Lymph node stromal cells (LNSCs) regulate immunity through constructing lymphocyte niches. LNSC-produced laminin α5 (Lama5) regulates CD4+ T cells but the underlying mechanisms of its functions are poorly understood. Here we show that depleting Lama5 in LNSCs resulted in decreased Lama5 protein in the LN cortical ridge (CR) and around high endothelial venules (HEVs). Lama5 depletion affected LN structure with increased HEVs, upregulated chemokines, and cell adhesion molecules, and led to greater numbers of Tregs in the T cell zone. Mouse and human T cell transendothelial migration and T cell entry into LNs were suppressed by Lama5 through the receptors α6 integrin and α-dystroglycan. During immune responses and allograft transplantation, depleting Lama5 promoted antigen-specific CD4+ T cell entry into the CR through HEVs, suppressed T cell activation, and altered T cell differentiation to suppressive regulatory phenotypes. Enhanced allograft acceptance resulted from depleting Lama5 or blockade of T cell Lama5 receptors. Lama5 and Lama4/Lama5 ratios in allografts were associated with the rejection severity. Overall, our results demonstrated that stromal Lama5 regulated immune responses through altering LN structures and T cell behaviors. This study delineated a stromal Lama5–T cell receptor axis that can be targeted for immune tolerance modulation.

BACKGROUND Preclinical experiments have shown that donor blood cells, modified in vitro by an alkylating agent (modified immune cells [MICs]), induced long-term specific immunosuppression against the allogeneic donor.METHODS In this phase I trial, patients received either 1.5 × 106 MICs per kg BW on day –2 (n = 3, group A), or 1.5 × 108 MICs per kg BW on day –2 (n = 3, group B) or day –7 (n = 4, group C) before living donor kidney transplantation in addition to post-transplantation immunosuppression. The primary outcome measure was the frequency of adverse events (AEs) until day 30 (study phase) with follow-up out to day 360.RESULTS MIC infusions were extremely well tolerated. During the study phase, 10 treated patients experienced a total of 69 AEs that were unlikely to be related or not related to MIC infusion. No donor-specific human leukocyte antigen Abs or rejection episodes were noted, even though the patients received up to 1.3 × 1010 donor mononuclear cells before transplantation. Group C patients with low immunosuppression during follow-up showed no in vitro reactivity against stimulatory donor blood cells on day 360, whereas reactivity against third-party cells was still preserved. Frequencies of CD19+CD24hiCD38hi transitional B lymphocytes (Bregs) increased from a median of 6% before MIC infusion to 20% on day 180, which was 19- and 68-fold higher, respectively, than in 2 independent cohorts of transplanted controls. The majority of Bregs produced the immunosuppressive cytokine IL-10. MIC-treated patients showed the Immune Tolerance Network operational tolerance signature.CONCLUSION MIC administration was safe and could be a future tool for the targeted induction of tolerogenic Bregs.TRIAL REGISTRATION EudraCT number: 2014-002086-30; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02560220FUNDING Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology, Berlin, Germany, and TolerogenixX GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany.

Regenerative pain medicine, which seeks to harness the body’s own reparative capacity, is rapidly emerging as a field within pain medicine and orthopedics. It is increasingly appreciated that common analgesic mechanisms for these treatments depend on neuroimmune modulation. In this Review, we discuss recent progress in mechanistic understanding of nociceptive sensitization in chronic pain with a focus on neuroimmune modulation. We also examine the spectrum of regenerative outcomes, including preclinical and clinical outcomes. We further distinguish the analgesic mechanisms of regenerative therapies from those of cellular replacement, creating a conceptual and mechanistic framework to evaluate future research on regenerative medicine.

Lamin A is a component of the inner nuclear membrane that, together with epigenetic factors, organizes the genome in higher order structures required for transcriptional control. Mutations in the lamin A/C gene cause several diseases belonging to the class of laminopathies, including muscular dystrophies. Nevertheless, molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of lamin A–dependent dystrophies are still largely unknown. The polycomb group (PcG) of proteins are epigenetic repressors and lamin A interactors, primarily involved in the maintenance of cell identity. Using a murine model of Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD), we show here that lamin A loss deregulated PcG positioning in muscle satellite stem cells, leading to derepression of non–muscle-specific genes and p16INK4a, a senescence driver encoded in the Cdkn2a locus. This aberrant transcriptional program caused impairment in self-renewal, loss of cell identity, and premature exhaustion of the quiescent satellite cell pool. Genetic ablation of the Cdkn2a locus restored muscle stem cell properties in lamin A/C–null dystrophic mice. Our findings establish a direct link between lamin A and PcG epigenetic silencing and indicate that lamin A–dependent muscular dystrophy can be ascribed to intrinsic epigenetic dysfunctions of muscle stem cells.

Seizures often herald the clinical appearance of gliomas or appear at later stages. Dissecting their precise evolution and cellular pathogenesis in brain malignancies could inform the development of staged therapies for these highly pharmaco-resistant epilepsies. Studies in immunodeficient xenograft models have identified local interneuron loss and excess glial glutamate release as chief contributors to network disinhibition, but how hyperexcitability in the peritumoral microenvironment evolves in an immunocompetent brain is unclear. We generated gliomas in WT mice via in utero deletion of key tumor suppressor genes and serially monitored cortical epileptogenesis during tumor infiltration with in vivo electrophysiology and GCAMP7 calcium imaging, revealing a reproducible progression from hyperexcitability to convulsive seizures. Long before seizures, coincident with loss of inhibitory cells and their protective scaffolding, gain of glial glutamate antiporter xCT expression, and reactive astrocytosis, we detected local Iba1+ microglial inflammation that intensified and later extended far beyond tumor boundaries. Hitherto unrecognized episodes of cortical spreading depolarization that arose frequently from the peritumoral region may provide a mechanism for transient neurological deficits. Early blockade of glial xCT activity inhibited later seizures, and genomic reduction of host brain excitability by deleting MapT suppressed molecular markers of epileptogenesis and seizures. Our studies confirmed xenograft tumor–driven pathobiology and revealed early and late components of tumor-related epileptogenesis in a genetically tractable, immunocompetent mouse model of glioma, allowing the complex dissection of tumor versus host pathogenic seizure mechanisms.

Recently, I’ve found myself thinking more often than not about the past – mistakes I’ve made, where I could have done better, things like that. I think that’s a symptom of unhappiness, really, so yeah… I’m putting a stop to that. It’s a hard and imperfect stop, but I’m not willing to continue to think about things that I can’t change. Instead, I am going to look forward — to my next step and how to make it count! That’s how I’ve been trending, anyway, I hope you can tell! I guess that makes it funny that I roped people into going fossil-hunting with me! Get it? THE PAST. But, I LOVE ANCIENT HISTORY! It’s my first time finding a fossil, and my first time hunting, so I count it as a giant leap forward in this travelogue I call life. :3 Anyways, I found a book in the library about gem hunting in Washington and there was a listing for a site where you could find fossils (!!!!) nearby (!!!!!!!!!!). It’s called Lincoln Creek (there does appear to be a creek somewhere nearby, but it’s not right at the site), and let’s just say that I’ve learned a lot from it, both about fossil hunters (STINGY WITH LOCATIONS) and about fossil hunting itself (by blundering right into it without knowing anything). Thank god there were GPS coordinates in the book, because although I found a lot of reviews on fossil hunting at Lincoln Creek online, as well as a few blurry photos, I couldn’t find any information on how to actually get there or what exactly it looked like. All I had was the GPS coordinates from the book. I know that people want to protect their “stash,” and it comes across as pretty selfish to me, but it really makes it hard to start out as a beginner with only passion to rely on, and I don’t think that being “protective” or “exclusive” is a good way to behave in general. That said, let me help you if you decide to go yourself: – GPS coordinates in Google Maps. – A screencap of the map and the turns I walked to get there. I don’t recommend it, unless you want a really great walk in nature that is also technically trespassing and won’t be disappointed if you find nothing, but if you want to go, go for it and enjoy it all you can! It was only supposed to be a half hour drive or so from my sister’s house to the little logging road that led to the site. But I learned something new that had seriously never once crossed my mind: logging roads can be closed off! There was a gate blocking the main road, so we tried driving for miles in every direction to get in another way, but ALL of those were blocked off, too. There were “no tresspassing, this land belongs to Weyerhaeuser” signs, but we eventually just decided to walk it. I am not sorry at all to say that I have zero respect for companies that clearcut or attempt to think that land can “belong” to them for that purpose. Oh, and they have tried to sue the government to be able to log on lands that contain endangered species. Now, I love paper, but f you, Weyerhaeuser. I’m not at all sorry, and I’d walk these lands again a hundred times if I wanted to. So, we ignored the signs, and walked past the gate all the way to our destination. ALLLLLLLL the two hours. It might not seem like a lot, but we honestly thought that we’d be able to drive right up to the site as it said in the book. Welp, it was an unexpected walk, but super awesome to get back among the trees. Being in the forest and a slow walker anyways, I spent a lot of the time by myself contemplating life and sacred rituals. You know, the usual. Come look at some photos with me, and I’ll tell you a little bit about the journey. ???? When we realized that the road was blocked off, we drove around searching for another way into the deep forest and saw this. You know you’re… oh, wait. It looked like their neighbors a little further down were more my kind of people, though! Here’s my niece, all ready for adventure! I’m pretty sure that these were bear droppings, as they were full of berries. They were also somewhat fresh. There are a lot of bears up here in Western Washington, since there aren’t many settled areas. I never thought for a moment that I’d need to bring bear spray, but I definitely am going to have to buy some for my adventures. :/ It was quite lovely. One of the very few blue, sunny days that we’ve had so far this summer. I won’t be sorry to leave the cold behind, as I’m a desert sprite and being in the cold depletes my magic! But this… it was lovely. There were two clearcut clearings. They made for gorgeous views of the valley, but it was also quite sad. I could feel the souls of all of those trees calling out to me… ???? We delved onto a very overgrown road after over an hour of walking. And there was a huge, recent-looking landslide blocking the path! We weren’t about to turn back, so we picked our way across it. And just a little ways farther, down another overgrown road, this one much more primitive, the fossil site was evident. It was also really, really disappointing. It was exactly where the GPS coordinates said it would be (funny enough, I got better cell signal in the middle of the forest than I do in town), and there was basically a slope of discarded rocks that led up to a little overhang. Oops, I mean a lot overhang. People had dug deep into the cliff, and it looked like the forest above was one hit shy of collapsing in on you. I like adventuring, but I don’t like playing with death. And yet, I still picked for about half an hour, looking for concretions (fossilized crabs in the center of rock balls trapped within the rock, if that makes sense). Supposedly this site was full of them, and there were people online saying that they found 80 within an hour. But we found nothing at all, except for some shells that were indeed trapped in the rock, but looked like any old shell. Fossils, yes, but not really cool. This was supposed to be my “I’m tired and disappointed” face. I guess I shouldn’t have smiled, haha! Guess what, though???? We felt so empty-handed that we decided to see if there was anything in the rock slide, and that’s where I found the concretion!! In the middle of this giant rock that I slowly whittled away at. We must have spent about two hours picking through the debris, and we found a ton more shells, but just that one crab. Still, it’s cool, right? I considered it a win for the day after all, and we decided to get out of there as the sun started to go down. Here’s the slightly-overgrown trail we were on (the panorama makes it look like a circle, but it was a straight path XD). Passed the clearcut areas with the sun much lower in the sky. The fairies started to come out as we entered the wooded paths again in the late afternoon sunlight. We made it home while it was still light out, exhausted and quite sore. Here is my concretion, though! Isn’t it cool? You can barely tell that there was a crab inside when it was formed. I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I think that I didn’t preserve it as well as I could when I cracked it open, but I’m still really proud to have found it. ????   My first fossil. Of many. ????  

We're still waiting to hear news about Apple Card's performance relative to the major card issuers, but that hasn't stopped Samsung from announcing plans to launch an "innovative" debit card as part of a new mobile-first money management platform the company has been developing over the last year.


Announced on Thursday in a blog post by Samsung Pay vice-president Sang Ahn, the forthcoming debit card is in partnership with finance company SoFi and will be backed by a cash management account.

"In 2020, Samsung Pay will be expanding our service from being a rewarding way to shop and pay, to also being a rewarding way to manage money," writes Ahn. "Over the past year we have been busy developing a mobile-first money management platform. Our vision is to help consumers better manage their money so that they can achieve their dreams and goals. Now more than ever, mobile financial services and money management tools will play an even bigger role in our daily lives while also opening up new possibilities."

The debit card is scheduled to launch this summer. Other than that, Samsung hasn't offered any details on how it will work, but expect it to integrate with Samsung's existing mobile payment system.

Launched in August 2019, ‌Apple Card‌ is a credit card linked to Apple Pay and built into the Wallet app on iPhone. Apple partnered with Goldman Sachs to launch the card, and in October the investment bank hailed it as "the most successful credit-card launch ever." Nine months later, neither Apple nor Goldman Sachs has offered any concrete details on its performance.

During the global health crisis, Apple has introduced an ‌Apple Card‌ Assistance Program that allows ‌‌Apple Card‌‌ holders to skip their March and April payments without incurring interest charges for that billing cycle. For more details on how the card works, check out our comprehensive Apple Card guide.
This article, "Samsung Announces 'Innovative' Debit Card Launching this Summer" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon is taking up to $100 off the Apple Watch Series 5 this week, with prices starting at $299.99 for the 40mm GPS models. Only the Gold Aluminum Case with Pink Sport Band is available at this price. If you order today, the Apple Watch should arrive sometime next week.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

The Apple Watch Series 5 was released in September 2019 with a new OLED screen that supports an always-on feature, which represents the biggest change to the Series 5 models. The newest Apple Watch is available in 40mm and 44mm sizes, and it has the overall same design as the Series 4 models.

$100 OFF

Apple Watch S5 (40mm, GPS) for $299.99

If you're shopping for a cellular model, there are also a few solid discounts on Amazon for these devices. You can get the Gold Aluminum Case with Pink Sport Band (40mm) for $399.00, down from $499.00. Likewise, the Silver Aluminum Case with White Sport Band (40mm) is $399.00 right now.

For the 44mm cellular models, a solid deal is the Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band at $429.00, down from $529.00. You'll find the same price on the Silver Aluminum Case with White Sport Band and the Gold Aluminum Case with Pink Sport Band.

Across the board, these sales are either new low prices on the Apple Watch Series 5, or they're matching previous low prices seen on these models on Amazon. There are a few other deals going on for different Series 5 models as well, including numerous 44mm cellular devices that are about $50 off Apple's original prices. Be sure to head to Amazon to check out the full sale before these prices expire, or the retailer runs out of stock.

Keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.
This article, "Deals: Apple Watch Series 5 Models Discounted by Up to $100 on Amazon" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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This week saw a couple of big announcements, led by the launch of an update for the 13-inch MacBook Pro line. Most notably, the update brought the improved Magic Keyboard previously introduced on its 16-inch sibling and the MacBook Air, with high-end models also receiving updated processors.

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The second significant announcement this week was that Apple's first all-digital Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 22. Other news this week included a firmware update for the AirPods Pro, an update on Apple's Mini-LED efforts, and more.

Read on below and check out our video above for recaps of all of this week's most important stories!

New 13-Inch MacBook Pro Announced With Magic Keyboard, 10th-Gen Processors, Up to 32GB RAM and 4TB SSD, and More

Apple this week refreshed its 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup, with key features including the same Magic Keyboard as the 16-inch MacBook Pro, up to 80 percent faster Intel graphics than the previous generation, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 4TB of SSD storage, and 6K display support.


First introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro last year, the Magic Keyboard features a far more reliable scissor mechanism with 1mm of key travel. After five years, Apple has finally transitioned its entire notebook lineup away from its issue-prone butterfly keyboard.

10th-generation Intel processor options are only available on higher-end models, with the $1,799 configuration proving to be up to 16.5% faster than the $1,299 base model with an older 8th-generation processor.

Apple's Virtual WWDC Event to Kick Off on June 22

Apple has announced that its first-ever online-only WWDC will begin Monday, June 22 via the Apple Developer app and website. The weeklong event will include a virtual keynote, sessions, and labs, with more details to be shared in June. And it's free!


Apple is expected to introduce iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS 10.16, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7 at WWDC 2020, with beta testing to take place over the summer.

Student developers from all over the world can enter Apple's Swift Student Challenge by creating an interactive scene in Swift Playgrounds that can be experienced in three minutes. Winners will receive an exclusive WWDC20 jacket and pin set. Submissions are open through May 17.

Apple Updates AirPods Pro Firmware to Version 2D15

Apple this week released a new firmware version 2D15 for the AirPods Pro, replacing version 2C54.


In recent months, some AirPods Pro owners have been complaining about reduced noise cancellation and crackling or static sounds, so users have listened for any improvements following the update.

Perhaps proving how subjective sound quality can be, feedback has been decidedly mixed, with some users noticing an improvement, some noticing no change, and some noticing further degradation to noise cancellation.

Apple has offered some help in the form of two new support documents for users to troubleshoot noise cancellation or crackling sound issues.

10 Tips and Tricks for the iPad Pro Magic Keyboard

Have you recently picked up a new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro? Here's a list of our favorite tips and tricks that you need to know.


The tips and tricks relate to adjusting the backlight brightness, customizing the cursor's behavior, enabling tap-to-click on the trackpad, other trackpad gestures, accessing the Emoji keyboard, and more.

Apple's Mini-LED Product Roadmap May Have Been Pushed Back to 2021

Disappointed that the new 13-inch MacBook Pro was not the rumored 14-inch model? That may be due to a slight delay in Apple's plans to release a range of new products with Mini-LED backlit displays.

Kuo believes Apple's first Mini-LED products might not launch until 2021. The analyst has previously said these products would include a new 14.1-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and more.


Kuo has previously said that Mini-LED displays will allow for thinner and lighter product designs, while offering many of the same benefits of OLED displays used on the latest iPhones, including good wide color gamut performance, high contrast and dynamic range, and local dimming for truer blacks.

NFC-Based Digital Key Specification Released Ahead of Apple's Rumored CarKey Feature on iPhone

Amid rumors that Apple is working on a digital "CarKey" feature for iPhone, the Car Connectivity Consortium has announced that its NFC-based Digital Key Release 2.0 specification has been finalized and made available to its members, which includes Apple.


"CarKey" will allow an iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock, lock, and start an NFC-compatible vehicle. Just like credit cards and boarding passes, users will be able to add a digital car key to the Wallet app, eliminating the need to use a physical car key or key fob.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!
This article, "Top Stories: New 13" MacBook Pro, WWDC Starts June 22, AirPods Pro Firmware Update, and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Dan Avidan, after years of dancing around topic of being a furry and which he would be, seems to have settled on his fursona of a cyberpunk wolf in a recently released music video. The video features animal characters with trans-humanist enhancements. The coloration has a signature bleed of 80s style animation.

The story portrays a pack of wolves seeking vengeance against a stag mogul after having their kin slaughtered at his hand. The style of animation and situation has some striking similarities to that of Caravan Palace's music video for Lone Digger.

This was brought to my attention by Majira Strawberry who asked why know one was talking about it. The answer to that in my case is object pertinence.

For those who are fans of cyberpunk and animation this is certainly worth the watch.

Disney has announced that it will be producing a new Robin Hood movie.

Yes, that Robin Hood.

read more

Are accountants destined to be the anthropologists of the cyber era? Gillian Tett appears to suspect such. Continue reading →

Online criminals have been systematically targeting TurboTax, filing fraudulent tax returns of individuals, and diverting their tax refunds to prepaid debit, cards, stealing their personal information, and using and impairing their credit ratings. Continue reading →

TurboTax’s Anti-Fraud Efforts Under Scrutiny Two former security employees at Intuit — the makers of the popular tax preparation software and service TurboTax – allege that the company has made millions of dollars knowingly processing state and federal tax refunds filed … Continue reading →

Accountants CPA Hartford Connecticut LLC:  This transcript may contain errors. The Willis Report:  And tonight’s stunning accusation against Intuit, the maker of Turbotax, the popular tax preparation software.  Two whistleblowers claim that Intuit knew that criminals used its tax software … Continue reading →

Hillary Faces Questions About Cash Donations to Clinton Foundation. Continue reading →

The Senate considered H.R. 1314, the legislative vehicle for trade promotion authority reauthorization.?It would give the president broad fast-track authority when negotiating trade agreements and require Congress to consider treaties without an amendment process. Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out against this bill before the Senate on May 12, 2015. Continue reading →

CNN Brianna Keilar interviews Senator Bernie Sanders on State of the Union May 17 2015. Senator Bernie Sanders says the American people want and deserve a serious debate on the serious issues facing our country today instead of merely the same old, endless 30 second, ad hominem, attack ads. Continue reading →

Even though Corporate America has anointed Hillary Clinton as its next President, Senator Bernie Sanders' populist message is already in a week's time raising individual contributions totaling millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of people! Continue reading →

Video and transcript of Farron Cousins' discussion of Hillary Clinton's fake populism on Ring of Fire TV, May 18, 2015. Continue reading →

SANDERS: ... there is more coverage about the political gossip of a campaign, about raising money, about polling, about somebody saying something dumb, or some kid works for a campaign sends out something stupid on Facebook, right? We can expect that to be a major story. But what your job is, what the media's job is, is to say, look, these are the major issues facing the country. We're a democracy. People have different points of view. Let's argue it. Continue reading →

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) warns not to underestimate him in the 2016 Democratic race for the White House. Sanders, who is formally launching his campaign Tuesday, said he has a strong message. Continue reading →

“Thank you all very much for being here and for all the support that you have given me over the years: as the mayor of this great city, as Vermont’s only congressman and now as a U.S. senator. Thanks also … Continue reading →

Bernie Sanders calls out Hillary Clinton to announce her position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement; however, Hillary Clinton refuses to reveal her position, hoping that the agreement will be passed and she won't have to take a position. Continue reading →

Berlin needs an independent candidate on its Town Council to counter and prevent the dominance of a major political party from unilaterally imposing its agenda and will on the citizens of Berlin. Our Town Council has been voting along strict party lines on key issues even though members pledged to reach across the aisle. It has dismissed or circumvented the results of referendums, reducing them to mere dog-and-pony shows. Berlin has more unaffiliated voters than those of the two major parties. Let's petition, nominate, and place on the ballot an independent candidate to represent these citizens and prevent the control of our Town by the dominant party on the Town Council. If interested, please contact us: berlinctpropertyownersassn@gmail.com. Continue reading →

"This is supposed to be a political party. In a healthy society, there would be a democratic process in the Democratic Party, by which elected people would be overseeing these issues by making sure there wasn’t just nepotism and insider dealing," Curry says. "That the political party itself — which is supposed to be the progressive party — has become mortgaged to a small group of Washington insiders, who raise money from large corporate PACs, [and] has become just a dead carcass of what it once was, is the most important piece of information that this contretemps over the data files has emphasized. It’s time for progressives in this country to stand up and demand a genuinely democratic process." Continue reading →

Leaders of political revolutions never quit before the official battle begins, and say that they will vote for and support their enemies. When the moment arrived of walking all that endless talk of Bernie Sanders about fighting his political revolution, he caved out of self interest Continue reading →

we know how politics works in the United States. Whoever—whatever political party gets into government is going to merge with the bureaucracy pretty damn fast. It will be in a position where it has some levers in its hand. And so, as a result, corporate lobbyists will move in to help control those levers. So it doesn’t make much difference in the end. What does make a difference is political accountability, a general deterrence set to stop political organizations behaving in a corrupt manner. Continue reading →

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Grimaldi of The Wall Street Journal, who has covered the Clinton Foundation for years, looks at the relationship between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state, and what it would be if she became president. Newly released State Department emails include exchanges between top members of the Clinton Foundation and Clinton’s top State Department advisers, including Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills. The FBI reportedly wanted to investigate the Clinton Foundation earlier this year, but U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch pushed back. Continue reading →

When longtime independent Senator Bernie Sanders lost his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, he concluded his campaign by endorsing Hillary Clinton instead of a third-party candidate. "This huge, wonderful effort that he launched is now aborted," says our guest, four-time former presidential candidate Ralph Nader. "Sanders hasn’t returned a call from me in 18 years. He is a lone ranger. He doesn’t like to be pushed into more progressive action than he is willing to adhere to. As a result, millions of his voters now are in disarray. They don’t know where to go." Nader has a new book titled "Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think." Continue reading →

"And you know, we have to stop looking beyond this election cycle and see that this corporate driven ideology, you know, this commodification of the culture, this constant extracting of blood from us as citizens to pay what in essence were private debts of the banks which engaged in casino capitalism, has political consequences. History has taught us that. And Hillary Clinton is only going to further that process." Continue reading →

Questions surrounding Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation continue to grow. On Sunday, Democratic National Committee interim chairperson Donna Brazile defended Clinton’s meetings as secretary of state with Clinton Foundation donors, saying, "When Republicans meet with their donors, with their supporters, their activists, they call it a meeting. When Democrats do that, they call it a conflict." Donna Brazile’s comments come in response to an Associated Press investigation revealing that while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state, more than half of the private citizens she met with during the reporting period had donated to the Clinton Foundation. The AP investigation comes after a three-year battle to gain access to State Department calendars. The analysis shows that at least 85 of 154 people Hillary Clinton had scheduled phone or in-person meetings with were foundation donors. We speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept. His most recent piece is headlined "Why Did the Saudi Regime and Other Gulf Tyrannies Donate Millions to the Clinton Foundation?" Continue reading →

Julian Assange says Donald Trump would not be permitted to win. All of the establishment--Wall Street, Corporate America, the elites, the media, career politicians, et al--is united behind Hillary Clinton. Continue reading →

This is the natural progression, this is the natural endgame of the Bill Clinton Democratic Party when he decided to change the Democratic Party from a party of workers and blue-collar people to a party of Silicon Valley and Wall Street. And Democrats have to acknowledge that. And if they don't, they ain't going nowhere. Continue reading →

Lobbyists are buying our government out from under us Continue reading →

Connecticut General Assembly Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz speaking at the 2014 CEUI Convention. Joe Aresimowicz, in speaking to a governmental employee union group in 2014, assured governmental union employees that he would be looking out for them: "You guys have one of your own that sits in the caucus room of the General Assembly. You cannot replicate that." "I will never allow an anti-collective bargaining bill to be called to the House floor. I'm the majority leader. I can make that guarantee." "Please, stand together, stand as brothers and sisters, and be a family. And make sure we are looking out for our own." Continue reading →

Candi comic for Thursday, June 9, 2016

Candi comic for Thursday, June 16, 2016

Candi comic for Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Candi comic for Tuesday, June 28, 2016

I really should explain this one, but I thought it might be more interesting if I didn't.

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

1.00pm on 16/3/15 Fujifilm X-T1 XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR 32mm f/16 1/180 manual n/a average 200 Profoto B1 RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CC (2015) none 1x1

I haven't posted anything on the blog for ages, so thought I'd share another of the images I shot during one of my GPP workshops earlier this year.

In other news, we've just opened up our new mentoring programme to 12 new students. If you're interested in improving you photography, postproduction, or both, take a look.

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5.15pm on 9/4/16 Fujifilm X-T1 XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS 10mm f/11 1/60 aperture priority 0.3 average 200 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CC (2014) none 2x1

Лидер GUNS N' ROSES Axl Rose в Твиттере выразил своё отношение к министру финансов США:

«Теперь это официально! Что бы кто ранее ни думал про Стивена Мнучина, он официально м***к!»

Не очень понятно, что вдруг вызвало такую бурную реакцию у Axl'a, но в начале недели Мнучин попал в заголовки изданий после того, как столкнулся с судебным иском по решению администрации Трампа об исключении некоторых детей из федеральных стимулирующих программ, если один или оба их родителя являются иммигрантами. В иске утверждается, что исключение этих детей из стимулирующих выплат является «дискриминационным» и неконституционным. Эти выплаты предназначены для того, чтобы помочь семьям справиться с экономическими последствиями коронавируса, в результате которого примерно каждый шестой американский работник остался без работы.

Мнучин пару часов спустя, ответил: "А что вы сделали для страны в последнее время?" и изначально заканчил свой ответ эмоджи с либерийским флагом вместо американского. Мнучин быстро понял свою ошибку и удалил свой оригинальный твит, после чего вновь отправил его с американским флагом.

Axl отреагировал на ляп Мнучина:

«Виноват, что не понял, что мы надеемся подражать экономической модели Либерии, но на самом деле, в отличие от этого администратора, я не отвечаю за 70 тысяч+ смертей и в отличие от вас я не занимаю ответственного положения в правительстве США и не хожу на телеканалы, где рассказываю американцам о том, что нужно ездить по США во время пандемии». #Guns_N'_Roses #GunsN'Roses #GlamRock #Glam_Rock #HardRock #Hard_Rock

В прошлом году гитарист L.A. GUNS Tracii Guns и лидер STRYPER Michael Sweet объявили о создании проекта SUNBOMB, в который также вошёл бывший барабанщик L.A. GUNS Shane Fitzgibbon. В рамках беседы с "Trunk Nation" Guns рассказал о музыкальном направлении проекта:

«Я люблю блэк-металл. Я люблю блэк-металл больше, чем всё остальное. Потому что блэк-металл — это основа Рэнди Роадса, хотя, быть может, люди и не понимали этого, но я всегда об этом знал. Все эти припевы, двойное тремоло и тяжесть всей музыки. Новая пластинка как "The Devil You Know! в кубе, это более тяжёлая сторона этого альбома. А Michael Sweet — он просто фантастический металлический вокалист!»

Когда ведущий заметил, что Sweet — вокалист самой успешной христианской группы в мире — возможно, не самый большой фанат блэка, Tracii ответил:

«Думаю, он такой».

После чего добавил, что они сотрудничали без упоминаний о политике и религии:

«У вас есть самый большой верующий и самый грандиозный неверующий. Но мы именно такие — я могу разделять веру и музыку, это не единое целое и не одно и тоже. И мы с Michael'ом это обсуждали. Я открытый человек и уважаю заморочки других».

Когда Tracii впервые сообщил о существовании SUNBOMB в твиттере в марте 2019 года, он описал дебютную пластинку проекта как «металлический альбом, который я бы сделал, когда мне было 17 лет».

Некоторое время спустя Sweet ответил на твит Tracii, написав:

«Я рад быть частью этого проекта Tracii. Кто бы мог подумать в молодости, что мы будем работать вместе. Спасибо, что доверил мне исполнить вокальные партии. SUNBOMB будет бомбой». #Sunbomb

По сообщению Rolling Stone, музыканты SOUNDGARDEN выдвинули встречный иск против вдовы Криса Корнелла, Vicky Cornell, обвиняя её в том, что она использовала доходы от трибьют-концерта в январе 2019 года на свои нужды.

В ответном иске, который был подан в окружной суд Южного округа Флориды, Майами, в среду (6 мая), утверждается, что в конце 2018 года Vicky Cornell потребовала, чтобы Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron и Ben Shepherd согласились выступить на концерте "I Am The Highway: A Tribute To Chris Cornell" 16 января 2019 года в Лос-Анджелесе без компенсации. «Чтобы побудить SOUNDGARDEN согласиться на эту просьбу, Vicky Cornell заявила, что доходы от Cornell Concert будут использованы в благотворительных целях», — говорится в жалобе.

Thayil, Cameron и Shepherd утверждают, что «заявление Vicky Cornell было ложным в том смысле, что Vicky Cornell не имела намерения использовать часть или всю выручку от Cornell Concert в благотворительных целях, а скорее — в личных целях для себя и своей семьи. SOUNDGARDEN сообщают, считают и в связи с этим утверждают, что Vicky Cornell заранее знала о том, что заявление было ложным, либо она проявила небрежность или безрассудство в отношении его правдивости с целью и с намерением склонить SOUNDGARDEN к согласию выступить на Cornell Concert без компенсации», — говорится в ответном иске.

Согласно иску, «представление Vicky Cornell было существенным для SOUNDGARDEN в том смысле, что участники SOUNDGARDEN не были заинтересованы в том, чтобы выступить без компенсации на концерте, который принёс бы финансовую выгоду Vicky Cornell и её семье. SOUNDGARDEN полагалась на свою веру в то, что доходы от этого концерта будут использованы в благотворительных целях, когда принимали решение согласиться выступить на Cornell Concert без компенсации. Как прямой и непосредственный результат нарушения правил игры Vicky Cornell, участники SOUNDGARDEN понесли ущерб в результате искажения фактов, допущенных Vicky Cornell, включая потерю разумной компенсации за Cornell Concer и репутационный ущерб».

В ответном иске добавляется, что «все получатели дохода с Cornell Concert не были идентифицированы, а компания Vicky Cornell не смогла адекватно ответить на официальные и неофициальные запросы следователей о том, как эти доходы были использованы и израсходованы. В заявлении в поддержку ее несогласия с ходатайством о прекращении дела Vicky Cornell утверждает, что 643 000 долларов дохода от концерта были пожертвованы в Фонд медицинских исследований эпидермолиза Bullosa Medial Research Foundation. Но контрагенты не установили местонахождения и возможности распоряжения оставшимися доходами. Контрагенты до сих пор отказывались отвечать на запросы, связанные с Cornell Concert, в том числе не предоставили ответы на вопросы по существу и не задокументировали материалы в ответ на обнаружение SOUNDGARDEN в этом деле, связанном с Cornell Foundation и Cornell Concert. Более того, незадолго до подачи этой заявки, когда Cornell Foundation выпустил Форму 990 2018 года (почти год спустя), Cornell Foundation не публиковал никакой информации, подробно описывающей его финансовое положение, начиная с 2017 года. Наконец, на момент подачи данных встречных исков веб-сайт Cornell Foundation, судя по всему, не обновлялся с 2017 года. Требуется тщательный учёт, поскольку Vicky Cornell пообещала SOUNDGARDEN, что никакая часть доходов, полученных от Cornell Concert, не будет использована ни в каких иных целях, кроме благотворительных, как повод для побуждения SOUNDGARDEN к участию в Cornell Concert». #Soundgarden #AlternativeRock #Alternative_Rock #GrungeRock #Grunge_Rock

Вдова Криса Корнелла ответила на контриск со стороны бывших коллег её мужа словами своего адвоката Marty Singer'a:

«Очень жаль, что три бывших участника группы Криса Корнелла, заработавшие миллионы долларов на упорном труде, таланте и творчестве Криса, продолжают нападать на наследие Криса, его вдову и маленьких детей, делая непристойные, злобные и агрессивные обвинения, чтобы отвлечься от правды. Их откровенно отчаянные встречные претензии, которые были намеренно поданы незадолго до годовщины смерти Криса и годовщины свадьбы Криса и Вики, не меняют того факта, что именно они неправомерно утверждали, что являются владельцами записей, которые были созданы исключительно Крисом, и что именно они незаконно удерживали значительные суммы денег у вдовы и детей Криса (что является основанием для нынешнего судебного процесса).

Достаточно сказать, что Вики Корнелл и Cornell Estate яростно отрицают предполагаемые "факты", содержащиеся во встречных претензиях SOUNDGARDEN, которые будут встречены быстрым судебным разбирательством. Ирония заключается в том, что бывшие соратники Криса по группе теперь изображают невинность в связи с трибьют-концертом 2019 года под управлением фонда Криса, который собрал более 1 миллиона долларов США для благотворительного фонда и выплатил более 650 000 долларов США в адрес EBMRF на медицинские исследования, и который не имеет никакого отношения к вопросу о том, кому принадлежат вокальные записи Криса, когда SOUNDGARDEN получили более 78 000 долларов США за выступление на благотворительном концерте.

Как хорошо известно бывшим участникам группы Криса, каждый цент выручки от концерта был должным образом распределён и учтён, а их заявления не только фальшивые и клеветнические, но и демонстрируют глубину, до которой бывшие товарищи Криса готовы опуститься, чтобы запятнать его наследие.

Также иронично, что, потратив значительное количество времени и средств на гонорары адвокатов (оплаченных из денежных средств, причитающихся Chris estate) и утверждая, что судебная система Флориды не обладает персональной юрисдикцией над ними, бывшие товарищи Криса по группе теперь обращаются за помощью к той же самой судебной системе, подавая свои встречные иски». #Soundgarden #AlternativeRock #Alternative_Rock #GrungeRock #Grunge_Rock

Heather Seeba wrote in to let us know about a gathering she has hosted around the EggBot. The EggBot brunches have been big hits with my friends. Seeing the fascination and excitement showing new people my EggBot has to be my favorite part of playing with it. The inspiration came when I took the ‘bot … Continue reading An EggBot Brunch Party →

An updated Disaster Resilience Scorecard to help cities and local government agencies improve their preparedness and reduce risks from disasters was launched today at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. Developed for the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction by AECOM, IBM with support from USAID and the European Commission, the Scorecard gives better access to information, knowledge resources, and tools to effectively reduce risks from the impacts of natural hazards and climate change.

The indie cinema chain is going digital.

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