Life after Paterno begins Saturday at Penn State
Joe Paterno's grave is about halfway between Mount Nittany and Beaver Stadium. In nearby Bellefonte, Jerry Sandusky is inmate No. 12-0529 at the Centre County jail. Penn State is set to begin a season like no other in its storied football history.
Saturday's game (noon, ESPN) against Ohio University once would have been viewed as simply a matchup with that other Ohio school — not Ohio State. But this is no typical year in "Happy Valley," where roars of "We Are … Penn State!" have echoed through past falls, a distinct, unified and thundering voice known across the college football landscape.
"We know what we're going through is tough … but we also know the power football has to bring people together," says senior fullback Michael Zordich, whose father played for Penn State in the 1980s. "We know that it can't heal everything, but we know that it can help."
The healing Zordich speaks of will continue this weekend in a stadium packed with roughly 100,000 fans — die-hards who have witnessed the Penn State football program's stunning and swift fall from grace after a child sexual abuse scandal, and alleged coverup, that dominated the nation's headlines for months.
In interviews with dozens of students, merchants, business people, faculty and alumni, USA TODAY encountered common themes: displeasure with stiff NCAA sanctions, fatigue over news media coverage of the scandal, disgust with the crimes committed — and enduring support for Paterno and the football program that he built.
"I hope it's a year in which we can demonstrate to everyone how important it is for all of us to be respectful of one another … and to reflect the best of the university and the community as we move forward together," university President Rodney Erickson said Monday before an event to build relationships between students and local residents.
In the company of the Nittany Lions mascot, Erickson joined in the fifth annual Lion Walk, visiting homes to chat with students and locals.
"People have really come together," Erickson said as he walked. "Penn State people are very resilient. They're very resolute, and they want to show the world what kind of values we have."
After an extraordinary year, classes started this week in a very ordinary way. State College was busy as usual with students buying supplies. But signs of the times are never far away. One T-shirt in a store window read: "We Are … Still Proud." The outside of Dante's Inferno Brick Oven & Bar read, "Victims, students, athletes and alumni, we support you!"
Crimes and punishment
Sandusky, Paterno's longtime assistant, was convicted of sexually assaulting 10 boys over a 15-year period from 1994 to 2009. He is awaiting sentencing and faces a potential maximum sentence of 442 years in prison.
Victims testified that assaults occurred in the basement of Sandusky's home, hotels and the coaches shower at Penn State. Sandusky's victims have filed lawsuits against the school that have yet to be resolved. And the Associated Press reported Thursday that Sandusky has been recommended for designation as a sexually violent predator, which would require lifetime registration with authorities, according to a person who read an assessment board's report in the case. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the report's confidential nature.
The scandal rocked the image Paterno built with players who won games, graduated and didn't showboat. Paterno died of cancer in January at 85 after being fired by phone in November within days of Sandusky's arrest. Former university president Graham Spanier was fired, too. The NCAA hammered Penn State with unprecedented penalties for what it deemed a "culture" that put football above "human decency." Among other penalties, the NCAA vacated all of the school's wins starting in 1998 — 111 of them.
Penn State moves on with new coach Bill O'Brien, players who didn't take the NCAA up on a free pass to transfer to other schools and a student body that includes freshmen who won't see the Nittany Lions in a bowl game for the next four seasons. The NCAA has barred postseason participation.
This season, Penn State players will wear blue ribbons on their helmets to show support for children victimized by sexual abuse. Ohio University says its squad also will wear ribbons.
Indeed, the school and much of the Penn State fan base have used the unspeakable abuses seared onto Sandusky's criminal record as a teachable moment to rally against such crimes:
• In May, Penn State invested $1.1 million in a new Center for the Protection of Children in Hershey, Pa.
• As part of the NCAA penalty, the school must pay $60 million in fines over a five-year period. The money will go into an endowment to prevent child abuse and help its victims.
• Known for stadium "White Outs," Penn State plans the second "Blue Out" for its Sept. 22 game against Temple. Fans will wear blue. Donations will benefit the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape.
• In October, Penn State will host a conference on ways to prevent sexual abuse of children and care for victims.
Teresa Huizar, executive director of the National Children's Alliance in Washington, says it's a start. Her focus is on where the university goes from here. She says that beyond fines, the attention created by the scandal provides an opportunity for Penn State to "reset football in its appropriate place, which is secondary to the academic mission of the school and even further down from protecting children."
Though the NCAA crippled Penn State football, it did not shut it down.
Two freshmen in the student union this week were excited to hold a pair of the prized 21,000 student season tickets, which sold out in June.
"I'm excited to see how strong they come out and how unified everybody is and the excitement of the stadium," said Jason Huberman, 18, of Atlantic City.
Emilee Rehm, 18, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., is the latest in her family to attend the university. Her mother and her mother's parents are alums. "My grandfather was in the stadium for Paterno's first game as coach. This will be Bill O'Brien's first game, so I'm just carrying on the legacy," she said.
Michael Brennan, 21, a senior from Marlboro, N.J., wore his opinion about the NCAA penalties on a T-shirt bought off campus: "We Are … Pissed Off."
Thirty former chairs of Penn State's Faculty Senate issued a statement Tuesday acknowledging "horrible, horrible crimes" against boys but also criticizing "layers of conjecture" in the Freeh Report probe of the Sandusky matter — the school's internal investigation conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh. The damning findings were released in July.
But at a Faculty Senate meeting, member Victor Brunsden said the university should fix problems within and not focus on the NCAA.
"My concern is that there are some structural problems with the board of trustees … that helped lead to the Sandusky scandal," said Brunsden, a math professor at Penn State's Altoona campus.
A new-look team
Under the sanctions, any Penn State player could transfer to another school. Nine players left, including last season's rushing leader, Silas Redd (now at Southern California), and kicker-punter Anthony Fera (now at Texas).
The holdovers start over under O'Brien. The first-time head coach, 42, was most recently offensive coordinator of the NFL's New England Patriots.
Ohio University isn't an opening-day patsy. The Bobcats, favorites to win the Mid-American Conference, return 15 starters from a team that went 10-4 last season and beat Utah State in a bowl. Penn State is favored by 6½ points.
The Nittany Lions remain an unknown, returning six starters from a team that went 9-4 last season — though those wins are now voided.
"I'm not going to sit here and say we're going to go out and (go) 12-0," senior quarterback Matt McGloin says. "But what I can say is that we're going to work harder than ever, we're going to play harder than ever and we're going to be in every game."
O'Brien says it's a special team already. That's why the Nittany Lions will have their names on the backs of their uniforms. Paterno never allowed that. He said the Penn State name was more important than the individual.
Paterno is buried at the Spring Creek Presbyterian Cemetery. A stone marker in the ground reads "Paterno." Placed around the grave are blue and white plastic flowers, Penn State caps, mini-footballs and placards with such sentiments as, "Here lies the heart of the Lions." Another note says, "Let history find him guilty of flawed judgment, not evil coverup."
On Saturday, fans pouring into Beaver Stadium will walk past five young trees in a patch of grass where a statue of Paterno once stood.
"There are a lot of great, great people here at Penn State," says John Urschel, junior guard on the football team. "But we've been blessed to be in a position to represent our university … and do the best we can to show the outside world how great of a place Penn State is."
2012年8月31日星期五
2012年8月30日星期四
NYC man gets 40 years to life for boy's dismemberment
NYC man gets 40 years to life for boy's dismemberment
A hardware store clerk was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping, killing and dismembering a lost little boy, bringing an end to a gruesome crime that horrified a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.
Levi Aron had pleaded guilty this month to lesser charges in a deal that spared him a criminal trial and the possibility of life in prison without parole. When asked Wednesday if he wanted to speak at his sentencing hearing, the 37-year old whispered "no." He will be eligible for parole in 40 years.
Aron wore a black yarmulke, bushy beard and orange prison jumpsuit, and kept his head down and eyes closed for much of the hearing. His attorneys said Aron suffered a head injury as a child that went untreated.
"As a child and a young man, he should have been treated for his mental illness," attorney Howard Greenberg said. Outside court, his attorneys said Aron was sorry -- but a public apology would ring false.
"He's sorry and he wished he hadn't done it," attorney Pierre Bazile said.
Aron admitted he kidnapped and killed 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky after the boy approached him on a Brooklyn street and asked for directions on July 11, 2011. The boy was Hasidic, an ultra-Orthodox version of Judaism, and the killing shocked the community in Borough Park, a safe and somewhat insular neighborhood home to one of the world's largest communities of Orthodox Jews outside Israel. Aron, who lived nearby, was Orthodox but not Hasidic.
Despite the outpouring of support for the family, there were few people in the courtroom Wednesday. Aron's family did not attend the sentencing, nor did Leiby's family. A prosecutor read a statement from the boy's father, Nachman Kletzky, that said, "God did not abandon our son, nor our family, for one second."
"There is no way one can comprehend or understand the pain of losing a child," he wrote. "Esther and I faced this unspeakable tragedy last year when our little boy Leiby was ruthlessly taken from us. ... A day doesn't pass without our thinking of Leiby -- but today we close the door on this one aspect of our tragedy and seek to remember only the gifts that God has bestowed."
The statement was previously read to the news media after Aron's Aug. 9 guilty plea by state assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents Borough Park and served as a spokesman for the family. He said Wednesday the family wants to put the killing -- and the horiffic details -- behind them.
"It changed our community," Hikind said of the killing, speaking outside court. "It affected everyone in our community. All over the world, people understood what it meant, that it could've been their child."
Leiby got lost on his walk home from a religious day camp. It was the first time he was allowed to walk alone, and he was supposed to travel about seven blocks to meet his mother, but missed his turn.
Barely two days later, detectives found the boy's severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in Aron's freezer. A cutting board and three bloody carving knives were found in the refrigerator. The rest of the boy's body was discovered in bags inside a red suitcase in a trash bin about a mile from Aron's apartment. His legs had been cut from his torso.
The medical examiner's office said Leiby had been drugged then suffocated.
Aron was taken into custody and an unnerving story unfolded about the hours he spent with the boy. Authorities said Aron promised to take Leiby home, but instead he brought the boy upstate to Monsey, N.Y. where he attended a wedding before bringing him back to his apartment. The two watched television before going to sleep. The following morning, Aron left for work at the hardware store, leaving Leiby alone nearly all day in the home.
Meanwhile, a massive search was conducted by his family and friends in the community. When Aron noticed fliers plastered on lampposts with the boy's photo, he says he panicked, went home and suffocated the boy.
Assistant District Attorney Julie Rendelman said Aron knew what he was doing.
"He made a choice that day ... his decision ... was to take this beautiful boy's life," she said.
Aron has said little during court appearances, often looking ahead with a vacant stare, or down at the ground. His attorneys had planned to mount a defense that he was not guilty by reason of mental defect, bolstered by a reported obtained by The Associated Press that said Aron had an adjustment disorder and a personality disorder with schizoid features. "His mood is neutral, practically blank," the psychologist wrote. "The only time he seems to show any emotional response is when he is asked difficult questions about the reason for his incarceration."
During his guilty plea two weeks ago, Aron spoke barely above a whisper. He expressed no remorse and only hinted at motive: At one point he told Judge Neil Firetog he felt "panic" when he found out there was a frantic search on for the boy.
The judge asked him what he decided to do, and he responded simply, "Smother." He also answered yes when asked if he had bound and drugged Leiby.
Leiby's family has filed a lawsuit against Aron's father, who owned the building where his son lived when the boy was killed. They argue that the father should have known something unspeakable was happening under his roof and could have saved the boy if he tried.
Aron's attorneys asked for protective custody for their client because they worry he will hurt himself or be hurt by others. The state department of corrections must decide whether to grant the request.
A hardware store clerk was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping, killing and dismembering a lost little boy, bringing an end to a gruesome crime that horrified a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.
Levi Aron had pleaded guilty this month to lesser charges in a deal that spared him a criminal trial and the possibility of life in prison without parole. When asked Wednesday if he wanted to speak at his sentencing hearing, the 37-year old whispered "no." He will be eligible for parole in 40 years.
Aron wore a black yarmulke, bushy beard and orange prison jumpsuit, and kept his head down and eyes closed for much of the hearing. His attorneys said Aron suffered a head injury as a child that went untreated.
"As a child and a young man, he should have been treated for his mental illness," attorney Howard Greenberg said. Outside court, his attorneys said Aron was sorry -- but a public apology would ring false.
"He's sorry and he wished he hadn't done it," attorney Pierre Bazile said.
Aron admitted he kidnapped and killed 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky after the boy approached him on a Brooklyn street and asked for directions on July 11, 2011. The boy was Hasidic, an ultra-Orthodox version of Judaism, and the killing shocked the community in Borough Park, a safe and somewhat insular neighborhood home to one of the world's largest communities of Orthodox Jews outside Israel. Aron, who lived nearby, was Orthodox but not Hasidic.
Despite the outpouring of support for the family, there were few people in the courtroom Wednesday. Aron's family did not attend the sentencing, nor did Leiby's family. A prosecutor read a statement from the boy's father, Nachman Kletzky, that said, "God did not abandon our son, nor our family, for one second."
"There is no way one can comprehend or understand the pain of losing a child," he wrote. "Esther and I faced this unspeakable tragedy last year when our little boy Leiby was ruthlessly taken from us. ... A day doesn't pass without our thinking of Leiby -- but today we close the door on this one aspect of our tragedy and seek to remember only the gifts that God has bestowed."
The statement was previously read to the news media after Aron's Aug. 9 guilty plea by state assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents Borough Park and served as a spokesman for the family. He said Wednesday the family wants to put the killing -- and the horiffic details -- behind them.
"It changed our community," Hikind said of the killing, speaking outside court. "It affected everyone in our community. All over the world, people understood what it meant, that it could've been their child."
Leiby got lost on his walk home from a religious day camp. It was the first time he was allowed to walk alone, and he was supposed to travel about seven blocks to meet his mother, but missed his turn.
Barely two days later, detectives found the boy's severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in Aron's freezer. A cutting board and three bloody carving knives were found in the refrigerator. The rest of the boy's body was discovered in bags inside a red suitcase in a trash bin about a mile from Aron's apartment. His legs had been cut from his torso.
The medical examiner's office said Leiby had been drugged then suffocated.
Aron was taken into custody and an unnerving story unfolded about the hours he spent with the boy. Authorities said Aron promised to take Leiby home, but instead he brought the boy upstate to Monsey, N.Y. where he attended a wedding before bringing him back to his apartment. The two watched television before going to sleep. The following morning, Aron left for work at the hardware store, leaving Leiby alone nearly all day in the home.
Meanwhile, a massive search was conducted by his family and friends in the community. When Aron noticed fliers plastered on lampposts with the boy's photo, he says he panicked, went home and suffocated the boy.
Assistant District Attorney Julie Rendelman said Aron knew what he was doing.
"He made a choice that day ... his decision ... was to take this beautiful boy's life," she said.
Aron has said little during court appearances, often looking ahead with a vacant stare, or down at the ground. His attorneys had planned to mount a defense that he was not guilty by reason of mental defect, bolstered by a reported obtained by The Associated Press that said Aron had an adjustment disorder and a personality disorder with schizoid features. "His mood is neutral, practically blank," the psychologist wrote. "The only time he seems to show any emotional response is when he is asked difficult questions about the reason for his incarceration."
During his guilty plea two weeks ago, Aron spoke barely above a whisper. He expressed no remorse and only hinted at motive: At one point he told Judge Neil Firetog he felt "panic" when he found out there was a frantic search on for the boy.
The judge asked him what he decided to do, and he responded simply, "Smother." He also answered yes when asked if he had bound and drugged Leiby.
Leiby's family has filed a lawsuit against Aron's father, who owned the building where his son lived when the boy was killed. They argue that the father should have known something unspeakable was happening under his roof and could have saved the boy if he tried.
Aron's attorneys asked for protective custody for their client because they worry he will hurt himself or be hurt by others. The state department of corrections must decide whether to grant the request.
2012年8月29日星期三
Michael Smerconish: Akin complicates GOP pro-life platform proposal
Michael Smerconish: Akin complicates GOP pro-life platform proposal
A fine? Six months behind bars? Longer?
I’d like to ask those who will ratify the GOP platform in Tampa this week what punishment they think is appropriate for a woman who is raped and decides not to carry the pregnancy to term.
Or would her physician be the one facing criminal prosecution? Maybe both?
The question is not esoteric. It’s a natural consequence of the party platform as drafted. Unless there are eleventh-hour changes, the relevant part of the official document that sets forth what the party represents will stand as follows:
“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”
There are no exceptions made for rape or incest, which means the Republican Party has again taken the position that it should be unlawful for a woman who becomes pregnant due to rape or incest to have an abortion.
It was the same in 2004 and in 2008. Aside from some minor, semantic tweaks, the same language appeared in the Republican Party platform four years ago, sandwiched between “Freedom of Speech and of the Press” and “Preserving Traditional Marriage” (which itself is right before “Safeguarding Religious Liberties”). John McCain didn’t agree then, nor did George W. Bush when similar language was put forth on his watch, but that’s what ended up in the platform.
What has changed is Todd Akin, of course. The congressman and Republican Senate nominee from Missouri has ensured that unlike in the 2010 midterm elections, social issues will be back in play in 2012, including at the presidential level.
Mitt Romney made it clear that he disagrees with Akin about whether rape victims can become pregnant, and he called on him to get out of the U.S. Senate race. “As I said yesterday, Todd Akin’s comments were offensive and wrong, and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country,” Romney said last week. “Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race.”
That was the appropriate response — as far as it went. But there is something else Romney should do, both because it would be just and because it would benefit his campaign, especially among those who will determine his fate: not the fringe, but independents.
Three months ago, a Gallup survey found that 41 percent of Americans consider themselves “pro-choice,” compared with 50 percent “pro-life,” but that superficial split masked a clear consensus in support of exceptions to the pro-life stance: 25 percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal under any circumstances; 52 believe it should be legal only under certain circumstances; and 20 percent say it should be illegal in all circumstances. That means 77 percent of Americans support abortion rights in at least some cases.
Given that, imagine the impact if Romney initiated a platform fight, demanding that the language in the document be amended to allow for exceptions in cases of rape and incest.
As it stands, Americans will remain on vacation this week — more interested in the path of Tropical Storm Isaac than they are in the Oak Ridge Boys singing the national anthem, the roll call vote for the nomination, the remarks of Ann Romney, and the rest of the Republican convention proceedings. The only drama will concern the party’s struggle to quell interest in the adoption of the platform — a typically easy task now made difficult by Akin.
Things would be dramatically different if the old Mitt Romney were to arrive in the Sunshine State and demand that the platform be modified. That would be the Romney who governed Massachusetts and once told its voters, “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.”
I don’t expect that to happen. For starters, it would create some awkward moments with his running mate. Paul Ryan believes abortion should be legal only in cases when the mother’s life is at risk, and he sponsored a bill recognizing unborn “personhood” that made no allowance for rape victims.
A Washington Post editorial recently noted: “One example of this effort to minimize rape came earlier this year when Congress considered whether to rewrite the rape exception in federal abortion funding bans by inserting the phrase ‘forcible rape,’ words eerily similar to Mr. Akin’s note of ‘legitimate rape.’ Among the bill’s 227 cosponsors was Rep. Paul Ryan, now Mitt Romney’s running mate. The language was stripped from the bill before it won final House approval, but even then, it contained such onerous provisions that it never made it to the Senate floor.”
That won’t play in places like Montgomery County, Pa. — all the more reason for Romney to maintain his purported pro-life views, but to draw a line in the sand in support of commonsense exceptions.
After all, the government shouldn’t tell a woman who has been raped that she can’t carry her pregnancy to term. And it shouldn’t tell her that she must.
A fine? Six months behind bars? Longer?
I’d like to ask those who will ratify the GOP platform in Tampa this week what punishment they think is appropriate for a woman who is raped and decides not to carry the pregnancy to term.
Or would her physician be the one facing criminal prosecution? Maybe both?
The question is not esoteric. It’s a natural consequence of the party platform as drafted. Unless there are eleventh-hour changes, the relevant part of the official document that sets forth what the party represents will stand as follows:
“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”
There are no exceptions made for rape or incest, which means the Republican Party has again taken the position that it should be unlawful for a woman who becomes pregnant due to rape or incest to have an abortion.
It was the same in 2004 and in 2008. Aside from some minor, semantic tweaks, the same language appeared in the Republican Party platform four years ago, sandwiched between “Freedom of Speech and of the Press” and “Preserving Traditional Marriage” (which itself is right before “Safeguarding Religious Liberties”). John McCain didn’t agree then, nor did George W. Bush when similar language was put forth on his watch, but that’s what ended up in the platform.
What has changed is Todd Akin, of course. The congressman and Republican Senate nominee from Missouri has ensured that unlike in the 2010 midterm elections, social issues will be back in play in 2012, including at the presidential level.
Mitt Romney made it clear that he disagrees with Akin about whether rape victims can become pregnant, and he called on him to get out of the U.S. Senate race. “As I said yesterday, Todd Akin’s comments were offensive and wrong, and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country,” Romney said last week. “Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race.”
That was the appropriate response — as far as it went. But there is something else Romney should do, both because it would be just and because it would benefit his campaign, especially among those who will determine his fate: not the fringe, but independents.
Three months ago, a Gallup survey found that 41 percent of Americans consider themselves “pro-choice,” compared with 50 percent “pro-life,” but that superficial split masked a clear consensus in support of exceptions to the pro-life stance: 25 percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal under any circumstances; 52 believe it should be legal only under certain circumstances; and 20 percent say it should be illegal in all circumstances. That means 77 percent of Americans support abortion rights in at least some cases.
Given that, imagine the impact if Romney initiated a platform fight, demanding that the language in the document be amended to allow for exceptions in cases of rape and incest.
As it stands, Americans will remain on vacation this week — more interested in the path of Tropical Storm Isaac than they are in the Oak Ridge Boys singing the national anthem, the roll call vote for the nomination, the remarks of Ann Romney, and the rest of the Republican convention proceedings. The only drama will concern the party’s struggle to quell interest in the adoption of the platform — a typically easy task now made difficult by Akin.
Things would be dramatically different if the old Mitt Romney were to arrive in the Sunshine State and demand that the platform be modified. That would be the Romney who governed Massachusetts and once told its voters, “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.”
I don’t expect that to happen. For starters, it would create some awkward moments with his running mate. Paul Ryan believes abortion should be legal only in cases when the mother’s life is at risk, and he sponsored a bill recognizing unborn “personhood” that made no allowance for rape victims.
A Washington Post editorial recently noted: “One example of this effort to minimize rape came earlier this year when Congress considered whether to rewrite the rape exception in federal abortion funding bans by inserting the phrase ‘forcible rape,’ words eerily similar to Mr. Akin’s note of ‘legitimate rape.’ Among the bill’s 227 cosponsors was Rep. Paul Ryan, now Mitt Romney’s running mate. The language was stripped from the bill before it won final House approval, but even then, it contained such onerous provisions that it never made it to the Senate floor.”
That won’t play in places like Montgomery County, Pa. — all the more reason for Romney to maintain his purported pro-life views, but to draw a line in the sand in support of commonsense exceptions.
After all, the government shouldn’t tell a woman who has been raped that she can’t carry her pregnancy to term. And it shouldn’t tell her that she must.
2012年8月28日星期二
Life in Gaza to worsen without swift action: UN
Life in Gaza to worsen without swift action: UN
Life in the poor and crowded Gaza Strip is going to get harsher still unless action is taken now, according to a new United Nations report released on Monday. "The population of the Gaza Strip will increase from 1.6 million people today to 2.1 million people in 2020, resulting in a density of more than 5,800 people per square kilometre (more than 15,000 per square mile)," a UN statement quoted the report as saying.
Infrastructure across a number of sectors - electricity, water and sanitation, and municipal and social services - is "not keeping pace with the needs of the growing population," it said. Even now the coastal strip, under an Israeli blockade of varying intensity since 2006, is suffering from its worst-ever fuel shortage and resultant power cuts, as well as from unemployment levels of around 45 percent.
The UN said that demand for drinking water was projected to increase by 60 percent over the next eight years, "while damage to the aquifer, the major water source, would become irreversible without remedial action now." It added that more than 440 additional schools, 800 hospital beds and more than 1,000 doctors would be needed by 2020.
Israel first imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after militants there snatched one of its soldiers, who was only freed last October in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. It was tightened a year later after the Hamas movement seized power, ousting forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. The blockade has been eased somewhat but severe restrictions on movement remain in place.
The report was jointly put together by the offices of the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in the Palestinian territories, the UN children's fund (UNICEF), the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and UNSCO, the special co-ordinator for the peace process.
Life in the poor and crowded Gaza Strip is going to get harsher still unless action is taken now, according to a new United Nations report released on Monday. "The population of the Gaza Strip will increase from 1.6 million people today to 2.1 million people in 2020, resulting in a density of more than 5,800 people per square kilometre (more than 15,000 per square mile)," a UN statement quoted the report as saying.
Infrastructure across a number of sectors - electricity, water and sanitation, and municipal and social services - is "not keeping pace with the needs of the growing population," it said. Even now the coastal strip, under an Israeli blockade of varying intensity since 2006, is suffering from its worst-ever fuel shortage and resultant power cuts, as well as from unemployment levels of around 45 percent.
The UN said that demand for drinking water was projected to increase by 60 percent over the next eight years, "while damage to the aquifer, the major water source, would become irreversible without remedial action now." It added that more than 440 additional schools, 800 hospital beds and more than 1,000 doctors would be needed by 2020.
Israel first imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after militants there snatched one of its soldiers, who was only freed last October in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. It was tightened a year later after the Hamas movement seized power, ousting forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. The blockade has been eased somewhat but severe restrictions on movement remain in place.
The report was jointly put together by the offices of the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in the Palestinian territories, the UN children's fund (UNICEF), the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and UNSCO, the special co-ordinator for the peace process.
2012年8月27日星期一
Bandh paralyses normal life in Assam, no fresh incident
Bandh paralyses normal life in Assam, no fresh incident
Guwahati: Normal life was paralysed in Assam by a 12-hour bandh called by the Bajrang Dal to protest the violence in the lower Assam districts where the situation was calm with no fresh incident reported on Monday.
Bandh supporters burnt tyres and pelted stones at vehicles in different parts of the state following which the police took nearly 500 of them into preventive custody in Guwahati, Golokgunj and Agomoni in Dhubri, official sources said.
Schools, colleges and educational institutions, commercial and business establishments, financial institutions remained closed with attendance in government offices thin, the sources said.
Vehicles remained off the roads with a few state transport buses running with police escorts.
Bandh supporters were also taken into preventive custody near the North East Frontier Railway at Maligaon here when they stopped railway employees from reporting for duty, the sources said.
Rail and air services, however, remained unaffected.
The bandh was supported by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and RSS.
There was no fresh incident of violence in lower Assam districts since last evening where seven people have died and two others injured since Friday taking the toll in the more than month-long violence to 87.
Night curfew was continuing in the districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri with the Army on patrol.
Guwahati: Normal life was paralysed in Assam by a 12-hour bandh called by the Bajrang Dal to protest the violence in the lower Assam districts where the situation was calm with no fresh incident reported on Monday.
Bandh supporters burnt tyres and pelted stones at vehicles in different parts of the state following which the police took nearly 500 of them into preventive custody in Guwahati, Golokgunj and Agomoni in Dhubri, official sources said.
Schools, colleges and educational institutions, commercial and business establishments, financial institutions remained closed with attendance in government offices thin, the sources said.
Vehicles remained off the roads with a few state transport buses running with police escorts.
Bandh supporters were also taken into preventive custody near the North East Frontier Railway at Maligaon here when they stopped railway employees from reporting for duty, the sources said.
Rail and air services, however, remained unaffected.
The bandh was supported by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and RSS.
There was no fresh incident of violence in lower Assam districts since last evening where seven people have died and two others injured since Friday taking the toll in the more than month-long violence to 87.
Night curfew was continuing in the districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri with the Army on patrol.
2012年8月23日星期四
Life Saving Cross-State Air Pollution Protections in Jeopardy After Court Ruling
Life Saving Cross-State Air Pollution Protections in Jeopardy After Court Ruling
The protection would have reduced life-threatening soot and smog pollution from power plants in 28 states and helped curb poor air quality days and respiratory illnesses that affect millions of Americans.
We are all disappointed with the court's decision yesterday. Americans have been waiting for the clean air they deserve for decades, and the court's ruling further delays the Clean Air Act's promise of safe, breathable air for our children.
The Environmental Protection Agency's long overdue and much-needed standard would have helped communities clean up their air and save lives by curbing millions of tons of air pollution that travel downwind and across state lines each year. Once implemented, the rule would have every year prevented between 13,000 and 34,000 premature deaths, avoided 19,000 hospital and emergency room visits, prevented 1.8 million missed work and school days, and improved the lives of millions.
Sierra Club joined the lawsuit, along with the Environmental Defense Fund, Clear Air Task Force, American Lung Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council and others, and over a dozen US states and cities, in an effort to defend the life-saving protection against big polluters.
I grew up in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, one of the many places where this standard would have made a big difference. In the Smokies, we suffer from air pollution blowing in from the many coal plants in the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys. That is the very "cross state air pollution" that this safeguard would have reduced. Now the people of East Tennessee, and many other states and cities, will have to keep waiting for cleaner air.
The Cross State Air Pollution standard is an update of a system that has been in place in the Eastern US for years, to set air pollution levels for the coal plants in the East. Since that pollution doesn't respect state borders, this region-wide system was put in place to help alleviate coal pollution generated in one state and blowing into many others. This latest update is long overdue.
As Judge Rogers of the DC Circuit Court explained in her dissenting opinion, by ruling against the Environmental Protection Agency, "the court disregards limits Congress placed on [the DC Circuit's] jurisdiction, the plain text of the Clean Air Act, and this court's settled precedent interpreting the same statutory provisions at issue today."
We urge the Environmental Protection Agency to petition for rehearing and strive to preserve the public health benefits that the rule promises. The Environmental Protection Agency can and must seek a rehearing of this critical life saving rule.
The protection would have reduced life-threatening soot and smog pollution from power plants in 28 states and helped curb poor air quality days and respiratory illnesses that affect millions of Americans.
We are all disappointed with the court's decision yesterday. Americans have been waiting for the clean air they deserve for decades, and the court's ruling further delays the Clean Air Act's promise of safe, breathable air for our children.
The Environmental Protection Agency's long overdue and much-needed standard would have helped communities clean up their air and save lives by curbing millions of tons of air pollution that travel downwind and across state lines each year. Once implemented, the rule would have every year prevented between 13,000 and 34,000 premature deaths, avoided 19,000 hospital and emergency room visits, prevented 1.8 million missed work and school days, and improved the lives of millions.
Sierra Club joined the lawsuit, along with the Environmental Defense Fund, Clear Air Task Force, American Lung Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council and others, and over a dozen US states and cities, in an effort to defend the life-saving protection against big polluters.
I grew up in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, one of the many places where this standard would have made a big difference. In the Smokies, we suffer from air pollution blowing in from the many coal plants in the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys. That is the very "cross state air pollution" that this safeguard would have reduced. Now the people of East Tennessee, and many other states and cities, will have to keep waiting for cleaner air.
The Cross State Air Pollution standard is an update of a system that has been in place in the Eastern US for years, to set air pollution levels for the coal plants in the East. Since that pollution doesn't respect state borders, this region-wide system was put in place to help alleviate coal pollution generated in one state and blowing into many others. This latest update is long overdue.
As Judge Rogers of the DC Circuit Court explained in her dissenting opinion, by ruling against the Environmental Protection Agency, "the court disregards limits Congress placed on [the DC Circuit's] jurisdiction, the plain text of the Clean Air Act, and this court's settled precedent interpreting the same statutory provisions at issue today."
We urge the Environmental Protection Agency to petition for rehearing and strive to preserve the public health benefits that the rule promises. The Environmental Protection Agency can and must seek a rehearing of this critical life saving rule.
2012年8月22日星期三
New Republican platform banning ALL abortions could also restrict IVF... which three of Romney's sons have used to conceive
New Republican platform banning ALL abortions could also restrict IVF... which three of Romney's sons have used to conceive
The new Republican platform is to propose a ‘human life amendment’ to the Constitution that would ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest - a move that Democrats will use to tie Mitt Romney to Paul Ryan’s hard-line record on the ‘Life’ issue.
Republican party strategists are concerned that the comments about ‘legitimate rape’ made by Todd Akin, the Missouri candidate for the US Senate, and the anti-abortion views he shares with Representative Ryan will re-ignite a ‘culture war’ than could distract Romney from his central message about jobs and the economy.
Although best known for his fiscal conservatism, Representative Ryan, a staunch Roman Catholic, has a 100 per cent anti-abortion approval rating from the anti-abortion National Right to Life Committee group.
Last year, Ryan and Akin were among 64 members of the House of Representatives who co-sponsored a Sanctity of Human Life act that enshrines the principle that human life begins at fertilisation and could even severely restrict practices like IVF.
An estimated 60,000 babies are born in the US each year as a result of IVF treatment and up to 15 per cent of couples are believed to struggle with infertility issues. Three of Romney's five sons are understood to have used IVF.
Romney has 18 grandchildren and in May his eldest son Tagg became the father of twin boys who were IVF babies carried by a surrogate mother.
This is the second time the couple, who are Mormons like Mitt and Ann Romney, used a surrogate. Their son Jonathan was born in 2010 using a surrogate mother.
Democrats have already labelled the ‘human life amendment’ as ‘the Akin amendent and sought to tie Ryan with his House colleague Akin.
Lis Smith, an Obama campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement that Republicans had ‘passed the Akin amendment as part of their party platform, banning abortion for all women even in the case of rape’, adding: ‘Women across this country should take note of the Republican Party’s position, and not trust any of the false promises made by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on the campaign trail.’
The Obama campaign has already issued a statement saying that last year Ryan ‘worked with Mr Akin to try to pass laws that would ban abortion in all cases’. Democrats enjoy a traditional advantage among women voters and any perceived attempt to erode reproductive rights could cost Romney enough of a proportion of female votes to deny him the White House.
During the IVF process, embryos are often frozen outside the womb for later use and some are destroyed. The legal implication of the embryo being legally a person could be immense and groups such as the American Society for Reproductive Medicine have strenuously opposed such ‘personhood’ measures.
Although the bill sponsored by Akin and Ryan does not mention IVF and would not make it illegal, the legislation would undoubtedly have major knock-on effects on infertility treatment and this has given liberals the opportunity to claim that Ryan is an extremist who wants to ban IVF and drastically curtail women’s rights.
UltraViolet, a Left-wing women’s rights group, has claimed that Ryan ‘Ryan would "outlaw in vitro fertilization – seriously’, adding: ‘That same bill that outlaws some forms of birth control could also make in vitro fertilization illegal. Can't have kids naturally? Too bad.’
Ryan has emphasised that he defers to Romney on all policy matters and the two of them were strenuous in their condemnation of Akin’s remarks and have stated that they back abortion in the case of rape or incest.
According to draft language obtained by CNN, the Republican party platform will state: ‘Faithful to the “self-evident” truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.
‘We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children.’
Similar language has been included in the party platform since 2000 but became controversial in 2008 when Senator John McCain, then the Republican nominee, advocated adding an explicit reference to rape and incest exceptions, provoking the ire of some social conservatives.
The platform, which has to be approved by all delegates, reaffirms the party’s opposition to federally-funded embryonic stem cell research and demands that the federal government will ‘not fund or subsidise health care which includes abortion coverage’.
The new Republican platform is to propose a ‘human life amendment’ to the Constitution that would ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest - a move that Democrats will use to tie Mitt Romney to Paul Ryan’s hard-line record on the ‘Life’ issue.
Republican party strategists are concerned that the comments about ‘legitimate rape’ made by Todd Akin, the Missouri candidate for the US Senate, and the anti-abortion views he shares with Representative Ryan will re-ignite a ‘culture war’ than could distract Romney from his central message about jobs and the economy.
Although best known for his fiscal conservatism, Representative Ryan, a staunch Roman Catholic, has a 100 per cent anti-abortion approval rating from the anti-abortion National Right to Life Committee group.
Last year, Ryan and Akin were among 64 members of the House of Representatives who co-sponsored a Sanctity of Human Life act that enshrines the principle that human life begins at fertilisation and could even severely restrict practices like IVF.
An estimated 60,000 babies are born in the US each year as a result of IVF treatment and up to 15 per cent of couples are believed to struggle with infertility issues. Three of Romney's five sons are understood to have used IVF.
Romney has 18 grandchildren and in May his eldest son Tagg became the father of twin boys who were IVF babies carried by a surrogate mother.
This is the second time the couple, who are Mormons like Mitt and Ann Romney, used a surrogate. Their son Jonathan was born in 2010 using a surrogate mother.
Democrats have already labelled the ‘human life amendment’ as ‘the Akin amendent and sought to tie Ryan with his House colleague Akin.
Lis Smith, an Obama campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement that Republicans had ‘passed the Akin amendment as part of their party platform, banning abortion for all women even in the case of rape’, adding: ‘Women across this country should take note of the Republican Party’s position, and not trust any of the false promises made by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on the campaign trail.’
The Obama campaign has already issued a statement saying that last year Ryan ‘worked with Mr Akin to try to pass laws that would ban abortion in all cases’. Democrats enjoy a traditional advantage among women voters and any perceived attempt to erode reproductive rights could cost Romney enough of a proportion of female votes to deny him the White House.
During the IVF process, embryos are often frozen outside the womb for later use and some are destroyed. The legal implication of the embryo being legally a person could be immense and groups such as the American Society for Reproductive Medicine have strenuously opposed such ‘personhood’ measures.
Although the bill sponsored by Akin and Ryan does not mention IVF and would not make it illegal, the legislation would undoubtedly have major knock-on effects on infertility treatment and this has given liberals the opportunity to claim that Ryan is an extremist who wants to ban IVF and drastically curtail women’s rights.
UltraViolet, a Left-wing women’s rights group, has claimed that Ryan ‘Ryan would "outlaw in vitro fertilization – seriously’, adding: ‘That same bill that outlaws some forms of birth control could also make in vitro fertilization illegal. Can't have kids naturally? Too bad.’
Ryan has emphasised that he defers to Romney on all policy matters and the two of them were strenuous in their condemnation of Akin’s remarks and have stated that they back abortion in the case of rape or incest.
According to draft language obtained by CNN, the Republican party platform will state: ‘Faithful to the “self-evident” truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.
‘We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children.’
Similar language has been included in the party platform since 2000 but became controversial in 2008 when Senator John McCain, then the Republican nominee, advocated adding an explicit reference to rape and incest exceptions, provoking the ire of some social conservatives.
The platform, which has to be approved by all delegates, reaffirms the party’s opposition to federally-funded embryonic stem cell research and demands that the federal government will ‘not fund or subsidise health care which includes abortion coverage’.
2012年8月21日星期二
Life after work can be emotionally draining
Life after work can be emotionally draining
A friend of mine retired recently — for about three weeks! He did not know what to do with his free time and panicked. While he had spent most of his working life planning financially for retirement, when he had finally reached his post-working life, he did not have a clue what to do with himself. He had left out one vital piece of his retirement plan — how to fill his time while retired. According to Thomas Milroy, director of in-patient psychiatry at the McGill University Health Centre, “your friend did not plan for the emotional side of retirement.”
To some, this may seem like a silly problem. In fact, “many studies have shown that less than 20 per cent of individuals are passionate about their work and, for most, it is a relief when that part of their life is over,” says Hani Kafoury, a Westmount-based psychologist who specializes in assisting clients’ major life changes at Tranzition Consulting Services.
Whichever category you fall into, there is no doubt advance preparation is required before you step into the potential abyss that is retirement.
One of the keys to a successful retirement is to “ease into it — take small steps,” Milroy says. Some people like to begin with shorter work weeks to allow them to get comfortable with having more personal time. This helps them understand and gradually adapt to the concept while keeping them tendered to the part of life that has kept them occupied all of these years. Alternatively, “some people like to start/stop retirement until such a time as when they get themselves situated into their own projects,” Milroy says.
Kafoury points out there is a psychological preparation for retirement. “This transition process can occur months, if not years, before actually being retired. The first step is to recognize retirement as a real future possibility; then to plan one’s future accordingly; and to make the formal decision to retire at a certain time and in a certain way. Overall, it involves one’s transition and therefore detachment from one’s work role as well as from the physical and relational ties in one’s workplace.”
Building new friendships outside the workplace is not always an easy undertaking and this is particularly true in retirement. However, this can be a key element to a happy retirement. Social contacts are important to maintain and develop. Milroy encourages patients to attend family reunions, various workshops or even continuing education courses where they can develop new interactions, or reconnect with old ones, and hopefully incorporate these relationships into their daily lives and routines. People who “travel too long in retirement can lose their moorings when they return home and can then find it difficult to rekindle these relationships,” which is also something to consider during one’s planning stages, Milroy says. This is partly why some couples “retire together” and choose southern locations within the same proximity so they can regroup during the winter or even travel together.
Dealing with the psychology of retirement can be an individual’s greatest challenge, particularly for those whose “identity and self-image has been associated in good part with their work,” Kafoury says. For these transitioning retirees, (or better still, for those planning for retirement), “I like to work through with the client what has really ended for them (sense of being valued, power, influence, security, relationships, etc.) and how they are willing to mourn the loss, reframe it and ultimately replace it so to reinvent themselves. But before they can achieve this, they need to regain control of their life (especially if they were forced into retirement and feel victimized), gain understanding (make sense and learn something about their current experience), further develop their support system to help them through the transition and revive a new sense of purpose and meaning going forward.”
Yikes! That sounds like work! And in the beginning, there is no doubt that it will take effort to build this new life. But it will be worth it.
Working toward this goal while still employed will also make the transition easier. “Those who have cultivated other interests outside of work have at their disposal more enjoyable activities to delve into during their retirement years and perhaps even develop them into remunerated activities.” Kafoury cites himself as an example of this. As a young adult, his passion was film editing and, at age 51, he bought some film-editing equipment that he is currently using to edit a documentary about his recent ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. He plans to continue honing this skill right up to and through his own retirement.
Speaking of tackling summits, exercise is also a very important component of a healthy retirement. Milroy quotes medical studies that recommend “at least 150 minutes of exercise per week” and not just the same ones. “It is more beneficial to incorporate a variety of exercises” says Milroy, who bikes, walks, swims, fishes and plays golf and squash. Learning some of these sports, or practicing them in advance of retirement, can also help contribute to that social network that is so vital later on.
There is no doubt there is much to think about as you consider retirement, whether it is looming within months or years away. However, the sooner you begin planning for
A friend of mine retired recently — for about three weeks! He did not know what to do with his free time and panicked. While he had spent most of his working life planning financially for retirement, when he had finally reached his post-working life, he did not have a clue what to do with himself. He had left out one vital piece of his retirement plan — how to fill his time while retired. According to Thomas Milroy, director of in-patient psychiatry at the McGill University Health Centre, “your friend did not plan for the emotional side of retirement.”
To some, this may seem like a silly problem. In fact, “many studies have shown that less than 20 per cent of individuals are passionate about their work and, for most, it is a relief when that part of their life is over,” says Hani Kafoury, a Westmount-based psychologist who specializes in assisting clients’ major life changes at Tranzition Consulting Services.
Whichever category you fall into, there is no doubt advance preparation is required before you step into the potential abyss that is retirement.
One of the keys to a successful retirement is to “ease into it — take small steps,” Milroy says. Some people like to begin with shorter work weeks to allow them to get comfortable with having more personal time. This helps them understand and gradually adapt to the concept while keeping them tendered to the part of life that has kept them occupied all of these years. Alternatively, “some people like to start/stop retirement until such a time as when they get themselves situated into their own projects,” Milroy says.
Kafoury points out there is a psychological preparation for retirement. “This transition process can occur months, if not years, before actually being retired. The first step is to recognize retirement as a real future possibility; then to plan one’s future accordingly; and to make the formal decision to retire at a certain time and in a certain way. Overall, it involves one’s transition and therefore detachment from one’s work role as well as from the physical and relational ties in one’s workplace.”
Building new friendships outside the workplace is not always an easy undertaking and this is particularly true in retirement. However, this can be a key element to a happy retirement. Social contacts are important to maintain and develop. Milroy encourages patients to attend family reunions, various workshops or even continuing education courses where they can develop new interactions, or reconnect with old ones, and hopefully incorporate these relationships into their daily lives and routines. People who “travel too long in retirement can lose their moorings when they return home and can then find it difficult to rekindle these relationships,” which is also something to consider during one’s planning stages, Milroy says. This is partly why some couples “retire together” and choose southern locations within the same proximity so they can regroup during the winter or even travel together.
Dealing with the psychology of retirement can be an individual’s greatest challenge, particularly for those whose “identity and self-image has been associated in good part with their work,” Kafoury says. For these transitioning retirees, (or better still, for those planning for retirement), “I like to work through with the client what has really ended for them (sense of being valued, power, influence, security, relationships, etc.) and how they are willing to mourn the loss, reframe it and ultimately replace it so to reinvent themselves. But before they can achieve this, they need to regain control of their life (especially if they were forced into retirement and feel victimized), gain understanding (make sense and learn something about their current experience), further develop their support system to help them through the transition and revive a new sense of purpose and meaning going forward.”
Yikes! That sounds like work! And in the beginning, there is no doubt that it will take effort to build this new life. But it will be worth it.
Working toward this goal while still employed will also make the transition easier. “Those who have cultivated other interests outside of work have at their disposal more enjoyable activities to delve into during their retirement years and perhaps even develop them into remunerated activities.” Kafoury cites himself as an example of this. As a young adult, his passion was film editing and, at age 51, he bought some film-editing equipment that he is currently using to edit a documentary about his recent ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. He plans to continue honing this skill right up to and through his own retirement.
Speaking of tackling summits, exercise is also a very important component of a healthy retirement. Milroy quotes medical studies that recommend “at least 150 minutes of exercise per week” and not just the same ones. “It is more beneficial to incorporate a variety of exercises” says Milroy, who bikes, walks, swims, fishes and plays golf and squash. Learning some of these sports, or practicing them in advance of retirement, can also help contribute to that social network that is so vital later on.
There is no doubt there is much to think about as you consider retirement, whether it is looming within months or years away. However, the sooner you begin planning for
Life after work can be emotionally draining
Life after work can be emotionally draining
A friend of mine retired recently — for about three weeks! He did not know what to do with his free time and panicked. While he had spent most of his working life planning financially for retirement, when he had finally reached his post-working life, he did not have a clue what to do with himself. He had left out one vital piece of his retirement plan — how to fill his time while retired. According to Thomas Milroy, director of in-patient psychiatry at the McGill University Health Centre, “your friend did not plan for the emotional side of retirement.”
To some, this may seem like a silly problem. In fact, “many studies have shown that less than 20 per cent of individuals are passionate about their work and, for most, it is a relief when that part of their life is over,” says Hani Kafoury, a Westmount-based psychologist who specializes in assisting clients’ major life changes at Tranzition Consulting Services.
Whichever category you fall into, there is no doubt advance preparation is required before you step into the potential abyss that is retirement.
One of the keys to a successful retirement is to “ease into it — take small steps,” Milroy says. Some people like to begin with shorter work weeks to allow them to get comfortable with having more personal time. This helps them understand and gradually adapt to the concept while keeping them tendered to the part of life that has kept them occupied all of these years. Alternatively, “some people like to start/stop retirement until such a time as when they get themselves situated into their own projects,” Milroy says.
Kafoury points out there is a psychological preparation for retirement. “This transition process can occur months, if not years, before actually being retired. The first step is to recognize retirement as a real future possibility; then to plan one’s future accordingly; and to make the formal decision to retire at a certain time and in a certain way. Overall, it involves one’s transition and therefore detachment from one’s work role as well as from the physical and relational ties in one’s workplace.”
Building new friendships outside the workplace is not always an easy undertaking and this is particularly true in retirement. However, this can be a key element to a happy retirement. Social contacts are important to maintain and develop. Milroy encourages patients to attend family reunions, various workshops or even continuing education courses where they can develop new interactions, or reconnect with old ones, and hopefully incorporate these relationships into their daily lives and routines. People who “travel too long in retirement can lose their moorings when they return home and can then find it difficult to rekindle these relationships,” which is also something to consider during one’s planning stages, Milroy says. This is partly why some couples “retire together” and choose southern locations within the same proximity so they can regroup during the winter or even travel together.
Dealing with the psychology of retirement can be an individual’s greatest challenge, particularly for those whose “identity and self-image has been associated in good part with their work,” Kafoury says. For these transitioning retirees, (or better still, for those planning for retirement), “I like to work through with the client what has really ended for them (sense of being valued, power, influence, security, relationships, etc.) and how they are willing to mourn the loss, reframe it and ultimately replace it so to reinvent themselves. But before they can achieve this, they need to regain control of their life (especially if they were forced into retirement and feel victimized), gain understanding (make sense and learn something about their current experience), further develop their support system to help them through the transition and revive a new sense of purpose and meaning going forward.”
Yikes! That sounds like work! And in the beginning, there is no doubt that it will take effort to build this new life. But it will be worth it.
Working toward this goal while still employed will also make the transition easier. “Those who have cultivated other interests outside of work have at their disposal more enjoyable activities to delve into during their retirement years and perhaps even develop them into remunerated activities.” Kafoury cites himself as an example of this. As a young adult, his passion was film editing and, at age 51, he bought some film-editing equipment that he is currently using to edit a documentary about his recent ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. He plans to continue honing this skill right up to and through his own retirement.
Speaking of tackling summits, exercise is also a very important component of a healthy retirement. Milroy quotes medical studies that recommend “at least 150 minutes of exercise per week” and not just the same ones. “It is more beneficial to incorporate a variety of exercises” says Milroy, who bikes, walks, swims, fishes and plays golf and squash. Learning some of these sports, or practicing them in advance of retirement, can also help contribute to that social network that is so vital later on.
There is no doubt there is much to think about as you consider retirement, whether it is looming within months or years away. However, the sooner you begin planning for
A friend of mine retired recently — for about three weeks! He did not know what to do with his free time and panicked. While he had spent most of his working life planning financially for retirement, when he had finally reached his post-working life, he did not have a clue what to do with himself. He had left out one vital piece of his retirement plan — how to fill his time while retired. According to Thomas Milroy, director of in-patient psychiatry at the McGill University Health Centre, “your friend did not plan for the emotional side of retirement.”
To some, this may seem like a silly problem. In fact, “many studies have shown that less than 20 per cent of individuals are passionate about their work and, for most, it is a relief when that part of their life is over,” says Hani Kafoury, a Westmount-based psychologist who specializes in assisting clients’ major life changes at Tranzition Consulting Services.
Whichever category you fall into, there is no doubt advance preparation is required before you step into the potential abyss that is retirement.
One of the keys to a successful retirement is to “ease into it — take small steps,” Milroy says. Some people like to begin with shorter work weeks to allow them to get comfortable with having more personal time. This helps them understand and gradually adapt to the concept while keeping them tendered to the part of life that has kept them occupied all of these years. Alternatively, “some people like to start/stop retirement until such a time as when they get themselves situated into their own projects,” Milroy says.
Kafoury points out there is a psychological preparation for retirement. “This transition process can occur months, if not years, before actually being retired. The first step is to recognize retirement as a real future possibility; then to plan one’s future accordingly; and to make the formal decision to retire at a certain time and in a certain way. Overall, it involves one’s transition and therefore detachment from one’s work role as well as from the physical and relational ties in one’s workplace.”
Building new friendships outside the workplace is not always an easy undertaking and this is particularly true in retirement. However, this can be a key element to a happy retirement. Social contacts are important to maintain and develop. Milroy encourages patients to attend family reunions, various workshops or even continuing education courses where they can develop new interactions, or reconnect with old ones, and hopefully incorporate these relationships into their daily lives and routines. People who “travel too long in retirement can lose their moorings when they return home and can then find it difficult to rekindle these relationships,” which is also something to consider during one’s planning stages, Milroy says. This is partly why some couples “retire together” and choose southern locations within the same proximity so they can regroup during the winter or even travel together.
Dealing with the psychology of retirement can be an individual’s greatest challenge, particularly for those whose “identity and self-image has been associated in good part with their work,” Kafoury says. For these transitioning retirees, (or better still, for those planning for retirement), “I like to work through with the client what has really ended for them (sense of being valued, power, influence, security, relationships, etc.) and how they are willing to mourn the loss, reframe it and ultimately replace it so to reinvent themselves. But before they can achieve this, they need to regain control of their life (especially if they were forced into retirement and feel victimized), gain understanding (make sense and learn something about their current experience), further develop their support system to help them through the transition and revive a new sense of purpose and meaning going forward.”
Yikes! That sounds like work! And in the beginning, there is no doubt that it will take effort to build this new life. But it will be worth it.
Working toward this goal while still employed will also make the transition easier. “Those who have cultivated other interests outside of work have at their disposal more enjoyable activities to delve into during their retirement years and perhaps even develop them into remunerated activities.” Kafoury cites himself as an example of this. As a young adult, his passion was film editing and, at age 51, he bought some film-editing equipment that he is currently using to edit a documentary about his recent ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. He plans to continue honing this skill right up to and through his own retirement.
Speaking of tackling summits, exercise is also a very important component of a healthy retirement. Milroy quotes medical studies that recommend “at least 150 minutes of exercise per week” and not just the same ones. “It is more beneficial to incorporate a variety of exercises” says Milroy, who bikes, walks, swims, fishes and plays golf and squash. Learning some of these sports, or practicing them in advance of retirement, can also help contribute to that social network that is so vital later on.
There is no doubt there is much to think about as you consider retirement, whether it is looming within months or years away. However, the sooner you begin planning for
2012年8月20日星期一
Family tries life on 'Mars time'
Family tries life on 'Mars time'
For one family, an exotic summer getaway means living on Mars.
Martian time, that is. Since the landing of NASA's newest Mars rover, flight director David Oh's family has taken the unusual step of tagging along as he leaves Earth time behind and syncs his body clock with the red planet.
Every mission to Mars, a small army of scientists and engineers reports to duty on "Mars time" for the first three months. But it's almost unheard of for an entire family to flip their orderly lives upside down, shifting to what amounts to a time zone change a day.
Intrigued about abiding by extraterrestrial time, Oh's wife, Bryn, could not pass up the chance to take their kids - 13-year-old Braden, 10-year-old Ashlyn and 8-year-old Devyn - on a Martian adventure from their home near the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory where the Curiosity rover was built.
"We all feel a little sleepy, a little jet-lagged all day long, but everyone is doing great," Bryn Oh said, two weeks into the experiment.
Days on Mars last a tad longer. Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours - the definition of a day. Neighbour Mars spins more lazily. Days there - known as sols - last 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than on Earth. The difference may not seem like much each day, but it adds up.
To stay in lockstep, nearly 800 people on the $2.5-billion project have surrendered to the Martian cycle of light and dark. In the simplest sense, each day slides forward 40 minutes. That results in wacky work, sleep and eating schedules. Many say it feels like perpetual jet lag.
The Oh family broke in slowly. A sign on their front door warns: "On Mars Time: Flight Director Asleep. Come Back Later."
Days before Curiosity's Aug. 5 touchdown, the children stayed up until 11: 30 p.m. and slept in until 10 a.m. In the beginning, it wasn't much different from a typical day on summer vacation. As the days wore on, they stayed up later and later, waking up in the afternoon and evening.
One day last week, the family ate a 3 p.m. breakfast, 8 p.m. lunch, 2: 30 a.m. dinner and 5 a.m. dessert before heading off to bed.
To sleep when the sun is out, their bedroom windows are covered with aluminum foil or cloth to keep out any sliver of light. In the hallway, a hand-made calendar keeps track of the days and schedules are writ-ten on an oversized mirror. A digital clock in the master bed-room is set to Mars time.
Bryn Oh keeps a meticulous spreadsheet updated with her husband's work hours and the family's activities. They wear a wireless device that monitors their steps, calories burned and sleep patterns.
When David Oh tells co-workers on Mars time and friends on Earth time about the switch: "Some of them think it's really cool to have the kids along. Some who worked on other Mars missions have said, 'You're crazy."'
Being night owls has its perks: Braden, Ashlyn and Devyn saw their first shooting star. The family went on night hikes in the hills around the neighbour-hood. They had a late dinner in Hollywood and gawked at street performers on the Walk of Fame with other tourists. They saw a midnight screening of a zombie film and then went bowling.
One night, Bryn Oh took the children biking in an empty parking lot. The youngest shed his training wheels, and for the first time, pedalled around.
Of the three, Ashlyn has the most difficulty sticking to the Mars rhythm. She tends to wake up too early and balks at naps.
"It's awesome, but it's tiring" she said.
Braden thrives on the weird hours. What teenager doesn't like staying up as late as possible and having frozen yogurt at midnight? He started a blog detailing the family's experiences.
Earthly sacrifices were made. The family traded a real vacation for a glorified staycation. Dental appointments, harp les-sons and play dates were scheduled around when the kids were awake, which was a moving tar-get every day.
Still, they were able to host a party a week after the landing, throwing a Mars-themed back-yard barbecue complete with a cake shaped like Gale Crater, Curiosity's new home, and topped with candles shaped like stars.
Bryn Oh said it's easy to lose track of what day it is. A simple question like "What time is it?" is difficult to answer. Do you mean Earth time? Curiosity time? The time that their bodies think they're on?
For the mission workers, the schedule is also more gruelling than in the past. Their work hours tend to whiplash around depending on when orbiting spacecraft fly over the rover landing site to relay signals to Earth. One shift sends up commands spelling out what Curiosity will do for the day; another pores over the pictures beamed back.
To cope, workers talk as if they're on Mars, saluting "Good morning" to one another even though it might be dark outside. Cots are available for siestas. There's also free ice cream - "a little pick-me-up in the middle of the night," said mission man-ager Mike Watkins.
Watkins said it's tough for anyone to stray from Earth time let alone a family.
"It's something they're going to remember the rest of their lives," Watkins said.
The family recently reached a milestone: Staying up through sunrise and sleeping during the day. And just as the children get used to Mars time, they'll have to reboot later this month when they revert to their terrestrial ways in time for the start of school.
CURIOSITY USES ROCK FOR TARGET PRACTICE
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Curiosity rover has zapped its first Martian rock, aiming its laser for the sake of science. During the target practice on Sunday. Curiosity fired 30 pulses at a nearby rock over a 10-second window, burning a small hole. Since landing in Gale Crater two weeks ago, the six-wheel rover has been checking out its instruments including the laser. During its two-year mission, Curiosity was expected to point the laser at various rocks as it drives toward Mount Sharp, a 3-mile (5-kilometre)-high mountain rising from the crater floor. This week, flight controllers plan to command Curiosity to move its wheels side-to-side and take its first short drive.
For one family, an exotic summer getaway means living on Mars.
Martian time, that is. Since the landing of NASA's newest Mars rover, flight director David Oh's family has taken the unusual step of tagging along as he leaves Earth time behind and syncs his body clock with the red planet.
Every mission to Mars, a small army of scientists and engineers reports to duty on "Mars time" for the first three months. But it's almost unheard of for an entire family to flip their orderly lives upside down, shifting to what amounts to a time zone change a day.
Intrigued about abiding by extraterrestrial time, Oh's wife, Bryn, could not pass up the chance to take their kids - 13-year-old Braden, 10-year-old Ashlyn and 8-year-old Devyn - on a Martian adventure from their home near the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory where the Curiosity rover was built.
"We all feel a little sleepy, a little jet-lagged all day long, but everyone is doing great," Bryn Oh said, two weeks into the experiment.
Days on Mars last a tad longer. Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours - the definition of a day. Neighbour Mars spins more lazily. Days there - known as sols - last 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than on Earth. The difference may not seem like much each day, but it adds up.
To stay in lockstep, nearly 800 people on the $2.5-billion project have surrendered to the Martian cycle of light and dark. In the simplest sense, each day slides forward 40 minutes. That results in wacky work, sleep and eating schedules. Many say it feels like perpetual jet lag.
The Oh family broke in slowly. A sign on their front door warns: "On Mars Time: Flight Director Asleep. Come Back Later."
Days before Curiosity's Aug. 5 touchdown, the children stayed up until 11: 30 p.m. and slept in until 10 a.m. In the beginning, it wasn't much different from a typical day on summer vacation. As the days wore on, they stayed up later and later, waking up in the afternoon and evening.
One day last week, the family ate a 3 p.m. breakfast, 8 p.m. lunch, 2: 30 a.m. dinner and 5 a.m. dessert before heading off to bed.
To sleep when the sun is out, their bedroom windows are covered with aluminum foil or cloth to keep out any sliver of light. In the hallway, a hand-made calendar keeps track of the days and schedules are writ-ten on an oversized mirror. A digital clock in the master bed-room is set to Mars time.
Bryn Oh keeps a meticulous spreadsheet updated with her husband's work hours and the family's activities. They wear a wireless device that monitors their steps, calories burned and sleep patterns.
When David Oh tells co-workers on Mars time and friends on Earth time about the switch: "Some of them think it's really cool to have the kids along. Some who worked on other Mars missions have said, 'You're crazy."'
Being night owls has its perks: Braden, Ashlyn and Devyn saw their first shooting star. The family went on night hikes in the hills around the neighbour-hood. They had a late dinner in Hollywood and gawked at street performers on the Walk of Fame with other tourists. They saw a midnight screening of a zombie film and then went bowling.
One night, Bryn Oh took the children biking in an empty parking lot. The youngest shed his training wheels, and for the first time, pedalled around.
Of the three, Ashlyn has the most difficulty sticking to the Mars rhythm. She tends to wake up too early and balks at naps.
"It's awesome, but it's tiring" she said.
Braden thrives on the weird hours. What teenager doesn't like staying up as late as possible and having frozen yogurt at midnight? He started a blog detailing the family's experiences.
Earthly sacrifices were made. The family traded a real vacation for a glorified staycation. Dental appointments, harp les-sons and play dates were scheduled around when the kids were awake, which was a moving tar-get every day.
Still, they were able to host a party a week after the landing, throwing a Mars-themed back-yard barbecue complete with a cake shaped like Gale Crater, Curiosity's new home, and topped with candles shaped like stars.
Bryn Oh said it's easy to lose track of what day it is. A simple question like "What time is it?" is difficult to answer. Do you mean Earth time? Curiosity time? The time that their bodies think they're on?
For the mission workers, the schedule is also more gruelling than in the past. Their work hours tend to whiplash around depending on when orbiting spacecraft fly over the rover landing site to relay signals to Earth. One shift sends up commands spelling out what Curiosity will do for the day; another pores over the pictures beamed back.
To cope, workers talk as if they're on Mars, saluting "Good morning" to one another even though it might be dark outside. Cots are available for siestas. There's also free ice cream - "a little pick-me-up in the middle of the night," said mission man-ager Mike Watkins.
Watkins said it's tough for anyone to stray from Earth time let alone a family.
"It's something they're going to remember the rest of their lives," Watkins said.
The family recently reached a milestone: Staying up through sunrise and sleeping during the day. And just as the children get used to Mars time, they'll have to reboot later this month when they revert to their terrestrial ways in time for the start of school.
CURIOSITY USES ROCK FOR TARGET PRACTICE
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Curiosity rover has zapped its first Martian rock, aiming its laser for the sake of science. During the target practice on Sunday. Curiosity fired 30 pulses at a nearby rock over a 10-second window, burning a small hole. Since landing in Gale Crater two weeks ago, the six-wheel rover has been checking out its instruments including the laser. During its two-year mission, Curiosity was expected to point the laser at various rocks as it drives toward Mount Sharp, a 3-mile (5-kilometre)-high mountain rising from the crater floor. This week, flight controllers plan to command Curiosity to move its wheels side-to-side and take its first short drive.
2012年8月17日星期五
Nellie Gray, founder of March for Life antiabortion rally, dies at 88
Nellie Gray, founder of March for Life antiabortion rally, dies at 88
Nellie Gray, who left a government career to start the March for Life, the annual antiabortion demonstration that for nearly four decades has drawn tens of thousands of activists to Washington to speak out on one of the most polarizing of American social issues, has died. She was 88.
Her death was announced by the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, of which Miss Gray was president. Gene Ruane, a colleague, said that he found Miss Gray dead Monday in her Washington home and that the chief medical examiner will determine the cause and date of her death.
The March for Life — held each January on the anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion — is reported to have drawn as many as 70,000 activists in any given year since its inception in 1974. The figures do not include the counterprotesters who often converge on Washington at the same time.
March for Life protesters traditionally wear red and carry red roses — a symbol of what is known within the movement as "the pre-born child" — and sometimes refer to the event as "Nellie's March," in honor of its founder.
"This is the land of the free, the place to come for advancement. How is it that a country built on this would kill babies?" she told The Washington Post in 1993. "I don't understand slavery. I don't understand the Holocaust. I don't understand abortion."
Miss Gray, a career woman and a Democrat, was working as a Labor Department lawyer when the Supreme Court handed down the landmark abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Horrified by the decision, she left work at 48 — a decision that cut her retirement benefits in half — and began a second career in the forefront of the abortion debate.
As she told the story, she and about 30 other activists gathered in her home on Capitol Hill in the fall of 1973 to plan a demonstration for the following January.
"We just thought we were going to march one time and Congress would certainly pay attention to 20,000 people coming in the middle of winter to tell them to overturn Roe v. Wade," she once told the Religion News Service.
When that did not happen, Miss Gray soldiered on. Her basement, cluttered with buttons and banners, became the headquarters for a movement, often distributing news releases printed in red ink.
Nellie Gray, who left a government career to start the March for Life, the annual antiabortion demonstration that for nearly four decades has drawn tens of thousands of activists to Washington to speak out on one of the most polarizing of American social issues, has died. She was 88.
Her death was announced by the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, of which Miss Gray was president. Gene Ruane, a colleague, said that he found Miss Gray dead Monday in her Washington home and that the chief medical examiner will determine the cause and date of her death.
The March for Life — held each January on the anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion — is reported to have drawn as many as 70,000 activists in any given year since its inception in 1974. The figures do not include the counterprotesters who often converge on Washington at the same time.
March for Life protesters traditionally wear red and carry red roses — a symbol of what is known within the movement as "the pre-born child" — and sometimes refer to the event as "Nellie's March," in honor of its founder.
"This is the land of the free, the place to come for advancement. How is it that a country built on this would kill babies?" she told The Washington Post in 1993. "I don't understand slavery. I don't understand the Holocaust. I don't understand abortion."
Miss Gray, a career woman and a Democrat, was working as a Labor Department lawyer when the Supreme Court handed down the landmark abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Horrified by the decision, she left work at 48 — a decision that cut her retirement benefits in half — and began a second career in the forefront of the abortion debate.
As she told the story, she and about 30 other activists gathered in her home on Capitol Hill in the fall of 1973 to plan a demonstration for the following January.
"We just thought we were going to march one time and Congress would certainly pay attention to 20,000 people coming in the middle of winter to tell them to overturn Roe v. Wade," she once told the Religion News Service.
When that did not happen, Miss Gray soldiered on. Her basement, cluttered with buttons and banners, became the headquarters for a movement, often distributing news releases printed in red ink.
2012年8月16日星期四
Rhode Island’s CJ Adams stars in ‘The Odd Life of Timothy Green‘
Rhode Island’s CJ Adams stars in ‘The Odd Life of Timothy Green‘
Peter Hedges, the director of “The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” auditioned thousands of boys to play the naive young lead in his sentimental Disney film, which opened on Wednesday. But when he finally found his perfect Timothy — 12-year-old CJ Adams from Rhode Island — he was hesitant to cast the boy. He wasn’t worried about Adams’s ability to carry the movie; he was worried about changing the course of Adams’s youth.
“I know this is going to sound melodramatic,” the director said. “When we cast him I burst into tears because I thought I could ruin this boy’s life. I thought about his parents, I thought about the brother who he adores. You only get to be a kid once, and I want CJ to have that. I didn’t want to be the person who took that away from him.”
Hedges, who has worked on the kid-focused films “About a Boy” and the big-screen adaptation of his novel, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” knew enough about child stars to realize he was flipping a coin on Adams’s future. There was a chance he could help the boy down a glittering path similar to the career of Natalie Portman or Leonardo DiCaprio. He could also unwittingly send him into the Danny Bonaduce territory of child stars gone bad.
It was that pressure that led to tears, he said, and also to his decision.
“This is an exceptional kid,” said Hedges, who was ultimately convinced that the family’s level-headed perspective would keep the young actor grounded. “It was difficult, but I think I did the right thing.”
‘He’s disarming in that way that exceptional kids are.’
“The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” is a feel-good fable of a boy who materializes in the muddy backyard garden of a couple unable to conceive. He possesses all of the qualities they are looking for in a child, but in the film’s twist, he has ivy-like leaves growing out of his shins. “Green” could transform the chestnut-haired Adams into a break-out kid celebrity. At the very least, the film, which also stars Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton, has already served as a stepping stone for offers.
“I’m ready for more,” Adams said last week at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence as he sipped frozen lemonade. “It’s really like a family thing because my mom helps me out, and my dad helps me out, and we have an agent who gives me movies to try out for.”
Despite the Hollywood premiere and a press junket of 150 interviews to promote the film — 70 of which took place in a single day — Adams seems very much a normal boy. After answering a few questions at the park, he appeared slightly more interested in an insect crawling across a picnic table, and in the movements of a nearby squirrel. He is happy to talk about the movie and is unfailingly polite, but also happy to talk about playing with his friends.
Adams, who has never had an acting lesson, is in the process of reading scripts (he consults with his mother) and auditioning for films. Because these parts are not yet confirmed, he is light on details, although he confesses he’d love to be in a superhero movie.
Like Hedges, Adams’s parents are intent on protecting the boy’s childhood. They have no plans to move out of Rhode Island, and they let their son choose his own movies. They will juggle their lives as necessary, but they stress the importance of staying in New England and say that it’s possible for Adams to act and continue to live in Rhode Island.
“The thing we really like about living here is that we get away from everything,” says Donna Adams, who works at CVS corporate headquarters in Woonsocket. “We feel like we go back to normal life when we get back from New York or LA. With movies, you can space it out, too. You do that intense movie filming, and then you take a break for a year.’’
Hedges feels particularly protective of Adams because he was the one who set the boy’s career in motion. While scouting locations for the 2007 Steve Carell movie “Dan in Real Life” in Rhode Island, he put out a call for kid actors. Out of those hundreds who auditioned, Hedges was captivated by the then 6-year-old Adams.
“I’m told that after I saw CJ I said, ‘I could watch that kid every day of my life.’ He’s a remarkable kid who has this fantastic insight,” Hedges says. “Sometimes you get the feeling he understands more about things than you do.”
As Hedges dispenses these compliments, they sound deeper than platitudes dropped to promote the film. It seems there is a genuine affection between the two. They bonded thanks to Adams’s curiosity over the movie-making process. He called Hedges “Mr. Peter” (and still does). Hedges says by the end of the shoot, Adams was yelling “cut” and “action.”
It’s a career that almost didn’t happen. When he was first told about the 2007 audition, Adams said he wasn’t interested. When his older brother explained that it meant Adams would eventually be on a DVD, he leapt at the the chance. He was cast in a small part as Carell’s nephew.
After “Dan,” Adams didn’t show any additional interest in acting, and he went back to school. “I was just a kid then,” he explains with a serious face.
“I just felt like he was too young,” his mother says. “I felt that he probably wasn’t ready to continue in the industry. We had a blast, and we made a lot of friends in the area on that movie, but he didn’t quite understand it all. He was only 6.”
The decision to continue was left up to the CJ (that’s short for Cameron James). But performing is second nature in the Adams household. His 15-year-old brother Austin acted with the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence for six years. His mother performs in local choral groups. The patriarch of the household, Matt Adams, is a New York Times best-selling author and golf expert who hosts a show on SiriusXM satellite radio.
But after that four-year break, Adams decided he was ready to go back into film. He may have developed a friendship with “Timothy” director Hedges, but that didn’t mean Adams had a lock on the part. Not only was Hedges worried about the possibility of suffocating Adams’s childhood, he was not certain that Adams was the best boy for the part.
He reasoned that there was no way a boy from Rhode Island who had showed up at the random casting call for “Dan in Real Life” could be the right person now. So he kept auditioning more boys, and Adams always ended up as a finalist. As Adams worked with his mother on the part, his interpretation of the role improved, and the boy who enters seventh grade next month landed the part.
“He fit this part because there’s nothing about him that feels precocious or annoying or cloying,” Hedges says. “He’s disarming in that way that exceptional kids are.”
Adams said he had fun rubbing elbows with the celebrities during the red carpet premiere in Los Angeles last week, but he was more excited for another event back home at a theater in Rhode Island.
“I get to have a screening for my friends,” he says. “And I won't have to dress up.”
Peter Hedges, the director of “The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” auditioned thousands of boys to play the naive young lead in his sentimental Disney film, which opened on Wednesday. But when he finally found his perfect Timothy — 12-year-old CJ Adams from Rhode Island — he was hesitant to cast the boy. He wasn’t worried about Adams’s ability to carry the movie; he was worried about changing the course of Adams’s youth.
“I know this is going to sound melodramatic,” the director said. “When we cast him I burst into tears because I thought I could ruin this boy’s life. I thought about his parents, I thought about the brother who he adores. You only get to be a kid once, and I want CJ to have that. I didn’t want to be the person who took that away from him.”
Hedges, who has worked on the kid-focused films “About a Boy” and the big-screen adaptation of his novel, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” knew enough about child stars to realize he was flipping a coin on Adams’s future. There was a chance he could help the boy down a glittering path similar to the career of Natalie Portman or Leonardo DiCaprio. He could also unwittingly send him into the Danny Bonaduce territory of child stars gone bad.
It was that pressure that led to tears, he said, and also to his decision.
“This is an exceptional kid,” said Hedges, who was ultimately convinced that the family’s level-headed perspective would keep the young actor grounded. “It was difficult, but I think I did the right thing.”
‘He’s disarming in that way that exceptional kids are.’
“The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” is a feel-good fable of a boy who materializes in the muddy backyard garden of a couple unable to conceive. He possesses all of the qualities they are looking for in a child, but in the film’s twist, he has ivy-like leaves growing out of his shins. “Green” could transform the chestnut-haired Adams into a break-out kid celebrity. At the very least, the film, which also stars Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton, has already served as a stepping stone for offers.
“I’m ready for more,” Adams said last week at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence as he sipped frozen lemonade. “It’s really like a family thing because my mom helps me out, and my dad helps me out, and we have an agent who gives me movies to try out for.”
Despite the Hollywood premiere and a press junket of 150 interviews to promote the film — 70 of which took place in a single day — Adams seems very much a normal boy. After answering a few questions at the park, he appeared slightly more interested in an insect crawling across a picnic table, and in the movements of a nearby squirrel. He is happy to talk about the movie and is unfailingly polite, but also happy to talk about playing with his friends.
Adams, who has never had an acting lesson, is in the process of reading scripts (he consults with his mother) and auditioning for films. Because these parts are not yet confirmed, he is light on details, although he confesses he’d love to be in a superhero movie.
Like Hedges, Adams’s parents are intent on protecting the boy’s childhood. They have no plans to move out of Rhode Island, and they let their son choose his own movies. They will juggle their lives as necessary, but they stress the importance of staying in New England and say that it’s possible for Adams to act and continue to live in Rhode Island.
“The thing we really like about living here is that we get away from everything,” says Donna Adams, who works at CVS corporate headquarters in Woonsocket. “We feel like we go back to normal life when we get back from New York or LA. With movies, you can space it out, too. You do that intense movie filming, and then you take a break for a year.’’
Hedges feels particularly protective of Adams because he was the one who set the boy’s career in motion. While scouting locations for the 2007 Steve Carell movie “Dan in Real Life” in Rhode Island, he put out a call for kid actors. Out of those hundreds who auditioned, Hedges was captivated by the then 6-year-old Adams.
“I’m told that after I saw CJ I said, ‘I could watch that kid every day of my life.’ He’s a remarkable kid who has this fantastic insight,” Hedges says. “Sometimes you get the feeling he understands more about things than you do.”
As Hedges dispenses these compliments, they sound deeper than platitudes dropped to promote the film. It seems there is a genuine affection between the two. They bonded thanks to Adams’s curiosity over the movie-making process. He called Hedges “Mr. Peter” (and still does). Hedges says by the end of the shoot, Adams was yelling “cut” and “action.”
It’s a career that almost didn’t happen. When he was first told about the 2007 audition, Adams said he wasn’t interested. When his older brother explained that it meant Adams would eventually be on a DVD, he leapt at the the chance. He was cast in a small part as Carell’s nephew.
After “Dan,” Adams didn’t show any additional interest in acting, and he went back to school. “I was just a kid then,” he explains with a serious face.
“I just felt like he was too young,” his mother says. “I felt that he probably wasn’t ready to continue in the industry. We had a blast, and we made a lot of friends in the area on that movie, but he didn’t quite understand it all. He was only 6.”
The decision to continue was left up to the CJ (that’s short for Cameron James). But performing is second nature in the Adams household. His 15-year-old brother Austin acted with the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence for six years. His mother performs in local choral groups. The patriarch of the household, Matt Adams, is a New York Times best-selling author and golf expert who hosts a show on SiriusXM satellite radio.
But after that four-year break, Adams decided he was ready to go back into film. He may have developed a friendship with “Timothy” director Hedges, but that didn’t mean Adams had a lock on the part. Not only was Hedges worried about the possibility of suffocating Adams’s childhood, he was not certain that Adams was the best boy for the part.
He reasoned that there was no way a boy from Rhode Island who had showed up at the random casting call for “Dan in Real Life” could be the right person now. So he kept auditioning more boys, and Adams always ended up as a finalist. As Adams worked with his mother on the part, his interpretation of the role improved, and the boy who enters seventh grade next month landed the part.
“He fit this part because there’s nothing about him that feels precocious or annoying or cloying,” Hedges says. “He’s disarming in that way that exceptional kids are.”
Adams said he had fun rubbing elbows with the celebrities during the red carpet premiere in Los Angeles last week, but he was more excited for another event back home at a theater in Rhode Island.
“I get to have a screening for my friends,” he says. “And I won't have to dress up.”
2012年8月15日星期三
Somali ransom negotiator receives 12 life sentences
Somali ransom negotiator receives 12 life sentences
A Somali man who acted as a ransom negotiator for pirates who seized a US yacht last year and killed four American hostages was sentenced on Monday by a US federal judge to serve 12 life sentences.
Mohammad Shibin was convicted in April on 15 charges including piracy, hostage-taking, kidnapping and conspiracy. He was paid $30,000 to $50,000 in cash for his negotiating services, according to a federal indictment.
In a courtroom in Norfolk, Virginia, US District Judge Robert Doumar sentenced Shibin to serve 10 concurrent life sentences, two consecutive life sentences and two 20-year sentences and ordered him to pay $5.4 million in restitution.
"Mohammad Shibin was a key participant in two of the most heinous acts of piracy in modern memory," US Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement.
Pirates commandeered a yacht carrying Jean and Scott Adam of California and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle from Seattle in February 2011 off the coast of Somalia. All four hostages were killed despite attempts by the US military to negotiate their release.
Prosecutors said Shibin was among an elite group whose skills were needed to negotiate ransoms.
According to evidence presented at trial, Shibin researched the background of the hostages over the Internet to determine how much ransom to demand and to find family members to contact for the payments, prosecutors said.
Shibin also served as a ransom negotiator for pirates who seized the M/V Marida Marguerite in 2010. The German-owned vessel had a crew of 22 men who were held hostage for seven months starting in May 2010 and reported being tortured.
In 2011 Somali piracy cost the world economy $7 billion and earned the pirates some $160 million in ransoms, according to a recent report by the International Maritime Bureau.
"(Shibin's) multiple life sentences should put all pirates on notice that the Justice Department will hold you accountable in a US courtroom for crimes on the high seas," MacBride said.
A Somali man who acted as a ransom negotiator for pirates who seized a US yacht last year and killed four American hostages was sentenced on Monday by a US federal judge to serve 12 life sentences.
Mohammad Shibin was convicted in April on 15 charges including piracy, hostage-taking, kidnapping and conspiracy. He was paid $30,000 to $50,000 in cash for his negotiating services, according to a federal indictment.
In a courtroom in Norfolk, Virginia, US District Judge Robert Doumar sentenced Shibin to serve 10 concurrent life sentences, two consecutive life sentences and two 20-year sentences and ordered him to pay $5.4 million in restitution.
"Mohammad Shibin was a key participant in two of the most heinous acts of piracy in modern memory," US Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement.
Pirates commandeered a yacht carrying Jean and Scott Adam of California and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle from Seattle in February 2011 off the coast of Somalia. All four hostages were killed despite attempts by the US military to negotiate their release.
Prosecutors said Shibin was among an elite group whose skills were needed to negotiate ransoms.
According to evidence presented at trial, Shibin researched the background of the hostages over the Internet to determine how much ransom to demand and to find family members to contact for the payments, prosecutors said.
Shibin also served as a ransom negotiator for pirates who seized the M/V Marida Marguerite in 2010. The German-owned vessel had a crew of 22 men who were held hostage for seven months starting in May 2010 and reported being tortured.
In 2011 Somali piracy cost the world economy $7 billion and earned the pirates some $160 million in ransoms, according to a recent report by the International Maritime Bureau.
"(Shibin's) multiple life sentences should put all pirates on notice that the Justice Department will hold you accountable in a US courtroom for crimes on the high seas," MacBride said.
2012年8月14日星期二
End-of-Life Care for Kids Raises Ethics Issues
End-of-Life Care for Kids Raises Ethics Issues
Healthcare providers should have rapid access to legal remedies for end-of-life disputes involving children whose parents resist withdrawal of aggressive therapy on the basis of religious beliefs, authors of a review concluded.
Over a 3-year period, 17 of 203 cases could not be resolved after lengthy discussions with parents. Subsequently, most of the cases were resolved, but five remained undecided, each because of the parents' belief in a miracle for their children, according to an article published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
"On the rare occasions that it occurs, fervent belief in religion and the interpretation of those religious teachings are significant factors in end-of-life conflict between parents and staff on pediatric intensive care units (PICUs)," Joe Brierley, MBChB, of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, and coauthors wrote.
"Protracted dialogue was often unable to resolve these differences, while the child was subject to pain and discomfort from invasive ventilation, suctioning, and multiple injections," they added. "We suggest it is time to reconsider current ethical and legal structures and facilitate rapid default access to courts in such situations when the best interests of the child are compromised in expectation of the miraculous."
Variety of Religious Views Involved
To acknowledge the widely divergent viewpoints on the subject, the editors of BMJ took the unusual step of publishing four commentaries about the article, all written by faculty at the University of Oxford. All found fault with the authors' findings and suggested alternative routes to conflict resolution, including legal, societal, and religion-oriented remedies.
Brierley and coauthors undertook a retrospective review to examine the role of religious beliefs in discussions of end-of-life care for children. During the 3-year period reviewed, 290 deaths occurred in the Great Ormond Hospital PICU. In 203 cases, the medical team recommended withdrawing or limiting invasive care as being in the best interest of the child, and parents agreed with the decision in all but 17 cases.
Review of medical notes for the 17 cases showed "a predominant theme of expression of strong religious belief influencing the family's response to the critical illness of their child." In six cases, additional discussion about the best interest of the child led to a resolution.
In the remaining 11 cases, protracted discussions ensued, centering primarily on the parents' religious beliefs about the sanctity of life. Five cases were resolved with help and support from additional hospital staff and local religious leaders, which discussed the child's care with the medical team.
All six of the unresolved cases underwent ethical review, received second opinions, and were discussed at length in meetings involving the medical staff, the patient advocacy service, and the parents. One case was referred to the High Court, which ordered withdrawal of care.
The original 17 cases represented all major religious faiths, including Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, and Roman Catholic. Of the five cases that were never resolved, "Christian fundamentalist churches with African evangelical origins features most frequently, though other religions also featured."
"All these families were explicit in their expectation of a 'miraculous cure' for their child, and as such, all felt that medical scientific information was of limited use," the authors wrote. "Although ongoing daily dialog continued between the family and the teams, there was no change in the family's view that aggressive support must always be continued, waiting for God to intervene."
Arguments on Both Sides
Brierley and colleagues acknowledged legitimate arguments against their position for more rapid legal resolution of difficult end-of-life cases:
* The "clear legal presumption for the maintenance of life," which can require weeks of discussion, argument, and deliberation
* The religious view that "the suffering we are arguing to avoid is something that brings the truly faithful closer to God"
Finally, the authors touched on the societal perspective of end-of-life decision making as it affects utilization of limited resources.
"While we feel the best interests of the child in question are paramount, the interests of society -- including the other children who might have used this valuable resource -- cannot be ignored, especially when nonmedically indicated painful and futile therapies are continued on children due to the expectation of miraculous intervention," they wrote.
Ultimately, arguments involving end-of-life care "revolve around the balance of sanctity and quality of life versus unbearable suffering."
The author of one of the commentaries suggested that finding a common ground to engage parents would be a good starting point for resolving end-of-life conflict.
"Brierley et al appear to implicitly assume that miracle cures will never take place, but they do not justify this assumption, and it would be very difficult for them to do so," wrote Steve Clarke, PhD.
"Instead of seeking to override the wishes of parents, who are waiting for a miracle, [I suggest] that a better response may be to seek to engage devout parents on their own terms and encourage them to think about whether or not continuing life-sustaining therapies will make it more likely that a miracle cure will occur."
Legal Issues Considered
Charles Foster, BVSc, LL.B, argued that existing law already trumps parents' views.
"One hears people talk about a parental veto on proposed treatment or withdrawal of treatment," he wrote. "There is a de facto (but not de jure) presumption that a parent's views on what is in their child's best interests will coincide with what those best interests are, but that presumption is rebuttable and is very commonly rebutted."
"The legal and ethical orthodoxy is that no beliefs, religious or secular, should be allowed to stonewall the best interests of the child," Foster added.
An argument based on the best interests of the child misses the point altogether, according to ethicist Julian Savulescu, PhD, who argued for distributive justice, the societal imperative for appropriate allocation of limited resources.
"A better ethical ground for withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging treatment is not that it is in the interests of the patient to die, but rather on grounds of the limitation of resources and the requirements of distributive justice," he wrote. "Put simply, not all treatment that might be in a person's interest must be ethically provided."
"It has been a convenient fiction to tell patients and parents that treatment is not in their interests because we can't face up to the elephant of distributive justice and the inevitable limitations in our medical resources," Savulescu added. "But perhaps if we openly discussed such questions of distributive justice, we could answer them better."
Medical ethicist Mark Sheehan, PhD, also suggested that Brierley and colleagues incorrectly categorized end-of-life conflict as a religion-derived issue while ignoring well established ethical and legal arguments.
"Religion here is a red herring," he wrote. "I do agree that society -- perhaps in the form of legal precedent -- does need to be clearer about the limits of parental choice in these difficult cases, but the specification of these limits will not include reference to religious belief."
"The focus should remain on the well-articulated ethical reasons that apply to all, not on whether the parent claims a specific kind of religious reason," Sheehan added. "What matters is that, like the blood transfusion case, society has judged that there are no reasons (religious or otherwise) that warrant failing to transfuse children. Polarizing claims about religion are unproductive."
Healthcare providers should have rapid access to legal remedies for end-of-life disputes involving children whose parents resist withdrawal of aggressive therapy on the basis of religious beliefs, authors of a review concluded.
Over a 3-year period, 17 of 203 cases could not be resolved after lengthy discussions with parents. Subsequently, most of the cases were resolved, but five remained undecided, each because of the parents' belief in a miracle for their children, according to an article published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
"On the rare occasions that it occurs, fervent belief in religion and the interpretation of those religious teachings are significant factors in end-of-life conflict between parents and staff on pediatric intensive care units (PICUs)," Joe Brierley, MBChB, of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, and coauthors wrote.
"Protracted dialogue was often unable to resolve these differences, while the child was subject to pain and discomfort from invasive ventilation, suctioning, and multiple injections," they added. "We suggest it is time to reconsider current ethical and legal structures and facilitate rapid default access to courts in such situations when the best interests of the child are compromised in expectation of the miraculous."
Variety of Religious Views Involved
To acknowledge the widely divergent viewpoints on the subject, the editors of BMJ took the unusual step of publishing four commentaries about the article, all written by faculty at the University of Oxford. All found fault with the authors' findings and suggested alternative routes to conflict resolution, including legal, societal, and religion-oriented remedies.
Brierley and coauthors undertook a retrospective review to examine the role of religious beliefs in discussions of end-of-life care for children. During the 3-year period reviewed, 290 deaths occurred in the Great Ormond Hospital PICU. In 203 cases, the medical team recommended withdrawing or limiting invasive care as being in the best interest of the child, and parents agreed with the decision in all but 17 cases.
Review of medical notes for the 17 cases showed "a predominant theme of expression of strong religious belief influencing the family's response to the critical illness of their child." In six cases, additional discussion about the best interest of the child led to a resolution.
In the remaining 11 cases, protracted discussions ensued, centering primarily on the parents' religious beliefs about the sanctity of life. Five cases were resolved with help and support from additional hospital staff and local religious leaders, which discussed the child's care with the medical team.
All six of the unresolved cases underwent ethical review, received second opinions, and were discussed at length in meetings involving the medical staff, the patient advocacy service, and the parents. One case was referred to the High Court, which ordered withdrawal of care.
The original 17 cases represented all major religious faiths, including Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, and Roman Catholic. Of the five cases that were never resolved, "Christian fundamentalist churches with African evangelical origins features most frequently, though other religions also featured."
"All these families were explicit in their expectation of a 'miraculous cure' for their child, and as such, all felt that medical scientific information was of limited use," the authors wrote. "Although ongoing daily dialog continued between the family and the teams, there was no change in the family's view that aggressive support must always be continued, waiting for God to intervene."
Arguments on Both Sides
Brierley and colleagues acknowledged legitimate arguments against their position for more rapid legal resolution of difficult end-of-life cases:
* The "clear legal presumption for the maintenance of life," which can require weeks of discussion, argument, and deliberation
* The religious view that "the suffering we are arguing to avoid is something that brings the truly faithful closer to God"
Finally, the authors touched on the societal perspective of end-of-life decision making as it affects utilization of limited resources.
"While we feel the best interests of the child in question are paramount, the interests of society -- including the other children who might have used this valuable resource -- cannot be ignored, especially when nonmedically indicated painful and futile therapies are continued on children due to the expectation of miraculous intervention," they wrote.
Ultimately, arguments involving end-of-life care "revolve around the balance of sanctity and quality of life versus unbearable suffering."
The author of one of the commentaries suggested that finding a common ground to engage parents would be a good starting point for resolving end-of-life conflict.
"Brierley et al appear to implicitly assume that miracle cures will never take place, but they do not justify this assumption, and it would be very difficult for them to do so," wrote Steve Clarke, PhD.
"Instead of seeking to override the wishes of parents, who are waiting for a miracle, [I suggest] that a better response may be to seek to engage devout parents on their own terms and encourage them to think about whether or not continuing life-sustaining therapies will make it more likely that a miracle cure will occur."
Legal Issues Considered
Charles Foster, BVSc, LL.B, argued that existing law already trumps parents' views.
"One hears people talk about a parental veto on proposed treatment or withdrawal of treatment," he wrote. "There is a de facto (but not de jure) presumption that a parent's views on what is in their child's best interests will coincide with what those best interests are, but that presumption is rebuttable and is very commonly rebutted."
"The legal and ethical orthodoxy is that no beliefs, religious or secular, should be allowed to stonewall the best interests of the child," Foster added.
An argument based on the best interests of the child misses the point altogether, according to ethicist Julian Savulescu, PhD, who argued for distributive justice, the societal imperative for appropriate allocation of limited resources.
"A better ethical ground for withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging treatment is not that it is in the interests of the patient to die, but rather on grounds of the limitation of resources and the requirements of distributive justice," he wrote. "Put simply, not all treatment that might be in a person's interest must be ethically provided."
"It has been a convenient fiction to tell patients and parents that treatment is not in their interests because we can't face up to the elephant of distributive justice and the inevitable limitations in our medical resources," Savulescu added. "But perhaps if we openly discussed such questions of distributive justice, we could answer them better."
Medical ethicist Mark Sheehan, PhD, also suggested that Brierley and colleagues incorrectly categorized end-of-life conflict as a religion-derived issue while ignoring well established ethical and legal arguments.
"Religion here is a red herring," he wrote. "I do agree that society -- perhaps in the form of legal precedent -- does need to be clearer about the limits of parental choice in these difficult cases, but the specification of these limits will not include reference to religious belief."
"The focus should remain on the well-articulated ethical reasons that apply to all, not on whether the parent claims a specific kind of religious reason," Sheehan added. "What matters is that, like the blood transfusion case, society has judged that there are no reasons (religious or otherwise) that warrant failing to transfuse children. Polarizing claims about religion are unproductive."
2012年8月13日星期一
Chad Johnson's arrest puts ex-Dolphin's career on hold
Chad Johnson's arrest puts ex-Dolphin's career on hold
Chad Johnson's arrest puts ex-Dolphin's career on holdBy Gregg Rosenthal
Around The League editor
Published: Aug. 12, 2012 at 10:06 p.m. Updated: Aug. 12, 2012 at 11:17 p.m. Print Friend(s) Email Your Email Send Email By Gregg Rosenthal Wife intends to press chargesMankins no longer on PUP list after return to Patriots practiceMore Columns >
Unlock HQ Video HQ video delivered by Akamai
Chad Johnson was serious for precisely one moment during last week's "Hard Knocks" episode. It came after Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin warned Johnson to "temper" some of his off-color comments.
Philbin then asked Johnson how everything else was going in the receiver's life.
"Good. This is my life," said Johnson, looking Philbin in the eye. "This is it. So it's going well."
In that moment, the viewer could actually see how much football meant to Johnson. One moment in Johnson's driveway has taken football away from him.
This isn't about guilt or innocence. It isn't about the details of Johnson's domestic violence charge. All of those facts will come out in time, and we're hesitant to make sweeping moral judgements from thousands of miles away. This is about where Johnson goes from here and the sad possible end of an 11-year career.
Philbin did not want the distraction that Johnson's arrest would bring, and it's hard to blame him. The Dolphins organization rescued Johnson off the scrap heap when perhaps no other team would. Around the League's Brian McIntyre reported in June that the Dolphins gave the former Mr. Ochocinco a contract with no guaranteed money. The Dolphins wanted to see how it all worked out in August before committing to him.
Things went well on the field. Johnson was listed as a starter, along with Legedu Naanee and Davone Bess, on Miami's first depth chart. But Johnson didn't hold up his end of the bargain off the field.
Young, talented players often get second, third and fourth chances. The Titans haven't given up on wide receiver Kenny Britt despite his eight incidents with police since he was drafted in 2009. Buccaneers wide receiver Vincent Jackson scored a huge contract despite having DUI convictions on his record. Johnson, however, is nearing the end of his career. He was trying to make the team, while Philbin is trying to establish a culture. Johnson left Philbin no choice.
NFL Network and NFL.com's Steve Wyche talked to league executives on Sunday night who believe Johnson could have trouble finding work in the short term. Johnson's legal case likely will have to play out before any team considers him. Teams will want to see if Johnson is subject to discipline by the league. There's no telling how long that will take, but it would be surprising to see Johnson on a roster in Week 1, when contracts are guaranteed for the entire season.
We're not going to say Johnson's career is over because no one knows. Terrell Owens was cut for being a malcontent in the Indoor Football League not so long ago. His former employers essentially tore Owens' character apart in a press release. T.O. still got another job.
It's possible Johnson will get another shot some day, but now he must focus on his family and his court case. Just a week after Johnson said that his life is football, his life in football is on hold.
Chad Johnson's arrest puts ex-Dolphin's career on holdBy Gregg Rosenthal
Around The League editor
Published: Aug. 12, 2012 at 10:06 p.m. Updated: Aug. 12, 2012 at 11:17 p.m. Print Friend(s) Email Your Email Send Email By Gregg Rosenthal Wife intends to press chargesMankins no longer on PUP list after return to Patriots practiceMore Columns >
Unlock HQ Video HQ video delivered by Akamai
Chad Johnson was serious for precisely one moment during last week's "Hard Knocks" episode. It came after Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin warned Johnson to "temper" some of his off-color comments.
Philbin then asked Johnson how everything else was going in the receiver's life.
"Good. This is my life," said Johnson, looking Philbin in the eye. "This is it. So it's going well."
In that moment, the viewer could actually see how much football meant to Johnson. One moment in Johnson's driveway has taken football away from him.
This isn't about guilt or innocence. It isn't about the details of Johnson's domestic violence charge. All of those facts will come out in time, and we're hesitant to make sweeping moral judgements from thousands of miles away. This is about where Johnson goes from here and the sad possible end of an 11-year career.
Philbin did not want the distraction that Johnson's arrest would bring, and it's hard to blame him. The Dolphins organization rescued Johnson off the scrap heap when perhaps no other team would. Around the League's Brian McIntyre reported in June that the Dolphins gave the former Mr. Ochocinco a contract with no guaranteed money. The Dolphins wanted to see how it all worked out in August before committing to him.
Things went well on the field. Johnson was listed as a starter, along with Legedu Naanee and Davone Bess, on Miami's first depth chart. But Johnson didn't hold up his end of the bargain off the field.
Young, talented players often get second, third and fourth chances. The Titans haven't given up on wide receiver Kenny Britt despite his eight incidents with police since he was drafted in 2009. Buccaneers wide receiver Vincent Jackson scored a huge contract despite having DUI convictions on his record. Johnson, however, is nearing the end of his career. He was trying to make the team, while Philbin is trying to establish a culture. Johnson left Philbin no choice.
NFL Network and NFL.com's Steve Wyche talked to league executives on Sunday night who believe Johnson could have trouble finding work in the short term. Johnson's legal case likely will have to play out before any team considers him. Teams will want to see if Johnson is subject to discipline by the league. There's no telling how long that will take, but it would be surprising to see Johnson on a roster in Week 1, when contracts are guaranteed for the entire season.
We're not going to say Johnson's career is over because no one knows. Terrell Owens was cut for being a malcontent in the Indoor Football League not so long ago. His former employers essentially tore Owens' character apart in a press release. T.O. still got another job.
It's possible Johnson will get another shot some day, but now he must focus on his family and his court case. Just a week after Johnson said that his life is football, his life in football is on hold.
2012年8月10日星期五
Life’s a Pitch: Is Liverpool’s Agger worth £20m?
Life’s a Pitch: Is Liverpool’s Agger worth £20m?
But with the start of the new football season just over one week away and the conclusion of this summer’s transfer window (31 August) getting ever closer it appears as if things are about to get serious.
Chelsea, Arsenal and to a lesser extent Tottenham have largely gone about their own business this summer, landing their principle targets early. But for those clubs yet to achieve their main transfer aims, such as Manchester City and Liverpool, the games of cat and mouse are well underway.
In short, Man City want to buy Liverpool’s Daniel Agger. Liverpool want in excess of £20m for him – in order to fund other purchases – but Man City feel that’s a lot for an injury prone 27 year-old defender with only two years remaining in his contract.
Life’s a Pitch panellist David Walker also reckons £20m is too much, but Tom Hopkinson disagrees. Check out the Liverpool discussion video and its numerous comments to see what everyone else thinks.
But the main event in transfer talk this summer is Arsenal’s Robin van Persie. Manchesters United and City, as well as Juventus, want him, he apparently fancies Man Utd, but Arsenal and Man Utd are nowhere near agreeing a fee. Plus, there’s the latest suggestion that Van Persie has been so impressed by Arsene Wenger’s wheeling and dealing this summer that he’s actually considering staying. Watch the panellists try and get to the bottom of what will actually happen with Van Persie.
Two other players who could also get embroiled in the transfer market are Van Persie’s team-mate Andrey Arshavin and Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge. Both have been on the periphery of the first-team – Arshavin’s even been out on loan – and we discuss whether they’ll be on the move shortly.
Mike Calvin, meanwhile, takes a look at the career prospects of West Ham’s Ravel Morrison after the former Man Utd starlet agreed a season-long loan to Championship Birmingham.
We also analyse all the biggest transfer rumours and assess whether the handful of deals that have been completed end up with in success or failure.
But with the start of the new football season just over one week away and the conclusion of this summer’s transfer window (31 August) getting ever closer it appears as if things are about to get serious.
Chelsea, Arsenal and to a lesser extent Tottenham have largely gone about their own business this summer, landing their principle targets early. But for those clubs yet to achieve their main transfer aims, such as Manchester City and Liverpool, the games of cat and mouse are well underway.
In short, Man City want to buy Liverpool’s Daniel Agger. Liverpool want in excess of £20m for him – in order to fund other purchases – but Man City feel that’s a lot for an injury prone 27 year-old defender with only two years remaining in his contract.
Life’s a Pitch panellist David Walker also reckons £20m is too much, but Tom Hopkinson disagrees. Check out the Liverpool discussion video and its numerous comments to see what everyone else thinks.
But the main event in transfer talk this summer is Arsenal’s Robin van Persie. Manchesters United and City, as well as Juventus, want him, he apparently fancies Man Utd, but Arsenal and Man Utd are nowhere near agreeing a fee. Plus, there’s the latest suggestion that Van Persie has been so impressed by Arsene Wenger’s wheeling and dealing this summer that he’s actually considering staying. Watch the panellists try and get to the bottom of what will actually happen with Van Persie.
Two other players who could also get embroiled in the transfer market are Van Persie’s team-mate Andrey Arshavin and Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge. Both have been on the periphery of the first-team – Arshavin’s even been out on loan – and we discuss whether they’ll be on the move shortly.
Mike Calvin, meanwhile, takes a look at the career prospects of West Ham’s Ravel Morrison after the former Man Utd starlet agreed a season-long loan to Championship Birmingham.
We also analyse all the biggest transfer rumours and assess whether the handful of deals that have been completed end up with in success or failure.
2012年8月9日星期四
Life's a beach
Life's a beach
Which seemed pretty pointless. It was like going to an Olympic final and cheering for the human beings, because both teams in the women's beach volleyball were from over the pond.
That didn't mean there wasn't an edge to it. You know what local rivalries are like: it probably meant there was more of an edge to it. They all hail from California, too. "These girls don't like each other," I was tipped off by one fan, who seemed to know her beach volleyball.
On one side of the net, in the red bikinis, we had the Amazonian Kerri Walsh Jennings, all six-foot-three of her, and Misty May-Treanor, the pairing who have won the last two Olympics. And on the other side of the net, in the white bikinis, were the challengers: Jennifer 'Jen' Kessy and April Ross, the 2009 world champions.
Everything about Olympic beach volleyball is incongruous, especially when played at Horse Guards Parade against the backdrop of some of London's architectural splendour. In the crowd, blokes in suits drinking bottles of official Olympic beer rub up against others in Hawaiian shirts and beach hats. The crowd seems overwhelmingly male. Funny, that.
There's a party atmosphere - "Let's have a parteeeeee," urges the stadium announcer, repeatedly - with loud music, dancers and general joviality. And then the teams appear and threaten to kill the mood, because they are deadly serious.
It seems that everyone has come for a bit of a laugh, except the players. Then again, they are professionals: May-Treanor, the 35-year old playing her final game here, has career earnings of over $2m, and the others are not far behind. And an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal, after all. It doesn't have an asterisk, indicating: 'This was only for beach volleyball.'
True, it is difficult to imagine that Baron Pierre de Coubertin had beach volleyball in mind when he resurrected the Olympic Games in 1896, but he might have approved of the setting. It has won universal praise, with Horse Guards Parade described by some as the world's finest beach volleyball court. What, better than Copacabana? Better than Venice Beach and Bondi Beach? Really?
The game gets underway and it's level pegging until 11-11, and then the defending champs begin to pull away. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that having a six-foot-three Amazonian at the net is a great advantage. Walsh Jennings just stands there, blocking or smashing, while May-Treanor scurries around the sand, flicking the ball back into the air for her partner to finish it off. The other pair do a lot of scurrying, but many of their efforts serve as reminders that sand is not a great surface for sport. Terra infirma. Even the dancers, who appear in the interludes, struggle.
The champions win the first set, 21-15. And the second follows a similar pattern: level until the champs pull away to 14-11, and it begins to look ominous for Kessy and Ross. There's a shaft of light at 14-18, when the champs serve long, but in the next point Walsh Jennings is at it again. The challengers retrieve, set it up, smash, but it's as though a wall has been erected on the other side of the net: Walsh Jennings gets in the way every time.
It ends with a damp squib, when Kessy's serve lands out, and Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor collapse to the sand, and their tears begin to flow into the sand.
Like May-Treonor, Kessy said she would retire before Rio, so in theory Walsh Jennings and Kessy could join forces - but although both teams were gracious towards the other, their body language afterwards didn't suggest that this is on the cards.
So, there's the beach volleyball, with the men's final on Thursday evening. There is a lingering argument about whether it should be in the Olympics. If we have the beach version of a sport that is already in the Games in its indoor form, why not swingball as well as tennis, or subbuteo as well as football?
A little more seriously, if it's about appealing to the youth audience that the IOC is so eager to engage (though all four women's beach volleyball finalists were in their 30s), then why not urban downhill mountain biking, or parkour? Both would be spectacular and thrilling.
It also seems a shame that the glamour of beach volleyball leaves indoor volleyball in the shade. And it doesn't help, in London, that the indoor game is out on a limb, at Earl's Court, in the cavernous exhibition centre. It's a venue that lacks the shiny newness of the Olympic Park, or the splendour of Horse Guards Parade; it's a little bit shabby, but the sport is brilliant.
And the indoor volleyball players are phenomenal athletes. The Goliaths on each side of the net combine great skill with extraordinary dexterity, stooping to reach low balls, stretching to smash high balls and sustaining long rallies -- much longer than their beach-dwelling cousins.
Still, Prince Harry was a fan of the beach volleyball, and returned for Wednesday's final. "We wore our bikinis for him," said the defeated Ross.
Which seemed pretty pointless. It was like going to an Olympic final and cheering for the human beings, because both teams in the women's beach volleyball were from over the pond.
That didn't mean there wasn't an edge to it. You know what local rivalries are like: it probably meant there was more of an edge to it. They all hail from California, too. "These girls don't like each other," I was tipped off by one fan, who seemed to know her beach volleyball.
On one side of the net, in the red bikinis, we had the Amazonian Kerri Walsh Jennings, all six-foot-three of her, and Misty May-Treanor, the pairing who have won the last two Olympics. And on the other side of the net, in the white bikinis, were the challengers: Jennifer 'Jen' Kessy and April Ross, the 2009 world champions.
Everything about Olympic beach volleyball is incongruous, especially when played at Horse Guards Parade against the backdrop of some of London's architectural splendour. In the crowd, blokes in suits drinking bottles of official Olympic beer rub up against others in Hawaiian shirts and beach hats. The crowd seems overwhelmingly male. Funny, that.
There's a party atmosphere - "Let's have a parteeeeee," urges the stadium announcer, repeatedly - with loud music, dancers and general joviality. And then the teams appear and threaten to kill the mood, because they are deadly serious.
It seems that everyone has come for a bit of a laugh, except the players. Then again, they are professionals: May-Treanor, the 35-year old playing her final game here, has career earnings of over $2m, and the others are not far behind. And an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal, after all. It doesn't have an asterisk, indicating: 'This was only for beach volleyball.'
True, it is difficult to imagine that Baron Pierre de Coubertin had beach volleyball in mind when he resurrected the Olympic Games in 1896, but he might have approved of the setting. It has won universal praise, with Horse Guards Parade described by some as the world's finest beach volleyball court. What, better than Copacabana? Better than Venice Beach and Bondi Beach? Really?
The game gets underway and it's level pegging until 11-11, and then the defending champs begin to pull away. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that having a six-foot-three Amazonian at the net is a great advantage. Walsh Jennings just stands there, blocking or smashing, while May-Treanor scurries around the sand, flicking the ball back into the air for her partner to finish it off. The other pair do a lot of scurrying, but many of their efforts serve as reminders that sand is not a great surface for sport. Terra infirma. Even the dancers, who appear in the interludes, struggle.
The champions win the first set, 21-15. And the second follows a similar pattern: level until the champs pull away to 14-11, and it begins to look ominous for Kessy and Ross. There's a shaft of light at 14-18, when the champs serve long, but in the next point Walsh Jennings is at it again. The challengers retrieve, set it up, smash, but it's as though a wall has been erected on the other side of the net: Walsh Jennings gets in the way every time.
It ends with a damp squib, when Kessy's serve lands out, and Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor collapse to the sand, and their tears begin to flow into the sand.
Like May-Treonor, Kessy said she would retire before Rio, so in theory Walsh Jennings and Kessy could join forces - but although both teams were gracious towards the other, their body language afterwards didn't suggest that this is on the cards.
So, there's the beach volleyball, with the men's final on Thursday evening. There is a lingering argument about whether it should be in the Olympics. If we have the beach version of a sport that is already in the Games in its indoor form, why not swingball as well as tennis, or subbuteo as well as football?
A little more seriously, if it's about appealing to the youth audience that the IOC is so eager to engage (though all four women's beach volleyball finalists were in their 30s), then why not urban downhill mountain biking, or parkour? Both would be spectacular and thrilling.
It also seems a shame that the glamour of beach volleyball leaves indoor volleyball in the shade. And it doesn't help, in London, that the indoor game is out on a limb, at Earl's Court, in the cavernous exhibition centre. It's a venue that lacks the shiny newness of the Olympic Park, or the splendour of Horse Guards Parade; it's a little bit shabby, but the sport is brilliant.
And the indoor volleyball players are phenomenal athletes. The Goliaths on each side of the net combine great skill with extraordinary dexterity, stooping to reach low balls, stretching to smash high balls and sustaining long rallies -- much longer than their beach-dwelling cousins.
Still, Prince Harry was a fan of the beach volleyball, and returned for Wednesday's final. "We wore our bikinis for him," said the defeated Ross.
2012年8月8日星期三
Life in prison what Loughner deserves
Life in prison what Loughner deserves
On Jan. 8, 2011 a psychotic and insane Jared Loughner terrorized this community, killing six and wounding 14. A year and a half later, his saner self saved this community further harm by admitting to what he did and agreeing to spend the rest of his life in prison.
The agreement was a bargain with prosecutors – in exchange for his guilty pleas to murder and other charges, prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty against him.
By avoiding a trial, the victims, their families and Tucson avoid being forced to relive that awful day over and over again as prosecutors recreate for a jury the minute-by-minute horrors of the shooting through the testimony of victims, through a video of the shooting as it happened and through grisly photos of the crime scene.
In the end, the sane (or mostly sane) Loughner did what his insane self couldn’t – the right thing.
Yet the decision by prosecutors and Loughner is not without some controversy. Some in this community want to see Loughner put to death for his crimes.
For them, that’s justice.
But it’s not justice. It’s not even punishment. It’s revenge.
Putting a killer to death accomplishes little for the victims of crime or their families. It doesn’t bring the dead back to life, make the scars from bullet wounds disappear, regenerate severed nerves or wash away memories of the terror, pain and sorrow of that horrible day.
Not that the death of a killer doesn’t bring about some primordial sense of satisfaction. It does. But that’s not what justice is about. Our justice system is about punishment for crimes, not retribution for victims. While the blood feud, vendetta, or eye-for-an-eye mentalities were part of archaic justice systems, civilization has outgrown them.
A civil society doesn’t kill its citizens, even if they’ve committed horrendous acts of violence.
If we are to say that killing is wrong, we can’t turn around and say, “except for when the state does it.” If a person has no right to kill another, except in extreme instances in which he is in mortal peril and it’s the only way for him to save himself, then it’s wrong for the state to do it absent any mortal peril.
The state, though, is only in mortal peril at times of war.
Certainly a person in the act of killing others may have to be killed by the state’s law enforcement officers in the interest of saving lives. But if that person is captured instead, as Loughner was, the peril is over. The state has no right to take his life.
Loughner, by his crimes and despite his mental illness, has lost his right to liberty, to walk amongst us in peace. We have every right to be afraid of him, to protect ourselves from the psychotic malevolence that dwells inside of him, and to punish him for the lives he destroyed, even if that destruction was the result of mental illness.
He will deserve every day he spends in prison.
But just like he had no right to kill John Roll, Christina Taylor-Green, Gabe Zimmerman, Dorothy Morris, Phyllis Schneck and Dorwan Stoddard we have no right to kill him, even if it would be oddly satisfying.
On Jan. 8, 2011 a psychotic and insane Jared Loughner terrorized this community, killing six and wounding 14. A year and a half later, his saner self saved this community further harm by admitting to what he did and agreeing to spend the rest of his life in prison.
The agreement was a bargain with prosecutors – in exchange for his guilty pleas to murder and other charges, prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty against him.
By avoiding a trial, the victims, their families and Tucson avoid being forced to relive that awful day over and over again as prosecutors recreate for a jury the minute-by-minute horrors of the shooting through the testimony of victims, through a video of the shooting as it happened and through grisly photos of the crime scene.
In the end, the sane (or mostly sane) Loughner did what his insane self couldn’t – the right thing.
Yet the decision by prosecutors and Loughner is not without some controversy. Some in this community want to see Loughner put to death for his crimes.
For them, that’s justice.
But it’s not justice. It’s not even punishment. It’s revenge.
Putting a killer to death accomplishes little for the victims of crime or their families. It doesn’t bring the dead back to life, make the scars from bullet wounds disappear, regenerate severed nerves or wash away memories of the terror, pain and sorrow of that horrible day.
Not that the death of a killer doesn’t bring about some primordial sense of satisfaction. It does. But that’s not what justice is about. Our justice system is about punishment for crimes, not retribution for victims. While the blood feud, vendetta, or eye-for-an-eye mentalities were part of archaic justice systems, civilization has outgrown them.
A civil society doesn’t kill its citizens, even if they’ve committed horrendous acts of violence.
If we are to say that killing is wrong, we can’t turn around and say, “except for when the state does it.” If a person has no right to kill another, except in extreme instances in which he is in mortal peril and it’s the only way for him to save himself, then it’s wrong for the state to do it absent any mortal peril.
The state, though, is only in mortal peril at times of war.
Certainly a person in the act of killing others may have to be killed by the state’s law enforcement officers in the interest of saving lives. But if that person is captured instead, as Loughner was, the peril is over. The state has no right to take his life.
Loughner, by his crimes and despite his mental illness, has lost his right to liberty, to walk amongst us in peace. We have every right to be afraid of him, to protect ourselves from the psychotic malevolence that dwells inside of him, and to punish him for the lives he destroyed, even if that destruction was the result of mental illness.
He will deserve every day he spends in prison.
But just like he had no right to kill John Roll, Christina Taylor-Green, Gabe Zimmerman, Dorothy Morris, Phyllis Schneck and Dorwan Stoddard we have no right to kill him, even if it would be oddly satisfying.
2012年8月7日星期二
New life on Mars: how Curiosity saved NASA
New life on Mars: how Curiosity saved NASA
To look at the scenes of jubilation - the whooping, the hollering and the high-fiving - you would think that Team USA had just picked up a dozen gold medals. But these scenes were taking place more than 8000 kilometres away from London in Pasadena, California, and the celebrations were not to mark the fact that someone had run faster, or jumped higher, or thrown further; they signified that perhaps the most audacious and risky mission ever to another planet appeared to have been a stunning success.
The Mars Curiosity rover is the largest, most expensive, most complicated and most intelligent machine humans have sent to another planet. Yesterday, about 3.30pm Sydney time, Curiosity came slamming into the Martian atmosphere at about 21,200 km/h, its heat shield glowing with friction as it heated up to hundreds of degrees.
What happened next was a complex technological ballet that was as controversial as it was clever. First parachutes, then retro rockets, then finally a Heath Robinson contraption called a sky crane were used to slow the six-wheeled rover's speed down to 2kmh. The final few seconds of its descent saw it being lowered on four spindly cables from the hovering sky crane before it touched down safely on the sandy floor of Gale Crater.
Many feared that this landing system, which had never been used before, was simply too complicated, and that the $US2.5 billion mission could fail. But the doubters - myself included - have been proved wrong.
"Touchdown confirmed," said engineer Allen Chen at the jet propulsion laboratory (JPL), NASA's planetary science headquarters. "We landed in a nice flat spot. Beautiful, really beautiful," said engineer Adam Steltzner, the man in charge of the landing. So much was hanging on this mission that some people at JPL were nearly physically sick, and at one point the centre's director, Charles Elachi, had to plead for calm.
After the first test pictures came through from the Martian surface, President Barack Obama lauded the success as "an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future".
So what does this mean for our understanding of the Red Planet? First, it cannot be stressed too highly that this was make or break for NASA. Last year saw the effective cancellation of the manned space program with the retirement of the shuttles. If Curiosity had ended up as scrap metal, NASA's planetary science division would have been humiliated, and any requests for funding for future missions would probably have been refused.
Indeed, according to Mars expert Bob Zubrin, the loss of Curiosity could have meant effectively an end to the US venturing into space for at least a generation, and the keys to the solar system would have been handed to the Chinese. But for now, the Red Planet is firmly in American hands.
This is NASA's seventh successful landing on Mars: the first two landers, Viking 1 and Viking 2, touched down in 1976. Since then more landers, including the two large rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which touched down in 2004, have revolutionised our view of this alien world.
Ever since mankind turned our telescopes on the fourth planet in the 17th century, arguments have raged over what kind of world Mars is. Importantly, aside from the moon, it is the only celestial body whose solid surface can clearly be seen from Earth.
Early on it was clear that Mars had ice at the poles and changed colour on a seasonal basis. It had a day just 30 minutes longer than ours, and well into the 20th century most astronomers assumed that Mars was fairly Earth-like and probably home to some sort of life.
The most enthusiastic proponent of "a living Mars" was astronomer Percival Lowell, who in the 1890s at his observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, spent night after night observing his beloved Mars. He saw, or at least thought he saw, a network of canals on the surface, which he reasoned had been built by Martians to irrigate their arid equatorial regions. But talk of canals vanished with the arrival of the first space probes in the 1960s, which showed an arid cratered surface, no canals and certainly no Martians.
What is interesting is how far the pendulum has swung back since - away from Mars as a lifeless, airless lump of rock much like our moon, towards something more like Lowell's view of the place. There are no canal builders perhaps, but we now have the sense of an active world with mighty volcanoes and a surface covered with evidence that this planet once had huge rivers, lakes and even seas.
Observations from orbit, including those from the Mars Global Surveyor, have shown evidence that liquid water may flow on Mars today. What we don't know is whether there is or has ever been life on Mars.
The Viking landers had equipment that watered and fertilised the soil to see if any microbes might be lurking there. The results were inconclusive although some scientists - including the man who defined the experiment, Gil Levin - insist that Viking did find evidence for life.
Spirit and Opportunity were not equipped for life detection experiments but they found that Mars is made of a wide variety of rock, including sediments that were laid down in an aquatic environment.
Curiosity too is not equipped to find life directly (except perhaps the sort that would come and wave at one of its 17 cameras) and this is something that has been met with raised eyebrows. A few years ago, I asked Mike Meyer, head of Mars exploration at NASA, why he would spend all that money sending a robot the size of a large car to Mars and not look for life directly, merely evidence for conditions that are or were life-friendly. He replied that since we have no idea of what Martian life may be like, searching for it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Nevertheless, many scientists, including Britain's Colin Pillinger (the man behind the doomed Beagle 2 mission to Mars), think that life detection should be a priority.
This niggle aside, Curiosity is a fabulous beast. Nuclear-powered, its plutonium batteries provide enough juice to keep it trundling around at a stately 160 metres an hour for maybe a decade or even two. During this time, it will have the opportunity to poke, prod and zap with its laser the complex suite of rocks in Gale Crater and maybe even to climb the mighty five-kilometre high Mount Aeolis (also known as Mount Sharp at NASA) which lies in its centre.
In the coming days, expect to see hundreds of stunning images showing landscapes far more dramatic than we have seen before. In the next six months Curiosity will tell us more about Mars than we have learnt in the last 40 years. When humans eventually visit, towards the end of this century, they will arrive at a world that will be familiar.
NASA spoke of its seven minutes of terror on Sunday night as Curiosity came shrieking through the Martian air like a man-made meteor. It now looks forward to many years of quiet satisfaction and scientific intrigue as this most extraordinary of envoys from humanity undertakes its Olympian exploration of the red world.
To look at the scenes of jubilation - the whooping, the hollering and the high-fiving - you would think that Team USA had just picked up a dozen gold medals. But these scenes were taking place more than 8000 kilometres away from London in Pasadena, California, and the celebrations were not to mark the fact that someone had run faster, or jumped higher, or thrown further; they signified that perhaps the most audacious and risky mission ever to another planet appeared to have been a stunning success.
The Mars Curiosity rover is the largest, most expensive, most complicated and most intelligent machine humans have sent to another planet. Yesterday, about 3.30pm Sydney time, Curiosity came slamming into the Martian atmosphere at about 21,200 km/h, its heat shield glowing with friction as it heated up to hundreds of degrees.
What happened next was a complex technological ballet that was as controversial as it was clever. First parachutes, then retro rockets, then finally a Heath Robinson contraption called a sky crane were used to slow the six-wheeled rover's speed down to 2kmh. The final few seconds of its descent saw it being lowered on four spindly cables from the hovering sky crane before it touched down safely on the sandy floor of Gale Crater.
Many feared that this landing system, which had never been used before, was simply too complicated, and that the $US2.5 billion mission could fail. But the doubters - myself included - have been proved wrong.
"Touchdown confirmed," said engineer Allen Chen at the jet propulsion laboratory (JPL), NASA's planetary science headquarters. "We landed in a nice flat spot. Beautiful, really beautiful," said engineer Adam Steltzner, the man in charge of the landing. So much was hanging on this mission that some people at JPL were nearly physically sick, and at one point the centre's director, Charles Elachi, had to plead for calm.
After the first test pictures came through from the Martian surface, President Barack Obama lauded the success as "an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future".
So what does this mean for our understanding of the Red Planet? First, it cannot be stressed too highly that this was make or break for NASA. Last year saw the effective cancellation of the manned space program with the retirement of the shuttles. If Curiosity had ended up as scrap metal, NASA's planetary science division would have been humiliated, and any requests for funding for future missions would probably have been refused.
Indeed, according to Mars expert Bob Zubrin, the loss of Curiosity could have meant effectively an end to the US venturing into space for at least a generation, and the keys to the solar system would have been handed to the Chinese. But for now, the Red Planet is firmly in American hands.
This is NASA's seventh successful landing on Mars: the first two landers, Viking 1 and Viking 2, touched down in 1976. Since then more landers, including the two large rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which touched down in 2004, have revolutionised our view of this alien world.
Ever since mankind turned our telescopes on the fourth planet in the 17th century, arguments have raged over what kind of world Mars is. Importantly, aside from the moon, it is the only celestial body whose solid surface can clearly be seen from Earth.
Early on it was clear that Mars had ice at the poles and changed colour on a seasonal basis. It had a day just 30 minutes longer than ours, and well into the 20th century most astronomers assumed that Mars was fairly Earth-like and probably home to some sort of life.
The most enthusiastic proponent of "a living Mars" was astronomer Percival Lowell, who in the 1890s at his observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, spent night after night observing his beloved Mars. He saw, or at least thought he saw, a network of canals on the surface, which he reasoned had been built by Martians to irrigate their arid equatorial regions. But talk of canals vanished with the arrival of the first space probes in the 1960s, which showed an arid cratered surface, no canals and certainly no Martians.
What is interesting is how far the pendulum has swung back since - away from Mars as a lifeless, airless lump of rock much like our moon, towards something more like Lowell's view of the place. There are no canal builders perhaps, but we now have the sense of an active world with mighty volcanoes and a surface covered with evidence that this planet once had huge rivers, lakes and even seas.
Observations from orbit, including those from the Mars Global Surveyor, have shown evidence that liquid water may flow on Mars today. What we don't know is whether there is or has ever been life on Mars.
The Viking landers had equipment that watered and fertilised the soil to see if any microbes might be lurking there. The results were inconclusive although some scientists - including the man who defined the experiment, Gil Levin - insist that Viking did find evidence for life.
Spirit and Opportunity were not equipped for life detection experiments but they found that Mars is made of a wide variety of rock, including sediments that were laid down in an aquatic environment.
Curiosity too is not equipped to find life directly (except perhaps the sort that would come and wave at one of its 17 cameras) and this is something that has been met with raised eyebrows. A few years ago, I asked Mike Meyer, head of Mars exploration at NASA, why he would spend all that money sending a robot the size of a large car to Mars and not look for life directly, merely evidence for conditions that are or were life-friendly. He replied that since we have no idea of what Martian life may be like, searching for it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Nevertheless, many scientists, including Britain's Colin Pillinger (the man behind the doomed Beagle 2 mission to Mars), think that life detection should be a priority.
This niggle aside, Curiosity is a fabulous beast. Nuclear-powered, its plutonium batteries provide enough juice to keep it trundling around at a stately 160 metres an hour for maybe a decade or even two. During this time, it will have the opportunity to poke, prod and zap with its laser the complex suite of rocks in Gale Crater and maybe even to climb the mighty five-kilometre high Mount Aeolis (also known as Mount Sharp at NASA) which lies in its centre.
In the coming days, expect to see hundreds of stunning images showing landscapes far more dramatic than we have seen before. In the next six months Curiosity will tell us more about Mars than we have learnt in the last 40 years. When humans eventually visit, towards the end of this century, they will arrive at a world that will be familiar.
NASA spoke of its seven minutes of terror on Sunday night as Curiosity came shrieking through the Martian air like a man-made meteor. It now looks forward to many years of quiet satisfaction and scientific intrigue as this most extraordinary of envoys from humanity undertakes its Olympian exploration of the red world.
2012年8月6日星期一
Apple cloud 'life' wiped
Apple cloud 'life' wiped
What would you do if your entire digital life started evaporating before your eyes and there was virtually nothing you could do about it?
This is the nightmare scenario that greeted US technology journalist Mat Honan, who had all of the contents of his iPhone, iPad and Macbook Air wiped, and lost control of his Gmail and Twitter accounts, all in the span of just over 15 minutes.
And the scariest part is that he had a strong, seven-digit alphanumeric password. Apple has confirmed to Honan that its own tech support staff provided the hacker entry into his online world via a bit of clever social engineering.
Several others have reported similar stories of Apple handing access to their accounts over to hackers. Security experts say it is "very concerning" that Apple's staff could be so easily tricked, while even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes the move to cloud computing will create "horrendous" problems in the next five years.
It all snowballed after the hacker gained access to Honan's account on iCloud, an Apple service that allows users to keep all of their files backed up in the online "cloud", to trace stolen Apple devices and even to wipe them remotely if they fall into the wrong hands.
Once the hacker gained access to Honan's iCloud account, he or she was able to reset his password, before sending the confirmation email to the trash. Since Honan's Gmail is linked to his .mac email address, the hacker was also able to reset his Gmail password by sending a password recovery email to his .mac address.
Minutes later, the hacker used iCloud to wipe Honan's iPhone, iPad and Macbook Air remotely. Since the hacker had access to his email accounts, it was effortless to access Honan's other online accounts such as Twitter.
In a blog post published at the weekend, Honan said he was playing with his daughter when his phone suddenly went dead and rebooted to the set-up screen.
"This was irritating, but I wasn't concerned. I assumed it was a software glitch. And, my phone automatically backs up every night. I just assumed it would be a pain in the ass, and nothing more," Honan wrote.
"I entered my iCloud login to restore, and it wasn't accepted. Again, I was irritated, but not alarmed."
He then fired up his Macbook to try to restore his data from a back-up, but an iCal message popped up saying his Gmail account information was wrong, and then the screen went blank, asking for a four-digit pin.
"By now, I knew something was very, very wrong. I walked to the hallway to grab my iPad from my work bag. It had been reset too. I couldn't turn on my computer, my iPad, or iPhone," Honan wrote.
The hacker eventually deleted Honan's Google account and he was unable to restore it as this required Google sending a text message to his phone, which was now offline.
Honan was previously a writer for gadget blog Gizmodo and still had Gizmodo's Twitter linked to his account. The hacker started tweeting from the Gizmodo account and from Honan's personal account with racist and other offensive remarks.
Apple's tech support could do virtually nothing to help and told Honan that the data on his iOS devices would most likely be gone for good without "serious forensics".
"I've lost more than a year's worth of photos, emails, documents, and more. And, really, who knows what else. It's been a s****y night," Honan concluded.
Honan eventually got his iPhone back online but because he uses Google Voice, and his account was deleted along with his Google account, he couldn't send or receive text messages or make calls. All he could do was wait to see if Google would decide to reinstate his account.
He wrote on Twitter that, even though he used a password management tool called 1Password, this provided no protection as the hacker broke into his account without knowing his passwords.
Honan's blog post went viral on the net, and it wasn't long before staff at Apple, Google and Twitter were on to it. Clearly, being a technology journalist for one of the major tech sites helped him as his Google and Twitter accounts were restored on the weekend. Honan also sent an email to Apple chief executive Tim Cook and, within 10 minutes, received a call from Apple Care.
The hacker also contacted Honan to let him know that they access his account "via Apple tech support and some clever social engineering that let them bypass security questions".
Apple has today confirmed to Honan that it was tricked by the hacker and has since assured him that now only one person at Apple can make changes to his account. The company is still trying to restore the data on his MacBook.
Honan is not the only one whose online life has been upended by a hacker who used social engineering tricks on Apple. Chance Graham, a "designer at Apple" according to his Twitter page, tweeted: "Exact same thing happened to me - iCloud was social engineered via support. All accounts compromised. Hacker contacts me. Same m/o?"
The website MyBB.com was recently hacked and in a blog post the site's owners revealed the attackers used the same iCloud social engineering method.
Chris Gatford, of security consultancy HackLabs, said social engineering was always the easiest method to gain unauthorised access and organisations could only defend themselves by having it performed and seeing how employees react.
"This I assume has not happened at Apple specifically the people at Apple Tech support anyhow," said Gatford.
"This is a very concerning situation and I hope Apple look into this and investigate ASAP."
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak predicted at the weekend that there would be "horrible problems" in the coming years as cloud-based computing takes hold.
"I really worry about everything going to the cloud. I think it's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years," he said.
"With the cloud, you don't own anything. You already signed it away ... a lot of people feel, 'Oh, everything is really on my computer,' but I say the more we transfer everything on to the web, on to the cloud, the less we're going to have control over it."
Ty Miller, CTO at Pure Hacking, said email accounts were considered a "trusted primary contact point" and once your email account is compromised the attacker can easily reset passwords for almost all your other online services. The impact you feel is going to be dependent upon the attacker's intent, he said.
"This can range from destroying your data and a public shaming of the victim for being hacked, through to causing financial losses by causing large Skype bills, or performing complete identity theft where the attacker can take control of your bank accounts and finances," he said.
"To reduce the risk of your online identity becoming compromised, individuals should set very complex answers to password reset security questions, utilise two-factor authentication where possible for online services, and make sure that different passwords are used across all online accounts."
What would you do if your entire digital life started evaporating before your eyes and there was virtually nothing you could do about it?
This is the nightmare scenario that greeted US technology journalist Mat Honan, who had all of the contents of his iPhone, iPad and Macbook Air wiped, and lost control of his Gmail and Twitter accounts, all in the span of just over 15 minutes.
And the scariest part is that he had a strong, seven-digit alphanumeric password. Apple has confirmed to Honan that its own tech support staff provided the hacker entry into his online world via a bit of clever social engineering.
Several others have reported similar stories of Apple handing access to their accounts over to hackers. Security experts say it is "very concerning" that Apple's staff could be so easily tricked, while even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes the move to cloud computing will create "horrendous" problems in the next five years.
It all snowballed after the hacker gained access to Honan's account on iCloud, an Apple service that allows users to keep all of their files backed up in the online "cloud", to trace stolen Apple devices and even to wipe them remotely if they fall into the wrong hands.
Once the hacker gained access to Honan's iCloud account, he or she was able to reset his password, before sending the confirmation email to the trash. Since Honan's Gmail is linked to his .mac email address, the hacker was also able to reset his Gmail password by sending a password recovery email to his .mac address.
Minutes later, the hacker used iCloud to wipe Honan's iPhone, iPad and Macbook Air remotely. Since the hacker had access to his email accounts, it was effortless to access Honan's other online accounts such as Twitter.
In a blog post published at the weekend, Honan said he was playing with his daughter when his phone suddenly went dead and rebooted to the set-up screen.
"This was irritating, but I wasn't concerned. I assumed it was a software glitch. And, my phone automatically backs up every night. I just assumed it would be a pain in the ass, and nothing more," Honan wrote.
"I entered my iCloud login to restore, and it wasn't accepted. Again, I was irritated, but not alarmed."
He then fired up his Macbook to try to restore his data from a back-up, but an iCal message popped up saying his Gmail account information was wrong, and then the screen went blank, asking for a four-digit pin.
"By now, I knew something was very, very wrong. I walked to the hallway to grab my iPad from my work bag. It had been reset too. I couldn't turn on my computer, my iPad, or iPhone," Honan wrote.
The hacker eventually deleted Honan's Google account and he was unable to restore it as this required Google sending a text message to his phone, which was now offline.
Honan was previously a writer for gadget blog Gizmodo and still had Gizmodo's Twitter linked to his account. The hacker started tweeting from the Gizmodo account and from Honan's personal account with racist and other offensive remarks.
Apple's tech support could do virtually nothing to help and told Honan that the data on his iOS devices would most likely be gone for good without "serious forensics".
"I've lost more than a year's worth of photos, emails, documents, and more. And, really, who knows what else. It's been a s****y night," Honan concluded.
Honan eventually got his iPhone back online but because he uses Google Voice, and his account was deleted along with his Google account, he couldn't send or receive text messages or make calls. All he could do was wait to see if Google would decide to reinstate his account.
He wrote on Twitter that, even though he used a password management tool called 1Password, this provided no protection as the hacker broke into his account without knowing his passwords.
Honan's blog post went viral on the net, and it wasn't long before staff at Apple, Google and Twitter were on to it. Clearly, being a technology journalist for one of the major tech sites helped him as his Google and Twitter accounts were restored on the weekend. Honan also sent an email to Apple chief executive Tim Cook and, within 10 minutes, received a call from Apple Care.
The hacker also contacted Honan to let him know that they access his account "via Apple tech support and some clever social engineering that let them bypass security questions".
Apple has today confirmed to Honan that it was tricked by the hacker and has since assured him that now only one person at Apple can make changes to his account. The company is still trying to restore the data on his MacBook.
Honan is not the only one whose online life has been upended by a hacker who used social engineering tricks on Apple. Chance Graham, a "designer at Apple" according to his Twitter page, tweeted: "Exact same thing happened to me - iCloud was social engineered via support. All accounts compromised. Hacker contacts me. Same m/o?"
The website MyBB.com was recently hacked and in a blog post the site's owners revealed the attackers used the same iCloud social engineering method.
Chris Gatford, of security consultancy HackLabs, said social engineering was always the easiest method to gain unauthorised access and organisations could only defend themselves by having it performed and seeing how employees react.
"This I assume has not happened at Apple specifically the people at Apple Tech support anyhow," said Gatford.
"This is a very concerning situation and I hope Apple look into this and investigate ASAP."
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak predicted at the weekend that there would be "horrible problems" in the coming years as cloud-based computing takes hold.
"I really worry about everything going to the cloud. I think it's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years," he said.
"With the cloud, you don't own anything. You already signed it away ... a lot of people feel, 'Oh, everything is really on my computer,' but I say the more we transfer everything on to the web, on to the cloud, the less we're going to have control over it."
Ty Miller, CTO at Pure Hacking, said email accounts were considered a "trusted primary contact point" and once your email account is compromised the attacker can easily reset passwords for almost all your other online services. The impact you feel is going to be dependent upon the attacker's intent, he said.
"This can range from destroying your data and a public shaming of the victim for being hacked, through to causing financial losses by causing large Skype bills, or performing complete identity theft where the attacker can take control of your bank accounts and finances," he said.
"To reduce the risk of your online identity becoming compromised, individuals should set very complex answers to password reset security questions, utilise two-factor authentication where possible for online services, and make sure that different passwords are used across all online accounts."
2012年8月3日星期五
Life without Rangers begins for Scottish Premier League
Life without Rangers begins for Scottish Premier League
Scotland's most successful club have had an amazing fall from grace after their fellow SPL clubs voted 10 to 1 against allowing Rangers newco's application to join the league after the old club couldn't be saved from liquidation.
With the Ibrox club now languishing in the third division it will be at least three years until the Glasgow giants are back in the SPL.
The rest of the top division clubs are preparing to tighten their belts in the absence of their fans and the revenue they bring.
Squads have been slashed across the league after many commentators predicted financial Armageddon for some clubs following fears a TV deal might disappear as a result of Rangers dropping out of the SPL.
SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster and Scottish FA counterpart Stewart Regan both warned of dire financial consequences should the new Rangers start life in Division Three.
However, Sky Sports have confirmed they will continue with coverage of Scottish football for at least another five years with reports that the deal is only worth 10 per cent less than the old one.
Some fans now harbour hope that for the first time in 27 years Scotland's top league could be won by a club outside the Old Firm but the usual two-team race for the SPL should now be won at a canter by Celtic.
For the first time since 1890 there will be no Old Firm league fixtures this season but Celtic have consistently insisted they do not need their Glasgow rivals to flourish.
However, the Parkhead club's manager Neil Lennon expects some sort of impact and his side has let 10 fringe players leave the club.
"Financially and commercially it will bite us a bit but the club has its own financial structure and strategy in place and we'll move ahead regardless," he said.
"We always try and maintain a level ground on the spending going out and the money that we bring in. That hasn't changed."
However, Lennon, whose side open up their title defence against Aberdeen at Parkhead on Saturday, admits he will miss the Old Firm derbies and the challenge throughout the season.
"There's that competitiveness, that rivalry, you are obviously going to miss the games," he said.
"It's a great selling point for Scottish football but they are not here and there's nothing I can do about that.
"What I will say is we need our supporters to back the team now more than ever."
Scotland's most successful club have had an amazing fall from grace after their fellow SPL clubs voted 10 to 1 against allowing Rangers newco's application to join the league after the old club couldn't be saved from liquidation.
With the Ibrox club now languishing in the third division it will be at least three years until the Glasgow giants are back in the SPL.
The rest of the top division clubs are preparing to tighten their belts in the absence of their fans and the revenue they bring.
Squads have been slashed across the league after many commentators predicted financial Armageddon for some clubs following fears a TV deal might disappear as a result of Rangers dropping out of the SPL.
SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster and Scottish FA counterpart Stewart Regan both warned of dire financial consequences should the new Rangers start life in Division Three.
However, Sky Sports have confirmed they will continue with coverage of Scottish football for at least another five years with reports that the deal is only worth 10 per cent less than the old one.
Some fans now harbour hope that for the first time in 27 years Scotland's top league could be won by a club outside the Old Firm but the usual two-team race for the SPL should now be won at a canter by Celtic.
For the first time since 1890 there will be no Old Firm league fixtures this season but Celtic have consistently insisted they do not need their Glasgow rivals to flourish.
However, the Parkhead club's manager Neil Lennon expects some sort of impact and his side has let 10 fringe players leave the club.
"Financially and commercially it will bite us a bit but the club has its own financial structure and strategy in place and we'll move ahead regardless," he said.
"We always try and maintain a level ground on the spending going out and the money that we bring in. That hasn't changed."
However, Lennon, whose side open up their title defence against Aberdeen at Parkhead on Saturday, admits he will miss the Old Firm derbies and the challenge throughout the season.
"There's that competitiveness, that rivalry, you are obviously going to miss the games," he said.
"It's a great selling point for Scottish football but they are not here and there's nothing I can do about that.
"What I will say is we need our supporters to back the team now more than ever."
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