Monthly Archives: August 2017

FILE -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo talks about improvement plans for Penn Station and the subway system at the City University of New York, in New York, May 23, 2017. Cuomo will make a rare trip to Washington on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, to meet with Democratic members of the New York congressional delegation and the transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, as New York City suffers through an ongoing transit crisis. (Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times) ORG XMIT: XNYT182 less FILE -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo talks about improvement plans for Penn Station and the subway system at the City University of New York, in New York, May 23, 2017. Cuomo will make a rare trip to Washington ... more Photo: HIROKO MASUIKE Torch-bearing white nationalists rally around a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, near the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Aug. 11, 2017. Following violent confrontations on Saturday, a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring at least 19. (Edu Bayer/The New York Times) ORG XMIT: XNYT98 less Torch-bearing white nationalists rally around a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, near the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Aug. 11, 2017. Following violent confrontations on ... more Photo: EDU BAYER People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. The nationalists were holding the rally to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP) ORG XMIT: VACHA301 less People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. The nationalists were holding the rally ... more Photo: Ryan M. Kelly Unite the Right rally organizer Jason Kessler is escorted by police after his press conference was disrupted by protestors Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, outside City Hall in Charlottesville, Va. The previous day, a woman was killed and several others injured after the Unite the Right rally. (Andrew Shurtleff /The Daily Progress via AP) ORG XMIT: VACHA101 less Unite the Right rally organizer Jason Kessler is escorted by police after his press conference was disrupted by protestors Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, outside City Hall in Charlottesville, Va. The previous day, a ... more Photo: Andrew Shurtleff

Cuomo proposes new hate crimes provisions post-Charlottesville

ALBANY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday he will push to add inciting to riot and rioting that targets a protected class of people to the state hate crimes statute, a response to violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

Dubbed the Charlottesville Provisions, penalties for rioting and inciting to riot would be increased. Rioting under the hate crimes law would come with stiffer felony penalties, while inciting to riot under the hate crimes law would become a felony (up from a misdemeanor).

Hate crimes statute protects those who are targeted because ofa perception or belief about their race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation.

Cuomo also called on legislators to extend human rights law protections to public school students so that the state Division of Human Rights would be able to investigate bullying, harassment or other discrimination by public school students.

A 2012 state Court of Appeals decision found that public schools are not covered under the definitions in human rights law that gives the state the ability to investigate such incidents.

"The ugly events that took place in Charlottesville must never be repeated, and in New York we're going to stand united against hate in all of its forms," Cuomo said in a statement. "Our diversity is our strength and this legislation will help protect New Yorkers and send a clear signal that violence and discrimination have no place in our society. New York is one community and one family, and we will never stop fighting to ensure the safety and equal treatment of all New Yorkers."

Lawmakers are not set to return to the Capitol to act on legislation until January.

Since the weekend, Cuomo has been responding to the events in Charlottesville through different methods.

On Monday, he signed legislation that adds community centers to the list of public places where people who commit certain crimes, including making a false bomb threat, can face stiffer penalties. Originally crafted in response to bomb threats made to Jewish Community Centers in New York and elsewhere in the country, Cuomo said the Charlottesville violence demonstrated a need to stand against bias and hate.

On Sunday,he circulated a petition calling on President Donald Trump to "clearly and unequivocally condemn and denounce the violent protest organized by the white supremacists and neo-Nazis, including Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler, with support from David Duke."

"President Trump must immediately call this for what it is no cover, no euphemisms," the petition states. "This was a terror attack by white supremacists."

Trump said Monday that those who acted criminally "in this weekend's racist violence" will be held accountable. In remarks at the White House, he singled out the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and others who "are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

mhamilton@timesunion.com 518-454-5449 @matt_hamilton10

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Cuomo proposes new hate crimes provisions post-Charlottesville - Albany Times Union

Humans are losing their freedoms, self-identity and free will, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek has told RT, noting that a recent biohacking experiment by a team from the University of Washington is just another sign of the dawn of a post human era.

A team of scientists from the University of Washington successfully managed to hack into a computer using custom synthesized strands of DNA.

In their study, which is to be presented at 2017 USENIX Security Symposium Thursday, researchers said that it is potentially possible for a molecular code to take over machinery by exploiting weaknesses of gene sequencing software.

We designed and created a synthetic DNA strand that contained malicious computer code encoded in the bases of the DNA strand, researchers from the Paul G Allen school of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington said ahead of their presentation.

When this physical strand was sequenced and processed by the vulnerable program it gave remote control of the computer doing the processing. That is, we were able to remotely exploit and gain full control over a computer using adversarial synthetic DNA.

While the researchers led by Tadayoshi Kohno and Luis Ceze admit that at this point, the threat is only theoretical, Zizek noted the sinister side of this experiment.

The fact that is what possible to break into, to hack a computer through a DNA, means that our identity, determined by DNA is nothing more than just another computer formula, Zizek said.

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Our life, human life, our identity is reduced to a series of formulas. So we are effectively entering some kind of post human universe where everything, our inner most identity can be reduced to a formula.

I would not be afraid of this [particular experiment], thats not necessarily a bad thing, Zizek said, emphasizing that there are a lot of much more disturbing scientific achievements

What I'm afraid of is a possibility of a direct contact-link between our brain, what we are thinking, and a computer network, because there we lose our autonomy.

He warned that soon computers will be able to control the human mind, misleading the individual to believe they are still in control of their thoughts and reality. Under this arrangement, Zizek argues, humans will lose their autonomy and will become indistinguishable from the machines.

What is much more dangerous is... if our brains will be directly linked to computers so we will lose our inner freedom. Even in the worst of Nazism those in power could not control what you are thinking. You can have your inner thoughts... Now with a direct link between our brain and the digital network, we lose our inner freedom, the philosopher said.

In order to avoid machines potentially taking over the human identity, Zizek argues that all research into artificial intelligence has to be made public so that people can decide on the discourse of machine learning.

Make all these procedures, and what is going on, these results as public as possible. No agency which is not transpiring to the public, neither state nor a public corporation should do this outside public knowledge and public control, Zizek told RT.

Corbyns paradoxical victory over Mays politics of scaremongering gives hope Slavoj Zizek to RT

Overall, the philosopher argues that humankind has entered an era of technological domination.

Biology as science is totally integrated into a project of technological domination, manipulation and so on. And this technological use is inscribed into how biology functions today... life itself becomes just a technological process, Zizek said.

But there is still a deeper philosophic problem, which nowadays has growing practical implications, Zizek said. Is our identity fully determined by DNA? Or are we are not just biological automats? Do we have some spiritual freedom and so on?

I think if we are just our DNA. If the interaction of our DNA with environment determines us completely, then yes we should worry. But in a way, we just discovered that we never were free. We were automats [machines] also now but we did not know it. Our freedom was an illusion So are we automats which just can be controlled or is there hope for our freedom?

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'Brains linked to computers will kill our inner freedom' - Zizek to RT on biohacking & identity loss - RT

The FC crew talk the length of suspension that would be suitable for Cristiano Ronaldo's actions in the Spanish Super Cup.

It was all set up so nicely. Other than an eight-minute cameo against Manchester United in the European Super Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo hadn't played at all since June. Against Barcelona, in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup on Sunday, he came in just before the hour mark with his team one-nil up. After Lionel Messi converted a dubious penalty, Ronaldo scored an absolutely stunning long-range goal to put Madrid ahead.

So far, so good. He then decided to take off his shirt (OK, he has the body to do it) and take the booking as a result. And he held up the jersey to the Camp Nou, mimicking Messi's celebration at the Bernabeu last season. (Fine. A healthy rivalry; nothing wrong with that.)

Except the booking meant that when he collided with Samuel Umtiti a few minutes later and referee Ricardo Bengoechea concluded it was a dive, Ronaldo was shown a second yellow and sent off. And, as if that wasn't enough, his instinctive shove of Bengoechea after the decision meant he is now facing a five-gamesuspension.

Bengoechea was way behind the play and got the decision wrong. It should have been a non-call: There's no rule that says that you have to give a penalty or a yellow for diving. Had it not been for the goal celebration, Ronaldo would not have been sent off. And obviously, the shove (while understandable) is inexcusable. With his experience -- and with the number of bad calls he has had in his career -- you don't expect that. It just shows he's human too.

The incident overshadowed a stellar performance from Real Madrid, who took a while to take the lead but already looked in midseason form. And that was without Ronaldo but also without Luka Modric, for whom Mateo Kovacic was a more than capable deputy. Marco Asensio's own gorgeous strike to make it 3-1 was simply a cherry on top.

Again, you have to give Zinedine Zidane credit here. Sometimes coaching Real Madrid is about managing the egos and letting the XI get on with it. And sometimes it's about finding the right balance. That's what he did on Sunday.

As for Barcelona, Gerard Pique had a nightmare and Gerard Deulofeu got a rough ride, which is what you'd expect when you're trying to fill Neymar's shoes. There's a ton of work for Ernesto Valverde to do. He'll likely get help from the transfer market, but perhaps the bigger issue is whoever comes in can't be expected to do what Neymar did. The synchronicity of movement in the "MSN" isn't going to be easily replicated, not in a short time.

Maybe the best thing for Valverde isn't to try and mimic the past, but rather work out his own scheme for how to do things.

You can only beat what's in front of you, and on a day when West Ham were awful, Manchester United were devastating. Some have called it the most exhilarating United performance since the Sir Alex Ferguson era. That may be overstating it a little, but it sure as heck was fun to watch.

To me, the most interesting aspect of the 4-0 win was the 4-2-3-1 formation. Last year, conventional wisdom had it that Paul Pogba wouldn't perform at his best in a two-man midfield. That's why United eventually switched to a three-man midfield. He was certainly outstanding alongside Nemanja Matic on Sunday. Maybe the point was that he wouldn't perform his best in a two-man midfield when the other midfielder is Ander Herrera, Michael Carrick or Marouane Fellaini.

Then again, when Matic plays like this, just about anyone would thrive alongside him. Compare this performance with his stint in the FA Cup final and it seems like they are two different players. We're only a game in and judgments are inevitably premature, but if Jose Mourinho can get this level production from him, then it's a game-changer. It allows Mourinho to play a 4-2-3-1 formation that in turn allows him squeeze three attacking midfielders on to the pitch, plus Pogba driving from deep. And all of this comes without United losing their defensive shape.

With so much creativity behind him, Romelu Lukaku -- willing, eager and intelligent on Sunday -- can't help but score goals. It's early yet and United still have a lot to prove. But if this is the Matic who shows up to work this year, midfield and attack won't be a problem.

Kylian Mbappe stayed rooted to the bench during Monaco's 4-1 win away to Dijon, which only further prompted speculation that he's one step away from leaving, whether for Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain. Whatever the destination, we'll be talking about a fee in the Neymar range for a guy who, lest we forget, has started all of 20 top-flight league matches in his career.

We'll cross the bridge of where Mbappe fits at PSG (or how they'll pay for him) another day. In the meantime, Neymar made his debut away to Guingamp in a straightforward victory, even though all the goals came in the second half.

Guingamp aren't a terrible side -- indeed, they're managed by Antoine Kombouare, the first PSG boss in the Qatari era and finished midtable last year -- but in some ways are typical of what Neymar face in Ligue 1: a substantially less-talented opponent who will congest their own half and look to hit on set-pieces or the counterattack.

Neymar was given (or took?) licence to roam and find his own space wherever he wanted; even on TV, you could see the likes of Angel Di Maria and Adrien Rabiot deferring to him. Will this continue or will Unai Emery try to fit him in a more traditional scheme? My guess is the latter, partly because Emery is, above all, a tactical manager; partly because Neymar is more than capable of fitting in an orthodox scheme; and partly because the "free role" schtick won't work quite as well when they face better teams.

Anybody who flipped on the TV to see Chelsea 3-0 down at half-time at home to Burnley would have been shocked. Immediately, comparisons to what happened in Chelsea's last post-title campaign (under Mourinho) sprang up. Throw in Antonio Conte's grumbles about the summer transfer campaign and Diego Costa sniping his club from deepest Brazil, and it was a weekend to forget.

Chelsea were pretty dire in the first half, but it's also worth reminding ourselves of the circumstances. Eden Hazard, Pedro, Victor Moses and Tiemoue Bakayoko were all sidelined. Alvaro Morata started on the bench. Somebody named Jeremie Boga, who couldn't hold down a starting place at a team that finished bottom of La Liga last season, was starting up front.

You can't blame Boga, though, because he only lasted 17 minutes until Gary Cahill got himself sent off. Playing 73 minutes in August down a man is obviously going to be tough, especially when you then go two men down in the second half following Cesc Fabregas' second yellow.

Two things are pretty obvious. One is that Chelsea are unlikely to go through the sort of injury-free campaign they had last year, and the other is that, with Champions League football, they need to find more depth. The question is whether that depth comes from the transfer market or whether Chelsea can find it in-house.

Boga, Charly Musonda, Andreas Christensen, Fikayo Tomori and Jake Clarke-Salter are exactly the kind of Academy products that Chelsea get criticized for not playing regularly. Yet at the same time, the folks who chastise the club for not giving their youngsters "a chance" (how many other clubs in Europe's top 10 or 15 are stacked with academy products?) are the same ones who say Conte needs to spend money.

The guess here is that Chelsea will bring in somebody else to add some depth, but at the same time, the club will do what they can to ensure that Conte actually gives his kids a shot. If he does, he might actually be pleasantly surprised.

Serie A hasn't even started yet and some are already raking Max Allegri -- he of the three titles and two Champions League finals in three season -- over hot coals. Some Juventus fans are so used to winning that they can't stomach what happened on Sunday, when a dramatic injury-time winner from substitute Alessandro Murgia gave Lazio a 3-2 victory over the bianconeri in the Italian Super Cup.

Juventus did look disjointed, especially in the first half. And if you're going to play Andrea Barzagli at right-back, then you really need at least one ball-playing centre-half, something Juve don't have now that Leo Bonucci is gone. Meanwhile, Miralem Pjanic and Sami Khedira were swallowed whole by the immense Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Gonzalo Higuain was seeing little of the ball; when that happens, he's little more than a passenger.

Is there reason for Juventus fans to panic? I don't think so. The fact is, this will be a different team to last season. The additions of Federico Bernardeschi and Douglas Costa pretty much mandate this. Bonucci's long-term replacement -- whether it be Daniele Rugani or Medhi Benatia -- will be adequate (maybe more), but again, whoever it is won't play the game the way he does. My impression is that Juve will start slowly and won't really come together until winter ... which is a little bit like what happened last season.

Consider also that Lazio played exceptionally well. Ciro Immobile continues on his free-scoring tear -- he has 19 goals in the last 24 games -- and Lazio were well-organised and aggressive. You get the sense that some folks are underestimating Simone Inzaghi ... again. If they play like this, they have a legitimate shot at a top-four finish.

Christian Eriksen was in fine form as Tottenham (with a man advantage, thanks to Jonjo Shelvey's silly red card) broke through in the second half to win away to Newcastle. Danny Rose didn't play; in fact, he hasn't played since January. Still, he thought it would be a good day to grant an interview with a tabloid newspaper in which he said he felt he was underpaid (like many of his teammates) and wished the club signed guys he "didn't have to Google."

Mauricio Pochettino laughed off the latter, joking that Rose probably had to Google him when he was appointed. The club evidently found the former less funny: Despite his apology, they fined Rose two weeks wages or 130,000.

We live in a free market. There's nothing wrong with a guy thinking he's underpaid and looking for a better deal. The problem with Rose is there's a clever way to do it and a foolish one; he did not choose the clever option.

Rose signed a contract, the one that gave him a raise to his current wages, which apparently are now inadequate, back in September 2016. He got injured four months later, so it's really pretty simple: Either he improved so sharply in those 132 days that the contract he willingly signed earlier in that same season is now an insult to his supreme footballing ability, or he was a fool to put pen to paper last year.

Indeed, had he not extended his deal, he'd be entering the final two seasons of his contract just about now and would enjoy plenty of leverage to get a move elsewhere -- much like his former teammate Kyle Walker, in fact.

This is a case of bad judgment (extending his contract) made worse by bad choices (giving that interview). Rose chose to go for the security of a $20m-plus contract rather than betting on himself to outperform his salary.

Whatever sympathy there is in this tale goes entirely to Tottenham for having to deal with a guy acting like a child.

It's been one headache after another for Borussia Dortmund.

Last week, Ousmane Dembele, who is strongly linked with a move to Barcelona, skipped training and was later suspended "indefinitely." On Saturday, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat trick in the first round of the German Cup and then followed it up with an Instagram live stream in which he answered a question about a return to Milan by saying, "I want to go back, but they are sleeping. ... What am I supposed to do?" He even did a little impression of the stadium announcer at the San Siro, giving himself the No. 7 shirt.

It's not just the fact that between them, Dembele and Aubameyang scored more than half of Dortmund's league goals last season. It's that it's happening at this stage of the season. Both players have been linked with moves all summer long. Stuff like that happens. But the mark of a well-run club isn't so much hanging on to them; it's having a Plan B if you get an offer you can't refuse.

We may soon learn whether Dortmund and Michael Zorc are prepared.

Liverpool's 3-3 draw at Watford was in some ways a rerun of last season: electrifying attacks, highly dubious defending. The latter prompts the age-old issue: Is it personnel or is it Jurgen Klopp's approach?

Former Liverpool stars Jamie Redknapp and Jamie Carragher argued this very point. Personally, I think it's system rather than personnel. You can get better center-backs than Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip, but if they're exposed, they'll still struggle.

The odd thing is that I don't remember Klopp's Borussia Dortmund struggling like this on the defensive end. And while that was a good back four -- Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic in the middle, Lukasz Piszczek and Marcel Schmelzer at full-back -- it wasn't exactly Baresi and Maldini either.

Gabriele Marcotti is a Senior Writer for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @Marcotti.

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Cristiano Ronaldo shows he's human; Matic key for Man Utd; Neymar's start - ESPN FC (blog)

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Human remains discovered in Fayette County - Tribune-Review