As the Trump administration is considering designating Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” two senior Iranian civilian leaders have strongly defended the I.R.G.C.’s military involvement in the Middle Eastern conflicts. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif this weekend the I.R.G.C.’s efforts to fight “terrorism” in the region and argued that Washington’s threat of designating Iran’s elite military unit will be futile. “These moves by America have never benefited the American people and government. What the whole world says is that our brothers in Sepah [I.R.G.C.] have provided most of the support to neighboring countries against terrorists, particularly Takfiri [a term used by Iranian leaders to describe Sunni extremist militants] terrorists, Daesh [Islamic State] and al-Nusra [Jabhat Fateh al-Sham]. And any action against these brave men of our country will further unmask the reality of those who commit such actions and will definitely not be good for them,” he told reporters. “I am confident that these vain moves will also have no impact,” he added Separately, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani today also the I.R.G.C.’s role in safeguarding the Islamic revolution at home and securing the Iranian interests abroad.

Comment: When Iran signed a nuclear agreement with the United States and five other world powers in July 2015, many hoped that the landmark deal would also moderate Iranian behavior in the region. It was hoped that the accord would give the Rouhani government the political capital needed to pressure the I.R.G.C. to curtail its support for terrorist and militant groups that fight Iran’s wars across the region. But so far all evidence points to the contrary, as the I.R.G.C. has only deepened its direct military engagement and support for its proxies from Afghanistan to Syria and Iraq.

Read moreover, the Rouhani government has effectively subordinated Iran’s policies in the region to the I.R.G.C., particularly to Qassem Soleimani, the leader of I.R.G.C.’s secretive Quds Force. Rather than contain I.R.G.C.’s subversive actions, President Hassan Rouhani’s senior cabinet members repeatedly praise the I.R.G.C. for having the upper hand in regional matters. Zarif, Iran’s most senior and skillful diplomat, has admitted in the past that he has had a close relationship with Soleimani for over 20 years. When I was the head of the [Iranian] negotiating team involving questions of Iraq and Afghanistan, I had a very good working relationship with General Soleimani,” Zarif earlier this month.

Zarif’s comment also indicates that Iranian leaders are concerned about the Trump administration’s potential plan to designate the country’s top military unit as a terrorist entity. Iranian media and legal experts have already begun examining the implications a potential decision by the Trump administration to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) as a terrorist entity. Tabnak, an outlet affiliated with former I.R.G.C. chief commander Mohsen Rezaei, published a earlier this month saying that blacklisting the I.R.G.C. could indirectly undermine the nuclear agreement. “The global economy is deeply dependent on America. Therefore, major countries and companies do not want to lose the American market. When a [terrorist designation] list is prepared and leaves its direct impact on Iran’s economy, all countries and companies that could invest in and do business with Iran will refrain from doing so and we will face a lot of detriments,” the article explained.

The U.S. government has already designated individuals and entities affiliated with the I.R.G.C., but designating the whole of the organization would put the I.R.G.C. together with a long list of U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The I.R.G.C. is Iran’s elite military force, which was established by the Islamic Republic’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini to defend the fledgling clerical regime following the 1979 revolution. But over the past 37 years, the I.R.G.C. has not only turned into Iran’s most powerful military force but it also dominates Iranian economy and has extensive influence over the country’s politics as well. The Quds Force under Soleimani has played an active role in arming, training and funding terrorist and militant organizations in the Middle East, particularly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.


Perfect Guidelines to Enter Nutritarian Way Of Living Stepping into a nutritarian lifestyle could be the most effective point that can happen to your wellness. Once you experience the advantages of a nutritarian way of life on your body, you might never want to return from your healthy plant-based diets to poor eating routines ever before once again. Nutritarian diet standards assist you to effectively handle your diet plan in order to get the best physical and mental health problems for years to come. Just what are the Nutritarian Diet Regimen Guidelines? The nutritarian diet standards are easy offering suggestions that can be followed to achieve a healthy as well as in shape lifestyle. It enables you to understand exactly what to consume to make sure that your body receives a decent nutrient to calories proportion bring about weight-loss, boost in resistance, and prevention of persistent diseases among others. It is not essential to follow them word by word as well as you could change them as per your body demands and also preferences for best experiences as well as results as this is crucial ever to a number of individuals.

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Tracking indoor air quality can help mitigate home pollution

10/03/2018       Share to
Tracking indoor air quality can help mitigate home pollution

Washington: Tracking the indoor air quality in real time can encourage people to change their behaviour and switch to activities that cause less pollution within their homes, a study has found.

Researchers from University of Utah in the US conducted a study to determine if homeowners change the way they live if they could visualise the microscopic air pollutants in their homes.

"The idea behind this study was to help people understand something about this invisible air quality in their home," said Jason Wiese, an assistant professor at University of Utah.

Researchers built a series of portable air quality monitors with Wi-Fi and connected them to a server. Three sensors were placed in each of six homes from four to 11 months in 2017 and 2018. Two were placed in different, high-traffic areas of the house such as the kitchen or a bedroom and one outside on or near the porch.

Each minute, each sensor automatically measured the air for PM 2.5 -- a measurement of tiny particles or droplets in the air that are 2.5 microns or less in width -- and sent the data to the server.

The data could then be viewed by the homeowner on a tablet that displayed the air pollution measurements in each room as a line graph over a 24-hour period. Participants in the study could see up to 30 days of air pollution data.

To help identify when there might be spikes in the air pollution, homeowners were given a voice-activated speaker so they could tell the server to label a particular moment in time when the air quality was being measured, such as when a person was cooking or vacuuming.

Participants also were sent an SMS text message warning them whenever the indoor air quality changed rapidly. One homeowner discovered that the air pollution in her home spiked when she cooked with olive oil.

That motivated her to find other oils that produced less smoke at the same cooking temperature, researchers said. Another homeowner would vacuum and clean the house just before a friend with allergies dropped by to try and clean the air of dust.

However, she found that this made the air much worse because more pollutants were kicked up when vacuuming and dusting.

Realising this, she started cleaning the house much earlier before the friend would visit.

Participants would open windows more when the air was bad or compare measurements between rooms and avoid those rooms more with more pollution.

"Without this kind of system, you have no idea about how bad the air is in your home," Wiese said.

"There are a whole range of things you can't see and can't detect. That means you have to collect the data with the sensor and show it to the individual in an accessible, useful way," he said.

For more details:


Historical character movies and TV shows

The list contains the best, new and most relevant historical character movies ordered by relevance. The recommendation service has sorted out serious, realistic, captivating, stylized, suspense and interesting films and TV shows about / with historical character, betrayal, politics, state affairs, society, corruption, period piece, mentor, idealism and marriage plots mostly in Drama, History and Biography genres shot in USA, UK, Canada and other countries.
historical character
historical character movies
TOP 10 movies tagged as historical character: The Borgias (2011), Vikings (2013), Reign (2013), The Tudors (2007), Elizabeth (1998), The Queen (2006), 300 (2006), Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003), The Conspirator (2010), Marie Antoinette (2006).

List of historical character movies

The Borgias (2011)
Genre: Crime, Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA, Hungary, Ireland, Canada
Duration: 50 min.
Style: captivating, serious, clever, epic, stylized ...
Plot: clergy, siblings relations, intrigue, historical character, brother sister incest, manipulations, lust, priest, sin, ambition, desire, rivalry ...
Time: 15th century, 16th century
Place: italy, europe, rome italy
Is relevant ?
Vikings (2013)
Country: Ireland, Canada
Duration: 44 min.
Style: exciting, atmospheric, captivating, stylized, breathtaking ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: warrior, vikings, historical character, heroic, legends and myths, tough heroes, battles, master warrior, king, heroes, adventure, viking ...
Time: middle ages
Place: scandinavia, europe
Is relevant ?
Reign (2013)
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min.
Story: Mary, Queen of Scots, faces political and sexual intrigue in the treacherous world of the French court.
Style: stylized, serious, sexy, tense, realistic ...
Plot: queen, royal family, intrigue, aristocracy, royal court, rivalry, palaces castles and temples, state affairs, politics, prince, power struggle, heir heiress ...
Time: 16th century
Place: france, scotland, europe
Is relevant ?
The Tudors (2007)
Genre: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Ireland, Canada, USA, UK
Duration: 60 min.
Style: serious, captivating, stylized, sexual, factual ...
Plot: royal family, queen, intrigue, betrayal, love triangle, royal court, couple relations, king, womanizer, historical character, power struggle, politics ...
Time: 16th century, 1500s, renaissance
Place: england, europe
Is relevant ?
Related movie lists
Elizabeth (1998)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 124 min.
Style: stylized, epic, realistic, factual, serious ...
Plot: queen, historical character, royal court, political intrigue, queen elizabeth i, politics, rise to the top, british history, treason, royal family, head of state, historical figure ...
Time: 16th century, 18th century
Place: england, europe, scotland, rome italy, paris france ...
Is relevant ?
The Queen (2006)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, USA, France, Italy
Duration: 103 min.
Style: thought provoking, factual, emotional, compassionate, talky ...
Plot: royal family, queen, historical character, paparazzi, head of state, politics, pride and honor, death in the family, rules and policies, queen of england, private vs public, british royal family ...
Time: 1990s, 20th century, 90s
Place: england, buckingham palace, europe, scottish highlands, paris france ...
Is relevant ?
300 (2006)
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 117 min.
Style: epic, exciting, harsh, scenic, rough ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: warrior, courage, battles, ancient, master warrior, human spirit, military, war, historical character, army, heroic mission, against the odds ...
Time: ancient history, ancient world
Place: greece, ancient greece, europe
Is relevant ?
Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 179 min.
Plot: fascism, dictatorship, against humanity, racism, hitler, historical character, state affairs, life is a bitch, rise to the top, politics, newspaper, head of state ...
Time: 20s, 20th century, 30s, 1930s, 1910s ...
Place: germany, europe, austria
Is relevant ?
The Conspirator (2010)
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min.
Style: serious, thought provoking, captivating, factual, emotional ...
Plot: courtroom drama, civil war, assassination, lawyer, president, conspiracy, historical character, trial, boarding house, death sentence, legal, crimes ...
Time: 19th century, 1860s, 18th century
Place: usa, washington d.c., england, california
Is relevant ?
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA, France, Japan
Duration: 123 min.
Style: realistic, factual, colourful, melancholic, stylized ...
Plot: queen, royal family, royal court, princess, historical character, french, state affairs, palaces castles and temples, politics, siblings relations, rite, revolution ...
Time: 18th century, 1780s, 1770s
Place: france, versailles, paris france, austria, europe ...
Is relevant ?
The King's Speech (2010)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, USA, Australia
Duration: 118 min.
Style: uplifting, serious, realistic, talky, witty ...
Plot: royal family, friendship, queen, radio, british history, state affairs, disability, treatment, destiny, speech, against the odds, historical character ...
Place: england, britain, buckingham palace, europe, germany ...
Is relevant ?
TURN: Washington's Spies (2014)
Genre: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min.
Style: serious, captivating, suspenseful, realistic, tense
Audience: boys' night
Plot: american revolution, spy, army, historical character, political unrest, treason, rivalry, rebellion, undercover, ambition, rebelliousness, occupation ...
Time: 18th century, 1770s
Place: usa, new york, new jersey, connecticut
Is relevant ?
Related movie lists
Lincoln (2012)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, India
Duration: 150 min.
Plot: american civil war, racism, president, politics, head of state, idealism, speech, cultural conflict, white house, battlefield, human spirit, historical character ...
Time: 19th century, 1860s
Place: usa, washington d.c., california
Is relevant ?
Vinyl (2016)
Genre: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min.
Story: Set in 1970s New York, Vinyl is a ride through the sex- and drug-addled music business at the dawn of punk, disco, and hip-hop. The show is seen through the eyes of a record label president, Richie Finestra, who is trying to save his company and his ...
Style: stylized, captivating, realistic, serious, tense
Audience: boys' night
Plot: showbiz, music, ambition, blackmail, mafia, music business, historical character, nervous breakdown, drugs/alcohol, disco, rock band, racism ...
Time: 70s, 20th century
Place: usa, new york, las vegas
Is relevant ?
Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min.
Plot: white house, butler, racism, civil rights, injustice, prejudice, president, blacks and whites, historical character, master and servant, parents and children, state affairs ...
Time: 70s, 20th century, 50s, 80s, 60s ...
Place: usa, washington d.c., south africa, cuba
Is relevant ?
A Dangerous Method (2011)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story: Seduced by the challenge of an impossible case, the driven Dr. Carl Jung takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein as his patient. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud. Both men fall under Sabina’s ...
Style: psychological, intellectual, talky, serious, sexy ...
Plot: psychiatrist, patient, sexual perversion, sexuality, mental illness, seduction, introspection, mentally unstable, human nature, psychoanalysis, therapy, historical character ...
Time: 1900s, 20th century, 1910s, 1930s
Place: switzerland, europe, austria, central europe, zurich switzerland
Is relevant ?
Invictus (2009)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min.
Style: uplifting, touching, emotional, sincere, captivating ...
Plot: human spirit, president, idealism, rugby, racism, apartheid, celebration, politician, poverty, blacks and whites, historical character, sport team ...
Time: 1990s, 20th century, 90s
Place: south africa, africa, cape town south africa, new jersey, england
Is relevant ?
Any Human Heart (2010)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Style: stylized, serious, realistic, sentimental, touching ...
Plot: encounter, writer's life, love and romance, historical character, love affair, king, memoir, change, marriage, artists and showbiz, elderly, middle aged ...
Time: 20th century, 1940s, 50s, 80s, 20s ...
Place: england, europe, new york, usa, france ...
Is relevant ?
Da Vinci's Demons (2013)
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama, Fantasy, History, Mystery, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 59 min.
Style: captivating, intellectual, exciting, witty, serious ...
Plot: prodigy, inventions and discoveries, adventure, escapades, lust, unconventional method, inventor, magical, visionary, architect, leonardo da vinci, painting ...
Time: 15th century, renaissance, 1400s
Place: italy, europe, florence, florence italy, rome italy ...
Is relevant ?
Outlaw King (2018)
Genre: Action, Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 121 min.
Style: atmospheric, suspense, exciting, factual, breathtaking
Plot: exile, battle, medieval, kingdom, battlefield, knight, historical character, king, castle, minstrel, guerilla warfare, aristocrat ...
Time: 14th century
Place: scotland, england
Is relevant ?
The Current War (2017)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min.
Style: intellectual, realistic, clever, serious, stylized ...
Plot: inventor, science, discovery, historical character, science and technology, invention, prodigy, nerd, feud, ambition, mentor, argument ...
Is relevant ?
Jodhaa Akbar (2008)
Genre: Action, Drama, History, Romance
Country: India
Duration: 213 min.
Style: epic, serious, captivating, stylized, realistic ...
Plot: true love, love and romance, royal family, culture clash, royal court, emperor, ruler, politics, dishonesty, win over, princess, bollywood ...
Time: 16th century
Place: india, asia
Is relevant ?
Borgia (2011)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic
Duration: 52 min.
Story: Borgia is a French-German-Czech historical drama television series created by Tom Fontana. The show recounts the Borgia family's rise to power and subsequent domination of the Papal States during the Renaissance. Borgia debuted in Italy via ...
Style: realistic, serious, rough, gloomy, captivating ...
Plot: political intrigue, clergy, church, rivalry, political unrest, politics, ambition, political corruption, power struggle, historical character, sex addict, family in crisis ...
Time: middle ages, 15th century, 1400s, 16th century, renaissance ...
Place: italy, europe, rome italy, naples italy, france ...
Is relevant ?
Related movie lists
Agora (2009)
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Spain, Malta, Bulgaria
Duration: 127 min.
Style: touching, sincere, stylized, epic, emotional ...
Plot: master and servant, christianity, roman empire, destiny, love and romance, impossible love, political unrest, fall in love, unfulfillment, unfulfilled love, power relations, religions or cults ...
Time: ancient history, ancient world
Place: egypt, middle east, africa, spain
Is relevant ?
The White Queen (2013)
Genre: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, France
Duration: 60 min.
Style: captivating, stylized, serious, realistic
Plot: queen, royal court, royal family, love and romance, intrigue, king, betrayal, aristocracy, palaces castles and temples, throne, rivalry, marriage ...
Time: 15th century
Place: england, europe
Is relevant ?
Hell on Wheels (2011)
Genre: Drama, Western
Country: Canada, UK
Duration: 42 min.
Style: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, tense, rough ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: old west, slavery, native americans, loss of spouse, rivalry, african american, tough heroes, courage, haunted by the past, shooting, train, business venture ...
Time: 19th century, 1860s
Place: usa
Is relevant ?
Rome (2005)
Genre: Action, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 90 min.
Style: epic, sexual, exciting, captivating, tense ...
Plot: roman empire, incest, betrayal, emperor, intrigue, rivalry, strong sexual content, warrior, treason, power struggle, political conspiracy, slavery ...
Time: ancient history, 1st century b.c.
Place: europe, egypt, italy
Is relevant ?
Darkest Hour (2017)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 125 min.
Style: based on true events, suspense, serious, realistic, harsh
Plot: prime minister, british history, leader, politics, wartime, world war two, leadership, period piece, danger, secretary, decision, choice ...
Time: 1940s, year 1940
Place: england, france, europe
Is relevant ?
The Emperor of Paris (2018)
Genre: Adventure, History
Country: France
Duration: 110 min.
Story: Crime thriller about Francois Vidocq, a real-life ex-convict who became a police detective during Napoleon’s reign.
Style: captivating, based on true events, witty, serious, atmospheric
Plot: criminal, chief of police, investigation, private detective, national security, historical character, society, pistol, baroness, horse, church, fire ...
Time: 19th century
Place: paris france
Is relevant ?
Red Cliff Part II (2009)
Genre: Action, Drama, History, War
Country: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea
Duration: 142 min.
Story: The battle of Red Cliff continues and the alliance between Xu and East Wu is fracturing. With Cao Cao's massive forces on their doorstep, will the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu survive?
Style: epic, stylized, realistic, exciting, captivating ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: soldier, master warrior, war, emperor, danger, wartime life, battle zone, life is a bitch, martial arts, leadership, weakness, heroes ...
Time: ancient history
Place: china, asia, hong kong, england
Is relevant ?


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Father of the Gods: Zeus

As a middle school teacher, I know that students enjoy the story more than just reading about the events from a text. What better story to start with than the one the Greeks have been telling since ancient times?

Father of the Gods: Zeus

Even before the defeat of the Titans, Zeus was busy creating his own army of children. His first wife was always known to be Metis, the daughter of Titans Oceanus and Tethys. It was Metis that gave Zeus the idea of giving Kronos a drink that would cause him to puke up his other children Hades, Poseidon, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, so they could help him defeat their father. Metis, the Titan of wisdom, was important to Zeus. Some would say she was the brains behind his whole operation, but Zeus's grandmother, Gaia, always the troublemaker, warned that her children would be smarter than their own father and overthrow him one day. Zeus could not allow this to happen and borrowed a play from his father's playbook. He swallowed Metis to keep her safely in his own belly where she could never have any children, including the daughter she was already carrying.

Once Metis was no longer in the picture, Zeus moved on to Themis, the Titan of order and daughter of Gaia and Uranus. With Zeus, Themis was said to have given birth to two sets of daughters. The first set would follow their mother's path as order bringer. The Horai were Dike (justice), Eirene (peace), and Eunomia (order of law). The second set of daughters, the Moirai, inherited their mother's ability to see the future. Clotho, Lachesis and, Atropos became better known as the Fates.

Zeus then sought out the sister of his first wife, Eurynome. She does not appear in much mythology except as the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, the third wife of Zeus, and the mother of the Charities. The Charities, known as the Graces in Roman times, have varied in number and parentage. The first three, however, were generally considered to be daughters of Zeus and Eurynome. They were Aglaea (splendor), Euphrosyne (mirth), and Thalia (good cheer).

With the daughters of Kronos and Rhea still inside their father's belly, one must remember that, at the time, there would be no females around except for the other daughters and granddaughters of Gaia and Uranus. This should make it no surprise that Zeus would now seek out the attention of the remaining single daughter of Gaia, Mnemosyne. This pairing would produce nine daughters. It is interesting to note that to this point, daughters are all the young god has created. These nine girls were known collectively as the Muses. They would come to represent the aspects of creativity they were each associated with: Calliope (poetry), Clio (history), Erato (love poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (hymns), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy).

In the scheme of Greek mythology, it seems that it must have been around this point that Zeus used the potion, suggested by his first wife Metis, to retrieve his siblings from the belly of Kronos as the god's next love was his sister Demeter. For the ancient Greeks, the concept of mating with a sibling was not considered the illegal act it is today. Zeus would later go on to marry his sister Hera and have several children, but with Demeter, there was only Persephone. Little was noted of Persephone until she was abducted by Hades and became Queen of the Underworld. She was the goddess of springtime, owing to her mother being the goddess of the harvest.

Hera was the one goddess who seemed to be equal to her husband in power and remained his wife throughout the time of the gods. The two of them had children including Ares and his sister Enyo, the twin gods of war. Zeus and Hera were also the parents of Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, whom Hera used to exact her revenge on future lovers of her husband. They were also the parents of Hebe, the goddess of youth.

Birth of Athena

Birth of Athena

It was after Zeus married Hera and started having children that Zeus developed a major headache. The pain was so bad that he agreed to have another god, debate rages over who got the honors, hit him in the head with an ax. Once Zeus's head was split open, it was said that Athena jumped out fully grown, clad in armor and shouting at battle cry. The goddess of warfare and wisdom, daughter of Metis, was now counted among the many daughters of Zeus. By my count, Zeus now had 23 daughters and one son.

Hera, upset that her husband was capable of having a child, Athena, without her help is said to have done the same. She claimed that by eating a lotus flower, she conceived her son Hephaestus, the god of fire and forges. Perhaps it was true, as Hephaestus was said to have been born ugly and crippled. All of the other children of Zeus were said to have great beauty, even Ares, though his brutal attitude made it difficult to see. The poets were left to debate the parentage of Hephaestus, along with the argument of who threw the ugly infant god from Mount Olympus: Zeus or Hera.

Leto and Her Twins Apollo and Artemis

Leto and Her Twins Apollo and Artemis

Now Zeus was married to Hera, but do not for one moment believe that Zeus was done having children with other women of the Titan and goddess variety. A daughter of Coeus and Phoebe, first generation Titans, caught the eye of Zeus. Asteria, who was already the mother of Hecate, was not interested in being with Zeus or facing Hera's rage for doing so. She turned herself into a quail trying to escape the god's advances. Zeus's eagle, in pursuit, drove her into the Aegean Sea where she transformed into a floating island, Delos. Not to be denied, Zeus turned his attention to Asteria's sister Leto. She was not able to escape the advances of Zeus and became pregnant with twins. When Hera learned of her husband's actions, she forbade Leto from delivering the babies anywhere on Earth. In labor, Leto traveled from place to place, looking for a land where the people would allow her to deliver her children. Unfortunately, the people were more afraid of Hera and she was denied. Eventually, Leto came to the floating island of Delos, which had once been her sister. The people there welcomed her, and Artemis and Apollo were born.

Zeus, never one to let his wife's rage stop him from doing what he wanted, next found a daughter of Atlas who had tried to hide herself from the god's wandering eye. Zeus spotted her hiding in a cave on Mount Cyllene. Once pregnant with the child of Zeus, Maia continued to hide hoping that Hera would not find out about the baby. While she succeeded in having the child without facing retribution from the Queen of the Gods, the baby boy, Hermes, started making waves on his very first day of life. By stealing his big brother Apollo's sacred cattle and being forced to stand before his father accused of the crime, Hera certainly learned of her husband's betrayal.

Zeus was attributed with being the father of other gods and goddess as well, but they are all given alternate parentage that makes far more sense. Zeus also fathered many children with mortal women including Perseus, Heracles, Minos, Helen of Troy, and Pollux, the twin brother of Castor. Since the focus of this article is on immortal children born to Zeus, I will refrain from discussing them here, though I will admit that upon his death, Heracles was given immortality by his father. That leaves one last child of Zeus that I will discuss. Some say he was born of a mortal mother. Others say he was born from Persephone, but the mythology that has the most support, has him being born from his Zeus's leg.

Silenus and Dionysus

Silenus and Dionysus

Semele was the mortal daughter of the King of Thebes. She caught Zeus's eye and willingly mated with him. Unfortunately for her, Hera once again found out that her husband had been unfaithful. She tricked Semele into getting Zeus to show her his true immortal form, which was said to be more than any mortal could survive. Because Zeus had promised Semele anything she wished for, he had no choice but to grant her wish to see him, and of course, Semele did not survive. Zeus is said to have taken the unborn infant from his lover's womb and sowed him into his own thigh. When Dionysus was big enough to be born, Zeus removed his son from his leg and sent him to Semele's sister Ino to be raised. Hermes was the one who took the baby to Ino and suggested that she raise him as a girl in order to keep Hera from finding him. It did not work, and Ino was punished by Hera, but that is a whole other story. Dionysus did, however, manage to live to adulthood, despite many attempts by his stepmother Hera to destroy him. He spent much of his childhood being cared for by Silenus, an older satyr. He then wandered the world trying to stay out of Hera's sight, but he gained so many followers during his travels that he was made an Olympian upon his return to Greece and thereby an immortal.

With all of these immortal children, it is easy to see how Zeus earned the title "Father of the Gods."

About the Author

Daisy R. is a research writer and blogger from New York. He is a graduate of the New York University. Currently, he writes for an essay help company. He is interested in topics about parenting, education, business, motivation, health, writing, etc.

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Father of the Gods: Zeus
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New Display Board

A project log for Relay Calculator

8 digit, four function calculator built from 4̶0̶0̶ 500 relays and q̶u̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶o̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶d̶i̶o̶d̶e̶s̶ hopefully no diodes

tophalfofabarntophalfofabarn 02/03/2019 at 02:200 Comments

So it turns out I absolutely hate wiring diode arrays, and I would like to display all three registers, not just the input register and accumulator. (I was able to rework things to get it back down to three registers).

The seven segment LED display would require over 1000 diodes and I just don't care to do that.

So instead I've found a good deal on 24x IN-12B Nixie tubes and sockets and will use those instead. That eliminates the last few diodes and any semiconductors in the entire project.

In other news, I calculated that the core of the calculator, which can multiply two single digit numbers and then add another single digit number to the product, and then convert the binary result to BCD, will take 87 relays. It has a 34 relay latency that data has to propagate through. I measured the switching time of the relays I'm using in this part to be about 15ms, so it will take approximately half of a second for a signle digit calculation to take place.

This means that an addition or subtraction will take 4 seconds, a multiplication will take 4 seconds per multiplier digit (32 seconds for 8 digit x 8 digit) and a division, (which uses magnitude comparators, shifters, and counting subtraction) will take a maximum of 320 seconds (99999999/1) but will typically be much less.


Growing MVP

The optimal approach for a future-thinking startup.

MVP — Confusion

The “Lean Startup” approach has become *the* development approach for startups, and at its heart, the MVP. Different interpretations and implementations of this approach have caused controversial opinions about the MVP. People came up with alternative names which in most cases were simply an attempt to emphasize an aspect they felt was most important in the context of defining what makes an MVP minimal and viable.

By definition, an MVP is a version of the product with minimum functionality. The MVP is supposed to enable the bootstrapping startup to receive validation (or lack thereof) of the product viability, customer base and market potential — with minimum investment. The idea is to confirm, revise or dismiss assumptions about the product and its users as early as possible in the development process, and by so doing prevent wasted investment in the wrong direction.

This process is intended to be iterative, with different cycles of MVP and market testing, until the startup reaches a successful product — or a decision to stop development and discard the idea.

Unfortunately, the concept of “MVP” is often understood by entrepreneurs superficially as a one-off project that delivers crystal clear results. The thought goes: “If I only invest the minimum in developing a minimum product, I will receive a clear answer from the market as to whether my product will succeed or not. Either the MVP will prove itself, and then I’ll get funding easily, or I won’t even need funding. Or it won’t, and then I will know as soon as possible that this product won’t be a success and save myself unneeded investment.”

It would be nice if reality worked like that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

MVP: No Crystal Ball

The reality is much more complicated. There is a small percentage of entrepreneurs whose MVP leads to a clear black and white answer: immediate success or an immediate capital investment on the one hand, or discovery (without the shadow of a doubt) that the idea is a loser, on the other hand.

Most entrepreneurs, however, end up in shades-of-grey situations like these:

1. The market feedback was excellent, so I think it’s worth investing a little more myself to develop the product further. That way I can give away less equity when I get funding.

2. The product failed, but I understand what my mistakes were, and I think that it still has a chance.

3. There was a lot of interest in the idea, but the implementation wasn’t complete enough to get an accurate idea of long-term use and viability.

4. The app got many more downloads than we expected, but it crashed all the time because we hadn’t anticipated and planned for such heavy usage.

These situations don’t have clear answers of “success” or “failure.” They indicate a chance (but not a guarantee) of success. In all cases, the startup will need to continue gradual development of their MVP until external investment enables them to do more rapid development, or until the product succeeds on its own, without external investment.

A Waste of an MVP

The above situations would be fine — providing the MVP was built in a way that enables continued gradual development. Unfortunately, when the perspective on an MVP is that of a one-off, crystal ball job, it often is
not built that way.

The tendency is to invest as little as possible in the quality of the MVP, treating it as a temporary prototype to be discarded upon receiving the hoped-for external investment. Entrepreneurs choose cheap technologies or less professional developers that they would never use for their “real” product: friends, unexperienced freelancers, unprofessional outsourcing firms or firms that will only develop in a limited set of technologies. Here — in the “quick and dirty” MVP — is where future disappointment and frustration lurk.

Hiring an unprofessional construction team to build your foundations doesn’t usually end well for your building. If the foundations of the MVP execution are shaky, the cost of the application’s future development is likely to be much more expensive than it could have been. Sometimes everything you put into the MVP will need to be scrapped and the product built from the ground up, at great expense and a significant loss of time. The whole process of “do-over” can prevent your startup from moving forward at the rate
you had planned.

When the MVP is a Stumbling Block

Sometimes it’s not only a loss of time and money. Sometimes a not thought-out MVP can itself cause the product to fail, even if the idea is wonderful. While it’s understood that you don’t compromise on UX when designing your MVP, that’s not the only critical component. Operations, stability, trustworthiness, data and market penetration elements — any and all of those,if not dealt with the right way during the MVP stage, can sink an otherwise successful startup.

A common textbook example of an MVP is Zappos, who started their online shoe store with complete manual operations. I run into clients who have read this example and assume that means that no MVP ever needs any type of automation. Unfortunately, they usually pick the wrong MVPs to assume this about. A service with dynamic or limited inventory needs some type of operations automation, or you’re likely to end up with customers completing an entire order, only to be informed afterwards that their order is not in stock. That is an easy way to end up with unsatisfied customers.

Another way that your MVP could fail your customers is by not being equipped to deal with everyone who wants to use it. If your MVP has potential for an enthusiastic response from a large user base, you must take that into account when planning the MVP — or face the consequences. I was recently told about an application that garnered tens of thousands of downloads a day. The implementation had not been done well, however, and so actual usage was close to zero. Now the company wants to redo it, but the greater challenge will be overcoming the market’s negative first impression left by the failure of the MVP.

The MVP that Shoots Itself in the Foot

Sometimes, as soon as the MVP goes live, another company sees the idea and decides to build a competing product. This is most common when the startup’s MVP presents a threat to the business of a large firm. Firms like these have deep pockets and can easily pour resources into developing an application based on your idea or adding your idea to their existing applications. The only chance you have against this kind of competition is to stay ahead of them. But if your MVP will need to be rebuilt from the ground up, then it did not provide you with any advantage, giving all the advantages to your competitors. So what IS the correct balance between minimizing investment and risk and giving your product a fighting chance?

Growing MVP

The answer is to look at your MVP — from the outset — as agile and dynamic, where even the definitions of “Minimum” and “Viable” are dynamic and in constant flux.

Here is the process every “Growing MVP” should go through in order to be a firm foundation for future growth:

Stage 1: Planning the MVP

1. To understand the short-term expectations from the product.

2. To identify the long-term vision and what needs to be taken in account from the outset in order to achieve that vision.

3. To analyze what needs to be present in the initial product, along with a rational path to success.

4. To make sound decisions about what to invest your resources on.

5. To define the MVP from standpoints of technology, functionality, data, and UX design.

Stage 2: Initial MVP Development

Build and launch an MVP where:

1. It works well, correctly and impressively.

2. It’s built with an infrastructure that enables easy gradual development.

3. Its data model takes important future requirements into account, so it won’t need to be restructured.

4. You can rapidly scale the number of users.

5. It gathers data that will be needed in the future, even if it is not needed for this iteration.

Stage 3: Dynamic Growth of the MVP

After the initial launch, there is dynamic development of the product until reaching its final form. During this stage, the goals are:

1. To measure and draw conclusions from the market results.

2. To check where development stands in relation to the original plan, and if the original plan should continue to be followed or if there is a need to create a new plan.

Unlike the traditional Agile sprints, the process needed for a successful startup is more akin to a high-tide, low-tide cycle: a cycle including periods of rapid development, marketing and launch, and periods of cessation, observation, data-gathering and drawing conclusions to be used in the next development push. One example of this cycle would be spending an intense three months developing and launching an application, and then pausing for the next few months to gather feedback from the market before deciding whether to invest further — and where to invest.

The goals and pace of the different iterations of development are based on market feedback, product usage growth rate, progress with funding/liquid assets and other business considerations.

The Growing MVP is the optimal approach for a
future-thinking startup.
It enables you to take smart, full advantage of your resources while minimizing risk and maximizing success.

[Enterprise MVP:
This article was written in the contex of MVP’s of new standalone products created by startups. If you are involved in an Enterprise MVP, weather created internally by an enterprise or by a startup targetting the enterprise market — there are additional considerations which are related to in the article I wrote about the “Minimal Enterprise Viable Product” which you can read here.]


Bech at Bay

Essential Updike
Essential Updike
Write three pages a day for more than 50 years and you end up with about 25-million words -- give or take a few million. John Updike once told...

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Creating integrated circuits that can generate chaotic signals

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology have found a simple, yet highly versatile way to generate "chaotic signals" with various features. The technique consists of interconnecting three ring oscillators, effectively ...

Improving quantum computers

For decades, experts have predicted that quantum computers will someday perform difficult tasks, such as simulating complex chemical systems, that can't be done by conventional computers. But so far, these machines haven't ...

In a new quantum simulator, light behaves like a magnet

Physicists at EPFL propose a new "quantum simulator": a laser-based device that can be used to study a wide range of quantum systems. Studying it, the researchers have found that photons can behave like magnetic dipoles at ...

page 1 from 23

Circuit may mean:

In science and technology

In government and law

In transportation and racing


Solving Ancient Riddles with Neural Networks

* Or, indeed, an ancient dungeon master!

Creodonts & The Absurdity of Extinction

Life Between the Worlds [#37]

I have recently fallen back into an old habit: League of Legends. The eponymous MOBA remains immensely addictive, fun and interesting, but above all else my return (after over a year!) has highlighted that Riot are finally managing to get their world building in order. The lore behind Runeterra was always a big draw for me, leading me to pore over every new champion’s bio pages to find out how they fit into the world and whose stories they might impact. Over time, the original plot of League became a little stale and boring; champions that could simply be summoned from any region of the multiverse understandably felt disconnected from each other.

As a result, Riot made the decision a few years ago to begin reworking the story of Runeterra. Rather than completely overhauling everything, at great expense to time and resources, they have instead slowly been chipping away at the established characters. That leaves some, like my personal favourite Rammus, in a state of unknown origin, whilst others like Urgot have really begun to shine. It also means the in-game lore is a little disjointed, with some bios referencing events or characters that don’t add up, such as recent champion Ornn referencing Volibear as a demi-god, rather than the mortal leader his own bio describes him as. Overall, the effect can be a little confusing, but when it works well it produces some absolutely fantastic fantasy.

For example, in the past I’ve been incredibly interested by the setup of the Harrowing, an event which has it’s routes in Halloween but, over time, has become something far more sinister and interesting. Most importantly from a world building angle it helps to explain a number of the more demonic champions, giving them a shared and interlinked history whilst explaining how creatures of utter darkness aren’t simply ruling this world by now. It adds to the mythos wonderfully and remains the centre of some of the best in-game events they’ve had to date.

So, upon my latest return, I was excited to find another area of lore which has been fleshed out in a genuinely fascinating way. In an attempt to simultaneously develop how magic works within the game and explain numerous “chimeric” characters, the world-builders behind Runeterra have come up with the Vastaya. The full logic behind the decisions has been written up in a brilliant dev blog article, which is well worth a read if you’re interested in world building at all, but the outcome is genius. I love seeing entirely novel takes on something so integral to the genre as magic and, with the concept of the Vastaya and their ancient brethren, I genuinely believe Riot have achieved that.

There are a huge number of explanations for how magic works, yet most fantasy franchises just wave their hands or come up with something that seems like an explanation until you realise they just changed the word (cough Midichlorians cough). The route League has gone down is certainly not completely fleshed out; magic itself remains something ethereal and just naturally occurring rather than having a (necessarily) distinct source. I like their incorporation of ley lines, not because it’s unique or original (it isn’t) but because they have thought through the implications. I love that intersections of ley lines become areas of wilder magic, and that magic even has different breeds or flavours to begin with. That’s a nice touch which, as they state themselves, allows a huge amount of complexity to develop within the system.

Above all else though, the concept of the vastayashai’rei is genius. It’s one of those concepts which I read and instantly wished I had thought of myself. It’s wonderfully simple yet also feels very original (to be clear, I’m not saying it’s genuinely unique, but I’ve never seen it before). In Runeterra, magic is an extra-dimensional energy, bleeding through via ley lines, creating border zones: areas of world which are part magical dimension, part Runeterra. But the dimension in which magic originates is not just the standard swirling, lifeless maelstrom. It’s a functioning universe with it’s own ecosystems and, crucially, life. Whilst improbable, our own planet is proof that life thrives on these biological edges, in the types of habitat that just shouldn’t work. Look at any geothermal pool and you’ll see this effect in full swing. Right where the water reaches boiling point the lifeforms are unique, often occurring no where else on the planet.

When extrapolated out to a mixing of two entirely different dimensions you end up with creatures that have evolved to survive in both. Magical animals that can take physical form. I love it. I love the idea that a creature learnt that it could hop through the ley lines and find sustenance, or escape predators, by doing so. Over time, that developed into a fully functioning race of sentient creatures which could transgress the boundaries between the two worlds. Taking it one step further, the team at Riot realised that such creatures wouldn’t need a fixed physical form, as it wasn’t inherent to their nature. In short, they became shape shifters, creatures capable of adapting the forms they found themselves requiring within the physical world. Throw in a little bit of interbreeding or evolutionary branches that chose to remain on the physical side permanently and you explain chimeras, creatures with evolutionarily impossible physical forms. Sheer, pure, brilliance.

It’s nothing less than incredible that the reason behind this level of ingenuity is a game which lacks any form of story mode at all; there’s no need for any of these musings beyond making the world more entertaining. That’s pretty awesome, too!

Hyperfocal Stone Rows [#19]

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend a long weekend in Dartmoor. We ended up visiting Wistman’s Wood for much of the first afternoon, which was so captivating we would have definitely spent the whole day there had the heavens not opened. It was our main reason for going and it definitely did not disappoint; there is genuinely something ethereal about that location!

Before the weather turned, we also managed to get up to a couple of tors and visit some of the wonderful stone rows that Dartmoor is (apparently) famous for. I come from the Lake District, so standing stones and Bronze Age circles are nothing new to me, but I have never seen anything quite like the stone rows of Dartmoor. Combined with their incredibly curated streams, the rows create a fantastical landscape that I really wasn’t expecting. I will definitely be back, during better weather and with more time.

However, the combination of rows and stones also offered a great opportunity for creating leading lines in landscape photographs. I’ll admit to spending far too long waiting for specific lighting conditions, wind directions etc. but I also had a lot of fun. The odd part was, I really struggled to get my shots in focus. To try and foreshorten the shots a little bit, hopefully creating a feeling of being ‘pulled’ into the photo, I was shooting landscapes using zoom lenses, which is not a technique I’ve tried before. Part of the reason I’ve steered clear of this setup is that zoom lenses tend to have tighter depths of field, making it harder to get the full shot in focus. Still, with scenes of prehistoric landmarks marching off to distant, cloud-shaded peat fells, I wanted to capture the sense of vastness that seemed to be all around me.

Logically, I know that the next step is to reduce the size of my aperture. But what I found was, on a windy day without a stable tripod, that at the apertures needed for full focus I was losing clarity. I was also struggling to get the foreground and distant background in focus, no matter the exposure I went for. I happened to notice that focusing on a particular stone, about a third of the way into my composition, was giving me much better results. I’ll admit, at the time I just went with it, though it felt counter intuitive. Having come back and done some research, it turns out my intuitions were just wrong.

Hyperfocal distance. It sounds like something out of Star Wars, doesn’t it? In reality, however, it may finally be the answer to one of my biggest ‘errors’ when taking landscape photographs. I won’t go into a huge amount of detail in this article about the whys and hows of hyperfocal distance (though if that’s what you’re after, there’s a reading list at the end) but just coming to understand it a little better has been enlightening.

In brief, the hyperfocal distance of your lens/camera/setup is the point within your frame that allows for the broadest depth-of-field when in focus. That sounds a little odd, so to understand first realise this: it is impossible to get an image completely focused in one shot. No matter how good the lens, how wide the focal range, how small the aperture you will always have some areas out of focus. But, the level of “out of focus” can be completely imperceptible, so a lot of photographs appear to be in focus. These shots are using their hyperfocal distance; the actual, truly focused region will be at the precise point in the frame that enables 99% of what’s left to be only slightly out of focus. Our brains fill in the rest.

Now, that isn’t something I’ve ever come across before and it’s not something I’ve specifically learned, but it does seem completely intuitive to me. My problem is that the solution I’ve been using for years fails to understand the actual cause of the issue. I think I have always assumed that focus works by focusing from me to wherever I set the focal point. Changing the aperture, I believed, then changed the focal grading from that point outwards, so a large aperture has a steep gradient and clear blurring/bokeh, whilst a small aperture produces a very shallow gradient where only the very closest extremes are noticeably fuzzy. In a way, I was right, but the effect is far more centred on the focal point then I had realised. It’s not a line in the image, in front of which everything is focused, but more a circle or ellipse, around which the focus slowly worsens in a semi-linear manner.

What that means is that focusing on the distant horizon, effectively to infinity, which has always been my go-to technique, will result in an out-of-focus foreground. Seems obvious, right? But it will also reduce focus in the mid-ground. Conversely, focus near to the camera and the horizon becomes blurred. The trick, as I had accidentally stumbled upon, is to focus somewhere in between the two, effectively allowing your focal circle the widest diameter possible.

Fantastic, right? I just need to focus at the mid point of the frame and everything will slot into place! Well… no, not exactly. Or at least, not easily. Drawing a line between yourself and the horizon and estimating the mid-point isn’t going to give you the hyperfocal distance. Why? Well, that’s because the camera doesn’t “see” in three dimensions, instead it effectively “sees” in 2-D. Especially with zoom lenses, that foreshortening of the landscape matters, moving the hyperfocal distance towards you. It seems a good rule of thumb is to focus somewhere around the one third mark, but in reality that will be wrong more than it is right. The internet is full of suggested methods to work out your hyperfocal distance, some easier than others, but as of yet I haven’t actually tried any of them out.

But it won’t be too long until I do. We’re heading to the Outer Hebrides in the next few weeks and you can be sure that I will be taking a lot of landscape shots whilst we’re there. Learning about hyperfocal distance (as well as other factors that can result in reduced clarity) has really lit a spark in my mind. I’m itching to get out and try some of this theory in the field; it’s a nice feeling, one I haven’t had for a while (with photography, at least). Hopefully, next time I report back, it will be to say that I’ve finally answered one of my longest standing conundrums with landscape shots: how to focus, well, everywhere.

Whilst researching the topic I came across a whole lot of really informative and interesting articles around the web. Some are specifically about hyperfocal distance, but some are more focused on lens sharpness or landscape techniques. Hopefully, combined, they will form a good bed of information to start practicing with.

Hyperfocal Distance ExplainedPhotographyLife

How to Choose the Sharpest AperturePhotographyLife

What is the Sharpest Aperture on a LensImprove Photography

Panoramic Photography TutorialPhotographyLife

How to Calculate the Sharpest Aperture of Any LensEnvatotuts


Colombia rejects extradition of FARC commander to US

Former FARC commander, known as Jesus Santrich, ordered by special court to be immediately released Wednesday

Lokman İlhan,Vakkas Doğantekin   | 15.05.2019
Colombia rejects extradition of FARC commander to US

Colombia’s Attorney General Nelson Humberto Martinez resigned Wednesday in protest of a special court’s decision that ordered the release of a former FARC commander accused of drug trafficking.

“This challenge to judicial order will not be endorsed by the undersigned. My conscience and my devotion to the rule of law prohibit it. For that reason I have presented my irrevocable resignation," Martinez told reporters.

Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace, JEP, ordered Martinez earlier in the day to release Seuxis Paucias Hernandez from prison.

"The JEP applies the guarantee of non-extradition to Seuxis Paucias Hernández, because the evidence does not allow the evaluation of the conduct nor does it establish the precise date of its realization," the special court wrote on Twitter.

A former commander of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Hernandez, also known as Jesus Santrich, flatly denies accusations of drug trafficking since the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) requested his extradition.

Santrich played a key role in Colombia's 2016 Peace Accord signed in Havana between the FARC and the Manuel Santos government that ended more than 50 years of conflict between the two sides.

Peace accord with FARC

A peace deal with the Colombian government signed in 2016 granted FARC rebels legislative representation and ended their struggle for power. It was believed to be the final chapter of a half-century of struggle widely recognized as the longest-running conflict in the Western Hemisphere.

But the FARC’s path to Congress has not been an easy road.

The group had to deal with widespread popular anger and faced fierce opposition from the center-right and right of the political spectrum. Right-wing politicians constantly criticized the seats that the peace agreement granted to the FARC, highlighting those who perpetrated war crimes should not be able to participate in politics without first being prosecuted.

The deal gave FARC amnesty for crimes committed before the signing. Previous convictions were handed down by courts allowing leaders to participate in politics and run for public office once they handed in their guns. But any legal violations committed after the agreement will be prosecuted under the ordinary legal system.

Former guerrillas have faced judicial challenges since the agreement was signed. The U.S. Justice Department requested the extradition of Santrich for drug trafficking offenses, meaning he will be unable to occupy his position in Congress. Santrich has not been extradited but remained in custody in Colombia and was not allowed to take possession of his seat in the House of Representatives.

Santrich’s detention on April 9, 2018 triggered a political storm. Consequently, Ivan Marquez, another prominent FARC leader, resigned his seat, arguing that the government had breached the agreement.


Kylie Jenner Flaunts Her Kardashian Booty In A Tight Dress

Last week, Kylie Jenner was ficially named the youngest-ever self-made billionaire, which ended up being one thing that angered quite a bit individuals. Fans are not sure how Kylie Jenner and “self-made” can be utilized in the identical sentence. While there was a lot criticism over Forbes’ article in regards to the rise Jenner’s monetary empire, she’s continued doing what she does finest: hanging provocative poses on social media and turning heads on the road.

Cheating rumors plagued Kylie’s relationship with Travis Scott only a few weeks in the past nevertheless it seems as if issues might have been patched over with the couple. Nothing has been made the allegations since they have been initially uttered and Travis has been acutely aware about how a lot love he exhibits for his girlfriend on the web. He referred to her as the “queen” when he reposted the billionaire news, shouting her out throughout one his tour stops as nicely. In a string latest pictures, Kylie confirmed f her determine whereas squatting in entrance the mirror, taking a shot her bottom in a form-fitting costume.

Her whole costume was match to indicate f each inch her physique, hugging her tightly and permitting her to maintain jaws dropping around the globe. Part her advertising and marketing technique entails the use her social media and her physique to maintain followers engaged. She’s doing that to perfection right here.


Kung takes Canadian Open lead

Marquez suffers big crash in MotoGP Australian GP FP1

Chinese Taipei's Candie Kung carded an eight-under-par 64 to take a two-shot lead at the Canadian Pacific Women's Open in Vancouver.

Sitting two strokes behind Kung are world number two Lydia Ko, who fired a four-under-par 68, and overnight leader Karine Icher, who hit a two-under-par 70.

World number one Inbee Park surged up the leaderboard into a tie for eighth after recording a three-under-par 69, while defending champion So Yeon Ryu also made it through to the weekend despite registering a level-par 72.

Kung, who finished with a total score of 11-under-par 133, began on a high as she made consecutive birdies at the 10th and 11th before recording an eagle at the par-five 13th. Her superb run continued into her back nine as she made four birdies, three of which came in a row from the sixth to the eighth hole.

Ko, who has a total score of nine-under-par 135, also enjoyed a lot of success on Friday as she made two birdies on both the front and back nine.

Icher started her round with a birdie at the 10th before faltering two holes later as she made a bogey. But, the Frenchwoman atoned for her mistake with birdies at the 13th and 15th. Icher's back nine proved to be fairly quiet as she made a birdie at the fourth before concluding her round with a bogey at the eighth.

China's Xi Yu Lin currently sits in a tie for fourth and is three strokes behind Kung after carding an six-under-par 66.

Five strokes behind the leader are Spain's Azahara Munoz and Stacy Lewis, who recorded a five-under-par 67 and two-under-par 70 respectively.

Park, who trails Kung by seven strokes, did not have the best of front nines on Friday as she only made one bogey. However, she shifted her game to the next level on the back nine as she proceeded to make a birdie at the 12th, an eagle at the 13th and consecutive birdies at the next two holes. But, she let herself down at the 16th by registering her second bogey of the round and subsequently finished with a score of four-under-par 140.

Meanwhile, Ryu, who amassed a total score of one-under-par 143, started her round on a high as she made two birdies on her front nine. But, she undid all her hard work by recording two bogeys on her back nine.


Germany US Flight Russia Ukraine Obama Merkel
EU and US negotiators are meeting in Virginia this week to discuss TTIP. Reuters

As the fifth round of discussions over the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership continue in Arlington, Virginia, a group of 120 European NGOs has attacked its "lack of transparency and democratic procedures".

In a joint statement issued today, the organisations, which include Greenpeace, Unison, World Development Movement and War on Want, demanded that "the EU Commission's negotiation texts as well as all negotiation documents must be made public to allow for an open and critical public debate on the TTIP".

It comes as the debate over free trade begins to heat up. Today, the UK Chancellor George Osborne will attack UKIP and Labour as being "anti-free trade", claiming that the pair wish to "pull up the drawbridge and shut Britain off from the world".

Alexa Wesner, US Ambassador to Austria, today said: "TTIP is going to be a historical landmark agreement. It will increase trade, jobs and economic vitality in Europe and in the US."

However, concerns exist over the levels of deregulation the treaty's adoption would lead to.

The signatories said: "Evidence from business and industry positions reveals that the focus on non-tariff barriers and regulatory convergence is being used to push deregulation, increased investment guarantees, intellectual property rights leading to monopolies, and a race to the bottom. The proclaimed but unsubstantiated economic benefits are marginal to society at large even in the best case scenarios. All evidence to date suggests that these goals threaten important rights acquired in long democratic struggles and societal interests of the public in the EU, US, and the rest of the world."

Signatories to the document include anti-fracking groups, a breast cancer charity, a host of trade unions, anti-poverty charities and green groups.

In a statement issued to IBTimes UK explaining its opposition, Greenpeace said:

"The EU-US Free Trade Agreement (TTIP) in its current format represents a threat to European consumer protection. US exporters of corn, soy, pork or chicken don't only want to sell their genetically modified crops, chlorinated chicken and hormone meat on the European market. They want to weaken European methods of risk assessment and the precautionary approach, which is fundamental to protect the environment and the health of Europeans.

"Currently GMOs are one of the most contentious issues of TTIP negotiations, with US trade representatives putting strong pressure on their European counterparts to relax the EU GMO safety testing regime and the overall rejection of GM food in Europe. The more stringent EU limits for pesticides are also in their line of fire.

"Consumer protection should not be sacrificed to free trade, and existing EU food safety standards must be safeguarded in the negotiations."

Last week hundreds of protestors were arrested in Brussels as they voiced their environmental and social concerns over TTIP.

Opponents in the UK have said the treaty threatens the National Health Service, with the protest group Patients4NHS writing: "Many believe that one of the biggest prizes of the agreement for transnationals will be the NHS."

The EU and US already account for 40% of world GDP and between them, have 800 million consumers. Negotiations over TTIP began last year in Northern Ireland, with an initial deadline of late-2014 likely to be missed.

The US is not keen for its financial services sector to be included, while France has lobbied for the exclusion of its cultural sectors.