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The Al-Asad base was reportedly hit by multiple rockets. It is unclear if there have been any casualties.

It come after top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad on Friday, on the orders of US President Donald Trump.

Iran has threatened "severe revenge" for Soleimani's death.

US Airbase in Iraq Hit by Rockets

Iran fires missiles at multiple bases housing US troops in Iraq

Iran has launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against multiple bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday.

(Edited as it's a developing story)

^{I will be releasing a copy to the media over the next few days. I get that it will be hard for some of you, but can you please try to play nice for a change? :-)}

Technological Solutions Are Not Enough: Quebec´s Multiple Failures To Assist People With Low Vision

Like many societies, Quebec is confronted with three separate, but interrelated problems. We have a rapidly aging population, a shrinking pool of skilled labour, and increasing numbers of people of all ages being sidelined by physical disabilities and consequent depression.

The simple fact is that many people who cannot afford to retire are being forced into early retirement because of the onset of physical limitations. While there are programs to encourage employers to hire handicapped people, the programs are themselves limited in terms of scope, accessibility, and efficacy. In the current economy depending on the goodwill of employers also just doesn't work in the face of increasing ageism. People who might be able to 'create their own jobs' in their previous area of expertise if given extra assistance are simply shut out, even though they are the most qualified to design such jobs, having both the relevant job expertise and first-hand real life experience dealing with their new handicaps.

I'll use low vision as an example, since it´s what I am personally familiar with. Huge sectors of the economy and normal social interaction are now inaccessible to me since my eyes became filled with blook due to diseased retinas. Forget driving, forget writing software, any job that require half-decent colour vision or any sort of visual accuity. Also forget most jobs using a computer (which for me was a huge loss, because not only was I a software developer, but half of all jobs in the economy require the use of a computer display of some sort, and if both the software and the operating system haven't been adapted for low vision users, forget it).

Some people will say there are technological solutions to this, such as screen readers, but I say 'Really? Go try one and get back to me.' They are of limited use in many jobs, such as writing and debugging software. They do a really poor job on the web, with many sites either being confusing or not being usable, and many jobs simply cannot be completed with just a screen reader. They are also hard to learn how to use, not available for all operating systems, and users have a significant drop in productivity for many tasks.

Low vision jobs? Don't make me laugh. I did yet another search for 'low vision jobs' over the new year, and there are plenty; just none for people with low vision. In todays economy people with low vision are sources of revenue to be exploited by the sighted, to be sold products and services to a captive audience (same as with other handicapped people), rather than being considered as people capable of participating fully in society, including work.

Probably the morally worst offenders I have come across are sites that try to sell services to low vision people by making unrealistic representations of what you can be expected to achieve. For example, that you can, with their help and your money, make money as a freelance author (the average published author makes half the minimum wage, so an unknown author who makes a living is as rare as profitable Internet unicorns); or becoming a lawyer - never mind that after years of university and post-university work you will still face the same problem that the majority of would-be lawyers face - failing to be called to the bar after graduation. Or you can become an electronics technician or an engineer - but no employer is going to spring for the cost of buying a separate set of equipment adapted for non-visual users for just one employee over and above the already high cost of specialized equipment for those who aren´t handicapped. They also don´t want to risk lawsuits from customers if you screw up.

Society is simply not geared to those with low vision, which is why we´re ghettoized. A good example of hurdles is the reluctance of Quebec doctors to certify that someone has a long-term disability that interferes with their ability to do their job. As a software developer, when I couldn't use a computer any more, that meant I couldn't work. I had broken my back in 2011, and my neck in 2014, and neither fracture healed properly, so even manual labour jobs are also out. It's a desk job or nothing, or a physical job involving one or two hours of effort a day. But my former ophthalmologist refused to sign off on my not being able to perform my job long-term even though I couldn't read. His excuse - 'Quebec will laugh at me.' This is a problem of the Quebec governments own creation, by doing everything it can do discourage people from being classified as long-term disabled in the first place. It´s a false economy that hurts the most vulnerable, while people who have spent a lifetime 'working the system' collect disability and work cash jobs under the table.

What this means is no long-term disability funds, and concommitantly, no assistance dealing with low vision, no job retraining, no nothing. It's beyond ironic that at one point the retinal clinic had a poster saying that people with vision problems often experience depression. Not only is depression to be expected, but a poster that doesn't direct people to assistance just rubs salt in the wound. It might make those who created the poster feel good that they've 'done something about it', same as the administrator or manager who had it put up can now tick another check box, but it was totally useless to the target population. Sort of like when somebody calls you and asks where you are, and you say 'out.'

And that is just part of my experience of how people with low vision are 'treated' by the health care system.

Barriers to jobs aren't the only ones. Consider the social hurdles. Not being able to drive also means social isolation, especially if you are like me, where over time your friends have moved to other cities. What used to be a half-hour to 45 minute drive on the weekend becomes an impossible 2 to 3 hours each way with public transit. Also, since the number of activities that I can participate in is significantly curtailed, I found myself cut out of the loop as people continue to want to do activities that can't be adapted to those with low vision. Even something as simple as a board game became out of the question.

With no long-term disability payments, even maintaining basic services that people take for granted, like home internet, became impossible. Filling in forms? Filing taxes? The government tax sites don't work with text-based browsers, nor do they work with alternative operating systems, so I'm out of luck. Online banking? It's hit or miss, to the point that I was once again locked out of my account after an update asked me for a two-factor security code I never had. I removed my banking app and haven't been able to access my account in two months except if I go to an ATM. The nearest is a 45 minute walk away, and 45 minutes back. Or if I take a bus, between 20 minutes and an hour and a half each way, depending on the bus schedule and how long I have to wait. Usually cheaper and quicker to just walk. Last month, coming back from a series of eye exams, I asked the bus driver to call out when it was time for me to get off the bus. I ended up somewhere I didn´t recognize, 4 km from home, vision far worse than usual because of drops to dilate my pupils, couldn´t read the street signs, couldn´t see my phone properly so I couldn´t call for help, 10 pm in -7 weather with a wind chill of -15. Now I have to worry about needing an escort to guide me safely home after something as simple as an eye exam.

Another problem is that I don't dare use a fingerprint reader for verification. I found out at one of my jobs that my fingerprints aren´t reliably readable. Could be from decades of pricking my fingers every time I sit down in my kitchen to take a blood sample before eating. Or maybe I just don´t have distinct enough ridges. All I know is I´m not the only one with this problem, so forget about using my fingerprints to unlock a phone or computer - I can end up permanently locked out of the computer, or bricking the phone.

Many people who are legally blind still have enough vision to see with magnification - but onscreen magnifiers make me sea-sick having to scroll back and forth, back and forth, and web sites break when I enlarge the fonts because nobody bothers to check for this. Additionally, as vision deteriorates, most people lose more of their colour vision, so tiny blue fonts on a pale blue background, same as tiny white fonts on a light grey background might be all the rage, but I can't read them, even zoomed in, same as the instructions on Bistro rice - tiny white letters on an orange background??? Seriously? Even taking a picture and zooming in doesn't work with that colour combo, since I am almost totally colour-blind now.

Every time that any web site or smartphone app introduces another 'security feature' more low vision people are excluded. Same as many web sites that use an audio captcha for non-visual and low vision users obviously haven't tested it with people who need scaled-up fonts, where all of a sudden there is no place to enter an answer.

So when others tell me their are technical solutions, you can guess what I´m thinking. It´s not nice.

The depression trap. Depression is normal when your life turns to crap. Even the UN recognizes this, which is why in 2017 they recommended we stop medicalizing things like depression, which are caused by social and economic challenges that can never be fixed with a pill, electroshock, deep brain stimulation, or the current darlings of the month, ketamine and cannabis derivatives. The fact is that antidepressants cause loss of grey matter in the brain, something that patients are never informed of. I would have absolutely refused such treatment for major depressive disorder if I had known this.

The resulting changes in the brain cause many users to experience alienation from themselves, as they no longer feel like they are the same person. This is more properly attributed to brain damage caused by antidepressants, not depression. This is no longer open for debate. Animal and human tests have verified the replacement of grey matter (the stuff you think with) with white matter (non-thinking stuff). Medication is not the way to help people dealing with the social and economic upheavals that have devestated their lives.

Researchers at McGill last year used fMRI to determine that antidepressants start pruning neural connections within hours of ingestion. Their theory is that the reason the effects of antidepressants are delayed by weeks is because the brain tries to compensate, and eventually gets overwhelmed as more pruning takes place. This brain damage might provide temporary relief from reality, same as dementia might, but eventually the reality of the personś crappy life seeps back into awareness as the underlying causes haven't been addressed. You're still without a job, no job prospects, no feeling like you're actually useful, and more and more socially isolated because you can't share in the common experiences of life, such as being employed. People need to feel useful - this is a basic need for most humans. Our current methods and treatments, with their incapacitating side effects, instead take that away.

It would probably be better to use booze instead of antidepressants. At least you can share a drink with others since alcohol is a known social lubricant, and the long term effects on the brain are about the same; they just take longer to show up.

So what are the solutions? Damn if I know. So-called social prescriptions where the person is prescribed cooking classes or other social activities aren't really geared to those who are visually handicapped, fail to address the income problem, and still leave the person feeling that they are not contributing. Volunteer work is just a stopgap, because even volunteer work costs money (transportation, for example) or, if it is within walking distance, comes with other costraints such as having to leave before sundown because most people with low vision are also pretty much night blind.

In an attempt to save my central vision, my peripheral vision was sacrificed, so even walking in daytime has its' hazards. I often trip on things right in front of me, like steps, when looking where I am going instead of down at my feet. So even daytime presents challenges. And now, since my left eye is pretty much useless, I no longer look left when crossing the street. Thanks to my improperly healed neck fracture, I can't turn my head far enough left to see left using my right eye, and my left eye often doesn´t see cars; I have fallen back to once again using my hearing to make sure cars aren't coming, at least on my left. I really have no other choice.

Even something as simple as taking the bus has extra hurdles because the display of the number of trips left on a bus pass is impossible to read on the bus pass reader, and buying a monthly pass for the few trips I take doesn't make sense even if I wasn't severely economically constrained because, again, no job and no disability payments. The seats reserved for the handicapped face sideways, as do most of the other seats, so every start and stop kills my back. There are times I´ve resorted to sitting on the floor on crowded buses. Standing for too long is painful. Multiple handicaps are really demoralizing at times. Kind of rubs in just how much I´m screwed for simple everyday tasks.

We need jobs. I need a job. Employers can not and will not provide them, so the only realistic alternative is for the visually handicapped to make our own jobs. Unfortunately, as I pointed out above, the visually handicapped are a source of revenue for the sighted, not a population that is considered suitable for employment or able to create our own jobs.

As one example, I'll give the training of guide dogs. I was warned ahead of time what might happen to my visioh, so I trained my dogs to function as guide dogs while I could still see well enough to get around without one. It's not that hard. Nobody showed me how, and since I couldn't use the Internet, I had to figure out how on my own. No special harness is needed, just a good relationship between the dog and the owner, and a dog large enough and of a suitable temperament to do the job.

Logically, training guide and service dogs is something people with low vision should be jelped to do so that they can create their own supply as dogs age out of being able to do the job - but the existinhg infrastructure is antagonistic to that. It would cost jobs to sighted people. It would remove dependence of the visually handicapped to the whole guide dog supply chain. And the existing system also fails to account for not everyone wanting a guide dog who is going to ignore the people around them because 'the dog is working.' When I needed to use my dog to help me get around, I continued to encourage him to interact with other people's dogs and their owners, which was easy since I was using an ordinary leash, so most people didn't know I was using him to navigate. They would treat us like any other owner walking their dog. This is part of living a normal life, and we really need to adjust our thinking to encourage this as much as possible.

Not being certified as low vision meant I had to train my own dog anyway. It also meant that, since neither I nor my dog were 'properly certified', I could forget any financial aid directed to owners of people with guide dogs.

And therein is the nub - living a normal life is not just hard - it´s impossible. However. while acknowledging that it is not possible, we should aim for as close to that as we can get. The alternatives - sidelining people or sticking them in assisted living or retirement homes, is not a normal life. It's a ghetto. We lose the potential contributions that people can make to society when we don't help them earn a living, when we put them in ghettos away from 'normal' people. We 'other' them.

Partial solutions? One thing that can be done is to have designated doctors who can specialize in assessing people's handicaps and see if they meet the bar for being considered long-term disabled. The government has created barriers within the medical community to discourage doctors from making such long-term determinations, so the government needs to provide doctors who can do this. After all, it's the government that created the discriminatory environment in the first place.

The government also needs to realize that the visually handicapped can no longer compete on an even playing field, and that employers will never be able to fix that problem, so it's time to provide the same job subsidies to those with visual handicaps who are trying to create their own jobs as are given to employers. This includes but is not limted to adapted workstations, specialized software, and training. Also, we need to be provided the same subsidies that are given to low income families for internet access, for the same reasons - increased participation in society and economic opportunity.

In summary, failure by the government to act will inevitably cost more money as disabled people who have been harmed by government policies file complaints via the provincial human rights commission for de facto discrimination based on a physical handicap.

At a time when we are trying to increase immigration because of a lack of skilled workers, we should not be abandoning existing skilled workers to spend the rest of their lives in abject poverty, unable to access disability payments or rehabilitative assistance. Getting people to be able to live independent lives will decrease the burden on the health care system, both in terms of long term resident care and dealing with the side effects of treating depression with ineffective drugs that can't address the well-known underlying social and economic causes of depression. It can also increase the tax base, allowing the visually handicapped to contribute to society in general.

Our current system isn't working, and we need to do everything we can to fix it, including the measures I outlined above.

On a side note I did develop a way to retrain my eyes to use a computer. It took two years and finally reached my goals on January 2nd of 2020. I still have to stop after a while, but it is 'good enough' for my limited purposes. Unfortunately, it did´t lead to any overall improvement in vision, but I wasn't expecting it to. When I volunteer, I still trip on things right in front of me, occasionally get disoriented, still have difficulty reading, recognizing people, even those I know, same as has been the case for years. I also have holes and edema in both retinas, which means I´m probably looking at more vitrectomies, and my cataracts have been around for 4 years. The most recent time I fell was yesterday afternoon, in broad daylight, when I tripped on a curb that I didn´t see while looking at something I had tripped on the day before, so I am still far from okay, and over the holidiays I had to reconcile myself with the fact that it will always be thus. So it would be nice if the government actually gave me some of the help I´m entitled to by law and policy.

License:

This document is licensed to be shared in its entirety, including crediting the author. Small snippets may be quoted for review purposes provided the authorship and contact information is retained.

please share it with social workers, health care workers, and the media, as well as anyone who either is affected by these issues or may know someone who is affected.

Media: You should have received my phone number if I contacted you by email; otherwise please email me. I can give interviews in both English and French.

Thank you.

author: Barbara Hudson email: barbara.jane.hudson@icloud.com date: 2020-01-07 rev: no revisions as of this date.

The president attacking Iran was predicted in 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSrC7-ERrE4

The prediction:

"Our president will start a war with Iran, because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and he's ineffective. So the only way he figures he's going to get re-elected, and as sure as you're sitting there, he's going to start a war with Iran. So. I believe that he will attack Iran. Sometime prior to the election. Because he thinks that's the only way he can get elected. Isn't it pathetic."

The handwritten note found in Jeffrey Epstein's jail cell

In the course of a five-month investigation, 60 Minutes obtained photos of Epstein's cell after his apparent suicide. Also found was a note, giving the world a look into what Jeffrey Epstein may have been thinking in his final days.

The note was written on yellow lined paper with a blue ballpoint pen and there were complaints about jail conditions.

The note says that one guard "kept me in a locked shower stall for 1 hour." "[Another prison guard] sent me burnt food." "Giant bugs crawling over my hands. No fun!!"

I do not like them on suicide watch.
I do not like them crawling on my crotch.
I do not like them in my cell.
I do not like them down in hell.
I do not like burnt food and bugs.

60 Minutes investigates the death of Jeffrey Epstein (show transcript)

5 Takeaways From the 60 Minutes Jeffrey Epstein Report

Ricky Gervais slams Hollywood stars in scathing Golden Globes speech

Ricky Gervais Calls Hollywood Stars Jeffrey Epstein's Friends During Golden Globes Opening Monologue

This one goes out to all the dogmatic "all regulation is bad hurr hurr" types we're infested with.

The single argument I see them falling back on when backed into a corner is something along the lines of "Yeah, well, X Y and Z regulations have been set up and perverted, so regulation itself is a threat and inherently bad!"

This is...I don't think there is a way to express in English how completely, utterly, boneheadedly, cynically, self-servingly, sneeringly, willfully wrong this is. No one with three sparking neurons would say this for its own sake. And what *that* means is that the people who *do* say this are using it as a flimsy dogmatic excuse to push their idiotic economic agendas.

Let me make this absolutely clear: this argument is the precise equivalent of saying "Well, cancer cells can turn off cell-cycle checkpoints like p53, so replication regulation mechanisms are bad for living things!" or "Yeah, well look what happens to human DNA when a retrovirus gets ahold of it. Cell division is anti-life!"

It is *exactly* the same argument, just made in context of the body politic rather than the body simpliciter. Anyone who makes this argument is a fool, a rube, a tool of the elite who no doubt don't even know they exist and would not thank them for their pathetic grovelling bootlicking.

In other words, KHallow (though we have others on this site infected with the disease). And yes, this is a call-out. Suck it up. I will never understand what drives people to kiss the boot that's stomping their skulls into a fine paste...though I fear it may be something as simple as "I suffer but $GROUP_I_HATE suffers more."

One way to expand sales is a lateral move into another product line.

Looks like Tim Hortons is doing this by making two breakfast cereals, chocolate glaze and birthday cake

Tim Hortons has partnered with cereal company Post Foods to create a breakfast food inspired by the coffee-and-doughnut chain's iconic Timbits. The company says stores across Canada will soon sell two versions of the cereal based on the tiny doughnuts that have been a staple on the chain's menu since 1976: one chocolate-glazed flavour, and one birthday cake flavour.

Rumours of the product launch first circulated on social media in the fall of 2019 when some social media accounts shared images of boxes of the product.

Sounds gross. No honey glaze, no chocolate, no jelly filled.

Just do it the way it was intended, eat real TimBits with coffee or milk. For bonus points, serve with a side of donuts or apple fritters if you are going hypoglycemic (always a good excuse).

Maybe we think a president is worth something. But anything is only worth what you can get for it on the market. I remember watching some "Olympus has Fallen" or other really bad movie, where the North Koreans held the POTUS hostage, and through out the movie I kept shouting, "Kill the bastard! We have 300 Million more of them!" If I was an American. But now there is a rather unique situation, where Americans could impeach, remove, and turn over the Donald, and recover some of the taxes he owes. Yes, the Iranians would probably kill him, but given his mental, and moral, state, that is no great injustice.

On the side, how much could we get for John Bolton, on the open market? Rumsfeld? Ouww, I bet Kissinger would go for a pretty penny! And Wolfowitz and his traitor wife. Oh, you didn't know about that one? Khallow, unfortunately, would sell for very little. Poor khallow.

I have no words. yurisa.

Entire Shrek movie in just 8MiB with AV1 and opus

128×72 resolution (the elusive "72p"), 4 FPS, 4.6 kbps video, 7.5 kbps audio, 1:30:04 runtime.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you shouldn't.

Here's What to Expect From CES 2020

The 8 Things We Expect to See at CES 2020 (archive)

5G... AI... MicroLED... AirPod clones... "micromobility" e-scooters/bikes... foldables... _privacy, and...

By now you might have heard the story: At last year’s CES, a robotic vibrator called the Ose was initially awarded an innovation prize, then was disqualified once the Consumer Technology Association (which puts on the big show) deemed the product “immoral” and “obscene.” Backlash followed, and last summer the CTA released a statement summarizing some policy changes, which included—surprise!—a trial run for sex toys at CES 2020.

All of that buzz (pun absolutely intended) seems to have generated momentum for the woman-led team behind the Ose vibrator. The company says it made more than $1 million within an hour of listing the product for pre-sale in November of 2019. But it also opened the doors for more sex toy and sexual health companies to exhibit at CES this year, whether those are bendable bullet vibrators, kegel exercisers, or “rear gear.” The caveat is that the products have to be “innovative and include new or emerging tech” to qualify. So, OK, we’re looking forward to seeing sex toys served up with AI smarts and a side of blockchain—but really, we mostly look forward to the erosion of taboos around sexual health and sexual pleasure, particularly for women.

CES 2020: Preview of tomorrow's tech on show in Las Vegas

Artificial intelligence, 5G, foldables, surveillance tech, 8K and robotics are set to be among this year's buzzwords.

But also expect Trump to feature. The President's clashes with China have led some of the communist country's biggest tech firms to cancel or reduce their involvement in the Las Vegas event. But the prospect of an imminent trade deal points towards tensions easing and greater access to Chinese consumers.

Ivanka Trump - the US leader's daughter - is also attending to give a "keynote" interview to CES chief Gary Shapiro.

He once called on Americans to oppose her father because of "his racism and inanity".

Now Mr Shapiro faces criticism himself for inviting Ivanka to discuss "the future of work". Critics claim she is benefiting from nepotism while better-qualified female tech champions are overlooked.

Personally, I'll be looking for AMD's announcements, which will include Zen 2 "Renoir" laptop APUs and likely a 64-core Threadripper (48-core for plebs?). AMD will have a streamed keynote on Monday, Jan. 6 at 2:00 p.m. PST. I'll also look at the 8K TVs and related junk. It looks like AV1 hardware decode will be featured in many devices this year.

Note: It looks like the VCN in Renoir will not support AV1 hardware decode. Also, "Dali" is likely going to be the Zen-based upgrade to last year's ultra low power Excavator APUs.