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bizarrequazar · 1 year

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GJ and ZZH Updates — August 27-September 02

<<< previous week || all posts || following week >>>

This is part of a weekly series collecting updates from and relating to Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan.

This post is not wholly comprehensive and is intended as an overview, links provided lead to further details. Dates are in accordance with China Standard Time, the organization is chronological. My own biases on some things are reflected here. Anything I include that is not concretely known is indicated as such, and you’re welcome to do your own research and draw your own conclusions as you see fit. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions. :)

[Glossary of names and terms] [Masterlist of my posts about the situation with Zhang Zhehan]

08-27 → A Twitter space was held discussing the upcoming Zhang Sanjian concert, money laundering, and other related topics. [recording] [written notes]

08-28 → Gong Jun posted a douyin of himself trying out a filter. Caption: “A bit darker, but not completely black (manual dog head)” (Possibly referring to his skin colour, as he was just filming a variety show?) BGM is a remix of Just Say Hello by Melo D.

→ The Instagram posted ten photos of “Zhang Zhehan” on a bike trip.

→ Gong Jun Outdoor Office posted a video of Gong Jun filming the earlier douyin. Caption: “Goodnight (from Gong ‘mental work in progress, don’t do it again’ Jun)”

08-29 → Gong Jun posted a commercial he did for the fashion company GXG, officially announcing his endorsement with them. Caption: “On the set, interpret the various roles; in the workplace, focus and never slack off. I am very happy to become the global brand spokesperson of GXG. Join @ GXGfashion, explore the new identity in the workplace, and start a zero-pressure commuting journey with me” The same commercial was also posted by GXG.

→ Gong Jun’s studio posted nine photo ads featuring Gong Jun. The same was also posted by GXG. Caption: “What to wear to work today? @ Gong Jun Simon has the answer: don’t want to be too serious, don’t be too casual, just wear GXG to work!”

→ Flora posted a thread discussing indications that Zhang Zhehan was approached by CAPA after 813 but refused to yield to their demands. [follow-up]

08-30 → GXG posted a vlog from their shoot with Gong Jun. Caption: “Ding, the freshly released spokesperson @ Gong Jun Simon is dedicated and handsome in his entry vlog, it’s hard not to love~~” [subbed video]

→ Gong Jun’s studio posted a vlog of behind the scenes footage from the GXG shoot. Caption: “Comfortable and minimalist, look for yourself. @ Gong Jun Simon's autumn and winter reverie~”

→ The Instagram posted ten photos of “Zhang Zhehan” on a bike trip.

08-31 → The Instagram posted more of the same.

09-01 → Same thing from the Instagram.

→ Gong Jun posted a vlog of him throwing pottery. Caption: “Have a little bit of art 😎” [subbed video] His studio reposted this with the added caption: “‘Gong’ to crafting class, completed successful‘Ye’” (I tried.)

→ Gong Jun’s studio posted a photo of a clay mushroom Gong Jun made, announcing winners of a giveaway for them. Caption: “The season of summer has cooled to autumn, I am grateful to all those who have contributed to the Prince's Mansion. #Han Ye Prince's Mansion Talent Recruitment Order# has come to a successful conclusion!”

→ The Legend of Anle Weibo posted three stills of Han Ye in a post celebrating the show ending for free viewers.

→ Gong Jun’s official fan club posted an image not only confirming rumors of him attending New York Fashion Week (09-11 to 09-13) but also revealing that he’ll be attending Milan Fashion Week (09-19 to 09-21) as well.

09-02 → Gong Jun’s studio changed their Weibo header. This one includes a signature of “Simon” rather than Gong Jun’s usual signature. Fan Observation: Many CPFs commented that the squiggle behind the name looks like a Z. Not only that, but it even seems to match part of Zhang Zhehan’s signature.

→ Gong Jun’s studio posted three photos of him painting pottery. Caption: “Challenge of not having a rollover! @ Gong Jun Simon is quite gifted for this? Not sure, look again 🧐”

→ Gong Jun Outdoor Office posted a photo of the cup Gong Jun made with a large split down the side. (Judging from the video, this was able to be fixed before the clay dried.) Caption: “The birth of a great work of art! (What is a rollover? I haven’t heard of it) (It must be because the little rabbit’s head is too heavy) (I’ve confirmed that it’s a smart rabbit)” Fan Observation: It’s interesting that they’re insisting the little clay animal is a rabbit considering that in the video when Gong Jun is painting the rabbit, he’s looking at something to the left of this one. Based off appearance, I personally would be more inclined to guess that this one is a dog.

→ The Instagram posted five photos of “Zhang Zhehan” hiking in the mountains.

→ Ranyi Music posted an image of Zhou Zishu to promote the Zhang Sanjian KL concert. Either they’re desperate for more attention and/or they’re baiting a lawsuit.

Additional Reading: → An update to the rumors from 08-16 of Gong Jun suing antis and whalers: Several of these are now confirmed thanks to the whalers in question publicly whining about them. [info about one] [another] → Harry, Coya, and Zell are organizing a fandom event for Mid-Autumn Festival, participation is open to all (except whalers)!

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#Zhang Zhehan #Gong Jun #Word of Honor #woh cast #lld timeline

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cyborg-alchemist · 2 years

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Hey Cy this is kind of long so come back to it when you have a spare moment.

Eight years ago I'm at a 4 year university majoring in American Sign Language interpreting. I became really good at communicating in ASL, but I was quite bad at interpreting it back into English. At the end of that particular spring semester, one of my professors spends a lecture talking about technology that benefits the Deaf. Not technology that enables the Deaf to hear (as is typically assumed), but more on technology that help the Deaf communicate despite the inability to hear: texting on cellphones, teletyping companies that make phone calls possible, webcams, and, eventually, manual prosthetics.

A one handed person can still communicate with ASL. A one armed person has more challenges to face but still very doable. Fingers are, as one can imagine, incredibly important for signed languages. He tells us about two of his past clients and what it was like to be their interpreter. Then he shows us different videos online of various prosthetics from wooden (and eventually plastic) non-moving prosthetics used for the majority of human history, and mimicking the limited mobility in one of his arms to show us how much communication could improve. We saw videos of the various stages of movable hand prosthetics that, while were not designed with ASL communication in mind, could still work in various ways to aid communication. There's so much more to mention about class that day, but by the time we came to the variety of prosthetics with movable digits (and then prehensile digits) that, on top of their intended use to provide better manual ability to those with missing limbs, hands, or fingers, could also provide better aid in communication with signed languages for those that needed it, the topic of cost came to the forefront of the conversation.

The only video that I distinctly remember from class that day, that I have now remembered off and on randomly for the last eight years, was of a particular organization taking part in a technology conference championing methods of affordable (advanced?) prosthetics that had taken place a few months prior to that class. In the video after an introduction to the company on stage they invited a 19-year-old without fingers on their left hand to demonstrate a slip-on prosthetic that the teenager themself designed with their father (despite living on opposite coasts no less). A prosthetic enabling a simple and strong grasp was strapped on and immediately functioned without extra readjustment or help from the host or the spokesperson of the demonstrating company. It was such a quick moment from attachment to function that the audience was immediately on their feet. Something that surely would cost anyone well over $20k was built at home with $50 in raw materials. At the end of the video my interpreting professor made a comment about how excited he was when he was putting together these links to come across that video, showing us how much extra information could be more easily related just by having a grasping hand with fingertips and a thumb, and how it being able to be built with consumer available tools. He moved on to other more electronically complicated prosthetics, but multiple times a year for the last eight years any time I see a robotic hand in fictional TV, or a YouTube video showing the manual dexterity in the robotics they're creating, or something like that one video of the "$120 million robotic hand controlled by thoughts" I think of that teenager walking up on stage and bringing the audience to their feet and the host having to settle them down.

I did not become an interpreter, and I've legitimately only been harassing you with my NDE jobs because you're the first welder I've come across that uses Tumblr in my 9+ years of being on this godforsaken website (if I did come across a blog who was a welder before now it was not apparent). I had no idea I had been making my submissions to the ponytailed engineer that lives rent free in my head. It's been a long time since that conference, a lot of things can happen in 8 years, do you still work with that prosthetics company at all? Considering your shop stories it doesn't sound like it. Were any of those goals of providing accessible prosthetics realized?

Oh hey! it looks like we've come full circle. Yes, that was definitely me. You're probably talking about my Intel talk? That was pretty early in my 3D printed prosthetics... career? I've always been suspicious of any device that uses over $100 in electronics... or any electronics at all, for that matter.

These days, I rarely use my prosthetics, mostly because I haven't gotten around to one strong or durable enough to use in the ironworks. I have one hand with all the fingers ripped out, for whenever I get the chance to TIG weld. all the TIG wire I've used is about the same diameter as my tendon lines.

I am... off and on in contact with e-Nable, but I've always kind of fought with them about making their designs too fiddly, not strong enough. There were some university students who were very excited to test out their heat resistant material on a new hand for me, but that hasn't moved forward.

There's a strong part of me that wants to build a simple hand out of leather and steel, that I can weld tools or simple jigs to as needed. I'm thinking something that goes all the way up my arm, possibly with a shelf for carrying shit, and basically an excavator claw on the end.

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aquarian-sunchild · 6 years

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I don't like it, fam.

So I read HuffPo's article about Mila Kunis expressing herself about her breakup with Macaulay Culkin in 2011. I've been trying to keep up with Mac's re-entry into celebrity (I have a soft spot for child celebrities and I've been cheering him on for a while) and obviously Google has noticed and suggested I search his name today. Heh.

Anyway, Mila's interview with this podcast is all over entertainment news, particularly about how she feels at fault for the breakup, that she was young and stupid and so on. She used phrases like "I was a dick" and "I fucked up".

I...feel uncomfortable.

Here is where'd I put Thor making that "Eeeeh?" face at Hulk if I wasn't in the post office parking lot.

The first thing that struck me was the timing of this interview. In the past couple months Mac has been making appearances on late night interview shows and Ellen, doing AMAs on Reddit and co-piloting a podcast of his own. A lot of this activity is certainly intended to foster interest in his first film in years that's soon to be released. Mila Kunis, to the best of my knowledge...isn't doing anything besides being a mom and a spokesperson for a bourbon brand. She's not promoting anything at the moment. That this topic suddenly becomes gossip fodder at this particular moment in time REEKS of some sort of PR cleanup. Trying to get Mac's reputation as spotless as possible before he makes his comeback.

And she says this but doesn't say anything about what she did? And says she knows they're on better terms through what mutual friends have told her? So there's been no actual interaction between the two? Nothing is making sense to me here.

And like, it takes two to break up. Maybe Mila feels guilt, but what did Mac do? Why doesn't anyone want the other story? Why are people immediately assuming she cheated? Goddamn!

My personal theory is that he was starting to spiral into drugs and she left as a means of professional and personal self preservation. I mean, I'm a fan of the roles Mac plays, but I don't buy that he WASN'T on hard drugs in the early 2000s. Come on. That dude almost turned into Gollum.

Add to this whole thing that the first thing I got Googling Mac's name was pages of self-flagellating Mila Kunis and I'm left with a very odd taste in my mouth.

Also the fact that Mac is approaching 40 and dating a woman who only just left her twenties also leaves me feeling...thor-eeeehh.jpg

I just hate the timing of this. It seems shady as shit.

I also hate typing homeboy's full name if you haven't noticed. I type slowly and I got shit to do. Deal with it.

So yeah. This has been a post.

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your-dietician · 3 years

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ATF fails to produce gun records, keeping industry in shadows

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/latest/atf-fails-to-produce-gun-records-keeping-industry-in-shadows/

ATF fails to produce gun records, keeping industry in shadows

One gun store had hundreds of firearms missing from its inventory. Another transferred a weapon to a convicted felon in a parking lot. Many more sold guns to prohibited buyers or without properly conducting background checks.

The sweeping analysis that uncovered these law-breaking gun dealers was possible only because the gun control organization Brady waged a years-long legal fight to compel the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to produce records that by law should be public.

The nearly 2,000 gun dealer inspection reports analyzed by The Trace and USA TODAY provide an unprecedented look inside the ATF’s regulation of the firearms industry. They also represent less than 2% of the inspections conducted in the past decade. The full extent of gun dealers’ noncompliance, and of the ATF’s failure to regulate them, remains unknown.

Off Target:After repeated ATF warnings, gun dealers can count on the agency to back off

The ATF’s production of documents related to Brady’s Freedom of Information Act request is still ongoing. On June 3, the agency acknowledged in a filing that even the core set of inspection reports analyzed by The Trace and USA TODAY was incomplete, adding that “determining which reports are missing will take more time than originally anticipated.”

The slow and inconsistent production of documents is consistent with what activists, lawyers, and former employees say are widespread problems with the ATF’s FOIA program. A law enforcement and regulatory agency, the ATF frequently breaks or ignores public information law, making it harder for citizens, journalists, and researchers to monitor its effectiveness.

On We, as part of a sweeping new effort to combat gun violence, the Biden administration directed the ATF to release more detailed information about the inspection process. The new data will contain inspection counts and outcomes broken down by the agency’s field divisions. The White House said the measure was intended to “promote transparency and accountability for the enforcement of our existing gun laws.”

The reforms will bolster access at an agency with one of the worst track records when it comes to producing public information, federal data shows. The ATF routinely takes months or years to fulfill even basic FOIA requests and sometimes ignores them altogether. Many of the more complicated requests only receive a response when filers take the ATF to court, as Brady did — a costly process out of the reach of most people.

Josh Scharff, legal counsel for Brady, said the ATF’s poor recordkeeping systems limit its ability to respond to FOIA requests in a complete and timely manner.

“I would start by putting a lot of the blame on Congress for passing laws that restrict the ATF’s ability to manage its own data, while also under-resourcing the ATF,” he said. “At the same time, it’s incumbent on the ATF to do better, and it can do better with what it has, to manage its own data and information.”

During the course of The Trace and USA TODAY’s reporting, ATF spokesperson Andre Miller dismissed the notion that the agency’s inspections process is secretive, saying that the information is available to the public via FOIA. However, FOIA logs show that attempts to get information from the agency often fall short. In 2020, the agency received about 1,200 requests and failed to respond to more than 250 of them. The ATF failed to fulfill nearly 20 requests filed by The Trace and USA TODAY over the course of their investigation.

In a statement, the ATF acknowledged problems but said the situation had improved in recent years. ATF spokesperson Erik Longnecker said the agency’s disclosure division had reduced its backlog to the lowest level since 2013, and that the division slashed the average processing time by 41 days last year.

“We continue to improve our information-sharing capabilities,” Longnecker said. “We acknowledge that there is still room for improvement. ATF, in direct coordination with the Department of Justice, has made considerable investments.”

Access to public records sheds light on the ATF’s failings and its achievements, yielding valuable information for elected officials, voters, and victims of gun violence. ATF employees also use public information requests to prove evidence of internal mistreatment, misconduct, retaliation, or wrongful termination. Reporters, activists, and lawyers use FOIA routinely to probe the agency’s inner-workings and spotlight problems in need of fixing.

Gunita Singh, a legal fellow for the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, said the slow trickle of information provides a significant obstacle to the public’s understanding of gun violence, a topic of increasing concern among Americans.

“The sheer pervasiveness of [gun violence] requires robust dialogue and action, and can only take root when the public is as informed as possible,” Singh said. “If a federal agency takes months to years to respond to a records request or cites a baseless exemption to withhold records, that’s a major problem.”

More:Gun used in Odessa shooting shows risk when illegal sale starts with home-based dealer

In a declaration filed in the Brady lawsuit, Adam Siple, chief of the ATF’s information and privacy governance division, detailed the agency’s haphazard efforts to speed up FOIA processing. After the House Committee on Oversight and Reform asked for similar records to those requested by Brady, the agency reassigned some of its inspectors normally charged with visiting gun stores to help work on the request.

Siple believed the extra hands would allow the ATF to stay on schedule to produce the reports. But the idea backfired, he wrote, with inspectors’ work so inconsistent that senior records staff had to redo it, negating “any benefit associated with the detailees” and further slowing down the process.

Some current and former ATF employees said the agency obfuscates to avoid embarrassment. The agency has often drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle related to failed enforcement operations and its regulation of firearms.

In 1993, the ATF came under fire for its assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, setting off a firefight and a weeks-long siege that resulted in the deaths of dozens of people. More recently, the agency faced scrutiny for a botched effort — known as Operation Fast and Furious — to track guns flowing from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.

The ATF has also become an easy target for pro-gun lobbyists, whose Republican allies have effectively stopped the agency from updating its record keeping systems and left it with consistent staffing shortfalls. Since 2003, a budget provision known as the Tiahrt Amendment has blocked the ATF from using federal funding to release information about traces of crime guns, a restriction that Scharff says the agency has embraced.

“The ATF absolutely does take an unnecessarily expansive view of Tiarht’s restrictions on releasing data that it collects and maintains,” he said. “And as a result of that, the ATF fails to release data and information on firearms trafficking and gun industry behavior that the public has a right to know.”

The ATF currently faces 16 pending FOIA lawsuits, according to The FOIA Project, a FOIA accountability database maintained by Syracuse University.

In 2017, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting filed a lawsuit after the ATF stopped responding to a FOIA request seeking statistics on guns used in crimes. The ATF argued that querying the database containing the requested information would violate federal law.

If the ATF’s argument had been upheld in court, it would’ve given legal standing for all federal agencies to withhold any information held in an electronic database. Instead, in 2020, a 9th Circuit Appellate Court ruled against the agency.

“Were we to agree with ATF…we may well render FOIA a nullity in the digital age,” Judge Kim Wardlaw wrote in the majority opinion.

The case alarmed advocates and attorneys focused on freedom of information.

“We saw extreme pushback by the agency that risked thwarting transparency in drastic ways and well beyond just withholding ATF data,” said D. Victoria Baranetsky, Reveal’s general counsel who litigated the case. “This opacity handicaps constituents as well as legislators from having knowledge that is relevant to legislative decisions on public safety.”

In fiscal year 2020, the ATF processed about 1,600 FOIA requests, according to federal data. Federal agencies are required to respond to requests within 20 business days, though few meet this deadline.

Among the 76 agencies that completed 500 or more FOIAs in 2020, the ATF had the fifth-longest processing time for requests designated as complex — about 16 months. Across the federal government, the number of FOIA requests backlogged was less than one-fifth the number of requests processed. For the ATF, it was nearly half.

Agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement all outperform the ATF when it comes to completing public records requests.

The ATF’s lethargic response time has become so problematic that even ATF staff struggle to receive information from their own agency.

“They follow the policy of give nothing, and make the requester fight for it,” said Vincent Cefalu, a former ATF agent who was fired after his role in exposing the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal. Cefalu, who filed multiple FOIA requests as part of a lawsuit alleging retaliation by the ATF, said the lack of transparency drives a wedge between the agency and the public.

“It’s been a longstanding rule in law enforcement: We don’t work in the shadows, we work in the daylight,” Cefalu said. “It begs the question, ‘What are you hiding?’”

Other former ATF staff echoed Cefalu, saying that the agency’s secrecy breeds a poor workplace culture while simultaneously doing a disservice to the public.

“If the people who were the shady part of the ATF were exposed to a FOIA, and FOIA was actually doing its job, the shady part wouldn’t exist,” said Norm Bergeron, a former ATF agent who retired in 2017. Bergeron successfully sued the agency for information after he requested documents regarding why he was passed over for a promotion.

In his retirement, Bergeron assists current and former agents attempting to obtain public information from the agency, often related to issues of retaliation and equal opportunity.

“We don’t need any new gun laws,” he said. “We need an agency that’s going to enforce them, and is transparent about their enforcement.”

Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY and Brian Freskos, The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to improving public understanding of gun violence, increasing accountability and identifying solutions.

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actutrends · 5 years

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Trump careens toward a Christmas crisis with North Korea

The stress threaten to blight Trump’s foreign policy record as his 2020 reelection quote shifts into complete gear.

Considered That Trump has actually simply been impeached, Kim might even see him as much more susceptible to exploitation.

” Tactically, the election plays a role and the whole impeachment process plays a role,” stated Jung Pak, a previous senior U.S. intelligence officer now with the Brookings Institution. “Kim most likely sees Trump as being hemmed in domestically and more desperate for an offer.”

This past week, Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, went to U.S. allies Japan and South Korea to guarantee them of America’s continued dedication to their security and to ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

Biegun also took a trip to Beijing to speak with Chinese officials about their role in coaxing Kim to back down.

While in South Korea, Biegun urged North Korea to jump-start settlements, which have actually gone no place because Trump and Kim held a truncated February top in Vietnam.

” Let’s get this done. We are here and you understand how to reach us,” Biegun said.

Biegun said the U.S. is aware of North Korea’s prepare for a “Christmas present,” which experts and authorities say could range from a space satellite launch to an ICBM test. Biegun likewise said the U.S. will not put a time limit on negotiations as Kim appears to have actually done.

” Let me be absolutely clear: The United States does not have a deadline,” he said.

Biegun did not handle to protect a session with North Korean authorities– at least not one openly announced. An East Asian diplomat following the situation stated a Biegun-North Korea meeting would have been be a key indication of development for the U.S.

” Beijing and Pyongyang are only a 2-hour flight distance,” the diplomat noted.

Trump, on the other hand, appears to view Election Day as a pseudo-deadline of his own when it concerns North Korea. The president has actually continued his attempts to curry favor with Kim by personally applauding him while concurrently warning him not to take things too far.

” Kim Jong Un is too wise and has far too much to lose, whatever really, if he acts in a hostile method,” Trump tweeted Dec. 8. “He does not want to void his unique relationship with the President of the United States or disrupt the U.S. Presidential Election in November. North Korea, under the management of Kim Jong Un, has significant economic capacity, but it needs to denuclearize as promised.”

The tweet– an extraordinary appeal to a foe that frequently threatens to incinerate U.S. cities– didn’t appear to have the intended result.

The direct insults stood out due to the fact that during much of the Trump-Kim love– Trump as soon as said the pair “fell in love”– Kim and his functionaries prevented slamming the U.S. president himself, even though they were willing to assault some of his aides.

Trump and Kim have fulfilled in person three times: at a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018; in Hanoi in February; and along the North Korean-South Korean border in June.

While the 2 signed an unclear joint statement on denuclearization in Singapore, the relationship stumbled in Vietnam. There, Trump declined to agree to lift numerous U.S. sanctions on North Korea in exchange for what U.S. authorities said were minimal curbs on its nuclear program. The top ended early, without a clear plan for the next step. Since then, despite Trump and Biegun’s appeals, and in spite of the June conference, there’s been little development.

North Korea has actually repeatedly warned of a year-end deadline for Trump to provide concessions, presumed to include raising sanctions. Because May, North Korea has actually likewise begun as soon as again evaluating rockets, which it had stopped doing while the Trump-Kim diplomacy was going well.

Trump has downplayed the current tests since they involve short-range projectiles that do not threaten the continental United States, though they have actually alarmed U.S. allies. If North Korea’s “Christmas gift” ends up being a long-range rocket test and even a nuclear test– the last one of which it conducted in 2017– that would raise pressure on Trump to recalibrate.

” Trump will be required to act and act in a strong method,” predicted Joseph Yun, a previous U.S. special representative for North Korea Policy.

Concessions or enabling peace?

Trump and his assistants have taken several, norm-shattering steps to end the decades-old, apparently intractable U.S. conflict with North Korea. That consists of having Trump become the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader and the first to set foot on North Korean soil.

Trump likewise has actually cancelled joint military workouts with local allies, which he typically calls “dry run,” to help sweeten incentives for Pyongyang to talk.

Just last month, the Pentagon stated the U.S. and South Korea were delaying a joint aerial military exercise in an act of goodwill toward North Korea. And Defense Secretary Mark Esper safeguarded the decreased joint exercises as a way to “allow peace.”

North Korean authorities have responded coldly, however, implicating the U.S. of ongoing hostility.

The U.S. relationship with South Korea has been damaged as Trump looks for to require Seoul to pay considerably more for the presence of U.S. troops in the nation. Some reports have actually put Trump’s need at an increase of 400 percent, bringing the expense to $4.7 billion, a figure that has actually rattled his own consultants. Talks on the concern this week failed to accomplish a deal.

The Trump administration, determined to restore the nuclear talks with Pyongyang, likewise is reported to have actually scuttled efforts at the United Nations to hold a Security Council meeting on human rights abuses in North Korea.

Trump when went to fantastic lengths to highlight atrocities by Kim’s totalitarian routine; however considering that the pair started corresponding and meeting, the U.S. president has actually gone mute on that topic.

On the global front, the Trump administration is encountering growing impatience with its strategies toward North Korea. Russia and China, both U.S. foes that are frequently skeptical of efforts to push North Korea, are calling for an easing of the U.S. sanctions

While neither Moscow nor Beijing is excited for North Korea to keep its nuclear weapons, both say they watch out for a possible humanitarian crisis in the country. Ought to Kim’s regime teeter or fall, either might trigger a refugee crisis and local instability that would impact China and arguably Russia more straight than the United States.

In a go to previously this month to Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov panned U.S. suggestions that sanctions will be lifted just after North Korea quits its nuclear program.

” You can not require North Korea to do everything and right now and only then return to guaranteeing its security and lifting the sanctions and the rest of all of it,” Lavrov said, including that North Korea has “definitely legitimate economic and humanitarian needs.”

There is growing issue amongst Democrats that the Trump administration does not have a solid method– and that it’s attempting to conceal information about the real circumstance in North Korea.

in a letter dated Wednesday, Senate Democrats urged the president to emphasize diplomacy and pursue, as a primary step, an interim arrangement with Pyongyang that freezes its nuclear program. They likewise pressed Trump to prevent a go back to the “fire and fury” language he utilized against North Korea early in his term.

” We also advise you to take every necessary measure to deepen and enhance our alliances with [South] Korea and Japan, along with our other local partners,” wrote the senators, among them Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

North Korea also includes prominently in the latest National Defense Permission Act.

In a joint explanatory declaration on the last variation of the costs, which Trump signed Friday, lawmakers from both celebrations expressed issue about White Home foot-dragging when it pertains to sharing details on North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. They pointed out that the Trump administration was more than 300 days late in just recently sending a report to Congress on that subject.

” The administration’s unwillingness to share information with Congress on North Korea badly impairs the Congress’s ability to evaluate the national security hazard positioned by North Korea on behalf of the American individuals,” said Monica Matoush, a Democratic spokesperson for your home Armed Services Committee. “We will continue to push to ensure Congress is able to successfully satisfy its constitutional obligations.”

A Republican representative for the Senate Armed Services Committee stated it “remains dedicated to offering strong oversight concerning U.S. policy towards a North Korea.” The White House declined to comment for this story.

One open concern is how Biegun’s function on North Korea will change in the coming months as he takes on new duties. On Thursday, he was verified as the new deputy secretary of State. The current deputy, John Sullivan, will take control of as U.S. ambassador to Russia.

Offered the possibility that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might run for Senate from Kansas, there’s also a possibility that Biegun might soon have to act as acting secretary of State.

In the meantime, at least, Biegun is anticipated to keep the North Korea portfolio even as he functions as Pompeo’s deputy. Would his higher rank imply that the North Koreans are more inclined to engage with Biegun, whom they’ve mainly avoided?

Some analysts are skeptical. After all, Kim has access to Trump.

” I don’t think we must expect any changes from North Korea since Biegun got promoted,” Pak stated.

Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.

The post Trump careens toward a Christmas crisis with North Korea appeared first on Actu Trends.

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morningusa · 5 years

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Republican defenders mostly silent, with two vivid exceptions, as at least one additional whistleblower steps forward Trump’s course of self-defense, meanwhile, appeared to be increasingly erratic. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty ImagesAs Donald Trump strived to enforce message discipline among Republicans in the face of a building threat that he will be impeached, new forces beyond the US president’s control appeared likely to accelerate the congressional impeachment inquiry further in the coming week.At least one additional whistleblower has stepped forward to describe an alleged scheme by Trump to extort Ukraine for dirt on Democratic 2020 presidential rival Joe Biden, the individual’s lawyer announced.Congress is preparing to take testimony on Tuesday from a major figure in the Ukraine scandal, Gordon Sondland, a wealthy hotelier and major Trump donor who was made US ambassador to the European Union.Similar testimony last week by former US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker led to the disclosure of a damaging series of text messages further implicating Trump in the scandal.And Trump’s would-be defenders in the Republican ranks, with the notable exception of two figures who themselves are deeply implicated in the Ukraine affair – secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani – have fallen mostly silent. No Trump defender from the White House appeared on the US Sunday morning news shows, nor did any members of the congressional Republican political leadership.Trump’s course of self-defense, meanwhile, appeared to be increasingly erratic. The president told House Republicans that his reportedly outgoing energy secretary, Rick Perry, was the secret Machiavelli behind a phone call Trump held with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, central to the scandal, Axios reported.“Not a lot of people know this but, I didn’t even want to make the call,” Trump was quoted as saying. “The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to.”Article 1 of the United States constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power to initiate impeachment and the Senate the sole power to try impeachments of the president. A president can be impeached if they are judged to have committed "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" – although the constitution does not specify what “high crimes and misdemeanors” are.The process starts with the House of Representatives passing articles of impeachment. A simple majority of members need to vote in favour of impeachment for it to pass to the next stage. Democrats currently control the house, with 235 representatives.The chief justice of the US supreme court then presides over the proceedings in the Senate, where the president is tried, with senators acting as the jury. For the president to be found guilty two-thirds of senators must vote to convict. Republicans currently control the Senate, with 53 of the 100 senators.Two presidents have previously been impeached, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Andrew Johnson in 1868, though neither was removed from office as a result. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before there was a formal vote to impeach him.Martin BelamA spokesperson said that Perry had urged Trump to speak with Ukraine about natural gas but not about Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, or a conspiracy theory about Ukrainian election tampering, which were the topics Trump raised on the July call.“Lesson to all of you Trump aides,” tweeted Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress, “he’s taking you all down with him so you might as well get off the boat while you can.”After a week in which his campaign seemed to dither over Trump’s constant attacks, Biden published a pugilistic op-ed in the Washington Post declaring “enough is enough”. “You won’t destroy me, and you won’t destroy my family,” the piece concluded. “And come November 2020, I intend to beat you like a drum.”On Sunday afternoon, Biden criticized Trump on Twitter.> In my experience, asking a foreign government to manufacture lies about your domestic political opponent is not “done all the time.” https://t.co/w8K8C17yUj> > — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2019News of at least one more whistleblower with direct knowledge of Trump administration interactions with Ukraine emerged Sunday. “I can confirm that my firm and my team represent multiple whistleblowers in connection to the underlying 12 August disclosure to the Intelligence Community Inspector General,” tweeted Andrew Bakaj. “No further comment at this time.”Trump spent Sunday morning tweeting outrage at Democrats and at Mitt Romney, who has been the only GOP senator to condemn Trump’s Ukraine dealings in strong, clear terms.At the weekend, Maine Republican senator Susan Collins said of Trump’s comments last week saying China should investigate the Bidens, that: “I thought the president made a big mistake by asking China to get involved in investigating a political opponent. It’s completely inappropriate.”But the efficacy of Trump’s efforts to keep Republicans onside in his defense was also visible at the weekend, with Pompeo telling reporters in Athens that it was the government’s “duty” to investigate a conservative conspiracy theory placing Ukraine instead of Russia at the heart of 2016 election tampering. That conspiracy theory has been debunked thoroughly.Another Republican senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, scrambled on Sunday to make amends for his admission on Friday that he had heard the state department was trying to put together a deal in which military aid for Ukraine would be tied to Zelenskiy’s cooperation in Trump’s alleged conspiracy against Biden.Johnson used an appearance on NBC News’ Meet the Press to become adamant about how Trump had personally told him there was no such linkage, and then, to the intense frustration of host Chuck Todd, Johnson peddled the Ukraine election tampering conspiracy. “What happened in 2016?” said Johnson. “Who set him up? Did things spring from Ukraine?”But Colin Powell, the former secretary of state under George W Bush, called the whistleblower a “patriot” in an appearance on CNN.“The Republican party has got to get a grip on itself,” Powell said. “Republican leaders and members of the Congress … are holding back because they’re terrified of what will happen [to] any one of them if they speak out.”Meanwhile the former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, who has mounted a primary run against Trump, accused Trump of betrayal.“This president deserves to be impeached,” Walsh said on CNN’s State of the Union. “This president betrayed his country again this week … He stood on the White House lawn and told two foreign governments to interfere in our election. Donald Trump is a traitor.”Minnesota senator and Democratic 2020 election candidate Amy Klobuchar amplified that message, comparing the Ukraine scandal to Watergate.“This is impeachable,” Klobuchar told CNN. “He’s acting like a global gangster, going to one leader after another trying to get dirt on his political opponent. I consider that a violation of our laws.”

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

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mikemortgage · 6 years

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Reinsurer acquired by AIG plans foray into Canadian market

A recent acquisition of American International Group Inc. is now aiming to sell insurance to insurers in Canada.

Bermuda-based Validus Reinsurance Ltd., whose parent company was bought by AIG for US$5.56 billion last year, is eyeing a Canadian branch, according to notices given in the Canada Gazette.

New York-based AIG already operates in Canada through a subsidiary, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, which provides property and casualty insurance. Validus Reinsurance, however, would provide insurance for insurance companies.

“In particular, Validus Reinsurance, Ltd. intends to provide in Canada treaty and facultative reinsurance of commercial property and casualty and specialty risks,” a recent notice said. “All classes of insurance will be limited to the business of reinsurance.”

Winnipeg firm that brings big data to the farm hooks up with reinsurance giant

Intact Financial warns of ‘catastrophe’ losses as wind, hail, rain wreak havoc

Insurance industry struggles with increasing costs of natural disasters

Validus plans on filing an application with a federal regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, for an order to enable it to insure risk in Canada, the notice said. The company’s “chief agency” in Canada will be located in Toronto.

AIG is a century-old insurer that operates in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. It remains an S&P 100 stock, making it one of the biggest companies in the United States by market value, even after receiving an approximately US$180-billion bailout from the U.S. federal government during the financial crisis.

AIG has since repaid the government. It then branched out again last year by buying Validus Holdings Ltd., saying the acquisition would help it grow profits.

“We look forward to working with the Validus team on the expanded capabilities and value we can deliver to our clients and broker partners,” said Peter Zaffino, AIG’s chief executive officer of general insurance, in a release last July.

More recently, AIG reported a net loss of US$622 million for its quarter ended Dec. 31, 2018. However, its chief executive officer said in February they “continue to expect to achieve an underwriting profit entering 2019 in General Insurance and to reach double digit returns for consolidated AIG in three years.”

AIG did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The guideline OSFI uses for foreign insurers intending to set up a branch in Canada says applications for an order to insure typically take at least 12 to 18 months.

“OSFI reviews each application on a case-by-case basis,” a spokesperson said in an email.

Reinsurance has been a topic of interest to OSFI. The regulator released a discussion paper on reinsurance last June that included proposals intended to address certain risks.

“In light of the increasing reliance on reinsurance and the emergence of new and evolving business models related to the use of reinsurance, OSFI must ensure that its reinsurance framework remains appropriate,” the paper stated.

The insurance for insurers “has become increasingly important over time,” said Jeremy Rudin, Canada’s superintendent of financial institutions, during a Q&A session in December.

“I think, with climate change, it will become even more important,” Rudin added, according to a transcript of his remarks. “We hadn’t reviewed our reinsurance framework for a good ten years, so it was more than overdue.”

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: GeoffZochodne

from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2F8dJki via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

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adelaideattractions · 6 years

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Foster care payment scheme promising $75k salary being considered in SA

Updated October 22, 2018 19:00:31 The South Australian Government is considering a move that would offer people a tax-free $75,000 salary to give up their careers and become foster carers for the state's most troubled children. Key points:The SA Government will closely monitor a foster care trial payment scheme in NSWCarers taking part in the two-year trial will be paid a salary of $75,000 tax-freeThe program is aimed at finding the best candidates to help children with complex needs The foster care trial was announced last month by the New South Wales Government, which would pay specialised foster carers the tax-free annual wage to temporarily look after children with complex needs. About 30 children aged between seven and 17 are expected to be part of the two-year trial which is scheduled to begin this December. SA Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson said the Liberal Government would be closely monitoring the trial. She said the State Government would be considering "all options" to help fix the current system in the state. "What we do know is that child protection in South Australia is not working," she told ABC Radio Adelaide. "We've had very, very poor results and we're paying a lot of money to get very poor outcomes for our children." In South Australia, foster carers receive a fortnightly support payment not a salary the amount of which depends on the age of the child. The payment, which ranges from $342 for children under five to $738 for those aged 16 to 18, is only intended to cover the costs of caring for a child. Specialist carers for children with complex needs are entitled to more, about $46,000 per year, but still significantly less than the amount being proposed in NSW. 'Make a big difference' in a child's life Ms Sanderson said the program in NSW that was being monitored from SA would target professionals from other industries who could be suitable foster carers.

Photo: Rachel Sanderson said "all options" were on the table to fix the system. (ABC News) "These are aimed at children who have been in residential care or commercial care that have been left there because they're deemed to be unsuitable for a family situation because of the high level of need that they have," she said. "This is aimed at professionals that might have the experience, whether they're nurses or teachers or psychologists or social workers that may be retiring or near the end of their career. "Or [it could be those] who would like to take a break from their career that can really make a big difference in a child's life." Ms Sanderson said there were about 70 children in commercial care in the state, with professional carers who work eight-hour shifts. She said the State Government would closely monitor the NSW program to see if it would be suitable to implement in South Australia. "The aim is to stabilise the child and get them the right supports and programs so that they could fit into a family because we know family-based care is the best outcome for all children," she said. "Everything is on the table because the Liberal Government is here to make a difference to children's lives, not only those in care but also stopping children from coming into care by supporting families better early on." Worth looking at despite 'difficulties', Labor says Opposition child protection spokesperson Jayne Stinson said she was supportive of the State Government's move to fix child protection services.

Photo: The Opposition has called for more funding for existing foster programs. (Sharon Mollerus: Flickr) But she did have some issues with the plan, and said there were already programs in place that should receive additional funding. "Anything that could possibly bring more foster carers into the system and the right foster carers is certainly worth looking at," she told ABC Radio Adelaide. "There's a few difficulties with it. They include things like human resources [and] OH&S because obviously employing someone full-time in their own home, those difficulties come up. "Most of the models that have been looked at as professionalisation at the moment, look at just doing it for high-needs kids, so the hardest kids to place and the children that require full-time assistance." Ms Stinson said she would support any program that looked to improve care for children, but highlighted other models already available including enhanced foster care models that the Government should be putting money into first. "The [Nyland] Royal Commission said that's where we should be putting our money and our focus at the moment because those have had proven results that are successful," she said. Finding the right people for the job Chair of Health Economics at the University of South Australia, Professor Leonie Segal, applauded the State Government's plan to monitor the interstate trial. She said it made sense for the children and it also made sense economically, as it was better than paying thousands of dollars to pay people who only worked eight-hour shifts. "I think there's a lot to recommend it, particularly when you're talking about the very troubled children," she told ABC Radio Adelaide. "It means that we can actually recruit highly skilled professionals whether it's social workers, occupational therapists perhaps, mental health nurses, psychologists so people who actually have the skill level that's matched to the needs of the children." She said it would also provide an opportunity for those professional carers to help the children to reunite with their families in a safe and stable environment. "It might be initially a two-year arrangement and in that time the professional foster carer would also work with the birth family to try to repair relationships," she said. Topics:child-abuse,family-and-children,government-and-politics,children,community-and-society,health,child-health-and-behaviour,adelaide-5000,sa,nsw,australia First posted October 22, 2018 17:59:27 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-22/foster-care-tax-free-salary-being-looked-at-by-state-government/10403716

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cryptoga-blog · 7 years

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Bitcoin Income or Bcash: What is actually in a Name?

http://www.cryptoga.com/uncategorized/bitcoin-income-or-bcash-what-is-actually-in-a-name/

Bitcoin Income or Bcash: What is actually in a Name?

As Bitcoin Income, or Bcash, is slowly but definitely turning into a functioning cryptocurrency, a single topic stays contentious in particular: its name.

Quite a few proponents of the coin, judging by preferred sentiment on social media like Reddit and Twitter, favor the preliminary name: Bitcoin Income. But an escalating variety of end users, together with lots of who are more skeptical of the new coin, think about this name way too shut to “Bitcoin” and as a result complicated. They as an alternative refer to the new coin as “Bcash.”

“The ‘Bitcoin Cash’ challenge didn’t have time to put together branding prior to splitting from Bitcoin, so the community offered a name and emblem to enable the challenge triumph on its individual merits,” explained “BashCo”, the pseudonymous moderator of the r/Bitcoin subreddit who labelled the new coin as “Bcash” in a substantially-go through “sticky” on that subreddit.

History

In its short historical past, what we now know as “Bitcoin Cash” and “Bcash” has currently long gone through a number of name changes.

The challenge was very first publicly launched on June 14. At that level it was referred to as Bitmain’s “contingency approach,” which the components company would start in situation the BIP 148 user-activated tender fork took off. An implementation of this approach was presented a small more than two weeks afterwards as “Bitcoin ABC” at the Future of Bitcoin convention in Arnhem, the Netherlands. But as it turned out, this was truly the name of the specific computer software implementation presented — not of a (foreseeable future) forex.

This difference grew to become crystal clear an additional two weeks afterwards, as Chinese mining pool ViaBTC declared to recognize the Bitcoin ABC approach to generate a new coin, which it would get in touch with “Bitcoin Income,” with the ticker BCC.

It didn’t just take prolonged for folks to recognize this was problematic. On the r/btc subreddit, user “paleh0rse” very first proposed a name adjust, due to the fact “the comprehensive name ‘Bitcoin Cash’ is heading to confuse the dwelling shit out of newcomers, the basic community, and media alike.” paleh0rse as an alternative proposed the name “Bitcash”, but this suggestion didn’t attain substantially traction.

On major of that, the ticker BCC was currently taken at a number of exchanges. In most instances, BCC is linked with BitConnect Coin, a major-20 cryptocurrency by market place cap in accordance to coinmarketcap.com. And significant Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex employs the ticker BCC for BTC futures in situation Bitcoin Limitless generates a new forex (BTU). As a result, some exchanges listing the new coin less than an different ticker: BCH.

Bcash

It was a single of these exchange, Bitfinex, that also declared a comprehensive name adjust for the cryptocurrency itself. As opposed to ViaBTC, Bitfinex made the decision it would use the name “Bcash” as an alternative of “Bitcoin Cash” as the descriptive name: “to stay clear of confusion with Bitcoin.”

Bitfinex’s lead was adopted by two of the three wallets that at first made the decision to combine the new coin: components wallet Trezor and multicurrency wallet Jaxx. In a statement on Twitter, Jaxx COO Charlie Shrem explained that they, not unlike Bitfinex, designed their decision in purchase to stay clear of user confusion.

“We have hundreds [of] countless numbers of end users who have no clue what is heading on,” Shrem wrote. “Saying ‘bitcoin cash’ is complicated as hell to them. Until you’re in user ops for a large corporation you likely have no plan how substantially folks don’t realize technicals of bitcoin. 99.9999% #bitcoin end users are not on Twitter or Reddit and don’t know anything at all technological about it.”

Likewise, when asked by Bitcoin Journal, Trezor architect Marek “Slush” Palatinus explained:

“The purpose we favor to use ‘Bcash’ is to secure end users from working with the completely wrong wallet by accident. This would be a enormous dilemma specifically due to the fact Bcash has the exact same tackle structure as Bitcoin, so we are not able to secure end users on the application amount. We asked the Bcash crew to adjust the tackle prefix before start, which would remedy it. But they refused.”

These fears do appear to be backed by true-environment info. A study carried out by Pierre Rochard indicates that some 25 per cent of normal folks don’t know that “Bitcoin Cash” is distinctive from “Bitcoin.” And so considerably there are, certainly, a variety of reports on social media from end users that accidentally despatched BTC to a BCH wallet or vice versa.

Bitcoin Income

Nonetheless, Bitcoin Income proponents stay unconvinced.

Quite a few sustain that the name “Bitcoin Cash” simply is what the new coin is named, and claim that the name “Bcash” is largely pushed by these who disapprove of the challenge. Some even go so considerably as to think about the rebranding insulting or even a “social attack” on the new cryptocurrency, solely supposed to “degrade” it to an altcoin like any other.

Bitcoin ABC lead developer Amaury “Deadal Nix” Sechét and a single of the initiators of the challenge advised Bitcoin Journal that he does not like the “Bcash” rebrand version either. Ironically, wherever “Bitcoin Cash” critics don’t like the name due to the fact it confuses end users with Bitcoin, Sechét thinks that working with a new name for Bitcoin Income is complicated.

“Pushing for a 2nd name is an try at complicated end users. The folks who do this do not have the ideal fascination of end users in intellect,” he explained. “If everybody would swap to ‘Bcash’ I would also swap. But it seems like that name comes from a incredibly loud minority. And I think ‘Bitcoin Cash’ is much better anyways: Bitcoin forked in two branches. These two branches are now two flavors of Bitcoin.”

So considerably, most providers that built-in the new coin into their assistance in a single way or an additional, together with Bittrex, Changelly and BTC.com, have also preferred to use the name “Bitcoin Income.”

The exact same is real for instantaneous cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift.

When asked by Bitcoin Journal, Emily, the formal spokesperson for ShapeShift, explained:

“We made the decision to get in touch with it Bitcoin Income due to the fact that is what the developers of the challenge get in touch with it. We are not using any political sides on this make any difference and are just treating it as we do any other asset that is in substantial demand from customers by our end users.”

Resolution

There is no crystal clear resolution for this “conflict.”

Although another person, someplace might have a trademark on the name “Bitcoin,” this trademark has so considerably never been enforced. And with no government, corporation or any one entity in cost of the cryptocurrency, any person can in the end get in touch with the new coin what ever they like.

Additionally, considering that even Bitcoin end users that are significant of the new challenge received a share of BCH, it’s no stretch to assume that the greater part of BCH holders are fine with “Bcash” or even favor it.

“Bcash is our coin way too,” BashCo pointed out. “The backlash against ‘Bcash’ is unfortunate considering that lots of of us who recognize that ‘Bcash’ is remarkable branding are keeping just as lots of Bcash tokens as we keep in Bitcoin tokens. We want to enable Bcash produce into a sturdy brand name that will compliment Bitcoin without complicated end users.”

But of program, the most ardent supporters of the new challenge disagree that “Bcash” is any much better. They generally favor to preserve the word “Bitcoin” in the name due to the fact, from their level of see, the coin is a continuation of the Bitcoin challenge they obtained concerned in.

“I’d say the name, ‘Bitcoin Cash’ conveys what the challenge intends to do, although also differentiating from Bitcoin, as Bitcoin made the decision to go in an additional direction than peer-to-peer cash,” Séchet explained. “People who see anything at all else in there, like an try at complicated end users, are projecting.”

And although Séchet did accept the problems presented by the comparable names, he prefers to remedy these problems through other implies.

“I concur it’s a dilemma if end users accidentally send BTC to Bitcoin Income addresses, or the other way spherical,” he explained. “For this incredibly purpose, switching the tackle structure is in the designs. But notice that even when a coin is despatched to a completely wrong tackle, that coin is not missing for good. As prolonged as you keep the personal keys you can retrieve the resources.”

Bitcoin Journal has made the decision to use “BCH” for the exact same purpose some exchanges did: “BCC” is taken. Shifting ahead, we’ll refer to the new coin as “Bitcoin Cash” as well as “Bcash” for short, not unlike “Segregated Witness” and “SegWit.”

Disclaimer: The author of this short article received BCH and has not bought all of it however.

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sherristockman · 7 years

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WebMD Implicated in Cancer Coverup Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD, has been the director of nutrition for WebMD, one of the most visited health sites on the web, for 13 years.1 Listed in her extensive biography are ties to United Healthcare insurance company, for which she serves as a nutrition expert, as well as contributing editor to Food & Nutrition Magazine. She's also received a high honor from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics — the 2016 Lenna Frances Cooper Memorial Lecture Award — among many other accomplishments. But what is not mentioned, however, is that Zelman also participates in Monsanto's Leaders Engaged in Advancing Dialogue (LEAD) Initiative. The participants — 15 "communication leaders in the food and nutrition space" — receive funding from Monsanto and "communicate with consumers who have questions about food and agriculture, especially how food is grown." They also "engage with the food and nutrition community through various outreach initiatives."2 WebMD's Little-Known Ties to Monsanto The fact that WebMD's nutrition director is being paid by Monsanto (the company won't say how much) to talk about the benefits of Monsanto products is concerning, especially since the general belief is that WebMD is a trustworthy source of "independent and objective" health information. It's become quite clear, however, that WebMD is a shill, using its influence to promote corporate-backed health strategies and products. In 2016, for instance, WebMD featured Monsanto-sponsored ads saying, "It's time for a bigger discussion about food," with links to Monsanto's biased take on soil, water and honeybee issues, with no other contributors to the discussion in sight. In other words, Monsanto pays WebMD to display advertisements and advertorials on its behalf, furthering their agenda. Advertorials are essential ads that appear to be actual journalism, which can easily be misunderstood as "real," science-backed content. If WebMD is carrying Monsanto's message, even if it's clear that Monsanto crafted it, then many will simply assume that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) must be safe. Beyond assumptions, WebMD is also peppered with pro-GMO articles,3 so it's no secret where their loyalty lies. Monsanto Pays Registered Dieticians to Spread Their Agenda Influencing federal agencies and utilizing registered dieticians to spread their agenda is Monsanto's modus operandi. Zelman is but one registered dietician who belongs to Monsanto's LEAD Initiative. Mary Lee Chin, MS, RDN is another. In March 2017, media outlet Mic released snippets of Chin's emails, which were obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, and shared examples of her social media posts, which do not disclose that she's a paid consultant for Monsanto.4 In a 2014 email to Jon Entine, founder of the Genetic Literacy Project, a GMO- and pesticide-friendly blog that sponsors a biotech conference known as the Biotech Literacy Project, Chin said she hoped the LEAD group would be invited to the 2015 conference. According to Mic:5 "In the emails, Chin wrote that the LEAD group has 'tremendous outreach capabilities.' She noted that during a three-day meeting, the LEAD Network 'generated 2.6 million hits on social media' … Chin attended the Biotech Literacy Project in 2014 and noted she 'put the experience to good use' because she was 'debating in media' to oppose GMO labeling in Colorado. In her email, Chin suggests social media is a valuable way to shape public opinion." Her social media accounts, however, though often filled with the topic of GMOs, do not make it clear that she's being paid by Monsanto. "Nowhere on her Twitter bio does she mention she works for the corporation," according to Mic, and "anything written by a Monsanto spokesperson that Chin posts seems to merit a #sponsored, but anything generally relating to GMOs does not."6 In a rebuttal to the accusation that she's not publically disclosing her ties to Monsanto, Chin wrote on the Genetic Literacy Project website:7 "I was drawn to Ag seed companies and Monsanto not only due to the very robust science, and the capacity of genetically engineered crops to contribute to a more secure food supply, but also growing higher quality of foods through biofortified crops." Did Monsanto Conspire With the EPA Over Glyphosate's Cancer Link? In 2015, glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, was determined to be a "probable carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is the research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), rather than taking immediate steps to protect Americans from this probable cancer-causing agent, decided to reassess its position on the chemical and, after doing so, released a paper in October 2015 stating that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.8 In April 2016, the EPA posted the report online, briefly, before pulling it and claiming it was not yet final and posted by mistake. The paper was signed by Jess Rowland (among other EPA officials), who at the time was the EPA's deputy division director of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention and chair of the Cancer Assessment Review Committee (CARC). This is notable because Monsanto is currently embroiled in a number of lawsuits, including litigation from more than 50 people who claim exposure to Roundup caused them to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Monsanto has used the EPA's supposedly-not-final report in court hearings to suggest glyphosate is safe, but the plaintiffs' attorneys asked for documents detailing Monsanto's interactions with Rowland to be released. In March 2017, a judge unsealed the documents, which revealed two disturbing collusions. EPA Implicated in Monsanto Glyphosate-Cancer Coverup Email correspondence showed Rowland helped stop a glyphosate investigation by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Monsanto's behalf. In an email, Monsanto regulatory affairs manager Dan Jenkins recounts a conversation he'd had with Rowland, in which Rowland said, "If I can kill this I should get a medal,"9 referring to the ATSDR investigation, which did not end up occurring. Jenkins also noted that Rowland was planning to retire in a few months and "could be useful as we move forward with ongoing glyphosate defense."10 And it gets even worse. According to The New York Times:11 "Court records show that Monsanto was tipped off to the determination by a deputy division director at the EPA, Jess Rowland, months beforehand. That led the company to prepare a public relations assault on the finding well in advance of its publication." The court records also show that in making the decision that glyphosate does not cause cancer, the EPA used two studies that had been ghostwritten by Monsanto's toxicology manager but were published using names of academic researchers.12 Bloomberg reported:13,14 " … Monsanto's toxicology manager and his boss, Bill Heydens, were ghost writers for two of the reports, including one from 2000, that Rowland's committee relied on in part to reach its conclusion that glyphosate shouldn't be classified as carcinogenic. … Among the documents unsealed was a February 2015 internal email exchange at the company about how to contain costs for a research paper … The names of outside scientists could be listed on the publication, 'but we would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names so to speak,' according to the email, which goes on to say that's how Monsanto handled the 2000 study." Nearly 150 New Cancer Cases Filed Against Monsanto In March 2017, a Los Angeles, California-based law firm, Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, filed three bundled cases against Monsanto on behalf of 136 plaintiffs who allege exposure to Roundup herbicide caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.15 Co-counsel Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said: "We're bringing the lawsuit to address the injuries that have been caused by Roundup and glyphosate to mainly farmers and farm workers, but we also think that consumers and home gardeners have also been affected."16 While more than 700 cases have been filed against Monsanto related to Roundup health risks, Kennedy said he expects this to increase to 3,000 cases in the months to come.17 The lawsuits use the recent revelations between Monsanto and the EPA to support their case. According to the law firm's website: "The lawsuits allege that Monsanto championed falsified data and attacked legitimate studies that revealed the dangers of Roundup in order to prove that Roundup was safe, while also leading a prolonged campaign of misinformation to convince government agencies, farmers, and the general population that Roundup wasn't dangerous." California to List Glyphosate as a Chemical Known to Cause Cancer Meanwhile, while the federal EPA is allowing glyphosate usage to continue unchecked, California's Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) announced in 2015 that they intended to list glyphosate as a chemical known to cause cancer under Proposition 65, which requires consumer products with potential cancer-causing ingredients to bear warning labels. Monsanto then filed formal comments with OEHHA saying the plan to list glyphosate as a carcinogen should be withdrawn. When they didn't give in, Monsanto took it a step further and filed a lawsuit against OEHHA in January 2016 to stop the glyphosate/cancer classification. OEHHA filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and a Fresno, California superior court judge ruled on their behalf in February 2017, which means California will be able to add a cancer warning to Roundup and other glyphosate-containing weed killers, including Ortho Groundclear, KleenUp, Aquamaster, Sharpshooter, StartUp,Touchdown, Total Traxion, Vector and Vantage Plus Max II and others. "Democracy is alive and well in California where judges are willing to stand up for science, even against the most powerful corporate polluters," Kennedy said. "This decision gives Californians the right to protect themselves and their families from chemical trespass."18 Test Your Personal Glyphosate Levels If you'd like to know your personal glyphosate levels, you can now find out, while also participating in a worldwide study on environmental glyphosate exposures. The Health Research Institute (HRI) in Iowa developed the glyphosate urine test kit, which will allow you to determine your own exposure to this toxic herbicide. Ordering this kit automatically allows you to participate in the study and help HRI better understand the extent of glyphosate exposure and contamination. In a few weeks, you will receive your results, along with information on how your results compare with others and what to do to help reduce your exposure. We are providing these kits to you at no profit in order for you to participate in this environmental study. In the meantime, eating organic as much as possible and investing in a good water filtration system for your home are among the best ways to lower your exposure to glyphosate and other pesticides. In the case of glyphosate, it's also wise to avoid crops like wheat and oats, which may be sprayed with glyphosate for drying purposes prior to harvest. As for the collusion between Monsanto and EPA, and the company's ties to WebMD, the lack of independence among regulators and promoters and distributors of health information has become of tremendous concern. Due to a dramatic rise in scientific fraud and rampant conflict of interest, it's more important than ever to be able to gain access to the full set of data on research studies and identify potential conflicts of interest, as well as seek opinions from experts you know and trust, before making or taking a health recommendation.

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