Daily Archives: July 9, 2017

Automation can make life better and worse | Business | djournal.com – Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

Posted: July 9, 2017 at 12:07 pm

The other day I was shopping at a large retail store with a shopping cart full of groceries and other items for the house and yard.

I had too many items for the express lane, but with only four other checkout lanes open, I was tempted to try it anyway.

Instead, I was steered toward the dreaded self-checkout area, which really doesnt have enough room for everyone trying to use the registers there.

I dont mind checking out my own things it can be quite convenient when you have only a few items. If you have a lot, its not so convenient.

Automation is nothing new, of course, but more machines are doing things humans used to do.

For example, the Changying Precision Technology Co. in China makes mobile phones and uses automated production lines. The factory used to be run by 650 employees, but now just 60 people get the entire job done, while robots take care of the rest.

According to Monetary Watch, Luo Weiqiang, the general manager of the company, says the number of required employees will drop to 20 at some point. While there are fewer factory workers, the robots are producing more equipment (a 250 percent increase). Quality also has improved.

And youve probably seen the stories of some fast food chains experimenting with ordering kiosks, replacing the cashiers who normally do that. I wouldnt be surprised at seeing more in the future.

Still, not everything can or should be automated.

In an email sent recently by Ball State University, two Northeast Mississippi counties Chickasaw and Benton were said to be at risk to automation. Three counties were at risk to offshoring (jobs being moved to another country) include Pontotoc, Tippah and Chickasaw.

How Vulnerable Are American Communities to Automation, Trade and Urbanization? was prepared by the Center for Business and Economic Research and the Rural Policy Institutes Center for State Policy at Ball State University.

Automation is likely to replace half of all low-skilled jobs, says CBER director Michael Hicks. Communities where people have lower levels of educational attainment and lower incomes are the most vulnerable to automation. Considerable labor market turbulence is likely in the coming generation.

The analysis also found that roughly one in four of all American jobs are at risk from foreign competition in the coming years.

More worrisome is that there is considerable concentration of job loss risks across labor markets, educational attainment and earnings, Hicks says. This accrues across industries and is more pronounced across urban regions, where economies have concentrated all net new employment in the U.S. for a generation.

So should the residents and workers in those communities be worried about their jobs going to robots or going overseas?

Ive got a pretty good idea why Chickasaw, Tippah and Pontotoc made the list of offshoring manufacturing makes up more than 43 percent of the workforce in Chickasaw, 34 percent in Tippah and 54 percent in Pontotoc.

Its quite natural to assume that those manufacturing jobs can easily be sent overseas.

But using robots to build upholstered furniture isnt something youll see much of. Its still a very labor-intensive job that requires people.

By the way, the Ball State study said the 10 most off-shorable occupations included computer programmers, data entry keyers, electrical and electronic drafters, mechanical drafters and computer and information research scientists.

The study also said the 10 most automatable occupations included data entry keyers, mathematical science occupations, telemarketers, insurance underwriters and mathematical technicians.

So take that for what its worth.

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Turkey torpedoed Crans-Montana conference, Greece says – Cyprus Mail

Posted: at 12:06 pm

Just as Turkey abandoned the first Conference on Cyprus, in Geneva, it torpedoed the second one, the Greek Foreign Ministry has said.

The Greek Foreign Ministry said that Turkey drove the Crans-Montana conference to an impasse. A very characteristic feature of its stance was the revelations Turkey made during the dinner on July 6, when the UN Secretary-General expressed his intention of setting down in writing the points of convergence that had been achieved, it said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres goal, the ministry said, was to shape a framework for agreement so that the conclusive negotiations could continue, with Greeces consent, in New York. But this was not possible, because when the critical moment was reached at the Conference, Turkey resolutely refused to allow a number of promises it had made to the Secretary-General to be set down in writing, the ministry said.

It noted that the Turkish side categorically refused to accept the abolition of the inexistent rights of intervention it invokes. An abolition that, a short while earlier, at a bilateral meeting with the UN Secretary-General, Turkey had indicated it would accept at the dinner that was to follow. And this was because Turkey was aware that all of the participants apart from Turkey itself and the Turkish Cypriots demanded their abolition, it added.

The Greek ministry also recalled that three days earlier, the Turkish foreign minister had bluntly revealed Turkeys position, according to which Ankara needed these rights so that it can intervene throughout Cyprus whenever it deems it necessary.

The Turkish side also revealed during the dinner of July 6 that it wants to continue the violations in the name of the Treaty of Guarantee, to ensure and perpetuate its military presence in Cyprus, it said. This, it said was contrary to the promises the Turkish side had made to Guterres on Thursday afternoon.

Promises that, in hindsight, are revealed to have been an effort to create the false impression that it was ostensibly willing to negotiate. But lies never get one very far, and the truth always finds a way to come out, the ministry added.

It noted that as soon as Turkey was faced with Guterres proposal for a binding written record of the potential compromises, it was forced to reveal and admit its real positions and intentions. It became evident that, throughout the duration of the multilateral negotiations, it said, Turkey had had no intention of compromising, and that, through its stance, sought to deceive the UNSG.

Immediately after these revelatory developments, the UN Secretary-General was forced to declare, in short order, that the Conference had ended, it said.

The Greek ministry said that the Conference ended, with the revelation/confirmation of Turkeys true intentions, which run counter to international law and the resolutions of the UN.

It reiterated that Greece will continue to work relentlessly, with all means at its disposal, for a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem, in close cooperation with the Republic of Cyprus, the UN and the European Union.

The statement is the latest in a line of statements, tweets and public announcements from officials of both sides on who was to blame for the collapse of the talks.

The Turkish foreign ministry said on Saturday that responsible for the collapse of the Conference on Cyprus in Switzerland, were the Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and the Greek Cypriot side.

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Turkey torpedoed Crans-Montana conference, Greece says - Cyprus Mail

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The ‘seasteading’ movement imagines floating cities in the sea – PRI

Posted: at 12:05 pm

The Seasteading Institute in California has an audacious mission: to establish floating societies that will restore the environment, enrich the poor, cure the sick, and liberate humanity from politicians.

Like in the 19th century, when many people left the cities of the Eastern US to gain independence by claiming a patch of land and working it which wasknown as "homesteading" "seasteaders" hope to create a new social, economic and political frontier on the ocean.

Thats the vision of seavangelist Joe Quirk, author of the new book, "Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick and Liberate Humanity from Politicians."

Quirk got involved in the seasteading movement after attending his 10th Burning Man festival. He says he became fascinated by watching rules emerge that are not predictable from their initial parameters. You start imagining, what if we could have more societies like these? What if they didn't just last a week, but all year round? Quirk says. What if we could have hundreds [of these societies]? What interesting ways that people could get along would we discover?

Someone introduced him to Patri Friedman, founder of the Seasteading Institute, who told him about the principles of seasteading, of building floating cities on the sea. As soon as Quirk got home, he found Friedmans blog on the internet. That,he says,was his conversion moment.

Patri identified the problem that governance doesn't get better as quickly as other forms of technology because it doesn't vary or select except through revolution and war, Quirk says. If society floated, and if these floating societies were disassemblable and reassemblable according to the choices of the residents, that would be variation by governments and selection by citizens.

So, Quirk contacted the Seasteading Institute and offered to co-write a populist book with Patri, not just about the ideas, he says, but about the actual people trying to make it happen, who I call aquapreneurs.

About a year after the Seasteading Institute was founded, the group began an experiment called Ephemerisle, a name that combines ephemera with isle. It's an annual festival in Northern CaliforniasSacramento Delta that has been described as Burning Man on the water.

If you want to attend, you have to bring your own land, Quirk says. So people rent boats, they get giant platforms anything that can be put together to float. The idea was that, as people learn the lessons of living together on the water and solve technical challenges, it would slowly expand and move out to the sea.

Despite some ups and downs, Ephemerisle demonstrated the social principles of seasteading exactly as originally described by Patri Freedman, Quirk says.

He elucidated that if you lived on the fluid frontier and land was modular and disassemblable, people who didn't get along could vote with their houseand go form their own separate jurisdiction, he explains. As long as people can choose among them voluntarily, we think we'd create many different solutions for how to live together, which would set examples that could change the world.

Creating cities on the water poses huge engineering challenges. Building in shallow waters is technically possible right now, but building in high waves is so difficult and expensive that only fossil fuel companies can afford it, Quirk says. So, the Seasteading Institute is starting small, with a project in French Polynesia.

We're negotiating with them to create a special, legal island known as a seazone in their territorial waters, so we can apply existing Dutch technology for sustainable floating islands in shallow waters to demonstrate the business model two or three pilot platforms in a very small and nonthreatening way, such that we would absorb the risk, Quirk explains.

French Polynesia is an ideal place to start because its close enough to the equator that it doesn't experience high waves, and its in very warm waters, Quirk says. It's not threatened by cyclones and it is blessed with lots of natural wave breakers, from atolls to lagoons, and it also has lots of very deep water. This is the blue frontier, where we can expand seasteading incrementally.

Seasteading questions a whole host of assumptions about how people live together and govern themselves,Quirk says.From sustainable constructionto agriculture to health care, seasteading requires its planners and participants to rethink just about everything about living on land. Seasteading is also an immediate solution to the looming problem of sea-level rise, which is already threatening coastal countries, especially in the Pacific islands, Quirk says.

French Polynesia sees itself as the blue frontier and they are initiating the blue economy, Quirk says. They want to get this started in French Polynesia to demonstrate that this can work If people like these floating nations, and they are no threat to the world, and they're providing better solutions and they are as delightful as cruise ships, I think we have a humanitarian case to petition the nations of the world to recognize these floating nations as sovereign.

This article is based on an interview that aired on PRIs Living on Earth with Steve Curwood.

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The 'seasteading' movement imagines floating cities in the sea - PRI

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Genius of the unconventional and the patterning of dualities: Wole Soyinka’s early childhood Part 1 – Guardian (blog)

Posted: at 12:05 pm

Wole Soyinkas propensity for the enactment of the extraordinary probably commenced on that day in early 1937 when, at barely three, he sensationally imposed himself on a classroom at the St Peters School, Ake, Abeokuta. This singular demonstration of infantile audacity, no doubt, provided an early illumination of the constitutive character-fibres of one of 20th centurys most defining personalities, as much as it prospectively pointed to an explosive life of successful intellectual resilience. Wole had clearly not attained school age, but had certified himself ripe enough to explore the enchanting world of learning. So, armed with a selection of his fathers most precious books, he had sneaked unnoticed all the way to his elder sisters class, and staged a brilliant argument on why he deserved to be there before an astonished audience of teachers and pupils.

Have you come to keep your sister company? No. I have come to school. Then he looked down at the books I had plucked from fathers table. Arent these your fathers books? Yes. I want to learn them. But you are not old enough, Wole. I am three years old. Lawanle cut in, Three years old wo? Dont mind him sir, he wont be three until July. I am nearly three. Anyway, I have come to school. I have books.

The above drama, as captured in his first published autobiography, Ake: The Years of Childhood, finely situates the beginning of a life-long affinity with books. Before now, he had marvelled on end at his fathers devotion to the printed page, but could not conjure an apt link between books and the classroom: I had made some vague, intuitive connection between school and the piles of books with which father appeared to commune so religiously in the front room. The momentousness of this episode would be highlighted years later, following Woles emergence as a leading global man of letters.

An early, fulminating, almost desperate love for formal education was not the only prior signal of the making of the infectiously enigmatic Wole the world would come to know many decades after. Gerard Moore, providing an interesting accurate picture of the adult Wole, has written: Soyinka combines a talent for society, with an equally marked cultivation of solitude and silence. This characterization also matches his childhood ethos in near absolute terms in the first ten years of his life. Wole sufficiently demonstrated, and in equal measures, that he could be both explosively worldly and deeply introverted. The texture of this paradoxical endowment could only grow with time. Woles incomparable capacity for friendship which is perhaps qualified by a rare brand of large-heartedness is one major pointer to his gregarious tendency. His adult life brims with this rich dose of human companionship. Femi Johnson, the Nigerian business man with whom he enjoyed an enduring alliance would describe him in the following poetically glowing terms: If theres anybody to whom you can give out your heart for safe keeping (if that is possible), go to Hong Kong, come back, and still find the heart pulsating, its Wole. Johnson would further describe Woles predisposition to friendship: He is a very compelling person, someone that you not only wine and dine with; he imparts a lot without being didactic about it. Its amazing what influence he has on people. He has got that compelling, charismatic influence. One episode that Johnson must have known, in corroborating the above submission, is that in which a grown-up Wole leads an entire village men, women and children to hunt down a mysterious wild boar which had tormented them endlessly. Wole, who had personally shot the awe-striking creature, dramatically felt entitled to and eventually took one tigh, leaving the rest of the spoils to the elated villagers. Another long-time friend, the poet and political scientist, Odia Ofeimun, attributes Woles attitude to friendship to his selfless personality, and his almost maniacal generosity. To Ofeimun, Wole is one friend who could give his last, who dwells in the spirit of generosity that he has created around himself.

This same image dominates an assessment of Woles childhood. He had hardly begun schooling when he made himself a couple of friends. Apart from Osiki, his school mate, whose love for pounded yam drew to Wole, there was Mr Olagbaju, his teacher at school, with whom he spent stretches of exciting periods over food and the game of ayo. Soon, Woles mother saw enough in his infant sons inclination and remarked: This one is going to be like his father. He brings home friends at meal-times without any notice. Woles reflective retort to this light-hearted charge captures a frame of mind that would govern his entire life: I saw nothing to remark in it at all; it was the most natural thing in the world to bring a friend home at his favourite meal time. As Woles mother, Eniola, the inimitable Wild Christian would tell Dapo Adelugba, the young enigmas proclivity to companionship played out once more in characteristic drama when on one of his early birthdays in the primary school, Wole assembled a cast of friends for the celebrations without the knowledge of his parents. Wild Christian returned to find their home in an explosive birthday fever, with a gaily Wole announcing to her: Welcome back home, mama, today is my birthday, as you can see.

Another aspect of Woles social-spiritedness has to do with his keen sensitivity to the socio-cultural atmospheres of his time. This temperament may have eventually turned out very critical to his development as one of the most celebrated theatre figures in the world, but the sheer intensity of his curiosity in the Yoruba socio-artistic conversations as a mere child was nothing short of magically prodigious. In spite of the restrictions imposed on his sensibilities by his strong Anglican background, in terms of prescribing a large chunk of the indigenous artistic culture as abominably pagan, they always swayed to these rhapsodic forms of expression of nativity. At the age of four, Wole had to scale a fence to follow an Egungun masquerade procession. He says of those effervescent moments: It was quite usual for me to be returning from church and suddenly find an Egungun masquerade, thats an ancestral masquerade cult, parading with lively music, drums, etcetera, along the street to the discomfiture of the Christian worshippers. Woles insatiable, questioning mind would always break through the barriers of Anglican protection, to yearn for answers: I asked for their significance, what was their meaning? What did they do? His attachment to the community that the masquerades represent, elicits a personal/radical verdict about their importance: I dont know what was so describing about it. I thought it was a glorious spectacle. These views did not change, even when, according to Wole himself, for following them around once or twice I received the requisite number of lashes or slaps.

Woles propensity to withdraw into his deep thinking, meditative, sombre introversion has also been heavily highlighted in the integrated narrative of his life. He sometimes sickening individuality, his unshakable personal conviction on issues, his unwavering confidence in his own judgement and volatile and expansive intellectualism have all been notably linked to his bouts of introspection.

Even individuals with whom Wole has shared the most boisterous of social relationships have had to deal with this sporadic removal from the public space. Femi Johnson, one of Woles closest allies ever, certainly made a preoccupation of handling this situation. According to Johnson, I call him AMP Absent-Minded Professor, because you feel he is always absent-minded. I think his mind is ahead of his entire body. He grunts, and waffles away but he hasnt said anything. Wole cherishes solitude, and the outrageous predilections towards lonely detachment, and this is understandable, particularly because it tends to stimulate his stupendous forge of creativity.

But it is debatable if his intellect would have been as sharp, and as overawing if he had not somehow cultivated a sense of retreat into himself from the earliest stages of his life. Biodun Jeyifo, all of a former student, a personal friend and a leading critic of Woles art, identifies a curious tendency towards inwardness and radical individual autonomy as a major pattern of Woles childhood.

Similarly, Laura Pilar Gelfman, a reviewer of Ake, detects and fleshes out the contours of necessary isolation which Wole imposes on himself: From the beginning of his life, Wole Soyinka finds peace in solitude. He discovers outlets to his family life in nature and he claims these sites as his own. This solemn, introspective behaviour is incongruous with his mischievous nature. The peace Wole finds under the guava tree or on the Jonah rocks helps him to understand himself. He holds great respect for the power of the guava tree. Thus, Wole would always be sufficiently equipped for the intellectual challenges that his life has thrown up in abundance.

Anybody who knows Woles family will be quick to identify his most defining attributes as clear parental bequests. Several commentators have dissected Woles personality along the lines of the copious duality of what mannerism comes from which parent. Dapo Adelugba, reviewing Gerard Moores characterization of Wole as combining a talent for society, with an equally marked cultivation of solitude and silence, points to the well-remarked contrast between his father and mother, who Biodun Jeyifo qualifies as surely one of the most well-matched monogamous marital couples in modern African literature. Jeyifo is, in the above statement, definitely referring to the surprisingly effective complimentarity of the many divergences of the couples life, and of course how they cumulatively converge to very special effect in Wole, the man, and also Wole, the artist.

Woles Father, Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, headmaster at St Peters School, Ake, Abeokuta, was as a convert of the Empire, an embodiment of missionary discipline and decorum, a man very much in love with impeccable intellectual order and an uncompromising believer in the transformational possibilities of colonial education and personal empowerment through learning and character. As a devout Christian, he sought to build his home and raise his children in strict accordance to the teachings of Christ and would deal decisively with any manifestation of juvenile deviance. A very meticulously organised fellow with prominent streaks of bookish withdrawal and deep-thinking composure, Samuel cut the perfect picture of colonial breeding. One of his sons, Femi, describes him, not only as a disciplinarian, a very strict person, religious, very honest person, but also as a gentleman to the core who paid great attention to such matters as mannerisms and appearance. For Femi, who grew up to become a respected medical doctor, He was always well dressed His shoes were always well polished, his suit well kept, and if it was agbada, it will be ironed.Highly intellectually stimulated, he did not just make sacrosanct companions out of books, but revelled in the charged atmospheres of arguments with his friends, one of the very few social indulgences on his very highly regimented schedule.

Woles mother, Grace Eniola Soyinka was the explosive opposite of her husband, Samuel. Boisterous, energetic and full of activity, she is driven by a wild passion in everything she does, from evangelical Christianity, to domestic responsibility, and to civil rights activism. Nowhere near Samuel, Essay, whom Biodun Jeyifo describes as the essence of order, in compact organization, Wole himself gives her the nickname Wild Christian, mainly because of her detonative obsession to get things done almost always with chaotic efficiency. For Jeyifo, Woles appellation also suggests the riot of disorder in her bedroom and the profligate jumble of commodities and objects in her market stalls [which] embodies flamboyant disorganization and barely-contained chaos.

The dominant image of Grace (from Woles Ake and from other sources) is that of the spiritually, mentally and physically strong woman. Extremely courageous, he becomes an important member of a strong pressure group agitating against the colonial injustice of improper and unfair taxation.

A former primary school mate, Chief Simeon Adebo, a former Nigerian Ambassador to the United Nations, corroborates the sense of Graces physical strength in a tribute to her on her death in 1983: I was small at the time and it was she, the female, who protected me from the bullying of the bigger boys. Despite the vast personality difference between them, Woles parents shared certain important traits, and this would invariably play a huge role in the success of their marriage. Both were very hardworking, and of course very kind. Wole remembers their parsonage apartment at St Peters always filled with people, waifs and strays. According to Wole, Essay and Wild Christian collected strays. It seemed a permanent aspect of our life at Ake; with very few lapses, there was always an adult who appeared, without warning, seemingly from nowhere; became part of our lives and then disappeared with no explanation from anyone. These strays almost always received the same treatment as the children of the house, Wole and his siblings. Again, both Samuel and Grace believed strongly in justice as was evident in Graces vitriolic anti-colonial sentiments and Samuels endorsement of them.

As very committed parents, they were disciplinarians, who shared the vision of raising purpose-driven, religious children, who would make notable, if not excellent impact in their chosen life endeavours. Woles younger brother, Femi, reflects on their parents many sacrifices aimed at providing them with an education: Our parents were not rich but one remarkable thing about them was that they denied themselves a lot to educate us. So, I will say that they were parents with vision. They knew the value of education at that time. It was really tough, not that we were denied anything but while our playmates were already wearing shoes, we were going about barefooted. It is not therefore surprising that Wole and his siblings would receive the solid foundation to pursue the very best of education.

No doubt, Woles curious duality as a man of both the private and the public spaces derives from the rich texture of parental distinction provided by Samuel and Grace. That Wole could, in other words, vacillate between temperamental extremes, could be a man of the world as much as he would be a man of his own self, may be traced to strategic genes taken from both parents. The totality of parental influences available to the young Wole can be bifurcated into the direct and the indirect. The direct influences, in terms of consciously articulated and streamlined life patterns dutifully prescribed for the child, include an entrenchment of the foundational behavioural codes governing acceptable existence especially from a Yoruba African point of view/and an inculcation of a sense of life vision, discipline and social responsibility. Wole himself would say of his childhood: Theres a way in which a child is brought up in my society. The first thing is that a child is supposed to be a responsible member of the household. You had your duties, and you had better carry them out I had no problem carrying out duties.

The other critical manifestation of direct parental influence on Wole was in the area of mental, intellectual and artistic equipment. The academic ambience he was born into and his parents positive reinforcements were deeply fundamental. The Soyinkas rigid, religious allegiance to education was never in doubt, but Samuel and Grace made it clear that it was one path each of their children must take. Wole recollects about his parents: They had ways of making us understand that education was critical. Our primary responsibility was to go as far as we could in our own education. So it was letting us see that we had that responsibility to ourselves, to the family. His father, the school headmaster, had even more practical ways of impressing the imperative. He encouraged Wole to read as much as he could, ask questions and have those questions patiently answered.

Samuel Ayodele Soyinka had a keen eye for detection of talents. Soon enough, he found out the direction of Woles instincts and set about nurturing and honing them. Woles penetrating curiosity, of course, made an early, unusual voracious reader out of him and Samuel made appropriate provision for that. Samuel also discovered the artist in the young Wole, who was fascinated will colourfully illustrated catalogues and the brilliant artistic radiance of his first classroom. Femi Soyinka recalls how their father very competently tapped Woles fledging artistic resources: I remember that he had a flair for English and Literature right from childhood and this was helped by our parents, especially our father, who was a teacher then and whom I suspect found these qualities in him early because he encouraged him in this direction. For example, our father really liked a lot of writing and reading and plays and so on. So he used to organise drama and other forms of concert when we were in primary school. And he used to give Wole a prominent role to play. There was this play, I cant remember who wrote it, where Wole played a magician. It was a brilliant performance and there were also other plays that he took part in. Ezewa-Ohaeto was a professor of literature at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Onyerionwu is a doctoral candidate at the University of London, while Ngozi Ezenwa teaches literature at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.

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Genius of the unconventional and the patterning of dualities: Wole Soyinka's early childhood Part 1 - Guardian (blog)

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Hundreds gather to help restore vandalized Colorado Freedom … – Fox News

Posted: at 12:05 pm

AURORA, Colo Robert and Jean Terry stood looking up at the Colorado Freedom Memorial under a row of names. Your brother was 14th I see him, they said pointing above on the wall.

The Terrys came to visit and remember her brother Raymond Stolte who was killed in WWII.

The Freedom Memorial is dedicated to all from Colorado who died while defending freedom.

But July 3rd,someone vandalized itcausing at least $55,000 in damage.

Stolte's name is just one panel over from the glass that someone smashed the day before Independence Day.

"It's hard to understand the mindset of someone that would damage something like this, Robert Terry said. You know it's just beyond my comprehension.

Some of their friends are also among six thousand names of those who died from Colorado.

More than half of whom never made it back home but were buried overseas.

"They were headed back to the fire base when the IED went off under his vehicle, said John Harris whose son Blake was killed in Iraq 10 years ago and now appears on the memorial.

"I think it's an affront to every family member that has a name on the memorial."

"Their kids are on this memorial, saidColorado Freedom Memorialfounder Rick Crandall. So whoever breaks it you broke a piece of glass you broke the heart of families whose hearts have been broken enough already. I mean this is beyond sick to me."

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Hundreds gather to help restore vandalized Colorado Freedom ... - Fox News

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Freedom skid reaches four games as bats go cold; try to avoid road sweep by Crushers today – User-generated content (press release) (registration)

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After a productive start, the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, saw their bats go cold en route to a season-high fourth straight loss Saturday night against the Lake Erie Crushers at Sprenger Stadium by a final score of 4-1.

Taylor Oldham singled with one out in the top of the first and took third on an Andre Mercurio base hit to right field. With two out for the Freedom (32-18), Andrew Godbold drove a ground-rule double to left-center to plate Oldham for the games first run, but a flyout left Mercurio and Godbold stranded in scoring position.

Payton Lobdell (1-3) would go on to cruise through six quality innings for the Crushers (22-27), allowing just two hits and one walk after the first inning.

Freedom starter Enrique Zamora (1-1) battled through command problems through his first four innings, including escaping a bases-loaded, one-out jam with a double-play grounder in the second, but managed to hold Lake Erie scoreless until the fifth. Tanner Lubach led off the frame with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.

L.J. Kalawaia then lined a single to right field, the first Crushers hit of the game, to score Lubach and tie the game. Jordan Dean doubled Kalawaia to third, and Brandon Murray gave Lake Erie a 2-1 lead with a RBI-groundout to shortstop. Sean Hurley capped the Crushers rally with a RBI-single to end Zamoras evening.

Patrick McGrath took over for Zamora with two out and promptly struck out Cody Lenahan to end the inning, but the left-hander gave up an additional run in the sixth on a Lubach RBI-double. Matt Kaster and Sam Brunner each pitched one scoreless inning the rest of the way for the Freedom, but Lake Erie reliever Andrew Utterback retired all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth.

Jose Brizuela led off the ninth with a bunt single off Chandler Jagodzinski, only to be tagged out on a double-play grounder before Godbold struck out swinging to end the game.

The fourth straight loss established a new season-long losing streak for the Freedom, who have also lost three consecutive series heading into the Frontier League all-star break.

The Freedom will look to avoid the series sweep in Sundays finale. Jordan Kraus (7-3) will take the mound for the Freedom against his former team, while Lake Erie will counter with right-hander Steve Hagen (3-3). First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. at Sprenger Stadium.

The Florence Freedom are members of the independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Way in Florence, KY.The Freedom can be found online at FlorenceFreedom.com, or by phone at 859-594-4487.

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Freedom skid reaches four games as bats go cold; try to avoid road sweep by Crushers today - User-generated content (press release) (registration)

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Memories flow as West beats East at Freedom Bowl Classic – The Columbian

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A A

The plays name is Stretch.

Its nothing fancy; its a simply run play, and if you watched Columbia Rivers football team this past fall, it was a popular game every play.

So on a night when the halftime ceremony of the 15th Freedom Bowl Classic honored the Chieftains top rusher last fall, the late Hunter Pearson, including a presentation of his would-have-been game-worn Freedom Bowl jersey to his parents, you bet Nathaniel Trevino, one of four Columbia River players in Saturdays game, ran for him when it when it was first-and-goal from the 2.

It gave us that feeling that he was next to us, playing with us, Trevino said. He always gained more yards than I did.

It was the first of two touchdowns on the night by Trevino, named the Wests defensive MVP in what turned out to be a 38-23 victory by the West team at McKenzie Stadium.

Trevino intercepted East quarterback, Kevin Aguirre of Prairie, which set up his eventual 2-yard score the next offensive series to make it a 19-7 game.

But how the West won this one was its passing game.

The Vancouver Public Schools duo of Hudson Bay quarterback Jordan Hickman and Skyview receiver Jeremiah Wright hooked up for three touchdowns as the West led by as much as 32-7.

All of the Hickman-to-Wright touchdowns came in the first half. Wright earned game MVP honors as he finished with a high school-best 267 yards on 13 catches.

Hickman, the Wests offensive MVP, 22 of 44 for 311 yards and four touchdowns.

Aguirre was the Easts offensive MVP finishing with 81 yards rushing and 234 yards passing on 13 of 31 completions. He had two touchdowns, including one of the East teams two fourth-quarter touchdowns.

Hockinsons Gannon Kytola was the teams defensive MVP of the game for his handful of tackles.

The Freedom Bowl recognized Pearson, who died in a drowning accident May 27 as part their pregame player introductions, and at halftime when his No. 30 red West team jersey was presented to his parents, George and Marina.

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Israel seeks managers for state-backed technology funds – Reuters

Posted: at 12:04 pm

JERUSALEM Israel is looking for firms to manage four high-tech investment funds that will be traded on the stock exchange and given state protection for any losses, the government said on Sunday.

Israel's government has been under pressure to open the country's thriving technology sector to more local investment as foreigners are seen to be mainly reaping the returns of Israel's tech boom.

Most of the capital invested in Israeli companies is in research and development and many firms are acquired by foreign ones at relatively early stages.

Last week, Symantec Corp said it was buying Israeli cybersecurity startup Fireglass, while earlier this year Intel agreed to buy Israeli autonomous vehicle tech firm Mobileye for $15 billion. In 2013, Google bought Israeli mapping service Waze for some $1 billion.

The government will put out to tender on Sunday the management of the two new investment funds, the Finance Ministry and Israel Securities Authority (ISA) said in a joint statement.

Up to four managers will be selected for the funds, which will each have a minimum of 400 million shekels ($113 million), they said.

The funds will combine investments in tech stocks that are already traded, while at least 30 percent will be made in early stage startups, enabling investors -- including institutions -- to benefit from returns in the tech sector in a relatively secure manner, the statement said.

For each fund, the government will provide guarantees of up to 50 million shekels ($14 million). The funds will also be able to raise credit backed by the state of up to 100 million shekels.

"Our proposal is intended to create an investment instrument for the general public that will enable it to participate for the first time in the success of Israeli technology companies, while providing state protection," said Shmuel Hauser, chairman of the ISA, Israel's markets regulator.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

LONDON Alcohol and automobiles famously do not mix - but one Scottish scientist has disproved that maxim by driving a car powered by biofuel derived from making whisky.

WASHINGTON Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc will ask the U.S. International Trade Commission to bar Apple Inc from selling some iPhones and iPads in the United States that use chips made by competitor Intel Corp on the grounds that the devices infringe on six Qualcomm patents.

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Screening technology used for humans a success for Sherbert the horse – Cornwall Live

Posted: at 12:04 pm

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In July 2016, dressage competitor Sherbert the horse was having subtle and occasional lameness issues which owner Libby Gill said was "frustrating" because "one day, or literally one minute he would be fine, the next he would feel lame".

Lameness is an abnormal stance of an animal, usually caused by pain or a mechanical dysfunction. Sherbert suffered from it so badly during a competition at the Badminton Championships last year, that Libby and him were unable to continue despite the lameness being random.

Vets were unable to diagnose Sherbert because, when taken to the vet, he was not appearing lame. Libby was told she had to make Sherbert lame before the vet was able to help, but this was impossible as the lameness would occur on a random basis.

After a chance conversation with a friend Libby heard about Sync Thermology. A type of physiological screening that has been successful for humans for ten years and developed into a service that is accessible for use in veterinary medicine.

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Libby, from Truro, contacted Louisa Jenkins, from Camborne, the Cornwall technician for Sync Thermology.

"Thermography is essentially a test of physiology," Louisa said. "It measures the sympathetic nervous response and detects physiological abnormalities and inflammatory responses."

After consulting the vet Libby took Sherbert to Louisa, who has screening facilities in her yard with medically graded cameras also used on humans.

Louisa Jenkin, Cornwall technician for Sync Thermology.

"I took Sherbert to Louisa's yard as she has the proper facilities there to do it, and it only took about an hour and a half in total from start to finish," Libby said.

"I got the report back really quickly and it identified a few things for us to investigate. I am really pleased my friend mentioned this service to me as without it I might still be going around in circled trying to get to the bottom of it all."

Louisa said she screened Sherbert before and after letting him move around so the screen would show the physiological differences before and after work.

"You see the images and then send them through to our team of vets who interpret the images," Louisa added. "They are also trained in thermography and have interpretation software."

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The interpretation software allows the vets to pinpoint areas of distress or increased blood flow to certain areas of the animals.

She said pinpointing certain areas has helped vets in the past discover hairline stress fractures related to the area of increased blood flow in the animal.

Sync Thermology has been used on dogs, giraffes and other animals in the zoo. "There are technicians all over the country," Louisa said. "So it's pretty much a national coverage."

Louisa said this service was popular because of the little harm it brings to animals and the fact it is the only form of physiological screening which assists vets in pinpointing a problem.

After taking Sherbert to Louisa and having his issues resolved through the screening, the pair have since had a very successful Winter Dressage Championship in Hartpury in April this year. They were placed fourth in the Preliminary Area Festival Final.

"It was such a great weekend and fantastic experience," Libby said. "Sherbert was really on form and pulled it out of the bag just at the right time, I'm delighted."

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KKK rally in Charlottesville eclipsed by protests – The Daily Progress

Posted: at 12:04 pm

A lawful assembly became an unlawful assembly on Saturday afternoon when approximately 50 Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan fulfilled their promise of descending upon Charlottesville in support of its Confederate statues.

For weeks, city officials urged residents to ignore the rally, but that call did not sway the more than 1,000 people who encircled Justice Park with chants, drum circles and signs vehemently condemning the North Carolina-based white supremacy group.

Their rally lasted only 45 minutes, but as the Klan members were escorted by city and state police to their vehicles, they were eclipsed by cohorts of anti-racist groups deriding the Klan and the police in equal measure.

By 4:40 p.m., police declared the scene on High Street an unlawful assembly. After two hours and three canisters of tear gas, authorities had arrested 23 people connected to the protest.

Since Friday, city authorities have been prepping the recently renamed Justice Park for the rally, which Klan members applied for back in May as a response to the citys decision to remove the statues of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from what was then named Lee Park. The decision put Charlottesville in the mix of a nationwide debate over the treatment of Confederate monuments and their racial implications in a modern historical context.

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Business owners, city officials, the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP, civic leaders and a coalition of local clergy helped organize the "Unity Cville" events.

City Councils February decision to remove the statue has been a lightning rod for right-wing politicians and pro-white groups from all over the state, who claim the city is overstepping its bounds by taking down elements of Southern heritage. Rallying under that ideology, the Klan applied for a 3 p.m. assembly beside the statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson that was expected to bring more than 100 Klansmen; as expected, the number of protesters outpaced the roughly 50 who showed by the hundreds.

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At 10 a.m. close to 200 officers from the Virginia State Police and local police departments gathered to go over the days operation.

Hours ahead of the rallys start time and not long after city workers had to clear a splash of red paint from the Lee statue scores of members from Black Lives Matter, Charlottesvilles Showing Up for Racial Justice, Charlottesville Solidarity and other activist groups engulfed Justice Park, waving signs, singing chants and dancing in drum circles.

When black lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back! one chant rang out.

The rally, well-publicized by local and national media alike, drew non-locals from both sides of the argument. Phil Wilayto, editor of the Richmond-based community newspaper The Virginia Defender, came to Charlottesville to support efforts to remove the Confederate statues and oppose the Klans presence.

For 11 years, weve been calling for the Confederate statues of Monument Avenue to come down, so were out here today to show solidarity with the people of Charlottesville, support their struggle and Charlottesvilles struggle to take down the statues, and ask for their help in getting rid of the ones in Richmond, Wilyato said.

On the other side of the fence, Brandy Fisher of West Virginia said she came to oppose the removal of the statues. She was quickly targeted in a barrage of arguments with anti-Klan protesters offended by her hat bearing the Confederate flag.

I, apparently, am wearing a Confederate flag so theyre mad and calling me racist and calling me a Klan member when all Im doing is protesting the removal of our historical statues, Fisher said. I feel like if we remove the statues, were going to make the same mistakes in the future. If you dont look to your past, youre going to screw up your future.

Asked if she supported the Klan, Fisher said she wouldnt care who was holding the rally so long as it was defending the Confederate monuments, but that she doesnt agree with all of the Klans views because theyre racist, and Im not racist.

I dont have a problem with black people, or Mexicans, or Israelis, or [Afghans] or Asians, she said. A person is a person, I take them each individually. I dont agree with all the white people, either, because some of them are pretty damn ignorant.

As the rallys start time drew closer, the crowd thickened and tensions rose as thickets of protesters stationed themselves in and around the Klans expected entrance point. At 3 p.m., with the Klan still nowhere in sight, police had to pull a Crozet man, draped in the Confederate flag, from the protesting crowd.

Speaking to police outside of the crowd, Chris Dudley remained defiant in his opposition to the protest, stating that Gen. Jackson was a hero, and that if it werent for him, none of yall would be here. Dudley said he and his girlfriend had come to the rally alone, but they were later spotted standing amongst the Klansmen.

It wasnt until 3:45 p.m. that the Klan finally appeared; dozens of state police officers formed a two-sided human wall stretching across High Street, parting the sea of protesters for a troop of Klansmen dressed in black shirts or white robes, clutching Confederate flags and signs bearing their white-supremacist creeds.

As some raised their arms in Nazi salutes and others let out a chant of white power, the Klan group was met with a chorus of dissent from the crowd, who called for them to be removed from the park and the city. The Klans rebuttals were often drowned out by the protesters, with some using whistles and noisemakers to quell the Klans cries.

Asked why they decided to come to Charlottesville, Klan member James Moore again expressed a desire to retain symbols of white supremacy while deriding City Councilor Wes Bellamy, who came under scrutiny last fall when offensive tweets were unearthed from his Twitter page.

These are the kinds of people were electing into the government here in Charlottesville ... Wes Bellamy is racist against white people but the thing is, nobodys worried about what Wes Bellamy is saying if its about white people, Moore said.

Bellamy was out of town, celebrating his one-year wedding anniversary.

Condemning the Jewish press, as well as President Donald Trump, whom Moore wrote off as a puppet, the eight-year Klansman said his group did not hate anybody, but rather identified as a white separatist organization.

By around 4:25 p.m., the cavalcade of Klansmen was escorted back out of the park and to their vehicles by police, drawing ire from the crowd of protesters, aghast that the authorities would be accommodating of such a radical group. High Street and its nearby side streets filled with hundreds who continued to rail against the Klans presence, alighting tensions with the state and city officers, several of whom had donned riot gear.

At 4:40 p.m., police declared the scene an unlawful assembly as officers continued to push the crowd back and allow the Klansmen to leave. Multiple reporters from The Daily Progress witnessed members of the crowd being brought to the ground by police and taken away in hand ties. At one point, a member of the crowd deployed a can of pepper spray, a city official said, and when a large crowd refused to leave High Street, a line of officers in riot gear donned gas masks and set off canisters of tear gas.

They just started grabbing us, telling us to leave, and we couldnt go anywhere, said Sara Tansey, who was arrested on East High Street and said she was charged with misdemeanor obstruction of free passage of others. They started grabbing us when we refused to leave.

By 6:15 p.m., 23 people in total had been arrested, said a city spokeswoman, though she said she was unaware of the exact charges levied against the arrestees, or if they were still being detained. Three individuals had to be transported to the hospital: two for heat-related issues and one for an alcohol-related issue.

Speaking after the rally, former Blue Ribbon Commission Chairman Don Gathers said he was proud of the size of the protest but disappointed with the polices behavior in the aftermath, calling it unnecessary.

Now its just devolved into this. Its truly sad. The police, I was so proud of them up until this point, and now this, Gathers said. They treated the Klan members one way: with respect. But then, the folks who came out to stand up to oppression, this is what you do to them? Our citizens deserve better than this.

The Charlottesville Police Department has not yet released a statement about the arrests or incidents that followed the protest.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Mayor Mike Signer wrote that the police succeeded in executing their strategy of protecting the First Amendment and public safety before and during the rally. He called the aftermath of the rally an unfortunate event.

All in all, I believe that we came out of this difficult day stronger than before more committed to diversity, to racial and social justice, to telling the truth about our history, and to unity, Signer wrote. On a very hot day, we made lemonade out of a lemon from North Carolina, no less.

Video: KKK arrives at Justice Park. #charlottesvillekkk pic.twitter.com/rXmlA9qXVX

— The Daily Progress (@DailyProgress) July 8, 2017

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