It was never in question that God of War would return. The franchise is one of Sony’s most successful exclusives of the last decade, and the main trilogy of games were both critically acclaimed and hugely popular. But the ending of God of War III see…
Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book was the first streaming-only album to hit the Billboard 200 chart, and now the album will be eligible for the Grammys. The Recording Academy announced today that streaming-only recordings will now be included in the…
The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to block an amendment that would have prevented the government from stepping in to force weakened encryption and security backdoors, giving law enforcement easier access to citizens’ private data. Althou…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published how it plans to tackle the Zika virus in the event of a domestic outbreak. While there are already cases of the virus in the US, these were contracted overseas and brought back by unwitting…
According to a recent report, 9 cities “from Spain to China” nine cities will soon have “more bike lanes, improved public transit, and financial incentives are pushing cars out and encouraging city dwellers to take to the streets…on foot. In an effort to reduce emissions, improve health, and promote a cleaner environment, these nine cities are making the move to becoming car-free and pedestrian-friendly.”
In a very real sense the shift from an industrial to an information society and now to the age of creativity and innovation the raison d’être for revisiting the American love affair with the automobile is here. By embracing the new shift to smart and sustainable cities we are beginning to open the door to new thinking about the architecture of our cities and renewing their place in our lives.
Some believe the decline of our cities started in 1939 at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. The most popular exhibition was The World of Tomorrow in the General Motors Pavilion. It featured an enormous model of a City of the Future, complete with elevated freeways, on-ramps and off-ramps and gleaming skyscrapers separated by miles and miles of asphalt.
For General Motors and for the rest of America, the vision became reality as more and more roads were built across the country and more and more families were able to purchase their own automobiles.
Only now, almost a decade later, are we beginning to change the lens in our camera, and see the need for a new and vastly different vision of our future and the role of cities.
According to author Charles Handy author of The Age of Unreason, we live in a paradoxical time. The more high tech our world, the more high touch we are becoming. The more global, the more intensely local our focus needs to be. The more competitive our markets, the more cooperation is a critical element in developing our business strategies.
One of the more interesting paradoxes, particularly for cities struggling to define “smart growth” solutions, is that the more we live and work in cyberspace, the more important real place becomes.
If the product of this new age is knowledge or ideas or technological solutions – the more people rub shoulders with one another, with people generally, the more productive they become. A cities public spaces and its cultural districts become incubators of creativity, the source of innovative products and services.
If we are to capitalize on this paradoxical shift by which telecommunications becomes a substitute for transportation, we must renew our sense of place and rethink our attitudes and our policies toward civic life, the village green, and the fundamental and historical reason for the city; to bring people together in harmony with one another and with their environment for economic gain and glory.
Fortunately, a new breed of architects, planners and developers is beginning to pencil in that new vision of America in the Information Age. It is a bold vision that deals with the crises of growth and the current development sprawl, while returning to a cherished American icon; that of a “compact, close-knit community.” According to Peter Katz, author of The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community, the next paradigm could well be much more than the return to the close-knit community of small town America, with its village greens and mixed-use zoning. It could be a spiritual return to the kind of community enjoyed by the earliest Americans.
Tessie Naranjo of the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico defines community as “the human dwelling place.” It is where the people meet the needs of survival and where they weave their webs of connections. Native communities are about connections because relationships form the whole. Each individual becomes part of the whole community, which includes not just the human population, but also the hills, mountains, rocks, trees and clouds.
Until recently, advances in telecommunications and transportation have contributed to our disconnectedness, rather than cemented us as a people; atomized our sense of community, rather than provided us a sense of place. Yet without a cultural center, a shared history or a commitment to neutral goals and visions, there is little to cement communities together.
Chief Seattle, for whom the city of Seattle is named, cautioned: “This we do know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
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This Sunday, June 19th 2016, at 8pm EST, is the WWE Money in the Bank 2016 PPV on the WWE Network. The 2016 WWE Money in the Bank PPV is being heralded as the greatest Money in the Bank PPV ever. Sorry WWE, but I beg to differ. There’s no Intercontinental title match and the Women’s title isn’t being defended. Not exactly a spectacular PPV.
Here are the matches you can look forward to during the 2016 Money in the Bank PPV.
WWE Money In The Bank 2016 Matches:
Dolph Ziggler vs Baron Corbin (Kickoff Show)
Apollo Crews vs Sheamus
Rusev vs Titus O’Neil – United States Championship
New Day vs Galows & Anderson vs Enzo Amore & Big Bass vs The Vaudevillains –
Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Championship
Charlotte & Dana Brooke vs Natalya & Becky Lynch
John Cena vs AJ Styles
Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho, Cesaro – MITB Ladder Match
Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins – WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Are you excited for the Money in the Bank PPV? What match are you looking forward to most?
Be sure to follow me over at my WWE Wrestling Twitter: @RAWisWARbux
so we can chat during the 2016 WWE Money in the Bank PPV! See you then!
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Back in May when the NRA endorsed Trump at their annual meeting, I said I wasn’t sure that either side gained that much by an endorsement that in the past never occurred until nearly the end of the presidential campaign. And while I don’t like to indulge in Trump-like ‘I told you so’s,’ thanks to the terrible night in Orlando, it’s beginning to look like the Trump-NRA partnership may be more of a millstone than a milestone for both sides.
As soon as it came out that the shooter had not only pledged fealty to ISIS during the attack, but had been interviewed by the FBI, Trump mounted his ‘we have to fix this, we have to fix that’ horse and basically supported denying terror ‘suspects,’ no matter how suspect, access to guns.
Taking away gun access to anyone other than a convicted felon, habitual drug user, crazy person or fugitive (in other words, the ‘prohibited’ categories used to deny 4473 transactions by the FBI,) is an absolute no-no when it comes to Gun-nut Nation, in particular the NRA. The closest the NRA will come to any degree of compromise on this issue is their support of a bill introduced by an NRA Senatorial puppet, John Cornyn (R-TX), which basically says that someone who is on the Terror Watch List must wait three days to get a gun, during which time either a decision is made to deny the transfer or the gun walks out of the store.
This is the same procedure which is currently in place with FBI-NICS when a gun purchaser may or may not actually fall into a 4473 ‘prohibited category’ and the FBI needs additional time to decide which way the decision should go. And the overwhelming number of these three-day delays are ultimately approved simply because the information needed by the FBI to make a final determination simply isn’t there. Cornyn’s bill mandates a three-day delay window, but since it really doesn’t create any kind of mechanism for figuring out whether someone on the No-Fly List or Terrorist Watch List might be a threat if he could get a gun, the bill doesn’t change anything at all. Which is why the NRA supports the measure, because they love gun-control laws that don’t do anything to control firearms access at all.
Now here comes Trump, who no matter what issues he grabs, immediately becomes the veritable bull in a china shop, and invariably hurts himself more than he helps. He attacked a Federal judge whose parents, not him, were from Mexico, and his support among Hispanics, if he had any support, disappeared. He told LGBT that he was their ‘best friend,’ because if they can scratch up the $100,000 membership fee they can join his Palm Beach club. And what he got for that bit of comic relief was a ringing denunciation from the Christian Rght, whose support for Trump stands right now at 62 percent, and by the way, these same voters supported Romney to the tune of 79 percent.
But running alongside their newly endorsed candidate is even more problematic for the NRA. They don’t have to worry about the liberals, they’ll thrive on that until the cows come home. It’s the chickens that could come home to roost from the Right if Fairfax appears to be bending, because it wouldn’t be the first time that other gun-owning organizations challenged the NRA.
Back in 2014, a bunch of Gun Crazies walked into a Chili’s with their ARs and AKs, the NRA chastised them for their ‘weird’ behavior, and then quickly issued an apology when the emails and phone calls started rolling in. Take a look at comments made by Larry Pratt, who happens to head something called Gun Owners of America, who has also tangled with the NRA. He makes Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox sound absolutely benign.
So we’ll soon find out if the NRA endorsement of Trump ends up as a blessing or a curse.
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This won’t be the last.
Half a week into the Orlando tragedy, this reality remains pretty much unacknowledged, as cause-seekers focus on security and ISIS and the specific mental instability of Omar Mateen, who, as the world knows, took 49 precious lives and injured 53 others at the nightclub Pulse in the early hours of June 12.
Was it terrorism? Was it a hate crime? Apparently there’s a media obsession with categorizing murder. No, this was faux-war, as all our mass killings are, waged by an army of one or two or a few. And it won’t be the last. Mass killings are part of the social fabric – still shocking, still horrifying, but becoming more and more . . . “normal.”
Tighter security won’t stop them. Destroying ISIS won’t stop them. Banning immigrants won’t stop them. Maybe nothing will – though I don’t believe that. I do believe in karma, which is to say, the idea that what goes around comes around. If we act with violence, violence will come back to haunt us.
Only when the U.S. news media can put its murder stories in a context that includes inner reflection, rather than simply casting about for some external evil to blame – e.g., the killer had a Muslim name, so it must be terrorism – do we have, I believe, a hope of transcending the violent culture we’ve created.
There’s nothing particularly mysterious about this. What goes around usually comes back around in fairly obvious ways. For instance, the day after the killings, Rachel Maddow spent part of her show on MSNBC discussing how Mateen’s fantasy ISIS connection seemingly fit in with the terror organization’s global game plan, quoting an ISIS social media post to its followers in the West:
“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European, especially the spiteful and filthy French or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever, from the disbelievers waging war, kill him in any manner or way however it may be.”
Maddow described this as a tactical change for ISIS: “Stay where you are in the West and commit attacks there. Kill civilians in your home country.” She also talked about how the U.S. is at war with ISIS and has been “dropping bombs on ISIS targets” in Iraq and Syria since the summer of 2014. She made this point coolly, matter-of-factly, giving no hint that she understood that bombs cause a lot of carnage, often killing everyone in the vicinity, including children. Outrage and grief only entered her voice when her reporting turned to ISIS, because . . . my God, what they were promoting was sick beyond belief.
However, their tactical change also struck me as brilliant, in that they had found a way to “drop bombs on Western targets” without having an air force. This was, you might say, improvised shock and awe, borrowing a phrase from the U.S. war machine, which launched a shock-and-awe bombing campaign on Iraq in 2003. The term comes from a 1996 publication by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade, Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance:
“The intent here,” they wrote, “is to impose a regime of Shock and Awe through delivery of instant, nearly incomprehensible levels of massive destruction directed at influencing society writ large, meaning its leadership and public, rather than targeting directly against military or strategic objectives.”
In March of 2003, the U.S. launched its invasion of Iraq – a.k.a, the Big Mistake – with some 1,700 air sorties over the country that killed thousands of Iraqis. Out of this monstrous mistake, and all that followed, ISIS eventually emerged, and started striking back. This sort of karma is so obvious, you have to make a serious effort not to notice it.
But the hell Mateen unleashed at the Orlando nightclub hardly reduces to something this simple. His fantasy connection to ISIS may have been no more than a fragment, at best, of his motivation. Like every mass killer, he was deeply, deeply troubled and seething with social grievances – in his case, homophobia, likely permeated with self-hatred.
The only way to protect ourselves from such a person before he’s committed a crime is to create a surveillance-saturated, endlessly suspicious – and, of course, increasingly fortified and armed – social structure, which probably won’t work anyway, but will surely poison our social bedrock, which is trust.
And as long as the only way we attempt to understand mass murder is on his (or her) own terms, independent of all social context, we will fail to prevent . . . the next one, and the one after that.
The starting place, I think, is to understand that committing mass murder is psychologically the same as waging war. “The defining characteristic of mass murder is not that it’s senseless or random,” I wrote in the wake of the Sandy Hook killings three and a half years ago, “but that the victims (at least some of them) were murdered for purely impersonal reasons. They had significance as symbols, not individuals.”
The murders are not personal. The killer is employing what’s known as the “principle of social substitutability” — substituting a particular group of people for a general wrong.
“The rampage shooters see themselves as moralistic punishers striking against deep injustice,” Peter Turchin explains in his essay “Canaries in a Coalmine.” “. . . it is usually a group, an organization, an institution, or the whole society that are held responsible by the killer.
“On the battlefield,” he wrote, “you are supposed to try to kill a person whom you’ve never met before. You are not trying to kill this particular person, you are shooting because he is wearing the enemy uniform. . . . Enemy soldiers are socially substitutable.”
Under official circumstances, we glorify this sort of behavior. And this glory permeates the American social structure, creating a sort of standing permission for every troubled individual – every potential army of one – to wage war against a self-perceived wrong. Added to this standing permission is the dumbfounding availability of automatic weapons – and suddenly mass murders happen every couple of months.
Throw in one further irony. Mateen had worked for nine years as a security guard at G4S, the largest security firm in the world, which at one time had charge over the U.S. prison at Guantanamo. As The Atlantic noted, he was part of the security system that’s supposed to protect the public from . . . people like him.
– – –
Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com.
© 2016 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, INC.
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By Aileen Campbell, Scotland’s Minister for Public Health and Sport
This summer will see a unique sporting event come to Glasgow. It’s a sporting event that will bring together competitors from over 50 countries, each player with their own story of personal hardship that most of us have, thankfully, never had to tackle.
The Homeless World Cup really is a sporting event like no other and it’s something the Scottish Government is proud to support. Here’s why.
Through sport, we can give people a purpose, improving not only their health but their self-confidence and self-esteem too. The Homeless World Cup is one of the best examples of this, harnessing sports ability to bring people together and change lives for the better.
Using sport to deliver social impact for individuals and communities cuts across almost every area of Scottish Government policy. We want to exploit the benefits of physical activity and sport as a means to improve both mental and physical health.
The chance to represent your country on the national stage can be a powerful and inspiring incentive, and through this tournament we can energise and engage people who, for whatever reason, have become socially excluded. The Homeless World Cup will be free to attend, in the centre of Glasgow and will also be broadcast on free-to-air TV, enabling us to also reach out to people who are not directly involved.
The Homeless World Cup also allows us the opportunity to bring the issue of homelessness to the fore. We have much to be proud of in Scotland in our commitment to addressing homelessness. Scotland has some of the most progressive homelessness legislation in the world from legal rights to settled accommodation and a strong focus on prevention in recent years.
However, homelessness can be a complex issue which can be about far more than the provision of housing. With the achievements we have seen in recent years, there is recognition that homelessness prevention may include addressing issues such as health and personal relationships.
Glasgow is an example of this. Despite some falls in those presenting as homeless, it has the highest numbers of homeless applicants in Scotland. Services are now focussing on how best to respond to the more intensive and complex needs of people who may sleep rough or who may not be able to sustain a tenancy without support.
That’s why innovative initiatives such as the Homeless World Cup are so important. It is an opportunity to help improve outcomes and prevent repeat homelessness, including developing personal resilience, which can help individuals achieve their goals.
So, first and foremost I’m looking forward to watching a spectacular and inspiring tournament this summer. I’m also looking forward to welcoming people from around the world and demonstrating how progressive social policies can make a difference to people’s lives.
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Since making his major league debut on August 1st, 2011, Paul Goldschmidt has quickly established himself as one of the premiere hitters in the National League. Even with an injury-shortened 2014 campaign, Goldschmidt has made a meteoric rise up the Arizona Diamondbacks’ all-time franchise batting marks for home runs, RBIs, and hits. Given the fact that he seems to be willing to accept team-friendly contracts, Arizona fans expect him to be a Diamondback for years to come.
While the lesser known Greg Colbrunn holds the Diamondbacks’ team record for batting average at .310, virtually all other major team batting records belong to long-time Diamondback and fan favorite Luis Gonzalez (if you’re curious, Luis Gonzalez is in second place at .298). Gonzo will no doubt permanently hold a special place in the hearts of Arizona baseball fans for his bloop, series-clinching walk-off single off Mariano Rivera in game seven of the 2001 World Series, but the Goldschmidt taking the crown for many team batting records seems nearly inevitable.
As rapidly as Goldschmidt has climbed the team leaderboards, the only question remaining is when can we expect him to surpass Gonzalez for these team batting records?
Hits
Perhaps Gonzalez’s firmest grasp on a Diamondback team record are his hits while with the team from 1999-2006. Amassing 1,337 hits during this period, Gonzalez has a nearly 500 hit lead over the next closest player on the list, Steve Finley, in second place with 847 hits with the team.
At the time this is being written, Goldschmidt sits at 7th place on the Diamondbacks all-time hits list with 737. However, with Miguel Montero in 3rd place at 795 hits, Paul Goldschmidt will more than likely climb up several spots this season alone. But how long until he could reach Gonzalez’s team record?
Goldschmidt has averaged 174 hits per 162 games played, but has averaged 143 games played since his first full season in 2012 (this includes his injury-shortened 2014 season). Adjusting his 162-game hits average, at his current production, we can expect him to amass about 153 hits per season. Given that he is currently 600 hits from Gonzo’s record, we would expect him to reach the team hits record sometime in 2020. Even by 2020 Goldschmidt would be just 32 years old, so still in the latter part of his prime.
RBIs
With 453 RBIs, Paul Goldschmidt is already 3rd on the Diamondbacks all-time RBI list, and will likely pass Steve Finley, at 479 RBIs, later this year. Luis Gonzalez finished his time in Arizona with 774 RBIs, putting Goldy 321 RBIs away. Using the same assumption of Goldschmidt playing 143 games per year with a 162-game average of 107 RBIs, we would expect Goldschmidt to surpass Gonzalez’s all-time Diamondback RBI record in about three-an-a-half seasons (in 2019 or 2020).
Homeruns
Despite Luis Gonzalez’s monster 2001 season where he hit 57 dingers, he finished his Diamondbacks career with a comparatively modest 224 home runs. Goldschmidt current sits at 128 round-trippers, putting him less than one hundred from the franchise record. Goldy has averaged 30 home runs per 162 games in his young career, and when adjusted for his average of 143 games per season, we could expect him to continue to hit 26 per year (by no means an unreasonable feat). This would mean Goldschmidt might eclipse Gonzo in 3.6 seasons (once again, placing his record-reaching season in either 2019 or 2020).
While Diamondback fans are certainly more focused on rebuilding their team and making post-season runs in the coming years, we hope more than anything that Goldschmidt can stay healthy and continue to play at the level that he has thus far. If he does, we might see some franchise-record-breaking in the next three or four years.
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