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The Waugh Zone June 22, 2016

22/06/2016 09:02 | Updated 22 June 2016

The five things you need to know on Wednesday June 22, 2016…

ruth davidson

One of Ruth Davidson’s most powerful closing lines last night was that by voting Leave “your decision could cost someone else their job.” It brought home the fact that the EU referendum was not just some bit of fantasy politics, a parlour game that has until now been restricted to jokes about Bill Cash or talk of bendy bananas: it is a decision that is deadly serious.

But of course the person whose job is most immediately at risk from Brexit is David Cameron. Many Tory leavers want to get out the message that there will be no move to oust the PM should they win the referendum. There’s talk of a letter being signed by MPs to make that clear and as Nick Watt reported on Newsnight, the plan is for Gisela Stuart to give the first formal Leave reaction to a Brexit vote. Gove and Boris would wait for the PM to speak first.

Asked on the Today prog if he would quit, Cameron again insisted he was going nowhere - at least not soon. “I will accept the instructions of the British people and get to work on Friday morning to deliver them.” I may be wrong, but the tone of that answer sounded like he would simply stay on in a caretaker capacity and would accept the inevitable once the UK had started the exit process.

The PM has pulled out all the stops as D-Day approaches, with a blizzard of newspaper and TV and radio interviews, and even that slightly bizarre steps-of-No10 appearance yesterday to warn old people not to betray their grandchildren.

On Today, Cameron highlighted the Times letter from big and small business backing Remain. He did a consummately professional job of making his case, turning every immigration question into an answer about the economy. “Best of both worlds” (which I haven’t heard for a while) made a comeback. He got most passionate when he said “We are not shackled to a corpse…you can see the European economies recovering”.

The last ORB poll for the Tel yesterday gave Remain a seven point lead. We can expect final polls today from ComRes, Opinium and YouGov. And there may be an Ipsos Mori poll on Thursday morning.

The last TV debate of the campaign takes place on Channel 4 at 9pm, as Jeremy Paxman oversees the clash between Alan Johnson and Nigel Farage and others. Will Farage take the chance to apologise for the poster? Will he make another gaffe? Vote Leave will be hoping not, while hoping he can further appeal to Labour voters in the north. Garage’s final campaign speech is at 11am.

The air war becomes literally that today as Boris takes a helicopter to fly from London to the north with seven campaign stops along the way. Labour In campaign has two propellor planes in the skies today and tomorrow, trailing the message “Labour says vote Remain.”

The BBC Debate last night was one of the best of the entire campaign. While many of us hacks are deadened by months of the economy/migration/security arguments, many of the public will have tuned in - literally and metaphorically - for the first time last night.

Boris underlined his status as the star of the Leave campaign and as I said last night the Brexiters would be much weaker without him on board. As much as Tory members like The Gover, he is still a divisive figure for many (Tim Farron had a zinger that Gove’s dislike of experts was the reason why he was “such a dreadful education secretary”). But Boris has a panache and cross-party appeal that could prove decisive. His final pay-off that Thursday could be ‘independence day’ got his supporters out of their seats.

Yet he’d had to endure 100 minutes of incoming of Sadiq Khan and Ruth Davidson. At last the In camp had found some passion to match their dry economic arguments. Khan was cheered even before he spoke, so it was clear that he had an X-factor to match Boris’s at least among Remainers. Frances O’Grady was less effective though she forced the Outers to admit they couldn’t guarantee immigration would go down.

It was smart of the Remainiacs to deploy three new voices and faces. Not just because Khan and Davidson were excellent performers who went in hard on ‘Project Hate’ and ‘lies’ respectively. But also because of their very novelty, the media sat up and took more notice. The Leave camp was Ruth-less, but not in a good way.

And they also allowed us to look over the horizon beyond the current referendum to the state of British politics more generally. Khan can’t possibly step down as Mayor before 2020, but he could be a Labour leadership contender in 2025. Ruth Davidson shows no sign of being lured to Westminster…but you never know.

Alan Sugar became the Remain camp’s very own Nigel Farage last night after his disgraceful tweet last night about Gisela Stuart being a German and having no right to talk about the UK’s future. Sugar refused to back down on Twitter despite being disowned by the Inners.

And under the ‘with friends like these…’ section of this debate, don’t forget Donald Trump’s backing Brexit. Last night on SkyNews his campaign has renewed his support for the UK quitting the European Union. His spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said “America is here because of its own little Brexit”.

In the BBC debate, “All the experts say” was Remain’s equivalent to “take control”, a mantra repeated over and over until it finally got through. The In camp clearly think it plays well.

But what’s this? The Telegraph has splashed on Michael Gove’s line on LBC yesterday in which he compared anti-Brexit ‘experts’ to propagandists in the ‘pay of government’. Gove even managed to compare himself to Einstein as he invoked Goodwin’s Law (as a discussion becomes more heated, the more likely are references to Hitler or Nazis).

“We have to be careful about historical comparisons,” Gove said, before failing to take his own advice. “..but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish. They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said ‘Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough.’”

It seems Gove is tapping into a wider distrust of experts/figures of authority of all kinds. On Newsnight last night, a bloke in Kingston was asked what he thought of warnings of Brexit-inspired recession by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. "He's Canadian isn't he?...They know nothing” the guy said.

Gove proved he wasn’t much of an expert of footballers’ views of the EU. Having tried to counter Beckham’s backing for Remain on the Today prog yesterday, he said John Barnes was a Brexiter. Barnes has come out and said that he’s in fact a Remainer. Bear Grylls and Daniel Craig are the latest ‘slebs’ to back the In camp. But if people won’t trust the ‘experts’, it’s unclear they will be swayed by celebrities…

Some people joke about spanking bankers. But this shocking video has gone viral in China after it showed bank employees being given corporal punishment for not hitting targets.

A series of events is being held across the world to mark what would have been Jo Cox’s 42nd birthday. The MoreInCommon event (based on her maiden speech phrase that we have ‘more in common’ than that which divides us) will see tributes in Brussels, Paris, New York, Washington, Auckland, Nairobi and Dublin.

People are set to gather in London's Trafalgar Square from 4pm, when a simultaneous event will take place in the market square in Batley, West Yorkshire. A moment of silence will be held at 4.25pm.

Before the Trafalgar Square event, there will be floating commemoration on the River Thames. Departing from the house boat community where Jo and her family lived, a boat will transport her widower Brendan and their two young children and arrive at Westminster Pier at 3pm.

Last night, the BBC aired a very moving interview with Brendan, in which he said his wife was killed because of her strong political views. She would have been out today campaigning hard for a Remain vote in the EU referendum, he said, but she was "worried about the tone of the debate" amid concerns it was "whipping up fears and whipping up hatred”. Sadiq Khan’s line last night didn’t make explicit the link to Jo’s death, but few watching would have missed his point. Yvette Cooper tweeted yesterday a threat to her children that she’d received via email.

It was also notable that Brendan stressed Jo was worried about the coarsening of political debate in general "from left and right”. And he also dismissed suggestions that he would run for his late wife’s seat in the by-election. “She would have been very annoyed with me if I decided that when an angry man kills a young female MP she would be replaced by another man. So I hope that whoever replaces her will become another female MP."

Here’s another diesel danger story. Research seen by the BBC suggests pollution levels from many popular diesel cars are much worse when the outside temperature is lower than 18 degrees. It means millions of vehicles (known as Euro 5s) could be driving around for most of the year with their pollution controls partly turned off.

Carmakers insist it is to stop the vehicles breaking down. But Emissions Analytics CEO Nick Molden told the BBC "If we were talking about higher emissions below zero, that would be more understandable and there are reasons why the engine needs to be protected. But what we've got is this odd situation where the [temperature] threshold has been set far too high, and that is a surprise”.

There are currently 5.1 million Euro 5 diesels on Britain's roads and they are likely to be driving around for another 10 to 15 years. This is all legal, but no wonder campaigners are urging the DoT to investigate further.

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Got something you want to share? Please send any stories/tips/quotes/pix/plugs/gossip to Paul Waugh (paul.waugh@huffingtonpost.com), Ned Simons (ned.simons@huffingtonpost.com), Graeme Demianyk (graeme.demianyk@huffingtonpost.com) and Owen Bennett (owen.bennett@huffingtonpost.com)

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How Harry Potter Go Will Save the World

01/08/2016 11:05 | Updated 01 August 2016

Last week I had to disable my social media apps on my phone for a while. I realised I was becoming infected by the relentless waves of anger and cataclysmic thinking that had become my news feeds. It was like a tsunami of despair.

There was a joke Australians used to tell when I lived there. Q: "How do you know when a plane load of British have landed at the airport?" A: "You can still hear the whining when the engines have been turned off." Now, not wanting to get distracted by what this says about the quality of Australian humour, it seems like the trait my Aussie friends were pointing at has become globalised. The end is nigh, said the Internet!

Sans social media I headed for the park. Incredibly the sun was up, the sky was blue, and as far as I could see society was still functioning. It was nice to sit in the light.

Then I noticed something odd happening. Two French guys with gym toned torsos and tight fitting vests were doing a strange form of Tai Chi, moving their hands around and pointing at nothing. Eventually one squealed with laughter and they both looked at his phone. On the other side of the park a group of people were wandering through some bushes, shrieking with laughter, again they were pointing at nothing. In fact when I looked around I realised it was like a silent disco, where loads of people were dancing to some common song that I couldn't hear. It was charming, and very weird.

Then I realsied what was going on. They were playing Pokémon Go and the park was clearly a high density Pokémon part of the world. Perhaps the Hong Kong of Pokéworld.

It was just a joy to watch. Everyone was enjoying themselves. Sometimes they bumped into each other. No one cared.

My spirits were lifted.

This week I heard the news that Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, are negotiating for the rights to create Harry Potter Go. This news reminded me a bit of the moment in the movie 'Her' when the Operating System suddenly gets Scarlet Johannson's voice. Before that moment I was like 'whatever', after I was totally engaged.

When it comes to Pokémons I am like 'whatever', but the idea of turning the whole world into Hogwarts, now that is interesting.

When I read about J K Rowling, one of the many things that comes over as impressive about her is her social conscience. There is a deep, deep humanity in the magical world she created - a magic that has gone missing from the cynical world of politics.

Engagement is the key word here.

If we are to change the world for the better we need to give people good things to actively engage in together. Without that we all fall into toxic finger pointing and opinion trading.

Perhaps Harry Potter Go is just what the world needs. The books were a global phenomenon, connecting children (and adults) across cultures and language.

Wouldn't it be great if Harry Potter Go did the same, out there in real word. In the light.

Uk Gaming

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Khloe Kardashian Lakers Game Leggings: What Is She Wearing? (PHOTOS, POLL)

06/18/2010 12:45 pm ET | Updated May 25, 2011

Khloe Kardashian attended Game Seven of the NBA playoff finals on Thursday night to support her husband Lamar Odom. To sit (and stand) court-side, Khloe wore a black dress and sparkly stilettos...and some sort of legging/hosiery hybrid. Her fancy pants are sheer on one side, opaque on the other, but then there's some sort of knee strip situation. We don't even know what to call these. Take a look and tell us below what she's wearing.

What do you think?

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01/12/2012 02:02 pm ET

Thanks to baseball pre-emptions and winter hiatus, it's been two months since the last time "Fringe" (Fridays, 9 p.m. EST on Fox) aired in our universe. Given its knockout of a midseason finale (literally -- Nina Sharp and her Massive Dynamic lackeys gassed Olivia into unconsciousness and dosed her with Cortexiphan at the episode's climax), fans are understandably anxious to see what happens next.

I've seen this Friday's episode, titled "Back To Where You've Never Been," (which just so happens to be the episode that was filming when I visited the set last October) and I'm happy to report that it's one of the strongest of the season to date. You'll get a clearer idea of how Peter intends to return to "his" Olivia, new alliances will form, and in true "Fringe" fashion, there will be plenty of twists to keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. The last five minutes, in particular, are not to be missed.

To whet your appetite, above is an exclusive preview clip from the episode that sheds a little light on Peter's cunning plan. And if that isn't enough "Fringe" goodness for you, executive producers Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman gave more details in a wide-ranging phone interview earlier this week.

Besides the revelations in this week's episode, the pair talked about the season's overall arc and weighed in on Fox president Kevin Reilly's ominous proclamation at the network's Television Critics Association press day that "we lose a lot of money on the show" -- prompting many fans to wonder if cancellation isn't far behind.

On Sunday, Kevin Reilly managed to cause a panic among fans by pointing out that the show isn't making Fox any money and that it's once again in danger of cancellation -- what was your reaction to that?

Joel Wyman: I mean, it's funny -- if you remember, ever since we moved from Tuesday nights, people have been saying that we're gone, but here we are. We've consistently said that the network has been transparent with us always. We have no reason to believe that we're not in the same game that anybody else is in in the world of television. You've got to get numbers; you've got to do a certain number; how much does it cost to make the show? The question becomes, "Is there a way to make 'Fringe' that makes financial sense?" Jeff and I are both producers that always and have always rolled up our sleeves in order to be financially responsible. You never know.

The most important thing is the following: We're not changing our plan, nor have we ever. We know where we're going every season. We believe that the most important thing to our fans is to leave them satiated and to make them feel like there's an ending that they can wrap their minds and hearts around and say, "I love that ending. I totally understand. I feel like I've watched an incredible saga and it's come to a natural conclusion that I believe in." That's our main goal. At the end of each season, fortunately for us, we've always closed a chapter and opened up a new one. We have ideas where we would go if there was a fifth season and a sixth season and a seventh season. There's plenty of story to be told. The question is, can we close a chapter and allow it to be a finale that lets everybody in their hearts go on and say, "I can imagine where it would have gone, but yet, I feel strangely satisfied." That's what we feel we have right now. We're not going to change anything. We're going to tell the story that we've been telling since the beginning. We feel that if we were the viewers and we were presented with an ending like what we have, that we would be very satisfied.

I know that you guys have always said that you've got six to eight seasons' worth of material planned out, but that you've always had an ending in mind, which is a lot more reassuring than some shows that kind of draw things out without really knowing where they're going.

JW: Yeah, since the beginning we've been setting the table for an ending that thematically makes sense, that puts the whole thing into context, re-contextualizes what you've seen, and makes you feel okay. It makes you feel like, "I love these people. I've given them so many years of my life and I really feel like everything is where it should be." That was our major plan this year in designing the season. So, if we're lucky enough to get something new, I mean there's plenty of direction that we've already discussed ... We have some things that are really far out and really fun and intriguing, compelling, but if we don't get the chance, like I said, our main concern was our hardcore fans.

Kevin Reilly told fans that he couldn't bear for them to start a letter-writing campaign, but I've heard from a lot of fans asking what they can do to help the show. Do you have any suggestions?

JP: The truth is, to a degree, as Joel said, there's some horse trading involved. Some people were shocked by the announcement; the good news is, we were not. To a certain degree, Warner Brothers produces the show for Fox; there's a license fee involved. That is always up for negotiation every year. It's what the studios and the networks do, they haggle over who's going to pay for the show and how much. Then, as Joel said, it's our job to produce the show for the budget that we're given or that we're asked to produce the show for.

As far as what can fans do ... the only real way to affect this decision is to watch the show live. We recognize that many people sort of program their own week and watch all television on DVR, so we're certainly not in the business of begging our fans to save the show by watching live. But that's always the thing the fans can do. The good news is, even in Kevin's statement, creatively they're thrilled with the show. We're not in a situation where the network or the studio are asking us to go in one direction and we're kicking and screaming and refusing and this is about creative differences. It's not at all. We've had, as Joel said, the same degree of support at the network and the studio since we began ... We're so entirely grateful. At the end of the day, it's a business decision. I think that what our fans can do is not freak out, feel secure in the knowledge that we're very, very happy with the story we're telling. We're not freaking out and if things change, we'll let them know.

JW: Have you ever met anybody with Nielsen box? I have not.

Never, actually. I've often suspected they might be a myth.

JW: Yeah, and we know lots of people, combined, I'm sure. So, if they exist ... [Laughs] No, we know they exist. But here's the thing, in our opinion, it's an antiquated way. I wish that there was a better way, because you know our [demo] number goes up to 1.9 on DVR, which is really good for Friday night. For a while there, I think that we commended the Twitter-verse and our Fringedom fandom that they were sort of writing letters or contacting the sponsors and advertisers directly and saying, "Look, I watch DVR. I don't have a Nielsen box, but you have tremendous taste because you're advertising on 'Fringe' and that allows me to want to buy your product." I think if I was somebody in that division in sales, I'd say, "You guys are pretty devoted." I mean, that's great. Does the network hear that? Not really. The truth is, I just wish there was a way in DVR that people could say this is a new way of counting an audience. [Editor's note: On Jan. 11, a report was released that only one-third of audiences are watching TV in real-time in the U.S. The majority are watching either via Internet or DVR.]

JP: But I think what we're very happy and pleased about continues to be the degree of creative support that we get. We make a very adventurous television show, which all things being equal would likely not be on a network. And yet, we are and they stuck with it at every twist and turn -- at two universes, at Olivia being captured and replaced by Bolivia, at Peter disappearing and then returning at The Observer. We consider ourselves so amazingly fortunate to be able to tell the kind of insane storytelling that we do, always grounded in emotion, which is sort of why we're on a network. We just look at each other and our staff and our production team and our actors ... We have an astounding group of people who are doing work that makes us really happy. None of us have any intention of ending it soon.

Now that Peter exists again, he's becoming more and more convinced that he's in the wrong place or timeline, and that there must be a way for him to get back to "his" Olivia and Walter. Can you confirm that his instincts are correct and that getting back is an attainable goal at this point?

JP: Well, Peter obviously has returned to a timeline where none of the characters know him because in the timeline that he has returned to, he died at age eight ... twice. So, as far as he's concerned, he's Dorothy -- sorry for the sex change -- who has awoken into Oz and he's trying desperately to find his way back home. Certainly, that's his goal. As we say and as we've said, one of the major thematics of this season is sort of like the effect that your life has had on other people. So, we're meeting a version of the characters that we've known, that Peter knew, unaffected by his adult presence. It's been really interesting to us to explore how his being there, being with them, affects them.

JW: When we first decided that the storyline was going to be where Peter would disappear as a consequence to what he had done, we knew very well what the thematic elements were that we wanted to investigate this year, and what we were trying to say together as artists about the way we see the world right now. We're really, really interested in the concept that life is valued by the connections that you make and the impact you have on others and what impact do they have on us: How do they make us better people? How do we make other people better for knowing us? We just think that's really something worthy of writing about. So, as the season progresses, you're going to really start to see and understand many more aspects and facets of that thematic direction. Everybody made such a huge deal when Peter disappeared, either they loved it or they hated it -- but there was a reason. Now, I guess you'll understand and comprehend the reasons why we did it.

Jeff and I were actually shocked that people would think for a second that we would have one of those sequences where, poof, the character is gone and everything that you knew about our characters and everything that you learned didn't really happen or is gone. We would be terribly frustrated if we came across that, being fans of television ourselves. So we would never in a million years do that. What we were really trying to do is have the audience really understand that all this stuff really did happen -- "I'm with Peter and I'm in his shoes; I want him to be able to experience what he's lost. I want to get back there and I want those relationships. I know that he belongs with Olivia. I want him back with Olivia -- I don't know how, but he's got to find his way back." That's what we had always intended, so we were a bit shocked when people thought, "They just erased a couple of years of character history." It's not true. That's not what our intention was, nor is it where we're going.

"Fringe" airs Fridays at 9 p.m. EST on Fox.

Look out for more of our conversation with Pinkner and Wyman next week, and feel free to weigh in on "Fringe's" current storyline and your hopes for the show's future in the comments below.

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'Today' Tops 'Good Morning America' With Katie Couric On First Day Of Renewed Morning Show War

04/03/2012 01:24 pm ET | Updated Jun 03, 2012

The ratings for the first day of the amped-up war between the morning shows are in, and the winner is...

"Today." The NBC morning show came in 333,000 viewers ahead of "GMA" on Monday, according to Nielsen. It drew 5.113 million total viewers versus 4.78 million for "GMA. "Today" also topped "GMA" by 444,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic, with 2.204 million viewers versus 1.76 million viewers.

"CBS This Morning," which featured a rare appearance by Oprah Winfrey, finished in distant third with 2.9 million.

The long-running ratings war between the three morning shows reached a fever pitch on Thursday, when "GMA" announced that Katie Couric would be guest-hosting for a week. "Today" has long dominated mornings, coming in first every week for the past sixteen years. In recent months, however, "GMA" has come within striking distance of the perennial winner, having narrowed the gap to the smallest it has been in five years.

Couric kicked off the show's latest attempt to topple its archrival on Monday. The former "Today" anchor has made several mentions of her NBC News colleagues, posing with their wax figures in Times Square, and jokingly addressing George Stephanopoulos as Matt.

"Today" retaliated by teasing the return of a "legend" (who turned out to be Meredith Vieira). It also announced that Sarah Palin would guest host on Tuesday, setting the former GOP vice-presidential candidate up for a rematch with Couric.

Morning show hosts

Morning Show Hosts
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Camden Police Department Will Be Eliminated And Replaced By Metro Department: Plan

08/26/2012 02:48 pm ET | Updated Aug 26, 2012

A New Jersey city with a persistently high crime rate and a yawning budget deficit plans to eliminate its police department.

The city of Camden, often described as one of the country's most violent, will lay off its entire force of 270 cops and instead rely on a reorganized county unit to patrol its streets, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The switch is expected to save millions for the financially burdened city near Philadelphia, but critics have slammed it as a backdoor attack on unions. The new Metro Division of the Camden County police won't have collective bargaining, according to Fox News.

Revamping local law enforcement comes as Camden is on pace to set an ignominious record for the most shootings and murders, NPR said.

Layoffs in the city department start this month and less than half can expect to get a job with the county., Fox reported. The force would become defunct at the end of the year.

The financial woes engulfing Camden that forced it to slash its police department have been a stubborn symptom of the city's dysfunction. Last year, 167 officers got pink slips.

The diminished force was overburdened with major crimes that that they had to stop responding to minor car accidents, petty thefts and vandalism.

Also on HuffPost:

The Most Dangerous Cities In America

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Megyn Kelly Moving To Primetime On Fox News

07/02/2013 02:34 pm ET | Updated Sep 01, 2013

Fox News' Megyn Kelly is moving to primetime, the network announced Tuesday.

Kelly will move to her new post after she returns from maternity leave.

"Megyn is an exceptional talent who has successfully filled and surpassed each role we have given her at the network," Fox News CEO Roger Ailes said in a statement. "Her ability to command the screen, delve into the facts and lead a debate is what makes her one of the most sought-after anchors in the business."

Kelly currently hosts "America Live," which airs from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Despite her afternoon slot, she has been one of the most prominent and buzzed-about faces on the network for years, and has been given high-profile assignments (she co-anchored the channel's election coverage, for instance).

Her elevation also comes amidst concerns that Fox News' primetime lineup has become a bit stagnant after so many years with the same anchors in place.

However, it is not yet clear where Kelly will land on the network's schedule. Fox News also announced on Tuesday that it has signed long-term deals with Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren, who host from 8 until 11 PM, as well as with Bret Baier and Shep Smith, who host the 6 PM and 7 PM hours.

There have been persistent rumors that Kelly could replace Van Susteren, or that Van Susteren would depart the network. On Tuesday, though, Van Susteren took to her blog to insist she is not going anywhere:

I have a long term contract with Fox (recently started contract) and it is for a show in “prime time.”

Fox News' press release only said that "a new schedule will be announced at a later date."

Also on HuffPost:

Megyn Kelly Style Evolution
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The True Cost of Fashion: Andrew Morgan on His New Documentary

05/22/2015 01:15 pm ET | Updated May 22, 2016

Andrew Morgan's new film, "True Cost," shows us the devastating environmental impact of the cute, cheap, dresses and shirts we buy and then get rid of to buy some more. While the price we pay for clothing has sharply decreased, the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. One reason is the difference in how many articles of clothing the average American owns and how long we keep them. There has been a 500 percent increase in clothing consumption in the past two decades. But the U.S. has gone from producing more than 90 percent of our clothing in the 1960s to three percent today. The clothes we buy are produced in factories that do not meet US standards for protecting workers or the environment. What we pay for fashion is only a small fraction of what it really costs. The film says that fashion is second only to the oil industry in its devastating environmental impact.

Morgan talked to me about tracking down the true cost of fashion and how choosing what we wear can be world-changing.

How have your clothing choices been affected by what you learned in making this documentary?

Hugely. Two years ago, before I started this project, I never thought twice about anything that I bought. Experiencing what I experienced making the film, very practically speaking I made a choice to start buying second hand just while I figured out what I wanted to support with my purchases. And that process alone has been fun and challenging and yes, changed the way I shop. Also we have four kids at home, so it changed the way we talk about clothing in a really big way. And now that I'm coming out of that experience I'm excited to support some of the brands that we have got to know in the film and make purchases that are really meaningful.

The movie really takes a comprehensive view of every element of the fashion industry, from manufacturing to marketing and to the massive impact of just getting rid of all the discarded clothes.

I think this business model and this industry has been predicated on the assumption that you and I will not care and that we will not ask too many questions. And I think it's sort of remained hidden as an industry say from a lot of these other thing that we talk a lot about. We focus a lot on oil and energy and some of those things and yet fashion ranks right up there with them in terms of the resources it is using which is huge, and the waste that it's generated which is astronomical. And that's really the heart of the film. I wanted to connect a lot of dots. I wanted to take a lot of things that seem disconnected and actually reveal how connected they all are.

How have corporations been able to prevent any meaningful oversight from governments or consumers?

Let's start with the fact that companies have made a concerted effort to communicate to the rest of the world that is a problem that they can solve. And I think a lot of CSR [corporate social responsibility] energy beyond "green washing" and marketing is really a very intentional effort to prevent government or outsiders from getting involved. Beginning with what we saw from Nike in the 90s and on, they realized there was a problem and they worked really hard to communicate to everyone else involved, "Hey we can fix this ourselves and we don't need real traceability and accountability." That's proven false.

I think one of the striking things about the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh a couple of years ago now, was that it had just passed with flying colors some of the major audits just days before. The second part of this is we've created an economic model in our world where we only are assessing bottom-line profits. And in a model that only assesses and only incentivizes narrowly defined bottom-line profits. These companies actually have a responsibility to shareholders to do everything in their power to increase this quarter's profit. And that comes at the expense of a lot of these other things, so how do we improve it? I think we start to look more carefully at what as it says in the film, what the true cost is. When you look at the environmental costs, natural resources and waste, are totally externalized from the equation. They are not even been calculated. When you look at human labor that can be pressed and pressed as the one point in the supply chain that can get cheaper, you very quickly just to start to realize, "Hey this is an outdated model and we just need to adjust and evolve to a more humane place moving forward."

We've created a world that is increasingly being led by the interests of multinational corporations and that is proving to be incredibly problematic. You look at an industrial disaster on this scale and then two years later the changes that have been made are marginal and at best they're treating some of the symptoms, and not even that very effectively by the way. We have a worker compensation fund that hasn't even been filled which is just a tragedy. The model itself has to adjust and I think that's what I'm focused on. The model has to evolve if we are going to see the people involved to be anything more than exploited.

Our sound mixer on the film, a dear friend of mine, actually showed that to me when we were in production and I couldn't believe it, I had never seen it before and it made me laugh but also in a really painful way. I think one of the things that we really found and include in the film in terms of popular media references is this idea that a lot of us have this growing suspicion that there are some things taking place that are not so good when it comes to clothing. Even as we're sharing the film with people I don't think this is a revolutionary thought that there is careless environmental behaviour or human exploitation involved in these supply chains and to know something that we are even laughing about like that's a very interesting statement, I think.

Did you try to get representatives from the fashion industry to talk to you for this film?

Yes and honestly some of them we got quite far in the dialogue. H&M was one of them. I offered them a lot of ways for them to be very safe and we went to great lengths but they all said no, we want no part of this.

What would you have asked them?

They are spending millions and millions of dollars every year trying to communicate that they are a company that really cares and I think a lot of people that work there do but I would ask them to explain to me how their model is doing anything other than leading us in the opposite direction that we need to go. And how we are going to square away a growing population and limited resources with a model that is treating people and clothing as disposable things. That to me at the end of the day and that's the model adjustment that we have to see changed.

What do you want people to do differently when they think about purchasing clothes?

I'm not trying to communicate to people, "Hey, here's another problem that you need to think about." We're all busy, we have so much going on in our lives and nobody wake up this morning thinking, "I need something else going wrong in the world to take on and care about." But what I want to communicate to people and specifically younger people is just to say: Hey, there is actually like a way for you to be a part of creating the kind of world you want, living with choices as simple and small as clothing.

There is a lot people who are beginning to care deeply about some of the major issues facing the world today, global inequality and in poverty and the environment. But I think a lot of times we feel very helpless. When we start to bring those big issues down to choices as simple as clothing and just begin to realize that even if I can't change this whole industry today, I could start to be more conscious, I could start to be more aware, more kind, I could start to make better choices, I could leverage some of my influence as a customer. That's a moment that stuff could really begin to change.

And I will say that when we make a film like this the purpose is I want to crack this wide open because I want to get the attention of the world, I want to get people leveraging their purchasing power and also just the power of awareness to begin to see the need to move because business can make changes to move forward but they typically only made that when customers demand they do.

I hope that does for other people and what it has done for me the last two years. It actually added meaning to my life, it connected me more to the kind of world that I want to live in.


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Five Questions for Rodrigo y Gabriela

05/15/2012 07:31 am ET | Updated Jul 15, 2012

By Kamren Curiel

If you haven't heard of Mexican acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela by now, you're sleeping. I got the chance to see them perform live at the Hollywood Bowl last year, and was blown away by their mastery of the guitar and strumming speeds that leave you wondering how they still have fingers.Made up of lead guitarist Rodrigo Sánchez and rhythm guitarist Gabriela Quintero, Rod y Gab met while playing in a thrash metal band in Mexico City. They eventually moved to Dublin, Ireland in 1999, where they performed in pubs, nurtured their sound, and was invited by Damien Rice to play at Oxegen, Europe's equivalent to Coachella. They're currently on tour promoting their latest album, Area 52 (ATO Records), which was released earlier this year and recorded in Cuba with a 13-piece Cuban orchestra known collectively as C.U.B.A. I caught up with Sánchez, 38, who splits his time between Dublin and Ixtapa, Mexico, to talk about their magical music.

You consistently sell out shows and recently played on Jay Leno. Why do you think people are vibe so much off your music? It's a different option for them to get away from regular bands. Nowadays, especially in indie rock, it's the same band playing the same rhythms with different faces. People get tired of it.

Your sound is definitely eclectic and has been described as everything from jazzy heavy metal to flamenco. How do you define it? I started making music at 11. My dad played guitar, not professionally, but all the time. It was very helpful to have an instrument at home--from the guitar to the piano, and I grew up listening to jazz, tango... My young Mexican middle-class generation was trying to become heavy metal rock stars. That's why we play a mix of everything.

You and Gabriela went to Europe as backpackers, thinking you'd make a living playing background music. How did you end up in Dublin?  A friend told us it was a good place to go. She used to live there. We didn't really know where to start. The idea was to travel around Europe, but we stayed in Dublin.

You're part of the Sound Strike, a coalition of artists boycotting Arizona in the wake of the passage of SB 1070, and were introduced by Zack de la Rocha at a benefit concert in Colorado. Is politics a theme in your music? Art expression is important in our society. We have to reconnect with our own self because we're in a society that tells you you shouldn't look inside you, but outside. I think we have to find a balance because otherwise you become a human without being connected with both parts. It's very important for our generation to be awake, be yourself, and be conscious.

I read that you and Gabriela live a vegan lifestyle and are very passionate about animal rights. What else are you passionate about? I play soccer. Every time I'm back home, I have my team, I play tournaments. I lived in Barcelona for so many years, so I like [team] Barcelona. For my Mexican teams, I like Pumas.


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PARIS COP 21: India Introspects On Failing To Tell Its Climate Change And Energy Story

02/12/2015 12:12 AM IST | Updated 15/07/2016 8:25 AM IST
The Washington Post via Getty Images
CHOWKIPUR, INDIA, - SEPTEMBER 18: Boys study by lantern light in a house L-R: (children closest to camera) Nitish Suraj (12), Ashish Choudhary (10), Baijunath Paswan (7) in Chowkipur India on September 18, 2015. Chowkipur is a village 60 KM from Patna that has no electricity. (Photo by Simon de Trey-White for the Washington Post)

PARIS -- India has a compelling story to tell about its huge challenge of combating poverty and providing 300 million people with electricity, while dealing with climate change to which it is acutely vulnerable.

Instead, the world has come to see India as a major polluter which is derailing plans to counter the global crisis by ramping up its coal production, and whining at climate change negotiations about its problems.

In a first-of-its-kind admission, Ajay Mathur, spokesperson for the Indian delegation at U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris, told journalists that the Indian government failed to communicate its energy story to the world, even as the pushback against its coal plans escalated.

Mathur is also director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, member of the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change, and he is expected to head The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), next year.

"Mea culpa," he said. "Many of us did not even think that it needed a lot of international attention."

ajay mathur

Ajay Mathur participates in the Energy and Climate Partnership of de Americas forum in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, on May 27, 2015.

While India's plans to scale up its coal production to 1.5 billion metric coal by 2020, which will make it second only to China in coal production, New Delhi has also promised to produce 40 percent of electric power from non-fossil fuel based energy by 2030.

Mathur talked about an "inadequate appreciation of the Indian energy transition strategy," and that its coal increase by two or two-and-a-half times is getting far more attention than its plan to escalate renewables by seven times to 200 GW of solar and wind energy in 2030. (Presently, 170 Gigawatts of electricity is generated from coal, while 36GW is generated from renewable energy sources.)

"Yes, I think we have been lax in communicating the India energy story," the spokesperson said.

"We thought the figures are there, the numbers are there if anyone wants to do the maths then they could do it. All of this is in the public domain. We didn't realise that we had to add up the numbers, put them there, draw graphs, and tell people this is what is happening," he said.

READ: Jairam Ramesh Interview - India Is Failing To Tell Its Climate Change Story To The World

Negotiators from almost 200 countries have gathered in Paris to reach an agreement on how to stop global temperature from rising above two degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels, and avert the deadliest consequences of climate change. So far, the combined CO2 emissions reduction targets will limit temperature rise to 2.7 degrees Celsius.

Mathur's candid admission today is a token of the overarching failure of successive governments to convincingly communicate India's climate change story.

Veteran observers say that over the course of negotiations, India has highlighted its "unique position," but not offered solutions which win over equally vulnerable countries in Africa and the Small Island States, which have gradually aligned with the European Union and the United States.

At a press conference today, a foreign journalist asked why India did not agree to "peaking" its CO2 emission like China, which just shows that New Delhi's repeated attempts to explain its "unique situation" haven't worked.

India is arguably where China was over a decade ago in terms of development, and its present CO2 emissions are four times more. One person's emissions in the United States is eight times more than that of an Indian. In coming years, per person emissions of China and the U.S. are expected to converge at 13 tonnes, but an Indian will never emit so much.

READ: COP 21 - PM Modi Asks The World To Let India Grow

While speaking at the climate change talks on Monday, Modi said that India would not be denied its chance to pursue economic growth, and he asked the rich nations to leave the remaining carbon space for developing countries.

"Progress is India's destiny and the right of our people," he said.

But the world sees its differently.

A study released by the Climate Action Tracker today found that if all coal plants in the pipeline were to be built by 2030, emissions from coal power would be 400% higher than what is consistent with a 2˚C goal.

Seven parties — China, EU28, India, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Turkey — have "inadequate" action plans to deal with climate change, and their combined planned new coal capacity totalling 1210GW could put them in an even worse situation, according to the report.

READ: India Won't Apologise About its Coal Consumption At Climate Change Talks, Says Piyush Goyal

At a press conference here, Bill Hare, head of Climate Analytics, acknowledged that India was undertaking "the fastest up scaling of renewables ever happened on planet", but he added that its coal plans would endanger the world and its own population.

"Its clear that India would be making a very risky investment for its sustainable development by going too much further into coal when the alternatives are both cheaper, more cost-effective and have a much lower environmental, health and agricultural damage burden on that country," said Hare.

"So from the development point of view India has got some stark choices ahead of it," he said.

Note: COP 21 reporting is supported by CANSA (Climate Action Network - South Asia) and PAIRVI.

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Hotels > Turkey > OludenizCedit > Montana Pine Resort Oludeniz

Montana Pine Resort Oludeniz

4 star hotel    Oludeniz  2.5/5 "Not Rated"  (5 ratings)

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For a 4 star stay in Oludeniz, look no further than Montana Pine Resort, a elegant property near Cedit in Turkey. It is also currently ranked 11th out of 126 hotels in Oludeniz when factoring in price and guest rating. Amenities including a Fitness Room and a Business Center are available to room guests at Montana Pine Resort. Also available is a Restaurant and Parking. Other services and features of the property include a Swimming pool, Bar / Lounge area and a Beauty Centre.

Book online and compare discount rates from as low as TRY47 to TRY182. There are 159 luxurious rooms to choose from which can be booked online.

When in Oludeniz, why not also pay a visit local areas such as Cedit and Gokceovacik, both are within easy distance of this hotel. Ahatli, Kozagaci and Kayakoy are also great places worth checking out whilst on holiday.

The property is available on 2 partner websites including and Search Montana Pine Resort rates from these websites online by entering your search in form above or compare all accommodation in Oludeniz to the left.

Nearby Hotels
Local accommodation options including the notable Sultan Motel is close by to Montana Pine Resort. Also within the area is the New Golden Gate Hotel and the Seden Hotel. For other options try the Club Pink Palace Hotel a little further away.

Hotel cancellation policy and check in time details available within the search form.

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Hotels > New Zealand > AucklandMangere East > Comfort Inn & Suites Kudos Auckland

Comfort Inn & Suites Kudos Auckland

4 star hotel    40/203 Kirkbride Road, Mangere  4.6/5 "Superb"  (9 ratings)

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Book your New Zealand holiday trip and stay at the 4 star Comfort Inn & Suites Kudos, located in Auckland near Mangere East. As an 'Superb' hotel, reception is available to help during your stay. Guests rate the property 9.2 out of 10. guests rank the property in 15th position out of a total of 276 hotels in the area.

Rooms & Rates
There are 12 rooms with great appointments, and cheap rates from NZD159 to NZD180.

Perfectly located near top attractions, Comfort Inn & Suites Kudos is close to points of interest including Hillsborough Bay and Grannys Bay. Mount Smart Stadium and Wesley Bay are also must visits near by. It is ideally located as the 15th hotel in Auckland.

Local areas such as Mangere East and Favona are must see places to visit when in Auckland. Mangere Bridge, Favona and Papatoetoe are also within easy distance from the center of Auckland.

The property is available on 6 partner websites including Easytobook,, Agoda,, and Getaroom. Search Comfort Inn & Suites Kudos rates from these websites online by entering your search in form above or compare all accommodation in Auckland to the left.

Hotels near Mangere East
The 2 star Kudos Airport Apartments Auckland and the Travellers International Hotel Auckland are within the local area. Other options including the Auckland Airport Pacific Inn and Airport Gateway Hotel are great alternatives near Comfort Inn & Suites Kudos.

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How to Create Random Strong passwords with Perl

Hackers have made it quite difficult for the programmers to create strong passwords. Weak passwords are too easy and pose threat to network security. Its a big security hole which you don’t want to leave. People use weak passwords like name or date of birth but these are cracked by sophisticated password sniffing tools, making it easy for unauthorized users to gain back-door entry into servers. System administrators keeps checking and changing their passwords to ensure they’re secure enough to stand up to an attack. Depending on the level of security needed, some administrators go one step further: they generate and assign user passwords themselves.

However, generating passwords for users automatically is tricky as it needs to be easy enough to be remembered, yet not so simple that it can be easily broken. There are many algorithms available on the Internet to help you generate a secure, pronounceable password; however, if you’re on deadline or don’t have any development experience, it may not always be possible for you to implement these solutions.

However, there is a solution at hand. CPAN contains many modules for automatic password generation, allowing you to easily add this capability to your application. These modules are sophisticated tool you can customize the length of the password, the characters permitted in it, the “pronounceability” of the end result, and other attributes. Two of the more interesting modules in this category are discussed below.

The String::MkPasswd module

The String::MkPasswd module provides a simple API to generate random, unpronounceable passwords. To use it in Perl, follow the steps below:

1. Install the module

The simplest way to install String::MkPasswd is with the CPAN shell, as follows:

shell> perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan> install String::MkPasswd

If you use the CPAN shell, dependencies will be automatically downloaded for you.

Alternatively, download the module. Once you’ve extracted the files in the download archive to a temporary directory, run this sequence of commands:

shell> perl Makefile.PL
shell> make
shell> make install

If Perl finds missing dependencies, it will abort the process with an error; you should then install the missing files and try again. If all required files are in place, the commands above will compile and install the module to your Perl modules directory.

2. Decide password attributes

Before writing any code, you must decide some important password attributes. String::MkPasswd lets you control:

  • the length of the password;
  • the number of numerals;
  • the number of upper- and lower-case characters;
  • the number of special punctuation characters;

In most cases, you will want a password is between 8 and 15 characters long, with a judicious number of digits and special characters mixed in with traditional alphabetic characters. Remember, the more random the password is, the harder it is to break!

3. Generate the password

Once you’ve decided what your password should look like, generate it by calling the String::MkPasswd module’s mkpasswd() function, as shown in below

In this case, the password generated will be 13 characters long, containing 4 numbers, 4 lower-case characters, 2 upper-case characters and 3 punctuation characters. Here’s an example of the output:

Each time you call mkpasswd, you will get a different result. So, if you have a large number of passwords to generate, you can simply place the call to mkpasswd in a loop and process the result of each run.

You can also call mkpasswd() without any parameters for a default 9-character password.

The Crypt::RandPasswd module

The String::MkPasswd module creates secure, but not very easy-to-remember, passwords. If you’d prefer to create passwords that are pronounceable and hence easy to remember, consider using the Crypt::RandPasswd module instead. This module is an implementation of the Automated Password Generator, and you can use it as described below:

1. Install the module

You can install Crypt::RandPasswd with the CPAN shell, as follows:

shell> perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan> install Crypt::RandPasswd

Alternatively, you can download the module, and install it using the following commands:

shell> perl Makefile.PL
shell> make
shell> make install

2. Generate the password

The Crypt::RandPasswd module comes with a word() function, which generates a pronounceable random password. Following is an example of how to use it

The word() function accepts two arguments: lower and upper limits for the password length. Here’s an example of its output:

You can create a password consisting of a series of random alphabetic characters, by calling the letters() method instead of the words() method.

Using either of these two modules for your user passwords will improve the security of your networked system. Leave me a comment and let me hear your opinion. If you’ve got any thoughts, comments or suggestions for things we could add, leave a comment! Also please Subscribe to our RSS for latest tips, tricks and examples on cutting edge stuff.

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Substitution & Translation in Regular Expressions with Perl

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HWS Hosts Research Conference

Posted on Thursday, August 14, 2014

Hobart and William Smith Colleges will host the Fourth Annual Upstate New York Undergraduate Research Conference on Saturday, Sept. 20. Undergraduate summer research students and faculty from institutions within the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium and other undergraduate schools in the Upstate New York region are invited to participate in this conference, which takes place on campus from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The aim of the conference is to provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to present their work in a variety of disciplines at a professional meeting - without the barriers of long-distance travel costs. It is also an excellent opportunity for faculty in the region to meet one another, foster collaborations, and share the work that is being completed by undergraduate students in their research labs.

At the conference, students will have the opportunity to present their research as either a 12-minute oral presentation or as a poster presentation. Oral presentations will take place as concurrent sessions that are organized by discipline. Poster presentations will take place over a two-hour period with the opportunity for students to present during one hour and to interact with other presenters in the other hour.

In addition to Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the New York Six Consortium consists of Colgate University, Hamilton College, Skidmore College, St. Lawrence University and Union College. The consortium seeks to facilitate collaboration among members in fulfilling educational missions, serving the public good, and enhancing options for students, faculty and staff.

Any questions about the conference can be directed to the Associate Provost at HWS, Christine de Denus at

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Cr Matbd#3290 Snow White 32X40A *OS2

Cr Matbd#3290 Snow White 32X40A *OS2

Crescent Regular Matboard, has a light cream core, and provides an unrivaled range of colors and textures, while affording additional protection for traditional, non-conservation framing. Neutral pH backing. 4 ply .050 thickness. 32 x 40. Minimum order to ship 10 sheets same size assorted colors.

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Home » India » BJP legislators removed from Delhi house, leaders walk out

BJP legislators removed from Delhi house, leaders walk out

Posted by on March 24, 2011 0 Comment

New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) As many as 21 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators Thursday were removed from the Delhi legislative assembly for disrupting proceedings as they demanded Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s resignation for alleged irregularities in the Commonwealth Games projects.

As the proceedings of the house began Thursday afternoon, Leader of Opposition V.K. Malhotra, citing a newspaper report, claimed that the V.K Shunglu Committee has indicted Delhi Lt-Governor Tejendra Khanna and Dikshit, among others, for delays and losses in Games projects.

In response, Dikshit said she had only heard it through the media. “I got it through media and I don’t have any idea about the report,” she said.

As Malhotra demanded Dikshit’s resignation, other BJP members joined him. Raising slogans against the government and demanding Dikshit quit, they rushed towards the speaker’s podium.

Speaker Yoganand Shastri repeatedly asked the BJP members to return to their seats but when they refused, he ordered the 21 of the party’s total 24 legislators to be marshalled out.

Although Malhotra and senior party leaders Jagdish Mukhi and Harsharan Singh Balli were not ordered to be removed, they boycotted the proceedings and walked out of the house.

Shunglu, a former comptroller and auditor general (CAG), was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the committee probing corruption in the Commonwealth Games held last October.

The committee has submitted two reports, one on the Games Village and the other on city’s infrastructure development for the event.

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High-field THz driven dynamics

Recent example experiment: A Terahertz AC field at high repetition rate is used to align the orbital domains in La0.5Sr1.5MnO4 (T.A. Miller et al, Nat. Comm. 2015).

The low quantum energy of ultra-short pulses in the THz regime opens up the fascinating opportunity to excite low energy degrees of freedom in matter selectively and, if done in the right way, in its electronic ground state [1]. We are interested in ways to perturb and if possible manipulate matter by the transient electric and/or magnetic field transients of intense THz pulses (one recent success is the control of orbital order [2]).

The key technology is here to generate these THz pulses with as much control over its properties (number of cycles, polarization, chirp, field strength, repetition rate) as possible. To this end we operate several laser-based THz sources in our laboratory and operate and develop the High-field High-Repetition-Rate THz facility @ ELBE TELBE and also perform beamtimes at other high-field THz user facilities such as the one at the FLASH FEL.

TELBE provides world-wide unique repetition rates for high-field THz pulses up to the MHz regime and thereby will enable to probe the THz driven dynamics with duty-cycle hungry spectroscopic techniqes such as time-resolved spectroscopic ellipsometry [3] time-resolved ARPES or time-resolved near-field microscopy. A part of our research is aiming at adapting such techniques to high-field THz sources with the goal to get a deeper understanding of the underlying phenomena of THz control in matter. One recent success in this quest is the successful demonstration of time-resolved scanning nearfield microscopy together with our collaborators from the TU Dresden [4].

[1] M. Foerst et. al., "THz Control in Correlated Electron Solids: Sources and Applications" in K.-E. Peiponen et. al., (eds.), Terahertz Spectroscopy and Imaging, 1 Springer Series in Optical Sciences 171, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-29564-5_23, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.

[2] T.A. Miller et. al., "Terahertz field control of in-plane orbital order in La0.5Sr1.5MnO4", Nat. Comm. 6 (2015), 8175.

[3] M. Gensch,“Brilliant Infrared Lightsources for Micro-Ellipsometric Studies of Organic Thin Films”, in Ellipsometry of Functional Organic Surfaces and Films, Springer Series in Optical Sciences 52, DOI 10.1007978-3-642-40128-2, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.

[4] F. Kuschewski et. al., "Optical Nanoscopy of transient states of Matter", Scientific Reports (2015), 12582.


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Court Locations

U.S. District Courthouse
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Tue, 2016-09-06
The internship program is available in the U.S. Courthouse in Des Moines.  This is strictly a volunteer position under the supervision of the Chief Deputy.
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The Federal Public Defender is accepting applications for the position of Research and Writing Specialist.
Thu, 2016-06-02
Click here for information on a bankrupcty conference to be held September 8-9 i
Wed, 2016-06-01
Beginning June 1, 2016, the Federal Records Center is introducing SmartScan which is an electronic document delivery service from the NARA's Federal Records Center.


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2003 Dodge Grand Caravan EX 3.8L Starting VIN: 2D4GP74L43
This van has a no crank condition. I am not getting a ground signal from the ecm to pin 85 at the starter relay. The problem is alldata does not provide much info on what the ecm needs to see in order to ground the control circuit for that relay. It does not p...
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 2.7L No Start, Cuts out, Stall VIN: WD5PD74475
Unit will stall after driving 20-30 minutes, crank but no start for about 10-20 minutes then start. This process happens repeatedly and has been happening more frequently. Had at another facility prior to us that said to replace cdi, cam sensor, repair wiring ... Trouble codes: P0305 (p1481), P0003 (c3700), P292E, U3112 (b0300), B0312 (p1354), P0414 (p0190)

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Dr. Colin Hudson of the Future Venture Trust, Edgehill, St.Thomas, Barbados has been experimenting with tyre gardens for many years. Drop him by snail mail and I am sure that he will put you in contact with sources of information.

Louis Chinnery
Senior Lecturer in Biology
University of the West Indies

From: 	chris worden[SMTP:CJW96001@UConnVM.UConn.Edu]
Sent: 	Monday, March 03, 1997 2:07 PM
To: 	sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu

Used tires are being recycled in many ways-road beds, building materials for
houses, fuels for kilns, erosion stablization, shredding to improve turf field

 But---What about food production? Creating raised beds out of used tires and
 growing vegetable crops.

 What are any possible problems with this (e.g., heavy metals, xenobiotics)?
 Current thought is that tires are stable, with the only problems being in
 rodent and insect populations increasing.  any ideas??


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The Internet Book List - Spread the word

Book Information: ShadowShow

ShadowShow (1988) [Novel]
by Brad Strickland Rating: No votes (Rate!)
Reviews: None (show them) Review!

Summary (From the publisher):

From the publisher
The horrifying tales at the ShadowShow Theater are unique. Under new ownership, the theater delivers terrifying scenes of violent sex and gore that pack the house in the small town of Gaither, Georgia each night. New owner Athanial Badon never tells the people who push into these midnight movies that it will be themselves acting out the horrors on the screen. But when the lights come on, the nightmare continues.

Original title: ShadowShow
Original languages: English

Genre: FictionHorrorGeneral

Edition #1: ShadowShow

ShadowShow (1988)
Edition Details:

Language: English

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ShadowShow (1988)

ISBN: 0451401093

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The Internet Book List - Spread the word

Series Information: Harold and the Purple Crayon

Rating: Weighted - 7.66 / Average - 7.5 of 10 (6 votes)
Comments: 0 (show them)

Description's Source:

Crockett Johnson wrote and illustrated seven Harold books between 1955 and 1963. For the 21st century, other authors and illustrators have created further books in the series.

Genre: FictionChildren & Young AdultPicture Books

©Steven Jeffery /, 2012
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Two-legged Boxer’s First Trip to the Beach
Two-legged Boxer’s First Trip to the BeachYouTube Screenshot

A two-legged boxer puppy in Vancouver, Washington has gained international fame with its ability to move without hind legs. Duncan Lou Who, the eight-month-old boxer doesn't allow his disability to hold him back, instead he plays in the beach along with his other four-legged friends.

His exciting beach trip was filmed by Panda Paws Rescue, a charity based in Washington State that cares for Duncan and other breed of dogs with special needs.

Duncan was born with deformed hind legs that needed to be removed. "He has a wheelchair, but doesn't like to use it. We let him be free and just walk on his two legs. There is some slow motion in this video, but none of the video has been sped up, this gives you an idea of how fast Duncan really is," said his owners who posted the video of Duncan on YouTube earlier this week.

In the adorable video, Duncan Lou Who can be seen excited playing in the sand and running in the waters.

Despite having only front limbs, the boxer is capable of not only balancing himself, but also runs fast and plays with the other dogs that accompanied him for the outing.

"He's happy, healthy and as far as he knows normal too. It would be the best if he had four legs, of course, but his body wasn't built to have back legs and that's OK. He and we have just adapted. Duncan's owners describing him as a 'trooper' added on charity's Facebook page. "

"As his forever family, we had to make a choice to force him to use things that make him miserable or let him be. We chose to let him be ... and by doing so he has enjoyed each & every day to its fullest!" added the owners.

Check Out for Video Showing Duncan's Exciting Trip to the Beach

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When India Spoke to Pakistan
Boy TalkScreenshot/YouTube

All India Bakchod (AIB), the brilliant comedy collective that created viral videos, like  "A Tribute To Classic Indian Ads", "Congress vs BJP" and "Rape: It's Your Fault", has made yet another socially relevant video that caught the eye of millions of internet users.

On Independence Day, 15 August, All India Bakchod tried to get strangers from India and Pakistan to talk to each other over phones to try and understand why the people from the two countries should never talk to each other.

For the project, AIB collaborated with Humans of Karachi, a community that follows the concept of Humans of New York and shows Karachi and its people through the eyes of the photographer Khaula Jamil.

The video has been shared on Humans of Karachi FaceBook page with the message: "Thought I'd share one of my non-HOK projects on HOK today since its very relevant. The guys at All India Bakchod got in touch a few days ago wanting to do a collaboration for Independence day- they asked, what if we got an Indian and a Pakistani to wish each other Happy Independence Day?"

The video begins with a question to Indians: "What comes to mind when you hear the word, 'Pakistan'?"

Most people had great responses with one saying, "great skin", another, "Malala", "Coke Studio", "great food", "Ali Zafar", "hot women" and "beautiful eyes", while a couple said, "enemies?", "terrorist attack" and "itna jihad kyun hai wahan pe?" (Why are there so many Jihads there?). However, almost all of them were unanimously reminded of cricket when they heard Pakistan.

The same was asked to their Pakistani counterparts about India and they responded with, "population", "diversity", "family", "celebrities", "mittai" (sweets), "dance", "brotherhood", "beautiful", "Gandhi", and so on. A few were reminded of "enemies", "war", "the Wagah border" and the difficulty of getting in, when they heard the word India. They were all in agreement when it came to Bollywood, though.

The participants were then asked to talk to each other over phone. They all began by wishing each other a Happy Independence Day.

When India Spoke to Pakistan
Yo Yo Honey Singh fansScreenshot/YouTube

They found many topics to bond over, especially Bollywood. While two women were united in their dislike for Salman Khan, two men shared their embarrassment in knowing every song of Yo Yo Honey Singh, since the very first one. One man divulged a deep secret on phone that he is in fact a diehard fan of Shah Rukh Khan, although he wouldn't admit it in public. Another, a diehard fan of director Anurag Kashyap from Pakistan, asked his Indian friend if she knew where he lived.

Two football fanatics set rivalries aside as the Chelsea follower congratulated Arsenal winning the community shield. Cricket, however, is a touchy topic for both the countries and was the reason for some friendly banter as a few raised voice.

The topic them turned to love, and a Pakistani girl told her Indian friend that women in the country are better-looking than men. Some even shared their relationship status with each other.

One of the Indian guys even befriended his phone buddy on FaceBook as they were talking and did not balk from teasing his playboy-like profile picture: "quite the player you are!"

When India Spoke to Pakistan
Making plans to meet upScreenshot/YouTube

When one man asked, "Aap Pakistan kab aaoge humse milne?" (When will you come to Pakistan to meet me?. He was told to just send the VISA and that the Indian would leave for Pakistan the very next day. Another pair made plans to meet up when the Pakistani man visits India the next time.

After everyone said byes to each other, this message appeared on screen: "Happy Independence Day! Dear RAW and ISI, Can you please stop tapping our phones.. please :)"

The video ended with every participant expressing their happiness in being a part of the venture and how their pre-conceived notions have been shattered with memories of a beautiful experience.

As Jamil says, "May we get the visa issue resolved so people from both sides can visit freely and get to know each other face to face."

The video currently has over 165,187 hits and is one of the trending topics on Twitter:

"A small YouTube channel did what two countries could not do for a long time. Thanks #aib for When India spoke to Pakistan. #India68," posted Alok.

"Could there be a better #HappyIndependenceDay gift, AIB: When India Spoke to Pakistan: http://youtu.be/FwC1cSIsl8A," asks an elated Abbas Tiki.

"Thank you AIB. Miss my cousins in Karachi. I have a lump in my throat and a smile on my lips. @thetanmay http://www.letztrend.com/this-is-what-happened-when-india-spoke-to-pakistan-on-i-day/ ...," said Nuzhat.

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Halloween 2014
An actor depicting a mole person, a mythical mutant creature born in the New York City subway system, is seen inside a scene at Nightmare: New York, a haunted house for adults, in New York October 22, 2014. With Hollywood-grade stagecraft and professional actors, haunted houses are in increasingly high demand. Picture taken October 22, 2014.Reuters

Halloween, also called "Hallowe'en", "All Hallows' Eve," and "All Saints' Eve," is celebrated every year on 31 October, on the eve of All Hallows (or All Saints), by Western Christians and non-Christians around the world.

All Hallows or All Saints day is an occasion when Christians, particularly the Catholics (Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Churches also celebrate it) remember saints by conducting church services, prayers and fasting. The day that follows All Hallows is All Souls' Day, observed principally in the Catholic Church to commemorate the faithful departed and pray for those believed to be in Purgatory after death.

According to Halloween History website, the festival originated from the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain to mark the end of harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops on 31 October.

The origin of the word "Halloween," meaning "hallowed evening" or "holy evening," dates back to about 1745. The word "Halloween" eventually evolved over time.

Scholars are divided on the origin of the festival with some arguing that it has Christian roots while others say it has pagan roots.

During ancient times, the festival was celebrated with bonfires, attracting bats and other insects to the area. People wore masks and costumes in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them, according to Halloween History website.

Traditionally, Halloween celebrations include costume parties, making bonfire, trick-or-treating or guising, apple bobbing, making jack-o-lanterns, divination, playing pranks and visiting haunted houses.

During the Middle Ages, children, especially the poor would go from door to door wearing Halloween costumes and begged for treats in return for prayers for the departed souls.

The celebrations spread to North America in the nineteenth century and to other parts of the world in the twentieth century. The media popularized the festival in the 1900s. Newspapers and magazines wrote about trick-or-treating carried out by children while radio and television came up with several programmes on the festival.

Today, Halloween is celebrated across the world irrespective of religion and region. It has become all the more popular with retailers commercializing it to selling costumes particularly made for the occasion and celebrities attending Halloween parties wearing weird, scary and funny outfits.

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A ten year little girl becomes world’s youngest mother
The Wayuu tribe is known for giving birth at a very young age

A ten-year-old Colombian girl becoming one of the world's youngest mothers after giving birth to a healthy daughter has shocked the South American country.

The girl, a member of the northern indigenous Wayuu tribe in the La Guajira Peninsula, was 39 weeks pregnant when she underwent caesarean section, according to a Daily Mail report. It was the first time she was visiting a doctor after the conception.

The condition of the girl was reportedly quite severe. She arrived at the hospital bleeding and crying due to the enormous pain of contractions.

Doctors decided to take up the risk of caesarean taking the girl's age into consideration. The doctors said that the mother and the newborn baby were doing fine. But the mother, whose name has been kept under wraps, refuses to breastfeed the baby.

Details of the father of the newborn are still unknown. The local media speculates it could be a 15-year-old boy or a 39-year-old man.

The culture of the Wayuu tribe stops the Colombian police to take any action against the father for underage sex. Girls of this tribe give birth at a young age and the legal system permits them to maintain their own culture to an extent, the Daily Mail reported.

The director of the hospital where the child was born, Efrain Pacheco Casadiego, criticised the existing culture.

"We've already seen similar cases of Wayuu girl,"he told RCN radio.

"At a time when they should be playing with dolls, they go to having to take care of a baby. It's shocking," he added.

"Since it's a Wayuu girl we are trying to respect all of their rights since they have autonomy and their own jurisdiction," the Daily Mail quoted Alejandro Samplayo, director of parenthood organisation Instituto Colombiano Bienestar.

Over the years, there have been several instances of under-age girls becoming mother. In 1933 a Peruvian girl, Lina Medina, the world's youngest mother ever, gave birth to a son just two weeks after her fifth birthday, according to the Daily Mail. The world was unheard of girl giving birth at such a young age.

Jenny Teague became the youngest mother in the UK, giving birth at the age of 12 in 1977 shocking the nation.

The Daily Mail reports that, it is less shocking to see teen moms in America, as the majority of them are 15 years old and up. Many of the cases 10- and 11-year-old girls giving birth are considered victims of sexual assault.


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GTA 5 Online: Players Re-enact Gone in 60 Seconds Bridge Jump

Nicolas Cage starrer Gone in 60 Seconds stands out for its exhilarating stunt jump driving sequence on the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which the players of GTA 5 Online have re-enacted capturing all the action on the Los Santos Bridge.

The movie scene depicts Nicolas Cage being chased by the police as he drives his 1967 Mustang across the Vincent Thomas Bridge, only to realise that it is blocked by traffic. Luckily, he finds a tow truck nearby which he uses as a ramp to stunt jump over several cars caught in the traffic jam.

Relive Nicolas Cage's stunt jump sequence in GTA 5 style, courtesy of TheRushingFox:

The video could have been better except for a couple of small limitations, wherein the GTA 5 recreation uses a black car instead of gray and the cop pursuing the Nicolas Cage character in the game does not look anything like Delroy Lindo, the original actor playing the detective in the movie scene, according to Cinemablend.

Despite its limitations, the re-enacted stunt jump scene in GTA 5 captures the key detail of "bugshit crazy jump" that is as unbelievable and funny as in the movie with due credit to cosily placed tow truck ramps.

Check out the original footage from Gone in 60 Seconds (below):

GTA 5 Online: Players Re-enact Gone in 60 Seconds Bridge Jump

The GTA 5 Bridge Jump video creators have reportedly been inspired by a Reddit user, SirRockNRolla, who earlier posted screenshots (above) of a stunt jump action sequence in the game based on the movie recreation.

Recently, several such recreated action sequences and stunts taken from movies have made their way to GTA 5 such as the train scene from Skyfall and the Purge: Anarchy trailer.


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LulzSec Leader ‘Sabu’ Betrays Anonymous Hackers to FBI
Law enforcement officials in Europe and the U.S. acted in unison this morning to arrest five hacktivist members of Anonymous offshoot Lulzsec, acting on information leaked by the group’s leader, Hector Xavier Mensegu, who went by the codename Sabu and had been working with the federal government for months, according to FoxNews.

Anonymous has released a statement addressing the revelation that prominent LulzSec and Anon hacker Sabu has turned FBI informant.

The statement was published on the collective's AnonOps site - a prominent website affiliated with the Anonymous collective.

In it the Anon - the word used by Anonymous members to define themselves - promised the collective would continue its series of ongoing cyber campaigns.

"Last week Anonymous were arrested in Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Spain by the Interpol. Yesterday we released that Sabu was an FBI agent and betrayed several partners. One in Chicago, two in Britain and two in Ireland," began the statement.

"After what happened, this communication team met to talk. We decided we will continue reporting news about the Anonymous´s activities. Anonymous will continue fighting for freedom in the world, but we also understand that people around the world should stand up and claimed by what is right."

"We think that it is also important to start removing the old power structures that oppress people. The FBI does work for politicians after all, who are kept in office by the campaign donations of Corporations. No longer represent the people. It is time for a change."

Continuing, the message went on to directly address the FBI, calling for it to stop its Anonymous "witch hunt" and target "white-collar criminals" - which it listed as bankers and politicians.

"Suggestion to the FBI: Maybe you should spend a little less time pursuing Anonymous and put more effort into bringing to justice the white-collar criminals who crashed the economy in 2008 and 2011. Maybe in this way people begin to believe in you. Stop working for the 1%."

The news comes after the FBI confirmed the Fox News suggestion that Sabu, who's identity has been revealed as Hector Xavier Monsegur, an unemployed 28-year-old Puerto Rican living in New York, had turned snitch.

"HECTOR XAVIER MONSEGUR, a/k/a 'Sabu,' a/k/a 'Xavier DeLeon,' a/k/a 'Leon,' who also identified himself as a member of Anonymous, Internet Feds, and LulzSec, pled guilty on August 15, 2011 in U.S. District Court to a 12-count information charging him with computer hacking conspiracies and other crimes. MONSEGUR'S information and guilty plea were unsealed today," read the FBI's statement.

Sabu was arrested as a part of a larger campaign by law enforcement that saw five alleged LulzSec members arrested around the globe on Tuesday - two in the UK, two in Ireland and one in Chicago. The operation follows the 2011 arrests of several other believed LulzSec members including the group's alleged "PR man" Jake Davis - aka Topiary.

Though the two are closely linked, the LulzSec group is separate to the larger Anonymous collective. Beginning to operate in 2011, LulzSec operated on a more anarchistic ideology, targeting random organisations and companies "just for lulz" - internet jargon for laughs. Running in a different direction, Anonymous portrays itself as a hacktivist collective, picking its targets for perceived crimes against the world.

Following Anonymous's defiant message, analysts have come to question whether the collective will mount its own revenge campaign. In the past the collective has "punished" law enforcement for members' arrests, by mounting distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against agencies' sites.

Similarly, the collective has targeted alleged turn-coats in the past, releasing the informants names and addresses - though what Anonymous can do when Sabu is already under arrest is questionable.


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Adobe posted earnings on Thursday, detailing higher revenue, but saw profits fall over 30 percent.

The company said that its fiscal third-quarter profit fell 35 percent, citing charges related to the acquisition of Macromedia Inc.

Revenue was $94.4 million, down 16 cents per-share from the previous year of $144.9 million.

For the period ending Sept. 1, climbed to $602.2 million from $487 million as the firm reaped the benefits of its Macromedia acquisition late last year.

Excluding one-time items and stock-option expenses, Adobe would have posted a profit of 29 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast a profit of 26 cents per share,

on revenue of $595.3 million.


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Shares of Dow Jones & Co.(NYSE: DJ), which publishes The Wall Street Journal, were slightly down on Wednesday, a day after talk of a $5 billion bid for the firm by News Corp. sent shares soaring more than 50 percent.

Amid speculation that other companies may make bids for the firm, shares of Dow Jones closed down 20 cents, or 0.36 percent to $56.00 on the New York Stock Exchange.

News Corpâ€™s $60 per share offer to buy Dow Jones was rebuffed on Tuesday by the family which has controlling interest in the firm, with the companyâ€™s board yet to make a formal decision on the matter.

On Tuesday, a representative of the Bancroft family informed the Dow Jones Board of Directors that it would vote against the News Corp. bid, which represents a 65 percent premium over the companyâ€™s Monday closing share price.

The board said in a statement it would take into consideration the familyâ€™s intention to vote against the offer with shares â€œconstituting slightly more than 50%â€ of the voting power of the company.

The family controls 64.2 percent of Dow Jones primarily through its super-voting Class B shares, which have 10 times the voting power of Class A shares.

News Corp., which is run by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and is said to be worth over $70 billion, confirmed a Tuesday morning report from CNBC that it had made an offer to acquire all of Dow Jonesâ€™ outstanding shares in cash or a cash and stock deal.

Murdoch said in an interview with Fox news on Tuesday that News Corp. would prove to be â€œgreat guardiansâ€ for the paper.

The union which represents employees at Dow Jones said in a statement Tuesday that the staff â€œfrom top to bottomâ€ opposes the offer. The union says the newspaperâ€™s independence would be at risk under Murdochâ€™s ownership.

Shares of the firm, which closed at $36.34 on Monday, shot up more than $20 or 50 percent to $56.90 by the end of the trading day on Tuesday.


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Five years may have passed on “Pretty Little Liars,” but nothing has changed in Rosewood. A new “A” is stalking the girls, and they’re once again getting tangled up in the drama.

Episode 15, titled “Do Not Disturb,” will find the Liars working together to “get answers” about their new tormentor. Although their initial suspect was Ezra (Ian Harding), they’ll turn their sights on Sara Harvey (Dre Davis). Of course, Sara is not willing to give the girls straight answers about her involvement with Charlotte (Vanessa Ray), but that doesn’t matter. Aria (Lucy Hale) and Spencer (Troian Bellisario) hatch a plan to break into her hotel room at The Radley.

“Pretty Little Liars” fans will remember that their new stalker texted them a photo of the murder weapon in episode 14. They were so focused on the 9-iron in the picture that they almost missed out on a major clue: the photo was taken inside The Radley. But does that mean that Sara did it? She’s not the only one staying at the hotel. Aria spotted her dad, Byron (Chad Lowe), entering the building with a bag.

While the Liars play Nancy Drew, Alison (Sasha Pieterse) will get a surprise visit from Sara. The promo video for episode 15 shows the two coming face to face in Alison’s classroom.

“We never really knew Charlotte,” Sara tells Alison in one clip.

“When no one else was there for her, I was,” Sara says in another.

But that’s not even the most shocking moment from the upcoming episode. The promo reveals that Emily will be admitted to some sort of medical facility – and restrained.

“Pretty Little Liars” Season 6, episode 15 will air on Freeform Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. EST. What do you think will happen? Tweet your thoughts to @AmandaTVScoop.


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Nintendo may face tough competition this holiday shopping season, but not from any of its competitors.

The Japan-based video game maker is moving ahead of rivals Sony and Microsoft in the rush towards Christmas so effectively, some speculate its sales will be only slowed by the limited quantity of units available.

We should expect more demand than supply for Nintendo products, and it is expected to receive more sales than PlayStation 2, PlayStation3 and Xbox 360, said Todd Mitchell, research analyst at Kaufman Bros., L.P.

The video-game business works in cycles, the analyst explained, saying that in the previous cycle Sony held the reins with the Playstation 2, this time around Nintendo's Wii is more popular any machine produced by its rivals.

A mixture of good games, the new control mechanism, ease of use, and low pricing all combine to make the Wii a winner, said Mitchell.

All manufacturers saw an increase in sales this weekend, with online game sales increasing 134% on Black Friday as customers took advantage of reduced prices. Sales are estimated to be around $531 million for the holiday weekend, but this figure is expected to surpass $700 million this week.

Wii software sales are topping the market with Super Mario Galaxy selling over 750 thousand copies.

Nintendo video games sales are expected to continue rising and come closer to $2.15 billion in fourth quarter of 2007 and $2.37 billion in fourth quarter of 2008 according to iSuppli research report.


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Information and Communication Technology, at Your service

Insurance Consulting Group S.p.a. is a company focused on the Insurance and Bankinsurance Market, specifically in management consulting, IT solutions, technology and outsourcing services. It has met the very specific needs of the insurance market for decades through the development of flexible and dynamic technological solutions capable of helping Insurance Companies achieve their business and performance goals.

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Working side by side with the leading Insurance Enterprises and structures, that operate in P&C, MTPL, health & accident, liability insurance, life and protection insurance, special branches, re-insurance, ecc. – is one of the secrets of ICG’s products excellence and still represents the best way to achieve the common objectives on time and within sustainable costs.

Thanks to this cooperation, ICG products have achieved such levels of excellence that they are unanimously considered reliable, agile and high quality.

Insurance Consulting Group SpA

Years of successful implementations have contributed to the extended functionality, the strength, the reliability, and the power of our integrated insurance solutions.

Insurance Consulting Group S.p.A. teams operate to meet client requests coming either from business plan or from issues arising from the introduction of new regulations.

Insurance Consulting Group S.p.A. confirmed reputation was built by providing high quality engineering solutions and services to leading European Groups.

Insurance Consulting Group SpA

You ask, we answer

Innovation is a core element of Insurance Enterprises strategy, but change could be a difficult and disruptive process, which is why it is often resisted.
Working with a strategic partner, that can support the Company throughout all the phases of the technological and organizational innovation process, is the right way to get the job done.

Insurance Consulting Group S.p.A. has the knowledge, experience and solutions to define path to future growth, innovation and competitive advantage.

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With 100% success rate and on-time project implementations, Insurance Consulting Group S.p.A. offers a wide range of expertise to help Companies adapt to a changing insurance market, providing a stable roadmap, ensuring high quality and mitigating risks during and after implementation.

Insurance Consulting Group S.p.A. provides strategic, financial, operational, human capital, and IT services and draw on deep insurance industry expertise, with high contractual level guarantees.

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