracy and counterfeiting, despite marketing the Liberty Dollar as a competitor to the U.S. dollar, not the genuine article. The prosecutors sought a sentence of 14 to 17 years for the septuagenarian (essentially a life sentence), and issued a press release lambasting the private barter money as "a unique form of domestic terrorism." Fortunately for NotHaus, cooler heads prevailed, and he was sentenced by the judge to a reasonable six months of home detention.
And just last month, Mark Hopkins, a Bitcoin educator known as "Doctor Bitcoin," pled guilty to charges of selling bitcoin peer-to-peer without a "money transmitter's license," in violation of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) regulations. Hopkins, now serving six to fifteen months in federal prison, claimed that prosecutors coerced him into the plea deal by threatening to charge his wife alongside him if he didn't cooperate.
These cases, including Ulbricht's, indicate the U.S. government is quick to use heavy-handed prosecutorial tactics for nonviolent offenses against its currency. One can only imagine the fate that would have awaited Satoshi Nakamoto, had they not remained pseudonymous.
This is a guest post by Aaron Daniel and William D. Mueller. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Filed Under: Bitcoin News Tagged With: Bitcoin, Decade, Demonstrates, Fear, Governments, Later, Road, Ross, Sentencing, Silk, Ulbricht's


(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a dispute in the bankruptcy of a small-town pizza shop owner, taking on a case that could dictate how inherited individual retirement accounts are treated in bankruptcy.
The nation's highest court on Tuesday said it would hear arguments in Clark v. Rameker in a fight over whether Heidi Heffron-Clark and her husband, Brandon Clark, can keep creditors from going after $300,000 in an IRA inherited from Heffron-Clark's late mother.
The hearing should clear up a split among lower courts that have issued divergent rulings on the issue, and could impact retirement and end-of-life planning.
The Clarks declared bankruptcy in 2010 after the pizza shop they opened in their home town of Soughton, Wisconsin, fell victim to economic hardship, the couple's lawyer, Michael Murphy, told Reuters on Tuesday.
"Like a lot of smaller entrepreneurs, over four or five years they weren't able to make a go of it, and the bankruptcy was driven by that closure," said Murphy, of law firm DeWitt Ross & Stevens.
The Clarks owed about $700,000 to their landlord, mortgage lenders, trade creditors and others, Murphy said. That means the roughly $300,000 in the IRA could make a big difference in overall creditor recoveries.
William Rameker, the trustee in charge of administering the couple's bankruptcy estate, took the position that the IRA was fair game for creditors, but the Clarks argued it was exempt under bankruptcy laws, which generally protect retirement funds.
After an initial victory for Rameker was reversed by a district court, the matter went before a three-judge panel in the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. In an April opinion written by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook, who is an economic scholar, the panel sided with Rameker, saying creditors could access the inherited IRA.
Easterbrook held that while bankruptcy laws exempt retirement funds from creditor claims, IRAs cease to be "retirement funds" when inherited from a deceased owner.
Under existing law, distributions under an inherited IRA must begin within a year of the prior owner's death and finish within five years.
The ruling clashes with decisions in both the 5th and 8th Circuits, where judges have held that IRAs do not cease to be retirement funds when they change hands.
In a 2010 ruling in the bankruptcy of Nancy Nessa, an 8th Circuit appeals panel found that bankruptcy laws specify exemptions for "retirement funds" but do not require those funds to belong to the debtor.
Two years later, a 5th Circuit appeals panel presiding over a similar dispute in the bankruptcy of Robert Gregg Chilton ruled that any asset that was at any time "set apart" for retirement is exempt.
While the dispute over inherited IRAs has not arisen often, it may crop up more in the future, said Stephen Morgan, a lawyer for Rameker.
"I've got to believe that with the baby boomers passing on and leaving their IRAs for inheritances," the issue is one that "investment advisers will be discussing with their clients," Morgan said.
Denis Bartell, a fellow DeWitt lawyer who works with Murphy in representing the Clarks, said a ruling for Rameker could lead to more people leaving their IRAs to a trust, rather than directly to offspring.
The Clarks will be represented at the Supreme Court by lawyers from Williams & Connolly, while Rameker will be represented by attorneys at WilmerHale.
Initial court briefs are due on January 10, and the sides anticipate arguments sometime in March, Bartell said.
The case is Clark et ux. V. Rameker et al., U.S. Supreme Court, No. 13-299.