Naagin actress Mouni Roy has taken to spirituality in the lockdown; heres what she says – Times of India

Posted on by

Mouni Roy has been in Abu Dhabi since three months. The Gold actress is having a good time at her childhood friends home in the UAE. While she has taken to self-isolation, Mouni is focusing upon practicing spirituality. Talking to Bombay Times, she said, I truly believe in the higher power. Can you imagine how tiny our earth is in the spectrum of the universe? I have felt really protected since the time I was a little girl, till now. So, I have always had the longing and the search for the unknown. Spirituality for me is, to go inwards and establish that connection. Theres so much negativity all around, probably this is the time. I got so much time at one stretch, almost 4 months now, where I thought why not actually go inwards and do stuff you really wanted to do, unabashedly. We are in such a phase where we cant even say that we dont have time and make excuses. Its been quite long that shes away from India, and that has made the Brahmastra actress homesick too. She says, I am enjoying my stay here, in the company of my friend, who I grew up with, and her family. However, I am missing my mother and brother, who are in Cooch Behar (West Bengal). I am dying to come back to India, but I havent finalised a return date yet.

See the article here:

Naagin actress Mouni Roy has taken to spirituality in the lockdown; heres what she says - Times of India

What would the poet Rumi do in a pandemic? – Vox.com

Posted on by

Im a Muslim boy of Iran and the American South who is politically most at home in the Black church and spiritually most at home in Rumi.

Thats how Omid Safi describes himself. A professor of Islamic studies at Duke University, he specializes in Muslim mystics, or Sufis, like the well-known poet Rumi.

Safi grew up in Iran, but hes lived in the southern US for many years now, and he feels a deep affinity with leaders of the civil rights movement like Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, he sees certain parallels between their views and Sufi views on love and justice. He teaches courses on both sets of views.

I recently spoke with Safi for Future Perfects new limited-series podcast, The Way Through, which is all about mining the worlds rich philosophical and spiritual traditions for guidance that can help us through these challenging times.

Safi explained Sufisms tradition of radical love, which involves both love for the divine and for our fellow humans, and what it would look like to be guided by that tradition today. What would Rumi do in a pandemic?

We also discussed how we might be able to lean into our suffering or solitude these days how we can actually use it to our benefit, rather than trying in vain to escape it.

You can hear our entire conversation in the podcast here. A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.

Subscribe to Future Perfect: The Way Through on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Omid, I like to do thought experiments. Will you indulge me in one?

If Rumi were alive today in the US, living through the pandemic, what do you think he would be doing? Would he be engaging in petitionary prayer asking God to stop the coronavirus? Would he be out in the street delivering supplies to people? Would he be social distancing? Would he wear a mask?

Well, Im fairly certain that if he were to be in public, he would be wearing a mask. Its just cruel and selfish to not wear a mask when youre in public. Its not just for your own sake, its also for the sake of everybody else. So lets just get that one out of the way.

Look, we tend to have this dichotomy. Would he be praying, or would he be out on the street? Yes, both/and, all of the above! Where is it ever said that the life of the spirit and the life of bodies have to be divorced from one another? The God that is the subject of ones petitions is the sustainer of our bodies, hearts, and souls. And what sets the path of radical love apart from so many other traditions is the notion that if you claim to love God, you have to love Gods creation. You cannot claim to be indifferent to the suffering of humanity and, indeed, other sentient beings if you claim to be on this path.

I think thats what the message of Rumi and all these mystics would be today: to identify suffering, to stand with those who are hurting and vulnerable.

This is not a very popular thing to say: God does have a preferential treatment. But it is not for a religion. It is not for a nation. It is not for a race or ethnicity or gender. Its for the poor. God is on the side of the weak and vulnerable.

I think in the context of the current pandemic, what we see is that Covid-19 is disproportionately taking the lives of Black people, people who are low-income, and people who are experiencing homelessness. So it would seem like these are the people that an ethic of love would demand that we really do our utmost to protect.

Yet somehow among all the countries of the earth, we seem to be almost uniquely unable to rise to this challenge. Not because we lack the resources or the expertise. I wonder if we lack the care and the love.

That reminds me of a stark contrast I see between a strand that you find in Sufi thought and a very prominent strand in American thought. In Sufism, we see a real emphasis on selflessness. And I dont just mean being generous. I mean something much more radical: total ego annihilation, getting rid of your notion that you have a bounded self that is separate from others, separate from God. Theres this idea of al-fana, becoming completely absorbed in God.

To me, this seems like the polar opposite of American individualism. Were in a country that has a very strong libertarian streak, where were almost obsessed with individual liberties. And I wonder if you think this emphasis on our personal freedom is actually getting in the way of expressing solidarity with one another during a pandemic.

I do think that something about this rugged individualism is certainly both real and at times slightly exaggerated. I mean, after all, we are the very people whose founding document starts with we, the people. It doesnt start with I, the person. Theres that notion of the peoplehood, that we-ness, which is so fundamental.

I was very blessed in my life to have been loved and mentored by the close friend of Dr. Kings Vincent Harding. And he would always take me back to that document and remind me that what that document says is we, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice. He would say, thank God it never said in order to form a perfect union. Because we were not perfect when we committed genocide against Indigenous people. We were not perfect during the years of transatlantic slavery and Jim Crow. We are not perfect now. But the goal is to become just a little bit more perfect today than we were yesterday.

And how do we do it? Establish justice. Of course, justice is never individual. Theres a reason we call it social justice. Its justice out in society.

I hear you talking about two notions: love and justice. Im curious how Sufi thinkers would say these two notions interrelate.

Well, youre very astute at picking that up, except theyre not two notions. Theyre one notion. I almost fell out of my chair the first time I heard Vincent Harding express this because here was this 80-year-old Black Christian elder of the civil rights movement and it was as if he was reading something out of a Sufi text. The Sufis say that love is not an emotion. It is the very being of God unleashed onto this realm. So its helpful to think of this love as an oceanic wave that pours through you, and when it pours out of your heart, out into the public square, we recognize it as justice.

Dr. King and Ella Baker and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee members all said this in the civil rights era. All that we mean by justice is love when it comes into the public square.

This reminds me of a Rumi quote that I read in a Coleman Barks translation: What sort of person says that he or she wants to be polished and pure and then complains about being handled roughly. Love is a lawsuit where harsh evidence must be brought in. To settle the case, the judge must see evidence.

Theres an interesting relationship there between love and justice, right? Love for your fellow people isnt just saying to them, Whatever youre doing is great, universalism means total relativism, so if you want to be unkind or racist, thats totally fine. There is this element of judgment. There is this element of criticizing when you see something that you think is wrong or is going to harm other people. Being willing to criticize when you see that is part of justice. But thats not separate from love.

Thats right.

Lets talk about the massive suffering that a lot of people are experiencing during this pandemic. A lot of spiritual leaders are responding by trying to offer comfort that aims to ease the suffering. But theres also this rich tradition in a lot of spiritualities about suffering actually being ennobling if you harness it correctly.

I see a lot of this attitude in Sufism. Rumi in particular says, Brother, to be a lover, you must have pain. Where is your pain? Elsewhere, he just says, Seek pain, pain, pain! Hes always calling upon us to increase our pain or suffering in some sense. So how would you invite us to think about this in relation to the pandemic?

I think each of us has to be true to our own traditions. And Im a Muslim boy. Im not a Christian. So when I listen to Martin, whom I love, and I hear him talk about redemptive suffering the willingness to bear suffering and to pick up our own cross, and that if we can do so with dignity, then nothing shall be more redemptive and transformative I dont know about that! Because that tradition of redemptive suffering isnt mine.

As somebody who was pre-med in a previous life, I spent so many years volunteering in pediatric cancer wards. When I hear those kinds of Rumi quotes or hear Martin talking about redemptive suffering, I put myself in the situation of one of those young mothers at the hospital holding her 6-month-old infant and imagining what I would say to them. Would I go to them and say, I know youre enduring pain, I know your babys enduring pain, but I want you to know that this pain is redemptive? No, I wouldnt. And I dont think any kind human being would. When you witness pain, sometimes the way of bearing witness is to actually be silent.

Now, what do I do with those traditions of Rumi talking about pain? To begin with, I dont think we have to go looking for pain. Theres already pain in this world. Rumi begins his whole collection of poetry talking about the suffering that comes from all the different types of separations. For some people, especially nowadays, you might be separated from your loved ones. You might be separated from a place that feels like home. You might be separated from your own dreams you thought you were going to be somebody and life hasnt quite worked out that way. And theres pain in that.

But then Rumi goes on to say, Every heart breaks. But not every heart breaks open. And theres a difference between a heart that merely breaks and a heart that breaks open.

First of all, thank you for saying that when someone is in a cancer ward or suffering terribly due to a pandemic-induced death, we dont go up and say to them, Everything happens for a reason; this is terrific! I would feel terrible if someone said that to me.

What Im left wondering is, how do we work with pain and heartbreak so that we become the person who as a result breaks open and doesnt just break? How can we hold the suffering of the pandemic in a way that could actually be ennobling?

I think a lot of it comes down to the idolatry of the finite ego. So many of us think that we end at the edge of our fingertips. But you are a fluid being. Your soul is extending and already enmeshed with other people. That same finite ego has a tendency to think that it is the master of the universe, that you write your own destiny. And so much of the pain that we have is the realization that our ability is finite, that we were unable to prevent pain for ourselves or for people that we love.

If instead we didnt see ourself as one bounded self moving through and perhaps bumping up against other finite selves, but really saw one life, one soul, one yearning, one living, one love then the suffering that we witness in somebody else and our own suffering would resonate with one another. I think thats at least a key to a heart that breaks open.

My first gut reaction when you were saying this was, no, this sounds horrible! Because if I feel that Im actually this thing that merges with all other beings, then I share in everyone elses suffering, and that multiplies my suffering a million-fold.

But my second response was, maybe that would help me feel a sense of connection with all these other beings. A big part of what is so painful when were suffering these days is that we feel alone in it. Theres something maybe psychologically calming about feeling like we are united with everyone else, even if the mode that were united with them in is a mode of suffering.

Exactly. Rumi has this wonderful line: Youre clutching with both hands to this myth of you and I. Our whole brokenness is because of this.

We crave connection. That is an indication of the fact that we were never meant to be an island. Were meant to be in communion with other beings. Rumi says, You and I should live as if you and I never heard of a you and an I.

During the pandemic, though, a lot of us are in physical isolation. And I think a lot of us are so scared of being alone. There was a scientific study done a few years ago where they gave people the choice between being alone with their own thoughts for 15 minutes or getting electric shocks. And a lot of people chose the electric shocks!

But the Sufi tradition has a lot to say about the benefits of isolation, of khalwa. There is this idea that it can allow you to focus on meditation, on spiritual development. And this goes all the way back to the Quran and the Bible. You see Mohammed and Moses going for 40 days to the mountain to commune with God and then they get their big revelations. Is there some way in which we can use this pandemic to not run away from our isolation, but instead to lean into that solitude and somehow use it to our advantage?

When you think about Moses and Jesus and Mohammed and the Buddha and Rumi and Ibn Arabi, all of whom did this practice of khalwa, of going to a cave or to a mountaintop this wasnt a permanent calling. It wasnt that you would move to a cave. You would go inside to be alone with the One, and then you would come back and bring the fruits of that into society. I think thats what I would love to see us as a world community do.

My hope is that this unplanned period of retreat can give us an opportunity to examine our own life, to think about what it is weve been prioritizing, what has been feeding our hearts. You know, so many of us are attached to our phone devices. We start to get really panicky when the battery light on them comes on because it means we only have 20 percent left. And then we nervously start looking around: Wheres my cord? Wheres my charger? Wheres the outlet?

Well, what if your heart had a red battery light? Would we even know where to go to recharge? Thats going to look different for every person. It might look like reading Rumi poetry. Listening to a great podcast. Gardening. Going for a hike in the mountains. Prayer. Yoga. I dont particularly care what that practice is that rejuvenates your soul. But I think it is important to be asking ourselves: Do we know what it is? And do we know how to locate it? And do we know how to return to it again and again and again until it becomes a practice?

Yes, I think that in the Before Times, many of us were so busy with a lot of things that distract us from our internal world. And, like you said, I hope that this pandemic can give some of us I think it will be the privileged among us, really, who can afford it a moment to look inward and reevaluate. So there is that period of khalwa, of retreat. But I like that you pointed out that there is this really dialectical relationship in Sufi thought between khalwa and jalwa: retreating into yourself and going back out into society.

Ibn Arabi, my favorite Sufi, says, For him whom God has given understanding, retreat and society, khalwa and jalwa, are the same. In fact, it may be that society is more complete for a person and greater in benefit since through it at every instant one increases in knowledge of God.

You want to have this period of isolation where youre looking inward, but thats not the end goal in itself. Ultimately, you want to use the wisdom youve gained in isolation and then go back out to other people and be able to see the divine in them and interact with them in a better way.

Thats exactly right. I think this notion of a khalwa, a retreat, is terrifying to so many people. Because who knows what youre going to find if you start looking into those unexamined corners of your own soul? What if you dont like what you see?

But we all carry wounds. And just because youre not looking at it doesnt mean that its healing. So sometimes I think it can be very helpful to retreat.

And its not just wounds that you have in that unexamined portion of your soul. Theres also wonder and beauty and the presence of the One, whatever name you want to give to her or to him.

Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter and well send you a roundup of ideas and solutions for tackling the worlds biggest challenges and how to get better at doing good.

Support Voxs explanatory journalism

Every day at Vox, we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you, and our audience around the world, with information that has the power to save lives. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. Voxs work is reaching more people than ever, but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn. Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation, but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles, videos, and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today.

Read this article:

What would the poet Rumi do in a pandemic? - Vox.com

Essence of Seva – Economic Times

Posted on by

VIJAY HASHIA

While the Covid-19 virus has created panic, chaos, depression and, in some cases, death, it has also revealed another aspect of human nature heroism and hope, courage and compassion, empathy and appreciation evident in numerous warriors from various government agencies and members of civil society, including medical staff and sanitation workers. Only a life lived in the service of others is worth living. There is no religion greater than human service.

Seva in Sanskrit is the act of selfless service. Seva is done without any expectation, return or reward, name or fame. It is nishkama seva. In Sikhism, selfless service is a paramount belief. In Shia Ismailism, service is described as doing volunteer work for others from the heart.

Ismailis donate their time and knowledge wherever it may be needed, as nazrana. The Bhagwad Gita says, That gift which is made to one who can make no return, with the feeling that it is ones duty to give, is held to be saatvik. The Gita encourages selfless service to grow spiritually; thus, it is closely linked to the concept of karma yoga.

Service before self is a great motto in the forces. Through mindful awareness of challenges, seva can be used as a powerful tool for people to learn more about themselves, their personalities and patterns of behaviour. One can elevate oneself to spiritual progress as work is our right but not the fruits thereof.

God who is present in me is also present in other human beings. Thus, doing seva is serving God, doing seva is worshipping God, and to work for ones salvation and ultimate eternal happiness.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Read this article:

Essence of Seva - Economic Times

Astronauts to tackle another spacewalk on extended SpaceX mission – UPI News

Posted on by

Astronauts return to space from U.S. soil

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley (L) and Bob Behnken, who flew the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, brief mission controllers about their experience in the new vehicle on June 1. Photo courtesy of NASA

Newly arrived NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, front row from left to right, pose for a photo with the rest of the crew aboard the International Space Station on May 31. On the back row, from left to right are Roscosmos flight engineer Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA Commander Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos engineer Ivan Vagner. Photo courtesy of NASA

SpaceX's Dragonship Endeavor, with Behnken and Hurley on board, docks with the International Space Station at 10:16 am EST on May 31. The Crew Dragon's nose cone is open, revealing the spacecraft's docking mechanism that would connect to the Harmony module's forward international docking adapter. Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at 3:22 p.m. May 30 with Hurley and Behnken aboard the first manned Crew Dragon spacecraft from Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

The Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS as part of the NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo

Spectators on Cocoa Beach, Fla., watch as Behnken and Hurley lift off from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39-A onboard SpaceX Demo-2 Falcon 9 and the Crew Dragon to the ISS. Photo By Gary I Rothstein/UPI | License Photo

Hurley (L) and Behnken depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Behnken gives a thumbs-up. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket stand on Launch Complex 39A on May 29. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

NASA and SpaceX were attempting the launch a second time after the launch was scrubbed on May 27 due to weather. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Hurley (L) and Behnken depart the checkout building. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

The Falcon 9 vents fuel after NASA and SpaceX management called a hold to the launch on May 27 due to weather. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Hans Koenigsmann, vice president for build and flight reliability at SpaceX, looks at a monitor showing a live feed of the rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on the pad during the countdown on May 27. The launch was scrubbed with only minutes to go. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo

Spectators leave Cocoa Beach after the launch was canceled. Photo By Gary I Rothstein/UPI | License Photo

Behnken (L) and Hurley are seen in the crew access arm at Launch Complex 39A on May 27. They were strapped into the Crew Dragon capsule when weather forced a postponement. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

From left to right, Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, second lady Karen Pence, Vice President Mike Pence, first lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin, Mike Hawes, vice president of human space exploration and Orion program manager at Lockheed Martin Space, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stop by the Artemis I capsule during a tour of the Armstrong operations building. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

Trump participates in a SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 launch briefing following the departure of NASA astronauts to board a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on May 27. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

Hurley (L) and Behnken, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, prepare to depart the operations building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

From left to right, SpaceX owner and chief engineer Elon Musk, Bridenstine, Mike Pence and Karen Pence applaud the astronauts as they head to the spacecraft. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

Hurley (L) and Behnken give their families virtual hugs as they prepare for the Demo-2 mission launch. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

Hurley boards a Tesla Model X for the ride to the launch area. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket lie horizontally on Complex 39A on May 26. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

The Vehicle Assembly Building is seen at sunset as preparations continue for the NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission on May 25. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo

In this black-and-white infrared image, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo

This is a view of the crew access arm in position with the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on May 24. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

Behnken and Hurley are seen on a monitor showing inside the Crew Dragon capsule at Launch Complex 39A during a dress rehearsal May 23. Photo by SpaceX/UPI | License Photo

Hurley (L) and Behnken participate in a dress rehearsal for launch at Kennedy Space Center on May 23. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA | License Photo

Behnken rehearses putting on his SpaceX spacesuit in the astronaut crew quarters. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA | License Photo

Hurley and Behnken return to the Armstrong building from Launch Complex 39A after completing the dress rehearsal. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

Norm Knight, deputy director of Flight Operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center (L), and Steve Stich, deputy manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (R), monitor the countdown during the dress rehearsal. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo

Hurley (L) and Behnken depart the Armstrong building for Launch Complex 39A. NASA Photo by Bill Ingalls/UPI | License Photo

NASA and SpaceX managers participate in a flight readiness review for the upcoming Demo-2 launch in the Operations Support Building II at Kennedy Space Center on May 21. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA | License Photo

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen as it is rolled out of the horizontal integration facility at Kennedy Space Center as preparations continue on May 21 for the Demo-2 mission. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

The rocket is raised into a vertical position on the launch pad as preparations continue for the mission. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

From left to right, Behnken and Hurley pose with Bridenstine and Cabana after the astronauts' arrival at the space center in Florida on May 20. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

The two astronauts arrive to be the first crew to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on the SpaceX Crew Demo spacecraft. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Hurley speaks to the media following his arrival at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft arrives at Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, transported from the company's processing facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on May 15. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA | License Photo

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that will be used for the Crew-1 mission for NASA's Commercial Crew Program undergoes processing inside the clean room at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

Behnken (L) and Hurley successfully completed a fully integrated test of Crew Dragon's critical flight hardware at a SpaceX processing facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on March 30. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

NASA and SpaceX completed an end-to-end demonstration of the teams' ability to safely evacuate crew members from the fixed service structure during an emergency situation at Launch Complex 39A on April 3. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft undergoes final processing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

Hurley examines the critical flight hardware during the test on March 30. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

Hurley (R) and Behnken participate in SpaceX's flight simulator. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

SpaceX teams executed a full simulation of launch and docking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, with Hurley (R) and Behnken participating in SpaceX's flight simulator on March 19 and 20. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule completes acoustic testing in Florida. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

Hurley (L) and Behnken stand near Launch Pad 39A during a dress rehearsal ahead of the SpaceX uncrewed In-Flight Abort Test at Kennedy Space Center on January 17. In the background, the company's Falcon 9 rocket is topped by the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The flight test will demonstrate the spacecraft's escape capabilities. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA | License Photo

Bridenstine (L) and Musk converse at Kennedy Space Center's launch control center while awaiting liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on the uncrewed in-flight abort test on January 19. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA | License Photo

Hurley (R) and Behnken don SpaceX spacesuits in the astronaut crew quarters during a dress rehearsal. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA | License Photo

The test, which did not have NASA astronauts aboard, demonstrated Crew Dragon's ability to reliably carry crew to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency on ascent. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosts the Crew Dragon spacecraft for NASA on a launch abort test from Complex 39A at Kennedy on January 19. SpaceX conducted the test as a final measure to assure safety for future crewed missions to the ISS. Photo by Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell/UPI | License Photo

Follow this link:

Astronauts to tackle another spacewalk on extended SpaceX mission - UPI News

SpaceX launch postponed due to bad weather – Gruntstuff

Posted on by

Stormy weather on Wednesday grounded a history-making journey to house that will have marked the primary launch of NASA astronauts from US soil in practically a decade.

Non-public rocket firm SpaceX had deliberate to ship Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the Worldwide Area Station from Floridas Kennedy Area Heart, with founder Elon Musk and President Trump wanting on.

However about 17 minutes earlier than blastoff, thunderclouds and the specter of lightning stopped the present.

The flight which might have marked the primary time a non-public firm despatched people to house was rescheduled for Saturday.

No launch for as we speak security for our crew members @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken is our high precedence, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted.

Thunderstorms had threatened a delay for a lot of the day, and the environment finally turned so electrically charged that the astronauts risked getting the ship struck by a bolt of lightning.

The house vets had been scheduled to trip aboard SpaceXs glossy, new Dragon capsule on high of a Falcon 9 rocket, taking off from the identical launch pad the place Apollo 11 started its journey to the moon in 1969.

However a twister warning was issued moments after they climbed into their capsule.

We might see some raindrops on the home windows and simply figured that no matter it was, was too shut to the launch pad on the time we wanted it not to be, Hurley mentioned after the flight was scrubbed.

Perceive that everyones in all probability just a little bit bummed out. Thats simply a part of the deal.

Each Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had been readily available on the middle in Cape Canaveral to witness the milestone occasion.

Thanks to @NASA and @SpaceX for his or her exhausting work and management. Look ahead to being again with you on Saturday!, Trump tweeted.

Prior to the scrub, Trump had congratulated Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, calling him a good friend of mine for a very long time.

The journey would have put Musk in league with three international locations the U.S., Russia and China whove all despatched astronauts into orbit.

It will have additionally been the primary human launch from U.S. soil since NASA ended its Area Shuttle Program in 2011.

What as we speak is about is reigniting the dream of house and getting individuals fired up concerning the future, Musk had mentioned in a NASA interview, prior to the scrub.

Crowds of spectators often gathered to catch sight of those occasions had been requested to keep house over the coronavirus outbreak.

However NASA estimated 1.7 million individuals had been watching the launch prep on-line in the course of the afternoon.

With Put up wires

Read the original post:

SpaceX launch postponed due to bad weather - Gruntstuff

Father of the Z-score predicts a surge in ‘mega’ bankruptcies – BetaBoston

Posted on by

The New York University professor who developed one of the best-known formulas for predicting corporate bankruptcies has a warning for US credit investors: this years spate of mega insolvencies is just getting started.

More than 30 American companies with liabilities exceeding $1 billion have already filed for Chapter 11 since the start of January, and that number is likely to top 60 by year-end after companies piled on debt during the pandemic, according to Edward Altman, creator of the Z-score and professor emeritus at NYUs Stern School of Business.

Global firms have sold a record $2.1 trillion of bonds this year, with nearly half coming from US issuers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

While the stimulus-fueled rally in credit markets since March has helped borrowers stay afloat during the coronavirus crisis, Altman and others have warned that many companies are just delaying an inevitable reckoning. Fitch Ratings estimates that worldwide corporate bond defaults this year could exceed levels reached during the global recession in 2009.

There was a huge buildup in corporate debt by the end of 2019 and I thought the market would gain some much needed de-leveraging with the COVID-19 crisis, said Altman, who is also director of credit and debt market research at the NYU Salomon Center. Now, seems like companies again are exploiting what seems to be a crazy rebound.

As new waves of the coronavirus keep planes from flying and curb consumer spending, pressures on the global economy are increasing. The International Monetary Fund downgraded its outlook for the world economy in June, projecting a deeper recession and slower recovery than it previously anticipated.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., the pioneer of the shale gas revolution, and retailer Brooks Brothers have filed for bankruptcy in the United States in recent weeks. Defaults in the Asia-Pacific region include Virgin Australia and Shanghai-headquartered Hilong Holding Ltd., an oil equipment and services firm.

Man Group Plc, the worlds largest publicly listed hedge fund, has warned of the risk to bond buyers. The World Bank has also forecast that more than 90 percent of economies will experience contractions this year, higher than the rate seen at the height of the Great Depression.

The speed and magnitude of the increase in corporate debt this year poses various risks to an already fragile global economic outlook, said Ayhan Kose, director of the World Bank Groups Prospects Group. Countries where a large proportion of the borrowings are in foreign currencies or for shorter periods are particularly vulnerable, as they face risks of fluctuating exchange rates and also having to roll over the debt more quickly, he said.

Xavier Jean, senior director for corporate ratings at S&P Global Ratings, said some firms are being proactive, as they are uncertain if they can raise funds during the second half. But for those that face tremendous stress in their operations, the increased borrowing heightens risks if things dont turn around as quickly, he said.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve has provided unprecedented support, such as buying corporate bonds, including the debt of firms that were cut from investment-grade to junk.

For Altman, some of the debt sold kicks the can down the road for firms that dont deserve support.

Companies are doing the opposite of what they should be doing, which is to de-leverage as the banks did after the global financial crisis of 2008, he said. When there is an increase in insolvency risk, what you do not need is more debt. You need less debt.

Read the original here:

Father of the Z-score predicts a surge in 'mega' bankruptcies - BetaBoston

Brooks Brothers files for bankruptcy as its take on office gear falls out of step with more casual trends – MarketWatch

Posted on by

Even if workers could head to the office right now, chances are they wouldnt be wearing a Brooks Brothers suit.

The 200-plus-year-old retailer best known for what would now be considered formal office attire has filed for bankruptcy, falling victim to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has shuttered stores and stymied retail, and changing styles.

Brooks Brothers had fallen on rough times even before the pandemic, announcing last year that it would explore its strategic options.

It now has a $75 million debtor-in-possession loan and there is interest from a potential buyer, Barneys New York owner Authentic Brands LLC, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Watch: How closing this gap could save the global economy $1 trillion

Brooks Brothers has tried to inject some freshness and a more laid-back vibe into its fashions, with cool & casual styles currently featured on its e-commerce homepage.

However, the casualization of the workplace has outpaced the change at the iconic brand.

[W]hen it comes to tastes and style, Brooks Brothers has been swimming against the tide, wrote Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail.

Its formal, old-school approach found favor among mature and more traditional demographics, but it has become increasingly out of step with a new generation of consumers who are looking for a more edgy approach to smart casual.

Moreover, lockdowns to prevent the spread of coronavirus have made athleisure gear like sweats and yoga pants the items people most want to wear. GlobalData numbers show a 74% decline in year-over-year sales of mens formal wear during April, May and June. Mens smart casual saw a 62% decrease.

Among the issues retailers now face are bloated inventory, pressure in the wholesale channel that could last into next year and soaring COVID-19 infection rates in U.S. states that had begun to reopen, according to Wells Fargo.

Analysts say global athletic brands like Nike Inc. NKE, +1.84% and Adidas AG ADS, +3.23% are among the most attractive names in our universe.

Read:Nikes COVID-19-related sales decline is a bump on the path to long-term growth, analysts say

In the long term, Wells Fargo favors the off-price channel, which includes TJX Cos. TJX, +5.55% and Burlington Stores Inc. BURL, +6.06%

See:TJX results show shoppers will head back to stores if the price is right, analysts say

Warmer weather is spanning much of the country, allowing consumers to extend their mostly homebound routines to the outdoors, and expanding their apparel needs beyond comfort and above-the-keyboard dressing, said Maria Rugolo, apparel industry analyst at The NPD Group, in a recent report.

Activewear snapped up 28% of apparel dollars spent for the 12 months leading into May 2020, according to NPD data. And before the coronavirus pandemic, nearly half of consumers who worked from home (48%) would wear the same thing for work, working out and on the weekend.

Even with the inclusion of more casual items, Brooks Brothers still has a large collection of $1,000 suits and dresses priced $200 to $400 on its website.

With the current work-from-home situation, many shoppers are now even more relaxed in their attire even executives are wearing T-shirts and polos on conference calls, said Hilding Anderson, head of retail strategy at business consultancy Publicis Sapient. We see this as a sustained shift in expectations the days of formal attire five days a week or even one are fading.

Anderson suggests Brooks Brothers needs a transformation, including its merchandise and marketing.

Dont miss:Lululemon acquisition Mirror could generate $700 million and reach 600,000 subscribers by 2023: Bank of America

A change like that will require a mighty effort and a big investment from a buyer.

The brand has a solid foundation on which a new owner can build, and it has a good digital business that has the potential for future growth, wrote GlobalDatas Saunders. [T]he process of reinvention will not be easy; it will take time, capital and effort to reconfigure Brooks Brothers into a retailer ready to serve the needs of modern consumers.

Read more:

Brooks Brothers files for bankruptcy as its take on office gear falls out of step with more casual trends - MarketWatch

Neiman Marcus Puts 4 Leases On The Market As Part Of Its Bankruptcy – Bisnow

Posted on by

Neiman Marcus Group, which filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in May, has put four of its store leases up for sale as part of the process.

Theleases are for stores in California, Washington, Florida and Washington, D.C., and are being marketed by Melville, New York-based A&G Real Estate Partners. All of the leases are for long periods with options to extend. In one case, the options would carry the lease into the 22nd century.

The leases represent an opportunity for retailers or investor to enter high-traffic markets that are also high barriers to entry, A&G co-President Emilio Amendola said in a statement.

"Additionally, some of these locations are particularly promising for conversion tohotel, office or residential use," he said.

Neiman Marcus declined to offer further detailabout theofferings, with a spokesperson telling Bisnow that ongoing discussions with landlords are confidential.

We are always assessing our store footprint to ensure it is optimal to enhance revenues, overall profitability, and our omnichannel strategy," the spokesperson said by email. "This ongoing assessment may include marketing of leases for certain locations. This is not necessarily an indication that we are closing a particular store, but rather a way to monetize the value of the leases at these properties.

The leases are a 48K SF store at 151 Worth Ave. in Palm Beach, Florida, with options available until 2051; the 87K SF 1275 Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, California, with options available until 2112; the 124K SF Shops at Bravern in Bellevue, Washington, with options available until 2090; and the 126K SF Mazza Gallerie in Washington, D.C., with options available until 2051.

At the time of its bankruptcy, the carriage-trade retailer operated 43 Neiman Marcus stores, two Bergdorf Goodman stores and 22 Last Call discount stores, though it was already closing the Last Calls as part of a plan to focus on its upmarket business. The coronavirus pandemic forced Neiman Marcus to close most of its other stores temporarily.

Private equity firm Ares Management Corp. and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought Neiman Marcus in 2013 for $6B, including debt.

Even before the current economic crisis, the company struggled under a debt load of about $5.1B, the legacy of two leveraged buyouts. Servicing the debt has been eating up most of the retailer's profits in recent years, Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck told The Wall Street Journal.

The goal of its bankruptcy is to wipe away at least $5B of the company's debt. Neiman Marcus didn't announce any permanent store closures when it filed, but buyers are still interested in some of its locations, along with those of other retailers going through bankruptcy, Evergreen Commercial Realty President Lilly Golden told Bisnow.

See the rest here:

Neiman Marcus Puts 4 Leases On The Market As Part Of Its Bankruptcy - Bisnow

Reagor Dykes liquidation plan approved, bankruptcy case is (kind of) over – KLBK | KAMC | EverythingLubbock.com

Posted on by

Posted: Jul 12, 2020 / 02:20 PM CDT / Updated: Jul 12, 2020 / 02:20 PM CDT

LUBBOCK, Texas A bankruptcy judge on Friday approved the final plan for Reagor Dykes. The Lubbock-based chain of auto dealerships filed for bankruptcy in August 2018 amid accusations of fraud and default.

The case was originally filed as Chapter 11 reorganization. Technically, the plan is still filed under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, but no reorganization is still on the table. Instead, the plan approved on Friday is for liquidation.

All of the remaining assets, claims, accounts payable and so forth will be placed into the hands of a trustee. The trustee will then pay the Reagor Dykes creditors in order of priority set out in the plan.

Taxes are the highest claim followed by secured debts.

For all practical purposes, Bart Reagor and Rick Dykes are at the bottom of the list of people to get paid.

The judge noted in his order on Friday that the Reagor Dykes bankruptcy estate has pending claims against nearly 50 businesses or persons. Among them is a claim by the Reagor Dykes estate that Ford Motor Credit Company allowed fraud to occur. As such, Ford should be held responsible for about $315 million, according to the claim.

Ford has not responded to the $315 million claim in court records.

CLICK HERE to read a copy of the plan.

CLICK HERE to read the judges order.

View post:

Reagor Dykes liquidation plan approved, bankruptcy case is (kind of) over - KLBK | KAMC | EverythingLubbock.com

AOC Flexes Secret Weapon to Fight the Alt-Right Trolls: League of Legends – CCN.com

Posted on by

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been on a League of Legends grind during quarantine.

The U.S. representative took to Twitter to share her latest accomplishment in Riot Games popular MOBA shes reached the Silver III rank.

The congresswomans love of League of Legends certainly isnt new, but its clear AOC has been putting in the hours when time allows.

Although Silver swings towards the lower end of the League of Legends skill spectrum, its nevertheless an impressive feat for a politician whose daily slate of duties encompasses far more pressing matters.

When quizzed about whether time with League of Legends has helped her fight the haters on Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez offered a rather damning take on how the two brands of toxicity weigh up:

Definitely. Right-wing Twitter is childs play compared to inting 13-year-olds.

Inting refers to intentional feeding, a phenomenon often seen in League of Legends whereby a player will intentionally get themselves killed to spite and frustrate teammates.

Rather fittingly, the Twitter thread is fraught with those very Twitter haters hounding the representative for what they perceive as wasting time on a video game.

On the other hand, theres no shortage of players clamoring for AOC to team up with them for some games.

As for the all-important question of AOCs champion of choice, she revealed shes partial to the healer supports when jumping into the rift.

Ocasio-Cortez pinpoints Sona, Janna, Lux, and Morgana as go-to picks during champion select. She describes Sorakas ultimate ability as the Medicare for All of the game.

Shes been refining her Lulu play too, but she warned its not quite ready for prime time yet.

More here:

AOC Flexes Secret Weapon to Fight the Alt-Right Trolls: League of Legends - CCN.com

The radical right has completed its takeover of the Wyo GOP – WyoFile

Posted on by

The Wyoming Republican Partys recent convention in Gillette demonstrated that the radical rights takeover of the GOP is now complete.

It wasnt just that officials ramrodded through wholesale bylaw changes that punish county organizations and candidates who dont follow the orders of the partys central committee.

Or even that the partys last-minute Senate-race straw poll taken after many delegates walked out in disgust following the bylaws fiasco selected a little-known, far-right candidate over a staunchly conservative, four-term Wyoming congresswoman.

For most of the four decades Ive covered Wyoming politics, either incident would have been unthinkable at a Republican convention.

It was the partys choice of keynote speaker that convinced me the Republicans big tent which was once open to people with different views is, in fact, closed to all except the far-right. The true-believers kick conservatives who dont pass their litmus test to the curb. Moderates, meanwhile, arent even allowed to stand in line for admission to this circus.

Charlie Kirk, founder of the alt-right college student group Turning Point USA, gave a speech torching the GOP establishment for not being loyal enough to President Donald Trump.

That is a ludicrous notion to posit, after all but a lone Senate Republican voted against impeaching Trump. And after many GOP governors recklessly sacrificed peoples health by blindly caving into presidential pressure to rush businesses to re-open during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Both the 26-year-old Kirk and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden contend the 2020 election is about restoring the soul of America. The difference in their definitions of that couldnt be starker, though.

In an Independence Day speech, Biden said, We have a chance now to give the marginalized, the demonized, the isolated, the oppressed, a full share of the American dream. We have the chance to rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country.

According to Kirk, the marginalized, demonized and oppressed in this nation are Republicans even though the party controls the White House and U.S. Senate, conservatives hold a 5-4 Supreme Court majority and GOP governors outnumber Democrats 31-19.

Kirk threw the Wyoming crowd plenty of red meat while somehow managing to declare with a straight face, We as conservatives havent engaged in the culture war for a long time.

It was an outrageous claim, especially as he relentlessly railed about antifa, the activist media, Planned Parenthood, Marxist states, abortion, shutdowns due to the Chinese virus and the toppling of Confederate statues. He even derided lesbian poets for good measure.

For a supposed inspirational speaker, his tone was often one of gloom and doom. Kirk complained that the Republican establishment is against him, liberals on college campuses despise him and people regularly send him death threats.

Kirk addressed a Wyoming controversy that has the far-right livid. Without mentioning him by name, he blasted Republican Gov. Mark Gordons decision to veto a born alive bill. To wild applause, Kirk said, Its an absolute moral outrage that that bill was not signed into law in this state.

Gordon has been widely criticized by far-right Republicans as not being a real conservative even after the governors landslide victory in 2018. That divide is apparently still alive in GOP circles, and Kirk pounced on it.

It must be maddening to be a Wyoming conservative today. Those who grew up watching politicians like former senators Alan Simpson, Cliff Hansen and Craig Thomas statesmen who were willing to listen to Democratic ideas and forge alliances to pass good legislation find few remnants of their former party in todays crowd Under no circumstances should Republicans ever compromise with Democrats, Kirk said, because every time we do, we lose.

Wyomings modern GOP leadership has wholeheartedly embraced that political philosophy. By distributing 11 pages of new bylaws and passing them in one fell swoop while silencing delegates who wanted some of the proposals considered separately state party officials showed their intolerance for dissent.

Now, the party can withhold financial support for any Republican candidate who does not vote in line with at least 80% of its platform. The party has the authority to punish any state or county official who violates the bylaws. The state party also gave itself additional oversight over policy changes at the county level.

At the conventions end, officials held a straw poll for the U.S. Senate primary. To avoid even the appearance of favoring any primary candidate, the state party typically does not conduct such polls. State law prohibits political parties from directly or indirectly spending any funds to promote one primary candidate over another.

Fewer than half of the delegates participated. Many who represented the states largest counties left before the poll, after the central committee changed the bylaws. On top of that, dozens of delegates didnt attend due to COVOID-19 concerns and virtual attendance wasnt an option.

All those factors made the straw poll results dubious at best, but it was still a shock when the party announced that Bryan Miller of Sheridan garnered nearly twice as many votes as Cynthia Lummis.

Miller clearly wants to portray Lummis as a D.C. insider and himself as a hard-line conservative who would better represent Wyomings values. He helped craft the state partys far-right platform, which makes him the darling of the central committee.

But its laughable to suggest Lummis isnt conservative, or that contributions or endorsements from anyone outside Wyoming proves she wont work on behalf of the state. Lummis was one of the founders of the Houses Freedom Caucus, whose members are as hard-core conservative as they come. Republicans like Kirk should love her I cant think of a single time shes criticized Trump.

I dont think Kirk did Republicans any favors by stoking party leaders fears that Democrats are desperately trying to infiltrate the GOP. The central committee already acts like nearly half the partys members are RINOs Republicans In Name Only. They dont need encouragement to look over their shoulders for new enemies, because they do a pretty good job of it on their own.

The left destroys everything it touches. Theyre like locusts. And theyre coming for Wyoming, if theyre not already here, Kirk warned. He topped his dire message by adding that unless Republicans fight on every single front, You guys are probably six years from Wyoming becoming a blue state.

The only way Wyoming is going to turn Democratic in a few election cycles is if the GOP alienates a lot of their members by saying theyre not conservative enough to be real Republicans. The maligned wont join the blue team, but they could be dismayed enough to sit out a few elections until the current leadership loses control.

The central committees blatant power grab and keynote speaker choice represented a shot across the bow to convince members to toe the party line, or else.

I cant see it working out in any way that benefits the GOP, but it may have to learn that lesson the hard way.

This story has been updated to correct the name of the Freedom Caucus. Ed.

Original post:

The radical right has completed its takeover of the Wyo GOP - WyoFile

Owen Benjamin and His Personal Army (Collided With Reality) – Patheos

Posted on by

Hi and welcome back! Need a jolt of good or at least funny news for your weekend? This might just do ya. Recently, Patreon deplatformed an alt-right nutjob named Owen Benjamin. He decided to hit back at them in a novel waythat has backfired in not only his own face but those of the fanboys who decided to act as his personal army. Today, let me show you what happens when someones personal army turns out to be the Persians, not the Spartans.

Lately, various social-media platforms have been cracking down on right-wing nutjobs (RWNJs) and alt-right loons and their wackadoo ideas. Every day, it seems, some new story emerges about someone in that crowd losing accounts on sites likeTwitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

Instead of learning to play by the rules of the privately-owned companies granting them these accounts, the nutjobs in question just keep drilling down harder on their wackadoodlery.

Indeed, alt-right loons operate a great deal like toxic Christians. Theyre so similar, in fact, that its all but impossible to tell if any given alt-right loon is a toxic Christian or an atheist (in my experience, theyre divided about 50/50; in todays case, our subject considers himself a firm Christian). Both groups use the same tactics, attract the same kinds of recruits, suffer from the same mistakes in their thinking, want the same basic things, and hate the same outgroups.

More than that, even, they try their hardest to find some twist of Martian logic thatll become the magic key toforcingthese privately-owned companies to put up with them and their noxious presence.

And lately, some of them think theyve found that magic key.

Patreon is a social-media and crowdfunding service/platform that allows users to offer regular monthly donations to their favorite content creators. This site represents one of the main ways that content creators can earn a living these days. Indeed,Ive got a Patreon myself and deeply appreciate my patrons.

Like all such privately-owned sites, Patreon maintains a list of terms and conditions for its creators and users. Since right-wing nutjobbery largely violatesanymeaningful ethical boundary one can imagine, they began cracking down on such nutjobs toward the end of 2018. At that time, they whacked such alt-right luminaries as Sargon of Akkad and Milo Yiannopoulos.

One of the alt-rights current darlingsdu jour, Owen Benjamin, used to have a fairly thriving lil account there. Hes a sometime comedian, podcaster, and actor with some incredibly toxic and erroneous opinions. Last winter, Patreons site owners caught up with him. As the Daily Dot tells us,they banned him. They werent the only ones banning him, either.Instagram, YouTube, PayPal, and Facebookall joined thatparty,most citing repeated violations of their clearly-stated rules about hate speech.

But Owen Benjamin didnt take that bannination sitting down. No way, no sir! He protested and raised a personal army to try to fight the ban byforcingPatreon to take him back.

(Also, at some point he tried to ban-evade with alternate accounts which hes also lost now. Ive just got no words. What a whiny little control-grabbychild. I just want to tell people like that to grow a little goddamned dignity. Never in the world would I ever want to be part of any site or project that didnt want me involved.)

Two of the most idiotic liars on the internet I have ever seen.

A Redditor regarding Vox Day and Owen Benjamin(and he aint wrong either)

Over the years, Owen Benjamin (a Holocaust denier and anti-vaxxer) has built up a large army of creepy, fanatical fanboys. They call themselves bears, with Benjamin himself wearing the nickname Big Bear. And if drive-by Christians think R2D mods can be strict, well, all I can say there is that were the kiddie league compared to Owen Benjamins tightly-moderated spaces.

Shortly after Owen Benjamins bannination, his fellow toxic Christian and wackadoo Vox Day claimed to be filing something against Patreon. Hes since backtracked that claim as apparently both of these conspiracy theorists do often. Its possible Vox Day (real name: Theodore Beale) simply meant he washelpingBenjamin with this ludicrous plan of his, but who even knows or cares.

Either way, at first Owen Benjamin filed suit for USD$2.2M. Then, he upped that figure to $3.5M. And then, apparently he asked some of his followers to file lawsuits alongside him. All in all, about 100 of his fanboys filed lawsuits. All of them appear to have used Benjamins own lawyers to do the filing, and all demanded that Patreon either deal with them or pay Benjamin the $3.5M he wanted.

It was sheer lunacy. I really dont know what they thought was going to happen. Maybe Owen Benjamin thought this plan would get him the money he needs to build his the Northern Idaho fantasy ranch of his dreams, which he seriously namedBearTaria (oh my sides).

(Stay tuned for my future fundraising drive for a Tuscan dream estate of my very own, which Ive dubbed Villa Space Princess. /s)

Whatever Owen Benjamin and his fans thought would happen, Patreons actual response was to sue 72 of those fanboys. According to that Daily Dot article (relink):

This lawsuit is about keeping hate speech off of Patreon, the company told the Daily Dot via email. We wont allow former users to extort Patreon, and are moving these frivolous claims to court where they belong.

Hmm, they dont sound in the slightest bit nervous about anything. Maybe thats because they instituted two rules in January to both [prohibit] users from filing claims based on the platform kicking off someone else and [require] any who do so to pay the companys attorneys fees and costs.

And the fanboys claims were filed a solid month later, in February.

Oops!

So it seems unlikely that the fanboys will come anywhere close to success here and may be on the hook for alotof money if/when they lose.

These LOLsuite filers seem to be under the impression that Patreon is somehow obligated to deal with their horsesh*t however they wish to dish it to the site. A similarly-minded fundagelical explains the illogic here:

The reason they are in trouble is because they have been deplatforming some of their clients.

They have every right to do so, dont they?

Well, no, in fact. They dont.

They have the right to stop providing their own services, absolutely. Twitter can kick off anybody they want, because their service is free. [. . .]

Owen did business with his patrons, and Patreon, in their Terms of Service, explicitly repudiated any responsibility for these individual transactions.

This is huge.

When Patreon kicked off Owen Benjamin, they werent just removing somebody they didnt like. They were interfering with Owens personal business relations with his patrons.

Intentional interfering with contractual relations has another legal name, and that is: tortious interference.

So there you have it. The alt-right is now trying to claim that by blocking Owen Benjamin from their site, Patreon is in effect blocking him from the people who have contracted with him through the site. After crowing about the alt-rights magical new key to what theyre callingre-platforming,this guy gloats:

Deplatforming has been the recent norm, but that is all going to change.

Sure it is, Jan.

He might be the most selfish, shameful human being Ive ever seen. Hes pissed that he couldnt raise $2 million off of them in 3 days in the middle of the greatest depression this country has ever seen. wow

A YouTube commenter regarding Owen Benjamin(and that one wasnt wrong either)

That fundagelicals gloat-rant was written back in January or so, and so far I havent seen any real success with the tactic. Apparently Vox Day foundsomesuccess before that in using it to get back on IndieGogo after they banned him, but other sites seem to have learned from IndieGogos mistakes and have adapted as needed as Patreon clearly did in January.

In fact, this latest news about Patreon suing Owen Benjamins fanboys (no, I will not call them bears) seems to indicate that the tactic will just become yet another failure in the alt-right World of Failtrains.

Gosh, I guess Owen Benjamin is gonna hafta findanotherway to gain his Idaho Fantasy Ranch.

NSFW for language. Seven minutes of an alt-right loon pouting and whining about how little money his fans are giving him for his dumb Idaho Fantasy Ranch dream. A critic of his uploaded this.

The rest of us might think alt-right loons new strategy makes them look like sovereign citizens or something, but theyre dead serious about it for now, at least.

For now, it sure doesnt look like Owen Benjamin is going to get toforceanybody to put up with him any time soon. Poor baby.

NEXT UP: The new influx of women leaving Christianity. See you tomorrow!

Come join us onFacebook,Tumblr,Pinterest,Twitter, and our forum atrolltodisbelieve.com! (AlsoInstagram, where I mostly post cat pictures. About 99% of my insta consists of Bother being adorable.)

Also please check outour Graceful Atheist podcast interview!

Ifyou like what you see, I gratefully welcome your support. Please consider becoming one of my monthly patrons viaPatreon with Roll to Disbelievefor as little as $1/month! MyPayPal is captain_cassidy@yahoo.com(thats an underscore in there) for one-time tips. You can also support this blog throughmy Amazon Affiliate linkand, of course, by liking and sharing my posts on social media! This blog exists because of readers support, and I appreciate every single bit of it.

If youve noticed my posts are a wee bit shorter than usual, its because my shoulders been killing me lately. Typing is a severe strain on it, so Ive been trying to keep that activity to a minimum. Please dont worry if I need a break, I know I can take one! <3 you all.

Read more:

Owen Benjamin and His Personal Army (Collided With Reality) - Patheos

Will Tucker Carlsons Long-Planned Vacation Smooth Things Over at Fox? – Vanity Fair

Posted on by

On Monday night, Tucker Carlson released a much-anticipated statement about the secret racist and sexist posts of his now former top writer of three years, Blake Neff. Neff had been busted the previous Friday by a CNN report that revealed the extent of his online activity. At the time, Carlson kept quiet. Three days later, while Carlson disavowed Neffs remarks, saying he believes in judging people for what they do, not for how they were born, he focused significantly more ire toward those applauding the CNN article. The ghouls now beating their chests in triumph at the destruction of a young man, that self-righteousness also has its costs, he said. We are all human. When we pretend we are holy, we are lying. When we pose as blameless in order to hurt other people, we are committing the gravest sin of all. And we will be punished for it. Theres no question.

Carlson did not detail for his audience exactly what Neff had said to destroy his career. (Per the CNN report, Neff maintained a thread in which he has derided a woman and posted information about her dating life [inviting] other users to mock her and invade her privacy, and left multiple comments promoting racist stereotypes.) And he attempted to distance Neffs views from those of the show he wrote for. Blake was horrified by the story, and he was ashamed, Carlson said. What Blake wrote anonymously was wrong. We dont endorse those words. They have no connection to this show.

He closed his show by announcing that hell be temporarily off the air for a long-planned vacation, the customary sign-off for Fox News hosts embroiled in a scandal (previous practitioners include Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and Bill OReilly).

Carlson himself has long been criticized for airing rants that pander to the kinds of Americans who secretly write racist posts online. In a 2018 segment, he suggested that immigrants make our own country poor and dirtier and more divided. Carlsons on-air comments have been praised by the founder of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer as basically Daily Stormer: The Show. And Neff seems to have been closely involved in creating those comments. In a recent interview, Neff said that everything Carlson reads off the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me...Ive gotten used to what he likes and what he thinks about. In 2018, Carlson said he worked with writers for hours leading up to his shows airtime and name-dropped Neffs work, praising him as a wonderful writer, CNNs report noted. Neff, who began working on Carlsons show in early 2017, even slipped easter eggs into the shows script to wink at fellow users in the online forum that led to his firing, as reported by CNNs Oliver Darcy.

Carlsons relatively milquetoast statement on Monday night was somewhat remarkable in its contrast to comments from the networks corporate arm. Given the content and recency of Neffs posts, including one just last month, Black doods staying inside playing Call of Duty is probably one of the biggest factors keeping crime down, Fox News higher-ups wasted no time in denouncing him. FOX News Media strongly condemns this horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior, stated CEO Suzanne Scott and president and executive editor Jay Wallace in a coauthored note to network staff. Neffs abhorrent conduct on this forum was never divulged to the show or the network until Friday, at which point we swiftly accepted his resignation. Make no mistake, actions such as his cannot and will not be tolerated at any time in any part of our work force.

Read the original post:

Will Tucker Carlsons Long-Planned Vacation Smooth Things Over at Fox? - Vanity Fair

Who is the ‘Kelly’ that Buffalo’s Kelly Island is named for? – Buffalo News

Posted on by

So, while many ask about the Kelly of Kelly Island hoping to hear a great Irish tale of a First Ward hero, the truth is a bit more convoluted.

The people of the Ward started calling the place Kelly Island because it was painted on the side of the Kelley Island Lime & Transport plant. KIL&T was named after Kelleys Island, which was named after Clevelands Kelley Brothers.

As far as the spelling, through the years, sometimes theres been an apostrophe and s at the end, sometimes not. Some First Ward tomfoolery comes in with the almost universal dropping of the second e in Kelley.

Kelly is definitely the preferred Irish spelling, and since the name didnt begin to make its way into official documents until after the company closed in 1963, its clear that people just went with the spelling they knew.

A 1968 view of the area that is called Kelly Island today.

The place wasnt officially christened, but about 60 years after KIL&T opened on the Island, the name made it on state and federal appropriation legislation.

In 1977, when Rep. Henry Nowak and the Buffalo Sewer Authority successfully sought federal government help in building a sanitary sewer system, it was referred to in the halls of Congress as The Kelly Island Sewer Project.

While the legislation marks the upgrade from neighborhood nickname to quasi-official designation, the yearslong sewer project also helped delineate what folks thought of as the boundaries for Kelly Island which is now generally accepted as running the length of Ganson Street between the General Mills complex and the Ohio Street Bridge.

Follow this link:

Who is the 'Kelly' that Buffalo's Kelly Island is named for? - Buffalo News

Blue Island Beer Co. launches beer with Blue Island labor riot sketch – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted on by

A local brewery is celebrating Chicagos labor history by slapping a reminder on its beer cans.

The Blue Island Beer Co. has added Massive Political Corruption to its list of amber ale beers.

The brewery made the announcement on Twitter earlier this week.

Alan Cromwell, the co-owner of Blue Island Beer Co., says the beers inspiration comes from Prohibition notably the subject of the 2011 three-part documentary series by filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick not the current social unrest.

The malty, 4.6% amber ale, which is sold in six-packs at the brewery and stores across the city (and on draft at the brewery, 13357 Old Western Ave.), boasts oats and candy syrup among its ingredients.

The cans artwork takes its inspiration from a Chicago newspaper illustration.

I think it was a very interesting piece; a very interesting time in history in Chicago and in America, said Cromwell. It seemed fitting with some of our other artwork.

The beer itself, we consider a pre-Prohibition-style amber, which means its based on a recipe from before Prohibition, which is kind of where that artwork tied into it. [Its] really coincidental that, unfortunately, some things have just been kind of ugly lately in history.

The sketch used on the beers label is from a July 3, 1894 Chicago newspaper article titled Troops to Kill It: Marshal Arnold Overwhelmed by the Blue Island Riot. The story: Local businesses refused to serve passengers of Pullmans trains in solidarity with striking workers, while strikers overturned train cars and erected barricades to keep federal troops from entering the Rock Island Rail Yards, according to the Blue Island Historical Society.

The riot was a part of the 1894 Pullman Railroad Strike, where the federal troops were called in to suppress striking workers who took umbrage at their boss, railroad magnate George Pullman, for laying off hundreds of employees and cutting wages for many of the remaining workers while refusing to lower rents in the Pullman neighborhood, where many of his employees lived. National Guardsmen opened fire into a mob, killing 30 people.

The strike was the impetus that led then-President Grover Cleveland to make Labor Day a national holiday.

Union activist Eugene V. Debs often held meetings in Blue Island where Rock Island Railroad workers were in solidarity with Pullman strikers.

So back in 1893, about a year before the strike, the American economy completely collapsed; it was the worst financial collapse prior to the Great Depression, said Paul Durica, Newberry Librarys director of exhibitions. At its height, you had unemployment up around 25%, and this impacted the whole country. But you know Chicago, being such an important center of industry, there were many, many people who lost their jobs and their livelihoods.

While Cromwell says the timing of the beer launch and the recent social unrest are completely unrelated, Durica believes the sketch for the beer and todays social justice issues go hand-in-hand.

It kind of echoes a lot of the things that were kind of grappling within the moment, said Durica. Its great to see the Blue Island Brewing Co. activating that history, to those connections to the Rock Island Railroad, but also the way in which they note their own communitys response to the strike in 1894, and then making use of these historical materials.

Read the rest here:

Blue Island Beer Co. launches beer with Blue Island labor riot sketch - Chicago Sun-Times

Mosquitoes with West Nile detected on Staten Island; first time this season in NYC – SILive.com

Posted on by

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The city Health Department announced Tuesday that it has detected mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus in New York City for the first time this season.

The infected Culex mosquitoes were collected in the Bronx and on Staten Island.

As a result, the city will install additional mosquito monitoring traps. There currently are 53 surveillance sites across the city, officials said.

To combat the mosquitoes, the Health Department disperses crews to spray pesticide targeting mosquitoes where persistent West Nile virus activity is detected. The city also applies larvicide in catch basins, marshland and other areas with standing water to kill mosquito larvae before they can bite.

The Health Department has already begun catch basin larviciding this year. One helicopter-based larviciding event also was conducted in marsh areas on Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx this month

SYMPTOMS OF VIRUS, RECOMMENDED PRECAUTIONS

No human cases of West Nile virus have been detected yet this mosquito season, which typically runs from April through September.

The most common symptoms are headache, fever, muscle aches and extreme fatigue. Symptoms of more severe illness also can include changes in mental status and muscle weakness requiring hospitalization.

Anyone with symptoms of West Nile virus is advised to contact their doctor.

To reduce the chances of being exposed to mosquitoes, New Yorkers can take the following precautions:

WEST NILE VIRUS IN NYC

The West Nile virus was first detected in the city 21 years ago. Since 1999, the number of human cases has ranged from three to 47 annually. Of the 353 total West Nile virus neuroinvasive disease cases, 46 have died due to infection.

New York City has more than 40 species of mosquitos, though West Nile virus is transmitted primarily by several Culex species.

For more information about West Nile virus or to report standing water, visit nyc.gov/health/wnv or call 311.

Excerpt from:

Mosquitoes with West Nile detected on Staten Island; first time this season in NYC - SILive.com

Comedian Kevin Hart Invests in Ellis Island Tea – BevNET.com

Posted on by

Free E-Newsletters:

BevNET Daily

NOSH (Natural Food)

Brewbound.com (Craft Beer)

BevNET Beverage School is an on-demand, video-based learning tool and online community designed for entrepreneurs and newcomers to the food and beverage industry.

Published 6x per year, BevNET Magazine is the leading industry magazine for analysis of trends, innovation, marketing, and product development.

BevNET's Taste Radio, the podcast for the beverage, food and beer industries. New episodes every Tuesday.

BevNET/NOSH are switching to paid access. Become a charter member today for additional benefits.

BevNET's Job Board features hundreds of job lisitngs from the beverage, beer, and food industries.

Santa Monica, CA Dec. 7+8, 2020

Our database of leading suppliers and service providers for the food and beverage industries.

BevNET's comprehensive database of 4,000+ beverage brands.

A unique virtual event for the food and beverage industry. Join us on June 23+24 to learn, interact, and partner with colleagues who are both familiar and new.

See the original post:

Comedian Kevin Hart Invests in Ellis Island Tea - BevNET.com

Ellis Island Tea nabs investment from comedian Kevin Hart – Crain’s Detroit Business

Posted on by

A Detroit-based tea company has found some growth capital from a major Hollywood celebrity.

Ellis Island Tea, founded by Nailah Ellis, has tapped comedian and actor Kevin Hart as an investor for at least part of the company's $1.7 million seed round.

While the specific amount of Hart's investment is undisclosed, Ellis, 32, told Crain's it will help the more than decade-old company increase its visibility and ramp up online sales as the brand continues to make inroads in a variety of national retailers like Walmart and CVS.

But the company also wants to build out its direct-to-consumer sales via company's the newly revamped website, said Ellis.

"Our largest pain point for consumers is the lack of accessibility," Ellis said. "We get tons of national media and every time we get a press splash, people go into these stores all over the country and they can't find it because it's at specific locations."

Ellis said she had Hart in mind as a possible investor in the company and set about tracking him down using a broad network to get in front of the Hollywood celebrity.

It was that determination and hustle that got Hart to cut a check.

"There were a lot of people pulling for Nailah," Hart said in a statement. "Her name just kept coming up and coming across my radar. So, I figured there had to be something to it."

Ellis' tea comes from a recipe passed down from her grandfather, a Jamaican immigrant who came to the United States via Ellis Island in New York Harbor.

Hart's investment into Ellis Island Tea isn't the celebrity's first endeavor into funding. Earlier this year Hart partnered with rapper Jay-Z and a handful of NFL players to lead a $20 million Series B fundraising round into food technology startup Hungry, according to a Forbes report at the time.

For her part, Ellis said she hopes to close her fundraising round by the end of the summer, and despite the pandemic and resulting economic crisis, has continued to receive "lots of interest" from would-be investors.

The rest is here:

Ellis Island Tea nabs investment from comedian Kevin Hart - Crain's Detroit Business

Heres what Colin Jost says about Staten Island in A Very Punchable Face – SILive.com

Posted on by

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- His years of being a head writer for Saturday Night Live have prepared Staten Island native Colin Jost for A Very Punchable Face, his first novel detailing defining moments of his life.

Jost, hailing from Grymes Hill and most known for co-hosting SNLs Weekend Update, mentions the borough throughout the 33 chapters of his autobiography. Chapters like Wait, Youre From Staten Island? and I Leave Staten Island and Immediately Get A Job Back on Staten Island are more straight-forward mentions of his hometown.

If youre ready for spoilers, here are all the times Colin Jost mentions his time living on Staten Island in his new book.

BRINGING UP S.I. TIES IN THE INTRODUCTION

Jost used the introduction of his book to display his anxiety about sharing his life story, and what makes him qualified to fill pages upon pages with moments from his 38 years living. In that chapter, he brings up his father, Daniel Jost, I look like a guy whos always on the verge of asking, Do you know who my father is? Jost wrote. Even though my father was a public school teacher on Staten Island. If you had Mr. Jost for mechanical drawing freshman year, then you know who my father is!

He dedicated A Very Punchable Face to his father Daniel, his mother Dr. Kerry Kelly and brother Casey Jost, a TV personality on Impractical Jokers and comedian.

In the first chapter of the book, Jost wrote about his experience being four years old and not speaking. His parents sent him to speech therapy at Staten Island University Hospital. If youre reading this and you were a speech therapist at Staten Island University Hospital around 1986, Jost wrote. Please know: I am eternally grateful to you for giving me the power of speech. It was so much more effective than the Power of Grayskull.

ADDRESSING STATEN ISLAND STEREOTYPES

Assuring readers hes not like the rest of em, Jost explained that the borough exceeds the expectations of reality TV portrayals and stereotypical Italian-American population.

In reality, Jersey Shore-types make up only a very small percentage (40 percent) of Staten Islands population, Jost wrote. The rest are grounded, hardworking, normal-speaking humans, who almost never stand outside their house shaking a rolling pin and yelling, Im a-gonna a-kill you!

Geared toward an of-Island audience, Jost explains the history of Staten Island and how some of the well-known areas of the borough got their names. He mentions Arthur Kill, Fresh Kills and The Kill Van Kull, writing that the borough was a Dutch Island before the British took it over, and the Dutch word for river is kill, which makes a lot of places on Staten Is- land sound even more violent than they already are.

THE REDEEMING PARTS OF THE BOROUGH, ACCORDING TO COLIN

Much like his co-anchoring gig with SNLs Weekend Update, Jost wrote satirically about his love for the borough (although he clearly means it, since he has spent years giving back to Staten Island after becoming successful.) He mentions loving memories of his childhood in the borough, writing that it was a good place to do regular kid stuff.

We played a lot of sports and wandered around unsupervised, he wrote. And with the exception of that Cropsey serial killer and several neighborhoods with the worst crime rates in all of New York City, it felt safe!

WORKING FOR THE STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

This SNL personality was not afraid to shout out his humble beginnings. In the book, Jost speaks about his time working at the Staten Island Advance/ SILive.com. (Check out this roundup of his published work, pre-NBC fame.) He spent the years of 1997-2001 at a desk in the Grasmere office.

The paper I worked at, the Staten Island Advance, was actually an amazing newspaper with incredibly talented reporters and editors,' he writes. And at the time, it had a circulation of 100,000, which was roughly one out of every five people on Staten Island, he wrote. The job itself was fantastic. I was a night editor,' which meant I did whatever random stuff hadnt been done before the paper went to press: Rewriting articles, designing the layout for each section, proofreading every page, and my favorite task writing headlines.

He recounts going on crime assignments and making the front page because of a story centered around a raccoon. You know, typical Staten Island news stories. He wrote The weirdness of local news on Staten Island was one reason I loved the job.

COMMUTING AS A STATEN ISLANDER

Much of his success stories take place once Jost writes about leaving Staten Island for Manhattan. My brain was definitely my ticket out of Staten Island, because it got me into a Catholic high school called Regis that would change the course of the rest of my life, he wrote.

While still living in the borough, the comedian wrote about his woes commuting to Manhattan every day for school and riding the good ole Staten Island Ferry. In the same chapter, Jost wrote a side-note: One of my great joys in life was making a movie with Method Man, who told me he would never leave Staten Island because it was the only place in America where he could get pulled over and the cops were actually excited to see him.

Colin Jost and Method Man in the same sentence? Thats as Staten Island as it gets.

A Very Punchable Face, under Penguin Random House, is available now. You can order it at Amazon.com.

Read more:

Heres what Colin Jost says about Staten Island in A Very Punchable Face - SILive.com

Ramos flying to UFCs Mortal Kombat island to beat an unbeatable – MMA Fighting

Posted on by

Giving a fighter his first loss is not something new for Ricardo Ramos. The fun part of his next UFC bout is where its taking place.

Carcarcinha will be on UFCs second Fight Island card in Abu Dhabi on July 15, taking on undefeated featherweight Lerone Murphy. Carcacinha stopped Eduardo Garagorri inside one round in his last octagon appearance in Brazil, going 4-0 against unbeaten foes.

This is not something new for me, and I think its an extra weight on their shoulders, Ramos told MMA Fighting. They might say its not, that it motivates them, but Ive been there and I can say it is. I also believed that, so I think thats something I can explore.

Being undefeated brings a responsibility, and the fact that Ive been in that same position in the past gives me extra knowledge about them. Its an advantage for me.

Taking the zero away from someones record is a cool story to tell people, but Ramos tries not to get too involved with whoever stands across the eight-sided cage.

When I enter the octagon, thats simply me trying to impose my techniques against their techniques, he said. I try not to get emotionally connected with their stories and what they represent, but I cant say that knocking someone off the tracks doesnt have a different taste [laughs]. They are confident, they have it building after each win, and knowing that you were the guy that stopped him, that means something.

The UFC Fight Night card will take place in Abu Dhabis Yas Island, a series of four events designed to give opportunity to fighters outside the United States to compete during a global COVID-19 pandemic.

And it brings back a few childhood memories.

For me, Im going to the Mortal Kombat island, Im living something Ive played in the video games years ago, Ramos laughs. Going to Abu Dhabi Im a traveler, I love to travel, and going to Abu Dhabi and getting to know that place, sharing and learning from the people there, its going to be amazing. Were making history here. Ill be proud to tell this story to the next generation.

The end of that story will include a victory over Murphy, Carcacinha says, but the exact way it comes is not something he will even attempt to predict.

I dont know much about him, Ramos said. Hes pretty complete, much like the other athletes Ive fought before. Hes very technical on the feet, but every fight is unpredictable.

Ramos would try to envision the best path to a victory in mixed martial arts in the past, but it hasnt gone well in two of his 14 professional bouts, losing to Said Nurmagomedov and Manny Vazquez in his bantamweight days. Now, the Brazilian 145-pounder just goes with the flow.

Ive been changing the way I prepare for my fights, Ramos said. When we try to predict the future and what the other guy will do, that ends up affecting the way you prepare for a fight. Im working with the unpredictable now. I obviously watch his fights, but I try not to get too involved with it.

I have a team of coaches that break down my opponents and find patterns, but I focus more on my performances in the octagon and my physical and technical evolution. I dont wait for an opponent to look for evolution.

Murphy, who fought to a draw with Zubaira Tukhugov at UFCs only trip to Abu Dhabi in 2019, was victorious in every single one of his other amateur and professional mixed martial arts bouts. Unlike Ramos, most of his victories came by way of knockout.

You can say the submission is the best way (to win) statistically speaking, but Ive been working on other things and Ive proven to be a complete athlete, Ramos said. I can fight on the feet and on the ground. Unpredictability is always the best way. Ive seen that the ground game is a good path and submitting him would be great, but Ive seen many openings on the feet and a knockout is also quite possible.

Excerpt from:

Ramos flying to UFCs Mortal Kombat island to beat an unbeatable - MMA Fighting