Tag Archives: form

WikiLeaks Releases What It Says Are the CIA Director’s Personal Emails

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

WikiLeaks released its latest document dump on Wednesday afternoon: a collection of files allegedly taken from the personal email of CIA director John Brennan, whose AOL account was allegedly hacked by a teenager and his friends.

The most sensitive of the documents is a draft version of Brennan’s SF-86, the lengthy form that people must fill out when applying for a security clearance. The form requests years’ worth of employment and personal history, allowing government investigators to delve deep into the backgrounds of applicants—and providing foreign intelligence services or hackers with a treasure trove of potential information for blackmail. That threat is why members of Congress, security professionals, and others freaked out when millions of SF-86s were stolen in the hacks on the Office of Personnel Management, exposing the personal data of a vast number of government employees. Those records are now presumed to be in Chinese hands.

Brennan’s alleged form is now out in public, so his exposure may be even worse. The form released by WikiLeaks isn’t complete, but it does include the personal information of both Brennan and his wife.

The exposure also highlights the government’s ongoing problems with securing sensitive information and using it in unofficial channels. Such documents are supposed to be kept on secure government systems, but officials from Brennan to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former CIA director David Petraeus have run afoul of classification rules or used unsecured systems for sensitive data. Part of that may come down to aging, inefficient government computer systems that make using personal email attractive, but overclassification may also play a role. “It’s inevitable, because the classified systems are often cumbersome and lots of people have access to the classified e-mails or cables,” former CIA general counsel Jeffrey Smith told the Washington Post in August.

Other documents in the Brennan leak are much less interesting, including the 2007 draft of a memo on Iran that Brennan eventually published in 2008. The Department of Homeland Security says the FBI and the Secret Service are investigating the incident.

Source – 

WikiLeaks Releases What It Says Are the CIA Director’s Personal Emails

Posted in Anchor, ATTRA, Casio, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on WikiLeaks Releases What It Says Are the CIA Director’s Personal Emails

Why Do I Like Reza Farazmand’s Stupid Comics So Much?

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Reza Farazmand

Does a man ever grow up? Apparently not. I’m a geezer, for Chrissake, and I can’t stop laughing at Poorly Drawn Lines. That’s the popular web comic by Reza Farazmand that, come October 6, you can acquire in the form of ink rolled onto processed and flattened dead trees. You know, a book.

Farazmand’s gags are, if not poorly drawn, then simply drawn. They poke fun at technology, art, metaphysics, human (and creature) foibles, and the meaning of life. For the most part, they’re kind of juvenile and super jaded, kind of like The Far Side meets Mad magazine, except with more swearing. Naturally, my 13-year-old loves ’em. And although they’re hit or miss, like all comics, I love ’em, too.

The book’s very first strip reads as follows:

Buffalo: Some buffalo can jump as high as 36 feet.

Man: That’s not true.

Buffalo: Some buffalo are lonely and lie to gain attention.

They pause to consider.

Buffalo: Some buffalo would be down to get a drink later, or…

Man: I have a thing tonight.

Buffalo: Okay.

If I have to explain why that’s funny, you don’t deserve to get it. (Sorry, Mom.) But plenty of people do, judging from the strip’s 650,000-plus Facebook fans. Here are some more examples from the book:

Reza Farazmand

Reza Farazmand

Continue Reading »

More here – 

Why Do I Like Reza Farazmand’s Stupid Comics So Much?

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why Do I Like Reza Farazmand’s Stupid Comics So Much?

Breaking News: Kids Don’t Like to Eat Vegetables

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Excellent news! We have new research on whether kids like to eat vegetables:

The Agriculture Department rolled out new requirements in the 2012 school year that mandated that children who were taking part in the federal lunch program choose either a fruit or vegetable with their meals.

….”The basic question we wanted to explore was: does requiring a child to select a fruit or vegetable actually correspond with consumption. The answer was clearly no,” Amin, the lead author of the study, said in a statement.

This will come as a surprise to exactly zero parents. You can (usually) make your kids eat vegetables if you refuse to let them leave the table until they do, but that’s what it takes. Ask my mother if you don’t believe me.1

I’m not actually making fun of the researchers here. Sometimes seemingly obvious things turn out to be untrue. The only way to find out for sure is to check. And in fact, the study actually did produce interesting results:

Because they were forced to do it, children took fruits and vegetables — 29 percent more in fact. But their consumption of fruits and vegetables actually went down 13 percent after the mandate took effect and, worse, they were throwing away a distressing 56 percent more than before. The waste each child (or tray) was producing went from a quarter of a cup to more than a 39 percent of a cup each meal. In many cases, the researchers wrote, “children did not even taste the fruits and vegetables they chose at lunch.”

Yep: when kids were required to plonk fruits and vegetables onto their trays, average consumption went down from 0.51 cups to 0.45 cups. Apparently sticking it to the man becomes more attractive when kids are forced to do something.

In any case, the researchers kept a brave face, suggesting that eventually the mandates would work. We just need “other strategies” to get kids to like eating vegetables:

Because children prefer FVs in the form of 100% fruit juice or mixed dishes, such as pizza or lasagna, one should consider additional factors, such as the types of whole FVs offered and how the cafeteria staff prepares them. Cutting up vegetables and serving them with dip and slicing fruit, such as oranges and apples, can positively influence students’ FV selection and consumption by making FVs more accessible and appealing.

I dunno. Cutting up veggies and serving them with dip decidedly doesn’t make them taste anything like pizza or lasagna. I speak from decades of pizza-eating experience here. Anyway, parents have been trying to get their kids to eat their vegetables for thousands of years, and so far progress has been poor. I’m not sure what the answer is. Shock collars? DNA splicing? GMO veggies that taste like candy bars?

1Yeah, yeah, some kids actually like vegetables. Little bootlickers.

Original link: 

Breaking News: Kids Don’t Like to Eat Vegetables

Posted in ATTRA, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Breaking News: Kids Don’t Like to Eat Vegetables

We Put Way Too Many People in Prison

Mother Jones

Earlier this morning I mentioned the Brennan Center’s new report on the decline in crime over the past two decades, and one of its prime focuses is on incarceration. One of the authors of the report explains at 538 what they found. Basically, it turns out that locking up more people does have a deterrent effect, but that effect plummets when you start locking up people at huge rates—as we’ve done:

It’s because of these elevated levels that we’re likely to see diminishing returns. If we assume — fairly! — that the criminal justice system tends to incarcerate the worst offenders first, it becomes clear why. Once the worst offenders are in prison, each additional prisoner will yield less benefit in the form of reduced crime. Increased incarceration — and its incapacitation effect — loses its bite.

….And diminishing returns are what we saw. Crime rates dropped as incarceration rates rose, for a time, but incarceration’s effect on crime weakened as more people were imprisoned. An increase in incarceration was responsible for something like 5 percent of the decrease in crime in the 1990s, when its levels were lower, but has played no meaningful role since. If I were speaking to a fellow economist, I’d say the incarceration elasticity of crime is not distinguishable from zero. At a cocktail party, I’d say that crime no longer responds to changes in incarceration.

That sounds about right to me. The 5 percent number might be debatable, but the basic idea that we went way overboard on incarceration is hard to argue with. It was pretty reasonable to believe that incarceration rates were too low in the 60s and early 70s, and that tougher sentencing laws would help deter crime. So we passed tougher laws and built more prisons. But by the end of the 80s, we’d almost certainly gone as far as we needed to. Locking up ever more people just wasn’t having much of an effect. But we did it anyway. We didn’t just double prison capacity, we doubled it again and then built even more after that. I’d say it’s almost a dead certainty that the last doubling was simply wasted money that had no effect on crime rates at all.

It’s also worth noting that this is an inherently hard subject to study. After all, crime rates did skyrocket during the 70s and 80s. And if you have twice as much crime, then you’re likely to lock up twice as many people. Needless to say, that doesn’t necessarily mean that higher incarceration rates had an effect on anything. It was the other way around: higher crime led to higher incarceration rates. That’s perfectly natural, but it makes it hard to then work backwards and try to estimate the effect in the other direction.

Source:  

We Put Way Too Many People in Prison

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, Mop, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on We Put Way Too Many People in Prison

NASA is headed for Mars. What, is there something wrong with Earth?

NASA is headed for Mars. What, is there something wrong with Earth?

By on 3 Dec 2014commentsShare

Maybe you’re skeptical of whether or not the U.N. Climate Summit in Lima will actually do anything. That’s OK! In terms of humans actually moving to turn around carbon emissions and take a last stab at saving the planet, things look a bit dicey. From The New York Times, earlier this week:

While a breach of the 3.6 degree threshold appears inevitable, scientists say that United Nations negotiators should not give up on their efforts to cut emissions. At stake now, they say, is the difference between a newly unpleasant world and an uninhabitable one.

“Newly unpleasant world” sure does sound rough, not least for its ominous vagueness. What form will that unpleasantness take, exactly? Will herds of small shih-tzus bite your ankles every time you leave your house, until you slowly hemorrhage to death in the street? Will all sandwich options be reduced to watercress and cucumber? Will every new radio single just be Pitbull yelling “DALE” on repeat for three and a half minutes, over a background track of screaming infants?

Ha! No — it will likely take the form of unprecedented natural disasters, sweltering heat, and food shortages. (I mean, those other things could happen too — who’s to say!) One could say, if one were particularly forward-thinking in the most pessimistic way and also were named Christopher Jonathan James Nolan, that we might be in the market for another planet.

Which is why we can all delight in the fact that NASA is taking the next step in sending humans to Mars! Tomorrow morning*, if all goes as planned, NASA will send its new capsule, Orion, into an orbit that extends 3,600 miles from the Earth’s surface. At the conclusion of that orbit, Orion will plop peacefully into the Pacific Ocean and then get trucked back to Florida for testing — a grisly fate, indeed. The journey, which will test Orion’s safety features in deep-space conditions, should take four and a half hours and cost about $375 million.

Does that seem like a very, very brief trip for that amount of money? Screw you — space is spendy! Furthermore, there are two more trips planned (albeit for still more money): Another unmanned test in 2018, and one with real live astronauts in 2021. No word yet on when the actual Mars mission begins.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, professional one-upper and CEO of SpaceX, has been designing his own Mars-exploration capsule — which he claims costs less than Orion to develop. Again from The New York Times:

After the first unmanned Dragon test flight in 2010, Mr. Musk said he hoped NASA would at least consider the possibility. “Dragon has arguably more capability than Orion,” he said then. “Basically, anything Orion can do, Dragon can do.”

You tell ‘em, Elon! But more importantly: Which one would Matthew McConaughey pilot? I will only go to space in an aircraft that Matthew McConaughey is flying. But I will also probably be dead before this whole “newly unpleasant world” thing comes about, so who cares what I think!

*UPDATE: The Orion test launch has been rescheduled for Friday morning.

Source:
NASA Sees Capsule Test as a Step Toward Mars

, The New York Times.

Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

×

Get stories like this in your inbox

AdvertisementAdvertisement

View article:

NASA is headed for Mars. What, is there something wrong with Earth?

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Pines, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on NASA is headed for Mars. What, is there something wrong with Earth?

We’re hooked on this map of industrial fishing

We’re hooked on this map of industrial fishing

15 Nov 2014 8:31 AM

Share

Share

We’re hooked on this map of industrial fishing

×

We’ve written before how the best tools to fight overfishing at sea may be found in the skies – but this past Wednesday, proof-of-concept came in the form of a satellite-tracked map of all the journeys made by 25,000 large fishing vessels between 2012 and 2013.

The system is called Global Fishing Watch, and it was conceived by ocean-hugger nonprofit Oceana, developed by our favorite eye-in-the-sky watchdog SkyTruth, powered by satellite company SpaceQuest, with technical support from Google. Those are some heavy hitters to throw their weight behind the problem of illegal fishing — and they could actually make a difference. Here’s Wired‘s take:

Although the system currently displays voyages from nearly a year ago, “the plan is that we will build out a public release version that will have near-real-time data,” said Jackie Savitz, Oceana’s VP for U.S. oceans. “Then you’ll actually be able to see someone out there fishing within hours to days,” fast enough to act on the information if the fishing is happening illegally, such as in a marine protected area.

Here are the nuts and bolts: Large boats at sea are required to declare their positions by an automatic identification system, whose signals can be picked up by satellite. By feeding all these IDs and movements through some (read: a lot of very complicated) analysis, the Fishing Watch system can identify fishing boats. And, by omission, those boats who do not claim to be fishing but nevertheless behave as though they are.

So now we’re one step closer to catching fish criminals red-herring-handed.

Source:
The Plan to Map Illegal Fishing From Space

, Wired.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get stories like this in your inbox

AdvertisementAdvertisement

Credit:  

We’re hooked on this map of industrial fishing

Posted in Anchor, Everyone, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on We’re hooked on this map of industrial fishing

Tom’s Kitchen: Now Is the Time of Gazpacho

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Gazpacho can be a drag: dull and savoring of the refrigerator. That’s because its essential ingredients—tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers—are too often mass-produced and hauled in hundreds of miles from God knows where. However, when those hot-weather staples are in season and grown by talented farmers in your region—or better, in a nearby garden—gazpacho can be a revelation: vibrant, zippy, and as fresh as a sun-baked veggie patch.

Here in central Texas, it’s gazpacho time. My own tomato plants are towering and healthy, but a diabolical squirrel is helping itself to all the big ones, leaving me with just cherry tomatoes—delicious, but not right for the gazpacho blender. As for sweet peppers, mine aren’t quite ready yet. I did grow some fabulous cukes, though. So I headed over to Austin’s glorious Boggy Creek Farm, now in the midst of an epic tomato harvest, to fill out my gazpacho larder.

Now, my gazpacho mojo hit a snag a few years ago when a close friend dismissed a batch I had whipped up with a soul-crushing assessment: “salsa in disguise.” I realized my mistake: not enough cucumber and sweet pepper, and too much hot chile pepper. Since then, I’ve been using one medium-sized cucumber and one sweet pepper each for every five medium-sized tomatoes. As for hot pepper, I usually reserve it for garnish, in the form of a few chile flakes. These days, my gazpacho tastes like a summer garden in a bowl, not something you want to plunge a chip into. For a slightly spicy and ligher—but still un-salsalike—version, check out the one I came up with last year.

Essential gazpacho gear.

Gazpacho
(Serves two)

5 medium-sized tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 medium cucumber (if it’s super-fresh, no need to peel), coarsely chopped
1 medium (or too small) sweet pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 slice of good rustic day-old bread, toasted and torn into pieces
Sherry vinegar, one splash at a time, to taste
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Garnish
Extra virgin olive oil
Something green, like chopped parsley and/or garlic chives
Crushed red chile flakes
A few coarsely chopped cherry tomatoes (optional)

Place the chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and garlic into a blender, along with the olive oil, a good dash of vinegar, and a healthy lashing of salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. Taste. Add more vinegar and salt if need.

To serve, divide into two bowls (there may be a bit leftover). Give them a drizzle of olive oil and top with remaining garnishes.

View original post here:  

Tom’s Kitchen: Now Is the Time of Gazpacho

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Plant !t, Radius, Uncategorized, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Tom’s Kitchen: Now Is the Time of Gazpacho

Which Bundy Said It: Cliven, Al, Ted, or McGeorge?

Mother Jones

Cliven Bundy, everybody’s favorite Nevada land-fee delinquent, took it to another level this week by questioning whether black people were better off as slaves. Bundy insists his comments weren’t racist, just that he’s “wondering” if black people have traded traditional slavery for slavery to the US government, in the form of subsidies.

As Cliven Bundy’s words ricochet through the news cycle, it’s worth noting that he’s not the only Bundy who’s had some whack things to say in the annals of American history. Can you guess which Bundy uttered the truly…special…quotes below?

(function($)

function make_default_how_you_did_html(nCorrect, nQuestions)
var answersWord = nCorrect === 1 ? ‘answer’ : ‘answers’;
return ‘You got ‘ + nCorrect + ‘ ‘ +
‘correct ‘ + answersWord + ‘ out of ‘ + nQuestions + ‘ questions’;

function make_default_how_you_did_htmls(nQuestions)
var ret = [];
for (var i = 0; i <= nQuestions; i++)
ret.push(make_default_how_you_did_html(i, nQuestions));

return ret;
}

$.quiz = function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
var container_elem;
var self;
var cover;
var cheater_answer_tracking = [];
var answer_tracking = [];
var how_you_did_element;

var quiz =
defaulting_behavior_on : true,
defaulting_flag : ‘!default’,
container : ‘quiz_container’,
not_finished_html : undefined,
cheating : false,
possible_display_elements :

name : ‘backgroundimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slide) return ”;
return $(‘<div class=”‘ +
this.name +
‘” style=”background-image: url(” +
slidethis.name +
”); height: 100%; width: 100%;position:absolute;z-index: -1″>’
);
}
},

name : ‘topimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(

);
}
},

name : ‘topvideoembed’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.topvideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘title’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(‘

‘ +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘middleimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(

);
}
},

name : ‘middlevideoembed’,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.middlevideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘subhed’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name +

);
}
},

name : ‘text’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name +

);
}
},

name : ‘bottomimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(”
);
}
},

name : ‘bottomvideoembed’,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.bottomvideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
}
],

init : function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
self = this;

if (options)
for ( var option in options )
selfoption = optionsoption;

}

if (typeof(quiz_data) === ‘string’)
// is a google spreadsheet.
// Will call init_data in a callback
self.load_from_google_spreadsheet(quiz_data);
else
if (!results_data)
results_data = make_default_how_you_did_htmls(quiz_data.length);

self.init_data(quiz_data, results_data);
}

return self;
},
init_data: function(quiz_data, results_data)
self.quiz_data = quiz_data;
self.results_data = results_data;

self.calculate_aspectratios(quiz_data);
self.create_cover();

for ( var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++ )
self.append_question(i);

self.append_how_you_did_section();
self.update_how_you_did_element();
self.preload_answer_images();
},
append_how_you_did_section: function()
how_you_did_element = $(”);
cover.append(how_you_did_element);
,

load_from_google_spreadsheet: function(spreadsheet_id)
Tabletop.init(
key: spreadsheet_id,
callback: function(data)
var quiz_data = self.make_quiz_data_from_spreadsheet_data(data);
var results_data = self.make_results_data_from_spreadsheet_data(data, quiz_data);
self.init_data(quiz_data, results_data);

});
},
calculate_aspectratios: function(data)
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var row = datai;
for (var k = 0; k < row.possible_answers.length; k++)
var answer = row.possible_answersk;
self.find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed(answer);

self.find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed(row.question);
}
},

find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed : function(slide)
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++ )
var display = self.possible_display_elementsi;
if ( display.needs_aspect_ratio && slidedisplay.name )
slidedisplay.name + ‘aspectratio’ =
self.find_aspectratio(slidedisplay.name);

}
},
find_aspectratio: function(videoembed)
var height = videoembed.match(/height=”d+”/);
if (!height
height = parseInt(height0.replace(/height=”/, ”).replace(/”/, ”), 10);

var width = videoembed.match(/width=”d+”/);
if (!width || !width0)
console.log(‘Your video embed code needs a width.’);
return ”;

width = parseInt(width0.replace(/width=”/, ”).replace(/”/, ”), 10);

return (height / width)*100;
},
pull_answer_value_from_spreadsheet : function(row, value, wrong_number, correct)
correct = correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’;
if (rowcorrect + wrong_number + value && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value !== self.defaulting_flag)
return (rowcorrect + wrong_number + value);

if ((self.defaulting_behavior_on && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value !== self.defaulting_flag) ||
(!self.defaulting_behavior_on && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value === self.defaulting_flag)
)
return (rowcorrect + value && rowcorrect + value !== self.defaulting_flag ?
rowcorrect + value :
(row’answer’ + value && row’answer’ + value !== self.defaulting_flag ?
row’answer’ + value :
row’question’ + value
)
);
else
return ”;

},
get_possible_answers : function(row, is_correct)
var possible_answers = [];
var right_or_wrong = (is_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’);
if (rowright_or_wrong)
possible_answers.push(self.make_possible_answer(row, ”, is_correct));

for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
if (rowright_or_wrong + i)
possible_answers.push(self.make_possible_answer(row, i, is_correct));

}
return possible_answers;
},
make_possible_answer: function(row, row_number, is_correct)
var right_or_wrong = (is_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’);
var answer =
answer: rowright_or_wrong + row_number,
correct: is_correct
;
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++ )
var display_element = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
answerdisplay_element = self.pull_answer_value_from_spreadsheet(
row, display_element, row_number, is_correct
);

return answer;
},
make_quiz_data_from_spreadsheet_data: function(tabletop)
var i, j, sheetName, data;
var quiz = [];

// Find a sheet that _isn’t_ named “Results”.
for (sheetName in tabletop)
if (tabletop.hasOwnProperty(sheetName) && sheetName !== ‘Results’)
break;

}

data = tabletopsheetName.elements;

for (i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var row = datai;
var possible_wrong_answers = self.get_possible_answers(row, false);
var possible_right_answers = self.get_possible_answers(row, true);

var right_answer_placement = [];
for (j = 0; j < possible_right_answers.length; j++)
right_answer_placement.push(
Math.round(Math.random() * possible_wrong_answers.length)
);

// IMPORTANT TO SORT THIS. rather than check if a value is in, we only check the first
right_answer_placement.sort();

var possible_answers= [];
var right_answers_placed = 0;
for (j = 0; j <= possible_wrong_answers.length; j++)
while (j === right_answer_placementright_answers_placed)
//push right answer
possible_answers.push(possible_right_answersright_answers_placed);
right_answers_placed++;

if (j === possible_wrong_answers.length)
continue;

possible_answers.push(possible_wrong_answersj);
}

var question =
question :
,
possible_answers : possible_answers,
rowNumber : row.rowNumber – 1
};
for (j = 0; j < self.possible_display_elements.length; j++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsj.name;
question.questiondisplay_value = row’question’ + display_value;

quiz.push(question);
}
return quiz;
},
make_results_data_from_spreadsheet_data: function(tabletop, quiz_data)
var ret = make_default_how_you_did_htmls(quiz_data.length);

var data = tabletop’Results’ ? tabletop’Results’.elements : [];
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var index = datai.numberofrightanswers;
if (index) index = parseInt(index, 10);
if (!isNaN(index))
if (!retindex)
console.log(“Invalid number of correct answers: ” + index);
else
retindex = datai.html;

}
}

return ret;
},
append_question : function(question_index)
var question_data = self.quiz_dataquestion_index;
var question_container = $(‘<li class=”question_container row-fluid question_’ +
question_index +
‘”>’
);
question_container.append( self.build_question_element_from_row(question_data) );
question_container.append( self.build_possible_answer_elements_from_row(question_data, question_index) );
container_elem.append(question_container);
,
build_question_element_from_row: function(row)
var question_container = $(”);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
question_container.append(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element(row.question)
);

return question_container;
},
build_possible_answer_elements_from_row : function(question, question_index)
var answers_container = $(”);

function bindClick(question_index, answer_index, possible_answer)
possible_answer.bind(‘click’, function()
// was it the right answer?
var was_correct = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index.correct;

// Add correct classes to possible answers
answers_container.find(‘.selected’).removeClass(‘selected’);
$(this).addClass(‘selected’);
$(this).removeClass(‘possible_answer’);
answers_container
.find(‘.answer_’ + answer_index)
.addClass(
was_correct ? ‘correct_answer’ : ‘wrong_answer’
);

//track how many you got right the first time
cheater_answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
if ( typeof(answer_trackingquestion_index) === ‘undefined’ )
answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
cover.find(‘.question_’ + question_index).addClass(
‘first_guess_’ +
(was_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’)
);

self.update_how_you_did_element();

//show new slide
self.display_answer(self.quiz_dataquestion_index, question_index, self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index);

// track that this was selected last
self.quiz_dataquestion_index.previously_selected = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index;
});
}

for (var i = 0; i < question.possible_answers.length; i++)
var answer_data = question.possible_answersi;
var possible_answer = $(” +
answer_data.answer +
”);
bindClick(question_index, i, possible_answer);
answers_container.append(possible_answer);
this.note_answer_images(answer_data);

return answers_container;
},
answer_images : {},
preload_answer_images: function()
for (var url in this.answer_images)
var img=new Image();
img.src=url;

},
note_answer_images: function(answer_data)
var image_elements = ‘backgroundimage’, ‘topimage’, ‘bottomimage’;
for (var i = 0; i < image_elements.length; i++)
if (!answer_data[image_elementsi]) continue;
this.answer_images[answer_data[image_elementsi]] = true;
}
self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
},
add_display_in_correct_place: function(container, place_in_display_elements, slide)
for ( var i = place_in_display_elements; i > 0; i– )
if (self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container).length )
self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container)
.after( self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide) );
return;

}
container.prepend(
self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide)
);
},
display_answer : function(question, question_index, answer)
var displayed_slide = question.previously_selected ?
question.previously_selected :
question.question;
var slide = container_elem.find(‘.question_’ + question_index + ‘ .question’);
slide.addClass(‘revealed_answer’);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
if ( answerdisplay_value !== displayed_slidedisplay_value )
if ( !answerdisplay_value )
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).remove();
else if ( !displayed_slidedisplay_value )
self.add_display_in_correct_place(slide, i, answer);
else
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).replaceWith(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element( answer )
);

}
}
},

create_cover : function()
cover = $(‘#’ + self.container);
container_elem = $(”);
cover.append(container_elem);
container_elem.addClass(‘quiz_container’);
container_elem.css(‘padding’, ‘0px’);
,
update_how_you_did_element: function()
var right_answers = 0;
var user_answers = self.cheating ? cheater_answer_tracking : answer_tracking;
var unfinished = false;
for (var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++)
if (typeof(answer_trackingi) === ‘undefined’)
unfinished = true;

if (user_answersi)
right_answers++;

}
var html;
if (unfinished && typeof(this.not_finished_html) !== ‘undefined’)
html = this.not_finished_html;
else
html = this.results_dataright_answers;

how_you_did_element.html(html);
}
};
return quiz.init(quiz_data, results_data, options);
};

$.fn.quiz = function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
if (!options) options = results_data; results_data = null;
if (!options) options = ; }
options.container = this.attr(‘id’);
this.quiz = $.quiz(quiz_data, results_data, options);
return this;
};
})(jQuery);

var quiz = jQuery(‘#quiz_container’).quiz(‘0AuHOPshyxQGGdF9CMUVJeFM2UkJDb0txOUNxemZ6U3c’);

Link: 

Which Bundy Said It: Cliven, Al, Ted, or McGeorge?

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Which Bundy Said It: Cliven, Al, Ted, or McGeorge?

How Taxpayers Subsidize the Multi-Million Dollar Salaries of Restaurant CEOs

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

As the fight to raise the minimum wage has gained momentum, the restaurant industry has emerged as the biggest opponent. This is no surprise, since the industry claims the highest percentage of low-wage workers—60 percent—of any other business sector. Front-line fast-food workers earn so little money that about half of them rely on some form of public assistance, to the tune of about $7 billion a year. That hidden subsidy has helped boost restaurant industry profits to record highs. In 2013, the industry reaped $660 billion in profits, and it in turn channeled millions into backing efforts to block local governments from raising pay for low-wage workers and to keep the minimum wage for tipped workers at $2.13 an hour (exactly where it’s been for the past 22 years). But public assistance programs aren’t the only way taxpayers subsidize the restaurant industry.

A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies finds that the public has been contributing to excessive CEO compensation as well, helping to widen the gap between the lowest-paid workers and their bosses. Thanks to a loophole in the tax code, corporations are allowed to deduct unlimited amounts of money from their tax bills for executive compensation, so long as it comes in the form of stock options or “performance pay.” The loophole was the inadvertent result of an attempt by Congress to rein in CEO compensation by limiting the tax deduction for executive pay to $1 million a year. That law exempted pay that came in the form of stock options or performance pay. This loophole has proven lucrative for CEOs of all stripes, but it is particularly egregious in an industry that pays its workers so little that it is already heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

According to IPS, the CEOs of the 20 largest companies that belong to the National Restaurant Association personally reaped more than $660 million over the past two years in performance pay—compensation that collectively ended up cutting their companies’ tax bills by more than $230 million. That hefty subsidy is enough to cover the average cost of food stamps for 145,000 families for a year, according to IPS.

Topping the list of executives raking in big bucks with help from the taxpayers is the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, who was paid $236 million in performance pay and other deductible compensation over the past two years, an outlay that saved the company $82 million in taxes. That $82 million tax subsidy could easily translate into a living wage pay raise for more than 30,000 baristas, who now make on average $8.79 an hour.

There’s also Yum! brands CEO David Novak, who over the past 14 years has been the beneficiary of a special tax-deferred retirement plan not available to ordinary workers. His subsidized retirement assets now top more than $232 million. Meanwhile, his employees at Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC earn so little money that they’re estimated to rely on $650 million in public assistance every year. IPS figures that Novak’s retirement benefits alone could save taxpayers $61 million in public assistance costs annually if they were instead used to raise the pay of 16,000 of Yum!’s low-wage workers to $15 an hour, a move that would take about 9 percent of the company’s employees off the public dole. Instead, though, Yum! officials have been working behind the scenes to fend off legislation that might give their workers a paid sick day now and then. No wonder fast-food workers are going on strike.

Link to original:  

How Taxpayers Subsidize the Multi-Million Dollar Salaries of Restaurant CEOs

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, oven, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How Taxpayers Subsidize the Multi-Million Dollar Salaries of Restaurant CEOs

Most Senators Overseeing the Comcast-Time Warner Deal Have Taken Money From Both

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Comcast and Time Warner executives about their extraordinarily controversial merger proposal. A recent poll found that 52 percent of respondents believed mergers like it lead to reduced competition and poorer service for consumers.

At today’s hearing, a number of the senators expressed concern about the deal which, if approved, would result in a single company serving slightly less than 30 percent of the US paid television market and up to 40 percent of American broadband subscribers. Chairman Leahy (D-Vt.) started the proceedings, saying that “thousands of Americans have flooded the FCC Federal Communications Commission in recent weeks with comments supporting the restoration of open-internet rules. Their voices on this issue should be heard.”

But Leahy and most of his colleagues have already “heard” from both Comcast and Time Warner—in the form of generous campaign contributions. Out of the committee’s 18 members, 15 have accepted donations from at least one of the two media giants since the 2010 election cycle; 12 have received money from both. The average contribution over that time: $16,285. Democrats were the biggest recipients, taking an average of $18,531 from the two cable and internet giants, nearly twice as much as their Republican counterparts. Here’s the breakdown:

Senator
Comcast
Time Warner

Chris Coons (D-Del.)
$57,200
$10,200

Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
$41,600
$21,300

Orin Hatch (R-Utah)
$36,750
$6,000

Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
$28,373
$23,575

Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
$22,500
$62,650

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
$21,831
$20,275

Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
$20,600
$0

Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
$17,000
$2,333

Al Franken (D-Minn.)
$14,750
$11,600

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
$13,000
$4,000

Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.)
$12,025
$25,780

Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
$8,500
$5,000

Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
$7,500
$0

John Cornyn (R-Texas)
$6,000
$3,500

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
$0
$3,000

Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)
$0
$0

Mike Lee (R-Utah)
$0
$0

Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
$0
$0

Source: Center for Responsive Politics

Taken from: 

Most Senators Overseeing the Comcast-Time Warner Deal Have Taken Money From Both

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Most Senators Overseeing the Comcast-Time Warner Deal Have Taken Money From Both