SOBO Couple end their engagement after the groom refuses to post their Pre-wedding shoot on Facebook – Firstpost (satire)

Mumbai: It was a tough time for Jivan and Rivanas family. With just a month left for the big day, their children have decided to call off their wedding after a 5 year long and happy relationship. Relatives called from everywhere to offer their good wishes and support through the crucial time.

It was all going great recalls Rivanas father. They were the kind of couple that just agreed on everything. They really loved and supported each other. They also went to Maldives for their pre-wedding photoshoot where they spent some quality time together. Jivan was like a son to us. But, once they were back, he revealed his true colours. He adamantly refused to upload the pre-wedding photoshoot on Facebook. Rivana tried to reason with him. She even begged and pleaded but, he just refused to co-operate.

He went on to share his story on how they spent a large amount of time and money to get the photoshoot done right. They even got the Angel found her Demon themed designer dresses better than any of the ones used for their relatives childrens wedding shoots. Rivana and Jivana in fact, practised really hard to get the candid poses right. But, Jivans actions just put all their efforts down the drain. Rivana is heartbroken. She has deactivated her Facebook account and isnt even following her diet. She had just managed to knock off 5 kgs, sighs Rivanas mother.

Jivans family on the other hand is quite upset with their inlaws actions. Jivans mother quips Do they really think that we did not want to put the pre-wedding shoot on Facebook as well? Jivan is our only son. We had big dreams for his wedding too. His father and I have a total of 4000 friends on Facebook. But, if Jivan took such a big decsion, there must have been an important reason behind this. They acted immaturely and just called it off. They should have spoken to us and tried to convince him to atleast put up the pictures. But, they just directly updated their status on FB.

But, why did Jivan do such an insensitive thing? Amidst all the chaos, we had a rare chance to speak to the sombre groom himself. I just didnt want Rivana and myself to be publicly humiliated. Our best friends just posted their pre-wedding video and received 25,000 likes. Jivana and me together dont even have 15,000 friends on Facebook. We could never catch up with them, inspite of splurging more and being a better looking couple. I was just trying to protect her pride and integrity. I didnt want her to feel depressed just a month before her wedding. She totally misunderstood me. He is leaving for his best friends Bachelor party to Vegas tonight. Maybe that will help take my mind off things.

Meanwhile, we couldnt get in touch with Rivana. Her Facebook updates show she is on a trip to Prague to cope with this difficult phase in her life and consider her lifes decisions.

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SOBO Couple end their engagement after the groom refuses to post their Pre-wedding shoot on Facebook - Firstpost (satire)

Wolsky: Let’s change how elections work – Minot Daily News

If Minot City Council candidate Josh Wolsky has his way, Minot and then hopefully other places will experience a transformation in the way elections are conducted. That change starts at home for Wolsky.

Well, I dont have a campaign budget per se, he says. Im not putting out any yard signs, although a few people have volunteered to make signs and put them up. I think that if one runs a good public campaign, it will pay off in the election.

That public campaign is one based on well-communicated policy positions and ideas, things he feels elections often lack. Id like to see money out of politics completely, Wolsky says. Candidates buy influence with advertising dollars, so (the status quo) benefits the media.

It should come as little surprise to people who have known Wolsky that he should take such a maverick position. Hes taken a nonlinear path back to his native Minot and right into the heart of civic affairs, including his uncommon campaign style.

Still, colorful trails are in Wolskys blood. The Minot native is proud of his family history in the area. My great-grandfather from Norway walked here, or rather when he reached the end of the line in Fargo, he walked the rest of the way and homesteaded here.

Wolsky grew up and graduated school in a Minot with challenges similar to those today.

Growing up here, there was a problem in retaining young people and their talent in Minot, Wolsky recalls. There are these amazing people from Minot off in other parts of the world. Theyre products of Minot work ethics and values but arent here. Twenty-five years later, were still talking about it. I dont think we have made a lot of progress. The community cant afford to continue exporting its human resources.

Wolsky headed off to the University of Delaware where he would earn a degree in Economics. Afterwards, he spent a year in Arizona and several more in Charleston, South Carolina, chasing the dream of playing professional golf while supporting myself by working as a caddie and later on with a putting green construction business, he says.

In Charleston, Wolsky says he was able to have a ringside seat as the city experienced a renaissance, from which he feels he learned a great deal. When the lure of family brought him back to Minot in 2008, he returned with plans to develop websites for business owners and to help them take good steps in creating and controlling their online identity.

Like many people, the 2011 flood had an impact on Wolsky.

In the spring of 2011, I started paying more attention to the City of Minot in reaction to what I saw as a clear threat, Wolsky says. As I witnessed the city response to the threat, I became frustrated.

Wolsky launched a website that provided information on what would become the 2011 flood as the threat progressed complete with water level details, forecasts, etc. Im no hydrologist, but it wasnt too hard to get information and share it.

Then, June 2011 happened and in the aftermath, Wolskys website, The Minot Voice, became his priority. I believed there needed to be a place for the community to discuss issues, Wolsky says. It was developed as a place to have discussions and to spur discussions.

Later, a 2.0 version of the website was established, where Wolsky said he published a piece on how different city governments were structured and which polled site visitors. In four days, he says there were 1,300 responses.

The poll showed huge distrust in government not just the usual distrust in government, Wolsky says. In my mind, that was really the beginning of #MakeMinot.

#MakeMinot is, of course, the citizens group that launched and catered through voter approval and now, with this election, implementation, the structural change to the city council. Wolsky has been an integral part of the group since.

#MakeMinot was always about the system, Wolsky says.

In this election cycle, The Minot Voice (now version 3.0) has been a platform for candidates to address questions and share their policy positions. Wolsky says most candidates have participated. Furthermore, it is a component of perhaps example of the changes he would like to see in how campaigns operate.

The important concept is to give people a choice and with information, you can trust people to make a choice, he says. Im a systems guy. Part of that is a product of an education in economics. Part of it is that my dad was an entrepreneur. When you see the world through that lens, you see systems.

Wolsky makes clear that The Minot Voice is not a campaign website and that he has distanced himself from giving out information on candidates. Instead, candidates have been able to log in and upload their own opinions and reflections. He says he isnt selling advertising to candidates either.

This might turn out to be one of the worst business decisions I have ever made, an affable Wolsky quips.

Of course, the same might be true of Wolskys low-key approach to his campaign.

Honestly I would probably rather go to the lake, he says. But I do feel I am one of the better informed individuals in town and go to meetings and have ideas about where the community could go and how to get there plus the context of how we got to where we are. Those are the kind of things that elections should really be about.

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Wolsky: Let's change how elections work - Minot Daily News

5 steps to make your phone or tablet an in-flight entertainment center – CNET

Plane trips can be long, but it's now pretty easy to take entertainment with you to pass the time.

Traveling to a new place is exciting. But you know what's not exciting? Sitting in a cramped seat on a long flight to your vacation while staring out the window bored to death. And that movie that airline is showing? You've seen it and hated it.

But there is a better option. With just a phone, tablet or laptop that you already have, you could put together a robust in-flight entertainment system that will be the envy of other passengers scrambling to pass the time. (Keep in mind that depending on your destination, there is a chance that you might only be allowed to bring a phone onboard your flight).

See this story and others in the Summer 2017 issue of CNET Magazine.

With this five-step process, you can make a binge-watching machine that will serve you on anything from a short hop to an international flight across the ocean.

First I'd recommend freeing up storage, as movies and TV shows take a lot of room (usually several hundred megabytes a pop). This step isn't quite as necessary if you'll be taking a laptop with a healthy hard drive, but on a phone or tablet it could win you space for a downloaded movie and a sequel.

Start by taking an audit of your apps and deleting those you haven't used in a while or the apps you won't need for your vacation (you can download them again when you get home). If you aren't sure where to start, check the Storage section of your device's Settings to find a full list of your apps and how much space they take up.

If your phone runs Android, you may have a screen like this that shows you how much space is on your phone.

Next, back up your photos and videos to either your computer or your favorite online photo service (free ones include Google Photos, Yahoo's Flickr and Dropbox). These services are also handy while you're on your trip, as they'll let you back up your camera roll any time you can get a reliable Wi-Fi signal. Then you can purge old files off your phone and keep on snapping new photos of your trip.

Watching movies on an airplane isn't new, but your ability to pick exactly the content you want has expanded greatly over the past decade. Originally, you had to rely on your airline to choose films for you and watch them on a faraway screen, or on a tiny screen in the seat ahead of you. Later, iTunes and other digital stores brought more selection, but since you had to buy (or rent) each title individually, the price of a few films could add up quickly.

For a smaller bite out of your wallet, just use the same video subscription services you're using at home. There's no extra fee and all you need to do is download the service's app to your device.

Services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube Red give you two options for vacation binge-watching: Download the content from their extensive video libraries to your device or stream it. The big advantage of downloading is that once the content is on your device, you can keep watching even when you're offline.

But downloading isn't without its pitfalls. As I mentioned, videos take up a lot of space and I'd recommend downloading your videos only while you still have a reliable Wi-Fi connection at home. Hotel Wi-Fi generally isn't fast enough (a single film could take hours) and don't even think about using that precious cellular data you have to buy when going abroad. If you find you are running tight on space on your mobile device, you might be able to use an additional device like a laptop to share the load (Netflix's downloadable videos are also available using its Windows 10 app). Also, not every movie and TV episode that you can stream can be downloaded to a device.

Streaming content won't eat up storage on your device, but a reliable Wi-Fi connection isn't just nice to have, it's required. Even when in-flight Wi-Fi is available, it's usually not fast enough to allow streaming. Some airlines are beginning to introduce faster satellite Wi-Fi that permits streaming, so check with your carrier first.

Spotify is one of many music services that offer a giant library of songs that can be downloaded to a phone or tablet.

Whether you buy your music from digital stores like iTunes or pay a monthly fee to stream it from Spotify, you can take it with you wherever you're going.

My favorite music app, Google Play Music, combines both methods. You can upload up to 50,000 songs to the service for free. Then, you can use the Play Music app on iOS or Android to stream from your personal library or download those songs to a different device. For $10 a month in the US (10 in the UK, AU$12 in Australia), the service lets you stream or download from its entire music catalog, including the YouTube Red video service.

Most similar music services, such as Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited and Tidal, also let you download songs to listen for offline listening. And if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can stream or download from a smaller catalog of songs that still includes many popular tracks.

If your public library is affiliated with the OverDrive service, you can download that app and borrow books and audiobooks for free. While the titles will expire off of your device when the lending period is over, you can often pick 14-day and 21-day periods that should last your trip. Most library ebooks can also be downloaded to Amazon's Kindle app, or you can try the Kindle Unlimited service, which has a library of 1 million books and thousands of audiobooks, for a 30-day trial or $10 per month (8, AU$14).

Once you are set up, take your device onto your flight and watch away.

When you arrive at your destination, delete all of the media you downloaded and use the space for your new vacation photos. Then at the end of your trip, find a good Wi-Fi signal and start this whole process over again: Upload the pics, delete them from your device and download some entertainment for your flight back. Happy travels!

This story appears in the Summer 2017 edition of CNET Magazine.

Mike Sorrentino (@MikeJSorrentino) is an associate editor at CNET. He happened to be in an airport the morning Netflix announced its downloadable video collection, minutes before his cross-country flight home. The airport Wi-Fi got him a few episodes of "Chelsea" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" before he had to board.

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5 steps to make your phone or tablet an in-flight entertainment center - CNET

6 Ways To Be More Hirable…And 1 That Could Land A Job Today – Forbes


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6 Ways To Be More Hirable...And 1 That Could Land A Job Today
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But if you're uploading it online, with hundreds of other job-seekers, the material has to be top-notch. And, considering that the average ... And then keep it running through your mind as you're headed in for an interview. 6. Clean up your online ...

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6 Ways To Be More Hirable...And 1 That Could Land A Job Today - Forbes

‘It’s embarrassing’: A Seattle doctor confronts racial bias in medicine – KUOW News and Information

Dr. Rachel Pearson got her start working with poor people in Texas, many of them people of color.

Which got her thinking about how doctors learn by making mistakes with those communities.

"We need to keep in mind what we owe to the people who have contributed the most to medical training and medical knowledge," she said.

Pearson is currently a medical resident at Seattle Children's, which she says is much different from her home state of Texas, where she worked in hospitals and clinics. She writes about that experience in her new book,"No Apparent Distress: A Doctor's Coming-of-Age on theFrontlinesof American Medicine."

Pearson spoke with Ann Dornfeld from KUOW's Race and Equity Team.

PEARSON: Students and residents learn from the poor. We learn our skills in poor communities and we make our mistakes in those communities. That means that now that I'm happily insured, and see my own private doctor, I'm seeing a doctor who has already made most of the mistakes that she's going to make, and the burden of her training fell on a much more vulnerable community.

I think that, as we consider health care policy, and as we consider the direction of health care in this country, we need to keep in mind what we owe to the people who have contributed the most to medical training and medical knowledge.

DORNFELD: What is it like to see such disparate health outcomes for people of color and low income people in this country?

PEARSON: It's embarrassing. It belies what I would like to believe about my profession and my society.

The disparate outcomes that are the most embarrassing to me are the ones that come directly from physician racial bias, which is known to independently influence health outcomes. So people with the same income, and the same access to care, and the same initial health status, have worse health outcomes independently because of race.

There's a study at theVA here in Washington state that looked at VA patients with diabetes and found that African-American patients were less likely to receive the standard of care treatment: yearly eye exams, having their hemoglobin A1Cchecked every three months. They also had shorter visits with their providers. And all of these disparities were linked to physician discomfort with taking care of minority patients. So bias alone has significant, and in some cases, deadly consequences for patients of color.

As a physician, I find that unconscionable. It is not the kind of data that we can sit on.

DORNFELD: How do you see that it can be fixed?

PEARSON: Most of the efforts happening right now, and these are good things, center around individual physicians acknowledging bias and using what are essentially mindfulness techniques to address it.

So we are taught to, number one look into ourselves, and know that we may be biased. To take this test called the Implicit Association Test that measures bias of different sorts. And to slow down deliberately slow down in patient encounters when we feel uncomfortable. The human tendency when you feel uncomfortable is to run away. And physicians need to do the exact opposite, which is slow down and ask more questions.

Now, all those efforts are incredibly important. But I do not think that individual physicians alone can fix the fundamental problems of racial bias in medicine and of racial health injustice. We also need policy. We need MCAT-blind policy to get more students of color into medical school. We need robust economic support for physicians who are practicing in communities of color. And we need ongoing medical education for those docs specifically aimed at the communities they serve, and driven by the communities they serve.

DORNFELD: Seattle is a wealthy city, with a lot of access to health care, even for low income people in a lot of ways. What do you see as inequities that still present, even at Seattle Children's?

PEARSON: I came to Seattle to see what it's like to practice in a place where the kids I care for could get all the resources they need. And it is a huge contrast between practicing here, where Medicaid has been expanded, there is robust access to care, and where the city and the county have invested in programs like Birth-to-Three that ensure that vulnerable kids can get early childhood services that they need.

That being said, with more and more working class and poor families being pushed out of Seattle and out of King County, the communities most in need of those services may not be able to access them.

This transcript was edited for length and clarity.

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'It's embarrassing': A Seattle doctor confronts racial bias in medicine - KUOW News and Information

Open house Wednesday at new Volunteers in Medicine EHT clinic – Press of Atlantic City

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP Volunteers in Medicine of South Jersey will hold an open house Wednesday to introduce the public to its new, second location of free clinics.

Uninsured Atlantic County residents can receive free medical assistance at the new clinic. The organization has operated its first location in Cape May Court House for 15 years.

The clinic at 3073 English Creek Ave. in the Family Service Association Building has medical professionals and other volunteers who can provide health care and preventative medical services to people who don't have insurance.

The open house is from 6 to 7: 30 p.m. There will be light refreshments. Guests may tour the new clinic and ask questions about services.

Organizers have said Volunteers in Medicine was created to serve as a temporary safety net to support people who were between jobs, waiting for new health insurance or not eligible for Medicaid.

Volunteers in Medicine are vital to communities with low-income populations and ones that suffer economic hardships, especially in Atlantic and Cape May counties, they said.

A small percentage of patients treated in Cape May Court House came from Atlantic County, but directors said they now will be able to treat Atlantic County patients in Egg Harbor Township.

For more information, visit vimsj.org or call 609-463-2846.

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Open house Wednesday at new Volunteers in Medicine EHT clinic - Press of Atlantic City

Students interested in studying medicine tour UNMC – KMTV – 3 News Now

OMAHA, NEB (KMTV) - The University of Nebraska Medical Center is working with the state to help students interested in medicine learn more about what they do.

Students took a tour of the biocontainment center at UNMC on Thursday.

The high school students say they have an interest in becoming a nurse and wanted to participate to learn more about the field they may pursue.

They got a walkthrough of the biocontainment unit to see what it takes to bring a person infected with a highly infectious disease to UNMC to be treated.

They also learned how these negative pressure rooms are disinfected after a patient leaves and what doctors must do to protect themselves but still ensure the best treatment.

Many students called the process eye opening.

"Just seeing where the Ebola patients were at, how everything works, just the different rooms, the different steps and processes to get in that unit."

Nurses used the 2014 Ebola outbreak as an example of how the hospital treated patients with a highly infectious disease in the past

UNMC staff say its important to familiarize the youth with careers that help save people's lives.

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Students interested in studying medicine tour UNMC - KMTV - 3 News Now

Editas Medicine: Addressing The Negatives – Seeking Alpha

Introduction

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) is a genome editing company focused on adapting CRISPR techniques for correcting human diseases. Although it just had its IPO in February of last year, it was founded in 2013 and is the oldest of the four major companies currently working to develop CRISPR-based medicines (their rivals being CRISPR Therapeutics, Intellia Therapeutics, and Caribou Biosciences).

On February 15, Editas, by way of their licensor Broad Institute, received a favorable ruling from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) regarding the crucial Cas9 CRISPR patent. Rocketing to the high 20's soon after, the stock has since fallen close to 50% over the past four months.

This article examines the factors which have lead to the slide since the PTAB ruling and argues that the selloff was overdone. But first, some background regarding Editas and its technology for context.

Science and IP Wars

CRISPR (short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) are actually DNA segments from bacterial cells functioning as part of the cell's immune system. However, they have been adapted with great success by scientists around the world for quickly and easily editing eukaryotic cell DNA, which is why they have received billing from the press as the "Holy Grail" of modern medicine. Many summaries have been written about the science behind CRISPR here and on other platforms, so that will not be the focus of this article (Editas' website gives a nice summary here).

Naturally, with such a powerful technology which could command billions of dollars, there will be battles concerning who owns the intellectual property rights. The two front runners right now are the Broad Institute (a biomedical research center composed of members Harvard and MIT) and another group consisting of the Regents of the University of California, Emmanuelle Charpentier, and the University of Vienna. Jennifer Doudna of the University of California Berkeley (UCB) was the first to use Cas9 to edit prokaryotic cells and filed a patent soon after. However, Feng Zheng of the Broad Institute worked quickly to apply the work to eukaryotic cells and paid extra to have his patent expedited. Initially, Doudna was one of the founders of Editas alongside Zheng, but bad blood caused her to leave and found her own company Caribou Biosciences. This boiled over into the aforementioned patent dispute, with the Broad Institute and their licensee Editas scoring a major victory. However, the battle wasn't quite over, which leaves us with enough background information to get started dissecting Editas' drop.

The Negative News Stream Surrounding Editas

"Ultimately, we expect to establish definitively that the team led by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier was the first to engineer CRISPR-Cas9 for use in all types of environments, including in non-cellular settings and within plant, animal and even human cells."

Were the Federal Circuit to rule against Broad in the appeal, this would be a significant blow for Editas since their flagship LCA10 program is currently using the Cas9 CRISPR variant. Their exclusive Cas9 agreement with Broad would be worthless, and they would be forced to scramble to work out some sort of agreement with UCB, the terms of which would undoubtedly be unfavorable for Editas. However, it appears the odds are stacked against UCB in undertaking the appeal. In 2016, the Federal Circuit upheld 75% of the decisions made by the PTAB. The Broad Institute has countered the announcement with their own press release. One passage notes an important consideration:

"The Federal Circuit does not independently weigh the facts determined by the PTAB. To overturn the PTAB decision, the Court would need to decide that the PTAB committed an error of law or lacked substantial evidence to reach its decision. Given the careful and extensive factual findings in the PTAB's decision, this seems unlikely."

The PTAB sided with Broad because they determined the jump from prokaryote to eukaryote using Cas9 was not obvious or trivial. This is a matter of fact and not of law, meaning that the Federal Circuit cannot rule on it. From this it appears that Editas and Broad are still in the driver's seat concerning Cas9 patent ownership (here is a source which goes into further detail regarding the case).

Given that the cash burn over the past two quarters has been around $80M total, one would expect at minimum the market penalizing the company for this amount since there will be two more quarters before the product timeline is set into motion. However, the drop since then came out to around $400M, which is significantly more. Additionally, there still may be some positives given that management is now working with Allergan in filing the IND and moving forward on the LCA10 clinical trials. Make no mistake, the slip-up is a strike against management, but the amount of the selloff is greater than what is justified by the two quarter delay.

Additionally, while most research effort is currently being focused on Cas9, Editas has also licensed the exclusive rights to Cpf1 from the Broad Institute. Here there is no legal dispute like with Cas9 and Editas' exclusive access to the patents remains safe. (source: company website)

Important to note is that Cpf1 is known for being particularly selective in its determination of targets for editing. On top of that, Editas has developed a proprietary platform called "UDiTaS" with the goal of detecting and monitoring both on-site and off-site edits. This will help them in assessing and preventing any unintended consequences of Cas9-based editing.

It's Not All Bad News Being Released...

This was excellent news for several reasons. It showed management's ability to negotiate deals with big pharma, which will be necessary to get products to market without significantly diluting shareholders. It also demonstrated the confidence of companies like Allergan in the ability of Editas to execute on its project timelines. Editas is already leveraging Allergan's help in filing the IND and setting up the clinical trials for LCA10. The input from an experienced team like Allergan's will surely be invaluable moving forward. And finally, the upfront payment from the deal comes at a time when Editas desperately needs cash to get the clinical trials for LCA10 off the ground.

"For animals treated with the higher dose, the projected productive editing rate may be as high as 50 percent in photoreceptor cells, based on directly measured editing of 15 percent in total genomic DNA and an estimate for the proportion of cells represented by photoreceptors. Achieving 50 percent of all alleles would be well above the editing rate hypothesized to have a therapeutic effect in patients."

This provides a great deal of confidence in the LCA10 program going forward since the editing level was deemed high enough to have a therapeutic effect. Additionally, Editas released pre-clinical data from their program to treat blood diseases like Sickle Cell and Beta-Thalassemia. The experiment involved editing human stem cells outside of the body and infusing them in mice. Editas' analysis of the editing frequency and hemoglobin data showed that this approach may be more effective than others currently reported.

The excitement behind SHERLOCK is due to its potential to rapidly and cheaply detect many different afflictions, such as Zika, cancer, and even the risk of heart disease from saliva. Broad's researchers have said they are looking for ways to commercialize the technology, and given their history of licensing tech to Editas, it's definitely not out of the question that Editas may be involved with this technology in the future.

Risks

As Editas is an early stage biotech company with any potential products many years away from release, the risks are self-evident. On top of the current lack of products, the patent licensed for Editas' lead development program is under heated legal dispute, which is expected to be an overhang for the next few years. Editas' cash burn is significant, and despite having $352M currently on the balance sheet, their funding stockpile is only expected to last around two years.

(source: generated from company 8-K's)

In the worst case scenario, Editas is never able to achieve a viable product and is forced to dilute shareholders into oblivion. However, Editas has an alternative method for raising capital: R&D alliances that come with upfront payments and milestone awards. Potential milestone payments from Allergan and Juno Therapeutics could soften the need for issuing equity in the future. Additionally, Editas can negotiate deals with other companies on new programs which are not currently covered by the Allergan and Juno ones.

Conclusion

Editas has seen a significant amount of downward pressure recently due to a stream of negative news which has surfaced. In this article, I have addressed why many of these issues are overblown, as well as presented other positive news pieces which are important to consider. Given the infancy of the technology and the risks involved, I would not recommend Editas as a core holding. But for investors looking for a small speculative position which has the potential for a 10x gain if everything goes right, this looks like a good entry point.

Rating: Speculative Buy

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in EDIT over the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Editas Medicine: Addressing The Negatives - Seeking Alpha

Top 10 highest, lowest paying states for internal medicine – ModernMedicine

To say primary care physicians (PCP) feel like they are struggling is an understatement.

Between constant changing government regulations (were looking at you MACRA), and the ever increasing pressure to please patients while battling electronic health records, it is no wonder burnout has become a constant topic of discussion amongst PCPs.

With so many changing variables these days, it has become even more important to maintain a steady income. Knowing whether or not your salary is amongst thehighest, orlowest, in the country comes in handy when attempting to combat these struggles.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the mean annual wage for internal medicine physicians is $201,840.

The top states with the most internists are Texas, California, Ohio, Florida and Massachusettsbut none of these states are among the top paying locations for internists and in fact, one is on the list of lowest-paying states, the BLS reports.

Read on to find out which states the BLS says were the highest, and lowest, paying states for internal medicine this year.

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Top 10 highest, lowest paying states for internal medicine - ModernMedicine

Dell Medical School, Seton receive research grant to study Alzheimer’s – MyStatesman.com

Seton Healthcare Family and Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin have started research into Alzheimers disease to try to figure out why some people develop it and why some do not.

They received a state-funded grant from the Texas Council on Alzheimers Disease and Related Disorders to participate in a multisite research program called the Texas Alzheimers Research and Care Consortium.

UT Austins Dell Medical School joins six other state medical research institutes in the consortium: Baylor College of Medicine; Texas A&M Universitys Health Science Center; Texas Tech Universitys Health Sciences Center; University of North Texas Health Science Center; UT Health Science Center in San Antonio; and UT Southwest Medical Center.

The consortium approached the medical school to become part of the group as it was being put together. They were waiting for the medical school to be launched, says Dr. David Paydarfar, neurology chair at Dell Medical School, who is the studys lead investigator at the school. The general mood at UT Austin is we have the tools, we have the people with the talent, lets get going.

The consortium started in 1999, and this research program began in 2006. Theres nothing quite like it in the country, Paydarfar said. Texas is way ahead in some aspects of the rest of the country.

The grant to Dell Medical School and Seton, which is $800,000 for the first year and a yet-to-be-determined amount for the potential of another four years, will allow Dell Medical School and Seton to enroll 100 people in the study by August and another 100 people after that.

While the medical school has the researchers, Seton provides the clinics and the ability to find people to enroll in the study. This is one of the first big grants that is a collaboration between the medical school and Seton.

One of the biggest goals of the study is early diagnosis and prevention. Researchers are looking for three types of people: people with no known memory issues, people with mild cognitive impairments and people with beginning stages of Alzheimers. In general, they are looking for people in their 60s.

They also are looking for Hispanic participants because of the higher rates of Alzheimers in the population and because Texas, unlike other parts of the country where research is being done, has a larger Hispanic population.

Each person enrolled has to have a care partner and will receive yearly medical exams and cognitive tests. During those exams, doctors take blood to look for biomarkers that might be an indicator of Alzheimers.

People in the study receive a small stipend but are volunteering their time for the extra blood tests and consent to participate in the process.

One motivation to participate is the possibility for early diagnosis through the testing being done in the study, says Dr. John Bertelson, a neurologist at Seton Brain and Spine Institute and the co-investigator.

All the data is being collected by the consortium. Researchers from across the country can then apply to see the data for their studies.

Alzheimers has proven a difficult disease for researchers to crack. The thought is that there might be multiple causes and risk factors.

Its a bit of a mirage, Paydarfar said. When we think we have a breakthrough, it turns out its not the answer.

Bertelson said he remembers being a resident in the late 1990s and thinking that a cure for Alzheimers might be five or 10 years away.

So frequently we think were so close, he said, but I do not see cure in immediate future.

To enroll in the study, contact Alyssa Aguirre at 512-495-5236 or email Alyssa.Aguirre@austin.utexas.edu.

Original post:

Dell Medical School, Seton receive research grant to study Alzheimer's - MyStatesman.com

Music, soccer, fun planned throughout summer at ReSurfaced on Liberty – The Courier-Journal

Curious fans of organic food lined picnic tables at ReSurfaced on Saturday afternoon for the Courier-Journal's FEAST O.F.F. 9/3/16(Photo: CJ file photo)Buy Photo

Plans have been announced for what sponsors say will be another summer of fununder the ReSurfaced program.

ReSurfaced, at East Liberty and South Shelby streets, will open on June 15 from 6 to 10 p.m., with an exhibition soccer game between the Louisville Coopers soccer support group and the Louisville FC's front office staff. Louisville FC Soccer Coach James O'Connor plans to take part.

ReSurfaced sponsors transformed a longtime vacant lotinto a community activity space that includes a small soccer field and an area designed to promote civic engagement and entrepreneurialism, according to a news release.

Patrick Piuma, planning director of the Louisville Downtown Partnership, said that over the winter, the sponsors added more trees and landscaping at the location, and a "bourbon garden" has been created with the help of Coopers' Craft Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey shopping containers.

More: Spend a summer weekend around Louisville at these events

More: Awesome tots! A festival dedicated to tater tots and beer is coming to Louisville

Followingthe June 15soccer event, ReSurfaced's regular hours will be from 4 - 11 p.m. on the first and third Fridays and Saturdays of every month through October.

Programming is being curated byJecorey Arthur of 1200 LLC and includes offerings that are free and open to the public.

Fans of organic food took advantage of several local restaurants and food trucks during FEAST O.F.F. at ReSurfaced on Saturday. 9/3/16(Photo: CJ file photo)

For instance,thesecondannual Slow Food Bluegrass Taco Challenge will take place from noon- 4p.m. on Saturday, June 17. Also on tap are live music, local foodand a family-friendly movie.

Other programming will be announced later, but one highlight will be a back-to-school activity on Saturday, Aug .5, that will showcase youth performers and a market with arts and crafts.

Throughout the summer, ReSurfaced will have an art gallerywith different art every month. The soccer area will serve as a multipurpose athletic field for special events.

More: Ozzy Osbourne to headline 2017 Louder Than Life festival in Champions Park

More: Beer, dessert & brunch: Ideas for weekend eating in Louisville

A group called City Collaborativethat is coordinating the ReSurfaced program saidthe main sponsor, Coopers' Craft, will offer its products at the site. The 502 Cafe will be the food, wine and spirits operator, and Heine Brothers again havingwill have a coffee shop on site. Several local craft breweries will also be operating.

The Liberty Street site is owned by the Louisville Metro Housing Authority.City Collaborative's intent is to transform underutilized urban space to draw activity and visitors.The site is available for rental for private events.

For more information, go towww.resurfaced.org.

Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at 502-582-7089, or via email at sshafer@courier-journal.com.

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Music, soccer, fun planned throughout summer at ReSurfaced on Liberty - The Courier-Journal

Splendora man killed in crash in Liberty – Chron.com

Staff Report, daytonnews@hcnonline.com

Splendora man killed in crash in Liberty

A 31-year-old Splendora man, Derrick Murray, was killed Friday morning in a three-vehicle accident on SH 146 directly in front of North Main Baptist Church in Liberty.

According to Lt. Chip Fairchild, spokesperson for Liberty Police Department, around 6 a.m., Murray was southbound on SH 146 in a 2016 F-150 when he crossed the center line and collided with two northbound vehicles -- a 2004 F-250 and a 2014 Kenworth tractor-trailer hauling an empty propane trailer.

Murray struck the tractor-trailer almost head-on, Fairchild said. The Ford F-250 left the east side of the roadway, rolling over before it came to rest.

Neither driver of the F-250 or tractor-trailer suffered life-threatening injuries, authorities say. However, Murray was pronounced dead at the scene by Liberty County Pct. 1 Justice of the Peace Stephen Hebert, who ordered an autopsy to be performed in Jefferson County.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Assisting Liberty Police Department at the scene were City of Liberty EMS, Liberty and Hardin fire departments, City of Liberty Street Department and Liberty County Hazmat.

The accident forced the closure of the road until 2 p.m.

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Splendora man killed in crash in Liberty - Chron.com

More Traffic Headaches Ahead Thanks To Ramp Closure Outside Liberty Tunnels – CBS Pittsburgh / KDKA


CBS Pittsburgh / KDKA
More Traffic Headaches Ahead Thanks To Ramp Closure Outside Liberty Tunnels
CBS Pittsburgh / KDKA
The work that started on the bridge last weekend had already snarled 51 traffic as all cars have to detour through the light outside the Liberty Tunnel; but with the closing of the southbound 51 ramp from the tube, it's not going to be pretty. It is ...

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More Traffic Headaches Ahead Thanks To Ramp Closure Outside Liberty Tunnels - CBS Pittsburgh / KDKA

Glen Ridge golf team wins SEC Liberty tournament – NorthJersey.com

Mike Lamberti, Correspondent 9:39 a.m. ET June 10, 2017

Glen Ridge golf: (from left) coach Stephen Reitberger, Jeff Egan, Dean Cerimido, Cam Mehlman, Ryan Twitchell and Alec Vecchione.(Photo: Stephen Reitberger/Special to NorthJersey.com)

A championship season ended in grand fashion for the Glen Ridge High golf team.

Coach Stephen Reitberger's team had won the regular seasonSuper Essex Conference's (SEC) Liberty Division titlewith a 12-0 record. And last week, Glen Ridge added the SEC Liberty tournament to its trophy casewith a dominant effort.

Reitberger was obviously elated with his team's performance.

"We did a good job," said Reitberger. "Our kids were very consistent."

Last season, Glen Ridge had shared the regular season and tournament title with Nutley.

"It's not often you have the exact same team score with another team, but that was the case last year," said Reitberger. "This year, we won them both.

"There were some good teams in the tournament. I was happy for this team to end the season like this."

Glen Ridge captured last week's tournament by a resounding 63 strokes over second-place West Orange, 328-391. Leading the way for the Ridgers was Dean Cerimido, who finished second overall in the tourneywith a score of 77. Ryan Twitchell and Alec Vecchione finished with a score of 81 and Cam Mehlman fired an 89.

A West Orange golfer finished first in the tournament.

The SEC awarded its postseason accolades and three Ridgers, Cerimido, Twitchell and Vecchione, all made first team. Mehlman and Jeff Egan were named second team.

Cerimido, a senior, will be attending Fordham University this fallwhere he hopes to play on the collegiate level. Mehlman is also a senior, while Twitchell is a junior and Vecchione and Egan are freshmen.

The rest is here:

Glen Ridge golf team wins SEC Liberty tournament - NorthJersey.com

Statue of Liberty Fast Facts – KPAX.com | Continuous News | Missoula & Western Montana – KPAX-TV

CNN Library

(CNN) -- Here's a look at the Statue of Liberty.

Facts: The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of France to commemorate 100 years of Franco-American friendship as well as the centennial of America's independence.

The statue is formally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World."

It was sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The framework was designed by French engineer Gustave Eiffel.

There are 354 steps to the crown.

There are 25 windows in the crown.

The seven rays of the statue's crown represent the seven seas and continents of the world.

The tablet held in the left hand of the statue reads in Roman numerals "July 4th, 1776." (JULY IV MDCCLXXVI)

The total weight of copper in the statue is 62,000 pounds (31 tons) and the total weight of steel in the statue is 250,000 pounds (125 tons). Total weight of the statue's concrete foundation is 54 million pounds (27,000 tons).

Height from ground to tip of torch -- 305 feet, one inch (92.99cm)

Approximately 3.5 million people visit the Statue of Liberty every year.

Visitors undergo airport style security screenings prior to boarding the ferry and a secondary screening is required for visitors entering the monument.

The waters around Liberty and Ellis Island are a restricted water zone.

US Park Police provides security for visitor ferries and areas around Liberty Island.

Timeline: 1865 - French historian and professor Edouard de Laboulaye proposes the idea of presenting the United States with a monument to commemorate the young country's upcoming centennial.

Early 1870s - Sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi travels to the United States to drum up support for the project.

November 1875 - The Franco-American Union is formed to raise funds and carry out the project. It is decided that France will build the statue and the United States will build the pedestal upon which it will stand.

1875-1882 - French citizens are enthusiastic about the project and raise approximately $250,000 through fundraisers and lotteries. The French government does not contribute to the building of the statue.

1876 - The completed torch and the right forearm of Lady Liberty are displayed in Philadelphia and New York to encourage donations.

1883-1885 - Publisher Joseph Pulitzer champions the project in the pages of his New York World newspaper and Americans grow enthusiastic about the statue.

1883 - Poet Emma Lazarus writes the sonnet, "The New Colossus" to raise money for the pedestal. It ends with lines added to the base of the statue in 1903: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" It becomes a symbol of welcome for immigrants.

July 1884 - Lady Liberty is completed in France.

June 1885 - The statue arrives in New York Harbor aboard the French ship "Isere."

April 1886 - The pedestal is completed.

October 28, 1886 - President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.

October 15, 1924 - Is designated a national monument.

1933 - The National Park Service begins administering the statue.

1984 - The United Nations designates the Statue of Liberty a World Heritage Site.

July 4, 1986 - Celebrates her centennial.

September 11, 2001 - Liberty Island is completely closed to the public after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

December 2001 - Liberty Island reopens after 100 days, but the statue remains closed.

September 2003 - The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Inc. begins a fundraising drive with the goal of raising $5 million dollars to build additional exits and upgrade fire and emergency systems.

August 3, 2004 - The base of the statue reopens to the public after $20 million worth of safety measures are implemented.

September 18, 2007 - Park officials announce that the crown will remain closed to visitors indefinitely, due to fire safety and terrorism issues.

July 4, 2009 - The crown of the Statue of Liberty is reopened to visitors.

October 28, 2011 - The Statue of Liberty celebrates its 125th anniversary.

October 29, 2011 - The Statue of Liberty closes for millions of dollars in renovations. The closure is expected to last until October 2012. Liberty Island will remain open to visitors.

October 28, 2012 - On the 126th anniversary of the statue's dedication, the Statue of Liberty reopens.

October 29, 2012 - The Statue of Liberty closes due to Hurricane Sandy.

November 21, 2012 - The National Park Service announces that due to significant damage sustained from Hurricane Sandy, the Statue of Liberty will remain closed. It is scheduled to reopen on July 4th.

July 4, 2013 - The statue officially reopens with a ribbon cutting ceremony and long lines of tourists waiting for the ferry to Liberty Island.

October 13, 2013 - After being closed for 12 days as a result of the partial government shutdown, the Statue of Liberty reopens due to state funding.

TM & 2017 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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When Worlds Collude: Hoppe, Bruenig, and their shared vision of the libertarian future (I) – Nolan Chart LLC

Progressive lawyer, online pundit, and internet troll Matt Bruenig has a question forlibertarians: My first question for Cato and libertarians more generally is this: What is upwith Hans-Hermann Hoppe?[1]

I wish I could respond, Who? Alas, I am well aware of Hoppe. Many libertarians and other readers, though, may have just that response. Fortunately, Bruenig hasprovide an introduction:

For the unacquainted, Hoppe is a very prominent libertarian academic, certainly well knownwithin intellectual libertarian circles. He ironically works at the University of Nevada as aneconomics professor, making him a public employee. He publishes frequently in libertarianacademic journals, is a Distinguished Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, founded theProperty & Freedom Society, is frequently referenced by other libertarians as one of them, and[authored a] 2001 book Democracy: The God That Failed. It is a tad on the long side, but itsreally good, the [following] quotes especially.[1]

We will look at Bruenigs quotes later. For now it is enough to say that, while Hoppe does have followers who self-identify as libertarians, many if not most libertarians who know of him want nothing to do with him.

Here is an assessment of Hoppe that I suspect many libertarians who have read him or his admirerswould accept:

The errors of Hans-Hermann Hoppe are regrettable for two reasons: Firstly, Hoppe is a highlyintelligent and well-educated economist who for whatever reasons fails to notice when he doesdamage to the values of freedom and property, which he claims to support. This is the tragicpersonal side of Hans-Hermann Hoppe. But it is also tragic for academic discussions: At a timewhen we are surrounded by ever growing welfare states we badly need thinkers like Hoppe to showus how to tackle todays problems. But instead of doing that, Hoppe prefers to take refuge in hispipe dreams of a so-called natural order, which rather resembles the abyss of a variation ofright-wing totalitarianism. For all these reasons, for all his errors and mistakes and for hiswrong-headed methodology we may expect Hoppes ideas to remain a footnote in the history ofpolitical thought. And it may well be better this way. An effective strategy of liberation wouldlook very different. If Hoppe continues to use the terms liberalism and freedom for hisauthoritarian and pseudo-liberal agenda, it is time for the true liberals to claim back theseterms from him.[2]

It is only necessary to add that (1) the very idea of libertarianism that Bruenig claimslibertarians should be following (2) is not only compatible with, but looks like it would result in,Hoppes theorized libertarian society of the future; furthermore, while (3) Hoppes account of that societysuffers from serious flaws and errors, (4) Bruenigs account of that future society, being based on his reading of Hoppe, has the same flaws and errors. Making those four points is easy enough, but demonstrating them requires a bit more work.

Bruenig believes that libertarians should advocate for an ideal state of affairs that he calls Grab-what-you-can world or Grab World. He claims that this is the only possible world compatible with thelibertarian core belief (or set of beliefs) that are referred to under the label of the Non-Aggression Principle or NAP:

The world which follows the non-aggression principle is the one Roderick Long calls the grab-what-you-can world' this quote [from Long] clearly describes the only world that followsthenon-aggression principle the grab-what-you-can world satisfies the non-aggressionprinciple andno other world does almost everyone opposes following the non-aggressionprinciple as itrequires the grab-what-you-can world the grab-what-you-can world is theworld that follows thenon-aggression principle.[3]

This claim follows from Bruenigs definition of force, which is not the standard libertarianone. By his definition, theft, embezzlement, fraud, looting, and other property offensesshould not be considered uses of force: a property offense involves no force (strictly defined) becauseno body has been attacked.[4] By this definition that force is just attacking other peoplesbodies Bruenig reasons his way to Grab World:

Its simple: 1) grabbing pieces of the world does not, by itself, involve initiating forceagainst other people (if it did, then all resource use would be considered aggression), and 2)attacking someone for grabbing up a piece of the world does involve initiating force againstother people.[3]

In Grab World, there is only one law, the Basic Rule: You may not act upon the bodies of otherswithout their consent.[4] Everything else, including the property crimes listed above, wouldbe legal.From this Rule follows the idea of Grab World, as envisioned by its creator, Roderick Long (thelibertarian philosopher from whom Bruenig grabbed the idea):

Imagine a world in which people freely expropriate other peoples possessions; nobody initiatesforce directly against another persons body, but subject to that constraint, people regularlygrab any external resource they can get their hands on, regardless of who has made or been usingthe resource. Any conception of aggression according to which the world so described is free ofaggression is not a plausible one.[5]

Plausibly or not, Grab World is free from aggression (the initiation of force) as Bruenig definesit: in the libertarian set, there seems to be severe difficulties with distinguishing betweenwhat we might call Actual Initiation (defined as who touched who first) and IdeologicalInitiation[6]. What [libertarians] actually mean by initiation of force is not some neutral notionof hauling off and physically attacking someone.[7]

David S. Amato points out that Bruenigs criterion of Actual Initiation as touching would not includepointing a gun at someone else: even the mugger doesnt, underBruenigs Actual Initiation standard, initiate force against his victim, at least notnecessarily. Pointing a gun at someone, with the desired goal of taking his money or possessions,doesnt require the mugger to touch the victim, to make any actual, physical contact.[5] Nor, for that matter, would pulling the trigger. But to be charitable,that conclusion should probably be chalked up to Bruenigs sloppy writing rather than his actualbeliefs; it is reasonable to think that he includes shooting and threatening people with guns,bows and arrows, and bombs as examples of the use of force as well as mere touching.

What seems less reasonable is to imagine the Grab World state of affairs obtaining in reality.Grab World would require a society of pacifists (as, by stipulation, nobody initiates forcedirectly against another persons body). But while difficult to conceive, it is not logicallyimpossible. As a youth I read a speculative fiction novel by Damon Knight, Rule Golden, in whichthe galactic overlords unleashed a gas upon earth which caused everyone who physically hurt another personto experience the victims pain; those who killed others would die.[8] Anyone with enoughimagination could probably think of other ways for Grab World to be instantiated.

So far, so good. But Bruenig makes assumptions about Grab World that do not look so reasonable.Among them:

(1) It is more or less communism, yes.[9] No, it is not. It may resemble the ultimate communistsociety that Karl Marx envisioned; but it rules out any chance to establish the dictatorship of theproletariat that Marx saw as being necessary to get there. In the dictatorship stage, which isall that every self-proclaimed Communist regime has ever reached, there is plenty of property; itjust all belongs to the state. Property rules against trespass, theft, and the like have alwaysbeen enforced by the states violence and bloodshed (as Bruenig likes to call it) under thoseregimes just as strongly as in states with private property; even more violently and bloodily, in many cases.

(2) there is a state that is preventing people from assaulting and battering and the like.[9]Wrong again. States require a division of labor society which in turn requires an exchangeeconomy: since those enforcing the Basic Rule are losing the opportunity to grab or produce goodsand resources or themselves, they must be supported by those who are doing the latter. ButBruenig forecasts that, on grab world, exchange would initially break down completely:

there is no such thing as a non-coercive trade. All trades rely upon violent coercion. I onlytrade with someone because they have a violence voucher that they will redeem [from the state] if I decide to actupon the piece of the world without doing so. They only trade with me for the same reason. If yougot rid of the coercion, which is to say you got rid of violence vouchers, no trading wouldoccur.[6]

Without the possibility of exchange, production of consumer goods would grind to a halt; whowould buy them, when one could just loot for them? But with nothing being produced, at a certainpoint people would start running out of stores to loot; then where would a state get its tools ofviolence, its guns, handcuffs, police cars, prisons, tanks, fighter planes, and all the rest?Given Grab Worlds universal pacifism, those are not things they could go around and grabfrom just anyone.

Even if the state did get manage to get supplied with its tools of violence, it could not usethem, as that would be acting on the bodies of others without their consent, just as it is today.No one could be physically detained, arrested, or held at gunpoint (much less shot) in Grab World. No one couldbe jailed or placed under house arrest awaiting trial, physically compelled to attend a trial(including witnesses or jurors as well as defendants), or punished physically, including byimprisonment, if convicted.

Since Bruenigs Basic Rule forbids anyone to act on the bodies of others, it forbids its ownenforcement. All a state could do to anyone violating Bruenigs Rule, without itself violating the Rule, would be to grab things from him; in other words, the Basic Rule would forbid anyone fromtreating those who violate it any differently from non-violators. That would mean the end of thestate as we know it, and as we have known it for all of recorded history.

(3) It is a propertyless society.[9] There is no reason to think so. As Bruenig admits, there is nothing in Grab World stopping people from developing their own rules and conventions, which could include rules against taking each others property, invading each others homes,killing each others pets, and the like. Those rules could of course include standard libertarianrules respecting property rights, as they would be consensual, and therefore could include allowing others to useforce in response to cases of theft and so on.[11]

Since in communities with such rules, and those communities only, people would be able to produce and tradegoods, it is reasonable to imagine them as coming into immediate being in actual communities;villages and small towns where people know and trust each other. Only such communities could givepeople the property security, and the division of labor, necessary to maintain a more-thanstarvation existence after the cities were looted. However, they could do so only byinstantiating property rights through voluntary community covenants.

It is easy to imagine these proprietary communities expanding to the size of whole counties,walled or fenced off and guarded against outsiders. It would be easy enough (and not necessarilyinvolve any touching) to restrict admission only to those who consented to the community rules onforce. One can even imagine a flood of refugees to them from the cities, all of whom were admitted would haveconsented to the standard libertarian view of defensive force.

Outsiders like Bruenig would still have the negative liberty to invade and loot communities, andsome might do just that; but there is no reason communities would have to merely let them do it.Non-consenters could climb fences, or cut holes in them, to get in to do their looting; but toget out again they would have to let go of their loot; at which point a community police or possecould simply grab it all back. Would-be looters could also tunnel under fences; but communitydefenders could simply destroy the tunnels. (Question for any Bruenig Bros reading: woulddestroying a tunnel with looters in it count as attacking them?)

I have written elsewhere on this evolution.[10] To sum up:rather than a propertyless society, Grab World looks like it would evolve into thestateless world of proprietary communities envisioned by Hoppe, where political power isstripped from the hands of the central government and reassigned to the states, provinces,cities, towns, villages, residential districts, and ultimately to private property owners andtheir voluntary associations.[1]

However, the vision of those libertarian communities imagined by Hoppe looks completely flawed,riddled with conceptual errors. Those errors in turn inspire Bruenig to adopt a similarly flawedaccount filled with the same errors. Documenting that assessment, though, must wait for now.

[1] Matt Bruenig, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Libertarian Extraordinaire, Demos, September 11, 2013. http://www.demos.org/blog/9/11/13/hans-hermann-hoppe-libertarian-extraordinaire

[2] Oliver Hartwich, The Errors of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Open Republic Magazine (Dublin) 1:2 (October 2005). Web, June 9, 2017. https://oliverhartwich.com/2005/10/10/the-errors-of-hans-hermann-hoppe/

[3] Matt Bruenig, What a World Following the Non-Aggression Principle Looks Like, Demos, January 29, 2014. http://www.demos.org/blog/1/29/14/what-world-following-non-aggression-principle-looks

[4] Matt Bruenig, The Lesson of Grab What You Can, Demos, June 3, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140606193500/http://www.demos.org/blog/6/3/14/lesson-grab-what-you-can

[5] David S. Amato, Against Grab World, Libertarianism.org, October 15, 2015. https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/against-grab-world

[6] Matt Bruenig, Violence Vouchers: A descriptive account of property, Matt Bruenig Politics, March 28, 2014. http://mattbruenig.com/2014/03/28/violence-vouchers-a-descriptive-account-of-property/

[7] Matt Bruenig, Can you sustain an economic philosophy solely by begging the question?. Matt Bruenig Politics, October 7,2015. http://mattbruenig.com/2015/10/02/can-you-sustain-an-economic-philosophy-solely-by-begging-the-question/

[8] Damon Knight, Rule Golden, Three Novels. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Print.

[9] Matt Bruenig, Comment, June 23, 2014, to Bruenig, Pick-up basketball and grab what you can. Matt Bruenig Politics, June 22, 2014. http://mattbruenig.com/2014/06/22/pick-up-basketball-and-grab-what-you-can/

[10] George J. Dance, Grab World, Nolan Chart, May 26, 2017. https://www.nolanchart.com/grab-world

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When Worlds Collude: Hoppe, Bruenig, and their shared vision of the libertarian future (I) - Nolan Chart LLC

Jacob Story: Mohave County Libertarians clear up some misconceptions – Today’s News-Herald

A few weeks back, the Mohave County Libertarian Party was meeting on a Thursday night at Kingmans Black Bridge Brewery, and we were talking about the array of misconceptions about the Libertarian Party.

We decided that theres a lot of misinformation out there, so I took it upon myself as the Treasurer of the Mohave County Libertarian Party to write this to get a few things straight.

I believe that theres a lot of misinformation. It has been suggested that we Libertarians are in the same realm as the resistance, also known as the indivisible group. Two groups that, from my understanding, decided the Democratic National Committee was too conservative, and theyre a fringe sect to the left of conventional DNC thinking.

Often people see the word libertarian and think liberal the word libertarian actually derives from the word liberty; not so coincidentally, one of the symbols often used by the Libertarian Party is the Statue of Liberty.

Generally the Libertarian party has a platform of the following: Small or almost nonexistent government; limited, if no taxes whatsoever; unfettered individual rights; people taking individual responsibility; noninterference with foreign nations issues; and open and free markets. This is to name a few of the basic principles of the Libertarian Party. It can be boiled down even further to the following notion: We leave you alone, you leave us alone. The Libertarian Party has also been described as socially liberal, fiscally conservative, which I suppose is fair. Our party is relatively new, formed in 1971, but were growing. The 2016 election saw many new registered Libertarians and although we didnt have any federal wins our win was the fact that we received 4.5 million votes, or in other terms, 3.2 million more votes than our last go during the 2012 general election. That speaks volumes 3.2 million fed-up voters.

We simply want this great Republic to once again be for the people not the select few elected to office. If you want to hear more about what were all about, please come join us for a beer at 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of every month at Black Bridge Brewery in Kingman.

Treasurer, Mohave County Libertarian Party

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Jacob Story: Mohave County Libertarians clear up some misconceptions - Today's News-Herald

Diogenes, the Libertarian – The Libertarian Republic

By now most of us have read the articles and laughed, and some of us have watched the videos and guffawed. A drunken strumpet having a bad hair day gets booted from a comedy club, then arrested, and then lays into the cops in slurring, vitriolic invective. She [it was a woman] attempts to parlay her status as a television reporter into some kind of Get Out Of Jail Free card it doesnt work. Another comedian at the club records her performance art on his phone and posts it to the internet. The following day she claims, though her family attorney, to have been drugged. She was fired from her television reporting job anyway.

It was a classic object lesson in the negative aspects of self-important, anti-social tantrum. She was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal mischief [whatever that is], and resisting arrest. Resisting arrest is the pile-on feel-good charge offered up when cops dont really have anything substantive. We never see murderers or armed robbers charged with murder or armed robbery and resisting arrest. Whenever resisting arrest is announced, its fairly prima facie that the major issue is that the cops ego was bruised, the poor dears.

The essential sequence of events is this: * Drunken strumpet heckles performer * Performer cant handle heckler * Club employees escort drunken strumpet from venue to public sidewalk where cops were waiting * Cops confront drunken strumpet about her actions inside venue * Drunken strumpet lambastes cops for being, well, cops * Cops cuff drunken strumpet * Drunken strumpet continues to berate cops * Cops eventually haul her away

What happened next, though, is Grade-A statist apologism and rationalization. People the nation over cheered and huzzahed. Many manly he-men volunteered assorted fisticuffs to punctuate their disapproval of her actions. It would be one thing and completely understandable, if still distasteful were these statist apologists the standard democrats and republicans who celebrate hyper-reactive government involvement in nearly every aspect of human interaction. But they werent.

They claimed to be libertarians, which makes it inexcusable.

The worst part about it, none of those professing to possess libertarian sensibilities could understand why their hairy chest-pounding was putrid statism.

The first and most common excuse offered up is that the woman at the center of the nothingness assaulted someone by spitting. First there was nothing in any of the written accounts that asserts she definitively spit on anyone. Second were supposed to be libertarians here. Spitting is, under the worst of circumstances, little more than a second graders preferred method of making the girls in class run screeching, next to eating bugs and turning eyelids inside out. Big-girl panties, guys; pull em up.

To be fair, there were multiple accounts stating that the cop-denouncing woman and I will quote from one of those accounts appeared to attempt to spit, but the target of her expectoration changed from version to version, rendering the accusation suspect at best and contrived at worst. I have no doubt, though, from what I remember about my, and observed in others, bouts of pronounced drunkenness that more than a few people in her vicinity were hit with spittle from the volume and relentlessness of her tirading. But spray is not the same thing as hocking a loogie.

Yet it was over this assault-by-saliva claim that most of the ahem libertarians offered to deconstruct the orthodontics her parents had paid for. Self-defense, more than one suggested.

Sorry, no. Self-defense, under law, permits only those actions which are necessary to prevent another similar assault, while using the minimum force available. Someone spitting at you is not justifiably met with a punch to the teeth any more than it is justifiably met with a folding chair across the shoulders or a gunshot to the torso. Minimum necessary force to prevent being spat upon a second time by a woman handcuffed by police consists of moving out of loogie-range, and not a lot else.

Self-defense against projectile saliva under libertarians holy Non-Aggression Principle, however, would be a different matter. Does the NAP justify disproportionate response? Dunno. A quick straw poll of libertarians on US self-defense against terrorists knocking down some really tall buildings in 2001 and the 16-year war waged since then might prove illuminating.

The relevant question is: what would the NAP allow as self-defense against the appearance of an attempt to perform juvenile micro-aggression? Would it allow more than the appearance of an attempt at self-defense?

The follow-on statist argument made by non-libertarian libertarians is, Yabbut spitting is assault, and attempting to spit is attempted assault. Both are crimes!

The State defines many things as crimes, including not buckling up, not buying health insurance, and smoking herbage. The State does these things because it can and because not enough people call them on it. Courts certainly arent about to do their duty and nullify laws made in excess of the governments defined power to make law. Not without a revolution waiting in the wings. Were supposed to be libertarians here; we understand that just because The State calls it a crime doesnt mean squat to libertarian political philosophy.

Assault-by-saliva is one of those crimes. It is childish and repulsive; nothing more.

Other excuses made for the arrest of this drunken strumpet over her outburst are that she was drunk in public, which is a crime. Again, just because The State calls it a crime

She was a possible danger to herself. But were still libertarians; The State is not defined to be our Mommy.

The government has an obligation to provide public safety. Apart from providing public safety being impossible without locking everyone up because theyre suspicious, it is only actually attempted by a police-state. A free country housing free citizens requires that the government only pester those who have actually committed crimes falling within the legitimate authority of that government to define crime, and then only when there is enough evidence to support pestering them over it. This drunken strumpet had done nothing that reached that lofty elevation; at most the police should have shooed her to a cab, or taken her home themselves.

She was asked to leave the comedy club; she was therefore trespassing. No, crime cannot retroactive, and trespassing is no different. She was escorted out of the comedy club to the sidewalk. where she stayed. partly because she was almost immediately handcuffed, but still. Among the crimes that she had not committed was especially trespassing.

Its real simple, here: were libertarians. We do not advise or condone the involvement of The State merely because of a squabble between self-interested private parties. In this case, the self-interests were a drunken strumpet who couldnt hold her liquor and a comedy club whose comedian couldnt handle a heckler. Liberty requires the freedom to squabble and the freedom to handle those squabbles privately, without The State.

If you want police in the vicinity just to make sure nothing gets out of hand fine. Hey, there mightve been a few barrel-chested libertarians wanting to take the opportunity to slug a drunken strumpet appearing to attempt to hock a loogie. But unless things do get out of hand, the cops are there, just like everyone else, to eat popcorn and watch the squabble.

Nor does being libertarian and reducing the involvement of The State to observer status mean that we condone anti-social behavior and immature outbursts. Even if those outbursts are First Amendment-protected and when directed at the cops largely accurate and deserved. It means we take videos on our smart phones and post them on the internet to serve as an object lesson in knowing ones upper limit on alcohol.

Non-state social sanction is, in the long run, a far better deterrent to these tantrums than heavy-handed police-statism if only because it deters a state becoming a police-state. Again: were libertarians; were supposed to live and breathe this philosophy. So live it and breathe it; own your philosophy. I shouldnt have to keep reminding everyone what they claim to stand for.

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Diogenes, the Libertarian - The Libertarian Republic

Libertarian Party To File Petitions As ‘New Political Party’ For Fourth Time – KUAR

For the fourth consecutive election cycle, theLibertarian Party of Arkansasplans to deliver petitions to the Arkansas Secretary of States office on Monday to become a new political party for the 2018 election.

Because the party failed to win 3% of the electoral vote in the 2016 presidential race that swept Republican nominee Donald Trump into the White House, Arkansas law requires a new political party to collect 10,000 valid voter signatures during a 90-day period.

Party chairman Michael Pakko, an economist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rocks Institute for Economic Advancement, said the party finds itself in the position again of having to register as a new party when it has participated in the last four presidential elections. Pakko said the performance of the candidate at the top of the ticket should not be the only measuring stick for ballot access. Despite being considered a new party under the law, Libertarians fielded a candidate in all four congressional races, while the Democrats only contested the 2nd District. The party was also the only competition in eight of the 34 contested state House races.

Our performance was definitely improved, Pakko said. We are giving voters a choice and voters are making that choice and voting Libertarian.

According to Pakko, party officials collected more than 15,000 signatures for the 2018 ballot after former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson fell short in the 2016 presidential race with only with 2.63% of the Arkansas vote. Thats an improvement from 2012, when Johnson won 1.52% of the vote. His vote total rose from 16,276 that year to 29,611 this year. If the partys gubernatorial candidate wins 3% in 2018, it wont have to collect signatures in 2020.

By not winning 3% of the vote, the party will again have to qualify for the ballot in 2018, a process Pakko has said required six months of work as well as about $33,000 in costs in the 2016 cycle. Because the primary was moved up to March 1, a state law required the party to select its candidates at the end of 2015. Pakko said the party will try to change the states law defining a political party in the 2017 legislative session while working toward the 2018 election.

During the recent legislative session, the party did not get enough support to change the states law defining a political party ahead of the 2018 election.

And as the nation is riveted with former FBI Director James Comeys testimony before Congress and an obstruction of justice investigation of President Donald Trump by independent counsel Robert Mueller, Pakko said there is a high level of mistrust between American voters and Republican and Democratic parties.

There remains a low-level of trust in government and the two-party system, Pakko said. We see the constant bickering between the two major parties and I think one thing that Libertarians would like voters to know is there is another choice and another option out there.

Pakko said Arkansas voters should take a closer look at the Libertarian Party in 2018 at all levels.

We have a specific set of principles that we believe and we put emphasis on the rights of individuals, and that individuals should be free to live their lives as they see fit without as little interference from the government as possible, said the Libertarian leader and economic forecaster. Keep the government out of peoples lives and out of their pocketbooks.

After party leaders deliver petitions to the Secretary of States office next week and the signatures are validated within 30 days, Pakko said the party will immediately begin to recruit new candidates for the next major election that is now less than two years away.

See the article here:

Libertarian Party To File Petitions As 'New Political Party' For Fourth Time - KUAR

The Libertarian Voting Process – Being Libertarian (satire)

In general, when one goes to the polls, they are given a list of items to vote yay or nay on. More funding for project X? Yes or no. Slight tax increase for reason Y? Yes or no.

Nick or Kevin for position A1-Z1000? (Because apparently the whole government needs to be voted on even though its so huge and no one really knows who is who anyway.)

Many of these items are a decision of who you want to represent you in a given branch of government. Who do you want to run the state executive branch? Who do you want to represent you in the state legislative branch? But the ones that worry me the most are the measures that require funding. I recently read an article about rejecting utopianism that brought up a good point.

Sometimes the market doesnt do what we like. This got me thinking. Voting day always tries to do something we dont like, and if more than 50% of the votes are yes, I have to pay for it. Wouldnt it be great if voting was done the same way the market works, to vote with your dollar?

Lets say that instead of a single yes or no vote, you get a dollar amount vote. You can vote yes as many times as you like, as long as you have the money. That way, if you really want it, you can hedge your bet. Want more funding for public schools? How much, 50 bucks? Okay, write a check to the state on your way out, etc. Want that new public road connecting I-10 to the I-5? How much do you want it?

Voting day could happen several times per year, and it wouldnt have to be verified so you could do it online. If some foreign entity wants to fund our roads and schools, awesome!

As it stands, every vote you make for a special project, tax increase, or government subsidy, is in and of itself worth hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars of someone elses money. Its easy to get someone to spend someone elses money irresponsibly. You dont even have to read about the project your funding. The project doesnt have to convince you it will do any good, the title just has to sound good. For all you know, the project is being completed by the mayors nephews new business that just started last week before the polls opened.

If you change the funding to a voluntary money-based voting system, taxes would decrease, projects would have to prove themselves to voters, and probably have to show progress to continue getting funding, waste would decrease, and taxation wouldnt be theft.

This money-based voting system wouldnt work for everything, but I think it would eliminate the vast majority of the spending bills that always come out every 4 years when all the naive millennials get around to the polls and dont have time to do research before wasting more of our tax dollars on nice sounding titles of pet projects that are worthless.

* Micheal Tarr Jath is an avid outdoorsman and lover of freedom. He is a conservative libertarian who believes that libertarianism is the bridge that can reconcile the differences in the ideologies of Americanism. You can find him at Libertarian Mastermind on Facebook.

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The Libertarian Voting Process - Being Libertarian (satire)